"Oh, Buffy. Principal Snyder came snooping around for you."

"Eeee," Buffy grimaced. "The Career Fair."

"You'd best make an appearance, I think."

"Right."

Kendra looked curiously at Giles. "Buffy's a student here?"

"Yes."

Kendra paused, taking this in. Then cooly she added, "Right. Of course. I'd imagine she's a cheerleader, too."

"Actually, she gave up cheerleading," Giles began to chuckle. "It's a funny story, really . . ."

Kendra fixed him with a humorless stare, obviously not interested inor amused at Buffy's wacky life.

Giles quickly resumed his proper demeanor.

"Let's go find that book," he said. "Shall we?"

They headed off to the library.

Stunned, Buffy and Willow watched them go.

"Get a load of the She-Giles," Buffy muttered.

"Creepy," Willow agreed.

They both turned off in the other direction, moving out into the courtyard.

"I bet Giles wishes I were more of a fact geek," Buffy mused unhappily.

Willow glanced at her with a smile. "Giles is enough of a fact geek for both of you."

"But you saw how he and Kendra were vibing. 'Volume six-ha, ha-ha!'"

"Buffy," Willow said gently, "no one can replace you. You'll always be Giles's favorite."

"I wonder . . ."

"Of course you will. You're his Slayer. Thereal Slayer."

"No," Buffy said wistfully. "I mean, I wonder if it would be so bad. Being replaced."

"You mean, like letting Kendra take over?" Willow sounded shocked.

"Maybe. It would be wild if, after this thing with Spike and the assassins is over, I could say 'Kendra, you slay. I'm going to Disneyland.'"

Willow hesitated. "But not forever, right?"

"No." Buffy cast her a teasing look. "Disneyland would get boring after a few months. But I could do . .

. other stuff. Any stuff. Career Day stuff. Who knows, Willow, I might even be able to have, like, a normal life."

She sounded hopeful as she said it.

Too bad she didn't feel that way.

CHAPTER 16.

Cordelia couldn't stop pacing.

As Xander sat glumly in a chair, she walked back and forth across the cellar floor, arms clamped about her chest, nerves ready to explode.

"Think you could sit down or change your pattern or something?" Xander asked sarcastically. "You're making me queasy."

"Because you're just sitting there." Cordelia turned on him. "You should be thinking up a plan."

"I do have a plan. We wait. Buffy saves us."

"How will she even know where to find us?"

Xander gave a deep sigh. "Cordelia. This is Buffy's house. Odds are she'll find us."

"What if she doesn't?" Cordelia burst out. "I'm supposed to just waste away down here withyou? No, thank you."

She moved quickly toward the stairs. Xander leapt up.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Checking to see if he's gone-"

"That's brilliant. What if he isn't?"

Cordelia's eyes were blazing. "Oh, right. You think we should just slack here and hope that somebody else decides to be a hero. Sorry, I forgot I was stranded with aloser-"

"And yet," Xander broke in, "Inever forgot that I was stuck with the numb-brain who let Mr. Mutant into the house in thefirst place!"

"He looked normal!" Cordelia shouted.

"What-he was supposed to have an arrow and the wordassassin over his head?" Xander shouted back. "All it took was the prospect of a free makeover and you licked his hand like a big, dumb dog!"

"You know what?" Cordelia's voice lowered now, icy cold. "I'm gone. I'd rather beworm food than look at your pathetic face-"

"Then go. I won't stop you."

With tempers flaring, Xander and Cordelia moved closer. They were standing toe to toe now, their faces only inches apart, and both of them were seething.

"I bet you wouldn't," Cordelia threw back at him. "I bet you'd just let a girl go off to her doom all by herself-"

"Not just any girl." Xander was deliberately patronizing. "You'respecial."

"I can'tbelieve I'm stuck here spending what are probably my last moments on earth withyou!"

"Ihope these are my last moments! Three more seconds of you and I'm gonna-"

"You're gonna what?" Cordelia challenged him. "Coward!"

"Moron!"

"I hate you!"

"I hateyou!"

Furiously they paused, emotions out of control.

Then they grabbed each other wildly and began to kiss.

Bodies clinging, lips burning, they kissed with reckless passion, as neither had ever kissed before. The room seemed to vibrate around them, the floor seemed to shake. They kissed without stopping, without coming up for air. They kissed desperately . . . on and on and on.

At long last they broke apart.

And then theyleapt apart, as if they had been electrocuted.

For a long moment they stared at each other.

"Weso need to get out of here," Xander said, heading for the stairs.

Without hesitation, Cordelia bounded up the stairs and ripped the tape from the door.

"He's gone," she announced thankfully, and they bolted.

They managed to make it through the kitchen. But as Cordelia followed Xander into the dining room, hundreds of worms suddenly rained down on them from above. Shrieking, Cordelia raced out the front door and into the yard. She was covered with worms, and Xander ran up to her, trying to brush them off.

"Help!" Cordelia screamed. "Help me!"

Xander dashed to a nearby garden hose. He turned the pressure up as far as it would go, and then he aimed it straight at Cordelia.

This time she shrieked even louder. As the water hit her full force, she flailed her arms and hopped around, her clothes and hair hopelessly soaked. But the tactic worked-as the last of the worms washed away, Xander shut off the hose and hurried Cordelia to her car.

CHAPTER 17.

Buffy and Willow stood in the school lounge amid the hubbub of Career Week. The two of them were looking at a large schedule of events that had been posted on the wall.

"Okay," Buffy sighed. "My tests say I should be looking into law enforcement-duh-and environmental design."

"Environmental design?" Willow raised an eyebrow. "That's landscaping, right?"

Buffy shrugged. "I checked the shrub box. Landscaping was yesterday-so law it is."

They began shouldering their way through the noisy crowd. As Buffy looked around, she suddenly noticed a familiar face-the guy she'd attacked in the hallway recently. She noticed that his hair had changed color, from light to dark, and she noticed that he was watching them-and sheespecially noticed that he was staring at Willow.

"Don't look now, Will," Buffy informed her, "but that guy over there is totally checking you."

Willow followed Buffy's gaze across the room. "Oh," she said casually. "That's Oz. He's just expressing computer nerd solidarity."

"Really? Then why is he on his way over?"

Oz was indeed coming toward them now. With eyes that were only for Willow.

"Hi," he said.

Buffy smiled and kept moving. "Told you."

She headed over toward the Law Enforcement booth, leaving Willow and Oz alone.

"Hey," Oz said.

"Hey." Willow studied him for a moment, then added, "Your hair. It's brown."

"Sometimes," Oz acknowledged. "Did you decide? Are you gonna become a corporate computer suit guy?"

Willow looked amused. "Uh, I think I'm gonna finish high school first. What about you?"

"I'm not really a computer person," Oz admitted. "Or a work of any kind person."

"Then why'd they select you?"

Oz shrugged his shoulders. "I sort of test well. Which is cool, except then it leads to jobs."

"Well, don't you have some ambition?"

"Oh, yeah," he answered seriously. "E flat, diminished ninth."

"Huh?