Dance With the Dead (BTVS, Book Six)

chapter 5 - Life Serial

Mom, Dawn and me were talking at home, eating at the dinner table.

"So, Zoey, what are you gonna do now?" Mom asked. "You know, um... your plans."

"Oh, um, I've been giving that a lot of thought, actually," I told them. "I think I've figured it out, what I should do. I--I left school, you know, when Glory was a threat, but I always figured I'd go back when we didn't have to deal with her anymore, and we don't, so... Um, i--I was thinking about re-enrolling, but I missed the registration cutoff. Busy being dead and all."

Dawn winced. "Well, if it's too late for late registration and too early for early, Willow, Tara and Buffy said you can go to classes with them. Y--you can audit for the rest of the semester until registration."

I nodded uncertainly. "Audit. I--I guess I could do that."

Mom nodded tentatively.

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The next day, I went to audit classes with Buffy and Willow.

"This is gonna be great," Buffy told us.

"I thought it might be a little weird being back," I told them. "I mean, it is weird, but, like, a good kind of weird."

Instead of desks, the classroom had long tables set up in a rectangle. We walked around it to find empty seats.

Willow pointed at the casually-dressed teacher that was writing on the blackboard. "There's the teacher, Mike. You'll like Mike."

Willow and Buffy sat down at the table.

"You call your teacher Mike?" I asked. "Boy, school sure has changed since my day."

I sat down.

Mike turned away from the blackboard. "Social Construction of Reality. Who can tell me hat that is?" Man students raised their hands, including Willow. "Rachel."

"A concept involving a couple of opposing theories, one stressing the externality and independence of social reality from individuals," Rachel answered.

I frowned in confusion.

"And the flip side?" Mike asked. Many hands raised. "Steve?"

"That each individual participates fully in the construction of his or her own life," Steve answered.

"Good," Mike told him. "And who can expand on that?" Many hands raised. "Chuck?"

Chuck lowered his arm. "Well, those on the latter side of the theoretical divide stress..."

I looked at Buffy and Willow. "I'm not following this too well."

"Oh, the trick is to get in the rhythm, kinda go with the flow," Buffy told me.

Willow raised her hand.

"Flow-going would be a lot easier if your classmates weren't such big brains," I told them.

"Zoey, that's ridiculous," Willow told me. "They are no smarter than you or us."

"Willow?" Mike asked.

Willow lowered her hand. "Because social phenomena don't have unproblematic objective existences. They have to be interpreted and given meanings by those who encounter them."

I looked at Willow, stunned.

"Nicely put," Mike told her. "So, Ruby, does that mean there are countless realities?"

Buffy noticed the look I was giving Willow. "What?"

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