Disclaimers:

These are obviously not my characters, I'm just borrowing them from Joss Whedon and anyone else who owns them.

If you have issues with people of the same sex loving each other, or live someplace where that's illegal (in which case, consider moving) please move on.

Timeline is what would have been season 7 but I don't like the canon from mid-6 on. Shouldn't matter, but basically let's just say Willow and Tara are still together and there was no dying.

Rating: PG-13

Dawn sat bored in history class. She knew Giles would chide her for not paying attention in history, but he didn't have to listen to Mrs. Smith. At least it was her senior year, and next year she would get to choose her classes. College was so much cooler than high school. She'd been watching Willow and Tara with their cool classes for years. Of course they'd be graduating this year too, which was kind of sad. It would have been nice to have them at school with her. But maybe it would be nice to get out on her own and maybe, just maybe, not be so consumed with fighting the dark forces. She didn't have much of a life that wasn't about the Scoobies.

She was letting her eyes wander the room, and was startled to meet the gaze of a guy on the other side of the room. Great. Just what she needed, for Jack to think she was looking at him. Jack had been asking her out all year and she kept coming up with lame excuses or gentle rejections. The thing was, she'd recently decided she wasn't so interested in guys. She hadn't told many people yet, not even all of her friends. She'd told Janice and Tracy rather accidentally one night in the middle of a truth or dare game. Janice had been a bit weirded out and they hadn't mentioned it since. Tracy on the other hand, had come over the next day to tell her that she thought she was bisexual. They'd become slightly better friends after that, bonding over sharing feelings they didn't know others had. They'd even kissed once, to see what it was like, but it was clear they weren't interested in each other that way.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the classroom door. Of course, the entire class turned to see what was going on. A tall girl with shoulder-length brown hair entered.

"Um, hi, I'm Shannon, they told me to come here, I'm new…"

"Take a seat, I'll talk to you after class." Mrs. Smith said before launching back into her boring lecture about the War of 1812.

The new girl sat down next to Dawn. She decided to be friendly for once so she scribbled a note saying hi and passed it surreptitiously. Shannon grinned and wrote back that she had just moved from Detroit and the teachers there were exactly the same.

Dawn and Shannon passed the remaining 20 minutes of class writing back and forth. In the last one, Dawn told her new friend where she ate lunch and that she could join her if she wanted.

Of course, knowing nobody in school, Shannon did just that when lunch rolled around. She ended up having two more classes in the afternoon with Dawn, though they did a better job of paying attention in those. Their last class of the day ended finally and Dawn stood up to leave.

"Hey um…if you're not doing anything, you should come to the Bronze tonight."

"The Bronze?"

"Oh it's the coolest place in town. Only club that lets in underage kids too." She grinned.

"Oh, I see." Shannon laughed. Dawn really liked the sound of her laugh. "I'll see. You gonna be there?"

"I will be if you might come." The words slipped out before she had time to think about them. Shannon raised one eyebrow slightly but smiled.

"Well, I can't very well decline an invitation like that, can I? Why don't you pick me up at my house, since I don't know this town yet."

"Oh, sure, where do you live?"

"47 Waterson. You know where that is, it's-"

"About two blocks from my house. Absolutely."

"Great! Pick me up at nine." She flashed a smile and turned away down the hall. Dawn stood in silence for a minute. What exactly had just happened?

"Hey girl, what's up?"

"Tracy! I was just about to come find you."
"What's up?" she repeated.

"Uh, let's go talk in private somewhere. Your house?"

"Ok." Tracy gave in quickly, deducing that Dawn's something had something to do with her sexuality and she obviously didn't want to talk about it in the middle of the hall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay, now what's going on?" The girls were safely ensconced in Tracy's room.

"I think I might have asked a girl out."

Tracy shrieked.

"Calm down! I'm not even sure, I need your opinion!"

"Okay first of all, what do you mean you think you did? And who are we talking about?"

"The new girl, Shannon, did you meet her?"

"Ooh, she's hot! She's in my math class."

"Yeah, she is…" Dawn trailed off, thinking about Shannon.

"Focus!" her friend teased her with a grin. "So did you ask her out or not?"

Dawn replayed the entire conversation they had had.

"Ooh, that's tough. Could be she just thinks you are going out as friends and she wants you to pick her up because she's new. Straight girls don't even think about stuff like that."

"I know."

"But it sure sounded like she could have interpreted it as a date."

"I know. What am I gonna do?"

"Why don't you ask Willow and Tara?" Tracy asked pointedly. She didn't understand why Dawn hadn't come out to her pseudo-mother figures.

"I told you, I feel weird about it, I dunno why, okay?"

"Okay, okay. Well, you could ask her questions. You know, purposely leave out pronouns and stuff. Ask her if she was dating anyone before, or something. If she thinks you might be on a date she won't mention ex-boyfriends."

"What if she is gay but she dated a guy first? Or she's bi?"

"Well still, she probably wouldn't want to tell you and get you confused would she?"

"How do you know these things?"

Tracy grinned and pointed at her PC. "I read a lot."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, Dawn tried on twelve different outfits before finally settling on one. Tara knocked on her door just as she was putting on a bit of makeup.

"Oooh, got a hot date?"

"No!" Dawn said just a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm just going to the Bronze. There's a new girl at school and I thought I'd show her the Bronze."

"Oh, that's nice of you. Be careful okay? You have your cell and stakes in case you run into any vamps or anything right?"

"Yes Mom." Dawn rolled her eyes slightly, picking up a purse and walking out of her room with Tara in tow.

"Come on, you know it's just because we know exactly what's out there. What time are you going to be home? It is a school night you know." Tara said as mom-mode kicked in for real.

"I know, I know, okay? And besides, I know you have class at 9 am too. And that you guys wait up for me."

"Of course we do. Well, have a good time."

Tara split from Dawn and joined Willow in the living room, mildly suspicious as the teen left the house. If Dawn really did have a date why wouldn't she just tell her? She knew Dawn always cared about her appearance, but she seemed especially particular tonight. Definitely seemed date-worthy. However, the witch soon got engrossed in her philosophy text and Dawn and her possible dates were forgotten.