TITLE: Small Town Living Sucks
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRC
CLASSIFICATION: Buffy/Other
SUMMARY: Buffy regrets leaving Columbia for Beaufort.
SPOILERS: It's a complete AU...
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kazui Sandollar, FOX and the WB own it or them. Various friends of mine are holding characters hostage. You may see them by appointment only. I do not own any places mention, and they existed as of May 1998.
FEEDBACK: Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking in the spiderwebs so leave a message and I'll call you back...in other words, I want it.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: You know, I need to thank someone who wrote a review at FanFiction.Net for the first part of this. So...thank you! To YGTSFic, I'm sending it here because it's a sequel to a YGTS? fic.

***

Buffy sat in the huge AV room. The school had been hit with a rain storm the evening before, and she could faintly hear the dripping in the other room.

"Well, Giles," she said, her Southern accent lilting, "I went to Parris Island. I went to St. Helena's. I even waited over at what amounts for a beach in this sorry town."

"Yes," Giles said, nodding.

"And not a damn thing happened."

"Yes...I realize that."

"So," Buffy said, "you owe me enough gas to get to Hilton Head this weekend to see Willow participate in the Academic Challenge."

"Perhaps I should just give you a ride," Giles said, shaking his head and pulling out his wallet.

"No, I want money. This job won't give me a part time job, and Mom's working overtime at the Longo Art Gallery..." Buffy shrugged. "I hate living here."

"Why's that?" Giles asked, handing her the money.

Buffy pocketed it. "Because everyone in this school has money. They have nice cars and they have money to toss around. And yet this school's falling apart, and the classes are too crowded, and..." Buffy sighed. "Look, I'll patrol tonight. Which island should I hit first?"

"St. Helena's. Or Lady's Island," Giles said, folding a paper fan and fanning himself with it. "Oh, please do me a favor and find Cordelia and tell her she needs to actually show up to the library in order to get her TA credit."

"And have to deal with all the supposed geeks that come in here? Cordelia's just like every other cheerleader chick around here: she hangs out with the other cheerleaders and dates the rednecks with the trucks who go hunting on the weekend, and she'll probably get knocked up by a Marine before she's out of high school."

"I see that you don't like small towns much," Giles said blandly.

"You think? I went from living in Columbia, hanging out with college guys and actually enjoying high school, to live in this backwater town where I get to go island hopping just to go chase ghosts." Buffy grabbed her bag and headed out the library door, almost pushing it off the hinges.

She blindly walked down A Hall, past the cafeteria doors to get to the student parking lot. And that was when she saw Cordelia talking to the cute blonde quarterback, who was looking past the brunette cheerleader and at Buffy.

Buffy shook her head, heading towards her beat up car. She kept her head down the entire time, only looking up to see how far she was to her car. She'd managed to get the good spot today, under one of the huge oak trees. But it was so far from the exit...

"Well, Bruce, if y'all decide to take a break from all that weightlifting and working out and swing by my little party," Cordelia was saying as Buffy got closer to her car, "you just let me know, okay? It starts at seven."

"Sure, Delia. Okay." Bruce stared at Cordelia until she got the hint, moving towards her own car, a red Honda del Sol.

"See you later, Brucie!" she called over her shoulder.

Bruce shook his head. "You know, if she keeps calling me Brucie, I may get really sick," he said, looking at Buffy. "You're Buffy Summers, aren't you? Transferred from Columbia?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah."

"How well do you know Beaufort?"

"Well enough," she said, unlocking the door to her car, a beat up Subaru Jetta. "Not much to do other than drive."

"I'll agree to that." He smiled at her, and Buffy noticed for the first time how blue his eyes were. "Well, maybe I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to his car, a blue Firebird, and then stopped, looking over his shoulder at Buffy. "What are you doing this afternoon?"

"I'm meeting a friend to go drool at Marines."

Bruce laughed. "From what I understand, it's a pastime for females around here. Well, maybe later, I can give you an actual tour of Beaufort."

"Maybe," Buffy said, getting in her car. She threw her bag in the back, watching him walk to his car, and sighed. If she lived in Columbia still, she could date and do normal things because she'd...

She shook her head. Living in a small town with nothing to do didn't leave many excuses to cover up why she'd have to break dates or disappear early or suddenly. She was going to suffer through two more years of high school with little to no social life.

"Small town living sucks," she muttered, putting the key in the ignition and turning on the car, putting it into reverse and going home to take a shower and change into at least a tank top before meeting Willow on the base.