I Wish: I Wish
by Lady Moiraine
Disclaimer: Buffy and the vengeance demon concept aren’t mine. The kids in the park are, but they’re brats and I don’t want them. Tallie is also mine, just not the idea of her.

A/N: Very short.... a possible episode from Buffy’s childhood. Written because my whimsy told me to.

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Buffy wasn’t looking forward to the park. Her mother thought it was good for her, to get out in the sunshine, to play with the other kids. But she didn’t like the other kids. They weren’t the ones she went to school with, and they weren’t nice. The kids at school liked her, thought she was cool, made her the leader in all the games. The kids at the park were older, in grade two or three mostly, and they teased.

Her mother didn’t notice; she was too busy sitting on a bench with her grown-up friends, chatting. They kept just a close enough eye on the kids to make sure no kidnappers got them. Like they needed it. Grown-ups always said Los Angeles was a dangerous city, but the park was always safe. No one was ever there but Buffy and the mean kids.

Because her mother told her to, she shuffled reluctantly over to the junglegym, where the bigger kids were playing. Two girls had set up “house” under the slide and were trying to make one of the boys be the daddy. The boys were playing superheroes, though, punching their fists high in the air like Superman flying, and yelling about killing Doctor Destructo. The other girls were standing around talking, and as Buffy got closer, she could hear them giggling about boys and love and getting married. Like they’d be getting married when they were eight.

Buffy wandered up to the two girls playing house and carefully sat down with them. “Can I play?” she asked tentatively.

The girls looked up and Julie, the older one, lifted her nose. “We don’t have time to play with little kindergarten kids,” she announced, pulling her skirt primly across her knees.

April, who was two months younger than Julie, grinned nastily. “Maybe she could be the baby, Jule.”

Julie laughed. “Baby Buffy. Only we’d have to change her name. Buffy’s a dumb name.”

Buffy stuck out her lower lip. “Is not.”

“Is too,” April said, “My granny has a poodle called Buffy. It’s a poodle name. Fluffy Buffy”

Julie laughed. “Fluffy Buffy the poodle,” she repeated in a singsong, standing up and linking her arm through April’s. They skipped away over to the hopscotch squares, still singing “Fluffy Buffy.”

Buffy felt tears coming up and quickly scrubbed her hand across her eyes. She was not going to cry. She was not going to be a baby. Why couldn’t her mother and father have given her a different name? Why didn’t they call her Julie or April, or something you couldn’t make fun of?

She wandered over to the swingset, which was empty, and climbed on a swing. She couldn’t make the swing go very well by herself, but she didn’t really want to swing anyway. The boys were still running around the junglegym being superheroes, but it looked like they’d killed Doctor Destructo. Julie and April were playing hopscotch. The other girls were laughing. Buffy was sitting on her swing by herself.

“They weren’t very nice,” said a grown-up voice, and Buffy jumped. A pretty lady with a weird necklace was sitting on the swing beside Buffy’s, and she wasn’t swinging either.

“You know, I’ve got a funny name, too,” the lady continued, and Buffy looked up.

“What’s your name?”

“Tallie,” the lady answered, then added, “kids used to make fun of me all the time, too.”

Buffy stuck out her lip again, watching the boys. “I wish I was a superhero,” she said suddenly, “I’d get them back.”

Before Tallie could answer, Buffy’s mother looked up and saw her sitting on a swing with a strange lady.

“Buffy!” she started to run across the park. “Come away from there!”

Buffy gave a quick glance back at Tallie, then ran to join her mother before she got in any more trouble.

Tallie followed the little girl with her eyes. From across the park, she could hear the child’s mother scolding, “You know you’re not to talk to strangers, honey; you don’t know anything about her.” Buffy’s last words still hung in the air. I wish I was a superhero.

A change came over Tallie then. Her voice grew rough and hoarse, her eyes slitted. She clutched her necklace as she watched Buffy scuff her shoes in the dirt. Then she smiled a triumphant smile and whispered a single word:

“Done!”



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