Chapter Text
“Who am I?
You sure you want to know?
The story of my life is not for the faint of heart.
If somebody said it was happy little tale, if somebody told I was just your average ordinary girl, not a care in the world,
Somebody lied.”
“Alright kid, we’re here.” Eda said to Luz as they arrive at Hexside.
“Thanks for the ride Eda.”
“Oh hey, just letting you know Lilith and I gonna be down at the market today.” Eda said.
Luz turns to Eda confused.
“What for?”
“Just to sell whatever we have that’s left from the human realm.” Eda replies.
“Wait, what happens when you run out of items?” Luz asked.
“Don’t worry about that. Right now, you need to get to class. You’re already late as it is.”
Eda was right. Luz had overslept, after staying up till 2 in the morning reading more Azura books, much to Eda’s dismay.
“Right, we’ll talk more later, love you. Give King and Lilith a big bear hug for me.” Luz says as she rushes inside to get to class.
Luz rushes to her class, that being her abominations class. Once she reaches the class, she takes a quick peek inside and sees the class watching a presentation.
“Ok, they’re distracted.” Luz says to herself.
“All I have to do is move quietly, and hope nobody notices I just got here.”
Luz opens the door quietly and enters. She starts moving quickly to her seat, until the presentation stops all of a sudden. Luz looks up to the front of the class and sees Mrs. Grimshaw, her abominations teacher, staring at her.
“Miss. Noceda. Moving in the dark. You’re late again.” Mrs. Grimshaw said.
“You know, A wise man from my realm said time was relative. So maybe I’m not late. Maybe you guys are early.” Luz said jokingly.
The whole class silently looked at Luz confused and unamused by her joke. However the silence is broken when a familiar face chuckled.
It was Amity Blight.
“Sorry. It was just so quiet.” Amity said Luz smiles at amity, causing her blush. Mrs. Grimshaw notices and rolls her eyes smirking.
“Would you like to keep standing there, or do you want to sit down?” She says to Luz.
Luz moves to her seat, which is happens to be next to Amity, while the presentation resumes. Luz sat down and grabbed her notebook to take notes, until she realized she was a bit behind on notes.
“Hey Amity.” Luz whispered.
“Yes?”
“Can I copy your notes?”
“Sure.” Amity replies
Amity passes her notebook to Luz.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. By the way, I liked your joke.”
“Really???”
“I mean it wasn’t funny or anything, but it was smart, so I liked it.” Amity replies smiling.
“Thanks, it really means a lot.”
The response caught Amity’s attention.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, let’s just say that people thought differently about me back at home.”
“How so?”
Before Luz could reply, Mrs. Grimshaw shushed them both and told them to pay attention.
“We’ll talk about it more later at lunch.” Luz whispered to Amity.
Amity nodded.
Back in the human realm, Luz was always ridiculed for being herself. People made fun of her, pushed her around constantly and at times bullied her due to her being bisexual. She would go home, run straight into her room and cry on her bed until she fell asleep.
Although she is glad to be in a place where people can accept her for who she is, there is one thing she still misses, her mom.
She misses her cooking, her hugs, her constant worrying for safety; She missed everything about her mother.
After she destroyed the portal during her confrontation with Emperor Belos, she cried herself to sleep that night knowing she’ll probably never be able to see her mother again.
It’s been 4 months since it had happened, Luz has been pushing any dark thoughts about what her mother might be going through right now. She knows that she’s extremely distraught, scared, and very upset. It pains her to think about her mom. Eda, Lilith, King, Willow, Gus, and Amity do their best help cheer Luz up, to help her push through those dark thoughts and to keep moving forward. Luz is grateful for their support. They’ve done so much for her to help take her mind off of the human realm.
Although her thoughts on her mother always bring her down, there’s on thought that keeps Luz going. A Noceda always gets up.
“No matter what happens or how hurt you are, you always pick yourself up and keep on fighting.”
Those were her words, and Luz would never forget those words as they help give herself some hope that someday, she will see her mother again.
Class had ended. Luz and Amity started heading to their next classes. Luz’s next class was beast care with Viney, which meant one thing to Luz.
“It’s Griffin Time!!!”
Luz rushes into the class, and meets with Viney.
“Hey, Viney!!” Luz exclaimed with so much excitement.
“Hey, Luz!”
“You know what time it is???” Luz asks shaking with excitement.
“Sorry Luz, no griffins today.”
Luz stops her cheerful ways and looks at Viney confused.
“What, why no griffins??” Luz asks sadly
“Apparently We’re doing something a little different.”
“What is it?”
“Not sure. Guess we’ll see in a bit.”
Luz was a little disappointed they wouldn’t be working with griffins today, but she was curious about what they’ll be doing for today. After all, she loved working with animals, big and small, mostly small though.
As soon as the tardy bell screamed, their classroom teacher, Dr. Curt Connors, entered.
Dr. Connors was a scientist who used to study reptiles and how they’re able to regenerate body parts, however he stopped when a certain incident happened, which he still refuses to talk about. Luz thinks that the incident had something to do with his missing arm.
“Good morning class.”
“Good morning Dr. Connors.” The class replied.
“Today, We’ll be working in the library. So bring your notebooks, and prepare to take notes as there will be a quiz tomorrow.” Dr. Connors stated.
The whole class groaned at the mention of a quiz, which caused Dr. Connors to chuckle.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be anything difficult. And, depending on how you behave today, maybe I’ll allow you to use your notes.”
The class sighed in relief after hearing that. Everyone grabbed their notebooks and reported to the library.
The class reached the library and entered. Dr. Connors kept reminding them to be on their best behavior. Once inside, they spotted containers, and inside them were different types of Spiders.
“Now class, I want you all observe all 15 spiders very carefully, and take notes of what type of abilities these spiders have.”
Although the whole class seemed okay with this activity, Luz was very nervous. Sure she was fine with the spiders back in the human realm, despite some of them being poisonous, but this was the Boiling Isles!!! The spiders here could be either the same as the ones back home, or way worse. Luz was really hoping for the first thought.
“Now if there are any questions, Come find me. Understood?”
“Yes sir.” The class replied.
Dr. Connors was about to walk away to do some other teacher work, but Viney, observing the spiders, called for his attention after she noticed something a little concerning.
“Dr. Connors.” She called out.
“Yes?”
“There’s 14.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“One’s missing.”