Darkness (Book Two, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

chapter 3 - School Hard

At the school's main entrance, Willow, Xander and I saw Buffy talking to resident bad girl Sheila as they walked outside.

"Hey, meatpie!" Sheila yelled, walking away.

Xander, Willow and I walked up to Buffy.

"Snyder's got you guys making party favors, huh?" Xander asked.

"His two worst students," Buffy told us. "That's what Mom sees when she looks at me. A Sheila."

Sheila kissed an older boy with long, blonde hair.

"Well, Sheila's definitely intense," I told her. "That guy with her? That's the guy she can bring home to mother. She was already smoking in fifth grade. Once I was lookout for her."

Xander looked at me. "You're bad to the bone."

"Oh, yeah, I'm a rebel," I said sarcastically.

"Compared to me, you actually are," Willow told me.

I smiled.

"It's not fair," Buffy told us. "I'm the Slayer. That requires a certain amount of cutting and fighting. What's Sheila's excuse?"

"Homework," Xander answered. "She won't do it. And most teachers respect that now. Oh, you might wanna keep away any sharp implements when you're working with her."

"Do you think any other Slayers ever had to go to high school?" Buffy asked.

"It's no biggie," Xander told her. "You'll have a nice soire'e. The parents will love it. As long as nothing really bad happens between now and then, you'll be fine."

"Are you crazy?" I asked. "What did you say that for? Now something bad is gonna happen!"

"What do you mean?" Xander asked. "Nothing's gonna happen."

"Not until some dummy says, 'as long as nothing bad happens,'" Willow told him.

"It's the ultimate jinx!" Buffy told him.

"What were you thinking?" Willow asked. "Or were you even thinking at all?"

We each gave him looks of exasperation, walking away.

"Well, you guys don't know," Xander told us. "Maybe this time it'll be different."

~~

At school the next day, in the lounge, Willow, Buffy and I were working on a banner for the parent/teacher conferences.

"Sheila's a no-show?" Willow asked. "She goes to this really rank bar. The Fish Tank? Sometimes they have raids and other stuff that can make you tardy."

"Do you think you can help me cram some French tonight?" Buffy asked. "I don't want Mr. DeJean telling my mother I'm an imbecile."

"I thought we were going to the Bronze tonight," I told her. "'Cause of how you thought Angel might show?"

Xander walked up to us. "If he does he'll meet some other nice girl? Studying comes first."

"We're going to the Bronze," Buffy told us. "I can study and party and do parent/teacher night and make my mother proud as long as I don't have to..."

Giles and Ms. Calendar walked in.

"Buffy!" Giles said.

"...fight vampires," Buffy finished.

Giles looked at Ms. Calendar. "There is nothing in the chronicles about an extraneous lunar cycle."

"The Order never accurately calculated the Mesopotamian Calendar," Ms. Calendar told him. "Rupert, you have got to read something that was published after 1066."