It took me longer than I'd planned, but much shorter than my updates tend to come. So be grateful. Or just review. That would work, too.
Disclaimer: I own completely nothing. I am a hobo.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked automatically.
I mean, sure, I was glad to see him and all. It was kind of hard to not be glad to see him-he was Jesse, after all- but he was so totally the last person I had expected to show up in my bedroom."
He just frowned," There is something very wrong about this town, Susannah."
"Well, thank you for that fascinating and helpful little tidbit. Now, are you planning to answer my question?"
"Oh, I followed you."
"Any particular reason for that?"
"As I said, this place is wrong."
I sighed," Yeah, I kinda noticed something weird about it, too. Do you think there's such thing as Mediator's intuition?"
" Perhaps.I certainly would like to take a look around."
" for trying to help and everything,but I can handle it.I'm completely nothig else,it'll give me something to do wile Im waiting to go back home."
"Susannah,I do not think you is something very bad going on,and you are not going to be able to handle it by yourself."
"Okay,fine,go look what you can dig up.I'll be unpacking."
Jesse disappeared without a word,though whether that was becuase he had nothing left to say or that a knock sounded at my door at that very moment,I don't know."
Aunt Joyce opened the door,"Suze,honey,we're going to eat now."
"Okay,thanks.I'll be right down."
Buffy kicked a rock in the cemetary. She wasn't quite sure what to make of Suze. The girl seemed nice and everything, and sneaking out past her to patrol hadn't been hard, but she had been snooping around her room earlier ,and almost got into her weapons bag. That put her on Buffy's bad list, at least temporarily. Not to mention, she could swear she'd heard the girl talking to herself before dinner.
All this thinking was distracting her so much from patrolling that the vampire sneaking up behind her almost caught her by suprise-almost. She heard the footsteps at the last second, and twirled around to get in a good roundhouse kick to the chest and staked him quickly.
Looking around , Buffy realized there were almost no other vamps out. She'd just sit behind that tombstone there for a moment, then. Take a rest and wait for some more creepy crawlies to show themselves. Yeah, that was a good idea.
Buffy jolted awake at the sound of low voices and muffled footsteps. Judging by the position of the moon, she hadn't been asleep very long. That was something good, at least. She quickly came to her senses and peeked silently around the tombstone, listening and watching intently.
A vampire-one of five-was speaking,"Man, Crank, you got us the best set-up I've seen since that cave in '46."
"Yeah,I 's pretty sweet-and right under the Slayer's nose,too."the guy who had to be Crank of them laughed-loudly.
"Shush,"Crank hissed,"We're supposed to be sneaking."
Buffy rolled her eyes,If they're sneaking,then I'm a potatoe,She thought.For a group of bloodsucking nighthunters,they aren't very stealthy.
Deciding to demonstrate some actual stealth,she followed them easily back to their nest,where six other vampires were ,they had a pretty big group 'd have to report to Giles immediatly,so that they could launch a full-fledged Scooby attack in a night or two.
She crept back home, phoned Giles to give him the update, then dropped, exhausted, into bed. She had passed Suze's room on the way, and there hadn't been a single noise-Buffy envied her cousin getting such a good night's sleep.
I frowned miserably at my reflection. I'd been out all night,daring to drop out my window as early as ten and not getting back in until nearly had been .ghosts.I don't think I'd seen that many in about my entire life.
I marvelled yet again at all the petty things that can keep people from moving on. A flower in a garden, a rock in someone's backyard, who got the sequin dress that both someone's sisters had fought over after she had bit the dust. And it was my job to fix it all. Not an easy job, and definitly not good for one's complexion. Too bad that all had to happen on the night before my first day at Buffy's high well, maybe everybody here would be like the kids back at Juniphero Mission Academy. I could always threaten to break someone's fingers again.
"Suze, honey, would you like some breakfast?" Buffy's mom called up the hallway.
I ran a hand through my rather pathetic looking hair."Yeah,thanks. Be down soon!"
May as well face the music, I thought. I hopped downstairs, ate quickly, then rushed back up to do what I could to make myself look okay. Half an hour later, I was standing in front of Sunnydale High School, Buffy beside me.
"So...what now?" I asked nervously.
"Now, we walk inside."
"Oh, yeah. Right." I started toward the front door, but I didn't actually make it before I was sidetracked by a couple of kids running up beside us, calling Buffy's name. A girl with long, red hair and a fashion disorder- no offense to her- and a boy with short, dark hair.
"Hey, Buff, this your cousin?" he dropped his voice in a patetic attempt at a whisper," 'Cause you failed to mention she's hot."
Buffy gave him a brief glare, then made introductions. "Suze, these are my friends, Willow and Xander. Willow and Xander, this is my cousin, Suze."
Willow smiled sweetly," Hi , Suze. Welcome to Sunnydale."
"Yeah, welcome to Sunnydale." Xander siad," You know, this weekend, you and me could go around town, I could show you the best hang out places and everything."
"Oh, really?"
"Or, rather, place. There's not a lot going on here."
Buffy rolled her eyes,"Ignore him. We're gonna be late."
I didn't really think tardiness would be the best start to my time here, so i stopped talking and finished my walk into the school.
"I can show you where the office is, then I'm off to class." Buffy said.
"Okay, thanks."
At the end of the day, I siged and gathered the various textbooks I'd gotten from teachers. The first day of school hadn't been completely awful, but I was beyond exhausted and I hadn't seen Buffy all day. Three of my new classes were supposed to have her in them, but she hadn't been in any of them. Now that I thougt about it, neither had those two friends of her's. What were their names? Oh, yeah, Willow and Xander. I wondered where they'd been.
I was so busy following this train of thought and trying to keep standing consious as I left the school that I didn't even notice that there was someone right in front of me. That is, until I'd run into them.
"Oh, sorry," I grumbled, stumbling backwards. I happened to note that, whoever it was I'd bumped into, they had awfully good taste in footwear.
"Yeah, you should be." the snooty tone reminded me briefly of Kelly, but I looked up and recognized the girl as Cordelia Chase, the one I'd already pegged as resident queen of everything.
She frowned,"Hey, you're that new girl, right? The one that's Buffy's...something."
"Cousin."
"Yeah, whatever. So, are you, like, a freak, too?"
I narrowed my eyes,"Excuse me?"
"Well, you know, I thought it might run the family, with her being a va- Oh my god!"
I spun around to look at where she was pointing "What? What is it?"
"I can't believe it! Do you see that?"
"See what?" there wasnt any flying objects or hysterical scraming, which was a good sign.
"Harmony! She totally got a haircut! Without even telling me!"
"Oh." I rolled my eyes ,"So, what were you saying about Buffy?"
But Cordelia was already running after her friend. Oh, well. I didn't have the energy.
Juat after Cordelia was out of sight, Buffy found me.
"So, cuz, how was your first day?" Her friends were there to, and I gave them all my best attempt at a smile.
"Oh, you know, kind of tiring. But not bad. Where were you, though? I didn't see you all day."
Buffy glanced down briefly, "Oh, I was called down to the library. Just, you know, some book stuff to sort out."
I raised my eyebrow, entirely unconvinced, but there was no way that I was questioning her in my present state. She'd gotten lucky-this time. But I was reminded of what Cordelia had said. I seemed like I wasn't the only one with a secret. I'd figure it out later.
"Okay, whatever. Can we head home? I neep a nap. A really, really long nap."
Buffy looked vaugely relieved. "Yeah, sure." she said goodbye to Willow and Xander, then we left.
Ah. Sweet, blessed sleep. Three whole hours of it. Or course, I was still tired when I was jolted awake by the sound of Buffy calling me down to eat. But three hours had made a vast improvement. On everything but my hair, at least. My hair appeared to be a lost cause. But whatever.
I bounded downstairs, where Buffy and Aunt Joyce were already sitting down to eat. I joined them, and there was an awkward silence as I shoveled food into my mouth. I was seriously starving. I'm telling you, mediating is such an energy drainer.
"Buffy, why don't you show Suze around tomorrow night?"
Buffy sighed. "Mom, you know I have things to do."
"Oh, come on. She's your cousin, and she's new. You can't just leave her sitting here alone on a Friday night."
Buffy's grip on her fork tightened forcefully. "Mom. We talked about this."
"Um, staying in is fine with me," I interrupted. "I don't want to ruin Buffy's plans or anything."
Aunt Joyce shook her head. "I just…fine."
The rest of dinner was spent in the same awkward silence that it had started in, though Buffy and her mother seemed to be sending each other very meaningful looks over their food. Finally, Buffy excused herself, rushing to set her utensils in the sink and rush upstairs. I followed shortly after, placing my fork next to her's, which I could've sworn was slightly bent. But it must've just been my imagination.
Letting out a long breathe, I heaved myself up the stairs to catch what sleep I could before another long night of thankless ghost busting. This was hardly turning out to be the relaxing vacation that my poor mother had meant for it to be. Then again, since when did anything I was involved in actually go as planned?
