Luz paced her room, thumping her head with her fist every so often when her thoughts became too out of control. The others were at the old shed, working on finding a portal, and she ought to be with them. She didn't have much homework; she could have finished it hours ago if she had just focused. Every so often she turned to face her computer again, but the moment she saw the computer screen and thought of all she would have to do, tightness rose in her chest and she would turn away and pace once more, faster and faster, breath quickening, until she let out an involuntary shriek.

Clapping her hands to her mouth, she retreated to her bed, trying to force herself to be still. This was why she didn't fit in here. Only a week after her return to school, and she was already back to her old procrastination habits. She had tried, she really had. Luz made every effort to pay attention, but the more she tried to stay on track the harder it got, like there was an impenetrable wall physically blocking her mind from focusing.

"Luz?" Camila knocked on the door.

Luz clamped her mouth shut. She couldn't burden her mom with this; not when Camila already had five other kids to look after. Luz had to be strong and responsible. Vee found that easy enough, and xe wasn't even from the human realm.

"Mija? Are you alright?"

"Fine, Mamá." Luz winced as her words ended in a strained croak.

"Luz, you don't have to talk, but I want you to know I'm right here if you need me. You're going through a lot right now, and I noticed you haven't been spending much time with your friends."

"No it's okay, I…I…" Luz couldn't stop the tears from building.

"May I come in?" Camila asked. Luz couldn't find the energy to say no, and so Camila opened the door.

At the sight of her mom, Luz started crying harder. "I'm sorry, Mamá! I'm trying, I swear!" Camila opened her arms and Luz embraced her, sniffling into her mom's shirt. Camila's clean, perfume smell was familiar and comforting, and Luz spent a few minutes doing nothing but breathing it in and sighing as Camila gently rubbed her back.

"Breathe, Mija. It's okay, I'm here." Camila didn't try to get Luz to speak, even after Luz had stopped crying. Sometimes it took hours before Luz was ready to talk, and Camila had always been patient.

Today, though, Luz looked up, eyes still watering, and said "I need help."

"Of course. What's going on?"

"I…I can't focus. I've been trying to get this homework done for hours and I can't do it. I'm so sorry, I know it's really annoying and I need to just focus, I shouldn't be complaining and this should be easy, Vee can do it and xe's not even from here, and -"

"Baby, slow down." Camila put her hand on Luz's shoulder and gave her a warm smile. "It's okay to be upset."

"Not when it's so simple! I should have had this done days ago."

Camila's brow furrowed. "You're being too hard on yourself. You have so much happening right now; of course it's going to take you longer to finish your schoolwork."

"But I'm always doing stuff like this! Even before I ever went to the Boiling Isles. You don't have to lie, I know you're sick of my issues."

"Mija."

Luz jumped at the sudden sternness. ""Yes?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. I can speak for myself."

"Sorry, Mamá."

Camila's voice softened once more. "I'm not sick of your issues, but even if I was, that wouldn't matter. You're my daughter, and I'm supposed to look out for you. You haven't been letting me do that."

"You have enough problems to deal with. There's six of us."

"Yes, and I want to look out for all of you." Camila sighed. "I don't think I always handled things in the best way. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you were doing something wrong by not being able to focus."

"But I am doing something wrong. Vee doesn't -"

"Stop comparing yourself to Vee. Xe's a completely different person. Xe may do better at school, but xe also couldn't create all those wonderful fanfictions."

"You know about those?"

"Amity may have mentioned your AO3 name to me."

Luz groaned. "Don't read those. They're stupid."

"They're not stupid. They're creative, and funny, and emotional. I'd love to be able to write like that."

"Well it doesn't help me out in the real world. And it's just another point against me. If I can write over two hundred thousand word Azura fics, then why can't I finish this one-page homework assignment?"

Camila sighed. "Have you ever heard of something called ADHD?"

Luz looked up quickly. Luz had long suspected she might have ADHD. So many of its symptoms made sense. She had spent a few weeks researching it right before she discovered the Boiling Isles, but she had been too nervous to bring it up to anyone. What if they thought she was just making excuses?

"It runs in our family," said Camila. "I don't know if you remember your uncle, but he had it. I never looked into it much because I was scared, but now I think I might have been wrong to be. I've been doing a lot of reading, and I was wondering if you might want to read some of the things I found with me?"

Luz smiled. "Yeah. I'd really like that."

"I don't want you to feel bad if it turns out you do have ADHD. There are many ways to support you, and I promise you we'll be trying all of them."

"I…I actually thought I might have it for a while but I didn't want to sound stupid or like I was jumping on a trend. I thought you would think I was making excuses."

"Oh Mija, I'm so sorry you felt that way. I should have done more to make you feel safe about talking to me. You feel safe now, right?"

Luz hesitated. "I want to, but I just…I'm scared. I'm so scared of making things worse for you, like I made them worse for my friends."

Camila sighed. "You are my child, Luz. You have way too much to worry about already. I'm supposed to take care of you. I wouldn't have had you if I didn't want to be there for you in everything, even when it's confusing and hard. You've put so much pressure on yourself, and you're just a teenager." Camila laid her hand on Luz's shoulder. "I did the same thing at your age. Pushed myself too hard, because I thought I had to be the best. But all that pressure just made things worse. Did you know I failed the first time I went to college?"

"You failed a class?"

"Many classes. I had to take a break or I was going to fail out of college completely."

"What?"

Camila nodded. "I had spent so much of my time in high school pushing myself, I didn't have any energy left for college. It was only after I took a break and learned to go easier on myself that I was able to go back and graduate."

"But…you're so successful!"

"That's only because I know when to take a break. And I was also lucky. I had a professor who believed in me and was willing to make adjustments. Luz, you've had a lot of responsibility placed on you, and you're so young. This would be hard for anyone, and if you do have ADHD, that makes it even harder." Camila smiled tenderly. "You put yourself down for not trying, but I see you trying immensely every single day. Your taxidermy, your fanfiction, your art…you are so incredibly talented, and it's not your fault that the world doesn't recognize your passions as valuable."

She gently ran her fingers through Luz's messy curls. "I don't think I made it clear enough how much I value your interests, and I'm sorry for that. I've been having to reflect on a lot of things, and I regret not being firmer with your teachers rather than you. I love your passion so much, and I'm going to be right here fighting to make the world value it too."

Luz wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Mamá."

"How about we email your teacher and ask for an extension? We'll go for a walk and see if we can find any cool animals before they all hibernate. And when we get back, if you're ready, I can help you with your homework."

"Really?"

"Yes. But we're not going to do it all tonight; just one homework question. Don't even think about the rest today. One question, and only after we've found a cool spider to look at." She ruffled Luz's hair. "I love you, Mija, and I'm going to look out for you."

Luz smiled. "I love you too, Mamá. Thank you."