Title: Carmen the Vampire Slayer – What I Did On My Summer Vacation: Mary Cherry

Author: Panda

Fandom: Popular

Pairing: Nicole / Mary Cherry (sort of) 

Rating: PG 13

Disclaimers: Everything good belongs to someone else.  Popular characters belong to Ryan Murray etc and the Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon etc.    I own nothing and I make no profit from playing with the characters and ideas.

Author’s notes:  This story takes place in the summer between junior and senior years and is part of a series of short stories from the point of view of different characters.

Feedback: panda_brighton@hotmail.com

“Mary Cherry have you gone completely insane?”

“I don’t know why you are complaining Nic, after all this was your stroke of genius.”

I give Nicole my best smile so that she knows that I am grateful for her little idea about making sure I can check that I am still my usual perfect self.

“It’s just…”

I watch her as she grinds her teeth for some reason, she should be careful about that I mean we need to take care of them they are our best assets.  I wonder if there is a dentist who opens at night so I can have a check up.  Nic is still talking so I suppose I should pay attention.

“…the mall!”

“I really don’t see the problem, Hon, I mean we still have to look good!” I say brightly, wondering if my recent illness has left her more bereft than I thought if she is already forgetting the importance of good styling.

“It’s just, well, it seems to lack a certain style.”

I can tell that she is succumbing to my powers of persuasion so I encourage her.

“It doesn’t have to, I mean we’ll only go to the good shops.  Its how I got my prom dress…”

“Ok, I’ll help you.” Nicole rudely interrupts me, but I let it pass.

Nicole seems all obsessed at the moment with thinking up a suitably evil plan to get back at Carmen.  She’s been studying way more than she ever did at school, reading a bunch of old books that she picked up from somewhere and it turns out that Carmen Ferrera is some kind of superhero whose job it is to kill vampires.  I would find this hard to believe if I had not witnessed it myself several times. Either Carmen has suddenly gotten a lot better at cheerleading or else Nic is right.  I don’t know why we just don’t kill them but I think Nic is just a tiny bit jealous of Carmen and wants to make her suffer.  I could not believe it when I found out that Carmen has used her new powers to somehow ensnare Brookie into some sort of romantic relationship.  Of course I was shocked by this I mean we all knew that little Lily was really a member of the sisterhood, I mean look at all the times that she tired to put the moves on me.  Not that I blame her as I am well aware of my glamorous appearance and would find it hard to resist myself but we had always thought that Brookie was as straight as, well a really straight thing.  She dated Josh Ford after all and he was one big hunk of prime rib.  But now she is running around with Carmen and Nicole seems to me to be turning into a green eyed vampire. 

I’m not sure that I want Brookie to become a creature of the night, I mean as long as it is me and Nic then it is the two of us but I was always the tinniest bit worried that Nic liked Brooke more than me and now her recent behaviour confirms it.  She wants to somehow hurt Carmen and Spammy and then turn Brooke into one of us.  I’m sure she will think of something and in the mean time I shall take whatever opportunities present themselves.

“What plain are you on this time?”

I had forgotten that Nic was still standing in front of me.

“My God, Mary Cherry, get a grip.”

“On what, Hon?”

I give her my best blank look which I know annoys her a lot.

“So when do you want to do this?”

Nic sounds pretty pissed so I decide not to push it.

“No time like the present, we can stop for a snack on the way.”

“I cannot believe that I am knocking over the mall!”

Nicole is still complaining but I decide just to ignore her.  I have selected the shop which only has the best designers and now we are waiting for the mall to close.  The security guards walk past the window as I peek out from between the curtains of the dressing room.  I love my new life of crime I feel just like Cat Woman - maybe I need to get myself a new skin tight leather outfit.  And some cute little cat ears.  Nicole has finally shut up so can fully enter into my new secret identity.  I will have to get me a whip too, that can’t be too hard to learn to use.

“Finally.” Nic mutters as the lights go out and we are bathed in darkness.

We move into the shop and Nicole immediately moves towards the most expensive racks.

“I’m just going to head over to the …” I start to say but Nicole just waves me away with a “Whatever!”

There is no need for her to be so cranky.  I mean I could have just left her behind but instead have included her on my little jaunt.

I make my way round to the camera shop and break the lock on the door with a twist of the handle.  I just love being able to do that!  Inside the shop I am overwhelmed with choice and have to just spin around a few times taking it all in before I get down to the serious choosing.  I really don’t know much about any of this stuff but what I really need is instant access to my divineness.  I find some of those cameras that give you a picture straight away so I grab a bunch of them along with lots of film for them.  Then I spot the video cameras and decide that a couple of them can’t hurt.  I don’t have time to read all the instructions but fill up my bags with tape and cables and other useful looking stuff.  Eventually I have filled several bags with equipment and sense that it is time to go.  I need to pick up plenty of new outfits to try out my new toys with.

By the time I get back to the shop it looks like a good old Texas twister has hit it.  Luckily Nicole hasn’t claimed all the good clothes for herself, her taste has gotten a little off lately, but now that I am back to normal we can work on that.  We spend a happy few hours making sure we have enough clothes to last until the fall lines come into stock before I call driver to meet us with the limo.  It isn’t the Cherry limo, unfortunately Momma sold that when she abandoned me, but we have another one now.  It takes us several trips to carry everything back, with Nicole complaining every step of the way.

“We have to get some more minions to do the heavy lifting.”

“Don’t worry, Hon” I reassure her “Soon we’ll have all the minions you want.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know, when your little plan gets going” I give her a big smile so she knows I support her “But on to more important matters!  Now all our questions about whether we have retained our impeccable fashion sense and fantastic grooming abilities will be answered at the click of a button!”

I lift an imaginary camera to my face and pretend to take a picture of her:

“Smile, Hon, you’re on Cherry Camera!”

She rolls her eyes in a very unflattering way and should just be thankful that it wasn’t a real camera I was holding.  I just don’t get why Nicole is so cranky all the time.  I love being a vampire, especially now that I have solved the reflection issue.