Ch. 10

The woman spent several hours attempting to get out of the hole. The dark of the night was shattered by daybreak by the time she managed to claw her way out- literally. Her hands were bruised and bloody and she was overall fatigued. Once out, she lay down on the highway with her back to the ground. She ran a hand along the hole that went diagonally down her shirt. How did this happen? She pulled it open a bit to reveal a mostly healed wound she ran her hand over her shoulder, realizing that whatever had cut her had gone all the way through. No one would have survived this.No one should have survived this.

So why am I alive?

She stood and began to walk down the road, taking one last look at the crater, noticing a sign that said "Welcome to Sunnydale!". She had no idea how long she'd been walking, but she knew it had to have been a while when the sun went down and the temperature dropped around ten degrees. She began to see cars going past. Without exactly knowing why or what it would do, she stuck out her thumb, and a man in a large semi- truck stopped and rolled down his window.

"Hey, there," he said with a thick accent of the deep south. "Where ya' headed?"

"Anywhere. I don't care." The woman crossed her arms, suddenly uncomfortable. She pushed a piece of matted hair behind her ear.

"How's L.A. sound?"

She'd never heard of the place, at least not that she knew of. So, she said, "L.A. would be great."

"Well, them, climb on in. Name's Clive. Clive Potter."

She thought for a moment. A name came to mind, but it seemed fragmented- like there should have been more. "Christina. Christina Jenkins."

"Well, Christina, Christina Jenkins, let's hit L.A."

Xander pulled up in front of the school to let Dawn out. She grinned evilly and leaned over to kiss him. He turned his head so she kissed his cheek. She leaned back looking sore.

"You didn't seem so upset about it a minute ago," she said. "Back there, what we did.... That was beautiful."

"No." Xander stared hard at Dawn. "It was wrong, and it can never happen again. Understand?"

Dawn glared for a minute. "Fine. I'll see you later." She turned and opened the door, after climbing out, she turned back and said, with a gigantic smile, "Bye, Xander, see you later!"

Xander stared for a minute before he pulled away, still wondering what the hell that was all about.

Dawn went into homeroom. The teacher, Mr. Hayden, showed her a seat in the last roww, next to a girl with blond hair.

"Hey," the girl said. "I'm Gina."

"Dawn." Dawn smiled. She still hadn't gotten over that weird look Xander had given her in the car. They'd gotten along so well on the ride, talking about new beginnings and how he and Buffy were going to search for a house today. He'd looked like she'd grown an extra head or something.

"So, do you have your schedule?" Gina asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said, waving it in the air.

"Lemme see!" Gina grabbed it from her hand. "Wow! We have almost every class together, but not French- I'm in Spanish then."

"Cool. So we have- what- History first?"

"Yeah. You're going to love the teacher. He's been abroad for a few years, so he always has awesome stories. He's really loose about everything. He could care less where you sit even though he assigned seats, and he never gives homework. He's really young and really cute."

"Nice,"Dawn said grinning from ear to ear.

The two made their way to the History wing at the sound of the bell. Gina motioned to her seat and said, "The one next to me is empty. I'll fill you in on what we've done so far."

Dawn pulled out some paper and started copying notes. She managed to fill in a lot before the teacher came in. She didn't look up, but kept taking notes, trying to finish as much as possible.

"Hey, guys, how are you today?" The familiar voice spoke and Dawn froze.

"I see we have a new person. Come on, let's see who you are, I'm Mr.-"

Dawn looked up at the face she'd gotten to know very well over the time he'd dated her sister.

The teacher stared at her as he tried to form words. Dawn stared back and the name escaped her lips without any means of stopping it. "Riley...."