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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) Author's note: To start with, everybody's still stuck in Limbo, including Kaliya, who's trying to bring old vampires back with the help of vampire-Giles and Ethan Rayne. Buffy and co have found the ghosts of some old friends- Giles, Jenny, Kendra and Jesse, but Mister Tojo's been imprisoned by a Horror. |
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Previously in the "Cordelia's crisis" trilogy: Amy and the other witches she was working with showed up, Cordelia discovered Buffy and Xander making out and flew out of control, temper and witch-wise. Buffy stopped Witch-Cordelia with a dangerous grounding ritual, which made Cordelia the Slayer instead of Buffy, and Michelle tried to kill Buffy while she didn't have the Slayer strength, but Vampire-Giles talked her out of it, and Ghost-Giles came up with a way to return the Slayer powers to Buffy, with Willow and Xander's help.
And now, here's something (almost) completely different!
"Cordelia Arlin Chase?" a voice rang out from down the long hallway just as she was about to step into the vestibule.
She stopped, sighed to herself, and turned around. Heading towards her with an angry glare on her face was stepmother number three... aka 'Janet.' "Is something wrong?"
The older woman, (though not much older, since she was only a year or two out of college,) brought herself to a stop in the front hall and just looked at Cordelia. When Cordy didn't react, Janet repeated, "Is something wrong..." and waved her hand to indicate that she was waiting for a continuation.
Cordy sighed again, louder. "Is there a problem, 'Janet?'"
Janet smiled. "No, of course not. Are you going out?" There was considerable disapproval in her voice.
"Yes."
"Dressed like that?"
So that was her problem? For cryin' out loud! Cordelia glanced down briefly at her beach clothes. The dark purple tank swimsuit wasn't too extreme, even if it did tend to show off her figure, now that she had one. And she had put on both a beach skirt and a robe in the name of modesty... even if the robe was see-through chiffon.
"I'm going to the beach party. For the beach, this is conservative."
"Oh, really? And what do you think your father would say, if he saw you..."
"Dad would say I looked good," Cordy stated flatly. "He understands about looking good - that's what got him where he is." Not for the first time, Cordelia wondered to herself why as... stylish a man as her father had hooked up with a fashion stick-in-the-mud like Janet. Probably had something to do with the fact that Janet, for all her couture backwardness, looked good herself - a lot better than most people Dad's age. "You're the one with the problem here."
"I don't like your attitude, Cordelia."
"My attitude?" Cordy yelled disbelievingly. "What about your attitude! News flash 'Janet'... YOU'RE NOT MY MOTHER! You're just the latest in a long line of women my Dad has married who think that gives them some responsibility to take care of me. I wish you'd all just GET LOST!" And with that, she spun around and stormed out the door.
* * * *
"She what?" Harmony said as Cordy finished retelling the tale. "Oh, boy, Cordelia. Janet just sucks."
"She's not the only one," Cordelia griped back, as she looked out over Blacksom beach in the disappearing twilight. "I swear, I'm worse off than Cinderella, pre-prince. At least she didn't have THREE wicked stepmothers!"
"I thought you liked stepmom number one, Cordy," Rachel Ellis commented.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, Carol's okay, I guess," Cordelia allowed. "But I don't see her, or Tavia, much anymore since they moved to L.A." She considered. "Still, that's two wicked stepmothers and a bratty little half-brother thrown in to boot." Cordy sighed voluminously. "Well, enough about my poor pathetic family. Where's the scene?"
"Anywhere but where we are," Rachel joked. Harmony tittered back dryly at her.
Cordelia looked Rachel over carefully. "Come on, Rach, don't talk like that. So we're not the most popular girls in town..."
"... or even in the sophomore class," Rachel put in.
"It doesn't mean we're outcasts. We, well, we just haven't found our overall niche in the great social tapestry that is high school."
"Maybe I should cut loose," Rachel rambled on. "The two of you could find a niche or two, but they wouldn't take me."
Harmony snickered, and Cordelia shot a dark glare at her. "Not a chance! Just what is your problem, Rachel? Do you think you aren't pretty enough?" She took a good look - Rachel was quite cute, with curly mid-brown hair to her shoulders, bright blue eyes, and a figure that was feminine if slightly lacking in grace. "You are."
"Um," Rachel said, blushing but not arguing the case. "You, uh, you know how to do it. How to impress people. I don't."
"Hey, Cordelia," Harmony said out loud, in her 'bored' voice. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that your Prince Charming now, Cinderella?"
Cordelia turned away and looked over the beach in the general direction Harmony was indicating. A handsome, dark-haired older man was walking along the beach. For a moment, Cordelia thought he was looking right at them, but he wasn't - he had just been scanning the area.
"Him?" Cordelia whispered, pointing unobtrusively at the stranger.
"Him??" Harmony repeated. She swallowed silently and continued after a moment. "Guess again, my pretty. You couldn't get a guy like that. Yonder lies your champion!" She gestured grandly further down the beach.
Cordelia scanned further, till she saw who Harmony was talking about. Walking next to a short, very young-looking chestnut-haired girl were two lanky young men, each with ragged mops of dark hair. As Cordy watched, horrified, one of them noticed her gaze and waved back at her. "Hey, Cordy! How's it hangin'?"
Almost against her will, it seemed, Cordelia's brain ran through the necessary connections to retrieve the names of her less socially fortunate classmates. Willow Rosenberg. Xander Harris. And the one who was trying to get her attention was... "Jesse?"
Harmony and Rachel giggled at her.
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