Watchers Junior

Dawn returned home after 7 p.m. Thick, chalky clouds foretold of yet another late summer storm. She was tired. Her shins were bruised from soccer practice (football, she amended. In Britain, it's football). Her day had been perfectly wretched. Mickey spilled to everyone that Dawn roomed with a flat full of freaks that believed in vampires, demons and witches. In between classes, random idiots charged at her, yelling 'Expelliarmus!' So juvenile.

She entered the quiet flat to find Andrew in full-on research frenzy, with books piled all willy-nilly and his laptop open to Google.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

Andrew jumped. "What? What am I what?"

"Doing, dorkface. As in, what, comma, are you?"

Andrew straightened. "Giles says Watchers are Called. So I'm call-worthy. Always on the ready, not matter the situation. Like His Girl Friday, or…"

"Dr. Watson?" Dawn said. She came into the dining room and took the chair beside him.

"Yeah. See. I didn't waste my day with useless games or petty diversions," Andrew said. "Although I did learn that if you take the 'S' out of cosmic, you get comic."

Dawn picked up a book. "What did you study?"

Andrew fidgeted. "Mixed bag, really. Old World conjurations. The theories of spirit manifestations and their relation to water and electromagnetic activity."

"Neat," Dawn said.

"Oh. And, did you know that any demon can be conjured, you just have to know the right watchwords? Also, it's best to have the vanquishing spell on hand otherwise you have rogue demon on your hands, all dressed up and nowhere to..."

Dawn was nodding. "This is good," she said. "Really good. This is what I should be doing. After all we've been through, after all we've seen, the real world stuff falls pretty flat."

"Tell me about it," Andrew said. "But, well, you're already way ahead of the game though. You started out as a ball of energy, which means already connected to the big power source. Plus, you learned Turkish in auto-didactic Keanu mode. I'm sure Giles will call you."

As if on cue, the telephone in the hall rang. Dawn and Andrew froze. After the second ring, Dawn sprinted into the hall to answer it.

"See!" Andrew called after her. "Calling. I knew it!"

"Hello?" Dawn asked. On the line, she heard only a dull humming followed by a series of clicks.

"Hello?" Dawn said again, louder this time.

The humming turned into static, then the connection broke.

Dawn replaced the receiver. She came back into the dining area.

"Nothing, huh?" Andrew said. "No 'seven days' or 'what's your favorite scary movie'?"

Dawn sat down heavily in her chair, pulling a book in front of her. "Probably a wrong number," she said. She skimmed the page, flipped to the next. "Don't you have a date with Nighna or something?"

Andrew simpered a little. "Not till Friday. School night."

Dawn sat back. Andrew sighed.

"So," Dawn said. "You wanna practice invocations or something?"

"Girl, I thought you'd never ask!" he said.