"…Yeah, so this guy comes in, and he's all, like, 'fill her up, dude,'" Xander told Willow as they sat perched on a tomb in the middle of the Restfield Cemetery, and grabbed the bag of chips from her, stuffing a handful into his mouth. "And this girl's sat in the passenger seat of this guy's convertible, and she's giving me this look."

"What kind of a look?" Willow asked as she watched Buffy get in a particularly brutal kick to the vampire she was fighting a few feet away from them.

"It was kind of a 'hey' kind of look. So anyway, this guy gets all pissed and he's, like, 'stop looking at my girl and just fill the car up already!' And I just look at him and go 'you know what, I don't have to take this kind of crap from a loser like you'. Then, the girl smiles at me with these big adoring eyes and-"

"You filled the car up, didn't you?"

"Pretty much."

"There was no girl, was there?"

"No."

"Excuse me," Buffy said, slightly breathless, as she dashed from her foray with the vampire and grabbed the stake lying on top of the tomb between her friends. "Thanks."

"No problem!" Xander called to her. "Hey, you want some-?" he stopped when the vampire turned to dust from the unsuspecting stake through his back. "Never mind."

Buffy dusted herself off and headed for her friends. "Well, that was bracing," she told them as she grabbed the bag of potato chips and stuffed some hungrily into her mouth, droplets of dust contaminating the bag. She held out the bag to them, both of which politely declined with a trace of a grimace. "So, Xander, what were you saying?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," he told her. "I was just trying to make myself sound more interesting."

"How'd that work out for ya?"

"Willow can see right through me."

"You know," Buffy said, "I still can't believe you've managed to hold onto that job at the gas station for so long. I mean, it's been what, a couple of months now?"

"I know," he said wistfully. "It turns out I'm actually good for gainful employment. Yeah, it's just filling cars with gas and all that other minor stuff – let's face it, I'm no VIP Slayer like you – but it's cool. I get a couple of hours alone – except for those pesky interruptions. It would be so much better if there weren't any customers coming in and out every five minutes. But I can deal. I'm learning all this practical stuff, and I'm getting paid for it. My father's actually pretty impressed, you know, when he's not too busy being drunk." He and Willow hopped off the tomb as they began walking through the cemetery casually. "Hey, what do you guys know about Amanda Jones?"

"Amanda Jones?" Willow asked. "Cordelia's friend?"

"The new girl?" Buffy asked. She shrugged. "Only that she's new. She transferred from a girl's school. Oh, and doesn't she go with Mitch Holden?"

"Yeah," Willow told her. "I've seen them together a few times, getting all smoochie." She cleared her throat unnecessarily and nervously. "What do you wanna know for?"

"Oh, no reason," he said thoughtfully. "She was in the library today while I was helping Giles, and-"

"Wait a minute," Buffy said, interrupting him. "Someone other than us went into the library? Did they actually want books? Hey, was Giles all excited?" she watched as Xander glared at her and she shrank back to the potato chips. "That really wasn't the point you were trying to make, was it?"

"Believably enough, no," he told her. "And I'm not really making any point. I just thought she seemed kinda…interesting. She just seems like she has a few more brain cells that what Cordelia and Harmony share, and it kinda got me curious as to why she hangs with them."

Buffy looked quickly and inconspicuously at Willow, who was busy looking at the ground as she walked, a saddened look on her face, fidgeting with the buttons on her sweater.

"Anyway," Xander said, "not that I'm not having a fabulous time with you ladies, but some of us have been working and need a shower. Plus, I have homework. My brain isn't as absorbing as Willow's, and I definitely don't have my Watcher librarian to do my homework for me."

"Hey!" Buffy objected.

"I'm just kidding," he told them. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

"Bye," Buffy said.

"See you tomorrow," Willow told him with a forced smile as he jogged away. "I'm fine," she said suddenly, looking at Buffy."

"But I didn't say anything," Buffy said innocently.

"You were gonna ask me if I'm okay. I am."

"Are you sure?"

"No," Willow said as she looked at Buffy, her eyes sad, but her expression unchanged as the vampire started towards them. She nodded to Buffy, who took the stake she had used on the other vampire from her sleeve, and turned to face it.

"Do you mind?" Buffy asked, her tone annoyed. "We're talking here." She lunged forward with her arm and staked him quickly. "Vampires have no manners…" she muttered to herself. "You were saying?" she asked Willow.

"Oh, nothing," Willow told her. "Can we go home now?"

"Uh, sure," Buffy said, slightly worried, but knowing from Willow's expression that she wasn't ready to talk about it. "I'll walk you home."

The convertible car pulled up to the tennis courts to the side of the Sunnydale High School campus in the late morning sun.

Xander watched from the bleachers as Amanda Jones quickly kissed Mitch Holden goodbye and jumped out of the car. Dressed in her gym outfit and carrying her tennis racket. He stuffed the Twinkie from his bag into his mouth as she sidled into the courts by the hole in the wire fence and joined the quickly dispersing crowd of girls heading back into the school building.

"Oh, Miss Jones?" Coach Foster called suspiciously.

Amanda, who was busy talking to Cordelia, trying to make sure it seemed she had been there for the whole class, rolled her eyes as she approached the teacher. "Is there a problem, Coach?" she asked innocently.

"I would say that cutting class to leave school campus with a boy in the hot car constitutes a problem, yes."

"We were just talking," Amanda told her.

"If all you'd wanted was talk then you wouldn't have left the school campus. One week of morning detention."

"But-"

"Don't argue with me, Miss Jones. Now get inside with the rest of the class and change."

The bell rang loudly as the students began to emerge from the cafeteria and lounges inside the school, all heading to their next classes.

"Well, its back to the mines," Buffy said with a sigh as she headed down the hall towards the English class with Willow and Xander.

"Yeah," Xander said distractedly, purposely hanging back in the group.

"Xander, you're gonna have to hurry," Willow told him. "You know what'll happen when Snyder catches you cutting again."

"I'm…I…I need the bathroom," he said suddenly, backing away from them. "I'll see you in class."

Buffy and Willow watched him, both bemused, as he quickly disappeared from sight.

Principal Snyder exited his office and locked it behind him, slipping his jacket on in the process. He walked into the empty hall, nearly walking into Xander Harris full on. "What are you doing, Harris?" Snyder said threateningly.

"Uh…" Xander said, purposely hesitating. "I'm sorry, I was just on my way to-"

"You were cutting again, weren't you?"

"Well, if you wanna get technical about it…"

"You know what we said about this. One week's morning detention, starting from tomorrow."

"Gosh, darn," Xander said, his tone falsely disappointed. "Well, you caught me fair and square. I did the crime, I'll do the time."

Snyder watched him. "You're weird," he said before walking away.

Xander walked into the classroom where morning detention was held full of confidence, his shirt and pants impressively pressed by himself the night before, and his hair combed into an actual style. Expecting to see Amanda, he instead saw the group of usual no-brainers and losers he had always associated with detention. "Uh…is this detention?" he asked, unsure.

"No, we're having a party," one of them told him.

"Mr. Harris," Mr. Pole, the Drivers Ed. teacher said as he walked past the classroom, Amanda at his side. "If you'll just take a seat with the others, I'll be with you shortly."

Xander did as he was told, curiously taking the seat closest to the door, watching them.

"…Thanks for understanding," Amanda told Mr. Pole in her sweetest voice. "It just felt a little weird being in a room with a bunch of guys."

"Well," he told her with a smile, "I don't see any problem with you serving your detention in my office."

"Well, see, I was thinking that maybe I wouldn't have to serve detention at all."

"Well-"

"Coach Foster was right to punish me, but it wasn't what she thought. And I promise that it would never happen again."

"Well…I'm not sure…"

"Please, Mr. Pole?" she said pleadingly. "I mean, I've heard all the girls talk about what a great Drivers Ed. teacher you are, and that you are so understanding. And I love the way you wear your hair, it really suits you."

"You do?" he asked, sounding proud and flattered, his hand automatically running through the dark brown curls on his head. "Well, I can't see there being any problem with me letting you off just this once. You are new here, after all, but I don't want to hear of a repeat performance of this, okay? And we'll have to keep this between ourselves."

"Okay," she agreed, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "Thanks, Mr. Pole. You're the best."

Buffy and Willow got to the library as the last bell rang, and headed straight over to the large table in the middle of the room.

"How did detention go this morning?" Buffy asked Xander, seeing him already in the stacks.

"Oh, you know," he said with a shrug as he headed back to them. "Pretty boring."

"You know, you were pretty well dressed for a morning of detention."

"Hey, that was my new image."

"'Was'?"

"Yeah, it wasn't really for me."

"Amanda wasn't there, huh?"

"No," he said sheepishly. "Mr. Pole let her off."

"See, that's what gets me so mad," Willow said suddenly. "Everyone else in the school serves their detention like we're supposed to, and she gets off with a flutter of her eyelashes."

"Will," Xander said gently, "you've never had a detention in your life."

"That's not the issue," she said miserably.

"So, what is this thing you've got for Amanda anyway?" Buffy asked. "I mean, she has a boyfriend."

"Yeah, and what a fine specimen of man he is," Xander commented.

Buffy and Willow raised their eyebrows at him.

"I was being sarcastic," he pointed out. "Do you know what kind of a guy he is?"

"Rich, handsome, athletic…" Buffy said.

"He's a jerk," Xander told them. "He cheats on her. He doesn't care about her."

"Xander, come on," Buffy said honestly. "She's a new face in a sea of old ones."

"Yeah," Willow said quietly. "We all know how much you like new girls…"

"Hey," said, "I just think she's-"

"'Interesting'," Willow and Buffy said with him in unison.

"Okay," Xander said. "So maybe I'm just wondering what it would be like to make out with her.

"Wow," Buffy said. "You're about as deep as a puddle."

"Hey, I'm just being honest. I have needs, you know."

"Xander, like I said before," Willow said, "I don't need to know. Besides, you don't even know her," Willow pointed out.

"Look, you don't know how I feel so why don't you just back off," he told her.

"How do you know?" Willow asked.

"How do I know what?"

"That I don't know how you feel."

"Because, I know everything about you. If you had been in love before, I'd have known about it."

"Not necessarily," she told him. "Besides, I'm just trying to help."

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't need any help."

Willow stood miserably among the girls in the locker room after gym class, her hair still wet from the shower she had taken a short while before, and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She frowned at herself as she saw the dowdy overalls and shirt she was wearing and self-consciously looked around the room. She saw Amanda Jones a few lockers away, smoothing down the pretty cotton dress she was wearing and running her fingers through her hair. She looked back at the mirror, her heart sinking. She heard a giggling and turned to see where it was coming from.

"You know," Harmony said, "I'm sure Sears has an adult section for when you grow out of those overalls."

Buffy rounded the corner, standing at Willow's side with her arms crossed across her chest.

"Yes?" Harmony said. "Can we help you?"

Buffy took the hockey stick that had been resting against a nearby wall and held it firmly in her hand. "Have you ever seen a girl with a hockey stick protruding from one of her orifices?"

"Is that some kind of a threat?" Cordelia asked.

"Would you like it to be?"

Cordelia gave her an icy glare as he grabbed her bag and motioned to Harmony to leave.

Once they had gone, Willow sunk to the bench, depression clouding her features.

"Don't worry about them," Buffy told her soothingly as she sat next to her.

"Oh, I'm not," Willow told her. "I'm used to it. I've had to put up with Cordelia and her friends for longer than I care to remember. It's just…"

"Xander," Buffy said for her.

"Xander," Willow confirmed. "You know how I said that I was either gonna wait for Xander to notice every other girl that's not me, or I could move on with my life?"

"I remember."

"Well, as it turns out, I chose waiting. I just…I don't know how long I can do this, Buffy. Being his friend and seeing him fall for every other girl."

"So make a choice now," Buffy told her. "You have to get on with your life, Willow. There are other guys in the world."

"Not for me," Willow said sadly. "But you're right. I do have to get on with my life. Xander can do what he likes."

"That's the spirit."

"Yeah," Willow told her, half-heartedly. "Life, here I come."