The post homeroom rush hit Sunnydale like a brick.  No sound was separate from another, everyone shouting to be heard, elbowing each other in the rat race to get to their lockers before the bell sounded, announcing second period.
     Buffy Summers had decided if she was going to go to high school that she may as well attend a few classes, so reluctantly, after chickening out of homeroom, she dragged herself to her locker.  Almost forgetting the combination (the last time she went in there was to put her texts in there last September), she grabbed her socials book, a pen and some loose leaf and trudged towards room 111.  She couldn’t remember if her best friend Willow was in this class or not, but she hoped she wouldn’t be alone.  She had worked up the whole dreaded scenario in her mind the night before - the teacher calling on her, saying she was a new student and then some bitch in the back row pointing out that she constantly skipped school and her teacher completely loosing it.  Did teachers have the right to do that? She wondered.  It was her education to waste after all.
     As Buffy entered the classroom she realized, with sinking terror that she hardly knew anyone in this class.  All the seats in the back were taken, so she couldn’t hide there.  Willow was such a brain that if she were in that class she’d already be there, probably reading a dictionary or something.
     She took a seat in the front, where no one else was sitting and put on her headphones.  School’s almost over.  I don’t have to like it - no one else does… Buffy repeated to herself several times before letting Beastie Boy lyrics flood her brain.
     A short woman with frizzy blond hair, a floral blouse and baggy khakis entered the room, sorting her way through mounds of disorganized papers and folders.  “All right everyone, take out map four and sheet two.”
     The class complied.
     “I hope everyone did their homework.  Remember, homework is worth 15% of your final grade.” The woman set down the cumbersome stacks of paper and turned to write yesterdays homework on the blackboard.  After doing so, she scanned the classroom briefly and marked something down on her attendance.  “Oh, and we have a new student today.” She smiled.
     Oh my god, oh my god… Buffy felt queasy.  Nobody argue with her or I’ll have that bastard of a principal to deal with.
     “And it doesn’t look like she’s here today…” the frazzled lady seemed confused.
     Just then the door swung open and a girl with long, brilliant red hair charged in, carrying an equally cumbersome assortment of school materials. She collapsed in the desk next to Buffy’s and clumsily darted up the teacher.
     “Okay,” The girl began to dig through her disorganized packsack, pulling out shuffled papers and notes before finding what she seemed to need.  “This is my registration - I tried to give it to the office, but they said it would be easier if I got my teachers to sign it and gave it to them after school.  Here’s my note for being late - I’m just getting used to public transit here.”
     This admission got a few of the snobbier students snickering - poor dope is already in grade eleven and didn’t even own a civic!  That screamed of a neglective parent.  Well, Buffy walked to school, but she was sure she’d never get a car she didn’t pay for by herself, and she didn’t even have a job yet.  Well, not a job that paid a salary.
     Oblivious to the negative first impression she was creating, the red head carried on.  “Oh and here’s a note from my mom - it says that I have the right to be excused at any time I need to be and here’s my homework, because I knew what this class was studying two weeks ago, so I did about a weeks worth of homework cause I was so bored I nothing better to do.”
    “Thank you, Lina.” This only seemed to confuse the teacher more.  “I’m Ms. Curtis.  You can take your homework back to your seat - we’ll be marking it in a few minutes.  I’m just giving everyone who didn’t bother to do their work some time to copy of their friends and achieve a decent score for their laziness.”
     Immediately, six very diligent workers shot there heads up from what they were doing in a futile attempt to fool Ms. Curtis, who was apparently much cleverer than she seemed.
     “You’re the ones who will fail the tests, and those are worth far more than that homework.” She smirked.
     Buffy was relieved that not only had she not been called on by the teacher but now she had a brainiac sitting next to her she might even do okay on some of these tests.
     “Are you Buffy Summers?” Lina turned to her with a fixed interest.
     “Maybe.” Buffy replied carefully.  This sounded pretty suspicious.  “It depends on what you want with her.”
     “Oh, it’s nothing really.  I heard some girls talking about a girl named Buffy Summers, and you seemed to fit the description.”
     “Oh really? Such as?” Buffy was pretty skeptical.
     “Kind of small, blonde, pretty tough looking, loner.”
     Well, Buffy thought, at least she’s being honest with me instead of busting an organ trying to flatter me.
     “I think the girls said you never came to class though.  Always hung out in the library.  They said you were having an affair with the librarian.”
     Buffy shot a glance Linaward.
     “Well I don’t believe them.” Lina smiled.  “They seemed really snobby to me.  And even if you were, it would be your own business.  Besides, I was like that a lot back in my old city.  I understand how people can take a private, plutonic relationship like that and make it into some whoa-is-me love affair.  It’s really stupid, and so is anyone who believes it.  I’m sure that if you’re spending an unusual amount of time there, you have a very decent, valid reason.”
     Just the way she said that made Buffy nervous.  Did this Lina know something she shouldn’t?
     Lina carried on cheerfully “Well, I’m really glad I know someone’s name now.  I don’t know if you’ve ever transferred schools in the middle of the year, but it can be pretty nerve-racking.”
     “I have.”  Buffy decided that Lina seemed genuinely nice.  She was becoming pretty paranoid to believe that everyone knew her secret.  “Yeah, I transferred almost at the end of the school year last year.  But I was lucky enough to meet some nice people and sort of fit in here.”
     Lina nodded.  “I hope it will be as easy for me.  Meeting nice people is something I should really practice more, huh?  Well, I met you just today, and you seem really nice.  Do you think I could maybe eat lunch with you?  Would your friends mind?”
     “No, I don’t think they would mind.  We have nothing to do this lunch, so sure, I’ll meet you by the Snapple machine.”
     Lina grinned again.
     “All right everyone,” Ms. Curtis and gathered her wits and her homework key and stood expectantly at the head of the classroom.  “Let’s get started.”
 

     Second period had ended and Buffy was going out of her mind.  She knew that once there was a time, as impossible as it seemed now, that she could tolerate a six hour school day.  Now she just wanted to go home.  She replaced her books in her locker and headed towards the library.  A few years ago she never would have thought that the library would be her favorite place in the school.  Buffy headed down the hall, going against the grain of the school mobs heading towards their classes.  Just then, the loudest, most annoying laugh she head ever had the displeasure of hearing erupted from the lockers to her left.
     “OOOOha ha ha ha!  That’s her?  The loner heading for the library there?!  She’s pretty unshapely, isn’t she?”
     Buffy usually wouldn’t dignify something like that with so much as a look or a response, but she much preferred bullies to attack her head on instead of announcing their opinions to the entire school.  Her eyes met with a tall brunette of unreal proportions.  Her bust was unfathomably large, while her waist was unfathomably small.  She donned a two-piece black leather outfit so her features where even more noticeable.  Buffy wondered how that girl could compare anyone’s body to her own.  Well, at least Buffy had the reassurance that she wasn’t carting around silicone in her breasts everyday.  Silicone or not though, she pitied the girl, for the back problems a chest like that incurred were not to be believed.
     Another brunette, one that Buffy was, unfortunately, more familiar with decided to loudly agree with her.  “Yeah, that’s Buffy alright.  Heading towards the library with lust in her eyes.  I hear that her and Mr. Giles are getting it on.”
     Buffy was pretty sure that there was nothing remotely related to lust in her eyes, only maybe relief.  Of course it helped now that she knew who was generating the rumors.
     “Look, Cordelia, I don’t care for your opinion or that of your little friend over here.  So why don’t you two just scuttle of to third period and let me get some research done.”
     “Little???  LiTtLe????  LITTLE!?” the busty brunette seemed slightly offended.
     “Buffy, dear Buffy, the only thing you’ll be researching in that library is Mr. Giles tonsils.” Cordelia crowned that sweet comment with a smile and pat on Buffy’s right shoulder.
     Buffy supplied and equally genuine smile, curtly removed Cordelia’s hand and replied, “Cordelia, dear Cordelia, don’t presume you just dictate my own relationships to me.  You can’t, so just shut up and walk away.”
     Cordelia mustn’t have been up to that challenge.  “Come on, Naga, we’ll be late for third period.”
     Buffy felt proud of herself as she continued down Sunnydale’s hallway.  She thought I was just going to roll over and accept that, but I just shoved it back down her throat.  She entered the library, and there was no sign of Giles.  Probably in the back room, she figured.
 

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