Repressing an urge to rechannel your frustration into doing entirely justified but excessively obvious things to the creepy-ass Clown, you reluctantly - and silently - admit that there is little else you can do without blowing your cover. You will take the lesson to heart and keep your eyes and ears open for possible future acts of espionage, as well as any developments as a result of this incident, but as it stands - you've lost this round.
Happy birthday.
The next week is quiet. Cordelia and Larry don't exactly avoid you at school, and they still show up for lessons with Lu-sensei, but it's clear that they're both still thinking over what you said on the beach. Amy is not exactly on the outs with Cordy - she tells you that after your revelation and her own little slip-up, she pretty much had to admit to Cordelia that she could use magic too, and the girl has been alternately browbeating her for keeping secrets, and exploiting her as a second source of information. You do not receive any threatening letters or phonecalls, no magic-hating zealots, opportunistic warlocks, or hungry demons come prowling around your neighborhood, and you never get a sense that you are being watched. Still. You're more on guard these days, and it shows.
Gained Intimidating E+++
Gained Watchful F
At last, after Lu-sensei's class on the following Monday, Cordelia drags Larry over to confront you.
"We're in," she says.
"You're sure? Larry?"
"He's sure, he's just being a big girl about it."
"Oi!"
"I did some reading last week," Cordelia continues, ignoring Larry's offended male pride. "I never noticed before, but there are forty-three churches in Sunnydale. Most of them have their own little burial plots, and we've got twelve other graveyards, all of which are huge. Also, according to the newspaper, thirty-four people were buried last week, most of them dying from things like 'wild animal attacks,' 'gangs on PCP,' and 'barbeque forks to the neck.'" She gives you a questioning look.
"Probably vampires," you say.
"Seriously?"
"I wouldn't kid you about stuff like this, Cordy." You look at Larry. "Joking aside, are you sure, man?"
Larry is quiet for a moment. "My Grandma Lily has a scrapbook full of family pictures," he starts out, seemingly tangentially. "There's a photo at the front that has her, Grandpa Jake, my Dad, two uncles and an aunt I never knew because they all died or went missing before they turned eighteen, and my Aunt June, who joined a convent right out of high school. Grandma's house has crosses and little glass bottles of funny-smelling water all over the place, she never misses a day of church, and every week after Sunday services, she goes home, gets down Grandpa's old shotgun, and spends an hour shooting skeet. She's got a box of shells marked Dragon's Breath - she fired one off to show me what it was like, and it made this huge blast of fire that went on for like a hundred feet and five or six seconds. Then she told me Grandpa used to hunt with those, before his arthritis got bad." Larry looks at you, determined. "So yeah, Alex. I'm pretty sure I'm in, too."
You blink slowly. "Okay. And for the record? Your grandparents are way more awesome than mine."
Larry grins.
For the remaining weeks until summer vacation, your magic lessons with Amy are expanded to include Cordelia and Larry. Some testing shows that neither of them have enough talent to learn any practical level of magic in less than four or five years, but they're fully capable of learning what to look out for, whether in terms of magic, demons, or other supernatural weirdness. Then it's vacation time again, and this year, even Amy leaves town for most of the summer, visiting her father's family out of state.