I took a long stretch as I sat up in bed. My insomnia had been horrible and, as I reached over to kill my alarm clock, I was tempted to stay down.
"Mom's at it again," my twin brother, Xander, said and I sighed before getting up.
"I'm up," I told him crawling out of bed while still clinging to it in hopes of getting more sleep before school. "Thanks, Xan."
"I wish we had a car," I heard him mumble as he closed my door to give me privacy. I rolled my eyes before going to my closet and pulling out my clothes for the day. I put on my black shorts and a Nirvana crop top and slipped on an open plaid button-up and left it open. I pulled up my black thigh high socks before slipping on my boots before grabbing my backpack and leaving my room and running for the door.
I walked up to the campus as Xander rode his skateboard through the crowds to teens and teachers.
"'Scuse me, comin' through, pardon me, 'scuse me, whoa! 'Scuse me, not sure how to stop! Please move, whoa, 'scuse me… Whoa." I followed Xander's gaze to see a blonde I didn't recognize walking past us with a purpose towards the doors. I winced when I heard Xander crash into the stair railing and falling beneath it, grunting in pain. "God!"
"You okay?" I asked him and he gave me a look as our childhood friend, Willow, stopped walking towards the building of torture in front of us.
"I feel good," he said.
"Sarcasm gets you nowhere dear brother." I held my hand out for him to grab and helped him up.
"Willow! You're so very much the person that I wanted to see!" He told her happily as he finally stood up.
"Oh, really?" She asked him happily as we started walking towards the school.
"Yeah. You know, I kinda had a problem with the math."
"Uh, which part?" she asked him.
"The math," he answered and I scoffed. He gave me a fresh look before turning back to her. "Can you help me out tonight, pleeeease, be my study buddy?"
"Well, what's in it for me?" she asked him and I rolled my eyes at the pair.
"A shiny nickel!"
"Okay. Do you have 'Theories in Trig'?" he shook his head. "You should check it out."
"Check it out?" he asked her still confused.
"From the library? Where the books live."
"Right, I'm there! See, I wanna change…" he told her as we walked inside the building.
"Hey, hey!" An arm wrapped my shoulders pulling me into my boyfriend's side as he joined us. Jesse leaned down and give me a quick kiss before clamping hands with Xander.
"Hey, Jesse, what's what?" Xander asked his best friend.
"New Girl!"
"That's right, I saw her. Pretty much a hottie!"
"I heard someone was transferring," Willow added.
"Halfway through the year? Military kid or rebel?" I asked and Willow elbowed me in the gut lightly.
"So tell!" Xander told Jesse.
"Tell what?" Jesse asked her.
"What's the sitch, what do ya know about her?" Xander asked.
"New girl!" Jesse repeated and I laughed.
"Well, you're certainly a font of nothing!"
I was sitting with Willow on a bench in the quad eating lunch when the new girl sat next to us.
"Uh, Hi! Willow, right?" she asked Willow.
"Why? I-I mean, hi! Uh, did you want us to move?" Willow asked her.
"Cause we won't," I told her and Willow hit my arm lightly.
"Why don't we start with, 'Hi, I'm Buffy,'" Buffy laughed lightly.
"I'm Liz," I introduced and she smiled and waved at me.
"Let's segue directly into me asking you for a favor. It doesn't involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while."
"But aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?" Willow asked.
"I can't do both?" Buffy asked.
"Not legally," Willow told her.
"Especially not if Cordelia finds out," I added.
"Look," Buffy sighed. "I really wanna get by here-new school-and… Cordelia's been really nice… to me… anyway, but, um, I kinda have this burning desire not to flunk all my classes, and I heard a rumor that you were the person to talk to if I wanted to get caught up."
"Oh, I could totally help you out! Uh, if you have sixth period free we could meet in the library?" Willow suggested.
"Or not," Buffy said quickly and I gave her a confused look. "Or we could meet someplace quieter. Louder. Uh, that place just kinda gives me the wiggins."
"Oh, it has that effect on most kids. I love it, though, it's a great collection, and the new librarian is really cool," Willow told her and I laughed lightly.
"Will practically lives anywhere where there are books," I laughed and Willow looked down shyly.
"He's new?" Buffy asked her.
"Yeah, he just started. He was a curator at some British museum, or, or The British Museum, I'm not sure. But he knows everything, and he brought all these historical volumes and biographies, and am I the single dullest person alive?" Willow asked making the two of us laugh.
"Not at all." I looked next to me as Jesse dropped his bag next to me and Xander hopped up onto the wall behind Buffy and Willow and sat on it between them.
"Hey!"
"Hey," I greeted with a smile as Jesse sat next to me stole some of my lunch.
'You guys busy? Are we interrupting? We're interrupting," Xander said tossing his bag next to Jesse's.
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"Hey there!"
"Buffy, this is Jesse and that's Xander," Willow introduced.
"Oh, me and Buffy go waaay back, old friends, very close. Then there's that period of estrangement where I think we were both growing as people, but now here we are, like old times, I'm quite moved," Xander said and we all looked at him confused.
"Is it me, or are you turning into a bibbling idiot?" Jesse asked him.
"No, it's, uh, it's not you," Xander told him.
"Well, that's comforting," I teased as he jumped down from between the girls and next to his bag.
"Well, it's nice to meet you guys, I think," Buffy looked at Willow confused.
"Well, you know, we wanted to welcome ya, make ya feel at home unless you have a scary home…"
"And to return this." Xander held up a stake and handed it to Buffy. "The only thing I can think is that you're building a really little fence."
"Hah, no," Buffy took the stake from Xander and quickly put it in her bag. "Um, a-a-actually it was for self-defense. Everyone has them in L.A. Pepper spray is just so passé."
"So what do you do for fun, what do you like, what do you look for in a man, let's hear it," Xander questioned.
"If you have any dark, painful secrets you'd like us to publish?" Jesse asked.
"Gee, everyone wants to know about me. How keen," Buffy said looking down at her food.
"Well, not much goes on in a one Starbucks town like Sunnydale. You're pretty big news."
"I'm not. Really," Buffy insisted.
"Are these guys bothering you?" Cordelia walked up to us looking at Buffy.
"Uh, no!" Buffy quickly told her.
"She's not hanging out with us," Willow told her.
"I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster, the woman with the chest hair, because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker," Cordelia told us.
"What?" Buffy asked quietly.
"What are you talking about?" Willow asked her.
"Some guy was stuffed in Aura's locker!"
"Dead."
"Totally dead. Way dead."
"It's not just a little dead, then?" Xander asked her sarcastically.
"Don't you have an elsewhere to be?" Cordelia asked him.
"Nope, we're quite comfortable here," Jesse told her and she gave us a look.
"How did he die?" Buffy asked and I gave her another curious look.
"I don't know."
"Well, were there any marks?" Buffy asked.
"Morbid much! I didn't ask!"
"Um, I gotta book. I'll, I'll see you guys later." Buffy quickly gathered her things and left us alone with Cordelia staring after her.
"What's her deal?"
That night at the Bronze, I was dancing with Jesse. I'd known for years he'd had a large crush on Cordelia, but for some reason, he'd asked me out one day and we'd been dating ever since. I saw a girl sitting alone as we danced and I couldn't help get this feeling from her.
"I'm going to be right back," I told him before going to her. "Hi, you new here?"
"Sort of," she said smiling at me.
"Haven't seen around. You waiting for someone?"
"No."
"Liz." I held out a hand for her to shake and she does so.
"I'm Darla."
"So, are you visiting or just new in town?" I asked.
"I have family here," she told me.
"It's a pretty small town, have we met before?"
"No, but you probably will."
I followed Darla through the cemetery, just talking with her until she grabbed my hand and she pulled me into a mausoleum just as Willow was trying to run out.
"Is this the best you could do?" she asked the boy with Willow.
"She's fresh!" he told her and I tried to pull my arm out of Darla's grip, but hers only seemed to tighten.
"Hardly enough to share."
"You should have brought something bigger," he said looking me up and down.
"She'll do," Darla told him giving me a look before throwing me towards Willow.
"What the hell?" I asked her.
"Lizzy, are you okay?" she asked helping me stay balanced.
"What's going on?" I asked them.
"Liz, we gotta get outta here!" Willow told me before Darla walked up to us.
"Oh, you're not going anywhere," Darla told us.
"Leave us alone!"
"You're not going anywhere until we've fed!" Darla growled out as her face changed and we both screamed staring at her. Suddenly, Jesse, Xander, and Buffy showed up.
"Well, this is nice. I-it's a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows… call it home!" Buffy told them as she moved behind the coffin in the center of the room away from us.
"Who the hell are you?" Darla asked her.
"You mean there's actually someone in this town who doesn't know already? Whew, that's a relief, I'm telling you! Having a secret identity in this town is a job of work," Buffy said.
"Buffy, we bail now, right?" Xander asked her.
"Not yet!"
"Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge!" The pair moved in closer on either side of Buffy as she turned to Darla. "Now, we can do this the hard way, or… well, actually there's just the hard way."
"That's fine with me!"
"Are you sure? Now, this is not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content…" The guy roared behind Buffy before attacking her. Buffy jammed something into him and he fell back and turned to ash. "See what happens when you roughhouse?"
"He was young and stupid!"
"Xander, go!" Buffy ordered.
"Don't go far!" Darla called to us as the four of us ran out of the stone building.
"We'll get the police, it's just a few blocks up!" Willow suggested before we noticed people coming towards us. I turned and noticed Darla leading another group behind us. We were surrounded.
TO BE CONTINUED...