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Summary: Buffy and Willow have a brief conversation about Cordelia and Xander's recent breakup. Takes place mid-season 3. One-shot.

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Wicked Witch

"Will, I've read the same sentence three times."

"Then you should know it three times as well."

"Well," Buffy flipped her chemistry book closed, "I don't."

Willow, who had been re-re-reorganizing her notes, let the notebook page she'd been holding fall. Willow was lying across her bed on her stomach with schoolwork spread in front of her and her feet swinging back and forth. Buffy sat beside her. Buffy's textbook was in her lap and her back rested against a stack of pillows. Willow looked at Buffy and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, you know." Buffy's voice was nearly drowning in sarcasm. "Vampires keeping me up at night, Snyder and school, the boy I want to date possibly turning evil with kiss, Snyder and school, again. Just the usual."

"Geez, sarcasm not required."

"Why would you think anything's bothering me?"

"Well," Willow began, "you seem even less excited about our science study session than you usually are."

"When have I ever been excited about balancing chemical equations?"

"Never, but I'm not talking about that. You're usually jumping for joy at the thought of hanging out with your bestest friend," Willow playfully smiled and nudged Buffy, "right bestest friend? And you always look forward to the after-study session. I mean tonight you weren't even excited when I told you I baked pumpkin bars and I even did, you know, little smiley faces in the cream cheese icing."

There was a moment of silence before Buffy spoke.

"I've just been thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"Cordelia."

"Oh," was all Willow said, but her face said everything else. It said how she didn't want to hear another comment about her and Xander's tryst had broken up both of their relationships. Willow already felt guilty enough; she as sure that if stretched out her guilt would be just the right size to seal the hole in the ozone layer. And, she missed Oz. Oh, Oz.

"I feel bad for Cordelia," Buffy said. "Because she chose to date Xander her friends-"

"The Cordettes were her friends?" Willow spoke the last word with such incredulity that it seemed any other phrase, zombie minions, serfs, alien offspring, would be more appropriate.

"All the people who hung out with Cordelia stopped when she began dating Xander, and now that they've broken up, she doesn't have any friends. Cordelia's ostrichized now."

"Ostracized."

"I know, right?"

"If Cordelia's friends stopped being her friend over her—her fling," Willow said, "with Xander then they can't really be her real friends. But, then, why would anyone want to be real friends with Cordelia anyway? I thought that was a privilege usually given to nice people."

"I feel like I should be nice to Cordelia."

"Well, I don't," Willow replied. "I only ever tried to get along with her because Xander was dating her, and now that I don't have to make nice, well, it's nice. There's a reason I originally created the We Hate Cordelia Chase Club. She was mean. In middle school, I accidentally stepped on her Jimmy Choos and she pushed me down a flight of stairs. I twisted my ankle."

"I don't really like her either," Buffy said, "although I don't have the ancient history with her you have, but I feel like I should be nice to her on principle. Cordelia's helped us out a few times, and it isn't her fault she and Xander broke up. She's the wronged party."

"I know it's not her fault." Willow hung her head. "And now you make me feel even more like an evil villain."

"An evil villain?"

"I'm-I'm the Wicked Witch of the East and deserve to have a house smoosh me flat."

"The Wicked Witch of the West was the one who had the house fall on her, the other-"

"Either way, I'm wicked." Willow frowned. "Why can't I be like Glinda the Good?"

"Because redheads shouldn't wear pink: it's one of the most serious fashion crimes. Illegal in 47 states and recently enacted in Puerto Rico."

"But, I could travel by bubble."

"A car's more practical."

Willow sighed. "But, I still don't think I could bring myself to smile and say 'hi' to Cordelia, even if she didn't want to kill me on sight. Even if she is a better person than me."

"Neither could I."

Pause.

"So," Willow began. "since I feel that we both have been extra studious tonight, I officially call a break."

"I second that."

"How about some pumpkin bars?"