Chapter Text
“KID! GET YOUR BUTT OUTTA BED, YOU’RE GONNA BE LATE!” Eda called from downstairs, pulling Luz from the death grip of her slumber.
‘Glad Hooty isn’t trying to suffocate me this morning.’ Luz thinks to herself with a chuckle as she gets out of bed and starts getting her school uniform on.
She begins to make her way downstairs, but King thought it would be a great idea to sleep on one of the last steps. Luz didn’t have enough time to avoid him, so she ended up tripping down the last couple steps.
“Ouch! King you can’t sleep there!” Luz groaned from the floor.
“You can’t tell me what to do! But ok, that hurt me too. Sorry Luz.” King replied regretfully.
“It’s ok. I’m sorry I tripped over you, I should’ve been paying more attention.”
Eda interrupted an further interaction by yelling a “Get in here and eat up while it’s still hot!” from the kitchen.Without further delay, the human and demon sat at the table and dug into their breakfast.
It reminded Luz of oatmeal, but there were two major distinctions. One, it was quite spicy, two, it had an orange-ish, yellow-ish color to it. Eda had called it “oatsteel” when she’d made it for them another time. The Owl Lady had explained that it was “as red as molten steel and just as spicy!” with a laugh when Luz asked why.
The human quite enjoys the flavor of it. It’s spicy and sweet without being too much of either, and the spiciness helps her wake up a bit on slow mornings.
The older witch watches them eat with an expression of maternal affection, before shooting Luz a smug grin. She is still sporting this look as she collects King’s now-empty bowl, and he frollicks away from the table. Luz takes notice of this and asks Eda “What’s up?”
“So… got a thing for Baby Blight, do ya?” Eda more comments than asks.
Luz chokes on a mouthful and begins to cough. When she can breathe again she replies
“Whaaaaaaaat? Eda you’re crazy! I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Kid, you pretty much told the whole Isles when you yelled about it the other night!” Eda exclaims.
Luz shrinks down into her chair and grumbles “Well it’s not my fault that I just realized…”
“Just realized? I’ve known since we went to the Knee! You were practically beside yourself trying to impress that girl.
The human shrinks even further until she falls out of her chair altogether.
“You really ARE a traitor!” King screeches from under the table. “But , well, if you like the evil cupcake smasher that much, then maybe she isn’t so bad…” he amends hesitantly.
“Ok that’s enough.I’ll see you guys later after I get home from school.” Luz scrambles across the room and out the door.
“Go get em’ tiger!” she hears Eda call after as she slams the door shut behind her
Luz lets out a sigh of exasperation, then begins her walk to school, but not before getting her thoughts interrupted by the abomination from hell himself.
Hooty.
“Hooooot! Y’know, I used to have a crush once too. She was a moth though, so we were never meant to beeeeee.” The house demon drawls right next to Luz’s head.
“AAH! Hooty go away!” The human karate chops the infernal owl tube creature before taking off running down the path to Hexside.
The walk through the deep orange forest is familiar to the human, so she can find her way while letting her mind completely wander. And wander it does, far beyond her control.
By the time she could see the spire of the school building, she was on the topic of her favorite witch and how small her hands were in the human’s. ‘Favorite witch? Since when did I call her that? I love all my friends equally!’ Luz thought to herself as the ground transitioned from dirt to the paved cobblestone path of the magic academy.
She didn’t have much more time to deliberate about the topic though, as she caught a glance of Gus and Willow waiting for her on the staircase. Running up to them, she launched herself and pulled them both into a tight hug. They almost fell over from the added momentum of the human and the fact that there were 6 legs in the equation, but Willow was able to steady them.
“Friends! How are you?” Luz said as they separated
“Doin great Luz!” Gus says with enthusiasm, fingergunning like the human had taught him. She finger-gunned back, proud that she had taught a young soul the sacred art.
“Tired, I was up all night studying for that pollination exam we have today.” Willow says with a yawn.
“Oh crap! That’s today?! I forgot to study!!! Man, and just when I wanted to talk to you about something WIllow.” Luz says with a pout.
The plant witch lets out a soft chuckle. “It’s ok Luz, I can go over some of my notes with you. It isn’t until later anyway.”
“Aw thanks, you’re a lifesaver.” The human pulls Willow in for a hug.
“We could also discuss what you wanted to talk about while I study with you.” Willow whispers into the other girl’s ear during the hug.
“You’re the best, Willow.” she whispered back fondly. When the hug ended, she looked back at Gus and had an idea.
“Oh hey Gus, do you wanna study with us later at lunch or something? I heard you have to present a partnered illusion soon.”
Gus put on a forlorn, faraway look. “While that is a stupendous offer, I sadly must decline. I need to meet up with my partner so we can go over our routine.” he responded sullenly.
“Darn…well that’s ok Gus, I’m sure you’re gonna blow everyone away when you present!” Luz cheered with her usual enthusiasm.
Just then, another voice shouted that made Luz go rigid.
“Awww, look at the dork brigade getting all excited about studying! Why don’t you go study how to be less idiotic!” Boscha says as she walks up, trying to be all menacing and cool.
“Ugh, what do YOU want, Boscha?” Willow snaps, glaring at the 3-eyes bully.
Then, running footsteps come to a halt by the trio, and Luz can see that it is, in fact, Amity. She skids to a stop right in front of them, and practically drags them inside the school building.
“Go away Boscha, nobody likes you!” She calls before shutting the school entrance behind them. All Boscha can do is stand there in shock, before having the door slammed in her stupid 3-eyed face.
Amity and the trio get inside the school’s wooden double-doors just as the bell screams, signalling they have to get to class before they’re counted as late.
“Aw thorns. Gotta go Luz, see you later at lunch.” Willow says, then makes her way through the morning school rush.
“See you later guys, good luck on that exam Luz!” Gus calls before he too enters the hallway warzone.
“I guess it’s just you and me today. What do you have first? I’ll walk with you.” Amity says to the human after a brief pause.
Luz takes a glance at her schedule and winces.
“I have a feeling you may not want to do that.” Luz says, looking up from her paper and giving Amity a pained expression.
“Ugh, you have Potions first, don’t you.”
“Yeah.” Luz replies as she hangs her head in defeat. Then she perks back up just as fast, like a daisy in the first days of Spring.
“Buuuut, I have Abominations at the end of the day! We can walk to the library together afterwards!” She says, her excitement making Amity just as giddy.
“Sounds great! Now I’d better so Boscha doesn’t see me and cause a scene. See you later!”
“Bye Amityyyyyyyyy!” Luz calls as she waves goodbye to her crush.
She is sitting in her seat in the Potions homeroom not too long after, eager to learn more about what the track has to offer. Not long after, the bell screams once more, letting the students of Hexside know that school has officially started for the day, whether you like it or not.
~~~~
Potions is over before Luz knows it, and surprisingly, she didn’t hear a single word out of Boscha during the entire class period. ‘Must’ve been from the what-for that Amity had given her earlier this morning.’ Luz thinks to herself. She decides that it’s best not to dwell on it though, and that it’s better to be thankful that today was a relatively pleasant lesson.
In class, they had been working on a potion that can temporarily change the color of an object that you pour it on.Kind of like food coloring, but magic! Luz had drank a bit of the potion she made, and it turned her mouth neon blue. She noted that it tasted a bit like milk mixed with water, but it wasn’t all that bad. The teacher had been very impressed with the results, calling it a “splendid color worthy of much praise”.
Luz brings herself back to the present and checks her schedule again. She’s got Oracles next.
The human has some mixed feelings about the Oracles track. On one hand, it is super interesting to learn about, and she really likes the teacher. They’re really patient and wise.
But on the other hand, sometimes it can be a bit hard for her to wrap her head around the complex topics. And at other times, the teacher gets caught up in a long-winded explanation that Luz has trouble sitting through and focusing on.
Her classmate Barcus, the glasses-wearing duel track student she had met in the detention track room will often help her in the class though.
She can see them now as she approaches the Oracles homeroom now actually.
“Hi Barcus, how are you today?”
Barcus lets out a soft “Arf” in response, which Luz is able to understand as “Fine thank you, and yourself?” Thanks to Jerbo’s occasional translation help.
“I’m doing pretty great this morning, thank you for asking!” the human replied.
She wanted to carry the conversation further, but she was cut off by the tardy bell. Once everyone was settled down and in their seats, the teacher walked to the front of the classroom and began writing on the board, which meant that today was just a note-taking day. Knowing this put Luz at ease as she began to copy the teacher’s diagrams and annotations.
~~~~
The bell rang once again, letting out a raspy cough this time. Luz waves goodbye to Barcus and heads to her next class, which is Healing.
She walks inside the room, and is promptly slammed in the back and onto the ground by a very excited griffin.
Viney runs through the doorway after Puddles the griffin, and can barely contain her laughter at the human struggling beneath the creature, getting barraged by lollipops.
“haha-Puddles-heheh come on girl, Luz needs to breathe y’know.” The multi-track witch laughs out as she helps the bewildered human off the floor.
“It’s ok, Puddles was just happy to see me, weren’t you, girl? Weren’t you?” Luz gushes as she pets the top of Puddles’ soft-feathered head.
The teacher walks to the front of the classroom and announces “Alright class, put everything away except something to write with. Today we have a pop quiz!”
The class groans in protest as they put their equipment away, then the room goes quiet when the professor begins to hand out the test papers.
The quiz itself goes even better than Luz had hoped. As it turns out, all of the medical terminology that her Mami had been trying to drill into her head for years had actually stuck. And most of what she knew was easily translatable to witch anatomies (there are quite a few notable distinctions to that though, like Bile Sacs for example.)
Viney stretches and lets out a contented sigh while the teacher collects the quiz papers again. “Ahhh. That quiz was a lot easier than I expected. What did you think about it?” She says, looking back at the human.
“I thought it was pretty ok too. I’m also really glad we had it, because now we have free time. And free time means I get to give Puddles all the snuggles she deserves!”
“Wait hold on. Before we get into the snuggling, would you like me to teach you how to brush her feathers?” Viney asks as she swiftly flicks her finger into a spell circle and summons a brush that reminded Luz of one of those brushes for horses.
The human makes an excited noise and nods her head furiously, earning a hearty chuckle from the upperclassman.
“Alright, Now… watch closely. You have to be extra gentle to make sure you don’t pull out a feather that’s still attached. Griffin skin is a lot more sensitive than you might think. I learned that the hard way one day.”
Luz could tell Viney was about to tell a story, so she scooted in closer while focusing her eyes on the watch’s brushing technique.
Viney continued, “I was giving her a brushing, like usual, when the brush caught on a tangle of feathers and mud on her back. I tried to work through it with the brush, but I brushed a bit too hard and around 3 feathers got pulled out. Puddles got so spooked that she threw me clear across the room. Luckily, one of my friends in the class was able to draw a spell to lessen the impact, but I still hit the wall and ended up fracturing my wrist. I’m ok now, but I definitely learned my lesson.”
“Wowza, I never knew that Beastkeeping could be so hardcore.” Luz says in awe as she continues to watch Viney brush the adolescent Griffin.
“Yeah it can be at times. I love it though. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.” The witch says with a far-off expression.
They continue chatting for a while, drifting from topic to topic until the lunch bell rings, indicating the end of the class period. Luz gives Puddles one last pat on the head before saying goodbye to the dual-track witch and heading to the cafeteria to meet up with Willow.
She finds the plant witch sitting at their usual table, Gus is nowhere to be seen though. ‘Must be practicing with his partner already.” Luz thinks as she sits down beside her friend.
“Gosh I’m starving. Let me eat real quick, then we can head on over to the greenhouse and do some studying before class.” Luz says before jamming her sandwich into her mouth. Willow flashes the girl a warm smile then takes a sip of her apple blood. The pair finish their lunch in relative silence (Willow said it wasn’t a good idea for Luz to talk a lot of she was going to eat so fast like that.) then they start walking over to the greenhouse at the back of the school building.
The greenhouse itself is relatively empty at this time, save for a ridiculous amount of plants and foliage. Much more than would be acceptable in a greenhouse from the human world.
When they walked in the door, a large four petaled flower with an eye in the middle hissed at them and started trying to get to Luz.
“Hey hey! It’s ok Jeremy, this is a friend.” Willow says frantically, gesturing to the human at ‘friend’. She waves weakly at the hulking plant creature, but shrinks behind the plant witch when it begins approaching again.
Willow walks over and soothes the plant by stroking it’s leaves, then leads Luz safely over to their shared desk. The bespectacled witch keeps a number of plants at the desk, and each and every one of them has a name given to them by Willow herself. People names, not the names they already have as plants.
Luz’s favorite is a little white, five petaled flower that seemed to shimmer in the glow of the sun through the glass roof. The witch had once told her that the flower’s name was Leo. The fact that they shared a first initial filled Luz with a small joy that made her a little bit giddy every time she thought about it.
After a bit of searching and sifting, Willow found the notes she was looking for. She slapped them onto the table, bringing Luz out of her quickly-devolving thoughts about flowers and a certain other witch.
“Woopsies, sorry that was a bit loud.” willow laughs apologetically.
“Alright! Now I’m sure to get a good grade. I’ve got the best plant witch ever on my side.”
Willow’s cheeks pink a bit at the compliment. “Oh stop it silly, you know I have a long way to go. Now don’t you think it’s time to get studying?”
“Yup! Thanks again Willow. I’d be dead 100 times over without you.” Luz says, pulling the dark-haired witch in for a hug.
“Ok ok enough stalling, you goof. Now I’m gonna quiz yo a bit to see what you need to work on.
“Gotcha. Hit me with everything you’ve got, girl!”
The study for around 20 minutes and Luz already feels a lot more confident about the exam. They decide to take a break after those 20 minutes and Willow asks:
“So Luz, What did you want to discuss with me earlier?”
“OK… so I just realized this a couple of days ago that I may have a crush. But there’s a super big problem about it. They’re completely out of my league and I have no idea what to do about it.” Luz says in exasperation.
“Oh my, that is a bit of a problem, now isn’t it. However, I’m sure they’re more in your league than you think. It really depends on who it is. But again, I’m sure that they’re more in your league than you realize. You just need confidence.”
“If you say so Willow. I still don’t quite believe it though, I mean they are pretty amazing.” Luz says with a slight swoon.
‘Goodness she is so far-gone.’” Willow thinks to herself fondly.
“And who’s the lucky witch that’s got you all smitten, if I may ask?”
“Promise you won’t laugh?” Luz asks with uncertainty that Willow has never heard in her voice before.
The witch leans forward and takes both of the human’s hands in gentle reassurance. “I would never, Not in a million years mock something that is important to you. You can trust me, ok?”
Luz has tears in her eyes when she nods in approval.
“Ok.” she takes a moment to steady her breathing before stating:
“It’s Amity.”
Willow looks down pensively for a second, mumbling a ‘hmmm, that makes a lot of sense’ before looking back at Luz with a supportive smile.
“You may have more of a chance than you think Luz.” She says to the human warmly.
“Wait really? How can you be so sure? She wanted to invite someone to Grom, and it was probably her crush or someone she was interested in! Besides, how could a girl so awesome give a weirdo like me any chance at all? It’s absolutely hopeless!” the girl said as she began to spiral.
The witch took Luz’s hand, bringing her out of the deepening spiral.
“Luz Noceda, you are one of the most wonderful people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I will not sit here and let you talk about yourself in such a terrible way. Sure you can be silly, and you definitely do things your own way, but that’s just one of the things that are great about you. I could go on and on about why you most definitely have a chance with Amity, but we’d be here all day, and we have class in just a little bit.”
The human, overcome with gratitude and emotion, falls softly into Willow’s expectant arms, wordlessly thanking her.
The plant witch wants to say something, anything, to try to console Luz. Anything at all. But no words come to her. So she doesn’t. Instead, she wordlessly smooths the human’s soft brown hair, hoping that she’ll understand.
Soon enough, Luz pulls back from the other girl and wipes her eyes. Then the bell rings, followed by students beginning to file in from their lunch break, cutting off any possible continued talk on the subject. They both get out their notes, sensing the anticipation beginning to thrum in the room.
When Luz sets her own notes on the shared desk, she glances over at the door to the greenhouse and catches the eyes of a familiar face. It was Amelia, whom she remembered from the Grudgby game. She waved at her and gave her an encouraging smile then a thumbs-up, wordlessly wishing her good luck on the exam. The girl noticed and returned the smile with her own and a small wave before going to her own seat.
The bell rings once more and the teacher walks through another door to the greenhouse and the mood of the room stiffens even more, now that the teacher is in the room. A hush falls over the class, which is very uncharacteristic. Even the sentient plants seem to sense that this is a big event, for they have not stirred one bit since the students came filing in.
The teacher calls for silence from the few students whispering at the back, and wordlessly passes out the test packets. She gives the students a reassuring smile before sitting at her desk and saying “Begin.”
The test itself had two portions. One was multiple choice answers, and the other was an essay where the prompt was to talk about what one of the three creatures given was the best for pollination and why.
For the essay part, the three creatures that were listed were Stunning Birds, Bladeybugs, and Rumble Bees.
Stunning birds might sound beautiful, but you’re thinking of a different kind of stun. These birds have organs within them that are similar to what allows an electric eel to send out bursts of built up electricity. While they aren’t very big, they have been known to cause paralysis to witches with weak hearts and or heart conditions.
Another option of creatures that Luz knew about was the Bladeybug species. At first whenever she had seen the illustration in her textbook, she had thought that they were very similar to the ladybugs from her world, but oh how wrong she was. When she saw the diagram showing the size difference, she realized that they were around the size of a car. This definitely explained why Willow was so afraid of them. They were huge menaces to crops and forests, with their huge scythe-like front appendages, much like praying mantises. Those long sharp arms were not usually seen when the beast was travelling at large speeds, since it would tuck them under it’s beautifully spotted wing covers.
The last option she had was the Rumble Bee. These small fuzzy insects were one of the best pollinators out there. They were the most similar to bees on earth, with one major distinction. That being that when they are going from flower to flower, they cause small bits of precipitation from their bodies. This is due to the way that their fur interacts with the pressure in the air, manipulating it to condense the water at rapid speeds. They are very intelligent, and they can control this pressure manipulation at will, so it’s best not to get on their bad side as they can also cause large scale boiling rainstorms as a swarm.
With this knowledge in her pocket, Luz is sure that she’ll ace this exam. She silently thanks Willow in her head once more, before getting started on the essay. While she did have to talk about which of the creatures given were the best pollinators, she also had to talk about why the others were still beneficial as well, like how Bladeybugs helped to clear the forest of dead trees and mainly sustained themselves on forest floor detritus, cleaning up the ground to make way for younger plants.
The professor calls time and comes to collect the exams, and the human takes an exhausted inhale and exhale, proud of her effort. She looks over at Willow, who also looks quite exhausted. She shoots her the most dashing smile she can muster, and Willow returns it with a reluctant smile of her own.
After the test itself, the class is given time to quietly study, but the professor says they aren’t allowed to talk during this time so the two exchange notes to pass the time. When this time is over, the bell screams once more.
“I’ll see you later Willow, I have Abominations next!”
“Good luck! I’ll see you later after school.” the plant witch replied before watching the human take off down the halls, almost tripping multiple times. She chuckled a bit at the charming human before packing up her own equipment and getting ready for her History class.
Luz is weaving in and around the halls to the Abominations homeroom when she spots Jerbo and his little plant abomination that he calls Jerbo Jr. She gives him a swift greeting, but continues down the hall in a hurry. She’s on a mission!
The hall quickly becomes congested with students begrudgingly making their way to their next class, so the human quickens her already breakneck pace, nearly running into around 12 other students in her frenzied dash. Along the way, little inklings of her favorite person begin to drift in and out of her surface thoughts once more, bringing color to her face and a shake in her hands.
As if right on cue, the witch herself comes into view from down the hallway. She’s leaning up against the wall just outside the doorway to the Abominations homeroom, glancing up from her book every now and then, as if looking for someone. She looks in Luz’s direction and their eyes meet. A spark passes between, bringing a color to the green-haired witch’ face to match the human. She looks away for a split second, then she looks back and breaks into a huge smile, giving Luz a small wave.
Breath caught in her throat, the smitten human approaches until she’s right outside the door.
“Hey Amity! How’ve you been today?” She says, trying to strike a cool pose against the wall. However, she only succeeds in smashing her nose against the stone, letting out a little “ouch”
Amity can’t help the chuckle that emerges from her mouth, despite trying to cover it up with a cough. “Are you ok?” she says between fits of giggles, offering a hand to her wounded champion on the floor.
The human, pride in critical condition, accepts the hand reluctantly, noting the size difference between theirs. ‘Her hand is so small..’ she thinks to herself as she rises from the floor. “Yeah I’m ok, thank you. Takes more than that to get me down! Humans are a lot tougher than you think!” She says, flexing her arms.
Together, they walk into the classroom and take their respective seats before the bell rings. Luz sits right behind Amity in class, so she’ll often pester her with notes or jokes or just her general presence, which tends to be distraction enough for the witch to where her thoughts get very clouded. It usually doesn’t hinder her work though, as she knows most of what they are currently teaching in class due to her own personal studies.
Today though, Luz has decided that she will not bother Amity one bit during class so she can focus. It also may or may not be because every time she tries to strike up a conversation, the words wedge themselves in her throat like a wad of thick peanut butter, refusing to let her utter a single word other than the occasional “H-hey.”
Needless to say, Amity was very perplexed and somewhat worried, as this was quite unusual. Whatever it was, she was going to get to the bottom of it. She would wait after class though, when they were at their book club away from prying eyes and ears. So she patiently bides her time, while also taking in the familiar lecture of the Abomination teacher at the front of the room, making sure to pay enough attention to be able to answer the many questions directed her way by the professor held aloft by his personal abomination.
Class ends with a ring of the final bell, mercifully releasing the tired and weary students from their studious torture. The pair meet in the hallway again, and begin their somewhat short walk from the school to the library, Luz still being surprisingly nonverbal, as if constantly deep in thought. Every time Amity asked a question, it would be like she was pulling the human from the depths of the boiling sea over and over again. She was determined to find out why this was the case, as long as Luz was willing to talk about it. ‘I hope she’s not worrying about anything..’ she thought to herself as they finally approached the large marble staircase of the Bonesborough Library.
Too bad Luz was DEFINITELY worrying about something.
And that “something” was walking right next to her.