A/N thanks for the reviews thus far. I'm not sure how far I will take this story; it depends on feedback.
Chapter 4
(First day of school)
Buffy waited outside for Willow, who was slow at getting ready. Buffy was the one who had to be waited on most every day of school, but especially the first one. She was in no way excited to start their senior year of school but hoped that things would be all right for Willow, if she chose to fully come out. Since the redhead came out to Buffy, she had spent a bit of time with Willow and Britney. She found the woman to be charming and attentive to Willow's sensitive nature and Buffy thought that was great. She often worried about Willow and where she would be in terms of friends if she did not come along. Little did she know that Willow was about to find out where she would be in the friend aspect of things.
"Sorry I'm late," Willow said with a smile, which indicated to Buffy that a phone call from her girlfriend had been the cause of Willow's delay. "It sucks that we don't get to go to school with our significant others." Willow said, as Buffy gave her the once over to make sure that she was fully ready for school. Sometimes Willow got in such a hurry that she would forget the little things such as a purse or to button one of the buttons on a blouse.
"Na, I'm kinda glad that they aren't subjected to the idiots that we have to go to school with." Buffy said dryly, as the two headed up the street for the first day of Sunnyhell High.
As the two entered the building, they both stopped dead in their tracks. There on a big sign, for everyone to see, were the words Willow Rosengeek is a full-fledge lesbian! She couldn't get any men so now she is making a fruitless attempt at women! "Oh my God!" Buffy finally managed to exclaim as she racked her brain for the source of this despicable display of support.
Cordelia sauntered proudly up to the two teenagers and smiled. "You must know how hard this is for me to keep my mouth shut. I am dating Xander and get hold of such a juicy piece of material to tare Rosenberg apart with and I'm expected to not use it?" Her face displayed a fake look of sympathy as she spoke to the girls.
"Did you do this Core?" Buffy said with a look of rage plastered on her face. The more that she looked at Willow's devastated face, the more she wanted to pound the daylights out of someone, slayer strength be damned.
"I would love to have taken the credit for this masterpiece but I cannot do so." Cordelia said and clapped her hands together, as she laughed uproariously. "I saw this work of brilliance when I arrived at school shortly before the two of you got here."
As Willow tried to sink into the crowd, who were mostly chanting obscenities at her, a light bulb went off in Buffy's head and she sprinted down the hall. "Harmony Kendall, you promised that you wouldn't do this!" Buffy shouted and shoved the girl against the lockers.
"I didn't do it Buffy." The blonde replied and put up no resistance to the slayer's enraged temper. "I would appreciate it if you would leave me out of this all together and I swear that I won't get involved." Harmony further added to the conversation.
"If I find out that you are the cause of this…" Buffy left her words hang in the air and walked off. She couldn't figure out who would go this far to hurt Willow. This was California, not the Bible belt south and things weren't supposed to happen like this in the more liberal state.
As Buffy made her way back to a despondent Willow, Principal Snyder was out in the hall trying to restore order to the dwindling crowd. "Hey Will," Buffy said and put her hand on the redhead's arm. "I'm so very sorry that this happened. Do you want to go home? I'll walk with you and we can chill out for the day." Buffy said and pulled Willow into a firm hug.
"Look, Rosengeek is gonna make out with a hot babe!" An underclassman shouted with laughter in his voice. "No wait, the chick is letting her down easy! We don't get to see the girl on girl action today guys!"
Buffy started to break away from Willow and go after the young man but someone stopped her. "She can't go home or they win and you can't go beating up everyone or it will only get worse." Percy West, the Sunnydale basketball star that enjoyed picking on Willow, said sharply. Percy always saw Willow as a nerd but he wasn't cruel and the current actions by his comrades were bordering on cruel.
Willow looked up to see one of her tormenters standing in front of Buffy. Here was a guy who had it all, yet he was laying his reputation on the line for her. She couldn't figure out why he would do this for the life of her but knew that his words were true. "He's right Buffy," she said in a small voice that oozed with hurt and sadness. "If I go home now, they will do this again and I can't let them push me around like that."
"Ole Percy wants a piece of that girl on girl action!" One of the members of the basketball team taunted, as Principal Snyder threatened to call in security if the students didn't report to their respective classes pronto.
"Will," Buffy started again with immense worry in her voice. She felt a deep pain in her soul for her friend and wished that there were something more she could do to help the situation. "Why don't you at least skip out on first hour. I don't think anyone will mind and maybe you could call Britney. She knows how to deal with this sort of thing and I think that you might need to talk."
"I'll be fine," Willow said with her resolve face firmly in place. "I'm going to go to class and I hope that you all have sense enough to do the same." The redhead finished speaking and walked off. She was showing a brave persona to everyone but inwardly, her heart was breaking and she wanted nothing more than to break down and cry.
- - - - -
By the time that lunch rolled around, Willow's resolve face had turned into a haggard looking one. She had got through most of the morning unscathed until she went into the girls bathroom after third period. One of the more athletic girls was in there and decided that she would take the opportunity to show her displeasure of having a lesbian in the school. After shoving Willow around a bit, she picked the redhead up and was about to dunk her in one of the toilets. To Willow's surprise, it was another popular person that put her reputation on the line to aid her.
Harmony Kendall had gone into the bathroom about the time that Stacy Yates was trying to drag Willow into the stall. She knew that she couldn't do much physically to help Willow but did the next best thing. "Stacy, I will report you to Principal Snyder if you don't put her down." The blonde had said loud enough for Buffy, who was passing the restroom, to hear that something was going on inside. As she entered, Stacy was sneering at the cheerleader in a daring manner. Buffy promptly kicked Stacy's legs out from under her and was able to catch Willow before she hit the floor.
As Willow was leaving the restroom, she heard Buffy and Harmony speaking. "You really didn't do it did you." Buffy had said to the blonde with shock evident in her voice.
"No Buffy but I'm afraid that I know who did. I still have a few connections around here and if they're correct, Willow will be devastated beyond imagination." The blonde had replied and walked out of the bathroom.
As Willow shook her head to clear the haze that the bathroom incident had caused, she was pulled into a firm hug and given a light kiss on the cheek. "Your friend called me," Britney said with a concerned look on her face. "Are you all right?"
"I'm trying to finish out the day but I don't know how that's gonna work out." Willow said, as she felt her body instantly relax in the woman's firm embrace. "You shouldn't be here Britney because most of these kids are under the age of eighteen and I wouldn't want one of them to goad you into something that you could get into trouble for."
"I'll have to take my chances Willow." Britney said softly as she began to rub Willow's tense shoulders. "Let's go out to the truck and get some good food for lunch. I've taken the liberty of telling your principal that you may miss one class today. He's a strange one for sure."
As Britney ushered Willow to her truck, the kids began to yell out that she's lucky Willow isn't jailbait. They also asked things like, can you get into trouble for having sex with an under age female considering it's not real intercourse? Their bantering was loud and continuous, as Britney pulled a short distance away from the school. "I'm sorry that you had to go through this Willow." The woman said and placed a gentle kiss on her lover's lips. "It's definitely not the most pleasant thing in the world to have to deal with."
"It's worse then I realized it would be." Willow said honestly as she opened up the bag of Burger king food that Britney had brought.
"I thought that Buffy was the only one that you had told your preferences to. How did something like this happen if that is the case?" Britney asked and handed Willow a straw.
"I don't know but she's the only one that I told." Willow added and began to eat her lunch, with, surprisingly due to the day's events, ease. "It was the most horrifying thing to see on the first day of school. To think that, in this day and age, people still behave so badly to those who aren't considered normal."
"I know," Britney said with a sad look on her face. She wished that she could have been there for Willow during that awful ordeal and knew that she should have. She instead, had some work to do for Maggie Walsh in relocating the other slayer, who had apparently slipped out of sight. She was in the middle of her work when Buffy called and knew that she would hear it from aunt Maggie for running out as she did. She had classes in the afternoon and more work for Maggie in the early evening. She did not know how the day's busy schedule was going to afford her some time with Willow but knew that she would make it work somehow.
"I'm glad that you could make it Brit," Willow said and finally allowed a tear to trickle down her cheek. All of her hard work at being brave was waning away and she was having her meltdown. Her hands grew a little shaky and more tears fell as she struggled with her words to continue speaking. "I've never felt so alone then I did this morning. I had support from Buffy and a couple of people that I never dreamed would support me but it's not the same as having the one that you care deeply for with you."
"I know it isn't Willow and you don't know how badly I feel that I was not here for you this morning." Britney said and wiped the tears from Willow's cheeks. "I'm so sorry and I hope you know that I will be here as much as humanly possible Willow." The woman said in a soft voice and placed a few gentle kisses on Willow's lips.
As Willow and Britney continued their make out comfort fest in the truck, Buffy looked at Harmony who was standing outside the school building. "Who do you think it is Harmony and can you validate it?"
"There is one person who has not been there for Willow Buffy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Her best friend since I can remember should have been there but where was he?" Buffy's eyes bulged out once she figured out Harmony's insinuation. She knew now that this was entirely her fault.