Author's Note: See? Ask and ye shall receive, people! Actually…no. Ask and ye shall have to wait till I find some inspiration and then actually type the bastard out and THEN ye shall receive. But anyways… Good god I suck. I dunno… I'm just not getting anywhere with any of my fics these days.
Several weeks had gone by since Buffy's life had been abruptly turned upside down. These days, as the little blonde entered the school, she would have a strange feeling of apprehension. Anxiety. Perhaps even excitement. She found it rather strange but shrugged it off, not willing to analyze the change in her previously predictable life.
To her frustration, she found that she nearly had all her classes with Faith Lehane. For some reason, she always ended up sitting somewhere near the feisty brunette and although she refused to admit it even to herself, she rather liked her time with the girl. Their time consisted mainly of verbal battles, annoyed glares and plenty of sneering, but she enjoyed it nevertheless. As she sat down behind a desk in the back of her Bio class, she wasn't surprised that her sworn enemy wasn't present.
A few moments later, the bell rang and the class settled down. Mrs Pratchet began scribbling on the board and Buffy sighed. Classes were boring when Faith wasn't around, she bedrudgingly admitted to herself and she absentmindedly browsed the contents of her purse. Fifteen dollars and thirty-six cents. A flyer for Harmony's party on Saturday. Her pink fluffy pen. A number two pencil. Her tiny cellphone. Three vanilla lollipops to get her through the day. And one single cherry lollipop. She raised an eyebrow at the last item.
She remembered buying the cherry treat. She was stocking up on sugary goodness the day before, buying loads of her own personal addiction: vanilla lollipops. For some reason she rather didn't think about, she was thinking about Faith. She thought of how infuriating the girl was. She thought of her annoying eyebrow quirks, her throaty chuckle, her dimpled smile. Her full red lips... And then cherries popped up in her head. Cherries... Sweet, seductive, red cherries... And then she grabbed a cherry lollipop. It was as simple as that. She figured it had nothing to do with Faith, nothing at all. She just had a craving for something cherry-like. Yet, she hadn't eaten the treat. After paying for her purchases, she had put the lone cherry lollipop in her purse and she was strangely aware of it since.
Sitting next to Angel at the movies, his arm around her shoulder, a diet coke in her hand, the purse besides her, she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was annoying. I know where my purse is, she thought to herself, why the hell do I keep thinking about it? Helping her sister with the dishes, Dawn complaining about her homework, Buffy was very aware that her purse sat upstairs on her bed. Mocking her. And it pissed her off.
Buffy sighed once again as Mrs Pratchet's voice droned on and on about an assignment.
A playful knock caused the second period Bio class to fall silent. The door swung open and a tired looking Faith stood behind it.
"Faith. Is there a particular reason why you're late?" Mrs Pratchet inquired.
The brunette smirked as she sat down in front of Buffy.
"Yeah, there is actually." She chuckled. "But I don't think it's a good one Mrs Patchit."
The fifty-five year old bioteacher shook her head in disapproval.
"Pratchet, miss Lehane. Mrs Pratchet."
"What I said." Faith shrugged. "But please, don't let me further interrupt your undoubtedly riveting class, Mrs Patchit." She deadpanned.
The class laughed and Mrs Pratchet frowned.
"Miss Lehane, if you didn't already have detention for the next couple of months..."
"You could always still give me a tardy note." Faith said in a comforting tone.
Mrs Pratchet sighed again and shook her head.
"I don't believe it would do anyone any good. Anyway, class, as I was saying: For the next assignment, I'm pairing you up." She waved a piece of paper in front of them.
The class groaned as one as she began teaming them up. Buffy watched Faith as she subtly put on her earphones. The blonde cheerleader was disappointed. No verbal sparring for now.
"Buffy Summers and... miss Faith Lehane."
The class fell silent once again. It was no secret that Buffy and Faith had a complicated sort of relationship. Many theories circulated through the school. Most believed that they flat-out didn't like eachother, but those privy to their exchanges couldn't help but think that maybe the little jabs and sneers weren't completely fueled by hate.
Buffy squirmed under the stares of her fellow students. She slowly slid down her chair and kicked the seat in front of her. The distracted brunette looked up to find Mrs Pratchet standing in front of her. Faith swiftly pulled out one of her earphones.
"Er...Yeah?" She asked.
"Kindly take your seat next to your lab partner, Faith." Mrs Pratchet smiled.
"Sure thing, teach." Faith straightened herself. "And who's the lucky kid?"
The smiles that creeped up on the whole class disturbed Faith and she raised her eyebrows. Realizing she was teamed up with a certain quirky blonde she frowned. Slowly, she turned around in her chair to find Buffy Summers frowning right back at her.
"I don't think lucky would be the word to describe me right now." The blonde mumbled.
As the class bustled about, everyone resuming their own tasks, Faith sat down next to Buffy.
"Well hey, I'm not exactly overjoyed by this either, twinkie."
"You got us in this screwed up mess." Buffy uttered accusingly.
"Whatever, B. Quit being such a drama queen. It's just a lab assignment."
"I'm being punished for your ridiculous 'look at me, i'm bad-ass' attitude! It's not fair." The blonde glared at her.
"Yeah? Well I like you too, Buffy." Faith snorted and put her earphones back in, turning up the volume. Buffy fumed and gritted her teeth as she copied the assignment of the board. She couldn't help but hear the strange rock guitar-ish sounds from the girl next to her. She glanced at Faith and found her with her eyes closed, softly shaking her head with the music. Buffy, who was curious by nature, fiddled a bit with her pen. Straightened her notebook. Looked around the class. And then tapped Faith on the shoulder.
The girl opened her eyes.
"What?" She asked.
"What kind of garbage are you listening to anyway?" Buffy snorted.
Faith took out her earphones.
"What?" She asked again.
"What kind of garbage are you listening to anyway?"
Faith chuckled and then smiled a dazzling dimpled smile.
"Garbage." She said. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well it definitely sounds like it. Bad-ass chick music, huh? Who is it? I'm sure they have an original name like 'The Badasses' or something." Buffy said distastefully.
She grew even more annoyed when Faith just chuckled again.
"Garbage." Faith repeated. "The name of the band? Garbage." She smirked.
Buffy felt her cheeks warm up as she blushed.
"Well... I guess they live up to their name, huh?" She quickly recovered.
Faith watched her thoughtfully for a moment. It unnerved the blonde but she refused to look away. Just when Buffy was about to ask Faith what she was looking at, the brunette beat her to it.
"Actually I think you might like 'em. The sound itself isn't that hardcore." Faith said, more to herself than Buffy. Buffy's eyes widened in surprise at the non-agressive comment. Was there a catch there?
"What? I'm not cool enough to like the hardcore stuff?" She asked suspiciously.
"It's not about being cool enough, B." Faith shrugged. "Here."
The brunette handed Buffy her mp3-player.
"Check it out, you never know if you'll like something. I highly recommend Garbage for you. Not so sure about Bikini Kill. I doubt you'll like NIN or Rage Against the Machine... But hey, you never know."
Buffy stared at the offered gadget. Faith smiled and placed it on the desk in front of Buffy.
"Just get it back to me tomorrow, alright?"
"Um... You hate me, right?" Buffy asked, confused.
"No, B. I like you. And you like me." Faith looked Buffy in the eye and then leaned back in her chair. "But if you just wanna stick with biting eachothers fuckin head off..." She shrugged and lay down on the desk.
"What's wrong with you?" Buffy asked disbelieving.
Faith chuckled in her arm.
"I dunno, I had a late night yesterday. Guess I'm too tired to play with you, B."