After not sleeping comfortably on a sturdy wooden floor for two and a half years, Luz woke up feeling pain on the side she had been lying on. She got up, took a shower, brushed her teeth, kissed King goodbye, and walked out the door with Eda as Eda went on to sell potions. After Eda departed Luz, Luz stayed and waited to meet up with Willow. After 20 minutes, Willow had caught up to Luz.
"Are you excited?" Willow asked.
"Kind of. I'm still tired, but yeah, I guess you could say I'm eager to meet Amity." Luz answered.
"Well, I got more information on her! Here, Gus sent me a photo of her recently! He apparently had been following Amity for a few years on Penstagram, so he knew her username better than I did." Willow pulled up a recent photo of Amity and showed it to Luz. Amity had mint green hair as she did in the other picture but was taller and had longer hair than before. Her aura was of overwhelming confidence, and she was wearing a pink dress in the photo with a sly smile. This picture made Luz a bit more flustered, feeling a hint of red flushing to her face. Willow had noticed and smirked, "Aw, what? Is she your type?" She asked half-jokingly.
"She still seems pretty, uh, cool. But no, I'm not sure I would say she's my type." Luz looked down, the red on her face fading away while she laughed along with Willow about the question. Willow perked her head up, suddenly curious.
"Actually, I don't think we've ever talked too much about that. Do you even have a type?" Willow asked. Luz looked at the ground and pondered for a moment, then looked back up, facing directly in front of them.
"Thinking about it, no, I don't think I've ever really had a type. I just like anybody if I like them. I've never found anything specific too attractive, but I am a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope in romance stories though I doubt that would happen to me. Still fun to think about it, though. What about you?" Luz got curious and responded to Willow with the same question.
"I don't have a type! I find some non-men attractive is all. But I haven't really figured out if I find specific traits attractive or not, so... I'd have to say I'm on the same page as you with that." Willow answered. They eventually made it to Hexside grounds and tried to look around for Amity. Neither of them had seen her outside, so they both decided to go inside and found her sitting by a locker near a student named Skara. She was wearing the uniform for the abomination track and was scrolling through her scroll in front of her locker. Luz stared in awe of the girl afar from them but then reminded herself, 'she's a student from Glandus. She might not actually be someone I can be fond of.' So Luz proceeded to look away. "Well, should we talk to her?" Willow asked.
Luz pondered. "I'm not sure. Let's wait throughout the day and maybe see how she treats the other students first." Willow nodded her head in agreement. Luz and Willow sat by their lockers and chatted until the bells rang, and they both almost departed to separate classes. Willow had already wandered off to her class, and Luz was running a bit slow with not many other students surrounding her. While walking, she had been looking down at the ground and bumped into somebody. The person immediately turned around aggressively.
"Watch where you're going next time." The girl said in a medium-toned voice. Luz looked up and had seen that it was Amity. She had seemed angry about getting bumped into and walked away from Luz.
"Wow, rude much," Luz mumbled under her breath. Luz's mind had become easily numb in a way that her thoughts and emotions were harder to control for a while, so she stayed silent for the most part. After a while, she had eventually gotten to her abominations class. As she walked in, she was immediately placed into shock and a hint of anger. Amity Blight had been placed a seat right next to hers. Luz sighed and walked to her seat hesitantly, avoiding Amity's eyes. She placed her stuff down on her desk near the wall and looked down, hoping she wouldn't be spoken to. While they still had a 5-minute break between classes, she all of a sudden heard a voice close to hers.
"Hey, weren't you the girl who bumped into me earlier?" Amity asked.
"It was an accident," Luz mumbled, still being rather quiet but clear enough to understand what she was saying with an agitated expression.
"That's why I said watch where you're going," Amity responded with a matching agitated tone. A moment of silence fell between them. Luz could tell Amity was staring at her from the side of her vision, feeling uncomfortable while all the more curious as to why Amity was staring at her.
"You need something...?" Luz asked, turning her head to look slightly at Amity.
"Oh, sorry. Just curious about your ears. Why are they round?" Amity asked. The curiosity had left Luz's mind, and she had felt disappointed by the question.
"I'm a human," Luz answered under her breath.
"Oh, well, if you're not a real witch, then why are you at a school for witches? That makes no sense. Humans can't do magic." Amity replied with a confused and irritated undertone.
"I am a witch! I'm just not born with natural magic like you guys. I use glyphs." Luz answered, becoming more agitated with the way Amity had been talking to her.
"A glyph? What is--" Before Amity could finish, they were interrupted by the bell ringing for the end of the 5-minute class break. The teacher had gotten up from his desk and written in chalk on the board in front of the classroom. All the students waited quietly and patiently while he had written on the board whilst Luz had been bouncing her leg and started feeling tired out of the blue. Don't be tired now... Luz thought to herself, scared that she wouldn't be able to pay enough attention in class.
"Ok, class! Today, we're going to be presenting our abominations. We also have a new student today, which is why I wanted to wait for a few days late this month to present our abominations and how far we've come. Would you like to introduce yourself?" The teacher had looked directly at Amity.
"No," Amity replied. A few students laughed under their breath, but the rest of the class was quiet for the most part.
"That's respectable. Her name is Amity Blight, and she will be joining us in presenting our abominations today." The teacher had responded understandably. He continued to lecture the class about abominations, and they had eventually gotten onto presenting their abominations. All the students had the average abomination until they had gotten to Amity. When Amity had presented her abomination, it was bigger and more anatomically correct than the other students'. "Oh, this is a beautiful abomination, Amity! You earn an A+ for your skill!" Amity put away her abomination with a smirk on her face after the teacher had told her she got an A+. "Alright, now that all students have gone--" The teacher was cut off by seeing someone's hand being raised. He turned his head to see Amity raising her hand. "Yes, Amity, what do you need?" The teacher asked politely.
"What about Luz? You said all students, but she hasn't gone." Amity asked. Luz looked at her, both agitated and still feeling heavily tired. She had a feeling that Amity was trying to prove a point about humans not being able to do 'real' magic.
"Luz can't use normal witch magic. She has to draw her spells as glyphs on paper to make them. Though her spells are limited, there aren't more spells she can do besides the basic elements. She's an excellent student, though, and loves to participate in every course regardless of if she can do it or not!" The teacher answered enthusiastically. Amity looked at Luz from the side, smugly. Amity whispered under her breath,
"told you." Luz, feeling defeated, even after the teacher had explained she could do limited spells, decided to ignore Amity for the rest of the class and moved on with her day.
Classes eventually ended, and it was almost time for her to go home. She had been excited to walk home with Willow. She had speed-walked to her locker but stopped halfway in her tracks. Then, from afar, she saw Willow laughing and appeared to be talking to somebody. Luz got closer to them and didn't say anything. Willow immediately noticed Luz and smiled.
"Hi, Luz! How are you?" Willow asked happily. The girl next to her turned around and had a smile that faded as she saw Luz. Luz recognized the girl--it was Amity Blight. Amity's face didn't seem to be sly, sarcastic, or angry at Luz. Rather, confused, this time. Amity fell silent.
"I'm tired," Luz answered. "Rough day is all."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that. Do you want to talk about it? We can go ahead and walk home if you'd like." Willow replied. Luz smiled at Willow's kindness and offer to help.
"Thank you, Willow, but I'm okay. I can walk home alone today..." Luz replied, sounding hesitant. Luz tried to pretend not to see Amity and almost walked off before Willow stopped her in her tracks.
"Hey, wait! Remember when we were talking about Amity? She and I are getting along really well, actually!" Willow said excitedly. Luz didn't want to make Willow upset but was visibly uncomfortable about the topic.
"That's great, Willow! I'm glad you guys are getting along!" Luz replied.
"Amity, this is Luz! She's my friend, and she's a human! She's one of the coolest and most powerful people I know!" Willow said with a big smile on her face. Willow was excited to have more new friends possibly.
"I'm aware... I met her earlier in abominations class." Amity replied in a monotone voice. Luz paused into silence before breaking the silence by replying with,
"Yep! She got assigned right next to me." Luz's voice broke a bit when speaking. Willow turned to look at Luz and saw that she was uncomfortable.
"Well, I've got to go home early. Bye Amity, talk to ya later!" Willow waved off to Amity and held Luz's hand, ready to walk home with her.
"Bye, Willow and... Noceda." Amity replied and departed from them. When Amity wasn't close enough to hear either Willow or Luz anymore, Willow and Luz began walking away. Willow looked down to Luz and got closer to her, whispering in her ear.
"Hey, are you okay, Luz?" Willow asked kindly.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you, Willow... I, uh, didn't really have a good experience with Amity when meeting her as you did, I guess." Luz replied, hesitant to say much more, considering Willow and Amity had been getting along.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I won't hang out with her if it makes you uncom--" Willow was immediately cut off by Luz exclaiming,
"No! You don't have to do that! If you guys get along, I'm okay with that. Don't let me get in the way of you making friends, okay Willow? I'm not going to be limiting your friend group. Who you're friends with is up to you." Willow immediately frowned, making Luz more upset.
"Hey, I know that. You wouldn't be the kind of person to do that, and I've never thought of you like that--I was asking in case being around her would make you uncomfortable. As long as you know you're not a burden that's getting in the way though because you aren't." Willow reassured Luz. Luz had become teary-eyed hearing Willow says that but refused to talk more about her emotions and experience with Amity. Willow respected Luz's silence. Soon enough, they were closer to the owl house than they were to Willow's house.
"Hey, didn't you say you had to go home early?" Luz asked, remembering what Willow had told Amity before departing.
"Oh! No, that was a lie." Willow chuckled a bit when responding. Luz had a confused gaze.
"Why did you lie?" Luz asked, visibly confused.
"You were visibly upset, Luz, and I lied so I could check up on you," Willow answered with a genuine tone in her voice. Luz smiled at Willow. They continued walking and eventually got to Luz's house silently. Willow hugged Luz before departing, and Luz hugged her back. "See ya, Luz." Willow had waved while looking back and Luz and proceeded to walk off. Luz didn't say anything still but had waved back before entering her home.
"Hiya, Luz!" Hooty exclaimed.
"Hi, Hooty," Luz replied. Hooty would continue speaking, but Luz went in and closed the door behind her before Hooty could finish what he was saying. Luz had looked around, Eda and King nowhere to be found. However, there was a piece of paper on the table in front of the couch. Luz approached the table and grabbed the paper, and began to read it.
Hey kid! I might not be home by the time you're there today. We ended up having more orders than we thought we would, so it might be pretty late before we're able to come home. There's food and drinks in the refrigerator if you get hungry or thirsty. Make sure to feed Hooty, and King is on cleaning duty, so you don't have to worry about that. Make sure you're taking care of yourself, too, kiddo. If I'm not there by midnight, you'll know to call someone. See ya later,
-- Eda, The Owl Lady!
Luz smiled a little but felt extremely tired and wanted to lie down. She remembered that she was asked to feed Hooty and didn't want to fall asleep and forget. Her body slowly started feeling more numb as she got more exhausted. She had fed Hooty and went back inside, not talking to him. A few hours had passed, and she was ready to go to bed by now. She walked upstairs to her bedroom and had changed into pajamas, and had finally gotten comfortable in her sleeping bag. She turned over to see her photo of her mom and herself as a kid. Luz's facial expression fell into a sad frown. "The world here isn't too different from the human realm, to be honest, mami," Luz said sadly. Her eyes stayed wide open while looking at the photo of her mom. She had multiple fears fill her head, considering she hadn't been in contact with her mom for years and had no idea how she was doing. "Lamento no haber podido llegar a casa antes, mamá." Luz had said quietly as her eyes began to water and tears had fallen on her face. "Good night." She told the photo, looking directly at her mother's face. She grabbed the photo and fell asleep with it in her hand.