Heliotrope.
Luz felt terrible.
Half a day had passed since Amity told her that she didn't want her to talk to her anymore.
And despite what the auburn had told her, Luz couldn't help but look for some way to get her pardon.
Although she had only known her for a very short time, Luz really wanted to maintain contact, even if it was simply that the dean's daughter didn't hate her.
She wanted to show her that she was more than her impulsiveness, and that she was going to make amends for her mistakes.
So far, her attempts had been...unsuccessful.
She offered to help the auburn when she was asked to bring documents from the school office.
But the young woman merely gave her half of the forms and walked in front of her without so much as a glance.
She also walked beside her in the hallways when they changed classrooms, subtly trying to get her attention.
But that only seemed to irritate her...
She tried to give her notes in class since, technically, that way she wasn't talking to her.
But Amity not only didn't respond but complained to the teacher on duty and got the brunette a mild scolding.
Luz was starting to get tired.
But it's just that, you see, Luz was never a person with many friends, more like, she didn't have any.
It wasn't that Luz was shy or had a hard time communicating, quite the contrary, she was open, outgoing and had a way with words, the thing is that, generally, people avoided her exuberant personality after a short time of knowing her.
Sometimes it took just minutes.
It was depressing to see the enthusiasm in a new acquaintance's eyes slowly turn to discomfort and displeasure.
She had been called weird, crazy, intense, creepy, freak, among several other demeaning terms.
She had grown accustomed to being the school outcast thanks to her bubbly behavior.
And when she met Amity, she felt something... Different.
It sounded romantic and absurd, but as soon as she met her she had perceived a natural connection with the auburn, it was easy to interact with her, to talk without constantly thinking about the possibility of making mistakes or stumbles, Amity reacted with caution, as well as with curiosity to Luz's energetic rants, it was... Nice.
Talking to Amity had been easy, especially given to some things she had allowed to show beneath her surface.
Luz was easily distracted, but when she paid proper attention, she could notice details that most would overlook.
She was no fool, a fair share of Amity's gestures and words during the tour were prefabricated and meant only for politeness, but, at some points, Luz could notice something else.
The bright eyes at the promise of flowers.
The sad expression at the sight of Willow.
Her slight distress at what she thought was a mistake.
The genuine glee when playing with King.
There was something beyond what Amity was letting be seen.
And Luz couldn't stop thinking about it.
So, despite the briefness of their time together, that ended in utter disaster, Luz wanted to do her best to pursue that desire of friendship.
...
Besides, she would be lying if she said that the pretty gold eyes had nothing to do with her longing to be her friend.
But throughout the day, she received nothing but disdain from the auburn as she adjusted to the new environment.
Luz learned that most of her classmates knew each other and had shared a classroom since preschool.
That was intimidating for someone with poor social skills.
She had to introduce herself in each of her classes, mainly because the teachers asked her to.
And... Really, though it seemed that being a foreigner and generally new in a relatively unpopulated school, was enough to make her classmates approach her with curiosity.
The problem was that Luz hadn't paid much attention to them, her greatest achievement, were a couple of brief chats.
Because she had spent the day following Amity around.
Ugh.
This first day was not going smoothly at all.
"You'd better not wear that in school." Said a female voice a few feet away from her.
Luz, snatched from her inner soliloquy, turned with surprise to look at the owner of the voice.
She recognized her immediately.
"Uh... Not wear what?" She said with mild suspicion.
The young black-haired girl closed the locker that was a few steps away from Luz's and approached her.
She pointed to a tricolor pin in her backpack.
"That." She said plainly.
Luz frowned with annoyance.
"Do you have a problem with that?" she asked in a defiant tone.
"No, no! Not at all!" the dark-haired girl replied, showing her palms innocently. "I'm serious! It would be best if you didn't use it, especially since you're new! This school is not the most... tolerant place."
Luz looked at her suspiciously, the young girl sighed and looking at the ground said:
"I say that from personal experience."
Luz raised her eyebrows slightly surprised.
"Willow, right?" She asked her still wary.
"How do you know my name?" The girl asked, looking up from the floor.
"Amity told me..." Replied the Dominican with some discomfort. "Why are you helping me?"
Willow cocked her head to the side and smiled.
"Because I imagine it must be very difficult to enter a new school where everyone already knows each other, even more so coming from another country."
Luz relaxed a little, the girl had guessed half of her problems in an instant.
Although she probably couldn't help her with the other half.
The brunette squeezed the backpack between her hands.
"Yeah... It is, uh, thanks Willow." She said smiling sheepishly.
"It's no problem, I know what it's like to go through complicated situations." Replied the black-haired woman with a smile. "Oh, would you like to have lunch with me and my friend Gus? I have a feeling you'd get along great with him."
Luz was surprised at the offer cheerfully offered by the girl, usually she wasn't treated like this.
But still...
She had other plans.
"Uhmm, ehhh..." She said hesitantly as she looked around. "Thanks, Willow, but-"
"Are you still looking for Amity?" The dark-haired girl asked her monotonously.
Luz startled and blushed slightly.
"Did you notice?" She asked him nervously.
"It's pretty hard not to notice." He answered her again with a sympathetic smile. "She doesn't seem to want to talk to you, why are you so insistent?"
Luz scratched her head uncomfortably.
"Well, Amity gave me a tour of the campus in the morning and I... I did something really stupid." She told him with mild sadness. "I just want her to forgive me, she... I quite liked her. She seems to hate me now, though."
Willow nibbled her lip nervously as she fiddled with her hands, until she finally said.
"Luz, Amity and I don't get along at all, so maybe I'm not the best person to tell you this, but... Amity isn't exactly a good person."
Luz arched an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Why would you say that?" she asked, crossing her arms.
Willow sighed.
"Well, first, Amity hangs out with the school bullies, she's what people call "the queen bee," she doesn't really bully anyone, but she doesn't stop her friends either, no matter how cruel they might get..."
Willow hugged herself awkwardly without meeting Luz's eyes.
And for the brunette it wasn't hard to imagine that she had been a victim of such abuse.
"Plus she's very competitive, she always has to be first in everything, sports, grades and culture, she has to win all the prizes and if she's not, she gets very upset and angry with the others..."
Now Willow was folding her arms and looking at the floor in annoyance.
"Besides, Amity is one of the people who would be better off not seeing the pin on your backpack... If she even knows what it means."
Luz widened her eyes in surprise and opened her mouth slightly.
"Really?" she asked in disbelief.
"Very seriously." Willow replied hugging herself again, then sighed. "It's one of the reasons we stopped being friends.
Luz was even more surprised."
"You were friends?" He said in a higher tone than necessary.
Willow grimaced at the volume of his voice.
"Yes, yes! But don't yell!"
It was then that he saw her.
The auburn with golden eyes was coming out of one of the classrooms.
Their gazes met for a moment, and a look of surprise crossed Amity's face as she saw her talking to Willow.
Before Luz could wave her hand to greet her, Amity was called by a tall, slender redhead, and set off after her.
The Dominican was left with her hand dangling.
Willow looked at her uncomfortably.
"So... You want to come?" the black-haired girl offered again.
Luz hesitated for a moment.
She was confused, she couldn't relate to what Willow was telling her about the girl she shared the morning with.
She was sure there was something else...
Although, you can't really judge a person just by having met them for a couple of hours.
The brunette unhooked the pin with the colors of the bisexual flag carefully from her backpack and, with a sad look on her face, put it away in the top of the locker.
She picked up a small box next to her books, grabbed a post it and scribbled something on it quickly, took the contents out of the box, stuck the post it on it and walked over to the locker next to hers.
"What are you doing?" Willow asked her as she watched her fiddle with Amity's lock.
"My last attempt." She replied sticking her tongue out in concentration.
"Do you know the code to her locker?" She asked her arching an eyebrow. causing Luz to blush.
"I saw her put it in when she showed me mine..." She replied nervously as the locker door finally opened.
"Ok... That's not creepy at all." Willow replied with a soft laugh.
Luz dropped the note and the contents of the box at the bottom of the locker and closed the door quickly.
She slung her backpack over her shoulder and turned to smile at Willow.
" Let's go!"
The dark-haired girl smiled at her and walked to lead the way to the cafeteria.
Luz followed her with a calm pace.
Arriving at the cafeteria, Willow cheerfully greeted a boy in line.
A short, dark-skinned one, who looked too young to be in high school.
"Willow!" He exclaimed. "I saved you a spot."
"Thanks Gus." Replied the black-haired girl lining up behind him and making room for Luz. "This is Luz, she's new at school, Luz, this is Gus, he's my best friend, he goes in class B."
"Nice to meet you!" said Gus extending his hand towards the new girl, who took it warmly returning the greeting.
"Likewise." Answered the brunette.
"Luz is a foreigner Gus." Willow said cheerfully. "From Dominican Republic."
The boy's eyes shone brightly.
"Ohhhhhh! Traveling blood! When did you arrive to New York?"
"It's not my first time here, but I officially moved in last weekend."
"Cool!" the brown-skinned boy continued. "So how's it going so far?"
As they moved down the line they fell into small talk where Luz explained how she had come to the country and why she had moved, she also learned that Gus was a prodigy student who they had jumped ahead two grades.
Luz let herself be guided to a table, which she assumed was the one they regularly sat at, where they sat down ready to eat.
"So Luz..." Continued the boy without much success in trying to hide his enthusiasm. "How is everything compared to where you used to live?"
"Well... I haven't had much of a chance to compare things, it's very big and even though it's also an island the atmosphere feels very different, New Yorkers are..."
"Rude?" Willow asked with a chuckle.
"I was going to say cold." Luz concluded laughing lightly as well. "It's very different from the people in Santo Domingo, last Saturday I sat on the sidewalk in a park with Lola having an iced coffee, we started singing, and a blonde lady gave us $10 each and told us to get a real job..."
Willow snorted.
"Sounds like a Tuesday afternoon."
Luz laughed too.
"Lola is a singer, and she got pretty mad, she was yelling in Spanish at the lady, and she ran off because she thought she was hexing her..."
Willow and Gus burst out laughing.
"So..." Gus asked catching his breath. "Who's Lola?"
"Ah, she's my older sister, she gave me a tour of some parts of the city last weekend, she's been living here for 6 months with my mami and Eda, but she already lived in Massachusetts, she moved here right after graduating college."
"Eda? As in coach Eda?" Willow continued to inquire.
Luz nodded biting into her sandwich.
"Mami and Eda are really good friends, we're living at her house.
Willow flashed her an amused smile."
"Oh! The coach... Eda..." Willow slurred the words as she looked at a spot behind Gus.
At someone.
Luz followed Willow's gaze, and noticed that, a few tables away, a group of girls were walking to a table right in the center of the cafeteria.
A short, dark-skinned girl with slicked-back hair was talking cheerfully with a rather tall, short-haired platinum blonde, as well as another girl, also dark-skinned, with long hair and thick-framed square glasses.
The tall, freckle-cheeked redhead caught her eye for two reasons.
The first was that she was holding Willow's gaze, the two of them having a furious internal conversation only noticeable by the defiant eyes they turned to each other.
The second was that, with a stony semblance, Amity was walking beside her.
The redhead stopped her walk for a few moments.
Willow clenched her fists on the table.
Amity noticed that her companion had slowed, and, frowning, she elbowed the young woman lightly as she saw what was happening.
Again, a flash of surprise crossed her face for an instant as she saw Luz sitting with Willow, before continuing her course.
As if snapped out of a trance, the redhead glanced at Amity, gave Willow one last disdainful look back, and followed the young auburn.
Luz had many questions.
Who were they? What was the redhead's problem with Willow? Why was Willow looking at her with such hatred?
"Is everything okay?" she asked instead touching the black-haired girl's shoulder.
"Yeah..." Replied the girl regaining her composure. "Everything's fine."
"That's Boscha." Gus interjected. "She used to pick on Willow a lot... And me too, Willow and her do that almost every day."
"Gus!" Claimed the dark-eyed girl at the indiscretion.
"What? You can't just kill someone with your eyes and expect Luz not to ask you for an explanation, I just got ahead to it." Said the boy shrugging his shoulders and drinking from his metal straw.
Willow sighed.
"Yeah... Boscha's a Bully, since early middle school senior year, she doesn't bother us anymore, even though I know she's dying to." She said afterward under her breath.
"Uh... If it's not going overboard. Whatever happened?" Luz asked.
"Well..." Willow hesitated for a moment, but seeing Luz's sincere gesture, she decided to confide the situation to her. "I've always been very peaceful, and I prefer not to... Confront people aggressively, but about eight months ago I got fed up with Boscha and all the others' abuse and... That day we fought."
Luz grimaced as she remembered the sacks of fertilizer she saw Willow carrying into the greenhouse.
"We ended up pretty badly..." Willow continued. "My parents weren't around that day, they had left for a business trip, so my sister, who didn't know anything about Boscha, had to go and pick me up, she said some pretty harsh things to her."
" Oh, here comes my favorite part!" Gus said with a grin, to which Luz looked at him quizzically.
Willow looked at him sideways and laughed briefly, weirding Luz out even more.
"I asked Wionna not to say anything to our parents..." Willow continued. "But the next day, Boscha's sister came to our house, my sister went out to confront her, and they got into a fight too, it all ended quite badly, and Wionna had to take her to the hospital."
Luz gasped, covering her mouth.
"I wouldn't keep bothering you either if your sister sent mine to the hospital!" The brunette said excitedly.
Willow smiled mischievously.
"Well, that would be a good reason, but actually, Rebecca told Boscha that if she didn't leave us alone, she'd stop talking to her altogether."
Luz frowned, confused.
"Who's Rebecca?"
"My sister's fiancée." Replied the black-haired girl without breaking her smile.
Luz tilted her head to the side blankly.
"Rebecca is Boscha's sister." Gus concluded smiling.
"Wait, what?!" Almost shouted the brunette getting up from her seat. "How did that happen?!"
Willow and Gus laughed uproariously.
"Wionna never told me what happened at the hospital that day." Willow continued. "But she came home until the evening of the next day, and brought Rebecca with her, apparently her parents didn't take the fight thing very well and kicked her out of their house for a few days, so Wionna invited her to stay until our parents came back, then they kept hanging out and... That happened, now they live in Brooklyn, they have an herbal products store."
Luz continued perplexed for a moment, then started laughing, along with Willow and Gus.
She had only spent a few minutes with them, but she was already sure they would be great friends.
The Dominican, between laughs, turned her head to the center table intending to get a better look at Boscha, but, in what sadly seemed to be a new habit, Amity caught her eye.
Boscha seemed to have quickly forgotten her visual altercation with Willow and was talking animatedly as the rest of the girls laughed at her quips, except for Amity.
The auburn listened to Boscha, she did, but with a serious and distant face, as if she wished she were anywhere else.
She didn't even bother to give the polite smile she had shown Luz all morning.
Much less the genuine cheerfulness she saw in her at some points.
"Why is Amity with them?" Luz asked suddenly startling the pair. "She doesn't seem very comfortable."
Willow frowned.
"I have no idea." Answered the dark-haired girl bitterly. "She started hanging out with them practically the day after we stopped being friends, even though she never liked them at first."
"Why did you stop being friends?" Light inquired hastily.
Willow tensed.
"Luz, you're very nice, but I'd rather not tell you about it..."
Luz backed up in her seat.
"Sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to! Excuse me, I tend to be a bit... Intense."
"It's okay." Willow dismissed with a wave of her hand. "It's only natural that you'd be curious seeing everything you've done."
"Done what?" Gus asked intrigued.
"Luz has been trying to talk to Amity all day." Willow replied with a smile.
"I just want her to forgive me..." Luz added awkwardly rubbing her arm.
"So what did you do?" Willow asked, then added bitterly. "It's not like it takes much effort to piss Amity off."
Luz twisted her mouth wanting to stand up for the auburn, but kept quiet.
"Uh... I..." She started awkwardly. "Maybe... I made a horse run amok."
Willow and Gus reacted with surprise.
Luz continued to tell them about that morning's event, ending with how Amity asked her to stop talking to her.
His two companions shrunk with discomfort while making identical grimaces.
"I think..." Gus began. "That Amity's anger is quite justified."
"I can't believe you made King run amok." Willow added. "He's the most docile horse of all."
Luz covered her face with her hands and dropped onto the table with a wail.
"I know!" She said in a distressed, muffled voice. "That's why I need Amity to forgive me! I want her to see that I'm not an idiot!"
"Yeah, well... I don't know what to tell you." Willow told her sadly. "Amity isn't one to get along with a lot of people, much less forgive mistakes."
Luz looked back at the center table.
Amity had stopped paying attention to what her friends were saying, and instead she was reading a book with black covers, until Boscha shook her gently, getting her attention again.
Luz sighed.
"Should I give up?" She asked without addressing anyone.
"I think so." Gus offered his opinion. "I've never dealt with Amity, but just looking at her is enough to know she's a difficult person, something absurdly convenient would have to happen for her to want to talk to you."
Luz slammed her face against the table and Willow gave the young man a scolding glare.
"What?" defended Gus with a shrug. "Amity's not the friendliest."
Luz covered her head with her hands.
And Willow glared even harder at Gus.
"I..."
"Gus." Willow interrupted. "Stop it."
The boy shut his mouth immediately.
Willow put a hand on Luz's shoulder.
"Relax... It's nothing personal... Amity is just like that, don't feel bad..."
The bell announcing the end of lunch interrupted Willow.
" Come on, let's go back to class." Said the dark-haired girl getting up from her seat as she let go of Luz's shoulder. "See you after school Gus."
"See you later girls!" Said the young man as he hurried to the cafeteria door. "Nice to meet you Luz!"
" Same here!" Replied the brunette waving her hand half-heartedly.
Willow and Luz, at a slower pace, also walked out the door to head to their last two classes.
When they reached the classroom they noticed that the teacher was already there, so they hurried to take their seats.
Until Luz saw that the seat she occupied next to Amity was already taken by a redhead.
Luz approached cautiously and cleared her throat to get the attention of Boscha, who was checking her phone.
The redhead gave her a sidelong glance, without putting the device down.
"That's my seat." She said in a hesitant tone.
Boscha gave her a smirk.
"Is it? I don't see your name on it."
Luz frowned with annoyance.
"Didn't you have a more worn-out joke?" She spat disdainfully.
Surprisingly, the girl next to her, snorted softly to quickly hide it with a cough.
Boscha and Luz turned to look at the dean's daughter, the first with an incredulous look, the second, with a surprised expression, which soon turned into a fond smile.
Amity ignored them and continued reading the black-covered book she had at lunch.
"Ladies!" The teacher called from the front of the class. "The bell rang over five minutes ago, we should begin, please take your seats."
"That's my seat!" Luz claimed pointing to Boscha.
The teacher looked at the redhead with a raised eyebrow, and the young girl answered with a defiant look.
"Seats are not assigned." She said smugly. "And I got here first."
The teacher snorted with annoyance.
"Boscha is right miss..."
" Luz." Replied the brunette quickly.
" For now please find another seat Luz." Indicated the teacher. "Tomorrow I will indicate your permanent seats."
Boscha moved to protest, but a stern look from the teacher made her return to her seat.
Luz did not look happy.
The teacher pushed her away from the students to the front.
"You're new aren't you?" She asked her gently. "I haven't seen you before, and I've known these kids since elementary school."
Luz quickly told her about her arrival in the country and the school.
"Well." The teacher continued. "Don't worry Luz, Boscha can be quite difficult, try not to associate with her too much if you don't like her, for now sit down..."
The teacher looked around.
"Sit next to Willow." She said pointing to the right corner.
Luz, not entirely convinced, shuffled to the seat next to the black-haired girl, who welcomed her with an empathetic smile.
"Alright guys!" began the teacher at the front, causing the students to fall silent almost immediately. "Let's start today's class, the vast majority of you already know me, but for those of you who don't, I'll introduce myself."
The teacher turned and quickly wrote her name on the board.
"My name is Anika Morningstar, I will be your ethics and mental health teacher, and, particularly this year, I will be your group counselor."
A couple of students whispered excitedly among themselves.
"Yes, yes." She spoke again quieting the bustle. "We will be doing fun activities this year, but for now, let's start with the class guidelines, please take note."
While the teacher was talking and writing down some rules on the whiteboard, Luz observed her.
She was a young woman, tall and plump, with auburn hair over her shoulder, and with considerably more enthusiasm than the other teachers she saw during the day.
The class went by quickly, and Luz was amazed at how she was able to maintain her attention in class with ease, something that was not very frequent.
The sixty minutes for the mental health class passed quickly, and the first thirty minutes for their first counseling session even more so.
Amity seemed enthusiastic about the class as well, showing herself to be just as participative as in the previous ones, but, Luz noticed, much more smiley.
"Alright guys." Announced the teacher with a smile. "We've covered the first day of lessons, so I'm going to let you out early."
The small group celebrated with joy.
"But!" The group groaned with disappointment, making the teacher laugh. "As most of you know, in my classes we work in pairs so..."
The teacher walked over to her desk, sitting down in front of the purple laptop open on it.
The faintest murmur in the room was silenced.
The teacher typed something into the device and spoke again.
"We're going to make the semester's work partnerships!" She announced excitedly. "The person you are paired with will be the person you work with for the rest of the year, both for the health class and for the counseling sessions, remember the rules, no changes, you must learn to respect each other, no changes, the assignments must always be shared equally, no changes, I grade you as a team and not individually, and... AH, yes! No changes."
Luz laughed softly, only to be quickly silenced by a "shhhh" from the dark-skinned girl on her right side.
The brunette was surprised to be the only one to laugh, and looking around, she noticed that a tense silence hung over the classroom.
Her classmates were practically on the edge of their chairs, with undivided attention directed at the teacher.
Luz began to worry.
"This year we have twenty students in our class, so there will be ten pairs, let's get started, the order of appearance means nothing. "
Oh, what a huge lie, so much so that it almost stopped being innocent...
"The first team will be made up by..." Announced the teacher. "Skara Sterling and... Amelia Greyscar."
The girl to Luz's right sighed silently with relief, but quickly returned her attention to the teacher's words.
"Team two... Boscha Pinkberry and... Katherine Blueswine."
Luz watched as the same process repeated itself multiple times, the teacher would announce a pairing, the members of that pairing would seem relieved, but would go back to watching in silence.
And Luz noticed that the atmosphere in the classroom was becoming increasingly more and more tense.
So, confused, she couldn't help but tense up as well.
"Team six..." Announced the teacher again. "Eleanor Trueshight and... Willow Park."
Luz listened as Willow sighed loudly and slumped back in her seat.
What the...
Then again, Willow was once again perched upright on her seat...
Luz noticed that the atmosphere in the classroom changed again.
Everyone was leaning forward, in total silence, Luz could have sworn they had even stopped breathing.
She looked around, and her eyes landed on Amity again.
The girl looked completely anxious, fists clenched and jaw tight, looking directly at the teacher, she didn't blink once.
The teacher announced the seventh team.
The antepenultimate one.
The class gasped softly.
She announced the eighth.
The second to last.
The class gasped louder.
"Team number ten." The teacher announced, and Luz was sure she heard a mischievous tone in her voice.
The dramatic pause was no accident.
Luz looked back at the dean's daughter and found her pale in her seat.
What's going on?
"Amity Blight and..."
The entire class gasped loudly, almost exaggeratedly.
Then Luz realized something that intrigue had not allowed her to see.
I still don't have a partner.
"...Luz Noceda!" Concluded the teacher.
"What?!" Amity exclaimed, standing up in her seat.
The class broke into hushed whispers and murmurs.
And Luz...
Luz didn't understand anything.
Oh well, at least I'll get a chance to talk to her.
Absurdly convenient.