Author: eday69
Rating: NC-17
Feedback: Yep I love it. Please leave feedback on the Class of 99 thread on the Kitten Board.
Distribution: Anyone can have it if they want. Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are the property of Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy.

Willow sat at the counter of Mr. B's reading a book, it was always slow in the store in the evening. People just didn't want to purchase candy at 7pm. The job was ok, the lack of customers gave her a chance to do homework, and she mostly cleaned and then closed up shop at 9:00. It gave her plenty of time to head home and finish any last minute assignments she wasn't able to complete while at work. She noticed movement at the front of the store and put her book down to help the customer. To her surprise it was Tara, complete with two cups of coffee.

"Tara, what are you doing here?" She asked amazed and beaming from ear to ear.

"Well some friends of mine wanted to shop, and I remembered you were working so decided I'll bring coffee to you." Tara said handing Willow her mocha.

"Oh so you didn't come here just to see me." Willow smirked.

Oh my god is she flirting with me. I so hope so, ok keep it together, and for god sakes answer her damn question Tara.

"I...um...no, but..."

"It's ok, I was just kidding." Willow, seeing Tara's flustered state, jumped in to save her.

Tara smiled. "So is it always this dead?" Tara asked taking a look at the lack of customers in the store.

"Pretty much yeah, it's cool though, gives me time to do my homework."

Tara felt a little adolescent since she didn't have a job, her parents gave her an allowance every week for food and anything else she might need. She was almost 18 and never had a job, it just felt like she was spoiled. She had never thought of herself as spoiled, but seeing Willow with a job made her think she might be.

"So who are you here with?" Willow asked.

"Oh Buffy and Cordelia. I kind of ditched them, well I said I was going to get some coffee, they're probably wondering about me, but whatever. Actually you know they probably aren't, they can clothes shop forever." Tara said taking a sip of her coffee.

"Are they on the squad too?"

"Yeah, we have all been friends since Freshman year. Anya too, but she's not with us tonight. When do you get off?"

"Usually 9:30, we close at 9, but I have to clean and cash out so a little later."

"That's a pretty good schedule."

"Yeah, Sometimes I work weekends, when we don't have band comps."

"Well I better go find Buffy and Cordelia." Tara said, wanting to do anything but find them at this point. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Maybe we can get some coffee after school, if this isn't enough for you." Tara smirked holding up her cup.

"I'll never have enough coffee, so it's a date." Willow said, immediately regretting her choice of words.

"It's a date then." Tara smiled as she turned to leave the store, when she was about to turn the corner she glanced back to see Willow unashamedly staring at her rear. She smiled to herself, Well I would say she is definitely interested in me.

Tara found Cordelia and Buffy in PacSun trying on jeans.

"Where the hell have you been?" Buffy shouted when she saw Tara come into the store.

"What? I ran into a friend, sorry." Tara said confused as to why Buffy would be so angry with her.

"Well I found THE CUTEST pair of jeans. I mean I looked good in these jeans."

"It's true, she did." Cordelia said coming out of the dressing room caring a huge armful of clothes.

"Why didn't you buy them then?" Tara questioned Buffy.

"Dad said I couldn't have my allowance until I mowed the grass. I mean please that is so gross, the last thing I need is someone to walk by and see me all sweaty with grass in my hair."

"Yeah that's nasty. I'm so glad my parents don't make me do chores." Cordelia said throwing her credit card at the guy behind the counter.

It was as if Tara was seeing her friends for the first time. She couldn't believe what was coming out of their mouths. But they talked like this all the time, and she did as well. Why now was she suddenly feeling like all their conversations were superficial and meaningless?

"Well I'm sorry I missed that. Are you guys ready to go?" Tara suggested. She desperately wanted to go home, the only real reason she agreed to come was so she could sneak off and see the redhead.

The following day second period came around and Tara anxiously waited for Willow to show up. Willow never said she would stop by, but they both had this hour off so Tara could only hope. She glanced around the lunch room hoping to catch a glimpse of the redhead, until a mass of blond hair interrupted her search.

"Hey Tare."

"Hi Cordy, what's up?"

"Ugh, I totally had to stay after class and talk to Mr. Crain. Apparently I'm not 'showing up for myself', as if. It's not my fault they expect us to pay attention at 7:20 in the morning."

"You should at least make an effort Cordy, I mean if you flunk this class, you'll have to take summer school and not graduate with us." Tara said sincerely concerned for her friend.

Cordelia sighed. "I know, maybe I should get that Willow chick to tutor me."

"Willow, why her?" Tara asked jealousy flowing through her veins at an alarming rate. She didn't want to think about Cordy and Willow spending alone time together.

"I guess she's like wicked smart. I over heard some teacher talking about it while Mr. Crain blathered on about how I don't apply myself. She's in like Advanced Placement everything, even the teacher was saying Willow knew more about calculus than she did. I thought she might be a good tutor, you know her right; I mean she was talking to you that one day."

That explains why I don't have any classes with her. "Yeah I have talked to her a few times." More like drooled over her perfect body, and her deep red hair. God I really want to run my fingers through that, pull her close, and plant kisses on her perfect lips.

"Would you mind asking her?"

"I'll see if she would be interested, but I honestly don't know, I mean she is pretty busy with stuff." Tara trailed off, she didn't like where this was going.

"Cool, hey did you check out that video?"

"Oh yeah, I don't know if we can do it, but I think the move looks really cool."

"Do you wanna head out and practice."

Tara glanced around and not seeing the redhead agreed. She and Cordelia moved outside to see if they could come up with a routine. Cordelia was by no means book smart, but when it came to cheerleading, or fashion she was a genius. They ended up throwing in some daggers and vertical-down's and coming up with the start of their routine before the bell rang. Tara was glad that they had made progress and had something to show the girls for practice this afternoon, but was a little depressed she hadn't seen the redhead all day. She walked down the crowded hall toward her next class, when she felt a tug on her backpack. She turned to see Willow beaming from ear to ear, which caused her to do the same.

"Hey." Tara said, her voice sounding a little husky for a fall morning.

"Hi, sorry I missed you last hour, I was busy, but here." Willow said as she handed Tara a folded up note. Their hands briefly touched and Tara marveled at the smoothness of the other girls skin. How she wanted to get lost in the sensation of touching the goddess before her. "Sorry I have class, gotta go." Willow apologized and was gone.

Tara sat down in her Trig class and waited for class to start. She did ok in math, but it wasn't her forte by any means.

"Hey." Anya greeted as she sat down next to Tara and pulled out her books.

"Hi."

"I just had to listen to Buffy talk for a half and hour about these jeans she found last night." Anya said exasperated.

"Really?"

"Yeah Mrs. Kreger had us work on a project in groups for the last half hour of class, we didn't finish our project, of course." Anya said.

"Yeah I missed the whole 'these are the most awesome jeans I have ever seen' event. I wish Buffy would get over herself and mow the grass, so she could have money and buy the stupid things." Tara exclaimed.

"Yeah no kidding. That would be funny though to see Buffy mowing the grass. We would have to go by and take a picture." Both girls snickered as the teacher started class.

As the teacher droned on about Cosines and Hypotenuses Tara unfolded the note Willow had given her and started reading.

Hi Tara,
I thought I would write you this note, since I wouldn't be around 2nd period. I have to help write some labs for the science dept. I'm actually in Physics right now. It's pretty boring, I took this class at my old school, so it's all rehash.

I was so glad you stopped by last night, it get's really boring in there sometimes, so it was the highlight of my day.

We're having an impromptu drumline session after school, so I'll be either in the band room or outside the band hallway. I can leave at any time, some of us are just getting together to practice.

Ok I'll see you later.
Willow

Tara smiled as she read the note, she quickly put it away and attempted to pay attention, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the redhead. She really was absolutely gorgeous and smart too, plus she obviously had a creative side, she was the perfect package. Tara was fairly certain she was interested, she confirmed that enough last night as she watched the other girl check her out. Now Tara needed to pull out the charm and get the girl to fall for her. For the first time Tara wasn't sure she would be enough for this girl. She was popular, but what else did she have. She was just average, she wasn't a genius, she did draw, but she had no job, no experience anywhere but this town, her friends, for the most part, were superficial, she wasn't even sure what she wanted to do with her life. She sighed and glanced up at the clock to see she still had 30 more minutes of Trig to go.