2

When the bus finally arrived at the Sunnydale Bus Station that Saturday afternoon, both my Aunt Joyce and my Cousin Dawn Summers, were waiting to greet us. As we loaded our bags into their car's trunk, I noticed that my Cousin Dawn, who was my age, had a pair of anti-biotic Band-Aids on her neck.

They drove us away from the Bus Station, going through downtown Sunnydale, to their home in a residential neighborhood, on a street named Robello Drive. It was a two-story house with a neatly trimmed lawn and front porch.

As soon as we arrived, we took our bags up to the rooms where we'd be staying as guests, until we found a place of our own to live.

After my mother and I unpacked, we came back downstairs and sat outside on the porch swing, with my Cousin Dawn and Aunt Joyce. As we were talking and pleasantly reminiscing, my mother spoke to my cousin.

"Tell me Dawn. What happened to your neck?"

The girl looked away from her uneasily.

Aunt Joyce spoke with a smirking tone. "My daughter Dawn has a hickey. She's been getting hickeys regularly for the past few months." She chuckled, "And she actually expects me to believe she's still a virgin."

Dawn scowled with annoyance. "No I don't Mom! I am a normal, healthy 16-year-old girl, who fucks! Most 16 year old girls fuck! I bet Cousin Joan here does, don't you?"

I nodded but said nothing.

Dawn went on, "So why would I want anybody to believe anything else?"

My Aunt Joyce then told me, "Be careful with the boys you'll be fucking here Joan. It's obvious that they can be kind of rough."

Now my mother said, with an equally smirking tone, "Well my daughter Joan was fucking with her boyfriend regularly for the past two months, right up until the night before we left; but he was always considerate enough to never give her a hickey."

I said, "Considerate?"

"Well I liked knowing that my daughter was getting fucked by a gentleman. I hope any the boys who you'll be fucking here, will be just as considerate."

"Mom." I told her, "He wrote on a student's website 'Joan Girardi has a great cnt, and it's all mine'. Just how considerate is that?"

"I agree." Aunt Joyce said, "I've read similar things about both my girls on the local student's website."

Dawn shrugged, "The boys you'll be dating here, are no different than they were back where you were living Joan, whether your dates are alive or undead."

"Undead?" I asked, "You date vampires?"

She nodded, "That's how I got this hicky. Me and Buffy'll talk to you about it later Joan."

The Monday after we'd arrived in Sunnydale, I stood waiting beside the teacher's desk in Classroom 317. This was my first morning as a new student in Sunnydale Senior High School. I'd spent the entire first period in the Office, getting properly enrolled.

I'd been given my class schedule and locker number. Then I'd come straight here, carrying a brand new notebook. I'd moved along with the crowds of students as they changed classes between periods. I noticed that many of the girls wore very short tight skirts, hanging less than half way down their thighs, or very short shorts, revealing the full lengths of their legs. Many of them wore tight, skimpy halter-tops. I also noticed that an unusually large number of girls had Band-Aids on their necks; so did an unusually large number of guys, none of who were wearing revealing garments.

I was dressed in a short sleeved blouse, a skirt that hung to the tops of my knees, and flat-soled shoes. That's how we dressed back in Arcadia; totally out of style, at least here in my new High School. I was definitely going to have to get myself an entire new wardrobe; and go on a little bit of a diet.

As I went past the lockers in the corridors, I noticed that some of the boys were looking me over.

I thought, Good-bye Adam. Hello whoever my Sunnydale boyfriend will be.

Here in classroom 317, like in any classroom anywhere, there were blackboards, with chalk writing, and bulletin boards, where many posters and other paper or cardboard items were tacked. Through the windows, I saw the top floors and rooftops of neighboring buildings. In the distance, I saw the burned out ruins of what had been the High School.

The school I was now in, was located in an old office building that had been renovated to be the community's temporary Secondary School, until the construction of a new High School was completed.

The 11th Grade History teacher had not yet arrived. The desks were about half full of students; most of who had bandaged necks. More were coming through the doorway. Most of them looked at me with curiosity.

Somebody said, "New girl."

My cousin Dawn, was very a shapely girl, with long brown hair. She sat at one of the desks dressed in a short, tight yellow skirt and matching halter, and had a fresh pair of bandages on her neck. She waved at me smiling.

I heard her say, "That's my cousin Joan. They've just moved here to Sunnydale."

She got up from her desk and began to come over to me, when the teacher entered the room. Dawn backed away from me and sat down at her desk again, as did the other students who continued talking.

The teacher was a woman in her early thirties, with a good figure, but wore no revealing garments, and had no hickey or bandage on her neck. She wore a simple dress and sensible shoes. The woman also wore glasses. She came over to the desk carrying a briefcase, while looking at me without smiling.

She asked, "Are you a new student?"

"Yes." I handed her a form I'd been given at the office.

The woman sighed. She seated herself behind the desk and looked over the form.

"Your name is Joan Girardi?"

"Yes. Mrs…?"

"You may call me Ms. Kalderash."

The bell rang. All the students were now in their seats, continuing to talk.

Ms. Kalderash called out, "Class!"

Everyone quieted down.

The teacher went on. "I want to introduce to you a new member of our Class. She is Joan Girardi."

The woman spoke to me. "Please tell us where you are from Joan."

I told them all, "Arcadia, New Jersey."

Ms. Kalderash told them, "I want you to all welcome Joan from Arcadia, New Jersey, to Sunnydale, California High."

The class called out in unison, "Welcome Joan from Arcadia, New Jersey, to Sunnydale, California High!" Then they all laughed. I grinned nervously.

The teacher told me, "I'm sure your classmates will do their best, to make you feel welcomed. You may take a seat Joan."

Dawn pointed to an empty desk directly to her right. I went over and sat there.

I heard a guy at a nearby desk say, "I'd like to make her feel welcomed with my dk."

I acted like I hadn't heard him, and didn't glance in his direction.

Dawn said, "Joan. This is Anya."

She indicated the girl seated at the desk to her left. Anya had long, light brown hair. She wore a tight blue backless dress, with a very short skirt, along with an un-bandaged hickey in her neck.

I wondered, Are hickeys, bandaged or un-bandaged, part of this School's dress code?

Up at the front desk Ms. Kalderash checked the attendance

She called out, "Does anybody know if Harmony Kendall is absent, or is she just late?"

"Absent from life!" Anya called out smugly from her desk. "Right now her corpse is morphing into a vampire, and she's getting her fangs on! She was making out with a vamp at a party on Saturday night, and they had an accident!"

All the kids in the class chuckled.

Anya continued, "So she won't be attending classes any more, at least in the daytime."

"Oh that's too bad." said the teacher. "Well I hope the rest of you will be careful, when it comes to making out, especially with vampires."

The kids chuckled again.

Now Dawn leaned over and spoke to Anya with a grin. "How far'd you go with that vamp guy you were making out with?"

The other girl leaned toward her, also grinning, and replied. "He nibbled me and I fkd him."

"Same with me and my vamp guy. Just like everyone else at the party. I'm surprised that Harmony was the only one of us who had an accident that was fatal."

"All right everyone!" Ms. Kalderash called out, "Open your textbooks to page…"

During lunch period, I stepped out of the kitchen into the Cafeteria, carrying a tray filled with that day's lunch. I was nervously looking around for an empty seat.

"Hey Joan!" Anya called out, "Over here!"

I went over and sat across the table from Anya and Dawn. I began to eat, while continuing to feel very uneasy.

"Hello again Joan." Anya asked, "So how do you like Sunnydale High so far?"

"Well." I spoke cautiously. "The classes and the curriculum aren't all that different, than they were at my old school. I'm just not sure about anything else."

Dawn asked, "Like what?"

"Well…Sunnydale is supposed to be some kind of Sodom and Gomorrah."

"Actually," Dawn told me, "It's mostly Gomorrah here. Very little Sodom."

I told them, "There really are vampires in Sunnydale, like all those stories you hear, and the town actually is right on top of a hell mouth."

"That's true." Anya nodded with a smile. "You can get away with anything you want, when you're living on a hell mouth."

"That's the problem." I said, "Just how long should I expect to be actually living, in Sunnydale? That is instead of 'unliving'."

Anya told me, "That really isn't as much of a problem as you think Joan, as long as you take some simple precautions. All you've got to do is wear a cross or a sprig of garlic, on a chain around your neck, and hang a sprig of garlic or a cross in your window; and never invite a vampire inside your house."

Dawn added, "Or inside of you."

She and Anya both giggled.

I smiled. "Well I'd never do that with any guy I'd just met. I've only done it with my boyfriend, back in Arcadia, and we'd been dating for a good amount of time, before I let him come inside."

Dawn told me, "Nothing wrong with that."

"Another thing." Anya went on. "When you go out in the evening, don't go anywhere alone."

"I see." I said, "Well that all sounds like good advice, but is it really enough? I remember the news stories about the battle that happened when a mob of vampires attacked the last High School Graduation here; and that was in the daytime. More than a dozen students were killed and the entire school was destroyed. That's why they're holding classes here, in this old office building. You can see the ruins of the old High School from the classroom windows. So I can't help but wonder just how safe it really is here in Sunnydale?"

Dawn said, "It's actually a lot safer than it was before the attack on the school."

"You see." Anya explained. "The destruction was so terrible, it just made everyone in town stop and take a look at what we were all doing. A lot of people, both living and undead asked, 'Can't we just get along?' And that's just what we've been doing."

"'Getting along' with vampires?" I asked, "How is that possible?"

"Compromise. We give a little, they take a little."

"A little what?"

"Blood." Dawn explained, "There is an agreement. According to its terms, we let vampires nibble our necks and sip out a few mouthfuls. About as much as you'd put in a coffee mug. They drink just enough to satisfy their thirsts, but not enough to kill us. That's how we got these hickeys."

"Oh. Is that what was going on, on Saturday night, at that party I've been hearing about? Everyone was making out with vampires?"

"That's right. 'Enough to thrill us, but not to kill us'."

"But I heard about the girl who did get killed."

Anya told me, "That was an accident, and Harmony was known for being careless; but you don't have to worry. When you get nibbled, just make sure that as soon as you start to feel light headed, tell your vamp to stop sucking."

"When I 'get nibbled'?" I asked, "You expect me to take part?"

"Well, you are now a resident of Sunnydale, and everyone giving his or her neck, along with about a coffee mug's full of blood, is part of the agreement."

"What if he doesn't stop sucking?"

Anya said, "That means he's being thoroughly inconsiderate."

"But how would I know if a vampire is or isn't considerate, ahead of time?"

Dawn said, "It's okay Joan. Well introduce you to some really cool vamp guys. There's one guy who's just right for a newbee like you. All the girls here call him 'Mr. Goodbite'."

"Oh." All I could think of to say was "Thank you."

I continued eating my lunch, not knowing what else to say, or what to think about the school where I was now enrolled as a student, the vampires, or "Mr. Goodbite?"

Then I finally thought of something.

"I've been seeing the way all the girls are dressed around here. It's very different than what we wore back in New Jersey, in the wintertime. I'm obviously going to have to get myself an entire new wardrobe; and it's gonna be very expensive."

"No problem Joanie." Dawn said, "Anya and I,'ll take you over to Main Street after school lets out. There are some shops with a lot of good stuff, that isn't too expensive."

"Thank you." I said, "I really appreciate that."

"Oh and while you're on Main Street," Anya said, "I think it might be a good idea for you to pick up a copy of the 'Vampire's Handbook'."

"There's a Vampire's Handbook?"

"Yes. 'Everything a New Vampire Should Know', along with what a vampire's newbee date should know too. You can find them in a Main Street magic shop, that's called 'The Magic Box' "

"Oh yes." I told my cousin and my new buddy, "I've seen the place. Haven't gone inside. Thank you again. I hope."