Humanity
by Espresso Rabbit

Chapter two
“And then, Mr. Price says, ‘No, Miss Girardi, I don’t think one bad day a year is acceptable; I think no bad days a year are acceptable. If you can’t get it together, maybe you shouldn’t be taking advanced courses."
Grace shook her head. “Usually, I don’t like to admit when other people suffer more than me, but you win the award for having the worst day today.” Adam just nodded.

The three of them passed a group of people standing around a car. “I’m telling you, this is the town. I know how to read a map.”
“Maybe you did…” the blonde woman trailed off on her response to the man. Then she caught sight of Joan and her friends. “Umm…excuse me.” Joan stopped, rather irritated, and Grace and Adam followed her lead. “Sorry to bother you, but is this town called Arcadia?”
“Yes,” Joan said.
“See?” the man said. “I told you.” Then he turned fully to face the teenagers. Joan nearly groaned. He was wearing a patch over his left eye.
She gulped. “Did you…need any help…or anything?”
“Mmm…no, but if you could point us in the direction of the city library, that’d be cool.” The blonde seemed friendly, but Joan knew that appearances weren’t always what they seemed. But it was the redhead that caught her attention.
The other woman was staring at Joan suspiciously. “Who are you?”
Joan’s immediate conclusion was that this woman was dangerous.
The woman’s two friends looked at her worriedly. Joan hesitated, but she was certain these were the people God had told her about. “Umm…Joan Girardi. My dad is the Chief of Police here.” Always good to add that bit. It tended to make people a little more wary of messing with her.
The blonde looked back and forth between Joan and the redhead. “Willow?” she asked, apparently addressing her friend.
Willow narrowed her eyes, still staring at Joan. “What are you?”
Joan found that question to be rather disturbing. “W-what?”
“You heard me. You’re not human. You can’t be.”
Joan got very scared at that statement, and went very still. The blonde’s eyes widened, and her head snapped back and forth between the two. “Willow?” she asked again, but still received no answer. Joan was aware of Grace and Adam standing behind her, somehow managing to be both curious and defensive.
Finally, the blonde’s gaze settled firmly on Joan. She stared at Joan for what seemed like a very long time. Joan tried to say something—to defend herself, maybe—but she couldn’t form words. I’m not human? The man with the two women merely stood calmly, watching the interactions.
Then the blonde’s eyes left Joan. They flicked to Adam, then to Grace. She turned back to Willow. “It’s fine, Will. Leave them alone.”
“But—”
The blond suddenly grabbed Willow’s arm and nearly hauled her across the street, out of earshot. They started arguing, gesturing frantically.
The man with one eye sighed, and stepped between Joan and her view of the women. “Sorry about that. Willow gets…kinda crazy sometimes.”
“I’m…not human?” Joan asked weakly.
“Do you think you’re human?”
“I did.”
He shrugged. “Then you probably are. Generally the people who aren’t human know it. Like I said, Willow just…has a couple issues. I’m Xander, by the way.” He offered his hand to Joan. “Thanks for telling us where we are.” Joan managed a weak smile, and hesitantly shook his hand.
The two women walked back about then. Willow’s eyes were downcast. She flicked them up briefly to say “Sorry I freaked you out,” to Joan, then she climbed into their car and shut the door.
Xander raised an eyebrow at the blonde, who grimaced. She actually managed to look Joan in the eye. “Sorry. You were being nice, helping us out. I didn’t mean to put you through so much trauma on our accounts.” Then she tried to smile. “I’m Buffy.”
“Buffy?” Grace asked incredulously.
“Yep. For twenty-two years. I promise there is nothing you can say that I have not already heard.”
“No, it’s great. I’m all for defying convention. Don’t know if I would’ve chosen Buffy, but…
” Buffy chucked. “Well, we should let you go. You’re probably dying to get away from us.” She turned serious eyes on Joan. “Are you gonna be okay?”
“I…” Joan started to nod, but then changed her mind. “Am I human?”
Buffy smiled. “You look human to me.”
Joan nodded. Buffy and Xander both smiled, and started to get back in their car.
“Oh,” Adam caused them both to stop short. “The library…down that way,” he pointed. “Third left.”
“Thanks,” Xander said, then they were driving away.
Joan stared after them, wondering what had just happened.
Grace snorted. The sound snapped Joan out of her stupor. She and Adam both looked at Grace.
“What? Don’t tell me you actually bought that. You’re not human. Come on, Girardi. The woman was obviously nuts. If the other two weren’t her chaperones from the funny farm, they helped break her out.”
That got Joan to laugh a little. “Yeah. Wow. It does sound ridiculous. It’s just a little freaky to be told you’re not human like that.” She looked in the direction the other three had driven. They were well out of sight. “Let’s get out of here.”
* * *
Xander stepped on the gas. Willow was pouting in the back seat. As soon as they had passed Joan and her friends, Buffy twisted around to look at her. “That was rude.”
“She’s not human.”
“Yes, she was. I wasn’t getting any demon-y vibes from her at all.”
“I didn’t say she was a demon. Just that she wasn’t human.”
“But you can’t just go around accusing people of not being human. And the way you did it…Did you see how freaked out she was? I mean, I know you’ve been going through some issues lately, with Sunnydale, and the magic, and Kennedy…But you can’t just do that to people. You remember how screwed up we were in high school? Why would you want to inflict that on someone else?
” Willow tried to shrug nonchalantly, but she now appeared rather dubious.
“Look,” Xander said a moment later. “Library. Let’s get to work, then?”

chapter three

return to Tales of Arcadia