So shortly after I posted the last chapter, I read that the voice actor for Nevareth died. And then I felt bad for a couple days for making fun of his character. Anyway, I started this chapter later than I should have and then got distracted by family obligations and responsibilities. And the need to sleep.
"So it was a couple days later that I had my next exciting adventure," Luz started. "This one's less embarrassing, but it was weird in its own way. It all started with a dead trash slug,"
"A trash slug?" Camila repeated.
"It's one of the animals in the Boiling Isles." Luz explained. "It eats a bunch of trash. Eda dissects them and sells whatever she finds,"
"How does she get customers by selling literal garbage?" Hunter asked curiously.
"A good enough salesman could sell a fish a glass of water," Luz said. "She can sell a fish to a glass of water if she wanted. So Eda was ripping apart the carcass and naturally, I wasn't enthused. I tried getting her to start teaching me actual magic by maybe reading ancient scrolls or mixing potions, but she just dismissed it as magic school stuff,"
"Wait, there's a magic school?" Camila asked.
"Yeah, a few of them, actually," Willow confirmed. "We attend Hexside School of Magic and Demonics, but there's also Glandus High and St. Epiderm,"
"Are you in this magic school?" Camila asked.
"Not for a while," Luz said. "Eda didn't believe in magic school because it was, in her words, 'taking anything original and spitting out bland mush',"
"Sounds like a thing Eda would say," Willow agreed.
"She came around to the idea eventually, though," Luz added quickly. "For the time being, she tried giving me a lesson in being resourceful by having me pull something random out of a weird puddle. I got a greasy slime ball out of there,"
"Gross," Hunter commented.
"I didn't want to disrespect the lesson, so I put it in my pocket and went home,"
"Wait, did you say, 'greasy slime ball'?" Willow asked excitedly.
"I was hoping you'd pick up on that," Luz said with her own grin, making the others believe there was something they were missing. "On the way back to the Owl House, I heard a voice saying encouraging words. I hid in the bushes and listened to it. Then, I saw Willow here, giving herself a pep talk,"
"I was in the abomination classes at Hexside, but I'm not very good at abomination magic," she said, remembering her life before meeting Luz.
"Wait, is this…" Gus asked.
"Yes, Gus, it's the day I met the two of you," Luz said, making Gus squeal a little in excitement.
"I had a big project that day for class," Willow said. "I was supposed to make an abomination in its own unique shape, yet it also had to be functional."
"What's this… abomination magic?" Camila asked. Amity stepped forward, creating a small spell circle above her hand. Some abomination goo escaped her flask, forming a miniature abomination in her hand. It raised an arm, waving at Camila. "Incredible. And also kind of gross,"
"It kind of looks gross at first, but once you get used to it, it isn't so bad," Luz said, high fiving the mini-abomination. Sadly, it got stuck, making Amity have to magically pull them apart before putting it back in her abomination flask. "I always forget how sticky they are,"
"Anyway, I was getting myself ready to present and I accidentally stepped on a flower," Willow winced, feeling bad for the flower. "I used a quick spell to heal it back to normal before…" she looked toward Amity, who looked uncertain. She remembered that day and felt ashamed of her own behavior.
"Before Boscha showed up," Luz cut in, taking the other two witches by surprise. "Boscha's the meanest girl in school and always bullied Willow,"
"Yeah… Boscha," Willow said slowly, but not yet contradicting Luz and sending all three into nervous laughs. Camila picked up on their anxiety but chose to let them tell the story anyway. "Boscha came by and teased me for not having any skill in abomination magic and that it was why people called me Half-a-Witch Willow. She took her abomination and went to class while I just got… frustrated. I hated the track at school, bad grades, being made fun of, all of it." Amity patted Willow on the shoulder, Camila noticing the sympathetic look on her face. For a brief moment, she thought it was… apologetic? "At my frustrations, I accidentally hexed the flower to make huge, thorny vines, one of which grabbed Luz by the ankle."
"And that's how I met one of the best people in the Demon Realm," Luz said, reaching over Amity to put an arm around Willow briefly.
"By having vines attack you?" Vee asked.
"The thorns only went through a few layers of skin," Luz said, letting go of Willow and waving it off.
"I let her go and apologized for it," Willow added sheepishly, "then I noticed her ears and figured out she was human. I was so astounded and wanted to ask her a million questions,"
"And I would have probably given a million answers," Luz interrupted.
"But I had to get to class and disappoint my teacher and Luz stopped me, saying that she wished she could go to the magic school too. I wanted to go get a passing grade for once so Luz came up with an idea."
"I offered to pass myself off as her abomination," Luz declared. "I rationalized it by pointing out that abominations are chunks of stuff that talk weird. I'm chunks of stuff and I talk weird,"
"It was a bit of an over-generalization," Gus said.
"It was fiendishly clever," Luz argued, arching an eyebrow.
"I agreed and Luz jumped into my abomination cauldron." Willow continued, only to be quickly interrupted again.
"You decided to sneak into a magic school?" Hunter asked.
"So did you," Luz pointed out.
"At least I got a uniform to do it," Hunter argued.
"And that would mean there was one more student than there should have been. You only got away with that because there weren't any classes that day,"
"How did you even get the uniform, anyway?" Gus interjected. Hunter thought back to that day.
A Hexside student walked along on his way to school, minding his own business when he heard a whisper from a nearby alley.
"Hey kid, wanna buy some pixie dust?" it asked.
"Sure," he said happily, walking into the alley. A minute later, he walked out, a brown paper bag in hand and was about to continue to school when he saw Hunter standing across the street, watching the student.
"That's illegal to have," Hunter pointed out. The student was nervous, unsure what to do next. "Lucky for you, I'm in need of something else you have. So here's the deal. Name the dealer, keep the bag. Give me your uniform, and I'll let it slide. Refuse, and spend the next seven months in the rehabilitation wing of the Conformitorium,"
"I asked a kid politely," he said vaguely.
"I brought Luz to school," Willow continued, ignoring the implications of Hunter's answer, "and we ran into Gus on the inside,"
"Yes!" he yelled, happy to finally be part of the story. "I was reading a magazine from the Human Realm when I ran into Willow and I told her about my findings from the magazine that humans tended to nail barbed wire to their teeth!" The statement made Luz giggle, remembering the magazine. "I used to believe it was to make them magnetic. I now know the truth: they help humans store treats," Camila deadpanned at the statement.
"I don't know what loca told you that," she said. "but they're actually to straighten out teeth," This stopped Gus's pride in its tracks.
"But I got this information first hand from a- Luz!" Gus screamed.
"Yeah, I'm the loca," Luz admitted sheepishly.
"Mija, why lie to your friends?" Camila asked, disappointed.
"It was supposed to be a joke," she clarified, looking at Gus. "Sorry, Gus, I didn't mean to leave you with bad info. I forgot at the time that you wouldn't have any context to what braces are and I never thought about correcting it,"
"It's okay, Luz," Gus said. "Just keep helping me for real in my studies of human culture,"
"You got it, bud," Luz agreed.
"At this point, since Luz accidentally said something to Gus, and Gus was one of the few people I trusted to keep a secret, I let him know about Luz. Since he's president of the Hexside Human Appreciation Society, he's one of the few witches who would know a human at first sight,"
"And then Luz gave me my nickname," Gus added. "It was the best day ever,"
"We went to class after that and Gus went to his own class," Willow said. "The stakes were higher than ever because Professor Hermonculus had decreed that if the next project was a failure, there would be extra homework for a month,"
"I offered to show mine, but he turned me down," Amity interjected, feeling it was safe to admit that much. "I knew mine was good enough to save us all the homework, but I think he was aiming to punish us,"
"He then called me up instead," Willow said. "I was nervous but Luz kept reassuring me,"
"So I jumped out of the cauldron and dazzled everyone. I was like, 'I'm a teenage abomination," Luz paused a moment, taking the phrase in. "I don't think that sounded right. Maybe if I said it in past tense… on second thought, it doesn't matter,"
"Professor Hermonculus was so impressed he took the Top Student badge from… Boscha, and put it on me instead," Willow continued. "She wasn't happy about that,"
"She kind of went crazy with jealous suspicion," Amity said looking regretful, Camila noticed. There must be more to this Boscha than she realizes.
"She knew I was cheating on the project," Willow said. "She saw the abomination I had before and Luz was way better than that,"
"It doesn't excuse the way she acted, though," Amity said.
"Maybe not, but she was right," Willow argued. "Cheating didn't exactly make me feel proud, anyway," Camila looked between the two. There was definitely something they weren't telling her.
"So for the rest of the day, I followed Willow around pretending to be her abomination," Luz continued, noticing the confused look her mom had. "I listened in on her lessons, took my own notes to later check with Eda about the value they had, and we met up with Gus at lunch. He asked me if humans ate peanut butter and jelly, which-"
"Wait, peanut butter and jelly?" Gus interrupted. "What's that?" This confused Luz, seeing as he handed her the sandwich, until she realized.
"Gus… what does PB & J stand for on the Boiling Isles?" she asked nervously.
"It's pixie bits and jockfruit," he answered before realizing he didn't specify that. Luz paled slightly.
"I could have gone my entire life without knowing that," she lamented.
"Gus offered Luz some of his sandwich and when she took it, Boscha saw it," Willow continued, trying to keep Luz's mind away from the sandwich. "Abominations don't eat so it was solid proof that Luz wasn't an abomination… if anyone else had seen her eat it. All Professor Hermonculus saw was her grabbing the abomination and shaking it around,"
"He sent her to Principal Bump's office and she wasn't happy about that," Amity said. "That might've been the end of it, but she told Principal Bump about her evidence and the thing Willow had brought in. He listened to it and thought of a plan. He would personally dissect Willow's abomination. If they admit to cheating, then he'd know who was correct. If they didn't then he'd have an interesting abomination to dissect,"
"Wait, he was bluffing?" Luz asked incredulously, thinking back. "You know, that makes sense,"
"He was going to dissect her?" Camila asked.
"Only if she wouldn't admit to not being an abomination," Amity repeated quickly.
"That probably would have happened exactly," Willow said. "If Gus didn't create a distraction,"
"I high fived a bunch of abomination cauldrons," he said. "They made a few abominations keeping them away from Luz while she and Willow ran out of the classroom,"
"We made a quick getaway into the halls of the school but couldn't get any farther," Luz continued. "Hexside has a defense system built into the foundation of the school. Every exit gets sealed, no entry, no exit, while Principal Bump commanded the abominations that fell out of the cauldrons to catch us,"
"I felt terrible getting Luz into that mess," Willow said, rubbing the back of her head. "I just wanted a passing grade, but Luz was about to get dissected, Principal Bump sealed us in, there were abominations chasing us down, and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't help but feel Am- Boscha was right. That I was just Half-a-Witch Willow," Camila took note of the slip, but didn't mention it, deciding that it was a question best reserved for later.
"And I told her that she was Full-Witch Willow," Luz continued, "and that I was taught that great witches are resourceful. I pulled a bunch of stuff out of my pocket to see what we could use to survive this. I wasn't confident in the band-aid, nickel, and marble that I had but Willow was really happy about the greasy slime ball that Eda gave me,"
"The slime ball?" Vee asked.
"It was actually a seed," Willow clarified. "I was relieved that Luz kept it on her so I had something to cast magic with. I had to move fast and used it to slice apart the abominations coming after us and subdue the principal. With him pinned down, the barriers on the entrances were deactivated and Luz and I were going to escape,"
"But, then I-Boscha intercepted them," Amity said, hesitating. "She jumped in front, demanding her badge back and created an abomination to stop them both from leaving, but Willow pushed it back with vines,"
"I kept it held back while I got Luz out of the building," Willow said. "There was a good chance I would've gotten detention either way, but I thought if Luz stayed, she'd be getting dissected. So I picked her up with spare vines and threw her out the door."
"At this point, I was insanely worried what would happen to Willow so I went to get Eda for help,"
"That reminds me," Camila interrupted. "What was she doing this whole time?"
"I honestly don't know," Luz said, shrugging. "I left them on the beach, then I ran back to the house, saw an empty salt barrel on the ground, a tiny trash slug slithering around, some acid stains on the ground, and Eda called King Mr. Wiggles for the rest of the week,"
"Oh, I remember the whole Mr. Wiggles thing," Gus said. "I actually thought that was his name when I first met him,"
"Eda and King said they'd never speak of what they did for the day and never told me why," Luz continued. "Although I vaguely remember hearing someone who sounded like her shouting 'Why school?!' but that might've just been my guilt-ridden imagination fueled by going to Hexside against her wishes," All the factors she named raised many questions but no answers.
"I ran and tackled her in a hug and was about to ask her for help, but then I heard Willow call from behind me and I stopped,"
"Gus and I followed her trail of abomination goo all the way to the Owl House and I told her everything was perfect now," Willow said. "Principal Bump was actually really impressed by my plant magic, he had me switch tracks," Camila considered questioning what the tracks were in the school, but felt like it would come up later on.
"I wanted to go back and see what she could do now that she'd be in the new classes, but…" Luz said, scrolling through her phone. Once the correct picture appeared, she showed it to her mom and Vee. It was a picture of her banned poster, hanging framed on the wall next to Eda's wanted poster. "Eda was really proud of it, saying it was my first wanted poster,"
"How is this woman a role model?" Camila asked, scowling.
"Hey, while some of her bounty is for petty crimes, the big whammy was for standing up to a corrupt system, same as mine," Luz argued, before realizing how that might sound. "Except for the petty crimes part. I have committed… very few petty crimes,"
"I feel like they'll come up later," Camila said, trying to be patient with everything she's being told. "More importantly, I feel like there's something you're not telling me about this story," She turned to Amity, who had her hands folded in front of her with her eyes looking in every other direction than the woman in front of her. "Like how you know so much about what happened yet you were rarely present in the story,"
"It was big news around the school for a while," Gus said, trying to cover up the story as well. "She must have heard-"
"Gus, stop," Amity interrupted. "We shouldn't be lying to Camila, especially about how we each started out," She took a sideways glance at Hunter, who looked away. She stood up and lowered her head. "Boscha's not in the abomination track. Every time she was mentioned, it was actually me. I was a bully back then and was terrible to Willow and put Luz in danger," While Amity waited for a response from her girlfriend's mother, the other four witches tensed up, expecting Camila to be infuriated. Hunter opened his mouth, ready to defend Amity by saying he had done way worse than Amity.
"We've all made mistakes," Camila finally said, surprising everyone. "I can tell that you're ashamed of what you've done, and while it doesn't feel right, shame helps each of us grow as a person," Luz looked away, thinking of her regrets. For once, someone said something that made her feel better about having helped Philip. Still, it would be a long way before she truly felt that she made things right. "You seem to be a lovely young girl today and wouldn't do it again, right?"
"Yes, Mrs. Noceda," Amity agreed, sitting back down, happy to get that out of the way. "but I should inform you that this wasn't the only terrible thing I've done,"
"Whatever you've done, your friends forgave it long ago. Who am I to disagree with their judgment?" Amity gave a small smile, looking to her left at Willow and Gus, and even further toward Hunter, before turning toward Luz, all smiling to her in support. "I honestly can't believe you posed as a school project to help a complete stranger and almost got dissected for it,"
"I also needed to stick it to a bully," Luz said, but quickly added, "even if that bully turned out to be one of the secretly nicest people around,"
"As far as I've seen, Luz has always been like that," Amity said, waving off what Luz said. She knew what she was like. She thought back to the moment they'd been escaping the Collector and Luz stayed behind to make sure Eda was still okay while holding the portal for everyone else to get through, leaving herself in front of the Collector. She kept her thoughts to herself. "Always helping everyone but herself,"
This took a bit longer than I was expecting. I feel I should warn everyone that I won't follow an update schedule. I don't have the discipline or diligence to follow it if I did. Although I might try to update pretty often. I wanted to get at least most of the chapters up before the new season, although I don't see that happening since I heard the date was announced for fall. Anyway, please leave your comments.