White Christmas
Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 1998
Dear Diary,
Buffy had left us to go find Angel. The three of us, me, mom and Faith. I sat with my arms folded on the couch, staring aimlessly as Faith helped mom finish decorating the tree we'd gotten together early in the week. I wanted to help her on my own but I was too stubborn to let Faith do it with me. I still hated her. Even though she was being nice to me that day for no reason. It was Christmas Eve, I was mildly excited about Santa, but mostly just wishing Buffy would come back, dad would come over and Faith would leave, so we could have a proper family Christmas. But none of those things happened. No, instead I was left, abandoned. Having to share in the Christmas spirit. Well, I wasn't feeling very Christmassy.
I got up and made myself a cup of hot cocoa because I thought it would make me feel better. But when I got back Faith was helping mom put the star on the top of the tree and I huffed off into my room. I was considering going to Willow's house, but then I remembered that she was Buffy's friend not mine and she didn't celebrate Christmas. Plus she was having Oz over to mend their relationship, I overheard Buffy talking about it on the phone.
It was later that I felt something tingling, keenly laying down milk and cookies for Santa, excited despite my annoyance. There was something deep inside me that I couldn't control. Something in the air that made me feel whole from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I suddenly stood up and walked to the window. I could feel the energy revolving. Something in the Earth moving, shifting. I knew there was something outside, so I looked out the window. "Mom?!" I said, alarmed by what I saw. She came running, alerted to my mood by the tone in my voice. "It's snowing."
Outside was a sea of white. Thick snow fell in clumps, I held a mug of hot cocoa to my chest and watched it fall for a while. It was so pretty. I'd seen snow before, when we visited my aunts' houses, but here? In Sunnydale - the valley of the sun. It was almost always sunny, always hot and dry. We basically lived in the desert. Snow had no place here. And here it was like some Christmas miracle. Mom was amazed and got out the camera. "You don't see this everyday Dawn," she said to me. We all stood on the porch and watched it, somehow the air was still mild. There was no ice, no frozen anything. Just snow.
Something twinged inside me, how had I known? How had I felt it pulling? Willow would know. There would be some mystical explanation for this. Some reason why I felt the Earth turning sometimes, why I felt the snow falling, why I felt I knew things before they happened. Maybe I was special? Maybe I was a witch, just like Willow? Did she feel like this too?
Dawn x