I'm so sorry! This has taken forever to get done! Brit decided not to give me any inspiration for this whole time! glares I've had most of this chapter written for a while, I just haven't posted it. I feel really bad for making y'all wait so long, though! I've been writing during my classes at school. It's probably not the best idea not to pay attention in Chemistry and Algebra 2, but hey, it's fun. No, it's not the best idea. That's why you have a B. I resent that remark, Brit! So? It's true, and you know it. You're mean! Yes. Your point? Let's stop this before it goes on forever. Agreed.

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Jen and David, who want me to have a 100 page story done by two weeks ago. sigh Actually… I'm not going into this here. This one's for you, guys!

Read and review!

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Dani bounced back into the room, with a duffel bag in one hand, a guitar case in the other, and a backpack on her back. "Ready?"

Robert held up a small laptop case. "Got it all."

"Great!" Dani grinned and bounced toward the door. "Did you talk to Mom about-"

"Dani!" The teenager groaned as Diane Aurels walked into the room.

Dani's voice suddenly sounded tired, broken; a world of difference from only a moment before. "What, mother? I was about to leave for Maria's and Beth's."

"What about Mr. Adams over here? Did you win the scholarship?" Diane assumed an intimidating pose.

"Mom, he-"

"We haven't made any decisions just yet, Mrs. Aurels. I have a few more people n the area to interview. In fact, Danielle just agreed to let me follow her to, ah-," Robert made a show of checking a list of names, "a Bethany and a Maria's houses. I've been told to interview them, too. Apparently their applications were good enough to be considered for our school. We only have three open slots, though, so I have to interview all prospective applicants." Dani flashed a grateful smile to Robert behind her mother's back.

Diane smiled a cold, calculating smile. "Well, in that case, I'll let you go then. I just wanted to see if a decision had been made. Dani, will you come talk to me in the kitchen for a minute?"

Dani's eyes seemed to develop a resigned look. "Fine, Mom. Mr. Adams, I'll be out in a moment; if you'll just wait for me at the corner, that'd be great."

Robert's face betrayed a look of worry for a moment. It passed quickly, and he simply smiled a small smile, and nodded. Lifting his briefcase, he told Diane that it was good to meet her, and asked Dani to walk him to the door. Diane strode back toward the kitchen, and Dani escorted him out.

As they reached the door, Dani checked over her shoulder and told him in a hushed voice, "Just drive your car around to the other side of the block, and wait for me. You can switch into my car then." She raised her voice and continued, "I'll see you in a few minutes then. Goodbye, Mr. Adams."

As she began to close the door, he smiled and said, "Call me Robert."

Grinning, Dani shut the door, and walked back into the kitchen. She had no more stepped into the room when her mother started screaming at her. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU ENTER A SCHOLARSHIP CONTEST! Was the private school you go to now not good enough! Do you want out of here this badly! Are you trying to hide something!"

Dani stepped backwards, trying to get her mother's face out of hers. A hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Dani instantly tensed up, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "Are you trying to leave? How stupid are you, if you can't figure out that I'm still talking to you!"

Deciding to play the 'Slayer's inherent strength' card, Dani jerked her arm out of her mother's grasp. Pulling her car keys out of her pocket, she toneless told her mother, "I'm sorry this upset you. I thought it would look good on a college application, and it's a scholarship, so it's no cost to you. I was simply trying to do something good for once." With that, she turned and fled the house, grabbing her bags as she left. She threw her bags roughly into the back of her SUV. As she tore out of the driveway before her mother could reach her car, she never noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks.

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Robert slid into the front seat of his Slayer's car, and set his briefcase in the backseat. As she pulled away, he noticed that it looked like she had been crying, but, as he had only met her an hour before, he didn't feel it was his place to ask. Deciding to start a conversation between the two of them, in hopes of getting to know her better, he said, "Would it be horribly rude of me to ask why you have so many bags for one night?"

Dani snickered at that. It sounded so British. "That's not rude, don't worry. Well, one of those is quite obviously my guitar. The duffel bag has my miniature amp, my pedals, my guitar music, a large pile of notebooks, pens, markers, etc. It has the book on Wicca that I can easily smuggle in and out of the house. It has clothes and makeup for the morning, as well as all my hair crap. It has a bathing suit, flip flops, a towel, my camera, and my laptop. The backpack has assorted candles, oils, incense, string, matches, salt, water, gemstones, feathers… Basically, anything you could possibly want for a spell." She threw a wary glance into the backseat. "Maybe I have too much stuff…"

Robert laughed at the thought. The girl seemed to change moods quicker than most people could process what they felt.

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Dani and Robert walked up the drive to Beth's house. Both were silent for the moment; Dani was lost in thought about all that happened that day, while Robert attempted to appear apathetic and business-like. Halfway up the walk, they were assaulted by Beth, who joined Dani in an excited, jumping up and down hug. After a moment, Beth's head popped up, eyes wide. "Um, Dani, not that I'm against older guys and all, but who's he?"

Dani cracked up laughing. "That's Robert Adams. He's going in to talk to your parents about something, which I won't tell you what it is. We're going to go get your stuff. And if anyone asks, yes, you entered a scholarship competition, and it was going to be a surprise."

Beth looked completely confused, though it wasn't exactly a new look for her. "Um… okay, I guess…"

Dani was still laughing as they went inside to finish packing Beth's stuff. "Don't worry, I'll explain it all at Maria's…"

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"Okay, Robert, Maria's parents aren't home tonight, but they'll be back tomorrow around noon. Is that alright?" Dani parked the car and climbed out, throwing open the back door to begin hauling bags out.

"Of-of course. Will they mind I'm here?" Robert reached over and grabbed his briefcase, attempting to grab Dani's bags, but she waved him off, lifting them easily. Robert was shocked at how easily she was adjusting to her Slayer powers; he had felt how heavy those bags were.

"Beth, come on! Maria's gonna be really mad if we don't get in our hour and a half of practice before the attacks start!" Dani was already jogging up the steps, reaching the door before Beth was fully out of the car.

As Dani reached up to ring the doorbell, someone flung the door open and grabbed her. "Dani! Beth! Some… other guy… Dani!" Maria came flying out the door to greet them, while looking confused at Robert.

As she had with Beth, Dani began giggling at Maria's reaction to Robert. "Well, Robert, you've succeeded in confusing both of them! Normally only I can do that! Ria, I'm dropping my bags at your computer, and setting up my guitar, 'kay?" Dani darted into the house without a response, leaving two teenage girls and Robert outside, completely confused at her behavior.

After they had left their bags and began setting their band's stuff up, Dani remembered Robert. "Oh, Robert! You don't mind if we practice for a while first, do you? It's such a routine, I completely forgot about you… Sorry…" Dani looked so distraught about forgetting that he quickly assured her he didn't mind.

"Yes, Dani, you still haven't told us who he is…" Beth and Maria both turned to her expectantly, Beth picking her drumsticks up and settling herself behind her drum set, while Maria slipped her bass guitar on and fiddled with the settings.

Dani smiled as she wondered how to approach the topic. Exchanging a quick look with Robert, she finished setting her equipment up and replied, "I'll tell you later, I want your attention on the music! I wanna show y'all the song I wrote this morning. Just come in whenever you think you have something."

Before her statement could elicit a response, Dani began playing the haunting melody Robert had heard when he first walked into her house. Closing her eyes, she began to sing her new song, Weary.

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But I can't stop these tears from falling

Anymore than I can stop the rain.

They finished up with the song Can't Stop the Rain, and began packing up their equipment. Robert was quite shocked at how good these girls were. He could see that they had potential. Smiling warmly at his charge, he received a shy smile in return as she shrugged off her guitar strap.

Wandering back out to Maria's computer, Beth and Maria sat down in desk chairs, Beth idly twirling her drumsticks, and gazed expectantly at Dani and Robert. Dani coughed slightly and began to speak. "Well, umm… Robert's here because…" Trailing off, she sent a pained gaze over to Robert, who cleared his throat and attempted to pick up where she left off.

"Oddly enough, I am not here because you're Charmed ones, but-" He broke off when Maria and Beth both stood up in a defensive stance, flanking Dani so that none of their backs were unprotected. Dani collapsed into another fit of giggles at the look of shock on Robert's face.

As she received a mixture of glares from her friends, ranging from confused to exasperated to simple shock, Dani slowly stood up and walked over to Robert's side. "Ok, y'all, calm down. No, I didn't tell him, no, he's not evil, yes, he's on our side, now shut up, sit down, and let us talk." Robert looked on in amazement at the fact that neither girl seemed to take offense to this remark. As he made a note of it to ask Dani about later, she said, "Ok, we're Charmed, we know that TV show is real, right?" At two slow nods, she continued. "Great! So it won't come as any shock to you that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is real, too, and I'm the new Slayer, and Robert's my Watcher, right?" Dani's hopeful grin turned into a smirk at the expressions of shock on Maria and Beth's faces.

As Beth and Maria were speechless, with their expressions of disbelief on their faces, Dani's smirk turned into helpless laughter, and she collapsed into Robert, barely able to breathe. Robert simply looked on in disbelief at the whole situation. Thinking fleetingly on how comfortable Dani had become with him in such a short time, he helped her to her feet. "So, Danielle, how will we bring them out of this state?"

Dani's grin became one of evil plotting as she said, "I know just the thing… DAVID!" Robert stared at her blankly before he realized that she had called for their whitelighter.

Beth's head popped up as she said in a slightly deeper voice, "Hey, Dani. What's up?"

Dani's evil grin became wider still as she said, "Snap Maria out of whatever trance she's in, and I'll tell you how she got into that state!"

Confused, but curious, Beth/David began poking Maria until she turned around and began yelling at him to stop. Snickering at the display, and shooting Maria a pointed look telling her to keep quiet, Dani decided to continue. "David, what do the Elders know about Slayers?"

Beth/David looked lost and somewhat bewildered. "Uh… not much… mostly that they exist, just like y'all exist. Why?"

Robert became slightly worried as Dani's grin turned quite evil. "Oh, no reason, just that I'm the new Slayer, and Robert over here's my Watcher."

Beth/David's eyes grew wide as he took in the image of Dani giggling as she delivered this piece of news. "Um… well… you've succeeded in doing what you've wanted for years: you pulled one over on the Elders."

Robert began to laugh as he realized what she'd been so happy about. Apparently they were always being informed of things by the Elders, and Dani finally got to inform them of something.

Calming down, Dani continued on. "Can you go tell them what's going on, tell them to, I dunno… give their blessing or whatever. I don't want to be told I can't do this. We all know I wouldn't listen anyway, so they can save it."

Somewhat shocked at Dani's acceptance of this fact, Beth/David nodded. "Sure. Beth, on the other hand, is currently freaking out. You might try to calm her down." David left, and Beth quickly jumped up and shouted at Dani, trying to get information.

Dani shook her head at Beth. "If you'll both sit down, me and Robert will explain, okay?" She appeared to be directing the question towards Robert more than she was at her friends, so Robert nodded and walked over beside her. Dani glared at the other girls until they sat quietly. "Anyway, as I was saying before y'all went catatonic, Robert showed up at my door today saying he wanted to interview me for a scholarship. After we were alone, he told me that he knew I didn't apply for a scholarship, and I reacted pretty much the same way y'all did. It turns out he's my Watcher, I'm leaving for a boarding school that is "normal", except that it teaches magic instead of schoolwork, and you two are coming with me." Beth and Maria had matching looks of shock on their faces. Dani looked toward Robert. "Did I leave anything out?"

Robert smirked. "No… no you didn't. Although, you may have been able to break it to them a little more gently."

Dani shook her head violently. "No I couldn't've. That wouldn't have been as much fun!"

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Well, there y'all go. Another chapter! I'll continue from exactly where I'm leaving off next chapter. It will hopefully be up tomorrow or so… Remind me never to start stories a few days before giant projects are due, okay? Any bad grammar such as "y'all", "'kay", and "dunno" is being used to create a dialect (think Texan). Also, for future reference, unless otherwise mentioned, all songs discussed in chapters, i.e. ones sung by Dani and co., are written by me. They should be on my Funender site soon. (If you go there, my username/artist name is Stephi, and I have a badly recorded/while I was sick version on there of Can't Stop the Rain from about a year ago.) I'll put a link in my profile soon.

Make a girl happy and review, please!