Title: "Something Real"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: She's gonna give them something real to talk about.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.

Gossip followed her everywhere she went. She was the Slayer's little sister. That came with its own reputation and whispered secrets. Also, like Buffy before her, the Supernatural seemed determined to keep Dawnie from being able to lead any kind of worthwhile social life, leaving those who could get no juice on her to create their own.

There wasn't a day Dawn didn't hear some kind of new - and always stupid - guess at why she didn't show up at a dance or some other school function. Some were tame enough that she could ignore them without a second's thought. Others, however, fueled her growing fury with the idiots her family and friends spent every night of their lives protecting. She'd heard every wild tale imaginable, from the theory that she spent her free time conjuring Demons to the crazy notion that she'd been knocked up by some guy at whom she'd never looked twice.

And why should she look at him? The cheerleaders thought he was something special, but to Dawn, he was just another dumb jock. That thought was still burning her when Faith picked her up. Dawn looked the wild woman up and down, wishing she could be more like her and knowing that cool people like her were what kept her from looking twice at buffoons like Dillon. Dawn grinned, deciding she was going to give this school something real to talk about, and smacked her mouth against Faith's in a quick kiss before all the school.

The End