Luz hated keeping secrets. It had been the case for the entirety of her life. She was good at keeping secrets, especially ones that she had promised to keep, but that was not the same thing as saying that she liked keeping them. And she understood the necessity of keeping the Boiling Isles secret. Having the human realm at large find out that there was an alternate dimension brimming with magic and a variety of nonhuman sapient creatures would have been a disaster. Best case scenario, there'd be chaos and turmoil as society turned upside down. Worst case scenario, the government would decide to toss a couple of nukes into the portal. Boom, no more Boiling Isles.
No more Amity.
So Luz had promised to keep her mouth shut about the Boiling Isles when she was in the human realm. It's not as if anyone else would have believed her anyway. They'd think she was being "excessively creative" again and that would have been the best case scenario. She knew, objectively, that it was for the best, but that didn't make it any easier.
She had lasted a month in school before breaking that promise.
It was the fault of her science teacher, of all people. At the PTA meeting, he and Luz's mom had struck up a conversation about her, and Camila had mentioned that she still wanted Luz to get more practice in socializing. Which was unfair, in Luz's opinion, as she had done plenty of socializing in the Boiling Isles – she even had a girlfriend now, for heaven's sake – but apparently she still needed to practice socializing with humans. (Sometimes, Luz thought privately to herself, the worst part of being autistic wasn't the autism itself, but the ridiculous double standards society presented the autistic with.)
Anyway, Mr. Charleston mentioned to Camila that he ran a D&D club and Camila had managed to convince Luz to at least show up and give it a try. Luz had vowed right then and there to herself that she would not enjoy herself one iota.
That was the first promise she broke at D&D Club, and it did not end up being the last.
During middle school, Camila had tried to "break Luz out of her shell" by forcing her to attend various clubs and activities. Luz had tried – she really had! – to make friends at these events. But even when people made an effort to be friendly, which wasn't that often, they had their own friends and Luz was on the outside looking in. She was a perpetual third wheel. After a while, she had stopped bothering to try.
D&D Club was different. It was very different, and she realized that from day one. There were no jerks in the club. Everyone there was super nice. There was Sean, nerd extraordinaire, who knew about all sorts of obscure comic books that Luz thought that no one but her had ever heard of. There was Caroline, who was on the staff of the school newspaper and, although she was a tiny bit flaky, was so kind and generous, would give the shirt off her back if someone needed it.
And then there was Avery, who had seemed quiet and unassuming at first. The next day, they had punched a bully who had once made Luz's life a living hell and swore upon "all the gods there were" that they would be a loyal and selfless friend to her. Eventually, it became clear that Avery had a crush on her, so she had no choice but to tell them that she had a girlfriend. Avery had taken the news with complete chill and no more was said about it.
It didn't take all that long before Luz could call Sean, Caroline, and Avery her friends. Friends! She had real friends, real human friends! Luz had been very wary of telling her friends about Amity. Not because Amity was, intrinsically, a secret, but because no one had believed her before then.
"Ha, ha, the Luzer says she's got a girlfriend now," one of the bullies told her when she had mentioned Amity in passing in class. "As if! Not even a [homophobic slur] would want to touch a Luzer like her."
But her friends had believed her entirely. It didn't even appear to occur to them to disbelieve her. They had even accepted the lying part of her statement, that Amity went to a boarding school in Canada, and that they had met at the same summer camp. They trusted her to tell them the truth. And yet she kept lying to them. It kept eating at her.
So she started telling them the truth. She wasn't stupid, of course. She didn't tell them the whole truth. Instead, she had presented the Boiling Isles as fictional, ideas for a novel that she had in mind. She had used false names for herself and Amity (Brilla and Amistad respectively), but everything that she talked about was, more or less, the truth. And honestly, it felt good! It was like a weight was taken off her shoulders. Being able to talk about not just Amity, but also King and Eda and Willow and Gus, was incredibly, astonishingly freeing.
The days passed by, and although the bullies continued to try to make her life miserable, her friends also tried to make it better, and that made all the difference. The taunts of the bullies barely even affected her anymore. Still, she did wish that they would stop talking about Amity. It was one thing to insult her – she was used to that – but hearing Amity's name in their mouths just made Luz see red. She ached to punch them in their stupid faces.
Luz returned to the Boiling Isles over Veterans' Day, and she brought Camila with her. Camila had been, honestly, quite scared of the new and unpredictable realm of magic that Luz had come to love, but Eda's charm offensive (with equal emphasis on both words in Luz's opinion) had eventually won Camila over. Then on Thanksgiving, her family came through the portal into the real world! It was surreal seeing her girlfriend, second mother, aunt, and best friends sitting at her table. The magic and the mundane realms had collided, and Luz couldn't be happier.
Winter break was magical in all senses of the world. She returned to the Boiling Isles and accumulated enough beautiful memories to last a lifetime, from fighting with abominable snowmen to listening to Amity sing a beautiful song from Luz's culture to her.
Camila asked Luz to stay with her over second winter break, to have a holiday with just the two of them. Luz had been reluctant to agree, but she could see after a while that Camila was feeling like she was becoming secondary to the other family members in Luz's life. It had been just the two of them against the world for so long. So eventually Luz gave in, they went to Mount Rainier, and Luz learned to ski. All in all, she had a good time, but she still missed Amity.
And there was no telling when Luz would see her again. According to Eda, there was an unprecedented threat menacing the Isles and they needed all hands on deck, including Amity, in order to combat it. She was very cagy on the details, but then again, when wasn't she? She told Luz that she'd try her best to make sure that Amity showed up for spring break, but it didn't sound like that would end up happening.
Luz tried her best to keep a happy attitude, but the idea that she might not see Amity again in person until summer dragged her down. She wasn't worried about the vague mystical forces that Eda had mentioned, of course. Her friends had faced and ultimately killed Emperor Belos. Whatever thing this was, it was no match for the Bad Girl Coven.
And part of keeping that happy attitude, for her, was acting as if everything would turn out well. She planned out her spring break as if Amity would be there. She even recruited her friends into giving her advice for their itinerary. This would be Amity's first foray alone into the human realm, and she wanted to impress her.
"You've totally got to take her to my dad's library," Avery suggested. "You said that she was into magic, right?"
Avery's dad ran the Seattle Parapsychological Library, a semi-underground library dedicated to the study of phenomena that most people thought was fake like psychic powers, UFOs and, yes, magic. Luz had slipped and mentioned Amity's magical studies once, then quickly covered it up by claiming that Amity was studying stage magic, but Avery now was certain that Amity at least believed in magic now.
"Or you could take her to see the Space Needle," Caroline suggested, her voice gently chiding. "That always seems to impress out of towners." Luz agreed that Amity would be really impressed by the Space Needle.
Sean leaned back in his beanbag chair. His parents owned a furniture store and had eagerly donated a set of chairs to Mr. Charleston's club when they realized that he was making friends because of it. Luz was so not complaining. Even in the Boiling Isles, there were few things better than beanbag chairs. "I'm surprised that you're not mentioning the most obvious thing: Emerald City Comic Con!"
Luz had actually given serious thought to just that idea. ECCC was the biggest comic convention in the Pacific Northwest and Leandra Phalanx, author of the Good Witch Azure series, would be signing books there that year. She had even purchased tickets for the two of them; they went fast and if she didn't act early, they would get sold out. But she was still uncertain about whether they should actually go. "I don't know about that. Amity's also autistic and she grew up in…the country. She's not used to big cities, really big crowds."
Caroline shrugged. "I don't know much about that, but if it's too much for you, you can just leave and do something else, right? I mean, there's no law that says you have to stay for the whole day. What else does she like?"
Huh. Now that was a puzzler, not because she didn't know what Amity liked, but because it was hard to translate those things to human terms. "She likes…history? And science stuff? She's fascinated by planes." The idea of people being able to travel in the air for thousands of miles was just astonishing to Amity. Witches could fly on staffs, but only for relatively short distances.
"Then you should take her to the Museum of Flight," Avery suggested. "They have lots of cool planes from both the World Wars. Sounds like it'd be perfect." It did sound perfect. Luz had never been to the Museum of Flight, but she had always wanted to go.
"These are all great suggestions," Luz said. "Anything else? I really want to wow her, show her that Seattle can be more than, you know, just rain. And…you know, maybe something more romantic than a museum?"
There was silence for a few moments, and then Sean said, "Well, if you really want a romantic site, then I'd say you've got to take her to the Olympic Sculpture Park. At sunset. Trust me, you won't regret it. The view is incredible. You're sure to get kissed for sure, at the very least."
Luz blushed at the very thought. "Thank you. Thank you all. And not just for this. You're the first friends I've ever had – the first school friends, I mean. Everyone at middle school wanted to make fun of me. You're the first people who stood up for me."
Avery gave her a thumbs up. "Eh, it's no big deal, Luz," they said. "After all, you'd do the same for us." They were right. She would.
Thinking of that conversation gave her a warm and fuzzy feeling in her heart, which was definitely something that she needed as spring break neared on the horizon, and the chances of her spending the week with Amity slipped away from her. Luz swore that she wouldn't let it get her down – she could go to ECCC with Sean if Amity didn't show up, after all, or give her tickets to Sean and Caroline (Avery had their own already) – but still, the thought of not seeing Amity until was making her mood worse and worse.
Seattle had three types of weather in the spring: rainy, really rainy, and imminently rainy, and on the day before spring break was supposed to start, the weather was falling squarely into the third category. As much as Luz wanted to maintain an exuberant attitude, the incredibly gloomy skies seemed to suck away whatever happiness she had left.
Luz was coming back from a bathroom break during her sixth period class (math, she hated math so much) when she heard shouts erupting from the lunchroom area. Her first instinct was to ignore them, but what if someone was in trouble? What if Sean, Avery, or Caroline were in trouble?
As it turns out, they weren't. In fact, the one in trouble was the person that Luz probably despised the most in both of the realms (at least if you didn't count Amity's now thankfully imprisoned parents). Erik Hellinger was the star of the football team, and the most vicious bully that Luz had ever had the displeasure of meeting. But in the eyes of the administration, he could do no wrong, just because he could kick a football through a goal.
"HELP!" Erik yelled. "Someone help me! This bitch is crazy! AHH!"
Luz's mouth dropped open. Erik was being effortlessly restrained by what was unequivocally the coolest looking girl that Luz had ever seen. She was wearing motorcycle leathers that hugged her curves so tightly that Luz felt like drooling, she was so hot in that getup. Her long brown hair, which covered her ears, cascaded down her shoulders. She had amber eyes that were almost golden, and Luz felt that she could get lost in them forever. She would have been so far outside of Luz's league that it wasn't even funny if it weren't for one thing.
The girl was Amity.
Amity Blight was in her school. It was really happening. Her girlfriend was here. Luz pinched herself to see if she was dreaming. The pain in her arm signaled that she was not.
"I think that you're not making things any better for yourself by insulting me," Amity said, her voice as cold as ice.
"I was just trying to be friendly!" Erik claimed. "Sheesh. How uptight can you be?"
"Saying that I have an 'ass you'd like to plow' is not, I think, particularly friendly," Amity said, and then she kneed Erik in the groin. He let out a particularly high pitched squeak. "I could, barely, ignore that kind of behavior. But when you insult my girlfriend, that's when I start to get angry."
Erik looked completely bewildered. "No, no, I wasn't talking about your girlfriend. I was talking about the Luzer. She's totally not in your league – she's a complete freak."
Amity chokeslammed Erik, who fell to the ground with a clatter, unconscious. "Luz Noceda is a far, far better person than any of you could ever hope to be," she announced to the large crowd of people that had gathered to watch the scene. "You will never be mean to her ever again! And I am proud to call her my girlfriend." She looked up at Luz and smiled that adorable, heart melting smile at her. "Isn't that right, mi amor?"
"Not half as proud as I am to call you my girlfriend, Amity," Luz said. "You look so amazing in that getup, and I just want to kiss you all over. But I'd get in trouble for PDA, so…"
Amity smirked at her. "Well, you can't get in trouble if you didn't initiate the kiss, can you?" Actually, Luz was pretty sure she could, but all thoughts of getting into trouble evaporated the moment that her girlfriend's lips touched hers.
"She…she's real?" a boy from Luz's science class said, looking shellshocked. He hadn't mocked her for her supposed fake girlfriend, but he was friends with people who did, so Luz was savoring the surprise anyway.
"People don't get much more real than Amity," Luz said. "Hey, if we're going to get in trouble for PDA, let's go the whole hog and play hooky."
"I don't know what that means," Amity admitted.
"Let's leave and start spring break early," Luz translated. She had to work on making sure that she stopped using confusing human metaphors around her girlfriend. She didn't understand most of them herself, so that wouldn't be too hard.
The two of them walked arm in arm to the door, but Avery got there before them. "It's real, isn't it?" they said in a whisper. "The Boiling Isles. The magic. It's all real. No way a girl her size could have knocked out Erik Hellinger without it." They were sort of right; the Boiling Isles gave one increased strength and stamina, which faded with time away from it.
Amity looked over at Luz, who nodded at her. Luz loved these moments, when she and Amity were so in sync that they were like one person. Amity drew a circle in the air and a small sphere of light appeared from thin air and floated up to the ceiling, before dissipating like a bubble.
"Have a good spring break, Avery," Luz said. "And if you tell anyone else about this, even your dad, Amity will dismember you." Avery mimed a lips sealed gesture. Luz trusted them to keep quiet about it.
Luz and Amity walked in silence for a while, just enjoying each other's company, until Luz said, "So I guess you solved the problem?"
Amity blinked. "What problem?"
"You know, the…suspiciously vague problem that Eda mentioned…and I didn't even bother getting anyone else to corroborate. Damn it. She suckered me. We got to get her back when we get back to the Isles."
"Oh, no question," Amity said. "Still, the look on your face when I showed up at your school, it was kind of worth it, don't you agree? I doubt that guy will be bothering you or anyone anytime soon."
As she giggled at remembering her most hated adversary completely overpowered, Luz was honestly still not sure that she wasn't dreaming. But if she was, it was a dream she never wanted to wake up from.