Boscha sat outside Principal Bump's office for what seemed like hours as the head of the school had the guards bring in the human who was taken alongside Boscha first. The girl simply stared down to the floor as what had transpired played over and over in her mind. She knew she was in trouble after what had happened to Skara. She'd be lucky if all that happened was her getting tossed into the detention pit. Boscha figured it was the least she deserved. Skara certainly didn't deserve what happened to her, even if they had had a falling out. For her to have done something like that was just unforgivable.
The door to the Principal's office opened and closed as Luz stepped out quietly, rubbing her left arm as she began to leave. She stopped just in front of Boscha. "Boscha, I'm..."
"Why'd you ever have to come here?" The venom in her voice was apparent as Luz accepted her response and left, leaving the three-eyed girl alone. It wasn't long after that the guards approached Boscha and she stood up. Instead of taking her in to talk to Bump, they escorted her down the hall and she shivered as they walked to the detention pit. She looked up to the door in shame only to be moved along to her surprise. The group walked along until the guards took her outside to the front of the school and handed her a note before going back inside. She stood on the steps of the school and read the note signed by Bump that explained that she was simply suspended for the rest of the day and nothing else.
Boscha didn't think about it all that much or how to explain to her mother why she was home so early. She had a long walk ahead of her without Maya and she'd have plenty of time to think of an excuse. Of course, her mind was filled with thoughts of what she had done. The entire walk back all she could think about was the pained, tear soaked face of Skara, the hateful look shot at Boscha by Viney for hurting her. As much as she disliked the multi-track student, Boscha had to admit from watching them around school and occasionally on the field at practice that had a great dynamic. As opposed to Boscha, Viney never demeaned Skara, didn't talk down to her and she certainly never hurt the bard student like she did. The triclops had to concede that Viney was a much better friend then she ever was.
The trip back home didn't take as long as she thought, though most of it was spent in her head. She quietly opened the door and dejectedly drug herself inside, only greeted by the abomination that stood near the doorway. "Mom? I'm home." She got no reply as she tossed her bag to the ground. "Mom?" She turned her head and looked to find a piece of paper on the kitchen table before she picked it up.
"Boscha, I decided to leave early for my meeting." Boscha read it out loud as she walked to her room and sat on her bed. "I know things haven't been easy for you lately and I do blame myself for it all. But I promise that I'll do whatever it takes to fix things. I'm not giving up on you and I never will. I should be back by the Day of Unity and we can hopefully really talk. I love you no matter." Boscha put the letter down as she hung her head. She treated this woman like dirt and yet she still wanted to try and work things out between them. "You're better than I deserve, mom."
She heard a knock at the door and the accompanying groan from the abomination as it went to answer. Several more knocks sounded over the next half minute as Boscha sighed in frustration and went to answer it herself. Walking to the living room she spotted what used to be the abomination, now a pile of purple goo in the doorway. She looked confused as she slowly approached the door and spotted a white cat sitting front and center on the porch, nonchalantly licking her paw before rubbing her face. It took Boscha all of three seconds before the reality of the situation donned on her. "Oh no." She said just before a large hand of abomination slime shot from outside and pinned her to the wall.
The three-eyed girl winced in pain as she looked down to see the piercing golden eyes and violet hair of her former friend, Amity Blight. The abomination track student glared up at her, holding her hand forward as the slime encasing Boscha mimicked her movements. She strode forward, the look in her eyes only seeming to intensify as she did so. "I heard about what you did. It was hard not to."
"Amity, I..." Boscha tried to squeak out.
"Shut up!" Amity yelled as she tightened her grip, causing Boscha to grit her teeth as the slime pressed in on her body. She did find that her right arm had managed to free itself. "I hate you for trying to hurt Luz, even if I can at least understand that. But Skara? Out of all people? What's wrong with you?
"I don't know why Luz took the blame for what happened today or why she told Bump to let you off easy. All I know is that you are going to listen very carefully because I'll only warn you once." Amity's words caught Boscha completely unaware and caused her to think. Why would the human do that when she wouldn't even fight back? She gained nothing from taking the fall for what happened.
Meanwhile, Amity grew closer with her menacing voice becoming more threatening with each word. "You just stay away from Skara from now on. And if you try to hurt Luz again with anything: Try some new potion on her, accidentally step on her toe, so much as sneeze in her direction, I'll be back and we both know you don't want that. Do we understand each other?" Boscha listened as she slowly moved her arm. She'd missed her first chance but now these two were both in the perfect position. All it would take was one good spritz would solve this whole problem and Amity would be none the wiser. It would be so simple but, for some reason... she just couldn't pull the trigger.
What was going on? This should be so easy. She was right in front of Boscha and nothing could stop the plan now, but her nerve was gone. "Answer me!" Amity shook her back to her senses with a reaffirmed grip.
Boscha's head drooped down in shame. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. It's done. I'm done." The defeated tone in the girl's voice caught the Blight girl off guard. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I blamed the human for everything, but my life is ruined and I caused it all myself. I chased you and everyone else away and worse than that... I hurt Skara. I didn't even give a second thought to almost..." Tears began to run down her face as she started to choke up.
Amity simply allowed her to let it all out before she hesitantly loosened her grip and slowly retracted the abomination goo as Boscha leaned against the wall. "I know we aren't friends anymore but all this between us is over. You can tell the human she won't have to worry about me bothering her ever again. I won't bother anyone at Hexside again. I can guarantee that." The potion track student pulled out a white handkerchief and used it to dry her eyes as Amity looked on.
The Blight girl simply nodded. She had never seen her former friend express her emotions in such a powerful fashion before. One thing was certain, it was all genuine. "Boscha, I..."
"Believe me, you got your point across. I won't change, I can't and it'll be best for everyone if I'm not around. I'm talking to my mom about transferring schools when she gets back."
Though she hated everything Boscha had done and despite her initial intentions coming here, Amity didn't want to leave things like this without saying something. "You... you weren't a good friend by any stretch of the imagination, Boscha, but I do hope you can find some peace wherever you go and whatever you do." Amity turned and went to leave, taking her staff in hand.
"Blight!" Boscha called as Amity turned and threw her hand up as she caught a small vial of purple liquid.
"What's this?" Amity asked with a raised eyebrow.
"If I told you that you'd force feed me one of your abominations." Boscha joked halfheartedly as she looked away in shame. "Just destroy it, please. I don't want it around to tempt me to do something else stupid." Amity traded glances with her before giving a confirming nod. "One more thing. It's super important. I've wanted to tell you this for a long time and never had the guts to do it. I just need to say this now or I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I really really... hate your new hair." The Blight girl turned back to Boscha, who had a small bashful smile on her face and the two shared what had to be the first, albeit small genuine laugh in their history before she took off on her staff and vanished in the distance not long after.
Boscha closed the door and after cleaning up the goo on the ground headed down into her lab. She looked over to the small bed that Maya once inhabited and slowly bent down, running her hand over it as she thought about her former partner. It was just another relationship that she was never worthy of. Rising, she headed over to her work station for the real reason she was here. Boscha filled her hands with the old books and handwritten notes she's kept and dropped every last scrap into the fire place before igniting it all with a fire ball. She watched it all burn for a time before turning her attention to the potion brewing in the cauldron nearby.
She doused the flame underneath it before grabbing a bottle of clear liquid from the shelf above her. The contents were poured into the large brew as it turned a sickly green color before it began to foam up and eventually turned into nothing but dried powder at the bottom of the large cauldron. Boscha breathed a small sigh of relief. Despite destroying what was months of effort, a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.
A knock at the door stirred her from her thoughts as she headed back up. "Coming." She said as she neared the door before opening it. On the porch stood Skara supporting herself on a crutch, her right foot bandaged up with a healing glyph on it.
"Hey." She greeted simply as Boscha stood stunned by her presents.
"Hey." That was all Boscha could muster as Skara looked up to her.
"Would it be okay If I came in?" The gray haired girl asked.
"What are you doing her?" asked Boscha in confusion as to why Skara was not only talking to her but wanted to come into her home. "After what I did to you..."
Skara put a hand up to pause her speaking. "It's okay. You didn't mean to do it. And they said I'll be fine by tomorrow, no scars or anything."
Inside, Boscha breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't permanently maimed the girl. She silently gestured for Skara to come inside and let her sit on the couch in the living room. Skara smiled and got comfortable as she patted the seat next to her, indicating that she wanted the Hasdrubal girl to take the spot. "I won't bite." She said playfully.
The humor did little to alleviate Boscha's nerves, but she slowly made her way over and cautiously sat down. "I'm surprised you're not worried that I might." She said dejectedly.
"Boscha, it was an accident. You didn't mean to do it." Skara placed a hand on her shoulder only for her old friend to pull away.
"I didn't mean to do it to you. The human? Yeah, I did." Boscha slumped forward as she rested her elbows on her knees. "I was so focused on getting back at her and Amity and everyone that I almost...I made a potion to use on the human."
"A potion?" Skara looked at her with a mix of confusion and intrigue.
"I made a romance reaper potion. I planned to spray Amity or the human. It would have made them lose any kind of feeling towards each other." She admitted to the shocked bard student. "I was just so angry that I didn't care what happened as long as I got back at them. I wanted to force the human to fight me and give me the chance to use it, but then you got hurt."
Boscha threw her head into her hands. "Then I got another chance and I... I just couldn't do it. All I could think about was what happened to you. It was like everything I'd done just came at me all at once and I saw it for what it was. I blamed everyone around me for the things I caused and I saw the effect it had on my life, my mom, my friends. All I've ever done is hurt you all in one way or another and I don't want to do that to you again. That's why...that's why I'm leaving."
The last announcement caused Skara to frown as Boscha continued. "I'm probably going to transfer to Tibia. My uncle lives near there and he wouldn't mind me staying with him." Boscha gave a small disingenuous chuckle, not noticing the angered look on Skara's face or the tightening of her fists. "They don't have the best Grudgby team from what I've seen but I bet I could whip them into shape with a little work."
"Oh my Titan, you can be such an idiot sometime!" Skara exploded to the surprise of the girl seated next to her, who almost fell from her spot. "You always do this. Every time you pick the hard route when the simple answer is right in your face. And now, when it's as simple as just apologizing to everyone, you're just choosing to run away from all of us because you can't swallow that stupid pride of yours!"
Boscha looked to Skara, who's face was now flooded with tears. It didn't take long for Boscha to again break down herself and lean into her. Skara let her rest her head on her shoulder as they just sat for a while until neither had any tears left to shed. The three-eyed girl looked forward across the room and just said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm a mess."
Skara smiled and nestled up to her. "Yeah, but you're my mess. A fixer upper really." She paused as she clutched her bag. "I saw Amity come over. She...didn't look too happy."
"She wasn't." Boscha responded, that being an understatement of the highest magnitude. "But we got to an understanding."
"So, are you guys friends again." Skara wondered.
"No." Boscha said bluntly. "But I don't think we're enemies either. I can live with that middle ground."
"Hmm." The gray haired girl simply let out in acknowledgment. "You know, Viney's still pretty mad at you, but you're always welcome to hang with us."
"Thanks, but that's going to take some time. I've got a lot of apologies to make." Boscha admitted. "I might as well just walk around the whole of the isles and say 'sorry' to everyone. Pretty sure that's how many people I've done wrong to."
"Well, I'll be right there with you. I'm not giving up on you. Not ever." Skara's reassuring words caused a few tears that Boscha still had left to flow.
"That's the second time today someone's said that to me." Boscha smiled as she pulled Skara close for a hug. "You're better than I deserve."