Locked Out

Reality Check

A/N: Welcome back to the newest chapter of 'someone please put me out of my misery because the characters just won't shut up'! XD

This is the longest chapter yet, with a bit over 10.5k words.
You have been warned about what you're getting into XD
Also, I'm not mentioning this every single time because that would get kind of annoying, but please assume that whenever Luz is hugging Amity here, she's being careful not to touch her injury.
Oh, and heads up, the accuracy of the bureaucracy here is extremely questionable, but since this is a fanfic about fantasy, I hope that's okay XD
That being said, I hope you have fun reading!

Podfic part 1:

Part 2 not available yet.

The next morning, Luz was up way before Amity was.

She was pretty exhausted, but she forced herself out of bed to get dressed and get ready for school anyway, deactivating her alarm clock before it could also wake Amity—who Luz was pretty sure had slept even less than her, so she really wanted to let her friend sleep in at least a little longer.

She was up too early anyway.

The only good thing about the fact that they'd both barely slept was that they'd been able to change Amity's bandage twice—once before they'd first laid down to sleep, and the second time about an hour ago. Both times, Luz had been able to apply new glyphs to her friend's back without risking her mom possibly seeing it.

The wound wasn't healing as fast as Luz had hoped it would, but at least the magic eased Amity's pain a little and made it easier for her to move. That was already worth a lot.

When Luz got downstairs, her mom was already in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher and packing her daughter's lunch for school.

"I let Amity sleep a bit longer, I hope that's okay. I wasn't sure when you were planning to leave with her, but she didn't sleep very well, so I thought-"

Camila chuckled a bit at the rambled-information-greeting that was so very Luz and that she'd missed so dearly over the summer. She ruffled her daughter's hair when she got out of the kitchen, then handed Luz her Azura-lunchbox.

"It's perfectly fine. Good morning, mija."

"Gracias, mami." Luz put the lunchbox into her school bag. She'd completely forgotten to prepare any food to bring to school the day before, because, well, school had kind of seemed like the least of her concerns. It still felt surreal that she was just... supposed to go back to normal school today, despite everything that had happened over the summer—and everything that was currently happening. "And good morning to you, too."

Luz got herself some apple juice and a piece of bread with jam from the kitchen that she could eat before she left for school.

Her mom sat down to eat beside her.

"Can you tell me a bit about Amity?" Camila asked somewhat hesitantly after they'd finished breakfast. "Nothing she wouldn't be comfortable with me knowing, of course, but... anything that could help me connect with her a bit would already help. She needs support right now, and since you have to go to school, that will have to be me."

Luz nodded. She didn't feel comfortable with the thought of leaving Amity's side after how bad the previous night had been, but she didn't have much clue about the things her mom and Amity now had to take care of, so she was more likely to get in the way rather than be helpful, and considering how little some of her teachers and the principal already liked her, skipping the first day of school probably wasn't the greatest idea.