CHAPTER TWO: CALLED
Ryan Evans gulped nervously as he looked around the courtyard of the small Sydney school. With only a minimal amount of information to go on, he had been told to find the new Slayer.
His uncle, Quentin Travers, had chuckled at him when he had asked how he was going to recognise this girl. His answer was even more vague than the information eh already had.
"You'll just know," had been the answer.
The plane trip over from England had been excruciating. To top off his nerves, Ryan had been airsick for the better part of the twenty hour flight.
He had settled into the Council provided house yesterday, tired to sleep off the jetlag, and had begun his new job as teacher of ancient history faster than his mind could keep up.
Once more, he scanned down the little information he had on the newest Slayer and continued looking for her. He didn't even have a photograph to go on, only a name. Erika Wylcroft.
But, he trusted that, like his uncle had said, he would 'just know' when he saw her. He also knew that she was in one of his classes, though unfortunately for him, it was the last class of the day.
Quentin had given him a rundown on what he was to say to her, but…honestly, Ryan wouldn't have been surprised if the new Slayer would just laugh in his face. What seventeen year old wouldn't?
Much like the calling of Buffy Summers, the Council hadn't been aware that this new girl had even been a prospective Slayer. It was also almost unheard of for a Slayer to be called so close to their eighteenth birthday. No Slayer was ever called after their eighteenth, but the only other Slayer yo come close to being called so 'late' in life had been a girl in 1918, who was called at the age of seventeen and a half.
The trouble with Slayer's called after they turned seventeen is the believability of the story. "Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampire's, to stop the spread of their evil childers and minions."
Even at twenty-seven and being brought up with the mythology, Ryan still found it hard to believe. That was, of course, until he had come face-to-face with his first vampire.
He had to laugh at the memory of his first confrontation with a demon. It had been three years since the first time he had used a stake.
He and the other Watcher-in-Training, Wesley Wyndham-Price, had topped the class in the theory-based section of the training, and to be further tested, they were placed into a closely monitored room with two vampires.
Wesley looked towards Ryan, a panicked sweat breaking out over his forehead.
"We top the class and they try to kill us?" Wesley had asked, pompous as ever.
Ryan had just given a small grin. Wesley always took things so seriously. He had been a little miffed when Ryan and he had tied for first place in the written tests. Wesley had stayed up studying for two weeks straight. Ryan still had yet to crack open a book and seriously study.
"Just preparing us Wes," Ryan said calmly, a stake in his hand.
He circled the vampires who were carefully watching the two young men with the stakes. Wesley seemed to be of no threat to the vampires whatsoever, so both demons were looking more carefully at Ryan.
Ryan faked left and managed to get a roundhouse kick towards the male vampire, surprising it a little, but he was soon thrown to the ground as soon as the vampire had come to his senses.
Ryan backed up, sliding across the floor, stake still in his hand. He looked briefly past the demons towards Wesley who looked as though he was about to faint.
One of the vampires turned to look to where the smell of fear was emanating to clearly.
"Hey Wes, you may wanna be careful. Just remember, they gave you that stake for a bloody good reason," he had cautioned.
He leapt to his feet and wrestled with the vampire, keeping the creatures fangs away from his neck. He took a punch to the gut, but instead of doubling over instinctively, he held back and breathed in quickly, returning the punch to the vampire. Without a moments hesitation, Ryan slammed his stake into the vamps back and watched, fascinated as the vamp turned to dust before his eyes.
"Uh, a little help here," Wesley whimpered from his corner of the room.
Ryan just rolled his eyes and yanked the vampire away from his colleague. While the vamps arms were behind his back, Wesley seemed to gather the courage from somewhere, and, pausing for a second, he rammed his stake into the heart of the creature.
Ryan gave Wesley a grin, a little surprised that he had managed to come through in the end.
"Nice one," Ryan commented.
Wesley had just smirked and tried to regain his balance. Quentin had entered the room, smiling at the two men. "Congratulations, you're very first kill."
Ryan had grinned a little, proud that he hadn't wussed out like Wesley had.
"Come. We must get you back to your training. One never knows when the new Slayer will be called," Quentin said.
Ryan stared at his uncle, a little disturbed by the tone of his voice. Wesley looked towards Ryan with a slight smile. "Well, that went rather well, wouldn't you say? I must admit, I'm hoping the new Slayer will be called very soon."
Ryan's face fell and he shook his head. "I hope I'm not a Watcher for a very long time."
Wesley looked at him, perplexed. "You don't think you're ready?"
"Oh, I'm ready. But the only way I'm going to become the next Watcher is for this Slayer to die. And I don't want that to happen."
Wesley looked a little taken aback, as though he hadn't really thought about how Watchers were called. "Well…we'll see what happens then I suppose."
Wesley had been given the position of the next Watcher over Ryan, in large part due to that conversation. His uncle had only caught the first part of it, and when Ryan had tried to explain, Quentin hadn't wanted to hear a word of it.
So, Wesley was sent to Sunnydale to take over as position of Watcher to Buffy Summers. He had been fired several months later for her insubordination and for the other Slayer becoming a rogue.
Now, the rogue Slayer was dead, and here he was to initiate some innocent girl into a world of death and darkness. Needless to say, he wasn't exactly looking forward to it.
The bell behind him rang, startling him out of his thoughts. He sighed, realising he hadn't even spotted someone who he 'just knew' was his Slayer. He turned and walked towards his first class, knowing that today was going to be excruciatingly long.
~*~
The day seemed to drag on, though he was enjoying himself immensely, teaching these teenagers about ancient history. He was somewhat glad that his subject was an elective, as only the students who really wanted to be there were.
The bell rang once more and the students scurried out, trying to make it out the door as quickly as possible to avoid any extra homework assignments being given to them as they raced out.
The final lesson. The lesson where Ryan would finally meet his Slayer. He could feel a tight nervousness growing in his chest, his heart pounding at the thought of finally seeing her.
Students began coming in, sitting themselves towards the back of the room, sitting in small friendship clumps. He breathed in deeply as he saw a girl come in with two other girls, smiling happily as she chatted with them.
Seats scraped across the floor and suddenly there was a silence upon the classroom, all eyes on the new teacher. Everyone had heard gossip about the young ancient history teacher. He was reputed to be remarkably good looking and have an incredible accent. Many of the younger girls had been swooning over him at lunch time.
Ryan deliberately avoided eye contact with the girl that he 'just knew' was the new Slayer and tried to get on with the class.
"Good afternoon everyone. As some of you may know, I'm Mr Evans, and just for the record, I am British so please don't feel as though you need to remind me."
A small peal of laughter broke out. Erika grinned at her two friends who raised their eyebrows appreciatively.
"We're here to learn ancient history. For those of you who want to coast through the year, I suggest you go elsewhere. This subject is hard and will require a lot of out of school research. I'm not going to be offended if you get up and walk out right now," he said, pausing dramatically.
No one dared move, the girls too captivated by his accent and his gorgeous blue eyes, and the boys too distracted by the teacher who was finally giving it to them straight.
"Alright then. We'll begin."
His heart seemed to have slowed down to a regular pace once more, and he was able to forget that Erika was even in his class. He was a good teacher, he knew that, but he also enjoyed teaching these kids. And, if he couldn't make it slightly more interesting for them, he wasn't about to complain.
Textbooks were opened and Ryan explained so many things to them, beginning with the basics of Ancient Rome. Somehow, he managed to get the class into a discussion, but before it could get too far, a loud ringing could be heard.
He looked up to see who the offending person with the cellular phone was, about to tell them off for interrupting their discussion. When he saw a red-faced Erika reach into her bag and quickly turn the phone off, he stopped and merely glared at her. The discussion continued as though there had been no interruption whatsoever.
The bell rang and Ryan felt his heart drop. He hadn't had a chance to really get Erika to talk, but suddenly he remembered. He had the opportunity to call her aside without any of the other students even noticing.
"Erika, a word if you please," he said, his voice gentle.
She shot a panicked look towards her two friends, whom Ryan had learnt where Ami Smith and Katiana 'Kat' Ashson. Ami and Kat sent her supportive smiles.
"Want us to wait?" Kat asked.
Erika breathed in deeply, trying to be brave. She was seventeen and was NOT going to be intimidated by the new teacher on his first day.
"Nah, it's fine. I'll give you a call tonight."
Kat hesitated, but nodded all the same.
Ami grinned and mouthed the words 'good luck' before departing.
Erika looked towards Ryan nervously.
"Sir, I'm sorry. I didn't realise my phone was even on, it won't happen again, I swear," she rambled.
Ryan held up a hand and smiled. "It's alright Erika. It's not about that."
"It's not?" she asked, relief spreading through her. She tensed up again suddenly, a little worried about his motives. "So, what is it?"
Ryan didn't even know where to begin. "Uh…perhaps you should sit down."