More than language

Amity hates Spanish class.

It’s not like she has always done it, but lately she just… does.

She should’ve taken French like Skara and Cat had done, instead of settling for the most over-complicated language out there.

She hated the fact that so many words could be used for the same thing, and she hated even more that said words could hold other meanings in context! Who needed three different words to say they would grab something?!

She didn’t!

Amity sighed and looked at her homework, deciding that the library wouldn’t be the place where she’d finish that infamous task. She got her things in her bag and stood up, the sky was getting closer to an orange color more than the blue-ish of the noon, making evident the fact that she had lost an entire afternoon.

“I’m going to change the next semester,” s he reminded herself before starting to walk towards the exit.

She didn’t even remember why she had gone through with Spanish, to begin with. She didn’t even think of traveling to a country where Spanish was the common language, so it was so simply stupid of hers to take that class.

She really wanted just to forget about the stupid thing.

“ Bienvenidos, vengan a probar nuestra deliciosa comida! It’s a chance you’d never forget!”

Amity almost choked at those words.

She turned to the food truck and- Woah! That was a long line.

She was amazed at how a truck with no clear menu on sight could get that many customers.

She could have thought anything of that truck, to be fair. It didn’t have the common Taco figure on top of it, and it wasn’t painted like any hotdog’s truck she’d ever seen.

It was a completely new type of truck if she had to name it somehow.

The colors were red and blue, with long lines of white, and the people inside must’ve been working at maximum speed, because the thing was shaking a little.

Amity didn’t have anything to do it, though.

She was about to move away from the place when her phone buzzed in her pocket and she picked it up, looking at the text her sister had sent her and groaning the very next second.

Mom and Dad are out, I have a date and Ed is at Jerbo’s, eat out!

Amity could easily get home and cook something for herself… if her ability’s in the kitchen weren’t, like, natural disaster level ones.

She was bad, she had come to terms with it a long time ago… pancakes shouldn’t glow.

She could order once she was in the manor, but then again, the last time she had done so, her parents had been aware, and they weren’t thrilled with the idea of a Blight eating something that wasn’t perfectly healthy or snob-like.

So she was stuck with no dinner.

… Or…

Her eyes went to the line and the food truck.

The worst it could happen was that she might end up with food poisoning and that could take her out of her next Spanish test.

It was a win-win situation—somewhat—anyway.

So she got in the line, and she waited, looking at the food people walked past her carrying.

She wasn’t sure what any of those were, but she had to admit that whatever they were, it smelled good.

Maybe she wouldn’t regret buying her dinner there.

“Here you go, two number three sets, espero que lo disfrute! Come again,” Amity heard the same voice from before and saw the group of three moving away from the line. “Hey there-! Amity?”

She froze when her eyes landed on the girl that stood through the window.

Because her luck had to be as bad as it could get, to have the cute girl from her literature class standing there, looking at her.

Amity should’ve known her name, really, but she was too tired the first time they talked to remember—she hated Edric and Emira for pranking her that morning—and never got the courage to ask again since this cute girl seemed to have remembered her name perfectly.

Many people wouldn’t say Amity when they saw her, more like cutting to Amy or such.

But this girl didn’t.

And that made asking worse.

“Hey,” she said, glad that her voice didn’t break and she didn’t stutter. “I didn’t know you worked in a food truck.”

“Oh, I don’t this is my cousin’s!” she replied and leaned over the window, “He got down with a cold and asked me if I could help out today.”

“I… see.”

“Yeah, well-” she chuckled and straightened her back, “what can I get you?”

Amity blinked and looked to see if there was a menu anywhere now that she was in front of the truck. She smiled at the sight of the list of food.

And she grimaced when she didn’t understand anything about it.

“I… I don’t know any of this food,” Amity admitted.

“You don’t?” The girl asked and Amity nodded, blushing, “well, I guess we all have a first time.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey, I’m hungry here!” the person behind her shouted and Amity tensed.

“… Rude,” the girl said and Amity looked up at her, “what about this? I’ll make you something, free of charge, and if you don’t like it, you can just tell me in class!”

“There’s… there’s no need of that!”

“It’ll be my pleasure,” she said and smiled sweetly, before she turned back inside the truck, “Gus, I need an order of tostones!”

“You got it, Luz. I’ll have them out in a minute!” the voice of a boy came from inside and the girl turned back at her.

“It’ll be ready in a second, please step aside?” she asked.

Amity nodded and moved, looking at the girl and finally being able to place a name on the face she had maybe or maybe not poorly drawn on her notebook during class.

Luz …

Amity blinked while watching her work, all smiles and laughter with her clients, somehow the name fitted her, Amity didn’t know what language it was, to be fair, but the name had a ring to it, it was… strange, she felt like she knew what it meant.

And it clicked.

“Light…” she whispered and covered her mouth.

Luz was ‘light’…

Amity chuckled and lowered her head in an attempt to hide her laughs.

Spanish worked for her for the first time, and it was for that?

Unbelievable.

She looked up again and smiled sweetly at the girl that wasn’t even looking at her. Luz was giving food to a man, and she moved almost rhythmically in the small space, Amity noticed the silhouettes of the other two people in the truck, she recognized Augustus from her honors English class, and Willow.

They moved clumsily compared to Luz.

Amity found it odd that thinking the girl’s name made her all bubbly and fuzzy inside like something was surging inside of her.

“Amity!” Luz called her out and she nodded, getting closer to the truck, “Here we are, an order of tostones! It’s on the house since it’s your first time.”

“I’ve told you I don’t need it, I’ll pay for it,” Amity replied, smiling.

Somehow she was still nervous to talk to her, but the uneasiness from before now felt like a small bubble inside of her.

She felt nervous, but light.

It felt nice.

“And I’m telling you, you don’t have to,” Luz said and pushed the food onto her hands, “just take it.”

“You are so pushy.”

“It’s part of my charm.”

“Sad that I have to agree,” Amity said and got a strand of hair behind her ear, “you are pretty charming, Luz.”

Amity didn’t have shaming in saying she stared at Luz’s reaction after that.

The girl jumped a bit, blushing so hard and she chuckled, letting out an awkward giggle.

“What?” Amity asked, feeling the heat going up to her cheeks.

Had she said something weird?

“Nothing, nothing is just… well…” Luz looked away, and Amity had to fight the little smile forming on her lips at how cute she looked, “it’s… it’s the first time you… well… you say…”

“… I say…?”

“It’s the first time you’ve said my name,” Luz finished, “I frankly thought you’ve forgotten it; since we have some classes together, and whenever I say ‘hi’ to you, you just nod and never talk back, and so I thought you hated me but then again, that was too depressing so I thought you forgot my name and... just... I’m happy to see you didn’t!”

Amity’s blush got worse, she just knew it, and she lowered her head, staring at the food in her hands.

There was no way that she could tell her she had actually never known it to begin with!

“Well, I gotta go back to work,” Luz said and Amity looked up, “I hope you like the food, tell me what you think tomorrow!”

Amity didn’t have the pride, shame, or voice—whatever she needed to have to speak— to reply, so she nodded and started her walk towards the bus station.

Once she was far enough from the food truck, Amity rushed to next to a bush and bent down, letting out a whisper/scream while her face lit up—or she thought it did, that or she spontaneously combusted… she wasn’t that lucky, right?—and she tried to hide it with her free hand.

How could she even look at Luz again now?!

She groaned and lowered her hand, looking at the tostones in her hand.

She didn’t have the sightless idea of how to describe them; they looked like some kind of strange cookies.

Amity sighed and stood up, glad that nobody thought of approaching her, and started to walk again, eying the food and thinking of Luz’s smile.

Amity sighed again and took one of the tostones, throwing it in her mouth.

She almost stopped walking.

It was so good!

Amity took her time tasting it and sighed with happiness as she took another one.

Those were so amazing!

Amity closed her eyes when she got half of them and decided that she would save the rest for later. She got to the bus station just when the bus was about to depart and barely managed to get on, she smiled at the empty seat at the back.

Once she had sat down, Amity closed her eyes and allowed her imagination to drift away.

She thought of Luz, of her smiles, and how nice her voice was.

“Luz…” Amity whispered, and she liked the sound of the word coming from her lips, “Luz… Luz…”

She giggled and got her Spanish homework out, checking the questions and frowning at how exasperating the language still was.

She didn’t like Spanish, not a bit.

And yet, she scribbled the name of the cute girl from her literature class as the answer to the question ‘¿Qué es lo opuesto de la oscuridad?’

And Amity smiled.

She might not like Spanish.

But she surely liked Luz.

She blushed and closed her notebook in a shift motion.

“Oh no…” she whispered and hid her face.

She just had to say it like that?!

“Ugh… I’m such a simp…”