Stuck In The Feedback Loop
by Jamie
Chapter 2
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The next day in the library, Giles and Willow were in their usual poses. Giles was sitting at the desk researching something in a book, whilst the red-haired Slayer swung her legs from her position on the table, bored out of her skull. The room was coated in an eerie silence, which was why everyone looked up in shock when Buffy breezed into the room, donning sunglasses and leaving the doors swinging in her wake. Willow smiled and hopped off of the table.
"Hiya," She said happily. Truthfully, she had expected Buffy never to set foot in the room again, she knew she wouldn't have in the blonde's position.
"Hey!" Buffy said, mimicking Willow's smile with her own. The two sat down on the comfortable-yet-not-too-comfortable chairs. "So whatcha doing?" The shorter of the two asked, placing her bag on the table and removing her shades.
"Oh, the usual. It's an action-packed life, mine. Never a dull moment." Willow responded, eliciting a smile from Buffy. "Nothing, Giles is researching some evil thing I'm sposed to kill. Which leaves me in a situation resembling the opposite of fun."
"Join the club." Buffy said, leaning back in the chair. She rolled her head to one side lazily when the doors to the library opened again. A tall boy with shortish black hair and chocolate brown eyes walked in, wearing jeans and a tartan-y shirt over a white t-shirt.
"Hey Xand," Buffy said happily.
"Buff, hey. You're so very much the person I wanna see!" The boy said cheerfully, before setting his bag down next to Willow and pulling up a chair.
"Really, why's that? And this is Willow. Willow, this is Xander." Buffy introduced the too. Willow waved and smiled.
"Hey, you're the new kid aren't you?" Xander asked, Buffy rolled her eyes. Way to say hi Xand... she thought.
"Yeah, I just transferred here from Boston." Willow replied.
"Cool, anyway, Buffy. I need to ask you something." Xander said, diverting the conversation back to its original topic.
"Shoot."
"You're playing at the Bronze tonight right?" He asked, full well knowing the answer.
"No. Why?"
"Are you going?"
"It's Friday night, what else am I going to do?" Buffy asked rhetorically.
"Sit at home and fantasise about me?" Xander teased. Buffy glared at him until he looked away.
"Willow, you wanna go?" Buffy asked the redhead, whom until now had just been looking around and studying her fingernails.
"Huh? Oh, sure. What time?"
"Well, if you come round my place around, say, seven?"
"Okay, cool." Willow replied happily. Suddenly, the bell rang. Its shrill sound sliced through the Friday break good moods as students all over the campus resigned themselves to the fact that there were still two more lessons left. The trio left the library and walked down the hall together, Willow studying her timetable.
"What've you guys got now?" She asked, scrunching her nose up at the lesson on the paper.
"Biology," Xander and Buffy groaned simultaneously.
"What? Biology isn't that bad, I like it." Willow said, slightly too enthusiastically. Buffy and Xander stared at her until she blushed and looked away.
"Okay, so I'm a science nerd!" She admitted.
"Don't say that." Buffy chastised her. The trio reached the lab door and looked at it as they would the gates of hell. Slowly, Willow took the initiative and opened it.
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You could literally see the steam pour out of the room when the end of school bell rang through the halls, and the lab door opened. Xander and Buffy were the first out, murmuring something that sounded like 'Gotta get out!" With Willow following them a few seconds later. The three didn't stop until they were out of the school and down the long flight of stairs that led off campus, to freedom. Buffy collapsed against a wall and let her head roll backwards, catching her breath.
"Ohhhh my Goddess that was bad!" She half-said, half-exhaled. All around them, people were flooding out of the school, going home, to friends houses...whatever. All that mattered to Buffy was that it was Friday, and that meant no Biology for two days.
"So I'll see you at seven?" Willow asked, falling into stride with the blonde.
"Yup. 1630 Revello Drive." Buffy replied.
"Okay, cool. I'll see you later." The redhead said, before hurrying off to a car waiting on the other side of the street.
"Bye," Buffy called after her. Xander waved. A rumble in the sky caused them both to look up, and the first drops of rain splashed into their eyes.
"Great," Xander grumbled, already breaking into a jog. "Perfect start to the weekend!"
"Xander, you've got the Internet at home haven't you?" Buffy asked, running alongside him and pulling her coat over her head as a makeshift umbrella.
"Um, yeah. Why?" The boy asked.
"I wanna look something up, can I come back to yours?"
"Sure."
"And Xander?"
"Yeah?"
"I know what you're thinking. Stop it."
"Oh."
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Thunder crashed outside and the rain battered the windows of Xander's room relentlessly. He lay on his bed, throwing a tennis ball up to the ceiling then catching it, whilst Buffy slowly typed out something. Ever so slowly. Eventually she slammed her hand down on the desk, which caused Xander to look over, and the tennis ball to fall on his head.
"First, ow, second, what?" He asked, sitting up and walking over to the frustrated blonde.
"It doesn't work!" She shouted.
"Calm down, what do you wanna do?" Xander asked, trying to appease the fuming girl.
"I want to search for something, but it won't let me!"
"Um, Buffy?"
"What?"
"It would help if you opened the browser."
"Oh." After a few clicks, a garishly coloured website with big bold letters that proclaimed it to be "The Best Search Engine In The World!" popped up. Buffy took over the mouse and entered some names into the search box. Watcher, Vampire, Slayer...ooh! Vampire Slayer!
"What's the sitch?" Xander asked, looking over her shoulder at the screen. Buffy quickly hit return.
"Um, French project." The blonde said quickly, feeling her cheeks turn red.
"French project." Xander stated, obviously not buying it. Buffy had no idea why.
"Uh huh!"
"Oh...kay." The results flashed up on the screen with a beep and Buffy scrunched up her nose at the results. The first ten were links to porn sites of various...sexual persuasions. "You need to sift through this, click on the third or fourth page of results." Xander said quickly, before Buffy noticed the visited link colour on all ten. He commandeered the mouse and clicked on the number. Once again, it flashed up with a beep.
"Oooh, this one." Buffy said excitedly, jabbing at the screen with a fingernail. Xander clicked on the link and a new window popped up. The page took ages to load, seeing as the owner decided to stick a massive picture of a cross in the middle. The site's massive, bold, white writing declared it to be 'The Authoritative Database on the Vampire.' Buffy slapped Xander's hand off of the mouse and took control.
An hour or so later, the blonde was walking home with an armful of computer printouts, most of them with that massive cross on them. Much to Xander's dismay and cries of anguish, she'd used up three ink cartridges printing these pages, but she thought it was worth it. Besides, ink cartridges didn't cost that much anyway, did they? Buffy didn't use a fountain pen but she was pretty sure they'd only be a few dollars for a pack of ten...
Buffy set the stack of paper down on the porch as she fumbled for her key in her bag. After a few seconds she hooked a finger through the keychain and pulled them out, opening the door and going in. She mumbled a 'Hey' to her mom, then hurried up the stairs to her room, where she put the printouts on her desk and began to rummage through her wardrobe. Eventually, she picked out an outfit and hurried into the bathroom. By her guess, she had about three or four minutes before Wil-
"BUFFY! WILLOW'S HERE!" Joyce shouted up the stairs. Maths is not your strong point, Summers, Buffy thought to herself, then tugged her shirt down a bit to flatten out a crease, before swinging around the door and grabbing her jacket off of the hook. She put it on as she was descending the stairs, and cleared the last two with a satisfying hop. Willow was sitting on a chair in the living room, and stood up when she saw Buffy.
"Hey," She greeted, with a small wave.
"Hi, let's go." Buffy said, taking Willow's hand and leading her out of the door before Joyce could come in with some lemonade.
They chatted as they walked leisurely down the street. Buffy was amazed at how she connected with this girl, this...Slayer. It seemed as if she could just talk and talk with her for hours, and never run out of things to say. She also envied her in a way she'd never envied anyone before. Her speech was so confident, no stutters, no pause for thought. She said what she meant, and Buffy was jealous at her ability to do just that. Her confidence was reflected in the way she moved, too. She walked with a security, like she could take anyone. She probably can, Buffy thought, and suddenly felt much safer.
"So the way I see it is if that they don't wanna believe, it's their problem." Willow said with a shrug as they walked.
"It's not their fault really Wil, I mean, I almost had a heart attack when I saw you stake that Vampire last night." Buffy replied, sticking up for the Rosenbergs for some reason.
"Yeah, but at least you have the courage to face it. I mean, you're just a normal girl, you don't have Slayer powers or a big book or anything, but you're fighting the good fight, and you're not calling me a freak and stuff. You have no idea how much it means to me." Willow replied, Buffy had the feeling that this one gonna be one of those deep, friendship building type conversations. She really hated those type of conversations, they made her stutter.
"I...I'm the one who should have the meaningful feelings." Buffy started, Willow was about to interrupt but she carried on. "I don't really have any friends," She admitted, looking at the pavement. "I mean, sure I have people who'll be around me if it suits them, or if they need something from me, but the only friend I have is Xander. And now, out of the blue you decide you'll hang around with me. Ha, picture that, someone as beautiful as you, who could so easily be in Cordelia's group of sheep, wants to hang around with me. This means...it means a lot too. Thank you." The two were in silence for a few seconds, before Willow stopped them and wrapped Buffy in a hug. Startled, it took the blonde a few moments to register what was happening, but she hugged back. After a few seconds the pair separated and carried on walking, their previous buzz of chatter resuming. In the shadows however, a grinning, demonic face melted back into the darkness. He'd just found a new weakness of the Slayer. One which could be grasped...and choked.
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