Chapter 82
The Bully
Buffy walked slowly, her eyes on the floor as she headed to the quad to work on her Algebra homework with Joe. Her mind was firmly stuck on Santana, who was still chained up in her empty condo, probably hungry. Buffy was itching for school to be over so she could check on the vampire. Her head snapped up when she heard a hard bang against metal, and narrowed her eyes at Rick the Stick, Piper's mulleted, hockey-playing boyfriend, who had pushed a smaller boy against the wall and was now cornering him.
"Hey!" Buffy called, "Leave him alone!"
Defending a weaker kid against a bully had become commonplace for her at McKinley, and usually the aggressors backed down pretty quickly, deeming a fight with a girl not worth their time. Rick, however, turned toward Buffy, his chest heaving.
"Or what?!" he challenged.
Buffy strode up to him and glanced at the smaller boy he had pushed. He was rosy-cheeked, his light brown hair brushed and gelled into a small quiff.
"You don't want to know," Buffy frowned, glaring at the tall redhead.
"Stay out of my way, Summers," Rick warned.
"Rick, please," said Piper, who was a few feet away, her face heating up in panic, "Let's just go."
"He was hitting on my girl!" Rick bellowed.
"I was j-just asking directions. I have to take a placement test-" the boy tried to explain, his Irish accent stumbling over itself before Rick lunged out and punched a locker.
"Rick!" Piper squealed.
"Walk it off, Mighty Duck!"
Buffy felt a little relieved as Kitty strutted over to them, her face pulled into a frown as she raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Rick.
"Come on, Rick," Piper said again quietly, "Let's go."
Rick glanced between Buffy and Kitty, his face red, before he ran a hand through his red hair, slung an arm around Piper and walked off, pulling his girlfriend along with him.
Kitty smirked at Buffy, folding her arms over her striped blouse. "Charming guy. 'Roid rage?" she asked, vaguely amused.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked the boy, who was still cowered against the wall of lockers.
The boy gulped. "Yeah, I'm grand."
"You're Rachel's foreign exchange student, right?" Buffy asked, and shrugged, "This school doesn't get a lot of new students."
The boy nodded. "Rory," he greeted, extending his hand.
"Buffy," she replied, shaking his hand, "And this is Kitty."
"G'day, mate," smirked Kitty.
Rory raised an eyebrow. "Eh, I think that's Australian."
"Whatever," she shrugged, "I'm going to the cafeteria before they run out of Jell-O salad. Later, bitches."
Kitty waggled her fingers at them as they walked away and a few other onlookers dispersed now that the spectacle was over.
"I'm just glad my brothers weren't around to see that," Rory said, straightening his plaid shirt, "Would've given me Hell for not baitin' that bloke. I didn't know everyone in the States would be so aggressive."
Buffy frowned sympathetically. "Well, not everyone is. Some people are actually pretty… sweet."
Speaking of which, Joe turned the corner and locked eyes with Buffy, smiling as he approached but looking nonetheless confused.
"Oh, Joe," Buffy widened her eyes, "Sorry, were you waiting long? I just stopped for a second, some guy was bothering Rory-"
"And you wanted to do your civic bully-whip duty. I get it," Joe nodded, smiling wider and turning to Rory, "Hey."
"Uh, this is Rory. He's an Irish exchange student. He's staying at Rachel's," Buffy introduced him, "And Rory, this my friend, Joe."
"Hi," Rory nodded to him, slinging his backpack over one shoulder, "Could either one of you show me the way to Ms. Drench's room? I'm supposed to be taking a placement test at one o'clock."
"Oh, we can take you there on our way to the quad," said Joe.
Buffy bit her lip. "Uh, actually, I would go but I just remembered that I have to do something so… I'll see you later."
Joe nodded. "Okay," he said with disappointment as Buffy quickly walked off in the other direction.
xxx
"This is the greatest travesty that has ever occurred in the history of William McKinley High School since the broken toilet catastrophe of 2010!"
Principal Figgins squeezed the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on as Rachel slammed her fist against the surface of his desk. She had stormed into the office in her polka-dotted dress after the announcement of Sugar Motta's election with her nostrils flaring and her thumb hovering over her father's speed-dial number.
"Ms. Berry, please, sit down. This doesn't have to be a spectacle," Figgins sighed, gesturing to the chair that Rachel was standing in front of.
"Oh, no, you made this a spectacle when you allowed that spoiled little chihuahua to run in the election in the first place!" Rachel snapped, "Kurt dropped out. Sugar is fifteen. This election should be mine. Do you think new computers and vending machines will matter to the seniors when they're gone next year? No! The things that are going to matter to them are the things they can take with them when they leave. Like championships and memories of victory a-and pride in their school!"
Figgins sighed heavily. "Your speeches are impressive, Ms. Berry, but this is out of my hands."
Rachel's brown eyes bugged out. "Out of your hands? Of all the things to have no control of, I feel that the principal of a high school should be more than qualified, willing and able to decide who will be senior class president of that high school. If that is out of your hands than what is in your hands, you useless little man?!"
Figgins gritted his teeth and opened his desk drawer, taking out a thick, fresh pad of detention slips.
xxx
Buffy's boots echoed against the condo's hardwood floor as she made her way into the long empty room, where Santana was still shackled around a column. The girl was cowered against the wall, shivering, mumbling inaudibly to herself in her ripped dress. Buffy had skipped school - skipped her study date with Joe - to visit her and she didn't know why. She didn't know what she was supposed to do now that she was here. She walked closer to Santana. Not close enough to touch her but close enough to be in the vampire's line of sight.
"Santana?" she whispered, just barely loud enough to hear.
The girl made no indication that she could hear or even see the slayer.
"Do you understand me?" Buffy asked, louder now, feeling like an idiot.
Still nothing. Buffy walked closer still, reaching her hand out to touch the girl's shoulder. Santana emitted a low growl as Buffy neared, but the slayer continued to reach out. As soon as her fingers touched the sallow skin of Santana's shoulder, the vampire lunged at her, only held back by the metal confines around her wrists. Buffy jumped back, her raspy breathing almost as loud as Santana's growling.
xxx
"Eh, hello?"
Rory had entered Ms. Drench's room. She was, as he was told, the senior Honors math teacher and would give him a placement test to find which class he should be in. American math classes were organized a little differently than he was used to in Ireland and Ms. Drench was apparently the only one who dealt with international students since she had taught in so many different countries. She was Scottish herself and reminded Rory of an aunt he had on his mother's side.
"Ms. Drench?" he asked.
The woman was in her chair on the other side of her desk. She had her back to Rory and was staring out of the wide window.
"I'm Rory Flanagan. I'm here for my math placement test. Actually, I also wanted to talk to you about… just general things. I guess I should actually go to the guidance counselor, but I thought you would probably understand better, because you know what it's like, being from another country."
Ms. Drench remained silent, still staring out of the window with her back turned. Rory took this as a prompt to continue talking.
"I guess I just didn't expect Americans to be so… well, mean. And maybe I'm just being sensitive. I know there's no way I'm going to tell my family how my first day really went. I know what my brothers would say. 'What are you doing, acting the maggot, letting that idgit bait ya?' Mam would just worry and my dad would tell her it was her fault, for coddling me 'cause I'm the youngest…"
He paused again, this time unnerved by Ms. Drench's silence.
"Ms. Drench?" he called to her again, but she didn't say anything.
Rory walked around the desk to face her and yelled so loud that a teacher who had been passing in the hallway ran into the room, her eyes wide with fear.
"What's going on?!" she asked, alarmed, as some other students crowded over at the door to see the commotion.
Rory looked on at Ms. Drench, horrified. The other teacher ran over and pushed him out of the way to see that Ms. Drench was dead, her face and chest clawed at, her skin shredded to ribbons.
xxx
Buffy, Tina and Quinn were already waiting in the choir room with Mr. Schuester when Rachel had come to find them after receiving a text about an emergency scooby meeting.
"What's going on?" Rachel asked, frowning at the foursome, "Detention was cancelled."
"You got detention?" Quinn raised her eyebrows, almost impressed.
Rachel scowled. "It's a long and arduous story full of injustice that I will most definitely tell you later," she shook her head, and looked at Mr. Schuester, "So what happened?"
Will frowned solemnly. "Ms. Drench, the Honors math teacher, was found dead."
Tina gasped. "She was my math teacher," she said, looking mournful.
Buffy folded her arms, staring steadfast at her watcher. "What was it?"
"Same M.O. as the creature we're after," said Will, "Ripped the shreds. But she was reportedly found a few hours ago, and the time of death was at least an hour before that. Daytime."
"So Blaine and Puck are off the hook?" Buffy asked, not looking as much relieved as she was disturbed.
"It looks like that's the case," Will nodded, "By the way, where is Blaine? Puck was looking for him a while ago, to give him a ride to his house before sunset."
The girls looked at each other, but each of them shrugged.
Will grimaced. "Well, he better hurry up and get home."
xxx
Blaine circled the quad another time, burning off anxious energy as he waited for Piper to show up. He glanced at the sky with his eyes shielded and then at his watch. He'd sent Puck a text saying to wait up for him but he was uncertain if the boy had received it. Blaine decided he would only wait fifteen more minutes for Piper and then he had to leave.
"Sorry I'm late!" she called, running towards him with her curly blond hair bouncing around her baby-face, "Did you bring the notes?"
"Yeah," Blaine said, taking a small pile of flash cards out of his satchel and handing them to Piper, clearly in a bit of a rush until he noticed the dark circle around her eye that she was trying to cover up with her bouncy hair, "Are you okay?"
Piper smiled awkwardly. "Yeah. What, this? I'm just such a klutz. I, uh, I, oh…"
She started to babble, trying even harder to direct the attention away from the red swelling on her face that she surely turn into a black eye by tomorrow.
"Fell down?" he finished her sentence, looking concerned, "Hit your eye?"
"Doorknob," Piper smiled, "Anyways, thanks."
She turned to walk away, but Blaine caught up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, wait. Piper… I know we're not super close friends, but, from the short amount of time I've spent in the glee club, I've noticed that even between the rivalries and the love triangles, everybody in there looks out for each other, so… if you ever need to talk…"
Piper nodded, her smile fading. "Thanks for the notes."
xxx
"Right now, we have to determine what kind of killer we're dealing with. Clearly it's some sort of sadistic animal," said Will, after Kitty and Kurt had joined the scooby meeting at sunset.
Just as Tina raised her head with a new theory, Blaine entered the choir room looking shaken.
"Blaine, where have you been?" asked Kurt, who had been checking his phone every fifteen seconds, waiting for his boyfriend to reply.
"Sorry," Blaine sighed, "I thought I was cutting it kind of close, so I figured I'd lock up behind the auditorium instead of racing to Puck's house."
"Smart," Will nodded.
"It was a daytime kill," Kurt said quickly, standing up and clutching the boy's hand, "Not Puck. Not you."
Blaine sighed with relief and smiled widely at his boyfriend, almost having forgotten the fight they'd had the previous day. "Good. Great."
"We still don't know what it is, though," Quinn folded her arms, looking worried.
"I was about to suggest that the victims have something in common," said Tina, "Jeff Orkin and Ms. Drench?"
Blaine frowned at the floor and then widened his eyes. "Piper," he said.
"Huh?" Kitty raised an eyebrow.
"Wasn't Jeff a cheerleader?" asked Blaine.
"Yeah, he was," said Will.
"Well, he and Piper probably would've been friends when she was apart of the Cheerios," Blaine continued, and the others looked at Quinn to confirm.
"It's true," said the girl, idly pulling on the collar of her denim jacket, "The bottom of the pyramid tends to stick together."
"Were they screwing?" Kitty asked bluntly, folding her arms over the letters on the chest of her Cheerios uniform.
Quinn frowned. "Doubtful. Let's just say that on the scale of gayness, from Neil Patrick Harris to Liberace, Jeff was somewhere between a Kurt and a Blaine."
"Thank you for that vivid description," Kurt mumbled.
"And Piper was always complaining that Ms. Drench put her in a way too advanced Calculus class," Buffy frowned, "I think she just wanted to be in the same remedial Algebra class as me."
"And get this," said Blaine, "I just saw Piper a minute ago sporting a real nasty black eye.
Buffy widened her eyes and Kitty gave her a knowing look. "And Piper's dating Rick. 'Roid Rage Rick the Stick. What if he's the one doling out the punishment?"
"Yeah, we just saw him trying to wail on Lucky Charms earlier," said Kitty, "He looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel."
"Okay, we need to find them both, now," Will said urgently, grabbing his jacket, "Kitty, Rachel, come with me. Buffy, you stick with Quinn and Tina. Kurt, go cage Blaine behind the auditorium stage, and then come find me, okay?"
The scooby gang split up, and it wasn't long before Buffy, Quinn and Tina found Piper in the girls' bathroom, dabbing creamy foundation around her black eye. She looked away, embarrassed, as the others girls came inside.
"It's tricky, covering a fresh shiner like that," Buffy said softly, walking toward Piper, who was staring into the sink, "You know what works?"
Piper frowned. "What?"
"Don't get hit."
Tina and Quinn hovered by the doorway, looking sympathetic.
"What's going on, Piper?" asked Buffy.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said the girl.
"Normally I'd be fine playing 'you wanna have a secret' but there are people dying," Buffy said gravely.
Quinn walked forward, not wanting to have to play the sensitive role, but not seeing a way out of it.
"Piper, you know that you can talk to us about anything."
Piper widened her already orb-like eyes at Quinn.
"I can talk to you about anything? I worshipped you for two full years and you acted like I was so beneath you. And you!" she snapped, turning to Buffy, "I tried so hard to be like you last year and you didn't even give me the time of day. I have someone who cares about me, who I care about, and I'm not going to let anything ruin it."
"Piper," Tina spoke up, "We do care about you. But caring about someone isn't about telling them whatever they want to hear and being okay with everything they do. Sometimes when you care about someone, you have to be honest with them. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is shield them from the truth."
Piper's bottom lip trembled and Buffy and Quinn both looked at the floor, each feeling the gravity of what Tina was saying.
"It's not his fault," Piper said quietly. Buffy looked up at her. "He's not himself when he gets like this. It's me. I make him crazy. He just… he gets like this because he loves me too much."
The slayer tried desperately not to roll her eyes.
"You mean Rick?" asked Quinn, "But weren't Jeff and Ms. Drench killed by an animal?"
Buffy narrowed her eyes at Piper. "Rick's not like other guys, is he?"
Piper bit her bottom lip and shoved her foundation back into her purse. "I have to go."
"Piper, you have to talk to us," said Buffy, "We can't help you until you do."
"I didn't ask for your help!" Piper snapped.
"So, are you going to wait until you end up like Jeff and Ms. Drench?" asked Quinn.
"She's right, Piper," said Tina, "We're running out of time. Where is Rick?"
"I don't know," Piper shrugged.
"You're lying," Buffy frowned.
"So what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?" Piper asked brazenly, though she was clearly not quite sure of herself.
Buffy puffed out a breath of air and glanced at Piper's reflection in the bathroom mirror. "Look at yourself," she said, "Why are you protecting him? Anyone who really loved you wouldn't do this to you."
Piper sniffed, holding back tears. "Would they… would they take him away?"
"Probably," Buffy replied softly but firmly.
"I couldn't do that to him," Piper shook her head, "He's everything to me."
"Two people are dead, Piper," Buffy frowned, "Who's gonna be next?"
xxx
Kurt set a lock on the caged off area behind the auditorium where their costumes for West Side Story were currently being stored, with Blaine behind the bars.
"This should be enough to hold you," said Kurt, as he slipped the key to the lock on top of a soundboard.
Blaine loosened his bow-tie and took off his shoes as the sunlight started to dim from behind the locked, shoebox-sized window in the room. "Just remember to come get me before school starts tomorrow. I don't want a TA to find me naked."
Kurt smirked and hovered by the cage door, looking concerned.
Blaine gazed at him. "What's wrong?"
Kurt sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, for not telling you before I dropped out of the election."
Blaine nodded, looking similarly remorseful. "It's okay. I was just a little hurt that you wouldn't think that I would understand."
"It's not even that," said Kurt, "It's just… Lately, I feel like when it comes to you, the line between privacy and deception is too thin."
Blaine furrowed his brow. "Meaning?"
"Meaning… there are things that I don't feel obligated to tell other people, but when I don't tell you about them, it feels like lying."
Blaine gave his boyfriend a crooked smirk. "Kurt, you know you can tell me anything."
Kurt sighed. "Yeah. But I know you're not going to like it."
Blaine frowned. "What did you do?"
"I haven't done anything. Yet. Listen, we should talk about this tomorrow. When we have more time."
Blaine nodded, though his face was still pulled into a frown. "Okay… I love you."
Kurt smiled. "I love you, too," he replied, and walked out of the auditorium to find the scoobies.
Blaine sighed, taking off his socks and slipping them into his shoes. He wanted to respect Kurt's privacy, but he was suddenly anxious to find out what his boyfriend had been keeping from him and why he wouldn't like it. He was unbuttoning his red cardigan when someone walked in. He lifted his head to see Rick the Stick slowly approaching the cage, complete with his oversized hockey jersey and his vicious sneer. Blaine's hands paused on his shirt.
"Since when do you talk to my girl?"
Blaine narrowed his eyes at Rick and then glanced at the window and the setting sun beyond it. "Hey, Rick. This is actually kind of a bad time…" he said, his heart pounding.
Rick stepped closer and smacked his hands against the cage, breathing through his flaring nostrils. "I guess you didn't think about that before you messed with Piper."
Blaine frowned. "I didn't mess with Piper. We talked, for a second… You know I'm gay, right?"
"It doesn't matter," Rick scowled, "I know that you and your little glee club are trying to turn my girl against me.
Rick put his fingers through the cage and rattled it in an attempt to intimidate Blaine. While the boy visibly looked frightened, it wasn't for himself.
"Listen, Rick, you should get out of here," Blaine said gravely, "When this sun sets-"
Rick said through gritted teeth, "You won't be alive to see it."
Blaine frowned. "I'm serious. If you're here when it gets dark out, you're going to see something that you probably won't believe."
Rick, with his hands gripping the cage, jerked forward in pain, his back bended over the ground. He jerked back, like an invisible force had pulled him, his neck twisting, his head snapping from side to side. Blaine watched in horror as Rick convulsed, the skin on his face bubbling and cracking. When he finally stopped shaking and looked up at Blaine, his human face was gone and replaced with that of a red, blistered demon.
Blaine widened his eyes at the monster and gulped. "Or, you might."
Rick stuck his hands back into the cage and ripped off the door with one lightning quick tug, yelling with an un-human noise. Blaine backed into the small room as Rick lunged at him, grabbed the boy by his shoulders and threw him out into the backstage area of the auditorium, behind the closed red curtains.
xxx
"He does love me. He does love me."
Piper was still staring into the sink, hugging herself as she tearfully reassured the room over and over again that Rick loved her.
"This is useless," Buffy glared at the girl, hands on her hips, "We have to go. I have to find Rick."
"I think we broke her," said Quinn, as she put her arm over Piper's shoulders and tried to lead her away from the girls' room sinks.
Buffy frowned hard back at her friend, though there was a trace of sympathy in her eyes. "I think she was pretty broken before this."
xxx
Rick grabbed Blaine again by his shirt, tearing the collar as he threw the boy against the curtains. Blaine sailed through the red fabric and rolled out onto the stage, trying to get back up on sore muscles, until Rick grabbed him from behind and slammed him back down on the small row of steps that led onstage. Blaine groaned in pain until his watch beeped, warning him that the sun had set.
"Time's up," he groaned.
As Rick was about to grab the boy again, Blaine felt his bones move out of place. Thick tufts of hair grew quickly from his face and chest, and his shirt and chinos started to rip, giving way to his transformation. Blaine bared his teeth, his transformation complete. He was his wolf self now, and when his brown eyes locked onto Rick, he pounced.
Buffy, Tina and Quinn had been leading Piper down the hall just as Will, Rachel, Kitty and Kurt were turning the corner to meet them.
"Any sign of Rick?" asked Buffy, as Piper's head jerked up hopefully.
Will shook his head in disappointment, but he was carrying the same tranquilizer gun that had been used to subdue Blaine when he had first become a werewolf. Just as Will was about to address Piper, the group heard a pained yell coming from down the hall, beyond the auditorium doors.
"What was that?!" Kurt exclaimed.
"Take this!" Will said quickly, handing Buffy the tranquilizer gun.
The slayer slung the gun over her shoulder and ran toward the auditorium with the other scoobies, plus Piper, following quickly on her heel. She ran through the doors to see Blaine onstage, now transformed into a wolf the size of a Mini Cooper, attacking what appeared to be a hulked out version of Rick the Stick, who was holding his own, surprisingly well, against the werewolf.
The scoobies rushed through the seats and Buffy raised the gun, but Piper panicked and ran at her, pushing her and yelling, "Rick, watch out!"
Buffy's finger slid against the trigger as she swung around with the gun and just as an airy pop sounded, Will yelled, "Ow!"
Buffy gasped as she spotted the feathered tranquilizer sticking out of the back of Will's tapered jeans.
"Perfect," Will glowered sarcastically just before he fell over, his legs seemingly turned to jelly.
Before Buffy could help him up, Blaine abandoned his new chew toy and bounded over a bunch of seats, running straight out of a fire escape door. Buffy raised her tranquilizer gun once more, but he was already gone. She quickly handed the gun over to Kitty.
"You get the wolf," she ordered.
"Got it," Kitty nodded and ran toward the fire escape with the gun in her hands, followed by Kurt.
"Quinn," Buffy snapped at the pink-haired girl, "Go make sure Kurt doesn't get himself hurt."
Quinn nodded dutifully and ran after the boy, the slayer and the werewolf just as Rachel and Tina kneeled over Mr. Schuester to attempt to lift his now unconscious body from the floor. Buffy bounded on stage, now weaponless, just as Rick was picking his pummelled body off of the ground. Just as he stood, Buffy threw a punch at his demonic face. He ducked and grabbed her by the waist, pushing her into the curtains and running away while she was tangled in the fabric.
Buffy shook the curtain off of her and ran down the aisle, past Tina and Rachel, who now had Will in an upright position, and out of the auditorium doors. She chased Rick down a hallway, but when she turned a corner, he had disappeared. She kept her eyes peeled as she ran out into the quad. As she ran down the path that led out of the school's southernmost exit, she tripped over something and stumbled to the floor. She sat up and widened her eyes at Piper's body, on the ground, completely still. Her eyes were open and her neck bloodied.
"Oh, God…" Buffy sighed as she laid her eyes over Piper's dead body. She had been too late.
She laid a hand on Piper's face and closed her lavender eyelids, the slayer's stomach turning with rage when someone pulled at the back of her jacket. Rick had lifted her up and spun her around, punching her straight in the face. Buffy stumbled back, temporarily dizzy, but swung out her fist and collided with Rick's chest. He barely reeled from the sloppy blow and growled, "The same. You're all the same."
He punched Buffy once more and knocked her to the floor, but she found her equilibrium and kicked up, the heel of her boots making a thud against Rick's abdomen. Rick stumbled back and Buffy leapt onto her feet. Before she could run forward and incapacitate the boy, someone brushed past her to get to Rick. Buffy widened her eyes at the barefoot, barely dressed girl. It was Santana.
The vampire wrists were still shackled and battered, obviously having broken the marble column she had been chained around. She used the heavy chains to attack Rick's demonic face. Rick pushed her away and headed for Buffy, but Santana leapt back at him and wrapped the chains around his neck, pulling hard and jerking around until their was a sickening crack. Buffy winced as Rick fell to the floor, limp.
Santana unwrapped the chains from his neck, panting heavily. She stood over him and stared at the body before looking back up at Buffy. The slayer was frozen, half expecting the vampire to corner her and attack now that she had gotten Rick out of the way. Santana took a few steps forward, her fangs sliding back behind her teeth as her face returned to normal. She peered at Buffy with a surprising look of coherence and spoke for the first time, her voice hoarse.
"...Buffy?"
Buffy almost gasped. She didn't realize how much one word would affect her. She thought she'd never hear Santana say her name again, but here they were, and it was almost too much to bear. Tears flooded from the slayer's eyes as Santana dropped to her knees and slid her arms around Buffy's waist. "Buffy."
xxx
"So, the whole school knows."
Rachel had her cellphone held between her ear and her shoulder as she retrieved a typed-up letter to the board of education, complaining about the corruption of school government. She hadn't planned to actually send it before she could at least intimidate Principal Figgins with it.
"I'm assuming they don't know about Rick's Dr. Jekyll situation," she said.
Buffy had called her early that morning with the news that school was cancelled that day after Piper and Rick's bodies were discovered on school grounds. The whole place was now a crime scene, but Lima had mastered efficiency in the face of horrific death, so things would be back to normal by the next day.
"I feel so bad," the slayer said on the other line, "I know everyone in glee club would have helped Piper if we knew she needed help, but we didn't. We never talked to her. In fact, we actively avoided her."
"Don't blame yourself, Buffy," Rachel shook her head.
"I wasn't. I was blaming all of us."
"Well, don't do that, either. Rick was a maniac, using some sort of heinous mixture of science and magic to turn himself into a demon. There's nothing we could have done."
Buffy sighed. "I guess you're right. I have to go drag my mom away from the TV before Rod Remington really convinces her that Rick actually went crazy after drinking nine iced mochas. She'll never let me go to the Lima Bean again."
Rachel smirked. "See you," she said, and hung up the phone, when someone knocked on her bedroom door.
"Come in," she called just as Hiram stuck his head in.
"Since you kids don't have school today, LeRoy suggested we get brunch at The Hungry Bagel," he smiled.
"Sounds great," Rachel smiled, setting her letter of complaint down on her desk.
"Good. Tell Rory we're leaving in ten," he said, and ducked back out of the room.
Rachel slipped on a draped, white cardigan and headed down the hall toward the guest room where Rory was staying. She knocked on the slightly ajar door and it swung open to reveal Rory inside, shoving clothes into a suitcase that was open on the bed.
"Rory," Rachel frowned, "What are you doing?"
Rory looked up at her, taken aback. "I… I was… packing."
"I can see that," Rachel raised an eyebrow, "Why?"
Rory frowned and took a seat on his freshly made bed. "I can't take it here anymore."
"What? Why not?"
"First I find Ms. Drench… like that. Then those two students get killed. Everyone at school seems to hate me," he said, and looked up at Rachel, "I'm well aware you don't like me."
Rachel frowned, her brow knitted. "Oh, Rory…" she trailed off, putting her hand to her chest, "I'm so sorry if I made you feel… unwelcome. I just haven't exactly been in the perfect frame of mind recently, with this rigged election and having to play a supporting character in the school musical… Now that I'm saying it out loud, my problems don't sound all that bad, actually."
Rory didn't say anything and just continued to stare at the carpet. Rachel sighed and closed the door behind her, taking a seat next to Rory on the bed.
"I'm sorry, Rory, really. I can't imagine how tough it must be to come to a new place, let alone a place like Lima. But I promise to be a better host sister, okay? I can even give you an official tour of McKinley tomorrow and introduce you to all my friends. And you know what? You should join glee club!"
Rory wrinkled his nose. "Glee club?"
"Yeah! I've heard you singing Michael Buble in the shower. You're not half bad."
Rory smirked, blushing. "I didn't realize you could hear that."
Rachel smiled and squeezed Rory's shoulder. "Please, stay for the rest of the semester, at least. And if you still hate it here by Christmas, we can book you a flight back to Ireland. But give me a chance to convince you to stay. It could be fun for me! I always wanted a little brother!"
Rory smiled crookedly and nodded. "Okay. Just don't tell your dads I was packing my things. I'll join glee club."
"Great!" Rachel made a fist of victory, "You'll love it. Everybody in glee club is really close. We all stick out for each other. We try to, anyways."
Rory nodded. "Good. I guess it'll make it a whole lot easier, having a support system."
Rachel dropped her smile and widened her eyes. "Rory, you're a genius!"
"I am?"
"Yes!" she said, and hopped off of the bed, "Tell my dads I won't be able to go to brunch. I have a proposal to write!"