The Fallen Slayer {1}

The Darkness Inside

With the winter breaking slowly approaching, signaling half of her second attempt at Junior year almost complete, Buffy was in a state of panic.

She had spent all weekend at Caroline's studying for her upcoming SAT practice test.

The Principal and Guidance Counselor wanted her to take the practice test next week and as long as she scored well and kept her grades up then by March she would be going for the real thing.

And if she did well...she would have enough credits to graduate.

Despite how much she hated studying though, Buffy hated the idea of having to do five years of High School a hell of a lot more.

However, after spending the entire weekend dealing with flashcards and a very persistent Caroline, Buffy had not slept.

Between studying like a madwoman under the Forbes schedule and patrolling, sleep had not been a factor in her life for the past couple of days.

Hence why she had been planning to skip her first class. Hell, she had even cleared it with Alaric who agreed to cover for her.

Clearly, Elena didn't care though.

When it came to school, Elena Gilbert was a freaking dictator.

"Why do I have to go again?" Buffy moaned as Elena practically manhandled her down the stairs.

"Do you want to do five years of high school?" Elena asked as she tossed Buffy her car keys before grabbing her own.

Buffy rolled her eyes "Still not seeing the issue. Ric said I could skip!"

"And a reminder that if you start doing that, Jeremy will too."

Speaking of, Jeremy chose that moment to walk down the steps only to freeze as he spotted Buffy "I thought Mr. Saltazman said you didn't have to go to class this morning cause you did the same assignment in Sunnydale."

"He did." Buffy grumbled still glaring at Elena "Plus come on, can you really measure someone's success on test scores?"

"Yes! We can judge if you will be in high school till you're 19 on your test scores!" 

"Ignore her Buff." Jenna piped up as she walked into the hall and handed Buffy her history book "She's an older sibling. She's mean, it's the territory. Miranda was the same."

Buffy chuckled in amusement as she shoved her books into her bag "But I am the cousin, plus hello I'm older. I thought the point of having a smart younger cousin was so I can shrimp off her success."

"You're not funny." Elena huffed as she handed Buffy her jacket.

Buffy grinned as she pulled on her brown leather jacket "I'm a little funny." She argued.

Elena sighed in exhaustion. Sometimes it truly felt like she was the oldest out of the second-generation Summers kids, not Buffy.

Pulling open the front door, the Gilbert girl and the two Summers women all froze in horror at the sight of the person standing on their porch.

It was John Gilbert. 

AKA...the bain in all of their existences.

Buffy couldn't help but groan. She had only had the displeasure of meeting, John, once when she was 10 and the last thing she remembered about that day was her mom launching a glass vase at his head. 

Buffy wasn't the only one letting out an annoyed huff at the sight of John.

Jenna looked ready to kill him and Elena couldn't help but groan. This was so not the time to deal with him.

John seemingly not noticing or simply ignoring the glares from the three women, chose to focus on Elena first.

"Elena."

"Uncle John." She replied tightly forcing a smile on her face "Hi."

The blonde-haired Gilbert grinned before turning to the eldest Summers who looked ready to punch him in the face "Jenna."

Jenna merely let out a disgruntled sound before turning to Buffy "Him you can hit. I'll bail you out." She whispered causing Buffy to bite her lip trying to hold back a very unladylike snort.

John rolled his eyes before turning to Buffy "Buffy...you're...taller than last time."

Given it had been almost eight years since they had seen each other that wasn't a surprise.

"Seems like." Buffy mumbled before turning to Jenna the two of them sharing a quick look.

They needed to get the hell out of here before they were forced to bond with John Gilbert of all people.

"John." Jenna forced his name through her lips as she finally sucked up her misery and talked to her brother-in-law "You made it."

"Said I would be in by noon." He reminded her as he strolled past the three girls walking straight into the house as though he owned the place.

Jenna clenched her jaw tightly as she watched John move around her home comfortably "What you say and what you do are typically two very different things."