Prologue
On the last day of the first week of freshman year, four of the new outcasts found each other in the halls of Sunnydale High School. Nobody would have believed that these four people would become so close friends. You see, even if they were all part of the ‘unpopular’ crowd, they belonged to different sub categories.
There was the nerd – also known as Willow Rosenberg. She qualified into this category due to her excitement about subjects such as science and computer studies as well as her clothes, which her mother picked out for her. The final nail in the coffin, however, was when she joined the SHSMA, short for Sunnydale High School Math Athletes. Need I say more?
You had your geek – who listened to the name of Buffy Summers. The main reason that she ended up in this group was her glasses, braces and her hairstyle; she wore her dark blonde hair in two braids that reached about an inch below her waist. Now, she was not your typical geek. Nobody made fun of her, or stole her glasses, or did any of the other things that most of Sunnydale High geeks experienced on a daily basis. The reason to this, if you haven’t already guessed it, was money. Lots and lots of money. Buffy’s father was one of the wealthiest men in Los Angeles, and even here, in lil’ ol’ Sunnydale, his name carried a lot of weight.
Then there was, of course, the general loser – Xander Harris. He could have been just another one of the ‘nobodies’ (translation: not an ‘unpopular’ but not a ‘popular’) at the school, enjoying the four years with an occasional insult here and a tripping there, had it not been for his family. Xander had earned his loser status in junior high, which wasn’t unusual. However, what was unusual was the fact that it stayed with him in high school. The normal procedure was that all freshmen were evaluated by the ‘popular’ seniors, sometimes juniors were let in as well. This meant, at least in theory, that you could, if you changed completely during the summer between junior high and high school, achieve a whole new status by the time high school started. This was, as you might have understood by now, not the case with Xander Harris. Why, you ask? His father was an alcoholich and Xander lived in the trailer park on the ‘bad’ side of Sunnydale. The ‘bad’ side of Sunnydale was actually just the trailor park. This ought to give you an idea of the size of the town.
Last, but not least, oh no, you had William Giles who belonged to all of the above mentioned groups. William was a nerd, because of his interest in poetry, history and reading, you could always find him with his nose in a book. He was a geek because of his glasses, his hair that was an undefined brown color and always messy, and his tendency to dress in tweed suits. There were two reasons that he was a loser. One; he was British, which in itself would have been enough. Two; his father was the school librarian.
As mentioned, the four friends met during their first week at Sunnydale High. During the four years of high school, they all developed and grew as persons.
Willow stayed a nerd – and darn proud of it. She often substituted for their computer teacher, got the highest GPA Sunnydale High had seen in 47 years and was the valedictorian of their class. She got scholarships to every major college in America, and a couple in Europe, but despite all this, she decided to stay in Sunnydale and attend UCS. During the orientation week, she met Tara, a shy psychology student, and the two had been inseparable ever since.
Buffy blossomed during the summer between sophomore and junior year. She traded her glasses in for contacts, her braces for perfect, white teeth, and her long braids for a shoulderlenght, light blonde hairstyle. She caught a lot of eyes, and a couple of boyfriends during her last two years at SH. Her first serious relationship was with Angel, Spike’s older brother, but that ended when he left for New York and college, announcing that there wasn’t enough ‘feeling’ between them. Buffy knew what ‘feeling’ he was talking about. Then there was Riley, who chose their prom as the perfect time to cheat on her, using the excuse that he had ‘needs’. She wasn’t anywhere near Willow in her school work, but due to a shockingly high score on her SAT:s she got a scholarship to study English at UCS.
Xander got a foot into the ‘popular’ crowd when he started dating Cordelia, head cheerleader, homecoming queen and self proclaimed head of the ‘popular’ crowd – as well as a Super Bitch. After she cheated on him in the beginning of their senior year, he met his current girlfriend, Anya, a blunt economy major at UCS. The day he turned eighteen, he moved out of his parents house, and decided to study law in college, but deep down he wanted to join the police after graduation.
William was the change that happened most sudden. Sorry, Spike! That’s what he goes by these days. One day in their junior year he came to school in black jeans, a black T-shirt, black boots, a black leather duster and bleached, almost white hair. He had also lost his glasses and gotten a motorcycle. He got a lot of offers from a lot of girls, and wasn’t one to pass. He made his way through the junior and senior girls, and some of the sophomores, too, but nothing lasted. The main reason was a certain blonde in their little gang. Then, during the summer before their senior year, he went to London to visit family and came back with – Drusilla. She was the female version of Spike, Willow, Buffy and Xander doubted she even owned a piece of clothing that wasn’t black. They also thought that she was a little, not to be rude, insane. She would talk to little pixies that only she could see, and one night when they were watching a movie at Willow’s house, she claimed that she could see the stars and was naming them, ceiling or no ceiling.
With all the changes that were going on in their lives, you would think that the four friends would grow apart. But instead they grew closer, and stronger. A couple of weeks after Christmas in their senior year, Buffy’s Mom passed away as a consequence of a brain tumor. Buffy, of course, was devastated. To add to the pain, her Dad, who had been living in Spain with his secretary for the past two years, decided that it would be best if Buffy and her little sister Dawn came to live with him. Buffy refused, and after a little – OK, a lot, considering Buffy was still a minor, her 18th birthday wouldn’t be until December – of persuasion from Spike’s Dad Giles, Willow’s parents, and even Xander’s Mom, she was allowed to stay in Sunnydale. On the condition that her friends moved into the Summer’s mansion with her, which they of course didn’t mind. Xander had already lived by himself for almost a month, and the others jumped at the opportunity. They would be going to college a couple of months later, anyway.
Buffy got money from her Dad every month to cover the necessities – food, electricity, phone, heat, clothes, shoes, purses… you get the picture. Of course this money wasn’t enough for the four of them, so they all got part time jobs. Willow had already been tutoring before, Buffy got a waitress job at The Espresso Pump, a coffee place, Xander helped his older brother fix cars at his garage, and Spike got a job at a record store. All was going great.
When they all ended up going to UCS, they decided to keep living together at the mansion, since none of them had a particularly big desire to trade the spacious, six bedroom, eight baths, pool, hot tub, guest house, gym, sauna house for a nine-by-nine dorm room with a room mate. Lately, though, Buffy had felt a little lonely. Xander was pledging to Phi Kappa Omega, and spent most of his free time with either his fraternity brothers-to-be or Anya. Willow and Tara were together whenever they could. At first they used to hang out at Tara’s dorm room, but Willow, who somehow sensed that Buffy was feeling left out, decided to spend more time at the house. They hardly ever saw Spike, he only came home to sleep, and sometime not even that. Buffy hated to think of where he was. Or, more accurately, who he was with…
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!