Summary: Dawn causes some trouble.

Disclaimer: Joss owns the characters, I’m just playing.

Author’s note: Some dialogue from What’s my line and Reptile Boy. Much Hugs and puppies to Bloodytearsoflife for the beta.

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Chapter 11: Trouble, spelled with a D

Dawn looked across the dining room table at her sister and smiled, a stark contrast to the icy glare that Buffy was sending her way.

“So Career Day? Isn’t that coming up soon?” Dawn asked twirling her fettuccini onto her fork.

“Please don’t remind me. Besides it’s not a day, it a whole week, chalk full of ‘what’s my line’. And it‘s not for weeks. I‘ve got plenty of time before the torture begins.”

“But that sounds like fun, Buffy, so many opportunities. You could find out what you want to study in college,” observed Joyce.

“That is if I ever get to go to college…” Buffy trailed off, playing with her food.

“Of course you’ll go to college!” declared her mother. “You are a very bright girl.”

“I agree, you’ll go to college, Buffy,” offered Dawn looking across the table at her sister. <I>‘Course you’ll drop out,</I> Dawn thought to herself.

“I’m sure of it,” Dawn continued with a smile.

“See Buffy, even Dawn thinks you are college material. This career week thing is just what you need to set some sort of path for yourself, to choose your future career.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Mom,” Buffy noted, returning her attention to her mother with a false smile.

Dawn knew as well as Buffy that the Slayer had an expiration date. What Dawn did know that Buffy didn’t was that this slayer would never finish her college degree. But that was something that Joyce didn’t need to know.

Not now, not ever.

As Joyce and Buffy chatted, Dawn let her thoughts turn back to why she was here in this time in the first place. She really had to get back on track with Ben. She couldn’t let anyone else distract her.

“So Buffy, have you met anyone special yet?” Joyce asked, bringing Dawn out of her thoughts. “I don’t think you’ve mentioned anyone since that boy Owen.”

“I haven’t met anyone new, Mom,” Buffy deferred, glaring at Dawn as if daring her to mention Angel.

With a wicked smile, Dawn put down her fork. She was up for any amount of dares. “I didn’t think you’d want to meet anyone new, not since you and Angel have been making with the smoochies in dark places,” said Dawn, staring back at her sister.

“Angel? That college boy who was tutoring you?”

“Is that what they are calling it now? Tutoring?” teased the Key, glee in her eyes.

Dawn sat back in her chair to watch the festivities as the yelling and chaos erupted around her.

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Dawn, Evil Vindictive Key, walked home with a glint in her eye. Getting under Buffy’s skin was a truly enjoyable. Now that Joyce knew about Angel there was going to be some fun times in the Summers’ house. Mom was going to have Angel over for dinner and Dawn was going to make sure she was there; she wasn’t going to miss that event for the world.

Joyce had even suggested that she bring Xander to dinner that night too, as he and Dawn were together again.

Of course, thoughts of Xander naturally went to…Xander. Where was he? What was he doing?

The days were numbered Xander wise. Though she didn’t know when Xander and Cordelia started the illicit smoochies, the Key was certain it was going to start soon.

And she didn’t like that. Especially since she knew that they were going to start the smoochies behind closed doors, in janitor’s closets to be precise. Any time Xander was out of her sight was a potential Cordelia smoochie time.

It probably would have been better if she hadn’t introduced herself to the Scoobies at all. They were of no help whatsoever.

Merely a distraction.

A constant source of frustration, and amusement, but a distraction none the less.

She would avoid them if she could.

But she needed a computer for her next plan of action.

Dawn planted herself in the school’s computer lab, with the intent of finding out where large amounts of insane people were popping up. And she was willing to put up with the crappiness of 1998 internet for the search too.

Jennifer Calendar walked in, evidently preparing for the day’s classes, disturbing Dawn’s progress.

“How did you get in here?” Miss Calendar asked.

“Door was unlocked,” Dawn answered, a smile hiding her dishonesty.

“Are you a freshman?” Miss Calendar continued. “I don’t remember seeing you in any of my classes.”

“I’m not in any of your classes,” Dawn responded not bothering to look at the teacher.

Miss Calendar wasn’t important. Angel was going to kill her so there was no point of getting attached.

“I don’t like students in here before school,” noted the teacher. “Are you even a student here? You don’t look like a high school student.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. Clearly she was going to have to work for this, or give up and use the computer in the library while Giles and Buffy stared at her.

“I’m Buffy Summers’ sister,” Dawn started babbling. “I needed to do some research on the internet. Mr. Giles said I could use the computers in here. I think he was trying to get me out of his hair.”

Jenny’s face softened when Dawn mentioned the librarian. Of course that’s when Dawn realised that she’d told the computer teacher the truth. Truth doesn’t always equal good. Especially if Jenny Calendar decided to tell Buffy that her sister was in the computer lab today.

“Well you can’t stay here, I’ve got classes in a half hour,” Jenny mentioned as she started up her own computer.

“Right. I wouldn’t want to be here when all the learning happens,” Dawn said, standing up from the computer she was at. “Your name is Jenny Calendar, right?”

“Yes, though most students call me Miss Calendar,” responded the teacher.

“Ya, but I’m not a student. You don’t look like a Jennifer though. If Buffy hadn’t told me your name, I could have sworn your name was Janna.”

Miss Calendar’s eyes went wide.

“Ya, that’s what I thought.” Dawn moved away from the computer.

“How?” stammered the teacher.

“You also might want to look into what will happen when Buffy and Angelus get groiny together. I’d start planning now.” Dawn then left the room, heading towards the library. “It’s not going to be pretty. Especially for you.”

Oh yes, Evil Dawn was in full force today.

Walking into the library, Dawn waved a hello to Giles and Buffy who were sitting at the research table.

Dawn’s entrance had interrupted a rant only for a scant moment, as Buffy wasn’t concerned whether or not Dawn knew her feelings on the disastrous dinner the night before.

“She’s ruining my life, Giles!” Buffy nearly screamed. “Please, tell me she’s evil. Can I slay her yet?”

Giles shook his head. “There is no evidence that she is truly evil. Aside from setting the school on fire. She’s human…”

“And the Slayer doesn’t kill humans,” Buffy whined, defeated.

“Well, not usually,” Dawn added wisely.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Buffy asked practically leaping off the table to face the intruder.

“You’ll find out next year,” observed the Key, as she booted up Giles’ computer.

“Giles!” Buffy continued to whine.

“I think it would be best if you just ignored Dawn for now,” deferred the watcher. “You haven’t managed to tell me about last night’s patrol.”

“I was distracted by the horribleness of she who ruins my life!”

“Patrol?” prodded the watcher.

Buffy sighed audibly. “Fine. I caught one out of two vamps after they stole something from this jumbo mausoleum.”

“They were stealing?” asked Giles.

“Yeah! They had tools, flashlights, whole nine yards. What does that mean anyway? 'Whole nine yards'? Nine yards of what? Now it's gonna bug me all day.”

Dawn looked up from the computer to see Giles starting to pace, his look pensive.

“Giles, you're in pace mode. What gives?” continued the slayer.

“Um, this vampire who escaped, did you see what he took?” Giles asked.

“No, but I could take a guess and say it was something old,” noted the flippant slayer.

“You made no effort to find out what was taken?”

“Have a cow, Giles! I just figured it was your everyday vamp hijinks.”

“Well, what if it wasn't? This could be very serious! I mean, i- i-if you'd made an effort to, uh, to be more thorough in your observations... “

“Y'know, if you don't like the way I'm doing my job, why don't you find somebody else? Oh, that's right, there can only be one. As long as I'm alive, there is no one else. Well, there you go! I don't have to be the Slayer. I could be dead. I‘m sure Dawnie would love that. Slip into my life. Maybe she wants my boyfriend too!”

“That wasn't terribly funny. You notice I didn’t laugh.”

“Ya, ewww. I really don’t go for the tall, dark, and broody,” Dawn countered.

“I don’t think this is a laughing matter, Buffy,” Giles continued.

“Wouldn't be much of a change. Either way I'm bored, constricted, I never get to shop, and my hair and fingernails still continue to grow. So really, when you think about it, what's the diff?”

“Do we have to be introspective now? Our only concern is to discover what was stolen from that mausoleum last night.”

“Well, if you be nice to me I’ll tell you,” piped up Dawn.

Giles and Buffy turned towards Dawn and waited.

And waited.

“Well?” Buffy complained.

“Well what? I don’t see the nice mat all rolled out,” Dawn continued.

“You told my mom about Angel! I have to have dinner with him and you and Mom. I think she’s going to notice that he doesn’t eat food! And for your information we aren‘t dating and there has been a total of two smoochies,” Buffy ranted.

“And you were way mean to me about the whole hanging with Spike thing. You so have to wake up and smell the hottie there. Have you looked at him? Hello! Salty goodness!”

“What?”

“I‘m just saying that you should open your eyes a little more, look at what’s in front of your nose,” Dawn continued.

“Be that as it may,” started Giles. “What about the object stolen from the mausoleum?”

“It’s a cross,” Dawn noted, helpfully. “See Giles is nice to me.”

“This cross?” asked Giles, taking out a piece of paper and a pen to take notes.

“It goes along with that book Spike and I took from your office when we set the school on fire. You‘re all Watcher-y. I‘m sure you can figure it from there. Unless you want to take over the internet search for the crazy people…”

“Sadly, no,” Giles said, excusing himself from Dawn’s task, having no clue what that task was.

“Suit yourself,” Dawn responded shrugging as the bell rung, forcing Buffy to leave the room.

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She looked around for something to throw. It was so incredibly frustrating. It was so slow, so not what she was looking for. Dawn growled. For fuck’s sake! She’d been used to instantaneous information transfer at the blink of an eye, and now she was stuck in slow world. Slow world that didn’t post everything on the internet yet.

Giles was staring at her from the other end of the check out desk concerned about the growl.

“I need a break,” she explained standing up. “I need a caffeinated carbonated beverage.”

“You have been intently watching that infernal box for hours,” Giles observed.

Smiling, Dawn raised herself up off her chair and headed out the library door in search of the pop machine. The halls were filled with students milling about with no clear purpose. Most of them were looking at her funny, probably ‘cause she looked 14. Stupid Spike had to go and kill her. With her pop in hand, she roamed through the hallways and let her feet take her directly to the classroom where Xander was just now fleeing.

“Dawn!” he greeted, “What brings you to the boringest class on earth?”

“Escaping the boredom of the library and Giles,” she admitted.

“I can get behind that.” Ignoring the stares of those around them Dawn planted a kiss on Xander’s cheek. “Wanna go bug Buffy? That’s always a good time.”

“Agreed,” he concurred, taking her free hand and moving down the hallway in the direction of Willow and Buffy.

“It's not a date, it's a caffeinated beverage,” came Willow‘s voice, as she spoke to Buffy. “Okay, sure, it's hot and bitter like a relationship that way, but…”

“What's like a relationship?” Xander asked once they were within hearing distance.

Buffy sighed. “Nothing I have. Coffee?”

The group stopped by the water fountain, Buffy glaring at Dawn and her coke.

“Huh?”

Dawn of course wasn’t interested in Buffy’s glaring, because Cordelia was nearby. Cordelia she really, really disliked. No, it wasn’t Cordelia’s fault that Xander had been with her way before Dawn was even put into human form. Oh ya, she still really disliked Cordy.

“There's really no comparison between college men and high school boys,” Cordelia said to her companion. “I mean, look at that.”

Cordelia looked Xander up and down.

“So, Cor, you're datin' college guys now?” Xander asked mockingly.

“Well, not that it's any of your business, but I happen to be dating a Delta Zeta Kappa,” the May Queen boasted. “It’s way better than the fourteen year old you’re dating.”

“Hey!” Dawn squealed. “I am NOT fourteen!”

Xander ignored Cordelia‘s barb. “Oh! An extra-terrestrial. So that's how you get a date after you exhausted all the human guys.”

“You'll go to college someday, Xander. I just know your pizza delivery career will take you so many exciting places,” retorted the cheerleader.

“At least he’ll have a career, Cordelia,“ Dawn said, when Xander had no comeback. “Unlike someone I’m looking at right now.”

Cordelia opened her mouth with another comeback hanging on her lips, but was cut off by the bell for the end of the day.

“It’s not worth it,” Cordelia muttered walking off.

“You are the coolest girlfriend ever!” Xander praised the Key.

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Tbc…