Chapter Two: Where Am I?

After hurtling through time and space for what seemed like two seconds, Kennedy landed on a hard ground covered by soft grass. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and when she recovered, she looked around and realized it was daytime. The sun was shining and everything. Kennedy also noticed she wasn't in a cemetery. She was in a park, an empty park but still a park. She finally stood up and looked around a bit more carefully and realized she recognized this park. It was the park that was three blocks from her house, except that she'd never seen the park this clean. There was no graffiti on the slide, no broken swings, and no trash anywhere but in the trash cans placed near the entrance to the park. And that was another thing; there was no fence around this park, no gate that got locked at night. Weird. Kennedy walked around the park looking at everything like a visitor from another planet might. It was all familiar yet, strange and new at the same time. And it was seriously starting to freak her out. Kennedy began to walk towards the entrance that she remembered was closest to the house. When she got to the street, she got another surprise.

No litter, again no graffiti, and the cars that were driving down the road could only be described as...old. Not old as in falling apart and stuff, more like old as in classic. Like cars from the 50s and 60s. There were no modern cars anywhere. Kennedy's first thought was that maybe there was a movie filming but then the slayer in her rationalized that maybe she'd been sucked into an alternate reality or something. Kennedy shrugged it off and began walking in the direction of her house, somehow knowing she'd probably not find it exactly as she'd left it last night but still needing to be close to it.

About a block from the house, Kennedy, not paying attention to where she was going ran into someone...literally. She knocked the person down and everything. Rattling off an apology she held her hand out to help the person up. When she looked up to see who she'd knocked down she found herself looking into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.

The girl looked up at Kennedy and smiled, the sweetest smile Kennedy had ever seen, next to Willow's of course. Kennedy noticed the blond hair, the sweet smile and the outdated clothing which on her looked so natural. If it wasn't for the fact that it was daylight and they were actually standing in a patch of direct sunlight, Kennedy might've thought this was a vampire cuz of the outdated clothes she wore. But even Kennedy knew that vamps and sunlight didn't mix well.

The girl stood up, with Kennedy's help, and stood there waiting for Kennedy to say something. When she didn't she decided to make the first move.

"Hi there. My name's Meg. Are you new here?" The girl asked in a sunny voice. Meg was like that, almost always in a good mood, especially on Bandstand day.

Kennedy mentally shook herself as she reminded herself of Willow. She looked down at the hand she still held after helping her up and gave it a small shake as she said. "Hi, I'm Kennedy. Yeah I guess I am new here. Just got here in fact." Kennedy gave a smile as Meg smiled.

"Kennedy, that's an unusual name, is it your first or last name?"

"My first actually, Kennedy Williams is my full name." Kennedy didn't know why she'd told a complete stranger that but there was something about Meg that made her trust her.

"Well, Kennedy Williams, I was actually on my way to the record store, want to come?" Meg didn't know why she'd invited a total stranger to go with her to the record store but something about Kennedy told her she was an ok person to hang with. She couldn't explain it but she just knew.

Kennedy was surprised by the invitation and despite her earlier need to see her house, she suddenly wanted nothing more than to go with Meg to the record store. She couldn't explain it, but hey maybe she'd find some CDs worth buying. So Kennedy smiled and said, "Sure. Lead the way."

"Ok, this way then." Meg said and they started walking in the direction Kennedy had come from. After a few blocks they came to the park and after they'd passed it, Meg began pointing out her favorite spots. They were walking by a big building that Kennedy vaguely recognized when Meg said, "And that's the studio where they do American Bandstand. My friend Roxanne and I dance on Bandstand every Saturday."

Kennedy stopped dead in her tracks at this. From what she remembered Bandstand didn't give anymore.

"Wait, I thought Bandstand didn't give anymore?" Meg replied.

"What? Who told you that? Of course it still gives. It's the best show ever!"

"Meg, what year is this?" Kennedy suddenly got a very bad feeling in her stomach. The clean park and streets, the classic cars, the clothes Meg was wearing, the fact that Meg was trusting enough to invite a total stranger to walk with her, and the final nail, that Bandstand was still airing all added up to one thing in Kennedy's Slayer/Hellmouth trained mind: time travel.

Meg looked at Kennedy, confused. But she answered the question anyway. "It's April 20th 1964. Why?"

Kennedy's very bad feeling was just confirmed but it didn't make her feel any better at having figured it out. If anything it made her feel worse. Alternate realities she could handle cuz at least there'd be some version of Willow and Buffy and Faith, but if she really was in the past, then they haven't even been born yet! Kennedy looked around and found a nearby bench. She walked over to it and sat down, suddenly feeling dizzy. Meg followed her and sat down next to her. Something was wrong with Kennedy and Meg being who she is, felt the need to help her.

"Kennedy, what's wrong? Do you want to talk about it?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me. You'd be surprised what I would believe."

Kennedy shook her head. "You wouldn't believe this, hell, I don't even totally believe it."

Meg was surprised when Kennedy swore. No one she knew ever used that word like that. Meg suddenly stopped to notice what Kennedy was wearing and realized she'd never seen clothes like that on a girl. Tight fitting black leather pants, and a gray sleeveless shirt under a black leather jacket. Kennedy wore boots on her feet but not snow boots, more like the boots JJ had to wear in the Marines. Black, leather, tough looking. Meg looked at Kennedy's hands and noticed they had no polish on them but they were clean and neat. Her hands looked...weathered. Like she'd spent a lot of time working with her hands. Meg looked around and realized there was really no one else around.

Kennedy sensed more than saw Meg's visual inspection of her. Looking down at what she was wearing (typical outfit for a patrol really) and considering what year she was supposedly in, Kennedy tried to see herself from Meg's eyes. 'Not a pretty picture, she probably thinks I'm an escapee from a girls' reform school."

"So, Kennedy, are you going to tell me or not?" Meg came to the conclusion that she should trust her first instinct. The one that told her Kennedy was ok.

Kennedy, surprised that Meg hadn't run away, decided to risk it and just tell her what she knew.

"Ok. But I am warning you now, you won't believe me. But I am NOT crazy ok?" Meg nodded. "Ok, well. Here goes, I'm from the future Meg. From the year 2004 and I am not totally sure how I got here or why I'm here but here is where I am. And I don't know how to get back to my time but until I can figure that out I am stuck here."

Meg listened, in shock. As incredible as it sounded, as preposterous as it seemed, Meg knew Kennedy was telling the truth. She didn't know why she believed her she just knew she did.

"I believe you Kennedy. I don't know why but I believe you." Kennedy couldn't help but ask.

"You do?"

"Yes I do. And I will help you in any way I can but I am afraid I don't know much about time travel or stuff like that. But my sister Patti does, maybe we can get her help."

"Why are you so willing to help me? You just met me."

Meg thought about that for a second before answering, "I usually have pretty good instincts and I'm learning to trust them. And my instincts tell me that you can be trusted. That I should help you. Don't ask me how I know this but I know, deep down inside, that you and I are connected somehow." Kennedy knew the odds were against her there but she had to ask.

"Really? Maybe we are. Ok then, enough moping around. If I really am in the past maybe I should take advantage of that and, I dunno, learn whatever I can from it. The 60's were never my strong suit in school. Maybe I can make up for that while I'm here. You said something about a record store before, any chance they sell CDs?"

Meg liked the turnabout in Kennedy's mood but got confused again. "CD's? What's that?"

'Well that answers that question.' Kennedy thought. "In my time, music comes on round discs called CDs. Come to think of it they didn't come around until the 80's or so. Let me guess, music here is on vinyl records huh?" Meg grabbed Kennedy's arm and they began walking to the record store. After taking Kennedy's word for it that she was from the future Meg began to give Kennedy a history lesson on the way to the store.

"Yes. Come on, let's get to the record store and you can see for yourself."

Kennedy learned a lot by the time they got to the record store. Meg led her inside and walked her over to the new releases section. Kennedy's brain, still used to 2004, expected to see Blink182, Avril Lavigne, or heck even Britney Spears. What she got instead was The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Dion, Bobby Darin. Names Kennedy usually saw in the oldies section. That really brought it all home for Kennedy. Made it all the more real.

Kennedy smiled to herself when she looked over the new releases, comparing them to the music she was used to. Meg looked over at Kennedy and smiled when she seemed to be getting into the records. Then she glanced up and saw her best friend Roxanne working behind the counter. Roxanne hadn't seen her yet, so she decided to go over there.

Meg turned to Kennedy, "Kennedy, can you excuse me for one sec? I need to go say hello to my friend Roxanne." Kennedy said. Kennedy watched as Meg walked over to the counter and began talking to the clerk. Kennedy couldn't really see the clerk's face from where she was standing so she moved a bit to her left and when she saw the clerk's face Kennedy went into shock.

"Sure. I'll be right here."