Opening day at The Magic Box was chaotic. It started out quietly, but soon escalated into full-out pandemonium. By the time closing time arrived everyone, including a reluctantly employed vampire, was exhausted. "My God," Giles groaned, "I think I'd rather face an apocalypse than another day like this. I had no idea that business would be so brisk opening day."

Willow lifted her head wearily from the table around which they sat. "I told you, Giles, this place was closed too long. Everyone was out of everything unless they wanted to drive all the way to LA."

Spike had Buffy's feet in his lap and was rubbing them gently. "I'll tell you right now, Rupert, if this keeps up you'd better hire a shop assistant because I'm not waiting on that lot. You have no idea how many times I wanted to bite those pillocks today."

Giles glared at him and then looked at Buffy and said with exasperation, "This is exactly why I didn't want to hire him. Now he's threatening to eat my customers."

"He's not going to eat your customers, Giles, but he has a point. I think you need to hire an assistant. You can't be here all the time, and Spike really isn't salesclerk material. Put an ad in the paper. Surely there's someone capable of working in a magic shop in this town."

***

The ad was duly placed and the very morning it appeared an attractive young woman with dark-blonde hair entered the shop. Looking up, Giles frowned slightly trying to place the girl as she marched up to him, laid the newspaper down on the counter with the ad circled and stated, "You should hire me. I would be an excellent employee. I'm honest, intelligent, good with money, punctual and have a pleasing personality."

"Do I know you?" Giles asked.

The young woman stared at him for a minute and said, "Yes. I graduated from Sunnydale High School where you were the librarian before you blew it up."

Giles blinked at the girl's forthrightness. Searching his memory he finally dredged up a name. "Of course, it's Anya isn't it?"

"Yes, Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins. Now, do I get the job?"

"Uh, well you see, uh, Anya," Giles began.

"Oi, Rupert, where you want this lot?" Spike entered the shop carrying a large box of scented beeswax candles. Noticing the girl, he stopped. "Oh, didn't know you had a customer." He started to turn back when the girl stated bluntly, "Did you know that that man is a vampire, Mr. Giles?"

Both men stared at her in surprise. "You could tell Spike is a vampire just by looking at him?" Giles asked in astonishment.

"Of course, can't everyone?" the girl asked. "I mean just look at him. No one has a complexion that pale unless they're dead, and since he's walking around that means he's either a zombie or a vampire. He's not shuffling and he can talk intelligently, so that means he's not a zombie. Of course he could be a Revenant, but Revenants are very rare. Therefore, he's a vampire."

Giles was staring at the girl in amazement. She had stated her observation as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And since it was not the most natural thing in the world, the world being determinedly blind when it came to the supernatural, it meant that there was more to Miss Jenkins than met the eye.

Spike was looking at the girl with his eyes narrowed. He too had come to the conclusion that there was something not quite right here, but all of his senses told him that she was fully human.

"As you can see, I'm also observant. You should hire me. I can start right away."

"Um yes, well if you'll complete this application I'll certainly give you all due consideration. However, as this is the first day the ad's been in the paper, I believe I should allow others to also apply."

Shrugging, Anya took the application Giles handed her, went to one of the tables and began filling it out, completely ignoring the two staring men. When she had finished, she brought it back to Giles stating, "I'll be waiting for your call. You won't find anyone nearly as excellent as I to fill this position." And with that she strode from the shop.

"Odd bird," Spike noted. Giles agreed and then coming around the counter proceeded to show Spike where to set up the candles.

Over the next three days, an assortment of people came into The Magic Box to apply for the clerking position, and Giles made an interesting discovery. When one owned a magic shop it appeared that only odd people applied to work there. For the most part, they were young, female, black of hair and black of clothing, with bits of metal attached to various parts of their anatomies. Occasionally the female would be older and looked to be a member of the Stevie Nicks fan club. One applicant, a young man with wild eyes, claimed to be the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley. Giles tore his application up
as soon as he left the shop. None was in the least bit suitable. On the evening of the third day of taking applications, Giles gave in and called Anya Jenkins. She started work the next morning.

And true to her word she was an excellent employee, well versed in the arcane merchandise handled by the shop, able to answer numerous questions without hesitation and eager to ensure that anyone who entered the shop made a purchase. "I'm afraid I can only pay you minimum wage to start, Anya," Giles had informed his new employee. "However, you will receive a commission on each sale you make." At the end of the first week her commissions nearly equaled her salary.

There had been a little friction between Buffy and Anya at first. Buffy picked up on the fact right away that Anya found Spike attractive and was putting out semaphore-sized signals that she was interested. Buffy let it quickly be known that Spike was in no way available and if Anya valued her hide she'd stay well away from Buffy's vampire.

Spike found it all very amusing. Buffy found it necessary to increase her training time and was at the shop whenever her school schedule permitted it. Spike kept finding places for them to sneak off to. Giles gritted his teeth and threatened staking, beheading and death by flame-thrower if the trysting vampire didn't quit using the store as his own personal love nest. Spike found even more places to drag Buffy off to.

***

The Magic Box became Scooby central with all manner of research taking place there. At first Anya wasn't a part of the group, but little by little she added insight and advice that proved surprisingly helpful. Her knowledge of demons was truly impressive. Willow and Xander felt uncomfortable around the girl, however. She had come to Sunnydale High shortly after the disastrous Spring Fling and had hung out with Cordelia for a short while.

It was at the Spring Fling that Cordelia and Oz had caught Willow and Xander acting upon a sudden and unexpected attraction. While searching for their significant others, they had found the two friends locked in an embrace, kissing passionately. Cordelia had been deeply hurt and humiliated, as had Oz, but Willow and Oz had been able to work through it. Cordelia had never forgiven Xander and had moved to Los Angeles shortly after graduation.

For some reason Willow felt that there was more to their discomfort around Anya than the fact that the girl had been a friend of Cordelia's for a few short weeks. Even Tara felt that there was something different about Giles' new employee. "She's human of course, there's no doubt there," Tara had said one night while the two girls cuddled in bed. "But her aura is strange."

"Strange how, baby?" Willow had asked.

"It's old, Willow. Really old. Older than Spike's even."

"Spike has an aura?" Willow had asked surprised. "I thought only humans or, you know, living things had auras."

"Well Spike is living, in a way," Tara had answered. "He's animate and sentient and vibrant. Spike definitely has an aura and a strong one at that. His is strange too. Most vampire's have auras that are all black, and Spike's is too when he's fighting or angry, but most of the time there's a lot of blue and red in his."

"From the chip?"

"Maybe, but I wouldn't think the chip could change his aura." Tara shrugged, "But since it's a behavior modification device, maybe is does have an affect. But to get back to Anya, her aura feels many times older than Spike's, as much as 10 times older, which makes no sense. That would mean that she's over 1000 years old."

"Weird," was all that Willow could add to the conversation.