Chapter Three
Buffy crept through the cemetery. She was trailing a vamp from the Bronze. She shook her head. Sunnydale teens needed industrial strength therapy. They continued to go to the Bronze even though it was apparently like Studio 54 for vamps. She was just walking by a fresh grave when a pair of hands clawed out of it.
"Oh, I so do not have time for this," Buffy whispered. She glanced up and sighted the vamp she was following. She grumbled to herself and reached down a hand to help the vampire up out of his grave. If she was going to stay on the stalker track she needed to get this done fast.
"Wow, thanks. Not real sure how I got there but man am I hungry," the newbie vamp said as he brushed dirt off his burial suit.
"No problem and I'm really sorry but I'm kind of trying to follow this guy," Buffy said as she plunged her stake into the newbie's chest.
"What? O-"the newbie was cut off as he dusted.
Buffy looked around the now empty cemetery. "Crap," she muttered and took off at a run trying to catch a glimpse of the stalkie again.
*
The next morning Buffy sat on the table in the library swinging her legs. She let out a jaw cracking yawn. "You know, not fair I have to be here earlier then anyone else. I don't think you appreciate my plight Giles. I'm here before the nerds," Buffy said.
Giles regarded the girl carefully. She had a natural ability far beyond what he'd ever read or seen but she also had a complete disregard for her duty, something that was his job to remedy. "Buffy, I know having a destiny is a great strain on your social life but really if the council seers had done their job properly you would have been taken from your parents at a young age and I would have raised you. A school life and social life would not have been an issue as it is we have a lot of lost time to try and gain. If you would get serious about your job it would make mine much easier."
"Geez, and just when I think life has reached ultimate suckage," Buffy grumbled. "I'm here, Giles what more do you want?" She struggled not to raise her voice.
"What I want is a slayer that realizes what her duty is and takes it as seriously as it should be. We live on a Hellmouth. You have a responsibility to save the world and the citizens of Sunnydale, however oblivious they may be. I'd say that ranks a bit higher on the priority scale then your sleep or your social standing in this school," Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them with his shirt as he fought to regain his composure.
Buffy blinked back tears. She would not let him see her cry. "Yeah, okay, sacred duty. I get it, it sucks beyond belief but I get. So I trailed a vamp last night from the Bronze. I lost him in the cemetery when I had to stake a newbie. He just disappeared. He was out in the open and then he was gone."
"You think he apparated?" Giles asked.
"Appa-what?" Buffy said.
"Used majick to teleport somewhere else," Giles tried to explain in words this American teenager would understand.
"Oh, I don't think so. I mean maybe but they don't do that very often do they?" Buffy said.
"No, teleportation is a very powerful spell used only by skilled sorcerers. It's not likely," Giles said.
"Then why did you ask? Is this a slayer quiz because contrary to popular belief I did not just grow smarter in the last five minutes. I don't know your answers now and it's highly unlikely I ever will," Buffy snapped.
Giles sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew being a watcher to an active slayer would be difficult but he had no idea. "You say you were in the cemetery when it happened. Were you close to the gates or any place that the vampire might have gone?"
"No, well close to some crypts but I checked them out. He wasn't there," Buffy said.
"Alright, perhaps after school you and I will visit the cemetery and see if we can ascertain where the vampire might have gone by the light of day," Giles said.
"Oh boy, I can't wait," Buffy grumbled. Giles shot her a look. "No need to say it, I'm Serious Buffy who is now going to Serious English class," Buffy swept up her book back and trudged out of the library.
Giles and Buffy walked through the cemetery in the bright Southern California sun. There was only one more crypt to look in. The others hadn't had any exits other then the obvious one. Buffy ducked into the darkness and paused a moment, giving her eyes time to adjust. Giles was right behind her. He turned on the high powered flashlight he carried.
The flashlight played over the floor. After a bit of shuffling around in the dust, the light played on a seam in the floor that didn't match up. Buffy crouched while Giles held the flashlight steady. She played her fingers over the seam and found a notch. She lifted up on the notch and a large square of the floor came loose, revealing a passage downward. Buffy held out her hand for the flashlight. Giles slapped it into her palm.
"Okay, I'm going to go down and check it out. You go wait outside in the sunlight. I'll be right back," Buffy said as she jumped down the hole in the floor.
"Do be careful," Giles said.
"Don't worry, if I'm not you'll get another one," Buffy whispered to herself. She tread silently along the sewer tunnels. The evil creeped and crawled over her skin like a thousand insects and she shivered with it. She pulled her stake out of the back of her waistband and held it ready. She didn't exactly expect to find anything but when evil was a palatable thing in the air, it was a good policy to be ready.
Buffy stepped through a tunnel. She could hear the echo of soft voices and see the flicker of candlelight on the far wall just around a corner. She knew what lay around the corner and she also knew she had better get out of there into the first patch of daylight she could find.
Buffy turned and ran, not caring that they heard her, not caring about anything but making it out of that lair alive. She scrambled up the first ladder leading to the surface she could find. She could hear the vamps behind her. They gave up the chase when she pushed aside the manhole cover and drenched herself in a shaft of sunlight. Buffy ran all the way back to the graveyard. Giles looked up alarmed as he saw her running toward him.
"Good Lord, Buffy what happened?" Giles asked.
Buffy held up a hand. She sat back on a tombstone and took some deep breaths. She was pale and shaky. "I found it, the Master's lair."
"Are you quite alright?" Giles asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. He-it just gave me the wiggins. I know where it is though," Buffy said.
"Very well then, I'm going to return to do some research and we'll formulate a plan when I know something," Giles said.
"I'm going to go home and do the dutiful daughter thing. Oh and that homework stuff they keep telling me I have to do to pass," Buffy said with a tired sigh.
"Don't forget patrol," Giles said as he walked off.
"Nah, don't worry, just pile it all on. I can take it. I'm the slayer," Buffy said to his retreating back.
She sat, watching Giles disappear from sight. She closed her eyes and sagged against the tombstone. "Sometimes, though, I'm just a girl," she whispered to herself as the tears spilled over and dripped down her cheek.
Buffy walked in the front door and set her book bag down. "Hey, Mom, I'm home," she yelled out.
"In the kitchen, Buffy!"
Buffy walked into the kitchen. Joyce was there finishing up dinner. She smiled. "How was your day?"
Buffy put on the bright, perky Buffy smile and said "It was good."
"No problems at school then?" Joyce asked. She was still leery of Buffy's behavior at school. Burning down a high school gym tended to do that to parents.
"Nope, nada, sufficiently boring and normal," Buffy said. "What's for dinner?"
"Chicken casserole," Joyce answered.
"Yum," Buffy said even though she wasn't remotely hungry. "How's the gallery going?"
"It's good. You wouldn't believe how much work a small place like that takes though," Joyce pulled the casserole out of the oven and carried it to the table. Buffy followed her with plates and silverware. They sat down and filled their plates.
"Buffy, Mr. Deans called me today. He said you were dallying in history," Joyce said.
Buffy pushed some food around on her plate and shrugged. "I'm trying; I mean you know history has always been one of my weak points. I'm trying to get in extra study time with Willow."
"I know you're trying. You've been spending so much time at the library since we moved here and I'm proud of you, Buffy. You need to try just a little harder and I'm sure you'll do fine," Joyce said.
Buffy nodded brightly and pushed some more food around on her plate. She kept her eyes down on her food. If she looked up at her mom the dam was going to break and she would start blubbering about slaying and school and secrets being too much to handle and she was just a girl, a sixteen year old girl who couldn't share the oogly booglys of her life with anybody. She had face all the things that go bump in the night completely alone. It was beginning to get to her and she understood why slayers didn't live very long. It wasn't the vamps or the demons that killed them, it was the living.
The rest of dinner was silent. When Joyce got up, Buffy followed her, carrying a mostly full plate.
"I'm gonna go study with Willow," Buffy said.
"Alright honey, I'm so glad you're trying to make a go of it here. Are you sure you're alright? You didn't eat much dinner," Joyce said.
"Yeah, I'm just-not hungry. I'll see you later, don't wait up," Buffy dashed out of the house snagging up her book bag as she went. She deposited the book bag in the bushes next to the house and pulled her stake out of her pocket. Once she was out of sight of the house she slowed her dash to a meandering walk. If a girl had to be out in the night at least she could enjoy the air.
Buffy ducked into an alley near the Bronze. She was surprised to find apartments here, some of them subterranean. She wrinkled her nose. It was an odd place to live. This place held that strange feeling of déjà vu she'd been experiencing ever since coming to Sunnydale, like she ought to know this place. She paused in front of a door and laid her hand, palm down, on it. She rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. Tears rushed in hot and fresh. This place felt real and familiar and so much like home it made her ache inside. She slid down the door, sobs racking her body.
She didn't know how long she sat there before the door opened. She jumped back and to her feet, humiliated. She glanced up at the middle aged man with the balding head and beer gut. He stared at her with watery, bloodshot blue eyes.
"You okay, Girly?" He asked.
Buffy smiled slightly, embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry, I-someone-someone I miss used to live here," she struggled to come up with a reason that sounded convincing.
The man looked at her oddly and shook his head. He shut the door almost in her face. Buffy wiped her face with the sleeves of her light weight sweater and sniffled. It was odd but for some reason the lie she'd told the man rang true to her, even though she knew she had never known anyone in Sunnydale before she moved here and she'd never known anyone who lived in this apartment and you certainly couldn't miss someone you'd never met.
Buffy wrapped her fingers around her stake and continued her patrol, making her way to Weatherly Park, a popular hangout for teenagers and there for vamps.
As luck would have it, there were no vamps out on the one night she needed something to pummel so she took it out on an innocent tree. She pummeled until sweat beaded on her skin and her breath came in harsh, sucking gasps. When she finally stepped back from the tree, her knuckles were cut and bleeding from the rough bark and she didn't feel any better.
"Stressed?" a voice came from the shadows.
Buffy jumped and whirled in the direction of the voice, stake at hand, raised and ready.
"Whoa, you can put that down. I came to help," a girl stepped from the shadows. She had black hair and heavy makeup. She was dressed in leather and jeans. There were numerous piercings and that was just on her face.
Buffy arched an eyebrow at her, "Help?"
"Yeah, you're new to Sunnydale High, aren't you?" the girl asked.
"I've been here a few weeks but yeah, kind of," Buffy said still tense and wary.
"I'm Sheila," the girl thumbed a cigarette out of the pack and lit it. "You want one? Help you relax."
Buffy laughed and it was a bitter, echoing sound. "Sure, why not? Gonna die young anyway, can't hurt."
"I hear you, live fast, die young," Sheila slipped a lighter from her pocket. She offered the cigarette pack to Buffy. Buffy slid one out of the package and let Shelia light it.
"You were doing some serious damage to that tree," Sheila said. She sounded appreciative.
"I've-got some issues to work out, I guess," Buffy said.
Sheila snorted and sucked on the cigarette. "Don't we all."
Buffy mimicked Sheila's actions, inhaling deeply on the cigarette. She bent over double coughing.
"Easy there, Tiger. Shallow puffs for awhile, 'til you get used to it," Shelia pounded her on the back. She turned and walked back toward the shadows. She paused and turned to Buffy. "You coming?"
Buffy shrugged. Why the hell not? It wasn't like the vamps were rampaging tonight anyway and Sheila didn't pretend it was a bright happy world. She had issues too, probably not the same issues Buffy did but issues were issues and knowing someone else was dealing somehow comforted her.
Back in the shadows of the trees, Sheila was sitting on the ground. Buffy glanced around her. "You know, this a prime hunting spot for va- vicious muggers. You really should be careful," Buffy said.
"I saw you pummeling that tree, looked like you could take care of yourself and I know I can. Want a beer?" Sheila held aloft four cans of beer tied together with the little plastic rings. "Tastes like piss but it helps the pain go away," Sheila promised.
Buffy grabbed one and popped the top on it. She chugged the bitter, luke warm liquid. She'd had beer a time or two in LA and she didn't care for it, but enough of it and Sheila was right, all the pain would go away.
"So why you being so nice to me?" Buffy asked after she'd emptied the beer and started on a second.
Sheila shrugged. "I've seen you at school. You look like Miss Priss but you don't fit in. You're tryin but it's like the square peg and the round hole. It's interesting. Don't know why the hell you wanna fit in with those losers," she said as she blew a ring of smoke in the air.
Buffy shrugged.
"Ain't never gonna happen. There's girls like that and then there's girls that aren't like that. We may not be two of a kind, but we ain't never gonna be Cordelia Chase or Harmony Kendall. We'll always be outcasts, Buffy. We'll always be alone," Sheila sounded hard, bitter and much older then her sixteen years.
Buffy took a swig of beer and puffed on her cigarette. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just stop trying to be a normal girl. I won't ever be one, no matter how hard I try."
Sheila nodded and fell quiet. Buffy blew smoke in the air and watched it drift away on the wind. This is where she belonged, in the darkness with all the other freaks. She was surprised to find it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but then that could be the beer talking.
Buffy crept through the cemetery. She was trailing a vamp from the Bronze. She shook her head. Sunnydale teens needed industrial strength therapy. They continued to go to the Bronze even though it was apparently like Studio 54 for vamps. She was just walking by a fresh grave when a pair of hands clawed out of it.
"Oh, I so do not have time for this," Buffy whispered. She glanced up and sighted the vamp she was following. She grumbled to herself and reached down a hand to help the vampire up out of his grave. If she was going to stay on the stalker track she needed to get this done fast.
"Wow, thanks. Not real sure how I got there but man am I hungry," the newbie vamp said as he brushed dirt off his burial suit.
"No problem and I'm really sorry but I'm kind of trying to follow this guy," Buffy said as she plunged her stake into the newbie's chest.
"What? O-"the newbie was cut off as he dusted.
Buffy looked around the now empty cemetery. "Crap," she muttered and took off at a run trying to catch a glimpse of the stalkie again.
*
The next morning Buffy sat on the table in the library swinging her legs. She let out a jaw cracking yawn. "You know, not fair I have to be here earlier then anyone else. I don't think you appreciate my plight Giles. I'm here before the nerds," Buffy said.
Giles regarded the girl carefully. She had a natural ability far beyond what he'd ever read or seen but she also had a complete disregard for her duty, something that was his job to remedy. "Buffy, I know having a destiny is a great strain on your social life but really if the council seers had done their job properly you would have been taken from your parents at a young age and I would have raised you. A school life and social life would not have been an issue as it is we have a lot of lost time to try and gain. If you would get serious about your job it would make mine much easier."
"Geez, and just when I think life has reached ultimate suckage," Buffy grumbled. "I'm here, Giles what more do you want?" She struggled not to raise her voice.
"What I want is a slayer that realizes what her duty is and takes it as seriously as it should be. We live on a Hellmouth. You have a responsibility to save the world and the citizens of Sunnydale, however oblivious they may be. I'd say that ranks a bit higher on the priority scale then your sleep or your social standing in this school," Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them with his shirt as he fought to regain his composure.
Buffy blinked back tears. She would not let him see her cry. "Yeah, okay, sacred duty. I get it, it sucks beyond belief but I get. So I trailed a vamp last night from the Bronze. I lost him in the cemetery when I had to stake a newbie. He just disappeared. He was out in the open and then he was gone."
"You think he apparated?" Giles asked.
"Appa-what?" Buffy said.
"Used majick to teleport somewhere else," Giles tried to explain in words this American teenager would understand.
"Oh, I don't think so. I mean maybe but they don't do that very often do they?" Buffy said.
"No, teleportation is a very powerful spell used only by skilled sorcerers. It's not likely," Giles said.
"Then why did you ask? Is this a slayer quiz because contrary to popular belief I did not just grow smarter in the last five minutes. I don't know your answers now and it's highly unlikely I ever will," Buffy snapped.
Giles sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew being a watcher to an active slayer would be difficult but he had no idea. "You say you were in the cemetery when it happened. Were you close to the gates or any place that the vampire might have gone?"
"No, well close to some crypts but I checked them out. He wasn't there," Buffy said.
"Alright, perhaps after school you and I will visit the cemetery and see if we can ascertain where the vampire might have gone by the light of day," Giles said.
"Oh boy, I can't wait," Buffy grumbled. Giles shot her a look. "No need to say it, I'm Serious Buffy who is now going to Serious English class," Buffy swept up her book back and trudged out of the library.
Giles and Buffy walked through the cemetery in the bright Southern California sun. There was only one more crypt to look in. The others hadn't had any exits other then the obvious one. Buffy ducked into the darkness and paused a moment, giving her eyes time to adjust. Giles was right behind her. He turned on the high powered flashlight he carried.
The flashlight played over the floor. After a bit of shuffling around in the dust, the light played on a seam in the floor that didn't match up. Buffy crouched while Giles held the flashlight steady. She played her fingers over the seam and found a notch. She lifted up on the notch and a large square of the floor came loose, revealing a passage downward. Buffy held out her hand for the flashlight. Giles slapped it into her palm.
"Okay, I'm going to go down and check it out. You go wait outside in the sunlight. I'll be right back," Buffy said as she jumped down the hole in the floor.
"Do be careful," Giles said.
"Don't worry, if I'm not you'll get another one," Buffy whispered to herself. She tread silently along the sewer tunnels. The evil creeped and crawled over her skin like a thousand insects and she shivered with it. She pulled her stake out of the back of her waistband and held it ready. She didn't exactly expect to find anything but when evil was a palatable thing in the air, it was a good policy to be ready.
Buffy stepped through a tunnel. She could hear the echo of soft voices and see the flicker of candlelight on the far wall just around a corner. She knew what lay around the corner and she also knew she had better get out of there into the first patch of daylight she could find.
Buffy turned and ran, not caring that they heard her, not caring about anything but making it out of that lair alive. She scrambled up the first ladder leading to the surface she could find. She could hear the vamps behind her. They gave up the chase when she pushed aside the manhole cover and drenched herself in a shaft of sunlight. Buffy ran all the way back to the graveyard. Giles looked up alarmed as he saw her running toward him.
"Good Lord, Buffy what happened?" Giles asked.
Buffy held up a hand. She sat back on a tombstone and took some deep breaths. She was pale and shaky. "I found it, the Master's lair."
"Are you quite alright?" Giles asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. He-it just gave me the wiggins. I know where it is though," Buffy said.
"Very well then, I'm going to return to do some research and we'll formulate a plan when I know something," Giles said.
"I'm going to go home and do the dutiful daughter thing. Oh and that homework stuff they keep telling me I have to do to pass," Buffy said with a tired sigh.
"Don't forget patrol," Giles said as he walked off.
"Nah, don't worry, just pile it all on. I can take it. I'm the slayer," Buffy said to his retreating back.
She sat, watching Giles disappear from sight. She closed her eyes and sagged against the tombstone. "Sometimes, though, I'm just a girl," she whispered to herself as the tears spilled over and dripped down her cheek.
Buffy walked in the front door and set her book bag down. "Hey, Mom, I'm home," she yelled out.
"In the kitchen, Buffy!"
Buffy walked into the kitchen. Joyce was there finishing up dinner. She smiled. "How was your day?"
Buffy put on the bright, perky Buffy smile and said "It was good."
"No problems at school then?" Joyce asked. She was still leery of Buffy's behavior at school. Burning down a high school gym tended to do that to parents.
"Nope, nada, sufficiently boring and normal," Buffy said. "What's for dinner?"
"Chicken casserole," Joyce answered.
"Yum," Buffy said even though she wasn't remotely hungry. "How's the gallery going?"
"It's good. You wouldn't believe how much work a small place like that takes though," Joyce pulled the casserole out of the oven and carried it to the table. Buffy followed her with plates and silverware. They sat down and filled their plates.
"Buffy, Mr. Deans called me today. He said you were dallying in history," Joyce said.
Buffy pushed some food around on her plate and shrugged. "I'm trying; I mean you know history has always been one of my weak points. I'm trying to get in extra study time with Willow."
"I know you're trying. You've been spending so much time at the library since we moved here and I'm proud of you, Buffy. You need to try just a little harder and I'm sure you'll do fine," Joyce said.
Buffy nodded brightly and pushed some more food around on her plate. She kept her eyes down on her food. If she looked up at her mom the dam was going to break and she would start blubbering about slaying and school and secrets being too much to handle and she was just a girl, a sixteen year old girl who couldn't share the oogly booglys of her life with anybody. She had face all the things that go bump in the night completely alone. It was beginning to get to her and she understood why slayers didn't live very long. It wasn't the vamps or the demons that killed them, it was the living.
The rest of dinner was silent. When Joyce got up, Buffy followed her, carrying a mostly full plate.
"I'm gonna go study with Willow," Buffy said.
"Alright honey, I'm so glad you're trying to make a go of it here. Are you sure you're alright? You didn't eat much dinner," Joyce said.
"Yeah, I'm just-not hungry. I'll see you later, don't wait up," Buffy dashed out of the house snagging up her book bag as she went. She deposited the book bag in the bushes next to the house and pulled her stake out of her pocket. Once she was out of sight of the house she slowed her dash to a meandering walk. If a girl had to be out in the night at least she could enjoy the air.
Buffy ducked into an alley near the Bronze. She was surprised to find apartments here, some of them subterranean. She wrinkled her nose. It was an odd place to live. This place held that strange feeling of déjà vu she'd been experiencing ever since coming to Sunnydale, like she ought to know this place. She paused in front of a door and laid her hand, palm down, on it. She rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. Tears rushed in hot and fresh. This place felt real and familiar and so much like home it made her ache inside. She slid down the door, sobs racking her body.
She didn't know how long she sat there before the door opened. She jumped back and to her feet, humiliated. She glanced up at the middle aged man with the balding head and beer gut. He stared at her with watery, bloodshot blue eyes.
"You okay, Girly?" He asked.
Buffy smiled slightly, embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry, I-someone-someone I miss used to live here," she struggled to come up with a reason that sounded convincing.
The man looked at her oddly and shook his head. He shut the door almost in her face. Buffy wiped her face with the sleeves of her light weight sweater and sniffled. It was odd but for some reason the lie she'd told the man rang true to her, even though she knew she had never known anyone in Sunnydale before she moved here and she'd never known anyone who lived in this apartment and you certainly couldn't miss someone you'd never met.
Buffy wrapped her fingers around her stake and continued her patrol, making her way to Weatherly Park, a popular hangout for teenagers and there for vamps.
As luck would have it, there were no vamps out on the one night she needed something to pummel so she took it out on an innocent tree. She pummeled until sweat beaded on her skin and her breath came in harsh, sucking gasps. When she finally stepped back from the tree, her knuckles were cut and bleeding from the rough bark and she didn't feel any better.
"Stressed?" a voice came from the shadows.
Buffy jumped and whirled in the direction of the voice, stake at hand, raised and ready.
"Whoa, you can put that down. I came to help," a girl stepped from the shadows. She had black hair and heavy makeup. She was dressed in leather and jeans. There were numerous piercings and that was just on her face.
Buffy arched an eyebrow at her, "Help?"
"Yeah, you're new to Sunnydale High, aren't you?" the girl asked.
"I've been here a few weeks but yeah, kind of," Buffy said still tense and wary.
"I'm Sheila," the girl thumbed a cigarette out of the pack and lit it. "You want one? Help you relax."
Buffy laughed and it was a bitter, echoing sound. "Sure, why not? Gonna die young anyway, can't hurt."
"I hear you, live fast, die young," Sheila slipped a lighter from her pocket. She offered the cigarette pack to Buffy. Buffy slid one out of the package and let Shelia light it.
"You were doing some serious damage to that tree," Sheila said. She sounded appreciative.
"I've-got some issues to work out, I guess," Buffy said.
Sheila snorted and sucked on the cigarette. "Don't we all."
Buffy mimicked Sheila's actions, inhaling deeply on the cigarette. She bent over double coughing.
"Easy there, Tiger. Shallow puffs for awhile, 'til you get used to it," Shelia pounded her on the back. She turned and walked back toward the shadows. She paused and turned to Buffy. "You coming?"
Buffy shrugged. Why the hell not? It wasn't like the vamps were rampaging tonight anyway and Sheila didn't pretend it was a bright happy world. She had issues too, probably not the same issues Buffy did but issues were issues and knowing someone else was dealing somehow comforted her.
Back in the shadows of the trees, Sheila was sitting on the ground. Buffy glanced around her. "You know, this a prime hunting spot for va- vicious muggers. You really should be careful," Buffy said.
"I saw you pummeling that tree, looked like you could take care of yourself and I know I can. Want a beer?" Sheila held aloft four cans of beer tied together with the little plastic rings. "Tastes like piss but it helps the pain go away," Sheila promised.
Buffy grabbed one and popped the top on it. She chugged the bitter, luke warm liquid. She'd had beer a time or two in LA and she didn't care for it, but enough of it and Sheila was right, all the pain would go away.
"So why you being so nice to me?" Buffy asked after she'd emptied the beer and started on a second.
Sheila shrugged. "I've seen you at school. You look like Miss Priss but you don't fit in. You're tryin but it's like the square peg and the round hole. It's interesting. Don't know why the hell you wanna fit in with those losers," she said as she blew a ring of smoke in the air.
Buffy shrugged.
"Ain't never gonna happen. There's girls like that and then there's girls that aren't like that. We may not be two of a kind, but we ain't never gonna be Cordelia Chase or Harmony Kendall. We'll always be outcasts, Buffy. We'll always be alone," Sheila sounded hard, bitter and much older then her sixteen years.
Buffy took a swig of beer and puffed on her cigarette. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just stop trying to be a normal girl. I won't ever be one, no matter how hard I try."
Sheila nodded and fell quiet. Buffy blew smoke in the air and watched it drift away on the wind. This is where she belonged, in the darkness with all the other freaks. She was surprised to find it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but then that could be the beer talking.