A second Chance

Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one used herein.
Title: Falcon and Fledge
Author: Kate R.
Pairings: N/A so far
Summary: Xander gets a new guardian who knows a lot of things about the supernatural and fighting
Notes: Inspired by Calia's latest challenge: I'll give Xander a new guardian, and I won't bash Giles but I can't do the other things. One has to give respect to get it and Xander never respected anyone. That Joss himself stated, just like he stated Xander was the lovable idiot of the show. If you want this before season three, sorry, he wasn't that smart. Especially not about people since he judged by appearances. I won't make him dumber than Joss had him though and, I will give a way that stupidity is not his fault so just try reading it all the way through.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was hard, being back in school and having to face what he'd let himself become by living down to his stepfather. Looking at his papers, he wondered what he'd been thinking. He was better than this. He knew he was better than this. He'd made a lot of mistakes and he didn't know if he could fix them all.

Uncle Ardeth had fixed some of it, though. He'd a report brought in showing Xander had some brain damage from repeated impacts with a wall and he'd gotten Snyder fired. He'd gone to the school board, the State School Board, and lodged a formal complaint that Snyder was abusive and harassed students, making pretty girls date athletes so he had happy cheaters who were never failed. Snyder had been gone in under a week and so had most of the teachers he'd brought in that were as abusive as he was. They abused their authority, forged grades, changed grades, said students were absent that weren't depending on if Snyder liked them or not, and Ardeth had this all brought to light.

Because of that, Sunnydale's school system was now being run by the state. Of course that had upset some people because the state was testing everyone to see where they actually should have been academically. So far Xander's entire class had tested blow average, Willow included. According to their tests they were all Freshmen level or lower. He had no idea what that was going to mean bu there was a meeting tonight at the school that was mandatory, as in 'you better be there'. He'd driven and his uncle was with him.

He'd gotten here early so he could get a good seat and he saw Willow and Buffy in the back but oddly Cordelia and Larry were up front with him. Larry's parents weren't there and neither were Cordy's but it was apparent they'd cone together not like they were dating, but more like it was economical and made sense that they brought one car between them. From what Xander had heard, Larry and Cordy had tested the highest of their entire class.

"Where are your parents, this week?" Xander heard Larry ask Cordy.

"Spain," Cordy answered him, "Yours?"

"Hell if I know," Larry told her, "I haven't seen them all year. They leave after school starts and come back around Christmas for a week or two, then they're gone again until mid-summer."

"How do you get by?" Cordy asked.

"Blind luck," Larry told her, "I learned to cook at four, I can clean a mean house, I can dress myself well and they always leave money for stuff, it's just that they don't want to be around me."

"That sounds familiar," Cordy sighed.

"Uncle Ardeth?" Xander asked, looking at his uncle. He wasn't sure he liked Cordy or Larry but they were living alone pretty much. And if they had raised themselves maybe he needed to look harder.

"Yes," Ardeth told him, "Talk to them after this meeting."

Xander nodded as the head of the state school board came up to the podium.

He looked out at all the students and sighed hard.

"I'm sorry," he told them all, "This school system failed all of you and I'm sorry. However, we have found a way to make it right."

"What way?" Cordy asked, but not nastily.

"The only way to catch you all up is to have you all in school on the weekends, Saturdays, mostly, and during the summer. Not Summer School in the traditional sense, but more like an accelerated college class. If you work as hard as you all showed the potential to, you'll be caught up in no time."

"What about Our Time?" Xander heard Willow demand.

"Do you want to graduate high school?" the man asked.

"Yes," Willow told him, "But I'm genius, I don't need these stupid classes."

"Miss Rosenberg," he questioned. Willow nodded, looking smug.

"You tested in the lowest percentile," the man told her, "You aren't a genius, your parents scared every teacher you had after getting the one who said you were only an idiot savant fired because she dared to say you were wrong and failed every test you took that year. Unfortunately, your parents can't intimidate or buy the state. You need these classes more than anyone in this room excepting maybe Miss Buffy Summers."

Willow's face showed outrage but she sat back down. Her parents had told her they couldn't protect her any more and now she knew what they meant. If she wanted her grades to be good, she'd have to earn them from now on. Earn 'all' of them, not just the ones that were for computers. She'd known she was never as smart as she said she was. She was never as anything as she said she was, but her parents had bullied every teacher she'd had from kindergarten to now only now that wasn’t happening any more. They couldn't fight the school board when she'd had the same test everyone else had and failed it so badly. There was no more screaming bias because she was a smart little girl and the teachers were jealous, no more claiming the test was unfair because it was the same test every other student had gotten. No more of anything. Her secret was out. She wasn't a genius. She wasn't particularly extraordinary at all. She was just a nerd. And her attitude had all the other nerds against her. She was alone except for Buffy and Xander. And Xander wasn't her Xander any more. He was his Uncle's 'Alex' now, no matter what he still let her call him, he was Alex O'Connell now. And that scared her because Alex O'Connell was really smart. Smart enough to not need her. Smart enough to realize she'd ruined every paper she'd done for him so he failed them and looked stupid. He was smart. And that meant she was in trouble.

"She messed me up, huh?" Xander leaned over and asked his uncle, seeing the look on Willow's face as she looked at him.

"Indeed, she did," Ardeth told him.

"Excuse me," Cordy began, "If you're talking about nerd-zilla could you do it in English so the rest of the people she's screwed over can hear and appreciate it?"

"Of course," Ardeth told her, "I will have to remember to speak English anyhow if you and Larry are going to come to our home so you have one of those and not just houses."

"Us?" Cordy asked, "In your house? But you're a king . . ."

"And a King looks after his people," Ardeth told her, "Alex says you are classmates of his, that makes you my people semantically. I will look after you, provide a home for you and make sure you are safe."

"Thanks," Cordy whispered. Larry looked too stunned and Xander.

"What language were we speaking?" He asked his uncle.

"Arabic," Ardeth told him.

"Oh," Xander whispered, "Cool."