Dawn lied on her bed gazing at the run down dorm room. It was the summer and so it was mostly vacant. She was able to get in if she started in the summer. Like her sister she wasn't the best student but she wanted to change all of that. She did need a major change and life away from her sister. Sure she loved her sister Buffy Summers to death but she was tired of being defined as the sister of the original vampire slayer of this generation. Dawn wanted a life of her own. She tried to do the whole traveling thing and really find herself. Buffy would not let her do it on her own. So Buffy followed her where ever she went. To Dawns surprise she became relieved when Buffy started to date yet, again another vampire. Geesh what was her sister's deal? First Angel, then Spike, and then the Immortal.

The Immortal was not like Spike and Angel at least they both had souls. The Immortal was clearly something else all together, his name does say a lot about him, he wasn't exactly a run of the meal vampire either, he was something else, in his own level and Dawn swore he had could put some kind of hormone out there that simply attracted women. When Dawn met him she was even attracted to him and she attested vampires even though, she did have a small crush on Spike until she found out how awful he was to her sister. Apparently Buffy forgave him when he came back with a soul but Dawn had not and if he hadn't died saving the world Dawn would surely stake him through the heart while he was sleeping.

She thought Rome would be great and when she finally got some peace and have her sister out of her hair she felt relief then that was immediately accompanied by guilt. She knew that her sister must be on some kind of spell the way she was letting her life evolve around this vampire and the way she would do what ever he said. So Dawn started to look for options maybe if she left some where else Buffy would follow her and get away from destructive vampire without a soul but something really fishy going on boyfriend. So Dawn looked at colleges on the internet and saw LA University and she heard bells. If she went to college her sister would surely follow her and maybe she would be distracted by another vampire with a soul and leave her alone and not be with a really bad guy.

So that is just what she did and Buffy followed her with out hesitant, it was good to know that she could rely on Buffy's overprotective nature and that it could even break some weird love spell. When they did arrive and Dawn was sure that Buffy was off that spell Dawn threw the bomb at her, she was not going to find an apartment to share with Buffy she was going to live in the dorm without Buffy breathing down her neck.

Moving out and away from Buffy's protection was a little scary even though she was getting the freedom she desperately craved. She held unto her cross necklace it wouldn't be so bad Buffy was going to stay there and get a job and she was still giving her self-defense lessons slash slayer training. Dawn insisted that Buffy keep on teaching her even if there were so many other slayers now she knew they were valuable skills that she needed to know. Being the sister of the original vampire slayer still made her a target. Not to mention her own origin's that tended to haunt her from time to time. She tried not to focus on the fact that she was created as the "Key" and that all of her memories before she was fourteen were placed by monks. To her those memories were real and that other reality didn't matter.

Suddenly her dorm room flew open and her roommate came buzzing in. She had purple hair and a nose ring. Dawn set up from her bed.

"Hey, Andrea."

"Hey, chick, so you're all settled in huh?"

"Uh, yeah, you?"

"Oh, yeah, I just need to throw my bag anywhere and I'm good to go."

"Great." Dawn faked a smile.

"So let's go get some food I'm starved."

"Uh, sure." Dawn said as she took her purse.

She didn't really think she had that much in common with her roommate but she was willing to try. So she asked her,

"So where are you from?"

She started to listen to Andrea's tale of her troubled youth in some sickingly perfect suburb but she was distracted by this very cute guy with slightly long brown hair drinking coffee. He seemed to be thinking about something profound. She wondered what it was. She seemed to find herself in some parallel universe when bang she walked into his table and he spilled his hot coffee on her.

Mortified and thriving in pain from the hot coffee she blushed and blurted, "Sorry."

"Your sorry, no I'm sorry." He quickly took some napkins and started wipe the coffee that was on her white blouse of her stomach. She got tingles at his touch and then she took the napkins from his hands.

"That must be hot. Are you ok?"

"Oh, me I'm...ouch." Dawn said as she was wiping the hot coffee.

"I'll take that as a no. My name is Conner Jones by the way."

"I'm dawn." She smiled although she was still in physical pain.