Watcher’s Diary

as recorded by Rupert Giles {gb}

Entries for 30 January 2000 through 9 February 2000 {Last and final entry}

 

Rupert Giles settled into his new office as the Sunnydale High School Librarian. Quite a change from the Museum Curator’s position he had recently left. The first day of school was filled with noisy students and endless commotion. So unlike the quiet research archives he had just left. He put in his weekly call to the Watcher’s Council for any updates or new information. The clerk had told him they would return his call at the their earliest convenience.  How typically bureaucratic of them, the world could end and they would never know about it until the demons came a knocking. Thats how snarled up in red tape they always were. Then Rupert looked at the library computer with his usual distaste. It lacked feeling, substance, even the smell was wrong; definitely not like a leather bound first edition. Perhaps a student aid, who could figure out these electronic contraptions, to help catalog the collections. He made a short call to the faculty advisor for the school paper to place a brief add requesting a student aid, knowlegable in computers, to work in the library. The faculty advisor also suggested Giles talk to the Computer Science Teacher to see if she could recommend anyone. Giles went through the school  faculty listing and made a mental note to find a Ms Calender at the next faculty meeting.

   Miss Summers should be ariving today. The Chosen One a New Slayer. What little information that had been supplied, told him her first watcher had met an unfortunate fate. She had been discovered much later than usual, 15 years old, and as a result received much less formal training and guidance; than was the norm. Still he looked forward to the rigors of training and taking back the night through effective patroling.

   Giles then reluctantly put down the medieval text he was reading and set out to organize the piles of textbooks that would soon have to be issued to new students. One of the thankless extra jobs Principle Flutie had dumped on him so as to help him meet everyone.

His musings were then interupted by loud thud and comotion out in the hall...

>Willow walked down the halls of Sunnydale High which was crowded with

>people.  Some stood around in groups, talking excitedly to their friends and

>trading stories of the summer.  It was the usual first day of school at SHS.

>Clutching her books and folders in her arms, Willow quickly walked down the

>hall trying to avoid anyone who'd make fun of her clothes or more

>specifically, trying to avoid Fashion Queen Cordelia Chase.

>>Suddenly, she bumped straight into a red haired boy.  Her books flew out of

her arms

>and landed on the floor with a thud.

Oz picked himself up from the floor.   He hated starting back for another

year, all the hustle and bustle and this had just clinched it, next year he

was skipping first day back.   He looked over to the girl who had bumped

into him.  Her books were all over the place. "Here, let me help."  Oz

picked up the books and handed them to her.  "Sorry."

Willow took the books from the guy who had she had bumped into, "T-thanks."

she said shyly.  "I'm a bit of klutz today, you know the first day of school

and all." She glanced at him closely, he looked familiar. "A-are you in that

band that was at the Bronze the other night?" she babbled.

"Yeah, we kind of suck but we're cool with that.  I'm Daniel Osbourne...Oz."

 He looked around. "I'd better be going, need to go do the class thing, see

you around." and with that he walked off down the corridor. "Nice girl," he

thought, "should have asked her her name."  Lost in thought Oz bumped into

some one else. "Next year, I'm not going to come for the first week" he

decided as he picked himself up off the floor for the second time that day.

He looked at the person he had bumped into. "Hi" he said.

"Oh please!" Said Cordelia. Even if this guy was in a band, he had no excuse

to bump into her, Cordy thought, having just heard his previous conversation

with someone who would rank over the limit on the nerd scale.

"Sorry, uh...." Said Oz, wondering who she was.

"Like I'm going to just give my name to you. That would be like giving my

name out to...Xander!" Said Cordy, questioning the nerve of this guy.

She stalked off, swaying her hips from side to side as she did so, but not

before bumping into another guy.

"Excuse you." She said, angry he had invaded her personal space.

Giles frowned at yet another interuption. The comotion and loud voices had

distracted him, so he stuck his head outside the library door to see what was

happening, out in the hall, several students were picking themselves up off

the floor, others were talking. The only one he recognized was Miss Chase one

of the school's leading socialites. Surely Miss Summers must be out there

somewhere

"Nice girl." thought Oz,"Probably a Devon kind of girl."  Oz walked on

wondering what had happened to his friend Tony who was supposed to meet him

last night.  Probably found a girl and forgot the time, nevermind his loss.

Oz was lost in thought again when...bump!  "This is getting ridiculous!" he

thought.  Someone offered a hand and Oz stood up.  He looked at the girl who

had helped him up.  She had a little girl lost look about her but also some

inner strength.  Oz was good at observing people, it came from all that lack

of talking. "Hi," he said, "you're new here aren't you?"

>>"Oh I'm sorry. I am just not with it today.  Yeah I'm new. My name is Buffy

- Buffy Summers. Here let me help you up." Great what a wonderful way to

start the year at a new school. Buffy thought to herself.

Gile's heart skipped a beat as heard the petite, young blond girl introduce herself. At last, The Slayer, The Chosen One, he thought to himself. "Miss Summers, I'm Mr Giles, the Librarian, might I have a word with you?"She turned and looked at him and said” Umm I have to go umm get to class." And with that Buffy turned and walked

quickly down the hall.

Giles was at a momentary loss for words, she was, The Slayer, and he was her Watcher. This wasn't how he had forseen their first meeting "Very well, quite right, perhaps later."

 As she walked to thought to her self man I hope all

the people here are not that weird. When Buffy walked into class she realized

that she was going to need books and the books are in the library. So she

decided to go back to the library after class and face the weird man she had

encoutered before.

Willow watched as Oz walked off and bumped straight into Cordelia who as

usual was rude.  She was glad that it was Oz rather than her, Cordelia would

made fun of her clothes and then given her this lecture on moisturising

before letting Willow get a word in edgewise.

She then saw Oz bump into a new girl with blond hair and pretty green eyes. 

'She'll probably be another Cordette.' she thought to herself feeling rather

down.

It was great having Xander as a best friend but sometimes she wished he

could be more girly.  Of course then it wouldn't make him Xander or boy-y. 

Willow sighed, she was thinking too much.

She spotted Xander over by his locker and ran up to him, "Hey!"  she

exclaimed brightly.  "Boy am I glad to see you!

 

"Hi, you're new aren't you?" Said Cordelia, running into the new girl from

LA.

"Yeah, umm, I'm Buffy." "Cordelia." Cordy replied, and decided to hit

straight to the bullet,

"So you're from LA, right? So whenever you're next there, we should totally

go together. Think of all the shops."

"Uh, yeah" Buffy replied, and asked directions to the library.

"Um, I don't really know. Y'know, that's where the geeks live. I can point

you to the nearest 24hour mall if you want." Offered Cordelia, thinking

maybe this new girl wasn't as cool as she was expcting.

um no thats ok but thank you any way. Cordelia do you think you could show

me where the library is? I kinda need some books.

Oz looked on the scene.  Poor girl, first day here and introduced to the

Sunnydale high society.  Oz looked at his watch.  "I'm going to be late" he

thought.  He turned round and started to walk to his class thinking about

the  songs his band would be playing tonight at the Bronze.

Giles stepped back into the library. His answering machine had one message, from a clerk on the Watcher's Council, nothing of major imporatance they were aware of and they trust the meeting with the new Slayer had gone well. 'Not bloody likely' on both accounts Giles muttered to himself. The Council always seemed to be a step behind the times and his first meeting with Slayer was hardly constructive.  He dialed the Computer Science Lab and found Ms Calenderwas out, but they would ask her to return his call. Giles then picked up a well worn copy of the Transylvania Chronicles Dark Tides Rising and lost himself in the monk's archaic text.

 Giles sign out a several books to the few students who seemed to know there was library. Issuing of textbooks had equally been light. This allowed him him to continue his reading of the Transylvania Chronicles 'Dark Tides Rising.' The passages by the Monk Harold of Medicus both fascinated and troubled him.

"Saulot has fallen, and to what end? the Demon Snouticous rages in his ancestral home at whose behest? Beneath the soil of the dale in the sun pulses an undying heart, but for how long. Only those who can defy destiny itself will stem the dark tide." His study was interupted by someone entering the library.

   Giles study was interupted by someone entering the library. He looked out his office door and saw Principal Flutie, trapped in his office with no where to go and no students present he forced a smile and said,"May I help you Principal Flutie." He answered with that annoying smile, "Yes Mr Giles, to service our needs and help your needs I want to help you get better acquainted with some of our students. I want you to see the following people during last period today. They'll all receive slips to report here:

Miss Buffy Summers is new in addition to books she will need the basic orientation lecture.

Mr Daniel Osborne received numerous incompletes last year, please review the attendance policies with him

Mr Xander Harris still owes us some detention time from his freshman year. I'm sure there's something you can have him do for an hour or so each day for the next couple of days

Miss Cordelia Chase has, as I'm sure your well aware, several library books that have been overdue all summer, although when our Queen socialite has time to read is beyond me.

With that the principal left and a much more pleasant site entered Giles field of vision. Dark Hair, piercing eyes, smashing figure... She said, "Well that sounds like fun, Flutie has the gift for making warm and fuzzy very irritating." Giles just kept staring and finally babbled

Yes indeed, may I help you Miss?" She replied, "Ms Calender, I teach Computer Science." Giles answered shakily, "Yes indeed." Ms Calender noticed several of the Occult books on Gile's desk and said"Interesting reading habbits." Giles was truly at a loss for words as he hastily closed the manuscript, "Uh Huh." Ms Calender toyed with him for a moment like a cat playing with a mouse but her smile lit up the room for Giles. "I'll ask a Ms Willow Rosenberg to stop by during last period, she's very good with computers." Giles replied, "Thank you, those dread machines scare me to no end." Ms Calender turned to leave and said "Mr Giles this is the 20th Century, women even have the vote," and she left with same heart warming smile and soul searching gaze.

As the Bell for Last Period sounds__________

he final bell rang and Willow rushed down the hall, hoping to quickly get

to her locker and go home.  She had avoided Cordelia and the Cordettes all

the day and she planned to keep it that way.

"Willow!"  Miss Calender exclaimed.

Willow stopped and turned around to face Miss Calender, her new Computer

Science teacher.

"Hi Miss Calender," Willow said with a smile.

"Look, I know you may probably want to get home but I was wondering if you

could do me a teeny favor?"  Miss Calender asked.

"Sure," Willow replied in a I-like-to-help tone.

"Could you stop by the library and fix up one of the computers in there

please?"  Miss Calender asked.  "The new Librarian typed in a few wrong keys

and has made the database got haywire.  Maybe you could give him a few hints

on how to fix it, I have a feeling he'll be typing in more wrong keys as the

days go on."

"Well okay," Willow replied.  "I'll head there right now."

She waved Miss Calender good-bye and walked into the library.  It was dark

and somewhat gloomy with a few shades of sunlight streaming through the

windows.  There were more books in there than she had ever seen before.

"Hello...." Willow called out.  "Anyone here?""...

And I'm telling you, I've never even set foot in this library before

now. This is so unfair, I know it's a prank, how else could you explain it.

It's so obviously Xander Harris' lame attempt at humour. When I get my hands

on him, I sware, I'll..."

"Cordelia! Please be quiet for three seconds." Giles said to Cordelia, who

seemed set on babbling on until Giles took back the library fine.

"I know it's your job to say that, but it's my job to speak out against

these unjust fines. I've never even heard of 'Wuthering Heights.' I mean,

what's *that*, like a tree or something. Look, it's 1:30 and Harmony is

expecting me in the quad now. I gotta book."

"You have to...what?" Asked Giles, confused.

Cordelia started walking towards the swing doors to the librarys exit, but

couldn't help saying,

"Oh, and tweed? So over."

Walking out, she saw Willow, Queen of Nerdom enter her royal castle.

Securing her place as Queen Socialite, she said,

"I swear, if you tell anyone I was in here..." and walked out huffily

leaving Willow in a trail of dust, looking for Giles.

Willow laughed as Cordelia waltzed out in her usual rude and brash manner. 

She couldn't help laughing, the Librarian's face looked so funny when

Cordelia said that she had to book.

"Uh Sir," she said to the guy in tweed.  "I'm here to fix up the error on

the computer.  Miss Calender sent me, I'm Willow Rosenberg."  She trailed

off.

"I swear, if you tell anyone I was in here..." and walked out huffily

leaving Willow in a trail of dust, looking for Giles.>>

Oz walked into the library.  He looked down at the slip of paper in his

hand.  It basically said that at last period he and a some other students

had to go to the library for a talk about school ethos.  "Great," thought

Oz, "I could be practising for the gig tonight instead of here." 

"Hello!"  he called out but there was no reply.  "Well, while I'm waiting

I'll go and read some of the musical biographies." 

Oz moved up to the shelves looking at the titles. "Man there are some weird

books in this library."

He pulled one off the shelf and read the title on the front "Maren's Demon

Tarek, weird."

Oz put the book back on the shelf and turned around the corner of a little

alcove.  Suddenly he heard the library door swing open.  There were two

people talking, a boy and a girl.  The girl's voice sounded familiar.  Oz

peeked round the corner.

"Man I am late." Buffy said as she ran down the hall. She had gotten a paper

that said she was to go to the library after last period. Unfortanaly she had

gotten a little lost. At last she found the library and ran through the

swinging doors. "Sorry I'm late its just that i got a little lost and.." she

noticed the girl who was standing in front of her. " I'm guessing your not

the librarian."

The weather had been cloudy and overcast all day. So it was no surprise when the thunderstorm started pouring down torrents of rain as the ligthning flashed and the thunder rumbled loudly.

As Cordelia left the library. The lights in the hall flicked and went out.  The dim glow of the emergency lights kicked in and she saw a young women in an a Red Victorian Dress standing next to a white haired man in leather jacket smoking a cigarette, both were blocking her path. "My dearie aren't you cold in such a short little dress, but she's a pretty one Spike, will she do" the women said and the man replied with an English accent "yes, Dru, a nice bird at that, lets grab her and let the boys take care of the Watcher." Cordelia suddenly________ ...

Giles stood flustered as Miss Chase left. One mattered concluded several more to go. He didn't know if the young man who was walking around the stacks was Mr Harris or Mr Osborne and was about to find out. When Willow Rosenberg introduced herself, "Good to meet you Miss Rosenberg, I'm Mr Giles the Librarian, please excuse me one moment." He turned to question the young man and didn't see the petite blond who entered; and said to Willow "I'm guessing your not the librarian."

Then the lights flickered and went out. As the emergency lighting came one two young men with malformed faces rushed out from the stacks. One knocked the red haired boy over in his hurry to get at Giles as the other rushed forward and said, "Watcher, you shouldn't have come here, there's no Slayer in Sunnydale." Giles blocked the rush of the first one with surprising series of punches one could only learn through street fighting, but the second slammed him hard against a metal cabinet. Giles had the breath knocked out him but yelled "Miss Rosenberg, young man get out of here now!" The two figures closed in on Giles as....

Willow watched in horror as two guys with weird looking faces punched out

the Librarian.  'What was going on?' she wondered.  She turned to the blond

girl and Oz.  "Should we call the police?!"  she exclaimed.

"I don't know about that but ducking and running might be a good idea." Oz's

eyes grew wide as he saw a man with a large forehead make a running leap

towards them."Now"  He grabbed Willow's arm and pulled her down and the man

went sailing overhead. Oz couldn't see the blond girl about or the

librarian.  With Willow behind him he started to run to the door when two

weird men blocked their way. "What is it with these guys?." an exaperated Oz

said.  Oz looked around for anywhere remotely safe. His eyed fell on the

book cage near the corner.  "I've got an idea." he called to the girl behind

him, "follow me."  With that he ran to the book cage and slammed and locked

the door after he and Willow had entered safely.  Oz turned round to inspect

the scene.  Can you see the librarian and the new girl?" he asked.

"don't call the police. Just let me take care of this" Buffy turned to face

the vampires that held Mr. Giles. " Hey thats what u think cause guess what u

just made a big mistake coming her" 

"who are u" Said the vampire with the blonde hair

"ur worst nightmare" Buffy said as she kicked him in the face.

 she turned to see where that girl and guy had went. when she spotted them

they were in some kind of cage. they were safe for now but she had to get

them out of there.

She's over there," Willow replied pointing to where the blond girl was. 

She was kicking the a guy with a creepy looking face and didn't seem scared

at all.

She kicked pretty good for a girl too.  She turned to Oz, "Is it just me or

is there something weird going on here that is weirder than usual?"  She

leaned back and almost fell against a cupboard.

Curiously, she opened the cupboard to reveal several wicked looking weapons.

"Wow," she said to Oz.  "Take a look at this..."

"Wow! Heavy weaponry!" said Oz.

Suddenly from behind them there was a growl. Oz turned round slowly.  Just

outside the cage there was a weird guy.  He had ridges on his forehead, very

sharp pointy teeth and yellow eyes. "There is definite weirdness in evidence

her." Oz said.  The guy was trying to open the cage.

  "Giles saw one of the Vampires pinning him stunned by a flashy kick from  Miss Summers and the other was now trying to get at the two students who had locked themselves in the restricted area security cage, two more vampires had blocked the exit and were preparing to rush the Slayer. Giles grabbed a broken chair leg that had been smashed in the earlier scuffle and stabbed with all his might into the back of the Vampire trying to get at the students in the cage. Poof and smattering cloud of dust resulted. Giles elation was short lived as he saw the other three Vampires closing in on the Slayer."

1 down 3 to go." Buffy looked around and noticed that all three of the

vampires had surronded her. She did a round kick and hit all three at the

same time. They all fell to the floor. Buffy took out a stake and dusted

one. She looked up in time to see Mr. Giles dust another. But when she went

to dust the third he had diappeared. "Man where did he go." Buffy thought to

herself. " You can run but u can't hide">>

Willow watched as the blond girl and both the librarian placed some pointy

stake like thing through 2 of the people with the weird faces.  They had

pointy teeth and wrinkles, but they looked young.  She grabbed the door to

steady herself, as Mr Wrinkly #1 dissapeared.

It sort of poofed and burst into dust. She turned to Oz, "I always knew

Sunnydale was less than normal but I didn't think it was filled with weird

people who burst into dust!  You saw that right?  I wasn't hallucanating

right?"  She started taking deep breaths so she hopefully wouldn't pass out.

Can you help us in here?   I think she is going to faint."  He called out to

the other occupants of the library.

He watched as the librairan came over to unlock the cage.  The blond girl

was still in a fight ready position looking around the library.  He turned

to Willow, "Just keep breathing, OK? We'll get through this and I'll try to

prove that we're not mad."

 

Meanwhile out in the hall... Cordelia suddenly...froze...

As this point the older women who was seriously fashion out of date grabbed her, along with another escapee from the fashion police biker leather jacket-oh please! And they dared comment on her designer original, plus what was all that noise coming from the library. At this point she went into the

library to see what all the noise was about.

"I thought this was a library, so "shhh" would be your raison d'etre and

so...." Cordy trailed off, seeing the mass fight that was going on around

her. She saw Buffy and....behold the wierdness, a librarian fighting the

fashion impaired and Oz and Willow cowering in a cage.

She tried to escape, telling herself that whatever was going on, wasn't

good, but a woman with yellow eyes caught her and pulled Cordy's neck

towards her teeth, or fangs. Ewwww! The woman lent in to bite her.....

***THIS WILL BE THE LAST ENTRY***