Before anything else, preparation is the key to success
"What do you guys think?"
Willow laid her cheek against her fist, contemplating… while Gus took another bite out of his sandwich.
"She tells me all of these nice things and then she suddenly doesn't want to be my friend? Like, what am I supposed to make of that?" Luz groaned and rested her chin on the table. She really hoped that Amity didn't mean what she said...
"She seems… confused," Willow said aloud.
"About what?"
"Something could be going on at home and maybe she just can't think clearly," Willow offered, remembering Amity's incident with her parents.
Gus swallowed his food, "You should just give her time to think. Everyone does dumb things when they're stressed out."
"Like when you brought Luz into the school even though she was still banned," Willow asked.
Gus took another bite out of his sandwich.
Luz sighed, "I suppose I could just try to talk to her tomorrow."
She cast a glance over to Amity's table and just like the last twenty seven times she checked before, there was a lack of Blight. Even if Luz wouldn't know what to say, she'd still make an effort to try.
"Excuse me, Luz?"
Said girl turned around to see Uzair standing behind her, smiling patiently.
"Oh, hi Uzair. What can I do ya for?"
"Well I was wondering what time I should come over to pick you up tonight."
Right, she still has a date. Luz had been so caught up on this Amity business that she'd forgotten, even though their little spat started with Uzair as the subject.
You deserve so much more.
Amity's words loudly banged around her head.
"Um, I'm sorry Uzair but maybe we can reschedule this? Something just popped up. I'm sorry."
"Why reschedule?"
"It's just… things are a little complicated right now with one of my friends."
"So you can't make it?"
"I don't think so, sorry." Luz did genuinely feel sorry, she did accept and now she's backing out. It wasn't really fair to him, but Luz was too focused on Amity that she doubted she'd be able to pay any attention to him if she went. She wouldn't make for a good date if she was only thinking about her friend, right?
"I spent the last few days planning this out and all the preparations have already been made, could you please reconsider?"
Luz's brow furrowed, "Last few days? You only just asked me out yesterday."
Uzair nervously scratched his head, "Well, before asking you out I needed a game plan in case you said yes. I wanted this first date to be perfect."
Luz felt genuinely touched, he sounded so sincere. Maybe he actually is a good guy and just gave off an achievement-caring based first impression? Luz knew that she wasn't particularly the best when it came to first impressions, so what right does she have to judge?
He sure is putting a lot of effort into this… I guess it's only fair I do the same.
"Well, since you went through all of this effort… sure. How about right after sunset?"
Uzair gave the girl a bright smile, "That's perfect."
Returning to the Owl House, after hugging Eda and scratching King's adorable fluffy belly, Luz finished her homework as fast as possible.
Because she's in all nine covens she has plenty of homework to do. Thankfully Luz was quite capable when it came to busy schoolwork, but only in topics that really interested her. Back on Earth she always received perfect grades for English and Spanish, she loved writing and she enjoyed speaking in her native language, but for all the boring stuff like math and science she didn't do particularly well in because they were all so… boring. Social studies was pretty cool when she was learning Greek and Roman mythology, that was until the class focused more on politics and more boring present day ideologies. But magic? You could throw her a textbook filled with ancient magic lore and she'll have read it ten times over by the next day.
After about three hours she saw that the sun was beginning to set, meaning that she had a little less than an hour to get ready. Luz got up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair seemed a little messier than usual, she'd have to gel it back. As for her clothes-
Wait… what was she supposed to wear?
Luz found herself panicking. She'd never been on a date before, so she had no idea what to do. She could just put on her Grom outfit, but that seemed too formal. Also, she wanted that outfit to specifically be a Grom souvenir.
She needed help.
"Eda!"
The Owl Lady quickly ran up to her apprentice's room, staff in hand. "Luz!? What happened... you're not in danger?"
"...No."
Eda sighed and Luz didn't know if it was one of relief or irritation. "Then why'd you scream like you were?"
"I uh, I was hoping you could help get me ready for a date?"
"Since when did I say you could start going out on dates little lady," Eda questioned crossing her arms.
Luz wasn't really expecting Eda to help much besides conjure up some nice clothes, but she definitely wasn't expecting Eda to act so... motherly?
"Is... is me going out really that much of a problem," Luz asked. She didn't think it was a problem.
"Of course it is!" Both Eda and Luz turned to see King standing by the doorway, "You said we would watch another one of those human anime shows together!"
Luz gave her furry friend a small smile, "Sorry King, I promise to watch all day with you tomorrow. That is if Eda says if it's ok to go tonight." She looked at her mentor for an answer. The Owl Lady contemplated for a bit. Luz went out with her friends quite often, but for the most part they both seemed to be goody-two-shoes so she wasn't all that concerned. But now her apprentice is going out with someone who could put her human in danger? Granted she knows Luz can take care of herself. Aside from the glyphs she's learned to use she's also gotten quite a bit stronger physically, with King making her do pushups (as he sat on her back) to help get rid of her "weak nerd arms" so she could carry him around longer. So there wasn't really anything to worry about, right?
Eda looked at her student again, knowing that she just couldn't say no to her favorite human. "So who you going out with?"
After about an hour later Hooty was calling Luz to the front door. Before showing herself she took a deep breath, made sure her hair was still in place, and opened the door to see a sharp looking Uzair.
He was dressed in a dark red suit with the ends of his jacket reaching the back of his knees. The suit's color seemed to be picked to compliment his other features as the jacket and pants were the same shade of red wind-swept hair, a single lock dangling over one of his dark blue eyes… which were the same color as his tie.
Uzair looks good.
"Thank you, but I have to say you look stunning."
Luz awkwardly chuckled, realizing that she had said her thoughts aloud. She looked down at herself and was thankful to Eda for pulling through with an outfit, just like she did with Grom.
(While I don't think I lack creativity, I will say that when it comes to women's clothing I'm very bad at describing what they're wearing. I found an artist on Instagram / Twitter by the tag ReesePineDragon who made a fantastic alternative to Luz's Grom dress. While I would leave a link to the post the website won't allow me. If you'd like to see the outfit Luz is wearing go to ReesePineDragon's ig or Twitter and look at her "Draw Your Own Grom Outfit" post. Sorry for the inconvenience!)
"So, this is the boy who's taking you out tonight?"
Luz turned and saw Eda standing beside her, not being subtle at all as she sized up Uzair.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Uzair greeted, extending an open hand. Eda complied and shook, then turned to Luz.
"Oh, Luz, King said he locked himself out of that "laptop" device and he needs your help. Could you give him a hand before you go?"
"Anything for my widdle guy," Luz turned back to Uzair, "It'll only be a minute!"
As soon as Luz was out of sight Eda turned to Uzair, drew a circle in the air, and much to Uzair's surprise... roughly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. The boy looked towards Hooty for any sort of help, but the door creature was currently talking to a passing fly.
"If my precious little Luz gets hurt in any way, shape, or form I'll personally make sure to pay you back tenfold. Ya got that," Eda asked menacingly.
"Yes ma'am," Uzair said, except he didn't say it. Or rather… no sound came of it. His eyes went wide, trying to say anything, but to no avail.
"I cast a mute spell on you so that you wouldn't be able to call for help. Wouldn't want Luz suspecting anything now, would we?"
Uzair just stared open mouthed at the Owl Lady, completely scared out of his mind. Despite the overwhelming amount of crimes she's committed, she's never once set out to deliberately hurt anybody. Uzair gulped in fear.
"Now, you'll be keeping your hands and all your other currently functioning body parts to yourself and take good care of my kid. Also in case this doesn't work out you will not dump her, she dumps you. Kapeesh?"
Uzair nodded his head.
"And this goes without saying, but this never happened. Right," Eda asked looming over the young boy.
Uzair profusely nodded his head.
Eda made another circle, restoring Uzair's ability to speak.
"Alright, King can access the laptop again," Luz chirped as she made her way past Eda.
"Thank you Luz. Don't be out too long," Eda said giving Luz a smile.
"Sure thing," Luz agreed as Uzair began leading them away.
"Alright, don't do anything I would do."
Luz laughed while Uzair gave a nervous chuckle.
"And remember what I said," Eda called out before shutting the door.
"What'd she say," Luz asked Uzair.
"Nothing!"
Author's Note
Figured I'd add this little scene of "Momma Eda" and show a bit of comical relief... as the last chapter was a bit sad (at least I hope I had that effect). But yeah, hope you enjoyed it.
To ReesePineDragon, if you're reading this, while I am not claiming this artwork as my own if you wish for this artwork to not be used let me know! I hope that this story is good enough that you'll consider lending your art to this fanfic.
Everyone else, please REVIEW and tell me what you think! Also, I see this story has gotten some FAVORITES and FOLLOWS as well, THANK YOU!