All the magic users in Sunnydale and Buffy had to run into this one I

Buffy was human enough to admit that she had been tempted to leave the young redhead behind in the church while she went for help but in the end, she thought it best to accompany her on her way home. Not that Buffy relished the prospect of yet another detour on the way home -- especially since she was still naked -- but she knew deep down that she would not rest easy that night if she did not personally see to it that the young girl she had rescued made it home safely.

In any event, Buffy would probably need to find a phone from which to inform someone about the body in the church and where better to call from than the young girl's house. Granted, it was not likely that the body of the girl's would-be killer would just get up and walk away while Buffy and the girl was gone but then this was Sunnydale. Local dead bodies had done a lot worse.

As it was, it seemed to take almost of Buffy's Slayer strength to help her keep up with the young redhead. Unlike her, the naked redhead had been able to get dressed again and on the way to her house, she talked about a mile a minute about everything from her glass unicorn collection to her favorite figure skater.

Her name, apparently, was April. She had a twin brother who went to Sunnydale High yet who was also thinking of transferring to another high school. Her mother was very religious, but her brother was not.

When Buffy broke down and told April about the weird spell she was under, April got all excited and promised Buffy that she'd get her brother to help her with her spell.

"My brother knows a lot about magic, Buffy," said April. "I'm quite sure he can help you with your problem."

"Somehow I doubt that," said Buffy. "And anyway, I'd rather not impose -- "

"Hey, you saved my life," said April. "In light of that, I insist that you let me pay you back by getting my brother to help you."

"Well, in all fairness," said Buffy, "I do have friends who know more than a little something about magic."

"Not like my brother!" exclaimed April. "He knows all kinds of stuff."

"But could he cure what I have?" asked Buffy.

"Only one way to find out," said April. "Anyway, that's my house up ahead. Maybe we'll be lucky and run into my brother there."

Buffy just shrugged. A master magician who would do anything for his twin sister. Not the most promising path to a cure but it still seemed better than what she had before. And April did seem like a nice person. Perhaps all this was a sign.

No sooner than April entered her family house than Buffy heard a voice call out, "Is that you, sis?"

"Yes, it is, bro," said April with a grin.

"Why are you home so early?" asked the voice. "You usually don't get out of school this early."

"I ran into a major problem during lunch," said April. "In fact, I almost got killed. But fortunately this nice girl came by and -- My God! Warren! What happened?"

Buffy took one glance at the dark-haired guy who had just entered the room -- the same guy April had just addressed as Warren. And one of the first things she noticed was a suspicious-looking bruise on the guy's face. The type of bruise that might have been made by a Slayer's fist.

"I got into another fight at school, April," said Warren. "But that's okay. As bad as this looks, you should see -- Hey, what's she's doing here?"

April just smiled and put an arm around Buffy. "This is the nice girl who saved me, Warren. I hope you two can be friends because she really, really, really needs your help. Her name is Buffy Summers and I've been telling her everything about you."

The guy known to his classmates as Warren Mears just smiled back and said, "April, I know you probably told her a whole lot of stuff but I highly doubt that you told her everything about me. Believe me, that's not possible."