Chapter Text
Everyone always talks about meeting “the one,” your soulmate, the person who’s going to stick with you for life, the person that you are destined to meet. There’s hundreds of people out there who could be, “the one.” But what if there's no one for you? What if the Universe just gave you nothing, no clue like everyone else in finding your soulmate?
What if you were just supposed to be destined to be alone forever?
Well, that’s what Luz and Amity thought at first.
Putting on her school jacket, Luz stared at the mirror. “Alright, another day at middle school,” the girl grinned and started to cheer herself on. “Who cares what the other people say about me?” Without even noticing, the girl’s hand started to mimic a mouth and she started to have a conversation with herself. Force of habit. “Well,” Luz’s hand said in a deep voice, “ you care about what other people think about you!”
Slapping her right hand, Luz shook her hand and scolded her hand- well, technically herself. “No, bad hand,” she frowned. “I don’t care what the ‘cool kids,’” she said as she motioned finger quotes, “say about me! Sure, it’ll be nice if they stopped whispering behind my back and it would be cool if I got to sit with them at their popular kid table,” she shook her hand as she realized she was rambling. “But that’s not the point!”
“Luz!” A voice called from another room. “The bus is here mija, did you eat your breakfast yet?”
Sticking her head out of her room, Luz yelled back. “Coming!”
The minute Luz stepped into the school bus was the second the whispering started to happen. She clenched her backpack straps as she looked around for empty seats, preferably in the back where she can hide away and not grab the attention of other passengers. Great, Luz thought, Of course the cool kids sit in the back! They always do! You should know this Luz, you watched plenty of coming of age movies to know this!
“You going to sit down?” A gruff voice said.
Luz turned around and saw the bus driver tiredly looking at her. “R-right!”
Being witnesses to her embarrassment, the other students snickered at her as Luz sat down on the first row. Though she tried to stay positive and smile, Luz desperately wished that this dreaded bus ride to school would end quickly.
Standing outside of her middle school’s entrance, Luz gulped. “Why am I so nervous?” She peered into the main hallway and just saw all of the different cliques talking to each other. The jocks were being meatheads, the cheerleaders were kissing up to the jocks, or to each other, and the anime nerds were being anime nerds. She sighed. Everyone except for her fitted in some category, all because she didn’t get her soul-
She felt someone bumped her behind her back, the girl looked up and saw one of her peers, a girl with blonde hair that had a dyed pink stripe that went down her hairline. “Watch it-” grinning maliciously, Aria raised an eyebrow at Luz. “Oh, it’s you ,” she said with spitefulness. Watching as Aria started to brush off the area where she touched Luz, she looked up at the girl who was looking at her in confusion. “Oh this?” Aria sneered, “Don’t mind me, just brushing away the germs,” she shrugged, “I don’t mean to be offensive, I just don’t want your bad luck to get on me.” She leaned in towards Luz and whispered, “I don’t want my soulmate mark to disappear like and become destined to be alone forever. Y’know, like you .”
Putting up her hood over her head, Luz blushed in embarrassment. She was ashamed that she even had a crush on Aria back in elementary school.
Deciding to just deal with it, Luz took a deep breath and just walked through the main hall, not surprised that everyone turned their heads towards her and started to make way for her, so they wouldn’t have to be near her. She couldn’t make out what the other students were whispering about, but she knew that they weren’t good things.
After 4 long hours of being alone in classes, Luz decided to just stay in her fourth period classroom to eat lunch. At least I’m not eating alone in the bathroom stalls like last time! Luz thought hopefully to herself as she started to eat the cheese quesadillas that her mom packed for her as she doodled on her notebook. I’m lucky that Ms. Smith even let me stay here for lunch.
Frowning, Luz rested her head against her arm. “So what if I don’t have a soulmate mark like everyone else when they turned 12? There’s no reason for them to avoid me like a plague,” she ran her fingers through her short brunette hair. “Someone out there has to be my soulmate right? Everyone has one… right?”
Opening the front door, Luz took off her shoes. “I’m home,” she announced. “Oh right, Mom has a double shift at the hospital today. The girl grabbed her backpack and went to her room to study a bit before she could draw more. She loved drawing, it was one of her favorite pastimes and she was pretty talented in it.
Hours passed and Luz sat on the edge of her windowsill as she stared out into the night sky. “Someone out there probably is in the same situation as me right?” she muttered to herself. “No soulmark,” she sighed. “There’s no way I’m destined to be alone forever! There’s got to be someone out there for me.”
“Amity!”
Rubbing her eyes as she woke up, Amity looked to the right of her and saw her older twin siblings grinning at her. “What is it?” she grumbled.
Her brother, Edric, ruffled her hair. “Wakey, wakey, it’s time for school.”
“Come on,” her sister Emira said, “wake up, it’s time for school!”
Turning her head to her alarm clock, Amity frowned. “It’s 7 in the morning… Give me 30 minutes.” Getting her blankets yanked off of her, the girl groaned again. “Fine! I’ll wake up!” She shot up from her bed and flicked both of her sibling’s foreheads. “You guys are the worst.”
Wrapping her arm around Amity’s shoulder, Emira grinned. “Come on Mittens, you know we just want you to get ready early so you aren’t too tired in the mornings!”
“Whatever,” she replied as she pushed her siblings out of her room. “Get out, I need to change.”
Waving her hand, Emira grinned. “Whatever you say Your Majesty.”
Getting a glimpse of the small black pair of wings that looked like it was tattooed on her sister’s wrist, Amity felt a twinge of jealousy but then rolled her eyes before she shut the door behind her.
Walking down the stairs of her family’s manor, Amity was stopped by her parents. “Amity Blight,” her father said sternly. “You know you aren’t allowed to wear short sleeves!”
“But it’s hot outside!” Amity protested. “I don’t want to wear a jacket in this weather!”
“Darling,” her mother said. “You know we can’t have people knowing that you don’t have a soulmark like everyone else.”
Pursing her lips, the girl furrowed her eyebrows, “Not everyone has their soulmark on their arms like Edric and Emira! I can just say that mine is the side of my stomach or something!”
“Emira, do tell your sister that she’s being difficult,” the man said as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
Sticking her head out from the corner, Emira looked between her parents and her sister and sighed. “Mittens…”
Throwing her hands up in the air, Amity turned around, “Fine! I’ll put on a jacket!” she said before she stormed back up the stairs and towards her room. Shutting her door behind her and ignoring the yells of her parents, Amity hit her head with a fist. “What does everyone else have that I don’t?”
Parting ways with her siblings since they went to different schools, Amity met up with her friend Boscha who was also walking to school. “Amity!” the girl raised an eyebrow and tugged on the sleeve of her jacket. “Aren’t you hot?”
“Nope.” Amity said simply as they walked. “I’m good.”
Boscha shrugged. “Whatever you say,” taking her hands out of her pocket and unraveling a wrap around her hand, Boscha showed the other girl a small potted plant soulmark that was on her hand. “Check it out, isn’t it cool?” Amity nodded. ”I know I got this last week during my 12th birthday, but I just can’t get over how cool it looks!” She watched as Boscha started to wrap her hand up back in the white wrap.
“Why do you hide your soulmark?” Amity asked. “I mean, don’t you want to show it off so you can meet your soulmate faster?”
Grinning, Boscha nudged Amity. “Funny how you’re the one saying that. I’ve never seen your soulmark, why is that?”
Feeling guilty for lying to her friend, Amity crossed her arms. “Well, in my opinion, I don’t want to fall for someone just because we have the same soulmark. I actually want to get to know the person and fall for them naturally.”
Boscha nodded her head in agreement. “That’s what I’m doing too. Plus, I think dating other people before meeting your soulmate is nice. To get more experience, y’know?”
Amity rolled her eyes and laughed. “We’re only in seventh grade Boscha, why would you want to date someone already?”
“Why not?” Boscha grinned. “I think it’ll be fun.”
Arriving closer to school grounds, Boscha bumped into another girl and frowned. “Watch it Willow!”
Adjusting her glasses and picking up the books that she dropped. Willow looked up at Amity and Boscha and muttered an apology.
Rolling her eyes, Boscha pulled Amity away from the girl. “People are so rude these days.”
After a long day of school has passed, Amity waited for Edric and Emira’s school to end so they could walk home together. “Amity!” the girl turned her head and saw her brother waving at her. Running up to her sister, Edric patted the top of her head. “Sorry, did you wait long?”
“It’s fine,” Amity replied. “Where’s Em?”
“Get this,” Edric said as they started to walk home, “Em found her soulmate at school today!”
Looking over at her brother in surprise, Amity gasped. “Really? Who?”
Edric smiled. “Some girl named Viney.” Noticing that his sister wanted more answers, the boy shrugged. “Em got caught spraypainting one of the bathroom walls and got sent to detention. Apparently, Viney was also there because she cursed out a teacher for being unfair.” He laughed. “High school is pretty crazy so far.”
“So, where are they now?” Amity asked.
Nodding his head, Edric grinned. “On a date. Em told me to cover for her at home. So don’t tell Mother and Father okay?”
Feeling her heartstrings being pulled, Amity slowly nodded her head. “Yeah sure.”
Sitting on her windowsill, Amity frowned. “If
Emira
has a soulmate out there. I certainly will have one right?” She rubbed her chin. “Who cares if I don’t have a soulmark. I’ll make myself one.” She looked out of the window. “There’s billions of people in this world. There’s definitely someone out there in the same situation as me. The Universe probably just made a mistake. It
has
to be a mistake.”