Chapter 37: Driving

Keith drove Buffy to her appointment and she slowly got out of the care. 'This is annoying. Why do I have to do this?' She thought as she walked into the building.

Three hours later Buffy walked over to the steps of the building and sat down. 'That was annoying. I knew it would be.' She thought at Keith pulled back up.

She got in his car. "How was it?" He asked her.

"Annoying. Why did you want me to do that?" She asked him

"Veronica did it before she got her license too." He said pulling the car away from the curb.

Buffy sighed. "I have gone driving with Angelus."

Keith nodded. "I know but I did this for Veronica too. Your both my daughters and I want to make sure you know how to drive safely."

"That guy was a lot more in my face then Angelus. He is always calm and relaxed but this guy, man! He acted like he thought I was going to take the people out on the sidewalk!" Buffy explained.

"Maybe that's because I told him stories about you." Keith laughed.

Buffy looked over at him with a surprised smile. "Gee thanks!"

Keith dropped Buffy off to take her driving test, she was a little nervous but that was mostly because she really wanted to pass. 'What if I don't pass? That's going to suck. I might never retake the test then! Okay, just breathe. Everything is going to be fine. I WILL pass. Here goes nothing.'

Buffy walked back out to Keith's car.

"That didn't take long. How did it go?" He asked with a smile.

"I hit the cone." She said sadly.

Keith turned to her with a smile. "That's fine though. One cone wouldn't do anything."

"lots of them." She said pouting.

"Oh. So…? License?" He asked.

Buffy shook her head. "That guy, he freaked me out!"

"Who? Coach?" His smile dropped.

Buffy nodded.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted you to get a little extra practice in with someone other then Angelus." He told her.

"Its okay. Maybe I just wasn't ready. I thought I was because I did the whole 5 hour course thing last week and it just got me excited, I guess." She said looking down.

He gave her a sad smile. "You can take it again."

Buffy shook her head. "Not for a while."

"Do you want to go home?" He asked her.

Buffy nodded.

"When you DO get your license and you get Veronica's car then I will put you on my insurance… how does that sound?" Keith smiled driving towards Buffy's house.

Buffy looked over at him. "That would make your insurance go up a lot wont it?"

"That doesn't matter. You're my daughter, you should be on my insurance." He told her with a smile.

Buffy bit her lip. "I don't know…"

Keith glanced at her. "Well, its happening so get used to it."

Buffy walked into the house slowly. Angel was in the kitchen she could hear him talking to someone and she smelt dinner cooking. Angel was the only one who cooked a real meal and not just microwavable foods.

As she walked down the hall way she saw Angel sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey Baby, how did it go?"

She just shook her head and sat on his lap facing him. Wrapping her arms around his neck she hugged him. "I don't think I was ready."

"You were ready, Baby. What happened?" He rubbed her back.

She sighed and mumbled into his neck. "Keith took me this driving instructor that he took Veronica too and he freaked me out. He was all uptight about stuff and thought I was going to hit the people on the sidewalk or something."

"Baby, you're a good driver. A lot better then I was when I had my permit for as long as you have. Your more responsible then I was." He told her pulling her away from him to look at her.

"Me? Responsible? You must have me confused with your other girlfriend, Angel." She said getting a small smile from Angel.

"Buffy, you can always retake it." Doyle said for the first time since Buffy entered the room.

Buffy turned to look at Doyle. She forgot he was in there. "Not for a while."

"As long as its not another 6 or 7 years." Angel joked.

"Why? You don't want to drive her around for 6 years?" Doyle laughed. Buffy looked at Doyle, didn't he know Angel was leaving in 9 and a half months? "Did she call you Angel?"

"Oops." Buffy said sadly. "Sorry, I forgot someone else was in here…. I mean I knew you were in here with someone, because you were talking but I forgot."

"Its okay." Angel kissed her forehead and then her lips. "Do you want to practice driving some more and then take the test again… maybe in a few months?"

"Practice with you? Buffy asked.

Angel nodded with a smile.

Buffy nodded back.

"Why do you think this driving instructor freaked out? Its kind of his job not to." Doyle said

Buffy got off of Angel's lap and sat in the kitchen chair next to him. "Keith told him horror stories about me!"

Doyle laughed.

"Its not funny! I have always been afraid that I would hurt someone walking on the side walk and this guy actually acted like I was going to!" She told Doyle then turned to Angel. "Why didn't you freak out? Because you didn't know my past with driving?"

Angel shook his head with a small laugh. "I knew you would be fine. You already knew a few things, I also knew I could control the situation if anything did happen."

"I feel better driving with you." She leaned her head on Angel's shoulder

"Then we will drive." He kissed her forehead.

Everyday after work for the whole week Angel took Buffy out to practice driving. She did fine every time, Angel thought maybe this driving instructor that Buffy went to should rethink his day job. Angel had talked Buffy into going to retake the test once she felt comfortable and he would take her to do the test himself. Maybe she would do better if he was there, it was worth a shot. He didn't mind driving her around, he just wanted her to have more freedom and not have to walk everywhere. If the girl kept walking all the time she would lose so much weight there wouldn't be anything left of her!

Angel voiced his concerns about her losing weight one night when Buffy had Willow and Xander over for dinner.. "Baby, you should retake the driving test soon. Your ready, I know you are. I want you to be able to drive so if I cant take you somewhere then you wont have to walk everywhere."

"What's wrong with walking?" She asked playing with her fork instead of eating her food.

"To much work!" Xander said shoving the pasta Angel made into his mouth.

Willow smiled at Buffy. "It is nice to have your own car."

Angel tucked a piece of hair behind Buffy's ear. "If you walk to much you might lose weight."

"Well its better then gaining it." Buffy joked.

Xander put more food in his mouth. "Yeah right! Buffy, gain weight! You have always been skinny!"

"Excuse me? Do you not remember a few years ago? I was.." Buffy motioned outwards with her hands over her stomach.

"I don't see that ever happening, pet." Spike said taking a bite.

"You didn't see me!" She told Spike.

Willow scolded her. "Buffy, you weren't over weight!"

"Yeah, you weren't." Xander said taking a drink. "You lost like 15 pounds and then looked like a skeleton."

"Is it better to look like a skeleton or the Goodyear balloon?" She asked looking at Xander because he had once started hanging out with some not so nice people and were picking on a kid at The Bronze one night in high school.

"You never looked like the Goodyear balloon, Buff." Xander smiled.

"Neither did that kid at The Bronze. You were just mean." She told him and Willow nodded.

Xander put his fork down. "Your right, I was mean. The guy was big boned though."

"Alexander Harris!" Buffy and Willow both scolded.

"Wow. Scary." Gunn laughed. "They could be your mother, dude."

Xander shook his head. "No, they care more about what I do then my mother. Buffy cooks better then she does too."

"Buffy doesn't know how to cook. Angelus is teaching her." Doyle said.

Xander pursed his lips and smacking sound with his mouth. "Exactly."

"Does your mother even own a stove?" Buffy and Willow said at the same time again. They looked at each other wondering why they were saying the same thing at the same time and then laughed.

"They do that a lot?" Gunn asked Xander.

Xander nodded. "It wasn't to bad when we were younger but then in high school it was almost bad, then it got worse when they roomed together in college."

"College was fun." Willow smiled.

Buffy nodded. "Courtesy of the Frat that gave us The Day That Ends In Y Party. Al though they did teach me to hold my liquor"

"Okay, hitting people with tree branches, sniffing me because I smell good and saying 'Beer Foamy' over and over is really holding strong." Xander joked.

"I never said I was a pretty drunk." Buffy defended herself

"Never understood all those parties. We were there to study!" Willow exclaimed. Buffy gave her an odd look. "Okay, most of the parties were fun."

"What I really didn't understand were those guys that were streaking on the first day." Buffy voiced.

"I didn't see them, I was on the other side of campus getting my student ID and my best friend was no where to be found." Willow said looking at Buffy.

Buffy pointed at Willow. "Hey! That 'On campus Boyfriend' line was really long." Both girls laughed.

"Luckily, I already had mine." Willow smiled.

Buffy looked at Willow seriously. "Lucky you."

"You had just broken up with Scott… 4 months earlier…" Will said.

Buffy smiled. "I SO didn't need 4 months to get over a relationship with Scott."

"You remember your first day of college? I don't." Xander said with a goofy look.

"You didn't go to college." Willow told him Xander nodded.

Buffy looked at Xander. "You don't remember our first day of college because you were Mr. I Got Here A Week Earlier From My Road Trip But Didn't Want To Tell You So I Didn't Have To Help You Move."

"Long nickname." Gunn commented. Angel chuckled. The guys found out at the 4th of July barbeque that they liked listening to the three best friends talk back and forth, it was amusing to see.

"I helped you move in here! And your moms house!" Xander reasoned.

"Even Riley offered to help me move back into my moms house." Buffy retorted

Spike gave Buffy a confused look. "Why? After he cheated on you?"

"He liked it when I "owed" him." She told Spike.

"Ewww." Willow whined.

"Owed?" Angel asked looking at Buffy, Willow and Xander.

Buffy looked at her boyfriend. "Sexually."

"Ewww." Willow said again this time along with Xander. Buffy poked her tongue to her cheek a few times to show them exactly what she meant by sexually.

"Why are you ewwing, Xander? You walked in on us before!" Buffy reasoned.

Angel looked to Xander. He didn't like the thought of someone else seeing his girlfriend naked even if she wasn't his girlfriend at the time.

"Don't remind me, okay! It was an accident. I thought you were in pain!" he looked to see the guys all giving him odd looked. "Not her doing THAT to him!"

"You walked in on them? Did I know that?" Willow asked Xander and Buffy. Buffy nodded. "Oh! I always wondered how Xander and Anya knew about the missionary!"

"Thank for sharing with the group, Will!" Buffy exclaimed at the same time Xander said. "Yup, Anya was there too."

"Will, did you get the flier for the Jell-O shots or body shots?" Buffy asked randomly.

"Huh? Oh! On the first day?" Willow asked. "I didn't get the Jell-O shots, you did. Why?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't know, random. It just popped into my head. I was wondering what flier the streakers gave me."

"I hear they were giving out nudist party fliers." Willow told her.

"Ahh, makes sense." Buffy nodded.

Xander looked at the girls with his mouth hanging open. "You guys did Jell-O shots, body shots AND nude parties without me on your first day of college?"

"Noooo." Buffy told him. "We got our Ids, books, class lists and met our room mates on the first day. We were good girls… mostly I just didn't want to get lost which didn't work out to well because I couldn't even make it to my dorm room!"

"But you made a new friend when you go lost!" Willow exclaimed.

Buffy nodded. "Yes, I did meet Eddie and he was very nice. He walked me to my dorm building even though he didn't know where he was going either, he was just gentlemanly enough not to let a girl walk alone at night. But he was reading Of Human Bondage."

"What's that? It sounds dirty!" Xander exclaimed.

Buffy nodded. "I told him I was trying to cut WAY back on my porn."

"So no parties on the first day?" Xander asked.

Willow shook her head. "We met our room mates. You know my crazy room mate that never let me study, Mac met Parker and Buffy met Kathy."

"Gah!" Buffy shivered. "Kathy! I will never listen to another Celine Dion song again! She ruined it for me."

Willow laughed. "You to fought way to much."

"Oh yeah!" Buffy nodded. "We came to blows a few times."

"A few times? So more then what we saw?" Xander asked Buffy. Xander and Oz had walked in on Buffy pinning Kathy to the ground with her sweater wrapped around Kathy's neck.

"Its weird, because we were fine when we roomed together." Willow said.

Buffy smiled at Willow. "Will, I know you. You wouldn't ruin my new sweater or try to steal my non boyfriend… although now I kind of wish she did steal him."

Willow nodded vigorously