Amity laughs and extends a hand to Willow to pull her farther up into the tree. Her shorter friend always gets stuck at the first branch and needs help up, but Amity doesn't mind. She's strong for her age, strong enough to beat Edric at arm wrestling.
Willow settles onto the branch beside her and begins drawing her little circles to make the lichen grow a little faster. Amity looks out over the forest that she can see, because she likes to pretend that she's a queen and it's her domain. One time, Amity's mother came out here and told her to stop being silly, since the branch wasn't even that far off the ground, but it feels like a long way to Amity. Sometimes it feels like she can jump off and then fly.
She mentions this to Willow, who grins.
"Well, are you gonna jump and see?"
"Only if you go first."
"It's a long way down," Willow comments, tugging at the sleeves of her dress the way she always does when she's nervous.
"Okay, chicken. I'll tell everyone that Willow's too chicken to even jump out of a tree."
Willow gets that determined look in her eyes, and Amity knows she's going to jump. Amity knows that the easiest way to make Willow jump is to tell her she can't.
She doesn't count on Willow grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the tree with her, both of them screaming. Willow somehow lands on her feet, but Amity doesn't. Her knees are scraped, and she thinks about crying, but Willow helps her up, then kneels to put her hands close to a little plant. It blooms slowly, into a magnificent red flower.
Willow plucks the flower and offers it to her.
"I'm sorry," she says. "Are you going to be all right?"
"I'll be fine," Amity says, dusting herself off and taking the flower. She'll have to hide it when she goes back to her family, but for now she puts it in her hair, and giggles when Willow tries to straighten it.
Willow still looks worried, and maybe like she's about to start crying, and Amity doesn't want that.
"Maybe they're right," she says. "Maybe I am useless."
"No, you're not useless," Amity insists, but it doesn't help. Amity looks around for something that might cheer Willow up.
In class, they always give out a star to whoever does the best each day. They're shiny, and Amity has a lot of them. She doesn't think Willow has any.
Amity kneels and dips her fingers into the mud, then traces a star on Willow's forehead.
"What's that for?" Willow asks.
"It's a star, because you're the best," Amity explains. Willow frowns, her forehead creasing and some of the mud sliding off.
"But it's just mud, not the shiny kind of star. And only teachers are supposed to give out the stars, you know that."
"It's more special than the shiny kind that the teachers give out," Amity says. "This kind can't be washed off, and it means we're best friends for ever and ever, because you're the best."
Willow slowly smiles.
"Let's go jump out of the tree again," she says, grinning, and Amity follows her.
She's late for dinner that night, and her clothes are torn and her hair is a mess, so she gets scolded, but that's okay.
…
Amity doesn't know if Willow still remembers that afternoon in the forest. But through everything that happened to them, she knows one thing: the easiest way to get Willow to do something is to tell her she can't. When Willow gets angry she gets powerful, and when she gets powerful not even Amity can hope to stand in her way.
Willow has always been the better witch, and the better person. Amity accepted a long time ago that no amount of awards could change that.
Willow still doesn't know why Amity broke off their friendship, and there's still a tightness in Amity's chest whenever she sees Willow, even after years. It hurts to watch her suffer and struggle without even her best friend by her side, and Amity wishes she could do more.
But Amity does what she can. Each time she insults Willow, calls her worthless or half a witch, she sees that determined look in Willow's eyes again. Willow is going to beat them all at their own game, just to prove them all wrong.
Amity looks again at the star pinned to the front of her robe, proclaiming her the best student of the Abomination track, and then at Willow, and her pitiful attempt at an abomination, nothing more than some purple ooze.
Amity makes the usual stinging comments as her abomination draws a star on Willow's forehead in mud, but she hopes that Willow understands the gesture beneath the words.
You were always the best.
Willow tries to scrub the mud away with her sleeve, and Amity walks away.