This chapter and the next one come with a disclaimer.
I am not from a culture in which quinceañeras are commonly celebrated, nor did I have one of my own. All knowledge I have on the subject is from research done on the internet, so if I offend anyone with my portrayals, I apologize in advance and know that I am very much a white person who is genuinely trying to learn about other cultures and traditions and I am using my writing as a means with which to do so.
This chapter spends a bit of time in the beginning discussing quinces and then the rest is devoted to Thanksgiving shenanigans featuring the extended family of the Nocedas (namely, the first true appearance of Camila's whole side of the family). Hoo boy.
The weeks after Halloween were… strange, to say the least.
First of all, Willow and Hunter were avoiding each other. As much as co-captains of a team going to a championship could, anyway. And it was driving Luz crazy that neither of them would say anything about what had happened at Halloween! To her knowledge, they'd parted ways at the school after she took the picture and then the next day they were suddenly sitting a few seats apart in the cafeteria when they'd previously spent every lunch period sitting next to each other.
But, alas, she didn't have time to dwell on the implications of a shift in the relationship between her brother and her friend. No, because the weeks after Halloween brought preparations for Thanksgiving and for her quinceañera. Because despite her protests that she didn't need the big party, her abuela insisted that Luz deserved the big party. So in addition to Tía Lola (and her husband and daughter) and her mother's side of the family coming to Bonesborough for Thanksgiving, they would be staying for an extra two weeks after for her birthday.
She was so glad her birthday was early in December because at the very least she only had to deal with everyone for a couple of weeks. Any longer and she would've lost her mind. Well, she only had to deal with her aunt and uncles and cousins from her mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving, then they'd be back for her quince since they couldn't keep their kids out of school that long, but her grandparents and Tía Lola and Tío Marco and little Mira would be staying with them for the entirety of the time period.
"So you're not gonna be able to hang out this weekend?" Gus asked.
"Nope. Sorry. We have my final dress fitting, blech." She made a face.
"I've been doing research into the traditions of a quinceañera, and it says you need an escort of some kind?" Amity spoke up, grinning hopefully.
"Already got one." Luz jabbed a thumb towards Hunter. "I'd love to have you walk with me in front of everyone, but Abuela says I have to adhere to some tradition so it was either Hunter or Tío Angelo. And I am not walking with Tío Angelo."
"Why can't you hang out if you're not going dress shopping with her?" Gus questioned Hunter.
"Because unfortunately, I'm the oldest of the cousins and that means that all the younger ones treat me like a jungle gym and the adults treat me and Luz like free babysitting. So my weekend is swamped. I can take the kids to the park and we can hang out, but anything else is out of the question."
"Sucks," Amity sighed. "My parents are having a company dinner for Thanksgiving. It's going to be boring."
"Yeah. At least our Thanksgivings are never boring. Just annoying as hell with all of Tía Ramona's kids."
"It's just me and Gus and my dads," Willow said, finally speaking up. "None of us have much family so we spend it together."
You could be part of our family one day.
Luz so desperately wanted to say it, but she could still feel that awkwardness between Hunter and Willow.
Needless to say, her dreams of them being a couple needed to go on hold.
"What's up with you and Hunter?"
"Nothing's up, Amity."
The two of them were grabbing their stuff to go home, and Amity was watching her with a worried expression.
"You've been acting weirder than usual around him since Halloween. Something happened because you were fine on Halloween." Willow slammed her locker shut and slung her backpack over her shoulders. "If it's something you can't talk to Luz about, talk to me."
"Can I trust you not to blab?"
"Of course. I've kept every secret you've ever told me. This one won't be any different."
Willow pulled her off to the side and pulled out her phone, digging up the screenshot she'd taken of her conversation with Hunter that night and holding it out to Amity.
"We… had a talk that night."
Amity read it over, her golden eyes widening.
"He… he said he wants to be your—"
"Shush, not so loud! Luz has ears like a dog for this kind of thing!" Willow placed a finger to her lips desperately as they kept walking.
"I don't see the problem. You like him, don't you?"
"I do. And he's gotta know that! Just… he said it to be nice. I know he did."
"Willow, Hunter's head-over-heels for you. I doubt he just said it to be nice."
Amity handed back the phone.
"It doesn't make sense for him to like me like that."
"Why?"
"Look at me! He could have literally any girl in this school and he's choosing me. The girl who regularly beat him up over the summer to prep for roller-derby."
"I don't think he could have any girl."
"You're a lesbian, that's different."
"True. I get what you mean, though. Crushes are hard. That's why they're called crushes."
"It scares me. How much I like him. He looks at me and I feel like I'm going to melt into a puddle on the floor."
"I mean, it's more than just…"
"Oh, absolutely. He's smart, he's funny, he listens to me when I talk, and he's… he's just so nice."
"He's good with cats, too. He helped me catch Ghost and got her checked out to make sure everything was okay."
"Ugh! Why does he have to be like this?!"
"Relax." Amity put a hand on her shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay. Watch, he'll ask you out for real one of these days and you can stop mutually pining."
"You and Luz went down a fanfiction rabbit hole again this weekend, didn't you."
"That's beside the point."
"I'm not hearing a denial." She pushed the front door of the school open and they began to descend the steps to the sidewalk. "Look. I'm not saying it's impossible for him to be interested in me or for us to be… a thing. I'd love it. But… my brain just keeps going over the what-ifs."
"Okay then. What you need is a distraction. How about this weekend, after my parents get done with the whole 'company dinner' thing, I come and hang out with you and we just… do stuff?"
"Have we hung out one-on-one since you helped out with Boscha?"
"No. I don't think so."
"It's not a bad idea." She narrowed her eyes at Amity's roots. "Maybe I can dye your hair a shade of green other than your mom's."
"Or maybe we could do a color other than green?"
"Why, Amity, are you getting rebellious?"
"I think that started when I snuck a cat into the house without my mom knowing." Amity started giggling. "She keeps kicking Ghost out and Dad and the twins keep sneaking her back in."
"Or did it start when you started crushing on Luz?"
"Could be." Amity's cheeks flushed red. "I wanted to ask if I could be her date to her quince…"
"Who says you can't?"
"She did. Hunter's her escort… but she did also say it was just for tradition. Maybe I can be her actual date." She grinned. "Oh, I definitely need to redye my hair."
"Good. Just bring the color you want."
"I will. This is going to make the dinner so much more bearable."
"Gus can fake an emergency if you need one."
"I'll keep it in mind. Good luck with asking Hunter out."
Willow felt her cheeks and ears explode with heat as she and Amity parted ways.
Well, at least she'd be distracted all weekend.
Hunter sometimes forgot how loud his family was.
Normally, their house contained four people—his mother, his two sisters, and him. Currently it contained fifteen. Tía Lola was there with her husband and daughter to represent Luis's side of the family, but they were it for the actual Noceda side. Everyone else was from his mother's side of the family—his grandparents, Tío Angelo and his wife Ramona, Angelo and Ramona's three bratty kids (the oldest of whom was eight), and Tía Isabel. Oh, wait, he miscounted. It was sixteen because Tía Isabel had brought her current boyfriend, who she'd been dating for a grand total of three weeks.
I'm just glad they'll probably break up by the end of the holiday.
A nasty thought, he knew, but it happened constantly. Isabel found the love of her life—some man or woman who she'd met in a bar somewhere—and brought them to Thanksgiving or whatever holiday happened to be going on, only to be broken up by the following holiday and onto the next partner. At this point he was convinced she was in love with the idea of love. Hell, she was the relative who asked him if he was seeing anyone every time she saw him.
And this was the first year the answer could've been yes if he hadn't been such a monumental fuckup with Willow.
Well, at least Gabriella, Peter, and Damian were good distractions. As annoying and bratty as they were. He and Luz were keeping an eye on them and baby Mira, who was blessedly asleep using his chest as a bed. She was so quiet compared to what he remembered the other three terrors being like, which was why he had no problem acting as her cushion for her to sleep comfortably.
In the kitchen, he could hear his mother arguing with Ramona (what else was new) over the menu and Abuela trying to break up the fight between her daughter and her daughter-in-law. Abuelo was deep in conversation with Marco and Angelo and Isabel and her boyfriend had gone off to 'explore what Bonesborough had to offer!'. Tía Lola had gone off to the store to gather some forgotten ingredients for dinner and dessert and Vee had gone with her to serve as navigator.
Hunter leaned back on the couch, shifting slightly so he wouldn't wake the sleeping baby. Luz had Angelo and Ramona's kids handled outside. And it had been such a long few weeks since Halloween where he'd spent time staring at that stupid stupid message he'd sent Willow that had fucked everything up and—
Mira yawned a tiny baby yawn that interrupted his thoughts.
Right.
He wasn't Hunter right now. He was a cushion for Mira to sleep on.
It was pretty comfortable, actually, and he could feel himself falling asleep. He let his eyes drift closed…
…only to wake up with no baby on him and his mother shaking him.
"Mijo, it's almost time to eat."
"I'm coming," he grumbled, pushing some of his hair out of his eyes and going to sit down at the table.
Luz grinned at him and he suddenly felt like he'd missed something.
What did you do?
"I still can't believe I got out of dinner early."
"I can't believe your mom let you come here."
"Yeah, well, it helped that Dad told her we didn't need to be there for the business negotiation parts." Amity set down the bag on Willow's vanity, where Willow already had a little bit of green hair dye waiting. "Green?"
"For me, not you." Willow touched her hair. "I just want a couple streaks, nothing big. Nothing flashy. We'll do yours first, though."
Amity nodded and Willow began mixing up the hair dye. Amity had taken the initiative and bleached out the rest of her hair to keep the dye from turning a weird color.
"How was your Thanksgiving dinner, by the way?"
"It was fun. Luz was texting me pictures of her cousins all through it. Apparently they're little terrors and Hunter was utterly unhelpful."
"Kids can be tough, especially if the parents don't take the time to actually teach them things like the word 'no'."
"Right, you work at the children's section of the library."
"I see a lot of bratty kids. More than I see nice ones."
Willow took a section of Amity's hair and began to work the dye through it.
"I haven't been around too many kids except at the rink. Most of them are pretty good. Except for that one who keeps trying to stomp on people's toes with his skates."
They kept working with the lavender dye Amity had picked, Willow's eye for detail coming in handy to get the spots that Amity's normal hairdresser usually got. Overall, Amity had to adore the color as she tied her hair back to let it set. Willow removed the gloves and threw them away while Amity began to work on mixing the green dye for Willow's hair.
In the midst of this, Willow's phone went off and she checked it.
Almost immediately her face exploded in bright pink from ear to ear.
"What is it?"
"He's so fricking cute, I can't deal with it."
Willow held out her phone and on the screen was a picture of Hunter in a black T-shirt, asleep on the Nocedas' couch. Asleep on his chest was a little baby with curly dark hair. He looked like such a dad that Amity had to stifle a laugh.
"Why does Luz do this? She knows how I feel about him!"
"Simple solution—if you really wanna go out with him, you've gotta make the first move. That's what I'm gonna do with Luz to be her date for her quinceañera."
"You're actually gonna ask her?"
"Well, of course. I have to if I want a chance, and I've been dancing around it long enough. Besides, Mom's on a 'gay people are good for business' kick right now, so if I want a girlfriend there's no better time to strike."
Willow let out a groan.
"What do I even say to this? He looks hot? That's adorable? Please stop making my heart explode?"
"It's adorable. Let's go with that."
She tapped out her response and Amity steered her over to the chair so they could begin the process of putting streaks into it. She had to work fast before her own dye finished setting and she had to wash out the excess.
"…you said Hunter likes me, right?"
"Willow, everyone's been assuming you two are dating for months. I heard someone asking Skara if you two broke up after Halloween."
"And?"
"Skara said it was impossible to break up when you weren't dating in the first place."
"Ugh. I'm so dumb."
"You're not dumb. You're still figuring out this whole confidence thing. I noticed, trust me. You're not the same kid you were when I was too much of a coward to…"
Her voice trailed off and Willow noticed.
"Too much of a coward to what?"
"…stand up to my parents. I didn't want to stop being your friend. I just… I wanted you to be able to stay in town, and for the rink to remain open, and…"
She took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry. For ending things, for ignoring what was happening to you, for not standing up to Boscha sooner… I wish I could go back and fix it, but I can't."
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.
"I don't think you're a coward." Willow's voice was even. "We were so little that I don't think any of us could've stood up to our parents. And knowing your mom, you told her no before she threatened me, right?"
"Right." Amity opened her eyes and smiled at Willow in the mirror.
"So. We're moving past it. We're not completely okay yet, but we're taking baby steps."
"I'd say trusting me with your hair is a bit more than a baby step."
Willow snorted, and Amity giggled.
"Let's just finish this up, then you can send a picture to Hunter."
"Ammy, stoooop."
It felt so good to be Ammy again.
They finished the dye and they finished out the timer and once everything had been properly rinsed and dried, they took some pictures together. And for once, the giant smile plastered across her face wasn't faked for the sake of the Blight family image. It was a real genuine smile.
She had her first real friend back. She had every reason to smile.
Hunter stared at the picture Willow had sent him as he sat on the front porch after dinner.
Me and Amity hung out for a while!
She did my hair!
The picture was of her with pretty pale green streaks in her hair, streaks that reminded him of plant growth. They weren't obvious but instead understated in a way that made him feel like even more of an idiot for not asking her out already. And for how he'd been acting since Halloween.
"Something wrong, kiddo?"
He glanced up to see Isabel standing over him.
"Nothing. Just…"
"Girl problems?"
"…yeah."
She sat down next to him, sighing.
"God, the amount of girl problems I've had in my life…"
"You're up to, what, six girlfriends and eight boyfriends?"
"It's called being bisexual, thank you very much." She crossed her legs. "And it is very enjoyable."
"Breaking up with people constantly?"
"Not that part. But part of it for me is the chase. I go after them, I get them, and then something changes."
His heart sank as he looked at the picture of Willow.
"How long you been chasing this girl?" She tucked a stray lock of pink-streaked hair behind her ear. "Can't have been long if you've got it this bad."
"Just…" He swallowed. "I don't think you're the right person to talk to."
"Like it or not, I'm the only person here who might be able to help you. Angelo and Ramona shacked up because of Gabriella and Mom and Dad haven't dated for a long time. Dunno about Lola and Marco, but I have a bit more recent experience."
"Okay. Well…" He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Since summer I've been hanging out with her. She's… amazing. Strong and smart and stubborn and so so pretty."
"But outside of hanging out, she doesn't know you exist?"
"That's the thing. I did a stupid move and now things are awkward."
"How stupid?"
"I said I wouldn't mind being her boyfriend."
Isabel slowly clapped.
"Impressive. Haven't seen anyone pull a dumbass move like that in a while." She smirked at him.
"Not helping—I knew I shouldn't have asked you for advice."
"No, no, that's not the advice." She flicked his forehead. "Listen, everyone makes stupid mistakes, and yours was impressively stupid, but that's not unsalvageable. Does this girl like you back?"
"Luz keeps saying she does, and she acts like she does, but…"
"Okay." She held up her hands and put them on his shoulders. "Here's what you're going to do. It's a little trick I call the twenty seconds of courage. You just need those twenty seconds to do anything you need to with her and things will work out."
"Why twenty seconds?"
"It takes that much time for you to think through a decision. Just do it before your brain catches up and you overthink everything."
"That's… actually not bad advice."
"I am a master of romance."
"Says the woman who can't keep a partner for longer than three months."
"Hey! I will have you know my longest relationship is five!"
"That's not much better."
"Shut up, pendejo. I expect that girl to be your girlfriend by the time I see you again." She stood up and helped him to his feet. "You hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Tía."
"Good. Now go get me some extra pie, your mom cut me off."
"You're an adult."
"So? I want extra pie."
He rolled his eyes and they went back into the house.
He'd grown up.
His little nephew—no, the son of that whore who'd tricked Caleb—was well on his way to adulthood now. The injury he'd given him was still marked on his jaw, a pink scar running about halfway up his cheek now. Good.
Phillip Wittebane touched his own scar, a nasty one that cut across his face.
He could still remember Emily's defiant glare as she tried to wrestle the knife out of his hands, the sound of her screaming every profanity under the sun at him as he did his best to overpower her and find the little bastard she'd claimed as his brother's. And he could feel the sting of her turning his own weapon against him and slicing the wound that had now become this horrible disfiguring scar.
He rolled up the window as Hunter and whoever that woman was went inside.
"Are we still going to try and get your nephew, sir?" questioned Kikimora.
"Not yet. I think it prudent to give him one last holiday with his false family, don't you?"
"I don't speak to mine, sir."
"Nor do I. For now. As far as most are concerned, that boy is my last living relative. He can't be allowed to stray anymore. I've given him plenty of time to enjoy himself but now it's time to come home."
"The papers are in order. All we need to do is file them with the court."
"Good. You work quickly."
Through the window, he spotted one of the girls who claimed to be Hunter's sister watching them go by. There was no way she could see them. It was the youngest, wasn't it? Valentina or something of that ilk? A ridiculous name.
"Drive," he instructed the man in the front.
"Yes, Mr. Wittebane."
Enjoy this last month, Hunter. We have work to do.
For the person demanding to know what's up with Phillip, here you go.
Also, I wish you all a very anxiety-filled season 2 finale, since this is the last chapter going up on AO3 before that airs!
So long and thanks for all the fish!