Chapter 6

After school got out, Tara met Willow in the library. Mr. Giles reminded the girls to stay off the streets after dark, as though they had somehow forgotten over the course of the day. "Don't worry, Giles, we'll be fine," Willow reassured him. "We'll go to my house, study, have dinner, and watch some movies or something. It'll be no problem at all."

After that, they had gone over to Tara's apartment to pick up her overnight things and clothes for the next day. Willow had never seen the inside of the building, and she seemed to like the apartment quite a bit. The décor was definitely unique. Tara had fashioned a fish tank out of an old tv set, taking the innards of the machine out and replacing it with a relatively small tank. A small school of darts swam around happily inside, with a pair of snails clinging to the glass. This sat on a round end table on one side of the sofa, which was actually a plywood-topped tripod table draped with bright-colored fabric to hide its cheap looks.

There was no room for a coffee table, so a second end table was made out of another old television set on its side. Neither of the televisions had been in working order, so she had picked up both of them for $5, sure she could do something with them. She had the fish tank in mind from the start, but the end table came kind of unexpectedly, having set it up on its side while gutting the tv she was converting to the tank. The once-tacky green sofa that had come with the apartment was now tightly covered in cool purple bed sheets, neatly changing the color without having to reupholster it. Blue and red throw pillows completed the look.

Near the windows, where the small room turned abruptly from living room to kitchen, Tara had set up an old patio set. The metal had been once painted black, but was scratched up and rusty when she'd bought it, it's past-its-prime looks giving it an incredibly low price tag. She had sanded, primed, and repainted the table and four chairs in cheery primary colors, and cleaned the transparent top perfectly. White cushions made the seats both attractive and comfortable, accentuating the new colors of the set perfectly. She hadn't had a lot of money to work with, but she knew where to put the money she had to best use, almost innately knowing what to buy and what to do on her own.

"Wow, Tara, this place looks really great!" Willow said with a wide grin.

"Thanks, I um, I did most of it myself. If I ever have to move out, I haven't done anything permanent to the place, so I can take it all with me," she said proudly. "If you want to have a seat while I get my things together and make a quick phone call, I'll be right out." With that, she disappeared into the bedroom, quickly putting together an overnight bag. After that, she again punched in her cousin's phone number, only to be informed that the number she had dialed had been disconnected. She frowned and double-checked the number only to get the same message, before shouldering her bag and re-emerging. She found Willow lying on her stomach across the couch, feet in the air, watching the fish swim around the tank. "Hey," she said quietly, not wanting to startle the tiny witch.

Willow looked up with a smile. "Hi, I was watching the fish, a-and the snails."

"Yeah, relaxing, isn't it?" the fair-haired witch queried. She knelt down next to the other girl, looking into the tank with her. "They all have names, I can tell them apart by their markings," she confided.

"Really? That's nice, what are their names?"

Tara pointed out each fish in turn. "That's Zeus, with the big dot. There's Kali. This one is Ra. Over there is Venus, and the one with just the little spot on his tail is Zip. And the snails are Mr. T and Morgan. But I really can't tell them apart, so the names are kind of interchangeable." She grinned. "So as soon as I feed these guys, I'm ready to go."

"Okay, 'cause I'm ready when you are," Willow said, watching as Tara lifted the top of the old tv set off and dropped in the flakes that she stored under the table, which the darts eagerly gobbled up.

"Eat up, kids, I'll be back tomorrow!" the golden-haired witch laughed. She stood and dusted off her pants, and Willow rolled into a sitting position on the couch. "So I was thinking about getting maybe a frog for the fish tank, too," Tara said to Willow. "What do you think?"

She looked down to see Willow wide-eyed and almost in shock. "No frogs!" she said quickly, shaking her head. "I, um, it - it's kind of embarrassing. I have frog-fear." She looked up sheepishly, meeting Tara's blue eyes.

"No frogs, check." The taller girl smiled. "I want my apartment to be Willow-friendly," she explained, offering a hand to Willow, who took it as she rose from the couch, then held it for a few moments before letting go.

~~

Willow's house was pretty nice. When they got there, Tara was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, who seemed very kind, if a little distracted. The tour of the house was brief, and Tara was a little disappointed to see that they did have a guest room. It was incredibly clean and utterly devoid of personality, which, to Tara, made it a dull and lifeless space. Willow's room, on the other hand, was a lot nicer. She had a really big fish tank on one wall, and glass doors leading outside on the opposite wall, which Tara thought was really cool. In a way it reminded her of the window-seat at her old house, a place where the indoors met nature.

"I like your room, Willow," Tara commented, heading over to look out the doors. "Actually, I like it a lot better than the guest room. It's so sterile in there." She turned to her friend. "I mean, it's, it's nice and everything, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't have any-"

Willow nodded. "I know what you mean. It's empty. My parents, they try and everything, but nothing they do can make the guest room feel like it's a part of the rest of the house. It's just kind of … there." She smiled, her mouth curving gently upwards and her whole face lighting up. "If you want, you can sleep in here. We have an air mattress I can use; you can have the bed. Then we can stay up later, and talk. Or, um, whatever."

"That sounds great," Tara replied, hoping she didn't sound over-eager.