Chapter II: 'Cause It's Always Got to Be Money
Italics are thoughts.
*
Willow looked curiously at the young girl in the chair. The girl couldn't have looked more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Her brown hair was pulled up into the kind of bun Buffy liked to use and she had a pair of glasses perched on her nose. Beside the girl sat a couple of bags and suitcases. Willow frowned. Wouldn't a new person to Sunnydale check into a motel and then come here?
She peered intently at the girl who was now reading a book. Suddenly, the girl looked up and saw Willow watching her. Willow quickly made herself look busy, taking notes out of her textbook. The girl's eyes left Willow and Willow raised her eyes up, but kept her head bent to show she was still working, and watched what the girl was doing. The girl was looking around the library it seemed.
The girl kept her eyes on the librarian for a time before returning them to Willow. Willow went back to note taking and continued that even after the girl's eyes left her. An hour or two later, Willow packed up to go back to the Summers' house. She wanted to know if there were anymore Potentials arriving in Sunnydale.
As Willow went to open the library door, she looked back. The girl was still absorbed in her book and wasn't looking at Willow. Then Willow looked at the clock above the door. It was midnight. Willow sighed and left just as the clock began to chime out midnight softly.
***
When Mira could not get back to sleep, she kept reading her book. When the clock struck five in the morning, Mira began to get ready to leave. She placed the book on the shelf where she found it and said a 'Thank you' to the greying lady who she had come to know as Dorothy. Then, she quickly gathered her bags and left the building.
It wasn't dawn yet, but Mira could just see the horizon getting lighter. She walked along the street, relaxing against the cool night air. She was thankful it wasn't too cold down south. Back in Canada, in the south where she lived, it was a 50/50 bag. The weather was often weird in Ontario, especially during the winter. One winter it went down to -22°C, and that was without the wind-chill factor. It was so nice to wear a thin sweater during the winter.
The sun finally came up, rising high in the sky. Mira decided to take one more stab at the banks to change her money so she could eat. She quickly found the Bank of Sunnydale and went inside to stand in a short line-up to the tellers. Once it was her turn, she stepped up to a teller with long brown hair. The teller looked up and smiled.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"Uh, do you know if I can change Canadian money into American money here?" Mira asked, crossing her fingers behind her back.
And the girl nodded. "How much will you be changing?" she asked.
Mira smiled, relief flooding into her face. "Over $600 Canadian," she told the teller, and began to pull out her money.
***
"I swear, there was something about that girl," Willow said as she and Buffy stepped into the Bank of Sunnydale. It was only a half hour after the sun had went up, but Buffy had insisted on coming to the bank early, and Willow had decided to go with her.
"Do you think this girl could be a Potential?" Buffy whispered once they got inside and had joined the line.
"I don't know," Willow said dejectedly. "All I know is that she seemed like a Potential. I wish I knew something more."
"It's okay, Willow," Buffy said, laying a hand on Willow's arm. "We will-"
"Buffy, look!" Willow exclaimed in a whisper. Buffy looked to where Willow was pointing and saw a girl at the teller, looking relieved.
"Is that her?" Buffy asked.
Willow nodded. "That's her. That must have been the reason why she hasn't checked into a motel yet. Because she needed money."
The line moved closer to the girl so that Buffy and Willow could hear what they were saying. The teller had come back and was counting bills while the girl held a wad of bills in her hand.
"This should come up to almost $400," the teller was saying. She smiled as the girl gave her the wad of money and she gave the girl the American bills. The girl signed a form and put the now-American money into her pocket and started for the bank door, but not before noticing Willow and Buffy.
The girl gave a small smile to Willow, which Willow returned, before she turned back to going to the door. But before the girl could make it there, a man had pulled a gun out of his jacket and pointed it at her head.
"FREEZE!" he yelled to the room. "Nobody move! If somebody does, this girl dies! Give me your money, girl."
Buffy's Slayer senses kicked in and she was about to beat the man senseless, but she quickly noticed that the girl was already doing a fine job at it. She had the man in a deathgrip and had knocked the gun out of the man's hand with her knee. After kicking the gun away from them, the girl flipped the man onto his back, turned him over and tied his hands together. Then she stood, breathing heavily as the people in the bank clapped.
Buffy looked disbelievingly at Willow while Willow returned the look. Could she really be a Potential Slayer?