A/N*Insane1*- Ooh...we're back again. Who knows for how long. Short note
from me this time. (Wow, first time for everything!) I wanted to say THANKS
to everyone who has stuck by us, as we know it's been FOREVER..but T has
been doing her GCSEs and I've had uni..LOTS of assignments..*sigh*. I'm
very sorry about the delay. After June we'll have a lot more time to work
on the fics and post them. ^_^ Thanks again, we love ya HEAPS. ~Neat
A/N*Mrs O* - Yup, everything Neat said and more. I've been so busy with my stupid GCSEs and Neat's been buried under a pile of assignments. We've actually had this chapter roughly written since October! But you've got it now and my GCSEs end in just over a month so updates should be a little more frequent. Plus, we'll be less stressed and less likely to kill all the characters in a freak volcano accident! Anyhoo, we love you for sticking with us and hope you lurve this chapter as much as we lurved writing it. Just a bit of warning. Don't be eating or drinking while reading this chapter! ^_^ ~T xXx
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Angel yanked his locker open, allowing the door to slam against a neighbouring locker. He was not impressed. It had been a week since the rumours about him and Buffy had started. Cordelia hadn't spoken to him since. He glanced around once more as he idly picked out a few books and dumped his gym shoes in there. He had left a million messages on her answering machine, and had only received one from the butler telling him to stop calling.
Then, Angel had been forced to leave messages on her voicemail. He'd even tried learning how to use his cellphone for God's sakes! And still Cordelia was ignoring him. He'd tried his best to confront her, but she'd always find a way of weaselling out of it. He slammed his locker shut, growling in frustration. What was he meant to do?
This wasn't right! It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to have spent hours getting to know each other in tutoring sessions, and by today they would have been discussing plans for a first date. How the hell did it go so wrong in a week?
There hadn't been one tutoring lesson, and Angel contemplated on informing Snyder, but figured that that might not be such a good idea. Cordelia would definitely have his head for that. Besides, he was supposed to be football captain. He was a big boy. He could handle this little 'set back' on his own.
But, if this was so true, why were none of his attempts at getting her attention working? They'd all worked before. He'd tried getting Spike to help him, but he was off pursuing the blonde who'd caused all this.
Angel stalked off to English, a lesson where he knew he could try and get her attention. Besides, he sat next to her and was her partner. She HAD to listen to him sooner or later.
~*~*~
Cordelia walked briskly into the English room, listening to Xander and Riley's bickering over something or other. She didn't want to be mad at Angel...much. But that was the only thing she could do right now.
How could he lead her on like that when he was going out with someone else? She asked herself as she sat down, making sure that there was no place for Angel where she sat.
Cordelia put her anger on hold for a second, almost regretting never letting Angel explain himself. But then the anger was back, and she didn't really care what he had to say. Knowing him, it'd probably be another lie. She looked sadly at her nails, wondering how a nice guy like that could ever turn out so vile.
She glanced up from her nails and looked up at the door. Angel walked into the room in that way that almost took the breath away from her. He was the perfect guy.who ended up being a jerk. He looked at her with a small smile as he made his way towards her. She looked at him icily and turned back to her nails. Angel searched for his seat, before realising it wasn't there. Cordelia had made it clear she didn't want him to sit with her. His smile vanished and was briefly replaced with one of rejection. But he covered it up and went to sit at the back of the room.
Xander caught Cordelia's glare at Angel and when out of earshot, he asked, "So, are you STILL mad at him?"
She looked the other boy over and then chose to glare at him as well. "Wouldn't YOU be?" she questioned. Xander shrugged.
"I guess so, but it's not like you've let him explain," Her hand flew up to silence him.
"Why should I? He's probably only gonna lie again to cover his tracks." She thought for a second. "Besides, I don't know why you're defending the guy. After all, he's with the girl of *your* dreams." It was Riley's turn to stare at her now. "And yours" she added quickly.
Xander, now a nice beetroot red, cleared his throat. "Look...all I know is that in high school, gossip tends to get outta hand easily. I mean, what was it about the kinky acrobatics in a janitor's closet that-"
"THAT was different." Cordelia snapped, folder her arms and staring at the black board. This discussion was clearly over. Riley and Xander exchanged looked and left their friend to wallow in her anger.
The teacher strode in and looked around. Immediately she noticed that something was definitely wrong with the seating arrangements. She set her books on her desk and gazed at the students. "Now, if you could all please get up and move into your set pairs...." Cordelia scowled. She wasn't going to move. Angel, however, smiled. Now she had no choice *but* to move.
The teacher gave Cordelia a look and she reluctantly began to move. As Angel saw this, he raced to sit next to her. She could feel his presence before he even sat down, so she turned her head away from him and stuck her well built nose into the air.
Riley gave Angel a sympathetic, yet manly, pat on the back. He'd had the chance to discuss the 'Buffy' situation with both Spike and Angel, and both boys had confirmed it to be false. And Angel was still his teammate. "Good luck." He muttered, moving to sit with Xander.
"I think I'm going to need it," Angel muttered as his stared at the brunette beauty, who refused to look at him. He took a deep breath and inched his seat nearer to Cordelia's, "Uh.Cordelia? Cordelia please, you have to let me explain."
She spun angrily in her seat, making Angel jump. "Explain? What is there to explain? You're with your ex again. Good for you." Her tone was so cold. So cruel. Angel was almost afraid of her. ALMOST being the operative word in that sentence.
Angel looked around out of the corner of his brown eyes, noticing why there were so many people near them. They wanted to see the show.
He shrugged. It didn't matter. Actually, the more people that got the message the better. "Cordelia, if you let me explain." he hissed
"No. You know what? You don't get to Liam O'Malley. You just don't." She tossed back.
"Liam?" They heard someone snigger. Angel was taken aback. How the hell did she know his real name? He glared around the classroom.
"Shut up," he snapped. They did so. He shook his head and began again, "You've got it all wrong,"
She raised her brows. "Right. Next you'll be trying to tell me that Spike's the Tooth Bunny!" the class broke out into sniggers. That was it. Angel had had enough.
"Would you just take your head out of your ass for one moment?" he half asked, half exploded. Xander and Riley looked at each other and groaned. Angel realised his slip a little too late, "Cordelia.wait!"
She turned to him, "I'm sorry, but my head is too busy being up my ass!" she retorted as she leapt up and walked out of the classroom, turning bright red.
The teacher, who pretended not to hear, cleared her throat, prompting the class to return their attention to her. The teacher smiled secretly. This would make good gossip for the teacher's lounge. She clapped her hands together, trying to get them to do some work. But were they going to actually work this lesson? Of course not. Instead they were busting to spread the various tidbits of gossip that they had just witnessed.
Angel moaned and let his head fall into his hands, while Xander muttered a sarcastic "Smooth goin'" behind him. He banged his head on his desk. 'She's one difficult girl to figure out' he thought.
"Umm...Newsflash to Mr O'Malley." One of his jock buddies chuckled. "No girl likes being told her head is up her ass...."
Angel knew that once this lesson was over, people would start spreading the word. He had 30 minutes. He saw someone bring out their phone. Scratch that. He had 3 seconds before the whole school would know about this little episode. Oh and the name! How the hell had she known that?
"Yeah!" he heard a girl giggle, "*Liam* O'Malley!" He hit his head on the desk again. How was he supposed to convince Cordelia and an entire school that the Buffy thing was false?
He looked around the class for clues. He knew she liked Shakespeare. Should he recite a sonnet? Nothing Romeo and Julietish of course. He internally recited all the Shakespeare plays he knew. Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, MacBeth, Taming Of The Shrew...suddenly an idea hit him. He grinned as he made a phone call on his phone.
This was sure to get Cordelia back...even at his own expense.
~*~
The school field was packed as the rows of Sunnydale High supporters whistled, waved their Razorback flags and cheered for their team. The cheerleaders did their duty by injecting school spirit - maybe it was the short skirts that did it.
"Where is O'Malley?" Sunnydale's coach yelled over the booming band music. There were a few shrugs before someone spoke up.
"Uh." Spike raised his hand, then pointed at the grandstands. "I think you should try lookin' over there for him...."
~*~
Cordelia sighed as she brushed off some dust from her skirt. Clutching her pom poms in one hand, she took a swig of water from her sports bottle. Suddenly, she heard her friends gasp. Following their gaze, she noticed what was going on. In fact, the whole school had.
"What the hell does he think he's doing?" She muttered, before being silenced by her squad's unanimous "Shhhh"
Everything went quiet as the whole field waited anxiously to see what the man was going to do.
"You're just too good to be true...." The voice crackled through the PA system, "I can't take my eyes off of you."
Cordelia frowned as realisation sunk in. He wouldn't be that stupid...Would he? Her jaw dropped as she saw a fully fitted out Angel slide down a pole in true Heath Ledger style.
"Oh my."
"Shhh!" Cordelia was silenced again by her teammates who were grinning from ear to ear at Angel's actions.
"You feel like heaven to touch..." He paused and smirked. 'Not that I'd even know yet...' He thought, before the song picked up again. "I wanna hold you so much...."
The song continued, as Angel slid along the bleachers, interrupting himself every so often to correct the lyrics to fit his situation. Finally, as the music came to an end and the song reached it's final climax, the football captain found himself standing before Cordelia Chase, belting out the final notes.
"I love you, baby, and if it's quite alright, I need you, baby, to warm the lonely nights.So let me love you, baby, let me love you." The note held out and then he stopped, inches from Cordelia's blushing face.
"That was." She started, trailing off with a smile.
He nodded, swallowing slowly. "Yeah"
Slowly and uncertainly, their lips found each other and they delved deeper into the kiss, ignoring the catcalls and hollers from the crowd.
However, the coach blowing a whistle interrupted their moment.
They turned in perfect unison, finally recognising the fact that the entire school was watching them and Angel turned bright red. "I didn't mean to leave this thing on..." He muttered, switching off his mic, as they turned to face the owner of the angry whistle.
"O'Malley!" The balding man cried in outrage.
"Right." Angel glanced once more at Cordelia, who looked on top of the world as the rest of the cheerleaders squealed in delight.
Then he looked back at his teammates, most of whom were already mimicking him, pretending to leap around like sissies. He winced. He was never, ever going to live this down. But, for the strangest reason, he didn't care.
He had Cordelia
And that was another thing. Why had he humiliated himself for her? After all, he could have any girl he wanted...and was happy with that...until he met her. It was so strange...He'd never ever needed to fight for a girl's attention, but he felt that without hers he would go insane. Something was very wrong with him.
He shook his head clear of the thoughts, as he got ready to play some football. "Gotta go." He informed the girl in question, before heading towards the rest of his team.
When he made it to the centre of the field, his coach was certainly not impressed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Uh, playing football?" Angel suggested.
The coach glared. "You know the rules O'Malley! Last time I thought I made it clear that any fun you wanted to have with a cheerleader took up your own time!"
"But..." Angel protested
"There will be no 'buts' O'Malley! You hear me?! And those shenanigans up there were definitely not appropriate!"
Angel scowled, glancing at the rest of the team who were now silenced.
The coach continued to yell at him. "-Especially when SunnyDale North have come to play us! I should have your ass kicked off the team for the sheer stupidity and misrepresentation of school honour you've shown today!"
Cordelia saw what was happening and strode over. Angel groaned. *That* was all he needed.
A buzz of excited silence fell over the field. Spike grinned and muttered. "I was right. This school *IS* better than Passions..."
"Excuse me, Coach?" Cordelia asked.
The balding man turned to face her. "What?" he sneered, an annoying smirk plastered on his face. "Little lady come to save her boyfriend from gettin' in trouble?"
Cordelia glared. "He's not my boyfriend,"
Angel fought every urge to knock the guy out, before hearing what Cordelia had just said. "What?" He gasped. "Even after I humiliate myself for you and that kiss you STILL won-"
"He hasn't asked me out yet." She concluded, glancing at him. "You're only my boyfriend when you take me out,"
Angel grinned and heaved a sigh of relief. "Well in that case-"
The coach cleared his throat. "This still doesn't make up for what you did, O'Malley,"
"I know coach, But-"
Cordelia cut Angel's apology short. "I'm sorry, Coach. If you blame anyone, blame me. I put him up to it,"
"I find that a little hard to believe."
"You're right. She's lying." Riley added, walking up to the group.
Cordelia shot him a glare.
"See, its an initiation thing... we both kinda set him up..." He finished, smiling at her, internally praying that she'd do her thing and improvise.
Cordelia nodded, "Yeah. Angel's new so we gotta make him do something humiliating..." she glanced at Spike, "It's Spike's turn next!"
"Say what?" The blonde exclaimed. "I think hanging around Peaches is humiliatin' enough!"
The coach looked between the group with caution. He didn't really buy it. "So why hasn't this sort of thing been done before?" He asked.
"He's the new football captain!"
"And that makes a difference how?" He paused. "And I thought you intended on doing the same to Spike here as well?"
"well...uh, Spike's the new chess captain,"
"I'm WHAT? Listen here! I am no soddin'-" Angel clamped his hand over Spike's mouth.
"He's very modest," Cordelia cut in.
"Ow...He bit me!" Angel exclaimed glaring at the fuming Spike.
The coach grunted and nodded. He seemed to buy their story. Cordelia heaved a sigh of relief as he turned his back. Just as long as he never discovered the fact that there was no chess team, they'd be set.
Angel, meanwhile, was still glaring at Spike. "You bit me!" He paused. "I can't believe you bit me!"
"I can't believe you told everyone I play chess!" Spike retorted.
"YOU. BIT. ME!"
"Hey hey guys!" Cordelia intervened breaking them up, "Save the aggression for the game, please,"
"Honestly! Who goes around BITING people?" Angel was not letting it go anytime soon. "Vampire!"
Spike hissed in reply "Oi! I may be a lot of things, but Vampire is sadly not one of 'em... But this one time on Passions...."
The coach blew his whistle, cutting off the last of Spike's sentence.
Cordelia made her way towards her squad and the other team managed to pick themselves up from the grass, they'd been laughing that hard.
Cordelia got into position and with a wink at Angel, she cried "Ready, ok!"
And the game began.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Great game guys!" Angel panted, jogging into the locker room after the match. "We killed out there!"
"What? Do you mean the song or the other team?" Someone cried out, causing a wave of laughter to flow through the small area, much to Angel's dismay. He knew he'd cop a little flack for his stint.but had hoped that after their incredible win, it might be delayed for a little while. No such luck though.
Spike nodded his agreement and patted his buddy on the back. "Personally, I'd have to say that your little song and dance number had the strongest effect on our win." He grinned. "I mean, did you *see* the looks the other team was givin' you? They were *THAT* bloody scared of goin' near you-"
Angel growled and shrugged the other boy's hand away from his shoulder. "Shut up Spike!"
The blonde could only laugh. "I'm sorry Peaches, but you could have just apologised to the girl instead of bustin' our eardrums"
"The peroxided wonder has a point...." Riley joined in.
Rolling his eyes, Angel moved towards the showers. "Hey, it worked didn't it?"
"Yeah. You definitely succeeded in bustin' our eardrums." Another boy laughed.
Another round of chuckling grew amongst the boys as they continued to cajole their team captain. Amidst one of the many jokes that Angel should apply for the 'team mascot' position, their coach appeared. He started congratulating the team on their first win, pausing mid-speech to glare at the captain. "And if you EVER pull anything like that again I will personally make sure that you will never step foot on a football field again!"
Angel nodded. "Like I said, Coach, it was an initiation thing."
"Yeah, well, you'd better make sure Spike's chess club initiation thing doesn't disturb any games."
At that Angel grinned. "No. Wouldn't want William to go through any sort of trouble with our team, would we, Wills?" He threw his arm over Spike's shoulder, noticing the growling that went with it. This was his revenge and he was loving it.
The rest of the team sniggered as the coach rolled his eyes and left
"So...Wills huh?" One of the guys chuckled.
Angel heaved a sigh of relief. Mission to throw the attention and jokes elsewhere accomplished. Spike was never going to forgive him for this.and yet, he really didn't care. It was payback and Spike knew it.
Angel removed his shirt and stalked towards the showers. Today was shaping up already.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Sooo...Great game, huh?" Harmony asked, slipping out of her cheerleading outfit and into a pair of tight fitting jeans. She'd go home to have a shower. It was much more hygienic that way.
Cordelia grinned goofily as she did the same. "Yeah, he was great." She paused and thought for a second, blushing a little at her slip. "I mean *THEY* were great! The team was great."
Buffy snarled, knowing where the conversation was going, and decided to have a shower here after all.
Amy, another cheerleader, smiled and nudged Cordelia. "Sure you did." She winked. "It was really some performance, though."
Cordy arched her brow. "What? The game or the-"
"The luscious football captain singing and dancing to win your affections." Harmony laughed. "Or did you miss that part?"
Cordelia beamed, "Well, what can I say? He's a romantic." From the showers a muffled scream of frustration was heard, but Queen C shrugged it off. "And I have to admit, it was really sweet. He remembered my favourite movie...."
"Oh, yeah...Now I remember where I'd seen that before!"
Cordy rolled her eyes at Harmony's blondeness and the other girls giggled, leaving Harmony looking a little embarrassed, but not overly bothered by it.
Cordelia sighed, regaining the attention in true Queen C style, "I really like him. He's so kind, and sweet and thoughtful-"
'And mine!' Buffy's mind added as she sulked, allowing the other girls to ogle over Angel.
"And drop dead gorgeous!" Another cheerleader added, as if she had to remind the rest.
Harmony considered that for a second. "I don't know...I think Spike's kinda cute too..."
"Who?" Someone else asked in jest. "Captain Chess Club?" This resulted in another round of giggles.
"You guys heard that?" Cordelia laughed. "Wow...Stuff like this travels even faster than I thought."
Harmony pouted and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "He's hot, ok?"
Queen C laughed again. "You can go for it. I think Spike's completely unattached at the moment."
Her blonde friend brightened immediately.
"Actually," Cordy pondered aloud, "I'm meeting Angel later, so I'll tell him to bring Spike along and we'll double date."
"Really? Thanks Cordy! This'll be fun! I'll turn up looking fantastic and-" Harmony paused and frowned. "Ohhh.Now I gotta leave early to choose the PERFECT outfit..."
Buffy put her hands over her ears and tried to block out the sound. She'd dumped Riley to get Angel back (and to leave Cordy out in the cold for once) but it had backfired miserably. And *NOW* the other guy that had been attracted to her was being taken from right under her nose! Sure, she didn't like him to begin with, but that wasn't the point!
The blonde kicked the wall and groaned in pain as the concrete hit her toes. That was that last straw. She was going to get everything back to normal.whatever it took.
But wait, she paused, what the hell was normal?
There was no real normal in the grand scheme of things. That was for sure. In fact, all she really wanted was to be happy. Whether that meant having Angel, Riley or Spike -or even all three- fawning over her she didn't really know.Just that she wanted things to get better for her. It didn't matter about the others. Just her.
Buffy sighed and let a tear roll down her cheek. How could she be happy if no one wanted her anymore? That was her real problem. Nobody wanted her. Maybe the problem lay within. Maybe *she* had to change before she could expect people to accept her.
Although the idea seemed ridiculous to her, she didn't dismiss it. She didn't dismiss the idea of apologising to Riley either.
All Buffy Summers wanted was happiness. She'd do whatever it took to get that back.
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A/N*Mrs O* - Yup, everything Neat said and more. I've been so busy with my stupid GCSEs and Neat's been buried under a pile of assignments. We've actually had this chapter roughly written since October! But you've got it now and my GCSEs end in just over a month so updates should be a little more frequent. Plus, we'll be less stressed and less likely to kill all the characters in a freak volcano accident! Anyhoo, we love you for sticking with us and hope you lurve this chapter as much as we lurved writing it. Just a bit of warning. Don't be eating or drinking while reading this chapter! ^_^ ~T xXx
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Angel yanked his locker open, allowing the door to slam against a neighbouring locker. He was not impressed. It had been a week since the rumours about him and Buffy had started. Cordelia hadn't spoken to him since. He glanced around once more as he idly picked out a few books and dumped his gym shoes in there. He had left a million messages on her answering machine, and had only received one from the butler telling him to stop calling.
Then, Angel had been forced to leave messages on her voicemail. He'd even tried learning how to use his cellphone for God's sakes! And still Cordelia was ignoring him. He'd tried his best to confront her, but she'd always find a way of weaselling out of it. He slammed his locker shut, growling in frustration. What was he meant to do?
This wasn't right! It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to have spent hours getting to know each other in tutoring sessions, and by today they would have been discussing plans for a first date. How the hell did it go so wrong in a week?
There hadn't been one tutoring lesson, and Angel contemplated on informing Snyder, but figured that that might not be such a good idea. Cordelia would definitely have his head for that. Besides, he was supposed to be football captain. He was a big boy. He could handle this little 'set back' on his own.
But, if this was so true, why were none of his attempts at getting her attention working? They'd all worked before. He'd tried getting Spike to help him, but he was off pursuing the blonde who'd caused all this.
Angel stalked off to English, a lesson where he knew he could try and get her attention. Besides, he sat next to her and was her partner. She HAD to listen to him sooner or later.
~*~*~
Cordelia walked briskly into the English room, listening to Xander and Riley's bickering over something or other. She didn't want to be mad at Angel...much. But that was the only thing she could do right now.
How could he lead her on like that when he was going out with someone else? She asked herself as she sat down, making sure that there was no place for Angel where she sat.
Cordelia put her anger on hold for a second, almost regretting never letting Angel explain himself. But then the anger was back, and she didn't really care what he had to say. Knowing him, it'd probably be another lie. She looked sadly at her nails, wondering how a nice guy like that could ever turn out so vile.
She glanced up from her nails and looked up at the door. Angel walked into the room in that way that almost took the breath away from her. He was the perfect guy.who ended up being a jerk. He looked at her with a small smile as he made his way towards her. She looked at him icily and turned back to her nails. Angel searched for his seat, before realising it wasn't there. Cordelia had made it clear she didn't want him to sit with her. His smile vanished and was briefly replaced with one of rejection. But he covered it up and went to sit at the back of the room.
Xander caught Cordelia's glare at Angel and when out of earshot, he asked, "So, are you STILL mad at him?"
She looked the other boy over and then chose to glare at him as well. "Wouldn't YOU be?" she questioned. Xander shrugged.
"I guess so, but it's not like you've let him explain," Her hand flew up to silence him.
"Why should I? He's probably only gonna lie again to cover his tracks." She thought for a second. "Besides, I don't know why you're defending the guy. After all, he's with the girl of *your* dreams." It was Riley's turn to stare at her now. "And yours" she added quickly.
Xander, now a nice beetroot red, cleared his throat. "Look...all I know is that in high school, gossip tends to get outta hand easily. I mean, what was it about the kinky acrobatics in a janitor's closet that-"
"THAT was different." Cordelia snapped, folder her arms and staring at the black board. This discussion was clearly over. Riley and Xander exchanged looked and left their friend to wallow in her anger.
The teacher strode in and looked around. Immediately she noticed that something was definitely wrong with the seating arrangements. She set her books on her desk and gazed at the students. "Now, if you could all please get up and move into your set pairs...." Cordelia scowled. She wasn't going to move. Angel, however, smiled. Now she had no choice *but* to move.
The teacher gave Cordelia a look and she reluctantly began to move. As Angel saw this, he raced to sit next to her. She could feel his presence before he even sat down, so she turned her head away from him and stuck her well built nose into the air.
Riley gave Angel a sympathetic, yet manly, pat on the back. He'd had the chance to discuss the 'Buffy' situation with both Spike and Angel, and both boys had confirmed it to be false. And Angel was still his teammate. "Good luck." He muttered, moving to sit with Xander.
"I think I'm going to need it," Angel muttered as his stared at the brunette beauty, who refused to look at him. He took a deep breath and inched his seat nearer to Cordelia's, "Uh.Cordelia? Cordelia please, you have to let me explain."
She spun angrily in her seat, making Angel jump. "Explain? What is there to explain? You're with your ex again. Good for you." Her tone was so cold. So cruel. Angel was almost afraid of her. ALMOST being the operative word in that sentence.
Angel looked around out of the corner of his brown eyes, noticing why there were so many people near them. They wanted to see the show.
He shrugged. It didn't matter. Actually, the more people that got the message the better. "Cordelia, if you let me explain." he hissed
"No. You know what? You don't get to Liam O'Malley. You just don't." She tossed back.
"Liam?" They heard someone snigger. Angel was taken aback. How the hell did she know his real name? He glared around the classroom.
"Shut up," he snapped. They did so. He shook his head and began again, "You've got it all wrong,"
She raised her brows. "Right. Next you'll be trying to tell me that Spike's the Tooth Bunny!" the class broke out into sniggers. That was it. Angel had had enough.
"Would you just take your head out of your ass for one moment?" he half asked, half exploded. Xander and Riley looked at each other and groaned. Angel realised his slip a little too late, "Cordelia.wait!"
She turned to him, "I'm sorry, but my head is too busy being up my ass!" she retorted as she leapt up and walked out of the classroom, turning bright red.
The teacher, who pretended not to hear, cleared her throat, prompting the class to return their attention to her. The teacher smiled secretly. This would make good gossip for the teacher's lounge. She clapped her hands together, trying to get them to do some work. But were they going to actually work this lesson? Of course not. Instead they were busting to spread the various tidbits of gossip that they had just witnessed.
Angel moaned and let his head fall into his hands, while Xander muttered a sarcastic "Smooth goin'" behind him. He banged his head on his desk. 'She's one difficult girl to figure out' he thought.
"Umm...Newsflash to Mr O'Malley." One of his jock buddies chuckled. "No girl likes being told her head is up her ass...."
Angel knew that once this lesson was over, people would start spreading the word. He had 30 minutes. He saw someone bring out their phone. Scratch that. He had 3 seconds before the whole school would know about this little episode. Oh and the name! How the hell had she known that?
"Yeah!" he heard a girl giggle, "*Liam* O'Malley!" He hit his head on the desk again. How was he supposed to convince Cordelia and an entire school that the Buffy thing was false?
He looked around the class for clues. He knew she liked Shakespeare. Should he recite a sonnet? Nothing Romeo and Julietish of course. He internally recited all the Shakespeare plays he knew. Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, MacBeth, Taming Of The Shrew...suddenly an idea hit him. He grinned as he made a phone call on his phone.
This was sure to get Cordelia back...even at his own expense.
~*~
The school field was packed as the rows of Sunnydale High supporters whistled, waved their Razorback flags and cheered for their team. The cheerleaders did their duty by injecting school spirit - maybe it was the short skirts that did it.
"Where is O'Malley?" Sunnydale's coach yelled over the booming band music. There were a few shrugs before someone spoke up.
"Uh." Spike raised his hand, then pointed at the grandstands. "I think you should try lookin' over there for him...."
~*~
Cordelia sighed as she brushed off some dust from her skirt. Clutching her pom poms in one hand, she took a swig of water from her sports bottle. Suddenly, she heard her friends gasp. Following their gaze, she noticed what was going on. In fact, the whole school had.
"What the hell does he think he's doing?" She muttered, before being silenced by her squad's unanimous "Shhhh"
Everything went quiet as the whole field waited anxiously to see what the man was going to do.
"You're just too good to be true...." The voice crackled through the PA system, "I can't take my eyes off of you."
Cordelia frowned as realisation sunk in. He wouldn't be that stupid...Would he? Her jaw dropped as she saw a fully fitted out Angel slide down a pole in true Heath Ledger style.
"Oh my."
"Shhh!" Cordelia was silenced again by her teammates who were grinning from ear to ear at Angel's actions.
"You feel like heaven to touch..." He paused and smirked. 'Not that I'd even know yet...' He thought, before the song picked up again. "I wanna hold you so much...."
The song continued, as Angel slid along the bleachers, interrupting himself every so often to correct the lyrics to fit his situation. Finally, as the music came to an end and the song reached it's final climax, the football captain found himself standing before Cordelia Chase, belting out the final notes.
"I love you, baby, and if it's quite alright, I need you, baby, to warm the lonely nights.So let me love you, baby, let me love you." The note held out and then he stopped, inches from Cordelia's blushing face.
"That was." She started, trailing off with a smile.
He nodded, swallowing slowly. "Yeah"
Slowly and uncertainly, their lips found each other and they delved deeper into the kiss, ignoring the catcalls and hollers from the crowd.
However, the coach blowing a whistle interrupted their moment.
They turned in perfect unison, finally recognising the fact that the entire school was watching them and Angel turned bright red. "I didn't mean to leave this thing on..." He muttered, switching off his mic, as they turned to face the owner of the angry whistle.
"O'Malley!" The balding man cried in outrage.
"Right." Angel glanced once more at Cordelia, who looked on top of the world as the rest of the cheerleaders squealed in delight.
Then he looked back at his teammates, most of whom were already mimicking him, pretending to leap around like sissies. He winced. He was never, ever going to live this down. But, for the strangest reason, he didn't care.
He had Cordelia
And that was another thing. Why had he humiliated himself for her? After all, he could have any girl he wanted...and was happy with that...until he met her. It was so strange...He'd never ever needed to fight for a girl's attention, but he felt that without hers he would go insane. Something was very wrong with him.
He shook his head clear of the thoughts, as he got ready to play some football. "Gotta go." He informed the girl in question, before heading towards the rest of his team.
When he made it to the centre of the field, his coach was certainly not impressed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Uh, playing football?" Angel suggested.
The coach glared. "You know the rules O'Malley! Last time I thought I made it clear that any fun you wanted to have with a cheerleader took up your own time!"
"But..." Angel protested
"There will be no 'buts' O'Malley! You hear me?! And those shenanigans up there were definitely not appropriate!"
Angel scowled, glancing at the rest of the team who were now silenced.
The coach continued to yell at him. "-Especially when SunnyDale North have come to play us! I should have your ass kicked off the team for the sheer stupidity and misrepresentation of school honour you've shown today!"
Cordelia saw what was happening and strode over. Angel groaned. *That* was all he needed.
A buzz of excited silence fell over the field. Spike grinned and muttered. "I was right. This school *IS* better than Passions..."
"Excuse me, Coach?" Cordelia asked.
The balding man turned to face her. "What?" he sneered, an annoying smirk plastered on his face. "Little lady come to save her boyfriend from gettin' in trouble?"
Cordelia glared. "He's not my boyfriend,"
Angel fought every urge to knock the guy out, before hearing what Cordelia had just said. "What?" He gasped. "Even after I humiliate myself for you and that kiss you STILL won-"
"He hasn't asked me out yet." She concluded, glancing at him. "You're only my boyfriend when you take me out,"
Angel grinned and heaved a sigh of relief. "Well in that case-"
The coach cleared his throat. "This still doesn't make up for what you did, O'Malley,"
"I know coach, But-"
Cordelia cut Angel's apology short. "I'm sorry, Coach. If you blame anyone, blame me. I put him up to it,"
"I find that a little hard to believe."
"You're right. She's lying." Riley added, walking up to the group.
Cordelia shot him a glare.
"See, its an initiation thing... we both kinda set him up..." He finished, smiling at her, internally praying that she'd do her thing and improvise.
Cordelia nodded, "Yeah. Angel's new so we gotta make him do something humiliating..." she glanced at Spike, "It's Spike's turn next!"
"Say what?" The blonde exclaimed. "I think hanging around Peaches is humiliatin' enough!"
The coach looked between the group with caution. He didn't really buy it. "So why hasn't this sort of thing been done before?" He asked.
"He's the new football captain!"
"And that makes a difference how?" He paused. "And I thought you intended on doing the same to Spike here as well?"
"well...uh, Spike's the new chess captain,"
"I'm WHAT? Listen here! I am no soddin'-" Angel clamped his hand over Spike's mouth.
"He's very modest," Cordelia cut in.
"Ow...He bit me!" Angel exclaimed glaring at the fuming Spike.
The coach grunted and nodded. He seemed to buy their story. Cordelia heaved a sigh of relief as he turned his back. Just as long as he never discovered the fact that there was no chess team, they'd be set.
Angel, meanwhile, was still glaring at Spike. "You bit me!" He paused. "I can't believe you bit me!"
"I can't believe you told everyone I play chess!" Spike retorted.
"YOU. BIT. ME!"
"Hey hey guys!" Cordelia intervened breaking them up, "Save the aggression for the game, please,"
"Honestly! Who goes around BITING people?" Angel was not letting it go anytime soon. "Vampire!"
Spike hissed in reply "Oi! I may be a lot of things, but Vampire is sadly not one of 'em... But this one time on Passions...."
The coach blew his whistle, cutting off the last of Spike's sentence.
Cordelia made her way towards her squad and the other team managed to pick themselves up from the grass, they'd been laughing that hard.
Cordelia got into position and with a wink at Angel, she cried "Ready, ok!"
And the game began.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Great game guys!" Angel panted, jogging into the locker room after the match. "We killed out there!"
"What? Do you mean the song or the other team?" Someone cried out, causing a wave of laughter to flow through the small area, much to Angel's dismay. He knew he'd cop a little flack for his stint.but had hoped that after their incredible win, it might be delayed for a little while. No such luck though.
Spike nodded his agreement and patted his buddy on the back. "Personally, I'd have to say that your little song and dance number had the strongest effect on our win." He grinned. "I mean, did you *see* the looks the other team was givin' you? They were *THAT* bloody scared of goin' near you-"
Angel growled and shrugged the other boy's hand away from his shoulder. "Shut up Spike!"
The blonde could only laugh. "I'm sorry Peaches, but you could have just apologised to the girl instead of bustin' our eardrums"
"The peroxided wonder has a point...." Riley joined in.
Rolling his eyes, Angel moved towards the showers. "Hey, it worked didn't it?"
"Yeah. You definitely succeeded in bustin' our eardrums." Another boy laughed.
Another round of chuckling grew amongst the boys as they continued to cajole their team captain. Amidst one of the many jokes that Angel should apply for the 'team mascot' position, their coach appeared. He started congratulating the team on their first win, pausing mid-speech to glare at the captain. "And if you EVER pull anything like that again I will personally make sure that you will never step foot on a football field again!"
Angel nodded. "Like I said, Coach, it was an initiation thing."
"Yeah, well, you'd better make sure Spike's chess club initiation thing doesn't disturb any games."
At that Angel grinned. "No. Wouldn't want William to go through any sort of trouble with our team, would we, Wills?" He threw his arm over Spike's shoulder, noticing the growling that went with it. This was his revenge and he was loving it.
The rest of the team sniggered as the coach rolled his eyes and left
"So...Wills huh?" One of the guys chuckled.
Angel heaved a sigh of relief. Mission to throw the attention and jokes elsewhere accomplished. Spike was never going to forgive him for this.and yet, he really didn't care. It was payback and Spike knew it.
Angel removed his shirt and stalked towards the showers. Today was shaping up already.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Sooo...Great game, huh?" Harmony asked, slipping out of her cheerleading outfit and into a pair of tight fitting jeans. She'd go home to have a shower. It was much more hygienic that way.
Cordelia grinned goofily as she did the same. "Yeah, he was great." She paused and thought for a second, blushing a little at her slip. "I mean *THEY* were great! The team was great."
Buffy snarled, knowing where the conversation was going, and decided to have a shower here after all.
Amy, another cheerleader, smiled and nudged Cordelia. "Sure you did." She winked. "It was really some performance, though."
Cordy arched her brow. "What? The game or the-"
"The luscious football captain singing and dancing to win your affections." Harmony laughed. "Or did you miss that part?"
Cordelia beamed, "Well, what can I say? He's a romantic." From the showers a muffled scream of frustration was heard, but Queen C shrugged it off. "And I have to admit, it was really sweet. He remembered my favourite movie...."
"Oh, yeah...Now I remember where I'd seen that before!"
Cordy rolled her eyes at Harmony's blondeness and the other girls giggled, leaving Harmony looking a little embarrassed, but not overly bothered by it.
Cordelia sighed, regaining the attention in true Queen C style, "I really like him. He's so kind, and sweet and thoughtful-"
'And mine!' Buffy's mind added as she sulked, allowing the other girls to ogle over Angel.
"And drop dead gorgeous!" Another cheerleader added, as if she had to remind the rest.
Harmony considered that for a second. "I don't know...I think Spike's kinda cute too..."
"Who?" Someone else asked in jest. "Captain Chess Club?" This resulted in another round of giggles.
"You guys heard that?" Cordelia laughed. "Wow...Stuff like this travels even faster than I thought."
Harmony pouted and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "He's hot, ok?"
Queen C laughed again. "You can go for it. I think Spike's completely unattached at the moment."
Her blonde friend brightened immediately.
"Actually," Cordy pondered aloud, "I'm meeting Angel later, so I'll tell him to bring Spike along and we'll double date."
"Really? Thanks Cordy! This'll be fun! I'll turn up looking fantastic and-" Harmony paused and frowned. "Ohhh.Now I gotta leave early to choose the PERFECT outfit..."
Buffy put her hands over her ears and tried to block out the sound. She'd dumped Riley to get Angel back (and to leave Cordy out in the cold for once) but it had backfired miserably. And *NOW* the other guy that had been attracted to her was being taken from right under her nose! Sure, she didn't like him to begin with, but that wasn't the point!
The blonde kicked the wall and groaned in pain as the concrete hit her toes. That was that last straw. She was going to get everything back to normal.whatever it took.
But wait, she paused, what the hell was normal?
There was no real normal in the grand scheme of things. That was for sure. In fact, all she really wanted was to be happy. Whether that meant having Angel, Riley or Spike -or even all three- fawning over her she didn't really know.Just that she wanted things to get better for her. It didn't matter about the others. Just her.
Buffy sighed and let a tear roll down her cheek. How could she be happy if no one wanted her anymore? That was her real problem. Nobody wanted her. Maybe the problem lay within. Maybe *she* had to change before she could expect people to accept her.
Although the idea seemed ridiculous to her, she didn't dismiss it. She didn't dismiss the idea of apologising to Riley either.
All Buffy Summers wanted was happiness. She'd do whatever it took to get that back.
*******************