“Calculus homework,” Kit said, tumbling down to lie on the grass next to Dawn, “Dawn, my friend, I think you’re missing the point of cutting class.”

“I don’t have much of a choice,” Dawn defended, “It’s due after lunch and if I don’t have something to hand in Gudjonsson will kill me.”

“Not doing your homework till the morning before?” Kit rolled onto her back, and tilted her chin up to face the mid-morning sun, “Summers, we might make a decent rebel out of you yet.”

If it were anyone else, Dawn would wonder how they couldn’t have noticed what was happening in Sunnydale? How they couldn’t have grasped that maybe Dawn had slightly more important things to do than calculus homework, like trying to save the world. But this was Kit, and for some reason Dawn never found herself annoyed that Kit’s reaction to anything odd that happened was to steadfastly ignore it. Kit was her island of normality in the sea of weirdness that was Sunnydale.

“Hang on a sec’” Kit said, sitting up suddenly and rummaging through her book-bag, lipsticks, textbooks, embarrassingly accurate doodles of their teachers and even a tampon were strewn over the grass. “Here you go, you can copy mine,” She handed Dawn her math book.

Dawn smiled, taking the book and flipping it to the right page. This was one of the things that that made her like Kit so much. Kit may put up a good Rebel Without a Cause Act but inside she was such a girl, her homework was always done on time, and almost always with more correct answers than Dawn would have gotten while doing it in her lunch hour or while she listened to a dozen potentials snore on her bedroom floor.

“Where’s Carlos today? Kit asked, while throwing her belongings haphazardly back into her book-bag, “he’s usually available for a bit of class cutting.”

“In class, he’s still scared his mom will walk him up to the school like last week.” Dawn giggled, remembering last Wednesday when Carlos’ mom had come unexpectedly home from work to find her son at home watching TV rather than in English class where he was supposed to be, she had grabbed Carlos’s arm and frog marched him up to the school, never having any idea that Dawn and Kit were hiding in her bathroom trying to stifle their laughter.

“I don’t blame him. If my mom did that I don’t know if I could ever face people again. Not that my mom cares enough about me to notice whether I go to school or not,” Kit responded in a fit of teen angst.

“Thanks,” Dawn said, finishing her ‘homework’ and handing Kit back her book. “So I guess it’s just you and me.”

“Yep,” Kit said, flopping backwards onto the grass, pulling Dawn down with her so that Dawn wound up lying in the crook of Kit’s arm, “we can talk about boys or something,” Kit’s voice dripped with sarcasm, and even though she’d never been told outright, Dawn again got the impression that boys were not a great interest of Kit’s.

“Well, if you insist,” Dawn teased, and Kit shifted slightly so she could use the arm Dawn wasn’t lying on to poke her friend in the stomach.

“Hey, what are you doing after school? We could go see a movie or grab a slice of pizza?”

Dawn looked away from Kit, up at the clouds, which were broken up by the branches and leaves overhead. She thought about what she had to do tonight, there was a new potential expected, from Nairobi this time, then she had to translate that prophecy from Turkish, which wasn’t her best language so that would take a while.

She turned back towards Kit, “I can’t tonight, those relatives of mine are still in town and someone has to entertain them.”

“Oh,” Kit said, remembering the odd collection of girls who’d been littering the place the last time she’d been to Dawn’s, “big family you’ve got.”

“Yeah, rain check?”

“Just say when.”

On an impulse Dawn hadn’t even known she possessed she rolled onto her side and pressed her lips to Kit’s. Kit didn’t turn into a vampire so points for her there, also they way she blended black and red lipstick to create her dark red colour created a flavour pleasingly like maraschino cherries, so more points for that.

“What was that for?” Kit asked when Dawn had pulled away and resumed her position lying against Kit’s arm looking skywards.

“For being normal.”

Kit burst out laughing, her body shaking from her suede knee high boots to her dyed hair, a tear escaping from one heavily made up eye, “you know babe, for all the reasons anyone might want to kiss me my being normal is the last one I’d expect. Thanks.”