The young woman heard the car pull up in the driveway just as she was making her way down the stairs. *Wow, good timing there, Buffy* She put her sandals on and walked out to help her mom and sister with their bags.

“Hey, guys! Did you have a good time?” Her attention was diverted to the mounds of shopping bags that Dawn and Joyce were pulling out of the taxi. “Holy good God. You should have left something for the other shoppers.”

Joyce approached her oldest daughter and gave her a big hug. “Oh, honey. You missed a wonderful trip. So much shopping, so little time. You really would’ve had a good time.”

“Yeah, Buffy. We had an absolute blast.” Dawn jumped up and gave her sister a hug. “Did you have a good time here? Betcha you were bored out of your mind; alone in the house with only your movies to keep you company. Oh well, that’s what you wanted.” She paused, then let out a piercing shriek that only a teenaged girl can produce. “Oh! You have to see the skirt Mom bought me!! I can’t believe she actually let me have it--it’s like those pants where the waist is so low you can see the person’s bellybutton, but it’s a skirt! It’s soo cool! And there‘s this shirt that goes with it, and it‘s blue with stripes down the arms...”

Buffy wondered how long her sister could go without breathing. Had she ever been that bad? *I’m sure Mom would say ‘yes’ to that one...* “That’s great, Dawnie. Let’s get this stuff inside before it starts to rain; then you guys can show me what I missed.”

Joyce paid the driver and picked up the two bags that were left. As the three Summers women made their way into the house, Joyce whispered to Buffy. “Wait until you see what we found for you.” She smiled, and hurried ahead, leaving the blonde dumbstruck.

“Really? You guys bought stuff for me?” Buffy’s voice reached nearly the same pitch as her sister’s. She squealed and ran inside, eager to see what awaited her.

Two hours later, all three women sat in the living room, each surrounded by a mound of empty shopping bags and piles of clothing. “Wow, Mom.” A very exhausted Buffy exclaimed. “Did you, like, win the lottery or something?”

Joyce snickered. “No, no lottery for this. You can thank the gallery for this shopping spree. My boss gave me a very nice bonus for getting my hands on those Polynesian masks.”

Buffy wiggled in her seat. “Yay Polynesia. Anything that leads to new clothes is way cool in my books.”

Dawn got up, grabbed her clothing and made her way towards the stairs. “I’m going to go call Janice and tell her about all this new clothes. She’ll be, like, sooo jealous.” She proceeded to climb the stairs, two steps at a time. Her stomping paused briefly, and she came back to the edge of the landing.

“Uh, Buffy--why does my room reek of vanilla candles?”

Author’s note: Well, there it is. The end of this first story of mine (written quite a while, ago, actually). Far from a saga, it’s just a bit of fun that popped into my head one weekend. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and please read Life’s Like That, which is far from over!!