"I won't actually be expected to do the math will I?" Buffy asked, shifting Faith on her hip as they walked into the first classroom of the day.
"Don't worry if Mrs. Blundell asks you anything you can always pinch Faith on the leg so she cries and then you can get out of looking like a total idiot in front of the whole class," Dawn teased dancing out of the way of Buffy's hand as her sister went to hit her.
Extra desks had been bought in for the parents so there was hardly any room to walk down the aisles, if you wanted to get out you had to squeeze past all the desks in a row until you could get to either wall and then walk out that way. As it was most of the parents and students were already seated so they had to apologise to everyone they bumped into whilst trying to get to Dawn's desk. They got mostly smiles as the other parents spotted the baby in Buffy's arms but they did receive a couple of scowls particularly from the man in front of them who Faith dropped Mr. Gordo on as they tried to squeeze past.
"I'm sorry," Buffy said taking the stuffed pig from the man who harrumphed before turning back around to face the front.
They took their seats and Buffy made sure that Faith was happy sitting on her lap. She gave the baby her pacifier which for the moment Faith was content to have and also a few of the plastic rubber animals that they had been using in the bath that didn't make any noise. Well Buffy had thought that they wouldn't make any noise even before the teacher had gotten up and started to talk Faith had banged them on the desk in front of her laughing at the noise they made. Buffy was mortified knowing that if she took the toys away it would most likely end in tears and that was probably going to be worse than the noise she was making. The man in front of them turned around and glared and Buffy gave him an apologetic smile.
"Buffy do something," Dawn said under her breath clearly embarrassed as Faith giggled again her pacifier falling to the floor.
"Okay Faithy these are going to have to go back in the bag," Buffy said quietly to the infant taking the toys off her. Faith's lower lip began to tremble and Buffy quickly wiggled her fingers in front of the infant's face and offered her her hands to play with. The blonde Slayer breathed a sigh of relief when Faith's tears stopped before they had begun and the infant became interested in the rings on her fingers, trying to discover how they got on there.
"Okay so toys equal bad," Buffy said taking the pacifier from Dawn who had picked it up from the floor.
"How are you gonna keep her quiet all day if she can't play with the toys? Buffy she can't be all squealy everyone is gonna hate us," Dawn pleaded with her sister.
"It's okay don't panic, hopefully the rings will keep her going for this class. Then we've got bracelets, necklaces, hopefully we can squeeze two naps out of her we'll just try and tire her out during breaks and only let her nap for the time it takes for however long one class is and then it will work out," Buffy said.
"I hope you're right," Dawn replied as Mrs. Blundell stood up the front.
"Welcome everybody, I'm Mrs. Judy Blundell and this is my maths class. I thought before we got started and I began explaining what we do in here we could do a little introductory exercise and the students could introduce their parent's to the class," she said smiling.
Buffy and Dawn both felt their faces pale at this and their eyes involuntarily went to the baby who was still intent on trying to pull the rings off of the blonde Slayer's fingers. Their feelings of dread only seemed to increase as the introductions moved throughout the class and got closer and closer to where they were sitting. When it was their turn Dawn pushed her chair out slowly the creaking sound making everyone in the class cringe.
"Uh hi, I'm Dawn, but you probably all know that seeing as most of you go here and have known me since forever, but uh, this is my sister Buffy, you probably don't know her because she doesn't go here, well she used to go here but not anymore and this, this is my, my niece Faith," Dawn finished her eyes going wide when she realised what she had said. Buffy's eyes widened as well and she shot her sister a disbelieving look. Her niece was she crazy! Not only had Buffy not been walking around town sporting a pregnant belly over the past year or so, surely one of Dawn's friends who had frequently visited their house had to have noticed the distinct lack of baby.
Strangely enough everyone in the classroom nodded their head in satisfaction at the explanation and Dawn sat back down shooting Buffy an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry I panicked," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
"How the hell am I supposed to explain the lack of pregnancy or the fact that not once have any of the kids in this class who have visited that there has been no evidence of a tiny human living with us?" Buffy muttered back glaring.
"Tell them you adopted her?" Dawn shrugged moving her chair so she was well out of her sister's reach.
Buffy sighed; she supposed it was a plausible explanation, although why any adoption agency in their right mind would give a baby to a single woman, without a steady income who was already supporting her teenaged sister was beyond her. The rest of math class went by uneventfully, Faith was happy to go between sucking on Buffy's fingers and playing with the various rings on them. She only let out one frustrated cry when she couldn't figure out how to get them off but Buffy managed to shush her by offering her the other hand.
After math the students had gym class and Buffy waited patiently outside the locker rooms with the other parents whilst the student's changed into their gym clothes. Once inside the teacher explained what the student's had been doing so far and then split them into groups each demonstrating one activity. Dawn's group got dodgeball and it bought back memories of her high school days where they had often played in gym class. The gym teacher was a middle aged woman who chatted friendlily to Buffy as they watched and she even gave Faith a ball of her own to play with. The infant squealed happily as Buffy sat her on the floor and Faith rolled the ball away and then crawled after it.
Dawn wasn't particularly athletic when it came to organised sports so the brunette teen was soon tagged out and came to stand with her sister who was using her foot to kick the ball back to Faith, making sure that it went a little out of the infant's reach so she had to crawl for it.
"It's kind of weird how no one has said anything about you having a kid isn't it, I mean that's not just me thinking that is way weird," Dawn said to Buffy.
"No, it's not just you it is definitely wiggin inducing, maybe it has something to do with the spell. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say don't look a swift corpse in the mouth or whatever that saying is," Buffy said.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. How did you graduate high school?" Dawn asked.
"Hey! I know stuff, and besides they owed me for, you know saving it so many times," Buffy shrugged, smiling when Faith giggled as she crawled past chasing the ball, "Where are we off to after gym?"
"Recess, and then we've got English and then history, then lunch, then Spanish and then we finish in art class," Dawn told her.
"Your daughter is adorable," one of the mothers said to Buffy smiling at the baby who Buffy had just scooped up into her arms after the infant had started to try and suck on the ball.
"Uh thanks," Buffy said giving Dawn another glare before smoothing a hand over Faith's head.
"Beebee," Faith said reaching out for Buffy's face.
"Yes Faith beebee," Buffy smiled at the baby, "I've heard it's good for them if you just go along with what they say," she said to the woman.
"Well she's very cute," the woman said tickling Faith's stomach.
"She's cute now but she's not so cute when she's screaming at 3 in the morning," Dawn piped up.
"No," Faith said trying to push Buffy's arms off her.
"You want to crawl some more baby?" Buffy asked putting Faith back on the floor. Dawn took the infant's hands in her own and helped Faith take shaky steps around the gym while the other students still in the game played. Buffy was speaking to Dawn's teacher about how her sister was doing when a cry from Faith interrupted them. Buffy watched as Dawn tried to soothe the crying baby one of the boys from the class talking hurriedly as Dawn gave him an irritated look. When Dawn couldn't get Faith to stop crying she came back over to where Buffy was standing and handed the now red faced baby over to her sister.
"I am so sorry Miss Summers," the boy said to Buffy cringing as Faith wailed some more burying her face in Buffy's neck.
"What happened?" Buffy asked bouncing Faith on her hip and giving her a kiss on the top of her head.
"Brendon the doofus missed his target and hit Faith with the ball," Dawn scowled hitting the boy on his arm, "it wasn't that hard thought I think it was more of a shock to her."
"Aww poor baby did the big mean boy hit you with the ball," Buffy cooed to the infant whose lip trembled as her tears subsided.
"Beebee," Faith whimpered.
"It's okay sweetheart," Buffy said, "It's okay Brendon, you didn't mean to hit her don't worry about it," she smiled at the nervous teen.
"Okay, sorry again, and sorry Faith," Brendon said giving the baby an apologetic look and running off when the bell rang.
"Is she alright? Does she need ice?" the gym teacher asked coming over.
"So she's fine, just got a bit of a shock," Buffy said.
"Come on it's recess time," Dawn said shouldering the bag with all of Faith's things in it.
"So the cafeteria hasn't changed," Buffy said looking around as Dawn led them over to a spare table.
"And the food is still as disgusting as ever," Dawn commented.
"Well go and get me some of the disgusting grossness," Buffy said handing Dawn some money.
"Okay Faithy let's see what Willow has packed for you to eat," Buffy said resting Faith on her knee and rummaging around in the bag, "What would you prefer yummy strained pears or yummy bottle?" she said resting the two items on the table.
"I'd go with the bottle if you want her to take a nap," Dawn said coming back and juggling two trays of food.
"Once again your knowledge scares me," Buffy said putting the jar of food back in the bag.
"Well prepare for another little gem, the cafeteria ladies might heat it up for you if you ask nicely and it'll be all warm and soothey in her belly," Dawn smirked when Buffy gave her an incredulous look. Scooping Faith back up the infant worked her charms on the cafeteria worker and they returned a couple of minutes later, warm bottle securing held in Faith's hands as she sucked away on it. When Faith was finished with her bottle Buffy put her on the ground and made sure she was holding securing onto the chair to help herself stand. The two sisters enjoyed a pleasant conversation over their food Buffy making sure she kept a close eye on Faith who after gingerly walking the entire length of the chair had plopped herself on the ground and was playing with the bag.
The blonde Slayer saw what was going to happen before it did, everything going in slow motion as Faith crawled out into the walkway intent on making her way over to Dawn. The infant crawled out at the exact moment another student walked past with a tray full of food, concentrating on not spilling the contents of his tray rather than what, or rather who was on the floor in front of him.
The boy gave a surprised yell as his feet flew out from underneath him and his tray was thrown into the air the contents coming to rest on top of both him and Faith.
"Oh my god," Buffy said jumping out of her seat as Dawn buried her face in her hands.
"I'm so sorry," she said giving Faith the once over to make sure she was okay before turning her attention to the boy who was looking a bit confused as he sat in amongst the remains of his morning tea, "Brendon?" she asked as the teenager looked up at her and then to Faith who was giggling, chocolate pudding dripping down the sides of her face.
"Guess she got her own back huh," Brendon said laughing.
"She's vindictive that way," Buffy smiled, relieved that he wasn't mad, "If you need anything to help you clean up I've got heaps of baby wipes in my bad."
"It's okay I've got my clothes from gym so I'll be alright, thanks anyway," Brendon said accepting the hand she offered him.
"Well at least take this to help replace the mess that was your morning tea," Buffy said handing him some money.
"Thanks, well guess I should go and get cleaned up," Brendon said accepting the money.
"Or not, I hear chocolate pudding is making a comeback this year," Buffy smiled at him helping him pick up his tray and what they could scrape from the ground, "Sorry again."
"Did you see what you did?" Buffy said squatting down in front of Faith who was busy sucking on her pudding covered hands.
"Mmmm," Faith said as she licked her fingers.
"Glad you're enjoying yourself but you've embarrassed Dawn and we're going to have to go and make use of that extra change of clothes that Willow and Tara packed for you," Buffy said picking Faith up and holding her out in front of her.
"I cannot believe that actually happened," Dawn said ducking her head as she followed Buffy out of the cafeteria, "Brendon and I have been flirting for ages and now he's gonna think I've got this totally annoying family and he's gonna want nothing to do with me."
"He was totally nice about it I don't think you have to worry about him being a jerk about it," Buffy said as they entered the girl's bathroom.
"We're only two classes in and it's already a disaster," Dawn groaned resting her head against the wall as Buffy plopped Faith on the counter.
"It's not a disaster, I resent that you think we're disastrous, besides Faith has been nothing but charming up until that moment which wasn't her fault anyways I might add. Look we'll get her cleaned up and then she'll take a nap through English then I'll entertain her with other shiny things on me then at lunch we'll keep a hold of her so she doesn't cause cafeteria carnage again and then hopefully she'll nap her way through the rest of the afternoon," Buffy said stripping off Faith's shirt.
"Let's just hope we make it to the end of today without the rest of my high school days being completely ruined," Dawn said, "I'm going to go and get my books and then I'll meet you back here," the teen said before flouncing out the door.
"Faithy Faithy Faithy, what are we going to do with you?" Buffy asked using a baby wipe to remove some of the chocolate pudding on the infant's hands, "You better do something to redeem yourself or else Dawn is going to hold the grudgyest of grudges against you."
A/N: To reward all my faithful readers here is a longer chapter like you requested. As always review and let me know what you think.