"I don't want to go to school!" Dawn whined.
"Sweetie, school is important..."
Dawn refused point black about going to school the next day and anything Elisabeth would tell her wouldn't change her mind. She would get detention for have skipped class the day before, she was already lucky they hadn't phone the Elderberrys, for the simple reason they just "simply" didn't have a phone. On top of all that, she'd hadn't done any homework for two days, she would get killed by the teachers.
Dawn clutched the covers tight above her, not wanting to peek out from under them.
"Dawn, did something happen yesterday of which you would like to talk?" Elisabeth asked.
The something was a bit tooooooo big for Elisabeth to believe. The older woman would have looked at Dawn oddly if she told her that she'd been attacked by an orange demon, lost consciousness and woke up, about six to seven hours later somewhere else.
"No! Go away!" Dawn's muffled cry came out from under the covers.
"Is it because of a boy?" she asked curiously.
"No!"
"Have the children been picking on you?"
Dawn sat up and pulled the covers off her head. "If you count the teachers, the principal, actually the whole school!" she yelled in frustration. However, Dawn shrieked as the covers were snatched out her grip by Elisabeth and off the bed.
"Hey!" Dawn yelled.
"If you don't go back to school, they'll think you're a coward of some sort. There's much more worse than School you know," Elisabeth explained with a seriousness that made Dawn feel bad. She knew that the elder woman was right, Dawn herself had faced much worse, and now she was dreading a simple day of school. She supposed it couldn't get worse than the previous day.
Dawn sighted in defeat and got up.
"That's a good girl, you mustn't show your weaknesses to any of them."
¤¤¤
On the bus to school again, Dawn thought that Elisabeth couldn't be that bad. What ever she'd seen two nights ago in her eyes must have been a trick of the light, because she really was too nice, like Tara.
Dawn tried to relax and not think about the day to come, the detention, the side glancing, the whispering in her back, the teachers yelling...
"I said I wouldn't think about it!" she told herself.
Just like the previous day had started, the Goth Girl entered the bus at the next stop. Dawn hoped things wouldn't repeat themselves. Her prayer seemed to be ignored as the Goth stopped, again, next to Dawn's seat and looked at the Slayer's sister with an annoying smirk.
"Move," she simply said.
Dawn groaned and left her the seat. Her not being a coward, great move angelcake!
¤¤¤
The day went as planned: Dawn got her detention for the same day, she was ignored by the school's population, she got yelled at several times by a couple of teachers. However, Dawn discovered she had fried chicken for lunch, which was not all that unpleasant. Being not many places in the cafeteria, Dawn just sat anywhere not bothering to try to be near the girls of her class this time. The anywhere was actually in front of the guy that had arrived in French class full of muck.
"Hey," Dawn greeted with a forced cheery smile.
His bangs of hair were in front of his eyes, but she got to see their grey colour when he so lightly looked up before concentrating back on his food.
¤
Connor had arrived at Hemery at eleven and was straight away pushed in the principal's office. He got a lecture about skipping school two days without any excuse. But what Rane really wanted to know was how Connor had escaped the place without going threw the front door or faking sickness.
Connor had said nothing and got a couple of hours of detention, which he decided he wouldn't go to. Really, he didn't need to waste his time doing lines or sitting in a confined place not doing anything. He was here to learn some knowledge of this world, which would maybe keep him alive, and not become the principal's sophomore.
However, right now, as he sat down to eat, he regretted about not coming back yesterday afternoon, the Principal and his "sentinels" were keeping a very tight eye on him. He actually forgot he had to go back to school the previous day. He'd roamed the streets of LA, thinking about what had happened with the "girl" Faith. It intrigued him more then anything else and only made him wish to see her again.
While he sitting down at a table in the cafeteria, he felt a strange presence approaching from behind. He fought the urge to turn around to look and in the process lose his cover. To his surprise, it sat just in front of him, but he hid it well, seeming untouched by it.
A small "Hey" came from the girl that had taken up the seat, forcing him to look up. It hadn't even been a second, but her image was printed in his mind. Rosy cheeks, big blue eyes, pink lips; his heart lurched forward.
Without lifting his head, he watched her open a brown paper bag and take out a plastic container, a fork, knife and a small bottle of water.
She smiled lightly when she opened the plastic container, and without realising, his own lips curved upwards in a small smile. He'd forgotten completely about his own food, and just watched her take a bit of chicken on her folk and daintily put it in her mouth.
Her brilliant blue eyes would look around before going back to her chicken.
Connor nearly jumped out of his seat when a hand came down and gripped his shoulder, taking him 'completely' by surprise this time. However, the person's odour told him straight away who it was. Connor growled silently.
"Connor!" Cheryl said in her shrill voice and pushed the small boy that had been sitting next to the Destroyer away to take his seat. "I can get you some money," she then told him more softly.
"I don't like when you do bets on me," Connor told her truthfully.
"Don't be broody, come on! I can get it real big this time," she whined. "I know you're in need of money..." she added.
Dawn tried to not stare, but well, she was rather a curious girl, and feigned listening to them.
"What is it this time?" Connor finally asked, sighing.
"There's this great big party, Friday night. You get to do a couple of acrobatic things and I'll pay you hundred dollars..."
Connor glanced at the girl in front of him, she was looking at them, and wasn't hiding it very well. Cheryl realised it too and did the first step to talk to her.
"Ya want to go to a party, Friday night?" she asked her.
"I..." the girl smelt unsure. "I don't know, I might be doing something that night, I... Yeah." Down finally said.
"That's a shame," Cheryl pouted.
"I mean 'yeah', I'd like to go," Dawn quickly added realising that she'd been babbling just seconds ago and had confused the older girl.
"Cheryl," Cheryl presented herself, giving her hand to shake at Dawn.
"Dawn," the Slayer's sister mumbled taking her hand. Cheryl took it in a tight grip and shook it hard, making Dawn wobble on her chair.
Cheryl then turned to the Destroyer, hitting him in the side of the arm. "This airhead is Connor."
"Airhead?" Connor asked, confused about the term. He had the slight impression it hadn't been used to praise him and it annoyed him as the girl, Dawn, chuckled slightly.
"Well, Dawn," Cheryl said getting up, "I'll tell you where the thing will be happening when I'll have managed to convince someone dumb enough to set it up... Connor, we meet after end of class, 'kay?"
Connor nodded. "I'll be skipping detention anyway."
Cheryl grinned as she turned around, her hair swinging as she skipped to the next table to chat.
Connor had had enough of the place and left while Dawn thanked her luck that she'd actually met someone that didn't mind her being the little sister of the girl that burnt down the gymnasium.
¤¤¤
Connor had found no way to get out at the lunch time break.
As he walked down to his locker, he felt the eyes of one of the "Sentinels" on his back. It would be a bit difficult getting out before his detention, but he knew he would finally manage one way or another to get a moment's peace and escape the place.
With this in mind, he made his way to class as the bell rang. It was Math and Connor inwardly cringed. He'd had had a beeper on himself in case if Angel or Gunn came up with a big fight in which they needed help from the Destroyer. The beeper had rung in class, giving message to Connor they needed him urgently. He'd given such a shock to Miss Drain when he'd jumped out of the window in a rush, from the second floor. That day had turned out pretty bad: he'd come back to school filthy with the exploded insides of a Graru Demon, all over and had to explain himself still light headed by the monster's poisoning stench, damping all his senses. He felt sorry for have frightened Miss Drain so much (she'd taken the rest of the day off because of nervous headaches, he'd heard). The woman was rather kind hearted and sometimes reminded Connor of Fred, always a bit sensitive.
When he entered the class, Miss Drain watched him sit down at the back of the class, her brows furrowed. Connor acted like he hadn't notice.
Then he felt it, the strange presence from midday. It glowed like a warning beckon, he couldn't have missed it and was rather uncomfortable when it entered the classroom.
¤
Dawn sat at the end of the class in the corner without window, and looked at the class.
There was the group of cheerleaders on the right, the footballers on their left. The girls would giggle and pass notes between themselves, and occasionally to the guys. Their hair was perfectly drawn back in a ponytail, they would so often take out a small mirror and put back some lipstick, or eye shadow.
Then, at the front were the teacher's pets, hanging to each word the adults would speak, all their pencils sharp, all their books looking as new.
Then at the far back were those who didn't pay a lot of attention to course, spent their time drawing and dreaming, or doing to minimum work possible. And just in front of these were those who followed the lesson the minimum required to get a B level.
Dawn was at the far back, how did she change her hierarchy to become one of the "not do so well". As far as she remembered she'd been better than Buffy in all her grades, but now she'd sunken so low as to not listen at all.
She'd prove them it wasn't by taking Dawn away from Buffy that they'd give her better grades. So Dawn lazed around, thinking about Buffy. If she couldn't telephone her, she might as well write to her.
Meanwhile, Dawn was completely obvious of Connor, who was scrutinising each of her movements.
When he blinked to get the moist back into to his eyes because he'd been watching her for so long, there was patch of light in the brief moment of darkness his eyes offered him, like if he'd glanced at the sun. It was all together strange, giving him a warm feeling. From what he'd observed of her, smelt and felt, she was anything but human giving him the conclusion that he had to be on his guard at all moments around her.
When the bell rang, he followed her in the corridors towards the west building, forgetting his plans of escape and meeting with Cheryl as he entered the detention class and sat down, resting his head on his backpack he'd put on his desk. And then, to his own surprise, closed his eyes and just felt for Dawn, the warm feeling and light breeze enveloping him. He hadn't felt more at rest than any other moment of his life.
¤¤¤¤¤
Woah!! They know each other's names!!! Ain't that cool!!! Fifth chapter and they know their names! Well, was it that bad? Connor had decided he wouldn't go to detention all day and finally ends up there. Oh, and they're got a party coming up! And Connor is starting to leave his guard down, getting all surprised and all. Is it a good thing? You'll find out soon enough.
"Sweetie, school is important..."
Dawn refused point black about going to school the next day and anything Elisabeth would tell her wouldn't change her mind. She would get detention for have skipped class the day before, she was already lucky they hadn't phone the Elderberrys, for the simple reason they just "simply" didn't have a phone. On top of all that, she'd hadn't done any homework for two days, she would get killed by the teachers.
Dawn clutched the covers tight above her, not wanting to peek out from under them.
"Dawn, did something happen yesterday of which you would like to talk?" Elisabeth asked.
The something was a bit tooooooo big for Elisabeth to believe. The older woman would have looked at Dawn oddly if she told her that she'd been attacked by an orange demon, lost consciousness and woke up, about six to seven hours later somewhere else.
"No! Go away!" Dawn's muffled cry came out from under the covers.
"Is it because of a boy?" she asked curiously.
"No!"
"Have the children been picking on you?"
Dawn sat up and pulled the covers off her head. "If you count the teachers, the principal, actually the whole school!" she yelled in frustration. However, Dawn shrieked as the covers were snatched out her grip by Elisabeth and off the bed.
"Hey!" Dawn yelled.
"If you don't go back to school, they'll think you're a coward of some sort. There's much more worse than School you know," Elisabeth explained with a seriousness that made Dawn feel bad. She knew that the elder woman was right, Dawn herself had faced much worse, and now she was dreading a simple day of school. She supposed it couldn't get worse than the previous day.
Dawn sighted in defeat and got up.
"That's a good girl, you mustn't show your weaknesses to any of them."
¤¤¤
On the bus to school again, Dawn thought that Elisabeth couldn't be that bad. What ever she'd seen two nights ago in her eyes must have been a trick of the light, because she really was too nice, like Tara.
Dawn tried to relax and not think about the day to come, the detention, the side glancing, the whispering in her back, the teachers yelling...
"I said I wouldn't think about it!" she told herself.
Just like the previous day had started, the Goth Girl entered the bus at the next stop. Dawn hoped things wouldn't repeat themselves. Her prayer seemed to be ignored as the Goth stopped, again, next to Dawn's seat and looked at the Slayer's sister with an annoying smirk.
"Move," she simply said.
Dawn groaned and left her the seat. Her not being a coward, great move angelcake!
¤¤¤
The day went as planned: Dawn got her detention for the same day, she was ignored by the school's population, she got yelled at several times by a couple of teachers. However, Dawn discovered she had fried chicken for lunch, which was not all that unpleasant. Being not many places in the cafeteria, Dawn just sat anywhere not bothering to try to be near the girls of her class this time. The anywhere was actually in front of the guy that had arrived in French class full of muck.
"Hey," Dawn greeted with a forced cheery smile.
His bangs of hair were in front of his eyes, but she got to see their grey colour when he so lightly looked up before concentrating back on his food.
¤
Connor had arrived at Hemery at eleven and was straight away pushed in the principal's office. He got a lecture about skipping school two days without any excuse. But what Rane really wanted to know was how Connor had escaped the place without going threw the front door or faking sickness.
Connor had said nothing and got a couple of hours of detention, which he decided he wouldn't go to. Really, he didn't need to waste his time doing lines or sitting in a confined place not doing anything. He was here to learn some knowledge of this world, which would maybe keep him alive, and not become the principal's sophomore.
However, right now, as he sat down to eat, he regretted about not coming back yesterday afternoon, the Principal and his "sentinels" were keeping a very tight eye on him. He actually forgot he had to go back to school the previous day. He'd roamed the streets of LA, thinking about what had happened with the "girl" Faith. It intrigued him more then anything else and only made him wish to see her again.
While he sitting down at a table in the cafeteria, he felt a strange presence approaching from behind. He fought the urge to turn around to look and in the process lose his cover. To his surprise, it sat just in front of him, but he hid it well, seeming untouched by it.
A small "Hey" came from the girl that had taken up the seat, forcing him to look up. It hadn't even been a second, but her image was printed in his mind. Rosy cheeks, big blue eyes, pink lips; his heart lurched forward.
Without lifting his head, he watched her open a brown paper bag and take out a plastic container, a fork, knife and a small bottle of water.
She smiled lightly when she opened the plastic container, and without realising, his own lips curved upwards in a small smile. He'd forgotten completely about his own food, and just watched her take a bit of chicken on her folk and daintily put it in her mouth.
Her brilliant blue eyes would look around before going back to her chicken.
Connor nearly jumped out of his seat when a hand came down and gripped his shoulder, taking him 'completely' by surprise this time. However, the person's odour told him straight away who it was. Connor growled silently.
"Connor!" Cheryl said in her shrill voice and pushed the small boy that had been sitting next to the Destroyer away to take his seat. "I can get you some money," she then told him more softly.
"I don't like when you do bets on me," Connor told her truthfully.
"Don't be broody, come on! I can get it real big this time," she whined. "I know you're in need of money..." she added.
Dawn tried to not stare, but well, she was rather a curious girl, and feigned listening to them.
"What is it this time?" Connor finally asked, sighing.
"There's this great big party, Friday night. You get to do a couple of acrobatic things and I'll pay you hundred dollars..."
Connor glanced at the girl in front of him, she was looking at them, and wasn't hiding it very well. Cheryl realised it too and did the first step to talk to her.
"Ya want to go to a party, Friday night?" she asked her.
"I..." the girl smelt unsure. "I don't know, I might be doing something that night, I... Yeah." Down finally said.
"That's a shame," Cheryl pouted.
"I mean 'yeah', I'd like to go," Dawn quickly added realising that she'd been babbling just seconds ago and had confused the older girl.
"Cheryl," Cheryl presented herself, giving her hand to shake at Dawn.
"Dawn," the Slayer's sister mumbled taking her hand. Cheryl took it in a tight grip and shook it hard, making Dawn wobble on her chair.
Cheryl then turned to the Destroyer, hitting him in the side of the arm. "This airhead is Connor."
"Airhead?" Connor asked, confused about the term. He had the slight impression it hadn't been used to praise him and it annoyed him as the girl, Dawn, chuckled slightly.
"Well, Dawn," Cheryl said getting up, "I'll tell you where the thing will be happening when I'll have managed to convince someone dumb enough to set it up... Connor, we meet after end of class, 'kay?"
Connor nodded. "I'll be skipping detention anyway."
Cheryl grinned as she turned around, her hair swinging as she skipped to the next table to chat.
Connor had had enough of the place and left while Dawn thanked her luck that she'd actually met someone that didn't mind her being the little sister of the girl that burnt down the gymnasium.
¤¤¤
Connor had found no way to get out at the lunch time break.
As he walked down to his locker, he felt the eyes of one of the "Sentinels" on his back. It would be a bit difficult getting out before his detention, but he knew he would finally manage one way or another to get a moment's peace and escape the place.
With this in mind, he made his way to class as the bell rang. It was Math and Connor inwardly cringed. He'd had had a beeper on himself in case if Angel or Gunn came up with a big fight in which they needed help from the Destroyer. The beeper had rung in class, giving message to Connor they needed him urgently. He'd given such a shock to Miss Drain when he'd jumped out of the window in a rush, from the second floor. That day had turned out pretty bad: he'd come back to school filthy with the exploded insides of a Graru Demon, all over and had to explain himself still light headed by the monster's poisoning stench, damping all his senses. He felt sorry for have frightened Miss Drain so much (she'd taken the rest of the day off because of nervous headaches, he'd heard). The woman was rather kind hearted and sometimes reminded Connor of Fred, always a bit sensitive.
When he entered the class, Miss Drain watched him sit down at the back of the class, her brows furrowed. Connor acted like he hadn't notice.
Then he felt it, the strange presence from midday. It glowed like a warning beckon, he couldn't have missed it and was rather uncomfortable when it entered the classroom.
¤
Dawn sat at the end of the class in the corner without window, and looked at the class.
There was the group of cheerleaders on the right, the footballers on their left. The girls would giggle and pass notes between themselves, and occasionally to the guys. Their hair was perfectly drawn back in a ponytail, they would so often take out a small mirror and put back some lipstick, or eye shadow.
Then, at the front were the teacher's pets, hanging to each word the adults would speak, all their pencils sharp, all their books looking as new.
Then at the far back were those who didn't pay a lot of attention to course, spent their time drawing and dreaming, or doing to minimum work possible. And just in front of these were those who followed the lesson the minimum required to get a B level.
Dawn was at the far back, how did she change her hierarchy to become one of the "not do so well". As far as she remembered she'd been better than Buffy in all her grades, but now she'd sunken so low as to not listen at all.
She'd prove them it wasn't by taking Dawn away from Buffy that they'd give her better grades. So Dawn lazed around, thinking about Buffy. If she couldn't telephone her, she might as well write to her.
Meanwhile, Dawn was completely obvious of Connor, who was scrutinising each of her movements.
When he blinked to get the moist back into to his eyes because he'd been watching her for so long, there was patch of light in the brief moment of darkness his eyes offered him, like if he'd glanced at the sun. It was all together strange, giving him a warm feeling. From what he'd observed of her, smelt and felt, she was anything but human giving him the conclusion that he had to be on his guard at all moments around her.
When the bell rang, he followed her in the corridors towards the west building, forgetting his plans of escape and meeting with Cheryl as he entered the detention class and sat down, resting his head on his backpack he'd put on his desk. And then, to his own surprise, closed his eyes and just felt for Dawn, the warm feeling and light breeze enveloping him. He hadn't felt more at rest than any other moment of his life.
¤¤¤¤¤
Woah!! They know each other's names!!! Ain't that cool!!! Fifth chapter and they know their names! Well, was it that bad? Connor had decided he wouldn't go to detention all day and finally ends up there. Oh, and they're got a party coming up! And Connor is starting to leave his guard down, getting all surprised and all. Is it a good thing? You'll find out soon enough.