Chapter Text
Chapter 1; first day back
Hexside sixth form, a well respected school for the amount of lawyers and surgeons it pumped out, and also, the last place in the area that would accept Luz Noceda. It wasn’t her fault, sort of, sometimes the things she did just got, out of hand.
It was probably the reason her mother tried to send her off to camps every summer to fix what was wrong with her. They never helped, and Luz usually just ended up staying at Eda’s house, an old family friend who was now her full time guardian.
The school itself was pretty big, and honestly intimidating, but after she’d been going for nearly three months, the novelty wore off.
She was sitting outside the gates, waiting for them to open, and trying to will away a headache that had been bugging her.
Note to self, remaining hangovers and no sleep don’t mix well, she thought to herself, taking a big gulp of her coke. Maybe the caffeine would kill it.
She’d spent the last week mostly partying with her friends, congratulating her on making it through half a term without being kicked out. As well as this, there was the huge Halloween party the previous Saturday, that Luz’s head was still beating her up for, despite the fact she couldn’t remember most of it.
She loved her friends, but most of them either dropped out or just didn’t go to school anymore, which was great to get alcohol and cigarettes, but horrible for her at school when she had no one to talk to during free periods.
She glanced down at her phone, it was only eight, but it meant the school doors would be open, and she could just wait in the art room until nine when her first class started.
She could work on their project, or just do her own stuff because there was no one there to stop her.
She walked up the small hill to get to the school entrance, because of course the school was on a hill, most people there acted like they were higher than everyone else anyways.
She decided to grab some food in the cafeteria before heading to art, since she hadn’t eaten since, wait, when did I last eat? Jeez Noceda, you need to get better at this, she thought. The good thing about the cafeteria was they sold pop to the sixth formers, meaning she could get more caffeine in her system so maybe, just maybe, she could play attention in Literature today.
Did I do the homework? Shit, Mr Atkinsons gonna kill me she groaned, grabbing a can of coke and putting it on the till. The lunch lady gave her an odd look, but didn’t say anything, which was good, because it was way too early to get looked at condescendingly.
“I’m guessing you didn’t do the essay then?” A snide voice said from behind Luz.
Without even turning around, she knew who it was, of course she’d be here this early.
“What do you want, Blight?” Luz groaned, paying for her cold bagel and drink.
“Breakfast, isn’t it obvious?” The other girl smirked.
“Strange, didn’t think you’d eat this stuff, isn’t it too lowly for you,” Luz shot back.
“Ugh, whatever, can you just move, some of us have studying to do.”
Luz flushed red, “I’m here to work on course work!” She all but yelled?
“For what? Art? Don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t even know there was coursework for that, don’t you just sit and finger paint all day?”
“Sorry not all of us have a stick up are asses, some people actually want to enjoy their lives,” this time, Amity was the one to go red, which Luz took as a huge victory, “see you in Lit, Blight,” Luz said, flipping her off as she walked away.
Why did Amity have to be like that? And by ‘like that’ Luz meant undeniably attractive as well as being a complete bitch. As a proud and out bisexual, Luz definitely had a preference for women, and despite her bitchyness, Amity was definitely her type.
She had long, brown hair, that was messy, but in a good way, like, as if she had styled it specifically to be that way. And she always wore smart clothes, like, office smart, but not quite pantsuit, more of a button up with a jumper or cardigan on top. And her eyes. They were golden, literally, Luz had never seen anything like it, and almost thought they were contacts the first time they crossed paths.
Hell, if she didn’t know how much of a ‘good girl’ Amity was, she would have still thought they were contacts.
Luz suddenly felt insecure about her own looks, her ratty, oversized army jacket hung awkwardly over her shoulders, threatening to be pulled off if Luz so much as moved her old denim backpack.
Shaking her head, she reminded herself that at least her clothes had personality.
The art department was away from the sixth form area, so Luz had to go out a back exit, towards the lower school to get to it.
“Hey, Paki! Why don’t you go back to your own country!” A year nine yelled at her. Luz bristled at the comment, not only was she not Pakistani, she couldn’t stand kids who acted like that.
She stormed over, army boots slamming off the floor. “What did you say to me Gringo?” Luz spat, getting right into the kids face.
He was maybe three inches shorter than her, but he still cowered like she was a giant.
“I… uh,” he stuttered.
“First of all, I’m Hispanic, so if you’re gonna be a bigot, get it right, and second,” she shoved him, causing him to sprawl onto the floor, “you ever say anything like that again, I will personally hunt you down and cut your balls off, got it?”
The boy quickly nodded, and jumped to his feet, running off.
Sighing, Luz went back to the wooden doors of the art block, shoving them open.
There were three art rooms, for the three art teachers, but her favourite one had to be Mrs Louis’ that she loved the most. It was cluttered with other students' art projects from throughout the years, and there were so many hiding spots that were great to hang out in during free periods.
It really helped since Luz didn’t exactly have many friends in the school.
What didn’t help was that the town they lived in, Bonesburrow (seriously who names a town that) was fairly small, with not many schools, and since Hexside was apparently a very popular sixth form for people to go to, rumors of her past, incidents, at school spread pretty quick.
Turns out that kids who are really academic don’t exactly want to hang out with the girl who’s been kicked out of three schools in five years.
Luz sighed, pulled out the painting she’d been working on, and got back to work, not even noticing the splats of paint getting on her face and her jacket.
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Why does Literature have to be on the other side of the school to Language Luz internally groaned as she dodged in between year sevens, still getting lost on their way to class.
Usually, the walk between her Language class and her Literature class was alright, sure she had to get past all the lower years who made an impenetrable wall most of the time, but she’d always get to her next class on time.
But today, it seemed like the universe was against her.
Not only did she leave her bag in the classroom when she’d gotten up to leave, the wall of children had blocked her from getting back in for another two minutes. By the time that she had grabbed her bag and maneuvered her way out of the building, she still had to run across the school grounds to the sixth form block to actually get to her class.
Having three school buildings she had to get to for her three different classes absolutely sucked sometimes.
“Ah, Miss Noceda, nice of you to finally join us,” Mr Atkinson said from the front of the room, causing a few slight chuckles from the rest of the class.
“Sorry sir, I got held up in my last class,” she mumbled, trying to hurry to her desk.
“Ah ah, wait a minute, I do hope you have your homework today.”
Luz sighed, she knew this was coming, “no sir, I’ll bring it in tomorrow, I must have left it on my desk at home,” she lied, her face going red as she felt the entire class's eyes on her.
“I should’ve guessed, sit down, I want to see you after class.”
She shuffled to her seat, ignoring the looks she was getting off the rest of the class, including Amity.
The only reason she’d taken this class was because it would be easier for her to get into creative writing courses at university, she really couldn’t care less about the subtext in Macbeth.
The bell rung about 50 minutes later, and while everyone was piling out of the room for lunch, the teacher called over the crowd “Miss Blight, would you mind stopping back too?”
Internally, Luz groaned, why would Mr Atkinson need Amity? To prove to Luz how bad of a student she was?
“I would like to talk to the two of you about your grades,” Luz rolled her eyes, while Amity looked as if she’d seen a ghost, “nothing, too bad,” the teacher clarified, looking directly at Amity, “just that I think it would be beneficial for you two to work together. With Amity as our top student, I think it would be very helpful for you Luz, maybe some of her smarts will rub off on you.”
Luz cringed at the idea of being anywhere near Amity Blight, “so you want her to tutor me?” Luz asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No, no, nothing like that, I just think it would be good if the two of you sat together in this class, worked together, maybe Amity could help you see the things you’re missing. Luz, I know you’re smart, you just need to try,”
If I had a penny for every time I heard that phrase I could just drop out of school already, Luz thought bitterly, “I know sir,” she said, trying to force herself to not sound as angry as she was feeling.
“Well, that will be all girls, I will see you in tomorrow’s class, and Luz, remember your homework, there’s only so many times I can let you off, this is sixth form, you have to try.”
“I know, I’ll see you tomorrow sir,” she said, walking out of the classroom, followed closely by Amity.
“Look, I get that you’re some freeloader who doesn’t care about her education, but I do, so I swear, if my grades go down at all because of you, I will do everything in my power to make your life miserable, got it,” Amity hissed, backing Luz into a corner.
“Wow, I wouldn’t dream of tarnishing your perfect record princess,” she drawled apathetically, before pushing Amity away and walking off. “Oh yeah, almost forgot, if you can make my life anymore miserable, I’d be impressed Blight,” she laughed, before disappearing into the crowd of students outside the cafe.
What Amity didn’t see was Luz hurrying out of the school, and going into the park nearby, sitting on the swing set and grabbing her head.
She’d never wanted to scream more in her life. Quickly pulling a half empty box of cigarettes from an inside pocket of her jacket, she lit one with a purple lighter her friend had given her. “One more class, you have one more class to get to and then you can go home and sleep,” she said to herself, completely forgetting about the English essay she was meant to do.
Just one more class.