Chapter seven - Evaluation
"I think yesterday went rather well don't you think?"
"I think it did. We avoided Naomi every second we got."
"Oh and Julie and Sarah."
"True."
"Except when they got the chance to ask us how we were and we replied back politely and they just glared at us."
"Otherwise it went well."
"Good work Belle."
"Well I couldn't have done it without you Dawn."
"Well I better be going now. Got to study for my chem exam."
"Sucks after everything you have to repeat most of the year."
"Yeah. I wish I could just tell them an apocalypse stopped me from getting an education but then I don't think I'd ever have any hope of achieving anything, they lock me up in a white padded room forever."
"Well I should do too, got an essay to work on for college."
"See it's not fair. I should be thinking about college now and I'm stuck with going back to high school, again. I won't be surprised if this school is built on something magical, mystical, or evil blah blah. Anyways it would make school much more fun but umm dangerous too oh well I survived high school on the hellmouth, I can survive a stupid bloody one repeating school year in Cherster."
"Well put."
"Why thank you. Cya tomorrow!" said Dawn as she walked away from the park bench she was sitting on towards home to go study.
"Giles
it was a complete disaster."
"I thought it went well."
"No it went utterly wrong. No one was mingling."
"Well you weren't even either."
"I was trying. At least I tried."
"Maybe next time things will go your way."
"Next time? Ah no way I'm not holding the next one, someone else can have the disaster."
"Well In my opinion it wasn't a disaster, it went smoothly. No one died, no evil attacked, we weren't locked in a house we couldn't get out of, no one was eaten alive, hell didn't freeze over, we got out okay."
"Just because evil didn't attack doesn't mean it wasn't a disaster. Is that all you think about?"
"What?"
"Evil. Big Bads and vampires and things that go bump in the life."
"That was the old me. What are you talking about? I've changed. I have more interests now that don't even connect to the old ones. I do."
"What? I didn't even say a word."
"I can just imagine the look you have on your face right now."
"Well if you were at my house now you would be able to clearly see I do not have that look on my face at all."
Willow walked past Buffy in the lounge room and smirked and giggled at what Buffy said, it was a lie she did have the look on her face
The bell rang twice and Robin got off the couch from watching television to go answer the intercom. He had no real clue who it was, he wasn't expecting anyone to come visit and Faith was out and she wouldn't be back for at least a few hours. Robin spoke into the intercom and was surprised a little by who it was.
"Hey mate, thought I'd come round for a bit of a chat. See how ya doing and what's up."
"What a nice surprise. Come in," said Robin and Xander entered the door to the block of apartments and came upstairs to Faith's and Robins apartment.
Xander walked in and Robin closed the door behind him. Xander walked into the living room and Robin went over to the fridge and pulled out two cold ones, "You want one?"
"Sure. I'd love a beer."
They sat down on the couch and Robin turned off the television.
Robin took a sip of his beer.
"So what's new?"
"Don't have work today. Josh is making Andrew work double shift so he won't be back at our apartment for a while thank god and so I have some free time for myself."
"Must be a handful to live with him."
"Yeah it is. He's just so.."
"I know exactly what you mean."
"So Faith's not around?"
"No, she's out with Rona, some Slayer thing. At least I know where she is this time."
Xander nodded his head, "Right. Do you know what sort of Slayer thing?"
"Oh I think Faith mentioned she was going to tell her Slayer stories, doing some training with Rona and give her some tips. Apparently Rona has been begging Faith to do training with her for a while. Buffy hasn't talked to any of the Slayers about training yet and Rona and Faith had been talking and Faith was fine about using some of her spare time to help out the girl and I'm cool about it too. I think it's a great thin, for the both of them."
"Good to see one of the new Slayers keen to get some training in and learn the stuff."
"Yep."
"So how did my tips help you out yesterday with Faith?"
"They
went pretty good, thanks, thanks for you know everything."
"It's
cool. It's fine. So did ya find out anything?"
"Well I was thinking, maybe the reason why Faith is acting a little different or whatever is she still is adjusting to her new life, being on the actual road to redemption. I know the redemption stuff started when she choose to turn herself in but after everything and now maybe she's still coming to terms with it and wants to be a better person and it's just knocking her head around a bit. Do you believe in people changing Xander? People changing for the better?"
"Yeah I do. Some people it won't work out for them no matter what but with Faith I can see that it will. Willow can do it, so can Faith. I may not have liked the guy at first and been a jealous guy but Angel he was a good guy, is and he's been doing the road to redemption stuff for ages and who knows how long he has to live on for and he just keeps doing it again and again everyday. He helped Faith get onto the redemption road. These people or with Angel.. never mind. they can change from what they once were or what they once did. If you can believe they can do it then you can believe you can if you ever fall into that situation. It's a good feeling."
Wood smiled.
"I have a feeling soon, soon Faith well tell me what's on her mind."
"How can you tell and be so sure?"
Small silence.
"Oh is it private."
Wood said, "I think she feels guilty that she is hiding something from me. Thank god she doesn't know I know that she is hiding something. But soon she will break and tell me. She told me she loved me, guilt and lies don't mix with love at least I don't believe they do so soon she will tell me. I just have the feeling she will. I don't know how else to explain it to you."
And at that moment Faith was standing in the doorway listening to these last few sentences both men had said. A tear formed in her eye. She let in run. She hated to cry. She wasn't used to it. When she was little she never let herself cry, it was a sign of weakness and she was afraid of her own weakness then against her mother and her scary stepfather. She let the weakness take over her in that moment. She was going to tell Wood the truth tonight, not because of what she heard but because she had already planned to tell him earlier that day.
Faith stood for a few moments longer, she thought it wouldn't hurt, until they had slowly switched topics. When it was safe to make her entrance less awkward that it would have been before she shut the front door making a sound they wouldn't be able not to hear and notice that she was home.
