You Will Be Found (A Lumity AU)

Boxes

Chapter 2

Amity Blight sat in Mrs. Halle's classroom, bored out of her mind. Class didn't start for five minutes, and her best friend Boscha was talking her ear off. Amity loved Boscha, but the girl could get very annoying very quickly. Amity blocked out Boscha and doodled in her notebook, drawing characters from the Good Witch Azura, which was her favorite book series.

Although Amity was very popular at Hexside, was captain of the girl's soccer team, and had a lot of friends, she was a bit of a nerd. She was great at academics and loved her fantasy books, she also had a knack for drawing fanart.

Mrs. Halle entered the classroom and closed the door. She was a tall woman with short red hair and bright green eyes, she was also very energetic. Amity couldn't help smiling at her, as her and Mrs. Halle had developed a pretty close friendship over the last couple of years. The bell rang, and Amity put her notebook away. The there was a knock on the door, surprising the teacher. The door opened, revealing Mr. Harris and someone else.

"Mrs. Halle," he said. "May I have a word with you?" He led the taller person in, they were wearing a black hoodie, so Amity couldn't see their face. Mr. Harris quickly whispered something to Mrs. Halel, then bid the new student goodbye and left the room. Mrs. Halle searched through her desk drawers and pulled out the attendance notebook.

The new student tensed up, but stayed silent. Mrs. Halle spoke again. "Would you mind removing your hood? I like to see my students' faces." Amity glanced over at Boscha, who wasn't even paying attention, she was on her phone, probably texting her girlfriend Willow. Rolling her eyes, Amity turned back to the front. The new student pulled down their hood.

Amity felt her face flush when she saw the new student's face. She was a girl, and a really cute one at that. With a head of short, tousled brown hair and large brown eyes that complemented her dark skin. She furrowed her eyebrows and shut her eyes tightly, almost like a young child. This confused Amity, what was she doing? Mrs. Halle seemed to notice the girl's tension and asked her to find a seat. She obliged, then stiffly walked over to Amity's desk, as the seat next to her was the only one not taken.

"Class," Mrs. Halle said. "This is Luz Noceda."

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The teacher, Mrs. Halle, started the lesson. Luz sat down at the desk and reached into her satchel as the lesson started. After pulling out a notebook and pen, she started to take notes, or at least tried to. The teacher was going so fast that Luz couldn't keep up. She glanced over at the girl next to her.

Her heart stopped.

She was beautiful. With short, mint-green hair, gold eyes, and pale skin. For once, Luz didn't want to look away from someone. She was working diligently, and seemed to be keeping up. The girl glanced up from her notes, and Luz quickly looked away. You idiot, Luz thought. Don't stare at people, you should know this by now!

"Alright, everyone," Mrs. Halle said. "I am assigning a project that will be due at the end of next month. You are to do a presentation on a book of you and your partner's choice. You are to analyze the themes of the stories and how they connect to modern day society. Your partners will be your desk mates. So, Mattolomule and Barcus, Boscha and Skara..." Luz completely zoned out as the woman continued to read off names. The pretty girl next to her was going to be her project partner?! But that wasn't all Luz was worried about. She had been a part of group projects before, and they always ended in disaster.

The bell rang. Luz leaned over to grab her satchel and quickly walked out of the room. As she was walking, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Luz flinched away and shut her eyes tightly. It was a reflex, as every time someone touched her, it was usually intended to hurt her. But nothing came, in fact, the hand withdrew. Opening one eye, Luz saw that it was the green-haired girl, now her project partner.

"Hi," She said. Luz stared at the girl's feet while awkwardly waving. "I'm Amity, Amity Blight. Your name is Luz, right?" So that was her name. Luz nodded, but didn't speak. Amity didn't seem to take offense to this, she actually seemed curious. Feeling her face flushing under the other girl's gaze, Luz stuck her hand out suddenly and looked away, surprising Amity. But after a moment, she took it with a puzzled expression.

Luz felt a tingle in her hand as it brushed against Amity's. They quickly shook, and both pulled away nervously. Luz noticed that she was taller than Amity by about four inches. Amity cleared her throat and pulled a folded pink paper out of her pocket. She handed it to Luz and smiled softly, though she was clearly confused about Luz's silence.

"Here," she said. "My phone number and school email so that we can find a time to start the project." Luz gave her a small smile of gratitude.

"Hey, do you need me to show you where your next class is?" Before Luz could respond, they heard a voice.

"There you are, Amity!" A tall pink haired girl strode up to them, her arm around a shorter girl with round glasses and turquoise hair. A younger boy was walking beside them, talking to the turquoise haired girl.

"Oh, hey, guys." Amity said. Luz barely resisted the urge to run away from them, instead casting her eyes back down to the floor and playing with her sleeves. Amity spoke.

"Willow, Boscha, Gus, This is Luz. She's new here." Luz looked up and gave them a small wave, biting her lip nervously. Amity smiled reassuringly at her.

"Luz, these are my friends. Willow, Boscha, and Gus." Willow, the girl with turquoise hair, smiled widely at Luz. Boscha flashed her a peace sign, along with a sly grin at Amity, whose face turned red. Luz didn't get it, but she was too nervous to care.

"Hey, Luz! It's nice to meet you!" The boy, Gus, exclaimed. Okay, they seem nice enough, Luz thought. Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out a notebook and pen. The others watched her with curiosity as Luz wrote. It's nice to meet you all. Amity smiled, as did the others. Maybe Hexside wouldn't be so bad.

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She thought wrong.

Luz stood in the cafeteria, her hood up. It was very loud, with teenagers talking over each other, shoving, touching, yelling. Classes hadn't been terrible, even though she barely understood anything. At least she had her learning resource class this afternoon, but she needed to get through lunch first. She grabbed her phone and earbuds. She scrolled through her music. She selected one of her favorite artists, Ben Rector. She heard his calming voice and sat down at an empty table. Closing her eyes, she mouthed the words with him.

I found boxes of first CDs, tryin' to get my office clean,

Took ten years of folks givin' them to me 'til I sat down

And I saw hesitant poses and torn up jeans

In cover photos friends took for free

For the six minute songs, and all their life-long dreams the world turned down

They're just dreamin' up some life out on the road, oh

When all I dream about's the day that I'll be home

I'd long forgotten how it feels to chase a dream

Thank God for boxes of first CDs, yeah

As soon as the first chorus ended, the table shook a little. Luz's eyes snapped open and she jumped to her feet. When she realized who it was, she sighed and paused her music. Amity giggled a little at Luz's shock, but not in a mean way. Luz slowly sat down, keeping a safe distance from Amity. The green haired girl looked at her weirdly. Oh no, does she think I'm crazy? Dang it, I should've-

"Luz, where's your lunch?" Oh. Luz had looked through her house this morning for something, but her mom had forgotten to go grocery shopping this week and Luz's tip money from work had been stolen by some bullies at Glandus last week. She was hungry, but she was used to it. But Amity didn't need to know that. Noticing that Luz wasn't responding, Amity smiled and reached into her bag. She pulled out a whiteboard and a black marker.

"Here, I got you this from my math classroom so you don't have to use your notebook anymore." Amity handed the board to Luz and smiled. The taller girl's eyes widened as she took it into her hands. She uncapped the marker and started to write.

Thank you.