*Thoughts are in italics

"You remember when I didn't go?"

Willow could not believe what Oz was saying, she could do nothing but stare at Oz in shock. "Why didn't you go to summer school? It's not that hard Oz, you kinda just need to show up." Heavy sarcasm was evident in Willow's voice.

"It's just school Will." Oz replied in an off-handed tone

"This isn't just school Oz this is your life, I understand that the band is important to you but Oz you could have at least done the minimum!" Willow's temper was rising. she knew that she was over reacting, but the whole summer her parents had been complaining about Oz's lack of determination. After hearing the latest news, Willow couldn't help but feel that they could be right. "Do you care about anything at all?"

This last comment from Willow was the last straw for Oz "Shut up! I don't want to hear this from you."

Willow gazed at Oz in disbelief; anger was visible on his normally stoic face. "Do you want me to just ignore it? You're acting like a child, why don't you take this seriously… Oz, how can I not talk about this?"

At this last comment Oz, tore his eyes away from Willow and said calmly "I guess we can't talk at all… We're through Willow." On that note Oz walked past Willow to head to his first period.

In shock she just stood there for what felt like hours but passed as mere seconds on the clock. Then the damn broke she felt the hot tears begin to stream down her face; she broke off in a run. After a few minutes of mindless running Willow found herself in the courtyard in the middle of the school. She spotted the bench that she was sitting at when she had first met Buffy, figuring that the happy memories might bring her some comfort she sat down. Willow was wrong; it did not help at all. Goddess, why can't I stop crying? Unable to do anything to stop them, the tears continued to fall.

I hope Mr. Synder is nicer than his name suggests. Snyder just sounds creepy, like he should be some kind of short bald man that looks like a rodent.

Tara was not normally one to let something as simple as name to affect her opinion of a person but she couldn't seem to shake the feeling that her meeting with the principal of Sunnydale High would not be fun. As Tara made her way to the administrative office she decided to walk through the courtyard on a whim. Tara hears some one sobbing as she is walking and turns to see the source of the crying. She spots a redhead; Tara is unable to see the girls face because of the hands obscuring her view. Unable to decide if she should talk to the mysterious girl or not, she just stands there for idle for a minute. Then suddenly the redheaded girl looks up and gazes into Tara's eyes, and the world stopped. Tara couldn't help but shake the feeling that out of all the recent events in her life this week that spotting this girl could very well be the most significant.

Even In Willow's emotional state, she was not completely unobservant. She felt someone's gaze on her. I haven't always been so conscious of the presence of other have I, am I paranoid? Willow pondered, after considering this question for a few seconds she rationalized that fighting vampires could make anybody jumpy. Finding this answer to be logical and sound she raised her head to address her impromptu audience. As she sought the eyes of whoever was standing in front of her, she mentally prepared herself to deal with teasing and other means of social degradation. However when she finally locked gazes with the on looker she felt only comfort. The wall had recently been built between Willow and the rest of the world came crashing down, she feels herself begin to fall into the cobalt eyes of the other girl.

After seeing the emotional turmoil in the redhead's eyes, Tara feels compelled to comfort her and keep her safe. Overcome by emotion she loses all common sense and flies over to where the distressed girl is sitting wrapping her in a warm embrace.

In the girls arms Willow tenses for a moment, but quickly melts into the comfort being offered to her. She buries her head into the crook of the Blondes neck and cries. Being in such an intimate situation with a strange wasn't exactly on Willow's daily To Do List but she felt drawn to this girl. Willow didn't mind her current position in the slightest though at the moment so she didn't fight the urge.

Tara begins stroking the silky red tress. Her other hand unconsciously begins to rub the girl's back in a circular motion. After a few minutes pass Tara feels the girl's breathing even out and her crying subside.

Willow not yet ready to leave the comfort of the blondes embrace, lingers in the arms of her savior. She pulls back when she suddenly remembers that despite the familiarity she feels with the girl, they are complete strangers. The moment she pulls back Willow once again finds herself lost in deep blue eyes. After a few seconds Willow regains the ability to speak. "Hey… um, I uh… thank you." Tara simply nods her head in response, not trusting her mouth to properly form words. Willow decided that she wanted to get to know this girl, and she knew that logically the best place to start was introductions. "I'm Willow Rosenberg."

"T-Tara M-M-Maclay." Tara replied internally cursing her stutter.

"I'm really glad that I met you today Tara. You have made my crappy day a whole lot better… and I was wondering if maybe you would go have coffee with me after school, so I could thank you for being so nice to me. I would just like to get to know you better too. That is if you want to of course. I mean you might think I'm this crazy girl that is just totally unstable and cries on beautiful women's shoulders. And I guess my babbling isn't helping my case so I'm just gonna to shut up now." Willows face reddened in embarrassment.

Tara while stunned by Willows sudden outpour of words did not want to miss out on the opportunity to see her again. So she promptly replied "I'd l-like that W-Willow"

Willow's face lit up in a huge grin and asked "would you possibly be free today… afterschool?" Tara nodded in response. Then the bell rang signaling the end of the hour, " "I'll meet you here after class then."

"Okay, I h-have c-class, see you l-later Willow." Tara gave her a crooked smile, waved goodbye and walked off to class.

Willow could only stare after Tara as she left. In her daze an errant unbidden thought ran through her mind, she is the most amazing person on this Earth. Willow quickly berated herself for this thought. You don't even know the girl! What the hell are you thinking, and she's a girl too! Get a grip on yourself Rosenberg. She tried to banish these thoughts from her head but only succeeded in pushing them to back of her mind Realizing she was late Willow ran to class, she couldn't help but notice that in the absence of Tara's presence feelings of abandonment and sorrow began to plague her once again.

TBC?