Chapter Text
"Are you two sure you want to do this?" Eda asked Hunter and Luz as they stood outside of Hexside. They looked at each other and nodded. Yes, this was what they had wanted more than anything. They loved Eda to death but they no longer felt like they were getting an adequate magical education under her. She had taught them all she could, it was time for them to learn elsewhere.
Not to say this wouldn't be a challenge for them, they were starting school way later than everyone else, things would definitely be difficult for them. But, this was a challenge they were willing to face. "I've never wanted anything more." Luz said determinedly.
"What she said." Hunter added on just as determinedly.
Eda sighed, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay, you know how I feel about that 'one witch-one coven' nonsense, but you two are smart and I have faith in you. So, go, go school!" She shooed them. They let out a cheer and Luz placed a kiss on King's head then gave Eda a hug. Eda patted her on the head, "We'll miss you too, kiddo, now go on before you're late. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that."
"You're getting more maternal in your old age, Eda!" Hunter called as he and Luz ran into the school; King's laughter drowned out her reply.
Hunter and Luz slowed to stop as they looked around the school in wonder. There were multiple levels filled with long hallways that presumably lead to the classrooms and lockers with teeth keeping them closed? The two of them walked closer to them to investigate then jumped back as one of the lockers opened its mouth. "Huh, that was horrifying." Luz gasped and turned to her brother. "Hunter, we're here! In magic school!"
He smiled, "Yeah, we really are." Then turned serious. "And now we have to go find the principal. Bump, I think? Eda has way too many nicknames for him. We can look around more later, okay?" Luz nodded in agreement and they were on their way.
Luckily for them it didn't take them much time at all to find the principal's office and even luckier, they were on time. This was their first day, they wanted to make a good impression. Plus, they were 100% certain Eda talked them up to him and they wanted to live up to the hype.
Bump nodded at them as they walked in and gestured to the seats in front of him. Once they took them he began talking, "Welcome, Hunter and Luz, to Hexside: School of Magic and Demonics! We are pleased to have you here, if you two are anything like Edalyn this should be... interesting to say the least. Now, I know choosing a coven track can be tricky so I'm going to encourage you to try out some different classes until you find one you like." Luz raised her hand. "This is the principal's office, you don't have to raise your hand."
"Noted. What if we wanna study multiple tracks?"
Bump sighed, "Yes, Eda told me this might be a thing. Apparently the two of you are very studious." They nodded. "Hexside encourages this of course, but there is also a thing of being too studious, spreading yourself too thin. And according to the rules a good witch needs to hocus-focus, you can take multiple track classes for now, but eventually you will need to choose one." Luz made a face at that and sunk down in her seat. "Look, Eda has told me about your situation and why you're enrolling so late and I'm very understanding of it, normally students are to choose a track before they enroll, or at the very least before they're as old as you two are. But seeing as this is a special circumstance I'm willing to bend a little bit, give you both some time to really think about it, but I can't disregard the rules entirely. So," He hands them both a piece of paper. "These are your schedules, take them and get to class."
"For some reason I thought that would go better." Luz said as she and Hunter stood outside Bump's office. "What do you think the chances are we'll eventually wear him down?"
Hunter pulled her away from the office, "Eh, about 50/50."
"I like those odds! Oo, what's your first class? Mine's Abomination 101." Hunter looked at his schedule,
"Potions 101. Well, I can do those at least... and I am just starting to realize this might not have been the best idea. Luz, neither of us can do magic normally, how are we gonna do anything here?"
Luz put a hand on his shoulder and smiled comfortingly, "Just because we can't make spell circles doesn't mean there's nothing for us to learn here. We'll figure it out, just like we always do." She was about to continue when the school bell screamed. They jumped. "This school is gonna take some getting used to. Are you okay to go to class, Hunter?" She asked softly.
He let out a breath and ran his hands down his pants, "Yeah, yeah. You?"
"Yup. All good." They fell silent.
"...We're both terrible liars. But, it's too late to turn back now, just have to think about the positives. We're finally learning more about magic! That's what we've wanted for years now! Maybe we can even learn more about Wild Magic!" Luz perked up at that. Wild Magic specifically had been an interest of theirs since Eda first introduced it to them when they were just beginning to look into how they could do magic. Luz was a human and Hunter had been born magicless so they've had to adapt when it came to learning magic, the usual way just wouldn't work for them. But, they were nothing if not resilient. "Well, probably not from the teachers, it's been outlawed for a reason,"
Luz shook her head, "I'm pumped up and nothing can bring me back down! Let's do this!"
Hunter smiled at her. He had no idea what this experience would bring, but he was glad they were doing it together. "Let's promise to meet up for lunch. You still have the one Eda packed for you, right?" She held it up. "Good. Okay, let's do this!" And with that they both made their way to their first classes.
Luz fought the urge to bounce in place as she walked into the abomination class, this was the best day of her life! Sure, she missed Eda and King, and she wished she shared classes with Hunter, but this was still the coolest thing she had ever done.
She looked around the classroom for an open seat and found one in the front row next to a girl with different shades of green hair that was pulled into a ponytail, wearing the same uniform Luz was but black and purple instead of gray. Wow, she was really pretty. She walked over to the seat, "Hi, mind if I sit here?"
The girl looked up from what she was doing, "Oh, sure." Luz smiled at her and sat down. "I've never seen you before, are you new here?"
Luz nodded, "I'm actually," She tucked back her hair to reveal her rounded ears. "A human. So, I started later than everyone else. I'm Luz."
The girl gave her an amiable smile. "Amity." Luz took off her bag and placed it on the ground, making her Good Witch Azura book fall out. "Is that a Good Witch Azura book?" The girl, Amity, asked her as she picked it up. Luz beamed at her,
"Yeah, it's my favorite series! You know it?"
"I've read most of it, but I've never seen that one before." That one being the fifth book. It made sense, that was the one that took Luz the longest to get. "Where did you get it?"
"Eda found it for me in the human realm." She held it out to Amity. "You can borrow it if you want to."
Amity attempted to refuse it, "Oh, no. I couldn't."
"Really it's fine, I don't mind. Happy to help out a fellow Azura fan." Amity took it from her with a smile and thanks. Luz smiled back. She would like it here.
Potions. Hunter was starting his day off on a high note. High notes were good. And thankfully, he knew a bit about them from watching Eda over the years. He walked into the room to see a bunch of kids around Luz's age and sighed. Oh right, he was in the beginner courses. It was probably for the best, if he took classes that were too advanced for him he would embarrass himself for sure. Still...
It was like everywhere he went in this school he was being reminded of his lack of magic. But, he wasn't in this alone, he just had to keep remembering that. And, being in the beginner classes meant he might actually have one with his sister, that would make things easier for sure.
He went over to a bench that was completely empty and sat down, hoping it would stay that way. He really wasn't great with people and the more awkward interactions he could avoid the better. Plus, he didn't really trust people who weren't his family. So even though Eda, and Luz, may have wanted him to make friends here he was really just better off keeping to himself. And that was the way he liked it, no matter what they thought. His family was more than enough for him, they were all that he needed.
That being said, if he could also learn magic that would be pretty good too.
He just had to figure out how he was going to do that exactly. Listening to what the teacher was saying would probably be a good start, he hadn't even noticed she had begun the lesson. Hopefully he hadn't missed too much, or worse, that she had noticed- not a great way to start your first day. Luckily it seemed like she was just going over an overview of what the class was. Well, it was the first day of the new semester so that made sense, all of his classes were probably going to be like this today. Just like everyone else's.
It was almost like he was a normal kid, doing what normal kids did. Yeah, he could totally do this school thing. He could stay here and learn magic, just like everyone else was. He was just like everyone else, even if he didn't have any magic. He, could, do, this.
She couldn't do this. She couldn't make spell circles or answer the teachers' questions when they called on her. She didn't know what she was doing here. This was a mistake. She should leave and find Eda and tell her she couldn't-
"Are you okay?" Luz jumped out of her thoughts and looked around. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, you just looked anxious and I wanted to see if everything was okay." Luz's eyes landed on a girl with short black hair wearing a uniform like Amity's with a worried look on her face. Great, Luz interrupted someone's day with her silly troubles, just great.
"It's okay." Luz was quick to assure her. "I'm fine, just thinking. Sorry for worrying you, you can go about your day, I'm really fine." But the girl didn't look convinced. Hunter was right, she was a terrible liar. Hunter! She needed to find him, they were supposed to have lunch together and she was late, he must be getting worried. Ugh, she just kept screwing up. She should've just stayed home.
Luz slid down the wall she was nearest and hugged her knees. The girl sat next to her. "You know when I'm panicking I use this breathing trick my Dads taught me." She inhaled, counting from one to four on her fingers then exhaled and put her fingers down. Luz copied her and slowly loosened up her grip on her legs. She stretched them out and sighed, maybe she was overreacting a bit. "I'm Willow by the way."
Luz smiled at her, "Willow, thank you. I'm Luz." Willow smiled back. "I don't know why I was so worked up before, I want to be here! I just," She sighed again. "I don't know how to do any of this, I don't know if I was ready to come here yet."
Willow looked thoughtful, "Well, that's what school's for, to learn. No one knows everything on their first day." She paused. "Hey, aren't you in my abomination class? Didn't you sit next to Amity?" Luz perked up at that,
"Yeah! She's really nice and she knows a lot about abominations." She became softer. "She's the first friend I made here." Willow smiled at that, though Luz could tell it was a little off.
"And I'm the second." Luz grinned at her. Two friends already, yeah, she would do just fine here.
Luz pushed herself off the ground and Willow joined her, "Well, Willow, it was really nice meeting you but I have to go find my brother. He's probably tearing up the whole school looking for me."
"Oh, Willow, there you are!" A voice said, interrupting their conversation. The voice belonged to a boy with short dark brown hair in a blue uniform. "You were late for lunch so I got-" The boy paused as he noticed Luz.
"Augustus," Willow said, regaining his attention. "This is Luz, she's new here. Luz, this is Augutus." Augustus smiled at her and stuck out his hand; she smiled back and shook it. "Sorry for being late, she needed help with something."
Luz rubbed her arm, "Yeah, sorry for keeping her, Augustus." She hummed in thought, "Augustus, Gus! I used to know a Gus back in the human realm." Augustus lit up,
"You're from the human realm?! You gave me a human nickname?! Gus? Call me it. I will answer to nothing else from now on." The other two laughed. "Luz, do you wanna join us for lunch? I need to know everything you know about the human realm."
Luz faltered, "Ah, I'd like to, but I really have to go find my brother. Maybe once I do I can see if he's up to joining you guys? It's just, it's our first day and we promised we'd sit together." Willow and Gus nodded in understanding.
"Go ahead, we can hang out some other time." Willow said and Luz smiled at them as she took off. They were really nice, maybe if everyone was as nice as Amity and them here she could make tons of friends! Maybe she could even get Hunter to make some, Titan knows he needed them too. Speaking of Hunter, there he was, rushing through the hallway. Oh boy.
"Hunter!" She called. He snapped his head in her direction and sagged in relief. She jogged over to him as she explained, "I got caught up with something, but I'm okay. Now." She added on. "I made some friends!" She said in an effort to change the conversation, and to get the worried look off of his face. It only partially worked.
"Friends, that's good. What, what happened? Why didn't you come find me?" Luz looked fine, but it was clear something had been upsetting her. Hunter didn't know what he would do if something bad happened to her and he wasn't there to help.
"Just... got wrapped up in my thoughts for a second, you know how it is." Oh. Yeah, he did. "But! I met someone and she really helped me out! I'm all good now! Well, better at least. Hunter, how do we know we're ready for this?" Oh. Oh.
He put an arm around her, it was his turn to be the comforter. "We don't, not really." Off to a really great start, Hunter. "I just mean, can we ever really be ready for anything? We're here now, we can't take that back, but we can learn how to deal with everything. Isn't that why we came here? To learn? We've come this far, we can't let doubt get to us now. We can do this."
Luz smiled at him, "We can do this. How has your day been going? Mine was pretty good before all that, I told you I made a friend, yeah? Her name is Amity, and then Willow was the one who helped me out before, and she introduced me to Gus. He really wants to talk to me about the human realm for some reason. Have you made any friends?" He just gave her a look. "Hunter, Huntsfier, Hunterino-"
"Stop it."
She snickered. "You can't go through life without any friends, you'll end up like Eda. She spends all her time with us and King or evading the law, that's not healthy. Look, Gus invited me to sit with him and Willow during lunch, can you at least meet them?" Hunter sighed, he couldn't say no to her -it was a real problem. She beamed at him, "Yes! I promise you won't regret this!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to where two people were sitting, presumably the two she was talking about.
They didn't look too bad and they did seem genuinely happy to see his sister, still, he was definitely keeping an eye on them. He wouldn't let anyone hurt Luz. "Guys, this is my brother, Hunter! Hunter, this is Gus and Willow!" They waved at him and he gave them what he hoped was a convincing smile as he sat down. Like, he said, he really wasn't good with people.
"Nice to meet you." He said, unpacking his lunch. He grimaced at the apple blood and handed it to Luz in exchange for her ghoul-aid. "One of these days Eda'll get that right."
"I'm starting to think she does it on purpose." Yeah, that wouldn't surprise Hunter. Luz turned to Gus, "So what do you wanna know about the Human Realm?" Gus lit up and started asking a bunch of questions. Hunter bit back a smile, maybe this meeting wasn't the worst thing in the world.
"We're home!" Luz announced as she swung open the door. King ran out of the kitchen and climbed on top of her head. "Hey, buddy, I missed you too!" She really did, more than she thought she would actually. King was her best friend but it didn't hit her how much that truly meant to her until today. Hopefully, it would get easier being away from him, and Eda. Speaking of, "Where's Eda? I wanna tell you guys about my day."
"In here!" Eda called from the kitchen. Luz tossed her bag on the ground while Hunter placed his on a hook and the three of them made their way there. "Just trying to figure out what to do for dinner." She said as they entered. "So, how was it? Cause any trouble yet?"
Luz shook her head. "Not yet. But we did make some friends!" Hunter walked around her and sat at the table.
"You made friends, I just met them." He pointed out. She pouted at him but he refused to budge. He was going there to learn, not make friends. Just because lunch went well didn't mean he was going to change his mind on that. "The classes seem exciting though." He said to Eda. "It'll be hard to choose a track."
Eda hummed, "Yeah I thought you two might have trouble with that. Well, it's not like you can go wrong, except for the construction track, those guys are jerks. And if you really want to learn about the ones you don't pick it's not like I'm gonna stop you."
Luz sat next to Hunter and grabbed King off the top of her head, "....What if I don't want to choose? I know what Principal Bump said, but all the tracks seem so great! I don't want to have to focus on just one, even if it's just during school." Eda shrugged,
"Then convince Bump to let you do all of them." Luz brightened up and Eda turned to Hunter, pointing her spoon at him. "And you need friends, mister. It'll be good for you, get you out more."
"I go out plenty." Hunter protested.
King laughed at that, "You go out less than I do, and that's saying something." Hunter glared at him. Okay, maybe he didn't venture out of the house unless he absolutely had to, but that didn't mean he had a problem! He just, liked being at home. It was comforting.
"King's right." Eda sighed, "Look, I'm not gonna force you, I just want you to think about it, alright?" ....That was the least he could do. Eda had done so much for him over the years, she was practically his Mom at this point. And if she really wanted him to do something, he would do it. But there was something about being out in the Boiling Isles that unnerved him, it felt like he was constantly being watched. And with all the emperor's guards hanging around he probably was.
There was something about that whole system that bugged him out, and he didn't think it was just from Eda's preachings over the years. But maybe if he went out more he could stop feeling like he had to constantly watch his back.
Hunter nodded, "I'll think about it." Eda looked up from her cookbook and ruffled his hair, making him grimace. Luz grinned at him, "Don't even think about it." He said before she could move her hand.
She gave him an innocent look, "I wasn't gonna do anything." She poorly lied; he rolled his eyes. "But you should go out more at least, King and I don't like making chaos without you."
King shook his head, "It's just not the same."
"...What do you guys do out there?" They shared a look and laughed. Maybe he should go out more, if nothing more than to keep them out of trouble.
"Hey, no causing chaos without me." Eda butted in. Hunter sighed, he should definitely go out more, someone had to be responsible. Not that Eda wasn't a great guardian, but she was a little, loose when it came to rules. Someone had to tell King he couldn't eat his enemies. Even if it was admittedly deserved at times.
Fairies were the worst.
"You don't need help causing chaos, Eda, you are chaos." Hunter snarked.
"Family bonding." Was all she replied. Hunter bit back a smile at that. It was always nice when one of them reaffirmed they were in fact a family. They had been ever since Luz arrived on the Boiling Isles, even though he never told them how he felt. He never really seemed like he had to to be honest, they always seemed to get it. Still, he'd like to eventually work up the courage to, he didn't really understand why he couldn't. It wasn't like they'd reject him.
Luz was in the middle of asking Eda about signing her syllabuses when she felt her scroll buzz. They didn't have a lot of money so it was an older version, but she and Hunter each had one in case of emergencies. It came in handy more than she cared to admit. She looked at it and beamed, "Amity followed me on Pentsagram!" She followed back then searched Willow and Gus's names to see if they had accounts.
Eda raised an eyebrow, "Who?"
"One of my new friends!" Luz said as she found their accounts and followed them. They instantly followed her back.
She was so focused on her scroll she didn't notice Eda's further eyebrow raise or King's sudden solemness. "And this friend of yours just happens to be blush-worthy?" Luz snapped up from her scroll,
"I'm not blushing!" Hunter looked over at her and squinted his eyes, "I'm not! You're both being, ridiculous. Eda, shouldn't you be working on dinner?" Eda raised her hands and turned to the stove but Hunter kept looking at her. Which, admittedly, was not helping the blush go down, not that she was blushing, but if she was he wouldn't be helping.
She needed to get a hold of herself.
Sure, Amity was pretty and nice and she liked Luz's favorite series ever which made her super cool in her eyes- this was not helping! Amity was just a friend, barely a friend really, they had only had one conversation, and Luz needed to focus on her schoolwork right now. She could be friends with the pretty, nice, cool girl but nothing more.
Luz sighed. She had a feeling school was going to be more complicated than she thought.