Glass looked really impressed. “Finally, a student who actually answers my question with an answer…” she said. “Good, McLeod… You have my permission to go back to staring at Miss Julian’s butt…”

            Nicole was irritated beyond measure. As soon as Glass turned her back to the class, she turned to the table behind her. “I don’t appreciate having my butt stared at and especially not by a ***** like you!”

            Dammit! There’s that smile again, Nicole fumes. A lopsided grin with a tiny dimple on the left cheek. The face belonged to a fallen angel. Dark, brown twinkling eyes, high cheekbones, and mouth shaped in erotic brooding lines. Her hair tumbles over her forehead in casual layers obviously from running her fingers in it constantly.

            “FYI – I only stared at your butt for the first 15 minutes… After that, I fell asleep…”

            Nicole seriously felt like causing bodily harm at the grinning face but instead, she just huffed and turned around again, forcing herself to concentrate on what Glass was saying. She could hear Spam giggling. Great! Now, Spam would have a ***** of a time coming up with damning news about her. Brooke looked over her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile.

            “God, Dean!” Sam said as they made their way out of the lab. “Did you really stare at Satan’s butt?”

            “Satan?”

            “That’s Sam’s nickname for Nicole…” Carmen explained.

            “Oh…” Dean said. “I see…”

            “Did you?’

            Dean smiled sheepishly. “Yeah… Can’t help myself…” she said. “That girl’s got a really serious set of spotlight and bumpers…”

            “Huh?”

            “Spotlight…” Dean said pointing to Sam’s breast. “Bumpers…” points to Lily’s derrière who happens to be walking in front of her. “It’s a code my brother always uses whenever he wants to talk about girls in front of my parents…”

            Sam burst into a fit of laughter so hard that she had to support herself against Dean’s arms. She was virtually hanging onto Dean for dear life, so that Dean had to stop walking and hold Sam in place before she slid onto the floor. The others just shook their heads.

            Brooke watched all this from a distance and she felt a tug of pain in her chest. She looked so beautiful when she laughed, with her hair all strewn about her face. The laughter itself, a rich, wonderful sound… Brooke fought back tears from slipping out as she watched Dean wrap her arm around Sam’s waist in the attempt to control her and then, clamping her mouth shut with her hand to muffle the mirth, as she guided her out of the hallway. How she wish she was the one holding her…

            “I am so gonna kill that *****…” Nicole said furiously. “I swear I’m gonna kill her…” She slammed her locker door shut as if imagining the said *****’s head was between them.

            “I think you should take that as a compliment, Nicky…” Mary Cherry said. “I mean your butt must be good enough for even a woman to want to stare at it…”

            “I don’t want a ***** staring at my butt, Mary Cherry!” Nicole hissed.

            “Just let it go, Nic…” Brooke said wearily.

            “What do you mean let it go?” Nicole snapped. “She was staring at my butt! Of all people, a *****!” she said. “I mean, I can accept if it was a boy, ***** even Emory but McLeod? The ***** from Hellmount LA?”

            “Actually Hellmount is on Sunnydale…” Mary Cherry said.

            Hearing Mary Cherry’s divine intervention just about drove Nicole up the wall. She stormed off towards the Novak.