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Tara shook her head firmly. "N-no. I have a test I n-need to study for, Faith."
"Like you need to, Tiger, ya know you're going to ace that art test," Faith wheedled.
Tara favored Faith with her sternest look. Which granted really wasn't much. "No, F-faith."
"Ah, alright," the Dark Slayer sighed. She grinned. "I'll go bug Mikki and Dawn into it."
Unfortunately Mikki bolted for the trees as soon as Faith suggested mall trawling just for fun. Dawn, being a California girl born and bred, was always up for her second favorite sport. (Right after monster slaying.) "We need to take Jacks with us. She really needs to up date her wardrobe."
"So she's usually more the jeans and tee kind of girl," Faith said with a slight frown as they headed for the garage and the car Faith currently shared with Tara. "You've gotta admit the dress she wore to the Valentine's Dance was as hot as it gets for someone who's supposed to be thirteen."
"She said the skirt was too short."
Faith blinked. "It went to her knees."
"Exactly," Dawn said with a tone of finality.
"Good point," Faith agreed as the two girls climbed into the car.
Dawn used her 'in case of emergency' key to open the front door when no one answered the door bell. She and Faith shrugged at each other as they walked in, cautiously closing the door behind them. The only sound in the two story home was the faint sound of singing coming from the upstairs.
Faith kept Dawn behind her as they silently made their way toward the singing.
"I want to be Bobby's girl, I want to be Bobby's girl," rang out Jacks' clear surprisingly sweet voice. Not that either girl had heard her sing before. "That's the most important thing to me... And if I were Bobby's girl, if I were Bobby's girl..."
"Okay, we obviously have a problem here," Dawn said, leaning against the wall across from the upstairs bathroom.
"Serious problem," Faith agreed as she let go of the knife hilt under her jacket. "Exactly how old is that song, pixie?"
"Only a few decades, or so." Jacks flicked off the portable CD player and glared at the two younger girls. "What's wrong with it?"
"That's right, we forgot you slept through women's liberation," Dawn teased. "I mean, seriously, here you are on this beautiful Saturday afternoon... cleaning a bathroom?"
"You ain't even using magic," the Dark Slayer pointed out. "What's the what?"
"Not even I use magic for *everything*," Jacks said flatly. She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "What are you two doing here anyway?"
"Well," Dawn started. "We were going to help you update your wardrobe..."
"But now we see that your music collection needs serious intervention," Faith finished.
Dawn grinned widely. "Mall Crawl!"
Matt looked up as Faith and Dawn all but dragged a third girl into Skunkarific with them. This one was obviously not related to either of them. She was too pale, from her shocking white hair, which he assumed was due to obscene amounts of bleach, to her china doll complection. Dawn would have been taller if the new girl hadn't been wearing heeled boots, but going by the curves, whoever she was she had to be older. At least the same age as Faith. She sure shared Faith's taste in clothes. Hip hugging green leather pants and a black silk shirt that clung to her figure and left her midriff bare from just below her ribs to her belt.
"Matt, we need some major help with our girl Jacks here," Faith called once she spotted him, gawking, at the counter. She glanced down at his name badge. "Up to assistant manager already? Kick ass, man."
Dawn grabbed the white haired girl by an elbow and half dragged her over to the heavy metal section.
"Uh, thanks." Matt frowned in confusion. "What can I do to help?"
Faith grinned at him. "Pixie's been little cut off from society."
"Yeah, it's like she lived in a cave for ninety years," Dawn added as she tried to put a set of headphones over Jacks' ears.
"Poor baby thinks that the music scene stopped with Sonny and Cher. What was that you were belting out earlier?" Faith asked as she watched the struggle.
Jacks swatted at Dawn's headphone filled hands, "That was Bobby's Girl, by Marcie Blane. I would have changed the words but Vinnie's Girl just doesn't have the same ring to it. I like John Denver too!"
Dawn looked horrified. "Where did you hear John Denver? Vin doesn't have any of his albums at the house."
"A few of his songs are on the list at Caritas," Jacks said firmly. "And what is that noise?"
"It's Cinderella," Dawn said trying to put the headphones over Jacks ears again. "Just listen to them for a second. You might like them."
"Cinderella? There's a band named after a story where women mutilated their feet trying to marry some prince?" Jacks complained, swatting at Dawn's hands again. "What were you two saying about women's lib earlier?"
Dawn blinked. "I never heard that version of the story."
"That's because Disney cleaned it up for modern day kiddies, Dawn-patrol," the half fey explained as she dodged out of pretty brunette's reach. She headed over to the section marked classical and was pleased to see several names she recognized.
"Oh, no you don't, Pixie, that stuff's even older than Bobby's Girl," Faith scolded teasingly.
Matt shook his head as he walked over to see what the white haired girl was looking at. Vinnie's girl? It figured she was taken. "Okay, uh, Jacks, can you give me an idea of what kind of music you like other than John Denver and Marcie Blane?"
Her eyes raked over him as if looking for a reason to dismiss him. Apparently she couldn't find one, so she shrugged and flipped her hair out of her eyes. "I like instrumentals, a solid beat to anchor the sound, if there are lyrics they have to tell a story, express an emotion. I like something I can sing along to."
"Girl's got a voice like liquid sin," added Faith. "Even singing about how much she wants to be some guy's little love doll."
Jacks made a rude gesture without taking her eyes off the young man.
Matt carefully ignored the implied suggestion. "Actually, I have a few things set up over in the classic rock section you should take a look at. I've got Heart's Magic Man cued up from their 1975 album "Dreamboat Annie ", you might like them. Ann and Nancy Wilson have great voices and it's a real solid sound."
"Any other suggestions?" she asked dryly. She clamped a hand over Dawn's mouth to spare herself any other suggestions from that quarter. If only because half the bands Dawn had named hadn't put out an album yet, and while No Doubt sounded interesting Jacks could probably do without over exposure to a band that called itself Garbage and had already developed a dislike for Nirvana. As if combing their hair was too much to ask.
"Well, you don't strike me as the type to go for any of the speed metal bands, but Eric Clapton, The Eagles, and The Doors are still pretty popular with classic rock fans," Matt offered hesitantly. "We have a few Santana albums, some of the songs are in Spanish though."
Jacks lips quirked up into a tight smile. "I speak Spanish fluently, Matt."
"Oh, that's... uh..."
"It wasn't as rare where I grew up as it is around here," Jacks explained to give him an easy out.
"Hey, did any more of those CDs we asked about come out yet?" Dawn asked, prying Jacks' hand off her mouth.
"Yeah, a few of them have," Matt confirmed with a slight befuddled smile. He still had no idea how Dawn and Faith knew which bands were going to put out albums when. "I've got the new U2: Pop, Hammerfall, SkyClad's new one, one from Offspring and... Wyld Stallions, Best Two Out of Three?" He frowned slightly. "Are you sure those guys are going to make it big?"
"Trust us, they're good now, they'll get better," Faith assured him while Jacks wandered off to sample a few of Matt's musical suggestions.
Dawn flirted shamelessly with an older guy over in the alternative rock section while Faith cruised through some titles and artists that she hadn't given much of a chance the first go round. Eventually, Jacks made her way over to the counter.
Matt scanned each CD, other than all five of Heart's albums her selection was even more eclectic than the first batch bought by Faith and Dawn, even if there were far fewer disks. Bryan Adams, Beethoven, Eagles, Mozart, Wilson Phillips, The Very Best of Cream, a few Fifties and Sixties compilations and several Santana albums.
Jacks frowned slightly. "And I suppose I'll take a copy of Wyld Stallions for Vin. He said something about trying to get concert tickets."
"Sure, no problem," Matt said with blank smile. "That comes to three hundred eighty four dollars and ninety seven cents."
Jacks reached across the counter and apparently pulled a credit card from behind Matt's ear. "I believe the proper phrase at this point would be 'charge it'."
Dawn leaned over her shoulder and spoke quietly in her ear as Matt studied the card then ran it through. "I thought you didn't do magic in front of the regular people unless it was an emergency?"
The white haired girl frowned slightly, then giggled. "That wasn't real magic," she whispered back. "That was a slight of hand trick Ezra taught me."
"Oh," Dawn said, blinking. Then she frowned. "Hey, isn't that done with a coin? How'd you do it with a credit card."
"Ezra was a gambler, Dawn," Jacks said patiently. She paused to sign the credit card slip. "He could do the same thing with a card has he could with a coin, and a credit card is near the size of a standard playing card."
"Cool," the Key concluded. She grinned suddenly. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"If you'd like," Jacks told her. She turned a near blinding smile on Matt. "Thank you for your help, Matt."
"No problem," he said, sounding dazed.
"Come on, Pixie-girl," Faith said, snagging one of the bags. "We've gone a long way toward fixing your taste in music, now we have to do something about your clothes."
"What's wrong with my clothes?" Jacks demanded as she was dragged out of Skunkarific by the raven haired teenager.
"Nothing that we can't take care off," Faith laughed. "Let's start at ..." There was a pause as she considered Jacks' petite frame even in her adult form. "Femme Petite. You could probably pull off the Lolita look without half trying."
"Faith!"
"Okay, okay, we'll check out Demon's Kiss. They're right next door anyway."
"Are they human?"
Dawn's exasperated "Yes!" was the last Matt heard from the trio.
Not only was the trunk filled with bags from what had turned into a marathon session of shopping, but the back seat was half filled as well ending up with Dawn swinging her legs up onto several bags from the local branch of Evans' Leather and Demon's Kiss.
Faith was driving back toward Xander's Mansion, as all three girls sang along to one of Jacks' compilation CDs.
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Find out what it means to me. Respect! Just a little bit. Uh-huh!" They caroled out, more or less in harmony. Well, it was more less in harmony than anything else. But they were having fun, so Jacks told her inner music critic to get stuffed and continued to bellow along with her... sisters.
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