Welcome to the Hellmouth (Book One, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Dedicated 2 ckent7

chapter 1 - Welcome to the Hellmouth

At Sunnydale High, my best friend Willow and I walked up the steps the same time our friend Xander was riding a skateboard, looking at the new girl walking toward the school, riding into the railing, falling underneath. "God. I'm okay. I feel good. Willow! Zoey! You two are so very much the people I wanted to see."

Xander started to stand. 

"Oh, really?" I asked tauntingly. 

"Yeah," Xander answered. We started to walk upstairs toward the school. He looked at Willow. "You know, I kind of had a problem with the math."

"Uh, which part?" Willow asked.

"The math," Xander answered. "Can you help me out tonight, please? Be my study buddy? Zo can come over because she sucks too." 

I tried to hit his head playfully. Xander ducked his head to his chest, making me miss, laughing.

"Well, what's in it for me?" Willow asked. 

"A shiny nickel," I answered.

Willow smiled. "Okay. Do you guys have Theories in Trig? You should check it out." 

"'Check it out'?" Xander repeated. 

"From the library," Willow told him. "Where the books live." 

"Right," I said. "I'm there. See? I wanna change."  

Jesse walked up to us, looking at me. "Hey, Zoey." 

"Oh, please," I told him, smiling, looking away.

Jesse had had a crush on me forever, but I had told him over and over again that we were just friends.

Xander did their handshake. "Hey, Jesse. What's what?" 

Jesse pointed at Xander. "New girl."

"That's right," Xander said. "I saw her. Pretty much a hotty." 

"I heard someone was transferring," Willow told us. 

Xander looked at Jesse. "So tell." 

"Tell what?" Jesse asked. 

"What's the sitch?" Xander asked. "What do you know about her?" 

"New girl," Jesse told him.

"Do you guys have anything else to think about than girls, which once she knows the two of you, you have no chance?" I asked.

Xander and Jesse shook their heads. "No." 

"Well, you two are certainly a font of nothing," I told them. 

"Oh, that hurts, Zo," Jesse told me.

Willow chuckled as we continued on walking.

~

In class, the teacher wrote The Black Plague in cursive across the chalk board, turning to us. "It's estimated that about 25 million people died in that one 4-year span. But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe how? As an early form of germ warfare. If you'll look t the map on Page 63, you can trace the spread of the disease into Rome and then north . . ." 

The new girl sat next to me, and she didn't have a text book, looking around.

I tapped on her arm, letting her share mine. "Here." 

"Thanks," she told me.

"Sure," I said.

"And this popular plague led to what social changes?" the teacher asked. "Steve?"