Prologue
Sunnydale, California. Affectionately called Sunnyhell by its
residents. Just your below average, one Starbucks town
located two hours from Los Angeles. The end of Spring
Break signaled the beginning of school. Wonderful to some,
hell to others.
Four teenage girls in a shiny red convertible pull up to the
stop light. All cheerfully singing to the Barenaked Ladies,
they looked forward to going back to school. Just as they
were singing the chorus, loud, angry rock music drowned
out the cheery beat.
Buffy Summers pulled up to the stop light next to the
convertible in her old beat up car. She looked at the girls and
smirked, happily drowning out their too cheery music and
effectively destroying their good moods. The light changed to
green, and both cars sped off.
Buffy pulled into the parking lot of Sunnydale High School
with a sense of dread.
‘Only a few more months, only a few more months.’, she
repeated to herself over and over.
She got out of the car and headed towards the entrance.
Just as a girl taped a Prom poster to the wall, Buffy walked
over, looking at the paper in disgust, then promptly tore it off.
Then she headed to her first class.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Conner James walked down the hall towards the Principal’s
office. Son of a Navy officer, this was the third town in a
year and his second school.
‘Maybe this one will be different.’ he thought, his mind going
back to the past few months at the last school. He was
branded a loser, constantly tormented by the jocks. His loser
status was so low, he had no friends at all.
He entered the office, Principal Hallie
Addams. He knocked on the door.
“I’ll be right with you,” she told him never looking up from her
computer screen. She was busily typing the new chapter of
her romance novel, which she was sure would get published
this time. She closed the laptop and picked up Conner’s
folder.
“So, Conner, is it? Here you go.” She handed him his
schedule.
“Nine schools in ten years. My, my. Army brat?”
“Um yeah. My dad is a…”
“That’s enough. I’m sure you won’t find Sunnydale any
different than your old schools. Same old brats with shit for
brains everywhere!” She laughed.
Conner looked at her in shock.
“What? Am I in the right office?”
“Not anymore. Now go. I’ve got deviants to see and a novel
to finish. Now go. Go!”
Conner stood up so fast he tipped the chair. He picked the
chair up and turned to leave.
“Uh right. Thanks.”
As he turned to go out the door, he ran into a boy with
bleached hair and a leather coat. Conner immediately tensed
up, expecting a fist in his face, and when nothing happened,
he left quickly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
William Develin, known as Spike, looked at
the boy curiously and went into the office.
“William Develin. I see that you’re going to make these visits a
weekly ritual.”
Spike looked at Ms. Addams and gave her one of his
trademark smirks.
“Only so we can spend these moments together. Should I hit
the lights?”
“Ooh, very clever, bleach boy.”
She looked at the file in her hand.
“It says here you exposed yourself in the cafeteria.”
Spike rolled his eyes.
“I was joking with the lunch lady. It was a bratwurst.”
Ms. Addams stood up and looked at Spike.
“Bratwurst? Is that what they call it these days?”
She looked at his crotch and smiled.
“Aren’t we the optimist! Next time, keep it in your pouch. Ok!”
Spike looked at the woman wide-eyed.
“Go!”
Spike slowly turned and left, still in shock
that the Principal just referred to his goods as a bratwurst.
‘Bloody bitch.’ he thought as he headed to his next class.
Back at the computer, Ms. Addams quickly
revised her last sentence, replacing ‘member’
with ‘bratwurst’. She smiled at the thought and continued
typing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Conner walked out of the Ms. Addams’ office and was
greeted by a boy wearing khakis and a necktie.
‘Oh no. He’s one of those geeks with the slides.’, Conner
thought.
The boy looked at Conner and smiled.
“Hi, I’m Jesse Crawford. I’m supposed to show you around.”
Conner smiled and shook his hand.
“Thank God. I thought they were going to send one of those
audiovisual nerds.”
Jesse laughed nervously.
“I-I do, I know what you mean.”
Jesse grabbed Conner’s arm and began to
lead him away as a boy with a cart of slides came up beside
them.
“Hey, Jesse. Where should I put the slides?”
Jesse looked at the boy and laughed.
“Slides?”
He laughed nervously again and quickly led
Conner down the busy hall.
“So, Conner. Here’s the breakdown. Over there we’ve got
your basic beautiful people. Now listen, unless they talk to
you first, don’t bother them.”
Conner looked at Jesse.
“Wait, is that your rule or theirs?”
“Just watch.”
As they walked down the hall, they passed
Angel O’Connor and his group of friends, Riley, Parker, and
Gunn. Jesse looked straight ahead as they passed, “Hey
there!”
Angel glared at Jesse, “Eat me!”
Jesse looked over at Conner, “You see that?”
They continued down the hall until they
exited the building onto the quad. Jesse pointed to a group of
people with coffee cups.
“They are the Coffee Kids. Very edgy. Don’t make any
sudden movements around them.”
They walked a little further until they got to a
group with dreadlocks and tie-dye shirts.
“These delusionals are big Marley fans, semipolitical, but
mostly…”
“Just smoke a lot of weed?”, Conner finished for him.
“Yeah. These guys,” he pointed to a group of guys with
cowboy hats trying to lasso a trash can.
“Wait, wait, wait. Let me guess. Cowboys?” Conner
chuckled.
“Yeah, but the closest they have ever come to a cow is a
hamburger at McDonald’s!” Jesse laughed, but stopped
when he realized Conner was looking at him strangely. They
passed by a group at a table dressed in suits busily typing on
laptops.
“Anyway, these are your future MBA’s, all ivy-league
accepted.”
They continued walking, and Jesse spoke
again.
“Now over there…”
Conner stopped. “Oh my God.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dawn Summers walked out of the building chatting with her
two best friends, Harmony Kendall and Cordelia Chase. Just
as they walked by Conner began to follow.
“What group is she in?”, he asked Jesse.
Jesse looked at Conner shaking his head.
“The ‘don’t-even-think-about-it’ group. Dawn Summers, a
sophomore…”
Conner kept staring at Dawn, “I burn, I pine, I perish.”
Jesse laughed. “Of course you do. You know, she is
beautiful and deep, for sure.”
They continued following the girls, listening to their
conversation.
Dawn looked at Cordelia.
“Yeah, but see, there is a difference between like and love.
Because, I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.”
Harmony looked at Dawn.
“But I love my Skechers.”
Dawn and Cordelia looked at each other and
sighed.
“That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.”, Dawn
told her.
“Ohhh.” Harmony smiled thoughtfully.
The girls walked away, leaving Conner and
Jesse staring after them. Jesse noticed Conner still staring
intently at Dawn.
“Listen, forget her. She has an incredibly uptight father and
it’s a widely known fact that the Summers sisters aren’t
allowed to date.”
Conner was too busy staring at Dawn to
listen to what Jesse was saying.
“Yeah, uh huh, whatever.”
The bell rang and the students begin to walk
back to the building to go to class. As Conner was walking,
he was busy thinking of ways to ask Dawn out.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!