one last chance

chapter twelve

Chapter Twelve

Dawn walked to the campus from her home. Faith, her gang arrived the next day and Dawn wanted to get her transfer stuff done. The past year she attended Oxford University in Oxford living on campus. This year with Anne as her slayer she would transfer to Oxford's sister campus in London. The campus was close enough to her house that she could easily walk to and from uni and be home quickly if needed. She didn't need her transfer papers filed until August but she decided to get it done early before things got crazy.

As she walked down the London streets Dawn wished she had worn a light sweater, the July air was cool for summer time. A ten minute walk brought her to the university campus, Dawn with her rather fallible sense of direction got lost twice before she finally found her way to the admissions building.

"Hi," She glanced at the name plate, "Mrs. 0'Riley, I'm Dawn Summers, I'm transferring from Oxford." She said to the blue haired old lady behind the black walnut desk.

"Hello Ms. Summers. Do you have your transcripts?" She asked.

Dawn nodded and handed her a folder that held all of her papers.

"Hmm…" Mrs. O'Riley said, "You're studying occult studies I see?"

"Yes ma'am." Dawn smiled to herself.

"You know, in the past two years the amount of occult studies students we have has easily doubled. It's the strangest thing."

At this Dawn outright smiled, most of the watchers at the school and a few of the slayers that were in advanced courses studied here and all of those studied the occult.

The admissions officer took Dawn's papers and gave her some forms to fill out to officalize the transfer process. She quickly filled those out and signed the other forms she had.

Half an hour later with all the forms filled out and all of the dotted lines signed Dawn was officially transferred to Oxford's sister campus. She walked out of the admissions building. She saw the campus was mostly empty in the early evening hours and decided to take a few moments to explore the campus. Different buildings connected with pristine walk ways, designed to look like the original cobblestone of London's streets. The campus buildings were built in the Victorian style, clay colored stone work with white trim. The buildings formed a square, creating a court yard in the center. A small student commons area was placed in the center with the walk ways all meeting in the center.

She walked down the walk ways connecting the buildings sometimes stopping to go into a couple and explore. Dawn, like her sister, loved the Scoobies and the other watchers and girls but also like Buffy she loved the few moments she could steal for herself. With all of the others arriving those moments would be more than limited and Dawn planned to enjoy every one she got beforehand.

The girls and guys had taken the news that something was out to kill them better than she expected. She thought at the minimum there would be a mild form of panic at the worst outright chaos. But the slayers and watchers in training just took it in stride. Tonight they would go to the planned sleeping arrangements and get things ready, tomorrow their new roommates would move in. Dawn knew they were better organized this time but this complete order still shocked her. When she asked Anne about it her slayer told her it was because the slayers and watchers trusted the Scoobies. They knew what they had faced in the past and trusted them to face this.

Dawn admitted to herself that Lokar was a lot less scary than the First but she was still more than a bit afraid. She didn't want to lose any more of her family. Sense Sunnydale their father Hank only called once. Neither Dawn nor Buffy considered him family anymore. They all lost people last time. Potentials, Slayers, Spike and Anya. Sure Spike came back but the others didn't.