Worth the Fight (BTVS fanfic, Book Three)

chapter 16 - Doppelgangland

Outside the school, Willow was lying on a grassy area, concentrating heavily.

A pencil levitated up from the ground, slowly turning end over end.

Willow smiled.

Buffy was doing sit ups next to us.

I was eating an apple, lounged out.

"The Watcher Council shrink is heavy into tests," Buffy told us. "He's got tests for everything. TATs, Rorschach, associative logic..." She sat up. "He even has that test to see if you're crazy that asks if you ever hear voices or you ever wanted to be a florist."

Willow looked at us. "Ooh, I used to want..." She reconsidered. "Wait. Florist means crazy, right?" She turned back to levitating the pencil in front of her. "I never wanted to do that."

I smiled, impressed. "Neat."

Willow smiled. "Thanks. It's all about emotional control. Plus, obviously, magic." She looked at us giddily. "Hey, you wanna go to the Espresso Pump and gt sugared up on mochas?"

"I'm gonna pass," I told them. "Hit the pool and do some laps."

"How come the sudden calisthenics?" Willow asked.

"Well, they've got us running around on the physical side, too," I told her. "A lot of reflex evaluation and precision training, you know. I--I just..."

"Wanna do it well?" Buffy finished.

"Well, I'm still only a Potential, a knock-off of you and Faith, Buff," I told her. "It means I gotta try and do harder than you guys."

"You are not a knock-off," Buffy told me. "You've kicked both of our asses a couple of times."

I smiled.

"You'll both definitely ace her on the psych tests," Willow told us. "Just don't mark the box that says, 'I sometimes like to kill people.'"

"I know Faith's not gonna be on the cover of Sanity Fair, but... she had it rough," Buffy told us. "Different circumstances, that could be us."

Willow shook her head. "No way. Some people just don't have that in them."

"Look, I'm sorry," I told her. "I--I know how you hate talking about Faith."

"No, it's okay," Willow told us.

"No, really, we should just..." I trailed off, looking at the pencil levitating in the air.

"No," Willow told us. "I--It doesn't bother me. I mean it."

"Uh, Will?" I asked.

Willow and Buffy looked at the pencil. "Oh."

The pencil was spinning wildly. It darted off, burying itself deeply into a trunk of a nearby tree.

Willow looked from me to Buffy, slightly embarrassed. 

Buffy looked at Willow. "Emotional control?"

Willow was abashed. "I'm working on it."

•••

Principal Snyder was making Willow tutor a jock named Percy.

Willow, Buffy and I walked into the library.

"So, he threatened you?" Buffy asked. "With what?"

"Well, i--it wasn't exactly anything he said," Willow told us. "It was all in his eyes. I mean, there was some nostril work as well, but mostly eyes."