Shooting Stars

By Cryztal

Feedback is appreciated.

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Buffy sighed, feeling the soft beach sand beneath her back. She ran her fingers through the warm grains, feeling the hot warmth of the sun on her skin. She was lying in the sun, trying to clear her thoughts. It had been two and a half months since she had fled Sunnydale, leaving all her friends behind. All her memories.
When she opened her eyes, expecting to see the bright glare of the sun, she found that she was no longer on the beach. She was in the dark mansion, back in Sunnydale. The one Xander had shown her on Crawford Street. Confused, she glanced around the empty room. Acathla was standing where he had been left, the sword firmly implanted in his chest. When she looked closer, though, his stone face twisted into an evil, contorted grin. She took a step back, surprised when she felt an icy hand grasp her arm.
Inhaling sharply, she spun around, coming face-to-face with another person. Her eyes widened in shock as her eyes stared into the eyes of the man she loved… The one she had killed right before she ran away from her old life.
"Angel? How…?"she questioned, her breathing quickening. He smiled evilly, his icy hand still locked on her arm. Her heart was racing.
"Well, you sent me to Hell. I just figured I should repay the favor," he explained, as her eyes widened until they were practically the size of quarters. He laughed dangerously. He had returned from the depths of Hell. To kill her…

Buffy's eyes shot open, showing her the darkened ceiling of her small apartment. Her heart was racing, and she was soaked in a cold sweat. She could feel her heart pounding up against the inside of her ribcage. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes to try and calm herself down. She tried to forget about this dream, like she had with all the other dreams she'd had since she'd run away from Sunnydale. Two and a half months of nightmares. She'd had these dreams about Angel almost every night for that entire time. It was a rare occasion she was at peace.
Slowly, she sat up, moving to the window. It was sunrise, and she had to get to work. It was the only way she was able to keep her apartment; working for an overweight drunk old man in an ancient, dusty warehouse for eleven hours a day at minimum wage. She sighed deeply, and went to get dressed.

* * *

Willow awoke to the sharp buzzing of her alarm clock. She looked over to her bedside table, seeing her pink-rimmed Tweety Bird clock staring back at her. When she saw the time, she leapt out of bed, stumbling when her leg got caught in the bed sheet. She had slept in again, no surprise. If she kept doing this, her grades would drop. She was in her senior year, and because there was no one else to fight off the forces of evil, she kept dozing through her alarm.
Once she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue 'Hello, Kitty' shirt, she ran downstairs. The redhead grabbed her backpack off the table, stopping only briefly to shove a leftover pop tart in her mouth while sliding her shoes on. She ran out the door, running quickly to the High School.
When she reached the campus, there were police cars parked outside the front doors. She stopped running, already knowing what had probably happened. Still, she went inside, going straight for the library so that she could talk to Giles.

* * *

Giles jumped when Willow came bursting into the library, not wasting a second before she began to ask all kinds of questions.
"Giles, what happened? Was there another attack? Did someone die? Was there a-a fire, maybe?" she questioned, her eyes wide with concern. Her shoes were untied, and it didn't look like she had paused to brush her hair before coming to school.
"Now, now, Willow. Let's, um, let's stay calm. Um, y-yes, there was another attack. I'm sorry to say that the victim was killed," Giles replied. He was standing by the study table, a book in his hand. Willow looked to the floor silently.
"Well, you know we're trying, right?" she asked innocently, as Xander came into the library. He looked slightly less tired than the redhead, but not by a whole lot. His clothes were slightly wrinkled, but the khaki pants and black t-shirt looked okay like that. Unlike the Watcher's clothes, which looked horrible when they were wrinkled.
"Either the world's ending or someone just died," he said, looking between Willow and Giles expectantly. There was a slight hint of fear in his eyes. As usual, though, he was still cracking jokes.
"There was another vampire attack, Xander. They closed the school again. And, yes, Willow, I know that you are trying to keep the vampire activity down here in Sunnydale until Buffy returns, but…" He stopped with a sigh, not knowing how to complete his sentence. The redhead looked up to him, her eyes wet with tears.
"It's not easy with her gone. I mean, vampire attacks are happening almost every day now, and the four of us aren't strong enough to stop all of them," Willow explained. "Or any of them." Giles knew that the four people she was referring to were Xander, Oz, herself, and Cordelia. They were trying to take over Buffy's job in lieu of the Slayer's disappearance.
"I know Willow. I'm not blaming you for that. If you didn't even try to help out, I'm sure that Sunnydale would practically be run by vampires by now," Giles told her. She nodded, stifling a yawn. He knew that she didn't believe a word that he was saying, but was probably too tired to argue. "Now, I suggest that you all go home and get some sleep."
"We might not have time for that right now," someone said from the doorway. Giles turned, seeing Oz. The werewolf was up considerably early, considering that he usually slept until late afternoon.
"Okay, now's where we hear about the end of the world, right?" Xander asked, his eyes ticking from Oz to Giles nervously.
"Not that I know of. I was just walking by Snyder in the hall and heard him mumble something about the fact that 'vampires pick the most inconvenient times to attack the school. Ruins young people's education'," Oz explained, his eyes never leaving Giles' face. His eyes widened as the musician finished speaking, and the Watcher set his book down on the table.
"I should've known! That sniveling little…" Giles stopped his ranting when he saw how strangely the others were looking at him. "It-it's an ancient prophecy. It reads 'when the Hellmouth is no longer stable and the knowledge of the Old Ones is made to be even partially public, Chaos will arrive'."
"What's that mean?" Willow asked, furrowing her brow in a mix of worry and curiosity. Giles was silent for a long moment.
"Okay, this Chaos is just… A thing, right? It's not a demon of 'absolute and unstoppable power'?" Xander asked. Giles removed his glasses and ran a hand over his face.
"Well, a-actually it is. He is, um, a demon. A very powerful demon that cannot be destroyed, or so legend claims," the Watcher explained. Don't they always, he added silently to himself. "Um, he's what's known as a hate demon. H-he manifests things in people's minds and he feeds off their hatred towards each other." He pushed his glasses back up on his nose. "If one dares to defy him, he takes on his true form, which, I'm sorry to say, no one linked to the Council has ever lived to tell about." Oz had come to stand beside Willow.
"So it is the end of the world?" Xander asked again. After a pause, Giles nodded in agreement. "See? I knew it! I woke up this morning and that little alarm in my head let me know that something was just not right!"
"So, what do we do now?" Willow asked, gripping Oz's hand like she was trying not to fall off a cliff. He didn't seem to mind, but then there was very little that affected Oz.
"We have to find Buffy. I know that seems impossible, but that looks to be our only hope of stopping this," Giles answered, hoping that it was possible. After all, the Slayer had run away from Sunnydale after everything that had happened with Angel, Spike, and Drusilla. The question was, would Buffy be willing to save the world again?
* * *
Buffy glanced up at the clock for the millionth time that day. She still had to work for another three hours, and she was absolutely sick of lifting boxes. There were small scrapes all over her hands from the rough cardboard. She had been stocking the warehouse for her boss all day long, with a shortened lunch break. And there were always more trucks and more boxes. Which meant more for her to do.
"Hey, get back to work!" the warehouse manager, her boss, yelled to her across the room. He was sitting on his butt, a clipboard in one hand and a large cheeseburger in the other. Buffy sighed, brushing her hair back behind her ears and heading for the supply truck again.
"Yes sir, whatever you say, sir," she muttered to herself as she walked across the ramp and into the back of the truck. The metal ramp leading into the truck clanged as she walked on it, echoing the sound throughout the warehouse. There were boxes stacked everywhere. It just figured that she always had to work on stocking day.
As she bent down to pick up another box, she saw a shadow dart across the back of the truck. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she walked in that general direction, forgetting the box for the moment. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, a familiar feeling after all her time slaying vampires.
When she got a few steps closer, she felt a hand on her arm. A cold hand, in the same spot she'd felt it in her dream. Time seemed to freeze for a moment, and she felt a cold chill race over her skin and down her spine. She spun around, her heart racing, and she almost punched the driver of the van in the face.
"Woah! Hey, sorry!" he exclaimed, holding his hands above his head. There was a glass of ice water in his hand. That's why his touch was cold. She took a deep breath, slowly relaxing. The Slayer could feel an embarrassed blush creeping up her neck. "What were you doing?"
"I, um… Saw a shadow. O-of a mouse, probably. You know, because these trucks have… Mice in them, and they make shadows… Crazy little mice," she said, smiling lamely. Silently, she was praying that the guy would just leave her alone. He nodded, obviously thinking she was a complete idiot.
"Oh. All right. Well, unless you want to get yelled at again, you should probably get back to work," the driver replied, glancing out to where her boss was sitting. Buffy nodded.
"Right. Thanks for distracting me. F-from the mouse," she said, as he smiled slightly, leaving the back of the truck and heading back outside, shaking his head in disbelief. "Chasing mice. Wonderful excuse," the Slayer muttered to herself. She sighed, leaning against the wall of the truck to catch her breath and wondering if things would ever get slightly back to 'normal'. Whatever that was…
* * *
That night, rather than patrolling, the 'Scooby Gang' was sitting in the library. It had been Oz's idea to stay inside that night, since the group was going to double up on their efforts to find the Slayer. Giles had been calling anyone, or rather, everyone they could think of that could possibly have information. They had to find Buffy, and they had to do it quickly. Preferably long before Chaos showed up.
"We can pretty much guess that she's not using her real name. I mean, she took off to get away from everything 'Buffy'," Oz stated. Giles nodded in reply, hanging up the phone. The Watcher was seated beside Willow and Oz near his office. Xander and Cordelia were on the other side of the study table.
"Which means she could be using any random number of aliases. None of which we know, and no one in town has seen her in the last two months," Giles said, pushing his sliding glasses back up on his nose. He'd draped his jacket over the back of his chair.
"Well, let's think," Willow said, biting her lip in thoughtful concentration. "She might be going by Anne, her middle name…?"
"We could try that. What makes you think she'll pick that over something totally different?" Xander asked, harshly, shutting the book he'd been looking through for information on Chaos. He pushed it aside, going for another one. So far, there was nothing.
"I was just…" Willow's voice trailed off in despair.
"Giving options. That's what we're trying to do, here, Will," Oz said reassuringly, placing his hand on her arm. She nodded, trying her best to smile. It wasn't much use. None of them were really expecting to find the Slayer anyway, so they had no hope of fighting Chaos.
"Well, let's think, then… We could try Angela," Cordelia pointed out, getting a strange look from Xander.
"Why? Why on Earth would we try Angela? Where did you even come up with that name?" he asked, looking at her like she was a complete idiot. Giles shot a glare at him, but then decided not to intervene.
"Duh, stupid! You remember Angel, her vampire boyfriend. Female version of that name is Angela? Angel-a?" Cordelia shot back, shrugging with her hands in the air.
"Oh," Xander replied, looking down at the table in shame. "Why didn't I think of that one?"
"Because you're an idiot?" Cordelia asked him in a sarcastic tone. Giles slammed his palms on the table, pushing back from the table and getting to his feet. His chair toppled over backwards, as he began to pace beside it. The others jumped, staring at the Watcher due to his sudden spur of aggression.
"We need to find Buffy, damnit! Arguing about this won't get us anywhere!" he exclaimed. He pulled off his glasses and set them on the table. The others seemed to be in shock. "Now, does anyone know of any other names she might be using?"
"I can't think of any right off," Willow said. Oz shook his head and shrugged.
"Nope," Cordelia said, still glaring angrily at Xander.
"None here," Xander told Giles
"Alright. I'll try the ones we have, and you should all-" Giles was interrupted by Willow before he could suggest that all of them get some rest.
"Patrol. So maybe we'll actually have school tomorrow," she pointed out, as Giles nodded, picking up his glasses. They all looked tired, but he wasn't going to argue with Willow. Buffy had disappeared and then the redhead had sort of taken on the leader's roll.
"Right then. I shall see you all tomorrow morning?" he asked, and all the teens nodded. Willow smiled slightly at Giles as they left the small library to try and make the streets of Sunnydale at least a little safer…
* * *
"Anything?" Cordelia asked Xander, who sighed and shook his head. The group had gone back to the graveyard after searching the town for vampires.
"Nope. Looks like all the vamps took a vacation," he said, shrugging.
"Which always means something big is about to happen," Willow said, approaching Xander and Cordelia. Oz was with her. They had split into pairs after seeing that there were no vampires around.
"Like this Chaos guy, right?" Xander asked, scanning the graveyard again with his eyes. There was absolutely nothing there, which was - more often than not - a very bad sign.
"Exactly," Cordelia replied, sighing. "So, now what do we do? I mean, this place is a big no-go. And we've been out here for hours. It's like they all just gave up."
"Well, let's make another round, and then I guess we head home," Xander said. They split into their two respective groups to circle the area one more time before leaving.
* * *
It was morning in the mansion, back in Sunnydale. The Slayer could see herself and Angel standing right before Acathla. The demon's mouth was wide open, a swirling vortex stretching out into the room, clawing at the air. Buffy had given her vampire lover one last kiss, and now had her sword readied. She was ready to do 'whatever she had to' in order to close the portal to Hell.
She pushed the sword forward, hardly even controlling her own movement consciously. She was surprised when it stopped abruptly. Angel ripped the sword from her hands, shoving her past him and up by Acathla. She used her arms to balance herself before she fell into the portal.
When she spun around again, Angel had a huge smile on his face. He was standing where she had been only moments ago, holding her sword. And, when she looked at him, his smile only seemed to get bigger.
"My, my, how the tables have turned," he said, looking down at the sharp steel blade of the sword and then back up to her. "Goodbye lover." He lunged.
There was a sharp pain in her stomach. She knew her blood couldn't close the portal, so she would simply be sent to the same place that she had sent Angel. Hell...

* * *

Again, Buffy was awakened by her nightmare. She sat straight up as if someone had rammed a metal rod down her back along her spine, drenched in a cold sweat. It was the middle of the night, unlike last time. She looked at the clock, seeing that it was a little after three in the morning.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed, going to stand by the window. There were a few people wandering along the street, talking. That was another thing that was different from Sunnydale. In Sunnydale, no one would leave their houses before the sun rose, and they returned before darkness fell. Unless, of course, you happen to be the Slayer, she thought, in which case - Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a shrill ringing noise from the other side of the room. She jumped in surprise, groaning when she realized it was just the phone. She went to it, picking it up.
"Hello?" she said, suddenly becoming very alert as she wondered who would be calling her at three in the morning. No one in town knew her, besides her boss at the warehouse.
"Is this Sunny?" the voice on the other end asked. That was the name she'd been using to hide from her friends, had they ever attempted to come after her. She missed them, sure, but she couldn't deal with them at the moment. So, she had to keep hiding until she was ready to return to her old life. Which, in her present state, was going to be 'never'.
"Yeah. What is it?" she asked, suddenly suspicious. No one should have been calling for her at three in the morning.
"Well, there's some British guy on the phone for you. Says you know him, and that it's urgent. Rupert something, I think," the receptionist told her. Her eyes widened. It was Giles, her Watcher. He'd found her, and now that he had, he'd want to take her back to Sunnydale. The Hellmouth.
And she really didn't want to go back there. She needed more time to get everything in her head straight. And, going back to the Hellmouth would just bring all her bad memories right back, front and center. The memories that she'd been trying to rid herself of for two months. She snapped out of her thoughts to the receptionist asking if she was all right.
"Um, tell him I-I'll call him back later. O-or that I'm not here right now or something. And, um, I have to leave now, but don't tell him that. I'll be down in a few minutes." She hung up the phone, racing to pack up her things to evacuate the complex. Or the county. Maybe she'd even leave California and change her name again. She didn't know why she was so desperate to run, but her instincts simply took over and she gathered her things together and dressed in a pair of baggy overalls and a navy blue t-shirt.
The Slayer knew that she couldn't handle going back to Sunnydale. Ever…

* * *

Giles hung up the phone, pushing away from the table so fast that his chair almost fell to the floor again as he stood. He grabbed his coat off of the back of the chair, snatching his glasses off the table where he'd set them down again.
"Oz! Can we use the van?" he asked. Oz nodded. They had come back after patrol to help look for more information on Chaos, and see if that was why there were suddenly no vampires around. They had been increasing their numbers since the Slayer was gone, and now there were simply none around.
"What's up?" Xander asked as he stood with Giles. Willow also looked curious, as did Cordelia. Oz, always the calm and collective one of the bunch, seemed to understand that it was an emergency and didn't bother asking useless questions.
"I found Buffy, but we need to get to LA as quickly as we can. Now that she knows we've pinpointed her, she'll try to run again. We really can't risk that happening," Giles explained, heading for the door as he spoke, the others following him.
"Here we go again. This better not be a wild goose chase!" Xander yelled as he ran to catch up to the Watcher, who was walking at a quicker pace than the lot of them. But, they had things to do. They had to find the Slayer, before the world was in danger of coming to an end. Again…

* * *

Minutes later, Oz was driving the van, Willow up beside him, with Xander, Giles and Cordelia in the back. Cordelia had fallen asleep, while Xander talked to Giles. It was, after all, four in the morning and all of them had been up since six the previous morning. Willow stared absentmindedly out the window, as Oz listened to Giles and Xander's conversation in the back.
"So what name was she using?" Xander was asking.
"Um, she was actually going by 'Sunny'. I'm not sure why," Giles replied. In the rearview, Oz could see him rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. Maybe he did.
"If you don't know why she picked that, why'd you guess it?" Xander asked skeptically. Giles shrugged.
"I'm not sure myself. Gut instinct, I suppose," Giles replied. They both fell silent for several minutes. The drive to LA didn't take very long on the highway at eighty miles an hour, and soon Oz pulled up to the apartment complex. He parked the van outside. The stopping motion awoke Cordelia. The others looked to the werewolf questioningly.
"We're here," he said simply, waiting for Giles' instructions.
"Xander, do you want to go in?" the Watcher asked. Xander nodded, and slid open the door of the van. He hopped out, not bothering to close the door as he headed for the entrance.
"Do you think we'll find her?" Willow asked, looking to Oz for reassurance. He smiled.
"Of course we will," he replied, hoping it was more than a small attempt at comfort…

* * *

Xander ran into the apartment complex's main building, nearly crashing into the desk. When the receptionist gave him an odd look, he smiled his famous goofy half-smile that he used when he was trying to cover for looking like a complete moron.
"Hi. I was looking for a friend of mine, she told me she was here, but I lost the apartment number. It's kind of urgent," he said, amazed that he could come up with such a believable excuse. They were using the whole 'urgent' idea for two reasons. Firstly, it was urgent. Secondly, it was the only way that they could get anyone to tell them anything at four in the morning. "Her name's Sunny." The girl typed that into the computer, waiting for a moment for the information to pop up on the screen.
"Okay. Well, she was in number A17, but she checked out about fifteen minutes ago. She was in kind of a hurry. If you need to find her, though, she might've gone to the Holiday Inn downtown. She said something about how she didn't want to quit her job just yet," the girl said. Xander nodded, going back to the van without so much as thanks. He had no time to be polite.
When he reached the van, he relayed the information to the others, and they quickly followed her path…

* * *

Buffy had taken everything, or near it, from her apartment and gone to a hotel. She hadn't unpacked a thing. She was planning to keep going, after she worked up a little more money to pay for her trip. Then, she'd have to start a whole new life, maybe changing her appearance and everything. Also, she'd have to remember that if she did change her look, she couldn't avoid Giles anymore. Her new personality wouldn't allow her to be afraid of him. That was how she'd been caught this time.
Then, the phone rang again. She thought about leaving it alone, but picked it up anyway, thinking it was probably the manager or something, but she asked who it was, silently thinking that it might be Giles again.
"Front desk, Sunny. There's some guy here that says he really needs to see you. Rupert Giles. Do you know 'em?" the voice asked her. Her eyes widened, as she swore under her breath. He'd found her already…
"No, I-I don't. I've n-never heard of him, or met him," she said, hoping the man would believe her.
"So, what should I tell him?" he asked. "He keeps saying something about a problem in Sunnydale and you're the only one that can deal with it."
"Well… Um, tell him that I'm not here right now or something, I don't know!" she said frantically, knowing immediately that the mess was some Slayer business. She paused, getting scared when there was no reply for several moments. "Hello?" Then, there was muffled speaking in the background. Giles was demanding the man to take him up to her room, and right now. She dropped the phone, quickly grabbing her Slayer bag and going to the window. There was the sound of loud pounding on the stairs. She slid the window open quickly, shooting a nervous glance back towards the door.
"Buffy!" It was Giles' voice, and he was right outside her door. She glanced briefly to it again, wishing that she had thrown the deadbolt on it as she climbed up on the windowsill, her bag secure over her shoulder. The fire escape was just another window over, and as she heard a key in the lock, she jumped. She fell more quickly than she had expected, and had to stretch her arm out in front of her to make it to the fire escape. Her fingers gripped the iron bar on the edge of the landing, and she felt something rip in her shoulder. She slowly climbed onto the fire escape.
She could hear the others come into the room she had been in seconds ago. She went quickly to the ladder on the other edge of the platform.
"Where is she?" She could hear Xander's voice by the door. She grabbed the ladder, swinging her feet onto it as well. Her left arm burned with pain from her torn muscle, but she did her best to ignore it.
"Window," was Oz's reply. He was very close to the window. She gave the latch a good kick, and the ladder slid to the ground, taking her down with it. She knew the others would notice the loud clattering noises the ladder had made as it slid to the ground, so she ran quickly into one of the dark alleys.
"Is she out there?" Willow called, sticking her head out the window. Buffy could see the window from her position, but they couldn't see her. She was just out of the redhead's view. "Nope." The Slayer took a deep breath, ducking further into the alley to think of where to go next…

* * *

Willow sat on the bed in her friend's room, as the others looked through her things. It was sunrise, and they were looking through some of her stuff to try and figure out where the Slayer would run to next.
"She was in here just a few seconds before we were. She knows we're after her, and she's running anyway," Xander said, looking over to Willow. Oz sat beside her, his arm around her to comfort her. It was obvious that Buffy had run out just as they had gotten into her room.
"But why would she do that? Why won't she even talk to us?" Willow demanded, near tears, but knowing no one in the room could give her a satisfying answer. No one knew where to start.
"She's afraid. I imagine she's suffered a horrible ordeal, and we represent just what she's afraid of," Giles said thoughtfully. She wasn't running away from them so much as she was running away from Sunnydale. "We'll just have to explain our situation and hope she doesn't get away before we have the chance to."
"Well, hiding out on her own isn't really working, so she'll probably go someplace crowded," Oz pointed out. Giles thought about that for a second, finally nodding.
"And there's thousands of crowded places in LA. Especially this time of year," Cordelia stated, matter-of-factly. Giles nodded again.
"Well, if I wanted to get lost, I know where I'd go," the desk clerk said. The teens looked up at him, one by one.
"Where?" Xander asked, silently waiting for a response.

* * *

Neiman Marcus. One of LA's biggest department stores. Buffy had found her way there after she escaped the hotel building. Her friends would never be able to track her there.
She had locked herself in one of the bathrooms in the back, where hardly anyone ever went in the first place. All that was back there was storage and a really foul-smelling perfume display that everyone seemed to be veering away from in the first place.
They'd still look for her, she knew that. If they found her, she'd just have to explain that she wasn't ready to go back to Sunnydale. There were just too many bad memories. Of course, she wouldn't have to come up with something until the found her, and that would take time.
Or so she hoped.

* * *

The group arrived at the shopping center, all of them wondering where Buffy could be. The store was huge. There were several floors, and more people than they could hope to count, much less question about Buffy's whereabouts.
"Okay, guys. Let's split up, maybe meet back here in a couple hours," Xander said. He was scanning the store with his eyes, trying to pinpoint a location that the Slayer would have gone to in order to hide from them.
"Right. I'll check the second floor. I suggest that you go in pairs so as not to get too awfully lost. Um, Willow can go with Oz and… On second thought, maybe you should go alone. Split up more and take less time," Giles said, wandering off in the direction of the stairs.
"Let's just go in pairs. We won't argue, will we Xander?" Cordelia said in her seemingly-sweet-yet-dripping-with-sarcasm voice. She batted her eyelashes and smiled. The teen glared at her, equally sarcastic.
"No, of course not," Xander replied, rolling his eyes as Cordelia practically dragged him with her. The two groups split up, on the hunt once more…

* * *

Cordelia and Xander had been arguing the entire time they'd been searching for Buffy, contrary to what they had said earlier. Now, they stood toward the back of the store, silent for a moment. Cordelia was admiring a black, satin dress hanging on one of the mannequins. Then, Xander started up the argument again.
"Is that your real hair color?" he asked. Cordelia turned away from the dress and stared at him for several minutes, wondering where he came up with such a lame comment.
"What?" she asked, starting to become even angrier with him.
"Well, you're an idiot," Xander stated, smiling in a 'you didn't realize that?' way, as if it explained everything. She rolled her eyes.
"So? Last time I checked, I'm not the only one here," Cordelia replied, not understanding his problem. He was always calling her names and making fun of her.
"Well, most girl idiots are blonde," he explained. Cordelia let out an exasperated sigh and glared at him.
"Is Buffy an idiot?" she asked, trying to prove her point.
"She's a Slayer, Cordy. That means she's exempt from being a moron," Xander said, a why-don't-you-get-it smile on his face.
"Yeah, well, I am a brunette. If I were blonde, my eyes wouldn't be dark brown. Now, if you'll excuse me from your lameness, I have to go check my makeup." She moved past a perfume display, wrinkling her nose at the smell. Going to the bathroom door she tugged on it and expected it to open. It didn't budge.
"Yeah, Cor. You're a genius, pure and simple. I'll bet it says push on the door," Xander teased as he looked over at the door. Above the handle, PULL was written in large white letters. He pulled on it, getting the same result as she had. The door was stuck closed. Cordelia raised her hand to knock, but Xander grabbed a hold of her wrist.

Part 2

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