[Kyo]: 494.First Impressions

Everthing featured in buffy the vampire slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, master of the universe, the rest belongs to me, an unimportant young girl with a vision. (Or buffy nerd, whatever you wanna call me) =P

First Impressions
Chapter 1

William Pratt felt a tear run down his cheek. Any other time he would have kicked himself for crying, but he didn’t care too much about that right now. He tugged at the black tie he’d been forced to wear. The sad atmosphere was making him uncomfortable; he wished more than anything that he could be by himself. So much had happened in the past few days, his mother had died, and his little sister (Emily) had just… Disappeared. He wished he could do something to help, but all he seemed to be doing right now is meeting old relatives that he’d never met before. The thought pissed him off.
As the funeral car pulled into his grandfathers drive way, he felt a bit better about losing his mom, like he’d put her away in a special part of him. But he felt even worse about his sister. Walking into the house he automatically felt very claustrophobic and out of place. He wondered if it was too soon if he went back to his uncle Giles’ house… (He was staying there for the time being). He hated it in this place.
“Hey uncle Giles, are we going back to yours soon?” He hated feeling like a whiney kid, so added; “It’s just… I don’t really like this sort of thing.” Giles looked at him, concerned, but William just averted his eyes.
“Well… I had planned on staying a little longer, but of course. I’ll just tell your grandfather we’re leaving… Do you want to wait by the car or come with me?”
“I’ll wait by the car.” Said William, a bit too quickly.
“…Okay.”
William hurried out through the door, sat on the bonnet of his uncle Giles’ car and buried his face in his hands. What was going to happen to him now? Would he stay with his uncle? He wished he could stay here for hours. It’s pretty hard to try to stay strong when you have everybody asking how you were. But before long, he was taking a seat in the back of his uncles car. There was an uncomfortable silence before;
“So… Will…” Started his uncle, attempting conversation. Eugh. He really hated being called Will, but a lot of people did, he had to just get used to it. “…Are you okay?” What do you think!? He couldn’t help thinking.
“Fine”.
“How’s school?”
Crap. Everyone wants me dead, and I’m failing in every subject except two. “Pretty good.” He said. “I just chose my options for the last two years. But I guess I’ll have to see if I can get them again, at this new school.
“Okay. What do you plan on doing after sixteen? Staying on at school?”
“Dunno`.” And that was the end of the subject.
Uncle Giles lived in a big old house that looked a bit like something that had fallen out of a Charles Dickens novel. He walked with Giles over the crunchy gravel and inside. It was a nice, friendly place, but he wouldn’t realize this until later when he was thinking straight.
“So…” Started Giles. “It’s a pretty big place. You can do whatever you want…” He took a second to consider. “Within reason, of course. Well, first things first. If you want to put your things away, your room is easy to find, up the stairs, furthest on the left.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” He could finally be on his own.
“I realize you don’t have many things, I can give you some money and you can get some tomorrow if you’d like.”
“Uh… Yeah I’ll do that.” William got the feeling that Giles was nervous around him. Well, he couldn’t really blame him. He climbed the stairs, swung open his new room’s door. He threw his bag into a corner of the room, and slumped down onto the bed. The room was just as he has imagined. Dull green walls, brown carpet, plain white bed spread, a big wooden wardrobe and a mirror. Overall, a typical guest room; plain. Oh well, he’d buy some decent stuff tomorrow.
He lay there for what seemed like forever. He only got up when it started raining to look out of the window. He hadn’t noticed at first, but this really was a very big place.
It wasn’t until it started getting dark that he realized he had hardly eaten in the past few days. Maybe he should take advantage of that expensive food downstairs…
Three cakes, a packet of crisps and an apple later (he didn’t want to get fat, after all)
He felt himself getting tired. He’d been up pretty early after all. ‘I may as well go to bed’ he thought. He had nothing better to do, after all.
Next morning, William was woken by a ray of sunlight shining across his face.
It was great day, but he wasn’t expected to appreciate it at such an ungodly hour of the morning. But all the same, he went to get out of bed, which didn’t quite go as planned when he fell flat on the floor. “Well, that was graceful.” He mumbled to himself, lifting himself up and going over to the window to open it.
He let the cold air wash over his face. Things had just gone so screwed up. This time last week everything was normal. Trying to shake these thoughts out of his head, he grabbed his bag and pulled out a pair of old jeans and a black T-shirt. Not exactly Uncle Giles standard, but they’d do for now. The only expensive thing he owned was a silver cross on a chain his mum had bought him before she died. Neither of them were religious or anything… but it looked good didn’t it?
“So I’ll drop you off into Nottingham, I’ll pick you up about 5 from outside the bus station, I’m not going into the center because its chaos. I’ll give you some money, but this is only a one off to get back the things you had before.”
“Okay.” Replied William.
“Well, anyway, I’ll just get that money for you.” Giles reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick brown leather wallet. “Here.” He said, handing over a wad of notes. “There’s about two hundred pounds there.”
“Two hundred? Really?” Asked William, not sure if he was for real. “Just like that?”
“It’s only because you don’t have much. Anyway, do you want me to drive you now?”
“Umm… yeah sure.”
45 minutes later, William was walking into Nottingham city center. It was bustling with people; he’d never really been to any big cities before. Before long he found himself in a massive clothes store. He spent most of the morning in there, buying better versions of the type of things he usually wore. One hundred and fifty quid later, he decided he may as well spend the last fifty on music and stuff. He headed off to a small music store, not much bigger than his bedroom. He’d had just about enough of darting in and out of people to get to what he wanted. Plus, there’d be more price cuts in there, so he could get more stuff. Inside, there was only him and one other girl younger than him inside, looking at the music he generally tried to avoid. He couldn’t see how she could listen to that commercial hip hop (or whatever) crap. It was going on her daddy’s card no doubt. He saw there was a sale on the rock music, which was good, because he wasn’t buying that chav crap. (Britain’s teenage slang’s so colourful isn’t it?) So, he piled his arms with a… erm, comically large pile of CD’s and made his way over to the counter. Unfortunately, just as he did this the ‘hip hop girl’ stepped out of the isle, knocking the CD’s out of his arms.
“Watch where you’re going!” He yelled, pissed off.
She looked down at the CD’s strewn all over the floor. “Oh, well done.” She said sarcastically, bending down to help him pick them up.
“I can do it myself.”
“I was only trying to help, you idiot. What are you doing buying so many at once anyway?” She asked, looking at his scruffy clothes he was wearing. “What, did you mug somebody?”
“Yes. I do that all the time, so get lost if you know what’s good for you.” He snapped at her.
“What is this crap anyway? You don’t have very good taste do you? She asked, ignoring him.
“You’re just not gonna leave me alone are you? You’re very annoying for some one your size. What are you ten?”
“I’m fourteen!”
“Same as me. Who’d have thought?”
“Really? I’d have guessed you were at least sixteen. You’re really tall.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“What school do you go to, anyway?”
“Well, I start new at some school near Welbourn on Monday… Cant remember the name… sounds kinda posh if you ask me.”
“Sir William Robertson High?” She asked, sounding slightly suspicious.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” Replied William. ‘Please don’t let her go there to…’ he thought to himself.
“I go there, to!” She replied, happily. Damn.
“Great.”
“So, where are you going now anyway?”
“…Pizza.”
“Can I come to?” She asked.
Nooo! “If you want.”
“Great. What’s your name anyway?”
“William.”
“William? Don’t you like Will?” She grinned.
“No.” He replied, irritably.
“Well do you mind if I call you Will?”
“Yes.” He said, but sure that she’ll call him Will anyway.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what my name is?”
“No, but I daresay you’re about to tell me.” He answered. She looked put down for a second before she told him:
“My name’s Buffy.”