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After the glare subsided, the five could see that they were closer to the present. The teenagers were dressed in the clothes they had worn to the party, and Angel was in his infamous leather jacket and a white tank-top. Ms. Calendar was in a simple, flowing white dress.
"Where are we?" Willow asked, looking around at the large neighbourhood lit up by the numerous streetlights. "This isn't Sunnydale, we don't have houses this big."
Buffy looked through the fairly large windows of the surrounding houses, and her gaze fell on a house just to their left. Inside there was a large tree, and underneath were two small children, a little blonde girl and slightly taller brown haired boy, looking through the presents. Around the tree facing outside were four adults, a curly blonde drinking egg-nog beside her brown haired husband, and the other two had mocha brown hair, sipping wine.
The girl ripped the wrapping off a present and revealed a pink and plastic carton containing a doll. Ms. Calendar flicked her wrist, the slayer and slayerettes could hear the parents' conversation.
"Since Hank was laid off, we could only afford to buy Buffy a few presents. I hope she's not too heartbroken." said the blonde haired woman sadly. The little girl, Buffy, ran to her and gave her a hug.
"Thanks mom! It's what I wanted!" Then the girl ran off after the boy, who'd opened a bucket of solders and had disappeared from view.
"Well, we could only get Pike those soilders. He seems happy enough." replied the other woman. Then the four walked off into the next room.
During this, Xander had fallen over in laughter. Again.
"The all-mighty slayer played with Barbies!" he laughed again. Buffy and Angel glared at him, and Willow shook her head, turning.
"Well you played with them too, to my understanding!" Buffy shot back. Xander stopped laughing.
"I did not! I never!" Ms.Calendar snapped her fingers yet again, and again there was a flash. When it subsided,they found themselves in a smaller neighbourhood. Xander put his face in his hands and turned away from the house they were in front of. Buffy and Angel looked into the window and saw two more small children. Another brown-haired boy, and a red-haired girl, fighting over another doll. The techno-pagan flicked her wrist again, and their conversation could be heard.
"Willow,I wanna play with it!" The boy proclaimed, yanking on the box.
"Xander, it's my present! You got those GI Joes!" The girl shouted back, yanking it equally hard.
"No! I don't want those!"
"What is the point of this?" Xander asked, blushing bright red when his younger self ripped the package from Willow's hands and jumped up and down, then took off.
"This? I just want to embarrass you, Xander." Ms. Calendar said. "The point of the trip, is that you guys have to rekindle the Christmas Spirit, and act like you did when you were younger. Try to re-trap the magic of being with family. And you Xander," she pointed at the blushing slayerette, "have to learn Christmas isn't about presents. It's about celebration and being with family!"
"Plus you get to bake cookies and decorate stuff!" Willow added. The other four looked at her. "What? I like decorating stuff! We're not that big on presents any more, anyway. And my parents are barely ever home, so it's the only time we really get to spend time together."
"Well,my time's almost up." Ms. Calendar stated, gesturing to the fact that she'd become somewhat see-through. "So I'd better take you guys back. Remember what I said!" A wind sprung up from nowhere and enveloped the five, sending them back to the present. "And tell Giles I said hi." Ms. Calendar added, before darkness covered them again.
Buffy awoke with a jolt.In her own room again. She jumped when the sound of the ringing phone snapped her from her thoughts. She felt around her bed side and found the phone, then picked up and asked into the receiver, "Hello?"
"Buffy?" asked a frightened voice on the other end.
"Willow? What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry for calling you so late, and on Christmas-" Buffy checked her alarm clock: 1:50 it read in bold digital numbers. "-But... Did you just have a dream? About Ms.Calendar?"
"Y-Yeah. Why?"
"Because I did too. And so did Xander, he just called me. It was the same for both of us."
"This... Is really weird. But Giles isn't at here. He's in England. Damn!"
"Why don't you check with Angel? See if he had the same dream? I mean...remember the first part? We couldn't have known anything!" Willow sounded persistent.
Buffy thought over what she was going to do for a few minutes, then answered, "Y-yeah. I'm heading over there right now. I'll..call you back tomorrow and tell you what he said."
"Alright." There was a click and a dial tone. Buffy grabbed her
clothes, took off her pajamas and slipped the clothing on, grabbed her
shoes, jacket and bag, opened the window and slipped out into the night.