Chapter fourteen-Welcome to Slayer Camp '92' (A different type of camp)

This year's four-hour trip seemed to be a longer one than last year. Buffy hardly said a word to her parents, just like she didn't say a word when she came back from camp.

Her parents were worried about what may have happened last year but they were sure enough that something bad didn't happen because Buffy would tell them; she always told them everything. They were wrong this time because Buffy had been threatened not to tell anyone about what had happened at her week at camp.

Joyce kept offering Buffy and Hank snacks to break the long silence but Buffy wasn't hungry, she was too busy thinking and worrying about what would be in store for her and if the Council could get any meaner than they were last year.

Buffy was happy about seeing Faith but she knew the Council would have a strong force against them being friends or around each other. She knew Faith and herself would have to break rules to see each other and us much as Buffy hated breaking the rules she wanted to stay friends with Faith because they just seemed to connect when they first met.

Sunnydale didn't get many visitors from places outside Sunnydale; it wasn't exactly an ideal holiday place for a family. There was hardly any traffic coming in the other direction and only some going the same way as Buffy. Buffy noticed that a bus was taking some passengers out of Sunnydale; it had been going in the same direction as her for nearly two hours. As the bus passed the Summers' car Buffy saw two young boys who looked familiar to her, they were Jesse and Xander; they were seated on the back seat of the bus. She blinked after she saw them and thought she was seeing things and looked again and she saw them both, luckily they didn't see her when they went past on the bus.

Buffy let out a scream when she saw them again which caught her parents' attention and Hank nearly took his eyes off the road. Joyce turned around and asked if Buffy was okay and just made up that she had had a bad day dream. There, it happened again, Buffy had lied to her parents. Ever since she came back from camp she had started a routine of lying to her parents, she didn't want to or mean to it just seemed to happen.

Buffy was no longer thinking about the council or Faith, she was now focused on why Jesse and Xander were on that bus. She knew it must stop at least twenty minutes before she got where she was going. She knew they wouldn't be able to catch up to the car and she knew they wouldn't let them into the camp unless they pretended to be brothers of one of the girls. Her main problem now was to make sure Jesse and Xander didn't get into the camp and found out where she was really going.

The bus was now like five minutes ahead of them, she knew if they got any further away in the bus they would have a chance of finding out the whole truth, her big secret. Buffy not only hated lying to her parents but hated lying to her only friends. She knew lying to people wasn't a way to make friends but in her case she had to lie about one thing and not mention it. She did wish at times she could tell them but she knew some how because the council is always watching, they would find out if she told them. Besides she had no idea how Jesse and Xander would deal with her big secret, they might take it in as something bad and think she was weird or something and not hang around her. She hated the idea of them not being her friends anymore.

The bus stopped and the Summers' car drove straight past the bus stop and Buffy could see Xander and Jesse just getting off the bus watching her drive away in the car. Buffy turned around in her seat so she could see what Xander and Jesse were planning to do now and Buffy was right, they were following her and they started following the car up the road.

Buffy was now really in panic mode, she had no idea what she would do if they actually caught up to her and spoke to her. Buffy's best plan so far was to run away. She knew it wasn't the best idea but it was the only thing that she could think of.

Less than twenty minutes until they arrived at the camp gates, and Buffy's best and only plan was to run. Buffy knew she could come up with a better plan but time was ticking away and she just couldn't think. Her parents kept turning around and asking if she was excited about the camp, if she was okay or hungry and Buffy just replied no not hungry, yeah excited and yeah I'm okay. She was repeato-girl; she said the same answers every time her parents asked her one of those questions.

Twenty minutes now turned into five minutes and the camp gates would just be at the end of the long corner, as they turned they emerged into a long line of cars with potential Slayers inside. Buffy now knew this would give the boys a chance to catch up to them. Buffy couldn't see them out the back window of the car but she knew they weren't far from catching up to the car.

Meanwhile, Xander and Jesse had been running for like twenty minutes to catch up to Buffy. Jesse just hoped that the bus trip and the running was all worth the effort to find out Buffy's so called big secret. Xander assured Jesse that every single step was worth it, if Buffy didn't think she needed to tell them her secret then Xander thought it was his right to find it out the hard way. As they ran around the last part of their run they found a long line of cars driving through a large gate which had the initials S.C., Xander and Jesse just looked at each other. Jesse suggested that Buffy was going to a soccer camp and Xander laughed and then looked back at Jesse and asked why would she keep a soccer camp a secret and Jesse laughed and said it was only the first thing that came to mind. They then decided to just follow the cars and see where they went.

The Summers' car pulled into a vacant parking spot in the car park and Buffy got out of the car really quickly and looked around to see if she could see Jesse or Xander anywhere near by but they weren't in her range of sight ..yet. Joyce and Hank got Buffy's things out of the car and carried them over to the potential slayer camp area but Buffy told them that she didn't go there any more she got to go to the bigger one this year like she ended up going to last year.

They started walking around to the entrance through the forest when Buffy heard her name being called out. She turned around but couldn't see who it was and just ignored it. They said it again and she quickly saw Xander and started to run to catch up to her parents ahead. The voice got louder and Xander was about to scream out Buffy's name one more time but when he was yelling it for a 5th time he was stopped by one of the members of the council, one of the Watchers covered his mouth and pulled him aside the track and another Watcher got Jesse.

Buffy started to watch what was happening while both boys looked at her with strange looks. Buffy quickly turned away and started walking faster over to the big field where the other stage was set up. She looked around for Faith but couldn't find her anywhere between the hundreds of potentials standing around the stage.

Her mum and dad said their good-byes and they left her suitcase and sleeping bag with Buffy and got in their car and drove off. As Joyce and Hank drove through the gates back on to the windy road, which lead to the main road back to Sunnydale, Joyce noticed that Xander and Jesse were talking to two young men at the gates.

Buffy stood in front of the stage and one of the Watchers, Wesely, came out onto the stage and introduced himself. He announced that this year, things were different, the rules had changed, surprises were installed for some and it was a whole new camp, a different one from last year. Buffy looked up at Wesley and noticed he was looking directly at Buffy when he was speaking. He turned away and walked down off the stage and everyone got into their groups and talked with their friends.

Buffy looked around again for Faith but couldn't see her. Buffy thought about what Wesley said and thought maybe the reason why she couldn't find Faith is because of something the council did. They separated her, they didn't let her come to camp this year, they sent her away to were the potential India went. All these thoughts were running through Buffy's head and she couldn't stand it all she could think of was bad thoughts on what the council might have done to her poor friend Faith and what they had installed for her. She kept hearing the same line in her head, 'things were different, the rules had change, surprised were installed for some' it repeated it's self over and over until Buffy couldn't stand it and ran away into the forest.

"What do you think your doing little potential?" asked Wesley.

"I-I was just going to go to look for my Watcher," replied Buffy.

"That's not a good enough answer potential, you should know that potentials aren't told who their Watchers are until they have been chosen for combat. Your lying is getting weak little girl and it does not block us from seeing what is really happening. Get yourself back over to the stage with your things and we sort this all out over there."

"But Giles is my …."

"Hurry along girl we don't have time to waste for your nonsense and your itty bitty lies."

Buffy was hurt by what Welsey had said but she walked as fast as she could back to the filed where all the other potentials were because she was now really scared about the council. Buffy was never really scared by them but know her fear of them grew and now she knew she had to follow their rules even if she didn't like them. They were in charge and they made that crystal clear now. Their rules might change this year and Buffy knew they only way she'd get though this year's camp was to follow their orders.

As she got to the field all the potentials were leaving to go to their cabins and Buffy followed but she was stopped by a number of watchers. They stood around her and blocked her way. She was now surround by five watchers and she could not see the friendly one, Giles, anywhere near by. Buffy felt like she was going to cry but she stopped herself because she knew she would receive a nasty comment from the evil watcher Wesley.

Wesley walked into the circle where Buffy was and told her she had been a very naughty girl. She had nearly revealed the whole council's secret, the whole watcher's council would have been revealed to world and the slayers with it. She had lead two young bys into the premises of the camp because she had lead on to them that she was hiding something from the. He gave her a lecture on keeping her identity a secret and about not giving out signals that she had a secret to tell that would lead them to follow her here. Another watcher stepped in to stop Wesley from scary Buffy but another interrupted him and she told Buffy she would have to sort things out with those boys when she went back home to make them not think she had a secret and to make sure they would never try to come back here again. All the watchers left at once and Buffy was left alone on the field.

She started to cry and fell onto the ground. She just lay there crying, she knew this year was going to be even worse than last year and she didn't even have Faith to help to make it better.

"Buffy! Buffy! What's wrong?" said a familiar voice.

"Who is that?" said Buffy while sobbing.

"It's Kendra, remember me from last year?"

Buffy thought the familiar voice could have been her friend Faith's but she was wrong it was the quiet little girl Kendra.

"Oh hi Kendra!" Buffy said hi while getting up from the ground.

"Are you alright? You like something bad has happened."

"I'm okay I guess. Some watchers just warned me about some stuff that's all. They just upset me."

"There's something strange about those watchers, their too nosy and mean. I think they have some big plan this year. I heard last year they had trouble with these two girls and they have something planned for them this year. Everyone was talking about it, well not to me but everyone else. I just over heard people talking. Did you hear about that Buffy?"

"Oh really? Do you know who the girls were? I never heard about that. I wonder what the council have planned."

Buffy felt really bad about lying to Kendra but she didn't want to go out and tell her everything since she really didn't know her last year.

"Nah.. I don't know who those girls were but boy are they in for a surprise. Those watchers are sure smart and tricky; I bet they've been planning something big since last year. Did you hear what that watcher Wesley said earlier this morning about surprise for some, I reckon they have a surprise for those two girls and I won't be a good one."

 Buffy just stood there thinking about how Kendra had no clue about who the girls were and one was standing right next to her, talking to her. She went over what Kendra just said and started to cry again because she missed her friend Faith.

"Aww Buffy, what's wrong?" asked Kendra.

"I miss my friend Faith."

"Oh that girl, I sort of remember her from last year, I noticed you two hanged around together last year. Where is she? I thought she would be with you."

"I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her all day."

"Oh no, it can't be.."

"What?! What are you talking about?"

"You.. you're the girl.. girls

"Okay I'm still confused, what are you talking about?"

"You.. you and that other girl.. Faith.. you're the two girls who were in trouble with the council."

"No I'm not, what makes you think we're the girls Kendra?"

"It totally makes sense now. You two, the way you acted and everything, it has to be you two."

"It doesn't have to mean that at all. There are hundreds of potentials on this camp and you pick us because of the way we acted and 'everything'."

"Yep, that's right." 

"That doesn't make complete sense at all."

Kendra started to quickly walk away and then started running away towards the cabins and she bumped into a Watcher and kept running. The watcher was Giles. Giles walked over to Buffy. From a distance, from the council tower, he could see something had happened between Buffy and the other watchers, something bad.

"Buffy! What's wrong?" asked a familiar voice.

"Go away! I don't want to talk to you…" said Buffy as she just turned around to see who it was, "Giles?"

"Yes it's me Buffy, said Giles.

"You don't seem too good at all. What happened? What did the other watcher's do?"

"Everything happened so quickly, I'm kind of confused by it all. Can we go somewhere else? I'm sick of this field already."

"Okay, we can go somewhere else Buffy but we have to be quick because the council will find out I'm missing."

"Missing from where?"

Buffy and Giles kept walking until they got to the gym and Giles began to answer Buffy's question.

"They put me in top of the tower and said I was allowed to come out until their business with a certain slayer was finished. I knew if was you straight away and fought back and told them they couldn't do this they just couldn't and they said it was necessary and part of their plan, it had to be done. They locked me in the tower and I got out but as soon us I got out they were gone and I saw you crying and then another girl came and that's all I saw. The next minute the girl is running away and bumps into me and keeps running."

"Oh my god! Those other Watcher's are just so cruel and mean to us. Why do they have to be like that?"

"You see they way I see it is that they were trained to be like that from Travers. Travers didn't train me; my dad trained me. They ere told to be like that, act like that and always have now for the whole time they have been watchers and now they are trying to train slayers to be like one another for years the plan has worked with the slayers until last year's group. You and Faith disagreed to obey them and things were messed up in their training and now they a being like to kids, they planning play back but not a little kids pay, their standard of pay back. So beware, they are watching you."

 Buffy stood there thinking about what Giles said and he was right. They were sure planning a pay back and Buffy knew hers was coming right for her, but where was faith? what pay back would she get?

Buffy looked up and Giles had gone, had disappeared from her sight. Buffy then headed over to the library. On her way there she didn't see anyone else, it was like everyone had just disappeared from the camp. It was silent as well. Not a sound from a person could be heard. Buffy could hear the birds whistle and the trees move in the wind but no people talking.

She quickly walked over to the library. The librarian wasn't there but that didn't mind Buffy so she headed to the back of the library. She always thought the back was the best, where all the good books were kept and if you were smart enough you'd look there first. She climbed up the steps to go to the back of library and searched for an interesting book. All she found was ones on how to be a good little potential and other ones like about secret identities and what a watcher is, all boring stuff to Buffy but one book stood out from the others.

This book was a red one with no writing on it. It looked old and Buffy liked things that were old, she liked history and all things about the past. It was all very interesting to Buffy. She picked up the book and started to open it slowly. Buffy thought the book looked a little familiar but didn't think too hard about if she had seen it before. She flicked through the first five pages and noticed she had definitely seen it before. It was exactly the same book she had found in the Sunnydale Elementary School library except one thing was different…. there was no black and white photo inside.

A/N: Hello my fellow readers! Wow that was definitely my longest chapter ever but I wanted to get all that information in before my next chapter because the next chapter reveals something but all that stuff had to be written down before I wrote chapter 15. It was all together 3,421 words.

 If you have any ideas for my future chapters, feel free to add them to your review. Who knows I might up using your wonderful idea. Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing!

SlayGal a.k.a Michaela