Chapter Twenty-Two




When Dawn got home from school, she was surprised to see another new guest at the Summers' house. Darry introduced Kellie and Dawn.
"So, you're Darry's sister?" Dawn asked.
Both Kellie and Darry started laughing. "Are you kidding me? Please, she's my cousin." Kellie said.
Dawn shrugged. "Sorry." She muttered.
Dawn sat down on the foldout bed and started on her homework. "Do you think we can ever put this bed back in the couch?" Dawn asked, looking up at Buffy who had just entered the room.
"Probably." The Slayer muttered and took a bite out of the apple she had in her hand.
Kellie looked over at Darry. "You sleep on a foldout bed?" She asked.
Darry glared at Kellie. "Well, there's really not a lot of space in the house you'll probably have to sleep outside." Darry retorted.
Dawn looked over at them. "Kellie can sleep in my room." She suggested. "On the floor or something." She added.
Kellie shrugged. "Sounds good to me." She said and smiled smugly at Darry.
Buffy decided to break in before the living room turned into a "Jerry Springer" episode. "Darry, why don't you go help Willow in the kitchen?" Buffy suggested. Darry shrugged and walked into the kitchen, where Willow was cooking dinner. Buffy turned to Kellie. "I think we have a sleeping bag in the basement, why don't we go get it." Buffy said.
Kellie and Buffy headed into the basement; Buffy flicked on the basement light and scanned the basement, which still showed signs of water left behind from the busted pipe. Kellie looked around.
"Did your basement flood?" Kellie asked as she walked down the stairs and stepped in a puddle of water. The busted pipe still dripped, even though Buffy and Anya had tried to repair it with duck-tape.
"Long story." Buffy muttered and walked over to one of the shelves. She began searching for the sleeping bag. Kellie walked up behind her.
"I think I see it." Kellie said and pointed to the very top of the shelf.
Buffy looked up and saw that Kellie was right; the sleeping bag was rested on the top shelf, its bright blue fibber wasn't hard to miss.
"I'll get it." Buffy said and began to climb the shelf, which was rather tall.
Buffy reached the top and placed her foot on a bunch of board games with rotted cardboard covers. The games were just barely out of Kellie's reach (so the shelf wasn't too tall). Buffy made sure she had a secure footing and reached up for the sleeping bag.
"Ooh the game of Life!" Kellie exclaimed. "I love this game." She added and reached for the game under Buffy's foot. She pulled the game lose, causing Buffy to lose her footing.
The Slayer let out a cry of surprise as she felt herself slip. She grabbed a hold of the sleeping bag, as though to steady herself, but she and the sleeping bag toppled from the shelf. Buffy landed with a thud at Kellie's feet. The surprised girl looked down at Buffy, still holding the game.
"Sorry." Kellie muttered.
Buffy groaned and sat up; Kellie didn't look like she was going to be an easy person to get along with.

At the dinner table, everyone was seated and halfway through the meal that Willow and Darry had made. Kellie was seated beside her cousin and Dawn, who was ranting on about how horrible the school lunch was even though she brought her own lunch everyday.
After dinner, Darry volunteered to do the dishes and decided that Kellie should help her, a little cousin bonding.
Kellie carried the dishes over to the sink, where Darry was running water over them.
"Your friend Buffy, she's really strong." Kellie remarked as she handed Darry a plate.
"Yeah. Why do you say that?" Darry asked and turned to Kellie.
"Well, I kinda knocked her off a shelf in the basement and she fell but it was like it didn't matter. Like, she landed in a pile of feathers and not on a concrete floor. She just got up and shrugged it off." Kellie answered, drying off a cup and putting it in the cabinet.
Darry bit her lip as she thought for a minute on what to tell Kellie. "Yeah well, she's real thick skinned. Um, hard boned; you know, nothing keeps her down." Darry said and shut the water off.
Kellie shrugged and put the dishes in the cabinet. "Sure, I guess." Kellie muttered. She turned to Darry. "Are we done her, I'm feeling kinda beat." Kellie said. "I'm gonna head up to bed." She added.
Without a backward glance, Kellie headed out of the kitchen and up the stairs toward Dawn's room. Darry watched her cousin leave.

Buffy slipped out of her room and sunk quietly past Dawn's room, hoping not to disturb Kellie. Buffy shouldered her Slayer's Bag and slipped downstairs.
In Dawn's room, Dawn slept silently with an open schoolbook nestled in her hand. Kellie, however, was wide-awake, finding it hard to fall asleep in a strange place. It wasn't fair that the government took her house away, the house that she had lived in since she was little. Just because she couldn't pay the rent or mortgage or whatever it was called was no reason to take it away. And to force her to come here, to Sunnydale, to live with her psycho cousin and her psycho friends.
Speaking of psychos, Kellie heard the door open and close in a room down the hall. Then she heard the footfalls that were hoped to be silent. Kellie sat up and climbed out of her sleeping bag and crept quietly toward the door and peered out. She saw Buffy disappear down the stairs and head out through the kitchen door.
'Where is she going?' Kellie wondered as she slipped out of her own room. She slunk down the stairs and past Darry, who was asleep on the couch. Quietly, Kellie followed Buffy out of the house and hid in the bushes as she watched Buffy take something out of the bag on her shoulder. After looking left and right, Buffy finally went to the left, jogging at a slow pace.
Kellie crawled out of the bushes and followed Buffy, taking care to not be seen.

Buffy walked along, clutching the stake in her hand. It was sort of a 'just in case' thing; just in case she ran into Spike. Buffy wasn't afraid of Spike but she also didn't want to be caught off her guard. However, there was the sound of snapping brush to her right and the Slayer figured she have to use the stake a lot sooner.
Buffy was right; a vampire leapt out of the underbrush at her, its fangs were bared and its claws poised. Buffy dodged the vampire's attack and punched it across the jaw. She heard the rewarding crack of bone and knew that she had broken the vampire's jaw. The vampire reeled backward but wasn't off its guard for very long. It leapt at Buffy and drove her into a tree. Buffy kicked the vampire and drove it backward; the vampire fell to ground. Buffy drove the stake into the vampire's heart and watched as it disappeared in a shower of dust.
Buffy sighed and stood up, stuffing the stake into her pocket.

Kellie watched in amazement as Buffy drove a wooden stick (it looked like) into the heart of a man. Well, Kellie figured that it wasn't a 'man' but it walked and a looked like a human. However, Kellie could tell that it wasn't human. Especially since the thing disappeared in a shower of dust. Buffy put the stick in her pocket and turned around. Kellie slowly stood up out of the bush.
Buffy was surprised to see that someone had been following her and not just any someone. It was Kellie; Kellie had a surprised look on her face, or more a look of confusion.
"What are you doing out here?" Buffy asked, walking over to Kellie. "Do you know how late it is?" She added.
Kellie shook her head and then shrugged. "I was going to ask you the same thing." She said, attempting to make herself not look as guilty.
"You were following me? Spying on me?" Buffy asked.
"No." Kellie said. "I heard you leave and I just…yeah okay I was following you. What are you doing? What was that thing, the one that exploded?" Kellie asked.
Buffy frowned and tried to think of what to say; sooner or later Kellie was going to figure out what she was. Apparently, it was sooner then Buffy had expected.
"Kellie, it's a long story. Let's go back to the house and I'll explain." Buffy muttered. Kellie followed Buffy back to house, wondering exactly how Buffy would explain what she had just seen.