Now if you are reading this, it is a just a revised and better version of my story from the topic ut oh, so please re-read and of course I'm glad if you followed me over.
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Title—Shall We Meet Again?
Rating—Could be anything, just be warned that most of it won’t be that highly rated but some might sneak in every now and again.
Copyright Disclaimer—These characters belong to Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, and all the other networks and or producing companies that aren’t me.
Notes—In this story Willow and Tara meet very young and sort of change the course of each others lives in some ways, although separated for a while true soul mates such as they can’t be apart for too long.
Author’s Note—I’m not a writer, but I love Willow and Tara and the whole Buffy gang so much that I can’t keep the ideas from pouring out and I know the general bits of every story I will write but I just have to get where I need to go in them. I have to see my ideas realized or I will be driven insane!
Alright here’s the story, hope at least one person enjoys the first chapter, it won’t be too long but long enough to stop my brain from babbling.
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Chapter One:
Ira and Sheila Rosenberg waited downstairs by the door for the cab driver. Willow watched out the upstairs window while she talked to Xander on the phone. She was worried about his summer school performance. She usually helped him with his schoolwork, even though most of the time he put in as little effort as possible. That was the reason he was in summer school.
Her parents looked down at their watches as the driver pulled up and they noted his tardiness. Willow felt bad for him because she knew they wouldn't let him get away with that.
"Willow, it's time to go, hurry!" Her mother's voice rang out from the front yard.
On the phone Xander tried to end the conversation. "I'll be fine, Willow...I'm not as stupid as people think, I'm just lazy. I'm chock full of the smarty goodness I got from you."
Willow rolled her eyes.
"Okay, Xander, but if I come back and you’ve failed...and I have to face third grade alone...with no friends, I am gonna beat your butt!"
"Okay….okay, Will, I know your mom is probably yelling for you by now, you better get going."
Willow knew he was right, remembering that her mother had told her to hurry. She hung up and ran out the door, grabbing her duffel bag on the way.
"Willow, tardiness isn't a virtue. You shouldn't make a habit of it." Her father announced within earshot of the cab driver.
“I know but I had to say good-bye to Xander. I won’t see him for a long time and he’ll probably need help with his homework. What will he do without me?” she whined a little.
“Personally, I think that Alec boy is a bad influence on you. He is so slow. You should find smarter friends, dear,” Sheila exclaimed as the cab pulled off.
‘You mean nerds like me,’ Willow thought to herself.
Willow sighed and knew she had no leverage in that argument.
Time passed slowly as the cab made its way to the airport. As usual Willow and her parents were taking separate flights to different locations and wouldn’t see each other for the remainder of the summer. Willow was on the way to summer camp up in the wilderness near Oklahoma and her parents were off to Europe on yet another business trip.
Arriving at the airport was hectic because of traffic and the fact that so many people seemed to be on the way somewhere. Willow could never quite understand where everyone could be going.
There wasn’t anywhere for the driver to pull up to the curb and let them out so he parked in a lot that happened to be quite far from the entrance.
“It looks like an anthill, everyone scurrying in all at once, like little workers.”
“Yeah, dad, but only certain ants can fly.” Willow replied to her father’s analogy.
“That’s right, honey, but if they had brains like ours they could all fly if they wanted.”
Once the Rosenbergs were inside the airport, they said their good-byes and then set off in opposite directions. The good-byes were seemingly emotionless for her parents but as Willow walked away from them she couldn’t help but start to cry. Her parents seemed to always be away or busy and she didn’t really know them. To Willow, family meant Xander, goofy Xander. Willow thought of him as she waited near her terminal for the plane to board.
She watched as the people hurried by. No one seemed to wonder what an eight year old was doing alone in an airport. She brought a book about computers with her to help pass the time and another one about beginner witchcraft for the plane. These were her favorite topics: the computers because she understood them almost right away and the witchcraft because she liked the idea of being strong and powerful. She wanted to feel special for something other than being brainy. She wanted to solve problems, to help people. But she only had Xander to help and she wasn’t doing a very good job of that because he had ended up in summer school. While she was off to an awful place to pass the summer, away from her friends and away from all the places she knew and loved.
An hour later, the plane arrived and the passengers were allowed to board. The flight attendant absentmindedly took the tickets without even glancing at faces.
When Willow reached her destination she saw that her parents had arranged for a cab driver to be waiting for her. He had her name written on a piece of poster board.
“So, Willow, that’s your name right...like the tree?” The driver, from the rear-view mirror, saw her nod and chuckled. “Enjoy your flight?” he asked. ”Did you eat many of the peanuts?”
“I did munch a few bags but I got bored after a while. I read the two books I brought. I couldn’t stop worrying about my friend, Xander, and wondering if he is going do okay in school. I mean, I am the one who helps him. I’m the one who understands him. But I know he is capable of more than what people think and I sorta know he’ll be ok, you know? On the other hand, he is easily distracted and never finds time to study, always doodling and….”
“Whoa, once you get started, it must be hard for you to stop, huh?” the driver teased.
Willow’s face flushed and she looked out the window.
“Well, here we are, Willow. I hope you have a good time at camp and meet some other people besides your boyfriend, Xander.”
“He’s not…” she decided not to finish that sentence as it would only prove that she did feel something for him. Willow jumped out of the cab and dragged her duffel bag along. Not able to help it, she turned and smiled at the driver. He had shown her more attention and affection than her parents had at the airport and she silently thanked him.
When the cab drove off she noticed a large group of girls at the center of the parking lot and walked in that direction. She drew near enough to hear what one of the counselors was saying.
“Alright, we are bunking the cabins in twos. This is a smaller camp and there are only about fifty girls. Excluding the counselor cabins and lunch quarters there are twenty-five cabins. Your bunk partner is your everything partner so I’d advice you become friends quickly because you’ll be seeing a great deal of each other. The list of partners is on the notice board to the right of the cabins. Find your last name and your cabin number is next to it. Good luck and have fun this summer!”
All the girls started running toward the notice board. They seemed to have made friends already and knew who they wanted to bunk with. One other girl was moving quite slowly. Willow walked up to her and matched her pace.
“When you get there, you get there; running over won’t change who you’re with, you know?”
“I…I..”
Willow realized that the girl stuttered and blurted out, “Don’t worry, I can talk enough for the both of us. Unless you don’t want to hear me talk, which is a total possibility. There you go again, Rosenberg, always assuming that people want to hear you go on. I’m doing it now, aren’t I? Ok, ok, I’ll stop.”
“No, it’s o-okay,” the girl reassured Willow.
Willow smiled at her response and they continued to walk together toward the board in silence.
At the board Willow ran her fingers up the alphabetical list of last names and found Rosenberg, bunk thirteen.
“Hey, um, by the way, what is your name?” she asked when she realized she didn’t know it.
“Tara…Maclay.”
Willow ran her fingers down the names and found Maclay. To her surprise and delight she found out they were in the same bunk.
“Neat, we are together! Isn’t that lucky? Well, let’s go find the cabin and put our stuff away.”
Tara didn’t say anything but smiled to herself. To her surprise she was a little hopeful that friendship was on the horizon for them. Since she didn’t have any friends except for her mother, it felt good for her to have a possibility. But her somewhat secretive skills instantly put up a wall between the two girls. How was Tara to know that Willow was interested in witchcraft?
Willow read about the craft and its spells, using the books she managed to find in public libraries or bookstores, but she didn’t practice. Being a logical person, she thought it was kind of silly that anything like that existed, but she was interested nonetheless.
The cabins were in five rows of five; the first five in the front went from left to right, one to five, and the second from six to ten and so forth. Willow’s math skills had them walking up the middle back to the third row, right to cabin thirteen. The shortest distance is always a straight line.
“Here we are. It’s weird…we are right in the middle. The middle of the middle, in thirteen, known to be unlucky but isn’t really…”
“Yeah, I t-think it’s a sign…” Tara stopped mid-sentence frightened that she might continue to stutter but more frightened that she might reveal something that would scare Willow away from her that summer.
“Really, what kind of sign? You mean sort of like a place of mystical convergence? The center of existence in this local space?” Willow noticed Tara staring at her with wide eyes.
“Oh, I read about it in this book I brought along. You can look at it when we un-pack if you want. Unless you think I’m totally weird now…I try not to seem weird when I’m first around someone…but when I get nervous I can hardly help it. How am I supposed to? I think it’s some kind of nervous reaction or me being defensive about things that I need to be defensive about…”
“Willow! I think i-it’s neat that you know about t-that.” Tara blurted out in surprise.
Willow just looked a little taken aback and then opened the door of their cabin.
The room wasn’t very large. There were no bathrooms because their cabin happened to be close to the lake and the changing center, which contained showers. The beds were bunks and there were two desks. They each had a lamp and were situated under a window. There was a small multi-colored rug on the floor in the middle of the room and one door. A couple dressers stood next to each other on the far wall. There was one large light on the ceiling of the room.
When they walked in they were greeted by a sea of dust. It was clear that this camp wasn’t too keen on cleaning up when the girls weren’t there. She gave Tara a look, which was quickly understood as ‘oh boy, this is going to be annoying to clean.’ Hidden under her hair, Tara giggled. Willow caught the smile and giggle and smiled herself.
Tara couldn’t help but think what a charmer Willow was going to be when she started dating.
“Tara, I want you know right now that you don’t have to be afraid around me. I like to think of myself as super nice. I don’t plan on making fun of you or anything that’s…just not nice. Okay?” Willow said matter-of-factly and waited for a response from Tara.
“Um, o-okay.” She smiled a little to reassure Willow and to reassure herself on some level.
“Good! Let’s get down to the basics then. Where are you from and have you been to this camp before and if so aren’t the girls totally Cordilia-esque?”
“Who’s C-Cordilia?”
Willow slapped her forehead and laughed. Tara just looked on, amused.
“She’s this meanie from my school at home. She’s picked on me since I met her. She does it to my friend Xander, too. We don’t like her.”
They spent the next couple hours talking about their lives, cleaning and unpacking. Tara told Willow that she actually lived in Oklahoma, so the camp wasn’t too far from her home. Whenever she talked about her mother she stuttered less and seemed really happy. Willow, on the other hand, didn’t see the big deal about mothers since hers wasn’t as warm as Tara’s seemed to be. But she was still happy for Tara. Tara let it slip that her father wasn’t too excited about her leaving for camp but that her mother insisted that she needed the experience. Willow got the idea that he wasn’t a very nice man. In an effort to get off the subject, Willow looked for the time. The camp had a battery-powered clock on the wall and she examined it.
“Wow, it’s been two hours. We better get over to the lunch hall and grab some food. Maybe we can look around for something to do…if you want.”
Tara just nodded. They headed out of the cabin and saw a group of girls up on a grassy hill kicking around a soccer ball. Other girls were swimming in the lake, which was situated towards the back of the cabins, past twenty-five. The lunch hall was to the right of their cabin; it was large and hard to miss.
On the walk over, Willow managed to trip over a tree root that sticking out of the ground. The event happened so quickly that she was on the ground before realizing she’d tripped.
“Oh my goodness…are you ok?” Tara knelt down next to her. A few of the girls that were passing by stopped, laughed and pointed at Willow, drawing a mini-crowd. Tara quickly turned to glare at them. They ran off barely noticing the look but caught enough of it not to laugh again. Tara helped Willow up.
“Definitely Cordilia-esque. Don’t worry, I’m just not one of those elegant walkers. Yep, just call me clumsy.” Willow smiled.
Tara laughed. She was happy to learn that Willow wasn’t too offended and took criticism well. They continued on to the lunch hall with Willow feeling satisfied at making Tara a little more comfortable around her.
Tara and Willow entered and saw some girls making wallets with butterflies and flowers. Tara glanced at another group making friendship bracelets and suddenly liked the idea of making one for Willow, even if the idea was not reciprocated.
“Hey…” Tara burst out and stopped abruptly. Willow nodded for her to continue. “We could make those,” she pointed at the girls making the bracelets.
“Neat… ok, we’ll make friendship bracelets. Do you want to before or after eating?”
Tara replied simply, “after.”
She seemed to get out one word much easier, preventing the stutter. Tara was making a conscious effort not to do it around Willow, even though she got the feeling from Willow’s earlier little speech that she didn’t mind.
The two sat down together to eat a late lunch. They continued to talk about each other, of course, with Willow doing most of the talking. She was usually very shy around new people but felt comfortable with Tara. Willow remembered what Tara had said earlier when she’d talked about the convergence and decided it was time to move the conversation in that direction again.
“Hey, Tara, do you know a lot about magicks? You seemed to from what you said earlier.” Tara’s eyes widened again but she felt like she could share a few of the things she knew with Willow.
“Well, do you believe in it or is it just a game to you?”
Willow was surprised by Tara’s assertive question and thought about it for a minute or so before answering.
“I don’t really know what to believe.”
Tara looked thoughtfully at Willow and her warmth toward her grew a little. She was impressed with Willow’s willingness to learn something new without judgment or preservation.
“M-maybe I could t-teach you about it later.” Tara said and smiled because Willow had become a little jumpy with excitement.
“Okay, how about those friendship bracelets then?” They moved to throw out the remainder of their food and get the supplies for the bracelets. The activity didn’t take up too much time and, before they knew it, they were done.
Each tied the bracelet they made around the wrist of the other and looked over them before heading back to their cabin. When they walked into thirteen they got a refreshing job-well-done feeling when they saw the neat condition of the room.
Willow was eager to learn about the magicks and Tara was eager to teach her.
“I can sort of sense power in you. I’m not too good yet at being aware of other people but your power must be really strong for me to be able to feel it like this.” It was the longest Tara had spoken without a stutter. Willow got the idea that magick was complementary and strengthening of Tara’s character.
“Really?” Willow exclaimed excitedly, in awe. “So, you mean magick is real?”
Tara nodded.
“I always knew it, I knew knew knew it! Oh…sorry.” Willow’s face flushed and she sat down on her bunk, staring at Tara who was sitting across the room on a desk chair.
“It’s as real as the chair I’m sitting on.”
“How long have you been practicing?” Willow asked, still excited and full of anticipation.
“Forever…well, since I was little. My mom has a lot of power…like you.”
Willow was exasperated. “I don’t have power, do I? Really?”
Willow couldn’t help but trust the girl from the very first time she saw her. There she was at summer camp, where she’d thought it was going to be the worst summer ever, but she’d already learned things about herself she may have never found out.
Throughout the next few weeks, Tara taught Willow about her power and what she saw in her. They didn’t do any spells but Willow learned more from Tara than any book she had read.
“The source of your power can be represented by two of the elements. I would say fire and water. The fire represents your strength. It is the less controlled part of your magick. The water represents the control and calm of your magick. What you have to do is find the balance between the two and I bet you could uncover most if not all of your power and help it grow.” Tara explained, very cleverly for a nine-year-old. Her stutter was all but gone because her comfort level in Willow’s presence, though always good, had risen beyond comprehension.
“Yeah, but how do I find balance, and when will I get to see my power?” Since they hadn’t done any spells Willow had come to question whether she really had any power at all and the validity of magick.
“Well, patience is important, and you have to understand that there are always two different sides of magick, light and dark.” Tara explained the difference between light and dark magick and the ways to respect it, only harnessing the light. Over the following weeks Tara did her best to instil in Willow the importance of respecting magick and never using darkness to solve her problems. It wasn’t until Tara believed in her heart that Willow understood these things that they tried their first spell. It was already two weeks before the end of camp.
“These spells are simple, and are for younger witches like us. They are based in your powers elements making them easier to do, to manipulate matter. You are a scientist so you’ll understand this. Creating something from nothing but not really.”
“I think I understand…” Willow said, not really getting it.
“You take a part of yourself, a part of your energy, and create your power’s base elements. For you that would be fire or water, for me it would earth or water. Since we share the common element water, I thought we’d try that.”
“To create water, right, so if we were stuck in the desert dying of thirst this spell would come in handy type of thing?”
Tara giggled at Willow’s cute understanding.
“Yes, exactly.”
Willow jumped up and yelped with excitement. After some time Tara calmed her down and they created a sacred space to produce the water. Tara held her hand to the center of the space and Willow, sitting opposite to Tara, copied this move. Their hands did not reach each other’s but left a two-inch space between them. Their fingers curled toward each other. With her eyes shut, Tara spoke quietly.
“Concentrate, remember the techniques I taught you about relaxation and focus. Envision what you want to happen here and just let it happen, believe in me, believe in your magick and repeat these words…
Goddesses who watch us
The light that covers us
Grant us power
Grant us vision…
Aqua!”
Willow repeated Tara’s words verbatim but for several minutes nothing happened. They both continued to keep focus and Tara urged Willow not to give up.
A few seconds later water started to form one drop at a time, slowly but absolute.
Once the spell was complete Willow gave Tara a brief but big hug and thanked her for all she’d taught her.
“That was pretty close to primal forces, creating something from nothing.”
“It isn’t anything to be afraid of if you respect magick and aren’t using it for selfish reasons.”
“I didn’t know you could speak another language.” Willow added.
“Well, Latin is the language of magick. Although it isn’t always necessary.” Tara replied and Willow was impressed by Tara’s worldliness.
“You know it didn’t happen ‘til I believed. The water thing,” a relieved Willow blurted out.
Tara just nodded. Willow continued to look at her; she just seemed so wise for a little girl. Deep down Willow was inspired by Tara and her wisdom—inspired to learn more about languages and to learn more about magick.
Tara was also inspired, by Willow’s quick learning and by her strength, not just magically, but as a person. Willow was a shy girl but underneath it was true confidence waiting to come out and that had peaked out more than once here at camp.
With only a couple of weeks left, the girls decided it was time to slow down with the magick talk and join in with the other campers in the lake, just having outdoors time for the rest of camp. They hiked and swam and even joined in some team games like kickball.
But their last day there was the most significant. Willow had only brought two books, yet Tara had an array of magick books passed to her by her mother that she’d brought along. She had the idea that they would spend the entire time alone in the cabin. Since they were all packed and would be leaving within an hour, the girls sat on the steps of their cabin.
“Willow, I’m really glad I met you and I want you to take these three books with you so you can grow as a witch.”
The first book was about calming and focusing techniques. The second was about the use of color in magick. The last was a beginner spell book for the young aspiring witch wishing to harness and fully control her powers.
Willow was floored as she quickly glanced through them.
“Tara, how could I take these? Don’t you need them?”
“No, I have my mom to teach me, you…you don’t have anyone…”
Willow nodded in understanding and consented to taking the three books.
“I don’t have anything to give you, no neat present or major life change-y books,” she explained disappointed.
“It’s ok, just being able to share this experience with someone is really cool.”
Tara went on to explain that her father didn’t allow calls to their house from anywhere long distance, even though the caller was the one charged, but they exchanged addresses in hopes to keep in touch.
Tara gave Willow a quick hug and walked away with her bag. Her ride—her father and her spitting brother, Donny – had arrived to take her away. Willow was a little scared for Tara, not really knowing her entire situation but getting a drift of it. Being just a kid she couldn’t do much about it.
Soon Willow’s cab driver showed up and interestingly it was the same guy.
“I heard you needed a lift to the airport, little tree.”
“You remembered me from all that time ago?”
“It hasn’t been too long…You seem sad. Let me guess, you had such a great time and met so many new friends you can’t bare to leave?”
“I did meet a lot of girls but only one became my friend and I’ll miss her…”
‘I’m afraid I’ll never see her again and that just wouldn’t be nice,’ she thought to herself. The driver could see she was in her own world now.
Willow made it back to her home in Sunnydale safely. Her parents had yet to return, but she was used to it by now having been left home alone since she was seven. She guessed seven was the independent age in her parents’ opinion. She was always a little frightened to be alone, but as usual Xander either showed up or she went to stay a his house to keep from being too lonely.
A knock came just after she walked through the door.
“Willow, you can’t hide from me. I don’t care how many friends you made. I’m still your best one, right?”
Willow smiled, yanked open the door, and hugged Xander.
“Hi Xander! Okay…lay it on me. Are you still a second-grader?”
“Nope, I’m a big and tall third,” he puffed out his chest.
“Woo and hoo, Xander, I’m proud and giddy.”
“Yep, me and Will together again and school just around the corner. I feel like I just left.”
“You did, Xander. Summer school, remember?”
“Oh yeah, how could I forget the six-week torture chamber?”
Willow laughed. It was good to be home and even as she laughed and played with Xander, her mind held thoughts of the witch who helped her realize her potential and gave her the tools and knowledge to grow with her power.
***
At the start of school, Willow turned up far less excited than usual. It seemed that she was disappointed.
Xander inquired upon seeing her, “Hey Wil, what’s wrong?”
“It’s complicated, Xander.”
“Just explain it to me, you do it all the time.”
“Well, I met this girl over the summer, we became really close but I’ve written like three-hundred letters to her and I haven’t gotten anything back.”
“I think that’s an exaggeration, Will…” he looked to her for the true number.
“Okay…more like four letters but still…”
“Just keep trying, she is probably just caught up.” Willow thought about what he said and nodded. But she never got a letter back from Tara and eventually, though she always stayed in Willow’s mind and Willow continued to practice her magick and focus, she moved on with her life through middle school and into the ninth grade.
In Oklahoma, Tara had written to Willow but also never got any letters back. She only later found out that Donny and her father were keeping the letters she sent and the ones that Willow sent and destroying them as part of their plan to isolate and control her. They were grooming her for servitude.
TBC
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A little peak into the next part of the story:
Willow was really disappointed and felt horrible about not getting any letters from Tara. Tara felt likewise, but worse, because she didn’t have any friends. Over the years, Tara fell deeper into her shell, her stutter becoming even worse. Willow became somewhat shyer but didn’t get too sucked in because of Xander and her other friend, Jesse.
But in this section, it’ll have a brief little stint where Buffy moves to Sunnydale in the tenth grade and will skip forward to the reunion of Willow and Tara at UC Sunnydale. A bit of something different will happen between Willow and Oz so stay tuned please.
