One main street there's a magic shop, a hardware store, the coffee shop/café, a movie theater and a bar. In the warehouse district, there's the Bronze.

I've lived in Sunnydale all my life. I've been to the Bronze every night since I became old enough. I've danced, fetched coffee, been intimidated, been interrogated and threatened by creatures that are supposed to only be found in your nightmares. Oh, and I've peed in the school pool.

And all my life, I've just been Jonathan. You know me, the guy in the background that nobody really notices unless they need something. The person you see in the yearbook and think, oh yeah. I remember that guy. What was his name?

But tonight that all changed. Actually it started changing my sophomore year, but tonight everybody saw the change. Everybody noticed me. Because everybody noticed her.

"We have w…one more award to give out. Is…Buffy Summers here tonight? Di…did she, um. This is actually a new category. It's first time ever. I guess there were a lot of write in ballots and um…well, um, the prom committee a…asked me ta…to read this."

You'd probably wonder why I'm up on the stage presenting this award. Heck, if I were you, I'd be wondering too. But you see, Buffy Summers has done more than save me from fish people, zombies and vampires. She saved me from myself.

"We're not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you. But that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here."

"Zombies!"

"Hyena people!"

"Snyder!"

I was ready to do it. I was ready to kill myself and end the misery that I thought my life had become. It was a burden, living with all the things I thought I knew and the thought that I was doomed to be forever unnoticed.

But then she came to me; she stopped me. She told me how hard it is to know what we know, or think we know. She told me that sometimes she thinks it would be easier too, but how the fight needs to be fought. She told me that I wasn't unnoticed. She and her friends all knew who I was. They knew and, more importantly, they cared.

Saving my life was just as important to her as stopping someone from killing dozens of other students in our school. Saving my life was important to her because, if she didn't, she would have one more friend she would have to miss.

It also didn't hurt that she told me that Audrey wanted to go to the prom with me.

I proposed the write-in at a student council meeting, trying not to say too much of what I knew or thought I knew of the other populations of Sunnydale, but making everyone realize what a great debt we owed to this beautiful, amazing, hard working, under-appreciated woman.

And one by one, students throughout the Sunnydale High School senior class wrote her name down. One by one, people from every clique, from every club, from every circle, wrote her name in and asked that she be recognized for all she has done.

"But whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you or helped by you at one time or another."

We owe Buffy a debt that we can't repay. We can't save her from anything, except maybe Principal Snyder. But we can let her know that we owe her, that we appreciate her, that we're happy she's on our side.

"We're proud to say the class of 99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history."

The words I say tonight are heartfelt by everyone in the room, as is the applause they give both the surviving members of our class and her. I see the looks of pride on her friend's faces - Xander, Willow, Oz, Cordelia, the librarian - and I know that they, more than any of us, know what she does and what she sacrifices.

They know how much this award means to her.

"And we know at least part of that i…is because of you. So the senior class offers it's thanks and gives you…um, uh this. It's from all of us and it has written here…Buffy Summers, class protector."

I hand her the little umbrella that they've decorated for her and smile my appreciation, affection and…I guess, honor at having had the opportunity to know her, to have my life touched by her. When I see her eyes, I know it's not just her friends who know how much this awards means to her.

I only hope they know…that she knows how much giving it to her means to me.