Author: Gareth
Series: The Dawnmeister Chronicles
Summary: Dawn kept diaries since she was seven, so what does she remember about Buffy's first year in Sunnydale?
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season One only apart from the existence of Dawn
Archive: List Archives are welcome to it, other people please ask.
Distribution: Sure, as long as you keep this header intact.
Feedback: Hell yeah :) I don't want to churn loads of stuff out then find out you all think it's crap :) Send to feedback[at]lostscrolls.net
Disclaimer: Dawn and mentioned supporting cast are all characters owned by one Joss Whedon. Although that wording suggests there could be more than one Joss. Scary.
Notes: Although strictly speaking this shouldn't be on this list, I'm claiming the 'OT' tag in the heading lets me off ;) This is the first of four shorts looking at events of the first four seasons through Dawn's eyes.
Dear Diary,
I'm sorry I haven't been writing anything. When we moved here there were so many things to get used to, like a new house that's really cool. I still haven't gotten used to all the extra places there are to hide and sneak away to. Right now I'm huddled away in the basement, behind two crates of old toys that Buffy wasn't grown-up enough to throw away when we were clearing out the old house. I was grown up. Well, kinda. I only got rid of the Catwoman comics because there was money in it for me. That and that I spent so much time reading them while Mom and Dad were splitting up that once they finally divorced I never wanted to even see the covers again. Maybe that's not so grown up. But it was certainly more grown up than tearing the damn things up.
I'm not going to get into that again. I think I wrote enough about how I felt about Mom and Dad before we moved, I think you know it all well enough by now. Did I mention I have a cool hiding place in the basement? I think if I wanted to I could hide down here for hours even if Buffy and her pals decided to have one of their secret meetings. They still wouldn't see me. Well, I guess I'd be easy to find if they were looking for me, but if they're not...
Yeah, Buffy and her pals! I know I haven't written anything about that, cuz this is the first time I've written to you since the move to Sunnydale. It's not enough for Buffy that we ended up moving because she had to blow up her old school gymnasium, she has to start acting all strange and everything pretty much as soon as she starts at her new school. She seems to have picked the two strangest people in the whole of the school to be friends with too. At least they're not dull like all the cheerleaders in LA. Silly giggly girls obsessed with how their boobs are growing.
Sorry diary, I keep getting sidetracked, but there is so much to tell you. Buffy's made two close friends since we moved to Sunnydale. One is Willow. She's a bit geeky, but is fun too. She likes school, same as me, and is good with helping me learn stuff. Mom said it's fine for Willow to help me as long as she doesn't start doing my homework for me, cause I won't learn stuff that way. Willow's going to show me how to use the internet one day. Mom totally freaked first time I mentioned it, she was way convinced I was gonna end up killed by some weirdo guy who met me in a chatroom. Then she calmed down about it, and then, just the other week, something weird happened with Willow about some guy she met in a chatroom. No one will tell me what happened, but that did kinda put me off. It does seem sometimes like weird things happen here all the time though, so I'm not sure I should pay attention.
Buffy's other friend is Xander. He's kinda odd. If I was sixteen I'd want to be called by my proper name, not some kid version. And then in other ways it's like he's trying to be the grown up one all the time. Willow is totally in love with him, they've been friends since they were really young. I think he just sees her as a kinda sister. Or maybe he just doesn't notice her at all, cuz of how his eyes are glued to the ground Buffy walks on. He so has a crush on my sis. And that's something else. I don't get this whole boy-girl thing. Mom keeps telling me how I'm only 10 and it'll make sense when I'm older, and I'm starting to get what she means by that now. Like before I couldn't see it at all. "Boys? Yeuch!" and all that. Here, some of the boys are cool. And I don't just mean fun, I mean...I dunno. So it's like I see it, I just don't understand it. I guess that's something that's changed for me since I last wrote in here.
Now I know what you're thinking. And yes, you're right. Don't worry though diary, I am not going to go into all the yucky details about puberty. I know what it feels like sometimes to go back and read the stuff I write in here, and I so do not want to find myself a year or so from now coming back and reading this if there's ickiness about periods and stuff in it. It's all totally gross, and I'm not writing about it any more.
There's another guy I keep hearing about, though I haven't met him yet. His name is Giles and he's an English guy - the new school librarian. Willow and Buffy talk about him a lot. I think Willow's just blown away by the huge quantity of books he looks after. I can't see why Buffy spends so much time in the library though. I think they have a secret society going or something. That's the only explanation I can come up with for Xander being in there. He is so not the library type. And when I made a comment about Willow being a teacher's pet for spending all her time in there he said that Giles never tried to mate with Willow and then eat her head, which was odd, even for Xander. Sometimes he gets me thinking he needs therapy, whatever that is.
Mom's met Giles. He went to see her when she was in hospital. Oh! I didn't even say about that, did I? I was studying at Jilly's (Jilly is my new best friend at school, who I will tell you lots more about later, but as she's nothing to do with the weirdness that's been going on I'm not going to mix her up in it) when it happened. It wasn't long ago, less than a month I think. Mom fell in the kitchen and got some weird wound on her neck. The doctor said it was a barbecue fork, but we don't have a barbecue fork. I think it looks like a vampire bite, but I know that if I say that they'll just laugh at me. I am 10 now - old enough to know things like vampires aren't real. And I've gone and got side-tracked again, I can't even remember why it was important to say that Mom met Giles.
And there's this guy (yes, another guy, I know - I don't plan these entries so it's bound to get confusing) who I think is Buffy's boyfriend. She told Mom he was helping her with her History, but I could tell that was such a lie, and I wasn't even looking at Buffy when she said it. I was listening upstairs. My sis is such a bad liar. I'm sure Mom can tell too, but she never lets on. The guy's name is Angel, I think. Doesn't anyone round here have a regular name? Anyway, I think he spent the night here, cause I heard Buffy pretending to see him out. I could hear them both talking in her room later. And then the night afterwards, there was this scream from her room. That was about the same time Mom ended up in hospital. I'm sure he was in there, but when we both ran in Buffy said it was just a shadow. Yeah RIGHT! I think Buffy knows I could hear them, cause as I left the room she saw the look on my face and gave me an evil look. Then she lifted her finger to her mouth and shhed me silently. She is so gonna owe me favours sooner or later.
So, I think I've mentioned everyone now... Xander, Willow, Giles and Angel. And it's Giles and Angel I haven't met yet, I think I said that. Giles I might get to meet at the Talent Show. He is organising it after all. Buffy's in it too! Her and Xander and Willow all got told to parpi- parta-join in by the new School Principal. I think Buffy said his name was Snidey or something. I dunno what talent Buffy will find to show off. It's not like you can make a display out of cutting classes or failing Math. Xander's good at playing around so I think whatever he does will be cool. I suggested he dress up as a clown but he didn't like that idea. I thought it was a good one. Even if it wasn't, I didn't see what was so wrong he had to run to the bathroom and barf.
There's something special about this Talent Show. Something about a puppet. They keep talking about it. And a girl that disappeared. I heard someone say her heart wasn't in it, or something like that. People seem to run away from this town all the time. That's not good. Sunnydale isn't good. Well, no, it is. And it isn't. I dunno. It's a cool and friendly place and yet there's all this weirdness going on. Buffy told me Sunnydale has more cemeteries than any other Californian town up to twice its size. I asked Mom about this and she said Buffy was just trying to scare me, but then I counted them. I'm sure it's not healthy. All those dead people lying in the ground rotting when people eat and drink in this town.
Well, I was gonna write about Jilly and my new school and stuff, but I've now noticed that it's 1am. If my light's still on when Buffy gets in (she's always out really late and stuff - either Mom pretends not to notice or is a real heavy sleeper) she'll rag on me to Mom which I so don't need. I'm afraid, dear diary, that this means you'll have to wait until tomorrow or whenever I next get the chance to write to hear about the more mundane (am I using that word right? I think I am) things in my life. Until then...
Dawnie x x