BtVS Ficlet: Not Like Other Girls

[bk_forever]

Title: Not Like Other Girls

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Buffy, mentions Angel, Scoobies, and random monsters.

Rating: G

Spoilers: General for the first 3 series, especially Phases (S2)

Summary: Buffy ponders her lot in life.

Word Count: 359

Written For: juliet316’s prompt ‘BtVS, Buffy, dealing with things that bump in the night is what she does.’ at fic_promptly

Disclaimer: I don’t own BTVS, or the characters. They belong to Joss Whedon.

Ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night. They’re all here in Sunnydale, and they’re all Buffy’s responsibility. She’s not like other girls, and sometimes her life seems like a bad joke.

Her sort of boyfriend is a vampire with a soul, her best friend is dating a werewolf, and their other friends act like that’s all perfectly reasonable, even when they have to lock Oz in a cage every full moon. She takes a stake and holy water to school with her, tucked in her bag alongside her lunch and homework assignments.

Just a few short years ago, she was a normal girl with nothing worse to worry about than being fashionable and popular, and not flunking her classes. Now it’s vampires one day, demons the next, and who knows what by the end of the week. Mummies? Zombies? Nothing would surprise her at this point. The only things she’s not sure she could deal with are ghosts, but that’s only because she can’t figure out how to go about slaying something intangible. Also, the idea of fighting something that she could walk straight through kinda gives her the creeps.

She still worries about being fashionable and not flunking classes, but being popular is less of a stresser. Popularity is overrated, these days she hangs out with people who get her and know what the score is, people she’d trust with her life, and it’s… nice. Her friends are probably the most normal part of her life and she cherishes them.

This isn’t what she’d though high school would be like; she’d thought it would be all cheerleading and parties and dating the captain of the football team. She should probably be disappointed, but she’s not. It’s a weird life, and sometimes she longs for normality, but she’s learning that being normal isn’t everything. She has a purpose in life, and that’s more than most kids her age can claim. So she’ll keep juggling slaying, school and home life and with a bit of luck she’ll make it to graduation. After that, who knows? She’ll cross that bridge if she gets there.

The End

Comments

[akawho.livejournal.com]

good synopsis of Buffy's earlier years

[bk_forever]

Thank you! I was quite pleased with the way this one came out.

My list of fandoms is gradually expanding, I have a few more Buffy fics to post, along with tons of Torchwood and FAKE, some Doctor Who, a few Fullmetal Alchemist, and some oddments for other fandoms. fic_promptly has a lot to answer for, lol!

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Nicely done!

I like this Buffy, who's content with her lot in life and doesn't long for normal that is unattainable, who's learning that true friendship trumps popularity any day. Thanks for sharing!

P.S. Is buffy_fanfic kind of dead (and not the good kind), or is it just me? Not a lot of posts, so I haven't been bothering to post everything I write that's Buffy-centric there.

[bk_forever]

Thank you! That last year of high school, once Buffy came back to Sunnydale, seemed kind of perfect for her before adult responsibilities started weighing her down. She'd found her niche and was comfortable there.

I don't know, to be honest I've only posted a handful of pieces in the fandom and it was the only BtVS fic community that I could find so I posted there. A lot of fanfic communities on LJ are kind of dead these days, it's the same with my other fandoms, but I keep posting fics to them just in case someone stumbles across them. Plus, of course, su_herald pics up links from there to post to their daily fic listing, so that helps spread word around. A lot of Buffy fic seems to just get posted to AO3. Maybe there with be a resurgence of interest in the old communities some day. In the meantime, I'll just keep posting on the off-chance.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

You're right. I'll keep posting then. :)

It is rather sad how deserted the comms feel.

Well, at least seasonal_spuffy is happening right now.

[bk_forever]

Even with things being as slow as they are, there's usually something happening somewhere, so we should just be thankful for that!