Author's Note: Hello all! I'm moving so things are about to get super hectic, but I've been sitting on this for a while since its OC heavy. Please let me know what you think!
Chapter Twenty-Five: School Hard: The Next Generation, Part 1
The problem with middle of the night hot chocolate was that going to bed after made a weird amount of time. She could catch her last 90 minutes of sleep or she could stay up and get started on her homework.
Too wired to sleep, Western Civ won out.
Her whole life she dreamed about what it would be like to live with; and fight along side; and just goof around with her real parents. She had thought about what they would do for family vacations and what thanksgiving would be like and she even imagined what it would be like to be the only 11-year-old allowed to have a nighttime party. The reality of it involved a lot more homework than she was comfortable with. But even with the temptation to slack off constantly nagging at her, she couldn’t let herself disappoint them. Especially since--from the stories Spike told her--she was putting together that her father had been one of those swotty know-it-all's in school who got perfect grades and did extra work for fun.
Big bad her lily white ass.
Then again, who was she to be complaining about this? This was everything she had ever dreamed about. She was living with her long-dead parents, and while she could do without the scary murder society that was constantly chasing them, this was what she had always wanted. And now that she had it, it felt wrong. It felt like she was doing something bad, and getting away with it. Shouldn't she be trying hard to get home? Because that would be the noble thing to do, the right thing, probably. But this was all just too good; it was too much to pass up.
Dammit. She was staring at the same six words in her World History Text book.
Laying in bed meant thinking about all the things ever, wondering if it was right to stay here and if that was the case should she be at least trying to get back to her time? and did that time even exist anymore if she's changed it? Or if it was a different dimension, would she be causing all sorts of rifts by being here? and that was just too much for one girl to handle.
So, Alex decided fuck it all together in favor of a very long shower in her fancy, perfect London en suite bathroom.
Who was she kidding? She was never leaving this place.
After her shower, she pulled on her uniform and started getting her book bag ready for the day.
Alex had always done well in school. The Slayer Academy was, however, an alternative environment. Everything was taught with a practical goal, which was to train the students to be the front line of defense against the forces of darkness. So, every lesson had a corresponding applied purpose. Physics meant spear trajectories, and Trig meant weapons calculations and Battle Tactics was a class. After all that, it was hard to try and get into a subject like Math.
She supposed she should like Math because it was the one familiar thing in her world like in the excellent classic Mean Girls. But honestly, Math just sucked and she hated it. No getting around it.
To silence the weird niggling little feeling that she had to earn all this good fortune, she made her bed and cleaned her room before trudging downstairs to greet a bleary eyed Raj.
“World of Warcraft?” she guessed.
“Why do I do this to myself?” Raj asked her melodramatically. This was a normal morning ritual for them, early morning when Alex was getting ready for school and Raj getting ready for work.
He was making coffee. Bless him. If he wasn’t around no one in the Pratt family would be able to make heads or tails of the kitchen.
“Because you find reading boring and could never get into escapist literature?” she ventured with a shake of her head.
Raj scowled at her.
“Spare me your holier than thou bullshit. I don’t need to be told that Lord of the Rings is a revelation.”
“Saw the movie, have the t-shirt, I like Game of Thrones better.” Alex said with a shrug. “Did you get muffins?”
Raj had obviously become accustomed to her weird anachronistic spoilers. He barely even mentioned them anymore.
“No, but there are frozen waffles in the icebox.”
Alex arched an eyebrow.
“You don’t actually use “icebox” do you?” She said. "It’s not Britishese or whatever?"
Raj paused.
“I’m not sure now. Freezer? Icebox? You’ve all got me examining what I’m saying. I very nearly said “pants” at a store the other day.”
Alex poured herself a thermos full of coffee. “Were you buying pants?”
“Trousers! I was buying trousers!”
She smiled privately at his indignation and went about making a breakfast sandwich. Two waffles chocolate sauce and peanut butter.
Raj eyed her proceedings suspiciously.
“Bring an apple with you, yeah?”
Alex arched an eyebrow.
"What? I can't worry about your health?"
There was a bowl of fruit on the kitchen island and Alex grabbed one to appease him.
“Thank you, a proper parent would go crazy if he saw the way you ate."
"I'm fifteen. I only have ten good garbage eating years left." she replied easily. "Besides have you seen Buffy eat? She's like 75% cheeto."
"She is pregnant. She is eating for two." Raj rationalizing. He had poured himself a coffee, downed it and poured another. She looked like she was about to protest but Raj put the coffee down and sighed. "Look, just eat the damn apple and let me feel better about your life?"
Alex took a big demonstrative bite.
Raj grinned.
"Thanks." Raj said. "have a good day, Lex."
“You too, Raj!”
***
Alex stepped out into the cold morning gray. It was a 15 minute walk from No. 9 to the Holland House School. There were Underground and Bus options but she loved the walk. It took her straight through the pretty Victorian Petticoat drama bits of London. It was usually pretty deserted so she could pretend she was walking through Austenland or Downton Abbey.
She smiled at some passing runners, mentally going over what she had to finish for school today--which she was already sure was going to be too much.
Holland House had been Raj’s mother alma mater. It was a strange place . The academics were rigorous but the school seemed to be divided into two large groups, those who cared about Academics (this group was populated by over-achievers who spoke multiple languages while practicing semi-professional ballet or kept Hermione-Level marks while starting a business on the side) or The rich Aristos who didn’t care one way or the other because they were set for life. (This group was populated by girls named Amarillys, Gilda, or Velvet.) Both groups had been going to school with the same people since they were in diapers (nappies) and there were very few new girls. There were even fewer new girls who came into the school in the middle of fifth form, but Raj had pulled some strings to ensure her a place. Despite his best efforts, it was taking her a while to adjust to the British school system--the fact that she arrived 3 weeks into the school term was not helping her any, she was determined to fall into the first group.
The morning was freezing cold. But the walk warmed her blood and the hot coffee was especially delicious because of the winter bite. Here she was living in London with William Pratt, the man she had always wondered about but never met; and Buffy Summers, her mother. And they were together. And she was expecting a sibling! It was hard not to whoop with unbridled joy at that thought of this when she was outside, actually there, experiencing the bone-chilling damp.
It was enough to tough it out without a smartphone.
She arrived at Holland House at seven fifteen and made her way up to the library. She made sure to put the last of her waffle sandwich in a plastic bag for later.
“Morning, Alexis!” The librarian, a Ms. Anne Hooper, called. “Long to-do list today?”
Alex nodded. She liked Ms. Hooper but she did her best not to be to chummy. It was hard enough being the weird new girl who was American she didn’t want to be branded the weird new girl who was American and only hung out with the librarian.
She was working on muscle memory all the way to her usual secluded table, already thinking of her English essay. She had finished all her qualifying exams and just had the catch up work to finish now. She pulled out her her diary and leafed through it.
The realiation of it hit her like a freight train filled with chocolate caramels and root beer and gooey pizza.
She still had a week on that English essay.
She double checked her dates and her to-do list. She had finished her Math homework and she did have a Western Civ debate today but as a child born into a post-Great Recession world she could rip apart the Eurozone like a troll on reddit. And she had a free period later.
She closed her diary.
She was all caught up.
Well, fuck.
She should feel relieved, but it just felt unreal, like there was something else she was missing. She checked and then double checked and she was all caught up.
She only just started to feel lighter as she cleaned up her materials and there was a definite swing in her step as she walked right back out of the library
“Not as long as you thought, eh?”
Again, she nodded. This time she could not keep the grin off her face.
“Bye, Ms. Hooper.”
She liberated her waffle sandwich planning to go outside and sit in the courtyard and just bask in the cold air. They kept the corridors and the buildings of Holland House almost unbearably warm.
There were a few other girls around, they were members of extra curricular clubs and other activities. Alex didn’t know a single one of them but she did try and smile as they passed. Everyone pretty much ignored her, so after a little while she stopped. They were all people she had seen before, but she felt like she was noticing them a for the first time. She could hear a few hissed conversations, people wondering who she was and how she scored a spot at Holland House so late. She had kept largely to herself which wasn't helping. She had heard somewhere that she was the daughter of an American Oil Tycoon or Movie star. Or both.
She made her way downstairs. For a second she felt like someone was following her, but when she turned back to the corridor everyone looked unaffected by her,so she knew they were all staring, wondering and whispering behind their hands. She had barely even noticed this before, there were some bad days of course, but when she was too stressed out worrying about projects and assignments it was so much easier to ignore it all.
She squared her shoulders, she was a slayer dammit! This uncertainty was not going to faze her. She had all the things she ever wanted. She didn’t have to dwell on a weird school life.
She pushed out of the building fully intending to enjoy what was left of her breakfast when very suddenly her world flew apart at the seams.
It felt like someone had split open her skull and was pouring molten gold into it-or lava-or something else that was molten. She could barely think straight because of the pain. Her ears popped and throbbed. Every muscle in her body was tense, it was like she was bracing for her head to explode.
She didn’t realize that she had closed her eyes against the onslaught. She forced them open and tried to make sense of what was happening.
It was a sound!
It was an evil, inhuman screech the likes of which she had never heard before. She could actually feel the lightning bolts stabbing into her brain. Was it swelling? It felt like it was swelling. It felt like it was filling her head with electricity and eventually her skill was going to explode.
What the fuck was going on? She had been a slayer officially for over a year, and been in training for most of her life, preparing for every eventuality. But this was entirely new and infinitely scary.
She had toppled to the floor completely missing the bench.
The noise vanished as quickly as it came.
She pulled herself up and made her self sit on one of the stone benches. Her heart was pounding and her head was still throbbing with residual pain. She did her best to still her breathing. She was covered in sweat. Slowly, she started to normalize.
The noise was debilitating, unexpected and nearly brought her to her knees but it was mercifully short. Where could it have come from?
Alex surveyed the courtyard as subtly as she could. There was a smattering of people around, most of them were people heavily into school activities like the tall blonde who headed the theatre and a bunch of the sporty girls coming in from crew.
Her first thought was Genesis, but it was unlike them to announce themselves. It had always been a blitz attack, nothing like the shriek that filled her entire head. And besides, if it was them, she wouldn't come around to her school yard, she would wake up on a slab next to her parents.
Her ears were still ringing, but nothing else seemed to be out of order. No one seemed to be coming for her. She studied them all again. The sporty girls were stretching, not paying any attention to her. The Theatre girl was coordinating the drop off of something with a large man. There were a few student government officers putting things up on a billboard.
In fact, no one else looked like they were even a little bit affected by the noise. If she was on the ground--with her slayer pain tolerance, then whatever it was it should have been enough to at least incapacitate them. But they were going about their business with no disruption. It hit her then that it was a vampire thing. It must have been in a pitch that only she could hear.
It didn’t feel like Genesis, but who could it be?
Spooked, Alex headed into the building to make in early for her first class. She took out her cell phone but thought better of texting Spike and Buffy. If she texted them, Spike would come charging into the school, sunlight be damned. He would yank her out of class and then burn the whole damn place down. Which on the one hand would be kinda great, but on the other he would also probably insist they pick up and leave London. And that would mean starting over in a place that had none of the resources they had here. And worse, Spike’s ace in the hole, his perfect hideout, would be gone.
No, she decided, this was totally different than Genesis. This was something new. If this was Genesis then she would already be drugged and put in a sterile surgery bubble where they would be running tests on her. Best figure out what the hell that sound was and--worst case scenario--tell them about it later.
She was holding onto her phone very hard, her hands we still a little bit sweaty.
Alex became suddenly aware of what was happening around her when someone bumped into her desk making her start, drop her phone and overturn her thermos, the contents of which spilled everywhere.
“What the everloving fuck?”
The tepid left-over coffee had tipped right at the feet of the girl who sat next to her. She had very, very shiny hair and perfect skin. She was the one: Cora Winterton-Dooling. Coco. The Queen of the Middleclones.
Alex groaned inwardly, of course she knocked over a thermos of coffee on one of the popular clique.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I’ll go grab some towels from the bathroom. I’m so sorry.”
“You better be fucking sorry, idiot, these are new bloody shoes!”
“Ladies!”
Mrs. Ndawe, their English literature teacher, had entered the room.
“Language. That will be a demerit on your conducts.” She said.”Ms. Pratt—”
Alex was standing.
“I was just about to go grab paper towels from the bathroom.” she stammered nervously.
Mrs. Ndawe peered at her suspiciously for a second but then nodded.
“Right. Proceed.” She said before turning to the blackboard to start the lecture.
Alex ducked her head and ignored the death glare that Coco was sending her. She slipped out of the class room at borderline super speed and made it back in less than 2 minutes. She handed Coco paper towels. The girl just glared at her.
The rest of the class went on uneventfully, Alex sat a little bit lower in her seat and tried to be invisible. She wasn't sure which was worse, the mysterious tone or the death glare coming from the Queen B--the sound. The screeching was worse. She had to focus on finding the source and concentrate on forgetting what it felt like to feel like her ears were being drilled into with hot lasers.
At the end of class a girl fell into step next to her.
“So Coco Winterton-Dooling hates you.”
Alex looked up to see a mousy brunette girl. She smiled, showing off her green rubber banded braces. Her name was Hannah she was one of the few people who actually spoke to Alex. She had even sat at Hannah’s table for lunch once or twice, when she wasn’t making up a test or shotgunning a last minute paper.
“You’ve been tried and found wanting by the poshy-posse.”
Alex shrugged, she had not really had the time over the last few weeks to actually make heads or tails of the social system that was the lifeblood of Holland House.
“The poshy-posse?” Hannah repeated. “Coco, Mags, Lena and Skye?”
Alex kept staring. Hannah rolled her eyes.
“You know! Of Course you know!” she exclaimed. “Lady Cora Winterton-Dooling of Sunderland? Mags Worley-Donahugh--the one who heads all the committees ever, Lena Shaikh whose dad runs Saudi Arabia? Sometimes Azurra-Skye Delfino, her mom is that supermodel who married that CEO who was murdered? You don’t know a single person I’m naming.”
Alex’s grin was feckless and she chuckled a little bit as Hannah made the second eye-roll to end all eye-rolls
“C’mon you must have noticed them! They’re just posh, and the teachers love them, Mags rungs the theatre? Coco plans all the parties? and they’re in charge of like everything in school and they probably always have dates with boys from Knox Grammar across the park.” She stuck out a hand and introduced herself. “I’m Hannah. You’re new right? From America?”
Alex just stared at her for a second, unsure if Hannah was messing with her. That girl made jokes sometimes that Alex just didn’t get, she was worried that maybe she was never going to get the hang of British schools. Skins had so lied to her.
“Hi, I’m Alex Pratt?”
Hannah burst out laughing, making Alex sigh in relief. Messing with her.
“I really wasn’t sure if you would take the bait, but I figured you’ve been so busy you can’t make heads or tails of anyone.”
“You’re cruel.”
“Cruelty is how we show our affection, darling.” She linked arms with Alex and lead her through the halls. “It’s not all love and kisses and affirmation like at your American school.”
Alex thought back to the last day she spent at the Academy, she had been at the Freshman Fight Club which was how they taught barely-teenaged freshmen girls how to take a hit. And how to spit out the blood so you could keep going.
“Aw, do you miss it?” Hannah said sympathetically. “Don’t you wish that Holland House was more like that? Alternative? touchy-feely?”
That snapped Alex out of her reverie.
“This is actually really nice.” She said. “You're in a few of my classes right? What do you have next? I usually have Math with Greene, but apparently he’s on a minibreak in Mallorca this week..." she cringed at the hopeful tone in her voice. God, she was such a loser. She also stumbled over the word ‘minibreak’ which was a learned word she got from watching Bridget Jones. But Hannah didn’t seem weirded out by her use of it.
“I actually have bio with Mr. Wein.” Hannah said apologetically. ”but you have A-period lunch, right? See you then?”
Alex smiled and nodded. Hannah was a little weird but it felt really good to know someone and have somewhere to go at lunch. Recently, she had been sort of a ghost, just sitting wherever she found a place and letting people organically come and go around her, every so often someone would come and sit with her, sometimes it was multiple someones, but she couldn’t always relate to the conversation so they tended to dissipate quickly. Hannah and her crew were some of the few people she had ever really hung out with.
They came to a crossroads and the mousy brunette gestured towards the Science wing of the school and smiled warmly. Alex found herself smiling back.
***
“Why does Mags Worley-Donahugh hate you so badly?”
Alex glanced up. She was sitting at a table with Hannah and a few other friends. She had been introduced to each of them once upon a time, but that was too long ago and she was a little bit worried that it had gotten too late to ask them for their names again. The conversation had gone to what everyone else was talking about doing over the weekend so Alex had poked and prodded at her food. She didn't want to chime in and make people feel like they had to invite her, she also could maybe get a jumpstart on that Western Civ. paper she should finish.
“Who hates me now?”
“Mags.” One of the other girls chimed in. She glanced quickly over Alex’s shoulder at the table that the popular girls sat at--near the door so they could pop out for a smoke. “whenever she looks over here she just looks…”
“Murderous.” Hannah supplied.
“She’s the worst of the lot. She runs all the extra curriculars at this school. She's even lobbying for a prom. She’s also a model, I hear she's been in magazines in Korea.” one of the other girls said wistfully. "you know because of the hair?"
Alex was just about to glance over but everyone protested at once.
“She is not the worst in the lot.” Another of the girls spoke up. She was very large and sweet looking. She looked a little bit like how Alex would picture Aunt Willow would have been in high school: Prim locket, regulation uniform, chunky black mary-janes. “That would be Coco.” she was saying.
After a few seconds Hannah nudged her lightly and nodded for her to look. Alex glanced as subtly as she could.
“Oh, her! Right. I killed and ate her dog.” She said.
The table looked at her incredulously.
“She joked.” Alex added with a weak smile. "Aren't you all up in the kidding? Isn't dryness a part of that British humor I keep hearing about?"
Thankfully, the table burst into chuckles and a few giggles. Not the uproarious laughter Alex had been hoping for, but a start.
“You can’t hold us to that.” One of the other girls piped up. Alex had taken to calling her Avril Lavigne. She wore chunky, studded punk cuffs and Converse All-Stars. “None of us would have any idea if you were joking. WE all know you don't have humor in America.”
“Gosh, they’re like those mythical things that are super pretty but then lure you to slam your boat in the rocks.” The tall sweet looking girl spoke up steering the conversation back to the Poshy-posse. Alex noticed that the name Gemma was carefully printed on the notebook she was doodling on.
“Oh?” Another girl said incredulously. “When did you jump on the poshy-posse hating bandwagon weren’t you wondering how to buy into that club a few weeks ago?”
Gemma blushed.
“I went and I invited Coco to play tennis with me –we’re in the same club--and she laughed and let me down all patronizingly which was bad already, but then as I was about to leave, I heard her call be a hippo-Johanson to the others.”
“A hippo?” Hannah exclaimed. “but that dosen’t even make sense, you’re so skinny!”
There was a chorus of affirmations that Alex was just about to jump into when Gemma broke it up.
“I don’t think it was a dig at my weight, I think she meant lumbering and clumsy.” she said unhappily. “I know I’m doing much better. Mum has allowed mirrors in the house again.” she paused for a sympathetic chuckle. “Coco-she told the people she was with this story that happened when we were at Tennis Camp a few years ago where I was running away from a bee and I accidentally toppled the Official’s lookout--where the chair umpire sits? I had totally forgot that she was there for that and they all laughed and I felt like such a-I don’t know? a Boil? tiny insect?”
“Don’t worry about it, Gem,” Another girl said, she was dark hair and had a super cute pixie cut that everyone would be all over in about 10 years. “Coco is an ass. She just dosen’t know how to be cool without putting down everyone around her.”
“We should try and get back at her!” Hannah piped up.
“We can’t!” Pixie-cut exclaimed. “That group is all close and annoying with the faculty. No one can touch them. I’ve seen girls thank Coco for slapping them. What do you think, Alex?”
Alex raised her hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me Mags Donahugh already looks at me like I killed her mother. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
The Avril Lavigne girl looked at her all pityingly. “You say both names, Alex. Mags Worley-Donahugh.”
“See?”
“Oh, what good are you?” demanded Hannah. “ I thought Americans were supposed to be bold and brash and shake everything up!”
“That’s because you get all your information from TV dramas.” Gemma said knowingly.
“You two are no fun” Hannah said promptly. She took a large bite of her lunch.
Alex tried to look laid-back and casual, but the camaraderie with people had felt like a long drink of water after being in the desert. She had a lot of friends back at the Slayer academy. So much had happened in so little time that she had almost forgotten to miss them. Now she missed them. She missed them very, very much.
“She just wants her life to series 4 of Coronation Street.”
Alex nodded. “Coronation street?”
“Americans.” Hannah said with a small shake of her head. “Don’t worry girls, we’ll mentor this one.”
Alex laughed a long with them it felt embarrassingly good to be with them, to be hanging out.
“I’ll have you know I love British tv. You brought us Sherlock and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.”
“Sherlock? Like the Radio play?”
***
They finished their lunch and headed off to their various classes, Alex had gym with Gemma and apparently the posh posse, whom Gemma was now calling the Bitchy-fuck-witch-brigade. They apparently always rigged their timetables to match.
Alex had assumed that PE at Holland House would end up being something fancy like horseback riding or skiing--things she had never done before and never been good at. She was half right, it was tennis and everyone had perfect white Wimbledon outfits. Except her, of course--she had a grey tank top and a pair of black exercise shorts.
Gemma, bless her, had offered an extra skirt, but even with all the weight loss Alex was much smaller than her.
They dressed in a locker room, and made their way out into a big enclosed bubble to hit tennis balls off of a pitching machine. Their teacher was a compact, impossibly fit marathon runner named Ms. Ward who wore her bushy red hair in an appallingly high ponytail, she was standing next to the pitching machine and yelling for them to form a line.
As soon as Alex stepped outside, Mags was glaring at her. Alex could practically feel the heat of it on the back of her neck.
Gemma followed Alex’s gaze.
“Has she always hated you?” Gemma asked. “I’ve never seen her like this. She’s usually the nicest of the lot. Intimidating and a little impatient, but not like actually nasty, you know what I mean?”
“Really? Because she’s a right peach.” Alex said . Looking away and bouncing a tennis ball experimentally. “All sunshine and rainbows.”
“See, and you thought you weren’t getting the hang of England, we’ll get you into understatement and self-deprecation yet.”
Alex laughed and shook her head.
“You should watch the Daily Show, it's all bravado.”
"The Daily Show?"
"Satirical news show. Nevermind."
Gemma allowed the odd little moment to pass. Alex sighed, it was sort of weird to be back in time and have to think up fun references that made sense to them. She had no idea what was on TV in England around now. Spice World?
They queued up for the pitching machine and after a few rounds they split up into scrimmage partners. Alex half-played letting Gemma beat her, and keeping one eye on Mags. Could she have been the origin of the pulse that slammed into her earlier? What had prompted it? She’d been here three weeks now, what could have changed? Out of the corner of her eye she could make out Mags had lost interest in her and was currently engaged in a serious game with a tall, awkward girl named Morwen Dawes.
“Morwen‘s problem is that she does not run!” A voice panted in her ear. It was Gemma. “And you are doing a truly shit job of making me think you are even halfway paying attention to this match. I’ve already got a set and 3 games. C’mon, show me what you’re working with!”
Alex arched an eyebrow and in the next three minutes was able to make up the deficit. She didn’t allow Gemma a single point.
“Okay, time out! Time Out!” Gemma yelled, she took a long deep drink from her water bottle and leaned heavily on the net, the side pole wobbled precariously.
“Whoa be careful!” Alex exclaimed. Gemma steadied herself.
“Oh, doing much better there, Johansson.” A voice cut in. They were the clipped tones of Coco Winteron-Dooling.
There was a wicked gleam in her eye, one Alex sensed instantly. The Damphyr shifted uneasily. There was something up with this girl She clearly had it in for poor Gemma.
“Sweet of you to check in but we’re fine.” She interjected. She grinned as blandly and as boringly as she could, but she could tell it caught no traction. “I’m Alexis Pratt.”
“I know who you are.” Coco actually sneered. Alex actually looked around to see if anyone was watching. She had no idea people actually did that. “You’re the prat who spilled coffee on my new shoes. Aptly named.”
Alex’s smile went fixed.
“Right. Yes. That was me.”
“You’re so lucky that Pratt is such a Saint letting you feel like you can win, Johansson. How was fat camp? Is that where you learned to play tennis?”
Alex frowned and looked over to Gemma who looked like she wanted to melt into a puddle into the floor.
“Piss off, Coco.” She managed. Although she looked a little bit like she wanted to burst into tears.
Alex smiled a little bit but tried not to let it show, Coco scowled nastily.
“Don’t worry about it, Alex,” Gemma said, stepping up to Coco. “Her stupid joke is I used to be massively fat.”
“Looks like you’ve become quite the big shot, no need of anyone else to fight your battles, hippo-Jo?” Coco countered said nastily. “What are you going to do now that you can’t threaten to sit on me anymore.”
That seemed to shatter Gemma’s composure. She dropped the racquet and stormed off. Alex turned back to Coco in askance clearly confused as to the strange total animosity. But before she could say anything she was interrupted by Ms. Ward calling for them to start a game and stop “socializing”.
She made a gesture to them; pairing the two of them up for the next scrimmage. Alex’s smile was poisonous, Coco smirked and arched an eyebrow clearly she had no idea what a slayer could do when she was angry.
It wasn’t even a game, it was a massacre.
A few other girls down had actually stopped to watch Alex go. She tried not to show boat, she tried to make it look like the effort was straining her, but she had been playing sports like tennis since she could walk and her heightened senses and speed made it a bloodbath--she was actually holding back from hitting too hard.
She was setting up her next serve when while glancing around her eyes met Mags’s and the high screech was there. And with it a sudden massive pain drilling into Alex’s skull.
Mags. Mags was glaring at her with intense silver eyes. The debilitating shriek had to be coming from her.
Because she was focusing on Mags her volley was wholly instinct and it slammed back across the pitch at full slayer strength and straight into Coco’s eye.
Coco went down like a shot and the uproar happened immediately. Alex held Mags’s eye but turned away to pretend to care if that cow was alright.
She glanced back at Mags to see that the girl had come to some sort of decision, one Alex knew instinctively she did not want to be a part of. Once she had ascertained that Coco was unharmed, she backed off. She waited until she was far enough away from the gaggle of girls to turn back to the locker rooms.
It was just around then, after she was far enough away from the uproar that she could hear someone screaming hoarsely from inside.
Gemma.
After the bright sunshine of the outside, the changing room was dim and cool. It sounded like Gemma had been trying to get their attention for some time.
“Gemma?”
“Alex!”
Alex followed the sound of a voice to the back row of lockers. She heard pounding feet behind her and she hoped that it was a teacher keeping students back but Alex wasn’t a slayer in this world. She didn’t have any kind of authority and the supernatural didn’t have the same exposure so people were going to freak the fuck out. She wasn’t sure why she was sure something fishy was going on, but she could just smell the wiggins.
“Alex?” Gemma’s voice was fearful. Beyond the sound of Gemma’s voice there was a dull thudding. Alex turned the corner to see Gemma tap dancing, her face was tear streaked and petrified.
“I-I-I-I-I can’t stop! I’ve been going for ages! I want to stop I can’t make myself stop!”
Alex took a step toward her friend when the now-familliar crippling pain started to pound through her head. The door flew open and the pain became so unbearable that Alex’s sight went red around the edges. Alex forced herself to focus, she could just make out long pale, blonde hair.
“What did you do?”
They demanded of each other at the same time.
The pain in Alex’s head increased even further as Mags bore down on her.
“Get out of here, Vampire!” Mags hissed angrily. “I don’t know what you did to her but—”
They both ignored Gemma’s surprised gasp and exclamation of “Vampire?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Alex yelled over the noise that only she could hear. Her teeth were clenched so hard to try and block out the noise she could barely make herself talk. “Stop the noise! I can help her!”
“I don’t believe you! Get back! Evil Fiend!”
Gemma was yelling in the background. Neither superbeing was paying her any attention.
“I’m not a vampire!”
“That’s just what a vampire would say!”
Something in her jaw cracked and Alex screamed it was a hollow awful sound and even Gemma paused for a moment. Mags waved a hand. The noise stopped.
“Hannah!” Gemma exclaimed.
Alex rose and shook the wool from her head. “Hannah?” she demanded.
“Hannah was here, That’s what I was trying to tell you! She came through here but she was all weird and fucked up!”
“Hannah did this, Gemma?” Alex tried to clarify. “She just came here and wiggled her nose and did this?”
“It wasn’t really Hannah it was like evil Hannah! She was all veiny and intense and I had been—God! It hurts! I can’t keep going! but I can't stop!”
“What are you doing?” Mags demanded.
Alex ignored her. Gemma was sobbing now.
“I know it hurts, Gemma.” She said. “Please, stay with me. She was veiny? Like she was inside out?”
“Just like that! Just like that! and I was just talking trash about Coco and she said “done” like a crazy person and then she disappeared.”
Alex felt her stomach drop.
“Fuck,” she muttered. She continued to ignore Mags’s demands of her. Right now, Gemma was what mattered. “Gemma, listen to me. Did you wish for anything?”
“What? This is not my fault!!”
“I know that. I’m trying to help. Did you wish for anything? Like actually say the words “I wish”? I wish that Coco would just die? or something like that?”
Gemma was in tears.
“No, I might have said something about wishing I could just exercise until I was skinny.”
“You are skinny, Gemma.” Alex assured her friend. Gemma was openly weeping now. Frustrated and angry at the popular clique, Alex turned accusatory to Mags. “All of this because of Coco. We need to find Hannah.”
“Coco’s got a crush and doesn't know how to handle it.” Mags said dismissively. “Who’s Hannah?”
“Brunette,” Alex said straightening up. She raised her hand. “About ye tall, welcome wagon friendly? Yeah, she’s a vengeance demon.”
“Make it stop! Please make her stop it! I just wanted to be able to play! I just wanted her to go away! I Just wanted her to—make it stop!”
“What’s a vengeance demon?” Mags demanded.
“Someone who could do something like this.” Alex snapped impatiently. Her mind was turning over possibilities in her head. They were dealing with a vengance demon, which means she would just have to find the vengance demon. She may be able to do a locator spell. Alex who had been studying Gemma suddenly whirled on Mags. Mags had to be some kind of witch, because she had made with the tonal brain drilling. “What are you?” but before Mags could reply she changed her mind. “No. You know what? Not important right now. Right now we find a way to make Gemma stop death dancing.”
Mags stared for a moment and then let her eyes fall closed. She chanted a few dozen words and her hair rose around her floating around her face as if she was underwater.
For a second nothing happened. There was just the sound of the tap-tap-tap of Gemma’s feet which suddenly started to go faster, Gemma looked down horrified and started to scream and she went faster and faster until suddenly she collapsed onto the gym floor twitching ominously.
Alex looked down at her friend and then up at Mags.
“Good job, there, witch-bitch!" she said sarcastically. "Should we call the nurse now?”
Mags ignored her and waved at the door to the tennis courts. She must have locked them behind her because when they flew open everyone burst in, like they hadbeen trying the doors for sometime. Ms. Ward took point, barking orders for people to call the nurse. Alex caught Mags’s eye and edged out jerking her head to indicate that Mags should follow her. They spilled out into the hall and headed thorugh the corridors.
“She’s supposed to be in French class why the hell would she just follow us to gym!” Alex thought aloud. She examined several of her interactions with Hannah. “She’s been prompting us all day, I wonder if she's on a deadline. She's been here for a while though, so she's probably lost patience.”
Mags said nothing and just followed her. They sprinted through the halls to the French classroom, Alex studied the room through the tall narrow window in the door. There was a conspicuous gap in the desks.
“She’s not there.”
Mags groaned in frustration.
“Can’t you just smell her or something?
“I’m not a vampire, is that what this is seriously about?” Ales said exasperatedly. suddenly fed up with the witch's attitude, she stopped dead and rounded on Mags. “Seriously? Because we were playing tennis outside in the sun like two seconds ago.”
Mags hesitated. For a fleeting second the horrible shriek that ad been shredding her insides flashed and abated instantly.
“Oi! Watch it!”
“You aren’t fully human either.” she said. “you can hear it.”
Alex considered her for a second but shook her head.
“It’s a long story and we have sort of a pressing issue here.” She skidded to a stop. “She can teleport. She could be anywhere. She could be in the Gambia.”
“No!” Mags exclaimed. She physically stoppped and thought for a minute. Alex envied her ability to not jump to the worst possible conclusion. “What she did to Gemma was brutal--almost unecessarily brutal. It's not like Gemma's done anything bad to her in the past. She’s a demon you said?”
Alex nodded.
“And you don’t think she thinks she’ll be found out?”
“What are you getting at?”
“I think she probably wants to watch the chaos.”
“She would be back at the changing room? Could she be that stupid?”
“It’s our only lead unless you can vampire us to the Gambia.”
Alex spared her a withering look.
“What do you think it is vampires do?”
Mags rolled her eyes and urged Alex forward.
Together, they sprinted down the corridors back to the changing room where he crowd was gathering, it was macabre to say the least, Mags’s spell or charm or whatever had calmed her and allowed her to pass out, but whatever magic the blonde witch had used had worn off. Gemma's legs were still going and her arms jerked around her like she was a marionette. Everyone was looking on in frozen horror unsure what to do. Ms. Ward was white as a sheet. She watched in rapt attention clearly hoping no one would ask her what the hell to do about it.
“Bugger.” Mags muttered.
Alex ignored the menacing picture her new friend made, and scanned the faces for Hannah. She was standing with the crowd her morbid fascination shining through just a little more eagerly than everyone else’s. There was no time to tell Mags. She made her way over to Hannah who trying to look just as horrified as the others. She was failing, her mouth was almost contorted in a grim smile. Alex tried to approach her cautiously but Hannah caught her purposeful gait and seemed to put together that the other girl knew what was going on.
The vengeance demon bolted.
Alex broke into a full sprint and crashed headlong into her friend grabbing at her neck. The horrid tapping of Gemma’s feet stopped abruptly. She fell to the floor like her strings were cut. For a second she was mercifully still, but then she jerked to the beat of her own tap dancing moments earlier.
Alex went for every accessory she could find. She couldn’t very well kill a student in front of a teacher with no explanation, but her slayer training served her well. All she had to do was find the power source--which could be pretty much anything, so she could pulled off anything that wasn’t Hannah’s uniform and threw them all on the floor, methodically slamming her heel down on every piece, the necklace and watch had no effect, the last piece was a statement ring. Alex took a deep breath and slammed her doc marten down on it.
Nothing happened.
Hannah grinned triumphantly.
“You’re crazy!” She yelled trying to keep the mirth off her voice. She turned unaffectedly to the Phys. Ed Teacher. “Ms. Ward! Pratt is destroying my property.”
Alex sifted through the pieces of broken costume jewelry, ignoring the fall out around her. Mags dropped to the floor to look with her.
“Shit. It’s got to be here!” she said her voice was high with panic.
“What are you looking for?” she demanded.
“An Amulet.” Alex hissed. “it’s the source of her power.”
“Large and gaudy and horribly tacky?”
Alex looked up at Mags.
“You’ve seen it?”
“Gemma’s wearing it.”
Hannah was now suggesting that Gemma might be contagious, Ms. Ward was telling everybody to stand back, but Alex slid past her grabbed the necklace that she now noticed around her friend’s neck and crushed it in her hand.
Hannah let out an unholy shriek and launched herself at the damphyr.
“Do you have any idea what you just did?” She wailed attempting to tear at Alex's hair. “Have you any idea what you have you done to me you idiot stupid fuckwit!”
Alex was able to fend her off successfully, but was trying very hard to make it look like she hadn't been trained all her life in martial arts. She tried to get Hannah into some sort of subtle lock so she could figure out how to proceed. From her training, she knew that a Vengeance demon should loose all her powers once someone had destroyed her power source, but the girl was making up for her suddenly diminished strength with sheer ferocity. Hannah’s face, though human, was almost unrecognizable, It was so twisted with hate and fury.
Mags crouched next to a groggy disoriented Gemma.
“What’s going on?” she said. She seemed to snap back to what had just been happening to her and she latched on to Mags. “Did you make it stop? Did you save me?”
“That would be Alex Pratt actually.” Mags nodded to Alex who was still doing her best to black Hannah’s vicious assault without actually hurting her.
The damphyr was finally tiring of the exercise she kicked at the inside of the former vengeance demon’s instep and when the girl fell off balance Alex twisted her arms behind her head and brought Hannah into a bind.
“Girls!” Ms. Ward seemed to have recovered her wits now that the heinous vision of Gemma dancing to death had ceased to be a pressing issue. Fights she knew how to handle. “Stop this at once!”
“Ohmigod, she attacked me!” Hannah called out. struggling in Alex’s grasp. “She attacked me!” She stilled suddenly and was clearly trying to teleport but it didn’t seem to be working. Hannah’s eyes widened in horror. “It’s true! What are you? How did you know how to do that!?”
“Me? I was just defending myself from you!” Alex exclaimed.
“Both of you to the Headmisstress’s office!” Ms. Ward declared.
Alex’s eye must have been round as saucers because Mags stepped in.
“Listen, Ms. Ward, I think we have all seen some crazy things here and maybe we should let the dust settle because we bring the headmistress into the equation. Alex was just defending herself and there’s no harm done. i think we should focus on Gemma and--”
Mags’s reasonable tone did nothing but grate at poor Ms. Ward.
“The headmisstress office!” she declared again. “All three of you!”
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