Chapter 1:

Buffy Summers sat about four rows back in the lecture theatre. She was listening intently as she jotted down notes on the works of Jane Austen. It was a British Literature class, it was one of her favourite classes and Austen was one of her favourite authors. The class was one that was essential to her degree. She was studying English literature at UCLA, and was only a couple of months away from graduating. And since so much influential literature came from British authors, it was one of the last compulsory classes she had to take before graduating. She looked up from her notebook as the professor started handing outr the final essay assignment. When the handouts reached her, she took one and automatically put it inside her notebook to read later. When everyone had the assignment the professor dismissed the class. Buffy stood up and put her things in her book bag.

She walked out of the room to find her friends already waiting for her

"Hey Wills, Tara" she greeted them witha smile

"Hey" they replied together

"You guys have anymore classes?"Buffy asked

"Nope" Willow answered shaking her head

"Cool, wanna go grab a coffee?" she suggested

Her friends nodded their heads in agreement as they started walking. Buffy said hello to a few people as she went along. She wasn't the high school definition of popular; but she was both well known and well- liked. She was a kind and caring person. She was smart and beautiful. She had blonde hair that came to her shoulders, eyes as green as emeralds and a pretty smile. She was petite in size, but very strong. Both physically and emotionally. She knew who she was and what she wanted, and she wasn't afraid to go after it.

Willow was similar in personality, outgoing and kind and smart. She looked nothing like Buffy however. She had red hair which sat a couple of inches above her shoulders, she had green etyes and was tall and slim.

Tara her girlfriend was more full figured. She had long dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. Unlike the others she was very shy. But just as kind and smart as they were.

The three girls walked to starbucks, talking about classes and final assignments as they went. After ordering, Buffy took her latte and brownie and went over to a table in the corner. She sat down and waited for the others to get their orders. When they were all finally sitting, they jumped straight back into conversation.

"So, Buffy what's your final British literature assignment?" Tara asked her.

Buffy shrugged "Haven't read it yet. I have it in my bag, so let's see" Buffy dug into her bag pulling out her notebook. She pulled out the assignment and scanned the assignment. She sighed.

"It's not too bad, the question is on Austen so i should be okay. It's:

One of the signs of Austen's authorial brilliance is that her novels offer riches for interpretation in many areas, including social, domestic, and political themes. Students were asked to pick one theme to discuss from this list:

The impact of class distinctions on characters and events in Persuasion, Emma or Pride and Prejudice

The role of wills and entailment in Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice

The concept of women's education in Mansfield Park or Emma

i'll probably do the first one" she told them

"You're lucky, i mean you really like Austen so you have an advantage of having read most of her work" Tara said

"Yeah Buff, that's a pretty descent question" agreed Willow

"Yeah, i like it" Buffy said. She took a sip of her coffee, and spoke again "I'll have to go to the library soon though, i wanna get a head start on trhe assignment. It shouldn't take me too long if i get started now"

Willow nodded in understanding "Yeah, you're right, better to get it out of the way. Can you guys believe that we graduate in a couple of months?"

"I know, it's so weird i mean; We need to decide what we're going to do when we leave here" Buffy felt both afraid and excited at the prospect

"Well, i already know what i'm doing" Tara informed them. Her girlfriend looked at her surprised, she hadn't told her anything

"What?" asked Willow

"Well, i got a call yesterday, i got the place at that small practice i told you about. I'm going to be a psycologist" she announced, a wide smile crossing her face. The other two beamed at the news. Tara had wanted to do that since she started college and she really wanted to work in a small practice and had fallen in love with one an hour outside of LA.

"Oh my god, Tara that's amazing" Willow squealed, hugging her

"Yeah, congratulations Tara" Buffy agreed

"Thanks" the girl blushed. She never did like to be the centre of attention.

"This calls for a celebration, how about we all go out tomorrow night" Buffy asked

"Definetely" Willow said excitedly, still pleased that her girlfriend's dream was coming true

"Ok, well, i'll call the others later and arrange it" Buffy offered. Willow agreed and the continued to chat happily about what they wanted to do after they graduated. Buffy talking excitedly about possibly going into freelance work while she worked on the novel she wanted to write. That had been her dream for a long time. Willow on the other hand wanted to go on to law school, but was considering taking a year out frst. She was just waiting to hear from the couple of universities she had applied to first before deciding. They talked animatedly about their options, all becoming more and more certain everyday of what they wanted to do with their lives.

Eventually they went their seperate ways, Buffy heading back towards campus to find some books for her assignment in the library. She found a table ion a quiet corner and laid out all of her things, ready to take notes. She pulled out the class notes and her own books that she had for the class. She flipped open her notes and looked over the assignment again. She decided firstly to make a basic structure so that she would know what she was going to do. She took a freas sheet of paper and started jotting down her oplan. Inserting certain details from her class notes that she wanted to include in a certain section. When she finally finaishedthat a little over an hour later, she decided to start looking for books. She first looked at the list of suggested books. She took a mental note of which ones would work for the essay she was writing and made her way into the stacks.

First she found the books from the list. There weren't many at the moment but she took them anyway. She then walked towards the back of the stacks, she knbew that there were a lot of good, old bbooks back there and decided to see if there was anything she could use. She scanned the shelves, findig a section that held books on british literature. She set her books down on top of the bookcase, and went over. She ran her fingers along the spine of the books as she read the titles, murmuring them to herself. Suddenly her eyes landed on a book, that was a book on British authore of the 1800's. She pulled it out and read the contents and saw that there was a considerable section on the works of Austen. She noticed that the book hadn't been checked out in at least two years and decided she would give it a shot anyway. She added it to her pile as she made her way back to her table. She put the books down and lifted the first one.

She spent the next three hours flipping through books making notes, jotting down quotes and making page referances etc. She had filled a lot of pages with what she had written. But there was still a lot of books she wanted to look at. Thta was the way she did things. She read and took notes from as many books as possible and then used the stuff she thought was best. She looked at the final book. It was almost 9pm, she decided to scan the book quickly and if it was any good she would check it out. She checked the page number for the Austen section and started to flip the pages. From the corner of her eye she saw something sticking out of the pages of the book. Her curiosity was too much so she pulled it out. She undolded the paper, talking to herself

"What is this?" she wondered

Her question was answered as she scanned the paper. A poem.