1632 Revello Drive

Four – Enter All Those Who Seek Knowledge and Be Welcome

April 14, 1997 – Sunnydale, California

"What a miserable establishment." Cornelius muttered to himself as he walked onto the campus of Sunnydale High with his glamour up, his Gandalf-like hair and beard hidden away in favor of the trimmed mirage of his civil persona. He wore a business suit that was a deep blue in color with a cream colored shirt, his tie was a deep coppery red that glimmered under the sunlight. No natural or synthetic dye could achieve a shade quite like the tie bore, but he liked it, so it was. He also carried a black leather bag that was filled to the brim with a combination of papers and books. Whether they were worth anything or not was decided solely upon who looked at them, such was the enchantment placed on the bag.

The wizard made his way to the school's 'main' office before he was sent on to see the principal. Apparently the layout of the school was different than most academies he was used to. The chief educator's office was a little room out of the way overlooking a courtyard. It was also filled with a mean-spirited jackass of a man in cheap clothing.

"So you hate children, but you're an educator specializing in late childhood education and administration. Have you ever heard the maxim that children are the future?" The wizard wasn't confused, he just wanted to hear the justification.

"They may be the future, but the future is bleak." Principal Snyder shrugged and regarded mister Andrews as an inoffensive non-threat. Oh, how the wolves so often fooled their prey. "The way I look at it, the world sucks. Why lie to them about gentleness and kindness?" God knew the school lost faculty at enough of a rate that new teachers were almost as common as dead students. That his own predecessor was literally eaten alive he tried not to think about too much. "The only position I have open at moment is science, is that alright with you? Also you're obviously starting late in the year but I'm sure you can catch up."

"Quite alright. Any problem students I should know about?" Cornelius adjusted his tie. The wizard wasn't going to fault him on being a petty and cruel bastard. He'd heard it enough over the years that it managed a dull roar in the back of his mind when he cared to think about it.

"I'll send you a copy of the list but overall the student body is pretty well behaved except for a few busybodies and nosy types. Teens." Snyder seethed, Cornelius shrugged.

"Teens." The wizard repeated before the principal shooed him from the room with the promises of chronically low pay, a hostile work environment, the promise of being overworked, underappreciated and the information that Sunnydale High's faculty wasn't in the teacher's union. "Of course it wouldn't be." He muttered outside the office, "why would evil curses allow for collective action?"

The moment he stepped away from the door and into the corridor proper he realized he didn't know the floor plan of the campus so he did the reasonable thing and flagged down a student, they were in the same rooms every day after all. A dark haired young man answered the call and guided him through the corridors of teens and teachers to the narrow rectangular room already filled with students.

"Greetings, class." Cornelius banished the normal gravel from his voice with spellwork for a smoother tone, though it remained sedate and wrote out his current name on the green board behind him. "For the foreseeable future, I am your new teacher..." After the obligatory period of oo's and more than one sympathetic cringe he went through roll call and checked off names as their owner called back, or crossed them out if they didn't.

"As I have no notes at the moment so you may consider this initial period to be a study session. Feel free to do the work for other classes you hadn't after you turn in the work my predecessors assigned to you. Tomorrow we'll go over something fresh. Hopefully I last that long." He decided to leaven the statement with a laugh and encouraged the class to join in, though he quieted them after a minute or two to avoid disciplinary actions. God forbid the student body have fun.


April 18, 1997 – Sunnydale, California

As promised from the next day onward the student body of Sunnydale High School swiftly learned to live in fear of Mister Andrews, the new science teacher. He didn't get eaten in his first week, he actually expected you to do his home assignments, he didn't get mysteriously cursed and he had handed out no less than four pop quizzes all in one week. The wizard personally thought it was funny as hell, but he also cared that the students of his classes were learning things that weren't related to the death of one of their classmates, which seemed to happen legitimately at random. It helped he was also subtly teaching more than one of the more attentive ones how to mix potions. On the mundane side of things they were going over basic chemistry. The two arts were more related than many would or indeed, could, admit to.

Cornelius also quickly figured out whom the so called troublemakers were and was less than impressed by the principal's constant hen pecking. Most were typical teens, growing, bullying, etc. he did what he could to put a stop to the bullying, at least. Which is how he found himself here well into the evening after school had let out for the day.

"Come in, sit, do nothing for the requisite thirty minutes so we can all leave, myself included." He did not look up from the papers he was reviewing as a few students filed in like it was doomsday. "I am legitimately surprised to see you here, miss Chase." He did not look up, but he knew designer shoes. "You're far from a vapid fool, pray pay attention next time, yes?" Papers passed under his eye as he sought out both detail and correctness.

Cordelia smiled in a way that portrayed a thinly veiled hatred, "Of course, mister Andrews. Of course." Perhaps hatred was too strong a word, more an intense dislike for someone daring to discipline her when all she did was talk out of turn once.

The time passed at a snail's crawl but it did pass. The entire time their teacher did not look up to address any of the five of them any further, though he did wrap sharply on the desk when they tried to talk. A mercilessly long twenty-nine and a half minutes later having stood once to stow papers in a filing cabinet behind his desk near the window, Cornelius released them with a friendly smile and a reminder to do their homework. He was met either with silence, or tepid agreement on the way out. As he lifted his bag and headed out he decided this was a much better fit, however obvious. It would cut into his neighborhood patrols at night, but he figured with a bit of time management or subtle manipulation, he would do fine.

The walk home was long and it made him realize he needed to buy a new car. As small as Sunnydale was it was still a bit of a distance. All his other vehicles were back east in storage and utterly unavailable. Maybe a Subaru this time, he'd heard they were smart enough to market to everyone and not just old men. He picked up a stone as he was walking and folded it over in his hands. As he did so the rock changed shape under a flick of light as it morphed into a cellphone. The wizard figured he would need one of the mobile ones now, as well and when you're a Mage, why would you buy one? Everyone knew that computers were made from rocks anyway and what was this but a step toward that?

The sun was down by the time Cornelius walked onto Revello Drive, his meandering ways having gotten in the way of a speedier trip. Probably why he didn't walk, if he thought about it. He walked passed 1630 to the sound of a soft thud, almost soundless. Every hair on the back of his neck stood up and on instinct he summoned a fireball in one hand as he turned with smoke curled around his arm. "Who goes there!?" The wizard cried into the gloom powerfully, his speech antiquated. People didn't talk like that any more.

A blur of a man shot passed him and was gone before the fireball could leave his hand. 1630's door opened and he saw his neighbor, Joyce, stick her head out into the darkness, probably because of his yelling. He waved, she returned it and retreated into her home, he swiftly did the same.


Authorial note: Next chapter will be an intermission to catch up with the other OCs I intend to have running around in this story. After that we'll catch up with the canon cast finally. Thanks for reading!