Part Three
Again, the sound of an owl echoed across the pond's surface.
This time two
sets of ears heard its mournful cry. Willow and Angel sat
together on the
park bench. Neither spoke. They simply sat together
and silently watched as
the wind stirred the water in the pond in complex patterns.
They sat until just before dawn in silence. Just before the
sun came up they
stood and agreed to meet on the bench again that night. They
then parted
company. He headed for shelter and she wandered home and
got ready for
school.
* * * * *
“Ms. Rosenberg, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this but
this is a
classroom not your bedroom,” Mr. Duncan, a math teacher, said.
“Now if you’d
care to pay attention I can get on with the class.” At Willow’s
nod he walked
to the front of the room and continued to teach but Willow didn’t
listen.
Instead Willow sat and stared at the front of the classroom, her
mind
somewhere else. She sat and spent the rest of the class thinking
about the
events of the past two weeks of her life. It had been two
weeks since Xander
and Buffy had become a couple, and her whole world had changed.
She and Angel spent every night together, from sundown to sunup.
Sometimes at
the pond, now and then walking the streets, and sometimes at his
place.
Sometimes they spent the entire time talking about a variety of
subjects,
occasionally they spent all their time in companionable silence,
but mostly it
was a combination of the two.
Willow was aware that her parents were worried about her but right
then, it
didn’t concern her. She knew that they had received a number
of phone calls
from the school asking questions like: why she wasn’t in class,
why she hadn’t
handed in assignments, and why she kept falling asleep in class.
Yet, she
found herself unfazed by such worries. They no longer seemed
to be an
important part of her life.
She also knew that Giles and Ms. Calendar were worried about her.
Both had
tried to talk to her, but she wasn’t ready to talk to anyone but
Angel. For
the past week and a half, she had avoided the library and the computer
rooms
in order to avoid the questions Giles and Ms. Calendar inevitably
asked.
What hurt, though, was that neither Xander nor Buffy had noticed
that she was
avoiding them. If they went to class, she skipped.
If they were absent she
went and usually slept. She was no longer interested in doing
well in school.
She preferred to spend her school time sleeping, thinking about
her time with
Angel, or thinking about the time she would have with him.
Just as the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, Willow
made a
decision. Quickly she packed up, left the classroom, and
went to her locker,
which she just as quickly emptied of its contents. Then with
a determined
stride she headed for the school doors. The sound of Xander
calling her name
almost drew her to a stop. Almost, but not quite. With
a sudden burst of
speed she ran out the doors and raced home. She had things
to do. She was
going to start a new life and had to start severing ties with the
old one.
*****
“Hey, Buffy. Have you seen Willow today? She wasn’t
in English earlier and
there’s no answer at her place,” Xander asked as he and Buffy walked
down the
hall.
“Uh, no. Why?” was Buffy’s reply.
“Oh, my cousin Ian is coming to visit and I thought he and Willow
could double
date with us tomorrow night.” Xander smiled at Buffy and
wrapped his arm
around her waist. “Willow!” he suddenly cried out as he saw
his best friend
leave her locker and head for the school doors. A slight
hesitation in
Willow’s step was the only indication that she had heard him.
He watched,
stunned, as she suddenly sprinted out the door.
“That’s odd,” Buffy said as she watched her friend race out of the
school. “I
know she heard you but why didn’t she stop?” With the obliviousness
of youth
and young love, it never occurred to Buffy to wonder about Willow’s
feelings.
“I don’t know. Maybe Giles will,” Xander answered.
The two stopped beside Willow’s locker. The door stood open
and when the two
looked in, it was to find the locker empty.
“Come on, let’s get to the library. I want to know what’s
wrong with Willow.
I want to find out why she’d empty out her locker in the middle
of the school
year,” Buffy said.
Worry for Willow filling their minds the two teenagers rushed to
the library
where they found an equally troubled Giles listening to a concerned
Ms.
Calendar.
“I’m so worried, Rupert. She’s been falling asleep in her
classes and she
hasn’t even been showing up for my class. She’s skipped a
number of her other
classes and she hasn’t handed any assignments in for the last two
weeks. It’s
just not like Willow to behave like this!”
“I know what you mean,” Giles said in a tired voice. “She
hasn’t been here in
the library for over a week and every time I see her in the halls
she turns
and walks the other way. She’s been avoiding us.”
“Are you two talking about Willow?” Xander asked, surprising the
two adults
from their discussion. At their nods he continued, “Now that
I think of it, I
haven’t seen in Willow in a long while either and she just ran
away from me.”
At the questioning looks of the two teachers, he explained about
what had
happened less than a half-hour earlier.
When he finished Buffy said, “I don’t remember talking to Willow
for over a
week now either.” When she saw Giles and Ms. Calendar exchange
a strange
look, the Slayer practically pounced. “You know what’s wrong
with Willow,
don’t you?” The two teachers kept silent.
“If you know what’s wrong tell us!” Xander cried. “Maybe we can help her.”
Giles and Ms. Calendar exchanged another long look and at Giles’
nod Ms.
Calendar spoke, “It’s you two.”
The two teenagers looked confused and simultaneously exclaimed, “Us!?”
"Yes, you!" Jenny cried angrily. "The two of you have been
so wrapped up in
your own lives and your new relationship that you haven't even
noticed Willow.
You've excluded her from your lives. She's supposed to be
your friend and
yet you've been acting as though she doesn't even exist or is some
sort of
pariah. She's probably been avoiding the two of you as much
as she's been
avoiding the two of us but you haven't even noticed. The
two of you are so
self-centered!" With those final words, Jenny Calendar stormed
out of the
library. Behind her, she left a surprised librarian and two
teenagers who
suddenly felt very ashamed of themselves.
"Come on, Xander," Buffy said grabbing Xander by the arm, "We have
to find
Willow and apologize to her." With a willing Xander in tow,
she too left the
library.
End Part Three