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Alec gets to school a little early the day after the storm. It was on the news out of L.A. - 'freak storm causes damage in Sunnydale'. He's pretty proud of that spell.

He's looking around to see if a certain new student is around. You know, to make sure she knows where to go and everything.

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"It's the Bronze!"

Alec is very helpful.

"It's a- not quite a bar, and not quite a night club, and never ever the height of cool. But bands play there, you can dance until curfew, and teenagers get in without fake IDs."

"Sounds like fun! I love dancing. Seriously, Sunnydale is way cooler than home."

Home is really all of fifteen minutes away. But, hey, grass. Greener. Other side.

"I don't know. Goleta sounds nice and quiet. It could be good for a change from Sunnydale craziness."

The way Alec's eyes sparkle when he says this last indicates just how bored he would be without the craziness.

"Things happen in Goleta! Sometimes! Every... now and then."

Ginny should know! There was that whole thing with the demon last year and everything!

"I bet you've never had an apocalypse in Goleta."

Ginny's forehead furrows.

"By definition, wouldn't an apocalypse that happens in one place happen everywhere? I mean, it's not like the world would end in Sunnydale but everything would just keep going on a-okay like normal everywhere else."

He shrugs. "I don't know. They always get stopped before they erupt out of the city limits."

"You know, I remember some pretty strange news out of Sunnydale, now that you mention it."

She leans forward and puts a hand on his arm.

"Were you ever involved in any of the... apocalypses? Apocali?"

"Involved?"

This comes out in a squeak. The squeak comes mostly from her hand on his arm. Part of it is from worry.

"Not really? I mean, we don't try to cause them. Or anything like that. We just, you know, do other stuff."

Sometimes it's bad stuff. But it's never "end the world" kind of plotting.

"Oh, Jesus, no, I didn't mean cause them. I dunno, I thought maybe you would've helped stop them or something. I guess maybe magic seems like it could be useful for that sort of thing?"

She feels a little stupid now - she'd stayed up way too late the night before, imagining becoming a kind of superhero, calling rainstorms to places with droughts and saving children from evildoers. It all seems pretty dumb in the daylight.

"Well, uh, sometimes we do things to protect our houses? There's usually not much you can do, because the Slayer has that job, you know? And we don't want her to find out we exist."

"I don't know," she says, a tiny bit frustrated. "I didn't even know about magic until lunchtime yesterday, how am I supposed to know anything about apocalypses and whatever the fuck Slayers are?"

"Shit, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you didn't know. Since you talked to Alyce and Tom, I thought maybe you'd heard about everything already."

He looks genuinely stricken.

"So, uh, the Slayer, she's kind of like a super hero. She's wicked strong, and it's her job to go after the vampires and demons and people who, uh, cause trouble. Her name is Buffy, so just, you now, steer clear of her. She has plenty more important and dangerous things to worry about than us."

"Tom did mention it - or her, I guess," Ginny admits. "But in a sort of 'There's so much you don't know' kind of way, not a 'Let me teach you things' way. Anyway, that does help. Thanks. I guess if you're going to live in a town with vampires and the world ending and shit, it's pretty useful to have a superhero around."

"Oh, absolutely. We'd never plot against her or anything. Not even Tom would do that."

He bites his lip. Maybe he shouldn't have said the last in the way he did.

"And hey, sorry, again, about Tom. He learned a lot on his own - we all did. There are no guidebooks to the supernatural features of Sunnydale. You have to learn it as you go, so I guess he figured you should do the same. But seriously, if you need to know something, Alyce and I can help explain."

"Oh, hey, you really don't have to apologize for Tom. I mean, his issues are his issues, not yours, you know? I don't like feeling like I'm so far behind the rest of you, but I know that will get better. And it's totally worth it to get to use magic and spend time with you."

Ginny smiles up at him, the most directly she has so far.

"I would definitely like to spend more time with you," he says, blushing.

Oh god, he's blushing. So smooth. Sooooo smooth.

As they've been talking, the front lawn of the school has slowly emptied as students start heading to class, but Ginny hasn't noticed until the bell rings, signaling three minutes to get to class.

"Fuck!" she yelps, hiking her bag up on her shoulder. "I should probably not be late my second day. Four thirtyish, right here?"

She smiles at him and dashes off toward class.

He watches her go with a huge grin.

"Right here," he calls after her.

Then he wanders the other way, managing not to trip over the laces of his shoes.

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