Author's Note: thanks to rma, Nikitangel, SlayGal and Something Evil for reviewing! It makes me all tingly inside, lol :)

Chapter 7: From One Extreme To The Other

          It's two in the morning before Faith leaves Ms. Nelson's apartment and starts to walk back home. She has a lot of information to process but there is an unmistakably glow emanating from her. She has never felt this excited before. Never felt this needed.

          There is a song on her lips as she jogs up the front steps to her home. Once inside, she bumps the door closed with a swing of her hips and hangs her coat on the hook near the doorway. Dropping her keys on the kitchen table, she grabs a bottle of water from the refrigerator and picks up the cordless phone. She dials a number and puts the phone to her ear, holding it in place with her shoulder as she opens the bottle of water. She takes a sip as the line rings.

"Hello?" a bleary voice answers.

"Nick, it's Faith." She says, "Sorry to call so late but I just got back."

"No, its okay. You're just really lucky that my cell phone woke me up. It's not an easy task." He sounds a bit more awake now, "How'd it go?"

"It's real. It's all real!" She can hardly control her enthusiasm. "I went to the cemetery and…"

For the next ten minutes she tells him every detail of her night. Her story is punctuated with his exclamations. 'Really?' 'No way.' 'That's so cool.'

"Tomorrow after school I'm gonna go back to her apartment and I'm gonna start my training. I can't wait to use the weapons she's got."

She hears him yawn and looks up at the digital clock on the microwave.

"Oh damn. It's late… or early, actually. I'll talk to you in school, okay?"

"Yea, we'll talk at lunch. Good night." He yawns again.

"Night."

She hangs up the phone and places the half empty bottle of water back in the refrigerator. Switching off the light, she stretches her arms above her head as she takes the steps two at a time. When she finally crawls into bed, sleep is the last thing on her mind. She lies silently until the first rays of daylight seep through the edges of the closed curtains. Unable to stay in bed for any longer, she gets up and decides to take a shower. As she steps foot in the hallway she feels a sudden ache. She misses her mother.

Closing her eyes she fights against the memories that try to enter her mind. She takes long, deep breaths and a lone tear runs down her cheek. She braces herself against the wall, steadying herself because she knows that if she begins to cry her legs will buckle and she will hit the floor. Her emotions, unfortunately, have always gotten the better of her. Anger, frustration, happiness and love. They always go to the extreme.

Once when she was young she had asked her mother for a puppy. Her mother was never home and she wanted someone to spend the lonely hours with, but the cruel women had denied her a companion, brushing off the request without a second thought. Enraged, Faith had locked herself in her room and cried for hours. She had even knocked over her lamp, leaving it in pieces on the carpeted floor. Her mother had never even noticed. For over a week Faith avoided conversation and sent angry glares but her mother was too busy with work during the day and too busy drinking herself into oblivion at night to notice the pain of her daughter.

When she is sure a second tear will not follow the first, she stands up straight again. Forgetting the shower, she stumbles down the stairs wondering why she even cares that her mother is gone. Was life so great while she was here? No, it wasn't.

It's eight o'clock before she finally makes it to school. She's late and rushes up the stairs. She turns the dial and opens her locker in record time. I guess that's my slayer speed at work. The halls are already empty, first period has begun. The sound of her footsteps fill the hallway.

As she opens the door to room 312 her peers look up at her. They are thankful for this slight distraction from factoring and rational numbers. The teacher asks, "Do you have a late pass?" Faith shakes her head indicating that she doesn't have a pass, and quietly takes her seat in the back row. This is going to be a long day…

It seems as if a century has passed before she enters the cafeteria. She reaches into her pocket and realizes she has no money for lunch. I wasn't hungry anyway. From the corner of her eye she spots Nick at a table so she walks towards him, but before she reaches him a short blonde girl approaches the table. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she smiles at him. Faith stops a few feet away.

"You're in my chemistry class, right? Third period, room 318?" she asks.

"Yeah." He replies.

"I'm Ivy." She notices the girl has a pierced tongue.

"I'm Nick."

"Yea, I know." Ivy moves towards an empty chair, "Is this seat taken?"

"Actually, it is. I'm waiting for my friend."

Ivy's eyes are comically wide. She's probably never been turned down before. Faith can't help but laugh.

Hearing her, Nick turns around. "Hey Faith. I was wondering where you were."

Ivy places both hands on her hips. "You were waiting for her?" she makes a sound of disgust. "Whatever." She storms off and Faith wonders how she doesn't trip in those ridiculously high heels she's wearing.

Still laughing, she takes the seat across from Nick. When she turns to look at him she is surprised that he is staring at her.

"What?" she asks.

Quickly, he looks down. "Nothing."

A voice inside her head says He was checking you out! And she allows herself to revel in the compliment before her mind has time to come up with another explanation.

"So you're going to see her again tonight, right?" He takes a bite out of his pizza.

"Yea. Oh, did I tell you? I don't really have an aunt in Kentucky. The Watcher's Council, the guys in charge of this whole slayer thing, talked to Social Services and told them that Ms. Nelson was my aunt and that she was gonna move here to take care of me. They forged a bunch of papers and stuff, so it looks legal. And I can still stay at my house and Social Services won't bother me. The Council's got some pretty handy connections."

 Pretending to be sneaky, she reaches across the table and steals a fry from his plate. He watches her take the fry and glares at her, but keeps talking.

"Wow. I wouldn't wanna get on their bad side."

"You can say that again."

"Wow. I wouldn't wanna get on their bad side."