Chapter Three
Tash grumbled as she fell backwards onto her bed, hiding her face under a pillow. This was a nightmare. They had barely been here for a week. How had she managed to make an enemy already? That stupid Weasley girl would just not leave her alone. Tash swore that if she flirted with Clay one more time, she was dead. Gone. Six feet under. Permanently sleeping. She growled and glared when an airheaded blonde who shared their cabin giggled. The girl shut up but was looking smug still. Everyone had heard about the two clashing, and if it didn't make things worse, she looked exactly like her. They had the same colour hair and their faces had the same structure and Tash couldn't look at her for very long enough without feeling sick but she was going to bet they had the same eyes as well.
She felt the bed dip and a hand patted her shoulder. She peeked out behind her pillow to see Clay smiling sympathetically. "How're you coping?"
"Shit. How do you not get angry?"
"Practice. I don't need to repeat Mom's mistakes." Clay happened to be a damn powerful wizard, not quite on par with Willow but he'd proven once before that he could do quite a bit of damage when he didn't keep check of his power.
Tash threw her pillow at the wall and was dissatisfied at the soft landing. She was restless and she wanted to hit something but if she did, one of those counsellors who always were in the wrong place at the wrong time would catch her and probably lock her up for damaging private property. She'd already been chastised just for holding her wand. Sure, she'd been seriously contemplating hexing someone but she wouldn't have actually done it. Both her and the Weasley girl had gotten a stern talking to for yelling at each other at the bonfire the night before.
Tash and Clay both jumped when Rachael slammed into the room, the door banging on the wall and bouncing off it. The airheaded blonde who'd been eavesdropping scurried from the room at one look at the dreadlocked girl's glare.
"Rach, what's wrong?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong," she hissed, her British accent adding venom to the words. "That asshat Weasley girl just threw spiders at me. Do you know what's worse than throwing spiders at an arachnophobe? Throwing spiders at an arachnophobe with bloody dreads!" Rachael was livid, her chest heaving up and down and Tash recognised that look. That look was the one that Rachael wore before she made something blow up.
"Rach, hun, you've got to calm down. You have to chill. Breathe. Please. I'm in enough trouble as it is, they're going to blame me if something catches on fire." Rachael sat down on her bed, breathing heavily and not looking at anyone, just burning a hole in the floor with her mind. Tash was just thankful that it wasn't in a literal sense.
Not that Tash was anymore level-headed. Weasley threw spiders at her best friend? Oh, she was going down. She didn't care if she got sent home, no one messed with a Scrappy and got away with it.
"Come on, Clay."
"Oh no, Tash. I'm not going to be a part of your little games." At Tash's incredulous look, he expanded. "No, I'm not fine with what they did to Rach. They will pay but you're going to end up hitting someone and getting sent home and imagine what your mom will be like. Aunt Buffy will kick your arse, and you know the lecture you'll get from Giles. It's not worth it. We'll leave it until tonight when we're all a bit more levelheaded, all right?"
Tash glared at the door. She wanted revenge. She was sick of that girl strutting around camp and messing up Tash's summer. She really wanted to hit something. Hard. "I'm going to go hit something." Clay opened his mouth but Tash waved him off. "A tree or a wall or something. I won't touch her, yet."
Rach was still breathing on the bed when Tash stalked out and Clay went and sat with her, knowing now that the anger was gone and she was left feeling scared. He held out his hand and she took it, squeezing it in gratitude.
* * *
Sanna smiled as she saw her impostor walking across the camp, looking murderous. Their eyes met and Sanna waved. Tash flipped her the bird and headed into the trees. Teddy sat behind her, whittling away at something. She didn't know what it was but that didn't matter. That annoying Summers bint was angry and that made Sanna happy.
"I don't get you, Sanna. You're usually not this vindictive. What's up?"
"She has my face, Teddy. What did you expect me to do?"
"Well it's not like she did it on purpose. You didn't have to throw a spider at the Wyndam-Price chit either."
"It wasn't a real spider. It was just an illusion. Did you see the look on her face?"
The look on Teddy's said he had and he wasn't amused.
"Oh, come on, Teds. It's just a bit of fun. No one's been hurt."
"Yet. I know you're related to Fred and George but that doesn't mean you need to act like it. I think you should just give it up. It's going to escalate and someone's going to get hexed. Don't you get into enough duels at Hogwarts?"
"Nope."
"Obviously not."
"Hey Lupin, Sanna!" The duo looked up and Sanna broke into a grin.
"Lachie!" Lachlan Wood laughed as he caught Sanna around the waist and spun her around. He set her down on the ground grinning.
"How's my favourite Weasley?"
"At war, actually. There's a girl with my face running around camp." Lachlan blinked.
"For real?"
"Yeah. It's insane."
"Lachie," Teddy said, nodding.
"Teddy," Lachlan nodded back. Sanna rolled her eyes at the guy thing.
"You're both weird. So how do you feel about helping me out with a bit of pranking, Lachie? Teddy's too chicken."
"I believe the term is smart, Sanna." Sanna stuck her tongue out and sneaked a peek towards the direction where the Summers bint had hidden herself in the trees. Teddy saw the look in her eyes and shook his head. "No. No way. You're barmy. Don't you dare."
"I won't do anything to her. The spider charm on the non-Brit chit was damage enough for today."
Teddy just stared at her.
"What?"
"You actually are barmy. You've walked into too many walls. Charlie dropped you one too many times as a baby. What is it with you and that girl?"
Sanna shrugged uncomfortably. There was something about Summers that made her itch and gave her goosebumps. "Well, I'm going. If I don't come back, avenge my death."
Teddy simply turned, sat back down and resumed his whittling. Lachie looked between the two.
Sanna patted his shoulder. "Talk later, Lachie."
"Do you need back-up?"
Sanna turned, walking backwards. "Back-up? For this? Nah, I'm fine, thanks. Ask Teddy what he'd fiddling with for me, would you?"
* * *
Tash kept walking, fuming at the nerve of that girl. She growled a few choice words that would get her a grounding from her mother and continued on the path, not paying attention to where she was going. She eventually found a large tree and found an alternative to hitting things. There weren't very many trees around the Hyperion and she didn't have much experience in climbing them but that was the brilliant part. A challenge would keep her mind off the little face-stealer back at the camp.
She had to jump to make it to the first branch, which wouldn't have been possible if she'd been a few inches shorter. She pulled herself up with effort and grinned savagely at the stretch of her muscles. She would probably be sore tomorrow but that was better than getting into a fistfight with someone, at least from her mother's point of view.
She was about ten feet off the ground when Sanna found her. The English girl cleared her throat rather loudly, in such a fashion that it was clear it had been purely intentional.
Tash ignored the person on the ground who was clearing their throat and kept going. She wasn't tired enough to talk to someone without getting angry, even if it was a camp counsellor.
Sanna narrowed her eyes and nodded. Right then. She found the lowest branch, the one that Tash had jumped to and followed the American's path, wishing she'd just brought her broom.
Tash stopped climbing a few branches up when she felt like she could talk to someone without jumping down her throat. She sat on a sturdy branch and looked down to see who was crazy enough to follow her up here. The answer made her glare at the top of the girl's head.
"You may as well stop and climb back down now," Tash called down. "Especially if you don't want me to kick you out of this damn tree." Sanna did stop but only to peer up at her.
"I came here to talk. No hexing or kicking, if you don't mind."
"I can't promise you anything. You threw spiders at my best friend."
"Oh please," Sanna grunted. "It was one spider and it wasn't even real. It was a charm."
"It doesn't matter. She's an arachnophobe with dreadlocks."
Sanna felt a twinge of guilt but was determined. She kept climbing. Bloody American, why did she have to climb a tree, of all things? Couldn't she just go for a run like a normal person? "Well, tell her I'm sorry for that. If I'd known, I wouldn't have done it."
"But you did, and you've been torturing us all week."
"You've been torturing us back, I might add." Sanna managed to pull herself up onto a branch lower down and as close to the opposite side of the tree without being hidden from sight. She held up her hands. "Look, no wand." Tash was still glaring. "Oh, for... look, I came here to apologise."
"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you. You know, I've been trying to keep out of trouble this break. My mom will kill me if she finds out that I've been in a feud with some random English girl who stole my face."
Sanna held up a hand. "One of those bloody counsellors is sure to tell my dad and I'm going to get grounded until Hogwarts. Besides, I believe you're the one that stole my face. I had it first."
Tash snorted. "Oh really? When's your birthday? I bet I'm older."
"June 18th."
Tash yelped and almost fell backwards out of the tree. The only thing that saved her was the arm wrapped around the trunk.
"Bloody hell, what did you do that for?"
"Are you sixteen?"
"Yes." Tash's eyes widened then narrowed to a glare. "What's the matter?"
"She wouldn't."
"Who wouldn't? Would you mind letting me on in your secret?" Sanna asked, annoyed at being out of the crazy girl's thought process. She moved up to a closer branch now that it didn't look like Summers wasn't going to kick her out of the tree.
"My birthday's on the 18th of June and I turned sixteen this year." Sanna's eyes bugged out of her head and her jaw dropped to her chest.
"No way."
"Yes way." Tash dived into her back pocket and prayed she hadn't lost it. She'd stolen the photo back from Connor just before they'd left for the airport. Like hell she was going to give up the only thing she had of her father.
"What are you doing?"
Tash handed her the photo. "Do you know this man?"
Sanna frowned. "I'd bloody well hope so. What are you doing with a photo of my father?"
"That's my mother, pregnant with me." Tash hesitated and continued, bulldozing on. "Pregnant with us, I'd bet." Sanna couldn't stop staring at the photo. She'd always been told she'd had her father's eyes but the colour was different. The colour was this woman's she'd bet. She was trying to figure out why the brunette looked so familiar.
"I know this woman!" Sanna's proclamation almost sent Tash out of the tree again.
"What? Where?"
Sanna was tapping the photo, positive of it now. "I saw a photo of her once at the Burrow." At Tash's confused look, she elaborated. "The Burrow is where my... our grandparents live. It's the central hub for the Weasleys. Grandma Molly was cleaning and she pulled this photo out of practically nowhere. Not this exact photo but it was still of dad and this woman. All Grandma would say was she was an old friend of my father's. Merlin, I'm thick."
At Tash's silence, Sanna looked up curiously and was startled when she saw Summers staring at her. Tash was examining the girl who could possibly be her sister, her twin, to see the similarities when before all she'd seen was the differences. They had the same build, the same facial structure, the same eyes for crying out loud. Sanna was missing the small scar just above her right eyebrow that Tash had received when she'd been kidnapped by a Fyarl demon but Sanna had a small mole on her left temple close to her hairline that was missing on Tash.
"This is an 8 on the wiggins scale."
Sanna frowned. "Wiggins scale? Speak English, woman."
"This is really weird. Not the weirdest, but up there. 8 out of 10 on the weird scale."
"You have a weird scale?"
"Oh, the Scoobies have plenty more than a weird scale?"
"Scoobies?"
"It's mom's generation of the LA based Watcher's Council."
Sanna looked interested. "Your... our mum's on the Watcher's Council?"
Tash laughed and waved it off when Sanna looked offended. "It's more than mom. Aunt Buffy's the oldest living Slayer and Grampa Giles is her Watcher. They infiltrated it and rebuilt it when Senor Sucks-a-lot had a heart attack."
"Senor... what?"
"Quentin Travers, a.k.a Senor Sucks-a-lot, was the old Head of the Watcher's Council. After he kicked the bucket, they approached Giles and he accepted. The Watcher's Council 2.0 as mom calls it. Her and Uncle Xander are technically Watchers but Dawn's Aunt Faith's Watcher because it would be a conflict of interest to have Xander out in the field with her. He takes care of Buffy, though."
Something clicked for Sanna, Tash could see it on her face. "Wait, Buffy? As in Buffy Summers, the Slayer?"
"Don't you listen? Yes, Buffy, my aunt Buffy, my only living blood relation..." Tash got a funny look on her face. "I guess that isn't true anymore. Gah!" She punched the tree and yelped, shaking her hand when the trunk jarred it. Tash glared at the bark like it was its fault her hand hurt. She didn't seem to notice the blood on her knuckles but Sanna couldn't help but stare at the random act of violence.
"What did you do that for?"
"It's so I won't hit my mom when I see her. Goddess, I can't believe she didn't tell me. What was going through her head? I mean, I have a sister. A twin! What, did she think she could keep it from me my entire life?"
Sanna was silent during Tash's rant but told her quietly, "They almost succeeded."
"But you're English. You'd think she'd want to keep me as far away from England as possible."
"But really, what are the chances? And I don't even live in England. I live in Romania with dad. I mean, he's retired but he likes to keep close to the reserve incase they need a hand."
"Reserve?"
Sanna smirked. "Our dad's a dragon tamer."
Tash gasped and clapped her hands together like it was Christmas and she got her first crossbow all over again. "You're shitting me. Real dragons? I've never seen one. Are they cool? Are they all angry or are they really like cats?"
Sanna laughed at Tash's enthusiasm. "They only get angry if someone threatens their nest, at least that's what dad tells me. And yeah, they act like they own you and they're only letting you put them in the reserve... which is kinda true actually. If they didn't want to be there, they wouldn't."
"What's dad like?" Tash looked at Sanna seriously, all laughter gone from her face.
Sanna returned it. "He's great, wonderful. Best dad you can hope for. He's my friend but he doesn't try to be cool. He just is and he trusts me and it's sort of nice, just the two of us in our little house. What's mum like?"
Tash smiled. "She's awesome. Really awesome. She acts like a brat sometimes, I guess that's where I get it from but she's there for you when you need her. She's in Scotland right now at an excavation. She loves the research and she can learn any language you throw at her."
"What's it like growing up with the Slayer?"
Tash groaned. "Aunt Buffy, while cool, tries to mother both mom and me. I mean, I get why she tries to go all mother hen on mom, she's been looking after her since mom was fourteen but come on, it's been like twenty years. Aunt Buffy has trouble letting go sometimes, but I guess that's why she's the longest living Slayer. She just doesn't give up."
Determination flared in Sanna's eyes. "Neither will we."
"OK, now you're the one who isn't talking English."
"They probably thought they could split us up for our own good or whatever rubbish reason they came up with for being selfish. We're going to find out why."
Tash was skeptical. "I don't know about you but Romania isn't my regular vacation spot. What's to stop them from keeping us apart?"
"I hadn't gotten to that part yet," Sanna said indignantly. "If you're so brilliant, why don't you come up with something?" The light that erupted in Tash's eye made Sanna regret the challenge. "Oh no, what've you thought of?"
"We swap."
"What?! Teddy thought I was barmy but you're completely bonkers."
"No, no, hear me out. I go to Romania with dad, you go back to LA with mom. We scope it out and then bam, we switch back with material to use against the other and with a couple of subtle hints, we can get them back together."
Silence was all that met Tash's idea. Sanna just stared, didn't open her mouth, didn't say a word, just stared at Tash. The Californian crossed her arms and glared at Sanna.
"What?"
"It's so crazy, it might just work. You'd do well to meet Fred and George."
"Who're they?"
"My twin uncles. They were the biggest troublemakers at Hogwarts since Teddy's dad and his friends."
"Sweet. So deal? I won't back out if you won't."
Tash held out her hand and Sanna took it firmly in her own.
"Deal."