Title: Sunnydale Elementary

Author: Margie

Rating: G

Pairing: B/S, X/A, W/T (friendship - they're only in the 3^rd grade people!)

Summary: What if the gang had met back in 3^rd grade? AU, everybody's human. Giles is Spike's dad.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. Joss owns all.

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Chapter 9 -

Mr. Giles was waiting for them when they got back to class. He had several papers in his hand and looked a bit anxious. When they were all gathered he told them that they were heading for the auditorium. It was time for rehearsals!

Buffy had been saying her lines every day since she found out she was going to be Dorothy. She made her mom play all the other parts. Except for the flying monkey men. She made her dumb little sister Dawn play that part! The only scene she hadn’t been practicing was the one with Spike. She was embarrassed to tell her mom that she had to kiss him!

Meanwhile Xander was nervously going over his lines in his head. He only had a few, but they were all in scenes with Anya. Xander didn’t want to mess up in front of her. She’d probably say something like, "It’s okay Xander. Just because you can’t remember your lines and you keep falling down doesn’t mean you’re dumb or anything." And then she would smile that pretty smile and make him forget what he was going to say back.

"Xander? Hello?? What are you muttering?" Willow was trying to get his attention. She heard him saying something under his breath but couldn’t make it out. After awhile she gave up and started thinking about the play. She got to be the wicked witch. She still hadn’t seen the movie, but she thought her part was kind of neat. She thought it was funny that in all her scenes she gets to "laugh evilly". She grinned at the thought. She had never considered being evil before. She wasn’t sure she knew how!

As Xander, Willow and Buffy walked along up front William, Anya and Tara were coming up the rear. All three were kind of lost in thought. All Will could think of was that he had to let stupid Goldilocks kiss him! He had vowed never to let any girl kiss him! What about the cooties? He hadn’t gotten his shots yet! Besides he hated this stupid play. And why did she have to wear her hair in pigtails?

Tara was softly reciting her lines to herself. She had been practicing every chance she got. She knew that most of her scenes were with Willow and she didn’t want to mess them up. She knew that Willow would memorize all of her lines right away. She was still blushing from Will’s earlier comment about her being fairy like.

Of all the children in class, Anya was probably the only one not thinking about her lines or her scenes in the play. As she walked along she began to wonder how many people were going to show up to watch them. She guessed that everybody’s parents would come at least. And then what about friends and stuff? That was a lot of people. As she considered this she raised her hand to get Mr. Giles’ attention.

"Yes Anya." Mr. Giles sighed. That girl always had a way of asking the most frustrating questions.

"Mr. Giles? Are we charging for tickets to the play? I bet we could make lots of money. I bet we could buy more books and crayons and stuff."

Mr. Giles stopped to look down at the sweet girl. "No Anya. We are not charging for the play. This is for the parents. So they can see what wonderful children you all are." He patted her on the shoulder as he spoke.

"Yes but, that doesn’t mean they can’t bring money too!"

Mr. Giles sighed again. This always seemed to happen when he spoke with the little girl. She never seemed to understand that not everything was the way she thought it should be. "Yes Anya. It’s a good idea, but we have decided not to charge entrance this time." He smiled down at her.

"Okay." Anya began to slow her walk so as to join Will and Tara again. "But I still don’t understand why we can’t just do both. Just cause they pay doesn’t mean they can’t see how wonderful we are." She mumbled as she drew away from him.

Mr. Giles shook his head as they finally entered the auditorium. He told everyone to take seats in the first three rows so that he could call them all up for each scene.

***

Xander looked up at the stage to admire his handiwork. He and another boy in class named Jesse had been helping Mr. Giles put together the scenery for the play. Mr. Giles even let him hammer some nails and stuff into the trees and the big fake stones. Jesse got to help paint the mat yellow and with bricks. Xander thought they had done a really good job. You almost couldn’t tell that the trees were fake!

Will sat and laughed at the way all the trees and stones looked like cardboard. His Da was crazy to think anyone would believe that!

"Mmmhmmm." Mr. Giles cleared his throat. He waited for the class to quiet down before explaining what they were going to be doing today. "First I would like everyone who has memorized their lines to raise their hands."

He counted about 8 hands before saying, "Okay class. Anyone who has not memorized their lines, please go to the other side of the auditorium. Now those of you left please wait here. I will be back shortly."

Buffy watched Mr. Giles walk to the other side of the room. She could hear him telling the other kids to pull out their lines and start trying to memorize them. She looked around at the seats next to her and saw that Willow (of course!), Xander, Anya, Tara, and Spike were among the people left with her. Ugh! She couldn’t believe she had to kiss Spike! Maybe she could ask Mr. Giles if she could just pat him on the shoulder instead? She smiled when she caught Tara looking at her.

Tara smiled back and blushed. She turned away because she didn’t know what else to do. Buffy was so nice, she thought. She helped us out when we lost control of Bert and Ernie and Willow really likes her a lot. She always seems to take care of Willow and Xander too. She couldn’t understand why Will had such a problem with her. He always had to be fighting with her. But sometimes she thought they both really liked it. Like it was a game or something.

While Mr. Giles was busy on the other side of the room, Anya was looking around. She thought the trees looked very nice. But the stones seemed very unrealistic. There weren’t any stones that big! The stones on the playground were 100 times smaller than those! Why did they have to make them so much bigger? Next to her she could hear Willow saying her lines. Of course Willow memorized all of her lines. She probably did it the same night Mr. Giles handed them out. She was Mr. Giles’ favorite. She always knew all the answers to his questions. She probably has a secret crush on him or something!

Willow was nervous. Even though she knew all of her lines, she was afraid she might mess them up in front of everybody. She wasn’t very good in front of lots of people. She recited her lines in front of Buffy and Xander yesterday, but that was Buffy and Xander! She could tell them anything, or do anything dumb in front of them and they would still like her. She chewed on the bottom of her lip while she went through her lines in her head.

***

Now that he had finally gotten most of the students to start memorizing their lines, Mr. Giles headed back to his other group. He heaved a great sigh seeing that the other group consisted mostly of his little rascals. He loved all of his children dearly, but some of them head a tendency to try his patience. A man could only take so much!

He pulled out his notes and decided to start with the least problematic of the kids. "Tara, Willow." He gestured to them. "Please step up on to the stage." Willow and Tara both stood and swallowed nervously as they made their way up the stairs. Unconsciously they reached for each other’s hands as they climbed.

"Okay girls. You both know your lines?" They nodded simultaneously. "Girls. You must let go of each other’s hands first. You are enemies remembers?" They dropped each other’s hands and blushed. He smiled comfortingly up at them. "Don’t be nervous now. You’ll both do fine."

"Go Willow!!" Xander yelled from his seat. While on stage Willow continued blushing.

"You can do it Glinda!" Will cried. Not to be outdone by Xander.

"Boys! Please remain quiet." Mr. Giles reprimanded them both. "Okay girls, go ahead."

***

Buffy was fidgeting in her seat. Willow and Tara had finished their scene and now Xander, Anya, and Spike were up on stage. She would be next. Mr. Giles was going to make them rehearse the kissing scene!! She had asked him about just patting him on the shoulder but he didn’t think at was a good idea. He had told her not to worry and that everything would be fine. She wasn’t worried! She was disgusted! I mean kissing spike head? Ewww!

Finally Mr. Giles was calling her up on to the stage. She climbed slowly and gave Xander a weak smile as he passed her on the way down. He gave her a pat on the back in reassurance. When she got there she could see Spike smirking at her. She could feel her blood begin to boil as she thought about what a meanie he was!

Mr. Giles directed them to start and she began to say her lines. "Tin Man look out!" She cried as she pretended to push him out of the way of a flying monkey. She screamed as the pretend monkey flew at her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Spike getting up carrying the Tin Man’s axe. He came at her and swiped the air in front of her, striking the pretend monkey.

Buffy stood and cried "My hero!" before flinging her arms around Spike. For his part William was doing his best not to flinch away. I mean, this was Buffy! He was used to having her yell at him, or chase him, or even hit him. Not hug him to death! He was sort of in that place where you just don’t know what to do because the situation is just to weird! Like he was in the twilight zone or something!

As she leaned down to peck his cheek, she was surprised and a little saddened to have him spin out of her embrace. "Spike!" she cried as she tried to get a hold of him again. It wasn’t like she wanted to kiss him! But she had to!

"Da! Do I have to??" Will looked imploringly at his father.

"Will. Stay put and let Buffy rehearse her part!" Mr. Giles was wagging his finger at his son now.

"No! Stay away from me Goldilocks!" He yelled as she stepped closer to him. Suddenly he broke out in a sprint across the stage. Buffy following close behind. They could both hear Mr. Giles yelling for them but neither paid attention.

This is what the loved best. Though neither would admit it. They always seemed to have the most fun yelling or arguing or otherwise generally disliking each other. As they streaked across the stage Will could hear Buffy’s laughter trailing after him.

He smiled and continued to sprint dodging between fake trees and boulders. He heard a thump and a yell as Buffy slammed into one of the trees and landed on the stage. He turned to see if she was okay, but saw that she was up and chasing him again. He turned to flee but ended up face first in a boulder. Buffy was expecting him to run and was surprised by his unexpected stop. She ran into him and they both went tumbling to the ground.

Having now successfully pinned Spike down. Buffy leaned down to finally finish the scene. Will’s whole face turned red as he felt Goldilocks’ lips on his cheek. As soon as it was over he slapped his face frantically trying to wipe away the Buffy cooties that were inevitably making their way into his system. "Argh!! Bloody heck!! I’ve got cooties!! Buffy cooties!!" He yelled as he bucked her off of him.

Before he could move away any further he felt a tug on his ear as his Da came up behind him. "Buffy! William! This is unacceptable!" He stood them both up and glared down at his little hellions. "Buffy I am calling your mother and telling her you will be staying late. Both of you will be helping to rebuild the scenery that you have now just destroyed." He ranted as he led them back to their seats.

They both waited in the auditorium as the rest of the class filed out. Mr. Giles had told them to wait so that he could go get the supplies for the scenery. They would have to help rebuild and then paint the trees and boulders that they had broken. Buffy sighed knowing that her mom would be furious when she got home.

Will looked over when he heard Buffy sniffling. Now he felt bad for having gotten them both in trouble. "Don’t worry Buffy. Maybe your mom won’t be mad?" He ventured. He saw a tear fall down her cheek and he went over to pat her on the shoulder.

"You can tell her it was all my fault." He said trying to comfort her.

"It was all your fault spike head!" Buffy snapped at him. She was mad at herself for letting him see her cry.

"Fine!" Will moved away from her again. "What did you expect me to do when you tried to give me your bloody cooties!"

"I do not have cooties!" Buffy cried as she aimed at his shoulder with her fist.

"Do too!"

"You’re such a meanie!" Buffy was huffing in her seat. "No wonder Mr. Giles made you the Tin Man. You don’t have a heart!"

"I do too have a heart! You take that back!"

Instead of apologizing Buffy just stuck her tongue out at him. They were both sitting stiffly in their seats when Mr. Giles returned with the supplies.

Mr. Giles saw them and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they hadn’t gotten into any more mischief while he had been gone. He put the cans of paint and the hammer he carried on the stage before turning back to the too little beasts.

While Buffy and Will sat listening to Mr. Giles’ instructions they both had only one thought in their heads, "Oooh! Paint fight!"