"Hey Tara," Xander greeted the brunette, sitting beside her in the library.
"Hey Xander," Tara said back, looking up with a smile, "Free period too?
"Yep. Social studies teacher left the room for coffee and never came back. It's a shame, really, I could've used the catch-up on sleep."
"If you wanna sleep here, I'll make sure one of my books covers you," Tara chuckled, "Librarian will never know."
"Thanks for the assist, but, uh, do you think you could maybe help me with some English?" Xander asked with puppy dog eyes and a sheepish smile.
"Did you and Willow practice those eyes when you were growing up?"
"Yes. In between making mud pies and falling off of trees."
"Of course I'll help Xand," Tara chuckled again, "What's causing you problems?"
"All this…punctuation stuff. Colons, semicolons, commas, ellipses… isn't that that thing that happens in the with the moon and sun and…stuff?"
Tara pushed her books to the side and took out a piece of paper from her notebook with a pen.
"Okay, first off, that's an eclipse, when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, blocking the sun or the moon passes behind the Earth, blocking the sun's rays from the moon."
"Ohh…that does make more sense."
"So as for your English stuff…here, lets write a few examples, okay?"
"Sounds good."
"Okay, so first off, commas. Commas have a lot of uses, but mainly it's for separating a sentence or items in a list," Tara started, then began writing the sentence as she spoke it out loud, "I like cookies, doughnuts, candy and popcorn."
Xander nodded in understanding, so Tara continued.
"Colons. You use those to explain or like, give details of something you've just said. For example, I like food: cookies, doughnuts, candy and popcorn especially. Semicolons. They're used for breaks in sentences or lists…or if you're combining two joining sentences… like: I tried to buy food today; the market was closed."
"If my teacher used these food examples I think I would've gotten this a lot sooner," Xander said, surprised that he actually understood what the brunette was saying, "What about those ellipses?"
"Oh those are easy. They're just three full stops in a row…sometimes they're in different forms, but rarely so we'll just stick with the periods. It shows if you've intentionally left a word or phrase out, like if you're quoting something and you want just the first and last part of the quote. And if you're writing in speech, it shows an unfinished thought or if someone trails off. Like… 'Xander looked through the shop window at the variety of food available. "Cookies…doughnuts…candy…popcorn…" he trailed off as he sighed dreamily, "How will I ever choose?"' See how they work?"
"I actually do…Wow, thanks Tara! Can I keep this sheet? To like… reference if I need to?"
"Of course."
"Hey maybe if we have another free class together sometime you could teach me about apostrophes? I feel like they'd take longer than the time we have left."
Tara laughed.
"You're probably right. If you ever need help though, just ask. Unless it's math, then Willow's your girl. She's raised me from a D to a B since I've been here."
"Ah, I've given up on math. Far too many…numbers," he shuddered as he thought of it and Tara grinned, "But thanks for helping with this. I could maybe even write a semi-legible essay if I have to now. You want to be an English teacher, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I mean, hopefully."
"Well I think you'll be great. And I can be like 'I was her first student.'"
"You were a very good first student. Thank you, Xander."
Xander gave her a goofy smile just as the bell rang. They both jumped up from their seats, Tara accidentally knocking her open bag open in the process. Some of the contents from the front pocket spilled out and she sighed as she bent down to pick them up. Xander bent down too, helping her. Tara gathered her calculator and a couple of her notebooks while
Xander picked up her pencil case and a small box. He was just about to hand when he noticed the wording on the box and did a double take. He quickly shoved both items into Tara's bag and stood up.
"So thanks again, Tara," he rambled on in a quick pace, "Have to go now. Impress English teacher with newfound knowledge and all. Um, bye."
He turned and ran out of the large room before Tara even had a chance to react. The brunette shook her head and closed up her bag, getting ready to go on to her own next class, one thought lingering in her mind.
That was weird.
"Then he just ran out," Tara finished her story to Willow, telling her about helping Xander earlier on.
They wee walking from Biology to the quad for lunch, the April sun shining down on them and causing a glare to reflect against some of the windows.
Willow was still teaching her computer class, Tara was still attending and they were both working towards the SATs which they were sitting in two and a half weeks time, on May 1st. Willow had her debate finals two weeks after that and had been gathering information on the topic, censorship in schools, for the past month or so. She was planning to get her speech written and composed as best she could when the SATs were over, not wanting to overload her schedule too much.
All in all, it made for quite a busy calendar for both girls and they were looking forward to getting the last six weeks of school over with so they could relax with each other for the summer.
"That is kinda weird. Maybe he remembered that he'd forgotten to do some homework for his next class or something," Willow replied, shuffling the books in her hand.
"Yeah, I guess," Tara said, taking at seat at their regular lunch table. Buffy was already sitting there, eating a banana, "Hey Buffy."
"Hi Buff," Willow greeted, sitting beside her girlfriend.
"How's my favourite lady couple today?" Buffy asked with a smile, taking another bite of her fruit.
"Good thanks. How're you doing?" The redhead asked.
"I got a B+ on that social studies paper I handed in. You know the one on the Women's Suffrage Movement? I reckon that'll be worth a new pair of boots from Mom."
"That is exactly what those first-wave feminists had in mind at the time. Seventeen year olds writing papers on them for the purpose of acquiring new shoes," Willow teased.
Buffy was stopped from responding as Xander and Anya choose that moment to arrive at the table. Anya sat down while Xander stayed standing, looking unusually jumpy.
"Um, Will, can I talk to you?" he asked, avoiding eye contact with anyone.
"Uh, yeah, go ahead."
"I meant, you know, more in private."
"Ah, sure," Willow said standing up and giving him a strange look, "Lead the way."
They walked off in the distance a little, standing under a tree.
"What the hell is that all about?" Buffy asked as she watched them leave.
"No idea," Anya replied, "Xander was acting weird since after class and kept running his hand through his hair, all nervous like."
"He was kinda strange earlier too," Tara interjected, "We were in the library together and he was fine one minute and all avoidy the next."
Anya shrugged and all three girl's eyes widened as they saw Willow lift up her hand and slap Xander across the face.
"Um, why did your girlfriend just slap my boyfriend?" Anya asked Tara, still staring as Willow started to walk back towards them.
"I don't know," Tara replied, shocked, "That's not like her at all."
Willow stormed back over to the table and locked eyes with Tara.
"Can you take me outta here please?"
"Uh, sure," Tara said, jumping up, "Let's go to Alexis."
The couple walked off, Tara looking back over her shoulder to give the other two an 'I have no idea what's going on' look before being dragged around the corner to the carpark.
Xander trudged back to the table, his cheek still flaming red and sat down next to Anya.
"Uh, what the hell happened Xander?" Buffy asked, her eyes still wide, "Willow like never gets angry, and I've never seen her angry at one of us."
"Yeah, well, I had to tell her something and I knew it was gonna upset her. I think she took it out on the wrong person though," he replied, holding his hand to his cheek.
"Well what did you have to tell her?" Anya asked this time.
Xander looked between the two girls with a remorseful look on his face, like he was sorry he was the one who had to break this news and sighed.
"That Tara's cheating on her."