A/N The episode Earshot will not be apart of this story. In an earlier chapter, Xander noted that Marcie was making friends, which included Johnathan, the boy who was so lonely he tried to kill himself in that episode. He's not lonely anymore, he has friends and Xander keeps an eye on him and Marcie and others in his territory that he feels responsible for.

The Scooby Gang's senior year ended not long after their Senior Prom. Which unfortunately, was somewhat marred by a disturbed classmate unleashing hellhounds he'd raised, on the school, specifically trained to go after people in formal wear. Xander acted as bait and allowed them to chase him into an outbuilding of the school. A chant by Jenny sent them back to Hell and everyone got to enjoy their Prom without worrying about being shredded by very ugly dog like creatures. The student, Tucker Wells, refused their offer to see Connie and the gang resolved to keep an eye on him, in case he caused problems again. And except for Snyder being an ass, graduation was also uneventful. After the usual quiet of summer, the Scooby Gang started college.

Refusing to leave their territory, Xander and Cordelia got an apartment off campus, while Oz and his bandmates got a house to share. Buffy and Willow were each assigned to a dorm room.

What should have been a quiet start to their college life turned into a nightmare for Buffy when she discovered her roommate was a demon from another dimension who was sucking out her soul. Fortunately for Buffy, her roommate's father showed up and dragged her back to their dimension and Buffy recovered. Willow was allowed to transfer rooms and she and Buffy were able to share.

Things were fairly quiet after that, until Halloween, that is.

"I used to love Halloween. It was one of my favorite holidays." Xander said, after he and the others managed to escape a fear demon that brought some of their fears to life. "Now, I'm wondering if I should ban mine and Cordy's future kids from ever even saying the word, let alone participating. Are we doomed to never have another good Halloween? Once again, Cordy is the highlight of my Halloween experience. You make an absolutely gorgeous dancehall girl, by the way."

"Well of course I do. This is the first time I was affected by Halloween directly and I don't like it either. It just goes to show, that even accidentally the Hellmouth can cause damage. I mean those kids in that frat just wanted to decorate for Halloween. They had no idea that drawing that design and Oz cutting his finger accidentally would summon a fear demon. Connie will be so busy, no wonder she decided to just move here permanently. She'll never have any shortage of patients around here."

"True, and unfortunately, that includes us. Having my fears come to life is as bad as Day of the Nightmares. And I'm up for banning Halloween too. Giles keeps saying it's supposed to be a quiet holiday. We haven't had a single quiet one yet." Buffy said.

"Maybe next year will be an improvement." Willow suggested optimistically. "We can always hope, can't we?"

"Hm, hope." Oz said.

"See, hope is possible. Let's call it a night, I'm exhausted." Xander said.

The others agreed and everyone headed off to bed.

Not long after, Buffy decided to be spontaneous and had sex with a classmate. Which turned out to be a mistake when he blew her off afterward. Which explains why Buffy is currently drowning her sorrows with beer. It doesn't, however, explain why she currently resembles a caveman or woman in her case and is drawing on the walls of her dorm room. Willow summoned the gang to help her figure out the Mystery of the Cave-Slayer.

"She was fine last night when she got back. Well, except for the fact that she was drunk."

"Buffy was drunk? Why?" Xander asked.

"She slept with Parker and he blew her off the next morning. He's already chasing another girl."

"Crap, I'll pay Parker a visit after we fix Buffy and explain the proper way to treat woman. For now, let's figure out what happened to Buffy. So she got drunk. Maybe someone put something in her drink. Where did she go to drown her sorrows, Willow?"

"The campus bar."

"Alright, I'll go talk to the owner, maybe he saw something. Keep her from discovering fire, I'll be back as soon as I can."

Finding out who caused the problem wasn't hard, the bar owner happily confessed. Right up until Xander twisted his ear and told him, he'd soon be broke. Didn't take long for the administration to find out the owner was drugging the beer he sold. He lost his liqueur license and lease on his bar. Buffy, along with the other kids affected, recovered.

Xander explained to Parker the correct way to treat woman. In detail. Parker was an avid student. He had to be, he was hanging upside down while an annoyed black robed and hooded figure explained that fathers and brothers and uncles took issue with his treatment of their daughters and sisters and nieces. The were quite a few black robed and hooded men in that room. Each one explaining their feelings about his treatment of women. He was physically unharmed after. It was a long time, though, before Parker asked a woman out on a date again.