Okay folks, so, I'm Ashley! I've been lingering about the board for quite some time now to be honest...and I wanted to contribute and what better way to do so than with a story! There is so much talent on The Kitten Board so it's an honor to post along with you all.
TITLE: Redwood
AUTHOR: Ashley (fadeintoyou)
RATING: Well, it'll change from update to update, but anywhere from G - NC17 throughout.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Willow and Tara or anything to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This story line is purely my own fiction.
SUMMARY: Willow is fresh out of her first year of college as a photography student. Her Aunt asks her to help out at a summer camp called Redwood as a counselor, where she meets a fellow worker named Tara. What happens?? Read, find out. Twists, turns, and appearances by some of BTVS cast. Nothing too angsty, I'm a sucker for romance.
SPOILERS: None.
FEEDBACK: Yes please, but I must warn you, I don't get a lot of time online - I've got a pretty busy job, so I'll do my best at replying to your comments, but I may not be able to reply to every single one with each update. I know it's good etiquette to do so, so forgive me in advance. I will however be trying to update quite frequently. Thank you!
ANGST: None.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I don't have a beta, but I do spend a lot of time editting my work and I've been a beta for many folks (however not on this board yet)... If you see mistakes and errors, feel free to bring them to my attention.
It does switch between Willow and Tara's lives, I am the narrator obviously, so I'll make it quite clear when it switches.
Anyways, onto the story...
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-REDWOOD-
Chapter One
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Sunnydale, California, a beautiful quaint city with enough personality and mystery to be the lifeblood of any artist. However, it was merely as bland as a stark white wall to Willow Rosenberg. A freshman in college and a talented photographer, she never quite understood the habitual reasoning behind staying in one place. She longed to travel, she longed to find new homes behind the photos some of her classmates had taken from afar…but Sunnydale was her curse and her blessing.
“Thank you class, it’s been an amazing year and you should all be proud of yourselves, I’ll see you-“ the bell had interrupted her teacher Mr. Giles before he could finish, “I’ll see you all next year, have a great summer!”
As all the students piled out of the classroom in a herd, the red headed Willow slowly put her pencils in her bag and harbored a noticeably long face.
“Willow, summer’s here! Aren’t you excited?” Mr. Giles wandered over to where his prized pupil sat and took a seat at the desk in front of her. He sincerely cared for her, after all, her brilliant talent was something even he looked up to, and he’d been studying photography as long as he could remember.
“You, you’ve got it made Mr. Giles, you’ve just…no one gives a crap about who or what you are…you’re talented and you’ve got a great job,” Willow began, “but me, I’m nowhere yet and I could lose it all.”
The whites of Willow’s eyes began to moisten, her thin pink lips pursed and she inhaled sharply without a climax to exhale. Who knew the sound of the bell could stir such a tide in her; such a storm?
“Whoa, slow down, where is this coming from dear?” Mr. Giles asked nervously, giggling slightly out of unease.
“I don’t even know, I better just go,” she apologized, standing up to swing her petite brown bag around one of her shoulders, “I probably make no sense right now and my stomach’s all acidy.”
Turning around, she was struck with the peace that emanated from her tall and slim, yet flamboyant, teacher when she looked him in his light pastel eyes. All year they had grown to be friends and she knew it was easy to open up to him.
“Do you think I’m really going to let you walk out of here without spilling your guts?” He laughed, but sternly in his concern, “you can’t just end it there Will…talk to me okay? It’s officially summer, and while most of the other students have all ran for the hills, you’re sitting here trying to will your legs to move, but with no such luck I see.”
Inwardly, Willow searched for a way out, while physically the door was about six feet away and to her right. A swarm of the most poised soaring doves filled her stomach, or so it felt, and she could feel a little excitement in what she was about to confess. It was more than imperative that she told someone…and that someone was Mr. Giles.
“Okay so no freaking, okay?” Willow finally spoke, twiddling her slim fingers and searching the professor’s eyes for any premature acceptance.
“You have my word,” he grinned with warmth, folding his hands upon the desk, “uh, unless you’ve killed someone or joined a cult that partakes in the consumption of strange tasting kool-aid with plans of a mass suicide, then I’ll step in and freak.”
She was thankful for his comic relief, but wasn’t feeling all that comical. Sighing slowly, she knew she couldn’t drag this on much longer. Looking at the clock she felt each tick was more than an hour and each minute was a day. Glancing back to the mild mannered Englishman of a teacher, she finally zoned back into the situation.
“I’m Jewish,” she blurted out in monotone.
Mr. Giles raised his eyebrows and removed the thinly framed glasses that sat upon his nose. “Yes, well I think we’ve already established that,” he responded, cleaning his lenses a little too thoroughly with a small white hanky from his inside jacket pocket.
“No, I mean, that’s not all that I need to say…Mr. Giles,” she shifted uncomfortably and took another long breath in, “I’m not only Jewish, but um…Im g-gay, um, not a good combo there!”
Time stopped briefly after her confession. A twilight zone effect of sorts made Willow feel as if she was spinning back from the sky and landing right into the very chair she resided in at the moment. Why on earth had she even told him?
Cleaning his glasses with more fever, the handsome photography teacher couldn’t help but avert his eyes until he found something fit to reply with.
“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Willow whispered, “I just thought that…that…since you’re gay too, that you’d understand.”
“Hold it young lady,” he demanded, tugging on her dangling back-pack for her to return to her desk as she tried to make an exit, “sit back down!”
Slumping down quickly, she figured there was no way out of this one.
“Do you know how much courage I’ve had to muster up to admit this to myself, let alone another human being?” Quaint silky tears fell from her eyes, only to be wiped away with the sleeve of her dark red blouse.
“Willow, you have no idea how brave you are,” Mr. Giles smiled, “I have never been as proud of one of my students as I am of you, gay, straight, or whatever. But…now that I know this one more thing about you, I appreciate your art, your drive, and your heart even more…because I’ve been through all of this and now I’m standing here and I’ll help you through the same thing.”
Calming the fierce and ferocious heat that seemed to trail up and down her veins like wild fire, she returned the smile and finally let out an exhale the size of an ocean that seemed to calm the flames.
“How long have you known?” He asked, “I mean, you don’t have to answer any of my questions, you’ve probably still got a million of them yourself, but-“
“No, it’s okay,” she interrupted him, “I guess I’ve always known on some level but after Oz and I broke up I finally let myself feel what I’ve always felt, you know? I mean, I was with him for five years, all through high school.”
“And now you’re free Willow, you’ve admitted it to me and more importantly, you’ve admitted to yourself,” Mr. Giles extended his hand to not only his student, but his friend, and stood her up with him as he arose. “You have my number, so go have a good summer and call me if you ever need to talk alright? Just know, the sky is the limit now.”
“Thank you,” Willow spoke sincerely and dried the excess moisture that rested on the plateau of her cheekbone, “but I can’t tell my parents, I just cant.”
“Then don’t. I certainly don’t advise you to. You owe it to yourself to be comfortable in your own skin and you need to live as a confident and beautiful gay woman before you shake your newly built tower, so to speak.”
“A confident gay woman?” Willow laughed, “oh my god Giles, I’m not buying a station wagon, covering it with a vast variety of rainbow stickers and gay slogans, and I’m not going to pack my things and head to San Francisco for the pride parade but I sure-“
“Just be you, sweetheart,” he cut her off and gave her a warm grin, even though slightly amused by her frequent babble, “just be yourself, that’s always enough.”
Looking at her professor as more than just someone who taught her about the world of photography, she realized in that moment everything she had was all she needed. With a heartfelt embrace, both teacher and student knew there was nothing more to say, nothing more to divulge.
And summer was beckoning.
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Onto Chapter 2! Thanks for reading so far - Ashley
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-REDWOOD-
Chapter Two
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” Willow, it’ll be a good opportunity, just promise me you’ll think about it?” Mrs. Rosenberg pleaded with her sometimes oddly stubborn daughter, “you should get out into the real world…meet some real people, and you never know, maybe even a new boyfriend! It’s been a year since you and Oz broke it off!”
Willow cocked her head and in faux physical agony pretended to painfully slit her throat. “First, how is being a counselor to a bunch of artistic prodigy children at Camp Redwood considered the real world? Secondly how does that have anything to do with Oz?”
Her mother didn’t respond in lieu of backing the large grey van into the somewhat of a tight squeeze garage doorway. Once parked, she took the keys out of the ignition, exhaled and turned to Willow with an increasingly lighthearted demeanor.
“Sweetie, you’ll not only be getting out but you’ll be helping your aunt, so be a dear and take your eyes of your computer screen for a minute and a half this summer and have some fun… you’re only nineteen once!”
As if the singular word ‘once’ had trailed off her mothers words and echoed into her ears perpetually, a change of heart caused Willow to throw her iron will out the window and break the chains that college and life itself had started to adorn her with. Normally, she’d be worrying about everything: assignments, extra credit assignments, and extra credit assignments for those extra credit assignments. However, she needed a mental break, and because summer had just freshly awoken, maybe a change of pace would liven things up.
“You know what?” Willow rose, exiting the car with a new energy new found purpose in her busy head, “I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but…okay, I’ll do it.”
‘Such beautiful music…’ Tara swooned, and sunk into her bed further, reaching for the remote on her end table to turn her stereo louder.
The sounds lulled her, shutting off the empty chambers of her heart to the chaotic public outside her dorm room. As if she was breathing in the melody and building a new foundation on the bass lines, she felt at peace enough to let go and fall into slumber on the very morning she hadn’t managed to encounter any form of sleep at all.
A faint ring ascended upon the ethereal music that became her lullaby, and she woke up enough to recognize the phone was ringing, shrill yet intriguing.
“Hello?” Tara spoke, wondering who’d really be calling her this early in the morning.
“Hey Tara it’s Gillian, how’s summer holidays treating you, party girl?”
“Party girl? Hah, hardly! You know me Gill, always the party animal,” Tara laughed, “yeah if it’s not a bottle of wine for every hour I’m at the Bronze, it’s the strippers I hire weekly to privately dance for me stark naked at my always alive and kickin’ dorm room!”
“Very funny, you’ve got noise blaring at nine o’ clock in the morning honey, I think someone’s fibbing!” Gillian teased and let her laughter subside, “but hey it’s good to get out sometime you know? Sipping on coffee at the Espresso Pump alone once a week doesn’t exactly constitute as a fun and stimulating social life!”
“First off, Rose Chronicles are not noise, they’re my favorite band thank you very much,’” Tara defended, “and well as for getting out, that’s what I have you for, putting me to work at that camp of yours! Slave-driver!”
Tara smiled, fraudulently accusing her dear friend of forced labor, when really she couldn’t wait to get out into nature with some intelligent individuals, as shy as she’d always been.
“Well, my sister finally called and said that my niece Willow has agreed to be your co-counselor, so you’ll sort of half-know someone besides me!” Gillian offered, hoping Tara would get some enjoyment out of her duties at the camp. “Plus I’m just a phone call away, so if you need anything you know where to find me.”
“Cool, I don’t think I’ve met your sister or your niece before,” the suddenly wide awake blonde spoke as she let herself drift to the edge of her bed, positioning her head towards the end so her hair hung down like a pseudo Rapunzel.
“No you haven’t yet, but Willow’s a blast! She’s into computers and school and…well up until last year she was set on the man of her dreams but they broke up, so she’s kind of lost. Hasn’t made a lot of friends at college her mom said, so hopefully you’ll be able to crack her code, be a friend to her you know?”
She adjusted the phone in the crook of her neck to better rest upon her ear, “yeah, I mean, s-sure,” Tara replied reluctantly, sometimes it was hard for her to put herself out there enough to make friends. “So you still want me to start in a week or do you need me to do anything before then?”
“Nope, just pack your little heart out and get some rest,” Gilian replied, “and get ready for some fun, ok? See you soon!”
With that, Tara heard Gillian hang up, so she hung up herself. Moments passed before she realized she hadn’t yet let go of the phone, lost in thought and somehow well rested even though her beckoning friend woke her all too quickly after she’d slipped off into dreamland.
‘This is a new beginning,’ Tara thought to herself, ‘college, camp Redwood, new friends hopefully…it won’t always be me against the world.’
Despite her constant will to try and not over think, that’s exactly what she did. Lifting herself up from her sprawled position at the end of the bed, she laid back against the solid rosewood bed frame and let out a hopeful spurt of breath from her lungs. Almost as if she was an onlooker to her own theatrical show, she witnessed her eyelids and lashes fall closed like a heavy painted curtain to signal the end.
‘So much for being wide awake,’ Tara thought, speaking those final words as a finale to a night of restlessness and opaque daydreams that could never be solidified in her waking life. Or so she thought.
to silence Willow-babble...
