3rd Person's POV

A day as bright and colorful as the night was black and eerie; students pour in before first bell, talking and laughing. They could be from anywhere in America, but for the extremity of their dress and the esoteric mania of their slang. This is definitely So Cal.

A car pulls up outside the school, Buffy's mom, Joyce, is driving. As the car stops, Buffy quickly jumps out the passenger side.

"Now, you have a good time. I know you'll make friends right away. Think positive. And honey... try not to get kicked out."

Buffy grimaces as she tries to smile, "I promise."

The short blonde beauty turns and looks at the school. She starts to walk across the sidewalk as her mother finally drives away.

A skateboard weaves along the sidewalk nearby. The brunette haired boy on it, dressed with the shaggy indifference common to skateboarders.

He is bright, funny, and will one day be suave and handsome. Till that day arrives, he'll do the best he can with bright and funny.

He weaves through a thickening mass of students toward the school.

"Coming through... Coming through... Not certain how to stop..."

He keeps weaving through people until he passes Buffy– intrigued by the new face, he cranes to look at her, and then slams into the stairs. He falls off the skateboard then quickly picks himself back up.

In the courtyard, a red haired girl sits on a bench reading a book. She is shy, bookish, and very possibly dressed by her mother. The intelligence in her eyes and the sweetness of her smile belie a genuine charm that is lost on the unsubtle high school mind. The boy with the skateboard jogs over to the bench and sits beside the girl.

"Willow! You're so much the person I wanted to see."

Her excitement at the sentiment is sweetly pathetic, and typically unnoticed.

"Really Xander?"

He nods with a small smile, "Yeah. You know, I kind of had a problem with the math."

Willow tries to smiles as she hides disappointment, "Which part?"

"The math. Can you help me tonight? Please? Be my study buddy?"

"Well, what's in it for me?"

Xander holds his hand on his chin as he thinks. He snaps and looks at her with a goofy smile, "A shiny nickel..."

Willow shakes her head giggling to herself, "Okay. Do you have 'Theories in Trig?' You should check it out."

"Check it out?"

"From the library. Where the books live."

"Right. I'm there. See, I want to change."

They are interrupted as a tall, lanky boy pops up behind Willow, making her jump.

"Hey."

"Jesse! What's what."

Jesse smirks, "New girl!"

"That's right, I saw her. She's pretty much a hotty."

"I heard someone was transferring here." Willow says as they ignore her.

"So... Tell." Xander nods.

"Tell what?"

"What's the sitch? What do you know about her?"

Jesse shrugs, "Uh that's all... New girl."

"Well, you're certainly a font of nothing."

Buffy sits before Principal Flutie. He is middle aged, and a tad officious; caught between the old school of strict discipline and the new school of sensitivity.

He pulls her transcript from a folder, and looks at it then her.

"Buffy Summers. Sophomore, late of Hemery High in Los Angeles. Interesting record. Quite a career."

He smiles and carefully tears up her transcript up into four pieces.

"Welcome to Sunnydale. A clean slate, Buffy, that's what you get here. What's past is past. We're not interested in what it says on a piece of paper. Even if it says," he looks down at a piece and reacts with wide eyes.

"-whoa. At Sunnydale we nurture the whole student. The inner student."

He is now taking the pieces of the transcript as he talks and carefully placing them back together again.

"Other schools might looks at the incredible decline in grade point average– we look at the struggling young woman with the incredible decline in grade point average. Other schools might look at the reports of gang fights-"

"Mr. Flutie-" Buffy says as she holds her hand up a little.

"All the kids here are free to call me Bob-"

"Bob-"

"--but they don't." Mr. Flutie frowns.

He pulls out a piece of tape, starts taping the transcript he had just puzzled back together.

"Mr. Flutie. I know my transcripts are a little colorful-"

"Hey, we're not caring about that! Do you think 'colorful' is the word? Not 'dismal'? Just off hand, I'd go with 'dismal.'"

Buffy grimaces, "It wasn't that bad."

"You burned down the gym."

"I did. I really did. But you gotta see the big picture. I mean, the gym was full of vamp... uh, asbestos."

"Buffy. Don't worry. Any other school, they might say 'watch your step', or, 'we'll be watching you' or, 'get within a hundred yards of the gym with a book of matches and you'll grow up in juvie hall' but that's just not the way here. We want to service your needs, and help you to respect our needs. And if your needs and our needs don't mesh..."

Still smiling blandly, he slips the taped up transcript back in her folder.

Buffy exits to office, looking a bit depressed. She starts rummaging through her bag and a student runs by, bumping into her. Her books and stuff spill out. Frustrated, she kneels down and starts scooping it back in.

Xander sees this, and goes up to her, kneeling.

"Can I have you? Uh can I help you?"

Buffy nods and smiles, "Oh, thanks..."

He starts picking things up, handing them to her.

"I don't know you, do I?" Xander wants his tongue to shut up but words keep pouring out.

"I'm new. I'm Buffy." She holds out her hand.

Xander grabs hers and shakes it as he smiles widely, "Xander. Is me. Hi."

"Thanks."

"Maybe I'll see you around. Maybe at school, since we both... go there..."

"Great. Nice to meet you."

He gives her the rest of her books. She stuffs it all in her bag and hurries away.

Xander hits himself on the head as he watches her disappear, "We both go to school... Very suave. Very not pathetic."

He notices something on the floor, bends down to get it and calls after her.

"Oh, hey, you forgot your..."

He looks at the thing in his hand, "stake..."

But she's too far off to hear. He looks at the wooden stake, puzzled.

As he puts the stake in his bag, he turns around and knocks into someone.

"Oof."

The person hits the ground. Xander looks down with a scared face as he notices who it is.

"Watch where you're going Bigfoot!"

The girl gets up and dusts herself off while glaring at Xander.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Don't- Just don't."

Xander watches as the brunette haired girl stomps away. His eyes start to wander down until he slaps himself and snaps out of it.

"Don't be a creep." He says to himself as he stalks away to class.

A teacher stands in front of a room, lecturing. Buffy sits near the back, earnestly taking notes. Trying to keep up.

"It's estimated that about 25 million people died in that one four year span. But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe how? As an early form of germ warfare. The plague was first found in Asia, and a Kipchak army actually catapulted plague-infested corpses into a Genoese trading post. Ingenious. If you look at the map on page 63 you can trace the spread of the disease..."

Buffy looks about as kids open their books– she hasn't got one. The girl next to her, leans over. She is pretty, self assured, and wears a killer outfit.

"Here."

She moves her book over so Buffy can read off it as well.

"Thanks."

Finally, the bell rings signaling the end of class. Kids start to pile up their books and leave. The girl turns to Buffy and introduces herself with a bright smile.

"Hi, I'm Cordelia."

"I'm Buffy."

"If you're looking for a textbook of your very own, there's probably a few in the Library."

"Oh, great. Thanks. Where would that be?"

"I'll show you."

They walk through the hallway swerving through students as Cordelia continues to talk.

"You transferred from Hemery, right? In L.A.?"

"Yeah." Buffy smiles.

"Oh! I would kill to live in L.A. Being that close to that many shoes... Why'd you come here?"

"Because my Mom moved, is the reason. I mean we both moved. But my Mom wanted to."

"Well, you'll be okay here. If you hang with me and mine you'll be accepted in no time. Of course we do have to test your coolness factor. You're from L.A., so you can skip the written, but, let's see... Vamp nail polish."

Buffy answers tentatively, "Over?"

Cordelia nods with a smile, "SO over. James Spader."

Buffy gets all giddy, "He needs to call me."

"Frappuccinos."

"Trendy but tasty."

"John Tesh."

"The Devil?"

"Well, that was pretty much a gimme, but you passed."

"Oh, good."

"Oh and you have to meet my best friend! You two would get along great!"

They stop at the water fountain, which is being used.

"Willow! Nice dress. Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears."

Buffy says nothing, surprised by Cordelia's sudden viciousness.

Willow smiles sheepishly, "Well my Mom picked it out."

"No wonder you're such a guy-magnet. Are you done?"

"Oh."

She vacates the fountain. Cordy steps up to it, looking at Buffy.

"You wanna fit in here, the first rule is 'know your losers'. Once you can identify them all by sight, they're a lot easier to avoid."

She bends down to drink. Buffy looks at the departing Willow, unhappily.

As Buffy and Cordelia walk toward the library.

"--and if you're not too swamped with catching up you should come out to the Bronze tonight."

"The who?"

"The Bronze. It's the only club worth going to around here. They let anybody in but it's still the scene. It's in the bad part of town."

"Where's that?"

"About half a block from the good part of town. We don't have a whole lot of town. You should show."

They arrive at the entrance to the library.

"Well, I'll try, thanks."

Cordelia smiles, "Good. I'll see you at gym and you can tell me absolutely everything there is to know about yourself."

She goes off.

Buffy frowns thrown by the notion, "That sounds like fun..."

JUST FOR FUN

Below is just a little collage of pictures to show what Laney will look like during each season!!