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     Willow’s stomach churned.  The black letters adorning the frosted glass of the door mocked her.  “Principal’s Office” they read.  She’d never actually noticed how scary they looked before.  Of course, she’d never had a reason to be scared of those words.  Until now, that is.  Willow grasped the brass doorknob.  Her hands shook so badly that it rattled.  Her palms were sweaty.  The knob turned slowly.  She heard the click of the door opening.  It swung open slowly.  Willow took one last longing look behind her before stepping inside and closing the door with a finality equivalent of entering a firing range with a big red bullseye on your forehead.

     A small fan blew dust back and forth, back and forth.  The small secretary sitting at the desk in front of her looked up.  Willow handed her the note she had crumpled in her hand.  The secretary shook her head as she read it quickly.  She tossed it into a trash can and pointed to the waiting room on the right without skipping a beat.  Then she went right back to whatever she had been doing before.  Willow shifted on her feet.  She adjusted her backpack.  Anything to stall for time.  The secretary looked up and pointed to the waiting room again, this time with an annoyed look on her face.  Willow took this as a cue to get moving.  She advanced on the door.  Two more steps to go.  Then there was no escaping.  One foot forward.  Shift bag again.  Other foot forward.  Cough.  Scratch nose.  Last step.  Gulp.

     She closed her eyes tightly and grasped the knob.  The door creaked open.  She opened her eyes.

     This was her first glimpse of the famed “Waiting room”.  It was said that the air conditioning was turned off in this room just to make the students waiting that much more uncomfortable.  And it was also said that Snyder had to have the custodian install a second bench, since they ran out of sitting space in the room.  It was never empty, that was for sure.  The students sitting on the hard wood bench looked up.

     One girl snickered softly.  She was a regular here, and not once had Willow Rosenberg been seen in this vicinity.  Another student’s eyes went wide.  Willow Rosenberg, the girl with the perfect attendance record, 4.0 GPA, the girl who never once coughed out of turn in class, had turned up in the Waiting room.  Hell had just frozen over.

     Willow shuffled past them and took a seat on the bench as far back as possible.  The students were called in in order.  Those in front came first, and it moved on back.  There were 7 students in front of her.  The secretary opened the door and ushered the front student inside.  Make that 6 students.  Willow put her head in her hands and closed her eyes.

     After 15 minutes, no one had moved yet.  Snyder hadn’t yet finished with the unlucky student who had gone in when Willow had first come in.  Willow was starting to believe the rumor that they turned off the air conditioner in here to make people uncomfortable.  She’d shed her jacket 10 minutes ago, and was now shrugging off her sweater.  For wintertime, it was pretty hot in here.  Stuffy was the word.

     Willow looked up at the sound of footsteps.  A shadow stood before the door.  The secretary stepped in and waved in another student.  Just as the door was about to click shut again, someone else caught the door before it closed.  They opened the door.  Willow’s heart leapt.

     “Oz!”  Oz’s eyes popped open, wide.  Willow?  In the waiting room?  What was she doing here?

     “Hey!  What’re you doing here?  Not that I’m not glad to see you or anything, just not....here.”  He came to sit next to her.  She hugged him tightly.

     “Oh Oz I did something bad.  I’m here to see Snyder!”

     “Aw come on Willow.  I know you, and whatever you did can’t be that bad.  You’d never hurt a fly!  Now what brings you here?”  Willow didn’t let go of him as she related what had happened earlier today at lunch.

     Willow sat down and munched quietly on her apple.  Oz wasn’t going to meet her for lunch today because he had to work on a project at lunchtime.  Buffy was in the library with Giles, and Xander was probably in the Broom closet with Cordelia.  So she was flying solo today.  Not something she wasn’t used to.  Willow had decided to eat outside today, since it wasn’t raining or anything.

     She decided she wasn’t that hungry today, so she finished her apple and went through the lunchroom to put away her books and her lunch.  She dropped the apple core in the compost bin (wonder of wonders, they had one at Sunnydale High).  Her path to the hallway door was blocked by three girls.  Harmony sneered.

     “So, Willow, how’s the second hand shopping going?  I hear you save a lot of money picking clothing out of people’s trash cans.  At least, that’s what it looks like from the looks of your outfit.”  Willow sighed and ignored Harmony’s comments, trying to cut around her.  A second girl spoke.

     “Oh, and how’s your little ‘boyfriend’?  He must have some serious brain damage to want to date you.”  The third girl cut in,

     “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was PAYING him to pretend to even like her.  I mean, who in their right mind would even want to breathe the same air as you?”  Willow’s temper flared.  She’d taken way too much of this lately.  They’d let up for a little while, since Cordelia had dumped them and started hanging with Xander and the gang.  But now it was getting right back to normal.  Harmony had taken over the position of Snob leader.  Willow once again started walking around them.  Harmony stopped her.

     “Seriously Willow, where do you get your clothes?”  Willow narrowed her eyes.

     “What?”

     “Well, I just thought the best way to avoid becoming like you would be to avoid the places where you shop.  Where DO you get those ‘fashion gems’?"  The other girls laughed.  Harmony decided that this was getting boring, so she turned and started to walk away, with the other two girls trailing.  Willow was seeing red.  Any other time, she would have just brushed these things off.  But today she was in a bad mood.  She stared at their backs, and listened to their laughter.

     A shorter boy walked past her slowly, holding a lunch tray with a single scoop of cafeteria ice cream on it.  Willow did something she thought in a million years she’d never be able to do.

     In a moment of fury, she whirled around and grabbed the scoop of ice cream off of the boy’s tray.  She turned back to Harmony’s retreating figure and grasped the melting ball of ice cream like a baseball.

     One swing of the arm sent the ball of desert flying at Harmony.  Willow had better aim than she had anticipated.  The scoop of ice cream hit Harmony square on the back of the head.  It made a satisfying *SPLAT* noise as it splattered all over her hair and shirt.  She screeched and stood stock still.  The scoop of ice cream slowly rolled down the back of her shirt, leaving a sticky trail.  Students all around stopped and stared at the spectacle.

     Harmony wiped the ice cream off of her forehead and slowly turned around, a murderous expression fixed on her face.  She pointed one manicured finger straight at Willow and yelled,

     “You #*^%@! You *#%*&@^ #^*@%!” Willow stood there numbly, the realization of what she’d just done now hitting her.  She’d nailed Harmony with a scoop of ice cream.  Pride for what she’d done welled up in her stomach.  She actually smiled.  Willow took in the wonderful sight of Harmony standing there cussing and wiping ice cream out of her hair.  Several students were laughing.  One kid congratulated her as she walked by.

     Willow then turned around amidst Harmony’s accusations and name calling, and simply walked away, feeling strangely at peace.  Harmony was still yelling obscenities at her back, but Willow didn’t care.  Harmony had finally gotten something she deserved.  Well, maybe she would have been more deserving of a cow pie to the face, but ice cream still did the job.  Willow walked smiling to her first class.

     Her smile didn’t leave her face until a student interrupted the class and delivered a note to the teacher.  The teacher read it over quickly, and creased her eyebrows.  Strange.  She called Willow up to her and quietly informed her that she was needed in the principal’s office.  Snyder needed to have a word with her.

     Willow’s smile faded.  Her stomach lurched and churned.  Of course, why hadn’t she realized that Harmony wouldn’t let her get away with this?  Willow had been too busy reveling in the satisfaction that the act had brought.

     Willow finished relating her experience to Oz just as the next student was called in.  Oz was smiling from ear to ear.

     “Why are you smiling?  I’m in trouble!”  Oz laughed and kissed her forehead.

     “I’m just a little surprised.  But pleasantly so.  I knew there was a wild girl in there.  I wish I would have been there to see it Sounds like Harmony got her “just desserts.”  Willow giggled at the bad pun.  Oz loved doing that.

     “So why are you in here?”  Oz half blushed.

     “Well, I sorta fell asleep in math class again.  I don’t see why Mr. Prewitt gets so P.O’d when he catches us dozing.  Who could blame us with a class like his!  It’s the little known cure for insomnia, his lectures.”

     Another student was called in.  Willow’s smile faded.  Oz sensed her despair and held her closer.

     “Hey, whatcha thinking about?”  Willow sighed.

     “I’m trying to guess what he’s gonna say to me.  What my punishment will be.”

     “Aw that’s easy.  You see, I’m a veteran of this punishment stuff.  Well, most of the time it’s for falling asleep in class.  But that’s not my fault.  If they made it more interesting, I wouldn’t be catching up on sleep in class.  Anyway, I accidentally started a food fight last year.  Don’t ask me how.  Just know that I was sent straight to Snyder’s office.  His bark is worse than his bite.  I got two hours of detention after school.  That’s his punishment for “food related offenses”.  You don’t have to worry.  You’re a first time offender, so he should be a little more lenient.”  Willow relaxed a bit in his embrace.  Oz always knew exactly what to say and do to make her feel better.  The next student was sent in.  Two more to go until it was Willow’s turn.  Oz stroked her cheek.

     “And here’s a few tips.  Number one, always act like you’re afraid of him.  Even if you aren’t, he’s a guy that likes to “tower” over his students.  If he doesn’t think you’re scared of him, you’ll get a much more severe punishment.  Number two, don’t act too remorseful.  He’ll think you’re just trying to bail your butt out of trouble.  If you follow these golden rules, you will survive the punishment that is Snyder.”  He finished the last sentence with a voice reminiscent of The Karate Kid’s mentor.  Willow smiled.  She was really glad that he was here with her.  She didn’t feel half as bad now as she had before.  She wasn’t really scared any more.  The next student was called in.

     “So you think it won’t be that bad?  Only two hours of detention?”

     “At the most.  He won’t even call your parents, he’ll be so busy punishing other students.  I think that’s the reason he became a principal...”  Willow was silent for a while, just enjoying being held by Oz.  Soon the door opened and shut, signaling the departure of the last student.

     5 minutes passed.  Finally, the secretary opened the door and motioned for Willow to come see Snyder.  She reluctantly disentangled her arms from Oz, and slowly gathered her stuff.  She paused at the door and looked back at Oz.

     “So...I’ll see you in detention?”  Oz smiled and nodded.

     “It’s a date!”

     Willow flashed him a fearless smile and shut the door, ready for whatever Snyder threw at her.