The night was quiet, devoid of all life, demon and otherwise. But the slayer of the vampyres did not rest: ever vigilant, she guarded the dark places of the Earth, and ever ready, she trained mercilessly, pushing the limits of even her slayer strength and endurance.
The slayer was preparing herself for all the evil that Hell could thrust upon her. She was preparing herself for the coming apocalypse, the day when evil would once more try to take its place as Master of the Earth.
She prepared for months, never stopping hardly even sleeping, dreaming of the hordes to come, till at least she knew.
She was ready.
Okay, I wasn't really training day and night, but I was working really hard and learning dibble new ways to kill people (Kristy would have loved it!). And guess what? I was having fun too. The other Slayers-in-Training were all super-distant. I totally couldn't understand why they had a reputation for being kind of annoying.
I was pretty nervous at first, though, when Faith led me away from the rest of the BSC. I kept looking back over my shoulder as we walked until my friends were out of sight. Wherever we were going seemed to be on the opposite end of the complex from where we came in. We turned corner after corner, and Faith pointed out various things along the way.
"This is the library," she pointed at one room. "I imagine you like to read."
How had she known that? Oh right, I was wearing my "Authors do it between the pages" t-shirt. I wasn't quite sure what it meant, but Stacey assured me it was way chilly. Besides, it went well with the rainbow suspenders I had borrowed from Claudia.
I was too nervous to do more than swallow and nod. Faith was intimidating – it was like she had combined the sophistication of Stacey with the violent tendencies of Kristy. Eeek!
We kept walking and she continued the tour. "This the daycare center where your friends'll be working," she gestured to a door on our left, "and this is where we do the ritual sacrifices." She must have noticed my expression, because she added "Don't worry; they're strictly animal these days. It comes up occasionally, ya know?"
That didn't help. Faith tried to reassure me.
"Hey, don't worry kid. Everyone here was in the same boast as you when they first got here. You get used to it. It's all five-by-five."
That cheered me up! Apparently Faith and her friends like to make up slang words too! That made me lose some of my shyness, and I told Faith all about how dibble, chilly and distant mean cool, but stale means totally uncool.
I think she was really interested because I saw her eyes widen a bit – she was probably impressed by my command of the English language. Writers are good at that.
Just as I had finished explaining BSC slang and started asking Faith about hers, we reached a large, open area that looked like a combination between a gymnastics studio and the riding ring they use in the Saddle Club (I love horse stories). Girls my age and older were spread out around the ring. Some were running laps, some were sparring with various kinds of weaponry, and some were practicing acrobatics. It was a pretty impressive (and intimidating) sight.
Faith waved over a pretty blonde girl, probably 23 or 24, who seemed to be in charge of some of the younger girls.
"Hey, B – this one's for you." At this, the blonde girl said something to her group and walked over to join us.
"New Slayer?" she aked.
'New Slayer," Faith confirmed, then turned to me. "Mallory, this is Buffy. She takes the new Slayers."
Buffy? What kind of name is Buffy for a vampire slayer? It didn't convey the proper dignity at all. I prefer Melanora. Or maybe Zinthanelia.
Buffy smiled at me. "My group is practicing over there." She pointed at the girls she had been practicing with a moment earlier, and my eyes followed. A pretty brunette did a backflip, then caught a knife in mid-air.
Yikes. I know I have super-powers and all now, but have I mentioned that gym class is not my best subject?
Buffy must have noticed I looked nervous. "Don't worry. I get way less Slayers killed than Faith. It's a whole thing." She and Faith exchanged kind of scary smiles. It reminded me of that big sailing rivalry Dawn and Claudia used to have. Aww, I missed the BSC already.
"I'm back to my group, B," Faith said, startling me out of my reverie. "Good luck." Faith walked away, and Buffy (should I call her B?) turned towards me.
"It's pretty late and we're about to call it quits for the night, but let's try you on the crossbow first," Together, we walked over to join the other girls, who had moved over to the archery range.
For the first time since I arrived at the Academy, I felt confident. Archery was something I was good at (at least, it was now that I had my new Slayer powers). I'd show those Slayers what Mallory Pike was made of!
Over the next few days, I was thrilled to discover that everything was coming to me as easily as archery had. It was just like the time my epic story about growing up with lots of brothers and sisters had won first place in the school writing competition. Except, instead of writing, everyone was recognizing me for my Slayer skills!
Despite how well things were going, I was a little shy around the other girls in my group at first, especially the older girls. But my roommate and I clicked immediately. Her name was Jasmina and guess what? She was black, just like Jessi! Isn't that dibble?
She has a funny accent, but we get along really well. She never fit in at school or had a best friend as a child either. That's because she's from some island where they send girls with Slayer potential away to be trained at a really young age. Her parents were totally thrilled when she came into her full Slayer powers (or so they said in their letters), and so they sent her to the Slayer and Watchers Academy right away. She arrived the day before me, which is why we're roommates.
Actually, I've been really helpful to Jasmina, since not only do I know what it's like not to fit in, baby-sitting has given me wide-ranging experience. She can look up to me for practical, real world advice. For instance, back on the island Jasmina wasn't allowed to talk to boys, so she's dibbly impressed by my sort-of-boyfriend Ben Hobart. She loves to hear me talk about our library dates.
Plus, being friends with Jessi and Claudia has made me aware of the discrimination faced by minorities. Actually, I was even discriminated against once when this racist family thought I was Catholic. Go figure, huh?
Jasmina and I were having a great time together, but the fourth night I was in London, our full group of friends really gelled. I was explaining to Jasmina the difference between "chilly" and "distant" (subtle, but as a writer it's my job to notice these things), when there was a knock on the door.
I opened it, expecting it to be this really bossy Slayer Kennedy, who likes to call us out of bed for midnight drills, but it turned out to be five girls from our Slayer group. They were all older than Jasmina and me, so even though I had been doing really well in training, they made me a bit nervous.
"Hi, girls," said one of them, Kerry, stepping into our room. Kerry is short, but athletic, with long brown hair that she always wears in a pony tail. She's definitely the most outgoing of the group, and is a distant fighter.
Sheila followed Kerry into the room. "We thought we'd take you shopping. You know, Slayers get a stipend for trendy leather slaying clothing, and we know all the best stores."
Well, that explained the clothes everyone seemed to be wearing. Sheila was the most trendy, but all the girls looked like they had just stepped out of the pages of Seventeen. Truth to tell, Jasmina and I had been feeling a bit self-conscious about our work-out sweats and sneakers.
Sheila's best friend Chan Juan nodded. She's Chinese and doesn't speak much English, but she and Sheila are dibbly close. Apparently, they bonded silently over their mutual love of fashion.
Jasmina and I agreed instantly (well, I did. Jasmina was too shy to speak) and the seven of us set out. On the way to the shops, I chatted with the last two girls in the group, Michelle and Dierdre. They were both really sweet. Since she knows what it's like to be shy Michelle made sure to take Jasmina under her wing, and it turns out Dierdre is an honest-to-God California girl!
Actually, that surprised me a bit, because she has brown hair, not blonde (she says she's part Hispanic) and didn't seem to mind that we were shopping for leather, neither of which seemed very Californiaish to me. And I should know as I spent a week there.
Pretty soon, though, we were having so much fun that I forgot about everything else and just enjoyed spending time with my new friends.
We made it back to the Academy late that night, all loaded down with shopping bags filled with tons of shiny clothes (shiny is a word my new friends use to mean cool. Isn't that dibble. . . I mean, winny?).
As we entered the dorm section of the buildings, Michelle glanced at Kerry.
"Do you think they're ready?" she asked.
"Absolutely," Kerry replied. "Girls," she pointed at Jasmina and me, "Come to Chan Juan's room.
Chan Juan said something in Chinese, which I'm really going to have to start studying, and then pushed open her door. Kerry shepherded us inside, while Dierdre began lighting candles around the room (now that's the California Girl I'm used to).
Sheila turned out the lights and Kerry took out a pretty pink notebook decorated with pictures of girls slaying demons.
"This girls," she said, in a very important voice, "is the notebook of the Super Slayers Club. It's where we record all our slaying jobs so that the others can learn from them. Tonight, we are going to induct you into the club." I glanced over at Jasmina. She looked just as excited as I was.
Kerry continued. "Put your right hands on the notebook, and repeat after me. 'I promise to be good and reliable slayers and to be true to the Super-Slayers Club forevermore." We did as she instructed.
"I now pronounce you junior officers in the Super-Slayers Club," said Kerry.
Everyone cheered and Michelle even wiped tears from her eyes. The girls were really accepting us! This was wriggle!
Chan Juan ordered Chinese food, and we all toasted by clanging our chopsticks together. It was super delish.
Who knew I'd be lucky enough to make such a great group of friends so quickly? Coming to the Academy had been my best decision ever.