Anyanka looked upon her ex-boss incredulously as he talked down to her. "Do not ask again," he stated. She had been sure she would get his help in recovering her powers. "But... But I--"

"Your powers were a gift of the lower beings. You have proved unworthy of them," D'Hoffryn interrupted her. "I was robbed of them," Anya argued, to no avail. "By your carelessness," the blue demon retorted back to her. Anya sighed. It was time for drama.

"For a thousand years I wielded the powers of The Wish. I brought ruin to the heads of unfaithful men. I brought forth destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lower beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe." She saw this was having no impact upon the kindly demon, and continued in a somewhat more careless tone. "And now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High! Mortal. Child. And I'm flunking math." D'Hoffryn couldn't find it in himself to care. She had brought this upon herself. "This is no concern of ours. You will live out your mortal life and die."

"Give me another chance! You can fold the fabric of time, send me back to that place and I'll change it! I won't fail again." She set her jaw; someone was going to help her. D'Hoffryn still refused, and Anya resorted to whining. "Do you have any idea how boring twelfth graders are?" She watched for a reation, any reaction, and when she saw none, Anya stood. "I'm getting my power center back. And if you won't help me, then by the pestilent gods, I will find someone who will!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a bright, sunny day, and Willow Rosenberg was lying in the high school's grassed area with her girlfriend. She was beginning to get a hold of her Wiccan powers and, today, was trying to float a pencil. She glared at it menacingly, and it sat on the ground. "Problems, baby?" The sweet voice behind her shattered her concentration, but she turned and grinned. "It's okay, Buffy. I'm just trying to float the pencil, and it's not co-operating." Buffy smiled and nodded, then went back to her sit-ups. Willow took a breath, and turned back around to her pencil. She focused all of her energy into the thought of it floating, and slowly but surely, it arose into the sky and began to spin; a couple of inches from the ground, and Willow grinned. Behind her, she knew Buffy was about to say something, so she focused her energy on her concentration. Sure enough, Buffy spoke. "The Watcher's Council shrink is heavy into tests. He's got tests for everything. T.A.T's, Rorschach, associative logic." She pasued to sit up completely and take a breath. "He even has that test to see if you're crazy that asks you if you ever hear voices or you ever wanted to be florist."

Willow brightened, and turned to face Buffy, the pencil still whirring. "Ooh, I used to want... wait, florist means crazy, right? I never wanted to be that." She turned back to her pencil, and Buffy watched her, smiling, as she began to do some stretches. "That's neat." She nodded towards Willow's pencil. She broke into a grin, happy to get such a compliment from her girl. "Thanks! It's all about emotional control. Plus, obviously magic." She turned to look at Buffy. "Heyy, you wanna go to the Espresso Pump and get sugared up on machas?" Buffy smiled, but she really couldn't. "I'm gonna pass. Hit the pool and do some laps." Willow grinned. "You know, I could always come with you.." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Buffy laughed, and decided to play with her. "You mean you'd skip Ancient History... for me?" Willow sat up, and looked at Buffy, a twinkle in her eye. "Anything, for you." Buffy grinned, pleased at the huge sacrifice on Willow's terms. "But... I really do need to go to History," Willow looked at Buffy guiltily, as Buffy wriggled closer to Willow's position on the grass. "It's okay, I know you and schoolwork." She leaned over to her, and captured Willow's lips within her own, leaving her quite surprised.

"Mmm... what's with the sudden calisthenics? Aren't you sorta naturally buff, Buff?" She stopped, and giggled at her own words. "Buff buff!" Buffy smiled at her girlfriend's innocence. "Well, they've got us running around on the physical side, too. A lot of reflex evaluation and precision training, you know? I just... well, I wanna do--" Willow knew what was coming here, and she wasn't too happy. "Better than Faith," she cut in, while Buffy hung her head. "So very shallow." Willow plastered a smile on her face, and went for the textbook definition. "Competition is natural and healthy. Plus, you'll definately ace her on the psych tests. Just don't mark the box that says 'I sometimes like to kill people'." She tried to lighten the mood, but Buffy was having none of it.

"I know Faith's not gonna be on the cover of 'Sanity Fair', but... she's had it rough. Different curcumstances, that could be me." Willow shook her head vehmently. "No way. Some people just don't have that in them." Buffy looked up, and saw the anger in Willow's eyes, and immediately felt guilty. "Look, I'm sorry. I know you hate talking about Faith."

"No, it's okay."

"No really, we should just..." Buffy looks at the pencil, which is beginning to spin a bit faster.

"No. I-it doesn't bother me. I mean it." The pencil was beginning to spin faster and faster, and Buffy inched way from it. "Uh, Will?" She pointed to the pencil. "Oh." The pencil spun wildly out of control. and flung itself deep into the nearest tree. Buffy looked at the pencil, then back to Willow. "Emotional control?"

"I'm workin' on it."