School Hard

[prodigious_birth]

Here is Juliette sitting all by her lonesome in the Sunnydale Highschool cafeteria. Every other table is full, and there are some kids standing, but no one seems too keen on asking her for a seat.

Lunch today is mac and cheese with a side of lettuce.

Comments

[abodyinmotion]

...And here is a Slayer in her secret identity. She looks at the table with the lonesome girl.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Arya asks.

[prodigious_birth]

"I don't know, are you resistance to most poisons?"

[abodyinmotion]

"Well, I am eating from the school cafeteria."

[prodigious_birth]

"Point. You'd have to be pretty sturdy to survive the mac and cheese." Her meal sits untouched on her tray. "I haven't gathered the courage to attempt it yet."

She pauses and kicks out the chair, "Sit all you want."

[abodyinmotion]

"I am pretty sturdy and lack self preservation instincts. My name is Arya, by the way."

[prodigious_birth]

"Lack a lot of social instincts too, if you're sitting with me. I'm Juliette, the social leper. You're new?"

[abodyinmotion]

Arya gives the girl a vaguely challenging look.

"Yes, I am new. Arya, the social clueless, at least until I understand the school's cliques better, then I will the social clueless that punches any bitches that crosses her."

[prodigious_birth]

Juliette sits up in her seat and smiles at her.

"Punching people, yes please. Is this usual behaviour for you?"

[abodyinmotion]

Arya smirks "What counts as usual? Like I only inflicted glorious knuckle-based justice like... four times, and once I caught a girl gossiping about my brother and she made this face..." Arya giggles "And run away so fast that I couldn't look at her face again without having a giggling fit."

After a pause, Arya sporfles and can't control herself for a minute.

[prodigious_birth]

"I only really have to glare at most people nowadays. Everyone seems to give me enough of a distance that there's really no need for knuckle-based justice, which is kind of sad."

"Where are you from?"

[abodyinmotion]

"San Francisco. It was a nice place, at least the nasty girls learned things fast there."

[prodigious_birth]

"What brings you to the deadliest town in Southern California? Needed some new teenage girls to terrorize?"

[abodyinmotion]

"Deadliest?"

[superego_medico]

Ezra decided to use his lunch hour to check the library out.

A short few minutes of browsing the shelves and he is already shocked.

He knew that Sunnydale was supposed to be weird, that the hellmouth is a evil magnetic and the population keeps themselves in denial.

But it was too much of a surprise to find multiple books about demons and dark magic in the high school library.

Part of him was specially mad that the books aren't properly organized, not that he wanted to be a demonology section, but finding a book about vampires next to geology section was almost insulting.

Maybe some smart ass was making a joke.

[fourthwish]

Lina is in her little corner, peacefully reading through a particularly interesting grimoire about ancient magicks, when she notices another student looking between a magic book and a normal textbook with a look of intense confusion on his fac. She smiles, and raises her voice a little.

"Looking to bury a vampire in a mound of rocks, or do you have something else in mind?"

[superego_medico]

Ezra drops his book and his attempt to catch it, results on his head knocking on the shelf and dropping a dozen more with him needing to press his body against it.

"What?"

[fourthwish]

Lina jumps and starts up quickly. "I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

[superego_medico]

Ezra makes sure the bookshelf isn't going to tip over again, and then proceeds collecting the books from the floor.

"Nothing is hurt, except my pride."

[fourthwish]

She bends down next to him and starts picking up books. "Well, I hope your pride heals nicely." She finishes and places the books back on the shelf.

"Where you looking for anything in particular? I'm the go-to gal for books."

[superego_medico]

"Nothing in particular," Ezra lies "can you give me that book?"

It is titled 'Magic & Soul: An Intricate Relationship'

[fourthwish]

"Oh. Well if you were looking for soul magicks, this volume doesn't really cover even the basics. I mean, it explains the relationship between magic and souls pretty well, but if you wanna get a more detailed explanation and exploration you really wanna look at the book that it references. Salasar's Almanac."

She pauses and blushes. "Uh. I mean." She hands him the book he asked for.

[superego_medico]

Ezra blinks, but then says "I don't mind hearing book recommendations, these books are fascinating."

[fourthwish]

"They are! The last librarian kind of just showed up one day and then all of these magic and demon books just appeared on the shelves. I think she was a wanna-be witch, or maybe a half-demon, because I can't really think of another reason why she would have so many of these books. I would ask her, but she died the other month at the parent-teacher night."

She frowns, sad. "Sorry, I know we're not really meant to bring it up."

She starts walking over to another shelf. "I'll get that book for you."

[superego_medico]

So either this one is smarter than the average Sunnydale citizen or she just doesn't play the secrecy that well. Either option is weird.

"Wait... Why do you think she was a half-demon?" Ezra says following.

[fourthwish]

"They tend to be more knowledgeable about the supernatural world than a run of the mill human. And there's a lot more books on demons than anything else in the library."