Waking up the night after she died to discover she was not only alive again but also, somehow, sixteen years in the future was an utter mindfuck to Annabelle. Just the night before, she’d given into fear and tried to run away, tried to escape this sudden heavy responsibility of being a potential slayer. Of course, given she had little fight experience and no real instincts whatsoever, she’d immediately had her neck snapped by an Ubervamp and everything had gone dark.
But now she was here. In Los Angeles. In 2018. It was un-bloody-believable.
She wasn’t the only potential here, at least, but she was the only one who still was a potential. The rest had been activated and were real slayers now. Eve had advised her to speak with Buffy about getting activated herself, something she would need a witch for, and she completely intended to. But she couldn’t deny she was enjoying being a normal girl for just a little while longer.
She’d initially been living in an apartment on her own, but when Dominique had disappeared, she’d been invited to live with Molly and Melaka, a slayer from even further in the future, when the world was apparently in shambles. It was really quite fascinating, but Annabelle had really only heard of it secondhand. Melaka was a bit rough around the edges, and Annabelle was still finding her feet, but she’d get there. She intended to make the most of this second chance in every possible way.
That included school. Although LAHS was hardly the school she’d been attending in England before Mr. Giles had found her and Molly and brought them over to America, it was still a school, and Annabelle intended to get through all of her classes with flying colors.
The problem was it was overpopulated. Squeezing your way through the hallways in only the seven allotted minutes for a passing period was nearly impossible, especially if you had to stop at your locker. And that was where Annabelle was now, switching out her morning books for the afternoon in the hopes that she wouldn’t have to stop again later.
But, of course, the second she turned around, she was slammed into by another passerby and every book she had in her hands scattered across the floor.
“Bloody hell,” she muttered. She sighed, tucking a lock of auburn hair back behind her ear before getting to her knees and starting to reach around these inconsiderate slags’ feet to gather her things.
Wake up, pretend things were okay, and fall asleep knowing this world was insane was pretty much the norm for Chase now. Not that life back home was any better. His dad may or not be dead at the hand of his own mother and he was now a wanted criminal for a crime he hadn’t committed. God, that was the fucked up part. They had just been trying to stop their parents from doing whatever evil Pride was involved in and now they were all the run.
Even Molly was yanked into the madness. Sure, she was the youngest, but she was the strongest. He was stuck in this weird version of LA and could do nothing about the fact it was just him and Karolina here. Karo had opted not to fall into the school life again, but he had jumped in. What else was he supposed to do with his time?
He was half listening to one of the cheerleaders talk his ear off about some party coming up when he saw an accident in the making. A girl he hadn’t seen before crashed into another student. He winced as books went everywhere. Naturally she had crashed into one of the popular girls.
A giggle from his side had him feeling annoyed. “Real cool,” he muttered before moving to help the other girl.
“Chase, leave her-”
He shot a glare over his shoulder before kneeling down to help pick up the books. “You know,” he flashed her a friendly grin. “If you use the books as a shield they are less likely to run into you. I’m Chase,” he held up a couple of the books as he ignored all the students passing around them. “And you’re new, aren’t you?”
Annabelle was many things, a coward among them, despite Buffy’s assurances that it was understandable. But being a coward didn’t make her a doormat, and she simply didn’t give enough of a fuck to let these popular girls and their childish giggles get to her. At least she had a brain in her head and wouldn’t be relying solely on her looks for the rest of her life -- now that she’d been given a second chance at it.
“Well, I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
She smiled at the boy who came to help her. Despite the company he kept, it seemed he didn’t share their rather inhospitable attitude. And he was cute, too. As a teenage girl, she couldn’t help but notice that nearly immediately. He had a nice smile and hair she’d love to run her fingers through.
She blushed a bit as they stood. The passing period was nearly over, so the hallway traffic was starting to thin enough for her to actually have space to stand and start loading the books she’d gathered into her messenger bag.
“Thank you,” she said, reaching for what he’d picked up so she could stow it away. “I appreciate it greatly.” She smiled again, buckling her bag before she met his gaze. “And to answer your question, yes, I’m new. I’ve only been here a few weeks.” She extended her hand. “Annabelle.”
“You’re welcome. I know what it is like to be the new student in this place,” he gripped the strap of his own messenger bag as he smiled at her. Arriving in LA wasn’t easy for anyone, but learning to find a place in LAHS was a whole new type of uncomfortable. Chase had it kind of easy. Good at sports, good at school, and he knew he was blessed with looks. Here he wasn’t trying to be a dumb jock, no, he was actually letting his smarts show in classes. Somehow that hadn’t stopped people from trying to yank him into the popular circle.
“Well, welcome to the jungle,” he joked. He took her hand in his and gave it a hearty shake. “Nice to meet you, Annabelle.” Her accent was attractive, not that he was going to blurt that out or anything. He had spent so long chasing after Karolina that he had barely looked at other girls. Except Gert, he had always noticed the angry bundle of righteous feminism. She had been in this LA more than once, but it wasn’t until she was gone that he had managed to wake up with new memories.
Memories that weren’t going to do him a whole lot of good now. Gert was gone.
“What class are you heading to? I can walk you so no one else body checks you, I mean not saying you can’t protect yourself.”
“You’re not kidding,” Annabelle chuckled. ‘Jungle’ was probably the most accurate descriptor to describe the chaos that was this high school. Perhaps Annabelle was a little spoiled; she’d gone to private schools all her life, with no more than a couple hundred students in the school and plenty of space and time to get around.
“Actually, I think we’re going to the same place. U.S. History?” After giving him a good look and hearing his voice, she seemed to remember seeing him in that class. She didn’t personally give a damn about U.S. History, but seeing as she was here, she was trying. She wasn’t going to let a class fall by the wayside simply because it wasn’t her country’s.
“I certainly won’t say no to an escort.” She turned and closed her locker, snapping the combination lock closed and spinning the dial to be safe.
Chase got it, the being spoiled thing. He had gone to an elite prep school where everyone had pretty much worshiped him. Of course he had spent a lot of time not being his true self. He had hidden the fact he was intelligent and had focused more on sports, partying, and distancing himself from his true friends. Now he knew better.
“Yeah,” he sounded surprised they had the same class, but it wasn’t like he had spent a lot of time seeing who else was in the class with him. No, most class time was spent working on his inventions. Well, designing them, but still. “Great. Allow me to escort you to one of the more boring classes I am taking in this place.”
He waited for her to shut the locker before he began walking towards the class. The hallway was easier to move in, but the warning bell hadn’t quite rung yet. If they were late, they were late. He would just charm the teacher with some excuse. Yeah, he wasn’t against using his charm to get himself and Annabelle out of detention.
“I’m guessing you didn’t pick to move here? ...sort of just woke up here?” He was pretty sure she was like him, someone who had just found themselves in this place, but he had to make sure.
Annabelle raised her eyebrows at the question but affirmed it with a short nod nonetheless. She wondered if those who had been here longer than her just sort of sensed this thing. Perhaps she’d seen him in the net there as well. Lord knew enough posts went up on a daily basis.
“Before I was here, it was 2002 and I’d been killed,” she revealed to him. Had he been just an average student, she’d have kept that secret to herself. But everyone who’d been brought here by the angels knew that there were multitudes of different worlds and timelines converging.
“I’m doing what I can to take advantage of this second chance. Even if it means becoming a soldier in the war of angels.” She wasn’t particularly thrilled by that part of it all, but she was alive again. The angels could force her into whatever sort of army they wished as long as she could hold onto her life for now.
Okay, he hadn’t been expecting her to say that she had died or anything. Chase gave her a slightly startled look and wasn’t entirely sure what to even say to that. “I’m actually from LA, I mean a version of LA so this wasn’t too much of a shock for me. And I don’t have a big time difference either, but it is still adjustment. Sorry you died, but hey. Second chance for the win.”
He frowned at the mention of the war.
“It’s like no matter what version of the world we end up in there is always something we have to fight for.” Back home it was a fight against Pride and here it was the fight against demons or whatever.
“Do you at least have people here you know? I mean people from whatever world you are from?” Chase slowed his steps as they got closer to the classroom. “If you do and you aren’t sitting with them at lunch today you can sit with me. Might be safer, no one will knock your books out of your hands that way.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Annabelle chuckled, slowing down beside him. She was surprised this boy, who was really quite hot and clearly made to mingle with those popular slags who’d giggled when she’d dropped her things, seemed so interested in her. She appreciated his help, but the last thing she’d expected was for him to offer to have lunch with her.
But she certainly wasn’t going to say no.
“Only one of the girls from my world goes to school here, but she has her own crowd.” She didn’t know Dianne terribly well, really. She was sure if she wanted to, she could sit with her, but she’d never broached the subject. And Chase was a much better option, at least in her eyes.
“ I would love to have lunch with you, Chase.”
“Great,” he flashed her one of his trademark smiles. “Then we will be lunch buddies.”
Chase had started shaking free the chains of popularity back in his own home. Here? He had fallen kind of back into it, but only because it was a safety net of sorts. Karolina was going through so much stuff, Xavin was trying to help them both, but sometimes he just needed a place that wasn’t all doom and gloom. Sure, high school was the Thunderdome, but he knew how it worked. A flex of his arms, a flash of his smile, a well placed sarcastic joke, and he was among the top.
He wasn’t King of the school yet, but he could make a play for the throne if he really wanted. The thing was, he didn’t want that. No, he wanted to finish out the school life he no longer had back home and he wanted to make a difference in life.
“Only one? How many people are from your world? My friend, more like a sister really, Karo is here and then there is Xavin...who is from our future. I’m the only one going to school.”
Karolina had to rebel and he got it.
Right now though? He was actually kind of happy he had decided to stick school out. Nothing wrong with meeting a girl with a neat accent!
There were plenty of people here who Annabelle was associated with but didn’t know. While she hadn’t seen Willow, Xander, or Mr. Giles, Dawn, Buffy, and Molly were all here, which was comforting in its own way. And there were plenty of other slayers and even vampires here from their world.
“Perhaps ten,” she said. It was an estimate, but that seemed about right. “But the few that are my age have chosen to work. I wanted to finish school.”
While she was fairly intelligent in her own right, it was really her determination that had always set her apart from the rest of her family and a lot of her friends. Sure, she had died and woken back up nearly two decades in the future, but that wasn’t going to stop her from getting an education.
The bell rang, and she looked down the hall, watching the other lingerers scurry into the classrooms. She reached out and squeezed Chase’s hand, smiling up at him through her eyelashes.