"But how did you know to come here?" Buffy hissed.

"Duh," Cordelia whispered. "Your mom called after she dropped you off."

"My mom called you?" Buffy sounded quizzical.

"Well, not me… Ms. Hollis." Cordelia jerked her head toward the office door.

"Wait," Willow murmured, "why would she call…" Her eyes widened.

Buffy's voice sounded very weary. "My mom knows about Ms. Hollis."

Cordelia nodded. "Yup."

The Slayer closed her eyes. "Great." She flopped back on the sofa.

Willow looked from Buffy to Cordelia. "Well, I was really glad to see you there."

The brunette rolled her eyes. Whatever retort was on her lips was cut off.

"Okay, they're done with me, so I think it's time for us to haul ass." Matti stood in the doorway, arms spread, hands resting either side of the doorframe. "Let's go." The teacher led them out of her office, but instead of turning into the tunnel, she took them to a door on the far side of the locker room. She unlocked, stuck her head into the hallway, then turned and gestured to the girls. They stepped into the hall. Matti made a beckoning motion and they went single file, their footsteps sounding ridiculously loud and echoey in the empty school. They exited the building and followed their teacher back in the direction of the gym.

"Good thing I always park at this end of the lot," Matti said. The girls looked past her to the flashing red-and-blue lights of Sunnydale PD cruisers, an ambulance, and a largeish panel truck. Police officers, people in hazmat suits, and EMTs scurried about. As they watched, a gurney rolled across the parking lot to the ambulance. A small figure was strapped to it, and the EMTs had no problem collapsing the stretch and sliding it into the ambulance. Matti motioned to the students. "Get to the car, don't run, and keep your heads down." They followed her instructions, and ended up with Cordelia riding shotgun, Buffy and Willow in the back seat. As the ambulance flashed its lights and attention turned toward it, Matti put the SUV in gear and wheeled out of the parking lot, raising a hand to the officers as she passed. The three students slumped low in their seats until Matti said, "We're clear."

"Whew." Willow rotated her neck. "That was uncomfortable."

"Thanks," Buffy said. "You can just drop us at Willow's and I'll call my mom."

The look Matti threw into the rear-view mirror caused the Slayer to shoot a sideways glance at her friend. "Oh, no," the Knight said. "We're gonna debrief. I hope everyone's in the mood for coffee." The tone of her voice made it clear that she really didn't care if any of them wanted coffee or not. A subdued silence filled the SUV until Matti parked it in front of the Espresso Pump. She held the door open and directed them toward the back booth in the far corner. As the three girls filed in front of the window, Buffy looked at their translucent reflections in the large pane of glass: first came the ghostly brunette in the camel car coat, then the spectral redhead wearing a green hoodie over a yellow T and jeans with daisies appliqued down one leg, then the slight blonde clad in a quilted black jacket. Bringing up the rear was a woman at least five inches taller than any of them. Buffy shook her head: the reflections were a little too close to what she'd just experienced. They slid into the booth, Buffy and Willow on one side, Cordelia on the other. Matti leaned in. "What's everybody want?" Orders received, she went to the counter. While she was gone, the girls tried to avoid eye contact with one another. One form of discomfort was replaced with another when Matti swung around a chair commandeered from another table and sat down.

"Okay," she said. "Let's go."

"What was that stuff under the bleachers?" Cordelia asked.

Matti puffed out a large breath. "Fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate.

"Why would she do that?"

"It's explosive," Willow answered. "If you know what you're doing."

"That's scary," Cordelia said.

Willow nodded. "I know, right?"

Cordelia shook her head. "I mean that you know that."

"Eyes on the prize, people," Matti said. "How did she get it?"

Willow shrugged. "That's easy. The school uses fertilizer."

"Yeah," said Buffy. "I saw it in the upstairs supply closet."

"All you have to do is hack into the school's online ordering system, then change the number of bags. Easy-peasy." Willow made a 'no big deal' gesture.

"You could do that?" Matti's face plainly stated that she didn't believe it.

"Sure. The school's online security is a joke, but, to be fair, most online security is a joke."

"But that's a lot of fertilizer." Matti kept at it.

"So. If a hundred bags came off the truck and the driver said could show an invoice from the computer, everybody would just assume that somebody else had ordered it." Willow drew illustrations on the tabletop with her finger. "When it was all on paper, it had to go through different steps, but now… it's on the computer, it must be right." She sat back.

Matti sighed again. "Okay, we'll let that lay for now. What about the ghost thing?"

"It was a ghost, her dadi, Willow said.

"Just say her grandma," Matti said. "The other makes me think you're talking about her father."

"Okay." Willow nodded. "How much did you hear?"

"I heard you talking about the dirt. What was that?"

"I go this," Buffy said. She hesitated as the barista called out Matti's name. The teacher gave them all a stern look and got up.

"Why were you so far behind her?" Buffy asked.

Cordelia's lips worked. "She told me to wait in the car."

"Boy, I know how that feels," Willow said, looking at the Slayer. Buffy ignored her.

"Good thing you didn't." Buffy looked up as Matti took cups off the tray and distributed them. The teacher put the tray on the table and took her seat again. "Go on."

Buffy took a sip, then toyed with her cup as she spoke. "There was dirt on the floor of the janitor's closet, then I saw dirt on the bathroom floor. Willow found out that a ghost from India, a bhoot, is afraid of dirt."

"That's what really tipped us that it might be Indali," Willow added.

"Indali put dirt in both places to keep the ghost in that space," Buffy continued.

"What?" Matti said. Cordelia sat quietly, drinking her coffee.

"Here's where it gets complicated," Willow said.

"Oh, good," Matti said. "I was wondering when that would happen. Tell me, why did she have to keep the ghost in the room?"

Willow placed her hands flat on either side of her cup. "When I started having my… episodes, Giles thought it might have something to do with the spell I performed to return Angel's soul.. He said I might have established some sort of connection with the ethereal plane, and it got stronger when Cheryl whammied me.." Matti nodded and Willow continued her bizarre explanation in the completely mundane setting of a brightly-lit coffee shop. "Okay, Indali created an equation to bring back her da– nana. A spell is a formula, an equation is a formula, I'm pretty sure there's some kind of overlap there. Now, from here on, I'm guessing, but I'm pretty confident. Indali didn't really think of this as magic, she thought of it as math, but she was wrong. Intent matters, Giles has said that a lot, and Indali had bad intent. She wanted to hurt people. I don't think the equation would have worked on its own, but she had the bangle." Willow looked very serious. "That's a powerful connection. I'm sure the bangle worked as a focus because her nana gave it to her, but she wasn't aware of… all the things that can go wrong."

"She brought back the ghost of her dead grandmother?" Matti asked.

Willow took a sip of her drink. "She did bring back her nana, but that's not all. Did you notice how the ghost kept twitching and changing, like one of the hologram toys you had when you were a kid?" Her audience nodded. "The human face, the sad face, that was her nana."

"And the screamy scary face?" Buffy asked.

"That was whatever else came over."

"Her grandma didn't want to hurt anyone?" Cordelia said. Her cup rattled just a little as she put it on the table.

Willow's cheeks puffed as she blew out her breath. "I'm not sure her nana even wanted to come back. Anyway, it wasn't just that something came through with her nana. Something attached itself to Indali, too. Did you see her eyes? Did you see how her neck was twisting?"

"Yeah," Cordelia said. "I thought she was having some kind of fit."

"Whatever she brought over, it was drawn by her pain and anger. It fed on that and made it worse. I think she needed the dirt to keep the ghost wherever she put it because if she didn't, the nana-half of the ghost would have left. When Jen and Michelle entered the room and broke the… dirt-barrier, it unleashed the ghost. I'm not an expert, but the nana-half's stress and desire to get out might have made things worse."

Matti nodded slowly. "So, the bangle was the focus. Why?"

"Indali saw her nana one time in her life, and that was when her nana gave her that bangle."

"And prying out the stone should have destroyed the focus by breaking the circle, so to speak."

"It kinda did." Willow's finger drew a circle on the table. "But it only got rid of the… evil half of the ghost? Her nana was tied to the stone."

"And that's why you crushed it."

"Her nana made a point of telling Indali how the stone matched her personality."

Matti drained her cup. "Well, I can't find any flaws in your logic, at least not now. Anything else?"

Buffy shivered and a jaw-cracking yawn forced itself out of her. "What time is it?" she asked.

Matti looked at the clock on the wall. "A little after eight."

"Wow," Buffy said. "Is that all?"

Matti nodded. "Adrenaline drop will kick your butt. Everybody ready to go?"

"Just a minute," Cordelia said. "How did we get from bringing grandma back with a bracelet to turning the gym into a giant fertilizer bomb?"

Buffy shook her head. "She told us… she thought the ghost and the attacks on Jen and Michelle would get prom canceled. It's pretty plain the school wasn't gonna do that, so… she decided to go full Hello, Mary Lou."

Cordelia stared at her cup. "But why?" Buffy and Willow stared at her, Matti coughed and excused herself.

The Slayer glanced at her best friend, then spoke carefully. "Sometimes… people think that one thing's responsible for what's wrong with their life when it's really something else. They end up blaming the wrong thing… or person."

Cordelia shrugged. "Well, that's dumb."

Willow's mouth turned up on one side. "I think maybe it is time to go home." They slid out of the booth; Matti waited by the door, her coughing fit apparently passed. The girls filed past her and climbed into the car.

"You can just drop me at Willow's and I'll call my mom," Buffy said from the back seat.

"No, I'll take you home. After tonight, I want to make sure you're safe." Matti backed out of the parking space.

The Slayer leaned forward. "You really don't need to–" Matti cut a look in the rearview mirror that caused Buffy to swallow the rest of her sentence. She sank back in the seat. It only took a few minutes to reach Willow's house. Matti pulled into the driveway as the teenage witch shook her head to clear the cobwebs: the adrenaline rush was really over.

"Thanks," Willow mumbled. "I'm going to bed."

"Smart girl," Matti said and put the 4Runner in reverse.

"Wait a minute." Buffy's sluggish brain was slow to register the route. "My house is back that way."

Matti shook her head, the great cloud of hair swaying back and forth. "I need to pick up something at my house. Just be a minute."

The Slayer opened her mouth, then remembered the responses to her previous protestations and decided to just remain quiet. Her head bobbled slightly as the SUV rolled through the streets. She had almost dozed off when the thump of the tires leaving the street jolted her awake. Matti turned around in the driver's seat.

"I'll just be a minute, so you guys wait out here." Buffy's head felt too thick and wooly to protest; Cordelia leaned against the door, her shoulders slumped. Matti nodded and got out. As she walked toward the front porch, her hand rose to shoulder height. The door locks thunked closed. Buffy and Cordelia both jerked upright.

"Well," the Slayer said, "that was subtle." They sat in a freighted silence, watching the house. Finally, Buffy said, "How long do you think she's going to be in there?"

Cordelia sighed. "She's probably watching us… or she has the car bugged. She could do that."

Buffy looked down at her hands. "She must think it's pretty important for us to talk." Cordelia stared straight ahead. The Slayer sighed. "If she's watching us… and if we just sit here staring at each other… she's gonna leave us out here. You know she will."

Cordelia looked out the passenger window, the line of her neck and jaw hard and straight. "So, what do you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know," Buffy said. "I… you really took her down with that trash can." Cordelia glanced in the rearview mirror and cut her eyes away. "I mean it," the Slayer continued. "It was like… remember when we fought the fae? On the camping trip?"

"What do you think? I'm still sandal-phobic."

"Cordelia, I know… I know it's been a hard year for you." The snort from the front seat caused Buffy to bite her lip. "You've lost a lot… I want you to know that… I–"

"What?" The cheerleader whirled with a ferocity that caused the Slayer to shrink back in the seat. "You understand it?"

A spark flared in Buffy's brain, a white-hot ember of anger. "I do. I do understand it. Your parents died… and I killed Angel. You feel lost? I literally left the state."

"Yeah, I know. 'Poor Buffy, she's suffered so much', but this is your deal, not mine." Cordelia glared. "You're the Chosen One, not me. I didn't ask to be part of it. "

A charged moment passed between them, then Buffy said, "I didn't either. I was a freshman… a freshman, and… You're right. I'm the Chosen One. But… somebody else did the picking, not me. I never got a say." She looked down. "But, if I have to do this… I'm glad that I know someone who will knock out a possessed girl with a trash can."

"You ready to go home now?" Both girls jumped as Matti opened the door. "I went ahead and called your mom, so she knows we're on our way."

"Did you get what you wanted while you were inside?" Buffy asked.

"What? Oh, yeah, I did what I needed to do."

"Bob."

Principal Snyder's grip on the phone tightened until his knuckles turned white. "Mr. Mayor? What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I'm just checking in. I've been talking to the chief of police and I understand there was a bit of a kerfuffle at the school last night."

"Y- Yes, sir. Apparently a disgruntled student intended to, uh, blow up the gym during prom."

"Well, I must say, Bob, that's a very straightforward statement. What was it, twenty bags of fertilizer?"

"Yes, sir." Snyder swallowed. His mouth felt dry.

"Look, Bob, let me cut to the chase here. I don't care about the whole 'blow up the gym' thing, but I am concerned that it was reported by a teacher."

"Yes, sir. That girls' PE teacher. She phoned the police."

"Bob, why was she there at that hour, and how did she discover this plot? As I understand it, the… items in question were stacked under the bleachers at one end of the building, not in a spot where just anyone could stumble over them."

"Lots… lots of teachers stay after school to finish paperwork or grading. Hollis played basketball in college… maybe she was shooting in the gym and her ball bounced under the bleachers. That could be it."

"I suppose… still, Bob, let's continue to keep a weather eye on this whole thing, okay? I don't need any distractions or mishaps at this critical juncture."

Snyder nodded. He felt the sweat soaking into the back of his collar. "Yessir. I'll do that."

"Glad to hear it. Keep up the good work."

The dial tone buzzed in Snyder's ear. He stared dumbly at the handset, then dropped it into the cradle with a clatter.

"She was going to do what?" Giles froze behind the counter, his hand extended over a book.

"Blow up the gym. Kablooey," Buffy said.

Giles frowned. "As, as some sort of gesture of protest?"

The Slayer looked at him, aghast. "As some sort of gesture of mass murder."

"Oh," Giles blinked. "Oh, lord. She was going to do this during prom?"

"Uh-huh."

"Didn't anyone notice?"

Buffy drummed her fingers on the countertop. "Will says that she fudged the fertilizer order by a few bags on a couple of deliveries, then probably volunteered to help, I don't know, decorate or something. It was all down at one end of the bleachers. You couldn't see it. Ms. Hollis said it was pretty well hidden."

"And no one found it?"

The Slayer shrugged. "Willow says no one sees the nerds when they're helping. She probably could have walked through with a bag on her shoulder and Harmony wouldn't have known it." She looked thoughtful. "The Hellmouth's really bringing out the best in the class of '99, isn't it? First Cheryl, now Indali…" She shook her head.

Matti looked up at the knock on her door. Actually, the door was open, so the knock was technically on the doorframe and the knocker was clearly visible. Matti raised an eyebrow as she registered that Rupert Giles stood in the door of her office.

"Mr. Giles," she said, dropping her pencil on the desk, "have you ever been down here before?"

The librarian smoothed his tie with one hand. "Actually, no, I've only been in the gym when required, and I never had any cause to… explore this area of the facility."

"Well, we don't bite." She propped one foot on the corner of her desk. "What can I do for you?"

"Um, Buffy stopped by the library this morning… I'm given to understand that you were with them on a bit of an adventure last night."

Matti tilted her head and glanced around him toward the locker room. It was empty. "Buffy and Willow figured out who was attacking the queen candidates. Joyce called me after she dropped them off at the school, I got in the car, got here in time to tangle with a ghost before Cordelia clunked the girl with a trash can."

"Buffy said that… Indali?"

Matti nodded. "Yeah, that's her name."

"Indali planned to blow up the gym during prom.."

Matti picked up the pencil and rolled it back and forth between her fingers. "That's the only explanation I can think of for a thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate wired under the bleachers."

"A thousand pounds?" Giles sagged against the door frame.

"According to Willow, she managed to order an extra twenty bags of fertilizer. At fifty pounds per, that's a thousand." She tapped the pencil on her blotter. "She had it wired, found blasting caps somewhere… maybe online… anyway, all that was left was hooking up the detonator, and I'm guessing when, if the police search her room, they'll find a couple of cell phones she was going to use." Matti shook her head. "Sad, scary stuff."

Giles was the approximate color of wallpaper paste. "How is she now?"

The gym teacher exhaled a long, slow breath. "Buffy told you about the whole ghost and bangle thing? Willow's theory that something she didn't know about came over?" The Watcher nodded. Matti continued: "Well, either what came over and attached itself to her didn't leave, or it did something to her mind. She's going to be in an institution for a long, long time. Maybe always." Her voice had lowered until the last words were barely intelligible.

The tableau held for some time. Finally, Giles said, "Thank you for your help."

Matti shrugged; her cheekbones were damp. "You know, the way Willow worked it out, she's something."

Giles nodded. "I must confess, I… I secretly hoped to guide her toward the Council… before it turned out to be a charade."

"Well, maybe it was, but you're not. You've taught them well."

"Well." Giles pushed himself upright. "I, uh, I wonder if it was worth learning. You know, as Thomas Gray said, 'Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise'."

"Whoever that is." Matti turned back to her desk.

The air fairly hummed with anticipation; then the bell rang, and all the pent-up energy of the students of Sunnydale High spilled into the halls. Buffy shouldered her backpack and joined the stream, staying at the edges of the main current until, like a mighty river reaching its delta, the flood reached the doors and broke apart, dissipating into countless tributaries that slowed and eddied. She stopped under one of the oaks and looked up at the dappled sky. She was there when Xander found her.

"So, I understand that you saved the day and prom is a definite go," he said as he swung to a stop beside her and looked up at the tree himself.

Buffy turned her head toward him. "I wouldn't say I saved the day. Cordelia knocked Indali out, and Willow figured out the whole 'how to banish the ghost' part of it… but I was there. I was definitely there. So, yes, prom has been spared."

"Yeah, I, uh, I kinda wanted to talk to you about that," Xander stammered as he faced her. "I, uh, I know that you and, uh, Trey aren't going, and I–"

"Xander, wait." Buffy raised a 'slow down' palm. "I love you, nobody is a better friend, but…" She winced. "Prom? Wouldn't that be kinda ookie?"

Xander nodded and raised both hands, index fingers pointed skyward. "Heard and received, but let me finish my pitch. Yes, I know what you're thinking and, yes, I did have a fairly… shallow fixation on you for a couple of… years, but, that's not an issue." He took a deep breath. "I, uh, I've learned some unpleasant things about myself this year, and I am definitely not fantasizing about Andie falling in love with Duckie."

The Slayer nodded soberly. "You do remember that Andie ends up with Blane, not Duckie, don't you? Second, Pretty In Pink? I mean, you're so Anthony Michael Hall, not Jon Cryer."

"What? No, c'mon." Xander shook his head.

"You c'mon." Buffy put her hands on her hips. "Look me in the eye and tell me you've ever lip-synced 'Try a Little Tenderness' in public." Xander hung his head. Buffy wagged an index finger. "And, as much as I love the Hughes oeuvre, I am no Andie. I mean, The Breakfast Club is just sitting there, I could be Allison, you're Brian–"

"Wait a minute." Xander held up a 'stop' hand. "I'm no Brian. If I'm anybody in Breakfast Club, it's Bender."

"What, you're twenty-five years old pretending to be a high school senior?"

"Well, you're not exactly Allison. You're a lot of things, Buffy Summers, but you're not a basket case."

The Slayer stuck her tongue in one cheek. "Closer than I'd like."

"See, this is why I want us to go to prom," Xander said. "This, the repartee, the back-and-forth, the…" He shrugged. "I was always gonna go to prom with Will, and we were gonna make fun of everyone, and then I was gonna go with Cordelia for real, but now… I'd just like to go with a friend."

Buffy took in a long, hissing breath. "I don't know…"

Xander nodded. "Okay, so you're going to force me to play my hole card."

A deep frown settled on the Slayer's face. "What hole card?"

Xander cracked his knuckles. "Do you remember Valentine's Day, 1998?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, no, you can't–"

"And a certain chivalrous young man who refused to take advantage of his good friend who was under the effect of a love spell?"

"A miscast love spell, and by the way, I never said this, but if you had done anything, I would have kicked your ass so hard when I came out from under."

"Which you could still do," Xander pointed out. "Buffy, I promise, I'm not thinking of anything more than going together so that we're not going alone. Just two friends, having fun… and let's face it, we'll spend most of the time hanging with Will and Oz."

A range of expressions passed across Buffy's face. She started to speak several times, but didn't. Finally, she said, "Okay. You've had my back, now I'll have yours. I'll go to prom with you."