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Part 2
After I had learned all I could on vampires, I decided I needed to help with the fight against them. I didn’t exactly know how to train myself, so I decided I needed to learn how to fight. The only thing I could think of was a Karate class. In very little time at all I had earned my black belt. My instructor had told me it had been unlike anything he had seen before. He told me I had so much strength and expertise already in me, like I had been born to fight. That was when I decided to I was ready to face my first vampire. That’s when the school burned down. That’s when my life was flipped upside-down.
On graduation day, 1999 the school blew up during the ceremony for the graduating seniors. I was only a freshman at the time, so I had nothing to do with the ceremony, I was already on my summer break. Even though the officials (who, I don’t know) had said it was "electrical problems", I knew this all came back to the Mouth of Hell. At least 100 people died that night, the mayor and the school principal to name a couple. Workers devoted their summer to rebuilding the school exactly as it was and hiring new staff to replace the ones who had died in the explosion and the ones who had quit after it, the librarian Mr. Giles to be one of them. But of course, by September 7th all students were disappointed because the school had been finished and we were to return at our proper date. I was just starting my sophomore year.
There were a lot of unknown faces all over the school. I think everyone had at least two new teachers per semester. We also had a new principal and one new VP. Iwas sitting in my first history class of the year when there was a knock at the door. A student walked in and handed the teacher a note. The teacher read the note over and motioned for me to come to the front of the classroom. I walked up and he handed me the note. I returned to my seat and open it carefully. As I read it, I learned I was to report to new Vice Principals’ office on my study hall ‘Oh, yeah’ I thought. ‘My first day back and I’m already being called down to the VP’s office. This is going to be a great year.' As the bell rang to dismiss us from our first period class, I collected my books and headed towards the office.
I gently knocked on the VP’s door, which read ‘Ms. M. Wilson’.
"Come in" I heard a soft voice from the inside. I walked into the quite large office and found a seat in front of the Ms. Wilson. I sat down and she started to speak. I soon found out that she spoke with an English accent.
"Ms. Chloe Whitely I presume." Was the first thing she said to me.
"That’s correct." I replied, trying to be a sweet as possible in case I was in any trouble.
"Good. Chloe, from what I know you are an exceptional student. Good grades, involved in numerous extra curricular activities. You’re a very bright girl."
"Thank you very much. May I ask why I’m here? Does this have anything to do with my grades or behaviour?" I was getting impatient.
"Oh, no not at all. Quite the opposite." She started to riffle through her drawers. "But it does have a lot to do with you yourself and why you are here in Sunnydale. You weren’t originally from Sunnydale, were you?"
"No, no I’m not. But my father was and after my mother’s passing he wanted to move back here from New York. Why?" I was really confused at this point. Why was she asking me all of this?
"Yes, I know. You see, Chloe, the world is a lot different than anyone really knows. Not as safe as we all think it is. After sundown, things crawl through the night that we’ve only had nightmares about…" I suddenly realised where she was going with this conversation.
"If you’re talking about vampires, I already know. I know everything."
"You do…" She was the one who was confused now.
"Oh, yeah. About a year ago I was attacked by one of the street. I got away and did a little research."
"Yes, well… There’s a lot more than you actually know, than I actually know. Unto each generation there is one girl in whole world chosen to…"
"Save the world from vampire’s demons and other forces of darkness. She’s called the slayer. You know, no matter how many times you read that over, it never gets old."
"Of course, you know about the slayer. Well there’s one bit of information you don’t know." Ms. Wilson pulls out an old book that smells very musty. On the cover the word "VAMPYR" is engraved into the ancient leather. "You’re that girl."
"I’m sorry, what? That’s impossible. There already is a slayer in Sunnydale." I was in total shock.
"How could you know that?"
"I don’t know, I just assumed, considering this year we had the least amount of deaths and disappearances ever." I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
"You’re a good observer. I like that. Yes, there is a slayer. Actually, there are two." She had this eerie, sort of smile on her face.
"Is that possible? I thought there was only supposed to be one on the whole earth… And now there’s three!" I couldn’t even absorb everything I had been told fast enough.
"Yes, that is true. Except, about, three years ago, a slayer drowned. She was revived, but was literally dead for two minutes. Therefore another slayer was called upon. Last year one of the slayers decided to turn towards the evil side. In the end, she was push off of a roof by the original slayer, putting her in a coma. She’s barely living on life support. Than our slayer, decided she was going to quit the council. It was decided that it was best to call upon another slayer." There was an awkward pause as I tried to make sense of everything I had just been told. Then Ms. Wilson started on again. "It’s my job to prepare you, and so I will do. I would like you to meet me in the library during your spare and lunch hour."
All I could do was get out of the chair I was sitting in and walk out the office door. I was in complete and udder shock. My life had been flipped upside down in the matter of a half-hour. I slowly walked towards my locker where I could see my friend Michelle standing. I wasn’t really in any mood to talk to anyone, but what was I going to do.
"Hey, Chloe! Where’ve you been?" She sounded really excited.
"Around. What’s up?"
"Nothing, just waiting for you. Well, since we missed spare together, you’ll eat lunch with me, right!"
"Actually, I can’t." I tried to fish around for an excuse, but I couldn’t come up with one.
"Why not?" Michelle sounded disappointed.
"I just can’t, ok." I had totally snapped at her. "I gotta go." I slammed my locker shut and walked down the hall, quickly. I walked into my next class, which had been English. I sat down in the furthest seat from the front and opened up a book, not to read it. I was there about ten minutes too early, but I didn’t really care. When people finally started to file in, my best friend Cameron came in and sat down beside me. Cameron’s parent’s had been one of the very few people my parents hadn’t lost touch with when they moved from Sunnydale, so I had known Cameron all my life.
"Hey there. How’s your day been so far?"
"Interesting." I really wasn’t in the mood to talk, even with Cam.
"Well aren’t you miss talkative today. Just think, though, lunch, one more class and then this day is finally over. Wouldn’t you think that they’d build this school to look a little bit different than it did originally? Every little thing is the same. What’s up with that?"
Just as Cam had finished his last sentence, the door to the classroom slammed shut. Of course the teacher was one of those ones who thought they were way above students, therefore they would scare them all. This was going to be a long year.
Like I was told to, I reported to the library during my lunch period. I was a little late because I had stopped off at the cafeteria to grab something to eat first. I walked into the new, yet old, library and set my little tray of food onto the main table in the centre. There was no one in there. I decided to eat a little before Ms. Wilson showed up. Just as I took the first bite of my apple, she walked out of the librarian’s office wheeling a cart of books.
"So you’re the Vice Principal and the librarian?" I was confused.
"Actually, we are extremely short staffed, so I volunteered to run the library. You’d be surprised how many people don’t want to run a library that very recently blew up. Anyway, you’re here a little late."
"I stopped off for something to eat so I wouldn’t pass out." I lifted up the tray. "Yogurt?"
"No, no thank you. I’m fine. We have to train you. We have very little time to do so, so we’ll have to work extremely hard…"
"Ok, well here's my schedule." I started to name off what I did during the week. "Monday’s and Wednesday’s are cheerleading practice, Tuesday’s are student council meetings and Thursday’s are karate. Every other Friday there is a football game, which is where I cheerlead. I know I have a very busy schedule, but I think I can work around it."
"Oh, yes, we can. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to cut out all of your extra curricular."
"Excuse me?" I was devastated. "That’s my life!"
"No, slaying is you’re life, your destiny. I know this is hard, but you can never know living in Sunnydale." I couldn’t believe it, but as she told me all of this, she casually put away books on the shelves.
"So, I can’t even keep one! I thought it’d be interesting living on the Hellmouth, but basically it just sucks the fun right out of life. There’s was no stupid vampire pun intended there." I thought I was going to burst into tears.
"The Hellmouth… Where did you find that out?" She seemed shocked by the news of Sunnydale being the Hellmouth.
"I told you, earlier last year I did a lot of research on vampire’s and on Sunnydale. In my research, I learned that Sunnydale was called "La Boca Del Inferno" by the Spanish who first settled here."
"Really. I’ll have to look in on that. That could explain the large amounts of vampire’s that swarm to Sunnydale. Fighting vampires in Sunnydale is not going to be easy work, you know. You will have to devote your time to slaying and make sure that no one finds out who you really are. If civilians knew about this, there’s no telling what night happen."
"This job is just a blast." I knew that I was being very sarcastic, but what else was I supposed to say?
"I want you to meet me in the library one your spare, at lunch and after school. When you powers are at full use, you will be patrolling almost every night. This is not going to be easy, but it is your destiny." She had this look in her eye that was like a whole "Help me Obi Juan Kenobe, you my only hope…" this all over again.
"I’ll be here. But right now I have to get to class." I got up and left the library. This whole "you’re the slayer" thing was very scary to me, but I think in a way I was ready to accept my fate, no matter how much I had to give up. It was sort of an honour, out of all the girls in the world, I was chosen. Plus I had a cool secret identity.
After class I slowly grabbed my things out of my locker and started my walk home. I was stopped shortly after leaving the front doors of the school. I turned around to find Cam.
"Hey, you didn’t wait for me!" He said and I noted a little tone of hurt in his voice, which I couldn’t tell if it was fake or actual emotion.
"Oh, sorry about that."
"What’s up with you today. You’ve been acting all distant, you didn’t eat lunch with us and Michelle said you totally blew her off. Is something wrong?"
"No, I’m just peachy. The first day of school is always weird though." I felt really bad for lying to the one person I told everything to.
"I know, especially with all these new teachers. Some of them are really weird, too. And have you met the new Vice Principal? I can’t even understand a word she says…" I interrupted him by stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. "What’s up?"
"Ms. Wilson, I forgot! I was supposed to meet her after school today! Oh my god, I am so retarded!"
"Ok, well I’ll walk you back and wait for you then."
"No, no, that’s ok. You go ahead, I don’t know how long this will take. I’ll call you tonight. Bye!" Before he had time to protest, I was already jogging back towards the school. I ran in the front doors and all the way to the library. As I charged through the flapping doors, I could see Ms. Wilson leaning against the table.
"You’re late."
"I know, I know." I didn’t even try with an excuse. I flung my bag down on a chair and sat down on another one next to it. Ms. Wilson followed me with her eyes as I did so. She made me very uncomfortable as she did so.
"So, what’s up?" I looked her straight in the eyes trying to show her she didn’t intimidate me.
Throughout the next month we trained intensely. The library became like a home to me and I lost touch with other students. The once popular and smart girl I had been had now become the freak of the school. My nights were now filled with patrolling instead of cheerleading and student council meetings. My father never noticed a change because, well, like he knew what I was doing after school in the first place. I rarely did anything other than slaying and studying because my friends all felt betrayed and most of them didn’t want to hang out with a freak. One of the few students who still associated with me was Cameron and most of the time it would be to ask me what was going on, which I would reject every time.