A/N: I thank all you guys for your support and I do not apologize for taking so long. I have good reasons and they are many. It's long and drawn out so I won't go into it. My muse has decided to go on vacation, only dropping in from time to time to check up. So, if the next couple chapters suck royally it really isn't my fault. Well, it's only partly my fault. Even as I post this I have the next chapter drafted and am awaiting my faithful editor to make an appearance. So, please read on and bare with me.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dawn groaned, and rolled over. There was a buzzing noise coming from somewhere in the room. She couldn't put her finger on where exactly, she just knew that it was disturbing her much needed sleep. She raised her head up and looked around the room. Buzzing...alarm. Damn. She groaned again as she reached over to turn the stupid thing off. Apparently, it was time to get up.

She threw the covers off, knocking them to the floor, and sat at the edge of the bed for a minute. After a long argument with her brain and limbs, she lurched forward and promptly sat back down. She groaned and rubbed her face, trying to wake up. She really didn't want to wake up. She wanted to curl back up in the nice warm bed that was calling to her.

She was picking out her outfit for the day, when there was a knock on the door.

"Dawn are you awake?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. What a mother hen.

"Yeah, Max, I'm up. I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Right. Well, if you had plans on a hot shower it's going to be a cold one. Izzy just took over the bathroom."

Dawn faintly heard the bathroom door open down the hall. "I heard that."

"You were meant to." Max chuckled. "I'll see you downstairs, Dawn."

"Yeah."

It's gonna be a long day.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Thirty minutes later, Dawn was in the dining room with Max, Izzy and Aunt Diane talking and eating breakfast. Well, they were talking and she was trying to work up an apatite to eat the food in front of her.

She heard the phone ring, and froze to listen as Aunt Diane left the table to answer it. Was that Willow or Giles? Oh, it was only Uncle Phillip. He'd be home tonight around dinner time.

She absently passed Max the Tabasco sauce he asked for.

Dawn frowned in disappointment. Willow did say that she or Giles was going to call soon, right? Well, soon has come and gone, hadn't it? They must be busy. She'd try to call them after school.

She sighed and looked back at Max as he poured a generous amount of Tabasco on his scrambled eggs. She raised her eyebrow. Normal people would consider that weird. She shrugged and went back to her own scrambled eggs smothered in ketchup.

OOOOOOOOOO

Dawn, Liz, and Maria stopped in the hallway in front of their first class.

Maria and Liz were smiling, but Dawn was a nervous wreck. What if no one liked her? What if they thought she was a freak? What if...?

Liz laid a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "Dawn, you've got to calm down. It's nothing you haven't done before." She shrugged, and smiled encouragingly. "You can sit with me and Maria, and i promise that the teacher won't bite."

Dawn tried to smile back at Liz, but failed miserably. Her stomach was in knots, and her cuts, the ones she got from Glory, were burning and itching terribly.

Maria sighed, and started pushing Dawn towards the door. "Would you just go in there and get it over with? There's no use in agonizing about it. It's going to happen whether you like it or not."

Dawn was dragging her heels as much as she could on the tiles of the hallway, but her shoes held no hope in traction. But, by the time she screwed up the courage to move on her own momentum, the door was already opened and she was pushed gently through the door. She looked around nervously, and smiled even more so. Everyone in the room was looking at her. She straightened her shirt and tugged at her skirt, and then turned to glare at Maria. Maria just shrugged and pointed to the teacher. Dawn turned to the teacher, who seemed like a fairly friendly woman.

"Hello. You must be Dawn." The lady said warmly, and turned to face the rest of the class. "Everyone, our new student is Dawn Summers. She joins us from California. Please, make her feel welcome."

Dawn smiled nervously as the students who hadn't been paying attention, now had her in their sights.

"Well, Dawn, I'm Ms. Norton. You may have a seat anywhere you like, and that will be your permanent seat." She handed Dawn a piece of paper. "This is a list of school and class rules. I don't mind you talking in class, just as long as I'm not lecturing." Dawn nodded again and made her way to the empty seat on the other side of Liz.

Ms. Norton then turned her attention back to the class as the bell rang, signaling the start of the day.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Dawn sat alone at a table in the quad, picking at the food on her plate. School lunches must suck universally. What did they put in this crap? Sand?

She looked up and frowned. Where was everyone? Max had said that everyone had lunch together so it wasn't like she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She looked around the quad and studied the different groups of students. There was Izzy sitting with who looked to be the popular girls. She briefly contemplated waving at her, but stopped herself short. Izzy didn't seem to pleased to have her hanging around. She decided not to call attention to herself.

Dawn sighed. She missed her friends. She didn't remember being this much of an outcast back in Sunnydale.

She sighed again. Sunnydale. Most of the time she tried not to think about home. Thinking about home led to thinking about Buffy and her Mom. Thinking about them made her think of all the things that she'd had to give up, all because of her father. Thinking of him made her a little angry. Well, more than a little. All she'd had to give up because that hag Sofia.

Dawn was startled out of her thoughts by someone sitting down in front of her. She jumped and looked up and noticed a guy that could only be Michael looking at her funny.

Dawn raised her eyebrow, and asked, "What?"

Michael blinked a few times and shrugged. "You had this weird look on your face. Do I know you from somewhere?"

Dawn shook her head. "I'm new here."

Michael frowned. "Why are you sitting here?"

Dawn frowned back at him. "What do you mean? Isn't this a free country?" She looked around. "I'm pretty sure I have the right to sit anywhere I choose."

Michael was about to respond, but was cut off by Max and Liz followed by Alex and Maria walking up to the table.

"Michael, I see you've met my cousin, Dawn." Max said, to break the tension he could probably have cut with a knife.

Michael looked from Max to Dawn. "This is Dawn?"

Max nodded, "Yep."

Michael nodded. "Then, yes, we've met." And then he walked away.

Dawn watched as he left. "Strange guy. He is big on the paranoid isn't he?"

Maria laughed. "You have no idea."

They all sat down at the table and started talking amongst themselves.

Alex turned to Dawn and introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Alex." He stuck out his hand.

Dawn accepted the handshake. "I'm Dawn."

He sat back and studied her for a moment. "I noticed that you were thinking rather hard before Michael interrupted you."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, It seems like all I've done recently is think."

He nodded. "What were you thinking about?"

She looked at him for a moment. "Home. My evil stepmother. My sister. Just...home."

Alex frowned. "Evil stepmother?"

"She's a total bitch."

Alex made a face. "That bad?"

Dawn shrugged. "It could be worse."

"Worse how? You were sent away to live with long-lost relatives."

She looked at him again. "I could have been sent to Switzerland. At least here in New Mexico, I don't have a long way to go to get home."