Chapter Three: Where's A Watcher When You Need One?
Ashley jerked awake to the sound of a ringing phone.
She glanced at the clock; it read 6:00. She then snatched her phone of the hook and said "Hello." in a voice that did not hide that she had just awakened.
"Oh," said a boy on the other side of the line, "Did I wake you?"
"Parker!" Ashley jumped up and accidentally rammed her hip into the dresser beside her bed; successfully knocking it over and making a very loud noise that could probably be heard throughout the house.
"What was that?" Parker asked, "Is this a bad time?"
"No! I'm always up at-six in the morning." She lied. She went to sit down on her bed, but through her drowsiness and shock at him calling her, she missed the bed completely and landed with a thud on the floor.
"This has to be a bad time." Parker halfway laughed.
"No, I'm just wondering what do you want?" her voice wasn't exactly cold, but a bit confused.
"I was just wondering whether or not you'd want me to pick you up around 7:30, you know, to take you to school." He said all too naively.
"Umm," she acted like she was thinking about it, "Sure, that'd be great."
"Great, I mean good, I mean-yeah, I'll see ya then."
"Alright," Ashley chuckled under her breath, "Well, I gotta get ready, Parker. I'll see ya."
As soon as they hung up the phone Ashley switched to 'DEFCON 1', extreme focus in the 'getting ready' portion of the morning.
*******
7:28 crossed the clock and Ashley was just finishing up the touches on her hair. She chose a black tank-top with a thin white button-up blouse over it and a short black skirt. Her hair hung to her shoulders, slightly curled on the ends and her bangs fit her face.
She rushed down the stairs and grabbed her books. She called out "Bye Mom!" just before opening the door and running into Parker.
"Oh!" She yelped.
Parker smiled, "Your timing's impeccable, just when I'm about to knock."
She grinned, "Hey Parker."
"Well that's what I was gonna say, except 'Hey Ashley' instead of 'Hey Parker'."
She eyed him as they walked out to his car, he took her books and put them in the trunk with his own and got in the car.
Parker took her by the local Hardee's to get some breakfast and although she had a Pop Tart when she left she decided to cost him some money, just to be nice. She also took the liberty to control his radio, and to play 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and "Wanksta".
They got to school just in time for the first bell, signaling they had ten minutes to get to class. So they grabbed their books and headed into the school. Parker indeed walked Ashley to her first class and when they parted she turned to him.
"Where's your first class?" she asked.
"Oh, its at the end of A-hall." He grinned.
She eyed him, "But you're gonna be late! That's on the other side of the school."
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
She grinned as he rushed off down the hall and out of sight.
*******
"You and Parker!?" Sherri said, a little too loud.
"Shh!" Ashley grinned at the expression on Sherri's face, "Not 'me and Parker' but I do like him, and I think he likes me, so we are both in likeness and that's good-right."
"When two people are in the state of likeness it represents goodness." Sherri replied.
"But its impossible, I've only been here two days and I'm already wanting to be the honey of some popular jock. Can we say 'Hi, I'm an enormous slut!'?"
"Nah," Sherri assured her, "You're not a slut and Parker is a good guy, a prep but a good guy. I think you should go for it, I mean, I only knew my baby three days before he asked me out on a date."
Ashley grinned, "Me and Parker are going to the Bronze Wednesday."
"Oh my God!" Sherri exclaimed, also a little too loud.
Ashley eyed her, "Its not like I'm going out with Freddie Prinze Jr." Her grin widened.
Sherri eyed her.
"Okay, okay! Parker's a honey, with that extra stuff they show on the commercials, but-well-that's all I really had to say. He is a honey."
Sherri laughed, "He must be a pretty good guy to get you hooked in a day."
"Is it that noticeable?"
"Only if you're breathing."
When the bell rang Ashley and Sherri split paths at the end of E-hall and went their separate ways. She was headed to homeroom, where she got the biggest shock so far today.
"I swear, they found her car vandalized at Make-Out Point." Krysta said.
"And blood was found in places outside the car. And a piece of Carolyn's blouse was hung in a bushel of briars, it's not looking good." Krystal continued.
"'Are you serious?" Ashley asked, all too exasperated by the news, "Were they kidnapped?"
"The cops don't know, all they can say for sure is they're missing." Krystal answered.
Ashley processed this in her head, blood-blouse-vandalized car. She had an instant flashback of that night with Sam, but she had to put that out of her mind. There was no reason to believe that this was connected to demons and the duties of the Slayer. Then again, Darryl-her overseer at the Council-had told her that her assignment to Sunnydale would be a tiresome one. He warned her that there would be vampires to deal with, but vampires leave bodies and not clues in the dark.
Needless to say, Ashley found herself walking home from Sunnydale High after homeroom was over. The entire way home she was recollecting her thoughts and planning out how she was going to dump them on Darryl. It was true, Darryl had been there for her when she needed him but there was one thing she wanted now more than anything-except maybe Parker-and that was a Watcher.
She rounded Marcolli Drive and went on a straight course to her house. To her relief her mother wasn't home and her father hadn't got back from that 'business trip' to Sacramento. So she had no problem getting in the house undetected.
Ashley did not stop until she got to the phone. She knew it would run up the bill, calling England and all but the Council usually took care of such loose ends. So she picked up the phone, dialed the number to the Council HQ then dialed the Slayer extension and then the final extension to Darryl's office.
"Darryl Worthing speaking," he said sounding a little preoccupied.
"Darryl, its me." Ashley said in a half needy, half bitchy tone.
"Not sure what that voice means Ashley, it either means I've made one big screw up or you're sad, either way its bad."
"As a matter of fact, it's both. You see, I figured when you and your people over there decided to move me to Sunnydale I would have that things that some prefer to call a WATCHER!"
Darryl jumped from the sudden raised tone, "Now calm down, were working on it-but our Watcher surplus has gone down defunct, all of our potential Watchers are either dead from that raid on Memmbarr's Pit or occupied with jobs for the Council."
"Am I hearing this right?" she asked, "You mean to tell me that you don't have one Goddamn Watcher left to 'watch' the Slayer!"
"Now calm down, Ashley. No need to get a raised voice from this mishap, I guarantee at Watcher in-"
"DARRYL!" Ashley yelled, "LISTEN TO ME VERY CAREFULLY! 'SLAYER IN DESPERATE NEED OF A WATCHER!' Do you get that? An actual Slayer is requesting a Watcher, you're not that one getting single-white-femaled over here!"
"What's wrong with you?" Darryl asked, "In times past you would've been happy to be free from the pressures of being under the constant surveillance of a Watcher."
"Darryl, its happening again." She sounded broke; "I don't want a repeat of Sam, Darryl! And already two people who I happened to befriend have disappeared, and no one has heard from another boy and no evidence has been left of what happened to him!"
"Okay, calm down sweetheart. Tell me these kids names."
"Carolyn James, her boyfriend Chris Anderson and another boy named Collin Johnson."
"Okay, I'll check up on this and in the meantime just maintain your regular slaying duties and I'll call you back as soon as I can."
"Alright." She said weakly and hung the phone up.
Thoughts ran through her head so fast it was hard to keep up, but it seemed like everything was slowing down. She walked into the living room and lay down on the sofa. She stretched out and turned on MTV; she had hardly got the TV started when she drifted to an uneasy sleep.
She snapped out of her troubled sleep to the doorbell. She glanced at the clock; it was 6:23-after sunset.
She got up and without fixing her hair or anything answered the door.
Parker smiled, "Am I interrupting anything?"
"Oh," she said, realizing her hair was in a mess, "No, I just woke up."
"I noticed," he replied.
She stood there for a moment, kind of zoned out to the fact that they were still standing in the doorway flew from her mind, when she finally did snap back into reality she saw Parker making obvious expressions with his face.
She smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry. Come in."
"Thanks." He said.
The next few minutes were awkward. Her mother wasn't home, and probably wouldn't be until ten o'clock; she informed Parker of this and then came the progression of Parker asking if she wanted him to leave and her saying, 'No, no.' The truth be known, she didn't really want Parker to leave, she felt oddly alone and Parker was comfort in that.
They walked into the living room, exchanging words about why she left (which she said was because her mom picked her up for a job interview) and why Parker was so late coming over. They didn't do much more that chat for about a half an hour.
Then 'Sorority Life' came on MTV and Parker went to reach for the remote saying "I know were not gonna watch this."
Ashley held it out of reach and replied: "What if I want to watch it."
He reached farther, mainly aggravating her, "What did I say?"
"OH!" Ashley exclaimed, "whose house are you in again?"
They laughed and Parker took the chance to snatch the remote from her hand.
"Ha." He grinned.
She wouldn't take that and caught on that Parker wanted to irritate her. She played along and reached for it. When one thing led to another they ended up a little close, closer than either of them had intended to get. However, Parker took this opportunity and planted a soft kiss on her lips.
For a moment Ashley let the kiss go, then she realized what was happening- it was too fast-and she thought of Sam and she pulled away instantly.
There was an awkward moment in between them and finally Parker broke the silence by saying: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."
"No, I am." She said, rising to her feet. Parker followed suit.
"Listen, I know I was moving too fast but-"
"No, I mean yes-I don't know!" she interrupted, halfway furious that she pulled away and the other halfway filled with anger at the kiss ever taking place, "But I have to go." And she did, she knew that it was time she take her place as slayer of the town and find out what happened to Carolyn and Chris.
"You know, I can just leave."
"It's not that!" Ashley said as she ran upstairs, Parker followed.
"Then what is it, where are you going?" he asked
"To change, I have to go out." She closed the door behind her.
He stopped about mid-stair and walked back down, grabbing his letterman jacket.
She came back down dressed in blue jeans, a black tank-top and a leather jacket. She carried, concealed in her jacket, two stakes, a cross and a bottle of holy water.
Parker felt as if he had violated her, or something. All he knew was that he did something she didn't like and now she was leaving her own house because of him.
"Ashley," he started.
She turned to face him as she turned out the light in the foyer and locked the door behind her, "I've gotta go somewhere, I'll be back."
"I can give you a ride."
"NO!" she exclaimed, all too obvious that something was going on, "I mean, I can walk-it's not far."
He eyed her, "I'm sorry." And he retreated to his car.
She felt so sorry for him; she wanted to tell him. She wanted someone to be there with her; she longed for companionship once more. Sadly, fate never played her a straight hand; she always ended up a card of two short. So she retreated to her haven, the darkness that shrouded the evil she had to fight.
Ashley jerked awake to the sound of a ringing phone.
She glanced at the clock; it read 6:00. She then snatched her phone of the hook and said "Hello." in a voice that did not hide that she had just awakened.
"Oh," said a boy on the other side of the line, "Did I wake you?"
"Parker!" Ashley jumped up and accidentally rammed her hip into the dresser beside her bed; successfully knocking it over and making a very loud noise that could probably be heard throughout the house.
"What was that?" Parker asked, "Is this a bad time?"
"No! I'm always up at-six in the morning." She lied. She went to sit down on her bed, but through her drowsiness and shock at him calling her, she missed the bed completely and landed with a thud on the floor.
"This has to be a bad time." Parker halfway laughed.
"No, I'm just wondering what do you want?" her voice wasn't exactly cold, but a bit confused.
"I was just wondering whether or not you'd want me to pick you up around 7:30, you know, to take you to school." He said all too naively.
"Umm," she acted like she was thinking about it, "Sure, that'd be great."
"Great, I mean good, I mean-yeah, I'll see ya then."
"Alright," Ashley chuckled under her breath, "Well, I gotta get ready, Parker. I'll see ya."
As soon as they hung up the phone Ashley switched to 'DEFCON 1', extreme focus in the 'getting ready' portion of the morning.
*******
7:28 crossed the clock and Ashley was just finishing up the touches on her hair. She chose a black tank-top with a thin white button-up blouse over it and a short black skirt. Her hair hung to her shoulders, slightly curled on the ends and her bangs fit her face.
She rushed down the stairs and grabbed her books. She called out "Bye Mom!" just before opening the door and running into Parker.
"Oh!" She yelped.
Parker smiled, "Your timing's impeccable, just when I'm about to knock."
She grinned, "Hey Parker."
"Well that's what I was gonna say, except 'Hey Ashley' instead of 'Hey Parker'."
She eyed him as they walked out to his car, he took her books and put them in the trunk with his own and got in the car.
Parker took her by the local Hardee's to get some breakfast and although she had a Pop Tart when she left she decided to cost him some money, just to be nice. She also took the liberty to control his radio, and to play 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and "Wanksta".
They got to school just in time for the first bell, signaling they had ten minutes to get to class. So they grabbed their books and headed into the school. Parker indeed walked Ashley to her first class and when they parted she turned to him.
"Where's your first class?" she asked.
"Oh, its at the end of A-hall." He grinned.
She eyed him, "But you're gonna be late! That's on the other side of the school."
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
She grinned as he rushed off down the hall and out of sight.
*******
"You and Parker!?" Sherri said, a little too loud.
"Shh!" Ashley grinned at the expression on Sherri's face, "Not 'me and Parker' but I do like him, and I think he likes me, so we are both in likeness and that's good-right."
"When two people are in the state of likeness it represents goodness." Sherri replied.
"But its impossible, I've only been here two days and I'm already wanting to be the honey of some popular jock. Can we say 'Hi, I'm an enormous slut!'?"
"Nah," Sherri assured her, "You're not a slut and Parker is a good guy, a prep but a good guy. I think you should go for it, I mean, I only knew my baby three days before he asked me out on a date."
Ashley grinned, "Me and Parker are going to the Bronze Wednesday."
"Oh my God!" Sherri exclaimed, also a little too loud.
Ashley eyed her, "Its not like I'm going out with Freddie Prinze Jr." Her grin widened.
Sherri eyed her.
"Okay, okay! Parker's a honey, with that extra stuff they show on the commercials, but-well-that's all I really had to say. He is a honey."
Sherri laughed, "He must be a pretty good guy to get you hooked in a day."
"Is it that noticeable?"
"Only if you're breathing."
When the bell rang Ashley and Sherri split paths at the end of E-hall and went their separate ways. She was headed to homeroom, where she got the biggest shock so far today.
"I swear, they found her car vandalized at Make-Out Point." Krysta said.
"And blood was found in places outside the car. And a piece of Carolyn's blouse was hung in a bushel of briars, it's not looking good." Krystal continued.
"'Are you serious?" Ashley asked, all too exasperated by the news, "Were they kidnapped?"
"The cops don't know, all they can say for sure is they're missing." Krystal answered.
Ashley processed this in her head, blood-blouse-vandalized car. She had an instant flashback of that night with Sam, but she had to put that out of her mind. There was no reason to believe that this was connected to demons and the duties of the Slayer. Then again, Darryl-her overseer at the Council-had told her that her assignment to Sunnydale would be a tiresome one. He warned her that there would be vampires to deal with, but vampires leave bodies and not clues in the dark.
Needless to say, Ashley found herself walking home from Sunnydale High after homeroom was over. The entire way home she was recollecting her thoughts and planning out how she was going to dump them on Darryl. It was true, Darryl had been there for her when she needed him but there was one thing she wanted now more than anything-except maybe Parker-and that was a Watcher.
She rounded Marcolli Drive and went on a straight course to her house. To her relief her mother wasn't home and her father hadn't got back from that 'business trip' to Sacramento. So she had no problem getting in the house undetected.
Ashley did not stop until she got to the phone. She knew it would run up the bill, calling England and all but the Council usually took care of such loose ends. So she picked up the phone, dialed the number to the Council HQ then dialed the Slayer extension and then the final extension to Darryl's office.
"Darryl Worthing speaking," he said sounding a little preoccupied.
"Darryl, its me." Ashley said in a half needy, half bitchy tone.
"Not sure what that voice means Ashley, it either means I've made one big screw up or you're sad, either way its bad."
"As a matter of fact, it's both. You see, I figured when you and your people over there decided to move me to Sunnydale I would have that things that some prefer to call a WATCHER!"
Darryl jumped from the sudden raised tone, "Now calm down, were working on it-but our Watcher surplus has gone down defunct, all of our potential Watchers are either dead from that raid on Memmbarr's Pit or occupied with jobs for the Council."
"Am I hearing this right?" she asked, "You mean to tell me that you don't have one Goddamn Watcher left to 'watch' the Slayer!"
"Now calm down, Ashley. No need to get a raised voice from this mishap, I guarantee at Watcher in-"
"DARRYL!" Ashley yelled, "LISTEN TO ME VERY CAREFULLY! 'SLAYER IN DESPERATE NEED OF A WATCHER!' Do you get that? An actual Slayer is requesting a Watcher, you're not that one getting single-white-femaled over here!"
"What's wrong with you?" Darryl asked, "In times past you would've been happy to be free from the pressures of being under the constant surveillance of a Watcher."
"Darryl, its happening again." She sounded broke; "I don't want a repeat of Sam, Darryl! And already two people who I happened to befriend have disappeared, and no one has heard from another boy and no evidence has been left of what happened to him!"
"Okay, calm down sweetheart. Tell me these kids names."
"Carolyn James, her boyfriend Chris Anderson and another boy named Collin Johnson."
"Okay, I'll check up on this and in the meantime just maintain your regular slaying duties and I'll call you back as soon as I can."
"Alright." She said weakly and hung the phone up.
Thoughts ran through her head so fast it was hard to keep up, but it seemed like everything was slowing down. She walked into the living room and lay down on the sofa. She stretched out and turned on MTV; she had hardly got the TV started when she drifted to an uneasy sleep.
She snapped out of her troubled sleep to the doorbell. She glanced at the clock; it was 6:23-after sunset.
She got up and without fixing her hair or anything answered the door.
Parker smiled, "Am I interrupting anything?"
"Oh," she said, realizing her hair was in a mess, "No, I just woke up."
"I noticed," he replied.
She stood there for a moment, kind of zoned out to the fact that they were still standing in the doorway flew from her mind, when she finally did snap back into reality she saw Parker making obvious expressions with his face.
She smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry. Come in."
"Thanks." He said.
The next few minutes were awkward. Her mother wasn't home, and probably wouldn't be until ten o'clock; she informed Parker of this and then came the progression of Parker asking if she wanted him to leave and her saying, 'No, no.' The truth be known, she didn't really want Parker to leave, she felt oddly alone and Parker was comfort in that.
They walked into the living room, exchanging words about why she left (which she said was because her mom picked her up for a job interview) and why Parker was so late coming over. They didn't do much more that chat for about a half an hour.
Then 'Sorority Life' came on MTV and Parker went to reach for the remote saying "I know were not gonna watch this."
Ashley held it out of reach and replied: "What if I want to watch it."
He reached farther, mainly aggravating her, "What did I say?"
"OH!" Ashley exclaimed, "whose house are you in again?"
They laughed and Parker took the chance to snatch the remote from her hand.
"Ha." He grinned.
She wouldn't take that and caught on that Parker wanted to irritate her. She played along and reached for it. When one thing led to another they ended up a little close, closer than either of them had intended to get. However, Parker took this opportunity and planted a soft kiss on her lips.
For a moment Ashley let the kiss go, then she realized what was happening- it was too fast-and she thought of Sam and she pulled away instantly.
There was an awkward moment in between them and finally Parker broke the silence by saying: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."
"No, I am." She said, rising to her feet. Parker followed suit.
"Listen, I know I was moving too fast but-"
"No, I mean yes-I don't know!" she interrupted, halfway furious that she pulled away and the other halfway filled with anger at the kiss ever taking place, "But I have to go." And she did, she knew that it was time she take her place as slayer of the town and find out what happened to Carolyn and Chris.
"You know, I can just leave."
"It's not that!" Ashley said as she ran upstairs, Parker followed.
"Then what is it, where are you going?" he asked
"To change, I have to go out." She closed the door behind her.
He stopped about mid-stair and walked back down, grabbing his letterman jacket.
She came back down dressed in blue jeans, a black tank-top and a leather jacket. She carried, concealed in her jacket, two stakes, a cross and a bottle of holy water.
Parker felt as if he had violated her, or something. All he knew was that he did something she didn't like and now she was leaving her own house because of him.
"Ashley," he started.
She turned to face him as she turned out the light in the foyer and locked the door behind her, "I've gotta go somewhere, I'll be back."
"I can give you a ride."
"NO!" she exclaimed, all too obvious that something was going on, "I mean, I can walk-it's not far."
He eyed her, "I'm sorry." And he retreated to his car.
She felt so sorry for him; she wanted to tell him. She wanted someone to be there with her; she longed for companionship once more. Sadly, fate never played her a straight hand; she always ended up a card of two short. So she retreated to her haven, the darkness that shrouded the evil she had to fight.