The Song Remains the Same by SMac

Chapter 28: The New World

Tuesday


Buffy's first morning at the Smith house was...strained. She came downstairs for breakfast at 7:30 to find John reading the newspaper while finishing a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. Rosemary was nowhere to be seen.

As soon as Buffy entered the kitchen John gave her a terse 'good morning', folded his paper, and deposited his plate and cup in the sink. He swung on his suit jacket and grabbed his briefcase, looking like he couldn't get out of there fast enough.

"Is Rosemary up?" Buffy asked his retreating back.

John stopped and half-turned his head in her direction as he answered, "Rosemary wasn't feeling well this morning and decided to sleep in. Please don't disturb her today." He then continued on out the door to the garage. After a minute Buffy could hear his car start up and then drive off.

She looked around the room and sighed. So much for 'breakfast at 7:30'. At least she knew where the cereal was, she mused, and set about to make herself a bowl and pour a cup of coffee. She ate in silence at the breakfast bar.





Once she'd cleaned up the breakfast dishes, she wandered about the quiet house and finally wound up back in her room again. It was strange having nothing to do and no one to talk to. The house seemed oppressively silent, and she began to think that she would go crazy if she didn't hear the sound of someone's voice soon. After more than a year raising her daughter, the present complete lack of work or company hit her hard. She had so few belongings with her that it took no time at all to organize them in her room.

She went to the window and looked out over the street. No one was out, everyone was either at work or school by now. All the houses were beautiful and neat, but there wasn't the slightest sign of activity anywhere.

She decided that she really didn't know anything about her new neighborhood, and this would be a good time to go out and see what was out there. She dressed in a white v-neck soft cotton shirt, blue jeans, black boots, and a black leather jacket, and set out to see what the world had out there for a sixteen year old girl to see and do.


~~~~~~


It turned out that Sunnydale really was a small town after all. Although the area where her new home was located was an affluent section of homes winding around tree-lined streets on the hillsides close to the shoreline, only seven blocks away the houses became less impressive and more solidly middle class. And only nine blocks further still sat a primarily working class neighborhood of much more modest homes. The latter neighborhood covered the near and far sides of the railroad tracks which ran up the Pacific coast, and Buffy was reminded of that old expression 'wrong side of the tracks'. She thought with a jolt that her prior living arrangements were more 'wrong side of the tracks' than she had ever realized. Way way on the wrong side of the tracks. She thought with a frown that she had been closer to that trailer trash existence than she had realized. And yet...

*I was happy then, and didn't really think about that kind of thing. I had Faith, and Fred, and Katie, and I was happy there. It didn't matter that we lived in a crappy area in a crappy apartment. I was happy. And now I live in a beautiful house with strangers who are probably stranger than anyone realizes, and I'm not happy at all.*

She turned around and headed back toward the nicer middle class side of Sunnydale again, trying to shake out of the funk she had fallen into. She reminded herself that she needed to keep a positive attitude so she could impress everyone with how well she was doing and get her daughter back again. No one was going to give a baby back to a sullen sulking teenager. She had to make sure no one saw the darkness she was slipping into.

*Finally. All that cheerleading 'upbeat and positive' crap can start paying off in real life.*

When she got back to the center of the town again, she discovered the location of the Sunnydale Mall in relation to her new home. Previously it had just been on a bus route in her head. She also located The Espresso Pump -- the coffee house she had visited last spring -- sitting within a several block area amid quaint shops, the city library, and a full size movie theater. She liked that little section of Sunnydale very much. It reminded her of a village more than anything else. It was comforting to walk through there, somehow.

Everything seemed to be within a reasonable walking distance from 'home'. This was a relief because she didn't drive and had no bus fare of which to speak. With her money confiscated by the police as 'drug proceeds', Buffy had not even a dollar of her own to buy a coke. She hoped that Rosemary or John would bring the subject of an allowance up to her, because she was going to need some spending money and she really didn't want to initiate that conversation herself. She'd never had this problem at home, either in New York or when living with Faith. She didn't like being so dependent on strangers for every little thing now.

It was just past lunchtime and Buffy was getting hungry and thirsty, so she decided to head on back home. She passed Sunnydale High School on her way back, and stopped on the other side of the street to stare at the building that she would be going to on Thursday. It seemed so strange to be going back to high school again. She was so different than the girl she used to be, the one for whom high school and school activities had been almost her entire world. She missed her friends, and wondered if she'd be able to make any new ones now. She was pretty intimidated by the prospect of it all suddenly. What on earth would she have in common with high school kids now? She felt light years away from that world. She told herself that she'd just have to fake it and make sure that all anyone saw was what she wanted them to see. She'd fake anything she had to in order to get Katie back.





Once she reached the house again, she realized that she'd locked herself out when she left. Rosemary and John had not actually given her a key yet. She tried the garage and found it locked too. She looked around the yard and found that the gate to the back yard was unlocked. Walking around back, she took a look at the pool and thought that would make a pleasant diversion for the afternoon. Of course, if she couldn't get in the house she could hardly strip down to her underwear in order to go swimming. That would not be a good first impression to leave with her foster parents.

She tried the french doors and found they were unlocked. *Thank God.*

Once inside she looked around a bit for Rosemary, and called her name a few times quietly so as not to waken her if she were still sleeping. Rosemary's bedroom door was still closed, and a few careful knocks did not produce any response. So she changed into her bikini, grabbed a towel from the linen closet and went back downstairs. After fixing herself a sandwich and a soda she settled down to eat by the pool and spend some time swimming. It was too cold to stay out long, so she gave it up after a while, changed back into regular clothes and watched tv, waiting to see if anyone showed up.

Finally, John came back in around five-thirty and came into the family room, standing and waiting for Buffy to acknowledge his presence. When she turned to him and turned off the set, he cleared his throat to speak.

"Hey," he started uncomfortably as he put his hands in his pants pockets and nodded her way.

"Hi." Buffy wasn't sure what to expect, but she was determined to remain silent until he said whatever was on his mind.

"Yeah," John began. " Did Rosemary come down at all today?"

"Not that I saw, but I went for a long walk all morning, checking out the town, and I didn't get back until two to eat lunch. I didn't see any sign of her at all."

"Oh, I see," he looked at the floor, then suddenly frowned and looked up quickly again. "Lunch? Ah...lunch," He sighed and reached for his wallet. "I'm sorry, I should have given you some cash for some spending money, it completely slipped my mind." He pulled a twenty out as he walked over to her and handed it to her with a quick smile. "We'll have to work out an allowance for you so you can buy lunches, incidentals, that sort of thing. A sixteen year old girl can't walk around without any money...." He trailed off.

"Thanks," Buffy said softly as she stuffed the twenty in her jeans pocket.

"Sixteen," John mumbled to himself. He looked up at her with anguish in his eyes and rushed on. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking this summer, flirting with you on the beach like that. I had no idea you were sixteen, and really, I don't cheat on my wife, I really don't --"

"It's okay, we didn't do anything wrong, we were just talking, right?" Buffy reassured him hurriedly.

"Right. We just talked. It was harmless, a diversion..." John sighed miserably. "I swear to you, I would never have actually, you know, I was just having an innocent conversation, which may have been more suggestive than it should have been, but you've got to understand, I was having a hard time this summer, and you were this young beautiful girl who just seemed so sweet and kind and I wanted to just... talk to you. Be the guy who could talk to a girl like that." He looked at Buffy, trying to will her to understand what he was trying to explain.

"No, I get it, I really do," Buffy nodded. "I felt the same way. I hadn't had a guy to talk to in a long time, and you were nice, and the flirting was just nice, you know, and I never would have done anything more, I couldn't do anything more, I have my baby, you know? I just wanted to be a teenage girl who could flirt for a little while. You know?"

"Yeah, I know," he looked at her in relief. "So I guess we both were thinking the same thing then. Innocent flirtation, no follow-through intended, no need to ever mention it again to anyone else. Right?" he raised his head to look hopefully into her eyes.

"Exactly. Right." Buffy smiled and nodded at John, and he finally relaxed and smiled back.

They both felt a great sense of relief at having gotten the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room with them banished once and for all. Although there was still a small part of each of them that worried it might return someday.


~~~~~~


"So, Rosemary's been up there all day," Buffy noted worriedly as she picked out another slice of the pizza they had ordered for dinner. "She okay?"

The air cleared between them now, they sat companionably at the kitchen table, sharing their evening meal. John put his slice down and topped off both their glasses with more coke.

"She gets headaches sometimes. Really bad ones, sometimes lasts a few days. When she gets one of those she just stays in bed with the blinds closed and doesn't come down at all."

"I'm so sorry," Buffy stopped eating, then looked questioningly at John. "But if she doesn't come down, how does she eat? What does she drink? Should I have brought up something to her today or --"

"No, no," John reassured her quickly. "She won't eat anything when she has one of her sick headaches. There's a mini-fridge up in our room with things to drink and some light healthy snack food should she really want something. She doesn't like to come out into the light of the rest of the house, walk down the stairs, anything like that, when she's in the middle one of these headaches. The only thing to do is wait 'em out and when she's feeling better she'll come out and join the rest of the human race." He smiled and tilted his head. "It's nice of you to be concerned though. She'd be happy to know you were worried. Not that she wants you to worry," he rushed on. "But to know that you cared about her, she'd appreciate that. She gets lonely here I know, and I think she's glad to have someone else around when I'm at work."

"Yeah, I got that feeling yesterday when we were talking, that she might miss having people around to talk to sometimes." Buffy said quietly.

"I know she does, I know she does," John nodded. "Did she tell you about her accident?"

Buffy put her slice down and shook her head 'no' as she gave him her full attention.

"About six months ago, she was in a car accident," he looked Buffy right in the eyes. "It was a bad one, totaled the car, the other driver was killed outright." He paused a moment, then continued, "She got off pretty good, but she had concussion, and she needed some care for some weeks. My sister came out with her boys, and took care of her for a month, just was really wonderful to her, to us." He smiled guiltily. "Those were her boys with me at the beach that day. I took 'em to get 'em out of her hair." He shook his head with an embarrassed smile. "Not my best moment, as it turned out."

Buffy smiled and couldn't help feeling a little guilty at her part in that, even though she knew full well she hadn't done anything wrong. But there was Rosemary, trying to recover from a serious accident, while Buffy was swapping innuendoes with her husband.

"Anyway, she recovered pretty well over all, but she was left with these headaches from the concussion, and there's nothing really to be done about it now, the doctors say she'll get better over time, and she has - gotten better - but...she doesn't leave the house too much now, doesn't like getting in the car. I mean she can, but she doesn't want to, you know?"

Buffy nodded.

"We had other foster kids the last eight years, but they were younger kids usually. When Rosemary had her accident we had to give them up. She can't really take care of little kids right now, not with the headaches and all. So we thought we'd offer our home to a teenager, someone who wouldn't set the house on fire or starve to death or anything if Rosemary needed to lay down for a couple days with one of her headaches."

*Ah, that explains a lot,* Buffy thought. *The pieces fall into place.*

"And that's also why it didn't occur to us to give you any money yesterday or this morning. You don't really need to hand spending money off to a six year old, you know?" He stopped for a moment and then exclaimed. "Or a house key!" He bowed his head in embarrassment. "My god, what you must've thought today. At least you didn't wind up having to break back into the house. I'm so sorry."

Buffy laughed, "Don't worry about it. But I will take that key if you don't mind."

"Sure," John got up and pulled an extra set out of a kitchen drawer. "Front door, back door, French doors, garage."

Buffy accepted them with a smile. "Thanks."

"Well, anyway, I'm glad you're here, Buffy. And I know Rosemary is too. I think we're all gonna be just fine living here together."

"Yeah, I think we are." Buffy nodded with a soft smile. *We're gonna be fine.*


~~~~~~


That night Buffy lay awake thinking about her first day in the Smith's home and all that she had learned today. She really liked John. But then she'd known that last summer. She knew it was silly, but she still felt guilty about that. She figured she'd get over it eventually.

And she thought she could learn to like Rosemary, too, once she figured out how to work around the talkative over-sharing boundary issues with her. Perhaps it was a result of the concussion, too. Time would tell how their relationship would develop. For now she'd hope for the best.

Thursday though, that was a worry. She had to go see the high school principal on Thursday and find out what she was going to have to do to get caught up in school. She had no idea what level she'd test at. She had gone to an excellent private school before she was shipped off to the maternity home, and had continued studies while there. And she had tried to read and study some GED material this last year. Would it be enough? She hoped so.

*I don't want to wind up being the oldest sophomore in the school.* she worried. *I've just gotta pass those tests.*

With her thoughts spinning around and around all of her worries and fears, she finally fell into a dreamless sleep.


~~~~~~


Sunnydale High School

Wednesday


"What is this?"

Spike slid into the seat next to Xander and frowned thoughtfully at the scoop of orangey grey mush on each of their plates. "Too orange for mashed potatoes...too grey for sweet potatoes... it's.... well... it's... it's not worth the risk, mate."

Xander sighed and stared morosely at his plate. "I'm starving, and this just sucks."

"Chicken fingers look okay. May be actual chicken in 'em this time."

"You think?" Xander asked hopefully as he picked one up and bit a piece off carefully.
"Hmmm...could be. Tastes like chicken." He popped the rest in his mouth and nodded happily.

"Don't they say that about every weird animal meat out there? 'But it tastes just like chicken.'" Oz sat down on the other side of Xander.

"Don't care. Hungry. In my world, if it tastes like chicken, it's chicken." He popped another one into his mouth and grinned.

"You live on the edge, man."

"That's cuz you haven't tasted my mom's cooking. This stuff?" he wagged a finger at their respective plates. "is considered gourmet dining at my house."

"Hey guys," Willow plopped down on the other side of Oz, who gave her a small peck on the lips in greeting.

Xander looked a question at her. "You missed most of home room. What'd the troll want with you?"

"You were called to the principal's office today?" Oz asked with concern.

"Bad to the bone, baby." Willow smiled teasingly. "Nah, he just wanted to tell me that I just volunteered to tutor a new girl."

"Volunteered?" Oz's lips quirked in amusement.

"New girl?" Spike asked carefully.

"You mean there's a new girl that Spike hasn't met and dated yet? I'm shocked." Xander placed a hand on his chest and shook his head in mock surprise.

Spike glared silently in Xander's direction.

"Actually, she hasn't started yet. She's gonna start at spring semester." Willow poked at the orangey mush and frowned. *What is that?* "I'm gonna meet her tomorrow at free period and set up a tutoring schedule for her."

Xander frowned. "That's weird -- don't eat that, try the chicken fingers, Will -- why isn't she in school somewhere now?"

"He didn't say. Maybe she comes from someplace where their semester schedule is different than ours is." Willow left the mush alone with a frown, and started on the chicken. "Or, maybe... home schooled?"

"Or...she just got out of prison!" Xander nodded excitedly.

"Nothin' like a good girl-on-girl prison fantasy to brighten a bloke's day." Spike smirked.

"Ew. No." Willow grimaced. "I keep telling you guys. No sexual fantasies during lunch!" She shook her head and blushed bright red. "It's very disturbing."

Xander and Spike shared a smile at Willow's discomfort. She was so cute when she was flustered, and she was never so easy to fluster than when the subject was sex.

"Anyway, she's off limits guys. She's just supposed to come to the library tomorrow to get her tutoring schedule and books, and then she has to leave. Snyder was really clear about that. The actual tutoring has to be at one of our houses."

"Weird." Oz pronounced.

"Yeah, I thought so too, but there has to be a reason." She nibbled delicately on a piece of chicken.

"Since when does the troll need a reason for anything he does?" Xander finished the last of his chicken and started eyeing the others' plates for potential leftovers.

Willow pushed her plate toward Xander, who waggled his brows as he happily snagged two more chicken fingers.

"I guess we'll find out what her deal is soon enough," he declared around a mouthful of chicken. "Willow'll get us the scoop."

Spike nodded silently in agreement, while secretly planning a way to get a look at the new girl during Willow's free fifth period tomorrow. Now that Harmony had finally stopped stalking him, he was seriously starting to think about his next conquest. He had thought a lot about what Willow had said about settling down with an actual, real girlfriend instead of the serial dating he had been doing, but he just wasn't ready yet. He'd had a good scare, a reality check with the Chelsea situation and the mess that was Harmony, but those were just the result of not being quite careful enough. He'd learned his lesson, and would just be more cautious in who he chose and be more diligent where protection was concerned. He was too young to be making commitments to one girl. Besides, he seriously doubted there was a girl out there who was worth the bother in the long run. And that included the new girl, whoever she was.

No, he wasn't opening his heart to anyone again. He was no fool.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Well, that's the end of Chapter 28. Tune in tomorrow for, 'When Worlds Collide'. De dum.

Thanks and please leave a review. :-)

Sara

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