The Courtship of Buffy Summers

It’s been two weeks since the very awkward ride home. Despite the fact that Buffy is grounded and Faith’s brother is still very protective of his sister, Buffy and Faith have grown closer. They spend every lunch hour together, and the brunette walks the blonde girl home every afternoon instead of driving her home so the two can spend even more time together.


But the blonde girl is starting to get a little frustrated with the situation. She wants to be able to spend some ‘alone time’ with Faith. Even if that ‘alone time’ is just sitting together on the back patio, or in the living room watching TV. The groundation is preventing them from doing so, and she can’t take it anymore.


“Come on, Mom, please?” Buffy says as she follows her mother around the kitchen. Joyce is busy trying to make dinner, and having a teenager shadowing you around begging for attention isn’t the easiest thing when you’re concentrating on something else. “Faith has only been over for dinner once. And you’re the one who’s always telling me you want to get to know the people who are important to me. Well, she’s important to me, and having her over will give you two a chance to talk.” Buffy has been pleading her case for the last five minutes, and Joyce hasn’t even gotten a chance to talk yet.


“Don’t fall for that, Mom. She just wants to invite Faith over so they can make out,” Dawn says from across the kitchen island. She’s been quiet the entire time Buffy has been talking to their mother, and she can’t take anymore. Buffy is supposed to be grounded, it’s bad enough the blonde spends at least half an hour making out with Faith on the front porch after school when she’s supposed to be upstairs doing her homework.


“You just got back from Dad’s yesterday, do you think you can hold off on being annoying until tomorrow?” Buffy asks in a very irritated voice, and it earns a very stern look from her mom. “I’m sorry, but I’m just trying to get you to see the bigger picture. We’re not leaving the house so technically it’s not a date. And because she’s coming over so you can get to know her better this isn’t in anyway a violation of my punishment.”


“Bull!” Dawn yells and slides off the barstool. “When we’re grounded we’re not allowed to have friends over for any reason. And Faith is more then just a friend so she shouldn’t even be allowed to walk Buffy home after school.” ‘Crap. Please tell me she didn’t just say that,” Buffy thinks and gives Dawn her best death glare. ‘Maybe I make her light on fire with willpower alone.’


“Dawn,” Joyce says and hands the teen the plates and silver wear. “Go set the table.” The ten year old gives her mother a very annoyed look and Joyce sighs. “This is between me and your sister. Now go set the table, or no TV after dinner.” The brunette girls sighs and leaves the room with a lot of attitude. Joyce looks over at her oldest daughter with one eyebrow raised. Buffy knows exactly what she isn’t saying, and it’s making her a little nervous.


“What? You never said that Faith can’t walk me home, I’m just not allowed to have anyone over. She dropped me off at the door, she never stepped inside the house.” The mother decides to drop the subject for now because she doesn’t want an argument to break out. She wants to have a nice, quiet dinner with her daughters now that Dawn is finally back from her father’s. “So can she come over for dinner?” The blonde knows she’s pushing it, but she really wants to spend some more time with Faith.


“I’ll think about it, Buffy. If you keep bothering me about it the answer is no.” The blonde has to stop herself from groaning in frustration. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it, understand?” She nods her head yes and leaves the room. ‘God, this is so unfair. I already told Mom why Faith was in my room, and she doesn’t even care. And I’ve only been grounded for eighteen days so I have…seventy-two to go! This so totally sucks.’


“Why do you want Faith to come over so bad?” Dawn asks as she places the napkins by the plates. “She got you in so much trouble. I don’t think I’d want to be around her after that.” ‘That’s because you’re stupid,’ Buffy thinks and sets the platter of rolls down in the center of the table. “And who names their kid Faith, anyway? Are her parents really religious or something?” ‘I have no idea, I haven’t met her parents yet.’


“Why don’t you mind your own business? I don’t bug you about the people you hang out with. Well, at least I wouldn’t if someone actually wanted to hang out with you.” The blonde is just teasing, and knows that her sister has plenty of friends, but the brunette doesn’t find that very funny. She slams a fork down on the table and Buffy looks up at her with a ‘what the hell?’ look on her face.


“I just started school yesterday, Buffy. And I had a lot of friends before we moved,” she sounds very angry, and as soon as she stops talking she goes back to setting the table, and she completely ignores the blonde teenager standing across the table from her. Their parents thought it would be best if Dawn stayed with their dad for a little while longer so she wouldn’t have to go through the stress of getting used to a new school, and do the state testing at the same time.


Buffy does feel bad for her little sister. She remembers the day she and her mother left for Sunnydale perfectly. The thing she remembers most is Dawn crying her eyes out, and getting sick when she couldn’t calm herself down. It was supposedly for the best, but the blonde doesn’t think so. Although she was thankful for the little break from her sister, she’s just glad that Dawn is home and they can start to become normal again.


“I’m sorry, Dawnie. I’m sure you’ll make a lot of friends in no time. But if there’s a girl at your school with the last name of Chase, avoid her at all costs.” ‘Does Cordelia have a little sister?’ Just the thought of a mini-Cordelia is enough to make Buffy’s stomach turn. “Maybe this weekend Mom will let me show you around the town. It’ll take twenty minutes tops.” The younger girls rolls her big, blue eyes and it makes the blonde smile. “I’m serious. This is a very small town. The mall here only has ten stores, including the food court.”


“Buffy, I’m ten. I don’t care about clothes as much as you do. As long as they have an ice cream store, and a Toys R Us I’ll be fine,” she says in a very mock-serious tone. ‘Geez, what a smart ass. I think living alone with Dad damaged her. Maybe Mom should put her in therapy or something.’ They finish setting the table in relative silence after that. Now that Dawn’s in a bad mood she doesn’t feel like talking to anyone, especially her sister.


“Mom, I forgot to tell you,” Dawn says as eldest Summers puts the roast on the table. She looks at her youngest with a little concern. She can’t help but notice that Dawn sounds a little depressed, even Buffy looks worried. “The guidance counselor wants you to sign some papers. She said that with everything that’s happened it would be a good idea for me to meet with her twice a week to talk. She said something about a group of kids who are going through the same thing.” ‘Wow, and I was just kidding about the therapy thing,’ Buffy thinks and starts making up her plate.


“Well, it’s up to you, sweetheart. If you don’t want to talk with her about…everything then you don’t have to.” The brunette nods her head a little, but she still seems very upset. ‘And, here we go. She always does this. Everything has to be about her all the time or she isn’t happy,’ the blonde thinks and rolls her eyes. ‘Maybe I should go easy on her. Moving here was pretty hard until I started to make friends. Well, moving here was hard until I met Faith.’ The blonde can’t help but smile at the thought of her girlfriend. ‘She’s just so sweet. I can’t wait until this whole groundation thing is over. Hmm, I wonder how we should celebrate?’


“Why are you smiling like that?” Dawn asks when she sees the strange look on her sister’s face. Buffy tries to stay calm at the fact that she just got caught thinking sexy thoughts about the raven haired girl. ‘Just calm down. She’s only ten she doesn’t know what sexy thoughts are yet.’ Buffy is about to tell her little sister to mind her own business but then her mother speaks up.


“She was probably thinking about Faith,” Joyce says with a playful smile. Buffy’s eyes widen to five times their normal size. “She always smiles like that when she thinks about Faith.” Buffy is stunned a little horrified when her mother winks at her and gives her a very knowing gaze. ‘Oh my God, Mom knows that I’ve been thinking sexy thoughts about Faith? That is so gross. I need to stop thinking about Faith. At least when I’m not alone in my bedroom.’ She’s snapped out of the little trance when she hears Dawn giggle.


“Shut up, runt,” Buffy says and throws her napkin at the little pest. ‘Thank you. At least someone finally agrees that she’s a pest.’ She gets a glare from her mother and she looks down at her plate. ‘I can’t believe this. Dawn just got here yesterday and she’s already getting me in trouble. This is bullshit.’ Then Buffy gets an idea that she thinks is brilliant. An idea that if she can pull off will allow her to spend more time with Faith.


“Mom, my math has been giving me a really bad time lately. I try to do the problems, but they always come out wrong, and I was wondering if I could stay after school tomorrow and have someone tutor me.” ‘Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.’ She’s on pins and needles waiting for the answer.


“As long as you’re home by five. I know I said no friends, but maybe your friend Willow can come to the house and tutor you?” ‘Crap. Ok, just stay calm and come up with a good reason why Willow can’t tutor you at home.’ She tries to keep the surprise and nervousness out of her face, but she has a feeling her mom can tell she’s going to lie.


“Because she’s already tutoring Xander, and we don’t have any of the same classes so she can’t teach us at the same time. And she has all of her homework to deal with. But there’s a girl who tutors people after school and she said she’d tutor me tomorrow.” ‘Wow, that was pretty good. Hopefully she’ll buy it because I really want to hang out with Faith where we won’t be bothered by the people at school or by my pest of a sister.’


“As long as you’re home by five,” Joyce says and Buffy has to force herself not to look too happy about it or she’ll be given away. ‘I can’t believe it was that easy. There has to be a catch in there somewhere. Then again, I think the catch is being home by five. When I’m with Faith the time is the last thing I pay attention to. I really hope I get home on time or Mom will never let me go anywhere again.’


After dinner Buffy goes upstairs to her room to think more about this plan she’s come up with. She has no idea where the two are going to go. They can’t come back here for the obvious reason. Dawn will rat them out and Buffy doesn’t want even more time added to her punishment. ‘We can always go to her house. Unless she doesn’t want to take me to her house. I really want to know why she never talks about her parents.’ A small knock at her door brings her out of her thoughts. She looks over and sees Dawn standing in the doorway.


“Can I hang out in here?” she asks and sounds a little sheepish. When it comes to her big sister she never quite knows how to act. She looks up to Buffy even if she won’t admit it, and she just wants her sister to view her as an equal and not an annoying little runt.


“Don’t touch anything,” Buffy says and goes back to staring at the ceiling. ‘Maybe we can just drive around until we find a spot to park. No, that seems a little weird. I’m sure she’ll know where to go. I don’t want to think anything bad about her, but she said that she’s been with a lot of girls. So it’s safe to say she’ll know where to go for a little make out session.’ She sighs and rubs her forehead, and then sighs again.


“Is this Faith?” she hears Dawn ask, and she looks over where her sister is standing. The short, adolescence is standing at Buffy’s bulletin board looking at the pictures. There is one of Faith and Buffy up there. A student from the year book committee was taking pictures of the dance, and he got a really good shot of Buffy and Faith dancing together. When Buffy saw it in the school newspaper under ‘top ten favorite couples of Sunnydale High’ she asked the guy for a copy of the picture. She nods her head at Dawn and smiles a little bit. “Wow, she’s really pretty.” ‘You have no idea.’


“Are you going to try and steal her away from me?” Buffy teases and Dawn just sighs and rolls her eyes a little. “I’m just giving you a bad time, don’t get all huffy and puffy about it.” Here I am wondering why Faith doesn’t open up to me and I haven’t even told her that I have a younger sister. Then again the subject of siblings never really came up. I didn’t know she had a brother until I saw him drop her off at school. “She’s really cool. I think you two will get along.” ‘Not that I care. Just stay away from us when she comes over and I won’t be the one responsible for your death.’


“Yeah right. If she likes you then she’s probably stuck up like all your boyfriends were.” Buffy is going to argue with the younger girl, but she doesn’t get the chance. Dawn storms out of the room and slams the door. ‘Sometimes her moods swing so fast I’m surprised I don’t get whiplash.’ So, with the adolescent pest out of the room Buffy goes back to thinking about her plan and how she’s going to pull it off.