Authors Note: to everyone who has read this and thinks that there is too much religion mentioned in this story please keep reading. Read and review

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 5: The First Day

Morning was rising over Cleveland and the Watchers Council. They had been able to last through one day so far and James was thankful that faith had decided to stay. He had come down stairs early to wait for his slayers to show up for the assembly. As he entered the kitchen looking for a coffee pot, a young man with sandy hair was pouring batter into several large waffle irons.

"Hello exactly who are you sir." James walked past him to the coffee pot on the wall and poured the tantalizing black liquid into his ceramic mug. "I was not aware we had hired a cook as of yet."

The young man was only half listening to him as he juggled stacks of waffles. After he had several dozen of the pastries in metal serving bins he turned to address the senior watcher.

"I'm Andrew, and I guess I'm the cook. When we arrived here from Sunnydale Buffy asked me to cook dinner for them with what ever we had and I guess I just fell into the job." Andrew kept walking around trying to make sure breakfast was ready. "I'll tell you what slayers can eat a lot of food. I will hardly have this much out in the lines before their asking for more. It's a lot for one man to do."

James chuckled and watched the nervous young man at his work.

"I'll tell you what, I will have Willow place an advertisement in the local newspaper for an assistant later this afternoon." James was about to leave the room when Andrew called after him.

"I do a lot more than just cooking too if you could get someone well rounded I would be very happy." Andrew wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve as he contemplated anything he had missed.

James walked out into the mess hall where slayers were already starting to congregate. Some of them had taken places at the many circular tables while some were anxiously waiting in line. He moved over to the middle of the two serving lines and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

Willow and Oz had woken up early so they would not be late for the assembly. More accurately, Willow had gotten up early and was badgering Oz to get up. Once they were ready, they went down stairs running into Buffy and Xander on the way. The four Scoobies reached the mess hall just in time to see Andrew scrambling to get the slayers waffles out before they mauled him. Willow laughed at the sight of him, it was unfair that they expected him to do all of this stuff but none of them knew the first thing about working a stove.

"I wonder where Dawn is?" Buffy looked around the room. "I didn't she her after the meeting last night."

"Maybe she's afraid of us. We were kind of hard on her yesterday." Xander smiled hoping he could lighten the mood.

"Yeah I know I still can't believe she was kissing Spike like that. I'm going to have nightmares for years." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I almost threw up."

"After seeing them last night I think your going to have to get used to them being like that." Willow had her arm wrapped around Oz's waist.

"Yeah they were totally electric." Oz had almost been able to feel the energy they had giving off during the meeting the night before.

"That's the last thing I need." Buffy rubbed her forehead.

When they had entered the mess hall, several slayers had waved at Buffy and shouted things like "hey mom" and "morning mommy". She was officially freaked out. "Ok I don't know how much longer I can take this. They aren't that much younger than I am."

"You better get used to it." Dawn had come up behind them. Thankfully, for Buffy, she was not with Spike but then she noticed the jacket she was wearing. "You're the Chosen One; the prophecy says you will lead an army of slayers against hell. Some texts even refer to you as a "warrior matron" meaning that you are destined to be the mother these girls need to survive." Dawn pulled a cigarette out from Spike's jacket and lit the end. Puffing out a long drag, she smiled and started to walk into the mess hall.

"What are you doing? When did you start smoking?" Buffy was astonished.

"It's not like it can do any damage to my lungs." Dawn retorted. "Plus the look on your face was priceless."

"Well you're not going to smoke around my girls." Buffy took the smoke form Dawns lips and threw it into a trashcan after extinguishing the end. "Oh god I'm turning into my mother." Buffy turned around and went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.

James watched the action from his vantage point at the front of the room. All he could do was shake his head and pray that they got better at accepting who Dawn was. His biggest problem though was it seemed that Angles associates with the exception of Spike were keeping a distance from the Scoobies. Buffy and the others did not seem keen on associating with them either. He so badly needed them to get along. However, for the moment all he could do was hope for the best. After all of the slayers had eaten, he began his announcement.

"Good morning everyone I know we have not all had a chance to get acquainted with each other but I would like to say that I am already very proud of all of you. I have spent the evening reading reports from Buffy about your progress before you all ascended. I hope you understand why I have suspended Faith from training with you." James began to pace. "Now obviously we have not yet arranged class schedules, so I am going to assign each of your teachers' class rooms and you can move around from class to class and meet each of them. Now Buffy will be wandering in and out of each class so you can ask her any questions you have. If you cannot find her, I will also be wandering between classes, as will you other watcher, Angel will you come up here with me. Angle or Angelus to those of us over a hundred, is going to be your watcher as well." A little girl no older than twelve raised her hand. "Yes what is your name?"

"My name is Marsha, isn't Angle a vampire Mr. Davies." The girl looked very confused.

"Yes he is a vampire; however Mr. Angel has been given his soul back. I am not going into the details however; he is one of the foremost experts in martial arts and can teach each of you quite a lot. Now let us get to the tour of classrooms. Oz there should be a large lecture hall on the second floor you can use, Willow you should find science labs on the fifth floor, and the rest of you can take the classrooms on the sixth floor. Now if you don't have any more questions lets begin."