3rd Person's POV

Buffy pops around the corner like a Secret Service agent. She checks around with outstretched arms...

"Okay, I think it's clear."

Cordelia appears, walking like she owns the place. Laney follows rolling her eyes with a slight smile.

Cordelia sighs, "So how much the creepy is that
this Marcie's been at this for months? Spying on us, learning our most guarded secrets..."

Buffy looks around, thinking about that one.

"And she turned invisible 'cause she's so unpopular? Bummer for her."

Laney nods at Cordelia, "That about sums it up."

Corelia frowns, "It's awful to feel that lonely."

Buffy scoffs, "Oh, so you've read about that feeling?"

Cordy shoots her a look.

"You think I'm never lonely, just 'cause I'm so cute and popular?... I can be surrounded by people and be completely alone. It's not like any of them really know me. I don't even know if they really like me half the time. People just want to be in the popular
zone. Sometimes when I talk, everyone's so busy agreeing with me, they don't hear a word I say. Honestly Laney is my only true friend. I mean she's my best friend but she listens and I listen to her."

"Aw Cordy you know I love you!"

Cordelia smiles as Laney pulls her into a hug. A moment passes, as Buffy takes this in.

"If you feel so alone, why do you work so hard to be popular?"

Cordelia shrugs, "Well, it beats being alone all by
yourself. Especially now since Laney is always with you and your weird friends."

Buffy watches Cordelia start down the stairs. She opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by a loud gasp. Cordelia turns around with fear on her face making Buffy run over to her quickly.

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot my Chanel number three lipstick in my locker! Ugh that's my go to gloss. If I'm going to be crowned tonight I need to wear it."

Buffy gives her a questioning look, "Are you serious?"

The sentimental talk had gone out the window and popular no brain Cordelia was back. Laney sighs and crosses her arms across her chest as the two begin to argue.

"We need to go back!"

"We can't! Your life is in danger! My life is too even just standing near you!"

"Oh please you wouldn't understand! You wouldn't even understand what's like to be me!"

"I wouldn't want to!"

Laney grunts and kicks off the wall she was leaning on then steps in between the two, "Alright time out! Look I'll go get the gloss and then meet up with you guys in a bit."

Buffy frowns then thinks about it, "Fine. Meet at the janitors closet by the lunchroom."

Laney nods then makes her way to Cordelia's locker. Buffy watches as she turns the corner and is out of sight before moving along with Cordy.

Willow and Xander look up as Giles emerges from his office.

"So what's the answer, Mr. Wizard? Potion, ritual, really silly spell requiring you to shout things?"

Willow nods agreeing with Xander, "Right, how do we make Marcie visible?"

Giles frowns, "We don't."

"You mean... it's permanent?"

"I mean apparently gift as a researcher is limited to supernatural rather than quantum phenomena. All these state functions, observables... Mathematics was never my strength."

Willow looks around hearing something for a second, "Ssssh! Listen!"

Now they hear it; the haunting tones of a flute. The three emerge into the empty, dark hall and listen.

"Perhaps we can talk to her, reason with her... Or possibly grab her."

Willow shrugs, "There are three of us..."

"Let's go!" Xander tells as he hurried through the hallway.

Meanwhile Laney has just made it to Cordelia's locker. She twists the lock and opens the door. Grabbing the lipgloss she pauses and looks at herself in the mirror. She makes duck lips then proceeds to put gloss on them. Smiling at the slight change she feels a presence and looks to the side of the mirror to see nothing. She leans over a bit and looks behind the locker door to see nothing and shrugs. Teasing her hair a little she finally smiles and then shuts the locker. She turns around and runs into someone making her scream.

"What the hell Angel?!"

"Sorry I was looking for Giles."

"Oh..." Laney looks him up and down and smiles internally.

Damn he is really good looking... but I can't. Buffy likes him and she's my friend.

"We're trying to stop this invisible girl. The gang might be in the library still."

"Invisible girl?" Angel looks confused.

"I'll tell you about her more as we walk."

Angel follows behind Laney as they walk to the library. He freezes suddenly as he hears light music down a hallway. His ears twitch as he tries to tune into the far away sound. He turns around and looks down the hall in confusion.

Laney continues walking until she doesn't hear Angel behind her anymore. She spins around and sees an empty hallway.

"Angel?"

Suddenly something wraps around her neck, making her struggle to break away. She looks over in the glass case beside her to see a rope tangled around her neck. Her eyes bulge as she struggles to pull the rope away.

"Ang-"

Her voice cracks as she tries to yell.

"No one's going to save you Laney. You're all alone just like I was. You didn't even notice me... how's it feel to be invisible and not heard."

Laney cries out in pain as the rope gets tighter and tighter. She feels a little lightheaded and the room starts to spin. She swings her arms backwards in hopes to hit the girl but fails. She tries her hardest to call out for Angel but doesn't succeed. One last idea comes into her mind making her grimace.

All of a sudden, Laney reaches behind her and holds onto the invisible girl's arms then leaps sideways into the glass case making it shatter into pieces. She falls to the ground and hears the invisible girl groaning. Looking beside her she sees pieces of the glass moving slightly. Knowing the girl is beside her, Laney grabs a trophy and slams it into the ground.

"Ah! My ankle! You bitch!"

Laney gets up slowly and limps down the hallway. As soon as her hands move to unwrap the rope from her neck, it's yanked back making her fall to the ground.

"You're going to pay for that May Queen. Time to pass down the crown. And by pass down I mean die."

Suddenly, the girls body flies away from Laney making her take deep breathes. She looks up to see Angel looking down at her in concern.

"Laney I'm so sorry. I got distracted."

"It's okay."

Laney frowns as the words come out hoarse and unrecognizable. Angel bends down then helps unwrap the rope from her neck. He frowns as he sees the angry red rope burn around her neck. His hand lightly grazes it making her wince and flinch away.

"Sorry." He whispers.

At that moment, the two notice how close they are. Angel's hand on her neck and Laney's hands holding his arm.

"Wh-where i-is she?" Laney asks as she moves away.

"Well I threw her that way and I'm guessing she ran. I don't hear anything. We need to find Giles."

"Ye-yeah lets g-go."

"You sure you're okay."

"Yep I'm a-a big g-girl."

Angel helps her stand and then backs away holding his head as he starts to smell blood. Laney looks over at him then down at her arms and legs. Small cuts and scraps have entirely covered her body.

"Y-you O-okay? Yo-you're not g-gonna go a-all vamp on m-me r-right?"

Laney grimaces as Angel holds onto his head and takes deep breathes. He looks up making her cautiously take a step back. Nodding he turns around and starts to walk. Looking over his should he nods at her to follow.

"Oh right." She quickly catches up to him and the two hurry in search of Giles.

Meanwhile Giles, Willow and Xander go down the basement stairs and look around. They all listen for the next direction to take. Xander hears the flute through a pair of heavy metal doors.

"Over here."

He opens the door and they all follow him into the boiler room.

Giles frowns, "Marcie? We know what happened to you. Please, can we talk to you?"

Willow smiles lightly, "We're sorry we ignored you."

Xander follows the sound of the flute over to a shelf where there's a tape recorder playing.

"Can you say 'gulp'?"

They hear Marcie running from the room and slamming the door behind her. The main gas valve has been opened and hisses.

"What's that sound?"

Giles looks around and starts to panic, "It's gas," He checks the furnace, "She's snuffed out the pilot light! The gas is on full! I can't find the shutoff valve."

Xander finds the valve handle on the floor, "Is this it?"

"Okay, that's bad. How 'bout the door?"

Willow and Xander slam themselves into it, but it doesn't budge. Xander spots a bar, grabs it and starts to swing it at the door like a ram.

Giles hurries forward and yanks the bar Out Xander's band, "NO! One spark and you'll take the whole building with us!"

Willow slouches on the floor, weakened by the lack of oxygen. Giles takes off his jacket and wraps it around the pole Xander found to prevent sparks.

"One, two, three!"

The two of them ram the door with the pole, and it makes a deep, loud boom, but it doesn't budge.

"Again! The door still won't budge."

After many attempts, Willow is unconscious. Xander and Giles are on the floor now, too.

"You guys are... I'm blacking out on you." Xander collapses onto Willow.

Giles weakly slaps against the door. It suddenly opens, and Giles falls through it. Angel stands in the doorway and looks around then down. He quickly grabs Giles and helps him up.

"Come on!"

Laney helps him pull Giles out of the room. Then together they pull Xander up. Xander slowly wakes and gets out with some help from Laney as Angel picks Willow up in his arms and carries her out. Giles slams the door closed. They all cough and try to breathe.

"What happened?" Xander asks confused as he looks around.

Angel shrugs, "You tell me."

Willow slowly starts to wake up, "I'm up, mom."

Laney rubs her arm as she comes to. Xander looks around and smiles lightly at Laney but then notices Angel beside her and frowns.

"What are you doing here?"

"I brought Giles the Codex. Found Laney... some invisible girl tried to kill her, we came to find you guys, smelled gas and followed it to the basement."

Giles nods, "Yes, w-w-well shut it off, otherwise, uh, the whole building will go up!"

Angel shakes his head as Giles starts to get up, "I'll get it. It's not like I need the oxygen."

Giles glances over at Laney as Angel disappears then frowns greatly as he sees a large red mark that went around her whole neck.

"Laney... what happened?"

"O-oh yo-you Kn-know the usual. J-just got st-strangled with a rope by a-an in-invisible girl."

Willows eyes widen as she looks over at her sister. Xander starts to get angry as he looks at Laney and hears her hoarse voice.

"Man if I see that girl-"

Giles shakes his head, "Come on, let's just get out of here. Hopefully Buffy has stopped her."

And he was right... she had.

========================================================================

The next day, the gang is walking to the library. Laney wears a scarf around her neck so no one asks questions.

Buffy stares at Laney's neck wound and sighs sadly, "Man I just can't believe how twisted Marcie got."

Laney laughs humorlessly then groans in pain, "You can't believe?"

Willow frowns and lightly smacks Laney's arm, "Hush you. The doctor said you can't talk for a whole week. You'll make your lymph nodes worse."

Laney frowns then grabs her white board out Xander's hands. She writes something then shows it to Willow.

'Fine. I hate you >:( '

Willow smiles and turns away to continue walking. Xander chuckles and throws his arm over Laney's shoulder. Buffy shakes her head with a light smile.

"By the way, how did you guys get out of the boiler room?"

Xander makes an aha face, "Oh, well, when the gas was coming down, we..."

Giles makes an appearance and quickly cuts off Xander, "Janitor, um, found us. Shut the valve off."

Willow nods, "We were lucky."

Buffy smiles, "I'll say."

Cordelia comes down the hall toward them at a fast walk, "Hi."

Buffy nods, "Hey!"

Cordelia glances over at Laney who nods and waves her hands as if saying go on.

"Look, um, I didn't get a chance to say anything yesterday with the coronation and everything... but, um, I guess I just wanted to say thank you, all of you."

Xander scoffs, "That's funny, 'cause she looks like Cordelia."

Laney elbows him in the chest.

"You really helped me out yesterday, and you didn't have to. So, thank you."

"It's okay."

Willow smiles lightly, "Listen, we were gonna grab lunch in a minute if you wanted to-"

Mitch comes up behind Cordelia, "Whoa, whoa. You're not hangin' with these losers, are you?"

Cordelia laughs, "Uhhh! Are you kidding? Heh!"

She takes his arm and grabs Laney from under Xander's arm, "We were just being charitable. Helping them with their fashion problems. Heh. You think I really felt like joining that social leper colony? Puh- leeease!"

Xander frowns, "Boy, where's an invisible girl when you really need one?"

Cordelia, Mitch, and Laney make their way around the corner but not without looking at the gang once more. Laney holds up her board which has 'Later losers ;p' written on it and sticks out her tongue, then the three disappear.

"Wow that actually kind of hurt more than her saying it." Buffy jokes.

"It's just the fact that she is special now and can use a board instead of her voice. It's kind of cool if you think about." Willow shrugs.

"Yeah she doesn't have to answer any of the teachers questions in class. Lucky her." Xander sighs.

The three walk away leaving Giles to himself.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again... we're all doomed."