well, half of it anyhow... i'll get to replys in short... enjoy this little part til next time (at some point this weekend).
hope you like the update...
kerry, hugs!
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CHAPTER 20
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Willow knew the woods. Well, at least she thought she should, she’d crossed it with Tara and even walked it alone. Ok, so truthfully Tara had lead her that day they went to the magickal clearing and she hadn’t been paying any attention whatsoever to the trail. She was too busy paying attention to the blonde, her beautiful blonde. And the second time she was in the forest Tara’s teeny Tinkerbell light had led her back to camp so in reality Willow couldn’t say she knew the woods at all. Nope, not at all. She didn’t recognize this particular part of the canyon about a half mile from Camp Flutie. It was covered with shaded oak groves, willow trees and wildflowers that lined a small creek they had crossed over on a rickety bridge.
They were pretty much lost. For real. And, she felt like she was in “The Blair Witch Project” sequel. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to watch that particular film before they had headed out to a camp near woods full of woodsy trees that looked alike. She needed to talk to Buffy and Xander about their cinematic cravings, how they liked horror stories when real life was horrific enough for all of them was beyond her.
All she needed was a bunch stick figures hung on dead branches to appear out of nowhere and creepy noises to exacerbate a heart attack. At least Buffy was lost right along with her, and it was still daylight. The redhead checked her watch. Well, daytime for another three hours. “Anything?” she asked the Slayer, a bit worried.
“5 to 1 we’re still lost.” Buffy stared over at Marcie and Jonathan huddled a few feet away with Amy, the nature trail guide. Maps were doing no good. What they needed was a global positioning system. Or, actually, someone who would not accidentally lose the compass would be cool too. Poor Jonathan hadn’t heard the last of it yet.
“Well, what do we tell them?” Willow’s eyes motioned behind them to the sixteen campers under their care. Some were talking and laughing, others were investigating the flora and fauna or playing by the creek bed. All seemed oblivious of the predicament they were in. “I mean, how long is a rest stop anyhow? We’ve been at it for almost forty minutes now.”
Buffy simply shrugged her shoulders, she felt just as lost. Willow sighed and whispered out a thought, “I could do a guiding spell. Call upon Aradia, Goddess of the lost, and-”
“Are we lost?” All of a sudden Jamie’s soft voice came from behind the two counselors.
Both, Willow and Buffy jumped in place at the unexpected interruption. They quickly turned over to the camper and smiled falsely. “No,” both said quite overly dramatic, “Not at all.” They overlapped each other with more assurances. Buffy even waved her hand dismissing the young camper’s concern.
But Jamie saw right through the two of them, as usual. “Great. We’re going to starve and die.” she rolled her eyes as she tugged on the straps of her book bag, feet shuffling nervously against the ground.
“No one’s going to die.” Buffy replied calmly. “They’re just having a little powwow over there.”
That Tuesday morning had begun with a blast of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” as usual, only this time it was in Spanish. How Oz and Devon ever found these rare re-mixes was unknown but the fact remained they had the weirdest and funniest CD collection in the world. Once upon a time Oz used to burn cd’s for Willow every month with uncommon and quirky finds but not anymore. The last cd she’d gotten from him was on her birthday, a few weeks before they broke up.
Breakfast had been a bit strained as well. Willow was still hurt by last night’s conversation with Xander, or lack of conversation, and his aloofness towards her this morning was something she hadn’t expected. They smiled awkward hello’s and pretty much didn’t say one word to each other. It was difficult to sit with her two best friends while one of them pretty much ignored the fact she was sitting right there along with them.
During the cabin clean up and morning announcements Willow’s thoughts roamed over everything that was happening with her best friend. Xander was never one to let anything bother him more than a few minutes, especially when it came to Willow. She felt sad and betrayed about what was occurring between them but knew she wasn’t the only one. She knew Xander was hurting just as much as she was.
She regretted letting him walk away from her the night before, they should have talked it out then and there. But it was partly her fault though, or maybe it was all her fault? She should have told him about Tara. But then again she had wanted something that was just hers. Besides, she hadn’t told any of them about the blonde, not just Xander. Tara was hers and hers alone. She didn’t have to tell them everything, did she? All she knew right now was that she was in love with Tara, and if that bothered Xander somehow they would need to talk about it. Soon. She just didn’t know how to approach him about it.
And now here she was, her group joined with Jonathan and Marcie’s group again, on an afternoon trailblazing nature walk to teach them wilderness survival skills. They sure would need it in preparation for tomorrow’s day hike and sleep over, but it looked as if their skills would be needed right about now. Their orienteering and environmental education was being sidelined by some wrong turns and Willow wished Tara were there to guide her out of this mess.
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But Tara was currently dealing with her own difficulties, William and Veruca’s group were driving her crazy. Both counselors were as mischievous and disobedient as their campers. Or maybe it was just the campers were taking advantage of the fact their counselors were devious in the first place. Tara was a firm believer that children learned manners from their elders and in a way William and Veruca were contributing to their misbehavior.
After spending more time than necessary saddling up the horses and heading out on the trail, William decided it would be more fun for all of them to haphazardly gallop through the hilly forest rather than follow the slow queue. It simply snowballed downhill from there. She tried to be firm with the rowdy bunch but it was no use, they were going to have their fun and Tara could do nothing about it.
As she helplessly watched everything unravel in front of her, an unanticipated feeling came over Tara. She suddenly felt lost. But she really wasn’t. She was disappointed in the group and she was certainly annoyed but she wasn’t lost. She knew exactly were she was, she was on a hell trail with Billy the Kid and Calamity Jane.
She quickly realized she was sensing Willow again, just like that day the redhead was lost in the forest. Willow felt lost. But how could that be? How could she feel what Willow was feeling? How could they still be connected like that? So acutely. She knew the spells they had done that day in the clearing would tie them for a few hours as an aftereffect and that was how she was able to sense Willow didn’t remember the way back to camp. She helped guide her with her Tinkerbell light because she knew that would be the quickest and safest way to help her. But that had been over two weeks ago. Now Willow was lost again and she could feel it.
But there was nothing she could do to help her this time. She knew Willow was on the trail with Buffy and their group, and if some random floaty light came upon them she was sure some of them would think that they were being abducted by aliens or something. No, Tara couldn’t do that. Plus, it would be exposing magick to them and she certainly couldn’t do that either. She felt powerless, and she hated it.
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“What’s there to powwow about?” Jamie wondered aloud. “We’re obviously lost.”
“We’re not lost.” Willow told her again but even she didn’t believe what she said. She scanned their surroundings thinking of something else to do rather than just stand around like big doofuses. “Let’s um, let’s look for pretty flowers. We can take them back to camp and use them for decorations.”
“Isn’t picking wildflowers illegal?” Jamie asked trailing after Buffy and Willow.
Roaming a few feet from the rest of the campers they followed a trail that that lead them toward a ground full of lush ivy like plants. The leaves were shiny and somewhat reddish and Buffy instantly ran towards them.
“Oh, Will, look how shiny. The color will look beautiful opposite the cabin door as a wreath, don’t you think?” the Slayer said as her fingers caressed the soft leaves.
It was funny how Buffy had become all crazy about having the cabin be presentable since she found out Giles was coming to visit them. Their cabin clean up wasn’t a gloss over anymore, now she was General Buffonius when it came to cleaning and the cabin was pretty much spotless. They had gotten a ten out of ten today at the inspection. A first for them.
Willow stared at the leaves for a second, once they registered her eyes grew wide with fear, “Oh, no.”
“What? You don’t like them?” Buffy questioned her. She looked at the attractive leaves again. “They-“
“Leaves of three, leave them be. Berries of white, danger in sight. Stems of red, will catch you dead.” Jamie voiced as she pointed at the ivy surrounding Buffy’s legs.
“Huh now?” Buffy asked, confused by the random poem.
Willow was somewhat amazed Jamie knew that particular rede. After all, she’d only learned it while studying the magick of plants last year. “That shiny bunch of leaves in your hand- That’s poison ivy.” She explained.
Buffy stared at the leaves and grimaced, “Oh, poo!” she moaned as she started to retreat from the batch. “This sucks majorly.”
“I have calamine lotion,” Jamie voiced with a bit of trepidation. She’d since opened the little black knapsack around her waist and was offering the lotion to her counselor.
It just so happened that Jamie was always prepared for something, anything, carrying said knapsack with her at all times that had all sorts of first aid. Needless to say that had lead to much teasing from her group who had nicknamed her ‘grandma’ due to her constant readiness. Jamie didn’t like it at all but there was pretty much nothing she could do about it. She’d rather be ready than sorry.
“You are a lifesaver, Jamie,” Buffy smiled as she took a little sample packet of lotion from her camper. “You wouldn’t happen to have cotton balls in there too?” She winked.
Jamie blushed and nodded, “Yeah.” She reached in her bag and took out a thread of cotton, “Sorry.” She said as she twisted off a piece and handed it to Buffy.
“Sorry? You absolutely rock.” The Slayer grinned. She couldn’t help it, Jamie reminded her of Willow sometimes. Willow whom once had actually brought marshmallows to a slayage and even offered it to the group after the demons had been killed.
“Say,” the redhead chuckled, “You wouldn’t happen to have a compass smuggled in there somewhere wouldya?”
Jamie laughed, “No, but I’ll definitely be sure to pack it tomorrow.” Suddenly Jamie grew excited at a thought, “Oh! I know how to make a shadow. A shadow can guide us.”
“A shadow?” Willow asked curiously. The only shadows she’d ever heard of was when reading about dark magick and those were never a good thing. Buffy stopped dabbing the lotion on her hand and looked up to Willow. She had the same expression on her face as the redhead.
Jamie, oblivious to the two of them, was looking at the ground for something in particular. “Yeah, from the sun,” she said as she held up a thin branch. “I learned this in the Girl Scouts.”
“Oh.” Willow chuckled nervously. Buffy did as well.
“We just need a stick like this and a patch of flat land and we’ll be out of here in fifteen minutes.” Jamie revealed as she began to search their surroundings for a clear place on the rocky ground. Fortunately, she found one near the bank of the creek that was well exposed to the sun’s light. She placed the stick as upright as possible, noticed where the stick’s shadow landed on the ground and marked it with an ‘X’ “Ok, this is West.”
“Now what?” Buffy asked.
“Now we wait fifteen minutes.” was Jamie’s simple reply.
Willow shook her head in amazement. “I get it.” She smiled at Jamie. “Then we’ll mark the new shadow tip, bisect between the two and we’ll have the directions of East and West.”
Jamie nodded happily. “Yup.”
“What are you talking about?” Buffy asked, not quite understanding what these two were up to. “You know I wasn’t very good at geometry, Will.”
Willow and Jamie shared a knowledgeable grin, “The first mark is West, Buff. North and South will be at right angles to this line.” The redhead said as she pointed down at Jamie’s shadow stick. “It’s brilliant.”
“Yay for Girl Scouts”, Buffy voiced. She still really didn’t get it but if it worked, and it concluded to them not being lost anymore, she was all for it.
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TBC....
by Canadian Kitty » Wed Jun 26, 2002 6:48 pm 
And my drool tray came in handy. Hee heee.. 
soon! 
Yes, yay for girl scouts. 
I am soo loving this, too. You should post at the willtara group. I've seen a few messages there asking about part 2 of this. Just so you know. 
Yes, drool tray required. I went back and read the beginning of part 2, as well. I just can't get enough of this. It's addictive, just like, "Unexpected Consequences." 