AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first attempt at the ever-popular "5 Things" genre. The only two guidelines I set for myself with it, as a personal challenge, were that each chapter should consist of only a single scene, and each chapter should be no more than 1,000 words.

Five Times Satsu Didn't Have Smoochies With the Scoobies (And One Time That She Did)

Xander

Satsu's head was still spinning like crazy. Vampire slayer. Castle. Scotland. Monsters.

And worst of all: no private room. She was an only child, and had had her own room all her life. Now she was sharing one with four other girls who she'd only just met, and somehow she was even more scared by that than the idea of fighting vampires. Part of her wanted to just call this whole thing off and go home.

Damn her stupid shyness! Why couldn't she be normal and confident, like everyone else? Other kids her age looked forward to going to college and living in a dorm; Satsu had spent her entire senior year of high school nearly giving herself an ulcer in her nervousness about it.

She was still unpacking her things when her slightly-trembling hands caused her to drop her holder full of DVDs. They went spilling out across the floor in a long line, and everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look.

"Graceful," one of the other girls said. It was Leah, the one with the wild mass of gorgeous red hair, and funny accent that Satsu couldn't quite place. "Yer sure you're a slayer, right?"

"No, but I'll take their word for it," she nearly mumbled, and bent to begin retrieving the discs. They'd spilled out toward the bed of an American slayer named Melissa, and she helped out by picking up the ones nearest to her.

"Here," she said, and held them out to Satsu--but then refused to relinquish her hold on them when she got a good look at the one on top. "Hey, I've heard of that one. That's a lesbian movie, isn't it?" Her tone of voice made it clear that she didn't consider that a particularly good thing.

"What? No," Satsu lied, and tried--unsuccessfully--to pull it away from her.

"It is! Wait a sec--are… are you a dyke?!"

"No!" This was stupid. She'd been out for three years, and had made her peace with who she was, and was proud of it, even… most of the time. But she was also scared to be living here in this strange place, with these strange girls, and she wanted them to like her or else this whole thing would be so much harder.

"Hey. Back off," Rowena told Melissa, stepping up to Satsu's side.

"'Back off'? We're all sharing the shower-room together, and I have to get changed in here every day!" Melissa fired back. "How am I supposed to do that if she's going to be standing there, drooling over me the whole time?"

"I'm not gay!" Satsu practically shouted, hating herself even as she said it. She felt like she was fourteen again, trying to deny who she was--to everyone around her, and even to herself.

"Oh, yeah? Prove it," Melissa challenged.

How the hell am I supposed to do that? Satsu wondered.

"Knock, knock," Xander called from the door, and since it was already open, he stepped inside. "Hey, girls, Buffy wants you all out in the courtyard for hand-to-hand training in--"

Satsu marched right up to him, grabbed hold of both sides of his head, and kissed him full on the lips. He struggled to get away, but not especially hard. After nearly ten seconds of smooching, she turned him loose and spun to face Melissa, with a triumphant 'Take that!' look on her face.

"--fifteen minutes," Xander finished, now sounding a little dazed. "Okay… I'm just going to go… somewhere else now. Because…" He turned to leave, bumped into the doorway, and half-stumbled out into the hall and disappeared.

Everyone in the room was now staring at Melissa. Some of the fire went out of her eyes, and she mumbled something, turned back toward her bed, and began re-arranging her own belongings, trying her best to look occupied and ignore the rest of them.

One of the other girls (Renee, Satsu remembered, her name was Renee) had finished gathering up the rest of the spilled DVDs, and handed them to her with a friendly smile. "Here you go. Hope none of them got scratched."

Satsu accepted them, and returned the smile, though she was mostly still embarrassed, and furious with herself for what she'd just done. It had been a horrible thing to do to Xander, and a horrible thing to do to herself, as well. "Me, too. Thanks."

"And just so you know," Renee added, leaning in close and speaking in a whisper, "you can be gay if you want to. I don't think any of the rest of us really care."

"In that case, I'll seriously consider it," Satsu said, and her smile turned into a small grin. "Thank you."

Maybe things would be okay here, after all.