-Thoughts are in italics-
The Next Morning
Faith was slowly dragged from sleep by the prodding of her son. "Mom wake up, I'm hungry." Faith cracked an eye open to glance at Kyler who was standing in front of her bed with his arms crossed and an impatient expression on his face as he stared at her and tapped his foot waiting for a response. She closed her eye and pretended to still be asleep. This prompted Kyler to start poking her again before speaking to her in an annoyed voice " Hey! I know your awake, I'm not blind here I saw your eye open. Get up, you have things to do, people to see and a kid to feed here. Do I really have to dump water on you like Grandma Di use to?" At this Faith let out a small chuckle and opened her eyes to look at her son " Calm down little man I heard ya, let me take a shower and then I'll take ya to get some chow, wanna watch some cartoons while you wait for me?" Kyler seemed to think about this for a moment before nodding his acceptance then jumping on the bed and switching on the TV. Faith smiled at his choice of show, Daria, not exactly what someone would expect a 6 year old to enjoy but then again Kyler wasn't your typical kid. He had a quick mind and intelligence that belied his young age. As she walked by him she gave his hair an affectionate ruffle and made her way to the bathroom to prepare for the day.
While in the shower Faith planned her day, she would feed her son before dropping him off at a daycare then head out to Sunnydale High in search of this Giles guy. She would explain her situation then ask for help and hell maybe even meet the other slayer while shes at it. Satisfied with her plan she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower to get ready. After dressing and applying her makeup, she decided to forgo straightening her hair in favor of letting her natural curls show for the day. She looked in the mirror and smirked at her reflection. By looking at her you would never expect she was a mother and college graduate. She had a great body and knew how to use it to her advantage, not that she went around sleeping with people but she could look the part. She had on heavy eye liner and dark lipstick, tight black leather pants and a skintight blood red tank top, the tattoo on her arm dark against her skin and her well toned stomach on display when she lifted her arms. Image was all about camouflage to Faith. She played up the uneducated bad girl reputation in public, things were better if people underestimated you, she had a killer body that she knew was the envy of almost every other female she met, add in her sensually husky voice and predatory walk and she was the definition of confident and sexy. Faith dressed this way because for one she enjoyed the attention and she knew that there were advantages to people and vampires thinking you were just some uneducated slut on the prowl for a screw.
Faith was able to ignore the dirty looks and opinions of other people because she knew who she really was, a 17 year old genius and a hell of a mother with no interest in sex before marriage, Gable was her one and only sexual experience and she planned to keep it that way until she got married. I know what you all thinking, no way Faith would plan to wait for marriage! Well it wasn't just about Faith, everything she did she thought about how it would affect Kyler and she refused to bring people in and out of his life or give herself to someone that she didn't think would stick around for them.
Faith could feel the judgmental stares of people on her as she and her son were eating their breakfast at the local Doublmeat palace but she ignored them, thankful that Kyler knew not judge people by their clothes or what others thought about them but on their choices and personality. After finishing their meal they drove over to UC Sunnydale where Faith dropped Kyler off with a promise to pick him back up at around 3pm, then she proceeded onto the high school.
All eyes were on Faith as soon as she got out of her car and she was inwardly smirking as she strolled through the halls on her way to the library, she may not do anything about the looks and cat calls but the attention was good for a girls ego. Upon entering the library she immediately spotted a bespectacled middle age man in a tweed suit that just screamed "I'm British!"She assumed this was the watcher which he confirmed when he introduced himself as Rupert Giles and asked how he could help her. Faith then introduced herself and went on to explain the situation with her watcher and Kakistos. He was sad to hear about Diana, they had grown up together and she was a fine woman, Giles wasted no time in pledging his help to help defeat the monster who had ended his friends life. Faith was extremely relieved and very grateful and she sat down with Giles to research and learn more about the habits of the dangerous vampire that was determined to have his revenge on her.
Around lunch time Faith was getting hungry and decided to grab a bite to eat, when asking Giles if he would like her to pick anything up he requested she pick up a few pizza's explaining that the other slayer and her friends sometimes came into the library for lunch. So she went and grabbed a few pizzas and some drinks making it back to the library a few minutes before the lunch period started. Setting down the pizzas and making her way back out the door to use the restroom she warned Giles not to let anybody else touch her anchovy pineapple pizza.
LUNCH- BUFFY
As soon as the bell rings I'm out of my seat and out the door before most of the class, I absolutely hate chemistry and always bolt out the door as soon as I can. My teacher learned the hard way that Buffy and chemicals are unmixy things, really the less time I spend in that room the better for all. I go to my locker and drop off my books before meeting with Willow and Xander and heading to the library to annoy Giles. My friends keep giving me sneaky little glances like they expect me to disappear. I've only been back a few weeks but after that disastrous welcome back party I thought things were getting back to normal but noo that would be to easy. Everyone watches me like I'm going to freak out and disappear again, come on people! Can you at least try to give me some credit or put yourselves in my shoes? Whoa talk about being a downer, I need to push these broody thoughts away and work on the positive, from now on no more broody Buffy! "Food!" I say as we approach the library and the smell of pizza hits me and my stomach gives a loud embarrassing growl. The others look at me and I blush "Hey slayer here, extremely fast metabolism, I'm hungry don't give me those looks!" The others laugh as my stomach growls again and my blush gets deeper, "Stupid stomach." I grumble as I pull out a chair and open one of the pizzas. "Pineapple anchovy! I haven't had this in years, thanks Giles." I happily begin to munch my pizza when Xander speaks up, "Yeah thanks G-man I thought we were going to be doomed with another day of Hot dog surprise." We all shudder as we contemplate the mysterious evils of the dreaded hot dog surprise.
Giles glares at him before responding " Do not call me that! And as for the pizza you'll have to thank the new slayer when she returns from the restroom." I'm about to take another bite of pizza when this catches my attention. "New slayer? What new slayer? Why is she here? Am I going to be replaced?! Giles make with the splainy now!" So I might be a little panicked but I cant help it. I'm just getting use to thing again, trying to adjust to being back and assure everyone I'm not going to run off or break down and I don't need another slayer to complicate things. He begins to speak as his gaze locks onto something behind us "Ah here she is now, perhaps she may be able to answer any questions you may have." I turn around to meet the newcomer but when I see her my heart seems to skip a beat and my eyes go wide , we're both frozen in place , our eyes locked on each other and she looks just as shocked. I open my mouth to speak and at first nothing comes out but finally I'm able to force a single word through my lips "Firecracker?"
NOTE: I know the whole Firecracker and Tinkerbell thing is lame but we're going by childhood nicknames here so bear with me through any cheesiness.
