Disclaimer: I don't own Faith, Wesley or Angel, they belong to whoever wrote for Buffy. Darren and Larten belong to Darren Shan. Cherita Chen belongs to the writers of Donnie Darko (brilliant movie, by the way). And Amanda is based off that annoying little girl in the Addams Family movies.

The next Monday, I was in the school library, doing my library assistant duties. It's my way of helping out around the campus, plus, since hardly anyone ever goes in there for more than five minutes, I get to skip school for an hour. Miles calls it 'reluctant permission to ditch'. Meh.

Anyway, while I was shelving books the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end and a weird smell filled my nose. I turned my head in mid-shelf and saw Darren standing at the entrance of the aisle, a beige messenger bag hanging across his chest. There was really no need for me to look; I knew it was Darren by the smell. It suited him. I'm not sure how to describe it – something mixed with blood. Now that's a smell one can only acquire by being a vampire… or working in a butcher shop. I can just see it now…

Darren (still very much human) walks up to me. "Hi."

"You have a very distinct smell, though it seems to be missing something…" I say, tapping a finger against my chin.

"…?"

"Aha! That's it! Blood!"

"…"

…Anyway, back to the present (and unfortunately reality)…

Darren just stood there, in the unusual sunlight streaming in through the window, fingers wrapped around the strap of his messenger bag, watching me closely. We stood like that for a moment or two. He doesn't seem to be breathing. I wonder if he can breathe. Oh, there goes his chest... It started to get a little weird. My eyes shifted around before settling back on him. "… Yes?"

"Hi."

"Hi. What're you doing here?"

He shrugged. Riiiight…I looked back at the bookshelf, then, eyebrow arched, set a book in its place on the shelf. I'd gotten through four more books before Darren spoke again.

"Larten told me about you over the weekend."

Smirking, I shelved another book. "Did he?"

I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye. "I'm sorry."

I stopped in mid-shelf, again, and turned my head in his direction. "What did he say?" I asked, though it came out as a weird half laugh.

He gazed nonchalantly at the books on a shelf. "Things… about where you used to live, how you knew Aries," he looked back at me, "Sonia and your parents…"

I stilled, my breathing slowed. I swallowed. "And what did he have to say about them?" My voice was quiet, slightly strained.

"…Did you, like, see what she was wearing?" The annoyingly familiar voice filled the library. I could just see the librarian huff indignantly. "I mean, that top did so totally not match her lip-gloss. And that jacket, SO totally last week. And – ugh. It's you."

"Good afternoon to you too, Amanda," I said, turning back to the shelf and setting another book in its place.

It was Amanda; the cheerleading captain, the girlfriend of the senior quarterback, daddy's little girl, the bitch I promised to loathe for all eternity. Her thick headed cronies weren't far behind. They'd actually been pretty smart once, but that was before they were brainwashed by Amanda's vainness and stupidity.

"What're you doing here, freak?"

"I am doing Mrs. Eichelberger's job because she's too lazy to get off her fat ass and put down her soft-core porn."

"What's wrong with a little romance?" She asked sweetly, innocently. My God who is she trying to fool? "But you'd know, like, nothing of romance would you, Meethra?"

"If by romance you mean screwing 'til the cows come home, then no. I know absolutely nothing of romance."

She laughed in that way a gossip finds out something especially juicy. "Are you telling me you're a virgin?"

I turned my head towards the irritating being. "Please tell me you are."

She laughed in delight. I gaped. "How is that possible!"

"I'm dating a senior, aren't I?"

I shelved another book, thoroughly disgusted.

"Oh please, don't be so grandmothery," I rolled my eyes, "I'm just mature for my age."

"Yeah, if you call mature spitting gum in Cherita Chen's hair…"

"Ugh! She's a nerd!"

"She's a person, not a soup can."

"Um, nerds aren't people. And besides, she's, like, about as pretty as a soup can. She needs a label to, like, cover up her ugliness. Maybe it'll, like, hold in the fat, too."

Her cronies laughed, a high pitched and giggly, extremely unpleasant sound.

I stared at them in disbelief. "Just… leave. Leave before I do something drastic."

"Like what?"

"Um, I dunno, like shoving this book down your throat and your cronies up your ass."

She gasped. "I'm telling the librarian about your potty mouth." She turned her head snobbishly and stalked off, motioning for her friends to follow her.

I turned back to my half finished work.

"You shouldn't associate yourself with me."

"Why?" asked Darren.

I sighed. "How do I put this…?" I mused. "They think you're weird now. Once you start hanging around me, they'll consider you a freak and irritate you as much as they can."

"Who is this 'they' you speak of?"

"Amanda, her bitches, Cherita, everyone…"

"… Do you think I'm weird?"
"Yes. But you've a perfectly good reason to be. And besides, being weird is good. It makes you different – far less likely to resort to conformity."

He paused. "Do they think you're different?"

"Yes, obviously, but I don't care. Rather be weird than like them. By 'them' I mean the people who devote their lives to fitting in." I picked the final book from the bottom of the cart. "Yes! I'm almost done… and it's not marked," I frowned. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this? It has no home!"

"Calm down, Neesha. Just read the title."

I waved the book in front of his face. "It has no title."

"…Then check the title page."

"Like that will help," I pointed to the spine of one of the books, "Numbers only."

"Well, can't you figure out what number it is?"

I blinked. "…Do you honestly think I know how the decimal system thingy works?"

"You're a horrible library assistant."

"Hey, at least I get to skip class."

I glanced at the book then cautiously laid it down in an empty space on the shelf.

"Won't the librarian notice that it's not shelved properly?" Darren asked as I wheeled the cart to the back room.

"Pfft. I'll be damned if she's gone 10 feet past her desk in the whole seven years she's worked here."

-------------------------

My next period was LA. It was boring, as usual. Apparently Mrs. Carnes doesn't think we have the ability to distinguish red from blue… I swear it's like kindergarten for people who didn't quite get anything the first time around. Not much attention had to be paid in that class -- we'd already learned half of the lesson plan in third grade. I was sitting in the back of class, doodling on a piece of paper when I was, so rudely, almost pushed out of my seat. "What the hell!" I stopped as the class stared at me and snickered at my outburst.

"Miss Meethra," said Mrs. Carnes in that annoyingly soft voice, "I'll let your interjection slip if you can answer the question." Her eyes widened slightly at the end of her sentence.

"The question...?" I asked slowly.

"Yes," she said, "answer it, and I won't write you up for the detention you should probably get."

Why is she so sympathetic? I'm in trouble dammit; stop treating me like a toddler!

"Mrs. Carnes," I began, resisting the temptation to tell her off for not telling me off, "…. Uh…. Good question…."

She gazed at me expectantly, eyes widened and eyebrows raised.

"Um……….?"

"Have an answer?"

I shook my head.

"Okay. You can sit down now."

I forced a smile then rolled my eyes when she looked away. I collapsed into my chair, ignoring my classmates' smirks.

Mrs. Carnes turned toward a kid at the table by the door.

"Lee, can you tell me the difference between an adjective and an adverb?"

I tuned out the remaining 30 minutes of class and lay my chin on my crossed arms, eyes closing automatically and falling asleep almost instantly.

I was in the clearing of a forest; in a large, round meadow. In the center of the clearing sat a pond, its waters clear as glass as the sun filtered through its depths. An old, gnarled tree twisted up from the large rock that sat by the edge of the pond. The grass was green and lush and warm rays of sunshine sifted through the branches of the giant trees. I walked through the soft grass to the edge of the pond, looking down at my reflection. A few moments passed and then a girl almost identical to me appeared next to my reflection. Her lips moved as she said a soundless message. Somehow I knew the only way I'd hear her would be to walk into the depths of the pond. I slowly stepped into the cool water then waited, both of my feet in the pond, before I walked on until I was in water up to my thighs. I stopped where the darker blue and light, clear blue met. The girl had followed me into the water, her whole reflection standing next to mine. Her lips moved but still no sound came out. She pointed toward the deep part of the pond.

In less than a second the clearing changed. The trees weren't holding out the bad things, they were caging me in. The old tree's branches twisted out, grabbing for me. Now, I saw the danger of this place. I couldn't go into the water. I knew that I'd probably never come out if I did. But I also knew that if I didn't take the risk, I'd never hear what the girl had to tell me. I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, letting the sunlight warm my face. I looked down into the depths of the pond, my mind haunted with the thought of what I was going to do. I closed my eyes and took a last step into the deep waters of the pond.

I sunk through the water as if a rock had been chained to my feet. The water was freezing down here, as if the sun's rays couldn't penetrate the glassy surface. I plummeted through the icy water for what felt like hours, the light from above slowly fading away. Soon, I was enveloped in darkness, the only sounds I could hear were my arms and legs moving through the water and the constantly increasing rate of my heart. I was running out of air and the water seemed to get colder by the second. I had to find a way out. I needed to get out of the dark. I needed to get to the surface; to be warm, to breathe. I had no idea which way was up in the darkness, so I took a chance. I swam furiously up, or what I thought was up, against the pull of the freezing water. My breath was almost gone as the sunlight slowly came back into view. I was nearly to the top when I heard her voice; the voice of the girl.

"Neesha…"

I stopped; a bad mistake. Suddenly, my throat stung. It felt like something was trying to claw its' way out of my throat, cutting deep into the soft muscle of my esophagus. As her voice echoed in my ears my last breath ran out, and the very near light and promising warmth of the sun faded away into the black.

"Neesha… Neesha… Neesha!"

Before my eyes could open I felt the freezing water flood up my throat and out of my mouth. I coughed and spluttered as I rolled onto my back to face the ceiling. People had formed a ring around me and I could see fifteen faces staring worriedly (some more than others) at me. I heard someone sigh in relief. "She's awake…" someone murmured, probably a teacher or something, the voice sounded older.

"Just breathe, Neesha." The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. I breathed deep and shakily, my lungs stinging whenever I inhaled. I coughed a few times, my chest hurting with each hack. "Neesha, can you stand?" I nodded, wincing as I felt something on the back of my skull throb. I felt strong arms grip me under my arms and lift me to my feet. I wobbled a bit where I stood, dizzy from god knows what. I heard a small intake of breath coming from somewhere to my right. "You're freezing! Darren, can you take her to the nurse?" Someone, Darren probably, slipped my arm around their neck and let me lean on them as we made our way through the crowd.

My dulled senses became sharper with each step we took. "Darren…" my voice was weak, and my throat hurt as I spoke. "Darren what happened?"

"I don't know. Mrs. Carnes was talking and you started coughing. She ignored you for awhile but it started sounding like you were choking. She asked you if you needed a drink but you were asleep and when she went to wake you up you fell off your chair. You were out for awhile but then you woke up and… well…" he said as we turned a corner.

Wincing as my head gave a painful throb I said, "I told you, you shouldn't hang out with me."

He stopped. "You can't be serious…. You pass out in the middle of class, cough up some water, and on the way to the nurse's office you tell me this is why I shouldn't 'hang out with you'?" I arched an eyebrow somewhere in the middle of his short tirade. "On the contrary, I think Larten's right in having me follow you."

"Why, so you can protect me? That's a little paternal coming from someone who's… pardon me, someone who looks 16. Pray tell, how old are you?"

He rolled his eyes and started helping me along again. I laughed which came out as a cough and felt thick drops of blood slip onto my tongue.

We walked through the doorway of the nurse's office. "Can I- What happened?" I heard a woman's voice question. Darren told her briefly what happened as they laid me on the cot. I shut my eyes as my head rested against the stiff pillow. I felt someone pull a warm blanket over my arms and brush the sweat-dampened hair out of my eyes.

The nurse called Faith and I almost laughed as I heard Faith's voice faintly say "What's she done now?" When the nurse hung up, she told me that Faith would be here in a few minutes. Darren was free to go back to class but he declined and said that he was supposed to stay with me. I rolled my eyes under my eyelids.

About 10 minutes later, I heard quick footsteps and quiet mumbles. "Neesha, what've you gotten yourself into this time?" a voice drawled.

Faith…

My eyes opened, but snapped back shut as they were blinded by the florescent lights. Slowly, I eased them back open, letting them adjust to the dim brightness. "I hope you're not suggesting that I did this to myself," I said as I laid my now opened eyes on Faith.

She was different from the stories Angel and Wesley used to tell me. She wasn't the same person that I'd seen in a picture way back when. Her eyes were bright and glittery, not overcome by the anger and the hate she used to have before. The fierceness was still there though; I doubt it'd ever not been there. Her hair fell down to her shoulders, framing her face. She was still really young, in her mid thirties. She'd had James really young – no older than 22. She'd cleaned up a lot of her act since then.

"I wouldn't put it past you," she mumbled. It may or may not have been intended for me to hear.

She looked over at Darren, recognizing him for what he was almost immediately. She arched an eyebrow. "I'm Faith."

"Darren."

Silence.

Hey! A gay baby…

"Eh… so… Darren helped me to the nurse's office."

"Did he?"

Darren nodded.

"…Yeah. Um, hey, since it's basically the end of the day—"

"It's 1:00 in the afternoon," Faith scoffed.

I brushed it off. "Can I go home?"

She eyed me for awhile then she gave me a look. "Fine, but you're walking."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

I hopped off the cot and said a quick good-bye to Darren before following Faith out of the office.

"You're backpack?" she asked as we walked through the front doors.

"I'll get Nadia to break into my locker for me."