Summer's End
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all related characters and such are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. Summerland and all its content are property of someone who definitely is not me
Author's Note: Yes, it's really insane because I'm really insane...I think the idea was in a dream I had...And also to note that I did not see the season finale of Summerland since I was on vacation and the stupid VCR didn't record so sorry if this would contradict anything in there...Anyway, onto the insanity!
Chapter One
"Dawn, all I'm saying is you have a wonderful opportunity here!" Buffy Summers screeched at her younger sister Dawn. "You're smart enough to go to this better private school on full scholarship!" Buffy pointed out. "You can't just throw that all away!"
"It's not what I want Buffy!" Dawn yelled back with an intense amount of anger backing up her voice. "I never even wanted to come to Rome! I was perfectly happy with going to Los Angeles to see Angel, Wesley, and Cordelia. You know, the old gang."
"I thought you hated Cordelia," Buffy pointed out at the mention of the former Scooby. "Besides, she's dead now. And Wesley too for that matter."
"I did hate her, but that's not the point!" Dawn mumbled crossly. "And Wesley died? You never told me that!" she added as her voice reverted back to its more angry tone.
Buffy groaned. "Dawn, that's not the point. You could have a better high school year, which would make it easier to get into a really good college," she pointed out. "I'm not going to let you throw that all away."
"Buffy, it's not what I want! I'm sick of this life!" Dawn begged before anger completely took over her body. It controlled her like some sort of possessing demon and she could not even remember what she had done, but she knew it involved pushing her older sister back into some people walking in, leaving Buffy to talk and apologize while Dawn could run up to her room and get away.
Dawn let out a huge groan as she stormed past Andrew Wells, who was sitting in the living room of her apartment in Rome, and into her own small bedroom. While she was thankful that she and Buffy were able to afford an apartment with two bedrooms, she knew that she had to get out of there. And fast.
It would only be a matter of minutes before the blond Slayer would have reached their apartment from the lobby. Few precious minutes during which Dawn had to pack everything of importance to her and get out of the building.
True, she had loved Rome at first but then it became more of a drag. The tourist attractions died down after the first two weeks and she had no boyfriend with her. As always, her older sister would be the one with the boyfriend, this time some weird vampire who called himself the Immortal. Personally Dawn hated his guts and it was only another reason for her to leave.
She grabbed a few shirts and pants and tossed them into her bookbag, along with her diary, a hairbrush, all the cash she could find, and her beloved small stuffed turtle. Quickly she slung the bag over her right shoulder and rushed back into the main part of her apartment where she was stopped by Andrew.
"Woah, woah, sister," Andrew began as he rose from the couch. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked curiously as he noted the bookbag and Dawn's intensely rushed expression.
"Away," Dawn said furiously as she tried to get passed the young Watcher.
"And what makes you think I'm going to let you?" Andrew asked as he folded his arms across his chest. "And Buffy for that matter?" he added.
"I could care less about what Buffy thinks," Dawn said through gritted teeth.
Andrew nodded. "Big fight, I hear you. Happened to me and Tucker all the time but I never was able to run away!"
"Well, that's another difference between you and me," Dawn began as she finally pushed Andrew aside and ran out the door. "Don't tell Buffy where I'm going!" she yelled.
Andrew gave her a confused expression as he watched her go. "I don't know where you're going" he mumbled softly with a roll of his eyes.
Dawn approached the airport in a record fast time. Guess all that freshman P.E. back in Sunnydale was worth something, she thought to herself as she swallowed hard and walked up to the counter to buy herself a ticket with the small amount of money she had. "Where's the next flight out of here going?" she asked curiously.
The woman looked suspiciously up at Dawn before hitting a few buttons on her keyboard. "Los Angeles," she answered plainly.
Dawn smiled, handing the pile of cash to the woman. "I'll take it," she announced and before long she had miraculously gotten a ticket and was seated on the plane. She pulled the turtle out and hugged it close to her chest as she felt the plane begin to move down the runway. "Guess it's just you and me for awhile," she whispered softly.
It was not until the next day that the plane had arrived in Los Angeles. Dawn, thanking her lucky stars that she had been able to fall asleep on the plane, awoke with a short scream as she wondered for a brief moment where she was and what she was doing there. Then she recalled her argument with Buffy from the previous day. "Oh, right," she mumbled softly.
As the other passengers around her began exiting the plane, Dawn took it as her cue to leave as well. She followed the large masses of people out into the main part of the airport. Although she knew it would be pointless, she searched Los Angeles International for any familiar face.
She sighed, knowing that there was no chance of anyone she knew being at that airport. Why would they be there? The people she wanted to see most were at scattered ends of the world. Her father was still in Spain presumably, although she and Buffy had heard nothing of him since Buffy had come back from the dead almost three years ago. Willow was still in Brazil and Xander was off in Africa. She had lost track of her normal Sunnydale friends Janice and Kit before Sunnydale had exploded.
She frowned, walking up to a bookstore just so she could look at a map of what was around Los Angeles. Or at least within a bus distance. She read the places with care then decided where she would go from there. "I always liked the beach," she mumbled softly as she once again slung her bag over her shoulder and put the map back before one of the store clerks caught her looking at it.
The bus ride from the airport had been a long and tiring forty minutes, but none of that mattered to Dawn anymore. She was finally there. Free from everything and anything that had been in her life. For once she could live life as a completely normal girl, vampires, demons, Key aside.
"First time at the beach should be special," she stated as she rushed out towards the sand with the same excitement the little girl in her false memories had at her first beach trip. She smiled, letting the sun hit her body all over. She could get a really bad sunburn for all she cared. She frowned as she began walking along the beach, noting that she was a whole lot paler than everyone else on the beach. "I'll get over it," she told herself as she caught sight of the cute blonde boy a few feet in front of her. He had a surfboard held up in one hand and his hair and body was completely soaked and still dripping water, so Dawn figured he had just come out of the ocean.
Her blonde hottie was arguing with a girl standing really close to him. The two of them were mentioning someone named Sarah a lot and before Dawn knew what was happening, the girl was storming off away from the boy in her direction.
"Callie," the boy said as he started to go after her.
"Save it Bradin!" the girl shot back at him as she ran down the beach.
Dawn moved out of her way and decided she would definitely rather talk to the cute boy than the pissed off girl who was leaving site at a remarkably fast pace. She swallowed hard, telling herself not to be afraid as she walked up to the boy. "Hi," she said weakly.
"Hey," he replied as he looked over at her. "Do I know you?" he asked a moment later.
Dawn shook her head. "No, I'm Dawn Sum--Actually, it doesn't matter. I'm Dawn," she introduced herself with an extension of her right hand.
"Bradin Westerly," the blonde introduced with a slight smile. Such a cute smile, Dawn thought to herself as she let out a short but not fake laugh. "You from around here?" the boy asked a moment later as he moved his surfboard under his arm.
"Um, Sunnydale originally," Dawn answered honestly. "But that all went to hell, literally," she continued with a lame laugh.
Bradin gave her a confused expression as Dawn mentally slapped herself, thinking she had said the stupidest thing possible.
"Was that really lame?" she asked nervously.
Bradin shook his head. "Probably not," he answered honestly. "But I just moved here at the beginning of summer and know nothing about this area other than that its somewhat close to Los Angeles."
Dawn nodded in understanding as her mouth formed a shape resembling a cheerio. "I get it," she said with a smile. "But that doesn't matter. My sister dragged me out to Italy and is now trying to dominate my life, which I'm sick of, so I ran away and now I'm talking to the cutie I met on the beach," she stated with a pleasant smile at Bradin.
"So, you want to come inside?" Bradin asked as he began walking up towards his house. He nodded his head at the house as an invitation for Dawn to follow.
"Sure," Dawn agreed as she began following him slowly. "So, you surf?" she asked as she tried to strike a conversation up. She somehow doubted the two of them could get a conversation about her past and previous hobbies without Bradin thinking she had escaped from a mental institution.
Bradin nodded. "Ever since I moved to Playa Linda," he announced.
Dawn nodded once again. "Um, how old are you?" she asked curiously.
"Sixteen," came the answer as Bradin walked onto his back patio and placed his surfboard. "What about you?"
"Um, almost four, technically," she answered before feeling incredibly stupid once again. Why had she mentioned part of the Sunnydale weirdness she was desperately trying to forget about. "I mean, seventeen!" she quickly blurted out.
"Born on leap year or something?" Bradin asked curiously.
"Someday when we know each other better, I'll explain," Dawn promised.
Bradin smiled at her. "I'll hold you to that promise," he told her as he walked inside his house, stepping aside for a moment to allow Dawn in. "Aunt Ava!" he called. "Johnny! Jay! Anyone?" he asked.
"I'm here," Nikki called over from the couch where she was reading a magazine, which she eagerly put down once she saw Dawn. "Who's your friend Bradin?" she asked curiously. "She's pretty."
"I'm Dawn," Dawn told the younger teenager.
"Andrew!" Buffy yelled as she ran into the Watcher's room, uninvited without knocking of course as she considered this event to be an emergency. "Andrew, where is she?" Buffy demanded, referring of course to Dawn. When her younger sister was not at the apartment the earlier night, Buffy had presumed she had just not wanted to see her so she went to a friend's house. But when she had not returned by the next night, Buffy began to grow worried. It was now ten o'clock at night and Buffy was officially panicked. She had already called Giles in northern Italy as well as a few Slayers around Rome, but none of them had heard of Dawn's whereabouts.
"Andrew, get out of that bathroom and face me!" Buffy yelled through the closed bathroom door. She waited two seconds before banging hard on the door. "Andrew, if you don't come out, I will kick this door down!" she threatened.
The locked gave a small click as Andrew unlocked it. Precious seconds later, he opened the door slightly, just enough so that he could be heard clearly. "What do you want, Miss Buffy?" he asked curiously.
"Dawn," Buffy stated clearly. "You were in our apartment when she took off, weren't you?" she asked curiously as she kicked the door fully open.
Andrew jumped back in fear. "Possibly," he began.
Buffy said nothing to that, only glared at the nerd with an icy cold stare. Her eyes filled with darkness and her face with anger. She then tapped her nails against the bathroom counter once before stating the Watcher's name again. "Andrew," she stated with fury.
"Alright, I was there!" he began as he cracked, his body shaking with fear for what the Slayer might try to do to him. It had been a miracle that he had survived interrogation back in Sunnydale against Anya and Xander. He did not want to find out what a Slayer would do if he pissed her off. "But I don't know where she was going, honest!"
Buffy groaned as she stormed out of the bathroom and over to Andrew's phone. She picked the black receiver up before she began dialing the one number she could never forget.
"What are you doing?" Andrew asked timidly as he stood in the doorway of the bathroom.
"Calling Willow," Buffy said as she prayed that the witch had her cell phone on and that it would have good reception. "She's going to do a little spell for me."