She sat there picking at the stuff the school passed off as lunch. She sighed softly and continued to pick at her food sitting in silence as Xander talked to her, she however, hadn’t heard a single word that had come out of his mouth. Ever since last night her spirits were down and she was feeling the death of her mom even more. Joyce had been the only person she could completely confide in and tell everything to without the fear of being judged like she was when school came around.
She looked up for a minute, Willow had skipped all her first classes and she wasn’t here yet, that worried her.
“ Buff, are you ok?”
“ Hmm?” She looked at him without really looking at him and then shook herself out of her thoughts. “ Sorry, I kind of spaced.”
“ Yeah, I noticed. I mean, I’m not completely stupid, I can kinda tell when someone just isn’t listening.” He gave her a half hearted goofy grin and she sighed again.
“ It’s not you Xan, really. It’s just... its nothing. Guess I’m just a little worried thinking about Willow's absence. Have you seen her at school today at all?”
“ Now that you mention it, no. That’s not like her, she doesn’t skip school. At all, like, ever.”
She couldn’t help but giggle. “It’s always the good ones that go bad.”
Xander just laughed.
“ I’m just going to the washroom. I’ll be right back.” Standing up she quickly walked out of the cafeteria and made her way to the washroom. When she walked in there however, she hadn’t expected to hear anyone crying and quiet sniffles comming from one of the stalls.
“ Who’s there?” She asked softly trying to sound friendly.
“ Buffy, is that you?”
“ Willow?” She walked over to the stall and opened the door to see the red head sitting on a toilet seat with tissue paper in her hand and her makeup smudged from crying.
“ Have you been here all morning?!” She looked down and nodded.
“ Why? What happened?”
Willow looked up. “ I knew it wouldn’t work, they still see me as the geeky nerd that helped them with homework so they would pass.” She sniffled again and blew her nose.
Buffy narrowed her eyes. “ What happened?”
“ I came to school this morning dressed like you told me.” She started to absentmindedly toy with the hem of her skirt. “ And I ran into Harmony...”
Buffy clenched her fists at the mention of the idiotic blonde she had the displeasure of meeting the pervious day.
“...a..and she said that I could dress up any way I want but I’d always be a loser and a nerd. And t..then...” She blew her nose once again as fresh tears flooded her eyes. “...she said that if I had wanted to dress up like a two dollar slut then I should have just told her and she would have pointed me to the nearest discount trashy store.”
Buffy saw red. The little bimbo was telling Willow that she looked like a slut?! She had no right when she herself wore skimpy clothing and Willow didn’t look even remotely like that. “ Get up Wils.”
The redhead just complied and stood up near the sink. Buffy grabbed some more tissue paper and put I under the faucet wetting it before starting to wipe away the smudged makeup from her friends face. “ You, Willow Rosenberg, are going to straighten your clothes, re-apply your makeup, put on a smile and walk out that door with me. You’re going to show that piece of white trash that you weren’t affected by anything she said and that she’s wrong. You’re going to show everybody just how incredibly sexy you are and I.... Well, I’m going to do something else.”
“ Ok.” Listening to the blonde, Willow re-applied her make up and fixed her clothes and hair. Looking at her approvingly Buffy pushed her towards the exit and smiled at her reassuringly. “ Come on.”
Grabbing her by the arm she pulled her to the lunch table her and Xander had been sitting at grinning at the appreciating looks the red head was getting along the way.
“ Buffy, what took you so long? I tought you...Willow?!” His mouth fell open and his sat there speechless. “ Willow you look great!” She blushed.
Buffy smacked her on the arm gently. “ See I told you so!”
She looked at her. “ Aren’t you one of those people that always says, I’m not going to say I told you so.” Willow asked.
Buffy grinned. “ Nope, not me.”
“ So what caused the big change?”
They both looked at Xander forgetting momentarily that he was still there.
“ Just thought it was time for a change, I mean, you’ve known me since we were in diapers Xand. Have you ever seen me stray from the regular? Ever?”
He paused trying to think of a time. “ Nope. Point taken.”
“ So, has anyone seen Oz?”
Buffy laughed.
“ What?” Willow asked indigniantly.
“ Nothing, it’s just, your so predictable.”
“ We’ll have to change that then won’t we?”
Buffy stopped laughing for a minute and smirked, it reminded her of the annoying smirk that Spike was always sporting on his face. “ Look at that Sass, I like it.”
She stopped talking to her friends for a few minutes and looked around the cafeteria. There was something she still had to do today and she would do it if she had to search the whole school to find the one person.
“ What’s up Buff. You look all thoughtful, kind of used to that look on Willow most of the time.” Xander commented.
“ Yeah, I have something to do still.”
“ Where are you going?” He watched as she started to make er way across the cafeteria.
“ To put a bitch in her place.”
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