Faith finds herself on her way to Algebra 2, having found it in her best interest to at least go to class. She shows the teacher her schedule to prove that she's in the class, as if she'd want to show up on her free will.

The teacher glances at her strangely before looking toward the back of the room where Missy is seated, staring disinterestedly at her notebook. Faith smirks to herself before going to the seat next to her slaying counterpart.

"Hey," Faith says nonchalantly as she hurls herself into the desk next to Missy.

"Missy looks up with a startled expression, but relaxes as soon as she sees who it is. "Hey," she smiles back. "We still going to your place after school?" She asks with enthusiasm showing through.

"Of course. Well, unless you've got a problem with it," Faith replies, though it sounds more like a question than a statement.

"Nope. It's all good. I've got nothing planned," she replies with a grin as she goes back to her notebook. After a short pause, she looks over at Faith. "Can I ask you a question?" She asks.

"You just did," Faith smirks at her own 'cleverness', when she realizes that no one's laughing, she clears her throat. "Yeah. Shoot."

"Are we related or something? I mean, we'd have to be in order to look alike," Missy asks with her voice dropping. Faith quirks an eyebrow. "We are identical and the same age-"

"No. I'm older than you. I'm almost 20 and you just turned 16. I'm fairly certain that this is just some bizarre coincidence," Faith waves it off sounding more confident than she really is.

"Oh," is all Missy says as a reply. Faith takes notice of the slight hint of disappointment in her tone. "What about your parents? What do you know about them?" Missy asks as she turns her head to meet Faith's gaze.

Faith's expression darkens. "They're dead," she says in a deathly calm voice, but with malice still evident in her tone.

Missy is slightly taken back by the other Slayer's tone. However, it becomes apparent to her that the anger is directed toward Faith's parents...or Faith herself. "I'm sorry," she says sincerely.

"I'm not," Faith replies. Missy is about to further comment, but the teacher slams the door shut and walks into the classroom.

"Okay class," the teacher begins. "Today we are going to begin the section on imaginary numbers." Faith inwardly groans.

The last bell of the day rings, much to the delight of Faith, who leaps out of her seat with zeal. She walks across the hall to Missy's class and waits just inside the door. "Come on Miss," she says impatiently as she waits for Missy to finish packing up her things.

"Don't have a stroke. We have all afternoon," Missy says, deliberately slowing down her packing process. Faith just waits with a scowl on her face. "There. Now was that so hard?" She asks with a grin.

"Yeah. It was," Faith sneers back.

"What bug jumped up your ass?" Missy asks cautiously.

""Mr. Roberts, my bastard advanced chem teacher," she grumbles back. "He's such an asshole. He was getting all anal just because I was a couple minutes late for his lame ass class."

"Why don't just change your schedule or something?" Missy inquires. "I heard that Ms. Matos was cool and she never gives homework or anything," she grins.

"Good idea. I'll talk to Chuck tomorrow morning," Faith resolves. Missy gives her a strange expression. "Chuck, Principal Reynolds, whatever," she shrugs.

""You're on a first name basis with the principal? It's only your second day," Missy chuckles. "I think that's a little sad, don't you?"

"Ha ha, you're a riot," Faith says while rolling her eyes. "Are we going or not?" She asks with frustration. Missy smirks and walks out the door with Faith right behind. They exit the school and head off toward Faith's car.

Faith moves her head to dodge a punch at the last minute and follows up with a kick to Missy's side. She then follows through on the kick to land a punch straight to Missy's jaw.

"Hey! Why aren't you throwing your punches?" Missy whines as she moves her jaw to make sure it still will move and brings her hand to the side of her face.

"I knew you were a smart one," Faith smirks at Missy's pout. She then rolls her hand and sighs. "You think some vamp will throw his punches just because you start whining?" She asks.

"No," Missy begins slowly. "But last time I checked, you weren't a vampire. You're stronger." Faith folds her arms with a bored expression. "Besides, we're just training. ," she gripes.

"Yeah, training," Faith stresses the word. "Training you to not get your ass kicked my some skanky vamp. Training you to handle yourself in the big, bad world," she teases as she throws another punch.

This time Missy ducks and turns to kick Faith in the side. However, Faith recovers quickly and catches her foot. Missy uses her momentum to do a back-flip out of Faith's grip and land on her feet.

"Wicked cool," Faith grins as she relaxes.

"Thanks, I do try," Missy smirks back.

Faith looks outside and sees the sun going down. "How about we go out and slay us some big bad vamps?" She says while trying to hold back her excitement.

"Hell yeah!" Missy says as she grabs her stuff.

"You're almost as enthusiastic as I am," Faith chuckles as she grabs her jacket and her stakes. They then haul ass downstairs to Faith's car.

"What's with the leather?" Missy finds herself asking and Faith gives her a confused expression. "It's, like, eighty degrees out and you're wearing leather, aren't you hot?" She asks.

Faith laughs out as they pull to a red light. "You ever get into it with a vamp with wicked sharp nails? Those bastards hurt," she explains and Missy still looks confused. "Leather is strong enough to prevent their claws from going through to the skin. I didn't start wearing it until I started slaying," she shrugs.

"Oh, I see," Missy says with a nod as they pull up to a cemetery.

"Okay, let's go," Faith says with a child-like grin.

Missy lands a hard kick to a vampires chest that sends the vampire flying back onto a tombstone. Faith sends hers flying into a nearby tree. They both stalk over to their respective targets and pick them up by the collars of their shirts. They shove them so that they are back to back and simultaneously ram their stakes through the undead hearts of the vampires causing both vampires to dust automatically.

"Cool," Missy says as she wipes the sweat off of her forehead and Faith looks over at her. "Synchronized slaying," she explains.

"New Olympic category?" Faith finds herself saying before she can stop herself. Memories of a similar conversation with Buffy floods her mind. Her smile quickly gives way to a miserable expression as she sinks down to lean against a tombstone and lay her head back on it.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Missy asks with concern. She gets no response. "Are you all right?" She asks more urgently. She still gets no response, so, she crouches in front of Faith to check for any head injuries.

Faith quickly jerks away and gives Missy a dark expression. "I'm fine. What the fuck do you care anyways?" She grinds out as she gets up to walk away.

Missy quickly reaches out and grabs Faith by the wrist to turn her around. "I do care," she insists. "You can trust me," she says.

"That's just the thing, I can't trust you," Faith growls. "I can't trust you just like you can't trust me," she says with a shrug, the pain in her eyes undermining her apparent nonchalance.

"Yeah. Well, I do trust you," Missy says firmly.

"You shouldn't," Faith sneers. "I'll just end up screwing you over," she says as she goes to walk off again.

"You're good at walking away aren't you?" Missy says rhetorically as she catches up with Faith. "Whenever things get to hard, you just walk away and try to move on," she says.

"It must run in the family," Faith sneers as she remembers her parents.

"You're not your family and I'm not going to let you walk away this time. Whether you believe it or not, everything will catch up with you sooner or later. It already did once," Missy replies.

Faith stops dead in her tracks, still a few paces ahead of Missy, but she doesn't turn to face her. "Look, this was a mistake okay. I shouldn't have come here. I should be back in prison. I apologize if my presence has caused any permanent damage. Please, send me your future therapy bill if you live long enough to see one," she says.

"Faith, I already told you, I'm not letting you walk away. You hate your family for walking away, talking the easy way out. Yet, here you are, doing the same thing, becoming exactly what you hate about them. You can be better than them, you can show them that you are different," Missy says softly.

Faith visibly relaxes and she takes a deep, shuddering breath. "You're persistent," she observes, her resolve to leave fading away.

"I'm giving you another chance. The Council found you worth another chance and so do I," Missy replies.

"I guess I can stick around a little longer," she says calmly, but allowing a small amount of delight to sound through. They both pause a moment.

"So, about that ride home..." Missy trails off with a grin and Faith turns to face her with an eyebrow quirked up. "You cut your head," she observes. "I knew you must've hit it in order to freak out the way you did," she jokes and Faith rolls her eyes.

"I wasn't freaking out," Faith says as a feeble defense.

"Whatever you say," Missy says sarcastically. "You can come back to my house and I'll clean it up for you," she says.

"No. I'll be fine. Slayer healing, you know how it is," she explains with a shrug.

"You're going that way anyways," Missy notes Faith's confusion. "You honestly expect me to walk home?" She asks with a smirk.

"Fine, come on," Faith says while heaving an exaggerated sigh as they head off toward her car. "What about your family? I'm sure the last time they checked, they only had one of you," she inquires.

"My bother is practicing with his band at a friend's house and the 'rents went out of town or something," Missy states.

"Wicked awesome," Faith says.

They pull up to Missy's house and get out. "See, told you no one was home," Missy says as she points to the empty driveway.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Faith scoffs. They walk up to the house and Missy unlocks the door and they go in. "You have an icepack or something?" She asks as she rubs her left hand.

"Yeah. But that's what you get for hitting that tree," Missy says while trying to hide her smirk.

"Was it my fault that the damned vamp ducked? Do I look like a mind reader?" Faith scowls as Missy flips on the light.

Missy pauses as if to think. "No, but the again, you really don't look much like a Slayer either," she grins. "You want some thing to drink?" She asks.

"No. If I don't look like a Slayer, then neither do you," Faith retorts as Missy pulls out an icepack and tosses it to Faith, who promptly catches it.

"Missy, honey, is that you?" A man's voice asks as he and a woman walk into the kitchen. Both the man and woman stop as they notice someone else in the room.

"Hey you guys. I thought you were out of town," Missy says nervously at Faith, who has her head down at her hand, her hair hiding her face, as she intends.

"Our trip got cancelled," the woman says. "So, who's this?" She asks, nodding towards Faith.

Faith lifts her head to look at the woman. They lock eyes and stare at one another. "This is my friend-"

"Faith," the woman says coldly, desperately trying to cover up her shock.

"What the...? Holy shit," Missy says as realization washes over her.

"Mom," Faith says with the same icy tone and harsh glare.