Luz pulled her hand down her face, doing her best to keep from falling out of her chair. Today had been exceedingly boring, and she wasn't quite sure if she was going to survive to see the end of it unless something cool happened. Which it wouldn't. Not in this school, not in this city, not in her lifetime. She was eighteen, and had a grand total of zero extraordinary moments to speak of for her entire life. This city was bland, school was bland. Luz herself wasn't bland, but that wasn't the problem.
The problem was "small town syndrome" and the fear of succumbing to it. Luz is pretty sure she has seen the same man work the counter at the same checkout line at the same grocery store her entire life. As though anyone who lived in this town was doomed to live in this town, never being able to escape, never being able to chase one's dreams as the frightening reality of adulthood set in and the ease of working at a local Hot Topic seemed more and more appealing than trying to get out.
The thought sent a furious chill down Luz's spine.
I just wish, Luz thought, that I could do something extraordinary and leave this place for good.
Thankfully she did have a couple of saving graces in her favor: First of all, it was Friday. Friday means she didn't have to be here for much longer and had a lovely two days of glorious freedom. Second of all: Her mother was out of town. Luz loved her mother, her mother was easy to love and did her damn best to make sure Luz didn't have a hitch getting through her life, something that Luz truly did appreciate. But sometimes it's a nice feeling to be a teenager and knowing you can come home to some privacy after a long week.
The bell rung, and Luz stretched, before tipping her chair forwards and letting herself finally relax. As the students around her scurried out of the class, eager to get home and start their weekend, Luz waited for the crowds around the door to clear. She packed up her shit nonchalantly, and made her way out of the school, slithering through the crowds to make her way to her car.
But as she dragged her feet across the pavement, towards her glorious candy red chariot of freedom from the hell that was highschool, she couldn't help but let something on the ground catch her eye: A shimmering, golden crescent moon. It was attached to a soft, gold chain, one with links small enough that you just wanted to bunch it up and drape it over your fingers. It looked remarkably clean for something that had quite clearly been dropped outside.
Luz picked it up, and went to see if anyone was around. It was then that it hit her just how long she had spent waiting inside for things to quiet down, because she was well and truly the only person she could see. Rather than waste the precious moments of her weekend dwelling on if this pendant was real gold, was missed by someone, or if it even belonged to anyone, she decided she'd rather forget about it for now and get her ass home.
She tucked the pendant into the pocket of her jacket, adjusted her ever present beanie, and made her way to her car to get the hell out of there.
The drive home was boring, as was everything about this god forsaken "city", and Luz let herself properly collapse onto the couch the moment it was within collapsing distance. Her bag fell to the floor beside her as she pressed her head into the matted cushion, letting out a guttural groan from the deepest pits of her soul.
Luz was free for the weekend, she was free for a very, very boring weekend. Normally a weekend to herself would be nice, and she wouldn't have minded being able to play DOTA for the rest of the night and well into Saturday morning, something about today sucked the appeal out of that for her.
As much as Willow and Gus were both great friends, she was also pretty sure hanging out with them to try and find anything to do was out of the question too, what with them having to work all weekend. Luz never did understand why they were both so willing to give up the two days out of the week they were truly free to at least do something different, but they were her friends and she didn't want to judge them too harshly.
Still, judging them or not, Luz was pretty certain they were working. Which left her with a whole load of nothing to do. And with the lingering fear of succumbing to nothing to do for the weekend, then the next weekend, then the next month, then the rest of her life breathing heavier and heavier down the back of her neck (or maybe it was the exhaustion), Luz eventually decided to just drift into sleep.
When she woke up again, it was evening, and not much else had changed aside from the fact that the sun had gone down and she was cold. And hungry. So she made her way into the kitchen and put some water on for tea, slapped a pizza into the oven, before pulling the necklace from her pocket.
The pendant on the end was pretty large, a golden crescent moon that she only just realized was elegantly captivating a carefully polished piece of jasper. She ran her thumb over top, finger gliding over the gemstone swiftly and without much hesitation, bringing her attention to the small bit of her own reflection she could see.
Her mother would've scorned her for putting something she found on the ground outside anywhere close to her mouth, but a quick tap of her teeth revealed the moon itself was actually quite soft. Suddenly Luz's mind shifted from finding this thing's original owner to the possibility that this may be worth something.
It would be a lie to say that a part of her wasn't curious about who owned it, however.
But regardless, she would worry about that later. For now, the girl simply sat the necklace around her own neck, letting the shiny pendant hang rather nicely over her chest. She grabbed the pizza out of the oven, and after making sure her thumb wasn't too burnt by sticking it into her mouth, she grabbed a couple of slices, made herself some tea, and headed off to her room.
The night was, surprise surprise, uneventful. Full of random bullshit on YouTube, a couple of good matches in a couple of video games, but the toll the day had taken on the poor girl was really starting to weigh her down. It was barely midnight, but she was ready to pass out. It didn't take long for that feeling of fear to creep back up her neck again, making the hair stand on end as the horrific visual of Luz giving up on her dreams; becoming an artist, becoming a game designer, becoming a rockstar. They were all on the brink of sinking away into the dark.
Her mind wandered as the heat began to settle in her chest, the feeling crawling around her body in a terrifyingly slow embrace. But then she remembered something. The pendant around her neck. She gave it a glance, and for a brief moment considered the possibility of it. It hadn't occurred to her when she found it that this could be the beginning of something extraordinary. She considered it when she started considering the thing could be made out of actual gold, sure, but even then that was a fleeting thought.
But as she held it in her hands, turned it over her fingers, really gave the thing a good look, there was a brief moment where the consideration of this being the start of something extraordinary for her had bolted across her mind, just long enough to leave the taste of an idea on her tongue.
Then Luz remembered that while she was desperate to get out of this city, she wasn't a kid anymore. She held onto her dreams, but the idea of something magical whisking her out of her boring life had left her a long time ago.
She sighed a heavy sigh, and ran her thumb up the gemstone, "I just wish that something cool would happen," she brought her thumb back down the face of the pendant, eyes locking to her own reflection, "and that I could get out of this place," her thumb made one more trip up, drifting across the smooth surface, "and chase my dreams for real."
Of course, nothing happened. This was real life, and Luz wasn't expecting anything to happen. Even if there was such a thing as magic, it certainly didn't belong in a shithole like this city. So Luz sighed and set the pendant down. She stood up from her chair for the first time in a good while, and gave a good stretch, ready to admit defeat to exhaustion and call it a night, when she had a mini heart attack after seeing the very pretty purple haired lady sitting at the end of her bed.