Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Hexside University Library, sometimes known as the Hex-brary, stands proudly on the northern end of Hexside University’s campus. It features four floors filled to the brim with any book imaginable and fills its workforce with students to check out books, re-stock them, and do any additional tasks around the library. As a wide-eyed and eager freshman, Amity can’t pass up on the opportunity to work with books and starts right away. It’s a perfect arrangement; she gets to be with books all day and can even read a little if things quiet down.

It’s been a year and a half since then, but Amity still enjoys her part time job. Her favorite task is re-shelving returned books, but today she’s on checkout duty. It’s easy, but boring and especially quiet on a Saturday morning like today. She’s checked out a few people in a row and is nearly done emptying the line. A scraggly looking boy places three books down in front of her and looks at her expectantly.

“Can I see your school ID please?” she asks politely, he must be new to the library because he hasn’t already pulled it out.

He squeaks, “Yes, sorry!!” and hastily pulls out his wallet. Amity’s eyebrow twitches slightly as he shuffles through it. After a few seconds he triumphantly produces his ID and passes it over while whispering an additional sorry.

Amity already has her handheld scanner ready and wordlessly scans the ID and passes it back. She takes care of his three books with ease, picking them up and scanning each in turn. “You’re all set.”

“Thank you!” The kid is still stuffing his ID back into his wallet, but a moment later he’s scooping the books into his arms and is on his merry way.

Amity looks to the right at the line, but to her surprise there’s no one there. Honestly, that’s fine, a little peace and quiet never hurt anyone. Amity sits down on the stools that are provided to them for when things are slow, letting out a small sigh. Her mind starts to wander.

It’s already the start of the second semester of her sophomore year, time really seems to be flying by. It feels like just yesterday that she graduated from high school and set off on her college adventure. Hexside was chosen by her parents of course, with the intention that Amity studies to become a lawyer. Amity resisted the idea at first, but eventually agreed with the compromise that she could also study English. English is a useful topic so her parents reluctantly agreed at the time. Amity didn’t tell them, but she actually has no intention of becoming a layer. With an English degree, she can get a master’s degree and become a librarian. Despite what some people think, books and public libraries are a necessity and Amity wants to do everything she can to keep them available to the public.

So, she’s double majoring in pre-law and English. In all honesty it’s a huge endeavor, but she keeps her parents funding and can also study what she loves. They even pay for a spacious apartment near campus for her, so she was able to get out of the dorms after her first year. The effort is worth the reward, and they still think she’s 100% sold on becoming a lawyer. Emira and Edric are also currently at Hexside as seniors, both have been accepted to prestigious law schools for the fall semester. Amity is proud of them, but it’s just not for her.

That’s another reason why she has this job. She works two to three shifts per week, around 10 hours in total. The money is going straight into a savings account to help pay for her master’s degree. She also takes any spending money her parents give her and deposits it into the same bank account. It’s the only account she has that isn’t joint with them, so it’s the only place her money is truly safe. Eventually her parents will realize what’s going on, and the need to support herself is inevitable.  She could work more if she dropped pre-law as her dual major, but the risk is too great.

This semester she is scheduled to work Saturday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Tuesday evenings. The weekend times are premiere spots for her, and she doesn’t mind one night during the week. Last semester she had Tuesday evenings, Wednesday evenings, and Thursday evenings, so she had to scramble to get work done during the week if it was assigned on a Tuesday and due by Friday. Her situation is much better now, and the library is also extremely quiet on the weekends which gives her more time with the books.

“Hi!” A muffled high pitched voice draws her out of her thoughts. Amity completely missed it, but someone must have walked up to the checkout booth. Her eyes refocus and she finds herself face to face with a stack of books which go nearly up to the top of her head. The voice must have come from behind them.

Amity hastily rises from her stool, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

The person laughs lightheartedly, they definitely sound like a girl, “No worries, I just got here.”

That makes Amity feel a bit better, though she really should have noticed someone bringing over this many books. “Can I get your ID please?”

The girl chirps sure and leans to the right of her books to pass it to her. Amity can see the girl has short brown hair and light brown eyes. The student peers at her from around the books, and when they make eye contact she bursts out giggling, “I can see you.”

The antics are a little immature, but Amity gives her a small smile and reaches out to accept her ID. She scans it and starts to pass it back but hesitates. She retracts her arm to take a quick peek at the front of the ID, not because she’s extremely interested in this kid, it’s just that she’s never seen her before so she must be a new transfer. Surely she’ll be back in the library again with this many books being checked out.

Name: Luz Noceda. Hexside University Student.

Her picture is standard for a Hexside student ID, in bad lighting with a white backdrop. Luz is grinning from ear to ear in her photo, and Amity’s first thought is she’s kind of cute even with such awful lighting. Her second thought it she’s been looking at the ID for over 5 seconds and Luz must think she’s a creep. She passes the ID back without giving it another glance, hoping she didn’t make a bad impression. Luz doesn’t seem to care; she thanks her warmly and disappears again behind the stack of books.

Amity starts to scan the books, pulling them down from the top of the stack and making a new stack to the right of them. Most of the books are quite large, and Luz appears to be checking out 14-15 books. “Do you have a bag to carry these in?”

“Nope!” Luz’s face fully comes into view as she responds. Amity has made it through the first handful of books.

It occurs to Amity that she’s even cuter in person than in her ID photo. Her hair is messy, probably from the wind and cold outside. Her eyes are chocolate brown. They’re wide and inviting. She’s wearing a light purple coat which is zipped up tight, coupled with blue jeans. The purple is an interesting choice, Amity likes it but isn’t bold enough to wear something that bright herself. Amity continues to scan, “if you don’t mind me asking, how are you going to get these home?”

Luz bounces on the balls of her feet a little as she answers, “I’m going to carry them of course! I live in Clawthorne, so it’s only about a 5 minute walk.”

Clawthorne dormitory, the closest dorm to the library and actually where Amity herself lived as a freshman. It’s named after Lilith Clawthorne, a famous researcher who graduated as valedictorian from Hexside in 2000 and dedicated her life to researching a cure to diabetes. The building name was changed in her honor prior to Amity starting at the school, but she has read some of her research papers in her free time.

“Makes sense,” Amity replies though this still seems like a monstrous task even for a 5 minute walk. She is near the bottom of the stack now. She was right, Luz is checking out 15 books in total. The topics seem to vary too, some are on ancient Mesopotamia, some are covering the US civil war, and some are about the biology of birds. Overall seems like a weird spread, but Luz does seem to be eccentric if nothing else. It’s not her business anyway. “I like Clawthorne, I lived there last year.”

Luz nods fervently, “It’s great! It’s super close to the edge of campus, plus in the cafe they have little gummy bears for the ice cream.” Luz pauses and leans in as if she’s about to share a secret, her eyes narrowing. When she speaks, her voice is low and serious. “I make them fight to the death.”

Amity let’s out a short laugh, “I’ve done that too,” she admits. “The red ones seem to be the strongest.”

“I know right?!” Luz straightens her posture and smiles. “Maybe one day yellow will rise to the challenge.”

Amity is on the final book now, so she scans it and places it on top of the pile. “Maybe… Alright, you are all set.”

Luz thanks her and glances towards the door. She squints, “Looks like it’s still snowing.” She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a pair of black earmuffs, and puts them on smoothly, flattening her hair. “Thanks again Amity!” She picks up her precariously balanced book stack and a second later is gone, out the doors and into the cold.

“How did she know my name…?” Amity wonders aloud, then immediately remembers that she’s wearing a name tag. Great going Blight.

Chapter Text

Amity’s next few shifts go by uneventfully with no sign of her new friend. Well, friend might be a stretch; but they are at least acquaintances. Classes for the semester start that Monday and Amity puts her focus into getting off to a good start. There’s no sign of Luz at her Tuesday shift, and just as Amity has put Luz in the back of her mind the girl reappears the following Saturday.

That morning starts like any other. Amity is placing returned books back onto shelves all across the second floor. As she pushes a cart filled with books through the rows of bookshelves, she notices Luz intensely searching in the biology section. She pauses for a moment, too curious to keep going. The eager teen appears to be looking for more bird related books. She has two in her arms already and is running her finger along the spine of a third currently sitting on the shelf.

After a few moments Amity pushes the cart away, she’d be morbidly embarrassed if Luz looked up and saw her staring. The two of them have still only interacted the one time, the last thing she wants is to come across as a huge creep to someone she hardly knows. After she takes a few steps Luz is out of sight and out of mind. Amity continues putting books away and finishes her shift out without seeing Luz again.

Over the next few weeks a pattern establishes itself. Luz is there the following Saturday, and then again the Saturday after that. She only comes in the morning; she always brings back every book from the week prior and checks out about 15 new ones. Well, last week she checked out 13 books and this week she checks out 16, but who’s counting. The topics of the books continue to vary wildly, but she does seem to have a few core areas of focus. Amity wonders why someone could possibly need so many books, but the checkout process is only about 60 seconds and she doesn’t have the courage to ask. Instead she makes polite small talk. Outside of a hello and a comment on how cold it is their conversation doesn’t get much further. Amity doesn’t mind, but her curiosity continues to grow.

The two of them met three weeks ago at this point. Amity really hasn’t learned much about Luz and it’s starting to eat away at her. Where did this girl come from? Why is she suddenly coming to the library? Why the interest in seemingly random topics?

These questions and more bubble inside her as she mindlessly checks students out, and before she knows it her shift is done and she’s pulling on her coat and mittens to leave. Thinking about Luz made her shift fly by. It looks just as brutally cold out as normal, and she braces herself by the door before leaving.

The library is quieter than normal that day and Amity hears a faint sound of papers ruffling which draws her attention. The library has an area near the front with a few square tables. Much to Amity’s surprise Luz is sitting at the nearest one. She has her usual stack of books to her right and is rapidly flipping through one. She looks determined, her tongue sticking out ever so slightly. She has a notepad opened to her left with a pen placed on top of it, occasionally picking up the pen to scribble something down.

Amity’s legs start stepping with a will of their own, away from the exit and towards the object of her interest without her permission. She doesn’t want to bother Luz’s studying, and more importantly doesn’t want to say something weird, but here she goes anyway. Her body continues to ignore her and after 10 short steps she’s arrived at her destination.

Her shadow casts over Luz’s textbook, causing the girl to look up. “Oh, hi Amity!!” her face lights up.

Luz remembers her name, a few butterflies flitter in Amity’s stomach at the realization. “You remember me?” is what comes out and she instantly regrets it. Luz obviously remembers her; she just used her name 20 second prior.

Luz seems unbothered by the question, “Of course! I never forget a face.” Luz’s eyes flick from Amity’s head all the way down to her feet, “Are you on your way out?”

Amity realizes she’s still wearing her mittens. Her face heats up slightly as she hastily pulls them off. “I was.” Amity’s eyes are still locked on her mittens and she speaks softer than intended. “I wanted to come say hi.”

Luz shuts the book, her smile growing larger by the second. “Oooooh new friend.” She motions with her right hand to the seat across from her. “Wanna sit?”

Amity glances at her watch, it’s not even 3 PM yet, she can spend a few minutes here. “Sure.” She pulls the chair out in one fluid movement and sits down. The giant stack of books to Luz’s right immediately catches her attention, “I need to know, what brought on your sudden interest in books?”

Amity’s gaze moves from the books back to Luz and she’s surprised to see the girl’s expression has twisted in confusion. “Sudden?” Luz leans back in her chair, “I’ve been coming almost every week since I started here.”

“When did you start?” Amity presses, trying to sound casual as she asks. On the inside though she is sweating. Has she seen Luz before and completely forgotten about her?

“Two years ago!” Luz puffs up her chest as if it’s something to be proud of. “I’m a sophomore. How about you?”

Amity’s head spins, so Luz isn’t new to the library. Is she really that unobservant? She realizes Luz is still waiting for her response. “I’m also a sophomore. I’ve worked here the whole time. Prior to a few weeks ago I’ve never seen you here.” Amity winces as she can tell her tone sounds accusatory.

Instead of being offended, Luz’s expression turns thoughtful. “I could say the same for you. I always come on Saturday mornings, but I’ve never seen you here before either. Weirddddd.” Luz shrugs. “Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. I like your hair by the way.”

“Thanks, I dye it myself.” Amity raises one hand to her hair self-consciously, she knows that her brown roots are already starting to show beneath her painstakingly died green.

Wait, she’s getting off topic. The feeling that she’s missing something is like a bad itch that needs to be scratched. Saturday mornings… and then it dawns on her. Last semester she only worked during the week, has she ever had a Saturday shift? Amity thinks back.

Nope, she hasn’t. Luz is still looking at her, waiting for her to say something. Amity decides to let it go, “So you’ve been checking out this many books a week for 2 years? If you don’t mind me asking, what are they for?” Amity motions to the stack on the table, “You seem to go through quite a few.”

“They’re for my classes.” Luz holds up the one she was reading previously. The cover reads The History of Flamingos. “This one is for Ornithology 101.” Luz motions to her other books, “Some of them are for Ornithology and the rest are for other classes.”

Amity recognizes a few of the book topics as ones she has seen previously, but also sees a couple new ones as well. “How many classes are you taking?”

“Just 8.”

“8?!?” Amity tries to keep the shock off her face, but she’s sure she’s failing. Her eyebrows rise and her jaw drops, 8 classes in one semester would be a devastating workload.

Luz is completely unaffected by her reaction. “Yeah, Eda says it’s a bit much but there’s no time like the present right!”

“I don’t know; how do you handle that?” The shock quickly fades, and Amity is left with the strong feeling of being impressed. Luz came across as a bit carefree, but maybe she’s a serious student after all.

Luz starts to shrug, but before she can answer a loud noise blares from somewhere close.

F is for friends who do stuff together.

U is for you and meeee.

N is for…

It takes a moment, but Amity realizes the noise is coming from Luz. The teen is fishing through her pockets, and as she produces her phone the song gets louder. Luz has a classic smart phone, and the song mercifully stops when she answers.

“Hello?” Luz stands up as she answers. She takes a few steps towards the door, trying to be considerate of the other students sitting at the nearby tables. She’s not quiet, however, and Amity can still hear her even from a distance.

“Oh no!” Her lips turn down in a pout. “You can’t convince him?” Luz listens for a few seconds. “Yeahhhh…. Okay.” Her eyes flick back to the table where Amity is sitting. Her brown eyes light up. “I have a great idea!!! One second.”

Luz half skips back over to the table, the phone lowered to her side for the moment. “Hey Amity, are you busy tonight?”

“Excuse me?” For what must be the third or fourth time, but who’s counting, Amity is surprised by the girl in front of her. A hot blush sneaks up her cheeks, is Luz asking her out? They’ve only just met; this is way too fast. They should at least spend longer than 5 minutes together first. Amity hardly know anything about her.

Luz doesn’t seem to notice her discomfort. “Wanna go to the basketball game tonight?”

The questions snaps Amity back to reality. “Basketball?”

“Yeah!” Luz nods fervently. “Vs Glandus, tonight at the Bump Center. A friend of mine can’t make it and we have an extra ticket; do you want to come?”

We, so it’s a group of people. Amity was overthinking things again, like she always does. Luz is much more impulsive than she’s used to, but this is an opportunity to make new friends. All she has tonight is homework anyway and it can wait until tomorrow.

“Sure, why not.”

Chapter Text

The game starts at 4 PM, so Amity offers to help Luz carry her library books back to her dorm room. She’s overjoyed at the offer, and the trek to Clawthorne dorm is a quick one. Luz rambles the whole way there.

Amity learns that Luz won the basketball tickets last week from a random student raffle. She and her two friends planned to go tonight, but at the last minute one of her friends named Gus had a big project and test come up that Monday and cancelled on them at the last minute. Amity thinks to herself that Gus probably should have known ahead of time he had schoolwork, but she keeps that thought to herself.

That conversation takes them to the front steps of the dorm and Luz leads them to her dorm room to drop off the books. They spend only a couple of minutes there.

Before they can go, Luz digs up Hexside gear for both of them, a hat for herself and a foam finger for Amity. Amity tried to refuse the foam finger, but Luz insists, “We have to show our school spirit so they can crush Glandus!”

Amity finally relents; she finds Luz’s genuine sincerity to be quite persuasive.

After that they start the trek to the Bump Center. The Bump Center is the basketball arena for the school. It’s located near the center of campus and is about a 10 minute walk from the north side where they are currently. Luz picks right back up on their conversation when they step out into the cold.

Her friend Gus is only 17 years old and graduated from high school 2 years early. He went to school with her other friend, who they are meeting at the game. Luz met them as a freshman, since she roomed with their other friend and met Gus through her. They’ve been best buddies ever since.

It’s a nice story, and Amity makes sure to keep up the small talk and ask a few follow up questions as they walk. Where did Luz live last year? (The Knee and it was so far away and AWFUL.) Does she go to basketball games often? (Not really, just when they get free tickets.) How many friends are meeting them exactly? (Just the one!)

Before she knows it, they’ve arrived. Amity honestly hasn’t been inside of the Bump Center before. She visited it as a freshman when she was first getting a tour of campus, but hasn’t felt much of an urge to attend any of the sporting events.

That’s not to say she isn’t competitive, but she’s more of a player than a watcher.

Luz produces two tickets out of her pocket as they approach the entrance. “Gus was supposed to meet up with me out here, so I guess we got lucky.” She passes one to Amity.

The two get their tickets scanned and enter without any trouble or interruption. Amity glances at the ticket and notes they are in the upper bleacher seats. Makes sense for free tickets.

Luz stops beside her, and when Amity looks over she’s squinting at her ticket and also looking around, probably trying to figure out where they’re supposed to go. Amity looks as well, trying to locate a nearby staircase.

“Oh, I see it!” Luz exclaims. She touches Amity on the elbow lightly and points to the right. About 100 feet away there’s an escalator going up.

The two walk over and after a little more confusion on the next story finally reach their seats. Luz leads the way once they enter the arena, pointing eagerly to where her friend is sitting. “Willow beat us, come on let’s go!”

Willow… the name sends a sinking feeling into Amity’s stomach. She pushes the thought aside, Willow isn’t exactly a common name, but surely there’s more than one out there. The chance that this girl is the same… the thought dies in her head as she finally gets a good look at Luz’s friend.

She’s definitely the same Willow. Her dark green hair is longer than Amity remembers it, but her expression is just as kind and soft, and she looks just as nervous as she did when they were kids. Luz is in front of Amity and greets her friend warmly. They chat for a moment, then Luz motions widely over her shoulder, “This is Amity! She’s the friend I was telling you about on the phone.”

Willow leans forward in her seat to peek around Luz, and when their eyes meet hers widen in shock. Amity swallows deeply and breaks the eye contact immediately, a rush of dread weighing down on her. This is just her luck.

Luz is oblivious and sits down in the seat to Willow’s left, patting the seat on her left for Amity to sit in. She hesitates though, and finally spares a glance back at Willow. The green haired girl has diverted her gaze to Luz, who in turn is still waiting for Amity to sit. Willow looks back at Amity, and now her expression isn’t surprised, just a little sad. “Hi Amity. Nice to meet you.” Her voice comes out quiet, Amity can barely hear her over the roar of the basketball arena.

Amity’s feeling of dread lightens, but only slightly. It seems they’re going to keep their past between them for now. Amity finally sits, was it really a good idea for her to come here?

The basketball game is just getting started and the time clock reads 15 minutes remaining in the first half. Hexside has taken an early leave and is up by 8 points. Amity can barely focus on the game, her thoughts trapped with the girl two seats to her right.

If she were Willow right now, she wouldn’t have just turned the other way. She would have punched her and screamed for what she did. Willow is, of course, a better person than Amity which is why she did the exact opposite.

Amity remembers what happened as if it were yesterday. She and Willow were inseparable in elementary school and middle school. They were best friends. Everything was great until her 12^th birthday party. Her parents had sent out their own invitations, but Amity also invited Willow. She deserved to be there! Her parents told her that day Willow was not a permissible friend, due to status and wealth. Amity argued with them of course, but when they threatened to ostracize Willow’s parents and her from the local community Amity had no choice but to cut ties with her.

Well it seemed like she had no choice at the time anyway. She rejected Willow that afternoon, told her that their friendship was over and Willow meant nothing to her. It was all lies and watching Willow cry was the most painful thing Amity had experienced in her life.

Things sort of spiraled out of control at that point. Amity’s new ‘assigned’ friends never liked Willow, and they took every opportunity to bully her. They threw gum at her, called her names like four-eyes and half a plant Willow, and made the rest of middle school and high school a living nightmare for her. Amity just stood by and watched.

It’s something she still regrets to this day. Amity wants to become stronger. That’s part of why she’s in college, to gain strength to be able to stand up to her parents. It’s about five years sooner than when she wanted to see Willow again though.

Willow’s attention is on the basketball game so Amity decides she should probably also pay attention.  Hexside’s lead has dwindled down to 2 measly points and they’re currently playing defense. Number 5 for Hexside illegally screens the shooter and the referee blows the whistle a second later.

“Wait, what happened?” Luz is confused, her head turned towards Willow, “Did you see it?”

Amity speaks without thinking, “It was a foul. Illegal screening.” Amity points, “Number 5.”

Luz’s gaze snaps to her, eyes wide in wonder, “That’s amazing!! Are you big into basketball?” Luz is leaning in towards her now.

Amity thinks about it for a moment and shrugs, “I guess? I played in high school.” Her eyes flick back to the court as she continues, “I don’t really play anymore.”

“That’s too bad,” Luz sounds bummed, “You probably looked super cool playing basketball!”

The comment strikes as a little odd to Amity, and she decides after a moment it’s probably a compliment.

Luz changes back to her original topic without lingering on what she said, “So, what’s an illegal screening?” Luz pauses for a moment, “Like, I know what screening is, but what makes it illegal?”

Ohhhh, she wants to know about basketball. Amity leans back in her bleacher seat, this is a topic she’s quite familiar with. “Okay, so in basketball you can screen someone and that’s perfectly fine, but you have to be still when you are completing the screen.”

“You can’t move?”

“No, well, you can move before and after the screen but when you’re doing the screening or blocking itself you have to be still. If you’re moving too much that’s what makes it illegal.” Amity hopes that explanation makes sense, it’s really the only way to explain it.

Luz nods thoughtfully, “So it’s like red light, green light? You can move when it’s green light but then when you are screening it’s red light and you can’t move, right?”

“Sure, that sounds about right.” It’s not a perfect analogy but she seems to get the point. The teams have moved on in front of them, Glandus pulling ahead by shooting a 3 pointer.

“Do you think we have a chance to win?” Luz asks.

Amity ponders on the question. She occasionally catches the games on TV and follows them in the tournament if they make it. Their team is about average, no real stars to speak of.

Glandus is pretty similar in ability, but if you listen to the trash talk between them you’ll think they’re both championship level teams. It’s a fun rivalry but doesn’t go much further than a few cities in each direction. Amity realizes Luz is still waiting for her to answer. “I’d say it’s about 50/50.”

“I’ll take those odds!” She’s surprisingly happy with that. “I just had an idea!” Luz turns towards Willow. “Do you know what would be a great sport?”

“What?” Willow asks with a tint of humor in her voice. She looks over at her friend, avoiding looking past her to where Amity is sitting.

“Drumroll please.” Luz does a short drumroll on her lap with her hands. Willow smiles and joins in after a moment. “Bassetball!!! Basset hounds playing basketball. Sounds cute, right?”

“I don’t know.” Willow hesitates, “How will they dribble and shoot the ball into the basket?”

“With their cute long snouts of course!” Luz turns to examine the players on the field as if it will help her come up with a supporting idea. “The ball could be a bit smaller, I guess. So they can dribble it properly.”

Amity tries to picture it and the image brings a smile to her lips. Long short dogs with long noses running up and down a basketball court. “It would be a better game than this one.”

“Yessssss, same page.” Luz is overjoyed and gives her a toothy grin.

The buzzer rings for halftime. Luz drags Amity to the food court to get some hot dogs. Upon returning they settle back in to watch the game, and before Amity knows it the clock is ticking down on the final 30 seconds. Hexside is miraculously up by 12 points. Luz is funnily on the edge of her seat, closely watching the final moments.

A Hexside player just got fouled, and now they’re shooting free throws. He makes the second and misses the first. Glandus gets the ball back with 9 seconds. They start the play, but hardly have time to cross the court before the buzzer rings, signaling the end of the game.

A few pieces of confetti fly in front of Amity’s face, Wait… confetti? Amity blinks in surprise. She glances right and realizes the source is her new friend. Luz throws another handful in the air and giggles, “Gooooooo Hexside!!”

They leave the stadium without difficulty and start walking back to the north side of campus. Amity learns that Willow and Luz are roommates. Amity’s apartment is off campus to the north so it’s not much further than where they live. Amity walks with them back to Clawthorne. Luz fills the time with conversation about the basketball game, animatedly re-creating her favorite moments from the event.

Amity reflects on her evening as they walk. She’s glad that she came, the basketball game was a lot of fun and even though running into Willow was awkward, she is making a new friend.

Luz visits the library with pretty frequent consistency, but Amity wonders if she should ask Luz for her number. Then, if another game or similar comes up they can connect that way. Amity doesn’t have many friends, so it feels nice to actually make one. Maybe she can find a way to make it up to Willow too, if things work out.

Amity’s so lost in thought that she misses them arriving at the dorm. Luz turns to her with a wide grin, “Thanks for coming!!! Have a great night!” Without waiting for a response she turns and skips up the front steps to the building.

Willow follows her wordlessly, sparing a glance at Amity over her shoulder as she goes.

Amity watches them enter the building, and when the door swings shut, she turns to walk home. Three steps in and she realizes she completely forgot to ask for Luz’s number.

Great going Blight.

Chapter Text

The following Saturday is a special day, arguably the most important of the year. Bonesborough Comic-Con is an annual event in the city of Bonesborough and it boasts an average of 8,000 attendees. Amity grew up about an hour away, so though she couldn’t attend while she was in high school she attended for the first time last year.

The convention features panels, gaming, cosplay contests, local artists, and resellers of merchandise. Many attendees dress up in costume for the most popular games and comics. They also feature rare card packs for popular games and host tournaments to give them out as prizes.

Seriously, it’s the best day of the year. It’s the only time Amity ever worries about missing a shift. This year she asks another student to swap with her and works on Thursday night of that week in order to get Saturday off. She also stays up late Friday night getting a head start on assignments due on Monday, that way she can finish them up on Sunday but won’t need to stress. Overall, she’s excited and feeling good about it.

Amity didn’t cosplay last year since it was her first time attending. This year she’s feeling a bit more bold but is still not ready to go all out. She opts for a The Good Witch Azura t-shirt and decides that is good enough to show her support.

She travels to the Bonesborough Convention Center via bus and arrives as the doors are opening around 8 AM. She waits in a short line for her badge and also receives a schedule. She had checked the schedule online the previous night and hustles to get to a panel starting at 9:30 AM.  Even though some panels can be silly, they are Amity’s favorite part of conventions.

She attends a couple more panels and then spends some time walking around the convention. She loves to see all the cosplayers, especially those dressed as Azura. She asks for pictures from a couple of her favorites, but after a short while her stomach grumbles from hunger.

She had grabbed an apple on her way out that morning, but that wasn’t enough apparently. She’s not quite ready to stop people watching, but can’t ignore the call of her stomach and heads to the food court. The most important panel of the day is coming up in about an hour, so she wants to be fully alert and ready anyway.

The food available for purchase is pretty simple. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers, and likewise. There’s also a salad shop and one that sells wraps. Amity gets in line for a salad, it seems a bit shorter and it’s always good to try and be healthy. As she waits, she notices someone a few spots ahead of her in line. They are also waiting, but the reason they stand out is because they’re dressed perfectly as Azura. They have the dress, white hat, and even a perfect replica of Azura’s shoes which are only mentioned a sparse number of times in the books. The only thing they’re missing is the green wig, but that is forgivable.

Amity’s sure the front of the cosplayer’s outfit is just as impressive as the back. After a few minutes they reach the front of the line, buy a salad, and turn to exit.

She’s right, the front is just as perfect. Her eyes are drawn once again to the shoes, they are spot on. Amity’s eyes move up the outfit and she takes a moment to admire the perfect stitch work. She pans up to the cosplayer’s face, and Amity’s heart drops into her gut as she realizes she should have started at the top. Familiar brown eyes are staring directly at her, an equally recognizable smile to go along with it. Her short brown hair is poking out slightly from under the witch’s hat. Now that their eyes are locked the cosplayer waves and shouts loudly, “Amity!!!”

Luz skips over to her, salad in hand. She doesn’t seem to notice that Amity was more interested in her feet than her face, but Amity is not about to bring it up. Luz stops next to where Amity is waiting in line, so excited that she’s bouncing back and forth between her feet. Amity finds her excitement charming and contagious; she smiles warmly at the eager teen. “Hey Luz.”

“I didn’t know you like The Good Witch Azura!” Luz is clearly referring to her shirt. She stays with her as Amity continues to move up in the line. “Is this your first time coming?”

Amity shakes her head, “I came last year.” She pauses for a moment. “I like your cosplay.”

Luz’s smile gets even brighter at the compliment. “Thank you!” She does a quick spin. “Willow and Gus helped me make it.” She suddenly glances around as if thinking of something, “You’re getting food, right? Let’s eat together, I’ll find a table!”

Before Amity can respond Luz is gone, off in the direction where they have tables to sit at. Amity is nearly up in the line so she finishes waiting and opts to order a small caesar salad. The salad is overpriced, it’s a convention after all, but she pays and pushes through a small crowd of people to try and find Luz.

The witch’s hat is quite tall, so Amity finds her with relative ease. She’s sitting at a large circle table. Most seats are occupied by people Amity doesn’t know but Luz has a seat to her right which she appears to be holding. Luz waves upon spotting her, signaling to the open seat.

Once seated, Amity digs into her salad. She pulls out her phone to check the time and notes she has 45 minutes until the next panel starts.

Luz is eating as well and notices her checking her phone. “Are you going to the Q and A panel for Azura at 2:00?” Amity nods so Luz continues talking. “I’m so excited!! The creator being here is why I put this outfit together. I hope she notices me.” Luz’s eyes suddenly snap from her salad to Amity. “Don’t you normally work in the library on Saturday?”

“Yeah.” Amity responds between bites of her food, “I traded shifts so I could come to this, I didn’t want to miss out.”

“That’s smart!! Isn’t it funny that we’d normally run into each other at the library and instead we’re running into each other here?” Luz laughs.

Amity finds herself laughing as well, “It’s a small world after all I guess.” Amity notices that Luz is done eating now and she’s just waiting for Amity to finish. This is a good chance to get to know her better. “So Luz, do you like comics, or are you just into The Good Witch Azura?”

Luz answers enthusiastically that she loves comics and lists a few that she enjoys. Amity has heard of some of them and points out which ones she likes as well. The conversation flows easily between them, but with only 30 minutes on the clock until the start of the Q and A panel Amity wraps up her salad and mentions to Luz that they should head to the panel room. She agrees and the two head that way together to wait in line for entry.

The Good Witch Azura is a popular series, so it’s no surprise that there are a few hundred people lining up to enter the panel room. Luz and Amity arrive early enough to be somewhere in the second group of 100, but Amity is a little saddened realizing they will be towards the middle of the room and not near the front. The line starts entering about 10 minutes prior to the start of the panel, and after a few minutes Amity finds herself a seat. She’s right where she expected, about 10 rows deep with each row having about 20 seats. It’s not too far back in the grand scheme of things. She can see the front pretty well, though the author isn’t up there yet. Luz takes her hat off and holds it in her lap so she won’t block the view of the people sitting behind them.

Luz starts talking again next to her, this time about her favorite Azura book and what she likes about it. Amity chats with her, noticing once again that words come to her easily with Luz. The girl is warm and kind, she’s easy to talk to.

They’re cut off this time by the starting of the panel. In all honesty it goes by in a blur for Amity. She is engaged from start to finish, listening to stories of the writing process and also hearing inside jokes and easter eggs which were planted in the books. Luz gets to ask her question as well. Amity isn’t surprised when she asks about some obscure reference in a later book. The author answers it with ease and thanks her for paying such close attention to her story.

It’s over far too soon, so Amity gathers her belongings and heads into the hallway. Luz is right on her heels and she’s got stars in her eyes, “That was amazing!”

Amity agrees, it’s definitely the highlight of the weekend. She wants to head to the shops next. This could be a good time to part ways with Luz, but Amity feels a twinge of disappointment at the thought. She’s having fun and not ready to say goodbye yet. She invites Luz to go to the vendors with her and Luz happily agrees.

Amity feels an unusual sense of relief from Luz’s response, and the two pick up their conversation again as they walk to the shops. They also talk about what they’re looking to buy. Luz wants an Azura figure to go in her room. A small one which can fit on top of a bookshelf. Amity is looking for some art to possibly put up on her walls.

They reach the shops and start browsing. As they look, they talk about which The Good Witch Azura books they own, and Amity learns she is the only one between the two of them who owns a copy of the limited edition signed copy of The Good Witch Azura 6. It’s the latest book in the series and she waited all night to get it from the local Bonesborough book store. This fact amazes Luz, she had heard about this book but by time she showed up at the store it was already gone.

They’re able to find a figure for Luz quite easily, but the art is harder. They walk through the entire area, and Amity sees a few that she likes. It’s hard to decide though. In the end she asks Luz to pick for her, which the excited cosplayer says she will take the responsibility on with pride. After much consideration Luz decides on a beautiful poster which has a large field and mountain in the background. Azura is standing in the middle of the field with her white and blue staff raised to the sky. The setting is at night, so the stars are twinkling. It has a nice aura, one of calm and quiet.

Amity is impressed with Luz’s intuition, it’s perfect and she buys the largest size.

“I trust your judgement.” Amity tells Luz and they both giggle. The art hunt took well over 2 hours and the day is nearly over. Amity decides she should head home. The convention gets a bit wild at night and she isn’t much of a partier.

Luz seems sad that she’s leaving, “You don’t want to go to the dance?” She pulls out two uncracked glowsticks and waves them back and forth in front of her. “It’s gonna be a blast.”

Where did those even come from? Amity decides that doesn’t matter and shakes her head no, “It’s not really my style. I’ll catch up with you later though.”

“Alrighty then!” Luz accepts the answer easily and is back to her cheery self. “See you!”

She turns to walk away, but Amity feels a sudden urge to stop her. “Hey, Luz?” She calls out softly. Fortunately, Luz hears her and turns back. Amity swallows deeply, “Do you want to come over to my place sometime? To see my signed copy of The Good Witch Azura 6.” She adds the second sentence as a clarification.

Luz’s eyes sparkle similar to how they were after the Q and A, “You have no idea how amazing that would be. I’m in.”

“Ok, great.” Amity pulls her phone out of her pocket, “Should we exchange numbers so we can set up a time later?”

Luz agrees and gets her phone out of her sleeve where she’s been storing it. Maybe that’s where the glowsticks were. The two exchange phones to enter in their information. Amity immediately notices that Luz’s background image on her phone is Azura standing triumphantly over Gildersnake in the most recent film, a pretty suitable choice. Amity enters her name and phone number and passes the phone back to its owner. She receives hers back as well.

With that done, Luz wishes her a good night and disappears into the crowd. Amity heads for the exit, poster in hand. It’s been a long day.

Amity arrives home without much difficulty and has a quick dinner before heading to bed. The poster is put to the side to be dealt with tomorrow. She’s exhausted after being on her feet all day and the summons of her bed can’t be resisted.

Just as her head hits the pillow her phone buzzes and the screen lights up with a new message. Her phone is on her nightstand within arm’s reach, so she picks it up to see who it is.

Luz Noceda

hey!!! it was great hanging with you today!

Amity’s chest warms as she reads the message. Even after spending most of the day with her Luz still wants to talk more. She quickly types back.

Hi! I agree today was a lot of fun

Are you still at the convention?

Amity only waits for about 30 seconds for a response.

yep I’m still here. I’m taking a quick break from the dancing. one sec!

About a minute later a picture pops in. Luz is clearly trying to take a selfie, but the room is dim and all Amity can see is the outline of her smile and what looks to be her fingers in a peace sign to the right of her face. In the background she can see distant glowsticks.

this is what you’re missing out on!

Amity doesn’t have it in her to tell Luz she can barely see anything in the photo.

Maybe next year

I’m gonna hold you to that!!!

It seems like a good stopping point for the conversation. Amity reaches out to place her phone down when it surprises her by buzzing again.

what’s your schedule like on mondays?

me and a few friends eat in clawthorne around 12:30 if you wanna join

if you have class that’s fine too!!!

Does she have class? Amity’s schedule on Monday isn’t too bad, she has an 8 AM, a 10 AM, and then not another class until 3 PM. Typically she goes back to her apartment for lunch and makes food there. Her parents did buy her some meal passes for the semester, so maybe she should go. The idea of making real friends is very appealing, though Willow will probably be there.

Don’t chicken out Blight, this girl is trying to start a friendship and Amity needs to do her part.

I’d love to come

Chapter Text

Amity meets up with Luz for lunch that Monday. As expected, Willow is there, but they exchange limited pleasantries. It doesn’t seem like Willow is going to shun her from the group, but she does keep an eye on her warily. She also gets the chance to meet Gus. His full name is Augustus and he’s a psychology major. He graduated from high school early so he’s on the younger side. He’s just as bubbly, if not bubblier than Luz herself.

The three of them have a good dynamic. Amity feels a bit like an intruder at first, but both Luz and Gus go out of their way to include her in conversation.  By the end of lunch, which is only 30 short minutes due to Luz having another class to get to, she feels much more comfortable.

The next day she has a shift at the library in the evening. Much to her surprise, Luz shows up mid-way through her shift. She’s not checking out any books this time. Per Luz, she’s there to study, but also wanted to stop in and say hi.  They chat at the counter for a couple minutes and then Luz sits down at one of the tables and goes through a stack of flashcards.

Amity gets off around 11:00 PM, and amazingly Luz is still there. She has a laptop open on the table and is typing a paper on it. Amity stops by Luz’s table on her way out. She finds out that Luz is writing a paper for her Essay Writing class, one that Amity took when she was a freshman. The paper is going smoothly, and Amity helps her with a tricky grammar point.

Luz thanks her for the help and returns to working on the paper. Amity knows she should leave, but she’s not quite ready. Her thoughts go back to the convention a few weeks ago and a promise to meet up. Now is a good chance, she could invite her over. Her eyebrows scrunch together. What if Luz is too busy from class? Or what if she offered the meet up without thinking and doesn’t actually want to? Sure, she did invite Amity to lunch, and here she is on the library on a day she’s never come before, but it could just be a coincidence. Amity might be jumping to conclusions a bit too fast, might be picking up on things that aren’t really there.

The clicking sound of typing suddenly stops, and Amity realizes Luz is looking up at her. Her eyes are tinted with worry. It’s probably the first time Amity’s seen her show any emotion other than pure joy. “Are you okay?”

Amity instantly feels bad that she made Luz worry. “Oh, yeah!! Sorry, I was just thinking.” She scratches the back of her neck as a nervous blush rises to her cheeks. Now that she has Luz’s attention, she may as well ask. “I was just wondering if you had plans this Saturday? In the afternoon.”

Luz picks up her cell phone from where it’s sitting to the right of her laptop. “I don’t think I have anything. Let me see if Willow messaged about then.” She taps the screen a few times. “I’m free, why?” Luz expression perks up, “Wanna hang out?”

Amity clears her throat, willing her still growing blush to reverse itself. “Uh, yeah if you want. On Saturday you mentioned wanting to see my limited edition book. Do you want to come over to see it? We could also study or read or whatever, then grab a bite after.”

“Sure, sounds fun!” Luz agrees easily, “How about 4:00?”

“4:00 is great.” All of Amity’s anxiety drains away. She was worried for nothing. She wishes Luz a nice evening and says she’ll see her Saturday.

The rest of the week flies by and Saturday arrives in a flash. It’s 3:40 PM and Amity is frantically cleaning her place. It’s not like her apartment is dirty, but she wants to make a good impression. She’s already finished putting away all of the dishes and now she’s dusting on top of her television and bookshelves.

The Blight family spared no expense with her apartment. It’s close to campus, has a spacious living area, full kitchen, large bedroom and a decently sized bathroom. Amity disagrees with her parents on many things, but she admits that it’s a nice living arrangement. They also deposit $500 into her joint bank account with them each month so she can buy food and other necessities. If she sees them in person they’ll typically give her cash if she asks as long as she can present a solid reason as to why she needs it. Outside of that, she works hard to spend as little of the money they give her as possible. She typically visits the ATM on the weekend, withdraws $20-$50, and deposits it into her personal bank account. She’s careful to keep the account below $1,000, since if it goes over that amount her parents deposit less, assuming she just didn’t buy as much the previous month.

It’s not an optimal arrangement, but it works for now. The apartment is a lot of space to keep clean though. Once Amity is done dusting, she grabs the vacuum out of the closet. The microwave clock reads 3:50, so she has about 10 minutes.

One minute later her doorbell rings. Amity barely hears it over the roar of her vacuum, and she wonders if she imagined it. She unplugs the vacuum cord anyway and wraps it up, tucking it back into her closet.

She peeks through the peephole in her door and sure enough, Luz is early. She has something cradled in her hands, but Amity can’t tell what it is. Amity opens the door and welcomes her inside with a polite greeting. Luz is dressed cutely, wearing her black earmuffs and purple coat.

Before doing anything, Luz pushes the box in her arms into Amity’s hands. Amity looks down and takes a good look. It’s a box of store bought chocolate chip cookies. They’re standard but Amity appreciates the gesture.

“For you!” Luz smiles at her. She unzips her coat and pulls off her earmuffs. “Where should I put this?” She pulls her coat off as she asks, glancing around the entryway.

Amity moves to the kitchen area and places the cookies down on the table before returning to Luz by the door. “Here, I can take that.” She takes Luz’s belongings and hangs them up in the closet next to the door. “Thank you for the cookies.” Amity says politely as she returns to kitchen counter and opens the box. “I know it’s already late in the afternoon, but I feel like we have to try them.”

Luz walks over to join her, “I’m game.”

With that encouragement, Amity reaches in and tries a cookie. Luz takes one as well. It’s pretty good, about what she expected. She gives Luz a quick tour of her apartment, there are only a handful of rooms, and the two of them end up in her room sitting on her bed. Amity keeps most of her fiction books in there, and she pulls out the reason that she invited Luz over.

The Good Witch Azura 6, limited edition and signed by the author. It’s even more amazing given that they saw her at the convention a week prior. She keeps the book in a clear book cover and also has a page protector over the signature which is on page 1. It’s one of her most prized possessions and Luz’s eyes are as wide as saucers when she holds it. She handles the book gingerly and after reading the signature page passes it back slowly.

Amity puts the book away and returns to sitting on the bed. Luz has a thoughtful expression on her face, more so than usual. “Can I ask you a question?”

Her tone is serious, and it makes Amity a little nervous. “Sure.”

Luz’s joins her hands together in front of her. Her expression matches how Amity is feeling. “What’s your major?”

Oh, that’s it? Amity feels a lot better. “I’m dual majoring actually, in English and pre-law.”

“That’s really cool!” Luz still seems nervous, but it has lessened. “How did you decide on those?”

That’s an interesting question. Maybe she’s having doubts about her own major and that’s why she’s asking. Amity isn’t always honest when answering this question, but even though it’s only been a couple weeks she feels like she can trust Luz. “My parents chose one, and I chose the other.”

Luz seems intrigued by that answer, “Oooh, let me guess. You chose English, am I right?”

Amity’s impressed, this girl has figured her out so fast. “You’re spot on.”

Luz celebrates with a loud whoop and a fist pump. “I knew it!”

They both laugh and Amity continues to smile. She hasn’t smiled so easily in a long time. “What about you, what’s your major? With the heavy class load you must be trying to graduate early.”

Luz’s smile lessons at the question. “Well… you see…” her mouth at this point has curved down to a slight frown. “I’m currently undecided. And before you ask, the reason I’m taking so many classes is so I can try to decide.” Luz’s eyes are down at her hands, but she looks up to make eye contact with Amity as she continues. “Can you recommend one to me?” Her question sounds hopeful.

“A major?” Amity needs to make sure. Luz nods.

It’s a serious question, so Amity decides to give it some thought. From the couple weeks of spending time together, she knows that Luz is spontaneous and fun loving. She likes animals, and also reading and writing. She’s also kind and cares about her friends. It’s not really enough to go on though. “What are you passionate about?”

Luz’s face scrunches up as she thinks about it. “I don’t know, adventure I guess.”

Amity smiles at the answer and shrugs, “You can’t major in adventure.”

“I know, it’s so sad.” Luz unjoins her hands and puts them behind her back so she can lean against the bed. “Eda, my college advisor, has been helping me decide, but it’s so hard. Once you pick, that’s it, that’s what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.” Luz seems to be shrinking into the bed as she continues, “I’m not ready.”

Amity wants to place her hand on Luz’s leg in an attempt to comfort her, but she hesitates. She’s not sure how Luz would react. She opts to keep her hand in place. “Well, the good news is that just because you major in something doesn’t mean you’re trapped there. You can always do something else.” Her words seem to cheer Luz up slightly and the dark haired teen grants her a small smile. “You still have plenty of time to decide. How about we get some food for now?”

Luz agrees, and the moment has passed. The two of them gather their coats and bundle up. They decide to go on campus to eat at Clawthorne since it’s the closest cafeteria and where Luz lives. It’s another bitter cold night and snow flurries around them as they walk.

There’s a bridge at the edge of campus. It goes over a river which is about 20 feet wide. Amity walks over the bridge every morning and every evening, and to be honest she hasn’t thought too much about it. They reach this bridge after 2 minutes of walking and Luz strangely stops right in front of it.

Amity takes an additional step before stopping as well. She turns to ask Luz what’s up and sees her new friend grinning from ear to ear.

“You know what would be fun?” Luz waggles her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion, looking more and more mischievous by the second.

Amity knows she has to ask, “What?”

Luz points at the bridge but her finger is aimed lower, nearly at the ground. “We should cross the river on the ice.”

The two of them have been pretty aligned on interests so far, but Amity’s not sure she’d constitute that as fun. “Cross on the river? Instead of the bridge?” Amity confusion grows when Luz nods earnestly in response. “Why?”

“For fun, of course!” Luz is happy to explain. “It’s completely frozen over right now. I’ve always wanted to try it, haven’t you?”

In truth, it’s never occurred to Amity to take any route other than the bridge to cross the river. Luz is right, the temperature has been around 0 degrees Fahrenheit for the past month and it’s not warming up any time soon. The river is surely quite frozen. It’s not something her parents would approve of. On second thought, that actually makes it more appealing. “Sure, let’s go for it.”

Luz squeals in delight and grabs Amity’s hand, pulling her to the left so they can go down to the river. They’re both wearing mittens so Amity can’t feel her touch, but it’s the first time they’ve held hands and she’d be blushing if it weren’t so dang cold.

Luz pulls her along and they step onto the river. The snow covers the ice, but any of Amity’s lingering concerns vanish when she feels how solid the ground is. She lets herself be pulled across, Luz laughing and cheering the whole way. They reach the other side and walk up the grass back to the sidewalk. Luz glances over her shoulder and their eyes meet. “Did you have fun?”

Amity smiles, “Yeah, I did,” and she’s not lying. “That’s not something I ever would have done on my own.”

Luz stops in her tracks and spins around, releasing Amity’s hand as she does so. “Well Ms. Blight, you need to start thinking outside of the box a little more.” She follows up by reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handful of confetti which she promptly throws in Amity’s face, “You did it, and that’s amazing!”

“Only because of you,” Amity is feeling emotional, something new welling up within her, “Thank you Luz.”

Luz simply smiles warmly at her, before turning and continuing the trek campus.

Amity takes a couple quick steps so they’re walking side by side. “I need to know; do you always have confetti?”

The answer, of course, is yes.

Chapter Text

Amity and Luz text more that night, and then multiple times over the following week. Luz likes to wish her a good morning and it’s always accompanied by three or four cute smiley emojis. Amity feels a rush of joy when she receives a message, and she always makes sure to respond in a timely manner. They have lunch again that Wednesday, and Luz asks if she wants to hang out Friday night.

Amity asks what she has in mind, and Luz asks if Amity can show her the ropes in basketball. She remembers that Amity mentioned playing back in high school and wants to ‘learn some sick moves.’

Amity hasn’t played basketball in quite some time, but it does sound fun so they set a time for Friday after class. The college campus has a couple sports centers, and the two of them agree to meet up at the one in the north. Amity packs a t-shirt and shorts to change into and it seems like it’ll be a fun time.

When she arrives, Luz has already changed and is dribbling a basketball up and down the court. A few other people are using the net on the right side of the court, so she occupies the left. Amity changes in the locker room and when she gets back starts to do a few warmup stretches. Luz is still dribbling, and she bounces the ball as she walks in wide circles around Amity. The green haired teen draws her right arm across her chest, then switches to the left, one eye on Luz as she stretches.

Luz is wearing blue shorts and a black tank top. She’s looking extra cute and has a black headband on coupled with sweatbands on her wrists. Amity mentally pauses, extra cute is kind of a weird thought, has she thought of Luz as cute before? She can’t remember.

As she watches Luz dribble, she has a mischievous idea, “So, how do you play this sport anyway?”

Luz catches the ball and turns towards her, “Aren’t you going to teach me?” Luz points at Amity and then at herself as she speaks.

“We’re playing Bassetball, right?” Amity tries to keep a straight face.

“Oh! I thought we were playing Basketball; I must have misread the texts. Did you bring the basset hounds?” Luz glances around. “I don’t see them.”

Amity can’t hold it any longer and her lips turn up in a smile. “I’m just yanking your chain Luz.”

Luz pauses for a moment, and then breaks out giggling, “Ohh, I gotcha. That would be cool though, I’d love to see that.”

Amity agrees good naturedly with a, “maybe next time,” and continues stretching. Once complete, she motions for Luz to pass her the ball and dribbles to the free throw line. She jumps lightly, takes her shot, and feels a sense of satisfaction when the ball drops cleanly through the net. She walks over to retrieve the ball, and when she turns back to Luz the excited teen looks amazed with stars in her eyes.

“How’d you do that?” She runs over to stand with Amity under the net.

Amity walks back to the free throw line as she replies, “Practice. I’ve shot from that line more times than I can count.”

Luz clenches her right hand in a fist and holds it close to her side, “I’ll practice as much as it takes!!”

Amity laughs and smiles at her enthusiasm, “The first step is good form, then you just repeat that until it’s subconscious.” Amity passes Luz the ball. “I might be getting ahead of myself, lets see what you can do.”

“Okay!” Luz jogs to the free throw line. She mimics Amity’s pose and holds the ball up in front of her face. She bends her legs and then stands up, shooting the ball. It has pretty good trajectory, but it is slightly too high and hits off the backboard, bouncing to the right. Luz chases after the ball and returns within seconds.

Amity watches her shoot a few more, a couple go in, but most hit the backboard in similar fashion.

Amity’s super rusty, but it’s clear to her what Luz is doing wrong. Amity stops her before she makes her next shot. “Two things. First, try bringing your left foot back so it’s about an inch behind your right foot. Second, bring your right hand down lower on the ball, if you can get a little more arc it should go in more often.”

“Okay,” Luz’s face scrunches up in thought. She looks down at her feet and slides her left foot back as instructed. She raises the ball up and squints at it closely. She shifts her right hand down about half an inch and looks over at Amity. “How’s this?”

She’s nearly there. Amity steps closer and places her fingers gently on the back of Luz’s right hand. She places her other hand on the ball and guides Luz’s hand to the left and further down ever so slightly. “This is where you want to be.” Amity speaks softly. Luz’s skin feels soft under her fingertips, and she lingers there for a second longer. It’s a nice feeling, though her ears start to burn when she realizes that she’s been standing there for a bit too long. It’s probably been 5 seconds at the longest, but to Amity it feels like a lifetime. She draws her hands away, trying not to disturb Luz’s stance. “Go ahead.” She steps back to give Luz room to shoot.

Luz shoots the ball, and it swooshes right though the net, a perfect shot.

“Yes!!!” Luz leaps for joy and throws her arms around Amity’s shoulders in a bear hug. “Thank you, thank you!”

Amity’s blush which was still lingering in her ears spreads to her cheeks at the contact. She catches a whiff of Luz’s scent from how close they are, and even though they’re both sweaty she finds herself drawn to it. Her mind goes completely blank as she’s lost in the warmth of Luz’s hug.

Luz releases her after a moment and bounds after the ball. Amity shakes her head to clear her thoughts, her body had betrayed her in a way she wasn’t quite prepared for. What’s up with that?

Luz is unaffected and returns to the free throw line. She pauses, readies her stance, and shoots again. The ball goes in again leading to further celebration.

The two of them transition to shooting 3 point shots next and shooting from random angles. When they part ways Amity is on an endorphin high. She enjoyed their time and is looking forward to seeing Luz again as soon as possible.

Amity does see Luz the next morning, and her eager friend invites her to hang out after work, but she sadly has to turn her down. She already has plans.

Once her shift ends Amity crosses the river, this time using the bridge, and goes to a local coffee shop just off campus. She gets in line for drinks upon arrival and orders a coffee and a chai tea latte. The coffee is for herself, which she drinks with one cream and one sugar. The chai tea latte is for the person meeting her. She’s about 20 minutes early, so she picks a table in the back corner and opens her laptop. She has a paper due early next week and needs to spend every free second trying to get it done.

She types a few words, then is distracted by the bells ringing at the front door. It goes off every time someone enters or exits. Her eyes flick to the front door, but it’s just a random college aged boy entering. Not who she’s waiting for. She continues working, though for the next 15 minutes she continues to glance nervously towards the door each time it opens. Due to this progress on her paper is slow and minutes seem to stretch into hours as she waits.

Her wait eventually pays off but seeing her walk in only increases her nerves. She can hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears and tries to stop her hands from shaking as she raises her right hand to wave her friend over. Well, friend might be a stretch. Hopefully by the end of this conversation she can use that word comfortably.

Her ‘friend’ spots her easily and walks over to the table. Her mouth is pressed in a flat line, eyebrows brought together lightly in worry. Seeing her also anxious makes Amity feel a bit better. She motions for the girl to sit and pushes the chai tea latte towards her. “Hey Willow. Thanks for meeting me.”

Willow sits and picks up the drink with a quiet thank you. She brings it up to her lips and takes a short sip. She places the cup down, and for what must be the first time in years gives Amity a small smile. “You remembered.”

“I could never forget,” Amity thinks carefully about what she wants to say next. “I’m going to get right into it.” She takes a drink of her coffee, hoping it will bring her courage. “What I did to you back in grade school is inexcusable. I threw you to the side because of what my parents wanted, and then I didn’t have the courage to stop my friends from bullying you. I’m sorry.”

Willow doesn’t respond right away. She picks up the chai tea latte in both hands and stares at it. She blinks, then glances up at Amity. “You know, back in the 9^th grade I vowed to never forgive you. Boscha and her crew picked on me every day, and you sat by and watched. Why should I forgive you after that?”

That’s a great question. Amity tries her best to maintain eye contact as she responds. “I can’t undo what I’ve done, but I’m not the same person that I was back then.” Amity pauses for just a moment. “I don’t live under my parents thumb anymore, they don’t choose my friends and they never will again.”

“Aren’t you majoring in pre-law?” Willow’s criticism cuts deep and Amity winces at the question.

“Touché,” Amity plays it off, “I am definitely responsible for my actions, I’m not pushing all of the blame on my parents. I am doing everything I can to free myself from them.” Amity pauses to sip her coffee. “Believe me, I have no intention of becoming a lawyer.”

Willow smiles at her for the second time that day, “I’m glad you’re finding your own path.” She leans back in her seat, “I know it wasn’t all you back then, but I held you responsible.”

“I was pretty awful,” Amity admits, “I want to make it up to you. Can we be friends again?”

“2 years ago me would have told you no.” Willow pauses, giving Amity a long look. “Buttttt, Luz would forgive you, so I will too.” Willow takes a long sip of her drink, “The chai tea latte helps.”

They both smile and Amity feels like it’s a positive step forward. What was she so worried about in the first place anyway? “I feel like Luz forgives pretty easily.”

Willow shrugs, “Too easily if you ask me. She has a kind heart.” Her lips curl into a larger grin as she continues, “You two are a good match.”

Amity is mid drink and nearly spits her coffee across the table. “E-excuse me?” she splutters.

Willows gives her an amused look, “You can’t tell me nothing’s going on there.” She waggles her eyebrows suggestively.

“There isn’t!” Amity insists. Her usual blush has made its presence known on her cheeks. She looks down at her drink, “Though I can’t say I haven’t thought about it.” Her head shoots back up to make eye contact with Willow, “Please, don’t tell her I said that!”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Willow promises, extending her right hand and offering her pinky. Amity holds out her left hand and the two lock pinkies. A good old fashioned pinky promise, just like back when they were kids. Willow smiles warmly at her. “You know, you miss out on 100% of the chances you don’t take.”

“I know.”

Chapter Text

With the conversation she had with Willow looming in the back of her mind, Amity starts to notice even more details about Luz. The first and most obvious thing is Luz keeps coming to the library outside of her normal Saturdays. She comes on Sunday mornings as well as on Tuesday nights. She basically shows up to every single one of Amity’s shifts. If Amity seems down or stressed, she always asks how she’s doing and tries to cheer her up, usually accompanied with coffee or some alternative gift.

She always starts by chatting with Amity for a few minutes, then sometimes she leaves and sometimes she finds a table to study at for a few hours. Amity likes it when she stays, since the two of them can talk more and sometimes spend time together once her shift is over.

Outside of this they’ve had lunch together at least once a week and found other things to do as well. They text nearly every day, and Amity has come to appreciate Luz’s taste in emojis. She looks forward to the cute “good morning!!” before class and the “good night zzzz” that she ends her day with.

To top it off she’s really started to notice how cute everything Luz does is. When she stretches, she always leans to the left first, gives a little satisfied sound and then moves to the right. Do normal people stretch like that? It is too cute. She also has adorable taste in clothing, like look forfun sweaters with cat ears and brightly colored shirts. She also brushes her bangs to the side when they get in her face and she always looks so determined when doing so.

Anyway, Amity can go on and on. She finds herself craving the time they spend together and always looks forward to their next meeting. Willows words nag at her again, and when Luz lets her know she’ll be staying on campus for spring break she decides she should tell her how she feels. Amity is also staying on campus due to not wanting to see her parents. Regardless of it being a coincidence, it is a great opportunity if she can be brave.

Amity invites Luz to hang out the first Monday of spring break. The two of them end up in Luz’s dorm that afternoon. Willow also stays over break, but on Monday she’s spending her afternoon in the greenhouse.

Luz is sprawled out on her bed, The Good Witch Azura 3 in hand. She started re-reading the series about a week prior and is making good progress. Amity is sitting on the edge of the bed in front of her, aligned with Luz’s shoulders so they can easily talk. She has her laptop open on her lap and is working on an assignment due after spring break. Luz teased her about wanting to start it, but in Amity’s opinion it’s better than waiting until the last minute.

Her progress is slow going. Her brain is filled with thoughts of her ulterior motive to wanting to hang out and can’t focus on the assignment at all. Her eyes flick over to where Luz is laying, and she’s once again reminded how cute she is. Luz isn’t even trying today; she’s wearing a tank top and shorts, but she makes it look so natural and good.

Well, maybe Amity is biased. Needless to say, this coupled with Willows advice are keeping her from getting any work done.

She should officially ask her out, right? The two of them have spent increasingly more time together. Amity loves being around her, is that good enough to move forward?

No one calls out to answer these internal questions of course, Amity must decide for herself.

She wants to, she came over today for this explicit purpose. Even if Luz turns her down, she still wants to tell her. Amity saves her assignment and shuts down Microsoft Word. She slowly starts to shut her laptop, her fingers already shaking a little as she grasps the top of the screen. She hesitates, the laptop only half shut.

Would she really be okay being rejected? No, of course not. That fear rips through her, causing a shudder to run down her spine. Amity reverses and returns the laptop to being fully open.

No! Amity internally scolds herself. She needs to be brave; she believes that there is chemistry between them. She can’t let fear of rejection stop her.

She once again starts shutting the laptop, her head sinking as she moves. Is it really worth it to put herself through this?

She glances over at Luz, expecting her to still be engrossed in her book. Instead, the teen is staring directly at her and she looks worried. “Are you okay?” Luz’s voice is layered with concern. “You look like you’re gonna be sick.

Amity curses her bad luck, of course her cryptically opening and shutting a laptop over and over would draw attention. To Luz’s credit, Amity does feel like she’s going to be sick. “Uhh, yeah, sorry about that.” She finally shuts the laptop fully. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

“You could tell me about it.” Luz shuts her book and sits up. She is still next to Amity, but she crosses her legs and places her book to the side. “If you want.” Her eyes are focused and welcoming, like she’s ready to hear anything.

Whether it was intended or not, Amity now has Luz’s undivided attention. She turns her body to the left and tucks her legs under her so she can face Luz squarely. “I can try. This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while.” She takes a deep breath. “I’m a bit nervous, so please bear with me.”

“I’m here for you.” Luz assures her.

She wonders if Luz’s response will be the same when she’s done talking, but here goes nothing. “Okay, so as you know we’ve been friends for 4 to 5 weeks now. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you, it’s been a lot of fun.”

Luz’s expression is puzzled as if she’s not sure where this is going, but she affirms. “Me too, I like spending time with you.”

That small confirmation gives Amity the courage to proceed, “Lately, I’ve been feeling like I want to be something more, like dating more.” Luz’s expression maintains her look of confusion so she quickly backtracks. “Of course, if you want to just stay friends that’s fine too!” Her cheeks flare red, “Maybe I’m moving too fast, but I want to get to know you better, to be closer to you.” Amity shuts her mouth at this point, her fists clenched and pressed against the bed.

Her eyes are still trained on Luz. The brown eyed girl is still staring directly at her, she appears to be processing what was just said.

The seconds seem to drag on as Amity waits. Luz is as still as a stone, when suddenly her cheeks tint pink. Luz looks down at her hands then back up at Amity. She smiles softly and Amity’s heart hurts at how cute she is, “I’d like that too.”

Amity instantly smiles back, a new feeling that she’s not used to blooming in her chest.

Luz looks down again, seeming to be shy for the first time since Amity has met her. “I’ve never been in a relationship before, what do we do?”

Amity reaches out and pulls Luz’s hands into her own, giving them a warm squeeze. “For now, let’s just start with this.”

From that point on things continue to change in their relationship, but in a good way. The first thing is that instead of just hanging out they go on dates. Due to it being spring break they have a whole week of fun ahead of them. They both pick a few activities to do that week. Their texting also starts going later into the night, and Amity didn’t think it was possible but there are even more emojis than before. These ones are heart shaped and pink or red, so she doesn’t mind them.

The very next day is their first date. Luz takes Amity to a local magic show. They had decided last week that they would go during spring break, but it was just a hang out then. Now it’s a date and somehow that makes the changes feel all the more real to Amity.

Either way, Amity hasn’t seen many magic shows so she’s excited to go. Luz has been a few times and gives her the low down on the group. They perform sleight of hand magic, and since they’re local they will have a pretty small audience.

Amity enjoys the show far more than she was expecting, of course Luz brings her to something she instantly loves. She also keeps one eye on her new girlfriend. Every time the magician on stage does a trick Luz’s eyes light up in joy. Seeing this makes Amity even happier than watching the magic tricks herself. The prospect of them continuing to discover new things and learn more about each other excites Amity and she can’t wait to see where this relationship takes them.

Chapter Text

Spring break continues with Amity and Luz meeting up with Emira and Edric that Thursday. The fraternal twins also have no desire to return to the Blight Manor over spring break, and when Amity reaches out to them via text, they welcome her to join them for lunch. The group meets up at ‘Hex-thai,’ a local thai restaurant just off campus.

Amity is a bit nervous introducing Luz to them, but her siblings have always been there for her. Sure, they tease her a lot too, but they are supportive when it counts.

Luz and Amity arrive first and get a table in the corner of the restaurant. They get a four top booth and sit next to each other on one side, Luz on the inside and Amity on the end. Luz is immediately entranced with the menu, reading the little details for every choice. Amity doesn’t need to look; she always gets the same thing, pad thai.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try something new?” Luz inquires, pushing the second menu her way. “It’s good to expand your horizons.”

Amity accepts the menu after a moment. Luz is always encouraging her to push her boundaries, and she’s right she should try new things. “I think I will then.” She replies with a playful tone. “What do you recommend?”

“Hmm,” Luz holds her menu up to her face so she can return to scrutinizing it. “I’m honestly not sure. I don’t even know what I want for myself…” she trails off, her attention once again focused on reading the menu.

Their conversation is cut short when Emira and Edric enter from the front of the restaurant. They look just as chipper as usual and gush greetings as they reach the table.

“Mittens!” Edric beams, “It’s so good to see you. Have you gotten taller? You look taller.”

“It’s always good to see you too Ed, but please don’t call me Mittens.” Amity is sure the request will fall on deaf ears, but she has to try. Ed ruffles her hair with a smile and she bats him away. Emira greets her as well, and though she also has a mischievous grin on her face she doesn’t touch her hair and she doesn’t call her Mittens.

Amity appreciates that. The two of them finally sit down, Emira in first with Edric on the end. They only have 2 menus at the table, so Amity passes them hers.

They hold the menu between them, and she realizes she should probably introduce her girlfriend. “So, you guys, since I guess you aren’t going to ask, this is Luz.” She motions to her left. Luz gives them a wide smile.

“Hiii Luzzz!” Both of them respond like they’re on the sesame street, both with the same toothy grin.

“Okay, ignoring how weird that was.” Amity sometimes forgets how goofy her siblings are, but they’re never shy to remind her.

They both grin at the comment. “Sorry about that Mittens.” Emira speaks this time, but she does not appear to be sorry.

And now they’ve both called her Mittens. Great.

“Mittens?” Luz has heard it twice now, and her expression is turning mischievous on par with her siblings.

Amity groans, “Don’t get them started.”

Edric turns to Emira and gives her a drawn out wink, “I think Luz wants to hear about why we call Mittens Mittens.”

“I think you’re right.” Emira nods slowly, “I think she does.”

The two of them are interrupted by the waiter arriving at their table. His name tag reads “Kyle.” He drops off 4 waters and offers to take their order. Luz goes first and orders drunken noodles with medium spice. Amity wants to suggest she order it with mild instead, but Luz orders so confidently that she just rolls with it. In the end Amity orders Pad Thai, she didn’t come up with a new thing to try in time. She orders it with mild spice. Her siblings also both order Pad Thai with mild spice which Luz seems to find funny.

Kyle leaves once they’re done ordering, and Amity starts speaking before her siblings can loop back to the Mitten’s story. “Please, you will have plenty of time to tell Luz that story later. Can I just… please.”

Maybe desperation is seeping into her voice a bit too much because neither of her siblings move to speak. After a moment Emira comments, “Go ahead.”

Amity inhales deeply and then exhales to calm herself. “Luz is my girlfriend. We started dating earlier this week.”

Neither of her siblings look surprised. They both start talking at the same time. Emira says, “Congratulations!” and Edric says, “Welcome to the family.”

Emira is the first to criticize her brother, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch Ed.” Her attention shifts to Luz, “It is very nice to meet you.”

“Aren’t either of you going to apologize for your poor introduction?” Amity asks, raising one eyebrow at them. All they’ve done so far today is relentlessly tease her.

The two green haired youth exchange a look and simultaneously shrug. Edric chimes in. “I don’t think we have anything to apologize for.”

Emira nods in agreement. “Speaking of introductions, I’m assuming mother and father don’t know about this?”

“No, and I want it to stay that way.” She looks first at Emira and then at Edric, trying to stare directly into their souls in turn. “Not a word to either of them. I’m trusting you with this.”

Emira reaches diagonally across the table to cover Amity’s hand with her own. “We won’t let you down.”

“Thank you,” Amity feels relieved hearing their confirmation.

The lunch goes well beyond that point. Luz tells them a bit about herself and they tell her about their time at Hexside. Much to Amity’s chagrin they do tell the Mittens story in excruciating detail. They get their food after a short wait and continue to enjoy their time together. Emira and Edric can be pests, but Amity doesn’t regret reaching out to them. They’re kind to Luz and wish them the best when they part ways.

Amity wants to treat Luz to something new the same way Luz did for her with the magic show. She does some research and realizes the perfect thing. She buys two tickets to the Saturday game for the Bonesborough Bone Crushers. They are a local women’s ice hockey team which Amity has followed since she started at Hexside. Their season only has a few weeks left on it, so Amity gets pretty lucky.

Luz’s never heard of them so it’s a perfect date. She does confess that she likes ice hockey. Amity gets seats right behind the penalty box, a perfect location in her opinion. The stadium is about 10 miles away from campus, and the Blight twins graciously lend her their car after embarrassing her at lunch.

They park outside the stadium for $10 and make it with plenty of time for the start of the game. Luz is wide eyed in awe once they find their seats. Technically they are in row 5, with a perfect view of the net on the right and a solid view on the left. Luz shares that she hasn’t been to a hockey game in years, and definitely never to a hockey game between two women’s teams.

The game starts before they know it. Luz cheers as loud as she can, and the Bone Crushers play pretty well. They win 3-1 in the end, and before Amity knows it she’s driving them back onto campus. Luz animates the whole ride home with recreations of the game, imitating the actions of the players accompanied by her own sound effects such as “kablam!” or “blagh!!” to go with the action.

The whole evening fills Amity with joy. The hockey game was nice, but the company even better.

They eventually reach Luz’s dorm. Amity’s heart pangs at the thought of them parting ways for the evening, and she finds herself turning off the car and climbing out. Luz gives her a questioning gaze.

“Just walking you to the door.” She walks around the front of the car so they can go up the stairs in front of the dorm together. She reaches out with her hand and snags Luz’s, locking their fingers together. Luz steps closer to her so they can stay connected and the two walk slowly towards the door.

For not the first time and hopefully not the last, Amity feels grateful that she met and got together with Luz. She brings joy into her life every day that they’re together. They reach the door after a few moments, and Amity turns so she can fully face her girlfriend and wish her a goodnight. She reaches out with her other hand, so they’re connected by both. “Thank you for coming with me tonight. I had a lot of fun.”

 “Me too.” Luz confirms, but her smile is not as big as it normally is. Her eyes are looking down at their hands, and she seems a little lost in thought. Luz isn’t normally one to be lost for words.

Amity gives her hands a gentle squeeze. “Hey. I guess we’re reversed this time, but are you okay?” She tries to make a joke to lighten the air, since Luz doesn’t seem to have her usual confidence.

Luz looks up at the question, her smile returning at the show of concern. “I’m okay.” She squeezes her hands back. “I just… Can I kiss you?” She asks shyly and her eyes shift back to their hands.

So that’s what was bothering her!! Makes sense, Amity should’ve guessed it was something like that. Another heartbeat goes by and Amity realizes the implication of the question. Luz’s lips… touching her lips… Amity’s heart throbs loudly in her chest, there’s nothing more she wants in the world. She blushes and smiles softly at Luz, releasing Luz’s right hand and raising her palm to place it gingerly on Luz’s cheek “Of course.”

Luz’s smile grows even larger and Amity’s heart soars at how gentle she looks. She leans into Amity’s touch and places her now free hand on Amity’s waist to draw her closer.

Amity steps in ever so slightly and leans in, her eyes sliding shut. Their lips meet only for a moment, but for Amity it’s pure bliss. Her eyes re-open once they separate, her hand still firmly on Luz’s cheek. Luz’s face is bright red and Amity’s sure her face is even brighter. They’re both grinning from ear to ear.

Amity can’t help herself, she leans in and steals another kiss. She wishes Luz a good night after that, though separating herself is incredibly painful, but her thoughts are filled with the warmth of Luz’s touch well into the night.

Classes start up again that Monday and the two of them get back into the swing of class and schoolwork. Luz, surprisingly, comes down with a cold mid-week and misses a handful of her classes. She tells Amity it’s not a big deal, but Amity visits her before, in between, and after class to make sure she has everything she needs. Amity also heads to the pharmacy to pick up some over the counter drugs and stays up late that night cooking chicken noodle soup.

Well, attempting to cook chicken noodle soup might be more accurate. She decides to make it from scratch, but probably she could’ve gone with canned soup and Luz never would’ve known. Instead she plays around with the broth for far too long and adds at least 10 too many ingredients. She eventually settles and calls it good. Next time she will do better.

Amity carries the soup in a thermos and during her lunch break takes it to Luz in her dorm. Fortunately, Luz is already feeling much better. She’s overjoyed and eats every last drop of the soup, telling Amity that it’s best she’s ever had.

Amity’s not sure that’s true, but she appreciates her girlfriend nonetheless.

By Friday Luz has completely recovered, but Amity has come down with the same cold. She has to call in to work on Saturday, much to her chagrin, and their roles are reversed. Luz teases her for catching her cold. She makes her chicken noodle soup and no joke, it’s the best soup she’s ever had.

Chapter Text

Their relationship continues to grow. Midterms come and go, and the semester is starting to wind down. Amity and Luz set up a consistent date schedule, twice per week plus frequent visits from Luz in the library. Sometimes instead of going out they just sit together and do homework; Luz always has piles of it and Amity has plenty of her own to keep her busy. Since Luz is ambidextrous, they can do school work while holding hands Luz jokes that it’s a “study date.” That always makes Amity smile.

Time is going by so quickly, but it slows to a halt one Saturday morning. Amity is working her usual shift at the library. Today, she is re-stocking books. Luz is hanging out and ‘helping’ her with the books. AKA Luz is following her around and filling Amity in on her most recent Ornithology class. In one instance Amity does drop a book, which Luz somehow catches. So, she is helping in a way, but mostly she’s just keeping her company.

En las calles,

Muchas manos,

Levantadas celebrando.

Luz’s phone is ringing in her pocket. She quickly pulls it out, sheepishly apologizing to Amity.

“No phones in the library,” Amity teases and gives her a tilted grin, so Luz knows she’s joking.

Luz isn’t paying attention to Amity anymore tough, her eyes trained on her cell which is still ringing, “It’s my mom.”

Amity expression sobers and she comforts Luz with a pat on her shoulder, “You should answer.”

Luz nods and clicks connect, raising the phone to her ear. She turns and walks away from Amity, most likely to step outside so she can comfortably talk on the phone. Amity can hear Luz’s voice fade away as she greets her mother in Spanish.

The library returns to its proper state, silence. Amity continues to put the books back on the shelves, though now she’s humming the song from Luz’s ring tone. It’s too catchy.

Luz returns after a few minutes, and Amity can immediately tell that something is wrong. Her shoulders are slumped and she’s biting her lower lip. Her eyes are locked on her phone which is still clenched in her right hand.

Amity hasn’t seen her this distressed before. “What’s wrong?”

Luz jumps slightly at the sound of her voice, almost as if she forgot Amity is there. She looks up and makes eye contact, but immediately looks back down. “That was my mom.” Her voices wavers as she leads with something that Amity already knows. “She said if I can’t pick a major by the end of the semester I’ll have to…” Luz draws in a shaky breath, “She said I’ll have to move home and go to community college. Qué debería hacer ahora.” Tears are welling up in the corners of her eyes. She’s still clutching her phone and holding it against her stomach with a death grip.

Amity puts the book she was holding down and walks over to her girlfriend. She gently opens Luz’s fingers to take the phone from her hand since she looks like she’s about to break it. Now with nothing in her hands, Luz crosses her arms over her chest. Amity motions with one hand to Luz so she steps closer to Amity. This puts them between two bookshelves to give them a little privacy. Amity speaks in a low, soothing voice. “Hey, it’ll be okay.” Amity slides Luz’s phone into her back pocket to return later. She places her hands on the shorter teen’s waist and waits for Luz to return eye contact before continuing. “We can get through this together. You need to decide on a major right?”

Luz sniffles with a light head nod. “Yeah, but I have no clue. I took all these classes to try and figure it out, but it isn’t helping.” She sighs lowly and rubs at her eyes. She hiccups and inches even closer to Amity. Amity raises her right hand to the back of Luz’s neck and guides her to rest her forehead against her shoulder. “I’m sorry.” Luz hiccups again, “People must be staring, this is so embarrassing,” her voice is muffled against Amity’s shirt.

With one hand on Luz’s neck, Amity rubs her back in slow gentle circles with the other, “Shhh, it’s okay. No one is watching, it’s just you and me, okay?” Amity continues to embrace Luz, patiently waiting as the girl cries into her shoulder. She just continues to whisper in her ear that it’ll be okay, and after a minute or so Luz’s breathing calms and she raises her head, eyes red and puffy.

Amity moves her right hand to wipe residual tears girlfriend’s face as tenderly as she can manage. “We have four weeks, right?” Amity waits for her to nod in confirmation before continuing. “That is plenty of time, and I will help you. We just need to find something that you enjoy.” Amity drops her hand to rub Luz’s upper arm with a slow and hopefully soothing motion. “I think I have an idea. What if we go to a few different places and see what kind of work they do? Then you can find something that you’re interested in!”

Luz’s voice cracks when she speaks, “I think that’s a great idea.” Luz smiles at her for the first time since her phone rang and leans in to steal a quick kiss. “Thank you.” Amity’s glad she’s feeling better, but she still tells her off for the PDA, they’re in the library after all.

The first place they head to is a daycare. The daycare graciously agrees to host them when Amity calls and welcomes them in to observe. They care for toddlers, mostly aged from 2 through 5. The kids are inscrutable to Amity, but Luz jumps right in with them and starts crawling around in their play space. She giggles with them, plays with them, and overall has a dandy time.

The daycare staff also show them the administrative side of things, keeping track of the kids and their behaviors, making sure to give them the correct food, and also putting them down for the appropriate nap times per their parents recommendations. This part Luz is not as interested in, it’s definitely not as fun as playing with the kids.

Next Amity invites her over to her apartment. She rents Hidden Figures and 21, two movies which heavily feature math. She also googles “world’s most difficult math problem” and prints out the Collatz Conjecture for Luz to try and solve. The world’s greatest minds haven’t cracked it, but if Luz can then she is clearly meant to be a mathematician.

Luz takes one look at the math problem and throws it directly into the trash, definitely not for her. They do still watch the movies. Both are quite good, and it ends up being a nice night in.

Amity call the Bonesborough courthouse the next morning and finds out if they are having any public trials. Turns out they do public hearings everyday from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, so it’s a great opportunity to see what a judge does. Luz eagerly points out that they can also see what bailiffs do.

They decide to go and sit in the back for about an hour. Luz, in all honesty, looks quite bored. She gets excited when the next person goes up to the stand, then when she realizes they just want a point off their license she slumps back down. Even the bailiff job seems boring to her. This one can definitely be checked off the list as a no.

Willow invites them into the greenhouse a few days later, unsurprisingly excited to show them around her favorite place on campus. She starts by showing them botanical gardens where they are growing over 300 different types of plants. Then she takes them to where they are trying to mutate plants to make new ones. Amity finds it quite interesting. Luz is of course very attentive to her friend and her interests, but after they leave she admits that she doesn’t share Willow’s spark for plants.

It seems like it must be a joke, but Luz asks Amity to get ice hockey tickets to see the Bonesborough Bone Crushers again. She says she wants to study the players and see if it’s for her. Amity sincerely doubts she could pick up ice hockey as a major at this point, not to mention they don’t offer that at Hexside, but she gets the tickets anyway. They attend a game and much to Amity’s surprise Luz does analyze the players quite closely. Amity almost feels bad telling her after the game that there’s no way she could become a pro ice hockey player at this point.

She also challenges Amity to another round of basketball. She did make those free throws way back when. The two head to the court and play a little one on one. Luz doesn’t stand a chance against a seasoned player, even if Amity is rusty. They do have a fun time even though it doesn’t get them any closer to their goal.

They have a hard time finding a doctor’s office that will let them visit, but Amity does finally track one down. They can’t see patients, and they can’t really touch anything, but they do agree to give them a tour and a quick rundown of roles in the office. It’s better than nothing, so away they go. Luz does well with the tour, even commenting on things she found cool like band aids and tongue depressors. Then she finds out that schooling to work there is a minimum of 8 years, plus a residency, and well that’s that.

Bonesborough has a few farms and agriculture outside the city. Amity bribes Edric to drive them out to a farm about 15 miles away. They aren’t able to get inside unfortunately, farms are privately owned and they don’t exactly know the owner, but they can at least look at the fields and see them working on the land. Luz quickly deems it as too boring, much to Ed’s chagrin since it was a 25 minute drive.

Their last stop is to meet with an anthropologist. He teaches courses at Hexside and agrees to meet with Amity and Luz after class. He’s in his seventies and has been teaching at Hexside for about 10 years. Luz asks him probably a hundred questions. What he did in the field, what he does now, how much adventure was there, things like that. She is engaged in the discussion and Amity thinks this could be the one.

That feeling fades when he lets them know that yes he did have adventure, but 95% of his job was putting in paperwork to get approved for grants/field work, then once that work was done spending years writing a thesis on what they discovered. Luz grimaces at the ‘years of writing papers’ part.

They leave disappointed. Nothing has struck a chord with Luz yet, but she’s not ready to give up.

Chapter Text

That Wednesday, Luz meets up with Amity on campus after her last class. The two head to Amity’s apartment together from there. Both are tired from class, studying for finals, and trying to find a major for Luz, but Amity thinks they’re nearing a breakthrough. She wants them to focus and power through tonight, but Luz is hesitant since she doesn’t want to continue focusing on her own problems. Amity insists.

Amity makes pasta for them to share. Pasta is something that neither of them can ruin, so it is perfect for a quick meal. Once they’re done eating, she pulls out a giant pad of paper so they can get to work.

Luz tries to distract her by asking why she has paper that big. Amity laughs and tells her for reasons. In all honestly, she saw it on sale at the store and was too impressed to pass it up, but she can’t pass up on the chance to tease her girlfriend. She pulls out a thick marker, uncaps it, and writes ‘Luz’s Major’ at the top.

“Okay, give me your top three choices.” Amity says as she draws a dark line underneath the header, “We need to narrow things down.”

Luz crosses her right leg over her left and raises one hand up to her chin as she thinks. Her eyes drift between the paper and Amity’s hands. “Hmmmmmmm, it’s so hard.”

“I know, but you can do it.” Amity reassures her with a gentle touch to Luz’s knee. “Just take a minute and think about it.”

Luz covers Amity’s hand with her own. “Okay… Let’s go with elementary education, journalism, and supply chain management.”

Amity writes down the three choices underneath the header. She pauses as she writes down the third one. “Supply chain management? Do you even know what that is?”

“Hey!” Luz scrunches her eyebrows in, pretending to be offended. “I took one class on it!”

Amity smiles and gives her a skeptical look, “Tell me one thing about it.”

Luz sits there silently, and Amity practically can see the invisible gears turning inside her head. Luz tilts her head to the right and gives Amity her best puppy dog eyes, pouting cutely. “Fine… you can take it off the list.”

“Thank you.” Amity draws an x through supply chain management. “So that leaves us with elementary education and journalism.”

“Maybe I should just flip a coin.” Luz sounds like she’s half joking, half hopeful, like maybe Amity will agree to it.

“No chance,” Amity laughs with a shake of her head, her heart warm. “Why don’t we make a pro cons list for each.”

Luz agrees, she’s willing to try anything. Amity draws a horizontal line midway down her paper and a vertical line in the middle. In the top two boxes she writes education pros and education cons. In the bottom two boxes she writes journalism pros and journalism cons. “Where do you want to start?”

“Hmmmmm. Well one pro with teaching is working with kids.” Luz points at the appropriate box as she speaks, “and a negative of journalism is that I don’t get to work with kids.”

Amity writes both down. “You could hypothetically work with kids occasionally in journalism, it just wouldn’t be all the time.” Amity comments as she writes.

Luz agrees and they keep working on coming up with pros and cons. For education pros they come up with being active, creativity to create activities for children, and stable work hours. The negatives for teaching are low pay and having to take an extra year of school.

For journalism, the biggest pro is that Luz will get to travel the world and she adds eagerly that she’ll get to see new things. Cons are that because of travel she won’t be around much, and she also will have an inconsistent schedule.

“Maybe we should visit these jobs as well,” Amity suggests. “We went to a daycare but not a school.”

Luz nods, “I think that’s a great idea! Gus’s dad works at a newspaper so maybe he can get us in there too.”

Amity’s phone vibrates in her pocket, interrupting their flow. She pulls it out and instantly feels dread wash over her. She has a new text from her mother.

Dear Amity, we hope this message finds you well. We will be on campus this upcoming Saturday and will pick you up from your apartment promptly at 6 PM to take you out for dinner. Attendance is mandatory. Sincerely, your parents.

She lets out a low groan, “Great…”

Luz is curious, as usual, “What is it?” She leans in and bumps their shoulders together, “lemme see!”

Amity passes her phone to her girlfriend so she can read the message. “My parents are coming this weekend. This is the worst.”

Amity’s getting more irritated by the minute, but Luz seems to have the opposite reaction. “Ooooh, can I meet them?” Luz is bouncing up and down in her seat now, “I’ll knock their socks off!”

Amity’s expression is grim. Usually Luz’s enthusiasm makes her smile but her parents messaging has ruined her mood. “I do want you to meet them, but not yet.” Amity tries to think of a good way to describe her relationship with her parents. “We don’t exactly get along, and it’s not like I’m ashamed of you or anything, because I’m not!! It’s just…” Amity trails off for a moment and looks down at her hands. “I want to tell them about you before you meet them, just in case they react badly. Maybe I’m overreacting and they’ll be fine, but who knows.”

Luz reaches over to clasp Amity’s hands within her own and gives them a soft squeeze. The contact draws Amity’s eyes up to meet Luz’s. “I understand, and I’m here for you.”

The next day Amity meets Luz and her friends for lunch at Clawthorne. They’re about halfway through lunchtime. She’s sitting across from Luz and is holding her hand over the table as they eat. Willow is to her left with Gus directly across from her. Gus is animatingly telling them about an interview he recently conducted with an eccentric professor who insists everyone calls him Hooty. The interview consisted entirely of him showing off his accolades and describing where he got them from.

As he talks, Amity notices a familiar face in line for food across the cafeteria. Her pink hair stands out in stark contrast to those around her, and Amity can’t believe her luck to run into another person from her past in just one semester. Boscha’s face is not as welcome as Willow’s was. She was on the basketball team with Amity and was one of the people who frequently bullied Willow.

Boscha’s currently facing away from them and Amity finds herself subconsciously sinking into her seat. She glances over and is surprised that Willow is looking right at her, their eyes immediately meeting. Willow looks to where Boscha is standing and then back to Amity, signaling that she saw her. Willow frowns and clenches her fist. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and unclenches her grip as she exhales. When she re-opens her eyes she seems far less upset.

Luz is not the most observant, but even she notices that something is up. Gus is still talking so she raises one hand to stop him. “You guys just exchanged a look, what’s going on?” Luz leans in, her eyes gleaming.

Willow replies with a slight waver in her voice, “Someone we know from high school is in line to get food.”

“Even if she notices us, she probably won’t come over,” Amity tries to say something that’ll be comforting. “I certainly don’t want anything to do with her.”

Then, Willow says the last thing she ever expected to hear, “You should invite her over.” She sounds more certain than Amity’s ever heard before.

Amity’s jaw drops, “Really? Are you sure??” shock seeps into her tone.

Willow nods and has a look of confidence to her. “You’ve changed since then, maybe she has too.”

It’s an optimistic opinion, but it gives Amity a little bit of hope. Maybe she’s right, maybe they can befriend Boscha. Amity waits for Boscha to get through the line, and when she turns to find a table Amity waves with her free hand to draw her attention.

Boscha spots her and her face lights up in recognition. Her expressions dims slightly when she notices Willow beside her, but unlike how she would have 3 years ago, she doesn’t sneer. She crosses the room in a few moments to join them. “Hey Amity! Long time no see!” She puts down her tray on the end by Amity and Luz, turning to grab a chair from a nearby table.

“It’s been a long time,” Amity admits, “I think nearly a year, how have you been?”

Boscha sits down and digs into her food immediately, “I’m good, same as usual I guess.” She swallows and takes another big bite. “I’ll probably be the captain of the women’s basketball team next year. They almost picked me this year but then they gave it to a senior instead. Dumb decision, I would’ve led us to a championship.” Boscha glances around the table as if she just realized there’s an unfamiliar face. “Who’s this?” She nods with her head towards the side Luz and Gus are sitting on. “I remember Gus.” She points at Luz, “but did you go to school with us?”

Amity cuts in, “That’s Luz. She’s my girlfriend.” It’s Amity’s first time telling someone outside of the people Luz was already friends with, and she holds her breath waiting for the reaction.

Boscha absorbs the information for a moment, then grins, “Sick, congrats! Sorry if I missed that on pentstagram or whatever. What else have you been up to?”

Amity feels relieved at her reaction. “Honestly, just class, finals are coming up so I’ve been focusing on studying. We did play a little basketball though it was pretty nostalgic.” Amity smiles, “I’m a bit rusty.”

Boscha laughs, “We should meet on the court sometime soon.” She turns to Willow next, “How about you Willow, what have you been up to?”

Willow replies good naturedly, but seems a little hesitant to engage in conversation. “I’m doing well. I’m majoring in Botany so most of my classes are related to it.” Willow thinks for a moment. “I guess the most interesting thing going on right now is that I’m trying to breed a new type of sunflower.”

Boscha grins cheekily at her, “Oh, so you can have your very first date?”

Willow’s smile slides off her face at the comment, her small amount of confidence falling away.

Amity’s head spins and she snaps her gaze from Willow to Boscha, rage welling inside her gut. “Excuse me?” Amity releases Luz’s hand so she can cross her arms, “That’s completely uncalled for.”

Boscha mimics her posture, sitting up taller and puffing out her chest. “So, you’re defending this plant hugger now?”

Amity stands up so she towers over her former classmate. “I am, and if you’re going to be like this I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Boscha stands up as well with a huff. “Oh, you don’t need to ask. I’m outta here. You’ve changed Amity, and not in a good way.” She picks up her tray with quick aggressive movements. “You’ve gone soft.” Boscha storms off, choosing a table on the opposite side of the room to sit at.

Amity sits down and lets out a sound of pure frustration, her fists clenched. She turns towards her friends, “I am so sorry Willow.”

Willow gives her a gentle smile, “It’s not your fault. I agree with Boscha, you have changed, but I think it’s in a good way.”

Chapter Text

The rest of the week goes by far too quickly for Amity. She wishes she had a magical device which could turn back time, but sadly she doesn’t live in a magical world.

She’s standing in front of her apartment when she pulls out her phone to check the time. It shows 5:58, just a couple more minutes. She tucks her phone away and takes a moment to straighten the bottom of her blouse. She chose a purple shirt, black dress pants, and 1 inch heels of the same color for the occasion. Her gut feels uneasy as she waits, and she racks her brain for any last minute excuse which might get her out of this.

Her parent’s car turns into the parking lot a few moments later, and though Amity no longer has her watch out she’s sure the time just clicked to 6:00, they are nothing if not timely. Her parents own many vehicles, and today they show up in a jet black Mercedes Benz. The windows are tinted but Amity knows that they can see her through the glass. The car pulls around the lot and stops in front of her. She can hear the click of the doors unlocking.

Amity takes a deep breath and steps towards the car. She opens the door and climbs in the backseat. Surprisingly no one is in the back, she was expecting them to have picked up her siblings first. She shuts the door and secures her seatbelt. “Hello father, mother.”

Her father is behind the steering wheel and starts to drive away. Her mother turns her head, her eyes scanning her from head to toe, “Good evening Amity. You look nice tonight.”

“Thank you.” The air between them is tense as usual. Her father turns left out of the parking lot, driving away from campus. Amity glances around, confused and once they’ve gone a few miles she asks, “Aren’t we going to pick up Emira and Edric?”

Amity’s mother replies with fake sincerity, “We can’t spend a nice night alone with our youngest daughter?”

Amity can also see her father’s eyes glancing at her in the review mirror. Amity’s a little taken aback, she assumed it would be the 5 of them. She chooses to not reply, opting to stare out the window instead.

The ride continues in silence, and after 10 minutes they arrive at the steakhouse. They leave the car with the valet at the front door and Amity exits the car to trail after her parents into the restaurant. They check in at the front and a girl in her early twenties takes them to a small booth on the left side of the restaurant. It’s a cliche fancy restaurant, with dark lighting and professional art on the walls. Amity sits across from her parents, still not saying much to them.

A waitress comes by, hands them menus, and takes their drink orders. Her parents both order wine and she asks for just water. The menu is as expected, a variety of steaks and seafood at egregious prices. Nothing less than the best for a Blight. She puts the menu down and looks at her parents. They’re both staring at their menus still. “How have you both been?” she asks.

Her father puts his menu down as well and makes steady eye contact. He gives her a slight smile, “We’ve been well. I recently acquired 3 more properties and we just sold one last week. Work has been busy.”

“That’s good.” She turns towards her mother, “and you?”

“Hold on darling, I’m still deciding.” Amity’s mother dismisses her, her eyes never leaving the menu in front of her.

They fall silent, and fortunately the waitress returns a few moments later with their drinks. She takes their orders and collects the menus before politely stepping away.

Amity’s mother raises her wine glass and swirls the wine counter clockwise. She draws it up to her nose and inhales deeply before taking a sip. She puts the glass down and finally looks ready to talk. “To answer your question, I’m doing well.” Despite talking to Amity her eyes focus on a spot just over her daughter’s right shoulder, “We’ve established 5 new store locations this quarter and have plans to be in every state by the end of the year.”

She’s referring to ‘Trend With the Times’ a fast fashion chain that Amity’s mother helped found. Amity finds the business deplorable, but she’s long since given up on telling her mother that. She’s spared having to comment when her mother follows up with a question. “How’s school?”

Amity doesn’t really wish to discuss school with them, but it’s better than starting in on fast fashion. “It’s going well. I still have 15 meal passes for the semester. We have finals in a couple weeks.”

Her father chimes in, “You will have a straight 4.0 this semester, I’m assuming?”

“Of course.” Amity scoffs, hating the question but also loving that she can answer yes. She’s held a 4.0 her entire time at Hexside, and that’s not about to change.

They continue to make mild small talk while they wait for their food. They discuss local politics back home, which is about an hour away. Amity fills them in on the weather there, which is mostly just cold and windy, though it’s finally warmed up. She leaves out her river escapade. Amity keeps waiting for them to bring up whatever the reason is that they drove all this way, but neither seem to be in a big hurry.

Their food arrives and both parents dig in without a second thought. Amity starts as well but is still feeling skeptical. “I apologize if this sounds abrupt, but what was the reason you wanted to meet with me?” she asks.

Amity’s father’s knife freezes mid cut. “Oh, so we’re done with the pleasantries I guess?” His tone is sharp. “We were going to wait until dessert.”

Amity sighs, of course they wanted to have their nice calm meal with her before tearing her to shreds. “You may as well just tell me now.”

Her father clears his throat, “Very well then, Odalia would you like to start?”

“Indeed I would, thank you Alador.” She puts down her silverware for the moment. “We have two topics we’d like to discuss with you. The first is your choice of major.”

Oh no, Amity’s heart starts to sink into her gut. “What about it?”

“Well…” Amity’s mother pauses for a moment, “It’s about time you dropped English as a field of study. I know you took a few of the classes for it, but really, it’s a distraction. Your focus needs to be on preparing for the LSAT.”

There it is, not even through her second year and they are once again imposing their will on her. Amity’s lips press into a firm line, “You know I want to study both.”

“Yes dear, but it’s a waste of time.” Amity’s mother speaks in a persuasive tone, as if trying to win Amity over to her side. “An English degree won’t increase your chances of getting into law school.”

Amity narrows her eyes, hand clenching her fork, “Is me enjoying it not a good enough reason for you?” Amity can hear a bit of heat seeping into her voice, this is absurd!

Amity’s mother speaks firmly and soundly, “No it’s not. Moving on, the second topic for us to discuss is that matter of your little plaything we’ve heard about. Oh, what was her name Alador?”

He chimes in, “Luz dear.”

Hearing her girlfriend’s name come from her father’s lips causes a feeling of dread to douse her anger. This can’t be good.

Amity’s mother gives a polite but surely fake smile to her husband. “Yes, thank you… Luz. We heard you’ve been seeing this girl on a regular basis and it’s gone beyond that as we...”

“Who told you?” Amity cuts her off, and though she asks the question she’s already anticipated the answer as there’s only one option. She only can think of two people who know that also have ties to her parents.

“Your brother and sister of course, and they did the right thing.” Her mother doesn’t address that she was interrupted and continues to speak. “Now Amity, this is simply unacceptable. I don’t know what kind of phase you’re going through right now, but you can’t date a girl, and certainly not someone of such a low social status. It’s unsuitable for a Blight.”

Her father sighs, “You’ve been making such poor choices, I wonder if sending you to this school was a mistake.”

Amity has yet to respond, but her insides are boiling. First, she’s concocting ten ways to get back at Edric and Emira, but also how dare her parents. They have no right to just show up and tell her how to live her life. “I applied and chose to attend this school.” She tries to keep the emotion out of her voice, but it creeps in. “You know nothing about my life and everything you’re saying about Luz, it’s plain wrong. You don’t know her at all.”

“We don’t know her,” her mother agrees, “and we don’t want to. You must break this relationship off, and I think it’s high time that you dropped English as your dual major.” Her mother’s voice is matter of fact, maintaining the façade of control.

Amity sits up tall in her chair and crosses her arms, her eyes narrowed as blood rushes to her head. “You don’t control me, not like when I was a kid.”

Her father speaks next, his voice still cool and collected, “We pay for your schooling, apartment, and food if you’ll remember. So, we do have a responsibility for you right now.”

Amity’s mother nods in agreement with him. “We don’t want it to come to this, but you leave us no choice. Drop your English major and break up with this… girl… or next semester the financial responsibility is all yours.”

Amity scoffs and puts as much venom in her voice as possible, “Is that a threat?”

“No dear, it’s a promise.”

Chapter Text

In the end Amity agrees to “think about it,” though the thought of her dropping English as a major or breaking up with Luz nearly brings her to tears in the backseat as her parents drive her home.

She knows what to do first though upon being dropped off. She goes inside really quick to change into comfortable clothing, then walks aggressively along the street towards where her siblings live. They reside about 10 minutes away, and unfortunately for her (or really them) she gets more and more angry with each step she takes. She wishes there was snow, it would help to cool her off. She has to settle for the brisk spring wind. The sun is half set in front of her, which makes a lighting suitable for her mood.

When she arrives, she pauses at the door and takes a few deep breaths. She needs to calm down and think rationally. She tells herself that it’ll be okay, her parents would have found out eventually anyway.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale again, exhale slowly.

Nope, she’s still furious. Amity knocks loudly on the door to her sibling’s shared apartment, her other hand clenched in a fist. She can hear the rustling sound of someone moving around inside, and a few heartbeats later the door swings open. Edric appears before her, dressed in sweatpants and a Hexside t-shirt. He starts to greet her, then gives her a quick once over. He sees her red eyes, clenched jaw, and before Amity can say a word he’s swinging the door shut in her face.

Amity moves fast, jamming her shoulder and foot in the doorway, “Oh no you don’t.” She lowers her shoulder and thrusts her way into the room, forcing her brother to take a stumble back.

The Blight twins have been living together since their sophomore year. They have a spacious apartment to share with their own bedrooms and bathrooms. The living space is open, with the kitchen on the right and a couch and large TV in the living space on the left. Amity is a bit surprised to see Emira sitting on the ground in the center of the apartment, surrounded by flashcards. Like, completely surrounded. There are probably 1,000 flashcards scattered around her, and she has at least another 50 in her hands.

Now that the doorway has been compromised, Edric retreats quickly into the apartment, chirping over his shoulder, “Whatever happened, it was Emira’s fault!”

Amity is not in the mood for games, if looks could kill Edric would already be dead. Unfortunately, that’s another thing which isn’t real. She has to settle for his face twisting in terror as he makes eye contact, leaning against the wall near the door.

“What was my fault?” Emira looks up from her flashcards as she throws another one onto the ground. “Oh, hi Mittens! Wow, you look upset.”

Amity’s already irritated and hearing her childhood nickname just sends another flash of rage through her. She grits her teeth, “I asked you… not to call me that.”

“Sorry Mittens.” Emira apologizes.

Amity’s temper flares, “Don’t sorry Mittens me!”

Emira’s lips turn down in a frown at her reaction. “What’s wrong?”

Emira looks truly concerned, and it takes some of the heat out of Amity. Maybe Emira doesn’t know, in that case her brother is the only possible culprit. Amity enters the apartment fully and collapses on the couch, being careful not to step on any of the flashcards. “Our delightful parents paid me a visit today.” She sees Edric visibly gulp, “Raise your hand if you can’t keep a secret.”

No one moves, and after a second Edric’s head slumps down, his whole body hunching over.

Amity only waits a moment longer. “Edric!”

He jumps at the volume of her voice and grins sheepishly. He takes a cautious step towards the still open door. “You know I didn’t mean to Mi.. I mean Amity. It just slipped out.” He glances back at the door as he continues to shuffle towards it. “I gotta go home.”

“You live here.” Emira calls out to him, her worry shifting to anger as well. “What did you tell them?”

Edric is nearly to the door by this point, but he sighs sadly in defeat, shutting the door to their apartment. He walks back into the living space and sits down on the couch with Amity, opting to sit on the edge as far from her as possible. “Okay… I might have let it slip about Amity dating Luz, but it was an accident I swear!”

“Ed!!” Emira outbursts, but then falls silent when Edric motions that he has more to say.

“It was a couple weeks ago. Mother and Father called to ask when the three of us would be available to have dinner with them…”

“Nice of them to actually call and ask…” Amity interrupts with a dark mutter.

Edric glances over at her before continuing, “Anyway, we were talking about dates and times. They asked about last Saturday, all I said was you had plans that night. They asked me who with and where you were going. They thought Luz was a boy at first and asked if you were dating. I couldn’t lie, imagine if they found that out down the line their anger would have been exponential, so I said yes. Then they used he for Luz and I corrected them, and now here we are….” Ed hides his face behind his hands, “I know what I did was wrong, I’m sorry.”

 “So, you couldn’t lie, huh? How ironic.” Amity frowns at her brother, he truly looks pitiful right now. She slides off the couch and lets herself settle on the ground. She scooches forward to the edge of Emira’s flashcard pile. “They want me to break up with her.”

She picks up the nearest flashcard. “Motion in Limine.”

Emira perks up at the term, “A pretrial motion requesting the court to proscribe the other side from presenting, or even referring to, evidence on matters said to be so highly detrimental that no steps taken by the judge can prevent the jury from being overly influenced.”

Amity is surprised that she gets it perfectly correct word for word, “Well done Em. Ed did you know that?”

Edric merely laughs and also slides to the floor so the three of them are at the same level. “Maybe, I’ll never tell. Amity, please, do you forgive me?”

Amity drops the flashcard back into the pile and gives her brother a sharp side eye. Her fiery anger has cooled to a simmer at this point. They make eye contact for a moment, but she quickly looks away. “Fine, but you owe me.”

“Thank you!” Edrick collapses backwards, his arms splaying out on the couch behind him, “Phew that’s a huge weight off my shoulders.”

“Ed” Emira regards him sternly, “You can be relieved later, right now we need to help Amity.”

Amity draws her knees up to her chest and hugs them, “I’m just gonna crawl under a rock forever, that’s fine right?”

The siblings exchange a glance and Emira stands up to step out of her flash card mountain. Once clear she sits down about half a foot away from Amity, “We both know you can’t do that.”

“I know… ugh this is impossible.” Amity groans, “I’m not giving up my second major, and I’m not breaking up with Luz!” She can feel her tears of frustration from earlier fighting their way back to the surface, prickling at the corners of her eyes.

Edric and Emira are both confused now, “Second major?” they ask simultaneously.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part. They want me to drop English so I can focus on the LSATS.” She says the last part in a snobby voice, giving her best Mother impersonation. “They said that if I don’t comply, they won’t pay for school next year.”

Edric scoffs, “Well that’s just ridiculous, I’ve done far worse.”

“Believe me Ed, we know.” Emira rolls her eyes at her brother.

Amity knows they are trying to lighten the mood, but she’s still focused on the matter at hand. “Do you think I can convince them?” She’s asking both of them, but her eyes are on Emira.

Emira’s sad expression tells her everything she needs to know. Her older sister pats her on the shoulder, “Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll be swayed.” Emira smiles softly, “Just remember, we are here for you.”

Edric chimes in, “That’s right!! We’re like a bad cold, you just can’t shake us!”

Amity does smile at the joke, “Sometimes I wish I could, but I do appreciate you, thanks guys.” She takes a deep breath and sighs, “What now?”

“You need to talk to Luz.” Emira answers her, but the answer sends a chill down her spine. How will her girlfriend take all of this?

Amity hugs her knees tighter. “I know.”

Chapter Text

The following day is Sunday, so Amity has her usual shift at the library. Her heart’s not in it, and she strongly considers calling in. Then she recalls her impending financial doom, and with a sad grunt drags herself out of bed to go.

Amity’s appreciative to be put on the check-out counter upon arrival, she doesn’t have the mental power today to restock books. Even so, her mind travels elsewhere as she scans books and IDs for the students. She can’t stop thinking about the situation she’s gotten herself into.

Amity has two big problems to tackle. The first is figuring out how she can earn enough money to pay for school, her apartment, and food. She’d given herself a head start on saving money, but didn’t think she’d be cut off for at least another two years. The second is telling Luz that Amity’s parents hate her. Luz probably hasn’t had people hate her before. Amity winces internally as she imagines Luz’s expression drooping in sadness at the news.

Both are large hurdles, ones Amity simply doesn’t want to deal with. But she has to, for the sake of her future as a librarian and her future with Luz. She’s not willing to sacrifice either. A little pain now for a lifetime of happiness.

Luz had texted her a friendly “good morning!” earlier in the day, but Amity had yet to respond. She pulls her phone out now and stares at the message. She wonders if she inadvertently made Luz worry by not replying. She types out a response when there’s a lull in the line.

Can you come over after work today?

Amity only waits a couple minutes before she’s rewarded with a response.

yes I can!!! everything ok??

She did make her worry… Amity feels a rush of affection towards her girlfriend, Luz always is looking out for her. She types back.

I just want to see you.

Amity spends the rest of her shift practicing what she’s going to say to Luz. She rolls through the dialogue in her head, then imagines Luz’s response. It’s hard for her to imagine her girlfriend being anything but sad and supportive, but what if this really upsets her? What if Luz doesn’t want to be with someone who has homophobic parents?

She pushes the negativity from her mind. Regardless of Luz’s reaction, she has the right to know. She messages Luz once her shift is over and lets her know she’ll be home shortly. Luz agrees to head her way, so she departs from the library.

Amity arrives at her apartment a few minutes before Luz. Normally she’d straighten up a little in anticipation of company, but today she doesn’t have the strength. Instead, she slips off her shoes and collapses onto the couch.

Her doorbell rings a few minutes later and she gathers her composure before rising and going to open the door. She greets Luz with the best smile she can muster, and for at least that moment everything is normal.

Luz is pretty dense, but it only takes her a few seconds to notice something is off. She enters and removes her shoes, but her eyes are still locked on Amity. “Is everything okay?”

Despite Amity’s own worry, the care and concern brings a small genuine smile to Amity’s face. She gingerly draws Luz’s hand in her own and guides her over to the couch so they can sit. Once settled she takes a deep breath before speaking. “I’d like to say everything is okay, but that wouldn’t be the truth.” She gives Luz’s hand a gentle squeeze. “As you know, I had dinner with my parents last night. I didn’t think it would go well, but it somehow went worse than expected. Far worse”

Luz frowns at her, concern etched on her face. “What happened?” She squeezes Amity’s hand back. “I can fight them! If need be.”

“I don’t think fighting them would get us anywhere, but I appreciate it.” Imagining Luz punching her mother in the face does calm Amity’s frazzled nerves. “Anyway, there are two parts of it, the first is that they want me to drop English as my dual major.”

“But you want to be a librarian!” Luz says, her voice rising in volume. “That’s so unfair!!”

“Yes, but they want me to be a lawyer.” Amity clenches her free fist, “I always thought they’d let me finish my undergrad degrees before trying to force me further down that path. I guess I was wrong…”

Luz frowns at her, “and that’s only half of it? What’s the second part?” Luz runs her thumb along the back of Amity’s hand, trailing it in slow methodical circles.

Though comforting, it doesn’t make the next part any easier. Amity gulps and looks down at their joined hands. “Well… they found out about you from my brother, and they want us to break up.”

“What!?” Luz leaps up from the couch, releasing Amity’s hand as she does so. “They haven’t even met me!” She crosses her arms with a loud huff.  “I am a gem!”

Amity nods in agreement, “My parents don’t want to meet you, no matter who you are. They have no intention of letting me be happy, not with a girl.”

Luz still has some fire in her eyes, but it’s faded slightly. She sits down with a sad sigh and pulls Amity into a tight bear hug. “I’m sorry.”

Amity hugs her back and cherishes the warmth, Luz’s head nuzzled against her shoulder. “You haven’t even heard the best part yet.”

Luz releases her from the hug, her eyes curious. “What’s the best part?”

“I hope you know that was sarcasm.” Amity waits for Luz to nod in confirmation before she continues. “They said that if I don’t do both of these things they will not pay for my schooling, apartment, or food next year.”

Luz is back on her feet in an instant, fire re-ignited. “No way!! Isn’t that a bit of an overreaction?”

Amity shakes her head sadly, “No, not for a Blight.”

Luz plops back down with a big huff, “This is so ridiculous…” She picks up Amity’s hand again and takes a deep breath. “Okay, what do you want to do? What’s our plan? Should I get the giant paper?”

“Plan?” Amity’s surprised to hear the word from Luz’s lips. “Honestly, I haven’t decided yet. I was just going to lie to them for now.”

Luz is hesitant to agree, “Are you sure that’s the best thing to do?”

“I don’t see what other choice we have.” Amity shrugs, “This way, as long as I can keep up the lie I can keep collecting funds from them, and then yeah when they eventually find out hopefully I’ll be in a better spot financially.”

“I didn’t think you were one to give up so easily Blight.” Despite Amity bringing down the mood in the room, Luz tries to return it to normalcy with a tint of humor in her voice. “Surely we can think of something, you always have a plan!”

Amity’s mood can’t be improved so easily. She eyes Luz critically and asks, “Do you have any ideas?”

Luz stands up again and starts to pace slowly in front of the couch. “Okay, don’t shoot me down right away. What if next year we lived together?” Surprisingly, Luz’s cheeks light up pink as soon as the suggestion comes out of her mouth. “Obviously we’d find somewhere cheaper, since I’m sure this place is ridiculously expensive. A-anyway, I know we haven’t been dating for long, but it’ll be longer by time summer is over! I can use my dorm money to help, and I can get a job!! If you pick up a few more hours at the library over the summer we should be able to save up enough.” Luz pauses mid pace, “Actually, I have no idea if that’s true we’d have to crunch the numbers. You’re probably better at that than I am.” Luz continues to pace, “Together we can do anything though, so I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Amity’s heart soars as she listens to Luz’s idea. Luz’s support and warmth overwhelms her. This is the exact opposite of what Amity was expecting and she feels a strong urge to be closer to her. She rises from the couch and steps in front of Luz to stop her pacing, pulling her in for a searing kiss. She can hear her pulse pounding in her ears as she pours her emotions into the kiss. Her left hand sneaks up to cradle Luz’s cheek as they separate. She’s not ready to break contact quite yet and leans her forehead against Luz’s so they’re gently touching. “I love you so much.” Amity breathes out.

Okay, that was not what she was planning to say, but she means every word. Butterflies flutter nervously in her stomach for a moment, but Luz’s eyes shine warmly at her and the Spanish teen leans in for another quick kiss. “I love you too.” She giggles, “So, you like my idea?”

Amity releases Luz’s cheek and nudges her shoulder playfully, “Yes, you’re amazing and your idea is also amazing. There’s just one thing we need to figure out first though, and that’s your major.”

“And a job!” Luz chimes in with another giggle, “Don’t forget about that.”

Amity smiles, “Of course, we’ll find you a job too, but let’s put that off until tomorrow?”

“Put that off, you don’t want to do it tod… woah!” Luz starts to ask follow up questions, but she’s caught off guard as Amity places her hands on Luz’s shoulders and pushes her back to the couch, forcing her to sit down.

Amity leans down to steal another kiss, this time snaring Luz’s bottom lip and sucking hard, one hand cupping Luz’s face and the other tangling in her hair, drawing a quiet moan from the sitting teen. She places her right knee flat on the couch in the space between Luz’s legs to lessen the distance between them. When they separate, scorching desire dances in Luz’s eyes. Amity’s sure she looks similar.

“Tomorrow is fine.”

Chapter Text

With only two weeks left until finals, it’s crunch time. The first and easiest matter of business is starting the job hunt for Luz. She picks 10 options, some off campus and a few on, and sends in applications for all of them. She includes the library, but Amity already knows they don’t really need extra staff. Amity has also asked for more shifts going forward, so even if they could bring on an extra person previously it seems unlikely that they will now. Regardless, Luz applies.

She’s okay with the library most likely being unavailable, as the place she most wants to work is the roller skating rink about ten minutes from campus.  Though the two of them have yet to go together, Luz joyously proclaims she enjoys it there and would love to play music for the kids and skate around with them.

They have to wait for the employers to reach out, so the next step is securing an apartment for the summer and hopefully the following school year. They both decide it’s easier to stay up at school over the summer, since then they can work full time in order to save up for classes in the fall. They mull over each returning home for the summer, but Amity at least can’t stand to spend that much time with her parents, not to mention there’s no way they’d let her work as much as she wants to.

Fortunately for them, there are a lot of students who want to sublet apartments during the break, and they quickly find someone who is willing to rent to them below value just to recoup some of the cost. It’s $300 per month for one room, and they have to share the common areas with one other person. Amity can bring her bed from her current apartment and the 2 beds fit in the room, albeit snugly, so it works. Amity makes enough money to cover the rent even if Luz doesn’t get a job by then.

The final hurdle is for Luz to decide on a major. She’s put it off for too long, and Amity asserts that it’s time. Amity sets up two final field trips for them, and once they’re complete Luz will have to make her decision. Amity reminds her that she can always pursue another degree or simply learn a job from entry level, there are always more paths than the one your major drives you towards.

Amity sets them up to shadow with a third grade class in the afternoon and visit a newsroom directly after. She chooses Thursday since they both have less classes that day and Amity doesn’t have a library shift scheduled.

They arrive at the school at 3 PM, right before the second to last class of the day. The teacher that Amity connected with greets the teens warmly and welcomes them into her classroom. About 25 sets of eyes blink curiously at them as they enter the room. The kids are sitting in neat rows of desks, about 6 to a row.

“Everyone, please say hi to Amity and Luz.” The teacher directs them.

“Hiiii Amity and Luz.” The kids are a little scattered in greeting them. Amity glances towards her girlfriend and finds that Luz is already smiling. Luz waves at the kids and greets them back.

The teacher continues, “They’re going to be attending art class with us, so let’s treat them like our special guests, okay?”

Another chorus of yesses, so the teacher moves on to prepping the lesson.

For art today the kids are doing color pencil drawings, and their assignment is to draw their home. Amity and Luz help to pass out boxes of colored pencils and a piece of paper to each student.

There are a couple open seats in the back, so they sit down in the tiny chairs to watch the kids draw. A few boxes of colored pencils are leftover, so Luz cracks one open and starts a drawing of her own, promising Amity she’ll make her proud.

The kids dig into their work, some chatting with their friends as they draw. Luz is also scribbling away, her tongue poking out between her lips cutely as she focuses.

Amity leaves her for a moment and walks to the front of the room to speak with the teacher. Amity thanks her for having them. They make small talk for a few minutes, then Amity asks some questions that she feels might help Luz with her decision making. “What’s the most difficult thing about being a teacher?” Amity pulls a tiny spiral notebook out of her back pocket and the pen she brought specifically for this.

The teacher considers it for a moment, bringing one hand up to her chin thoughtfully. “Classroom management.”

Amity writes it down but is a little confused, the kids have been nothing but civil so far. “What do you mean by that?”

A loud cry suddenly steals their attention. About halfway down the row of seats a small girl is hunched against the desk, crying loudly. A larger boy seated two seats behind her is volleying pencils over the kid between them, each one landing directly on top of her head.

The teacher gives her a meaningful look and walks away to scold the boy for his behavior. She returns after a couple minutes and answers a few more of Amity’s questions. She takes thorough notes and once she’s satisfied thanks the teacher again and returns to Luz.

It’s been about 15 minutes at this point, and the kids are wrapping up their drawings. Luz is done as well, and she proudly shows Amity.

The house is pretty simple, but Luz has also sketched a large creature flying overhead. It has a lion’s body but a bird’s head with a giant beak. “What’s that?”

“A griffin! He shoots spiders out of his mouth!” Luz glances at the page, “I tried to draw tiny spiders, but I guess they’re hard to see…” Luz squints at it, “Mine’s not as good as Jeffrey’s though,” she motions to the boy sitting in front of her. “His is amazing!”

Amity turns towards the third grader, and he blushes shyly and shows her his drawing. It’s pretty standard, but Amity praises him with a smile. This only makes his blush deeper as he mumbles out a thank you.

Everyone passes in their drawings and the two of them help collect the colored pencil boxes. It’s time for them to go, so they thank the teacher once again and leave the school.

They hop on a public bus nearby and head to their next and final stop, the newsroom. It’s in downtown Bonesborough and releases the Bonesborough Times. Gus’s dad works there as a journalist, and he sets them up for an afternoon tour.

Perry Porter looks exactly how Amity imagines Gus will look in 20 years. He greets them at the entrance and signs them in as guests. The building appears quite small on the outside, but once they enter it’s a wide open space that makes it look much more spread out and large. Open and wall less desks are scattered around the room, with small offices lined up on the edges. Perry walks them over to his desk which is one of the random ones in the middle. He pulls two chairs up for them so they can all sit and chat at his desk for a while.

He clears his throat, “I’ll start with the basics. A newspaper has four steps. Content gathering, pre-press, press, and post press. The content and pre-press are done here, then we print and distribute the newspapers from another building which is nearby. My son tells me you wish to know more about being a journalist?”

Luz nods eagerly, “Yes! He’s told me about the amazing adventures you’ve had!”

Perry smiles, “I don’t know if I’d call them adventures, but we do have our fun. As I’m sure you’ve heard from my son, I’m a journalist here. I work the political desk which means I mostly travel to political events across the state and write articles for them.”

Amity whips out her trusty spiral notebook and pen. “You only write about politics?” She crosses her right leg over her left and leans in as she asks. He nods so she asks a follow up question, “Do you ever get to write about other topics?”

Perry shrugs, “Sometimes. If a journalist is sick and can’t travel to an event. Mostly we just focus on our desk though, we have a couple journalists for each area of expertise.”

“So, I’d need to pick one that I like the most.” Luz scratches her head, “Ugh, why is there a decision within the decision?” Her eyes suddenly light up, “Decision-ception!”

Amity thinks she moved on from that first revelation a bit too quickly. “Does anyone in your office get to travel internationally?”

“We are a relatively small newspaper, so only our top journalist travels overseas.” Perry comments, “If you worked for somewhere larger more people would travel.”

Luz hits her right fist against her palm, “Got it, so if I’m going to be a journalist, I need to find the largest newspaper!” She turns to Amity with a large grin, “That shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

Perry seems hesitant to share in her joy. “It’ll be nearly impossible to start out in a place like that. You’ll need to do at least one internship while you’re in college, and most people start small and try to transition to a larger newsroom after ten to fifteen years.” Perry backtracks when Luz’s expression falls to sadness, “Don’t worry though, I love my job here. There are also other positions of interest, such as the editor in chief. Our current editor in chief planned to use this place as a stepping stone to move to a larger newsroom, but fell in love with our paper and couldn’t part ways.” He motions to the desk to his right, “We also have advertisers. They find the ads that goes into the papers, which is how we make the majority of our revenue. There are a lot of great options.”

Amity asks a few more questions, hours, pay, things like that. The pay is not much better than a teacher’s, and the hours are a lot more variant. These are things that she expected, so it doesn’t help to narrow things down much. She’s pleasantly surprised when Luz finally asks a question of her own, “What do you like most?”

“My favorite part of the job is meeting new people. Every day I get to see new things and learn people’s perspectives. It really teaches me a lot about the world we live in.” Perry smiles, “I wouldn’t give it up for anything .”

Chapter Text

The next two weeks fly by, and the clock ticks down on Luz and Amity’s remaining time. Amity invites Luz over the Sunday before finals. The goal is to study, but they have some unfinished business before they can get dig in.

Amity sits on the left side of her couch and tries to relax, but her stomach has butterflies fluttering nervously. Luz is on her right; she looks less nervous, but her smile is smaller than usual. She reaches over and clasps Amity’s right hand with her left. In Luz’s other hand is her cell phone, which she’s gripping tightly.

The contact helps ease Amity’s nerves, but she’s not quite ready, “You go first.” She says to Luz.

“Okay.” Luz clicks on her phone screen a few times to dial a number and then raises it up to her ear.

“Hi mom!! I’m doing great! Yeah, I’m calling you about what we discussed a few weeks ago!”

Amity runs her thumb over the back of Luz’s hand as she continues to talk on the phone. Luz eyes are on their joined hands, and a second later she looks up warm eyes meet Amity’s.

Luz grins, “Yes, I’ve decided on a major. Your daughter is going to be… drumroll please… an elementary school teacher!!!! Yayyyy.” Luz falls silent as her mother responds, her grin returning to its regular size. “Thank you! I’ll make you proud.”

Luz listens for a moment and answers a few questions about what she’s been up to, if she’s been eating right recently, and things like that. The call starts to wind down, but Luz isn’t ready to hang up quite yet. “Hey mom, I have something else big to tell you.”

Amity tilts her head slightly to the right at the comment and scrunches her eyebrows, they hadn’t discussed sharing any additional news.

“I met someone; I’m holding hands with her right now.” Luz raises their joined hands and presses a gentle kiss to Amity’s knuckles, bringing a bright blush to the recipient’s cheeks.

Luz’s mom must have asked for her name because Luz responds, “Amity. Thank you!! Yes, I can already tell you’re going to love her. You want what? When? Hold on one sec.”

Luz lowers the phone and whispers excitedly, “My mom wants to meet you! She said she’s happy for us and wants us to visit next weekend.” Luz pauses and then whispers even louder, “Sorry, is that too sudden?”

Amity smiles at her excitement, “It’s fine. I’d like to go.”

“Great!!” Her whispers are at max volume now, and Luz returns the phone to her ear. “Mom? Yes we’d love to come, thank you so much!! We’ll see you Saturday then. Okay I’ll talk to you later, love you, bye!!”

Luz hangs up the phone and beams at Amity, “That went great!!” Luz leans back against the couch, “Phew, I’m so relieved.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively at Amity, “It’s your turn now.”

“I’m not ready.” Amity glances towards the ground, the joy from Luz’s call quickly evaporating into thin air. “My parents will not be as warm and welcoming.”

“It’ll be okay.” Luz leans in for a gentle kiss and gives her the softest smile which causes Amity’s heart to flutter. “You got this.”

Emboldened by the kiss, Amity releases Luz’s hand so she can pull her phone out and call her mother. She clicks into her contacts and presses send. She swaps the phone to her left side so she can go back to holding Luz’s hand, she needs the comfort right now.

Her mother answers after two rings. “Hello?”

Amity takes a deep breath. “Hello mother, this is Amity.”

“I’m glad you called. You’ve been ignoring us; we didn’t raise you to behave this way.” Her mother’s voice is sharp and critical.

Amity sighs, “Well we all can’t be as perfect as you.”

Her mother scoffs, “I’m not sure I like your tone.”

Amity grimaces, “Well, let’s just get this over with then. Do you want to grab father so I can speak with you both at the same time?”

Amity’s mother pauses for a moment, considering it. “No, it’s alright, I’ll just relay the message.”

“Great.” Amity draws in another deep breath. Luz squeezes her hand tightly, this time Amity’s on the receiving end of the comfort. “I’m calling regarding our dinner. Your message was clear, but I refuse. I’m not giving up on my dreams, and I’m not giving up on the girl I love.” Amity makes eye contact with Luz and it gives her the strength to keep going. “I want you in my life, but if you can’t support me then I will make do without you. I’m going to work all summer to pay for school, and I’ll use that money to become a librarian, not a lawyer.” Amity pauses to let her words sink in before continuing, “You can’t control me anymore.”

Her mother is silent. Luz is looking at her proudly and does a silent fist pump and mouths “great job!” but the call isn’t quite over yet.

“Fine,” her mother finally responds. “If that’s how it has to be.”

“I guess it does.” The air between them is tense. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

“Same for you. Goodbye Amity.” Her mother doesn’t wait for a response and the phone beeps to signal the end of the call. Amity throws the phone on the table in front of her and collapses onto Luz’s shoulder, sinking into her girlfriend’s warmth. “That was exhausting, but at least now it’s over with.”

Luz leans in as well so her head is resting on top of Amity’s, moving her free arm to embrace her. Luz kisses the top of Amity’s head lightly. “For us, this is just the beginning.”