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Luz was the happiest she had ever been. Hexside was surprisingly enjoyable, (relatively speaking) and Gus and Willow were great friends. King, Eda, and Hooty were the best housemates Luz could’ve ever wanted, and Amity was the perfect girlfriend, so for the first time in Luz’s life, she was finally and truly happy. Meanwhile, Hexside was rapidly approaching exams, and, as all good things come to an end, so too would the semester, which was quickly drawing to a close. “Hey, Luz, what’cha thinkin’ about?” Gus asked, jolting her from her thoughts.
“I was thinking about how happy I am, and how great you guys are.”
“Wow! Usually, you don’t answer honestly, and I only ask you for politeness’ sake!” Gus and Willow were slightly blushing at the compliment.
“Eh, I was in an honest mood.” Luz was pretending she didn’t just blurt that out because she was unable to string together another rational thought in time.
“Luz, what about me?” Amity asked, a knowing smirk on her face.
Luz kissed her, having given up on disguising their relationship after the incident weeks prior. “I was also thinking about how you’re the best girlfriend!”
Amity grinned as she exclaimed, “You’re darn right I am!”, making Luz giggle.
“It’s still so weird to me seeing Amity happy,” Willow pointed out, only half-joking.
“Gee, thanks.”
“You knew what I meant.”
After an awkward pause, Amity was suddenly eager to change the conversation to a subject she knew a lot about. “So, is everybody studying up for the exams?”
“Sorry, the what now?”
“The exams! The ones the Friday after next! They’re where you take a final test to assess your skill in the subjects you’ve learned about in the semester. Do you not have those on Earth?”
“There are exams here? ARGH! Am I going to have to take nine different exams?!”
“Don’t ask me! I am curious though, what are they going to do with you?” Gus offered, sitting up straighter in his seat.
“I don’t know what they’re gonna do with me, either, but no matter what, I need to study, and I refuse to study alone, especially not with you guys just sitting there watching me like I’m some kind of lab rat. Amity, can you tutor me?” She pleaded to her girlfriend, who readily agreed.
“Of course I can! I will gladly do my best, but I know next to nothing about the non-Abomination tracks, except for a bit of Illusions from the twins.”
“Right, you guys aren’t masters of all magic like I am. Can you two help me out here too?”
“I’d be happy to!” and “Definitely!” came from the two of them simultaneously.
“Okay, that's 3 of the 9 tracks covered! Now, who do I know in each other coven?”
“Hey, Luz, didn’t you get thrown into the Delinquent Track?” Gus asked, remembering something she had said in one of her stories.
“Yeah, why?” She instinctively asked, realizing his meaning. “Ahhh, you’re smart! I like what you’re saying! I can get Barcus to tutor me in Potions and Oracle and Viney for Healing and Beast-Keeping! They probably still owe me a favor!”
“Okay, that’s seven down! You still have two left!” Luz leaned back, bracing her legs against the table so she could lay down.
“Who will tutor me in Construction and Bard?” She wondered out loud.
“You’re not going to like this, but I do know a Construction student who’s probably easily manipulatible.” Gus said after a moment of mental debating.
Luz groaned as she sat back up. “Please don’t say that horrible human fanatic.”
Gus grinned. “You’re gonna have to suck up to that horrible human fanatic if you want a tutor.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I just grabbed literally any other Construction student?”
“Yeah, but you know him! At least then you don’t have to meet and befriend someone new!”
“I don’t fully agree but you’re probably smart and if I fail I can just ask someone else. I will literally beg him to tutor me, but if it doesn’t work, I’m blaming you. Also, that still doesn’t answer who’ll tutor me in Bard!”
Willow yawned. “How about her?” She pointed at the first Bard student she saw, who had an oddly familiar yet unplacable face. “She looks talented.”
Luz followed her finger. The girl had pinkish-gray and dark purple hair tied back in a ponytail, gray eyes, and sparkling golden earrings. “I feel like I’ve seen her before, but I’m not sure where.”
“She must have one of those faces.”
The bell began to screech, allowing Luz to hunt down the four tutors she needed. She quickly managed to get Barcus to agree, since he knew what she was going to ask before she asked it, courtesy of Oracle magic, and after that, Viney agreed pretty readily, and the random girl, whose name turned out to be Skara, agreed on the chance to meet new people.
Finally, Luz reached Construction, and was faced with the most daunting challenge of all. “Howdy, there, Mattholomule.”
He groaned. “Ugh, the human. What do you want?”
“I was thinking about the exams coming up and I realized that I needed a Construction tutor, and you’re the most talented Construction student I know.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Because I begged. Pretty please?”
“Ha, you’re hilarious. Seriously, why should I do this?”
Luz groaned. “Because Gus will bring you back in his group?”
“That group? HA! Pathetic. I have no need for them.”
“He’ll make you their leader?”
“Really?”
‘Gus, you better agree to this, or I’ll beat you up!’ She mentally shouted at him. “Definitely.”
“Fine, but I’m not happy about it.”
Luz sighed. “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”
Matt had an evil grin as they went back to their classwork. When the day finally ended, Luz ambushed Gus. “Hey, Gus, I got all of the tutors!”
“Hooray!”
Luz pursed her lips as she thought about how best to break the news.
“Uh oh, I smell a ‘but’ coming.”
“Well, I kinda sorta told Mattholomule that you are going to allow him to be the new leader of the HAS.”
“You WHAT?!” Luz sheepishly chuckled. Gus groaned. “I can’t do that! The HAS is my life!”
“Yeah, but you have a human now, so you don’t need them? I’m sorry, Gus.”
Gus stared daggers at her for a moment. “How about you start a new club, the Human Fact Society or the Human Appreciation Club and get all your members to join it instead? You can tell them it’s a renaming thing and still technically allow Mattholomule to be the leader of the HAS, but he’ll also be the only member!”
“That feels like lying, Luz.”
“It’s morally grey! He’s bad, so bad things happen to him! That’s karma!”
“Not only is that completely not morally grey, but that is also major justification, Luz.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Gus sighed. “Not really. I’ll break the news to my colleagues later.”
“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Luz laughed maniacally.
---------------
“Alright, tutors! Anybody have any ideas?”
Luz had just assembled her seven tutors in a wide, open pavilion. Each was seated at one of four tables scattered within short circular brick walls on the ground that could be easily stepped over. Luz had also just inadvertantly revealed the fact that she had no idea what they were doing. “Sorry, you don’t know what we’re doing here? I assumed you were going to give us a plan and we would help you out!”
“Shut up, Mattholomule!” Amity spat, protective of her girlfriend.
“Amity, calm down.” Luz said, trying to deescalate the situation. “How about we all share our study methods? Amity, how do you study?”
“I reread the Abomination textbooks until I have the important sections memorized and then redo the study packets until I have every answer correct every time I retake it.”
“OH MY G- YOU SERIOUSLY DO THAT?”
Amity nodded, seeming to realize how outlandish that sounded. “Okay, that was interesting, so, how about you, Willow?” Luz asked, moving down the line.
“Over the semesters, I incorporate each new concept into my garden in some form, perfecting it over time so I truly understand them and how they work in action.”
“It’s clearly too late for that, how about you, Gus?”
Luz kept going, eventually determining that none of their methods would actually work for her, since each was either too dificult, would require too much time, or was humanly impossible. “Okay, none of these will work, and I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve made a big mistake.”
“I thought Amity’s method seemed doable or at least could be doable if you change the details.” Willow pointed out.
“I ThOuGhT aMiTy’S MeThOd sEeMeD- Are you aware how dumb you sound?”
“I thought she had a point!” Gus said, suddenly defensive of his friend.
“Yeah, and I thought you had a brain! I guess we were both wrong!”
Barcus barked in his own two cents as more tutors began to argue. “Calm down!” Luz shouted, but her voice was drowned out by flying insults. Eventually, someone went down to a spell with a screech, and the pavilion was suddenly a battlezone, magic hurling through the air.
Luz stepped into the center. “Stop it!” She tried to shout, but was struck by a stray vine, slashing her arm. The normally kind Willow’s eyes were green and she was clearly letting the plants take over. Luz dodged a flying Gus illusion that nearly struck her head, and thought of a plan, whipping out a chisel sharpie. Sprinting, she slid out of the war and to the ground, rapidly scribbling a huge circle around the conflict.
‘There goes the easy part!’ Luz thought as she weaved into the conflict, creating thick blue lines on the ground while dodging griffins, vines, and sharp music notes that sliced through the air like throwing stars. ‘Just a few more lines left.’ She was about to slash in the final line when another vine grabbed her arms, pointed thorns scratching against her wrists.
Luz pushed and pulled against it, unable to free its tightening grip. She garbled out a “Help!”, only managing to capture Amity’s attention, but Amity couldn’t let Luz get hurt. “Abomination, free Luz!” The abomination, who had been grappling with a purple oracle, shoved it away and then lumbered over to the Latina, tearing the vine from Luz’s arm. “Thanks, Amity! Hang on tight!” Luz warned as she drew the final line and leapt into the air, before slamming her feet onto the ground.
Amity flopped onto the ground, disintegrated her abomination, and, with nothing to hold on to, laid in place as the world began to rumble, a huge flat icicle beginning to rise up. The unsteady ground uprooted Willow’s vines, disintegrated Gus’s clones, shattered Barcus’ potions (taking the oracles with them), startled Viney’s griffon into flying away, and caused the bricks in Mattholomule’s hands to crumble into dust. ‘Wow, that worked so much better than expected!’
“Everybody, calm down! I just need you guys to help me study, and I think I have a plan, too! Amity, what are the exams like?”
“They’re just a bunch of multiple choice questions, why?”
“So none of your methods are all that necessary! I just need you guys to quiz me about the subjects with questions that might be on the test, realistically, and that’ll show me what I need to study and help me remember the answers! Does that sound good?” They looked amongst themselves and all seemed reasonably content with that. “Okay, now hang on tight!” Luz jumped on the center of the ice, sending it shrinking back into familiar earth.
With a functional plan, the seven tutors quizzed her rapidly over the next two weeks, meeting frequently and growing closer as friends (except for Mattholomule, who harbored too much resentment to actually start caring about his fellow tutors), the exams coming closer and closer, until Luz felt confident that she would crush the test and exam day struck.
Instead of being called into her classes, Luz was sent to the principal’s office, where Principal Bump explained to her how the test worked. It contained 5 questions sampled from each of the professor’s courses and then an extra 5 randomly selected questions to even the number out at 50. Luz glanced at the test, hoping for the best, and then almost leapt with joy.
‘YES! IT’S MULTIPLE CHOICE!’ That meant that she could employ two strategies that basically guaranteed success: process of elimination, and, if she had no clue and process of elimination failed, guessing! Luz scribbled in her answers rapidly, taking down each question easily. The tutoring had actually worked, too, and she was very confident with almost all of her answers.
The Friday a week after, the test results came back. Luz opened up the letter with anticipation and bated breath and was ecstatic to find that she had gotten a 94% on the final test, meaning she had only missed 3 questions.
“So, Willow, what did you get on your exam?” She asked at school a few days later, struggling not to burst.
“96%!” She practically squealed.
“What about you, Gus?”
Gus was pretending not to care. “Ehh, just a 99%.”
“99%? 99%?! How did you get one half wrong? ALSO, 99%?!”
“It was a completely garbage decision! One of the questions had an ambiguous answer between two and I picked the less accurate of the two, so I lost a single point, instead of just giving me the credit I deserved! GAH!” Gus kicked the table.
“Okay, but you got every single one right! You should be celebrating!”
“Not really, I got a 102% last year.”
“Wh- WHAT?! HOW DID YO- WHAT?!”
Gus couldn’t stop a proud smile from reaching his face as he struggled to keep his ego from exploding. “There’s a reason I’m a child prodigy! What did you get?”
“93%,” Luz exclaimed, still proud, although it wasn’t nearly as much of an accomplishment as their scores.
“93%? Nice! I’m proud of you, Luz!” Luz grinned. “For a human girl, you really know your magic! Hey, Amity, what did you get?”
Amity sat down with them, carrying a lunch tray and beaming at her test results. “100%! Let’s not all applaud little Miss Perfect over here at once!” Showing how truly epic she was, she referred to herself in the third person with a made up name.
“Nice job! I got a 93%, Willow got a 96%, and Gus got a 99%!”
“I’m so proud of you!” Amity said, leaning in and kissing Luz, sharply bringing a bitter realization to Luz’s brain. ‘I’m going to have to leave them.’
---------------
Luz sat in the closet, scribbling rapidly with a quill covered in golden, sparkling ink. She aggressively wiped away tears, struggling to stop them from dripping onto the page, but, alas, a few slipped through, warping circles of yellowed paper.
Dear Willow and Gus,
You are both probably the strongest witches I’ve ever met, and I’m so happy I got to meet and become friends with you in this amazing world before I had to leave. I really like you too, and your friendship has been wonderful to me, guiding me through the Boiling Isles. But all good things have to come to an end, and I need to go back to my world. This is not a final goodbye, though. I’ll be back someday, and then-
Luz gave up and sobbed onto the paper, crumpling it up and throwing it in a random direction to join the forming piles of crumpled letters. “Come on, Luz, write a good goodbye letter! You can do this!”
Luz’s quill had just touched the paper again when Eda threw open the door. “Hey, kid, what are you doing in there?” Luz looked up at her with tears running down her face.
“I can’t say goodbye!” She cried out like a wounded puppy, hurtling herself into Eda. The older witch awkwardly patted her on the back. “What’s wrong?”
“I have to leave you guys, and Willow and Gus, and Amity,” she barely managed to choke out the last name, “to go back to Earth, and I don’t want to! I can’t leave you guys! I love you!”
“You’re leaving us, kid?”
Luz nodded. “I have to go back to the human world.”
Eda sighed. “I’ll miss you. You better write lots of letters! You know, for King’s sake.”
Luz laughed. “Thanks. I’ll write lots of letters if you make sure that the door is in the same spot, umm, one year from now, and I will be back, no matter what happens!”
“Got it, kid. Letters are no way to go about goodbyes! Go say your goodbyes!” Eda ruffled her hair.
“Will do!” Later in the day, Luz summoned her tutors for one final meeting, to say her goodbyes. As she walked closer and closer to the tutors and saw them all, clearly confused, she broke down, her willpower once again failing her. ‘I can’t do this.’ Luckily, past Luz knew how much of a coward future Luz is, so she prepared letters in advance, one for each of them.
Luz scanned the area, eventually identifying a small, winged creature and, with a sharp, quiet whistle, it darted to Luz’s hand. The demon seemed to have the body of a small, maroon eagle, and the head of a lion, golden feathers running down its back from its head. Luz scribbled a glyph on its head and tapped it, using a simple beast-keeping spell on it, gave it the papers, and whispered a command, flinging the beast free. It soared into the crowd, dropping papers seemingly randomly into each of their hands (except for Mattholomule, who was quite confused), although each found that their paper was addressed to themselves.
Dear Willow,
You have been the best friend I’ve ever had (not that I’ve had many), and you are probably also the strongest witch I’ve ever met. I’m really glad that I had the chance to befriend you while I was here, but now, I have to leave and go back to Earth.
The letters all went on that way, explaining what happened with sorrow. Tears fell from many of their eyes, splattering the already occasionally warped paper with more sadness, Amity’s letter warping the most. She rapidly finished the letter and stood up sharply, scanning the now-empty clearing where Luz had sent the letters.
Luz was long gone, racing back to the Owl House, wiping tears off her face as she ran. “Eda, I couldn’t do it! I gave them letters.”
Eda sighed. “They aren’t going to be happy, you weirdo, but you never listen to my advice. The door is still at the stand.”
“Can’t you summon it?”
“I would, but I feel like you having to walk there is punishment enough.”
Luz nodded and hugged her. “Goodbye, Eda,” she sniffled into her shoulder. “Bye, Luz.” She looked up at Eda, and was surprised to see tears. “Aww, you’re crying.”
“I’m not crying, my eyes are sweating from being open so long. Now go before I change my mind.”
Luz nodded solemnly and began the long walk to the stand.
---------------
Amity raced through the familiar street and slid to a halt in front of the Owl House, rapping her knuckles against the door. “Hey, there! Your girlfriend just left, hoot-hoot!”
“What? Where?”
“Eda said she was going to the human stand!”
“Thanks, Hooty!” She spun around and sprinted, ignoring Eda calling out after her, confused, when she remembered the faster form of travel she had used to escape her parents. “Abomination, rise! Now down on your knees and run!” Amity shouted, slipping onto the obeying abomination’s back and summoning reins with a single circle.
She yanked against the reins sharply with the curve of the road, having never learned her lesson and barely hanging on tight enough to keep from flying away, and then tugged them back, slowing the creatures pace down a lot so it would be easier to stop and control.
‘Dear Amity,’
Amity blinked back tears. The abomination was in the bustling marketplace now, and there was no longer enough space to keep riding, so the witch disintegrated it and went on foot, shoving through the thick crowds. Eventually, she identified the rival shop that Luz had gotten her Grom outfit from. ‘Okay, she said it was northeast from Eda’s stand, so I need to go southwest.’
‘When we first met, you thought I was an abomination, and you almost had me dissected. Then, you learned I was a human, and I challenged you to a duel, although we both cheated. It was shortly after when I started trying to get you to be my friend.’
Amity scanned the sky for the sun, eventually identifying it. Then, she tracked its position relative to the horizon to determine the directions west and east, and decided to take her chances. ‘It’s a 50-50 shot, Amity, so pick one and hope for the best.’ Amity picked one randomly and began to walk.
‘And then was the library incident, when Otabin tried to capture us and I learned how much of an Azura fan you were, and that was about when I began to fall for you. You were so smart, and pretty, and you liked everything that I liked, and I just couldn’t stop myself.’
Amity gritted her teeth when she realized she had passed countless stands and shops selling various items and then exited the marketplace. She mentally cursed herself for her mistake. ‘Luz must be nearly gone by now!’ Amity realized with a jolt that she was probably too late and Luz was gone, but she still had to try, so she darted back through the trees and stands until she arrived at the rival human place, walking the correct direction now.
‘After that we went to the knee and learned magic together and rescued our loved ones from a beast I totally didn’t anger using something that belongs to you, and then was my first day, and I may have overheard you saying something about me, and then was the Willow mind thing, and then Grom, and you helped me through my darkest hour, and I realized I was completely and hopelessly smitten with you.’
Amity went the direction that she now knew was southwest, and eventually arrived at Eda’s stand. “Hey, Owlbert, have you seen-,” Owlbert had tiny crystal tears in his eyes and nodded gently to the side. Amity followed the direction and finally entered the stand.
‘Then your parents revealed their true colors and you stayed with me, and we became even closer, and then you tutored me through the exams, and I remembered that I needed to leave. Summer was ending in my world, and, as much as I love the Boiling Isles, I couldn’t leave my mom and my old life behind.‘
Luz was standing in front of the door, crying, when Amity reached out to touch the sobbing Luz’s shoulder gently, sending her spinning around with a start. “A-Amity?!” Luz asked, startled, wiping away tears.
‘Don’t worry, I promise I’ll be back, and I’ll write you guys lots while I’m gone. I only have one last thing to say. Amity, I think I’m in love with you. I know you might not feel the same way, but I had to tell you before I left.’
Amity mouthed the word, tears coming to her eyes. “Luz, I-I think that I love you too.” Luz’s eyes widened, a soft smile upturning her mouth’s corners, when Amity grabbed her and kissed her goodbye, hearts intertwining with love and passion. When they finally broke apart, what felt like hours later, (although it was really just a minute or two) Amity kissed her forehead. “Goodbye, Luz.” Amity murmured her last goodbye as Luz turned around and opened the door, stepping into the unknown.
Luz turned around and gave Amity one long, heartbreaking look, and waved sadly, the door slowly shutting. Luz is gone, Amity realized with a jolt, her last moments with Luz replaying over and over in her head.