Disclaimer: In no way do I own any part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anyone who works on it, besides my Joss Whedon voo doo doll...err...um... my miniature figurine of someone who resembles Joss Whedon which is in no way used for any ancient ritualistic ceremonies.

A trailer somewhere in the middle of Rhode Island, or maybe Connecticut. That's really not important.

Xander is sitting at a table playing cards with three teen girls. One is talking incessentally, another is eyeing the chatty one murderously, and the final is looking a little scared. Willow is in the back showing a girl how to float pencils and Flem is up front driving. They're all heading to Pennsylvania, then back to California where all the slayers go now to be trained. The Scoobies had found an abandoned boarding house in a suburb of LA. There was a lot of demon action there. It was pretty nice. There was a lot of space and everyone got to pass on what they knew, so not only were these girls warriors, they had Giles to teach them about all the slayer history and what were demons' powers and the most efficient way of killing them, Willow showed them magic, and Flem was a shockingly good Home Ec teacher. The group decided the school should double as a, well, school. They knew it was imperitive to make sure the girls were given an education along with being taught to be slayers. So, during the day the girls were trained and taught and at night there was patrol. It all worked out.

Xander, Willow, and Flem were sent out to get the newest batch of recruits. The group took turns every weekend for who went out to find and try to explain to girls and their parents that they were superheroes and needed to be trained. It wasn't the most sought after weekend road trip. They were on their way to pick up the 5th and final recruit of this trip. They were headed to Pennsylvania to pick a 5-year old girl, named Allison. These were the hardest cases. They had to go pick up small children and move them away from their families and everything they knew. No one had an easy time explaining to someone they couldn't take care of their toddler, because their baby was chosen to grow up fighting horrible monsters and apocalypses. It was a tough thing to do. Luckily, Allison had been orphaned when she was a year old, so at least they wouldn't have to worry about parents. It was a sick thought. To feel lucky that a 5 year old will never remember her mom and dad.

The trailer pulls into the child services office in Allison's town around noon. A very tired Willow and Xander got out and walked in. Sitting in a desk around a pile of papers was a 50-something woman, who was Allison's social worker.

"Hello!" she said with a very large smile as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Maryann Carding, you must be here to discuss Allison."

"Yes, we are. I'm Ms. Rosenberg and this is Mr. Harris.

Xander let out a small snicker at being called Mr. Harris, but then instantly went back to pretending to be very composed.

"Well, I am so glad that such a school is interested in little Allison. She really is a sweetheart and SO even-tempered. She is just the perfect little lady. She just gets along with everyone! Oh, and I've heard such wonderful things about the Joyce Summer's Institute!" she oozed out with false enthusiasm.

Willow and Xander both let out small smiles. They had already read this girl's files. She was a little rule-breaker all over the place and no one knew anything about the school besides the people who went or taught there and their parents. She was probably just trying to make sure they didn't change their minds about taking the little devil out of her hands.

"But," said Ms. Carding, " it may take several weeks for you to actually take her."

Maybe they could make this go a tiny bit faster.

"Well, it seems that we may not be able to take her, then," said Willow.

"What?! I mean why not?" said an obviously panicky Ms. Carding.

"Well, we can't really stay here for more than an hour, and we already have another little girl in Tuscon lined up, but if you took her for a few weeks, since she is technically out of the system, we'd be by to take her then, or maybe a little later. Three months.. tops."

"Oh, um, it seems that I misplaced these papers and now I've found them! I'll just have to sign these right here and you can take her right now. She's in the back. I'll go get her now," Maryann Carding said as she ran at a truly astonishing speed into the back room.

When she came back she was holding the hand of a tiny girl with a little pink dress (that had been torn along the edges), tiny pink shoes (that had dirt all over them), and a small pink bow (in the girl's hand along with a clump of her hair).

''So this is Allison,'' said Willow and Xander.

''This is Allison,'' Ms. Carding repeated.