Amity first met Boscha at her eighth birthday party.
She hadn't invited her, her or the other girl she came with. Actually, the only other person Amity had invited was Willow. It was her parents who had invited these two girls; more specifically, they had invited their parents, and they had brought their children with them.
The party, as much of a party as it could have been, was going well. Willow had been dropped off by her dads, and Ed and Em had agreed not to cause any trouble. Amity and Willow were talking in the living room when they were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Not expecting any other guests, Amity was confused. Maybe the twins had invited a friend over? She and Willow peered around the corner to see who had arrived.
Amity's mother went to the door, opening it to reveal a stern-looking woman with three eyes. "Odalia, how lovely it is to see you again!" she said, smiling with her mouth, but not with her eyes.
"Indeed it is, Hestia; please, do come in," said Odalia, smiling in the same way. "Is Geryon coming as well?"
The other woman stepped inside. A young girl about Amity's age stood beside her, seeming to judge everything and everyone she cast her gaze upon. When her eyes fell on Amity for a moment, she felt a sudden chill, like something inside of her was intimidated by this girl. She looked away after a moment, but it still left Amity with a bad feeling about her. "No, he had some business to take care of today, unfortunately," said the girl's mother.
"Oh, and this must be Boscha!" said Odalia, looking down at the girl. "She's gotten so big since I've seen her last!"
"Yes, and she's so gifted, too!" said Hestia, taking pride in bragging about her daughter. "She'll be getting into Hexside yet, just you wait!" Boscha couldn't help but swell up a little bit at all of this praise.
"Which is all the more reason for her to make friends with my Amity," said Odalia. "...Oh, hello, Karina."
With the sheer commanding presence of both Hestia and Boscha, Amity and Willow hadn't noticed a mousy-looking woman enter until Odalia had greeted her. She entered with another young girl, who looked much more outgoing than her mother. "Hi, Odalia," the woman said, barely audible. Both she and Amity's mother looked down at the cheerful girl expectantly.
"Hiya!" she said, before realizing her error. "Oops. I mean, hello Mrs. Blight." Her amended greeting was paired with a small curtsey to the Blight matriarch, who grinned at the girl's politeness.
"And little Skara looks so grown-up as well," Odalia said. "Now, shall we introduce them?"
"That sounds like a wonderful idea," said Hestia. Karina nodded without a word. The three women and two children began walking towards the living room. Amity and Willow, not wanting to be accused of eavesdropping, retreated back around the corner.
"Amity dear?" Odalia's voice rounded the corner before she did. Amity looked up to see her mother enter the room accompanied by the other two women and their daughters. "I have some visitors I'd like you to meet." Amity tried to act surprised, or at least as surprised as this warranted, as the two girls stepped forwards. The three-eyed girl looked very much like she would rather be elsewhere, and though the dark-skinned girl had the same look, it seemed more like she was imitating the other.
"Oh, but...I didn't invite-" said Amity.
Her mother cut her off. "Don't be rude, Amity. Now, this is Boscha Trioptes and Skara O'Hara. I'd like you to start spending some time together with them, okay?"
Amity glanced at the one called Boscha, whose gaze brought that same feeling of intimidation from before. "Y-yes, Mother."
"Excellent!" said Odalia, smiling in satisfaction. "Why don't you all get acquainted, while I catch up with my old friends…" Something about the way she said that word rubbed Amity the wrong way.
The other girls' mothers ushered them into the room as they conveigned with Odalia and headed into the next room over. Boscha walked towards Amity and Willow with confidence, while Skara followed after her like a duckling tailing its mother. Something about these girls made Amity uneasy, but she wasn't sure what. Willow, on the other hand, felt no such thing, cheerfully walking up to the pair.
"Hello!" she said. "Are you here for Amity's birthday party too?"
Boscha raised an eyebrow. "And who are you?" she asked.
"Oh, right! I'm Willow, nice to meet you!" She held out a hand.
Skara reached out to shake, but Boscha pushed her hand down, ignoring the girl in front of her. "So, you're Amity," she said to the girl in question.
"Y-yeah, that's me!" replied Amity, still unsure of what to make of this girl. "Um, so...are you here for my birthday party?"
"Uh-huh!" said Skara. "My mom said-"
"My mom said that you're good at abominations," Boscha interrupted. "She told me that it would be good for us if we made friends with you."
"...Yeah, my mom said that, too," Skara said.
Willow spoke up before Amity could say anything. She wasn't really sure what she would have said, anyway. "Cool! The more the merrier, right?" She, unlike Amity, didn't quite pick up on their visitors' hostile attitudes. Either that, or she, like Amity, wasn't sure how to respond. "So, what do you want to do?"
"Can we see it?" Boscha asked Amity, ignoring Willow.
"S-see it?" said Amity. "See what?"
"Your abomination," Boscha said, annoyed. "My mom wouldn't shut up about how good you are at making them. Since she made me come here, I think you should at least let me see one."
"Oh, um…" Amity stammered, "I don't...I'm not that good. I know a bit about abominations in theory, but actually making them is-"
"What about the one we made together?"
Amity froze. This had been exactly what she had been trying to avoid! "Uh, well, I…" She shot a glance at Willow, hoping that she would pick up on her trepidation. But by that time, it was too late.
"You made an abomination together?" said Skara. "I didn't know you were in the abomination track too, Willie."
"It's Willow," she said. "And yup! We're gonna be in the same class once we start going to Hexside!"
Amity fidgeted nervously. Everything about these girls was screaming to her 'bad news.' Why did Willow insist on going there?
"Alright then," said Boscha, with an air of finality. "Let's go see it."
Before Amity could come up with any sort of reply, Willow, once again, spoke up. "Sure! It's right down here!" She grabbed hold of Amity's arm, and started leading her down a nearby hallway.
"Willow," Amity said quietly, leaning in closer so that the other girls wouldn't hear, "what are you doing?"
"I was gonna show them the abomination we made together," she answered. "We worked so hard on it-don't you want them to see it?"
"I…" Amity glanced back at the girls, who seemed more interested in making jokes behind their back than watching them. "I don't like those two. They're mean to you."
"Amity, they want to be our friends," Willow replied. "Shouldn't we at least give them a chance?"
"I don't know…" Amity said.
"So, are we seeing this thing or not?" Boscha had stepped closer, peering expectantly down the hall. "I'm not very impressed so far."
"Yeah, it's down here!" Willow headed down the hall, with the other three following. Amity couldn't understand how she shared none of her nerves about those two.
Upon reaching a small door, Willow opened the door to reveal a broom closet, inside of which was a large cauldron. She held out her arms, as though presenting it to the two. Amity stood beside her, her eyes darting back and forth between them.
"Yawn." Boscha crossed her arms. Skara did the same, imitating her.
"Oh yeah?" said Willow. "Well, just wait until you see this!" She pulled the lid off of the cauldron. "Ta-da!"
The purple sludge within began to churn, before rising up into a humanoid shape. Eyes appeared, staring blankly ahead, and a mouth followed, hanging open. Willow, grinning ear to ear, struck a pose, her hands on her hips. The abomination did the same. The only problem was, as it did so, the already unbalanced caldron began to teeter. The abomination lost its balance, spilling onto the floor as the cauldron tipped over.
"Oops!" Willow cried as the goo splattered across the carpet. Skara leapt back before it could get on her shoes. Boscha stepped back, staring disdainfully down at what used to be the abomination. Amity was mortified. "We...still have a few bugs to work out…"
"That wasn't very good," Boscha said bluntly. Skara shook her head, expressing the same sentiment.
"Oh…" said Willow. "Amity's always been the one who's better with abominations. I'm...not."
Boscha scoffed." You can say that again!"
Amity was about to give a retort, but a stern voice came from further down the hall. "Amity, what are you all-" Alador went silent before he could finish his sentence, seeing the four girls surrounding the mess. He pursed his lips, and was about to speak up again when Willow stepped up.
"I'm sorry about the mess, Mr. Blight," she said. "I wanted to show our new friends the abomination Amity and me made together. I'll clean it up, I-"
"No need." Odalia had appeared as well, walking down the hall towards them as Hestia and Karina peered around the corner. "Actually...Amity, may we speak to you for a moment? There's something we've been meaning to tell you."
"Huh? O-oh...okay." Amity quietly followed after her parents down the hall towards the living room. Willow once again stepped up, standing in front of them.
"Wait! Mrs. Blight, Mr. Blight, it isn't her fault! It's my fault, I wanted to show them our abomination!"
"That's exactly the...Never you mind, we just need to have a quick chat with Amity," said Odalia, leading her daughter into the other room.
"But-"
"Just wait here," said Alador. He followed after them into the room, closing the door behind him. Almost as though they knew what was coming, Hestia and Karina retreated out of sight. Willow returned to the living room to see Boscha and Skara talking to each other. They gave her a dismissive glance when she entered, before going back to talking.
As the two of them took up almost the entire couch, Willow instead sat on the floor. For some reason, this party was turning out to be much less fun than she had hoped. She smiled slightly when she thought that-understatement of the year, right there.
She looked up at the two girls on the couch. Was it their fault? No, it couldn't have been. They were just here for the party, nothing more. But then, was it Amity's fault? That couldn't have been it, either. Everything was going fine until the girls and their parents showed up. And as she previously established, it wasn't their fault. So who's fault was it?
Was...was it her fault?
Willow stood up. "So...I think I'm gonna go-"
Boscha looked up, looking at her in much the same way she looked at her abomination. "I don't care," she said coldly. "We're here to make friends with Amity, not with you." The two went back to their conversation.
"Right. Yeah," Willow said quietly. She walked off in the direction of Amity's room. Hopefully, her parents would be done talking with her. She had some things she wanted to say.
"There you are," Boscha said as Amity returned to the living room. "I was getting bored just sitting here talking to Skara. Where's your friend?"
As Amity returned, a heavy weight seemed to be pressing down on her. "She's…" Where exactly Willow was, she didn't say. Instead, that weight on her seemed to lessen-or, more accurately, she just pretended it wasn't there. Her expression changed to one almost completely devoid of emotion, save for a subtle sort of condescension. It reminded Boscha quite a bit of Odalia. "A Blight only associates with the best," she said, sounding completely different from the girl they had seen before. "And she...wasn't."
Boscha grinned. With the way she bared her fangs, all that was missing was a scowl for it to be a perfect snarl. This, too, was an expression that she had got from her mother. "She wasn't your friend anyway. If she was, she wouldn't have been dragging you down."
"We can be your friends instead!" said Skara. "We're better at magic than...um...her."
"Good," Amity said, head held high. "I would hope you are worthy of associating with the Blight name."
"I don't think you'll be disappointed!" said Boscha, putting her arm around Amity's shoulder. "I think the three of us are gonna be good friends!"
To neither of the girls' notice, Amity's expression faltered, replaced by one of sorrow. But it returned just as quickly as it had vanished. "Friends…" she said softly. "Of course."
And that is how Amity was forced to become Boscha's friend.
AN: All headcanons aside, Boscha is still Boscha. And the Blights are still the Blights.
I'm sorry, I don't know what happened! This was just supposed to be a cute little fluff piece about some side characters, but this chapter turned out to be such a bummer! Ah well, comes with the territory I guess. At least we know these two have a happy ending. Next chapter will be a bit less heavy, I promise.