The slayer pulled the chewed, pen tip from her mouth and frowned. “What do you mean this figure will not work. Wills, if x is the coefficient, then y would be equal to. . .”

“See that’s exactly it. X isn’t the coefficient. . .”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Your welcome.” Willow said, and stretched out across Buffy’s bed, and sighed. She glanced at her watch, and noted the time. She felt a gaze burn across her, and she looked up in time to see Buffy watching her intently before the slayers brown eyes flicked back to her math book. Wishful thinking Willow. . . She thought to herself, as she sat up and stretched her legs out in front of her. She studied her shoes, and stifled a yawn.

“Hey, you look tired.” Came from the slayer who was now flopping herself across the bed.

 “Yeah, I am, and its not even nighttime yet. I guess that i just haven’t been sleeping well lately or something.”

“Humm. You should take better care of yourself. Maybe you should go on home and call it a night, i have to go out tonight anyway. . “

“Yeah, maybe i can get some extra sleep. I am glad that tomorrows Friday though. Even if we will be out all weekend.” Willow grinned, and impulsively leaned up against her best friend.

This was a action that she immediately regretted, when the slayer put her arm around her shoulders, and laid her cheek against her other shoulder. The move had seemed so natural, like they had been doing it for years, and just couldn’t help it. They both were frozen, too afraid to move. Willow could feel Buffys breathing, and smell her warm, inviting sent. Buffy was lost in a haze of emotion that she didn’t understand, and was unwilling to let go. A sudden tightness filled her chest, and she found it hard to breathe. They seemed to move as one, looking deep into each other’s eyes. Hearts were pounding, Blood was rushing, they were breathing the same air. Green drowning in brown, dissolving all the barriers. . .

RING. . . RING. . .

The shrill ringing of the phone startled them, and they jumped apart. Willow jumped up and grabbed her bag.

“Wait! Don’t leave Willow. . .” Buffy left the phone ringing and started after her friend. She could see the brush of tears filling her eyes, and she reached out to her best friend. “Wills. . .”

“Don’t. . . I. . . I have to go. . .” And the redhead rushed out the door. Buffy sat back down on the bed, and reached for the phone. The pleasant pain in her chest had turned hateful, and she cleared her throat trying to rid herself of the lump that had formed there while reaching for the still ringing phone.

“Hello. . .” She didn’t even recognize her own voice, it sounded so small and frail. She winced as she heard the slamming of the door, and knew that Willow was walking out. . . “Yeah mom, I’m fine. . .”

Willow slammed her bedroom door, and flung herself across her bed. The tears that she had held in check came pouring out from her eyes, and somewhere in her mind, she flamed herself for being so emotional lately. I don’t understand this. . . Its just to intense. . . Willow sighed and flopped over onto her back. Why I am crying all the time. . . Allowing herself some cogitation, she abruptly sat up on the bed, and angrily wiped her tears. “All right Willow, lets get it together. You have handled lots of other things, you can handle a little. . . Uh. . . Little. . . “ Its more than a crush, so. . . “Thing. . . This little thing.” She nodded her head, and stood up, heading over to her computer. “I need to work, get my mind off of things. . .”

 She quickly sat down, and booted up her computer. The redhead then brought up her files from her search last night, and began looking again. After about an hour of searching and printing all of the information, she felt better, grounded. She was fixing to get off, when she remembered her chat site bookmark, and she clicked on it just for fun.

“Jesus Buff. . . What’s with you today?” Faith wiped her brow on her sleeve, and eyed her fellow slayer. She watched as the blonde ripped the boxing gloves from her hands, and threw them down on the floor. “

Nothing, its nothing. . . Just some. . . extra tension i guess.”

“Yeah, I guess. You look like hell.”

“Ha. . .” The blonde laughed, “ I feel like hell. I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

“Well, maybe you should take it easy or something.” Faith tententivly smiled at her newfound friend. Buffy just looked around the room. She had pushed the furniture around in the living room of her own house to give them room, and then invited Faith over to drill. For some reason, she just didn’t feel like going out. She searched herself inside, and found that the only thing she wanted to do was kick some ass. She laughed at herself, and Faith looked at her long and hard. Buffy raised her eyes to the other slayers and smiled.

“Come on. . . Lets go patrol or something.”

Faith smiled back at her. “Sure, but leave some for me. . .”

Willow’s fingers flew across her keyboard as she typed in her reply. She never intended to actually chat, just to watch. But soon after she started reading, she found herself making up a profile, and a screen name that was nothing like her at all. Deciding that it never hurt anyone to be different sometimes, she went with her gut, and now here she was. Being the genius that she was, picking up on the conversations weren’t hard for her, and pretty soon, she was chatting like a pro in the hottest lesbian chat room on the Internet. For some reason, that thought struck her as funny, and she laughed, feeling better than she had for a long time. She quickly read the screen, and typed in another reply. She was enjoying this casual banter, choosing to ignore all the requests to go “private”. She carefully read her reply before sending it, and had to giggle at her own screen name. Raven . . . how’s that for being different. She grinned, and started to reply to yet another post coming her way. Willow the wallflower wasn’t a wallflower in cyber space, and that made her feel good, made her feel important. Important, that sure is nice. . .

Buffy pulled the damp towel from her wet tresses, and combed through them. She then picked up her usual sleeping attire of shorts and a men’s undershirt, and reached for the phone. She carefully dialed her best friends number, and sighed when she replaced it in the cradle. Busy. , . Her phone is always busy. . . She lay down across her bed, but couldn’t sleep. She turned her thoughts to her latest patrolling adventure with Faith, but that didn’t hold her interest for long. Her disobedient mind began to wonder to that afternoon, when Willow had been so close. Those slightly parted, pink lips, inches from her own. The blonde threw her pillow up in the air in exasperation, and stormed up off the bed. She plugged in a c.d., and turned it up loud enough so she could hear it in the other room. Willow is most likely on the net. . . And i am going to find her, and make her talk to me. I can fight demons, and vampires, but i can’ t fight this. . . She pulled out the chair that faced her mother’s computer, and she logged on. After spending many moments trying to figure out how to actually do a search, she tried to locate her friend. With no luck, she decided to give up. She reached up to turn the lamp off, and she brushed the keyboard with her hands. When she sat back down to log off, she noticed the screen had changed. Across the screen, in bold purples and pinks, the word “Chat” came out at her. Ah, what the hell. . . What else are you going to do. . . And she clicked the “18 to enter” button.

“Ah, fresh blood. . .” Willow said to herself as she sent a greeting to the new girl in the chat room. “Might as well be the welcome wagon.” She mumbled and waited for a response from this “Jess” person. She answered a few more posts before finally getting the reply from Jess. It was simple, and nice. Jess was explaining that she had never been in a chat room before, and that she was wanting someone to show her around, Willow jumped at the chance. She had no idea why she had done it, but it was done, and before she knew it, Raven had sent Jess an invite to a private chat. “There is a first time for everything . . .” The red head said to herself and began chatting with Jess. The conversation mostly consisted of computer talk, and Willow found herself really enjoying talking with this girl. Sometimes, a phrase would catch her off guard, and she would scramble her brain to try to figure out where she had heard it before. The light banter was just what she needed, and she began to really talk to the girl. They chatted for hours, deep into the night, about anything, everything and nothing at all. And then suddenly, the conversation changed.

I have a question for you~~ Sent by Jess

 What?~~ Sent by Raven

 How long have you, well, been into girls~~ Sent by Jess

Damn, Blunt thing isn’t she. Willow sighed and debated with herself on weather or not to lie or tell the truth. She sighed and decided on the later, knowing that she was never a successful liar.

Actually, I just realized it. I have never been with a girl. I just started having feelings for my best friend lately, and I figured the best place to research it would be here. What about you?~~ Sent by Raven

Willow sighed and waited for the response. She actually felt nervous while waiting for the response.

That’s interesting, I am in a similar situation. The same actually. Why don’t you go for it?~~ Sent by Jess

We are so different. She is so beautiful, and popular, and, well, lots of things, and I am just me. Unimportant me. I guess that’s why.~~ Sent by Raven

I am sure that’s not a fair description of yourself.~~ Sent by Jess

Maybe, anyway, I could ask you the same question, why don’t you just go for it?~~ Sent by Raven

To be totally honest, I am scared. There are some things in my life that aren’ t, well, normal, and I know she accepts them, but I don’t think she really knows. And she doesn’t feel like she is real part of my life. ~~ Sent by Jess

Sounds to me like all you need to do is just to try to make her feel like she is really a part of things.~~ Sent by Raven

That is a good idea, but i will have to think about it. And as for you, if you want to get noticed, then do something that will get you noticed.~~ Sent by Jess

And you have to remember, that if she accepts you for what you are, then that’s half the battle right there.~~ Sent by Raven

Thanks, that’s good advice. I better go, i have go get up soon.~~ Sent by Jess

Yeah, me too, nice talking to you. Night.~~ Sent by Raven

Bye!!~~ Sent by Jess

Willow sighed and crawled into her bed. It had felt good to talk about Buffy with someone that understood. She had a plan beginning to form in her mind, and she couldn’t believe that she was actually going to do it. Her thoughts took her into a dreamless sleep. Meanwhile, Buffy pulled the covers up over her body and relaxed into the sheets. Make her feel important. . . That’s it. . . The slayer smiled as she formed her plan, and gently slid into sleep.