January 2007

Night.

Sunnydale, California

Sunnydale cemetery

Pan the camera around the cemetery.

It's spooky.  But quiet.  For now.

Next we see the exterior of Sunnydale's hottest night spot know as The Bronze.

Pan the camera closer.  Two girls exit The Bronze.  One is blonde, one is brunette.  Both are pretty.

"Can you believe Tori?! She was all over Scott.  I thought they were going to start doing it right there in the Bronze!"

"That girl is such a slut.  Come on, let's cut through the cemetery.  We'll get home quicker."

Both girls proceed into Sunnydale cemetery.

They are walking about two minutes when they hear a voice behind them.

"Good evening girls.  You shouldn't walk through the cemetery alone at night.  It's dangerous."

They turn around to see.....two vampires.  Both male.  Fangs.  Yellow eyes. Definitely vampires.

Both girls scream at the top of their lungs.  The screams are cut short as each vampire dashes over to them and sinks their teeth into the girls' necks.  The girls are dead within a minute.

The vampires finish drinking their blood then let the bodies drop to the ground.

"That was fun." said one vampire.

"Definitely was." said the other vampire. "It sure is a good time to be a vampire in Sunnydale.  With no Slayer in this town, it's like an all night buffet once the sun sets.  Come on, let's dispose of the bodies."


Each vampire picks up a dead girl and flings her over his shoulder.

As the camera pans up high, they walk off into the vast, seemingly endless cemetery.

Next morning

Sunnydale High

It's first thing in the morning.  First day back to school after New Year.

Students gather and socialize on the school lawn, waiting for the first bell of the day to ring.



OCC:You may now post.  Your character should arrive at school and hang around outside, talking to other students, until the first bell rings.

It was the first day back from Winter break.  Liam was a bit sad at the loss of total freedom with no responsibilities.  Sure, he had to do the obligatory trip to the relatives for Christmas Eve and hang out with the family for the holidays.  He got a new bike for Christmas which made his younger brother and sister jealous.

When he wasn't required to be somewhere he was gaming.  A couple of late-night roleplaying sessions really advanced their DnD campaign. His LARP group, the Barony of Avignon, met with two other groups and held a three-day tournament.  It was a blast to immerse into the time period.  Well, the hotel wasn't quite accurate for the era, but it allowed for a comfortable feast in the conference room.  Liam got to squire for Sir Max.  Max chose his name because of his German heritage, not because they were supposedly a French Barony.  Liam couldn't argue too much about the historical inaccuracies as their leader was Duke Roland.  He wondered why a Baronry was run by a Duke, but he was a kid, and those concerns were brushed aside with a simply "It's make believe."  Anyway, he got to dress in Olde English clothes and spar and talk with plenty of thee's and thou's.  He had been looking forward to it for months.

Liam was on the front lawn talking to Jimmy and Harry.  Harry on a family trip during the holiday break and had missed everything.  Liam and Jimmy took turns filling him in on the tournament.  The three misfits were like and island in a sea of other kids.

"Sir Max said I did a good job even though he lost the Grand Melee."  Liam mentioned.

"Someone even brought their dog.  You could toss table scraps down for it to eat!"  Jimmy chimed in.

"Awww man.  I missed it!  We had to go to New York to visit my Uncle."  Harry whined.

"New York sounds cool.  We don't get to travel like that."

"Yea, I guess.  But I wanted to do the tournament.  They did have this awesome Hobby store..."

First day back and Hopie woke up with a dance on her feet and a song in her heart.  This was the beginning of a term that would be filled to breaking point with study and hard work but if she put the two together, maybe she could contribute to getting a shot at a decent University, maybe Guadalajara or Columbia or maybe even somewhere in Spain.  Maybe she could even get a scholarship.

Whoah! Where did that come from.  Am I high?  Nope, don't think so, I just feel good.

She jumped out of bed and made her way to make her breakfast and Tia's and Tia's latest.  She even fed little Joey and the goats.  When she returned, Tia Rita was down, bleary eyed and dressing gowned as she called out, "Esperanza Glass, what have you done?  Don't think all this helpful fools me for una segunda."
"Nada Tia.  Just wanna be ready for school."
"Hmm.  Well don't you get up to nothing with Julie and Charles."

She loaded her books into her duffel bag and fair skipped to the yellow bus into school.  Storm Julie was there as usual, bumping fists and shaking her dreadlocks but Zero had moved schools.  "Yeah, I heard he'd moved back to Puerto Rico."
"Fer real Valley Girl?"
"Totes real my little Chickadee.  Except it was Oregon."

Once the bus reached Sunnydale High and began to regurgitate its cargo of children, Hopie found herself coming over all acrobatic, and cartwheeled into school.  She knew there was a reason she'd worn jeans today and not a skirt.

"Damn I feel GOOOD!"

School librarian Edward Hudson climbs out his car in the faculty/admin parking lot.

If this were a school in England, I'd likely have my own parking spot, but school librarians don't get that kind of respect here. he thought as he grabbed his briefcase, locked his car, and headed across the lot.

"Good morning.  Good morning.  Good morning." he says in quick succession to three different teachers.

Mr. Hudson has been the school librarian since the start of the 2006/2007 school year.  Most of the students are vaguely famiiliar with him.  Those who spend more time in the library know him even better.

But what no one in Sunnydale knows is he is also a watcher, the mentor to the Slayer.  One girl in all the world, a chosen one.  According to the Council, the new Slayer has been called just about this time right here in Sunnydale.  Now all I have to do is pinpoint her.
he thinks to himself.

Usually Mr. Hudson heads straight for the library in the morning.  But today, he took his time observing the students as they congregated on the lawn waiting for the first bell.

He watches a school bus arrive.  One girl practically leaps off the bus and does an impressive series of cartwheels.  Who is that?  I don't think she's spent a lot of time in the library.  Could she be the one?  Perhaps.  Or she could be a cheerleader or gymnast who does this all the time.he thought.

Mr. Hudson makes it a point to memorize the girl's face.  Just in case.

Billy hopped out of the car quickly when his dad stopped.  "Later, Dad."  He said brightly.  He jokingly stuck his tongue out at the back seat window, and the little sister that sat behind it.

He quickly cleared the parking lot and started saying hello to a variety of other students, making a few witty quips as he went.  He didn't really have a "group" he fit in with but he had a lot of acquaintances he got along with, since he'd been here forever.

When he saw Mr. Hudson come in, he didn't speak up or say, "hi."  He wasn't an idiot.  Any student who openly greeted a librarian in public was asking to half of lunch time cleaning and drying their hair.  The man kept a good library with some volumes he'd found useful and some others he'd like to get to peruse some day, so Billy met his eye and gave him a nod.

After a few moments he noted the librarian hadn't moved into the school like normal.  Curious, he thought and he filed it away to consider or bring up later.

He continued to make the rounds and greet other students.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 04:34, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

A group of four girls make their way through the crowd.

In the lead is an attractive blonde standing about 5 foot 5.  This is Malvina West.  Most popular girl in the sophmore class of Sunnydale High.  But not the nicest.  She can be quite vindictive.  But yet nearly every member of the class craves her attention and approval.

Next to her is something of a paradox.  A nerdy, homely looking girl wearing glasses.  She looks quite out of place among the three attractive, well dressed girls.  This is Piper "Weasel" West.  Malvina's cousin.  She's called Weasel for two reasons.  She pretty much has the face of a weasel and the personality to match.  Her speciality is spreading gossip and starting rumors about other students behind their back at Malvina's behest.

The other two girls are attractive and well dressed and two of the many members of Malvina's posse known as the Malettes.  It's estimated their are about 15 to 20 of them.

Several students shout out a "hi" or "good morning"  to Malvina.  She smiles and waves, like a princess giving the peasants some token attention.

Malvina glances over at Liam and his group of friends.  She says nothing, but makes a face like she stepped in dog poop, before moving on.

She passes by Billy, looks at him for about a second then moves on.  He's like wallpaper to her.

Billy's emotions soared for a moment as Malvina looked at him, then crashed as she looked away.  He frowned, then slightly smiled.  It wasn't positive notice but at least not the awful look she gave those other guys, either.  Neutral was good - it kept the Weasel, the jocks, and endless other potential complications from coming his way.

As the librarian continued to linger oddly, Billy called out to him, "Everything alright, Mr. Hudson?  Winter's not the usual season for ogling, you know."

Edward Hudson doesn't hear the voice next to him right away.  Then he breaks out of his focus zone and looks at Billy and registers what he just said.

"Oh yes, Billy.  Good morning!  Hope you had a joyous holiday season."

Oh crumbs.  Can't give anyone the wrong impression.  Especially since I'm relatively new here. Edward thinks.

"Well Billy, I was just noticing that young lady's impressive display of acrobatics."

He points at Hopie. "Do you know her?   Is she on the gymnastics or cheerleading team?"

Hopie stopped her display and caught Mr Hudson's eye.  He was kind of handsome in an understated way but Hopie was too young for crushes and besides, she thought she might prefer girls.  Still, if she wanted to go to a decent Spanish speaking University, she'd likely need his help.  She smiled and said, "Good morning Mr Hudson and happy new year.".

"Happy new year to you."

Edward approaches Hopie and extends his hand for a handshake.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced.  I'm Edward Hudson.  I"ve been the librarian here since August."

Edward then points to Billy.  "This is Billy Thomson.  Do you two know each other?"

He then turns his attention back Hopie.  "This was quite an impressive display of acrobatics. Have you been practicing gymnastics for several years?"

Hopie considers Billy for a moment and says,"Hey, I think we have a class by together.  Is it History? No Gym? Yeah it's gym isn't it?" She looks back to Mr Hudson and says, !"Cartwheels?  Cartwheels are easy Senor Hudson, but I haven't done one since I was nine. I feel so good this morning that it just felt right, si?

The trio paused and watched some new girl cartwheel across the lawn.

"Do you know who that is?"  Liam commented.  The others just shrugged.

"Must be new."

The Librarian was there.  Liam liked him.  He had history questions and Mr. Hudson had been gracious enough to answer them.  The great debate about Paris 1706 stood out in Liam's mind.  He had thought he knew something, but Mr. Hudson had directed him to a couple of other books that refuted events during that period.  The Librarian was someone he could talk to.

Billy was there as well.  They had gamed in the past but drifted their own directions.

Then Malvina walked by... Liam waved like so many others.  He turned to his friends.  "I think she looked right at me."  He mentioned in an excited tone.

"Not like you want."

It was going to be a great semester.

"Don't sell yourself short my dear."Edward says to Hopie.

"My cartwheels when I was younger were quite dreadful. You wouldn't want me as a wheel on your cart.  I'd be the broken wheel that leaves the cart immobilized."

Edward looks at his watch, then back to Hopie and Billy.  "If you young people will excuse me, I must get the library up and running. Have a good day."

Edward heads to the building, the gears in his mind turning.  It must be her.  The signs are there underlined by the fact that she feels so good this morning.  Most of the other students look like they wish they were still in bed.  Her powers must have activated last night.he thought to himself as he entered the building and headed for the library.

A man walks from the faculty parking lot onto the lawn, carrying two large heavy duffel bags.
He looks to be in his late forties to early fifties.  Rugged looking, grey hair.

This is Coach Keel.  Gym teacher and sports coach at Sunnydale High. He's also a retired army man.

He's well known to Hopie, Billy, and Liam.  He's their gym teacher.

The Coach approaches Hopie and Billy carrying his two large duffel bags.  He missed Hopie's acrobatic display and doesn't comment on it.

"Hey kids.  Happy new year!  Bet you put on some weight with all that holiday eating. Well, don't worry.  I've increased our exercise routine in class this week."

He focuses on Hopie.  "Hopie, be an angel and help me carry one of these bags to the gym.  Don't worry about being late for first period.  If the bell rings, I'll write you a hall pass."

Hopie has helped the coach carry large duffel bags before.  Nothing unusual about that.  What is unusual is when the coach passes her a bag, it feels nearly weightless to her.


The bag shakes like assorted sports equipment should.  But to Hopie it feels like the coach gave her bag full of pillows.

"Have a good day Thomson.  I'll see you later in class." the coach says to Billy as he leads Hopie through the crowd on the way to the gym.

The coach spots another of his 6th period students; Liam Roeker.

"Roeker! Happy new year!  Bet you put on some weight over the holidays!  You know I usually have you kids run five laps around the inside of the gym at the start of class!  Today you're all running ten laps!  Take that extra weight right off!" the coach shouts at Liam as he continues to lead Hopie to the gym.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:28, Sat 16 Apr 2022.

Hopie knows the way but she follows Coach Keel meekly while she tries to figure out his angle.  The bag seems almost weightless, the question is, does she call the coach out on his little joke or does she just carry on regardless as if she hadn't realised he'd given her the trick bag he usually carried.

On the other hand, the coach didn't seem to be struggling any more than usual.  So maybe there was something else going on.  She followed behind the coach almost in a daze, hardly even noticing the weight she was carrying.

Billy spoke briefly before Hopie approached.  "Esperanza Glass, sir.  Don't know for sure."  He answered the librarian's questions.

---

He shook his head regarding History and nodded in concurrence with Gym.  "Hard pass on all the cartwheels for me, thanks.  I'll just carry my groceries in a box if I have to."  He commented drily.

---

"Fortunately, at our age it's easier to get that weight back off, huh, coach?"  Billy asked Keel, half serious, but entirely ribbing him.

"You want a hand with that, Esperanza?"  He offered as the young lady looked rather dazed.

Hope jumped when Billy, spoke to her. "Perdon? Uh oh, you'd make a great ninja, William sabe?  I'm fine gracias. Just lost in thought. Besides, this bag is not even heavy."

Pan the camera low to the ground.  A car pulls up to the curb at Sunnydale High. The passenger door opens.  A pair of feet touch the ground wearing brand new expensive sneakers.

You hear the voice of a teenage girl say "Bye mom!"

The car drives off and the camera pans up from the shoes revealing  designer pants, a designer top and finally the stunningly beautiful face of a girl with brown eyes and raven black hair. As the camera pans out to reveal her full height you see that she's tall for a girl.  5 foot 10 inches to be precise.

She is Brittany Foster, the newest student at Sunnydale High.  It's obvious she's new.  She looks around with a look of confusion on her face.  Up until now Brittany has attended private school her whole life.  This is her first venture into public school.  She's a stranger in a strange land.

Time to get down to business.  She'll ask somebody for help finding her first class.  Brittany looks around the crowd then observes a boy offering to help a girl carry a large duffel bag, but she politely declines.
Well, he seems like the helpful type.Brittany thinks to herself.

The girl walks off carrying the bag following a man with another duffel bag.  Brittany approaches the boy.

Brittany is now standing directly in front of Billy Thomson.

"Hi I'm Brittany.  I'm new here.  This is my first day.  Can you show me where room 215 is?"

Liam's face fell at the thought of running 10 laps.  He hadn't put on any weight!  His friend's faces fell as well.

"Ugh.  Think he's trying to kill us."
"Nah, he can't torture us if we are dead."

Liam sighed.  At least they could talk about the new module as they followed behind the rest of the class.

Another car drove up and the three stared slack jawed at the movie star entrance.  She was quickly ruled out as WAY out of their league.

Liam sighed again.  "These new semesters are rough.  Dangle a bit of hope in your face only to watch it vanish in a few days."
"Yea, but at least we have each other."
"No offense, but I don't know you guys if she talks to me."
"Dream on."  "You wish."  They replied simultaneously.

"I, uh, sure... happy to.  I'm Billy."  Billy stammered and recovered.  He led the way into the school and toward the stairs up.

"What brought you to Sunnydale, and where did you come from?" He asked politely as he pointed things out as they went through the school.

Brittany follows Billy into the school and pays attention to his tour notes.

"I'm from San Diego.  We moved here because of my dad's job.  I left my friends and my boyfriend behind.  My boyfriend and I are going to try to do the long distance thing, but that thing doesn't exactly have a good track record.  I was on the cheerleading team at my old school.  Sunnydale High is  having mid-year cheerleading try-outs later this week.  If I can make the team here, that will definitely pep me up about this whole moving thing."

She pauses to take a closer look around the school before continuing. The building looks new.  Must not be that old.

"Do you belong to any clubs or teams?"she says to Billy.

Brittany takes a closer look at her class schedule.  "Maybe we have some classes together." Brittany begins reading off her schedule to Billy.  Her first five classes are totally different than his schedule.

Then she gets to the last class of the day. "Sixth period: Gym with Coach Keel. You in any of those classes?"

Billy shrugged.  "Sports and clubs were never really my speed.  I've got a kid sister to watch and I'm not that great at anything to begin with.  I sometimes haunt the library when I have a bit of time, though.  If you're wanting to cheer and not have your highschool years be the stuff they base combat-zone movies on, you're probably going to need to decide that you want to convert to the church of Malvina.  Services are held daily here at school, morning through afternoon,"  He concluded with a smirk.

When she talked about her schedule, he let her know about their match.  "I'm in none of those classes except gym.  Keel's a bit tough, but not quite so bad as to drive anyone to do anything drastic."

He paused at a door.  "This is 215.  If you're going to be popular the easy way, you probably don't want to spend too much time around me - I live strictly in middling territory.  I'll keep a seat open for you at lunch, though, so you have a branch to grab before falling to the LARPing pariahs if things go over a cliff."

Meanwhile in the gym:

Coach Keel walks into his office and drops his bag.  It lands with an audible thud.

"Hopie, you can drop your bag right next to mine."

Hopie drops her bag and it also lands with an audible thud.  The coach then unzips both bags revealing both are filled with assorted sports equipment.

The bell rings.

"There's the bell.  Hang on Hopie, I'll write you a hall pass.  Have you been working out over the break?  You lifted that bag like it was full of pillows and you're not breathing heavy at all."

The coach hands Hopie her hall pass.  "Have a good day. I'll see at gym class later."

In the school, and out on the lawn:

Everyone hears the bell ring.

Time to get to get to your first class.



OCC:We're about to wrap up this first scene.  Make one last character post that ends with you heading off to your first class of the day.

Brittany hears the bell ring.

"Here we are right on time.  Church of Malvina eh?  I'm guessing she's the Queen Bee of our class.  We'll see about that." Brittany says cryptically.

"I'll probably spend lunch alone this week.  I'm going to find a quiet spot and catch up on my texting each day.  All my friends will want to know how things are going here.  And the first thing I'll tell them is about the nice guy who helped me find my first class, otherwise I might have been wandering the halls all day."

Brittany smiles at Billy.  Her smile is sincere, although not flirtatious.  More of a friendly/sisterly smile.

"I'll see you later in gym."Brittany says as she goes in room 215.

There is little need for Coach Keel to write Hopie a note but she takes it anyway.  She's hardly late at all but on the first day of school, Ms Clarkson can be a total b****.  "No Coach", she says, "I just woke up this morning feeling in much finer fettle than usual."

"I'll see you later Coach", she says and with a hop, a skip and a jump, followed by a spinning on her heel, she is gone from the gym and on the way to her first class of the day.

"Good luck."  He commented sincerely at the thought of anyone re... no, dis-placing Malvina.

Genuinely smiling back, Billy replied, "You're very welcome.  Have a great day."

He then went quickly to his own first period, shocked at how differently this term had started than any other.  It was a nice change.

“There’s the bell.  See you later Jimmy.  See you later Harry.”  Liam turned to head to first period.  Gone were the days of grade school where they might share every class.  At least something would overlap and homework could be done together.  Besides they could always meet in the library to study.

The new semester was about to start.  Liam didn’t expect it to be much different from the last one.  Only time would tell.

First day, and late!

Tori hurtled into view, pedaling hard, and skidded as she came through the gates, barely avoiding a crash. She jumped off as she slammed her bike into the rack, stumbled for a moment, then ran to the doors, her book bag bouncing.

There'd be time to catch up with the others later. And time to kill her brother - again.

As the students settle into their first class, the morning announcements are read.

Items of interest:

Weather today:  Warm and sunny with a temperature high in the mid sixties.

Taco day in the cafeteria.

Mid season cheerleader try-outs will be held Thursday afternoon.

Reminder that the sophomore class president and vice president tragically died before Christmas. Special elections to be held to fill the two vacant offices.  Any sophomore that wishes to run for the offices must sign up by Friday.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Most of the day proceeds normally.

It's now sixth period.  Time for Coach Keel's gym class.

Students enter the boys and girls locker rooms and exit in their gym clothes.

OCC: Gym class time!  Your character should be exiting the locker room in their gym clothes, waiting for class to begin.

Tori was one of the first to get changed. Being of the better athletes in her year, she enjoyed gym class.

While waiting for the others, she began doing a few stretches to loosen up.

The remainder to run for student council hardly registered on Liam.  Sure, he knew off he girls that had died, but that was about it.  They didn’t interact with his world and he had no interest in the council.  Tacos had been his big takeaway from the updates.

If school ended now, Liam would have called the first day back a good day.  History class provided a new topic he could sink his teeth into.  The other classes held some promise.  Unfortunately neither of his friends were in the same gym class.  So he had to navigate the unknown on his own.

He dressed quickly.  Locked his locker and made his way into the gym.  He had his glasses on anticipating a jog, but would remove them if needed.  Unfortunately, he was near sighted so it could leave him pretty blind for his nemesis- dodge ball.

The others must have heard the coach and we’re dragging their feet regarding a run.  Liam never was the first one out.  Luckily he had his glasses.  Tori was warming up.  He was sure half the boys had a crush on her.  Maybe half was an understatement.  He waved to be nice with the understanding that would be the extent of their relationship.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:33, Tue 19 Apr 2022.

Hopie was not quite the last to arrive, but neither was she first or near first.  She had cobbled together gym gear from lost property at the beginning of last term but by now, she had made the whole ensemble uniquely her own.  It was not exactly the outfit of the most fashionably first ranked of superstars but for Tia Rita's most toothsome ward, it would do.

She stood and waited to see what Coach Keel would have her do.

Brittany exited the girls locker room in her gym clothes.  Her outfit looked pretty standard issue with gold shirt and maroon shorts, the Sunnydale High colors.  Her new sneakers were ready for action.  Her hair was down this morning, but now pulled back in a pony tail.

She looked around and didn't see anyone she knew.  No sign of Billy who she met this morning, but boys were still coming out of the locker room.

A girl she didn't recognize was doing some warm up stretches.

Good idea.

Brittany began to raise her right leg, and while staying perfectly balanced on her left leg, kept her right leg perfectly straight as she raised it until her ankle was a few inches away from her face, as if she were posing for a photo of a perfect cheerleader high kick.

Billy went out pretty squarely in the middle of the guys.  He was as fastidious in avoiding being first as last.

As he came out, he saw (and for a moment gawked at) Brittany stretching.  He - barely - kept himself from going over to greet her.  This was clearly a moment for her to get some attention and make first impressions with people who hadn't met her yet, and he had no interest in being attached to any of those impressions.

Instead, he began stretching near some of the other guys.  As he did so, he visited his mind palace and began making references for himself to important things that happened during classes that day and filing away the less important details in more obscure spots.  He finished that quickly and then began considering who might best fill the student council spots.

Tori wasn't a fool - well, not a complete one - and knew her stretches would attract attention. She grinned at Liam when she caught him looking. At least he didn't seem creepy, unlike some of the other guys. She nodded to Esperanza when she appeared, wondering just how the other girl gave such a mix-and-match outfit a sense of style.

Brittany's arrival invoked a flash of jealousy. Maybe it was because she wore the same outfit, but wore it better. Determined not to be outdone, and wanting to show off the flexibility she'd gained from her taekwondo lessons, Tori copied her move. Just as Billy came out.

The students' chatter and warm-up routines were interupted by the blow of a whistle.

Coach Keel is here.

"Welcome back kids.  Happy new year!  Bet you all put on some weight over the holday season.  Well don't worry, the coach has got you covered.  We usually do five laps around the inside of the gym to start class.  Today we're doing ten laps!"

Audible groan from the class.

The coach continues; "But first we have a new addition to the class.  Brittany Foster.  This is her first day at Sunnydale High.  Brittany, why don't you introduce yourself to the class and tell us about yourself."

Often when a teacher asks a new kid to stand in front of the class and talk about themselves, it's the new kid's worst nightmare.

Not for Brittany.

She dashes a few steps up in the bleachers, now appearing as she were on a stage in front of the class.

"Hi, I'm Brittany Foster from San Diego.  I just moved here with my mom and dad.  I'm an only child.  I was on the cheerleading team at my old school and plan on trying out for this team later this week. So....if you're on the cheeleading team, we may soon be teammates!"

Brittany then slowly climbs down the bleachers as if she were regally descending a spiral staircase while wearing the perfect prom dress.

She smiled at me!  So that single moment made his day.  This goddess of a woman had looked at him!  The guys would certainly be jealous.

Liam cringed at the worst nightmare scenario.  Brittany weathered it like a champ.  He was impressed, but glad it was her and not him.

When the run started, Liam hung near the back of the boys group.  He wasn't the slowest, but this was likely his kind of people and he certainly wasn't going to be able to keep up with the jocks.

When the run started, Hopie just ran, not really paying attention to what anyone else was doing.  She just wanted to get this ten laps over with so she could sit down again and chill, or maybe get back to studying so she could get the best grades she could so she could move to Spain.

Brittany runs near the front of the pack as the class did their laps.  Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the red haired girl that copied her move just before the coach asked her to do her introduction.

Brittany adjusts her position so she's now running right alongside the red haired girl.

"Hi.  I'm Brittany.  That was a pretty impressive move you did.  Are you a cheerleader? Or gymnast?  I'm guessing you're on some kind of sports team.  In my experience, the kids that work on the yearbook can't do those kind  of moves."

Tori joined in the groans at having to do ten laps. Not that she minded really, but the groan was expected! She settled into an easy pace near the front.

"I'm Tori. I'll be trying out for cheerleading, but I also do taekwondo."

Billy was glad Brittany had made the most of a bad situation but was extremely glad to have her be the one to go through it and not him.  He shifted gears and put on a stoic face when the ten laps were called.  He cut loose and started off strong... but flagged and ended up running toward the back of the pack.

Billy appeared to be moderately exerting himself, not pushing all-out as if he had something to prove, but definitely trying.  The coach was definitely not wrong about him being heavier after break, though the change had been a slight vertical upgrade, not horizontal decay.  Even though he was in his body the whole time it was changing, the rapid rate of change left him working a little harder on coordination, even as his muscles worked to adapt to the new weight.

He counted out the footsteps that he took on the four sides of each lap.  For the fun of it, he tried adjusting his stride to make each side a prime number.

After the ten laps are completed along with some other exercises, the coach calls the class's attention to the vaulting horse and springboard at the center of the gym.

"Okay kids, we're going to do a very basic gymnastic exercise today.  You run to the springboard, then jump on it, then place both hands on the vaulting horse, then go over the horse one leg at a time and land on the other side as gracefully as possible while having your legs touch as little of the vault as possible. It's an elementary gymnastics move.  If you're on the gymnastics team, you could probably to it with your eyes closed."

"Here, I'll show you." The coach charges towards the springboard, jumps on it, then vaults over the horse one leg at a time and lands gracefully on the other side without his legs touching the horse. The class is impressed.  The coach move pretty well for an old guy.

"Okay everybody line up right here a few yards from the springboard and take a turn jumping over it.  When you're done go to the back of the line until it's your turn again."


The class lines up.

OCC: Have your character take a turn doing what the coach described.  No roll necessary.  Just roleplay it accordingly based on your character's athletic ability.  You can impress the rest of the class or embarrass yourself, depending on what you think works for your character.

Liam didn’t go first, but was unfortunate enough the line started right near him.  He stood and looked at the vault and springboard as he tried to envision how this was going to work.  After a moment to psyche himself up, he started his run.

Springboards were not something he dealt with or ever practiced before.  His attempt used the board more as a step than a spring.  He stepped on it with on foot and pushed off.  Hands on the vault.  He swung his left leg over the side as his body rotated to face the vault.  His right leg caught the horse and dumped him sideways unceremoniously onto the mat.

Liam, now red faced, quickly got up and rejoined the line as he ignored any snickers.

Hopie watches Liam and sees the problem.  She thinks it's as much a problem with the method as with Liam's abilities.  It's probably safer to do...

She takes a run up and launches herself into the air, touching the horse only with her hands, which she uses to flip herself over, flying gracefully through the air and landing on her feet in a move that owes more to circus performances than it does to gymnastics.

The class is impressed with Hopie's move.

Several class members give her a burst of applause.

The coach looks annoyed.

"Very impressive Hopie. But next time do it the way I demonstrated it.  When you're the teacher, you can decide how we do our exercises."

Being a former army man, the coach gets annoyed when people don't follow orders.

Hopie keeps her mouth shut as she joins the end of the line behind Liam.  She's not entirely sure she can do it like the coach said but now he's said it, she supposes she'd better.

“Wow.  That was really good.  Made people forget about my disaster.  Thank you.”  Liam turned and spoke quietly to the new girl that seemed to have a circus background.

Hopie grins.  She's not new but she is glad she drew attention away from Liam's attempt.  "You're welcome Señor."  She may be congenitally incapable of following orders.  No doubt that will be discovered if true later down the line.

“Oh, I’m not a senior.  I’m a sophomore.”  Liam corrected her with a cheesy grin on his face.  He often thought it was funny how similar words appeared in different languages and didn’t mean anything close to each other.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Thu 21 Apr 2022.

Consummately mediocre, Billy stepped up when it was his turn.  He made the run and the jump.  His hands went on the horse, and his feet went over it... but both legs banged fairly solidly on it as he did so.

When he got down he went to the end of the line again, immensely glad that he had not bitten it like Liam.

Brittany stepped up for her turn.

She charged towards the springboard, hit it perfectly, then instead of vaulting over the horse like the coach said, she executed a perfect handstand on the horse.

Brittany holds her handstand position for several seconds, then flips over to land on her feet.  But she's not done yet.

As soon as she lands, she executes a series of five consecutive front handsprings, reaching the end of the mat, then turns to see the reaction from the rest of the class.

Hopie applauds Brittany's performance, clapping her hands loudly and, when she comes back to the line and says with a smile, "Brava Chica, eso fue muy buen.  Awesome Chica!"

Billy's jaw dropped.  Esperanza and Brittany were both excellent athletes, with skills far more advanced than his own bit of natural talent.  He closed his mouth and narrowly kept himself from giving Brittany a thumbs-up... coach had already warned Esperanza about doing what he said instead of what people felt like.

Brittany's flying in the face of that warning could mean trouble (even if the coach deserved it for setting her up earlier) and he did not want to get on the coach's bad side.  After just a moment of thinking he realized that the class was likely to get some kind of discipline to try to make them not like her, so he gave her the thumbs-up anyways.

The class is impressed.  Several class members join in with Hopie in clapping their hands. A few giver Brittany a thumbs-up as Billy did.

The coach is most definitely not amused.

"Young lady, this is gym class!  It's not the cheerleading championships on ESPN!  Now get to the back of the line and next time do it like I showed you!"

Liam stared with his mouth hanging open.  I hope coach doesn’t make us try that.  He was lucky to make it over the horse.  Tumbling certainly wasn’t his thing.

Tori... well, Tori gaped at Hopie and Brittany's vaults. Especially Hopie: she had no idea she could do anything like that. She applauded both vaults.

Doubting she could match that level of gymnastic ability, Tori concentrated on speed and height, hitting the springboard hard and practically hurdling the vaulting horse. Her landing wasn't too graceful, but she kept her feet after a stumble.

She trotted back with a grin.

Brittany gives the coach her most dutiful student smile.  "Whatever you say coach!"

Somebody needs more fiber in their diet  Brittany thinks to herself glancing in the coach's direction without being to obvious.

On her way to the back of the line, she stops for a second to talk to Hopie.  "Thanks for the applause.  You've got some pretty kick butt moves yourself.  I guess next turn, we'd better do it like the coach wants or we'll be running laps until Easter."

She then takes her place at the back of line behind Billy.  "Thanks for the thumbs-up tiger.  When you didn't say hi to me when you came out of the locker room, I was afraid you were blowing me off already."

Brittany watches Tori attempt at the exercise and applauded.  The girls got some moves.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:24, Fri 22 Apr 2022.

Hopie gives a thumbs up to Tori on the way back and nods to Britanny.  "Of course, next one's in good girl mode."

"Nah.  I just didn't want to keep you from being able to meet others by eclipsing you with the overwhelming light my overwhelming awesomeness."  He said with a grin.  "Coach took care of that for you, either way, though.  Nice job."

The coach groans at Tori's attempt.

"Hands Tori!  Use your hands girl!  Don't do the 'Look Ma, no hands!' routine"


Can't these kids follow instructions?! the coach thought.

The rest of the class goes smoothly with no one making a radical departure from the coach's instructions.

"Okay kids, that's it for today.  Can I have five volunteers to stay for just a couple of minutes to help me pack up this equipment?"


The coach looks around at class.  "Hopie!  Tori! Brittany!  Thanks for volunteering! Now can I have two more volunteers!"




OCC: Will Billy and Liam please be helpful students and also volunteer.

Liam’s hand shot up before he could really rationalize why.  He had heard the coach call out the Charlie’s Angel squad and some how he processed that he had a great reason to hang out with them before the jocks did.  He might get beat up once they saw the grin on his face.  It would be worth it.

Or this was punishment for them screwing up the vault.  It didn’t matter, all the girls were beautiful.  Either way, his friends would never believe his luck.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:09, Fri 22 Apr 2022.

Tori was longing for a shower to wash the sweat off, but grinned ruefully at being 'volunteered'. Her own fault, and she knew it.

"Joining us, Liam?"

Oh shit!   She’s talking to me!  Liam’s face started to redden.  He couldn’t be seen to be totally embarrassed in front of the rest of the class!  He would never live that down!

Liam took off his glasses and faced Tori.  His demeanor changed to one of more confidence.  “It would be an honor Milady.”  He gave her a formal bow and added a flourish with one arm out to the side.

There were some snickers from the peanut gallery.

Billy raised his hand as well.  He didn't mind helping out when possible,  and he definitely didn't want to make Brittany think he was trying to avoid her again.

Hopie started packing away the equipment.  She'd done it before and it was so much easier all of a sudden so there was no real hardship in doing so.  She may not have waited for instructions but surely the Coach wouldn't mind this once.

Brittany looked relieved.

If the coach was going to make her and the other two girls help out with equipment clean-up and leave it at that for their deviations from his instructions earlier, she got off easy.

She was pleased to see Billy volunteer. The other volunteer was that guy who landed with a thud (literally and figuratively) on his first attempt at the vault.

Brittany waited for the coach's instructions and intended to stick to them this time.

"Okay, thanks guys." the coach says to Billy and Liam before turning to the rest of the class.

"The rest of you hit the locker rooms.  I'll see you tomorrow."

The coach in fact didn't mind that Hopie starting picking up the equipment before he told the group what to do.

But he couldn't help but notice she was carrying the spring board by herself which was usually a two person job.

The coach walks to one side of the vaulting horse.  "Okay kids, Hopie's got the spring board covered.  One of you help me and grab the other side of the vaulting horse.  The other three of you can start folding up the mats and carrying them."

Liam glanced at the others and figured he would help with the vault.  His nemesis.  If he dropped it and managed to break the thing, perhaps he wouldn’t need to do it again.

He stepped up opposite the coach and patted it like a real horse.  “Easy.”  Maybe he just needed to change his thinking.  If he respected the vaulting horse, it might be good to him.  He then tried to pick up his side and follow the coach.

Billy was coming to a realization and he needed to get moving - he had apparently lost a whole day on it.

He smiled at Brittany, "I need to get some things taken care of, but I'll see you tomorrow?"

Adrenaline apparently surging, he rolled a mat together very quickly and took off for the equipment closet after Esperanza.  He whispered tersely and cryptically to her, "You need to tone it down, Uma, or other people are going to start noticing."

He didn't wait for a response but changed quickly and booked it for the library.

Hopie has no idea what an Uma is.  She wonders whether perhaps Billy is referring to Uma Thurman. She looks at him blankly and watches with puzzlement on her face as he moves away.

She shrugs and goes back to carrying the springboard.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:49, Tue 03 May 2022.

A few minutes later, the group has put all the gym equipment away.

"Thanks for the help kids.  Hit the locker rooms.  I'll see you tomorrow."

The coach says no more and heads towards his office. Apparently drafting Hopie, Tori, and Brittany to helping him put away the gym equipment was their only punishment for not sticking with his instructions earlier.

By the time they get to the girls' locker room, Hopie, Tori, and Brittany have the whole place to themselves since the other girls had a head start getting changed.

Likewise, Liam has the whole boys' locker room to himself since Billy dashed off so quickly and the other boys had a head start getting changed.

As Brittany changes her clothes, she calls out to Tori and Hopie.

"So what do you do for fun around here?  Go to the mall?  Or is there some cool teen night club with live music?"

Meanwhile, at the library

Billy arrives at the library to find no one there except the librarian Mr. Hudson.

Billy stared at the librarian for a moment and swallowed.

In reply to Brittany Foster (msg # 75):

Hopie doesn't really know how to answer Britanny's question.  She knows of the Bronze, of course she does but she can't afford to go there often. The same goes for the mall.  Her fun involves family and Mexican soap operas.  She waits to see what Tori says.

Mr.  Hudson stares at Billy for a moment.  Stares right though him actually.  Then he double checks to make sure they are alone in the library.

Step into my office.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:05, Sat 23 Apr 2022.

"There's The Bronze," replied Tori, "Best place for live music. Not that it's got a lot of competition. Or hanging around the mall and looking at clothes we can't afford. Otherwise, just the usual cinema, coffee shop, and parks."

Tori finished getting changed, her hair still a bit damp from the shower.

"Parks, plural. I think the original town planners liked parks."

"The Bronze sounds like a winner." Brittany says as she gets dressed in her regular clothes.

"What say we meet there at 8:00 o' clock?  Don't worry about money, the drinks and snacks are on me tonight."

Brittany finishes buttoning her shirt, then begins to put her shoes on.

"I'm going to see if I can find Billy and invite him.  He's probably in the library."

Brittany pauses for a moment.  "Maybe we should invite that other guy too since he helped us put away the gym gear.  I'll leave it up to one of you, if you want to ask him.  But if he's playing Dungeons and Dragons tonight or something, he can skip it."

"Liam", says Hopie then to Tori she adds, "Would it help if I dared you to invite him?  On the otra mano, what's Dungeons and Dragons? Is it some kind of BDSM?"

Billy nodded thoughtfully.

Tori grinned.

"Sure, I'll invite Liam. I bet he'll go all 'deer-in-the-headlights'."

"Great.  Sounds like we have a plan." Brittany says as she finishes tying her shoes and heads towards the locker room door.

"Tori, you invite Liam. And maybe get him to explain to Hopie what Dungeons and Dragons is.  If he even plays it.  I might be reading him wrong.  But I know for sure I'm not the best person to explain it.  I'm going to go see if I can find Billy in the library and invite him.  I'll see you two tonight."

Brittany exits the locker room and heads towards the library.

It took all Edward's self control to maintain his composure.

Billy nodded again, the fear giving some difficulty in controlling his body how he wanted to.


He stepped out of the library and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Brittany.  "Hi, how... what're you doing here?"

Brittany seemed less startled than Billy when she saw him exiting the library.

"Ah ha!  I guessed right you were in the library. Listen, Tori, Hopie, and I are going to the Bronze tonight at 8 o' clock.  My treat.  Drink and snacks are on me.  Tori's going to invite that other guy too.  You know the one who helped us put the gym stuff away.  I think you need to come to.  Like I said, don't worry about money.  I've got you covered tonight."

Brittany looked in the direction of the library then back to Billy.

"What was that all about?  You dashed out of gym class pretty quickly.  Were you trying to return a library book that was due today and didn't want to get stuck with the late fee?"

Liam found himself alone in the locker room.  "Just had to volunteer didn't you."  He had spoken softly but it sounded extra loud.  He was going to have to walk home now.  He was in no rush to change taking time to enjoy the quiet of the room instead of the throng of noise that usually accompanied a locker room.

He then made his way to his locker to grab his stuff and homework.  If he finished before dinner, he might be able to get some computer gaming in.

Tori intercepted Liam at the lockers.

"Hey, Liam, thanks for volunteering. Some of us are meeting at the Bronze tonight. Want to join us?"

She hoped she'd pitched that right. Not too pushy.

"Yeah, Liam" Bill provided when Brittany was searching for the name.

A few moments later, he responded, "I'd be happy to hang out with you all, but what do you mean "need to"?"

He hesitated for a long second when he was questioned regarding his behavior and the library.  "I had some worries about things that I'll probably be able to talk about sometime.  For now I just have to go with, they're not as bad as they were ten minutes ago, if that's alright."

"Liam, right.  If he says yes to Tori, then we'll be a party of five. Sure, you can talk about your library business later when you think it's safe to declassify."

Brittany didn't seem too concerned about what happened in the library at the moment and was willing to let it drop.

"You seem to be the type of guy who keeps a low profile.  But there is such a thing as keeping too low a profile.  You should interact with your fellow humans sometimes.   That's what I meant when I said you need to come. I've only been here a day, but I've already heard the Sunnydale urban legend about the girl who was ignored by everyone until she literally became invisible.  You don't want to become invisible do you?"

In reply to Tori Hart (msg # 90):

Liam jumps when he heard his name.  He didn’t think there was anyone else here that wanted to talk to him.   “What?”

He had looked forward to gaming tonight, but how can someone turn down Tori?!?  He didn’t think he had gone insane yet.  “Umm, ok.  I’ll call the guys and see if they can make it.”

Billy shrugged and smiled.  "Invisibility wouldn't be my first pick, but I would be happy with most any superpower.  But yeah, there are definitely too many legends for them all to be true... but too many missing persons for them all to be false.  I assume invisibility in Sunnydale would eventually end up turning into something horrible."

More soberly, he added, "Thanks for thinking of me.  I'll be there."

With another grin, he concluded, "Now I've gotta get out to the car before my kid sister has a melt-down.  It'd be unfortunate to start the new year semester with a volcano on campus."

Tori didn't think the others would want his entire gaming group turning up.

"I really meant just... you."

“Just me?  Oh… OH!”  She was asking him out!  He blushed.  No one in their right mind would say no. “Ok.”  He quietly replied.

Later that Night.

The Bronze

8:00 pm


Live band performing.  Nobody anyone's every heard of, but live music is live music.

Tables available for any group that comes in.


OCC: I deleted my first Bronze time/place setup and moved it down here after Tori clarified Liam alone is invited. You can all show up at the Bronze now.

In reply to Liam Roeker (msg # 97):

Tori smiled.

"Great! We're meeting there at 8 o'clock. See you there!"

She hurried off.

---

For The Bronze, Tori didn't dress very differently from everyday school. A slightly better pair of jeans, a slightly smarter top, and the all-important slight gap between the two that she'd never get away with at Sunnydale High. She began to look around for the others.

Hopie dressed for the Bronze in something that was uniquely her.  Sneakers, the jeans she usually wore for autoshop, a pink chiffon blouse she'd found in goodwill, her brother's black leather jacket, and around her neck, a silver crucifix."

Brittany showed up at to Bronze in a different outfit then what had on earlier.  Designer top and pants, although her top had long sleeves and covered her stomach.  She was originally going to put something on a tad more revealing, but figured it might get chilly tonight on the walk home.

She spotted Tori and Hopie and headed towards the table.  "Good evening ladies, nice outfits." she said admiringly.  "Get whatever you want on the menu.  My treat tonight.  I think I'll go for something healthy myself, like celery sticks."

Brittany reached into her purse and put a plastic bottle on the table.  "I brought my own fat free ranch dressing.  Help yourself if you need it."

Back home

“Liam, what are we you doing?”  His mother asked.

“I have a date.”  Liam replied as he poured a handful of his father’s cologne into his hand and scrubbed his face and neck with it.

“A date?  Way to go slugger!”  Dad replied from the background.

Mom made a face.  She ignored her husband and focused on her son.  “Where are you going and who do you have this date with? “

“The Bronze.  Tori from school.  She’s really pretty.  He replied as he looked around for a towel to wipe his eyes from watering due to the volume of cologne.

Mom had her doubts, but couldn’t let her son walk into the situation like that.  She made him wash his face and neck to cut the overwhelming power of the scent.  She wanted to meet a nice girl for Liam, not have her pass out from being near him.  Some lessons he had to learn for himself.

“Are you sure you want to go with the sport coat and tie?”

“Mom!  I’ve got to make a good first impression!”

If someone was going to accept Liam, it would be for his quirks.  At least she avoided the worse of the disaster and wished him luck.

…
At the Bronze

Liam arrived on his bike at 7:50pm.  He locked it up and entered the cavern of mystery.  The place someone like him had never been to.  Thankfully, it seemed a lot like the movies.  He had on a brown corduroy sport coat that had been given to him, a white dress shirt and a left over tie his father had helped tie for him.  That went with his jeans and sneakers from that day.  He smelled faintly of cologne.

He looked around trying to get his bearings.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:24, Tue 26 Apr 2022.

Billy arrived in the same outfit that he had worn at school.  He had previously observed that most girls changed outfits before coming to the Bronze.  Many guys did not (or perhaps most didn't? ... he held himself back from rifling through his memories and doing an estimate, let alone the math), so he almost never did.

He noticed Liam on his way in.  A million jokes sprang to mind almost immediately.  He absolutely couldn't say nothing but he also didn't want to crush Liam so badly that he never came out in public again.  "Your tie... definitely goes with the cologne."  He commented.  He gestured toward the table Brittany had staked out, "Looks like we're over here."

“Hey Billy, thanks!”  He replied to the compliment.

He spotted the girls when they were pointed out.  As he followed Billy over, “So which one invited you?”

Billy decided it would be inhumane to push it further with Liam and let the clothes go.

"Brittany, but I don't think that matters - we're all just hanging out together."  He wondered if Liam was hoping for extra credit among his more regular companions for being invited by someone particularly.  Then he looked at the outfit again.  "You knew this was just a group of us hanging out, right?"

Brittany sees Billy across the room.  "Hey look, Billy's here.  He's talking to some old guy." she says to Tori and Hopie.

"I wonder why...........oh my God!  That's Liam!  What did he do to get ready?  Raid his grandpa's closet!"

Brittany does a face-palm. For the first time today, she's thankful she's the new girl and few people in this town knows her.

"Well... that's what I had assumed, but when I mentioned bringing Jimmy and Harry, she looked at me all sultry like and said, 'I meant just' there was a long pause where she pursed her lips and looked me directly in the eye, 'you'."  He looked off into the distance, remembering and then sighed.  "Ahhh."

He gave Billy a pat on the shoulder for the guys misfortune and headed over toward the table.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:28, Wed 27 Apr 2022.

Billy shrugged at the other boy, doubtful that he was right about the expression or the meaning of Liam's invitation.  He would be happy for the guy if he himself was wrong, though.

He walked over to join the girls,  and when prompted to order thought only for the briefest of moments.  A cup of coffee and a dish that made him glad to have no dietary restrictions of any kind.  "One basket of deep-fried Oreos, and bring it up to a triple bypass in my sixties," He added brightly.

Hopie was eating tostados with a salsa dip and she was enjoying them and when Billy ordered, she found Billy's choice of food much more embarrassing than Liam's clothes.

Before he reached the table, she said to Brittany, "Seems he's tried, which is more than 99% of boys in Sunnydale. No need for embarrassment until he meets your future daughter in law. For now, gentle education will fix him, es no verdad?"

“Hi guys.  Hi Tori.”  He said as he joined the table.  Liam picked a spot next to Tori and then looked around to see what you were supposed to do next.

Looked like people were ordering.  He already had dinner with his family so wasn’t too hungry.  When Billy ordered deep fried Oreos though, THAT sounded delicious.  “Deep fried O’s for me too please.  Along with a coke.  You have coke right?  Not just Pepsi products?”

Hopie sighs and rolls her eyes.  "Maybe now", she says.  Then to Billy and Liam she says, "I never knew deep fried Oreos were even a thing until today but if you don't mind, I'll stick to chocolate coated locusts."

“Have you ever had an Oreo?  Deep frying makes everything taste better!  You can try a bite and see.  It’s good to try new things.  I’ll try a locust if you try one of these.”  Liam held his basket out for Esperanza to take one if she wanted.

"You're on" says Hopie.  "I'll invite you to my house and we can have locusts because sadly the Bronze's only Mexican-ish (well Texmex, which doesn't really count) is tostados." She took one of Liam's cookies and bit into it.

For four tenths of a second, she thought he was right but finally the full horror of the taste registered.  She ordered a lime without the tequila just to take away the taste.  She cut the lime in half and began too suck the acid tasting meat from inside the skin.

Brittany nodded at Hopie and made no comment about Liam's outfit when a arrived at the table.


I can bite my tongue. Let someone else tell him he looks like a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman.  And it's inevitable somebody will. Brittany thought to herself.

Her attention quickly turned to the rather horrific eating habits of some of the people at the table.

Billy must have a stomach made of steel.

As for Liam, his outfit proved he wasn't good at making well thought out choices.

Brittany held up her plate of celery sticks and fat free ranch dressing and waved it around.

"Would anyone here like to try a more healthy alternative?" 

Hopie asked, "Does it taste less like... I mean yes please."

Tori did a slight double-take at the outfit Liam had chosen. It was certainly, um, unique.

"Hi, Liam. Hi, Billy."

She'd carefully paid attention to all that talk about a healthy diet, important for an athlete. Then she'd ignored it and ordered tostadas, with hot salsa.

Healthier than deep-fried Oreos. Then again, so's pure sugar.

"I'll try a celery stick."

Billy took a piece of celery and dipped it before biting off a chunk.  A few seconds later, made the face that everyone learns by age one.  The one that says, "Ewwww, veggies!" without actually uttering a syllable.  "Just kidding.  Even I need to eat fiber every once in a while... and celery is one of the best excuses to get to eat ranch dressing."

He continued to enjoy his Oreos thereafter.  "So, what did you all do with your afternoon?"

Brittany continues to munch on her celery sticks.

"Went home and practiced my cheerleading moves.  Then had dinner with my mom.  She made salad with steak strips.  My dad's working late, so it was the two of us.  She wanted to hear all about my first day. I told her I stayed after gym class to help put the gym gear away.  I left out the part about how and why I got drafted for the job.  She didn't need to hear that part.  It would have totally spoiled the feel good story." 

Before anyone else can respond, the group's attention is diverted by a party of five who just stepped through the door.

Stunningly attractive, well dressed blonde girl.  Homely, nerdy girl with glasses and the face of a weasel.  Three other attractive well dressed girls.

Malvina West and her posse have entered the Bronze.

They head straight for your table.

Malvina is the first of her group to speak.  "Hopie, Tori.  Good to see you girls.  I don't see you at the Bronze very much." She looks at Billy.  "And.........uhhhh.....Bobby is it?  I think we have a class or two together."

She looks at Liam and makes a face like she stepped in dog poop, but says nothing to him.

Then she looks at Brittany.  "I don't think we've met.  I'm Malvina."

Malvina gestures towards the homely, nerdy girl with glasses and the face of a weasel.  "This is my cousin Piper.  But you can call her Weasel.  Everyone does."

Liam took a celery and ate it as well.  Neither here nor there.  It was good and a change from the suger blast.

He didn’t think Billy’s question was really meant for him.  They had hung out briefly when younger so he likely already knew Liam’s routine.

“Hi Malvina.  Hi Piper.”  He gets in a greeting when she finishes her introduction.  Otherwise, he is quiet.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:49, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

"Hi Malvina.  Hi Weasel.  I'm Brittany Foster.  Just moved here from San Diego.  Today was my first day.  I was a cheerleader at my old school.  I'll be trying out for the team later this week.  Are either of you a cheerleader?  Maybe we'll be on the team together."

Brittany noticed Malvina hasn't introduced the other three girls yet.

"Who are your three friends Malvina?  I don't think I've met them either."

"Hi Piper", says Hopie.  "Hello Ladies."  She pauses for long enough to be noticeable even by Liam.  "How are you Malvina?"  Her voice and smile are warm throughout but the breach in protocol... well what could that be about?

"I think I might try out for something this year, I'm just not entirely sure what."

Tori munched on the celery stick.

"Hi, Malvina. Hi, Piper."

Everyone knew Malvina. Whether they wanted to or not.

"Sorry, that's not correct.  You've got the first 'B' and the 'Y', though."  Billy said consolingly.

He turned to Piper, asking her cheerfully:  "You want to spin or buy a vowel?"

Piper "Weasel" West made a face at Billy like she just smelled something awful.  Clearly she doesn't get his style of humor.


Malvina looked puzzled for a second at Brittany's question. Then she turned and looked at the three girls standing behind her and Weasel.  "Oh, that's Lori, Gwen, and Amber."Malvina said.  When you have so many minions as Malvina does, it's hard to keep tracking of them sometimes.

"No, Weasel and I aren't cheerleaders Brittany.  Not our thing.  Some of my friends are though. Well, Hopie you should most definitely try out for something new this year.  It's good to try new things.  Which brings me to my next point."


Malvina does a dramatic pause as if the fate of the planet was dependant on her announcement.

"I've decided to enter the political arena for the first time.  I'll be running for the vacant office of sophomore class president.  And I would really appreciate all of your votes.  Of course, I'm the only one to sign up to run so far, and I'm sure once word gets around that I'm running, I'll be running unopposed.  But I really would appreciate your votes for the record as a show of support for me."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:44, Wed 24 Jan.

"You know Piper," suggested Hopie, "you really should consider standing for the same office if only to give umm..." there was another breath. "Malvina some kind of democratic legitimacy.  It would be a kindness and besides, last time there was only one candidate, they cancelled the election and appointed someone else."

"Thank you for the suggestion Hopie, but that won't be necessary." Weasel West responded.

"We checked on the rules for the election.  If Malvina is the only candidate, she just needs 51% or more of the sophomore class to vote of her, and the office is hers.  Which is why she would appreciate your votes.  And who wouldn't vote for her?  Everybody knows my cousin is not only the most popular girl in our class, but the sweetest, nicest, and most generous."

Weasel keeps a straight face while saying all this.  Malvina gives her a nod of approval.

Liam shrugged.  He didn't care about politics.  He figured she didn't care about his opinion either.  He hadn't planned on voting anyway.

His eyes wandered the Bronze as Malvina spoke and then Weasel.  The different people there.  The band.  The bar.  The cliches.  It was a different atmosphere than he was used to.  Tori had invited him though, so he would stick it out.

Brittany bit into a fresh celery stick.


"Well, Malvina.  Thank you for bringing this important matter to our attention.  I'm sure everyone here will be casting a vote on election day. But don't let us keep you, I'm sure you've got some more potential voters to speak to."

Brittany leaned over in her chair as if she were looking around Malvina and Weasel towards the other three girls.

"Lori, Gwen, Amber it was nice meeting you all."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:45, Wed 24 Jan.

Malvina gives her best princess wave.

"Toddles! Don't forget election day!" Malvina says as she head towards another table to do some more campaigning.  Weasel doesn't even look back at the group as she follows Malvina.

Lori, Amber, and Gwen say nothing as they leave and follow Malvina, but all three give a sincere smile to Brittany, grateful to be acknowledged.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:46, Wed 24 Jan.

Brittany watches Malvina and her posse leave.

Once they are safely out of earshot; "So that's Malvina.  She's even bitchier and snobbier than I've heard."

Brittany finishes off her current celery stick, then grabs another one.


"Yeah I'll vote alright.  If she's runs unopposed, I'll write 'None of the Above' on the ballot and check that."

"That's Malvina."  Billy agreed.

After a moment or two of thought, he started to speak up again.  "Well..."  He said quietly.  "A vote for one of you girls does the job even better."

He shrugged apologetically to Liam.  "Being frank, neither of us are going to come anywhere near winning."

"Haha!  What if 'None of the Above' won!  That would mean a majority preferred no president over her.  I wonder if that would be allowed..."  Liam laughed at Brittany's comment.

Billy considered for a moment.  "According to the by-laws, it would,"  He acknowledged.

Hesitatingly, he continued:  "And I'm first in line to make a joke - good or not... but downvoting Malvina with no alternate? ... First of all, that's just mean - that's where teen suicide statistics come from.  Second of all  ... and related ... while someone might be able to win over enough people to beat Malvina, winning them over to 'be mean to Malvina' just isn't probably.  I'd give something in the neighborhood of twelve-thousand to one against."

He sat back to let others chew on it, while he chewed on another Oreo.  He clearly didn't like to take such a confrontational stance against someone, but he disliked meanness far more... even toward Malvina.

"What about write ins?" asked Hopie.  "I don't want to be mean to Malvina per se but, wouldn't it be nice to write in Piper?  See if she could go on from here with the self confidence it deal with the real world?"

Brittany was quiet for a moment, considering the discussion.

"I don't know Hopie, that could backfire.  It seems to me that Piper "Weasel" West would be a prime target for bullies if not for the protection she gets from being in Malvina's circle."

Brittany stares at the deep fried Oreo plate for a moment, then picks up another celery stick.

"If we started a grass roots write-in campaign for Piper, Malvina may accuse her of being a traitor and kick her out of their circle.  Without Malvina's protection, I'm thinking it will be open season on Piper."

Liam shrugged.  Billy was probably right.  There had already been two deaths as the reason for this election.  No sense in driving someone else to it, even if it was Malvina.

“Piper is a thrall.  Best thing for her is to go to a college no where near Malvina.  Maybe she would have her own life.  Until then, she’ll just be Malvina’s pawn.”  He tossed in his own 2 cents.

Hopie considers.  "Thrall?  I'm not sure I know what that means.  I mean I'm fairly sure I don't.  Okay, absolutely sure.  Okay, maybe not Piper then but how about whan of the invisible girls?  Lori?  Michelle?  The other one?"

“I’m sorry.  I don’t know if there is a similar reference in your culture.  A thrall is someone enslaved by something like a mindflayer or vampire.  They totally have to do what the master says.  If you can get them another save, maybe they can break free from the influence.  Usually it’s just easier though to kill the master to free the thralls.”  Liam added matter-of-factly as he tried to explain with going deep into game rules.

He realized this might be construed as a plan to kill Malvina.  ”Not that you should kill Malvina!  Got to keep fantasy and reality separate.  That’s why I mentioned college for Piper as a solution.  Ummm… yeah.”  He wasn’t sure how he was coming across and figured it was time to shut up.  So he simply stopped talking.

Brittany's eye widen at Liam's explanation of what a thrall is.

"Right.  No killing Malvina.  Got it."

She finishes off the celery stick in her hand.

"Maybe the problem will fix itself. Despite Malvina's claims, there may be somebody in our class about to sign for the election tomorrow morning, then we'll have two candidates to choose from."

Brittany stands up and grabs Billy by the wrist.

"Come on Billy, lets dance."

Before Billy can protest, Brittany pulls him with her away from their table and out on the dance floor.

Esperanza says to Liam, "So  Liam, it was suggested that you play Dungeons and Dragons but I have no idea what that is.  I asked whether it was a form of BDSM, and they said I should ask you, so, would you tell me please, what is it?"

Billy new without a doubt that he could resist Brittany's pull.  He was tempted to, but the shock of the moment meant that he missed his opportunity.  So, he shortly found himself out on the dance floor.

Out there, Billy wasn't quite a fish out of water but he definitely felt like he did not belong.  He had taken a bit of martial arts when he was younger, so he wasn't entirely incapable of moving his limbs.  His movements were less smooth and fluid, more clunky and mechanical.

Brittany can immediately tell that Billy is uncomfortable on the dance floor.

"Billy loosen up.  You're moving like a robot."

Brittany keeps her dance moves fluid and easy to follow.

"Calm down, we're just two people on this crowded dance floor. We're not performing on stage.  Just mimic my moves and we'll be fine." Brittany says in her best encouraging voice.

"Now then, what did you mean earlier when you said 'A vote for one of you girls does the job even better.' Do you think Hopie or Tori or I should run for class president against Malvina?  I doubt I'm eligible.  I'm sure new students can't run and I've been here one day."

Billy did his best to relax and focused more on the conversation and less on his movements - just following along as he talked.  "You'd be surprised.  The wording in the student guide book leaves it open to just about anyone - Enrolled in the grade, Alive, Attending, and 'Not Failing' are the specific requirements.  Not 'Passing' - so you don't have to already have received any grades.  You've been here for a day and seem to have a pulse, so you're as eligible as the other two."

"That's it!  You're getting the hang of it." Brittany smiled as Billy loosened up and was starting to find his rhythm.

"Well now that's interesting."
Brittany said as she pondered Billy's info that new students are eligible to run for office.

"No, it's still no point in me running.  I'm a total blank slate as far as this school's concerned.  On the other hand, if I make the cheerleading team, my visibility would really increase."

Brittany sighed.  "Let's climb one mountain at a time.  First I need to get on the cheerleading team, then we'll see what happens next."

"Try-outs are Thursday afternoon.  Will you show up and be my cheering section?"

"Billy was right. 'None of the above' is one of those things that's funny to think about, but would be terrible if it happened."

Tori picked at her tostadas.

"Maybe I'll run for class president."

“If you ran, I’d probably vote.”  Liam offered as support.  It wasn’t much, but he had otherwise planned to skip the whole thing.

His eyes kept scanning the Bronze for other interesting things.  Evidently Billy was fitting in on the dance floor.  Malvina continued to make her rounds.  The band played on.

Hopie nodded to Tori.  "You've got my vote.  And we should go cheer on Britanny when she tries out for the Cheerleading mob."

"We should talk to the other girls anyway, to figure out who should run if more than one of you are interested."  Billy suggested.

"Sure... no promises about actual cheering, but I'll be there for you."  Billy offered in compromise.

He gestured back toward the table with his head, before turning to head in that direction after the end of the next song.  "Thanks for dragging me out there, that was unexpectedly fun."  He said as they neared the table again.

"You're welcome.  You showed some good moves once you loosened up." Brittany responded.

"Thanks a lot for agreeing to come watch me at cheer try-outs.  At dinner, my mom asked if I wanted her to take off of work so she could be there to watch.  I practically screamed; "Mom! This is a high school! If you show up at try-outs, my social life will be blown into a million pieces before it ever gets started! Now I can tell her someone will be there for me and she'll get that idea of coming out of her head."

Brittany walks with Billy back to their table and sits back in her seat.

"We're back.  Did we miss anything exciting?"

“That guy over there in the striped shirt laughed so hard that he spewed his drink all over the place.”  Liam responded to Brittany with a bit of excitement.

From the look on her face, evidently that wasn’t what she meant.  “Not really.”  He corrected in a quieter tone.  Although he kept watching the guy hoping to figure out what was so funny.

"Well" said Hopie, "I think Tori has some exciting news, and we've also decided that we'll all go along to cheer you on at Cheerleading trials."

Billy looked to Tori, with feigned excitement.  "You discovered cold fusion!  No?  You're giving everyone puppies!  No!?  You're picking us all up for school tomorrow in a helicopter?  ... well, I'm stumped then.  What's the news?"

Tori pushed what was left of her tostadas to one side.

"I'm going to run for class president against Malvina."

"Cool.  I'll help finance your campaign.  You need to sign up tomorrow and get to work on campaigning right away.  You can catch Malvina off guard. She thinks she's already got this thing won."

Brittany breathed a sigh of relief.  The thought of Malvina as her class president made her stomach turn. Thank God she had only eaten celery tonight. After meeting Malvina just once earlier in the night, Brittany was instantly repulsed by her.  And Tori appeared to be a candidate who had a fighting chance of winning.

Brittany looks at Hopie. "Thanks for the support at the cheerleading try-outs.  Billy agreed to come while we were dancing. I'll have my own cheering section. This will be awesome."

Cool.  Tori had been on the fence a second ago.  Now she was definitely running.  He would have to definitely vote then.  Having an option other than Malvina was much preferred.  Tori at least spoke to him.

The evening passes quickly.

It's now 10:00 pm.  And it's a school night.

A good time for this party of five to call it a night and head home.

Going through Sunnydale Cemetery will probably get you home sooner.

"If we're going through the graveyard", says Hopie, "We should go together.  Come to think of it, we should go together anyway, as far as possible."

"Going through the cemetery sounds fine to me." Brittany says as she puts her debit card away after paying the bill for everybody tonight.

"It will get me home a bit quicker and we should be safe if we travel in a group."

“You’re lucky.  Growing up, we weren’t allowed anywhere near the cemetery.  Something changed a few years ago though.  I went to a funeral shortly after that and thought it was a pretty peaceful place.  Never was told what the hubbub was about.”  Liam retrieved his bike to ride home with the others.

Billy initially started to shake his head when the cemetery was mentioned.  He stopped when others jumped on board.  "The side-effects of shortcuts can make the long way look short in the end."  He quoted as if it were a well-known saying.  "I hate the cemetery, but if you're all going that way, I'll go with you."

Moments later, the five teenagers are walking through Sunnydale Cemetery.

The cemetery is vast.  As the camera pans up high, seemingly endless rows of tombstones unfold.

The temperature has dropped a few degrees since you arrived at The Bronze.  It's getting a tad chilly.

But it's just the five of you.  So far.

Hopie is keeping an eye out but as much for any Hoppers Vatos or Serial killers than vampires.  She's also keeping an eye on her companions.  They're Anglos, and though the girls are skilled acrobats, none of them have the fighting skills of a girl raised on the barrio.

Liam walked with his bike next to Tori.  As far as dates went, well, he had no reference, this being his first.  It didn’t seem to be anything like what’s in the movies.  He was enjoying hanging out, but didn’t feel any sparks flying.

“What are you so jumpy about?  It’s just a cemetery.” Liam asked Esperanza.  “Sunnyvale was founded in 1899.  My friends and I looked, but couldn’t find any tombstones that old.  So maybe anyone from back then was buried in another cemetery.”  He randomly dropped what he knew about it’s history.

Billy shook his head, eyes seeming to be in every direction, his breathing none to steady.  "Too many missing persons that are never recovered for all the myths to be myths,"  He commented quietly.

Brittany had a stifle a giggle.  Liam's idea of a good time was walking through cemeteries and checking the dates on tombstones?  Too weird.  But she made no comment about it.

She turned her attention to Billy who was visibly uncomfortable while they were walking through the cemetery.

"Calm down Billy.  It's just a cemetery.  As long as nobody brought a Ouija board and we don't stop and play Ouija in the cemetery, we'll be fine."

Tori shivered slightly in the cool night air, and wished she'd brought a jacket.

"Anyone famous buried here?" she asked Liam.

Checking out cemeteries wasn't her idea of a fun time.

This was his chance!  Liam successfully kicked the kickstand down so the bike would stand by itself.  He then walked around it to Tori.  Why had he had the bike between them?  That was stupid.  It was like putting a barrier up.  He shook the mistake away.

He had trouble getting out of the brown courdouroy sport coat.  So much for smooth.  After an awkward hop, it came free from his arm and he could go into gentleman mode.  He held it out for her to put her arms in.  “Milady.”

After she accepted or not, he tried to answer her question.  “Supposedly the founder Richard Wilkins is.  Never saw his grave although there have been some disasters in the past, earthquakes, that have destroyed stuff.  Then there’s the rumors of Elvis or Al Capone.  Never verified those either.  If any of them are here, it’s under a different name.”

This time he walked next to her with the bike on the outside.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:19, Mon 09 May 2022.

"Good evening kids.  You shouldn't walk though the cemetery at night.  It's dangerous."

Before Tori can respond or decide to take Liam's coat, the group hears a voice seemingly come out of nowhere.

You all turn to your right at the sound of the voice.  You see three guys standing about 10 feet away from you.  All three appear to be high school age. And they appear totally human except a little pale like they haven't been out in the sun in a while.

Two are wearing leather jackets and look like they might pull out a knife any second and demand your money. The third is wearing glasses and dressed up like a chess club nerd, quite a contrast to the other two. But none of them look familiar.  They don't currently go to Sunnydale High and none of you have ever seen them before.

"Good advice, guapo" says Hopie, "perhaps you should take it."  She moves into a guard stance planning to take on the first to attack, first by grappling him and then by throwing him at the next.

Tori tensed as things turned ugly.

He wants me to wear corduroy?!

Then she heard the voice. Her instructor had always told her to avoid fights. You never knew if the other guy might pull out a knife or a gun. But Tori didn't always listen to her instructor.

"Yeah. It's a free cemetery."

“Oh it’s ok.  I got my bike.”  Liam replied to the newcomers as some sort of excuse unsure whether to finish offering his coat as an act of honor or be confused by the girls sudden aggressive stance.

He was used to conventions so their attire didn’t set off any warning bells.  People dressed all sorts of ways at those things.

Liam happened to be standing between the new guys and Tori.  He decided to wait to complete his good deed gesture and pulled his coat back to him as he turned to face them.  He smiled, “We’re you guys at the Bronze too?”

Brittany turns to the the three strangers.

She looks more annoyed than afraid.

She eyes Tori and Hopie out of the corner of her eye.  Neither of them are backing down either.

She pulls out her cell phone.  "You guys need me to call your moms to come get you?"
 Or are you brothers and I just need to call one mom?"

One of the guys with leather jackets smiles.

"I'm Guy Guy."  He points at the other guy in the leather jacket. "That's my cousin Vinnie."

Then he points at the chess nerd.  "And this is Peter, our Russian exchange student."


Then Vinnie speaks up for the first time.  "And not only is he Russian!  He's from the Soviet Union!"

Vinnie and Guy Guy point at the five teenagers as if they were saying how do you like that?  Awesome isn't it.  He's not just Russian, he's from the Soviet Union.  You all should be totally blown away from the info.

"Speaking of the Soviet Union, the eighties called and they'd like your outfits back, when you return his nationality."  Billy quipped without thinking.

Tori grinned at Billy's joke.

"So, what, born in 1991, just before it dissolved?"

That would make Peter all of one year older than them. Which looked about right.

"I never thought of that", said Hopie.  "I just assumed he'd been kept back a few years. He's sixty years old and still hasn't graduated.  Poco sad when you think about it."

Vinnie smiles.

"Oh no, you've got us all wrong.  We graduated high school on time."

Pause.

"In 1988."


With that, the five of you watch as the trio's face change.  They are no longer human.  Yellow eyes.  Ridged foreheads.  Fangs.

The trio makes no move to attack, not even a step forward.  They're just standing there, expecting the five of you to wet your pants at the sight of their awesome and scary faces.


OCC: React accordingly based on your characters knowledge, or lack thereof, of vampires in Sunnydale. The vampires aren't attacking yet, so you shouldn't either.  I want to go over a few things before we dive into our first fight scene.

Hopie reaches into her purse and pulls out an eyeshadow.  She touches her fingers to it and, instead of using it on her eyes, uses it to draw three parallel lines across her cheeks in imitation of warpaint. "We have heritage too, white eyes," she growls.

Billy stepped back slightly but brought his hands up into the most basic of guards.  He was clearly no professional fighter - not even an amateur - but he at least know to put your hands between a threat and your face.  The jokes were gone, apparently having left with the color from his face.

Brittany, in a rare occasion, was speechless.

Several seconds later, she managed to say;

"Who or what the **** are you?!" she said to the three strangers.

Brittany had never seen a vampire before.  Not having lived in Sunnydale for so long like her four companions, her concept of the supernatural was limited to what she saw on TV and movies. She had no idea what she was facing.

Her cell phone was still in her hand.  She could call the police.  But they'd probably never get here in time and the threat of calling them probably wouldn't scare those guys.

She put her phone away and raised her fists indicating she was ready to fight.

Several things happened rather quickly.  He realized Brittany has a phone.  She must have money.

Tori knows when the Soviet Union fell.  Maybe she was a history buff as well!  That was so cool.

"1988?  Wow.  You look really good for your age."  He hardly finished the statement before their faces changed.

Huh...  Doesn't age.  Fangs.  That sounded like a monster from the Monster Manual.  There certainly must be real world references for some of the monsters.  He didn't know anything about ridges on the forehead or yellow eyes.

White eyes?  They looked yellow to him.  Maybe Esperanza is color blind.

"Are you vampires?"  He asked curiously as he started backing away.  He wished he had his Paladin around here right about now.

Tori couldn't help but gape in shock at the transformation. It wasn't exactly fear, just... disquiet. That was it.

"But not so good now. Guess the years suddenly caught up with you."

They looked like Klingons from that show she'd never admit to watching even under torture.

Liam asked if they were vampires.

Vinnie smiles.  "Ding ding ding!  That is the correct answer!  We are vampires!  You win the grand prize!" Vinnie says in his best game show host voice.

Vinnie looks at Guy Guy.  "What do we have for them Johnny?!"

Guy Guy does his best announcer voice.  "All five of you win a free blood transfusion!  Courtesy of our fangs plunging into your necks!"

Then Peter speaks for the first time.  "You are too funny comrades." he says to Vinnie and Guy Guy with his thick Russian accent.

Then he turns to the five teenagers. "We are real vampires.  You've probably never seen one before, have you?  Next we will plunge our fangs into you necks and drain your blood. And you will die.  Not rise as vampires later.  You'll just be dead.  We will dump your bodies where they won't be found and you'll all just become part of Sunnydale's ever growing list of missing persons."

"We'll see about that you bloodsucking fiends!"

Another voice from out of nowhere.

All of you turn to the sound of the voice and see Edward Hudson the school librarian!

What's he doing out here tonight?!

He's standing a few feet away in between the two groups.

And he appears to have some kind of weapon.

It's a crossbow!

Hopie smiles.  She shouldn't smile but smile she does, letting it spread across her warpainted face, even reaching her so dark eyes.  "I can imagine how you might think that's how things will go, 'comrade' but you are sorely mistaken."

She moves into a fighting stance and as she does so, she ululates: a war whoop that owes more to John Ford Westerns than it does to any kind of heritage.

Vampires?!  They're vampires?!  Vampires are real?! Brittany thought to herself.

She didn't have time to dwell on this revelation before she saw Mr. Hudson make his appearance.

Who's that old guy? Brittany had never seen Mr. Hudson before.  He had already went to the library when she showed up at school for the first time this morning.

Whoever he was, he was on their side. Maybe those guys were faking at being vampires.  But the old guy seemed to be taking them seriously.

Brittany struck her best fighting pose.  "Come and get it bitches."

The weird thought of how someone documented vampires and translated them into a game crossed his mind.  It must have been someone witness a situation like this from a distance.  That’s why some of the details were wrong.  He wished he had some garlic, a mirror or a cross to verify.  Then again, if he was dead, he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone who wrong the rules were.

Given they were all probably level 0 or 1 humans against three upper tier undead.  A TPK seemed the only likely outcome.

Mr. Hudson suddenly appeared with a crossbow!  Sharp pointy things are good against vampires in the game.  Maybe he could take one out before they killed him.  The odds looked a little better, but still slim.

“Take my bike and go!  I’ll protect you!”  Liam told Tori as he took off his glasses and stood between the fangs and soon-to-be president of the sophomore class.  Sure he wouldn’t be able to see very well beyond arms reach, but that might be a good thing.  Maybe they didn’t like corduroy?  As that was his only shield, the best he could hope for was to slow them down long enough for her to get away.

Tori glanced quickly at Liam.

"No, get out of here."

She stepped in front of him. Warning Liam was comfortably mundane. It stopped her having to think about... well, whatever they were. She turned her attention back to the three.

And the librarian with the crossbow. As if the evening couldn't get any weirder.

"Vampires? You're a bunch of loons."

It had to be a trick, that thing with the faces. She didn't know how it was done, but it had to be a trick.

As Hopie leans forward into her fighting stance, her silver cross glimmers in the moonlight.  She'd almost forgotten about that, which was bad of her, "Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos Santificado," she whispered, "sea tu Nombre Venga tu reino Hágase tu voluntad".<sup>*



*</sup> Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done!

Billy was encouraged that the creepy old man was actually willing to put himself on the line for them.  He nearly smiled at Liam and Tori each falling over the other to keep them safe.

When he heard Esperanza's strange speech, he muttered drily, "Counter their accents with more real foreign language, and we might get out of this yet."

Hopie tries to defend against any attacks but on top of that, she grabs the nearest vampire who is Guy Guy and then tosses him at the next vampire who is the Russian.

WHAM!

Guy Guy crashes into Peter and they both hit the ground hard.


Edward shouts at the teenagers.

"Hopie!  Stay with me!  I'll guide you thorough this!  The rest of you get out of here!

Billy! Liam!  Tori!  Other girl!  Run!"

Edward then points his crossbow towards the heart of Vinnie, the vamp closest to him and pulls the trigger.

The arrow flew past the dodging Vinnie who then charged towards Edward.  The vampire swings a punch towards the watcher's mid-section that Edward barely avoided.


"Other girl?!  The name's Brittany Foster old man!"


Brittany is quite annoyed that Edward doesn't know her name.  She glances at Billy who looks nervous, but isn't going to pieces. "You stay here Billy, I'll handle this." She drops her purse and jogs towards Edward.

If he misses the crossbow shot (and probably will because he's old), it will be up to her to stop the vampire.  Or gang member on PCP.  Or whatever it really is.

After Edward's arrow missed,  Brittany reared her fist back and punched the guy closest to Edward.

WHAM!  Brittany's punch struck Vinnie in the face so hard it snapped his head back and rattled his fangs.


Billy didn't go looking for trouble, but if a vampire approached him (or anyone but Esperanza), he was ready to try and punch it in the nose.  He kept his hands up - now with the hopes of keeping fangs from neck rather than fists from face, but it made little difference in terms of placement, nor of likely efficacy.

When Vinnie attacked Edward, Billy joined in and punched Vinnie in the nose.  Wham.  Billy's punch was good though not as awesome as Brittany's.

Liam was confused.  Either Tori had never seen a movie before or had no clue that stories of vampires came from something that really existed.  His jaw hung open as she stepped forward toward the danger.  How was he supposed to protect someone if she didn’t want to be protected?!?

If the vampire came at him, he would use the stylin brown corduroy sport coat like a matador’s red cape to try and confuse and misdirect it.

Tori isn't looking to start anything, but will defend herself if attacked.

Fortunately a vampire didn't at come at Liam or Tori as Esperanza's attack put two of them on the ground for the moment.

OCC: That's round one.  Esperanza's toss attack resulted in Peter and Guy Guy being knocked down.  When a character is knocked down, they can't attack for the rest of the round. With two vampires unable to attack, most of you were safe this round. Edward, Brittany, and Billy are currently engaging Vinnie in combat. Peter and Guy Guy will start the next round still on the ground.

Edward drops his now empty crossbow and pulls out a wooden stake from his shoulder bag.  He has a bag full of wooden stakes.  If he can just dust the vampire in front of him, he can get a stake to Esperanza.

"You children need to go home now! Hopie and I will handle this!" Edward shouts as he plunges the wooden stake towards Vinnie's heart and misses by a mile.  That was an epic fail.  Vinnie could have dodged it with his eyes closed.

"I think the 'children' had better stick around. You'd be screwed without us."
Brittany said making air quotes at the word 'children' as she straightened her right leg and kicked high aiming for Vinnie's jaw. WHAM!  Vinnie's head snapped back from the impact as Brittany's foot hits his jaw.  No epic fail for the Brittster.


Since Hopie had managed to put a couple of them on the ground, Tori went to help her to make sure they stayed there. Remembering her instructor's mystical advice for when all else fails, 'kickem inna fork', she put the boot into Guy Guy.

WHAM!

Tori's foot crashes into Guy Guy's rib cage.  "Arrrgggghhh!  You dumb chick!  I'm gonna get you!" Guy Guy screams.


"I CAN'T leave until you do!  Mr. Hudson said to run."  Liam tried in vain to reason with Tori.  She moved in and attacked anyway.

"What are you doing?!?!"  This wasn't how the girl reacted in the movies.  He had no choice but to move up next to her and try to protect her even though he as woefully equipped to do so.  He wrapped the sport coat around his right arm to help.

Seeing what Tori was doing, Hopie chose to ignore Mr Hudson for now, especially as Brittany seemed to have everything in hand.  She rushed over to Peter and launched a mighty kick, seeking to prevent him from rising.  WHAM!  Her foot found its mark as it slammed into Peter. She tried again.  Wham!  Another kick hits the downed Peter.


"I'd never kick a Guy when he's down,"  Billy quipped.  He then stepped up to help Tori in her assault and took a swing at Guy Guy.  "Might punch him, though."

Wham!  Billy's punch hits the downed Guy Guy.

Vinnie laughed at Edwards's stake attempt.  "I think you need glasses grandpa!" he sneers at Edward as he throws a punch that Edwards manages to avoid.

Peter snaps back to his feet and faces Hopie.  "You are clearly not like other girls! Are you a shapeshifting demon? Or dare I say it could you be..............a Slayer?

Peter tries to return the favor and kicks at Hopie's face barely missing.  Hopie felt a breeze as Peter's foot whizzed past her face.

Guy Guy also snapped back to his feet.  He came at Tori, looking for some payback.  But Liam was now standing in front of Tori.

Guy Guy smiles at Liam. "Oh, so you want to play knight in shining armor and protect the women eh punk? That's great!  I used to beat up nerds like you in high school every day!  It will be like old times!"

Guy Guy hurls a punch at Liam, which Liam manages to avoid thanks to his full defense strategy.

OCC: And that's round 2.  Peter and Guy Guy started the round on the ground and had -4 penalty to defend.  Then in the second half of the round, they snapped back their feet and attacked without penalty, but your defense moves were good enough to avoid their hits.

Tori's eyes widened as Guy Guy effortlessly got to his feet after her kick and came after her. Then Liam stepped in the way.

"Liam! Get back!"

She stepped forward and nailed a kick on Guy Guy again.

"Uhhh!  I'll get to you in a minute!" he shouted at Tori.

Billy smirked.  "As if either of these two were going to do anything else?"

He turned his attention back Guy Guy. "How's it going going, Guy Guy?  Been a while while since you've you've been beat beat on instead of the other way around around?"

Billy's punch smashes into Guy Guy's face. But Guy Guy didn't like Billy's punch or his jokes.

"I'll take care of you too punk.  You deserve a beating for telling bad jokes!"


"You can't beat a vampire by punching it!"  Liam remarked back at Tori.  She didn't get it and she certainly wasn't listening to him.  Maybe when the first person went down it might sink in exactly what these things were.

He didn't have time to wonder if Esperanza was a demon or whatever else he said.  He was more worried about being the knight in shining armor sans the shining armor.  He really wasn't so concerned with getting beat up.  He was used to it and it would be better than Tori getting hurt.

Once again he stepped in between Tori and Guy Guy.

"You're a glutton for punishment geek." Guy Guy says as he swings and misses Liam again who's full defense move continues to be effective for now.




Hopie is used to working together as a community.  She is not Zorro and so she calls out instructions.  "Billy and Liam, stay with Tori and fight together.  Old Man, concentrate and help Brittany fight your guy." She grinned as she met Peter's eyes, "Me, I'm nobody.  All the girls in my village are like me."

With that she tried a sweep kick, trying to kick Peter's feet out from underneath him planned to follow up with a more conventional kick.  While she hopes to see Peter fall, she is not stupid enough to ignore the need to defend herself against whatever may come her way.

Peter leaped high at Hopie's sweeping kick deftly avoiding it then Peter came at her with a kick of his own that missed. Good thing Hopie kept her defense up.

"Like all the girls in your village? I doubt that.  But we'll soon find out when I'm drinking your blood. Demon blood is quite distinctive.  And I hear Slayer blood is the best kind there is." Peter says to Hopie.

Stalemate this round.  The Slayer and the Russian vampire successfully defended each other's attacks.





Brittany rolled her eyes as Edward totally missed his attack.  She was doing all the work here.

She lands a punch at Vinnie's mid-section.


Edward gave up on telling the four teenagers to leave.  They obviously weren't listening to him.

"Time to end this farce." Edward put all he had into plunging the stake into Vinnie's heart.

The group had been lucky so far, but if they wanted to survive this night, he needed to dust this vampire and get a wooden stake into the Slayer's hand.

THOK!  Edward's stake pierces Vinnie's heart.

"Uh oh" were Vinnie's last words as he explodes into dust.

If you've never seen a vampire explode to dust, it's quite a sight.

OCC: And that's round 3.  Vinnie is now dust.  Two vampires to go.  Hopie- according to the multiple actions rules, if you intend to make two attacks and the first attack is defended, then the second attack can't be made. Peter defended your first attack (the sweep kick) so then the second kick couldn't be made.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:26, Mon 16 May 2022.

With Vinnie now dusted, the watcher charged over to the Slayer who was engaging the Russian vampire.

Edward grabbed Hopie's wrist then shoved a wooden stake into her hand.

Then he pointed at Peter's heart.

"Wooden stake to his heart!  Do it! Now!"


"Well look what I have here", said Hopie, smiling into Peter's eyes.  She tried doing exactly what the old man said, sticking a stake in the heart.

Thok!  Peter looks down at the wooden stake Hopie just plunged into his heart.

He looks over at Guy Guy.

"Do svidaniya comrade."

Then he bursts into a cloud of dust.


"What the **** was that?" Brittany shouted as Vinnie burst into dust.

Brittany had never seen a real vampire until tonight, so she most definitely had never seen one turn to dust before. She managed to keep her mind focused on the fight.

Hopie and the old guy seemed to have the Russian covered. Brittany opted to join in on the Get Guy Guy party that was happening a few yards away.

Brittany ran towards  Guy Guy, and nailed him with a kick to his mid-section.

Billy laughed.  "I'd rather tell a bad joke than be a bad joke.  Have you ever taken a moment just to think about your name?  Let alone the rest of your existence?"

With no further ado, he let another punch fly.....Wham!....and hit Guy Guy in the face...then brought his hands up to guard with the consummate skill of... an average highschooler.



Tori gaped when Vinnie turned into dust. But she'd have time to be shocked later; right now, she had Guy Guy getting in her face again. She again stepped in front of Liam, and - since Guy Guy might be expecting another kick - put all her feelings into a cathartic punch.

Wham!  Another hit.  Guy Guy is a punching bag.

Liam had no idea why he was still here.  Tori didn’t grasp the danger.  Even Billy was in the mix.  A vampire was in his face spewing familiar taunts.  Yet he still did his best to try and protect her.  Maybe he should see a shrink…

Guy Guy made no move to attack anyone.  He looked at two piles of dust that used to be Vinnie and Peter.

"I've got one last ace to play."

He reached inside his leather jacket and pulled out a wooden stake.

"I won't give you losers the satisfaction of finishing me."

Guy Guy plunged the stake into his own heart and turned to dust.

OCC: This fight is over.  All vampires are dust. You may resume posting in this episode thread.

"We did well, people." said Hopie.  "And you know what?  This comes from working together.  The five of us make a great team." She thanked each of her friends one by one by name.

Then she looked over at Edward and said, "And you old man.  You came prepared to fight vampires, is that some kind of hobby for you, or merely habit?"

So much had happened in such a short time.  He had so many questions!  Vampires?!?  Fangs, forehead, yellow eyes.  "Where those...?!?"

Esperanza tossed a guy across the cemetery into another guy.  "Did you...?"

Dust?  He had never read that in a game book.  "How... ?"

There were all still in one piece.  "How are we alive?  How are we not hurt!"  For vampires they seemed like real pushovers.

He nodded to Esperanza when she mentioned his name.  He looked at Mr. Hudson wondering why he was here.

He noticed something and unwrapped the sport coat from his arm.  It had several deep rips that made it worthless now.  "Ah man..."  He looked up to the sky, "Sorry Grandpa."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Tue 17 May 2022.

Her legs felt shaky as the adrenaline wore off.

"Thanks," she said to Liam.

But... weird faces? Talk of vampires? Vampires weren't real... were they?

"What just happened?" she asked Mr Hudson.

Edward looks at Hopie.

"I'll thank you not to call me 'old man'.  I'm only 28 years old."

He looks around at the group, trying to answer all the questions as best he can.

"What you saw tonight were vampires.  Vampires are real and they are quite plentiful in Sunnydale because we're on a Hellmouth.  I'll get to that in a minute.  Real vampires look human until they change into their true vampire face which you saw.  Fangs, yellow eyes, that is the face of a vampire.  And when a vampire is destroyed it turns to dust.  That is why a vampire corpse has never been recovered because there aren't any." 

Edward takes a breath, then continues.

"You are all still alive for two reasons.  First, you were damn lucky.  If one of you had encountered a vampire alone, you would be dead very quickly.  The fact that we outnumbered the vampires and were able to attack them in groups of two or more made a tremendous difference.  Second, we are alive because there is a Slayer among us.  And that is Esperanza. I'm sure you've all figured out now she's much stronger than normal girls."

"I am?" asked Hopie, obviously somewhat surprised.  "I thought it was just my mutant powers kicking in.  I was hoping for Carrie White style but I can live with this.  I don't think I'm She Hulk though or even Spider Woman so I still need you guys.  I don't have eyes in the back of my head, and after what happened tonight, I trust you guys and I think that's important."

Brittany cocks an eyebrow.

"You're 28?  Well, we're all 15.  15 times 2 is 30.  So that makes you almost twice as old as we are.  Bottom line: you're old." Brittany says matter of factly to Edward.

She managed to maintain her composure.  Curiosity about real vampires and Hopie's super powers outweighed the fact that they all just came very close to dying. The total reality of the situation hadn't set in just yet..

"And you still haven't explained the part about how you showed up to tonight carrying vampire killing weapons.  What's up with that?"

Edward rolls his eyes.  These children were trying his patience.

He looks at Hopie.  "You're not a mutant!  There is no such thing as mutants!" 

Then to Brittany.  "The wooden stake and the crossbow are not vampire killing weapons.  You can't kill a vampire because it's already dead......Betty......Bethany...what was your name again?"

Edward exhales loudly and continues.

"I know about vampires and carry vampire slaying weapons because I am a watcher.  The watcher acts as teacher and mentor to the Slayer."

"Hey guys", says Hopie.  "Remember how a while back I said I was thinking of applying for one of the sport teams?  I wonder, does this school have an archery team?  I only ask because:  a) I would imagine an arrow would work as well as a stake but without having to get so close; b) Liam could become a jock and suddenly not have to put up with the kind of talk I heard from the vampire whose name was a stutter; and c) I imagine some of the best schools have archery scholarships that are undersubscribed to say the least.  Would I be right about that TOFCOM^* Sir?  By the way, what IS your name and who are you, other than a Watcher?"







^* TOFCOM = The One Formerly Called Old Man

Liam got a weird looking grin on his face when Tori thanked him.  “You’re welcome Milady.”  He replied with a formal bow.

“I knew it!”  He stated to himself once Mr. Hudson confirmed they were vampires.  “I’ve never heard of a Slayer.  What’s that?”  He asked.

Liam understood all of Esperanza’s mutant references and just nodded taking in the info.

He frowned at Brittany.  Teachers were supposed to be older than them and he had just saved her life.  She seemed pretty ungrateful to him.

“Undead.”  He added helpfully at the comment vampires can’t be killed because they are already dead.

“No thank you.”  He raised his hands as if he wasn’t going to touch a sports program and hang around with jocks.

Brittany does an eye roll so extreme it looks like her eyes might pop out of her head.

"It's BRITTANY! Brittany Foster!  I just said that a few minutes ago." she practically screams at Edward.

Senile old feeb Brittany thinks to herself.

She was about to respond to Hopie, but noticed Billy seemed a bit rattled by what just happened.

She walks over to Billy and pats him on the back.

"You've been awfully quiet.  Are you okay?"

Liam’s eyes went wide at Brittany’s outburst.  He figured he wouldn’t see her to often in the library this semester.

"Brittany.  Yes of course.  I apologize.  I'm certain I won't forget your name again." Edward says to Brittany before turning to Hopie.

"I am Edward Hudson and I am the librarian at Sunnydale High. And I am also a watcher.  I have never lied to you about my true name and what I do at school.  I just didn't tell you that I have a second job until now."

Edward looks at his watch and sighs. Then he looks at everyone, making eye contact with all five of you.

"It's getting late and you all have school tomorrow.  The truth about vampires, slayers, and Sunnydale is far too complex to get into tonight."

He takes a breath, then continues.

"I suggest we adjourn for the night.  Go home, go to bed, and come to school tomorrow.  Then on your lunch period, join me in the library.  I'll treat everyone to pizza.  And I'll tell you what you all need to know.  How does that sound?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:45, Tue 17 May 2022.

Liam gave a thumbs up.  Although he still had to go home and explain the loss of the sport coat.  He dragged his feet not looking forward to that conversation.

"Pleased to meet you and goodnight Mr Hudson,"  says Hopie.  "I promise to actually go to the library for the first time in my school career tomorrow.  I promise not to forget your name as well.  Goodnight Mr Hudson Sir."

With that she waited for the others because walking home together had proved by far the safer way.

Tori wasn't at all sure she'd sleep tonight. Not after all this.

"Tomorrow. Lunchtime. Library. Pizza. Got it."

At least she had been to the library before.

She joined Hopie, determined that her shaky legs wouldn't betray her.

Billy rolled his eyes at the old guy, agreeing with Brittany.  "I have to expect you'd call someone in the ballpark of sixty old.  So you're gonna have to get used to being the increasingly old guy at school - except when Mr. Weber is around.  Then you're the younger old guy.

"And for the matter of vampires being unkillable, only slayable... 'to slay' is just to kill violently or in a fight.  And that's the Oxford, by the way.  I think that might be a hair too fine, even for an English librarian watcher."  He commented, appearing to read from his cell phone.  He'd long ago learned to cover up for some of his eidetic memory... at least when it would reveal some of the habits he'd had when he was younger - like reading dictionaries comparatively.

He turned to the others.  "I'll be at the library tomorrow, too.  Weird claims aside, he seems to know at least some things worth knowing.  And without the vampire slaying weapons he brought tonight, it definitely seems like we'd be more of the standard Sunnydale statistics."

Billy didn't draw attention to the "watcher"'s intention of limiting the information they were getting.  With the revelations of the night, he seriously doubted that they'd hear everything they needed to know over the course of a single meal.  He did, however, believe that Hudson would tell them everything he thought they needed to know over a single meal.

Brittany patted Billy on the back.  "Well said Billy, well said."

"Hey wait, I can't be eating pizza this close to cheerleading tryouts.  Can I get salad instead?  With fat free ranch dressing?" she said to Edward.

"Of course you can young lady." Edward said smiling through clenched teeth.

"Salad for Brittany, pizza for everyone else. Now lets get out of here before more vampires show up.  We'd best not press our luck."

The five teenagers and the watcher exit the cemetery together without incident.


Shortly thereafter everyone makes it home and will try to get a good night's sleep.


OCC: And that's it for episode 1.  At least for the good guys. 

Liam walked with Tori until it was obvious she was headed in a different direction.  As far as first dates went, well, he had no comparison.  It was way different than the movies.

“Ummm, I’m this way.”  He pointed the direction he would need to take to get home.  He lingered awkwardly after the statement wondering how they work a kiss in.  It didn’t feel right that he should just kiss her.  He just stood there not sure what to do next.

After she resolved the situation, he rode home.

Tori's mind was still pre-occupied with the events of the cemetery. Vampires turning into dust, librarians turning into medieval marksmen, and Hopie turning out to be something called a Slayer.

She smiled at Liam. She'd enjoyed his company more than she'd expected.

"OK. Well, goodnight. See you tomorrow."

Epilogue

Several minutes after the six have left.

All is quiet in the cemetery.  The wind begins to blow and the piles of dust that used to be Peter, Vinnie, and Guy Guy begin to blow away.

Many yards away from the scene of battle, you see a large tree that makes for a perfect hiding spot with a view of the battle that just took place.

Two vampires step from behind it.  Both in vamp face, one boy and one girl.  Both are wearing modern clothing indicating they are relatively young vampires.

The boy speaks first. "You saw and heard the whole thing?"

The girl responds.  "Oh yes.  You've gotta love vampire hearing.  Looks like we've got a Slayer in town."

"Yes, we'll need to report this to the Governor and makes plans to deal with it."

The two vampires leave the cemetery, quietly disappearing into the night.




END OF EPISODE
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:00, Mon 06 Feb 2023.