i know, i know it's been AGES.... there are a lot of reasons why this is taking so long (and some privied few know the main reason why
) and i apologize muchly. this is a small update, nothing much really but a plot B filler. no tara but i look foward to much of tara in the upcoming updates. i miss her. lol
hope you like and be good, kittens!
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Over the next two days, the Scoobies tried to inconspicuously watch Jamie’s every move. The redhead felt like she was stuck in one of those “Something Queer…” teen mystery books she used to read as a child about a couple of junior sleuths. In her room at home she still had five of those books where two pre teen girls and a dog named Fletcher solved mysteries. Well, if Buffy were a black haired, braces wearing girl name Gwen and Xander where a narcoleptic hound dog.
Truth was Willow didn’t know how to bring up the topic of magic with her camper. ‘Hey there, Jamie, performed any dark magic spells lately?’ didn’t sit too well with her. After all, Tara had said the contents inside the notebook were harmless. Even so, Buffy wanted a definite answer from the 15 year old and Willow was, unfortunately, the one in charge of getting it. To her, Jamie was acting was completely normal though. If anything, she was interacting a lot better with her cabin mates than before. Nothing like gross, flying insects and selective amnesia to bring everyone closer. That and a full on two day camp color war.
So busy was everyone in the blue, yellow, white and red teams that there was truly no time to investigate the curious goings on at Camp Flutie. After all there were the layers and layers of clothes to put on for the clothesline competition. There were the cheers to make up and the voices to lose while yelling them out in the spirit contest. There was the campus wide treasure hunt and a color war spelling bee. There was the arts and crafts portion of the games while the tug of war left many participants with rope burns on their hands. The over night capture the flag adventure left most campers and counselors without any sleep and walking zombies for day two of the color war.
Because of this, the second day was more relaxed. Secretly labeled as the ‘camp improvement’ part of the color war, the campers were basically used as maintenance and awarded points for their work around the grounds. The teams had to clean up trash, paint buildings, weed the gardens, and participate in a bunch of other camp revitalization tasks before lunch. There were some more sport competitions in the afternoon after a two hour nap break and the color war ended in the early evening with team songs and skits. Even though the red team was crowned the winner every team got an ice cream party for being such great sports.
Willow’s white team, comprised of cabins’ three, five and seven, had their color war celebration and recollection session in the assembly hall. She took advantage of her good fortune when she found Jamie sitting all by herself outside the assembly hall and headed on over to the camper.
Willow sat down on the porch steps besides her, “Hey, Jamie. What are you doing out here? Party’s inside.”
“Not really in the mood.”
Willow was flabbergasted by the answer. “But, it’s ice cream. How could you not be in the mood for ice cream? I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.”
Her counselors recognizable mantra made Jamie faintly smile. For a second. After all, they had just spent the last five minutes chanting the slogan on their way to the party. “I’m lactose intolerant.”
“Oh.” Jamie was lactose intolerant? She didn’t remember that from Jamie’s camp application. The mystery in front of her just grew bigger and bigger.
The young woman looked over at her counselor once more, “The little pills I take every time I eat just in case there is any milk derivatives in the food? The meds I forgot that night I ran into you and Tara in the cabin with the kissing and-
“Hey!” Willow flushed at the memory, “Aren’t you supposed to give all your medication to Miss Calendar? It’s in the rules.”
“I don’t let anyone touch any of my stuff.” Jamie replied as she stared down at her tennis shoes, her arms wrapping around her knees.
“Yeah, I noticed with the big honking trunk you got next to your bunk bed.” Her eyes widened a bit once she realized this was her opportunity to ask about her belongings. It was difficult to keep her tone lightas she grew more and more nervous, “Whatcha got in the trunk? Drugs? It's not drugs, is it?” She was able to ask in a playful, motherly way.
Jamie rolled her eyes, Willow could be so silly sometimes. “No. It’s stuff.”
“What kinda stuff?”
“Just stuff.” Willow didn’t want to pry but knew she had too. However, before she could ask anything else Jamie spoke, “Do you ever wonder if this is all a dream?” she questioned.
That was a query the redhead had not expected, “Wow… that’s pretty deep. And random. Randomly deep. Or deeply random.”
Jamie smiled once again. “I mean it. What if we’re a dream? Someone’s dream and they’re going to wake up any moment and we go poof?”
“Well…I…” She couldn’t help but think of Tara and the last couple of weeks at camp. “If it were a dream I for one don’t want them to wake up. I’m liking this dream very much.”
“I’m not.”
Willow knew that there was more to that statement than the camper had probably wanted to express. She’d known, from the moment she’d first seen and spoken to Jamie, that she was a lot like her in both personality and intelligence. Certainly equal in high school social status. At first, it was difficult to see certain things of herself in someone else but if she could help her, let her know everything would be all right… “Jamie. It’ll get better. Trust me. You just have to hang on. Teenage years kinda suck for everyone.” Willow scrunched up her forehead knowing she was probably not helping any.
“Cant we just speed it up? Do a spell or something?
Her stomach lurched at the question, “S-spell?”
“Yeah, you know, hocus pocus fast forward us.” Jamie chuckled.
Willow suspiciously laughed along with her. “Hocus Pocus. Right. ‘Cause that’s really real. Magick and spells and a smidge of marnox root mixed with a virgin's saliva...” she got a curious look from Jamie, “Does something I know nothing about.”
The girl stared at her counselor, her brown eyes never leaving the nervously fleeting green eyes in front of her. She was about to ask her a question but decided not to. Just as quickly she changed her mind, “You know witchcraft?”
Willow didn’t know how to respond to that question. “I… um…”
“Marnox root was used in fertility rituals long, long ago. It’s like an aphrodisiac used on virgins to-”
Willow knew exactly what the root was used for, “Yeah, I read up on the history. I, uh, like reading. I read a lot. A lot of everything. That’s me. Reader Rosenberg.” Why did she feel she was the one under scrutiny here? Jamie was the puzzle, not her. “And, obviously, you know witchcraft too.”
She softly shrugged her shoulders, “My best friend in eighth grade… We read up on it. She was obsessed with witches and vampires and stuff…”
“And? What happened?”
“She was obsessed with witches and vampires and stuff.” Jamie deadpanned.
The look on Jamie’s face left no doubt they were no longer friends. “So, you don’t believe in any of that?” A part of her wanted to know, the other part didn’t.
Jamie took a moment before replying, “Do you?”
Willow didn’t know what so say. With each question she was getting more nervous, thinking maybe Jamie did know a bit more than just the history of witchcraft. What if Jamie did that spell few nights earlier? Or what if she’d made the yucky, yucky? How would she be reprimanded? And, what if it wasn’t Jamie? What if there were other girls at camp dabbling in the dark arts as well? How would they find out?
She pretended to laugh rather than answer. “Come one. Let’s go inside before we get eaten alive by mosquitoes.” she said as she genlty tugged on Jamie's shoulder.
“I have repellent.” Jamie dug into her pocket and took out a small tube. She offered it to Willow.
Plan busted again. Why was Jamie always ready for anything? “Of course you do, Jamie. Of course.”
“You can go inside. I just want to stay out here. It’s nice... And after the raid of the insects it’s been kinda quiet on the bug front.” Her look was sort of a challenge for Willow to continue the conversation.
“Yeah. That was gross.”
“Yeah.”
“Jamie? Do you have something you want to tell me?”
“I didn’t do it.” she whispered.
“No one’s saying that.”
“I…” her tone was still low, like she was telling a very important secret, “I wanted to stop it. I tried to stop it. I-”
“Hey,” Jenn interrupted as she loudly opened the screen door to the building. She tired to hide her irritation with a look of boredom, “I don’t know why Buffy sent me to find you two but she did. I figured you’d be out here together alone. So, get your asses inside pronto before she gets all large with the butch like she does and we don’t get seconds of the ice cream.”
Wanting to continue their conversation, Willow hoped Jenn would have simply turned around and walked back into the assembly hall. But she didn’t. She simply stared at Jamie until the camper slowly and silently rose up from the floor and walked past her without another glance.
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TBC...
"Take care of my heart, won't you please? Take care of it because it's all that I have. And if you let me, I'll take care of your heart too." Pure sweetness in the look between Willow and Tara.