"I must be really bored if I'm helping you guys with parent/teacher night. I don't even go to school here." Faith complained as she mixed up some lemonade. "Why are you guys even involved, I thought this was for kids being punished and suck ups. You guys are neither." She said to the Pack and Jesse. "Can see Red as a maybe suck up, but not the rest of you guys. And you stay out of trouble. Don't you?"
"Yeah, Xander and the Pack were partially raised and trained by a soldier. Getting in trouble at school would not go over well. Willow's afraid of getting in trouble, so stays out of trouble. And I'm usually with them so, no getting into trouble here. But Principle Snyder's been sniffing around again, so he's decided we might be trouble makers and thinks being more involved in school activities will lesson any potential trouble making. Hence us getting the school ready for parent/teacher night." Jesse answered.
"Well, at the moment, I'm not complaining." Xander said. He was currently holding the ladder for Cordelia as she hung the sign for parent/teacher night. "But that would be because of the view." Cordelia glanced down and realized his eyes were level with her butt. She smirked at him and wiggled it a little. His eyes tracked the movement. "I'm sure." She said.
The were nearly done when Principal Snyder came by, trying to find something he could bust them on and looked grumpy when he couldn't find anything. Parents were starting to show up so the group retired to the library, doing their best not to be noticed by Snyder.
They'd been there about an hour when they suddenly heard shouts and bangs, as well as the sound of glass breaking. They hurried out to see what was going on and found a bunch of vampires, apparently being led by someone with what Faith later described as 'radioactive hair'.
"Ah crap," Xander said. "Can we not have one night without vampires?"
"Oh look at all the pretty girls. This is going to be fun!" The vamp with the funny hair said.
Willow came out the library with swords from the book cage and handed them around. "Well, it's a little lighter then I'm used to but it'll do." Xander said as he attacked. The Pack following his lead. Faith had a stake in her back pocket and pulled it out and jumped toward the nearest vamp. Jesse, opting not to use fireballs in doors, grabbed Willow and pulled her back into the library.
"You must be those Protectors I heard about. I want to see if you're as good as the stories say you are."
"I'm not a Protector, moron, I'm the Slayer!"
"Well you can call me, Spike, luv. Let's dance." Faith and Spike started fighting. Both fought hard and then Spike realized he was alone. He looked around and saw a number of dust piles and six teenagers bearing down on him with sharp weapons and decided running might just let him keep his unlife going another day and pushed Faith hard, shoving her back against the others, who paused to catch her and ran.
"Who the heck was he?" Tor asked.
"He called himself Spike," Faith answered. "Damn, I liked this shirt and now it's got blood on it."
"Come on, Giles has a first aid kit his office. Jesse can clean that for you." Xander said. The Pack and Faith headed back into the library, getting the swords put away, just as Snyder arrived demanding to know what happened. Giles gave the usual, gangs on PCP, excuse and the parents decided it was time to get their kids and go home. Faith and Jesse were in the office where Jesse was cleaning the cut on her arm, but could hear everything that was said.
"That excuse really work?" she asked. "I thought heroin was the big thing now."
"Well, it really wouldn't matter. We could have said wild dogs or a bear or a gas explosion. Alot of the people around here seem real eager to take any explanation they can get that doesn't involve vampires." Willow said. "We still haven't figured out why. I mean it goes beyond not wanting to believe things out of myths actually exist. Something can happen right in front of them and they don't see it."
"We think it might be connected in some way to the Hellmouth," Giles said. "Someone anchoring a spell to it, to amplify it perhaps. It would explain why seers, for the most part are unable to 'see' the Hellmouth."
"The Tribes' aware of it." Xander said, "but they always have been, plus the tribal grounds are outside the limits of the Hellmouth."
"Thing is, once you actually start acknowledging it's all real, whatever the effect is, seems to stop working. Like a perception filter or a somebody else's problem field." Willow said. "Eventually we'll figure it out, but for now it's a mystery."
"I'm not sure what some of those words mean, but I get the gist. So what do we do about the guy with the radioactive hair?" Faith asked.
"He's a tomorrow problem." Xander said. "For now, let's just call it a day."
Everyone agreed and headed for their respective homes.