Room 121, Saturday evening

[soldtoarmenians]

He'd found the package outside his door when he'd left the lobby on Friday afternoon, but the whole Shirtless Friday thing had kind of distracted Xander from a lot of stuff. Like unpacking half the boxes still scattered around his new room, or doing more than setting the wrapped package on his desk next to Jeremiah's tank.

Now, though, after sprinkling some dried don't-really-wanna-think-about-what-it-used-to-be into Jeremiah's tank, Xander reached for the flat, paper-wrapped package, and, after checking for anything obvious that looked like it might turn him blue or change him into a marmoset, pulled the paper off.

Within was a framed manuscript page, yellow-brown with age, the words from Shakespeare's Amleth familiar enough even to somebody who'd only morphed bizarrely into an A student in the last year. If the line that got him reading it aloud happened to be

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

it probably wasn't a surprise to anybody in the room, including the frog.

The note that fell out in his hand, hidden behind the frame, said in a script even more familiar than the speech,

Wherever you go, always know that I'm proud of you.

     Giles


...allergies, man. Totally allergies that made him sniff as he dug into the hardware box that he hadn't yet unpacked into a desk drawer, and found a set of dorm-safe adhesive frame hangers.

After that, though he'd planned on doing some more unpacking, Xander smiled, sat down at his desk, and typed out an e-mail.

To: bsummers@pacbell.net
    willow.rosenberg@hogwarts.ac.uk
From: xander.harris@fandomhigh.net
Subject: Mixed messages

But not the confused kind. Just the kind where I throw them all together instead of writing separate e-mails. I'm lazy. You love me. Cope.

Willow: No, I'm sorry, yes, and could you be a little more specific about that?

Buffy: Tell OurGiles thanks for the Grad wishes, and yes, duh, his present can wait til I get home if it's too big to mail; he doesn't have to try to portal it here. It'd probably just turn purple. No, you don't have to give me any hints and break your Slayer code of bribed-with-chocolate-not-to-tell. Long as it's not snakemeat I'll be happy. Congrats on the Snakedown which you handwavily told me about right after graduation but someone never got around to mentioning because OMGWTF moving and new kids and yaddayaddayadda btw. Leading him on a chase around and around a drive-thru then setting the place on fire while he tried to untangle himself was an...interesting choice, but I guess it beats blowing up the school. Even though,great, we're now a no Starbucks town...

Botha you: Miss you guys. Yeah, even though I got to see Willow just a week ago. Gonna miss this place and the people here (yeah, maybe one some more than others, shut up) too, when I come home, though, which... is why the summer thing. I need a clone, or something, so I can be both places at once. I mean, you guys are all doing it, why can't I?

Okay so maybe that was confusing after all. There's not just a younger Willow here (and a new kid named Joxer asking me for tips on how to impress her, snicker), there's a younger Buffy. Like, really younger, hasn't been to Sunnydale, doesn't know any of us, still all chipmunk-cheeks and big hair. I forgot how hot cute you were back then, Buff. ...Not that you're not cute now. You know what I mean.

Anyway, I met her on Thursday, which is when I found out that Logan (he's the guy I got stuck in the Special Collections section of the Library with while we were looking for... art) is leaving - or I guess he's already left now. So did that guy I mentioned when I was in London -you remember, Will. Not that I'm gonna miss him all that much, but it's weird to not have him be here, all the same.

It's the change thing. Like leaving 406; I'm gonna miss having Isabel as a roomie, even if she's just upstairs. I actually hung out on the first floor yesterday, just to see who comes through there besides Constable Fraser. Apparently the answer's "everybody" - Bridge I kind of expected, but then Z showed up - she's new, but she came from where...when...he does, and she's an SPD person too.

Annnd at first I thought I'd been missing out on a uniform style that Bridge hasn't been wearing while he's been here, but turns out there's at least one change I'm all in favor of - you guys would probably approve of it too: Shirtless Fridays. Though since it was kind of a friendly prank on the newbies, I'm thinking it's not gonna happen every week. Not that I'd complain. Not everybody played along - Elle, who I guess is one of the new teachers, and Rory Cam John, Newbie Tim Who Is The Only Tim Here I Think and Not The Dumb Jock (posssssibly not their legal names) were all shirty.

But Parker sort of played, which considering I think it was her prank, seems only fair, and English Peter -- also an alias, I'm thinking - and BridgeandI all stripped off, and later we found a bunch more people upstairs on the third floor. Including that girl I mentioned with the familiar last name, and some guys I haven't met yet but I'm thinking you'd definitely appreciate the view.

Basically like I told Chloe, there needs to be a No Ending policy for good stuff. Bad stuff can change; I'm cool with that.

So... yeah. Love you guys.

~Xander

P.S. 3.9 GPA WTF shut up Willow.



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[ooc - Linkdroppy, not open for interaction. And this, chitlins, is why I usually do linkdrops every day instead of waiting. ZOMGWTFmightaswellberadio. The end.]