Summary: Privileged Buffy Summers is seven years old when she moves next door to the troubled abused Faith Lehane for a summer of friendship and life's lessons that neither will ever forget.
Disclaimer: Don't own Buffy and Faith, or anyone else. All references to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are property of J. M. Barrie.
Authors Note: Set Pre-series. This isn't going to be as depressing as my last effort, lol. It will mostly be cute and happy for the Christmas season… and even though much of the story will be about Faith's rough childhood and what would happen if the slayers met as children, hopefully Faith will finally get that break she needs. I'm going to take some liberty with some of the minor characters, but Buffy and Faith will be as close to how I imagined they behaved in childhood. I know they may seem a little bit too mature for seven, but I've known some pretty grown-up seven year olds myself, and I didn't want to write a something that's so childish it's silly.
The first chapters not much, but it will get more interesting soon, I promise! There will be vampires. :)
"But I don't want to move!" seven year old Buffy Summers declared angrily. "All of my friends will get to go to summer camp without me and have all the fun while I'm stuck here bored to death in 'SUNNYHELL.'"
"Buffy!" Hank said angrily. "Watch your language, young lady."
Beside her, her three year old sister Dawn clapped her hands delightedly. She always liked watching her sister get in trouble. Especially for swearing.
Buffy's mother, Joyce did her best to smooth over the situation. "Buffy, it's only for a few months, dear. Just until your father's work allows us to move back home. Think of it as a vacation."
"Some vacation." Buffy said grumpily slouching back in her seat. She had pouted and pouted and tried her best to get her parents to agree to let her stay with her friends Kimberly and Cassandra in her hometown Los Angeles, but they hadn't given into her likely they usually did. Most of the time, her parents let her have whatever she wanted, her mother doing this out of guilt because she felt bad Buffy had to hear her mother and father fight all the time. During a fight, they would always throw the idea of divorce up in the air but hadn't followed through with it as yet. Joyce always had to be the one to apologize, which she did for Buffy's sake, swallowing her pride so her daughter would not have to suffer. Hank Summers himself, allowed his daughter her every wish, because he had no idea how to respond to her and what it meant to be a father. It was far easier for him to just throw new and expensive dolls in her direction to make up for his lack of fatherly skills.
Dawn was getting restless, as three year olds often do. "Mooommmy. Are we there NOOOOW?" she whined.
Buffy clapped her hands over her ears and sighed. Her little sister was only good at one thing, and that was whining. She could draw words out to at least ten times the amount of syllables in her high pitched voice. And it really got on Buffy's nerves sometimes.
Joyce answered her. "Almost Dawnie. We're just a couple of blocks away now. Just sit tight."
Good. Buffy thought to herself. Between her parents bickering and her sisters whining she was fed up. Nobody wanted to play 'I Spy' with her, not even Dawn. But this might have been because Buffy never let her little sister win, and Buffy always chose to make her guess the hardest words she could think of. Just like the word 'big-hairy-mole-on-the-back-of-dads-neck' which in Buffy's opinion was an easy one. Little words could be squished together to make bigger and much cooler words and Buffy experimented with this every morning with her alphabet soup cereal even though it made her mother angry to see her playing with her food.
Buffy always got the blame for everything, and Dawn never did. Buffy was the big sister and therefore had to set the example. When Dawn stuck chopsticks up her nose insisting they were 'vampire tooths,' Buffy had instantly received the blame for her behaviour. Granted, she had encouraged her and chased her around the room attempting to put her own chopstick through her heart and kill vampire Dawn. But still, Dawn had free will didn't she? She didn't HAVE to listen to Buffy and she mostly didn't care what rules Buffy tried to use with her anyway, so why should Buffy be blamed for anything Dawn did?
Buffy stared out of the window deep in seven year old thoughts as the Summers family car pulled into the driveway of their new house. She looked as far as she could see into the yard next door trying to see if there were any children she could play with so this summer wouldn't be a total waste. There was a tall tree in the neighbour's yard which immediately caught Buffy's attention. Sitting on one of the topmost branches was a young girl, maybe a year or two older than Buffy with black curly hair. Buffy was instantly curious and stared at her, deciding she was very brave to climb that tall tree without her mother and father around. As Hank Summers parked the car and began to unload it, Buffy was handed several of her own suitcases and told to unpack – now. Buffy walked backwards inside her new house, stumbling a little but never taking her eyes off the mysterious girl. After she unpacked, Buffy planned to go next door and introduce herself and ask for some tree climbing tips and maybe, she hoped, make a new friend.