Author: Ice Princess
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Nothing from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Cruel Intentions is mine. No infringement intended. Don't sue.
Rating: PG-15 (for language)
Summary: Buffy and Kathryn are twins. Chance meetings cause things to stir.
Author's Note: AU Challenge by Angelic Mexx. Kathryn's character may be a bit warped at times, but I'll try to make her character more like in the movie as it goes on. And yes, Mai Lee is their Vietnamese maid/servant. Angel is Kathryn's boyfriend, but has never met Buffy nor ever even heard of her. No vamps no Slayers world.
Timeline: They're in their second week of senior year (1998).
Feedback: It wouldn't hurt...
Part 1
"Buffy!" Kathryn Summers called out to her twin sister in anger. "Have you taken my dress? You know, the Dior one I got last week?"
Buffy looked down sadly at the beautiful dress in her hands. She wished she could have afforded to buy it. Unfortunately, her parents seemed to like to play favourites, spoiling the older twin with lavish gifts whenever she wanted something and neglecting Buffy and the youngest of the Summers family, Dawn.
Despite all the favouritism, Buffy wasn't envious of her older sister. She always had expectations to live up to, always had to pretend to be someone she wasn't, had to do things the person she was before wouldn't have done. Buffy always wondered why her twin sister was considered the prettiest girl in SHS—they looked exactly same only with different coloured hair. Buffy was blonde and Kathryn was a brunette. Extra dark.
The person Kathryn had been before was so much like Buffy. The two had been practically inseparable, until they moved to Sunnydale. Kathryn had befriended Cordelia Chase whereas Buffy clicked immediately with Willow Rosenberg—one of the nicest people in the whole of Sunnydale Junior High, but not exactly the most popular.
It all went downhill from there.
Maybe it was their parents' fault, but Kathryn didn't exactly turn into a devious spoilt bitch overnight.
Now, in their final year of high school, Kathryn had become the biggest bitch in Sunnydale High history, outshining Cordelia by miles. Of course, at home, she was quite the charmer, thus winning the favouritism of their parents. She treated Buffy like her servant, but most of the time, Buffy ignored her and locked herself in her room with her leather-bound diary, with her CD player playing CDs like Sarah McLachlan, Splendid, Alison Kraus and other artists Kathryn claimed she'd never listen to. Buffy caught her one time though, and Kathryn was so mad she threw a tantrum and broke the three vases in the living room.
Kathryn blamed the mess on Buffy's chinchilla, a beautiful feline by the name of Mr Gordo. It was a wonder they even let Buffy keep the cat—the vases had been their mother's family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation since 1879.
Buffy glumly stepped outside her room, disdainfully holding the dress in her hands. "Here. I think Mai Lee just put it in the wrong pile of washing."
"I didn't put it in the wash." Kathryn gave Buffy a frigid stare and walked away with the dress in her hands and bad mood for the rest of the day. Dawn was poking her head out of her door to see what all the commotion was about, even though she had gotten used to the whole thing over the years. She was just waiting for the day when Buffy would fight back, dye her hair brown or wear exactly the same thing as her twin—just to piss her off. When the 14 year old noticed she'd been spotted, her eyes went wide and she ducked back behind the safety of her door.
Buffy sighed and went back in her room. Sometimes you wonder if things would've turned out differently if this, this and this didn't happen, but Buffy knew that even if you wondered about it, it'd never happen. Buffy shrugged into her new pale blue pinstriped blouse and went downstairs to grab an aspirin and her favourite embroidered cardigan.
Really, it was a much too typical morning for Buffy—Kathryn shouting for something, Buffy having to have an aspirin because of it…it was all fine and dandy...
*****
"Hey Will, Xand, Oz. How was your weekend?" Buffy sat down with them on one of the benches outside SHS.
"Uneventful, as usual. You?" Xander Harris was munching on an apple, his attention focussed solely on the fruit.
"Same as always."
"Oz had a gig in UC Sunnydale with the Dingoes. They were really good, weren't you Oz?" Willow was her usual Monday perky self, her excitement over school getting the better of her. She was clinging to Oz's arm, almost possessively so.
"I wouldn't say that exactly. We were better than usual though." Oz shrugged and spotted Faith and Spike walking towards them. As usual, they were bickering like little old ladies (even though little old ladies hardly ever bicker).
"Spike, just drop it already." Faith ripped her attention away from her boyfriend long enough to greet everyone. "Hey guys. Spike's just being a bastard. See you all later 'k?" Faith ran after Spike, frantically trying to convince him she wasn't cheating on him. Of course, she was, but she liked to have Spike as her faithful puppy dog.
"She needs help. And a new wardrobe. Is it just me or has she worn leather pants every day for the past 2 weeks?" Buffy asked quietly.
"We should take her shopping," Willow answered happily, still giddy from the excitement of her weekend.
"Yeah, and what would the benefit out of that be? Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Cordelia sneered at her and brusquely strutted off with her followers most likely to talk to Kathryn (although it wasn't likely that Kathryn would be at school so early) about their respective weekends. Maybe even insult a few more innocent souls along the way.
"Bitch." Buffy sneered back quietly. "Don't listen to her, she's just Cordelia," Buffy put her hand on Willow's shoulder and comfort and Willow smiled back, her perky mood snapping back in place. "Besides, you should be thankful that it wasn't Kathryn who eavesdropped on our conversation. I swear, I don't know how I even put up with her."
"Why is everyone so happy today? It's Monday, and I didn't do my history homework. Anyone here have some I can copy?"
"Yeah, in my locker. You can copy it during Study Hall." Willow picked her backpack from the ground and slung it over her shoulder. "I have to see Miss Calendar, I'm helping her with a new database system for the admin staff. See you all in history."
"Bye."
Willow waved and left with Oz in tow. He'd have her smiling in no time, of that, Buffy was sure.
"Wow, aren't they the dependent type today." Xander threw the core of his apple into the bin and wiped his hands on his pants--the guy way of cleaning their hands. "Why with the glum?"
"Nothing, don't worry about Buffy. She's fine." Buffy stared dreamily up at the clear blue sky. She wished that the weather would stop contradicting her moods; it was always too sunny.
Just then, Faith burst out of SHS's front doors in a rage, stomping over to where Buffy and Xander were sitting. It wasn't quite enough to snap the blonde out of her daze, but she did. Eventually.
"I'm officially angry at Spike okay? If you see him, tell him that for me."
"I think he would've gotten the message by now. Besides, I thought he was mad at you. You two crazy kids should work it out one of these days. I keep forgetting who's mad with whom and then I get all confused and-"
"Xander, shut up."
"Yes ma'm." Faith punched him in the shoulder when he saluted her. The bell rang before Xander had a chance to punch her back.
"Damn, I really wanted to get you back for that..." Xander muttered to Faith before picking his things up. "Shall I walk you two lovely ladies to class or will you be fine by yourselves?"
"Go, we're very capable," Faith emphasised the word 'capable', causing the brunette boy to scurry off in search of Willow's locker for his history homework.
Faith had grown up in a tough neighbourhood in Boston, teaching her basic survival skills and how to punch really really hard. He'd been lucky she was only punching him playfully, or else he'd have had a bruise for at least a week.
"Come on B, you can't be little miss down-in-the-dumps all day."
"Who says I can't?"
"Me."
"Why have you got the authority?"
"Cos I'm Faith. And you're B."
Buffy shook her head and couldn't help but smile. She was lucky she had friends like Willow, Xander, Oz, Faith and Spike. She looked back up to the sky and regretfully stepped inside the building.
*****
Angel Ferguson was angry. Once again, Kathryn was making him late for school. He'd already been tardy 5 times and it was only the first day of the second week back from summer break.
He honked the horn again. Kathryn stepped outside the door, dressed immaculately in a dress he'd never seen her in before (which wasn't very uncommon anyway), and in heels that made it impossible for her to hurry down the stone steps quickly enough.
"We're late, let's go." Kathryn told him bluntly, slamming the door closed aggressively. She was in a terrible mood, and she couldn't find a single aspirin for her headache. She only needed one guess who's fault that was. Her grumpy self wasn't a pleasure to be around, nor was her that-time-of-the-month self.
Angel stepped on the gas and wondered how he put up with all this. Sure, he was the most popular guy in school, what with him being the star quarterback and all, and Kathryn was the most popular girl, but that didn't make her act like any less of a bitch to him than to anyone else. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he thought she was most gorgeous girl he'd ever seen. Maybe. Probably.