Series: The Velvet Web
Title: Spring Fresh Hush - Chapter One
Rating: G
Description: What happened to Willow and Tara in the laundry room after Buffy broke the spell in "Hush". One in a series of scenes that I am currently writing that deal with what could have happened after a Willow/Tara scene in the episodes of season 4. The details I've written about Tara and her background are actually for another fic that I am writing but I figured I'd start setting it up now. How very Joss, no? I'm more of a dialogue kinda gal and so my narration may not fully vivid, but I think the dialogue is pretty descriptive.
Spoilers: If you haven't seen Hush then you'll be spoiled...
Feedback: rane018@yahoo.com Much appreciated since this wasn't read by anyone else and English is not my first language. (I have an interesting set up of grammar)
Disclaimers: Don't own anything, don't make any money, and blah, blah, blah, Joss, blah, blah, blah, production companies, and blah, blah, blah, the Buffy writers... I just love writing to your inventions...
Notes: The episode dialogue, written by the powers that be Joss, where snagged from the shooting script off The Buffy Shooting Script Site. I like the shooting scripts more since they really let you know what the characters were supposed to say and mean.
Written: May 2000, with revisions at later dates
***********************************************************************
I stared at her for what seemed to me an eternity, analyzing and memorizing everything about her and the situation we were in. Her blonde hair, how it fell over her face covering it as she hid from the world. Her touch, soft yet powerful, and how we weren't letting go even though we knew we could. Her blues eyes darting to and from nowhere and back. Her sweet vanilla scent mixed in with the spring fresh laundry room detergent smell. All I could think about was that we were stuck underground, there were raving lunatics out side the door wanting to take our hearts and I never felt safer. Once in a while she would glance up at me but quickly turn her head back to the ground. This was definitely her. Tara. The one who'd tried to talk to the blessed wanna be's about magic yet backed out as soon as she noticed all eyes were on her. But now it was just my eyes and I couldn't seem to pry them away.
Lost in thought I didn't realize that the banging outside the door had stopped. I didn't realize that Tara had slowly risen from the floor and began to walk towards the machine. I didn't realize that I had not let go of her hand and ended up slightly tugging her back to me. Turning around, her eyes widened when she saw her hand was still tightly clasped with mine. It seemed both of us had felt the others hand had become part of our own and not the separate entity they were. She half smiled and I let go. Just as quickly I wanted to reach out and grab her hand again. I couldn't help but think I didn't want to lose her.
Tara opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again. I wanted to hear her voice again. I wanted to be able to memorize it as I had done everything else. But I knew it was impossible as long as the Gentlemen reigned. I simply just stared and watched her turn to the machine again.
"I- I...". She quickly turned to me; "I-I can speak?" She had a look of confusion on her face.
I beamed at the revelation and said out loud, "Buffy did it!"
"W-what?"
Realizing she didn't understand, "Oh... It's... It's like a victory cry. You know, some people say "woo hoo", I tend to say - 'Buffy did it'. Umm..." Think, Rosenberg, think, "What happened? I mean I know what happened happened, but... What happened?"
Tara was trying to get a good look at the door. "I think... We... We broke t-the doorframe", she replied calmly.
I tried to get up from the floor but let out a low cry when I tried to stand on both my feet. The pain from my twisted ankle rushed through my whole body. Defeated, I sat back down. Tara quickly turned around and faced me. With a concerned look, she knelt down in front of me.
"So, Tara... You're a... witch, right?" I smiled in anticipation.
Tara shyly smiled back and nodded. As she reached for my ankle she added, "C-can I, umm, see it?"
"Why, you're going to heal it?", I said as a jokingly but then turned serious, "Can you heal it?"
She shook her head. "I can...uh, try. Do you w-w-want me to?"
I quickly exposed my ankle to her, "Give it a whirl..."
As soon as Tara touched my ankle a sense of peace enveloped me, similar to the one when we held hands. I sighed.
Tara quickly withdrew her hand and looked up to me, "Did I hurt you?"
Shocked, I replied, "No! Please. It's just your - your hand is cold." I fibbed and I smiled at her as sweetly as I could thinking that no matter how hard I tried it would never come out as effortlessly as Tara's. Again, she placed her hand on my ankle.
"Hey, it's working. I think." Tara glanced at me with a quizzical look. "For real, it is. Wow." Tara withdrew her hand from my ankle and I wanted to reach for her hand. I didn't understand why I wanted to feel her touch again. I felt so peaceful and couldn't understand why.
"W-w-we s-should..." She simply stopped talking and held her head low staring at the ground. She looked as if she were about to cry.
"Hey, are you all right?" I asked her as I reached out to touch her.
She nodded "yes" and stood up. "We need t-to get out of... here."
"How did you do that?" I asked as I stood up again, this time with out any pain. "Tara?"
But she was staring at the machine now. "I need your hand", she said as she held out her arm to me.
"What?"
She turned to me, "W-we need to move the machine, the s-soda machine."
"Oh, yeah." I grabbed her hand again but instead of concentrating on moving the machine I concentrated on Tara's profile.
I guess she felt my eyes on her because she raised an eyebrow and turned to me, "Umm... Willow..."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare." But that was exactly what I was doing. I was staring at her. Why? Why do I feel like I know her?
She timidly smiled again and said, "W-we should move, out of the way..." And so we did.
Snapped back to reality, my Scooby mental functions kicked in. "Hold on a sec." I said staring at the machine. "How can we be sure that the Gentlemen are dead?
"Who?" she whispered.
"...Well, duh! We have our voices back. Buffy screamed and saved the day. Or, night." I turned to Tara to see a confused look on her face. "Uh, I said that out loud didn't I?" Tara just simply nodded, and I noticed her hand was shaking. "Hey, you're shaking. Are you ok?"
"I-I need to get out of here."
"Are you claustrophobic? I'm sure there's some spell we could..." We?
"Wi-Willow, please," she said softly, "the machine..."
"Yeah."
As I concentrated on moving the machine I felt her hand squeeze mine. At that instant the soda machine quickly moved back to its original spot. After banging against the wall, it let out some sodas.
I couldn't help but smile, "And free drinks to boot! This is so cool!" Tara just seemed to stare at the door and a look of trouble clouded her face again.
I couldn't think of anything else to say except, "I'm also afraid to see what's behind door number three." After chuckling, I began to move towards the door but noticed, again, our hands hadn't let go.
"Oh, s-sorry." Tara said as she let go of my hand and crossed her arms over her chest. I began to walk towards the door.
As I walked I tried to reassure her, "I'm sure they're dead. I mean, we're talking so they must be dead."
"W-what do you mean?"
I stopped and turned around to her. "It's a long story." I motioned for her to follow me.
"Well, then, if you're so sure..." I didn't move as she caught up with me and said, "You g-go first." She smiled quickly to let me know she was being humorous.
I tapped her arm playfully. "Ok." I slowly opened the door. "Gross." I said aloud and unconsciously grabbed Tara's hand again as I made way past the dead Gentlemen. "Let's go..."
All Tara managed to say was a soft, "Oh my..." as we proceeded.
As we walked up the stairs we could hear students running around everywhere, talking, laughing, screaming, some even crying.
"Wow. Everyone's so loud. I don't remember it being this noisy. Not that I want everyone's voice to be taken away again or anything. But..." Be quiet, Willow! Why are you babbling?
At the Stevenson lobby Tara abruptly stopped in her tracks and turned to me, "Willow..."
"Yes, Tara?"
"I, uh, I need to go... Bye."
"But..."
It was too late. She had already let go of my hand and was briskly walking away with her head hung low. My heart sank. What did I do? Why did she run away so soon? I finally met someone who understood witchcraft and she disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Until then pretty much all the magic I could do was floating pencils and a couple spells that went awry. But tonight, with her, I was able to move a whole soda machine. Twice. I decided to run back to the dorm room as quickly as I could and wait for Buffy to come home.
As I deliberated about the events of the day all thoughts led back to Tara. I got this tingly feeling in my tummy whenever I thought of her name. Tara...A real witch. Suddenly a tangent thought popped up; I need to call Giles. I need to know if the rest of the gang is ok. After confirming that everyone was fine I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer for Buffy. I was sure she'd wake me up when she got in.
But she didn't. The next morning I woke up to find Buffy sleeping soundly, snoring slightly. Good, I thought to myself, she's genuinely resting. I got up quietly and got ready for school. Will there even be classes today? Oh well, I can always got to the library and do some research. Yup. Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll run into Tara again and we could... Uh oh... My heart began to race as I kept thinking of Tara. I wonder if she's a good witch. After my ordeal with Amy's mom, Anya and my vampy self, I seemed to find it hard to really trust anyone with my fledgling powers. But Tara didn't use me, I kept thinking to myself. Did she? Well, she did heal my ankle, but... My tummy grumbled. Chalking it off to hunger, I quickly finished getting dressed and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. I then grabbed a yogurt from our little fridge and walked off.
As I walked across the campus to the library, I happened to see Tara walking with a boy. I wondered how many times I walked by her without ever noticing her before. The boy looked as if he were telling her an exiting story and she was flashing her dazzling smile, at times even laughing. It made me smile. It's so big and sweet. As they neared the Hall they parted ways. The boy curtseyed to Tara and walked off in the other direction.
I quickly caught up to her from behind, "Hey."
I startled Tara and she jumped back. "Huh? Oh, W-Willow..."
"Hi." I couldn't think of anything else to say. Why could I think of anything else to say? I'm Miss Babbling, I thought to myself.
She smiled. "Hi. Hey, how's y-your ankle?"
"Great. Thanks to you. So... Where are you headed?"
"That way." she said as she pointed.
"Me too." I felt I was going to get in trouble if I kept fibbing. "Mind if I walk with you?" Tara smiled and shook her head. As we headed towards the building in silence I spoke. "Umm... I've been thinking about last night..."
"M-me too."
"You first."
She stopped walking and looked at me. "How... How did you know... about... those Gentlemen?"
"The Gentlemen?" I asked. She simply nodded. "Oh, I just. You know..." No more fibbing Rosenberg! "They're like fairy tale monsters. Come to a town, take everyone's voices and then kill a bunch of people for their hearts." I wanted to break my anxiety but I didn't know how. How can I explain fairy tale monsters are not supposed to be real, especially after the Hansel and Greta episode where I was almost burned at the stake by my own mother? How can I tell her that last night was typical evening for Sunnydale and for me?
"W-who's Buffy?" Her question broke my train of thoughts.
"Oh. Buffy. She's...She's my friend."
"And... And, she's the one... w-who screamed... right?"
What do I say now? "How did you..."
"Well, you... mentioned it", she said as she continued to walk.
I guess I'm not that good in covert ops, I though to myself and followed her. Again, Tara snapped me back to our conversation.
"But, I-I... I also found that story in o-one of my tomes... my books... last night... The princess screamed and the spell was broken. I-I wanted to figure out what h-happened." She looked down as we walked in the lobby.
"You saved me", I heard myself say.
Tara shook her head. "N-no. They were after me. I-I put you in danger. I grabbed your room n-number, from the student directory, a-and..."
"You were there looking for me?" I motioned for us to sit down.
"I thought m-m-maybe we could do a spell... make people talk again. I'd seen you... in the group, the w-w-wicca group. You were... different than them. They didn't seem to know..."
"What they were talking about?" I finished her sentence.
She smiled again, "I think if they saw a w-w-witch they would... run away."
"Yeah. So how long have you been practicing?"
"Always. I mean, since I was little... My mom used to... she had a lot of power. Like you."
That last statement caught me off guard, but it was the way she looked deep into my eyes that made me believe her. I needed to tell her about my insecurities. "Oh, I'm not - I don't have much in the way of power, really, I mean most of my potions come out... soup. Also spells going awry, friends in danger - I'm definitely nothing special."
Again, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "No, you are."
I could tell she meant it. Soon enough she looked away again. I seemed to sense a little bit of embarrassment by her forwardness but I liked it. After everything I'd been through, I needed the boost.
"Well, I thought we made a pretty good team - not getting killed at all.... with some soda machine, boom! Pretty cool. Seems like you're kinda powerful." Oh my god! Is that really me speaking so incoherently? Why do I sound like an idiot?
"I'd like to be. I feel like- I'm stuck. Like I'm at the door and it won't open."
As if I had said the exact words, "I know exactly what you mean."
"But last night..." she trailed off.
"You felt it too?" I asked a little restless.
She nodded and smiled "It was..."
"Powerful. Maybe we should practice together some time. If you don't mind. I mean..." If you're a good witch. Without warning, the earth began to shake underneath us. "Oh, an earthquake." Suddenly I realized exactly what was happening and shouted, "Earthquake! Doorframe!" But just as I was about to stand up the earth stopped moving. I thought it odd that Tara didn't even seem fazed, she never even moved. Jokingly I asked, "Now, you just didn't go about doing that, did ya?"
"M-me? No. No, why w-would you..." She blushed all over again.
I reached out to touch her arm. "I'm joking. I should be used to the earth shaking in Southern California too." I began to get dizzy. "I, uh, I better go."
"Yeah... M-me too."
"So, can I call you sometime so we can get together. You know, to play." Tara's face illustrated she didn't understand. "Play... with magic."
"Oh. Yes. Sure."
"Great. Where do you live?"
"The s-singles dorm. Umm...I mean... The s-s-single oc-cupancy dorms. Uh...Dun..."
"Dunwirth?" I finished her word. About a five minute walk, I thought to myself.
"Y-yes."
"I thought those were for upper classmen only."
"T-they are... I'm a-a Junior..." She held her face low again.
"You are? I mean..." Great! This years "Buffy Foot in the Mouth" award goes to Willow Rosenberg.
"I-I... I get it all the time... But, uh, there are s-some freshmen there." She smiled. "My extension, is 5...1492."
"Great. I'm at 5-0076." I fumbled for a pen and wrote down her number.
"I-I know... It's in the directory", she said.
"Right. And you're 1492. Like when Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Oh wow, dork alert! "Sorry, memory games aren't as cool when you're an adult, in college, and, uh, when they are voiced out loud. I, I'll call you later."
"Ok."
"Well... Bye." I watched her walk away. I knew I would see her again. I just did. It was just a matter of how soon I would get the nerves to call her up.
Title: Spring Fresh Hush - Chapter One
Rating: G
Description: What happened to Willow and Tara in the laundry room after Buffy broke the spell in "Hush". One in a series of scenes that I am currently writing that deal with what could have happened after a Willow/Tara scene in the episodes of season 4. The details I've written about Tara and her background are actually for another fic that I am writing but I figured I'd start setting it up now. How very Joss, no? I'm more of a dialogue kinda gal and so my narration may not fully vivid, but I think the dialogue is pretty descriptive.
Spoilers: If you haven't seen Hush then you'll be spoiled...
Feedback: rane018@yahoo.com Much appreciated since this wasn't read by anyone else and English is not my first language. (I have an interesting set up of grammar)
Disclaimers: Don't own anything, don't make any money, and blah, blah, blah, Joss, blah, blah, blah, production companies, and blah, blah, blah, the Buffy writers... I just love writing to your inventions...
Notes: The episode dialogue, written by the powers that be Joss, where snagged from the shooting script off The Buffy Shooting Script Site. I like the shooting scripts more since they really let you know what the characters were supposed to say and mean.
Written: May 2000, with revisions at later dates
***********************************************************************
I stared at her for what seemed to me an eternity, analyzing and memorizing everything about her and the situation we were in. Her blonde hair, how it fell over her face covering it as she hid from the world. Her touch, soft yet powerful, and how we weren't letting go even though we knew we could. Her blues eyes darting to and from nowhere and back. Her sweet vanilla scent mixed in with the spring fresh laundry room detergent smell. All I could think about was that we were stuck underground, there were raving lunatics out side the door wanting to take our hearts and I never felt safer. Once in a while she would glance up at me but quickly turn her head back to the ground. This was definitely her. Tara. The one who'd tried to talk to the blessed wanna be's about magic yet backed out as soon as she noticed all eyes were on her. But now it was just my eyes and I couldn't seem to pry them away.
Lost in thought I didn't realize that the banging outside the door had stopped. I didn't realize that Tara had slowly risen from the floor and began to walk towards the machine. I didn't realize that I had not let go of her hand and ended up slightly tugging her back to me. Turning around, her eyes widened when she saw her hand was still tightly clasped with mine. It seemed both of us had felt the others hand had become part of our own and not the separate entity they were. She half smiled and I let go. Just as quickly I wanted to reach out and grab her hand again. I couldn't help but think I didn't want to lose her.
Tara opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again. I wanted to hear her voice again. I wanted to be able to memorize it as I had done everything else. But I knew it was impossible as long as the Gentlemen reigned. I simply just stared and watched her turn to the machine again.
"I- I...". She quickly turned to me; "I-I can speak?" She had a look of confusion on her face.
I beamed at the revelation and said out loud, "Buffy did it!"
"W-what?"
Realizing she didn't understand, "Oh... It's... It's like a victory cry. You know, some people say "woo hoo", I tend to say - 'Buffy did it'. Umm..." Think, Rosenberg, think, "What happened? I mean I know what happened happened, but... What happened?"
Tara was trying to get a good look at the door. "I think... We... We broke t-the doorframe", she replied calmly.
I tried to get up from the floor but let out a low cry when I tried to stand on both my feet. The pain from my twisted ankle rushed through my whole body. Defeated, I sat back down. Tara quickly turned around and faced me. With a concerned look, she knelt down in front of me.
"So, Tara... You're a... witch, right?" I smiled in anticipation.
Tara shyly smiled back and nodded. As she reached for my ankle she added, "C-can I, umm, see it?"
"Why, you're going to heal it?", I said as a jokingly but then turned serious, "Can you heal it?"
She shook her head. "I can...uh, try. Do you w-w-want me to?"
I quickly exposed my ankle to her, "Give it a whirl..."
As soon as Tara touched my ankle a sense of peace enveloped me, similar to the one when we held hands. I sighed.
Tara quickly withdrew her hand and looked up to me, "Did I hurt you?"
Shocked, I replied, "No! Please. It's just your - your hand is cold." I fibbed and I smiled at her as sweetly as I could thinking that no matter how hard I tried it would never come out as effortlessly as Tara's. Again, she placed her hand on my ankle.
"Hey, it's working. I think." Tara glanced at me with a quizzical look. "For real, it is. Wow." Tara withdrew her hand from my ankle and I wanted to reach for her hand. I didn't understand why I wanted to feel her touch again. I felt so peaceful and couldn't understand why.
"W-w-we s-should..." She simply stopped talking and held her head low staring at the ground. She looked as if she were about to cry.
"Hey, are you all right?" I asked her as I reached out to touch her.
She nodded "yes" and stood up. "We need t-to get out of... here."
"How did you do that?" I asked as I stood up again, this time with out any pain. "Tara?"
But she was staring at the machine now. "I need your hand", she said as she held out her arm to me.
"What?"
She turned to me, "W-we need to move the machine, the s-soda machine."
"Oh, yeah." I grabbed her hand again but instead of concentrating on moving the machine I concentrated on Tara's profile.
I guess she felt my eyes on her because she raised an eyebrow and turned to me, "Umm... Willow..."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare." But that was exactly what I was doing. I was staring at her. Why? Why do I feel like I know her?
She timidly smiled again and said, "W-we should move, out of the way..." And so we did.
Snapped back to reality, my Scooby mental functions kicked in. "Hold on a sec." I said staring at the machine. "How can we be sure that the Gentlemen are dead?
"Who?" she whispered.
"...Well, duh! We have our voices back. Buffy screamed and saved the day. Or, night." I turned to Tara to see a confused look on her face. "Uh, I said that out loud didn't I?" Tara just simply nodded, and I noticed her hand was shaking. "Hey, you're shaking. Are you ok?"
"I-I need to get out of here."
"Are you claustrophobic? I'm sure there's some spell we could..." We?
"Wi-Willow, please," she said softly, "the machine..."
"Yeah."
As I concentrated on moving the machine I felt her hand squeeze mine. At that instant the soda machine quickly moved back to its original spot. After banging against the wall, it let out some sodas.
I couldn't help but smile, "And free drinks to boot! This is so cool!" Tara just seemed to stare at the door and a look of trouble clouded her face again.
I couldn't think of anything else to say except, "I'm also afraid to see what's behind door number three." After chuckling, I began to move towards the door but noticed, again, our hands hadn't let go.
"Oh, s-sorry." Tara said as she let go of my hand and crossed her arms over her chest. I began to walk towards the door.
As I walked I tried to reassure her, "I'm sure they're dead. I mean, we're talking so they must be dead."
"W-what do you mean?"
I stopped and turned around to her. "It's a long story." I motioned for her to follow me.
"Well, then, if you're so sure..." I didn't move as she caught up with me and said, "You g-go first." She smiled quickly to let me know she was being humorous.
I tapped her arm playfully. "Ok." I slowly opened the door. "Gross." I said aloud and unconsciously grabbed Tara's hand again as I made way past the dead Gentlemen. "Let's go..."
All Tara managed to say was a soft, "Oh my..." as we proceeded.
As we walked up the stairs we could hear students running around everywhere, talking, laughing, screaming, some even crying.
"Wow. Everyone's so loud. I don't remember it being this noisy. Not that I want everyone's voice to be taken away again or anything. But..." Be quiet, Willow! Why are you babbling?
At the Stevenson lobby Tara abruptly stopped in her tracks and turned to me, "Willow..."
"Yes, Tara?"
"I, uh, I need to go... Bye."
"But..."
It was too late. She had already let go of my hand and was briskly walking away with her head hung low. My heart sank. What did I do? Why did she run away so soon? I finally met someone who understood witchcraft and she disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Until then pretty much all the magic I could do was floating pencils and a couple spells that went awry. But tonight, with her, I was able to move a whole soda machine. Twice. I decided to run back to the dorm room as quickly as I could and wait for Buffy to come home.
As I deliberated about the events of the day all thoughts led back to Tara. I got this tingly feeling in my tummy whenever I thought of her name. Tara...A real witch. Suddenly a tangent thought popped up; I need to call Giles. I need to know if the rest of the gang is ok. After confirming that everyone was fine I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer for Buffy. I was sure she'd wake me up when she got in.
But she didn't. The next morning I woke up to find Buffy sleeping soundly, snoring slightly. Good, I thought to myself, she's genuinely resting. I got up quietly and got ready for school. Will there even be classes today? Oh well, I can always got to the library and do some research. Yup. Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll run into Tara again and we could... Uh oh... My heart began to race as I kept thinking of Tara. I wonder if she's a good witch. After my ordeal with Amy's mom, Anya and my vampy self, I seemed to find it hard to really trust anyone with my fledgling powers. But Tara didn't use me, I kept thinking to myself. Did she? Well, she did heal my ankle, but... My tummy grumbled. Chalking it off to hunger, I quickly finished getting dressed and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. I then grabbed a yogurt from our little fridge and walked off.
As I walked across the campus to the library, I happened to see Tara walking with a boy. I wondered how many times I walked by her without ever noticing her before. The boy looked as if he were telling her an exiting story and she was flashing her dazzling smile, at times even laughing. It made me smile. It's so big and sweet. As they neared the Hall they parted ways. The boy curtseyed to Tara and walked off in the other direction.
I quickly caught up to her from behind, "Hey."
I startled Tara and she jumped back. "Huh? Oh, W-Willow..."
"Hi." I couldn't think of anything else to say. Why could I think of anything else to say? I'm Miss Babbling, I thought to myself.
She smiled. "Hi. Hey, how's y-your ankle?"
"Great. Thanks to you. So... Where are you headed?"
"That way." she said as she pointed.
"Me too." I felt I was going to get in trouble if I kept fibbing. "Mind if I walk with you?" Tara smiled and shook her head. As we headed towards the building in silence I spoke. "Umm... I've been thinking about last night..."
"M-me too."
"You first."
She stopped walking and looked at me. "How... How did you know... about... those Gentlemen?"
"The Gentlemen?" I asked. She simply nodded. "Oh, I just. You know..." No more fibbing Rosenberg! "They're like fairy tale monsters. Come to a town, take everyone's voices and then kill a bunch of people for their hearts." I wanted to break my anxiety but I didn't know how. How can I explain fairy tale monsters are not supposed to be real, especially after the Hansel and Greta episode where I was almost burned at the stake by my own mother? How can I tell her that last night was typical evening for Sunnydale and for me?
"W-who's Buffy?" Her question broke my train of thoughts.
"Oh. Buffy. She's...She's my friend."
"And... And, she's the one... w-who screamed... right?"
What do I say now? "How did you..."
"Well, you... mentioned it", she said as she continued to walk.
I guess I'm not that good in covert ops, I though to myself and followed her. Again, Tara snapped me back to our conversation.
"But, I-I... I also found that story in o-one of my tomes... my books... last night... The princess screamed and the spell was broken. I-I wanted to figure out what h-happened." She looked down as we walked in the lobby.
"You saved me", I heard myself say.
Tara shook her head. "N-no. They were after me. I-I put you in danger. I grabbed your room n-number, from the student directory, a-and..."
"You were there looking for me?" I motioned for us to sit down.
"I thought m-m-maybe we could do a spell... make people talk again. I'd seen you... in the group, the w-w-wicca group. You were... different than them. They didn't seem to know..."
"What they were talking about?" I finished her sentence.
She smiled again, "I think if they saw a w-w-witch they would... run away."
"Yeah. So how long have you been practicing?"
"Always. I mean, since I was little... My mom used to... she had a lot of power. Like you."
That last statement caught me off guard, but it was the way she looked deep into my eyes that made me believe her. I needed to tell her about my insecurities. "Oh, I'm not - I don't have much in the way of power, really, I mean most of my potions come out... soup. Also spells going awry, friends in danger - I'm definitely nothing special."
Again, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "No, you are."
I could tell she meant it. Soon enough she looked away again. I seemed to sense a little bit of embarrassment by her forwardness but I liked it. After everything I'd been through, I needed the boost.
"Well, I thought we made a pretty good team - not getting killed at all.... with some soda machine, boom! Pretty cool. Seems like you're kinda powerful." Oh my god! Is that really me speaking so incoherently? Why do I sound like an idiot?
"I'd like to be. I feel like- I'm stuck. Like I'm at the door and it won't open."
As if I had said the exact words, "I know exactly what you mean."
"But last night..." she trailed off.
"You felt it too?" I asked a little restless.
She nodded and smiled "It was..."
"Powerful. Maybe we should practice together some time. If you don't mind. I mean..." If you're a good witch. Without warning, the earth began to shake underneath us. "Oh, an earthquake." Suddenly I realized exactly what was happening and shouted, "Earthquake! Doorframe!" But just as I was about to stand up the earth stopped moving. I thought it odd that Tara didn't even seem fazed, she never even moved. Jokingly I asked, "Now, you just didn't go about doing that, did ya?"
"M-me? No. No, why w-would you..." She blushed all over again.
I reached out to touch her arm. "I'm joking. I should be used to the earth shaking in Southern California too." I began to get dizzy. "I, uh, I better go."
"Yeah... M-me too."
"So, can I call you sometime so we can get together. You know, to play." Tara's face illustrated she didn't understand. "Play... with magic."
"Oh. Yes. Sure."
"Great. Where do you live?"
"The s-singles dorm. Umm...I mean... The s-s-single oc-cupancy dorms. Uh...Dun..."
"Dunwirth?" I finished her word. About a five minute walk, I thought to myself.
"Y-yes."
"I thought those were for upper classmen only."
"T-they are... I'm a-a Junior..." She held her face low again.
"You are? I mean..." Great! This years "Buffy Foot in the Mouth" award goes to Willow Rosenberg.
"I-I... I get it all the time... But, uh, there are s-some freshmen there." She smiled. "My extension, is 5...1492."
"Great. I'm at 5-0076." I fumbled for a pen and wrote down her number.
"I-I know... It's in the directory", she said.
"Right. And you're 1492. Like when Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Oh wow, dork alert! "Sorry, memory games aren't as cool when you're an adult, in college, and, uh, when they are voiced out loud. I, I'll call you later."
"Ok."
"Well... Bye." I watched her walk away. I knew I would see her again. I just did. It was just a matter of how soon I would get the nerves to call her up.