Xander nodded.

"If this is some kind of joke, Will-"

"I'm not Willow. I'm Xander." He wracked his brains for something to prove it. "Remember what I said to you when Willow and Oz started dating?"

Buffy's narrowed her eyes. Of course she remembered. "Yes."

"I said that if were up to me-and then you interrupted and told me that it wasn't up to me." Xander paused for a moment. "You were right, by the way."

"I know," she replied.

"Do you believe me now?" Xander asked, his mind reeling every time he spoke since he heard Willow's voice in his ears.

"Yeah. Giles. Weirdness. Let's go." Buffy grabbed his hand as they began sprinting for the library.

Xander's mother had begun to hover outside Xander's bedroom door as Willow dressed. "Sweetie, what's taking so long? Are you sick?"

"No, Mrs --- MOM, I'm fine," Willow tossed back, reaching deeply under the bed as she desperately searched for clean clothes or two socks that matched. Thus far, she'd had an exceptionally frustrating morning at the Harris house. After hovering over the toilet with her hands clamped over her eyes, she'd had to take a shower without looking down at all. Just the memory of it sent a blush to her cheeks. Combing someone else's really short hair felt completely wrong to her, and then shaving with his electric razor had taken nearly fifteen minutes. She once again sent a silent prayer of thanks to whatever God was out there that she didn't have to use a real razor. It took longer to do everything. Xander's mother had grown increasingly hover-like as it got closer to 9am.

Now of course, she couldn't find any clothes that weren't wrinkled and dirty. Or, in the case of the socks, that matched. She found a clean pair of underwear and sighed in relief. < Now how am I going to do this without seeing anything? > She thought for a minute and then put the underwear on the floor. She stepped into the leg holes and closed her eyes. Then she reached down and pulled them up. She smiled happily with the results and yanked to towel from her waist. . She threw open drawers on his dresser in a frenzy, before catching sight of herself in the mirror again. She stopped cold and examined the reflection of Xander standing there in his underwear. < Wow. He looks good… > she thought for a moment before snapping back to the reality that she WAS Xander. < What are you thinking?! Get a grip, girl. If you're in Xander's body, chances are he's in yours, and that's just a disaster looking for a place to happen. > Her pulse quickened as her heart grew cold with fear and panic. < We HAVE to fix this! Gotta get to Giles… >

"Do you need any help?" Mrs. Harris persisted. "Xander, we've really got to hurry here."

Willow stalked over to the door and yanked it open, "Mom," she began, careful to stress the first word so she wouldn't screw up and call her 'Mrs. Harris', "I need some clean clothes and socks that match. I can't find any."

"Well," Mrs. Harris said in her best mom-voice, "If you'd clean up that room, you'd probably have a much better chance."

"Yes," Willow agreed, biting her lip in frustration, "but we need to leave now, and I don't have time to do it before nine."

Mrs. Harris sighed. "Why don't you run down to the laundry room and see what's been washed?" Willow was already moving down the stairs before she'd finished her sentence. "And hurry!" She heard Xander's mom call after her.

Giles looked up to the sudden crashing noise in the library to see Willow rush in, dragging Buffy along behind her by the hand as the library doors swung wildly in their wake. They were both breathing heavily, as if they'd just run across the school. He sighed and removed his glasses.

"Willow," Giles began tiredly, "Those doors WILL come off the hinges someday if you aren't more careful. I expect that kind of entrance from Xander, but---"

"I'm Xander," Willow blurted out, gasping for air again.

Giles felt slight anger begin to boil up inside him. "Willow, I would expect more from you. Just rhyming off that you're Xander does NOT give you permission to behave like -"

"No Giles," Buffy interrupted. "She means - HE means that he's really Xander. In Willow."

Giles looked slowly from Buffy to Willow and back again. < Good Lord, are they serious? >

Buffy nodded in affirmation to his unasked question. "I don't know what happened. It was just --. One minute Willow and I were talking about Xander, and the next she's grabbing her boobs and looking at me funny." Giles promptly blushed and grabbed for the circulation counter for support.

Xander sat down heavily in one of the library chairs. "You aren't going to tell Willow about that part are you?" Xander paused as what she'd said penetrated his mind. "You were talking about me? What about me?"

Buffy smiled a little as she took the seat next to him. "I might and none of your business."

"Well, if it was ABOUT me then it's automatically my busin-"

"How? When? Where's the real Willow?" Giles asked, finally able to push a full question past his lips.

"We don't know," Buffy supplied. "We were kinda hoping you could be answer-man. You know, 'Giles, this is what happened.' And then you get a book and say, 'Oh that's an easy one. Here's how we fix it.'"

Giles sent a slight glare in Buffy's direction as he sat down opposite Willow at the table. "I've never heard of this before. What triggered it? Did you see a demon, or was there something different?"

Xander shook his head vehemently. "The last thing I remember was going to bed last night. Next thing I know, I'm at the school with Buffy."

Giles turned to Buffy. "We were just talking, Giles, I swear! There was no demon, no flashes of lightning, no vampires, no witches, no portals--" She began checking things off on her fingers as she spoke.

"Well, did you say anything? Or did Willow say anything that may have triggered this?"

Buffy huffed slightly and began to replay the entire conversation in her mind. < Xander flowers, Xander stupid, Willow mad, Willow wish… > Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter as the last part flooded her brain. "Willow said that she wished that Xander could see things through her eyes for a change."

"Whaddya mean?" Xander demanded. "Why? I've known Willow forever. I know how she thinks, I know everything about her! Why would she say that?"

Buffy exploded in a fit of anger at Xander and sympathy for her other best friend. "Did you care about the fact that she was in love with you for years?! NO! Do you know how much she hates seeing you with Cordelia? NO! The same Cordelia who, by the way, went out of her way for years to make Willow's life miserable? Do you know how much she was hurt that you used her to find out what girls like while she secretly wished you'd just notice her? NO! And do you know how supremely ticked off she is that you asked her about Cordelia's favorite flowers yesterday? NO!"

Xander sat there, mouth agape as Buffy spewed her tirade at him. He'd known Willow had a crush on him. Love? < Impossible >, his brain echoed. And Cordelia, of course he'd known that Willow didn't that he was dating Cordelia - she'd made that clear from the start. He'd just attributed it to jealousy instead of a dislike of Cordy. She never said anything to him about not liking it when he asked her girl questions, and as for the flowers…. "The flowers weren't my idea!" he protested.

"Oh, I suppose Cordy concocted a plan to make Willow feel crappy and you just helped her along in return for smoochies."

Xander stood up quickly as exasperation overwhelmed him. "NO! It was Oz's idea! HE wanted to know what kind of flowers Willow liked, and he thought that if I asked her about Cordy's favorite flower that she would mention what kind SHE liked, okay? I was just doing it so Oz could get Willow some damn flowers!"

Buffy blushed as Xander finished speaking. She stood up and gently laid her hand on his arm. "Xander, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you guys were -" She sighed. "She likes daisies and she likes lilies." She offered a hopeful smile, trying to see if Xander understood that she wasn't angry anymore.

Xander smiled a little in return. "S'okay. You're probably right about me and the whole dumb-blind-to-Willow-thing. I mean, what kind of best friend doesn't know what her favorite flower is?" He again sat down in his chair. "I suck."

Giles was rubbing his temples as he waited for them to quit arguing. Two years of watching this kind of teenager-angst had taught him it was best to just wait it out. It rarely lasted more than a few minutes anyway. "Are you two quite done for now?" he asked. Buffy and Xander looked at each other and then nodded in affirmation. "Good. Now, classes start in a few minutes. Why don't you just go to class and I'll try to find something? If Xander's in Willow's body, I'm guessing that she must be in his. Come back at lunch and I'll let you know what I've found."

Buffy and Xander nodded eagerly and began gathering up their books and knapsacks. They were almost at the door when Giles spoke again. "Oh, Buffy, Xander. Please try and find Willow before lunch."

They nodded again and Xander stopped Buffy with a hand on her arm.

"Um, Buff?"

"Yeah?"

"What class does Willow have now?"

"Oh, geez…" Buffy muttered as they went out into the busy halls of Sunnydale High.

Willow was sprinting from Mrs. Harris' car before it came to a complete stop in front of the school. "Gotta go! Gonna be late!" she said to Xander's mom as she ran.

"I'll see you tonight!" his mother called back.

"Not if we can help it," Willow muttered under her breath as she broke into a run. She had exactly one minute to get to Xander's first class. Which she believed was history in Room 106.

She threw open the doors to the school and looked longingly down the hallway that led to the library before she turned quickly on her heel and headed in the other direction. The halls were almost deserted as her running footsteps echoed off the lockers. < Almost there…. > She rounded a corner and skidded in through the doorway as the bell rang. < Made it! > she thought triumphantly.

"How nice you could join us Mr. Harris," Ms. Emerson, the history teacher commented sarcastically. "Next time, would you mind not leaving shoe marks on my floor?"

Willow looked down, and sure enough, there were two dark skid tracks where she had slid into the room. She blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized as she moved for her seat. At first, she was slightly taken aback to see Harmony sitting there until she realized that she wasn't in HER class, she was in Xander's. < Where does he sit?! > she wondered in blind panic for a moment. There were only two seats available. < Fifty-fifty chance… > She took a deep breath and headed for the one beside the window. She watched the reactions around her carefully as she sat. No one stopped her or gave her a strange look. She wanted to sigh with relief.

"Now," Ms. Emerson drawled. "I suppose you all read the homework on the Emancipation Proclamation, right?" The students worked hard to maintain completely neutral faces. It was best to neither admit nor deny where homework was concerned. It was part of the student code. Ms. Emerson studied the blank faces and smiled. "Well, since we've all done the homework, we shouldn't have any problems with a pop quiz, should we?"

A collective groan rose from the room. Willow wearily rested her head on her hands and waited for things to improve. she thought. < Unless he's not in my body, which means we're really in trouble… >