Disclaimers: All the characters in this story belong to Joss Whedon.

Chapter 23: Spelling bee

As the days dragged on, the slayer had become even more confused about her feelings for Spike and the situation. What was even worse was the fact that she didn't know what to do. Instead of taking him to one corner or even when they were helping his dad out in the library and they were alone and talking it out with him she just squashed her feelings back down inside of her, but it wasn't working. They were at the bronze and this time it was Harmony dancing with Spike. Buffy watched on miserably as they did so. She was sat on her own, watching them, jealously threatening to spill over and turn her green. Willow had gone off with Oz and Xander, well Xander was doing what he always did, trying to get a girl to go out with him. The song had finished. Oz left the club, kissing Willow on the lips before he did so. Xander had now joined her. Willow shortly followed on swaying happily. They all watched Faith dancing with a group of three guys. Buffy and Willow both rolled their eyes but Xander was drooling in his drink, causing Willow to gasp.

"Uh Xander...you got a little drool," the slayer pointed out

He came out of his daze and wiped his mouth on a napkin.

"Man, that girl can dance, I mean just look at her, all sexy, dark and rogue like,"

That was it. He was now off in a world of his own, again. Luckily for the girls the bleach blonde had finished dancing with Harmony. She looked extremely disappointed. He sat down next to Buffy in a devil may care fashion, took a cigarette out and lit it.

"Evenin' all," he greeted

"Hi," Willow chirped

"Hey," Buffy greeted

Xander just scowled at him. Spike shrugged.

"Fair enough...I see Faith is getting friendly with the locals,"

"Yeah, and? What business is it of yours?" Xander spat out

The other teen chuckled at him.

"Ooh, a little jealous are we whelp?"

"Am not jealous!"

He didn't convince them. Willow giggled and Buffy smiled at his obvious attraction to her cousin but all that changed as soon as one Miss Chase waltzed in. His eyes were now on her. She was wearing a short, leather skirt, black tight, red, strappy heels and a red, glittery halter neck top. Xander scoffed.

"She couldn't dress any more slutty even if she tried,"

Willow looked at him, raised brows. Spike was looking at Buffy and then started to sip his drink. A few minutes of silence passed until Spike finally spoke.

"Wonder if Glinda is okay,"

Everyone turned to him, looking baffled.

"Who's Glinda? I thought she was that witch off Wizard of Oz" Buffy questioned

"Tara, my sister,"

Now this was weird. He called his sister Glinda? Why give her a nickname like that? Why not call her T?

"Why do you call her Glinda?" the red head questioned him further

"She does magiks is why I call her that,"

Magiks? Now that was something Willow was interested in.

She felt nervous. Last night she spoke to Spike for a good hour about Tara. In the end he gave her the address and told her to go there straight after school so that his mum wasn't there. There she was at the front door and for a moment she considered backing out but didn't. Taking a deep breath in she knocked on the door. The door slowly opened to reveal Tara. She looked quizzically at the red head.

"Um, i-if you're looking for S-spike, he isn't here,"

"Oh, no I'm not looking for him...actually I came here because I am interested in starting some witchcraft and Spike told me you were the gal to come to," she explained.

Tara looked less confused and smiled sweetly. She stepped out of the way and led her in.

"No, You don't have to explain, I don't mind. Really,C-come in,"

Willow took in her surroundings and followed Tara into the kitchen.

"W-would you like a drink, Willow? I-it is Willow, right?"

She nodded in response.

"Uh, just some water please,"

"Ok, y-you can go up to my room, first on the left,"

So that was what she did.

Tara's room. Willow & Tara were preparing for a spell. A square of twine with the points held down by four different coloured crystals. Willow and Tara were sitting either side of it. "So the square is Sunnydale?" Willow asked "Right it's like a map. We both take different parts of the potion and when we do the incantation we both blow it onto the square at the exact same time," the witch explained The red head nodded but then knitted her brows into a slight frown.

"But how does it work?" Tara grinned a little as she began to explain the spell in a bit more detail. "Well that's the cool part. When the potion mixes and Thespia is called it creates this mist over the parts where the demons are. I-It even makes different colours for different breeds,"

"Wow,"

"O-ok, this is what you have to say (hands her a piece of paper) You ready? Let's do it," Willow nodded. Tara poured some green powder into Willow's hand from a grey stone bowl or mortar, then some white powder into her own hand from a green mortar. Willow looked at the paper. Tara closed her eyes.
"Thespia, we walk in shadow, walk in blindness. You are the protector of the night," the blonde chanted

"Thespia, goddess, ruler of all darkness, we implore you, open a window to the world of the underbeing," the red head chanted

They both blow the powder into the square.

"With your knowledge may we go in safety. With your grace may we speak of your benevolence,"

The square had now turned into a map. Purple dots, blue dots, green dots, near enough every single colour in the rainbow. They both opened their eyes and gasped as they saw the different lights. Willow was in complete awe. "Wow, just look at this...(points to the right hand corner) look there is a big group of demons, my guess is vampires...oooh wait! Isn't that the Sunnyrest cemetery?" Tara took a look and nodded. All the lights were twinkling, they even moved when a demon moved, which Willow thought was cool. Within a few minutes the map had disappeared.

The next day Buffy and Faith walked into the school yard and instantly, the brunette's attention was on him. She smiled and made her way over to him, leaving Buffy following her very slowly. Faith ran up to Spike and smacked him on the bottom. He jumped and saw the vixen that did it. He rolled his beautiful eyes.

"Do you go around doin' that to every guy you see?"

"Oh yeah, every guy that has a tight ass like you baby,"

The slayer was visibly upset by this exchange. Spike was now laughing at something Faith had said. Buffy chewed her lip as she watched on. Tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. The brunette whispered something into his ear. That was it. She'd had about as much as she could take. First Cordelia and now Faith. Buffy ran into school. Spike looked at Faith. She was ok he guessed but no where near to what the girl of his dreams was like. Ok, where IS Buffy? He thought. He looked around a little and then turned back to her.

"So, where is that cousin of yours?"

Faith whirled round to see that the blonde had disappeared. She frowned and pointed to where she just was.

"She was there a minute a go,"

There were in I.T lesson with Ms Calender. Buffy couldn't take her mind away from what she at witnessed this morning. So they didn't kiss or anything but they certainly looked like they were getting very pally. What was wrong with her? Since when did she pine over Spike?!?! Spike of all people? She had to admit to herself that he was gorgeous and had a certain something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She looked at the blank word document on her screen, little line flashing, ready for her to start typing. Buffy huffed and turned to her best friend. She had to do something about this.

"...Willow?"

"Yeah?" she piped

The blonde fiddled with her pencil as she figured out what she was going to say.

"Uh...I have a problem,"

Willow looked at her friend, concern etched on her face.

"What kind of a problem?" she questioned.

Buffy let out another sigh and pulled her chair closer to Willow.

"I'm kinda having some difficulty in making a decision...god this is stupid!" she exasperated

The red head eyed the blonde and then narrowed her eyes on her.

"Is this about the guy you like?"

She nodded.

"Yuh-huh...I mean I like him but I'm not sure if he likes me back and I guess I just want to see it from a different angle, ya know?" Willow's eyes twinkled as she had a brain wave.

"Well, I mean this is if you want to, maybe we should do a spell with Tara? I'm sure she would have something that could help,"

"A spell?" Buffy said slowly And again the red head nodded.

Later that night, Buffy, Willow and Tara were in Tara's room. No light on, except for a little bedside lamp. She had made a circle with red powder and in the middle of this circle was a crow's feather and a white crystal. Around this circle were two pink candles and one black one. Buffy had the black candle and the others had a pink one each. Buffy looked bewildered as she looked at this circle.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" she sounded unsure

"Y-yes...well I haven't done this spell before but I-I have done plenty of others," Tara explained.

This left the slayer worried even more now and she was right to be worried. Willow noticed this and smiled at her friend.

"Buffy, don't worry Tara knows what she is doing,"

The witch offered a smile of encouragement to the blonde as she sprinkled some nutmeg into the circle. She told Buffy to cut off a little bit of her hair and she placed it into the circle. They all lit their matches at the same time and lit the candles. The girls were all in a meditating position.

"Just r-relax and close your eyes," she instructed and they did so.

Tara started the chant. "

Here my prayer, answer our call, light of the dark, dark of the light...Vachel we invoke thee," The flames on the candles began to flicker.

"Knowledge we seek, perspective we need...Vachel we command thee,"

The crystal began to glow turquoise and the flames flickered even more. Buffy and Willow shivered.

"Light of the dark, dark of the light, perspective we need...Vachel we invoke thee!" she ended the chant The flames flickered out and the lamp had suddenly gone off on it's own. The slayer looked around, puzzled.

"Did it work?"

A sunny day at Sunnydale high and all of a sudden a portal opened up at the front of the school, throwing out of it was Buffy, Spike and Dawn. The instant Spike was thrown out he started running around, screaming and flapping.

"Oh bloody hell! Oh god! Oh god!!!...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Dawn just looked at him like he was demented but hang on a minute, he isn't going on fire!?! Buffy rolled her eyes and realised what was going on. Spike was a vampire so wasn't he meant to go poof at the touch of sunlight?

"Bloody hell!!! please someone help me!"

People started staring at him.

"Well, I retract that comment about him being cool,"

Dawn commented The slayer went over to him and punched him in the nose. His hands instantly went to his nose.

"Oh ow!"

"Would you stop acting like that?!? now in case you haven't noticed YOU are not setting on fire so if you would kindly stop so we can figure out where we are,"

His eyes widened in awe as he stopped and realised that she was right. No fire. No dusty. He raised his hand to the sun and relished in the warm feeling setting into his skin. Dawn looked at the front of the building. Sunnydale high.

"I thought you said Sunnydale high was burnt down?"

Buffy turned her head towards the building. As she did this she saw a familiar bleach blonde coming from the left side of the building. He was dressed in black jeans, a black t shirt with a skull and cross bone on. He had a short, leather jacket on and a silver chain was around his neck. A steely look of determination came across her face as she took her stake out of her pocket and charged towards him.

So what do you think guys? Sorry took me so long to update i hope you like it! Thanks for the reviews so far, keep it up!