Chapter 9: Something Ventured, Someone Framed

Morning at Hexside, inside a classroom, a club meeting was being held. The club holding it was held by the Human Appreciation Society, or H.A.S. for short. Cutting to the classroom, we see the club doesn't have many members with only six students present and, as was told by Willow previously, Gus was the president of it. While there were two witches and a warlock, two of these members were actually demons with one being a humanoid white goat with a single eye as well as a single horn and the other having one big eye as a head. On the desk the four members were at were a couple of different objects that were clearly from the human realm which had folded labels that had the names of different objects: a metal cheese grader labeled as a "Nail clipper", a chip bag held closed by an old cellphone labeled as a "Whoopee cushion", an old umbrella hat full of trash labeled as a "Food bowl", a puzzle cube with the label "Weapon?", and a paper clip that had a label saying "Pay-per-clorp". It was clear that, while they had a great interest in the human realm, the club generally had no solid idea of what it was truly like.

"Behold the wonders of the human realm!" Gus said as he motioned to the objects before taking the paper clip, the little warlock wearing a yellow paper crown that said "President" on the label. "This little fellow is one of their most valued objects. It aids in the compiling of printed wisdom, the scratching of gunk from under your nails, and—my favorite—mimicking the sounds of the human ocean." He then pulled it multiple times to make it twang. "Ah, the human realm. So beautiful." Gus then went over to a bulletin board behind him which was littered with many different posters and papers that presented things related to the club's purpose. "It's safe to say that the pay‐per‐clorp is a stunning testament to human ingenuity. Any questions?" His fellow club members, unlike him, were utterly bored with one of the witches and the two demons fast asleep, the other witch trying to stay awake, and the warlock holding his head up in one hand as he leaned on the table with a flat look on his face. The very warlock soon raised his hand. "Ah, Mattholomule. As our newest member, I bet you have plenty of questions for us."

"A‐Augustus, is this what the president of the Human Appreciation Society thinks passes as 'Human Artifacts'?" He said, using air quotes with the last two words. As Gus was clearly taken by surprise by the question, the warlock then got up from his seat with a smug expression before pushing the items Gus set up off the table. "Because at my old school, we had real treasures."

As Gus rushed over to catch the items and narrow his eyes at the new member, Mattholomule poured out what he claimed as 'treasures' from his bag, said items clearly being fake and crudely made replicas of the real things they represent: a flat rock with the plastic print of a keypad taped onto it, an egg painted to look like a human skull, a shoe made of mud, leaves, and twigs. But, due to them not possessing enough knowledge of the real items they represented, the other club members weren't able to see it and believe they were real as they looked at them in awe.

"Ooh! A real sports foot."

"Wow!"

"I—I wanna touch them."

"Go ahead. In my club, we didn't have any dumb rules." Mattholomule said, Gus gasping in shock from seeing the others admire the counterfeit items.

"Shh! He didn't mean that." Gus said as he gently caressed the paper list of rules with the first being "no touching" as if it was a living creature before going over and taking the fake items away from his club members, much to their dismay. "Well, this isn't your club." Gus reminded his fellow warlock as he slammed down the fake boot. "Thankfully."

"Exactly." Mattholomule said before he spoke to the others. "Who thinks I should be president?"

"I do!" The eye girl replied.

"Mattholomule for prez!" The witch member replied.

"I'm an undecided voter." The one-eyed male demon spoke up.

"I wanna touch all the objects first!" The other witch member said.

As they started talking, Gus was starting to panic until he examined the so-called "cellular phone" and noticed something off about it.

"These are fakes!" Gus said, making the other club members gasp in shock and the owner of the items to panic himself.

"Y-y-you can't prove that!" Mattholomule stuttered before making himself look presentable as he inhaled, gaining a smirk. "You're just trying to distract these human appreciators because you're afraid of getting kicked out of office. It's your word versus mine."

Despite having the smarts to prove him wrong, Gus lacked a backbone in order to go against the new club member. He was starting to grow nervous as he listened to his members talk among themselves, slowly backing up into the chalkboard before looking over his shoulder to see pictures of both Luz and Ryuji which gave him an idea.

"What if I brought in an expert?" Gus said, getting everyone's attention again.

"Yeah, right." Mattholomule said, not buying any of it. "Who can you find that's a bigger human expert than any of us?"

"Real humans themselves." Gus said as he then gained his confidence. "I happen to be friends with two of them, one of them being born a hybrid between a human and a witch." Hearing this seemed to defiantly draw in the attention of the club members who sounded excited upon hearing this, making Mattholomule nervous.

"Yeah. Uh‐huh." Mattholomule said, trying his best to keep composed to hide how nervous he was getting. "A‐and you've never brought your friends here, why?"

"Well, they're both always busy." Gus quickly thought up an answer. "They got jobs, but I'll bring them both in tomorrow and they'll prove what's real or not."

"Hah! Sure you will, Augustus." Mattholomule scoffed as he sat down with his arms crossed. "Sure, you will."

[Ryuji]

At the Owl House, a few days had passed since the body swap incident and me and the gang were sorting out boxes that held all sorts of items from the human world Mom had been keeping. The reason why was because Mom figured it'd be best to get some more merchandise and, with both mine and Luz's opinion on human valuables, she was willing to take every chance she could grab.

"Remind me again where all these boxes came from?" Luz questioned as she helped sort out the items from the boxes.

"You already asking that?" I said to her before jabbing a thumb over to Mom. "You already know who brought them here."

"Yeah, and isn't the stuff you usually keep?" Juniper asked.

"Hey, right now, we're low on money and we need to make more sales." Mom countered. "We're running out of food and I'm not gonna let us stave."

"Well, if it comes down to it, I could go hunting." I suggested.

"Or we can eat King." Juniper said, making Luz gasp in shock.

"Juni!" Luz snapped as she gave my sister a look.

"Hey, I'm kidding!" Juniper said with a smile. "Pipsqueak wouldn't be enough for all of us anyway." King gasped at this.

"How dare you! I am more than enough for everyone here!" King said before Hooty spoke up as he stretched in here.

"Hoot-hoot! Visitor."

"It better not be any of my ex-girlfriends." Juniper said as Hooty retracted back to the door which I then walked over to. "I'm not in a good mood today." Hooty then opened the door to reveal Gus on the other side.

"Oh, hey, Gus." I greeted my friend. "What's up?"

"Ryuji, I got a big favor to ask!" Gus said to me in a panic. "Can you and Luz to come to the H.A.S. meeting tomorrow?"

"You mean, at Hexside? What for?" I asked surprised by this.

"Well…" Gus said before he then told me and Luz about what happened earlier.

After taking the talk into the house where he told us of how a new member of his club had challenged him to prove himself as the president of it, I was shocked to hear my friend being put into hot water like that.

"And that's what happened." Gus said as he finished.

"So you want me and Luz to come to the next meeting of your club to prove this Mattholomule is trying to make you look like a fake?" I asked him.

"Yes! So will you help me?" Gus said to me.

"Sorry, Gus, but no." I told him as I went back to the box I was checking. "As much as I like to help you, I told you that I'm not going back to Hexside."

"Come on, please?" Gus begged.

"Gus, even if I wanted to go to the school, you know me and Luz can step foot in there." I said.

"Gus, you know I don't want to go back there." I told him as I checked the contents of the box I had. "Even if I did, me and Luz can't even go onto school grounds anyway."

"Ryuji's right." Luz said as she jabbed her thumb at the banned posters of me and her hanging on the wall behind us, mine being framed while hers hung on the corner of it. "Principal Bump banned both of us from Hexside, remember?"

"But…" Gus tried to argue before Juniper interrupted him.

"Dude, just give it up." She bluntly said to him. "My bro doesn't want to go and him and Luz can't help you. You're on your own."

"Juni's right." Mom firmly put in. "Besides, Bump did them a favor. There ain't nothing for Ryuji and Luz at that dweebus factory." Eda then looked over to Gus. "No offense, dweebus."

"It's okay. I come from a long line of dweebuses." Gus said, not offended by it.

"Gus, as much as I would like to follow in my dad's footsteps, Hexside follows the Coven System." I told him. "While my old man had a good time there, I doubt I would have the same experience. That's why I prefer to be here than go to that school." It was front there that Luz slammed a box she had down on the floor in frustration.

"Well, I would love to go someday." Luz spoke up as she stood up before motioning to all the boxes full of junk around us. "Better than unpacking boxes in the Eda Coven."

"Oh, you think you're clever, huh?" Mom questioned as she stood up and put her hands on her hips, taking her student's words as a challenge.

"Uh-oh." Juniper said with the same worry I had.

"Ooh! Fight, fight, fight!" King shouted as he jumped over to a nearby box from the couch arm he was sitting on, excitedly punching a paw in the air.

"Shut up, King." Me, Mom, and my twin told the little demon.

"Luz, first off, it's the 'Bad Witch Coven'." Mom said as she continued. "Second, I guess you don't want in on the T‐shirt order, huh?" She then held up a small piece of paper with a little drawing of her that had a rocker's vibe.

"Not gonna ask when you had time for that." I said before Luz spoke up.

"I don't care about T‐shirts, Eda!" Luz pleaded as she motioned over to Gus, making my mom put the drawing away. "I want to learn magic and they teach that at Hexside!"

"What about me? I've been teaching you magic. Plus, Ryuji's been helping you."

"You barely taught me anything and what Ryuji has done for me is something you haven't been doing." Luz countered back.

"I mean, yeah, well…" Unable to counter this, the Owl Lady grunted in frustration before she began to walk to the door. "I don't wanna hear another word about Hexside unless it's 'Hexside is on fire' and 'let's grab front row seats'!"

"Wow. Never seen Mom so upset." Juniper said as we all looked with surprise.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go rub it in." King said as he jumped off the box, laughing away as he went out after my mom.

"I'll go make sure she's okay." Juniper said before she left, closing the door while Luz sighed as she plopped down onto the couch.

[Ryuji's aside]

Boy, that was rough. Hexside is a pretty sensitive subject for my mom. Sure, it's where she made the first memories she had with my dad, but it's also a place that has been made by Belos' influence on the Isles. Out of any place, it's the one thing she doesn't want anything to do it as much as the Coven System itself. It's not really good for Luz either, considering she can't go to a place she could really enjoy herself. While I don't want to go to that school, I actually wouldn't mind if Luz went there as long as she was happy.

"Luz, come on." I told my friend as I sat down beside her. "Don't be so glum. This hasn't been all bad. You did learn how to do some magic."

"Yeah, only one spell." Luz told me.

"Still better than nothing."

"But I don't want to know just one spell, I want to know how to do magic like you."

"Luz, I get you're a little frustrated with things, but you have to understand that things don't always go like we want them to be. Instead of getting upset about it, you should just appreciate that you have people who want to help you with your dream."

"I know. I just don't get what's Eda's deal with me going to Hexside. Didn't you say she went there?"

"Well, yeah, but you know how she is. She doesn't like the restrictions of the Coven System. She's just trying to make sure you can learn magic the way you want it."

"Of course, you take her side."

"I'm not taking any sides. You're my best friend and I just don't want you to be so upset. You're going to learn how to do magic, I promise. Just hang in there a little longer, okay?"

"Okay. Still wish I wasn't banned."

"A-actually, a‐about the ban…" Gus spoke up nervously as we turned to him. "I, uh… used my H.A.S. presidential authority to pull some strings. You've both been given a full pardon!"

"Full pardon?" I said to him in surprise.

"You mean…" Luz said to him in disbelief.

"I got the ban lifted!" Gus told her.

"OMG! Yes, yes, yes!" Luz cheered as she jumped up from the couch and grabbed Gus by the collar, shaking him like crazy. "Thanks, Gus! We'll be there tomorrow!" She then got up and jumped up and down on the couch. "This will be great! We'll get to see the school and save you from losing presidency!"

"Luz, I'm not going." I spoke up in a bland tone. "Much like my mom and sis, there's no way in hell I'm going back to Hexside."

"Come on, Ryuji. Please?" Luz pleaded.

"Read my lips. N-O, no." I said, giving her a look. "I don't want a repeat of what happened last time."

"Yeah, but we got something good out of it." Luz said, trying to have me look at the bright side. "We met Willow and Gus. And Xander and Amity…if that little fiasco counts."

"True, but my answer is still no."

"Okay, okay." Luz put her hands in defense. "You win."

"Don't play that card on me." I told her in a flat tone. "It's not gonna work."

"Ryuji, pleeeeease!"

"No." It took a moment of silence before she spoke up again.

"Okay, that's fine." Luz said as she then got off the couch with her back turned to me. "I'll go without you. But when I do go, I'll tell everyone that the great and powerful DK is afraid of spiders." I gasped at this before I looked to see her giving a mischievous smirk that match one belonging to the Grinch.

"You wouldn't dare." I glared at her.

"Try me." Luz kept that smirk of hers, not fazed by me which caused me to growl out in frustration.

[Ryuji's aside]

I can't believe she's using blackmail on me. Mom and Juniper are rubbing off her too much. Now I'm really starting to regret telling her that secret fear of mine.

"Fine! You win!" I told her. "I'll go to Hexside with you and Gus."

"Great! I'll see you tomorrow!" Gus said as he then tried to leave.

"Hold it right there, Porter!" I said, making Gus stop and turn to me as I locked eyes with him. "You better be telling the truth. If this is a trick to get us to break into Hexside or if something goes wrong, you'll be paying it big time! Got it?"

"Yeah, got it! No tricks here!" Gus said with a nervous gulp as he opened the door. "Okay, gotta go! See you two tomorrow!" With that, he quickly left, closing the door behind him.

"Ugh! Can't believe I'm going back to that place." I groaned in disgust.

"Come on, it won't be so bad." Luz said to me, giving me her usual friendly smile. "We're doing this to help a friend, one who actually did something to let us do it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I said as I brightened up and smiled a bit knowing she had a point. "Gus is a good friend and he would never lie to us."

[No one's view]

Leaning against the door, Gus gave a sigh of relief that he had managed to get Ryuji and Luz to go to Hexside with him before cheering out.

"Yes! You did it, Gus!" Gus said as he started doing a victory dance. "You did it, Gus! You're the smartest! You're the beeeeest!"

"Sweet moves, little dude." Hooty said, spooking Gus.

"Aah! I always forget you're there!" Gus said as he remembered the house demon behind him.

"I forget I'm here too." Hooty casually said. "Boop."

A little weirded out by this, Gus pushed it aside as he managed a smile. "This is gonna work out after all."

The next day, Gus met with Willow at the entrance to Hexside and told her about what he had accomplished, the Plant Track witch was shocked that her friend lied to both Ryuji and Luz about the ban on them.

"Gus, are you crazy?" Willow said to her friend in disbelief. "This isn't gonna work out at all!"

"Well, I feel like I took care of any potential problems." Gus said as he nervously rubbed his head.

"You lied to our best friends and told them you got the ban lifted. That seems like a potential problem to me." Willow told him. "Not mention what Ryuji's gonna do if he finds out."

"I know! I know!" Gus instantly replied back. "But you don't understand. The members were going mad. They were bloodthirsty, they were touching objects! I had no choice!"

"Really? What about all the wanted posters around school?" She asked, reminding him of what was going on.

"You mean, these wanted posters?" Gus said with a smirk as she showed her multiple copies of Luz and Ryuji's wanted posters stuffed in the duffle bag he had before he then pulled out two black cowls. "I also got these to keep them undercover."

"Undercover from what?" Luz asked as she walked behind him, Gus quickly slamming the cowl onto the human girl without even giving her a chance to react.

"Behold your new cowl!" Gus told her.

"Whoa, I love it." Luz said as she bought into the act before Gus made the cowl turn around so her face could be seen and allowed the hood to drop before she then took a sniff of the cowl. "On the Boiling Isles, new things smell old."

"Hey, where's Ryuji?" Gus asked as he noticed their hybrid friend wasn't around. "I got a cowl for him too."

"That won't be necessary, Gus. I already got things covered." Hearing Ryuji's voice, Gus then looked around for a moment. "Down here." Looking down, he saw this little, orange dog with short legs looking up at him with a smile. "Hey, Gus."

"Ryuji, is that you?" Gus asked with surprise.

"Yep, it's me." The dog answered. "Pretty good, huh? Juni showed me how to do her combo spell."

"Yeah, but why come here as a dog?" Gus asked as he raised a brow.

"Actually, I'm a cairn terrier." Ryuji said. "And the reason for that is so I don't drag attention. This animal disguise will make sure we don't get mobbed by your fellow students."

"Well, I guess this could work." Gus told the hybrid. "If you stay close to Luz, everybody might think she's somebody from the Beast-Keeping Track and you're her tamed beast."

"Sounds good to me!" Luz said, right before she swooped Ryuji up in her arms and held him close to her with a bright smile.

"You were just looking for an excuse to carry me, weren't you?" Ryuji asked her.

"Yeah, sorry." Luz admitted with a blush. "I can't help it. Your animal form is just so adorable."

Ryuji sighed as he turned his face away with a slight blush. "I know."

"Okay. Ryuji, keep that disguise. And Luz, keep that hood on and be sure to hide your ears." Gus instructed with a nervous chuckle. "Wanna keep you under wraps 'til the big reveal." Seeing this, Willow only gave a frown of disapproval to Gus.

"Oh, a fellow showman." Ryuji said to Gus with a smile. "Understandable."

"Yeah, we totally get it." Luz put in as she pulled the cowl's hood over her head. "You bring the razzle, we'll bring the dazzle." She tossed out some confetti around her with that last part, causing Ryuji to chuckle while Willow and Gus were left in confusion.

"Do you always have confetti on you or…"

"Yeah, she haves confetti on her." Ryuji spoke up, answering Willow's question. More often than you think."

Suddenly, a low-pitched scream was heard, making Gus flinch slightly in pain. Pulling up one of his sleeves to show a small, purple imp with a clock as its eye, the creature's fangs pounding on the warlock's arm. Gus quickly poked its eye, making it stop.

"That's my alarm. Uh, we better get going." Gus said, grabbing Luz's hand they made their way off. "See you after school, Willow."

"Later, Willow." Ryuji put in.

"Bye, friend. Be safe. Make good choices." Luz added as she and Gus ran into the school.

"Oh, Gus." Willow said with worry. "I hope you know what you're doing."

[No one's view]

At the front door of the Owl House, Juniper and Eda are sitting there, talking about what happened earlier with Eda holding her legs close to her.

"Honestly, Juni, this whole thing has got me stumped." Eda said to her daughter. "Even after having a bad day in there, Luz still wants to go to Hexside instead of learning how to be her own witch with me."

"Well, unlike you and me, she actually enjoyed her time there at that school." Juniper told her.

"I know and I get that. It wasn't all that bad for me either, to be honest." She said as she looked to the side. "But I'm only trying to do what's best for her and protect Luz." She then picked up a blue rose. "Sure, Hexside looks like it makes young witches grow in magic, but it just chews up anything unique and spits out bland mush." With that last part, she tears off the rose and lets the pieces fall down onto the ground.

"I chew insects. I turn them into mush." Hooty spoke up not entirely being part of the conversation.

"And while I get worried about Luz about doing magic, you and Ryuji are doing just fine." Eda continued. "I hardly have to worry about you two…half the time." She said the last part in a bitter tone.

"Yeah, well that's only because me and him were homeschooled by you and Dad." Juniper told her mother. "Besides, Luz actually had a good time at Hexside aside from nearly getting killed."

"Yeah, I can see that and all I've talked about was my own beef with that school. The only gain I got from it was your dad. Does Luz need to draw her own conclusions?"

"Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try. She did only spend part of a day there. Maybe if she saw more of it, we'll see if she'll get any beef with it or not."

"My beef is insects. They're what I eat." Hooty put in.

"Hooty, unless you got something helpful to say, mind butting out?" Juniper bluntly said to the house demon.

"All I know is your mom taught me and I turned out just fine." Hooty said before he tried to use his tongue to grab a fly that was a few inches away from him, making Eda and Juniper give off serious blank looks with the Owl Lady's eyes widened as she knew what she had to do.

"I gotta get that girl into school." Eda said, dreading the thought of Luz becoming like Hooty.

[Ryuji]

After Gus showed us inside, thanks to my new canine ears, I was able to overhear a commotion and looked over to see a student with orange sleeves and leggings getting picked on by his fellow students who were holding his backpack away from him with their magic. I growled at this and was about to jump out of Luz's arms to run over to help the guy but I was surprised as someone else beat me to it as one of the bullies was pulled away by a stage hook. Who beat me to those bullies was a pair of these witches dressed in black full-body suits with blue cloaks over them, gray boots, and these upside-down skull masks. On the cloaks was this yellow nose-like symbol.

"Trouble." Said one of the witches after they sniffed the bully they pulled away, he and his fellow bully now having looks of worry.

The other bully stepped back to try and make a break for it but was soon pulled away by a hook as well. We watched as the two students were dragged off, both bullies pleading out as they were taken away.

"No! Not Detention!"

"The only thing I'm guilty of is being too real!"

"Woof! Those are some creepy hall monitors." I said as we watched them.

"Those are Detention Sentries." Gus told us.

"Detention Sentries?" Luz said with surprise. "That's new."

"Well, they kinda showed up after your last visit." Gus explained to us. "They smell trouble, literally. They can tell you're up to something even before you do it."

"Trouble." Said one of the sentries that looked our way.

"Well, if they're gonna try anything at me, I won't play nice." I said with a flat tone as I flashed my teeth.

"Okay, let's get to the meeting room." Gus said with a nervous smile as he grabbed Luz's hand and quickly pulled us away.

He didn't go far as he ended up bumping into someone, resulting in him falling to the ground and whatever was in his bag to spill out, a crown along with some papers scattering on the floor. After gathering them all, Gus soon looked at the one who bumped into as he spoke. Who it was happened to be a warlock about our age with the hood of his cowl on with only bangs of his dark brown hair sticking out. Seeing the familiar brown on his sleeves and leggings, I saw he was in the Construction Track.

"Augustus." Said the warlock who stood over Gus with a smug look on his face and his hands on his hips. "You should really watch where you going." The guy then picked up the crown and dusted it off while speaking in a taunting tone. "Don't want the president of the H.A.S. getting hurt on his last day in office." Hearing that, I glared at the warlock as I didn't like the way he was talking to my friend. It wasn't long until he noticed me and Luz. "This must be your human." Walking over to us, he then took a good look at Luz. "Hmm… Looks like another witchling to me." He then turned his gaze down to me. "And I see she's a tamer too. Not a really impressive beast, to be honest."

"I'm more impressive than I look, buddy." I bluntly said, surprising him. "Mattholomule, I take it? Do you always talk like a jerk?" The guy didn't say anything as he was too shocked even as I gave him a smug smile. "What's the matter? Dog got your tongue?"

"Psst! Psst!" Gus whispered as me and Luz looked over to see our friend tapping his ears. "Dazzle."

"Oh." Luz said before she mimicked a trumpet and then threw off her hood. "Ta‐da!"

Upon seeing her ears, Mattholomule gasped in shock. "A human!"

"Not just any human, an expert human." Gus spoke up confidently as he stood up before motioning over to me. "Along with a hybrid who is just as an expert."

"Yeah, we've been doing this for years." Luz said as she played along with Gus.

"Yeah, our buddy Gus told us that you brought in a couple of human treasures." I said as I then used my magic to take the crown back from Mattholomule and returned it to its rightful owner. "We're here to authenticate them, see if you really got things belonging to the human realm."

"See you at the meeting." Gus said before we all then left, leaving the Construction Track warlock in shock.

[No one's view]

After the trio left, Mattholomule started freaking out as he put his back against some lockers, skimming down to the floor in horror that he was about to be exposed for bringing fake human treasures.

"Oh, no, no, no, no! If they find out I lied, they'll never make me president." Mattholomule said to himself before he noticed copies of Luz and Ryuji's wanted posters on the floor. Picking them up, the warlock laughed as he gained an idea with an evil grin. "Ooh, Gus. Looks like someone is in trouble."

Outside the school, as she and Juniper stood in front of it, Eda groaned upon seeing the one place she hated growing up.

"Ugh! I had this nightmare before." She said with a pleading look. "Really wish your dad was here with me. He made this place more bearable."

"Well, he's not here, but I am." Juniper said to her mother. "Let's just go on and get this over with." With that, the mother and daughter pair then made their way inside.

[Ryuji]

After dealing with Mattholomule, I spoke to Gus and told him how impressed I was by he was able to show us off to that jerk.

"Nice work showing up Mattholomule, Gus." I said to him with a smile. "Didn't know you had it in you."

"As president of the H.A.S., I should feel bad about dunking on one of our own members." Gus said in a dignified manner before turning to us with a proud smile. "But, as a Gus, I feel like doing this: Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!" I laughed as Gus did a little victory dance.

I didn't get to enjoy it much as something came over and swooped me out of Luz's arms. What took me away was actually a who and it was this little witch girl who was about as tall as Gus with bright pink eyes and black hair tied into these long, double-braided twintails with pink ribbons at the base and matching scrunchies at the ends. Seeing her azure sleeves and leggings along with that weird cuff like the one Xander haves, I knew she was a Warriors Track student. She smiled brightly as she looked at me in awe, a look that left me in confusion as she held me in her hands.

"You are so cute!" the witch girl cooed, gushing over at my disguise's cuteness. "Who's a widdle guy? Who's a widdle guy? You are! Yes, you are!" She then pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Gizi!" Gus said as I saw him and Luz come over.

"Oh, hey, Gus!" The witch girl who I guess was Gizi greeted him as she stopped hugging me and held me out to him in her hands. "Look at this! Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life?"

"Uh, Gus? Who's this?" I said, looking at the girl holding me with worry.

Gizi then gasped in awe. "Oh, my Titan! It talks!"

"Um, I'm a he, thank you." I told her.

"Yeah, sorry. She really likes cute things." Gus said before he then began introductions. "Ryuji, meet our other new H.A.S. member, Gizelle Duskerman."

"Wait, Duskerman?" I said with surprise.

"Did you say 'Ryuji'?" Gizi said with more of the same feeling I had. "As in the super cool DK the Dragon Kid?"

"Yep. That little dog is actually him." Gus told her, causing her to gasp.

"Oh, my Titan! Oh, my Titan!" Gizi excitedly said before she then looked at Gus with worry. "Wait, aren't they…"

"Welcomed here at Hexside? Yes, they are." Gus said as he then took me and gave me back to Luz before whispering to my newly discovered cousin I had. "Gizi, a word?" As the two walked away, me and Luz looked at each other as we didn't know what was going on.

[No one's view]

"Look, I may have told them that I got the ban lifted so they would come." Gus whispered to Gizi, unaware to Luz looking around out of curiosity. "Before you say anything, don't you want to spend more time with Ryuji?"

"Well, yeah." Gizi said at the same volume as Luz walked away as something caught her attention. "I especially want to see more of that cute form he took."

"Then play along and you'll get to spend the whole day with him." Gus said to her.

"Okie-dokie!" Gizi said.

"Good, now…" Gus said as they turned around to see Luz gone. "Luz?"

"Whoa! Look at all these trophies!" Looking over, Gizi and Gus see Luz stand over in front of a small trophy case with multiple different trophies. "Most Bones, Oldest Student."

"Well, Hexside is one of the top schools on the Boiling Isles." Ryuji said, looking at the trophies. "It stands to reason it would have rewards like this."

"Hey, your dad's name is on one of them!" Luz exclaimed.

"Really?" Ryuji said before Luz then held him up to the trophy she found. "'Greatest Feats of Bravery and Extraordinary Magic, Axel Frank'. I didn't know he won a trophy here."

"Maybe you can get an awesome trophy here too!" Luz said with a smile.

"Maybe." Ryuji said as he smiled back at her, the two not noticing the Detention Sentry who was walking by stopping to sniff in their direction.

"Okay, time to go." Gizi said, quickly grabbing Luz by the hand and dragging her away. "We can't keep H.A.S. waiting."

"She's right." Gus said as she ran alongside the Duskerman. "Can't waste any time out here. We gotta get to the club room."

"Alright, but you owe us a full tour next time." Luz said to them.

"Yeah, next time." Gus said, sounding pretty nervous.

[Ryuji]

After running for a while, Luz stopped us as she spoke up as she spotted something.

"Oh, look! It's the Abomination professor." Luz said as I looked over to see it was the professor we saw the last time we were here. "I should introduce myself, apologize for the incident. Hey…"

"Luz, don't!" I told her, stopping her in time. "I'm trying to avoid attention, remember? Besides, I don't think he's gonna be too happy to see you. Witches have prejudice against humans, so it would stand to reason he would hold a grudge, especially considering you helped a former student of his cheat to get a good grade."

"Yeah, but…" Luz said before Gus spoke up.

"Oh, would you look at that?" Gus said as he pushed Luz away. "We have enough time for a tour of Hexside." Gizi soon followed behind Gus.

[No one's view]

After a brief waiting period, Eda and Juniper were now in the principal's office, face-to-face with Bump himself as the two sat in chairs in front of his desk.

"Been quite a while since I've sat here, huh?" She jokingly asked as she took a pencil and placed it on her top lip, balancing it as she leaned back putting her heels on the desk. "I gotta admit that it's extra weird without you yelling at me for picking fights or stealing."

"I can easily change that." Bump said in a flat tone, using his magic to knock Eda to the floor while putting his nameplate into place. "What are you doing here, Edalyn?"

"I want to—Pfft!" Eda said as she got back up and straightened up her messy hair, blowing up a single strand into place. "I want to enroll my human, Luz, at Hexside. And before you get all judgy…"

"That's not a bad idea." He said in almost an instant.

"You no-good…" Eda was about to rant before she became surprised by Bump's response. "Wait, really?"

"I think the student body could learn a lot from having such an exchange student." Bump said as he then got up from his chair and walked over to a file cabinet. Hearing this made Eda smirk and lean back again, returning her feet to the desk. "But I do have a few conditions before I even consider that." He used his magic to turn the Owl Lady upside down and make her fall to the floor again.

"You want to make a deal, Bump?" Juniper said as she raised a brow.

"Easy, Juni." Eda said as she picked herself up before talking to Bump. "What do you want?"

"It has come to my understanding that you have not just one, but two children currently in your care." Bump said as he looked to Juniper who crosses her arms. "Your son and daughter have both proven to be quite skilled in magic."

"Of course, me and Axel are the ones who taught them." Eda told him.

"Yes, clearly." Bump told her. "Eda, you were one of the biggest troublemakers this school has ever had while Axel was the top student, yet I will admit that both of you had shown equal amounts of promise in prowess. While seeing the troublemaker within your children, I also see a lot of great promise too. As such, I want them both to enroll here as well."

"Wait, what?" Juniper said as she and her mother were surprised to hear this from Bump. "You actually want me and my bro DK to be students here? Didn't you put a ban on us?"

"Yes, only because you have refused to participate in our curriculum." Bump told the young witch. "It is only part of the standard rules we have here at Hexside. But, if you both chose to attend classes, I can have the ban lifted. Your father was one of our best students and we'd be thrilled to have his children here."

"If you think I'm just gonna enroll here after last time, then…" Juniper started.

"Hold on, Juni." Eda said, interrupting her daughter before speaking to Bump. "So, if both Ryuji and Juni become students, you let Luz be a student too?"

"Yes, that's correct." Bump told her.

"Fine then. I'll enroll the twins." Eda said as she got back in her chair and leaned back, putting her feet up on the principal's desk.

"What?!" Juniper said with shock. "But, Mom…"

"Hey, look, I know neither you or Ryuji want to go here for your own reasons." Eda told her daughter. "I don't want to either, but we don't really have much of an option. Bump is no doubt not gonna lift the ban on Luz unless you and your brother get in this school. You want Luz to get into school, right?"

"Yeah, but I already know more about magic than most kids my age hardly know about! What the hell am I gonna gain from here? I've lived my entire life with the idea of being yourself being, your own witch, not what someone else wants you to be."

Eda sighed shaking her head a bit before looking her daughter in the eye. "Juni, I rarely have to worry about you. You got your smarts and will from your dad, while you got my good looks and personality."

"I see what you're doing." Juniper crossed her arms with a flat expression. "Buttering me up with those words, I already know that. But my answer is still no."

"Juni, listen. There's only a few things that I regret and one of them is not being able to let you live a normal life. If you did, then you'd have more friends. I blame myself for that, so did your dad. Besides I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have faith that you wouldn't fall for the whole 'One Witch, One Coven' crap they teach here. Plus, maybe with all that I taught you, you could teach these dweebuses a thing or two about our coven." Eda winked at her, causing Juniper to think about it before gaining a smile.

"Okay, I'll do it." Juniper told her mother. "Guess it won't be so bad. Did see some cuties and hotties around these halls."

"That's my girl." Eda said as she then pets her daughter with a proud smile for a moment before she looked back at Bump. "Okay, anything else?"

"Yes. Before any of this, there's a lot to be answered for." After using his magic to send Eda back to the floor again, Bump then walked back to his desk with a large stack of papers put together in one file.

"Oh, right. Yeah." Eda said as she picked herself up. "I heard all about that abomination incident and the scene my boy made."

"Oh, I'm not talking about Luz or your son." Bump clarified with a stern look as Eda used her magic to pull the chair up from the floor. "I'm talking about the necrotic experiments, the graffiti, the scams, the cheating, Ms. Jenkinmeyer's teeth!" Sitting down, Eda sunk down a bit as she knew where this was going. "I'm talking about the trouble you caused when you were here, Eda." He then proceeded to slam the file down into the desk, making a loud thud while the witch herself flinched. Raising her head back up, Eda looked to see it was her permanent record, her name "Edalyn Clawthorne" on the cover.

"Huh. I thought there'd be more." Eda commented in surprise.

"More? Mom, you kidding me?" Juniper said in disbelief, shocked by her mother's permanent record.

"If you want your children or your apprentice to attend Hexside, I expect you make amends for everything you have done to this school." Bump said, making Eda gulp in worry.

[Ryuji]

With our tour of the campus of Hexside, I managed to talk with Gizi and learned much about her part of the Duskerman Family tree and much of what she was doing."

"Oh, so your mom is Eliphas' cousin." I said to Gizi who nodded with a smile. "And the arranged marriage set it so the Duskerman Family name would be taken by your dad. So I take it the Duskermans are quite the influence on people, huh?"

"Yeah, whatever my family says goes." Gizi told me as we made it to a stadium outside. "Kinda why I'm taking both Beast-Keeping and Abomination classes."

"Well, my Dad did tell me your family is known for having talent in both those tracks of magic." I told her. "I also see you're in the Warriors Track, though I don't really see a weapon on you."

"Oh, that's because I'm not a fighter, silly." Gizi casually told me.

"Not a fighter?"

"Yeah, I'm a healer which is why I'm also taking Healing classes."

"Wait, a healer? That's a thing."

"Well, duh! Did you think all of did nothing but fight?"

"Well, yeah. That's kind of what I was expecting from the Warriors Track. Are you saying people who get in don't actually have to fight?"

"Yep! We can pick from being the ones who do the fighting or the people who stay behind and help the fighters heal up."

"Surprised I didn't see any more healers the last time I was here."

"Well, us healers don't usually get to do much unless it's a team thingy."

"Oh, a team match. I guess that makes sense."

"And here is the Grudgby Stadium." Gus said as we took our seats and watched down at the court which resembled a basketball court but with hoop rings instead of basketball hoops and had a game going on. "This is where we play the sport."

"Cool. We have something like this back home." I said as we watched the witch with the ball run to a hoop right before a griffin came in and pulled her into the air.

"I hate this game!" She screamed as the griffin tosses her through the hoop, a horn blaring after that.

"Wow, that's the first I've seen an obstacle score." I said as Luz, Gus, and Gizi clapped right before I heard sniffing and looked over to see a Detention Sentry lurking around.

"Okay, let's keep moving." Gizi said as she and Gus took us away from the stadium and back inside the school.

After a while of walking through the halls, Luz stopped at a door that had its own viewing window.

"Ooh! Ryuji, look!" Luz said as she brought me up to the window.

"Whoa, that's a lot of plants." I said as I saw the classroom filled with all sorts of plants, including one giant mushroom. "What's this room?"

"That's the Plant Track Homeroom." Gus told us. "Practically every student in that track does their work in there."

Looking at one student who was writing something down on a clipboard, I watched as she was taken by surprise by the plant behind her which opened its bud to reveal a big mouth along with a big eye on the inside of each of its petals before chomping on the poor girl.

"Oh, good thing I didn't grow that plant when learning Plant Magic." I said, just as Willow came over and tickled the plant by the stem, the very plant laughing so hard it spit out her fellow student.

"Willow, hey!" Luz said, getting the witch girl to turn around and happily wave to us.

"Hi!" Gus greeted her with a nervous smile, causing Willow to lose her smile and shake her head in disappointment.

"Huh. What's up with that?" I asked Gus in confusion.

"No idea. Let's keep going." Gus said before dragging me and Luz away.

A moment later, Gus took us to a classroom full of mirrors.

"And this is where I spend my time here: the Illusion Track Homeroom." Gus said as he led us into the room.

"What's up with all the mirrors?" I asked.

"Oh, those are used for seeing how we do." Gus explained. "We often use illusions on ourselves."

"Ah, I see." I said before I then watched a couple of Illusion Track students going through what I could guess what a little test to see how well they could use Illusion Magic, two of these students happening to be the Blight Twins.

The teacher there was pleased with the twins' use of magic with Emira giving herself longer legs and Edric changing his appearance to where he looked like that famous musician Beethoven. While those two were pretty confident, the last of them looked pretty nervous as she was looking at her textbook, her knees buckled together as her teacher came over. When she cast her magic, she accidentally removed her face.

"Ooh! Illusion mishap." I winced at this as the teacher was surprised by this. "Been there, done that." After the teacher help the student undo her illusion and allowed her to breathe, Luz spoke up.

"Wait, if you're here," Luz said as she pointed to the Gus next to us before pointing to another Gus who seemed to be taking notes in another class, "then who's that?"

"Gus, is that an illusion clone?" I asked while looking at the other Gus across the hall.

"Good eye. Yeah, that's one of my illusions." Gus told me. "I have it take notes for me when I'm not around." When the clone showed us his paper, showing he wrote "I'm not paying attention", Gus gasped in shock as his clone gave a mischievous smile. "He doesn't always do what he's told."

"Then why do you have him taking notes for you?" I asked him.

"To give me some time for other things, like being the president of H.A.S." Gus told me.

"Wow, you're good." Luz said with an impressed smile.

"Yeah, that's good Illusion Magic." I said with the same smile. "I didn't really expect you to be able to make an independent illusion. It took me years just to figure out how to make one like that."

"Yeah, I moved up a couple of grades." Gus smiles proudly right before the little demon on his wrist went off. "Oh, it's time for the H.A.S. meeting!"

"Then let's get rolling!" I said as we all then headed back into the hall. We were about to head off until Gus spoke up.

"Hold on." Gus said before he went to the classroom where his illusion clone was at.

Managing to get Luz to let me go, I went over to Gus and saw him glare at his clone who leaned back in his chair to try and look like some classic bad boy. With Gus giving the "you're dead" finger slash to the neck, the clone gained a look of worry before Gus walked away. Knowing that the clone would take learning seriously, I then ran off and got back into Luz's arms as Gizi and Gus led us to the room where the club meeting was held. Thanks to the dog ears, I was able to hear the other H.A.S. members chanting out "Human! Hybrid!" repeatedly while pounding on a table in anticipation.

"Okay, you guys ready?" Gus asked me and Luz after he put on his crown.

"You bet!" I said right before Gus took a deep breath and motioned for Gizi to go on ahead.

"Hear ye, hear ye!" Gizi announced after entering the room, standing by the door. "Presenting the president of the Human Appreciation Society, Gus!"

"Hello, everyone." Gus said as he stepped in before pulling out and tugging on a paperclip a bit to make it twang a bit before stepping aside to motion to the doorway. "Without further ado, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to…" With that, Luz then made her way into the room with a moonwalk, stumbling a bit before removing her cowl to reveal her ears. "Luz the Human and…" Jumping out of Luz's arms and using the smoke from canceling my spell, I landed at the other side of the table with a smile, holding my arms up with a grin. "DK the Dragon Kid!"

The other members were ecstatic to see Gus was true to his word and brought an actual human being and a hybrid, one of them who was a girl with an eye for a head squealing in excitement.

"Such showmanship."

"They're horrifying."

"Horrifying? I take offense in that!" I said with a glare.

"Easy, Ryuji. I'm sure he didn't mean that." Gus told me before he motioned to the items on the table. "Now, will you inspect the items?"

"Of course, Mr. President." Luz said as we then walked over to the table. "Allow us to determine if they're truly of our realm's origin." Just as she was reaching forward to one of the items Mattholomule spoke up.

"Stop!" Mattholomule said right before he smacked all the items off the table, much to everyone's surprise.

"Whoa! What the hell?" I said to him.

"I have something to say." Mattholomule said with a look of shame. "I lied. All that I brought, they're all fake. I'm sorry, it's just that I'm new here at Hexside and making friends has been hard." He paused. letting what he said sink in. "I thought if I was important enough, people would like me. But instead, all I did was cause trouble. I'm sorry. Didn't mean to make so much drama. I think it's best that I just go."

"Hey, man. It's okay. You're only human." Luz said before she paused realizing how she said it. "Well, you know what I mean."

"Mattholomule, you aren't alone." Gus said with a comforting smile. "You have a place here in the H.A.S." The other members seemed to believe what he had just said as they all went on to comfort Mattholomule.

"Yeah, we totally get it. All water under the bridge." Gizi put in.

"You're not alone."

"We admire your honesty."

"You're one of us."

"Thanks, guys." Mattholomule said with a smile. "I knew you'd understand." While everyone else was pulled in by this, I rolled my eyes as I wasn't buying his little act.

[Ryuji's aside]

Geez, this guy really is a grade-A douchebag. Can't believe these guys are actually buying this crap he's selling. "Oh, I'm so sorry for lying. I didn't mean to cause trouble, I just wanted you guys to like me." Seriously, that's gotta be the worst fake sad story I've ever heard. First, he tries to make a fool out of Gus, now he's gonna toy with everybody just to be more favorable? Well, if that's the game he's gonna play, then he's gonna know what happens to guys like him when they try to mess with people.

After hearing that sob speech, I gained a smug smile before doing a slow clap, getting everyone's attention as I prepared to show Mattholomule what he was dealing with.

"Wow, Matt. That was quite the truth you told there." I sarcastically said, putting on a fake warm smile. "Really, thanks for opening up to us. I can really sense you getting everyone's trust." Using my magic I then dragged Mattholomule over to me. "Seeing that, how about I tell you something about myself?" With that, I then drew out my Saisho and held in front of him, Mattholomule's eyes widening from seeing me do this. "Pretty impressive sword, huh? Yeah, the Saisho is one of the finest weapons ever to be crafted by a Frank for a Frank. As I recently discovered, it's also capable of changing its form and becoming other kinds of weapons too. So I can use it to cut through my opponents with ease with a sword…" I then used my magic to change it into Saisho Yari. "…or either to pummel them into the ground or shish-kebab them with a lance…" I then changed my weapon into Saisho Yumi. "…or even pin them to the wall with arrows." Seeing the fear in his eyes, I then transformed my Saisho back to normal and held it where the blade's tip was right in front of him. "Basically, my Saisho makes me someone you don't want to mess with. You hate to be the guy who'd get on my bad side, such as picking on my friends or making a fool out of them. But we now know you won't try anything like that, would you?"

Mattholomule gulped before he gave out a nervous answer. "Nope! I would never! You can totally trust me!"

"Good. Then we continue with this meeting." I said as I then put my Saisho back on my back and went over to the other.

I didn't really believe he was telling the truth, but decided to play along as I knew Mattholomule would show his true colors even while being threatened.

[No one's view]

Elsewhere at Hexside, Bump led Eda over to the cafeteria as he was having her do a series of chores so that Luz could attend the very school, Juniper following behind her mother. While she was against undoing her own work, she knew she had to get Luz into Hexside. She also knew she'd have to have a talk with her boy once the day was over with.

"Ugh! I don't wanna do this!" The Owl Lady grunted in frustration.

"There's the whiny rebel teen I remember." Bump said, patting Eda on the shoulder before passing her a mop. "Here, you can start by cleaning up all the hexed graffiti you left us." Motioning to some lockers in front of them, there was graffiti all over them which had Eda's name written on them, both figuratively and literally. "Good luck."

"Meh!" Eda stuck out her tongue as Bump walked away

"Eda rules, Bump drools." Juniper said, reading some graffiti on some lockers. "Wow, you really were a rebel. Sure you don't need my help with this, Mom?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's my mess, not yours." Eda said as she dipped the mop in a nearby bucket before raising it out to mop at some of her graffiti which actually moved away to avoid being cleaned.

After a moment of it avoiding her efforts, the graffiti gathered itself and changed to say "Mother, Noooo!" Though Eda tried to mop it away, it still avoided her.

"Ohhh, this better be worth it." Eda groaned out as she saw this was going to be a long day for her.

[Ryuji]

After the meeting, me and Luz said our goodbyes to the other H.A.S. members who all then went on to head home, including my cousin.

"Bye, cousin! See ya next time!" Gizi said as she walked out.

"Thanks for coming." Her fellow female member said.

"Come back soon." The goat-like demon member added.

"Thank you. Hope to see you again!" The eyeball girl mumbled before leaving.

"Eh, we'll see what happens." I replied before stretching out a bit. "Well, this is almost over with. Gus, mind telling me where the restrooms are?"

"Yeah, just go down the hall to the left and make another right."

"Much appreciated." I said before casting my disguise back on.

Leaving the room, I only stopped partway before casting a concealment barrier on myself. The reason for this is because I knew that if everyone thought I left, Mattholomule would have a reason to put a plan of his into motion. I was right as I hear Mattholomule scoff and looked into the room to see him speak to Gus and Luz.

"Hey, Augustus, Luz." Mattholomule said to them. "Thank you for being so forgiving. "

"We've all been the new kid before. Right, Gus?" Luz said in an understanding tone.

"Yeah." Gus agreed in the same tone.

"Well, I just have one thing to say…" Mattholomule said right before two Detention Sentries made their way in the room, the Construction Track student holding up Luz's banned poster. "There she is! She's the intruder!"

Walking over to Luz, one of them sniffed the air before saying "Trouble."

"No, it's fine. The ban's been lifted." Luz said, trying to put things at ease while not fully realizing what was happening. "Tell them, Gus." Gus didn't say anything as Luz was then hooked and dragged away by the Sentries. "Gus! Tell them!"

"Oh, who's the liar now, Augustus?" Mattholomule said to Gus with a wicked grin, making me growl at the jerk for pulling something like this.

[No one's view]

In the Plant Track Homeroom, Willow was using her magic to water a plant while also thinking about how she was treating Gus for lying to Luz and Ryuji about the ban.

"Maybe I've been too hard on Gus." Willow said as she thought about apologizing to her fellow student and friend. "I mean, how much trouble could they get into?"

"Help!" Hearing that cry, Willow looked out the door's window to see Luz being dragged away by a Detention Sentry. "Aah! I don't even learn here!"

"Luz!" Willow said with worry.

"Where are you taking me?" Luz asked with a worried look on her face.

"Detention." The sentry told her.

"Oh, well that doesn't sound so bad." Luz said as they stopped in front of a large door that revealed itself to be a three-eyed demon as it opened its mouth, causing Luz to scream in fear.

[Ryuji]

After Luz was taken away, Gus spoke out to Mattholomule, enraged by him tricking us and getting Luz into detention. As they were talking, I started to sneak my way over to Mattholomule as I was now mad as hell.

"What…did you…do?" Gus said as he glared at Mattholomule.

"Revealed your little lie." Mattholomule said to him. "And don't worry, you'll be joining her as soon as tell Principal Bump that you snuck the human in."

"But I thought we were cool." Gus said to him. "You apologized for lying and everything!"

"Like I'd actually apologize." Mattholomule said to him. "'Ah, boo-hoo! I'm sorry. I'm the new kid, I want to make friends'. Ha! I can't believe you two fell for that. I love making drama. All I want is power. Now thanks to you, I'm gonna get it." Getting right behind him, I went ahead and removed my disguise as I glared down at Mattholomule.

"I wouldn't count on it." I angrily told him before grabbing and holding up Mattholomule as he turned around and yelped in fear. "I knew you were a douchebag."

"Wait, I was just joking! I…"

"Don't even try it." I told him. "No lie is gonna help you now."

"Ryuji, I'm so sorry." Gus said to me with a look of shame. "I know I should've told you the truth about the ban, I was just…"

"No need to apologize, Gus." I told my friend. "While I am disappointed that you lied to me and Luz, I understand your reason considering what this S.O.B. has done." I glared at Mattholomule with that last part. "Considering this is your fault to begin with, you're now gonna help us get Luz out of detention."

"Really? And how exactly are you and Mr. President here gonna do that?" Mattholomule said with a raised brow of doubt. Looking over to Gus, we saw him pull back a fist, surprised as he looked ready to punch Mattholomule.

"By taking executive action." Gus said right before he then reached out and pulled the tongue of a nearby bell, making it scream before it sprayed water at us.

Seeing that was the fire alarm, it wasn't long until the Detention Sentries came in and captured all three of us, dragging us away with the hook.

"But I didn't pull the alarm! It was Augustus!" Mattholomule said as he tried to get away. "Are you even listening to me? I demand justice!"

"Oh, shut up! You deserve this and you know it!" I told the whining warlock.

[No one's view]

Unknown to the three as they were dragged away by the sentry, Willow poked her head out from a corner and watched with surprise at what was happening.

[Ryuji]

"So we're getting taken to detention." I said as we were getting dragged through the halls. "That's not so bad, is it?" Stopping in front of a large, green door that lifted up a bit from the bottom to reveal a mouth full of fangs, the door revealing to be a demon with three eyes. "Oh, come on! Seriously?" Just then, the sentry tossed all three of us through the demon's mouth.

"Wait!" Mattholomule said as the sentry left and the demon closed its mouth before the warlock ran over and started pounding on the door. "Get me out of here!"

"Luz!" Gus said as I looked over to see my human friend hiding behind a rock.

"Luz, are you okay?" I asked her as we then picked ourselves up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but what's going on?" Luz said to us. "Gus, you said the ban was lifted!"

"He lied, Luz." I told her. "He only told us that so we would come. Though the only reason he did that was because of that jackass back there." I pointed to Mattholomule with my thumb with that last part.

"I'm really sorry, I…" Gus said right before the ground started shaking and we watched as the floor opened up like some sort of mouth.

Looking down into the pit, I was horrified to see walls of teeth, eyes, and clear blue tentacles along with blue pods filled with students and a few skeletons lying around. Me and Luz had seen all kinds of freaky and terrifying stuff during our stay on the Boiling Isles, but this horror show really took the cake as Luz screamed in horror.

[No one's view]

In the cafeteria, something came bursting through the doors followed by a large cloud of dust. Stepping out of the room was Eda, covered in purple slime and with a few small ghosts stuck in her hair. Juniper was behind her, helping her mother carry a large sack that had something moving inside of it. While entering the room, a few ghosts groaned as they fell down on the floor. As they walked over to Bump, the Owl Lady clearly showed she was not having a good time making up for her mistakes.

"There. The girls' locker room is ghost‐free." Eda said as she and her daughter slammed the bag down on the floor.

"Are you ready to give up?" Bump asked in an amused tone before picking a ghost out of her hair. "You've barely scratched the surface." The silver-haired witch growled in annoyance before she and Juniper looked over to a few female students.

"No, like this." Said one of the girls who was a member of the H.A.S. as she made a spell circle that created a fireball which soon turned into a snowball, falling down onto the table.

"Wow. Friendship really is the real magic." The other girl proceeded to mimic what her classmate did.

"Geez, they're just as bad as Luz." Juniper noted as she watched the two witches hug each other.

"Yeah, they are." Eda said as she gained a smile upon seeing this. "She'd love it here." Now determined to get Luz into Hexside, she turned to Bump. "All right. What's next, Bumpikins?" With a smile of enjoyment, Bump brought out a toilet plunger as his way of instantly giving the Owl Lady her answer and causing her to groan.

[Ryuji]

"This is detention?" I exclaimed while using my Saisho to fight off blue tentacles. "Trapped in a room full of tentacles to be put into pods?"

"Yeah, this is like a death sentence!" Luz put in.

"I had no idea!" Gus said, just as shocked as us. "I've never been in detention before!"

"Welcome to my world." Mattholomule said as he scooted across the wall to Gus. "Believe it or not, in my old school I was in detention plenty of times."

"That isn't hard to believe!" Luz commented.

"Yeah, you're a real asshole!" I added.

"Well, down in detention, this asshole is king." The jerk warlock said plainly. "So, if you wanna get out, you better do exactly what I say."

"Well, since you know so much, mind telling me what's happening to the students in those pods?" I said to him.

"Oh, them? They're fine." He told me. "It's just the detention demon making sure they don't cause any trouble. It keeps them in those pods and influences them into being good students."

"Detention demon? Influence?" I said, shocked by what he was telling me. "So this is what they do here? Brainwash any student acting out into behaving?"

"Yeah, that's basically it."

"That's not detention, that's forced rehabilitation!"

"Hey, it's how it works here. Now, before we get to escaping, we first gotta…" Much to our surprise as he walked to the pit, something shot up into the air. It was a demon that resembled a large green snake with a human-like face and glowing, red eyes. The snake hissed before it shot out a blue tendril that wrapped around Mattholomule's ankle, the warlock gaining a look of fear. "Already?" he then screamed away as he was dragged down inside the pit.

"Mattholomule!" Luz said as we peered down and watched as the warlock was placed into one of those blue pods before she then looked over to Gus with a hurt expression. "You lied to us, Gus! You lied about the ban! Why?"

"I was afraid. I acted stupid." Gus answered with shame.

"Yes, you did!" The human girl firmly as me and Gus then scoot our way over to her, keeping our backs up against the wall.

"Why exactly is being the president of H.A.S. such a big deal to you?" I said to him.

"Because it's the only place where I felt like I belonged." Gus said as he explained his reasons. "Remember when I said I skipped a few grades? Well, that's not really a good thing."

"What do you mean? You get to learn more complex magic than other people your age." I told him. "That's cool, right?"

"Yeah, but my classmates are older than me." Gus told me. "It's hard being younger than everyone. You're overlooked, ignored. At Hexside, practically nobody ever bothers with me, don't think I'm important. But, at the H.A.S., I mattered. As president, I could make sure no one would ever get left behind or feel left out. I didn't want to lose that. I'm really sorry for dragging you into this."

"Gus, it's okay." I said as I put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a smile. "If anyone knows what it's like to feel like the odd one out, it's us. Plus, we're friends. Friends are always there for each other."

"Yeah, we get it." Luz said, giving him the same smile. "And there's no need for us to lie to each other."

The tender moment of friendship we had didn't last as we heard a loud hiss coming from the pit and looked to see a bunch of that snake-like demon from before slithering their way toward us.

"Let me make it up to you. I've got a plan." Gus said to us just as one of the demons shot up.

"Yah!" Luz said as she was spooked by it before sending it falling down with a kick to the face.

"Okay, we're in. Where do we start?" I asked Gus.

"By leaving no one behind." Gus said as he grabbed our hands and jumped down into the pit, dragging us with him. I was able to help us land safely with a wind blast. Once at the bottom, we scanned the area and found Mattholomule's pod before dragging him down.

"You will be a good student." Said a voice that echoed throughout the pit.

"I will be a good student." The warlock said as he was in some sort of trance.

"Ugh! This place is sick and twisted." I said right before Luz then bit down onto the pod to try to use her teeth to rip it open, only to fail.

"You know, it didn't taste as bad as I thought it would." She admitted before I decided to take things from here.

"Here, I got it." I said as I then got ready to use my Saisho to cut open the pod.

"No, let me do it." Gus said as he held up a hand to stop me.

"What? Are you gonna use magic to open this?" I asked him.

"Oh, I'll use magic." Gus said as he reached into his cowl and pulled out a paperclip, pulling at the edge to straighten it out. "Human magic!" Raising it up, he then stabbed into the pod and used the little piece of metal to cut Mattholomule free.

"Am I a good student?" Mattholomule said, still in the trance. But my Saisho away, I hauled the warlock over my shoulder.

"Whoa! This guy is as light as a feather." I said, surprised by how light the warlock was. Just when we were about to leave, the demons we saw earlier appeared and surrounded us, hissing away,

"This is part of the plan, right, Gus?" Luz asked, hoping our friend had another trick up his sleeve.

"Or the illusion of a plan." Gus said before he made a spell circle and put his hand up against it, motioning it away and creating even more circles that exploded into multiple copies of himself, me, and Luz which spread everywhere.

"Nicely done, Gus." I said with an impressed smile as the confused demons tried to strike at the clones.

"A genius and a wordsmith." Luz applauded as Gus grabbed a large piece of bone and we used the opportunity to start climbing with the snakes hot on our trail. As we reached the top and I set Mattholomule down, Luz set kicked a snake while I punched a second one and Gus bashed a third with the bone he had.

"We're gonna have to bust down the door!" Gus said as he ran forward.

"I'm on it!" I said as I went over to the door and got ready to use a Flame Dragon's Roar on it, Luz picking up Mattholomule and running over to Gus as more demons went after us.

[No one's view]

On the other side of the door, Willow had started to remove the bar on the door as she was on a mission to rescue her friends, unaware that Gus had already had it handled and Ryuji was about to bust the door open. While doing so, she then heard Eda's voice and stopped to turn around and look in surprise upon finding the Owl Lady along with the Demon Flame in Hexside.

"I washed off all the graffiti, apologized to Jenkinmeyer for stealing her teeth, caught all the wild cerebi." Eda said as she listed all the tasks she had done for Bump as he followed her and Juniper, very pleased to know that she was done with all the chores. "Ah, we should be good."

"It will be very exciting to have a real human exchange student." Bump said as he took her hand to shake it. "Not to mention, two possible prodigies among us."

"Well, I'm looking to be a powerful witch like my mom." Juniper told him. "Of course, we still got to get DK on board with this."

"And you won't tell the Emperor's Coven about this, will you?" Eda quickly asked as a precaution.

"No. Hexside School is safe for all of you." Bump reassured her. "I'm the principal, not a stooge. Consider your pupil and children our pupils."

BANG!

Hearing the loud explosion, they lost their smiles as they all turned over to the detention door which was now nothing but singed rubble. Willow covered her sigh as the dust and smoke cleared to reveal Ryuji holding his sword out in front of him with Luz and Gus right behind him.

[Ryuji]

"Okay, maybe the Flame Dragon's Roar was a bit much, but at least we're out." I said as Gus coughed up some smoke.

"Ryuji! Luz!" Hearing her, I looked in surprise as I watched my mom run over to me with a smile.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" I asked her.

"Oh, just dealing with a few things." Mom told me. "Luz, guess who got you into Hexside!"

Before Luz could say anything, those demons showed up and hissed at us for a moment until they stopped at the snap of someone's fingers. Looking over to see Bump walk over to us with a look of disappointment, I watched as the demons' eyes stopped glowing red and they gained looks of worry.

"Uh, sorry, Principal Bump… sir." One of the demons apologized before they all quickly slithered back into the room.

"Hi, Principal Bump." I nervously said as the principal looked very displeased.

"Ryuji, what were you and Luz doing in detention?" Bump asked us.

"Ugh, kids." Mom groaned, putting a hand against her face.

"To think that any student or child of yours would be capable of doing anything but create chaos." Bump said to my mom. "Eda, take both your children and your apprentice and leave! You're all banned from this campus!"

"Wait, that's it?" Juniper said in disbelief. "After cleaning up everything, you're just gonna kick us out of here?"

"Juni, it's fine." Mom said with a grunt of annoyance. "Come on, kids. Let's go."

"Wait, Principal Bump!" Gus spoke up just as we were about to leave, grabbing the principal's attention. "Don't blame them. I told Luz and Ryuji the ban was lifted. Me and another member were fighting over the Human Appreciation Society. I brought Luz and Ryuji in because I wanted to win. This is all my fault."

"If that's so, Augustus, would you be willing to accept her punishment as your own?" The older warlock firmly asked as he approached his student, hoping to get an answer.

"Yes, Principal Bump. I would." Gus said, surprising us.

"Huh. Dang, dweebus." Mom commented, actually finding a new respect for Gus entirely.

"Very well." Bump said before he then turned around to face me, Luz, and my sis. "In light of that, barring any more trouble, you three will all officially be enrolled in Hexside next semester." While Luz and oddly Juniper were happy to hear this, I—on the other hand—was just confused.

"Wait, what?" I said, not really getting this. "What do you mean? I told you, I'm not going to Hexside."

"Uh, Ryuji?" Mom asked me. "Mind if I talk with you? Alone?"

After managing to get us a good enough distance away from everyone, she then whispered to me what she had done and I was shocked from hearing this.

"What?!" I said to her. "You enrolled me into Hexside?"

"Ryuji, calm down." Mom told me.

"Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down? You signed me up for something I didn't want to do without even asking me! I can get why you wanted Luz in Hexside, but you didn't need to go behind my back and drag me into this!"

"I know, I know." Mom admitted, raising her hands in defense. "You're absolutely right, I should've talked to you about this."

"Then why didn't you?" From there, she then pulled me over and whispered to me.

"Aside from doing 'heinous chores' for that old fart, Bump wanted one thing from me in exchange for letting Luz come here. He wanted to enroll you and Juni."

"What? He said that?" I raised an eyebrow at this as I found that hard to believe.

"I just was just as surprised as you were. Honest."

"So you're saying that if I don't go to Hexside, neither can Luz?"

"That's the deal."

"That bastard."

"Ryuji, while I might not like this place, it still holds a lot of memories for me. Both good and bad. I have to admit, if it wasn't for Hexside, then I wouldn't have ever met Axel or ended up having you or Juni or even Ben. The point is don't let my past affect your life. Much like Juni, I want you to have your own experiences and make yourself memories that'll last a lifetime. I know it's gonna be hard to adjust, but just give yourself a chance. Besides, you won't be here by yourself. Juni's here and so are your other friends and Luz. Don't just do it for me, do it for her. For Luz."

Thinking about it for a moment, I looked over to Luz who looked at me with concern which got me to realize that my mom was right. Sure, I didn't like the idea of going to Hexside, but I knew that this was something that Luz wanted to be a part of. If going to that school would make her happy, then I couldn't take that away from her.

"Well, she does seem to be happy here." I said before I turned back to my mom with a smile. "Okay, I'll do it. For Luz."

"That's my boy." Mom smiled proudly as she pat my head a bit. With that, she then stood up and called out to Luz and Juniper as we walked over to them. "Juni, Luz, come here. I got something I want to talk to you about." With all three of us together, she then spoke again. "Listen, I'm only doing this because I have faith in you. I know you're too smart to fall for that 'One Witch, One Coven' nonsense. You can learn a lot from the witches and warlocks here and maybe teach them some of that Bad Witch Coven magic too."

"I didn't hear that." Bump said as he turned over to Gus. "As for you, I would be saying detention right now, but that seems to be out of order. So, as of now, I'm removing you from the Human Appreciation Society." He then removed the crown.

"Does that make me president?" Mattholomule asked, his face flat on the ground.

"Impressive. Still alive." Bump said before tossing the crown over to the young warlock. "Yes, I suppose you are."

"Yes!" Mattholomule said, being so happy to win that he ignore the pain.

"Yeah, congratulations, Matt." I sarcastically said with a satisfied smile. "You're now the president of the least popular club in all of Hexside."

"What?" He said with confusion.

"What? Did you think the Human Appreciation Society had any influence around here?" I told him. "A lot of witches have prejudice against humans, dude. There are only a few that actually like them. Why do you think there were so few members in H.A.S.?"

"Oh, no." Mattholomule said with realization.

"Yeah, you're at the bottom of the social standards, dude. Karma can be such a bitch, huh?"

"Damn it." Mattholomule groaned in defeat.

"Now, with that accomplished," Bump said as he walked over to my mom, "we have some paperwork to fill out, Eda."

"Wait! I gotta do more stuff?" Mom said in disbelief before groaning. "Ugh! You better enjoy this place, kids."

"Well, I'm gonna get going." Juniper said as she then started walking away. "See ya at home, bro." After she was gone, Gus then spoke up.

"Wanna finish off that tour?" Gus asked.

"I can show you guys what plants are safe or not in the greenhouse." Willow chimed in.

"I wouldn't mind seeing what you guys grow around here." I put in.

"Yeah! Let's go." Luz said as we all then went on with the tour.

After the tour and getting back home, when I asked what she did to get me and the girls into Hexside, Mom pulled out a stack of papers which happened to be her permanent record from Hexside and said she had to clean up the mess she made with her record acting as the list. While I knew that she was a troublemaker when she was my age, what we saw in her record was way beyond what I expected.

One time, she let loose a pack of feral ghosts in the girls' locker room, ghosts that flew around the place telling bad ghost jokes. It got so bad that they called in some people called "ghost blasters" to rid of them, but those guys ended up accidentally opening a portal to some sort of ghost dimension that threatened to overtake the Isles. Another time, she raised an army of abominations to start a food fight in the cafeteria to get her sister Lilith's lunch money back from some thief. The abominations soon turned on her and turned into a giant abomination which forced my mom, her sister, and the thief to work together to stop it from destroying Hexside. Another time, she hexed the school bells so they would sing a song called "Since U been Conned" which lasted for five hours and was only stopped when somebody pitted two of these bells against each other in an argument over who was a better boy band: Babies to Boys or Two Seconds to New York. The worst of it was that no one was allowed to go home early. Another time, she actually brought in some giant bugs which tore up Hexside, just about every chair and table their getting chewed up. One time, she let the school's griffin out of its pen and fed it some spicy food which made it barf all over the grudgby field. Took them a while just to clean it all up. I was just shocked by all this.

"Wow. Bump wasn't kidding." Luz said with surprise. "You were a terrible student."

"Yeah, you got into more trouble than I did." I added.

"Which is why I want you to do better than I did." Mom told me. "While I don't mind you being independent, I also want you to keep a low profile. We don't want the Emperor's Coven to know what we're doing. Bump isn't gonna squeal on us, but if they find out you're attending Hexside, it'll be all kinds of trouble for us. Don't drag too much attention, got it?"

"Got it, Mom." I told her.

"Yeah, yeah." Juniper said. "But if they try dragging me into that detention room, then you better be prepared to homeschool me more."

"Deal." Mom said with a chuckle.

Well, this day was certainly full of surprises. After a little crazy day from me and Luz sneaking into Hexside, my mom had managed to get me, Luz, and my sister enrolled for classes at that school. I don't really want to go to Hexside due to the fact that I'm trying to avoid the Emperor's Coven, but I will go if it means Luz can be a student there with me. Not really sure what the Boiling Isles school life is gonna be like, especially with Juniper going there with me, I think Mom might be right and that I was going to like going there. At least I can now go onto school grounds without any problems and I'll be following in both hers and Dad's footsteps, hopefully not to where I end up getting stuck in the Coven System. The point is, as long as I got my friends by my side, I think I'll be able to make some pretty good memories at Hexside just like my parents did. Hopefully, once we start our classes, both me and Luz will have the best learning experience of our lives. DK out!

Author's Note: Hey, guys! I hope you all like the new chapter. That was quite an eventful day, huh? Ryuji and Luz got to learn more about how schools in the Boiling Isles work and learn more about their friend Gus. Not only that, but Luz has gotten her wish and is now able to go to Hexside. While not really looking forward to attending, Ryuji and Juniper are willing to be enrolled at Hexside for Luz's sake. What will school life in the Boiling Isles be like for the teenage trio? Only time will tell. By the way, Gizelle 'Gizi' Duskerman is voiced by Caitlin Glass. In the next chapter, Ryuji and Luz learn more about the relationship between witch and palisman and what it means to have a witch's staff. That's all I got for now. Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you think of it. See you all in the next chapter!