Part I: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1096503.html
Part II: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1100922.html
Part III: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1104619.html#cutid1
Part IV: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1108537.html
Part V: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1112216.html
Part VI: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1124762.html
Part VII: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1134781.html
Part VIII: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1139412.html
Part IX: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1146552.html
Part X: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1155478.html
Part XI: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1164418.html
Part XII: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1173922.html
Part XIII: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1178885.html

Willow frowned at Magnolia, her best glower — which wasn’t very good, maybe, but it was the best she had. “You really wanted to scare us?”

“Everyone gets scared. It’s not like, like you were sayin’, with people dyin’ and real horrible fear, or anything. It’s just, we, well, the way we are, a little fear can jump-start the systems.”

“If anything I had was gonna be jumpstarted by fear, it would’ve been jumpstarted long ago. My engines are dead, dead,” Xander quipped. “Nothing to jump here. Just plain ol’ Xander.”

“Well, there was that one time you turned into…. oh, never mind. Buffy!” Buffy’s whole body language had changed as she slipped down the hall. She was stalking something. Willow could see her reaching for a weapon, looking for something, eying the wood panelling. “Buffy, what are you doing?” She dropped her voice to a whisper.

“Willow, give me a stake. I know you have one hidden somewhere, and I’m not judging or anything, just give it to me.”

“Well, I really would, but, well, Giles said not to.” Willow slunk closer to her friend, clutching her bag closer to herself.

“Giles said not to ‘punch’ anyone. I’m not going to ‘punch’ anyone.” Buffy made the p sounds hard and aggressive. “I’m just going to stake the vampire. Will, come on.”

“Oh, Buff, I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“Wait. Staking. Vampire? Oh, no, no, darlin, you don’t want to do that.” Magnolia hurried after them.

“You know, I think I really do,”Buffy snarled. She stomped forward down the hallway. “You see, you have your things that you do. I have mine. And one of mine just happens to be, oh, I don’t know… staking vampires”

“All right, all right. So the monsters you were fighting back home, they were vampire-like…”

“No.” Xander’s voice was harsh and raspy. “Not vampire-like. Not like that cute girl in the hot tub was demon-like. We’re talking full-on vampires–”

“Should we be?” Willow cut in nervously. “Talking, I mean. Should we be anything?”

“Ah’m saying, I’m not sure there’s anything here that is that vampire-like as to need staking. Our demons are… well, oh, shit.” Magnolia shook her hair out like an 80’s shampoo commercial. Unbelievably, the scent of flowers seemed to follow the gesture. “Could you just come with me before you stake someone? I’m not sure just how well they’d survive that, you see, and I don’t think you want to be expelled before you even start classes.”

“You have no idea how bad I want to be expelled,” Buffy countered.

“Oh, but, ah, expelling from Addergoole isn’t like ordinary schools. They don’t just kick you out and put a mark on your permanent record.”

“Do they send you to a hell dimension?” Xander offered. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s what our principal would do if he could, but he can’t even manage to expel us.”

“Me.” Buffy had slowed down but not yet stopped. “They weren’t trying to expel you two, Xander, just me.”

“Let’s be honest, Principal Flootie probably would have expelled me after the whole hyena thing, if he hadn’t gotten eaten.”

“I don’t think that anyone gets sent to a hell dimension here, but then again…” Magnolia’s voice had slowed, too, and she was frowning. “The one that I know about, nobody’s heard from him since he, ah, left.”

“Ah, left?” Willow wanted to be worried, but the smell of flowers was heavier and heavier in the air, and she was having trouble getting too worked up. “What sort of ‘ah, left.'”

“Well, the reason I don’t want your friend to go staking someone… aw, heck, ain’t gonna be nothing you three don’t know when you finally get here. Just don’t tell no-one I told you, all right? I don’t want all the upperclassmen getting sore at me.”

“Just explain.” Even Buffy sounded less testy. “We’ll keep the fact that you’re acting like a decent human being a secret, just just… tell us.”

“As far as we can tell, the one way you can get ‘expelled’ from Addergoole is by killin’ another student,” Magnolia answered in a whisper.

“…Not by burning down the gym?”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1186127.html

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