𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔

On a bright and sunny morning, Buffy, Willow and I walk down the crowded hallways of Sunnydale High. Buffy had just finished telling us about her dad, who she learned was going to come visit her tomorrow.

"So, do you see your dad a lot?" Willow asks.

Buffy shakes her head. "Not a whole lot. He's still in L.A. He, like, comes down for weekends sometimes."

"When did they get divorced?" I questioned. I didn't mean to pry into Buffy's business, but I couldn't help but wonder.

"Well, it wasn't finalized till last year, but they were separated before that," Buffy replied.

Willow gives her a sympathetic frown. "Musta been harsh."

We reach Buffy's locker, and I lean against the one beside hers. "Yeah, that's the word you're looking for." Buffy fumbles with the combination. I see her glancing at Gretchen, who's looking away from her and smiling wide, her cheeks flushed. Buffy blushes, too. "I—I mean, they were really good about it around me, anyway, but still..."

"My parents don't even bicker," the redhead admits. "Sometimes they glare. Do you know why your folks split up?"

Buffy finally manages to open her locker. She looked to be effected by the constant questions, but I didn't point it out. "I didn't ask. They just stopped getting along. I'm sure I was a really big help, though, with all the slaying and everything. I was in so much trouble. I was a big mess."

Willow attempts to smile. "Well, I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with him leaving."

"No," she sighs. She closes her locker.

"And he still comes down on weekends," she points out.

Buffy nods, glancing between the two of us. "Sometimes."

I'm the first one to walk into class, desperate to escape the conversation about Buffy's dad. Hearing about other people's family situations made me sad, and somewhat jealous. Despite everything, Buffy still had the opportunity to see her dad. I didn't.

Xander gives me a sympathetic smile from where he is currently standing, looking out of the window at the courtyard below. "Everything okay?" he asks softly.

I nod. "Yeah. I'm good."

He places a comforting hand on my arm. I turn my head to see Cordelia sitting at her desk, checking her makeup in her small compact mirror. Wendell comes over and stands beside us. He holds his paper up in the bright sunlight and examines it. Wendell was a little odd, but he had a heart of pure gold. I knew why him and Xander were good friends.

"Hello? Doofus!" Cordelia calls out. Wendell looks at her. "You're in my light."

I roll my eyes, and Cordelia shoots me a glare. Xander turns towards his friend. "Wendell, what is wrong with you? Don't you know that she is the center of the universe, and the rest of us merely revolve around her?"

The preppy brunette huffs, swiping on a nude lipstick. Then she waves a dismissive hand. "Why don't you revolve yourselves out of my light?"

She was too focused on her own reflection to see me flip her off. I smile to myself, and just before I can confide to Xander about my victory, the bell rings. We go to our seats. Mine was right behind Xander's which meant I could prop my feet up on his chair.

I do just that, earning a groan. He turns around to look at me. "You kicked my back."

I smirk, and wiggle my feet, just to prove that I wasn't going anywhere. "Deal with it."

He sticks his tongue out at me and my smirk only grows wider. Willow and Buffy come in and find their seats, right near us.

Xander turns to the two girls, and gestures to Wendell. "Uh, Wendell was in Cordelia's light."

Wendell fakes a frown. "I'm so ashamed."

Willow shakes her head. "Why is she so Evita-like?"

"I don't know, but it makes me want to smash her mirror," I admitted. Wendell gives me a surprised glance. "What? She makes me mad."

Buffy laughs. "I think it's the hair."

Willow smiles at Buffy's statement, and taps her own forehead. "It weighs heavy on the cerebral cortex."

Xander chews on his bottom lip and rummages trough his backpack. He looks up at us, his eyes almost frantic. "Hey, guys, was there any homework?"

Willow nods. "We're doing active listening today."

"Cool!" Xander brightens. Then, he furrows his brows. "What's active listening?"

"That would be the homework," I replied. I cross my ankles, my combat boots clunking together.

"Chapter five? Active listening?" Buffy shows Xander her book. "Where you put on your big ears and really focus on the other person?"

Wendell seemed to agree with us. "Ms. Tishler demonstrated it yesterday."

"With you!" Willow pointed out.

Buffy raises her brows at Xander, who still seemed to be lost. "She was wearing that tight sweater?"

Xander nodded. "Oh, the midnight blue angora! See, I was listening." I give the back of his chair a hard nudge, and he nearly falls out his seat. "Ow!"

Ms. Tishler walks into the classroom and claps her hands. "Alright, take your seats. In a moment we will choose partners and practice what we read about in chapter five."

Xander cups his ears with his hands while smiling and shaking his head around. I can't help but smile at that.

Ms. Tishler smiles. "Good, Xander, that's the spirit!" I watch Willow and Buffy give each other amused looks.

"Before we do, let's review," our teacher begins. "Isaacson's research led him to conclude that one of our most fundamental needs after food and shelter is to be heard."

Buffy mutters to herself. I glance over my shoulder to look at her and see that she's just dropped her pencil. She bends down to pick it up.

"Wendell, would you read the first two paragraphs on page seventy-eight?" Ms. Tishler asks. He nods and immediately pulls his book out of his backpack.

When Buffy sits back up her eyes widen. I turn to see where she's looking at, at the doorway, and raise a brow. Nothing was there. What did she see that I couldn't?

"...Where Isaacson describes the rapid improvement active listening brought to some special needs clients," Ms. Tishler continues, but I drown her out. Wendell opens his book and howls, making me jump in my seat.

The book clatters to the floor, and I let out my own gasp of shock when a bunch of tarantulas scurry out of the pages, seemingly coming from nowhere. Ms. Tishler screams, and Cordelia climbs on top of her desk, squealing at the top of her lungs. Willow, Xander and I all share surprised glances, whilst Buffy still stares at the doorway in shock.

"Please! Get 'em off of me!" Wendell wails. The furry arachnids crawl all over him. "Help! Help! Get 'em off of me! Help me! Oh, please help me! Please! Please help me!"

I continue to watch with horror as a tarantula scampers across his face. Wendell's screams only grow louder.

♱ ♱ ♱

The next day, Xander, Willow and I stand in the hallway, talking amongst one another. Willow was eerily quiet, but I knew that it was because she was still shaken from yesterday's events. Buffy comes around the corner, deep in thought, and Willow rushes over to her. I tug Xander along so we wouldn't be far behind.

"Oh, Buffy, we've been looking for you," Willow said exasperatedly.

I nod. Xander, on the other hand, raises his brows. "We have?" he asks.

"Oh, about the spiders, did you talk to Giles about..." Willow trails off.

Xander snaps his fingers. "Oh, the spiders! Willow's been kind of, um, what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Insane?" I provided. I give my red headed friend a sympathetic glance. I knew that she, like most people in the world, was scared of bugs. Especially spiders.

"Yeah, thanks Katy. She's been kind of insane about what happened yesterday," Xander blabbered on. I bob my head frantically in agreement.

"I don't like spiders, okay?" Willow squeaked. "Their furry bodies, and their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you: for crawling across your face in the middle of the night. Ewww! How do they not ruffle you?"

Xander raises his hands up in mock surrender. "I'm sorry! I'm unruffled by spiders. Now, if a bunch of Nazis crawled all over my face..."

I'm unable to hide my snort. "Nazis?"

"Yeah, they were cruel people. Remember World War II?"

"I do, Xan. I'm surprised you do, given the fact that you never pay attention in history class."

He scoffs at my remark. "I do pay attention!"

Buffy rolls her eyes at our bickering. "Mm, it was pretty intense," she says, referring to the events from yesterday.

Willow claps her hands together, giving Buffy a wide smile. "Thank you!"

"Well, the Hellmouth, the center of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters: been there—"

I cut Xander off. "'Done that, blah blah blah'. I knew you'd say that."

Our blonde friend raises her brows at Xander. "Little blasé there, aren't you?"

Xander shrugged, and we exchanged glances. "I'm not worried. If there's something bad out there we'll find, you guys will slay, we'll party!"

"And I'm going to drag your ass with me," I reply, tugging on his ear. He groans.

Buffy sighs. "Thanks for having confidence in me."

We all enter the library. "You da man, Buff!" Xander yells. When I cross my arms over my chest, raising my brows, he chews on his bottom lip. That only causes my stoic stare to harden. "And Katy. Don't look at me like that."

"Okay, but we're still caring about the spiders here," Willow said. "Let's not forget the spiders."

Buffy pats her shoulder. "Well, Giles said he was gonna look it up. Giles?"

"Maybe he's in the faculty room," Willow suggested.

Giles comes out of the stacks and looks around. His eyes were wide, and he seemed to be totally out of it.

"Hey, Giles!" Buffy waves. "Wakey, wakey!"

Giles scratches the back of his head. "I was, uh, in the stacks. I got lost."

"Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books?" Xander reaches around Willow's shoulder with his arm while wiggling his fingers. "Big, hairy, crawly..."

Willow's startled, to say the least, and before I could blink she twists around and hits Xander as hard as she can. He yelps.

"That's what you get," I teased.

Xander rubs his arm. "It's funny if you're me."

Giles shakes his head, still seeming to be mildly confused. "I couldn't find anything, uh... particularly illuminating. Um, I think perhaps you'd best have a chat with Wendell himself."

"Okay..." Buffy trails off. "If he can still talk." She gives Giles an odd look, and I do the same.

As we start out of the library, I notice Giles glancing back at the stacks. "What's up with him?" I muttered to Xander.

Xander shrugged. "I don't know...he might have a bad case of the bookworms," he joked rather lamely, tapping his head. That makes me giggle.

When we make it outside, eager to talk to Wendell, we find him sitting on a bench. Buffy is the first to approach him.

"Hey, Wendell. How are you?" she asks.

Wendell looks up to meet her eyes, and blinks. "Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Good talking to ya, man." Xander pats Wendell on the back and starts to leave, but I grab him by the arm and pull him back to stand beside me.

"Do you guys want something?" Wendell glances between the four of us.

Buffy sits down beside him. "We just thought you might wanna talk about what happened."

"You know, yesterday? With the spiders?" Willow reminded him.

Wendell shrugged. "I don't know what to say about that."

"There's nothing to say," Xander replied. "You saw two hundred insects, you Gonzoed, anybody would have." He was right. I wasn't afraid of a lot of things, but anyone could admit that spiders were freaky.

"They're not insects. They're arachnids."

"They're from the Middle East?" Xander furrowed his brows.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Xander," I mumbled sarcastically. "Totally the same thing."

Wendell shook his head in disbelief, and Xander continued to furrow his brows.

"Spiders are arachnids," Wendell muttered to himself. "They have eight legs. Insects only have six. Why does everyone make that mistake?"

"Don't know," Buffy says. "Has anything like this ever happened before?" Wendell nods his head in response to her question.

"When?" I urge.

"Lots of times," Wendell replied. He seems puzzled by our questions but doesn't hesitate to answer them.

"Ew! You must hate spiders more than I do." Willow shudders.

Wendell smiles and laughs, causing me to raise a brow. "I don't hate spiders. I love 'em. They hate me."

I lean over to whisper to Willow. "He's a strange one." She nods in agreement.

Cordelia walks by behind Wendell and I hold in the urge to roll my eyes. Maybe I could be nice, just this once. She then turns to Buffy. "I hope you studied for the history test," she said, eyeing our blonde friend with a smirk.

"What history test?" Buffy asks, clearly alarmed.

Cordelia stares at her gold wristwatch. "Oh, the one we're having in fourth period right now."

"There's a history test?" she cries. Buffy gave me a wide-eyed stare. "Nobody told me there was a history test!"

"Don't look at me, Buff," I said, holding up my hands. "I didn't know about it either."

Buffy glances between the four of us. "I haven't...I...okay, I will catch up with you guys later." Without another word, she leaves. I thought she didn't care much for history, especially since she had skipped that class every single day since she arrived in Sunnydale, but I guess she didn't want to fail after all.

Willow sits, and I do the same, crossing my arms over my chest. "What do you mean, you love spiders?"

"It is platonic, right?" Xander jokes. He chuckles. I shake my head. Now wasn't the time for jokes.

"I had the best collection in the tri-county area," Wendell began. "Browns and tarantulas and black widows...then my folks shipped me off to wilderness camp. All my brother had to do was maintain their habitats. Instead he left their heat lamp on for a week. When I came home they were all dead. That's when the nightmares started."

"The nightmares?" I couldn't help but ask. I knew that must've been traumatizing for Wendell.

Wendell nods. "It's always the same. I'm sitting in the classroom, teacher asks me to read something, I open up my book and then there they are. They're comin' after me. God, can you blame them after what I did?" He puts his head in his hands and shakes his head.

"And that's how it happens? Every time?" Xander confirms.

"Yeah. Yesterday in class I thought I'd just nodded off again. But then everyone else started screaming, too."

Poor Wendell, I thought. I really hoped that we could get to the bottom of this. This was unlike anything I had ever faced before, and I knew Buffy felt the same way.

Willow, Xander and I all walk down the crowded hallway, headed to Willow's locker. One of the popular kids leans against his locker, and I hear him whistle lowly when I walk by. I choose to ignore it, and he laughs with his group of friends. I turn my head. Of all people, of course it had to be Nathan Darke.

Nathan was, to put it nicely, a rebel. He, unlike most of the popular kids, didn't care too much about his reputation. He wore flannel shirts, a worn leather jacket, baggy dark jeans, Converse, and always had his skateboard with him wherever he went. He often got in trouble due to reckless behavior. Just last week he'd jumped off the roof of the school on his skateboard and landed on Ms. Calendar's car. She was pissed. Thank God that no damage had been done to her car.

Despite his rebellious nature, he seemed to be kind of nice, and most girls fawned over him, especially Cordelia. I'll admit, he was very cute, with his dark brown hair and bright green eyes. He had a single gold earring in one ear. He had a great smile, too.

"Hey," he called out. His lips curl into one of his signature charming smiles. The scar on his plump lower lip, surely from one of his many rebellious acts, seems to glint in the dim hallway lighting.

I turn around to face him. "What do you want, Darke?"

"Nothing." He shrugged. "I'm going to try and do another stunt today after school. Care to watch?"

I shook my head. "No, I see enough bloodshed. But thanks for inviting me."

He frowned, but only for a brief moment. Then, he smiles again. "Okay, Melville. If you're ever interested, just let me know."

I sigh, shaking my head. Xander watches me walk up with a frown. I knew how he felt about Nathan—he didn't really like him, or any popular kid, for that matter.

"He didn't flirt with you, did he?" Xander asked.

I laughed. "No. Just asked me to watch one of his death-defying stunts. I told him no. Why do you ask?"

Xander seemed to relax at that. "No reason."

Was he jealous?

I shake my head at the thought. No way.

"Look at him and Gretchen," Willow said with a sigh.

I look over to where she's gesturing, seeing that Gretchen, dressed in a velvet baby blue sweater and white denim jeans, along with white Converse, is now talking to Noah, resting against a locker. He's leaning down to look into her eyes, and she throws back her head, laughing at something he says. I always thought she wore the cutest outfits. It was a little odd seeing her out of a cheerleading uniform, though.

"Everyone knows they're just friends," I told Willow.

"Yeah, because Gretchen is—"

I smack Xander on the back of his head, cutting him off. "Dude, she's into girls, so what? Stop being so weird about it."

I also knew she was into Buffy, but that wasn't any of my business to reveal.

Willow continued her earlier conversation with Xander. "You know what I said. Wendell had a dream and then that exact thing happened."

Her and Xander had been bickering all day, trying to come up for an explanation for what had happened to our classmates. The most recent victim was Laura, a pretty girl that I knew from Sociology class. She had been attacked and was sent to the hospital.

"Which is a fair wiggins, I admit, but do you think that ties in with Laura?" Xander countered.

Willow shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe she dreamed about getting beat up."

"There's been a lot of weird shit going on lately," I noted. "We should ask Buffy for her opinion when she gets back from visiting Laura."

Out of nowhere, Nathan Darke's mom practically bolts down the hallway, her arms outstretched and a wide grin on her face. I narrowly avoid being trampled by her, and turn just in time to see her make it to where he stood with his friends at his locker. I share a glance with my friends, and see Xander grinning.

"Oh, there's my little baby!" she cooed. She practically shoved Gretchen out of the way, pinching his cheeks. She attempts to greet Mrs. Darke, but she gives her a cold stare that makes her eyes widen.

He scrunches his nose. "Mom, what are you doing here? Mom..."

His mom laughs at his words and kisses him, smearing bright red lipstick on his cheek. "How's my little pookie?"

He pushes her away. I can't help but feel bad for him; I knew he was the type of person who always wanted to maintain his social status. "Mom, mom, please don't kiss me in front of the guys! It's embarrassing! Please!"

She laughs again. "You cute little rascal, you!"

"Mom...thanks, but mom, please, my friends are right here..." Nathan pleads.

Willow shakes her head and closes her locker. I tone out Nathan and his overbearing mom as we head to our next class.

"It could be a coincidence," Xander said. "Y'know, Wendell finds a spider's nest, and we all wig because he dreamt about spiders. So it may not be connected."

"I doubt it," I replied, shaking my head. "I feel like everything that's happening is all linked, we just don't know what's causing it to happen." I walk into the classroom, Xander and Willow not too far behind. As soon as we walk in, the students start to laugh. I look down at my shoe, expecting a piece of toilet paper to be stuck to the sole. But there was nothing.

"If there is a connection it doesn't sound like anything..." Xander trails off, and looks at our classmates, who had only begun to laugh harder. "What?"

I furrow my brows from confusion. Willow tugs on my arm, and I turn around, my face turning bright red when I see that Xander's clothes are now gone, and he's standing there in his underwear.

"Xander!" Willow squeaked. "What happened to your..."

Xander stammers. "I dunno! I was, uh, dressed a minute ago! It's a dream. It's gotta be a dream." He pinches himself. "Ow! Wake up." He pinches himself again, harder this time. "Ow! Gotta wake up."

Xander runs from the room, screaming loudly. Willow chases after him. I shake my head in awe. Something definitely wasn't right.

I walk into the hallway, and shrug off my leather jacket. Xander takes it gratefully, tying it around his waist. I know that it's a little short on him, but it would suffice until he found his clothes.

"I've got to find Buffy and figure out what's going on," I tell my friends. "Her and Giles should be back by now."

I lead the way to the library, and I'm the first to walk in. Xander barely manages to pull on his gym shirt, which he found at the bottom of his locker.

"Red alert!" he cries. Then, he pauses when he sees that our blonde friend isn't in the room. "Where's Buffy?"

Giles greets us. "Uh, she just stepped out. Her father came by early. He needed to talk to her. What..." he trails off, his eyes widening at Xander's appearance. "Where are your other clothes?"

Xander looks down at himself. "Oh, don't I wish I had the answer to that question."

Willow gives the librarian a nervous smile. "Xander kinda found himself in front of our class not wearing much of anything."

"Except underwear," I added.

She squeaks out a high pitched laugh. I knew seeing Xander like that made her uncomfortable. "Yeah! It was really...bad. It was a bad thing."

"'Bad thing'?" Xander scoffs. "I was naked. 'Bad thing' doesn't cover it."

"You weren't totally naked," I reminded him. "At least you had underwear on."

"Everyone staring?" Willow shudders. "I would hate to have everyone paying attention to me like that."

"With nudity! It's a total nightmare," Xander replied. I nodded in agreeement. He was right—showing up to school and realizing that you're in your underwear would be anyone's nightmare.

"Well, yeah Xander!" Willow realizes. "I—it's your nightmare!"

"Except the part with me waking up goin' 'it's all a dream'. It happened." Xander frowns at that.

My eyes widen at Willow's revelation. "You're right."

"Like it happened to Wendell," she continued. "That thing with the spiders? Wendell had a recurring dream about that."

Giles nods, seeing where we're going with this. "I—I dreamt that I got lost in the stacks and I...I couldn't read...of course!"

"Uh, our dreams are coming true?" Xander suggested.

I scoffed. "More like our deepest, darkest fears."

Giles agrees with me. "Dreams? That would be a musical comedy version of this. Nightmares, our nightmares are coming true."

"So, why is this happening?" Willow asked.

Giles' answer is quick, something I didn't expect. "Billy."

"That explains a lot," I muttered sarcastically. What did this mystery person have to do with all this?

"Well, that explanation was shorter than usual." Xander voices an opinion similar to mine. He turns to Willow. "It's Billy!" Then, he looks back at Giles. "Who's Billy?"

"I was wondering the same thing," I admitted.

"He's a boy in the local hospital," he replied. "He was beaten. He's in a coma. Somehow I think he's crossed over from the nightmare world he's trapped in."

Xander sighed. "And he brought the nightmare world with him. Thanks a bunch, Billy."

"How could he do that?" Willow asked. She was right. That didn't even seem possible.

"Things like that are easy when you live on a Hellmouth."

"Well, we have to stop it!" our red headed friend cried.

Giles nods at her words. "And soon. Or else everyone in Sunnydale is going to be facing their worst nightmares."

I exchange a glance with my friends. I knew that it wouldn't be easy to stop this, but with Buffy by our side, we could do anything. She was a Slayer, after all.

And so was I.