I open my locker as the track in my headphones skips over.

I had a 20/20 vision...

I enjoy Anti-Flag. I find them rather peppy. I enjoy a plethora of music. Musicals, alternative, metal, pop, rap. My tastes tend to be based on my mood. Today I am feeling punk. The only downside to my love of music is that I tend to listen to it at full blast.

I'm reorganizing my locker; in the last few weeks it has fallen into a state of disarray. I blame Luz. Watching over Luz has become a full-time job, honestly. How the girl kept from burning down the school, or her house, or the town, before I came along is quite frankly, a mystery. Or, as my theory goes, I have somehow brought out the worst in her. She has oversight now, a Felicity to her Arrow, and can afford to be more daring. Or rather more daring.

I look at the mirror in my locker. Have I lost weight? And are the eyebags real or imaginary? It is looking at the mirror that I barely see figure standing behind it. I move the door and see a scowling face. I take off the headphones just as I was starting to groove.

"… and I hope you realize what you're doing," the figure ends what was clearly supposed to be a rather magnificent diatribe. I stare at the face before me. Slightly taller than me, cheerleader obviously, and blonde with a pink stripe. Crap, what was this one named? I decide to verge on the side of caution and start diplomatically. I smile my best non-lunatic smile and say, "What was that? I wasn't listening."

Apparently, this was not diplomatic enough as she makes a disgusted noise and does some kind of dismissive hair flip. I suppose this is supposed to be intimidating, I think. Dang it, what was her name? Clarice? Laura? Buffy?

"I was saying," she drags out the ay in annoyance, "You should know hanging out with the Noceda girl is social suicide, and I hope you know what you're doing."

Oh trust me I have become more than aware of what I am doing.

"Thank you for your concern…" I fumble for a name, "Whoever you are, but my friends are my business."

The girl scoffs at my ignorance, "My NAME is CLARA. CLARA-"

I snap my fingers, "Clara! I was so close! Anyways, thanks Clara, but I gotta go." I shut my locker and go around her. She stare agape at me as I walk past. She asks as if I thought the world was flat.

I haven't seen Luz today, which is odd, as since our first encounter she has greeted me either at the front door or at my locker every day. There is of course a myriad of reasons for her to have not come today, but my gut is telling me something is amiss. I have 10 minutes before class, and Gravesfield school isn't that big, I glance up and down halls and finally catch a glimpse of sneakers and leggings tugging a large cardboard box. I investigate.

I turn a corner and find Luz tugging a medium sized but obviously heavy box. I fold my arms and glare my most intimidating; I am told I'm quite good at it. "Ahem," I cough. Luz looks up, proverbial deer in the headlights. She sighs when she sees its me, "Jacob! Oh good, its only you."

"Yup, just me. What's," I gesture to the box, "This."

"Well it's report day is Mr. Jefferson's class!"

"I'm aware of that, mine is on The Man With the Iron Heart, and I can only assume yours is-"

"The Good Witch Azura!" Luz says striking a dynamic, heroic pose.

The Good Witch Azura, Luz's greatest and clearest obsession, an on-going fantasy series of 12 young adult novels, written in a flowery prose. Luz had gotten me to read the first one, quizzing me everyday on what I had read, who my favorite character was, and why. The book was not for me, not my taste, but I did grow a fondness for one Malin Gael, a mysterious and dark soothsayer who waits in the background obviously manipulating heroes and villains for his own benefit, I identify with him.

"Mhm," I acknowledge to Luz, "And to quote Brad Pitt: what's in the box?"

Luz seems to deflate a little, "Well I brought this." She reaches into her backpack and removes a doll. Action figure, rather. An Azura one.

"Mhm, I assume this will be an object lesson for your report?"

"Yeah! I wanted to reenact the plot of Azura!"

How Luz was going to reenact the plot of 450-page book in 7 minutes max, this was anyone's guess.

I look at the box and my brain goes into overdrive. How did the plot to Azura go again? New girl at a magic school, dedicated tsundere rival, mysterious soothsayer, prophecies of greatness, and a final showdown with the villain of the book, The Gildersnake.

Gildersnake.

What do I know about Luz? Single parent household, honestly too much time on her hands, friendless background, pathologically noble, enjoys the macabre, in fact she even keeps…

I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose.

"Luz please tell me that you didn-"

"Surprise!" Luz pulls out snake. She pulls out several snakes. Five to be exact. Luz brought five live snakes to school, presumably without permission the way she was hiding them.

"Oh Luz…" I start, unsure how to even start. My dreamy, peaceful life has been upturned by this girl. "Why?"

"Well, I needed SOMETHING to represent the Gildersnake!" she exclaims.

"And the other several snakes?"

"Backups in case I lose one."

Oh of course, backups. Well at least she's learning to plan ahead. I see something sticking out of her bag.

"What's that thing?" I say pointing at it.

Luz glances where I am pointing.

"Oh that? That's the Act III closure."

Act III closure? How did Azura defeat the Gildersnake? With a massive…

"Luz, please, please, PLEASE, I am begging you," I grasp her by the shoulders, "Tell me you didn't bring FIREWORKS to school!"

Luz cringes, "When you say it like that, it sounds like a bad idea."

I gently shake her, and say very calmly, "THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS A VERY BAD IDEA LUZ!"

I release her and look around, then look at my phone. We have 2 minutes to class, a box of snakes, and what could reasonably be called a bomb. No problem, no problem at all. I sigh, no time to get rid of it.

"Give me the bomb."

"It's not a bomb it's the-"

"It's a bomb. Gimme."

I take the package, and tuck it, hopefully, inconspicuously, under my arm.

"Here's the plan," I start, "The snakes stay here, in the closet, and we take them home after school. I will keep this… thing, in my locker and take it somewhere to get rid of it. And hopefully, barring any wacky hijinx, we all go home."

"Sounds like a plan," Luz says. She finishes shoving the snake-box into the maintenance closet.

I covertly make my way back to my locker and stuff the oversized firework into it. It fits, barely. I make it back to class only slightly late. And now just to make it through the day without anything unusual happening.

Of course, something unusual did happen.

As it turns out snakes do not like being kept in a box, who would've thought. Following this fact, they escaped, and each went their own way, wandering the halls of Gravesfield, until they found people and caused a panic. Not quite plague of spiders, but enough to cause issue. What did cause a panic was some poor fool fleeing a snake and running headfirst into a locker. My locker. Which set off the firework, which caused a minor fire and also destroyed all my books and things therein.

And so Luz, who was the first suspect in Snake-ocylpse and I, whose locker exploded violently, found ourselves in the office, being reamed out by the principal. Luz's mom was very understanding and apologetic and took some kind of pamphlet. My dad however was tranquil, which was terrifying. He listened as I explained everything that went on and took a similar pamphlet. All in all, I seem to have talked our way out of anything to major coming from this, until a snake leapt from OUT OF NOWHERE AND BIT THE PRINCIPAL IN THE FACE. Safe to say after that any hope we had of a normal summer break was out the window.

And so the newly formed Dynamic Duo was split apart. Luz is to go to "Reality Check Camp" and learn to do taxes, and listen to public radio, and all sorts of very boring things. I meanwhile would go to a sister camp, "Rehabilitation Camp" which would presumably teach me to not put bombs in my school locker. The bus stop was directly outside Luz's house, so we would at least be able to wish each other luck. My parents dropped me off early, since they had to go to work still, while Luz's mom came out and gave her a very heartfelt hug. Luz promised no more "weirdness" and I watched in horror as Luz went to nearby receptacle and gently laid down her copy of The Good Witch Azura. Luz and her mom exchanged a very sad but meaningful look and Luz's mom returned inside their house. I was distracted however by a tiny owl that hopped up on the trash can and dragged the book out of it. I turn to Luz, who is gazing sadly at her toes, "Uh, Luz?" I point half-heartedly at the owl which is half-dragging, half-carrying the book into the forest. Luz looks to me and then looks where I'm pointing. She looks from me to the can, to the owl, then back, several times, in quick succession. "Tiny trash thief!" She exclaims and chases after the owl, who just disappeared into the brush. "Luz!" I exclaim and follow. We trample, scrabble, and generally fall through the woods only just keeping ahead of the quickly waddling owl. Luz emerges into the clearing first, several hundred feet behind her house, followed closely by me. There is an old, dilapidated house here, positively ancient, reeking of Tetanus. The owl darts inside. Luz, without a second thought, follows through the door, which somehow had open and shut. This day was taking a turn for the strange and I sigh in exasperation before following Luz into the shack.

And then things got weird. Very weird.