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"All right, chem test," Willow said under her breath as she took her seat next to Xander. "Do your worst. I'm ready for you."

"When aren't you ready for a test?" Xander asked.

"There are times."

Buffy slid in just before the bell rang, and had turned around in her seat almost before she was actually sitting on it. "You guys, I have to tell you about this fight last night. Faith and I stumbled onto this nest of vamps. Big vamps, with swords."

"Real metal swords?" Xander asked.

"Big ones! And we were losing big-time—these guys are some of the strongest vamps I've ever been up against. One of them had Faith pinned to the wall, and I threw a stake and got him, bam, right in the back."

Willow had rarely seen Buffy this excited about slaying. On the one hand, it was nice to see her friend enthusiastic—too often slaying seemed to pull Buffy down into a sad place—but on the other … she kind of sounded like Faith.

"So then one of them grabbed me and he was holding me down under the water. Man, I hate it when they drown me! Have I ever told you guys how much I hate it when they drown me?"

"Couple of times," Willow said, nodding. She hated the idea of Buffy in danger with no one more trustworthy than Faith to watch her back. "Buffy, about the test—"

"Test?" Buffy glanced over her shoulder. The teacher was passing out the test papers. "Oh, yeah, the test. Anyway, so I held my breath and went still, so he'd think he killed me, and as soon as he let go I grabbed a sword and bam! went after him. It was intense. It was like I just … let go and became this force. I just didn't care anymore."

Willow had felt the same kind of thing doing spells. It was freeing; intoxicating. It certainly explained Buffy's animation. "Yeah, I know what that's like," she said.

But Buffy wasn't with her in the bonding; she was still far away in that dark cave, fighting. "I don't think you can. It's … kind of a Slayer thing."

Of course it was.

Behind Buffy, her test paper landed on her desk. Buffy glanced around briefly, then looked back at Willow and Xander, almost apologetically. "I don't even think I'm explaining it well."

"You're explaining it a lot, though," Xander whispered. He reached for his own test paper, and then the teacher handed Willow hers.

"All right, you have one period to fill out your test booklets. Periodic charts are located on the back. You're on the honor system, so remember, no talking."

The teacher returned to her desk, and Willow looked down at her paper. She visualized her notes in her mind, looking at the first question. She could see the answer—

"See, the thing was," Buffy said, leaning back toward them without even looking at her paper, "Faith knew that I didn't want to go down there—"

The teacher cleared her throat, and Buffy turned back to look at her. "Miss Summers?" Buffy made a locking her mouth and throwing away the key gesture, and the teacher nodded. "You have one hour."

As soon as the teacher's back was turned, though, as soon as Willow was back in chemistry zone, Buffy was leaning over again. "Okay, so the best part—"

"Buffy. Test? Remember, you know … the thing you didn't come over to study for." Willow hadn't meant to let her hurt and bitterness slip out, but slip out it had.

"Oh, right." Buffy didn't look at all apologetic, and suddenly Willow felt a lot less bad about being bitter … and not too awful when she thought about the bad grade Buffy was likely to get. Buffy turned back to her paper, but after only a second she was at their table again, with a muttered "sorry" at Willow as she leaned closer to Xander. "So we're down there in the sewers, Faith's got three of them on her at once …"

"Hey. Can we resume Buffy's ode to Faith later, like when I'm not actively multiple choicing?"

Willow glanced at Xander in surprise. He was usually way game for a during-the-test chat, anything to avoid actually focusing on his work. Buffy looked surprised, too, and a little hurt.

"How come your eye twitches every time I say Faith's name?" she asked him.

Xander looked at her. From where she sat, Willow couldn't see an eye twitch, but there was definitely something suspicious about the fake bewilderment in his voice when he spoke. "What? No, it doesn't."

Buffy whispered, "Faith," and Xander clapped a hand over his eye. Willow wished she knew enough magic to conjure them both somewhere far away and painful. Like on top of a cactus.

"Cut it out!" Xander said. "We've got a test to take, okay, and I'm highly caffeinated and trying to concentrate. Some of us actually care about school."

It would have been more convincing if he hadn't still had his hand firmly over his eye—and if Willow hadn't known him so well. She kept her head down, her eyes on her paper, her pencil moving over it, but she had no idea what she was writing.

Just as Buffy reluctantly returned to her own seat and opened her booklet, a knock came at the window, and they all looked up to see Faith standing outside. She popped open the window. "Hey, girlfriend. Bad time?" Without waiting for an answer, she moved to the other window, breathing on it, then drew a heart with a stake through it, glancing at Buffy questioningly. Buffy looked at her paper, over her shoulder at Willow, and then leaned down to get her bag.

"No," Willow said. "She can't! You can't, can you?" But Buffy didn't hear her—she was focused entirely on Faith. And if Willow didn't miss her guess, Faith gave her a pitying look before she closed the window after Buffy.

It took all her effort to concentrate on chemistry after that, and she was fairly sure she'd missed a question … and she didn't even care.