"Hello?" The front door opened.
"Buffy?" Willow asked.
"Oh, yep, it's me, and I brought dinner." I heard her footsteps coming into the dining room. "Deep-fried chicken parts. Hope you're....hungry." She paused when she saw we were cleaning up after eating dinner. "You already ate?"
"No." Pops lied. "Well, uh, yes, obviously."
"We didn't know when you'd be coming back." Dawn stated.
"It's OK. More for me." Buffy shrugged.
"Yeah, but you're still gonna share." I gestured at the fried chicken bucket she was holding. She smiled and sat down next to me and placed the bucket on the table.
"I don't know about everyone else, but I would also love some chicken." Tara said.
"Yes, as would I." Pops added.
"I-I'll take a drumstick." Dawn grabbed the bucket.
"I'm a breast gal myself, but then again, you knew that." Willow smiled at Tara. Passing around the chicken, we all grabbed some pieces of it.
"So...."
"What so?" Buffy asked.
"So how was it? Seeing Angel? Him seeing you?" Dawn questioned. "Was it weird?" Buffy got this look on her face.
"Um....it was....intense." She answered, and I cleared my throat.
"By intense....you don't mean 'lost his soul', do you?" I asked.
"Oh, no."
"Well, if you want to talk about it-"
"I don't." Buffy cut off Willow. "It's....not important. Past. I'd just rather keep this one to myself, if that's okay."
"Sure, whatever." Dawn looked at her sister.
"Buffy, there, uh, was some discussion in your absence about, um, what-what you're going to do now." Pops said while handing out napkins. "You know, your plans."
"Oh, um, I've been giving that a lot of thought, actually. And I think I've figured it out. What I should do."
"Good, that's good." Willow nodded while smiling.
"Yeah, I figure if I hold off paying the plumber, I can pay the utility bill, and then I can wait to re-shingle the roof until we get the refund back-"
"No, I meant with your life." Pops told Buffy.
"Oh. Life plans." She paused while looking at her hands. "Um, wow.... I have no idea. I guess, um, well I-I left school, you know, when mom got sick, but I always figured I'd go back. And then she...." Buffy looked down again. "Um, so I-I was thinking about re-enrolling, but, um, I missed the registration cutoff. Busy being dead and all."
"Well, if it's too late for late registration and too early for early, you can always come to classes with Tara and me."
"Right. You-You can audit for the rest of the semester until registration." Tara nodded.
"Audit. I guess I could do that." She seemed to think. "Yeah, I mean, that sounds like a good plan. What do you think, Giles?" Buffy looked to Pops. He just sort of nodded his head.
"I'm actually thinking about looking for another job." I stated. "So if you wanna really go back, I can do that and pay off more bills." Buffy turned to me.
"Really?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "The Magic Box is sort of a hobby job. If I got another one, that would bring in more income. Plus, I have quite a bit of extra time on my hands while Dawn's at school."
YOU ARE READING
Unknown Factors (Book One)
Fanfiction[18+; Use an age indicator in YOUR BIO to confirm you're 18+ if you want to follow/comment or you'll be blocked for safety purposes] Despite Giles's efforts to let his adoptive daughter have a happy life, he couldn't quite stop the Watchers Council...
