In the locker hallway of Hexside, Azura was walking down the corridor while her duo of friends followed her behind. She was currently being asked some questions for her question sheets by Evelyn.
"Okay, what was the name of the first witch to realised that magic could be used for more practical skills such as baking?" Evelyn asked.
"Okay, obscure question…" Azura began to ponder. "…Was their name, Johan Johanner?"
"Correct!" Evelyn exclaimed. "Okay. What was the name of the head of the now disbanded Illusions Coven?"
"Pantsless McNutty." Mildred interjected.
"Adrian Graye." Azura replied.
"What to do in the event of an emergency if a beast starts attacking any kind of school?" Evelyn asked.
"It won't because of those defences we have up." Mildred pointed out.
"But in a hypothetical sense." Evelyn pointed out.
"Find a hiding place and wait till the teachers or a beast keeping witch handles it." Azura replied.
"Here's question, me and Mildred are going out to that new restaurant that used to be that old lady cafe that your grandma Eda got trapped in while she was in your uncle's body." Evelyn said. "And since you don't usually hang out with us, since ya know, you're busy all the time, how about now?"
"Sorry." Azura said. "I still gotta do some extra work to make sure I'm a powerful witch just like my namesake."
"Always obsessed with that." Evelyn said. "It's been like this ever since you were five. Like, your Moms don't seem like the kind of people who'd love you for who you are. Like my side of the family. They know I'm part Grimwalker, but that doesn't stop me from loving them."
"Look, I know my moms, they will be disappointed if I'm not like Azura." Azura said.
Evelyn sighed before moving on to the next question. "What should you do when you encounter a Direbeast or any creature with three red marks on the back of the ankle?"
"Run away for your life." Azura replied as she stopped at her locker. She tickled it under the chin, causing it to spit out her important books.
"And why's that?" Evelyn asked.
Azura picked up her books. "Because…."
"Because a Direbeast with three red scratches on the back of the legs are untameable." A voice interjected.
The trio turned to a girl with long orange hair and light skin complexion approaching her locker. Azura seemed annoyed and briefly baffled by her response.
"Uh…Thanks, but I could have answered it myself." She said.
The other girl seemed surprised. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Right! Sorry! I thought someone was asking me."
"You just came behind us, what made you think I was asking you?" Evelyn asked.
"Sorry. It's my first day here." The girl around Azura's age said. "I've been studying a lot of topics for all my life. I was homeschooled from when I was born and I had to answer a lot of questions my Mom gave out for me. So, you know, answering questions is kind of my thing."
"Hey, you're good at asking questions." Mildred remarked. "Here's one: Did we ask for your life story?"
Evelyn nudged her in the ribs. "Mildred!"
"What?" Mildred reacted.
"Look, she was homeschooled." Azura said. "Maybe we should, be a little nice to her. My name is Azura Noceda. And-"
The girl gasped. "No way! Noceda?! Are you by any chance related to Luz Noceda?! Author of one of my favourite books, the Human Witch?!"
Mildred then pointed to Evelyn. "She's Evelyn and I'm Mildred if that interests you."
The girl squealed with excitement toward the uncomfortable Azura. "OMT! I love your Mama's books!"
"Okay, guess we don't matter." Mildred sarcastically remarked as she turned to her locker.
"Uh….Thanks?" Azura said while cringing.
"Thanks?! It should be a privilege you're related to someone as amazing as Luz Noceda!" She gasped. "Are your ears round and pointy?! OMT!" She began to touch them, causing Azura some more discomfort. "That is so cool!"
Jakob and his duo of cronies walk past. With him and Floz laughing while Rentley was just watching on looking serious.
"Look at that!" Jakob said. "Azura has a fan! Shame it's the only fan she'll ever have! Half-A-Witch Azura" The two out of the bullying trio walked past, still laughing.
The girl stared at the behaviour with confusion. "Uh…..Did that weirdo with the unshaven moustache must mock you?"
"Jakob is just jealous that I'm the daughter of Luz Noceda." Azura said. "I mean, that dude is barley popular."
"Are you popular with other students?" The girl asked.
"Well…" The bell screamed before Azura could answer the girl's question. "…Class has started. We should get going!" The half human and half witch ran off to her first class.
"You're right!" The girl said. "Oh Titan, I hope I remember where class is!" She began running to her class while the rest of Azura's friends just watched on.
"We never got the chance to ask her name." Evelyn remarked to Mildred whom was currently being devoured by her locker. This caused Evelyn to panic as she struggled to pull Mildred out of her locker. "No! No! Spit her out! Spit her out!"
Meanwhile, Azura had managed to make it to her first class, illusions. She sat down on her seat alongside her other fellow classmates. Such as a blonde student with orange skin, a student with eyes all over their face and a student with brown hair and flannel skin.
She dug through her backpack and pulled out her books and writing equipment while a familiar someone sat down next to her. It was the same orange haired student from the corridor.
She grinned with excitement as she held out her hand. "I guess we're part of the same class!"
Azura laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah….." She then move a few seats upwards leaving the girl to be confused for a moment before she groaned.
"Uh! Come on Hec! Personal space!"
"Hec?" Azura reacted. "Is that your name?"
Before she could respond, the lights turned off and then switched back on to reveal a figure in a black robe. "Illusions…." The figure flicked their wrist causing a Hexes Hold'Em Cad to appear before sprouting wings and flew away. "…What makes them spellbinding?" The witch threw off his robe to reveal a witch with black earrings, a pointy nose, brown hair, light skin and appeared to be in his mid to late 30's. "Is it the ingenuity? Is it the creativity? Is it the effort that goes into it? Or is it the fact that people don't care how they work, they just want to be fool-" Before he could finish, he suddenly vanished.
The person that caused it happened to be Azura, whom managed to reverse the illusion. "Nice try, Mr Bateman."
Mr Bateman suddenly appeared from the entrance of his class applauding. "Well done Azura. Well done. Smart. How did you know it was an illusion?"
"Well because your illusion wasn't casting a shadow which could be a deliberate choice or a mistake on your part." Azura said.
The showy illusions teacher gave an applause. "Nicely done. Nicely done. Also, bonus points for reversing the illusion. Okay class, begin your tests. Let's see if you can beat Azura. You have about half an hour. So make sure you study hard. And please, do not use illusions to hide your incorrect questions. Now I'm not pointing fingers at anyone so Horama could you stop pointing your finger at Mullan for cheating on his paper? But last time, a certain student whose name shall not be….Horama, what did I say?!"
And so, the test began with every student beginning to write on their papers. The odd student tried to sneak a peak at what they were writing but they were prevented by either the other student forming a wall illusion or Mr Bateman just commanding them to stop.
During the test, Azura was briefly glancing back at the girl she realised was known as Hec whom was doing her work.
She found the girl to be interesting. Not just for how smart she was or how socially awkward she was, but how she seemed interested to have her as a friend. It was kind of creepy in a way. It was like she was dealing with a fangirl she saw in those Human Realm psychological thrillers. But she had to get back to work so that's what she did.
At the end of the session, Mr Bateman collected the sheets and was marking them. He looked through a monocle as he did and sighed.
"Lissan, how many times have I told you to not use illusions to hide your grade? I can see through the illusions!" Mr Bateman exclaimed. "By the way, you got 13/45 questions correct."
In her classes, Azura was always the top student when it came to tests and demonstrating her skills. So Azura was quite confident that she would pass.
"Okay, Ms Noceda, well done. Pass but you did get 44/45. You didn't explain question 33 in great detail as much as it says you should but nevertheless, well done. And Ms Repeels, you scored…." Mr Bateman looked genuinely surprised. "….45/45!"
"What?!" Azura exclaimed. "Wait, which one is Ms Repeels?"
"Your desk buddy." He pointed at Hec, whom was happy. "Well done."
Hec smiled. "Thanks. I only did what you were told." She gave a cutesy smile that made Azura narrow her eyes angrily at. For whatever reason, she especially hated that stupid smile.
Later, Mr Bateman was allowing his students to demonstrate their illusion skills. Horama, the blonde student with orange skin was up first to demonstrate her magic. She made an illusion of a giant snake that hissed at Mr Bateman.
He wrote on his clipboard to mark her off. "Good but be more creative. B-" The student groaned in disappointment with the snake doing the same.
The next student to test their strength was Mildred whom was scratching their butt. "Wait, am I next?"
Mr Bateman stared at her baffled. "Wait, when did you arrive?"
"I was under my desk doing the test." Mildred replied. "Less sunlight. Anyway, here's mine." She made an illusion of Mr Bateman. This made him surprised but he didn't seem angry at the illusion. "It's you."
Mr Batman then narrowed his eyes at the illusion. "My ears aren't that crooked. C+"
Mildred just shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, worth it."
Then, he moved on to Azura. "Alright Azura, show me what you got."
Azura grinned. "I hope this counts but…Make an illusion."
Mr Bateman shrugged his shoulders. "Okay." He then made an illusion of a ginormous fire creature that breathed fire towards Azura. Everyone but Mr Bateman, Hec, Mildred and Azura ducked for cover as the fire approached Azura.
The half human/half witch performed a spell circle that made the fire and the fiery dragon-like beast vanish into thin air.
Mr Bateman gave applause to Azura's performance. "A for Azura for reversing the illusion. F for everyone who ducked. I mean come on, I wasn't going to set my students on fire." He then noted that Mildred's hair looked singed causing him some panic. "Okay! Maybe I made that illusion too good."
Mildred looked confused. "Uh….What illusion?"
"Okay and Ms Repeels, what skills do you wish to demonstrate?" Mr Bateman asked.
Hec closed her eyes and then opened them back up to reveal them glowing blue, something that made Azura surprised as well as the other students and Mr Bateman. Mildred on the other hand was just picking her nose.
"Huh, what?" Mildred responded.
"I see….That there are illusions in this class much stronger than the one you used as an example, Mr Bateman." Hec said. "For example, that cup you have on your desk projecting that shadow but don't let it fool you as it is a highly advanced illusion, the clothes you're wearing are not what they seem. You're wearing black shoes but in actuality you're wearing sandals." Mr Bateman turned red with embarrassment. "The ring that was exchanged from your spouse many years ago appears to be on your left hand on your index finger but in actuality, it is actually on your right and finally, the ceiling actually has an infestation of huge spiders." Her eyes turned back to normal.
Everyone in the class had their mouths wide open over what she had just said except for Mildred whom was laughing.
"Teacher came in sandals." She laughed.
Mr Bateman just applauded Hec, impressed with her. "That was unbelievable. Well done. A++++++++"
Azura was in astonishment over the results of Hec's skills that she almost passed out. That was the highest grade in class and she hadn't gotten to that level.
"Oh and class…." Mr Bateman reversed the illusion, revealing the ceiling to be invested with spiders that looked like were about to eat them. "…Yeah, you guys leave. I'll handle them."
As soon as Azura left class, she was walking down the corridor hanging her head down in shame. She had never been beaten in a test before and it was by a new student, using an illusion power she herself could not do and was far too advanced for her.
She narrowed her eyes at Hec as she chatted to her classmates right in front of her. The orange haired girl looked like she was laughing about something while every students was prying her with a ton of questions.
Azura just grumbled something under her breath while Mildred approached her. "So…I guess you're no longer top student?" She remarked.
Azura then put on a forced smile. "It doesn't matter, really. I mean, yeah I'm no longer top of the class but I'm still great and could succeed in becoming a powerful witch. Besides, I got the other classes to prove it."
Mildred exhaled through her nose. "You're probably or most likely going to fail."
And so, in the next few hours Azura was acing her classes, but was not top student, Hec was. In demonology, she managed to answer all of the questions but Hec got extra points for adding some details their teachers did not expect.
During the history of wild magic, Azura managed to ace her class by correctly answering every question correctly but Hec answered all the questions but with extra responses that gave her extra points.
Azura managed to demonstrate how to summon a demon without it possessing them while Hec managed to summon two demons without either of them possessing a student.
Then in beast keeping with Viney, the students had to tame and befriend a large number of beasts by the end of the lesson.
Azura did manage to befriend multiple beasts such as a Savage Basilisk, a baby griffin and a full grown griffin while Hec somehow managed to possess more than her, including a hive of fire bees.
In parapsychology, the same results happened just like in demonology but only with a few ghosts mocking her. She groaned as she narrowed her eyes at her newfound rival, Hec Repeels.
At lunch, she was sitting with her friends while eating some of lunch. In front of her, Evelyn was covered in dirt and appeared to have her hair a bit singed while Mildred was lazily poking at her food.
Azura ate her food aggressively while narrowing her eyes at Hec whom was chatting it up with a few students. They were laughing about something while Hec looked to Azura. The new student gave the longtime a student a wave.
"Hey, you know we're over here, right?" Mildred asked.
Azura turned to her friends and narrowed her eyes at her. "You're not here, right now."
"Correct." She said before pointing at another Mildred, whom was napping beside a garbage can while casting the illusion.
Evelyn just shook her head. "Unbelievable."
"I know!" Azura exclaimed. "This student just came out of nowhere and managed to outdo me at everything! I mean, I'm not the jealous type but…..Dang it, I got outdone by someone who could be more powerful than me!"
"Or maybe she is more powerful, you just don't want to admit it." Mildred hypothesis got Azura to narrow her eyes aggressively at her. "What? Just saying."
Then, Jakob and his cronies walked past. "Well! Well! Well! Look who it is! The Half-A-Witch trio!"
Rentley sighed. "Jakob, please! I want to sit down!"
Jakob pinched his boyfriend's cheeks. "In a moment, boo. I heard what happened. The top student gets outdone by a newbie."
"Quit bothering us, Jakob." Evelyn commanded.
"Says the one who screwed up in potions!" Jakob retorted. "Look at you, half-a-witches, I wonder why you're still stuck here learning magic when all you are, are just failures."
"Well Jakob!" Azura slammed her fist on the table. "I have one more class! Abomination! Plus, I'm almost finished with my Palisman and they're almost ready to come to life! So if I don't ace either of those things, me and my friends will stand in the middle of the corridor and declare ourselves the Half-A-Witch trio!"
Evelyn gasped while the Mildred illusion vanished. "Uh….What?" Mildred reacted from her sleeping place.
"Azura, this is not a good idea!" Evelyn exclaimed.
"Azura, listen to Evelyn." Rentley said. "She knows this will not fix anything!" He took a brief glance at her before turning back to Azura.
"Sorry Rentley, but I'm making this promise." Azura said before offering her hand out. "Everlasting oath me, Jakob."
Jakob cringed. "Yeah….I'm not doing that. You've never broken a promise as far as I'm aware of…Except, the one about being a powerful witch for your moms."
Azura looked to the floor in shame before narrowing her eyes back at him. "Alright! That's a promise I will make! No everlasting oath!"
Jakob then began to walk away with his crew following. "See you soon, Half-A-Witch trio."
Azura turned to her friends, whom were narrowing their eyes at her. "You made a promise and there was no everlasting oath involved?!" Evelyn exclaimed. "I guess there is a plus side."
"But we have to humiliate ourselves in front of Hexside?!" Mildred exclaimed.
"You came into Hexside in a rabbit uniform and you did not care one bit." Evelyn pointed out.
Mildred grinned. "That was absolutely fun."
Azura gave her friends a confident smile. "Don't worry! I can do this! I can ace the Abomination class! Whether Hec beats me or not!"
"You're going to fail!" Jakob yelled.
"Jakob!" Rentley yelled to his boyfriend.
Later, at the Abomination class still ran by Professor Hermonculus, whom was still being carried by his Abomination. The teacher was currently judging Rentley.
He summoned his Abomination from his pot which had two heads and feet where its arms should be. The judgemental professor sighed in annoyance.
"Too many heads and feet in the wrong place." The Professor said judgementally. "How you're captain of the Grudgeby team is a mystery to me."
Rentley sighed before sitting down on his seat. Then, Azura walked up to present her Abomination. "Well! Well! Azura Noceda!" The Professor chided. "You know, your mother was quite the prodigy when she was your age? Think you might be able to live up to her grades?"
Azura gave her teacher a smile. "I will. Watch!" She cracked her knuckles, stretched her legs and shuffled her shoulders. She aimed at her pot, ready to make it rise. "Abomination rise!" But instead of rising, the pot shattered.
The class gasped in surprise while Rentley watched on with sympathy and Professor Hermonculus just narrowed his eyes at the terrified Azura.
"Well, well, well, first time at Abomination and you failed." Professor Hermonculus said with a judgemental grin. "An F for you."
"Wait! Wait! Can't you just give me a chance?!" Azura panicked. "I still have the quiz! Can't I at least do those and see what I get?"
"There is no quiz." The professor said.
"What?!" Azura exclaimed before she desperately tried to control the Abomination. "Let me try again! I can do this! I can do this! I can do this! Abomination rise!" But the Abomination just shot at Professor Hermonculus' face.
The imp demon narrowed his eyes at his student as he wiped the Abomination goo off his face. "F+"
Azura walked back to her seat just as the final student walked up to present her piece. And it was none other than, Hec.
"Well, another new student." Professor Hermonculus sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with."
Hec took a deep breath and raised her hands. "Abomination rise!" The Abomination rose out of the pot but this one was absolutely perfect. It had the right set of limbs, orifices and height.
Professor Hermonculus was in disbelief as well as the other students. "UNBELIEVABLE!" Hermonculus exclaimed so loudly that his own Abomination dropped him. "A++++++++++++++++++++"
Azura was in such disbelief over what she did. She was outdone by a newbie and she failed Abomination class altogether. She groaned in sadness while Rentley stared at her with sympathy.
Later, at the Noceda residence, Azura was in her room busy carving her Palisman. She was just about almost done with it and gave a sigh of relief. "Almost done with you. I wonder what you're going to be like personality-wise? I hope you're going to be strong and loyal." She then heard a notification ding and summoned her scroll. She looked on her Penstagram and saw there was a message from her friends.
Evelyn wrote a message to her that wrote 'If you don't get your Palisman then we're going to be so doomed tomorrow. Please let it bond to you!'
Then there was one from Mildred that said, 'Hey Azura, heard you screwed up in Abomination class. You sure you're not your Aunt Willow's long lost daughter or something?'
Azura sighed. "Come on Mildred! Not cool. She got a lot of trauma from that."
She then started to scroll on her scroll and saw a post from a student named Achilles, whom was literally foot shaped demon with a face. Achilles was posing with Hec along with a few other students which included Jakob whom Hec appeared to be narrowing her eyes at.
The post read 'This student is so smart that she has become popular. And she only started today! That is impressive!'
She looked in the comments and saw one from Jakob that said 'I can't wait for the Half-A-Witch trio to arrive.'
His boyfriend replied, 'Jakob, you're taking this too far.'
But then Jakob replied, 'What are you going to do? Dump me? You know you can't!'
Azura just groaned. "Come on Rentley, you're much stronger than that. I've seen you play Grudgeby for crying out loud."
Then, Azura heard the sound of the door to the Human Realm open, which means her family had just returned from the Human Realm from their trip to the theatres.
"That really sucked." Azura could hear her Mami say.
"I know!" Amity exclaimed. "Azura was just a grumpy old witch whom was getting outshined by her obnoxious younger protege whom was better than her at anything!"
"It's like, whoever made this clearly hated Azura and the fans." Luz said.
"Was it Wu?" Amity asked her wife. "She always says how much better Lydia Oven is."
"Cynthia Coven, Mom." Manny reminded his mother as he opened the door to Azura's bedroom.
"I know, Manny. I was just emphasising my hate for that piece of cra….Azura!" Amity's mood quickly shifted as she approached her daughter. "How was school?"
"Did you ace Abomination, Mija?" Luz asked her daughter while Manny summoned his scroll.
Azura froze and began to sweat. "Well….Abominations! Yeah…That was super fun and-"
"Evelyn said Azura failed Abomination class and got a whole lot of F's." Manny interjection made Luz and Amity freeze while Azura just narrowed her eyes at her brother. Then he got a ping from his scroll. "Don't tell your moms about it." Manny looked to his Moms who both looked surprised. "You know what, there is no avoiding it."
Azura then turned to her Moms and looked at them with fear. "Look Moms, I'm sorry! I'll get better I assure you! I will! Okay! I just need to get stronger and better and eventually I'll…."
Luz and Amity could tell that their daughter was getting stressed and decided to act on it. "Stringbean, assistance!"
Luz's Palisman made a hiss and slithered towards her master's owner and shifted into a scarf and wrapped herself around Azura's neck.
This made Azura calm down as she snuggled the scarf and exhaled. "Thanks Mami."
"What happened?" Luz asked her daughter.
"You failed Abominations class." Amity said. "Is everything okay?"
Azura just smiled at her moms. "Everything's fine. Forgive me for my outburst. That failure is in the past because I finally did it!" She showed her family her Palisman which looked similar to a terrier from Earth.
"You're done with your Palisman?!" Amity exclaimed proudly causing Ghost to suddenly pop out from behind her.
"Yup, I'm done with my Palisman." Azura replied proudly, forgetting about her failure today. "I may have failed today but it was also a success."
"Well, aren't you going to bring it to life?" Manny asked his sister with excitement. "I think Ghost and Stringbean could use a new friend!"
"Now Manny, Azura might not have a deepest want yet." Luz said. "With me and Stringbean, it took me a-"
"I already know what it is!" Azura interjected.
Luz seemed surprised by the response. "Huh?"
"I know what my want is Mami, don't worry." Azura assured her. "This little fella's going to enter this world sooner than later."
Luz seemed surprised by her daughter's response. "Oookay. Thought she would have to go through a few months of self-discovery. But, glad she found out."
The Noceda clan surrounded their daughter, waiting in anticipation for Azura to say her deepest want. Even the Palismen surrounded Azura's waiting to have a new friend to play with and to protect.
Azura took a deep breath and rubbed her hands. "Okay! Okay! I know what my want is! It's a want I have worked ten years of my life on and I'm ready to explain that want." She took a deep breath. "And so far, I am fulfilling that want."
"Does she need to do a speech?" Manny asked.
"So I, Azura Hecate Noceda, call this want from deep from my heart. I want to be a powerful witch just like Azura!" Azura declared loud and proudly, causing some wind to blow into her room and causing the curtains to shake and the pages of a nearby book to start flipping wildly. She can hear the music playing in the background getting louder and louder.
But when she got a good look at her Palisman, she saw that it hadn't become sentient. She stared at it with a befuddled look as well as her family.
"Uh…..Awaken!" Manny exclaimed. "Come to life!"
The Nocedas stared at each other with baffled looks on their faces while the Palismen looked disappointed with Azura.
"Uh….Maybe I haven't carved it properly." Azura theorised.
Ghost began meowing while Stringbean was hissing. "Uh….What are they saying?" Manny asked his moms.
"Apparently, that is not your want." Amity said.
Azura looked horrified with the revelation and stared at her Moms with worry. "What?"
Luz sighed. "Mija, you got your want wrong. You don't want to be a powerful witch like Azura."
Azura was in complete disbelief and denial over this. All those years of working to become a powerful witch and this is what had happened. "No! No! No! No! You're wrong! You're all wrong!" She yelled angrily.
"Azura, calm down." Luz said gently. "Yelling at the Palismen isn't going to make it better. It took me time to realise my want…"
Azura slammed her fists on the table. "Don't patronise me, Mami! I have failed you!"
Amity then tried to help. "Azura, you have not…"
Azura narrowed her eyes angrily at her moms. "Why aren't you at least disappointed?! I failed Abominations and I'm no longer a powerful witch and now I can't even get a Palisman!" Manny knew when to read the room so he just walked out while his Moms watched on as their daughter broke down. "Today has been a disaster! I have to humiliate myself tomorrow and I've broken your promise!"
Luz and Amity seemed surprised by what she said. "Promise?"
Azura now had tears falling down her face. "No! There's still time for me to be powerful! I can do it! No! I'm not powerful and I just failed you both! I failed you both!"
"Azura, you have not failed us." Luz said trying to assure her daughter.
"Yeah. You keep living in denial!" Azura yelled. "Go on! Go on! Sorry I didn't live up to your expectations!" She exhaled. "Please leave."
Luz and Amity wanted to help their daughter but they saw that she needed time to calm down so they quietly and slowly left the room and carefully closed her bedroom door with their Palisman following from behind.
The mothers stared at each other with worried and concerned looks. "Promise?" Luz could only say.
"Expectations?" Amity said.
"I don't know why she said those words." Luz said. "You haven't said anything to her, right?"
"No. Have you?" Amity asked her wife.
"No." Luz sighed as she stared at the door of her daughter's bedroom. "She just needs to calm down, Sweet Potato. We'll talk to her tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll go check on Manny." Amity said. "Before he starts talking before thinking again."
Luz briefly chuckled. "He can't help it though."
"I know."
Meanwhile, Azura was in her bedroom wiping away the remaining tears that were falling down her face while she stared at her lifeless Palisman. She felt disappointed, lied to and saddened by her realisation.
"I don't want that." Azura said. "I can't believe you made me realise that you little piece of wood. Why isn't that what I want? I worked so hard to achieve it." She sighed sadly. "But all those ten years of my life trying to become a powerful witch are for nothing. My Moms are so disappointed in me and I have to be humiliated tomorrow. If only there was a way for me to prove my worth."
"Did someone say prove their worth?" Said a smug and cool voice.
The half human and half witch looked up to see a girl in her mid twenties with light brown skin, green eyes, light brown hair, a fang sticking out of the top of her mouth sitting on her windowsill. She wore some black boots, dark blue shorts, a maroon knot shirt and a ton of piercings all over her body. Including her nose, ears, eyebrow, lip and navel.
Azura was so startled by her appearance that she almost fell off her seat. "Aunt Ronda?" Azura reacted.
Ronda, daughter of Eda and Raine Clawthorne, jumped off the windowsill and approached her niece. "Not so loud, okay kiddo? Does your Mom still hate me?"
"She doesn't hate you." Azura assured her. "She just thinks you're a bad influence."
Ronda shrugged her shoulders. "Eh. So, I've been hearing your predicament. Plus, I saw what happened at school."
Azura was a tad confused. "Uh….How?"
Ronda jumped on her bed. "Didn't your Mami tell you about her first day? You know, that whole debacle with sneaking around Hexside."
"What were you even doing there?" Azura asked.
"None of your business!" Ronda replied. "But in case you're curious, underground tattoo parlour. Oh and speaking of…." She turned around and showed her niece her back which had a tattoo of what appeared to be the Owl Beast.
"Isn't that your mom?" Azura asked.
"Yup. So they know that I am the Owl Lady's daughter and they shouldn't mess with me." Ronda replied.
Azura looked skeptical. "I'm pretty sure that tattoo is pretty popular."
Ronda turned back round to face her niece. "My tattoo business isn't why I'm here. I heard you have that breakdown to your Moms fearing you disappointed them."
Azura sighed. "It's not just that. I made a promise to Jakob that I'd humiliate me and my friends by declared us as the Half-A-Witch trio."
"Everlasting oath?"
"No." Azura said.
"Good! Because they stiiiiing!" Ronda exclaimed.
Azura made shushing noises. "I can't let my Moms hear you or Manny for that matter."
"Speaking of, isn't his birthday coming up?" Ronda asked.
"Listen, I made a promise to him that if I fail Abomination or have a Palisman then I will…"
"I know!" Ronda interjected. "Heard you the first time. Look, I might have a plan as to how you can earn your mother's respect again while not declaring yourselves the Half-A-Witch trio."
"How?" Azura asked while Ronda jumped back on the windowsill.
"You'll know." Ronda replied before jumping out the window.
There was a thud and Azura went to see what had happened to her aunt. When she looked down, she saw her aunt's body parts scattered. Thankfully, she was putting herself back together again with her still being a head while her arms were putting the legs back on the body.
"Like I said, you'll see." Ronda said. "As soon as I put my body back together."
The next day, Azura was at school standing outside her locker while her friends were at her side. Mildred was pulling out a pillow from her locker while Evelyn was on Penstagram.
She groaned as she saw a notification. "Oh, Titan. Jakob just put on his Penstagram that we have an announcement to make when he arrives to see us."
"Well, I won't make it." Mildred declared. "Because, I'm too sleepy to actually make it."
"So, you'd actually make it if you weren't?" Evelyn asked.
"Only if there's a good catch to it." Mildred replied. "If not, I'll just run away."
While Evelyn and Mildred spoke, Azura heard a psst coming from the locker next to her and turned to face it. She saw her Aunt Ronda sticking her head out. "Okay Azura you know the plan?"
Azura looked at her aunt with a scowl. "What? No! And who said I'd sign up to it?"
"Do you want to be humiliated at school or not?" Ronda asked.
"No." Azura replied quickly.
"Good. Because I have the plan set up and all you have to do is solve it."
"How? What's the plan?" Azura asked her aunt.
"You'll know." She responded before putting her head back in. The half witch and half human turned to her friends whom were looking at her with perplexed expressions.
"Was that your Aunt Ronda?" Evelyn asked.
"Yeah." Azura replied.
"What was she doing in that locker?" Evelyn asked.
"Praying to Titan that she has a plan to get us out of school humiliation." She replied.
"Speaking of school humiliation, here's one of the causes." Mildred remarked.
Turns out, Hec was the one whom was approaching the girl group with a desperate look on her face. "Azura! I heard everything that had happened!"
Azura just rolled her eyes at her. "What do you want Hec?"
"Nothing bad!" Hec replied. "Listen, I know what's going on. Am I…Really the cause of this?"
Azura seemed surprised. "How did you know?"
"Rentley told me." Hec replied. "He warned me that you, Mildred and Evelyn were going to humiliate yourselves by declaring that you're the Half-A-Witch trio or something ridiculous just to appease his cruel boyfriend!"
"Why are you here?" Azura asked. "Here to gloat about it?"
Hec looked surprised by this. "What?! No! Azura, I'm not like that!"
"How do I know?" Azura chided. "We met only yesterday where you aced every class making me look like a fool and breaking the promise I made to my Moms to become a powerful witch!"
"What do you want me to do?!" Hec exclaimed. "Apologise for being smart?!"
"Maybe." Mildred replied.
"That's not helping the situation." Evelyn said.
"I don't want you to apologise for being smart, I know you can't help it." Azura replied with a bitter tone.
"Look, I'm sorry you have to go through with this." Hec said.
But Azura gave a confident grin. "Not for long."
Suddenly, the sound of loud footsteps were heard. Like, they wanted to be the centre of attention in that moment.
The trio and Hec looked to the right and saw Jakob approaching with his cronies. "Well! Well!" The students began to pay attention to Jakob. "If it isn't the Half-A-Witch trio?" He remarked sarcastically while Rentley rolled his eyes. "Only they don't seem to admit that they're the Half-A-Witch trio. Are you witches really that powerful? Or are you just a bunch of Half-A-Witches?"
Evelyn took a deep breath, ready to make the declaration, but Azura raised her hand. "I got it, Evelyn."
Hec then narrowed her eyes at Jakob. "Listen, I'm new here and all I have to say to you is, how dare you! How dare you! She does not deserve this for making mistakes!"
"Well, she is half human and half witch so I'm just pointing out a fact." Jakob argued.
Hec narrowed her eyes at the bully. "Why you…."
Azura raised her hand. "Hec, you've done enough damage to my reputation." She stood in front of the corridor. For a brief moment, she looked behind her to see her Aunt Ronda poking her hand out of a locker, giving her a thumbs up.
"Well, aren't you going to admit it, Luzura?" Jakob laughed at his joke while the other students just rolled their eyes except for Floz, who just laughed along.
Azura just folded her arms and grinned. "I have two things to say to you. First: Luzura was my Mami's OC; Second: We will make that declaration just so I can keep a promise."
Jakob smiled. "Good! Good! She's keeping her promise."
"Couldn't you just leave one out of it?" Rentley asked his boyfriend while glancing at Evelyn.
"No! It's gotta be all of them." Jakob replied. "Besides, they're brave enough to do it. Just like me."
But all of a sudden, a feral griffin burst through the walls, causing debris to fly all over the place. it roared loudly causing many of the students to start panicking and running away with terror and fear.
Jakob stood for a moment before he screamed like a coward and began to run away with his boyfriend and friend following behind.
The griffin then noticed the four remaining students standing in front of it and began to snarl at its prey.
This got a bunch of varied reactions from each of the four. Evelyn just did what her instincts told her and ran away.
Mildred on the other hand, had her own ideas. "Oh, forget this!" She exclaimed in rare moment of zero level headedness and dived into a random locker which devoured her.
"Run!" Azura exclaimed before she and Hec began running for their lives with the griffin chasing them.
"Attention students! We have a feral griffin on the loose in the school. So, you know the drill. Walk slowly and calmly find a hiding place and wait for it to blow over." But really, all the students were running for their lives, screaming. They were hiding in various places such as lockers, toilets, trash cans and even some used invisibility glyphs. The announcer sighed. "Why do we always tell them to not panic?"
Meanwhile, Azura and Hec were continuing to run while the griffin was following them from behind. "We gotta find a hiding place!" Azura exclaimed.
"But where?!" Hec asked. "It's still chasing us!"
"Don't worry kids!" Suddenly, Mr Bateman appeared in a puff of smoke right in front of them. Followed by the Beast Keeping teacher, Viney, whom popped out from under the floor.
"Me and Mr Bateman will handle this." She assured the two students who ran past. "You kids find a hiding place."
"Okay, Aunt Viney!" Azura replied.
Mr Bateman took a glance at Viney with a perplex look. "Wait, Azura is your niece?"
"Does that matter?" Viney asked.
"No." He replied before turning to the beast, whom was snarling at them currently. The illusions teacher cracked his neck while Viney cracked her knuckles. "Okay, I distract, you tame."
"You got it!" Mr Bateman casted multiple illusions of himself while Viney went to deal with it. The griffin just narrowed its eyes at each copy of the teacher, whom was doing a pose. "Alright griffin, can you guess which Gob Bateman is the real one?"
"Answer: You can't!" One of the illusions said.
"Ha! You are such a loser!" Another one said.
Then, the griffin flicked the one in the middle, causing the illusions teacher to fly backwards into a banister.
He groaned in pain. "I should have moved about to confuse it."
Meanwhile, Viney jumped on top of the griffin and began to pull its feathers in an effort to tame it. "Come on! Tame!" The griffin roared as it struggled to get Viney off of it. "Just tame! Puddles was complying!" Then, she got a good look at its feet and went wide eyed. "Ooooooh."
Then, the griffin threw itself off of her and she flew straight towards the illusions teacher with a loud thud. They both groaned in pain.
"If I die, have my gravestone read 'Beloved wife.' Viney said.
"If I die, have my gravestone read 'Crushed by beast keeping teacher.' Mr Bateman retorted.
Meanwhile, the griffin was eating out of the trash while being watched by Azura and Hec just by the corner of the walls by the locker.
"What is a griffin doing here?" Hec asked.
"It shouldn't have broken in." Azura replied. "The defences."
Ronda then popped her head out from a locker. "Oh, I deactivated them."
"What?!" Azura asked.
"Who is that?!" Hec screamed.
Ronda offered her a handshake. "Ronda Clawthorne. Daughter of Eda and Raine Clawthorne, tattoo artist and public menace. And you're the witch who ruined my niece's life."
Hec looked surprised. "Azura, how many aunts do you have?"
"Why did you deactivate them?!" Azura asked angrily.
"Duh, so you can take it to show your mom's you're not worthless and to make Jakob forget about you humiliating yourself." Ronda replied.
"What?!" Azura exclaimed.
"Hey, you agreed to it." Ronda argued.
"No I didn't!" Azura argued.
"Well, you kind of did." Ronda replied.
Azura sighed. "Okay, I admit it. I went along with it because I had to save me and my friends somehow. But this wasn't what I had in mind!"
"Wait, you planned to destroy the school just so you can gain some kind of respect back?" Hec asked in disbelief.
"No." Azura replied.
"It was me. All me." Ronda said. "But she did kind of let me do it, so that's on her as well."
Azura sighed while Hec looked over at the beast to analyse it. "So, this is the plan to get respect?"
"That's right." Ronda replied while Hec gasped.
Azura grinned and cracked her knuckles. "Okay. Let's do this."
But Hec shot her hand in front of her. "Stop. Azura you can't do it."
"Look, I have to do this." Azura replied. "To fix my reputation and also stop the school from being destroyed."
"No, you can't." Hec said.
"I can and I will!" Azura argued.
"No I mean you can't! You physically can't! It's impossible!" Hec argued. "Look!" She pointed at the griffin and Azura saw three red marks on the back of the ankle.
Azura gasped, knowing what this meant. "Untameable." She the got angry. "Untameable!" She narrowed her eyes at her aunt, who looked guilty while eating a bad of bacon.
"Ooooooooh. So that's why didn't listen to me." She said.
"How did you get it to attack Hexside?" Hec asked.
"I provoked it and it followed me here." She replied.
"Do something!" Azura commanded. "I can't take the untameable. They're literally called untameable for a reason!"
Azura nodded her head. "Okay! Okay! Okay! I have a plan!" She retreated back inside and then slammed the locker door shut.
"Hey!" Azura exclaimed.
"You two are on your own!" Ronda yelled.
"Aunt Ronda!" Azura yelled angrily at her retreating aunt. "Come on! I need your help!"
"Forget it, Azura." Hec said. "We have to stay here until the right people to deal with this."
"Or are you going to have some perfect idea to establish how much better than me you are? Therefore ruining my chance of impressing my Moms!" Azura chided.
Hec sighed. "No. There's nothing we can do. I don't even know what to do with something like this."
Azura looked surprised. "Oh. Okay, that's surprising." She then sighed. "I don't know about you Hec, but this griffin is somewhat my responsibility. I got to handle it."
"But you can't!" Hec argued. "It will tear you to shreds! I mean, maybe you could distract it with illusion magic and trap it with Abomination magic."
Azura then grinned. "Hec! That is brilliant!"
"I agree, but it will be impossible to execute." Hec said.
Azura laughed. "I'm the daughter of Luz Noceda. She did the impossible. Just follow my lead."
The griffin was currently chewing on a student that was shaped like a bone. They groaned in pain as they felt its beak maul on them.
"Mmmm, why do animals go to me?" The bone student groaned.
Then, the griffin heard a whistle. "Hey ugly!" It looked upwards and noticed Azura standing by a bridge with her arms out. "Listen here you bird….Mammal….Thing! Just pounce on me! Eat me! Stop eating Pelvis!"
"It's Elvis!" Elvis said before being tossed away by the griffin as it set its eyes on Azura.
It was about to chase after her but then felt something hit them. It turned around and saw another Azura with her arms crossed, standing by an exit. "How about I pluck your feathers?"
It turned around and started to charge at the other Azura. But when it pounced on her, she disappeared into a puff of smoke.
It left the beast baffled until it heard two respective voices calling from either side of the hallway. "Over here!" Yelled the Azura from the left.
"Not that one!" The Azura on the right yelled. "Come after me!"
The griffin was confused at first and couldn't make up their mind on which one they should go after but they eventually chose the one on the left which disappeared in a puff of smoke upon impact.
Then, it looked up and saw another Azura hanging from the ceiling. "Uh oh." It said before the griffin pounced upwards and hit her, causing her to disappear into a puff of smoke.
"Whoops!" An Azura that popped out of a locker said before it got swiped by the griffin, causing her to disappear into another puff of smoke.
"Ugly!" It looked upwards and saw multiple Azura's in front of it. "Which is which?" They asked simultaneously. The griffin pounced into the crowd of Azura's causing them to disappear into a large puff of smoke.
This caused the griffin to be blinded for a bit as they struggled to make out where to go. Then, once the smoke cleared, it saw something it didn't expect to see.
In front of it, was Hec with a pot of Abominations behind her. "Abominations, splat!" She exclaimed before firing off the purple goo straight into the griffin's direction, hitting it and sticking it to the floor.
It struggled to get off the floor, but due to the strength of the goo, it could not escape. After a while of struggling, it collapsed.
Hec took deep breaths after what had happened and collapsed on her rear just as Azura arrived. "You did great." Azura said.
"Thanks." Hec said to her ally just as she sat down next to her. "You also did great. I mean, I can't believe we pulled that off."
"I know." Azura said. "I think my Moms would be proud of me and Jakob would show some respect."
"I hope so." Hec said. "And some to me if we hang out after this."
"Listen Hec, I want to apologise for how I treated you." Azura said.
"Nah, it's okay." Hec said. "I get it. You want to look good. I mean, I want to show my Mom I put the effort into my work. I guess I showed, right?"
"Yeah, you did." Azura replied before Hec began to hug her. This caused her some confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Hugging you." Hec replied. "Why, you don't like it?"
Azura pulled Hec off of her. "A little too soon. Sorry."
"Nah. Never really had any friends growing up." Hec replied. "I hope my hug didn't make you uncomfortable."
"Nah. Nah. I get it, homeschooled for most of your life." Azura said. "I never was homeschooled and I don't know how it feels to someone like you. But if you want, Hec, I could have you hang out with my group."
Hec seemed surprised. "Wait, you will?"
Azura shrugged her shoulders. "Well I can't have you join Jakob's group. What do you say?"
Hec squealed in delight. "Oh, Azura! Thank you!" She began to hug her first friend who returned it awkwardly. "Oh and by the way, Hec isn't my actual name."
Azura pulled herself out of the hug. "It isn't?"
"My name is Hecate."
Azura froze in response and stared at her newfound friend in baffled disbelief. "Wait, what?"
"Noceda!" Exclaimed a voice that made Azura freeze. She looked up and saw a fair skinned ginger haired teacher with glasses, a beanie and a flower tattoo around the collar of her neck. "Care to explain this?!"
Azura gave a nervous grin. "Well, Principal Terrace, it's a funny story."
Suddenly, the locker that ate Mildred spat her out of its mouth. As she was spat out, she rolled on the floor covered in drool. She sat on the floor and saw what was going on in front of her.
She grinned. "Oh, Evelyn owes me."
A while later, Azura was in the principal's office with her Moms and Ms Terrace sitting in her chair listing off everything.
"So to reiterate, your daughter felt belittled by our new student Hecate Repeels more evidently at Abominations where she was marked with multiple F pluses. Plus, she made a bet with our student Jakob Krej that if she failed she'd have to humiliate herself and her friends by declaring them as the Half-A-Witch trio. When she failed her class and to have a Palisman she felt like she was disappointing her mothers and reputation by doing this while also failing at the things she had promise. Therefore she wittingly participated in Ronda Clawthorne's plan to destroy the school which she didn't know of, in order to gain some kind of lost respect before she and the other student she despised before to take down the beast which they did." Principal Terrace put down the paper. "This took me twenty-two minutes. Did I get all that?"
"That's pretty much the summary." Azura replied before looking at her Moms who had varied reactions. Amity was displeased with her while Luz looked more sympathetic. She sighed. "I'm so sorry."
"I can't believe you trusted Ronda!" Amity scolded loudly. "Do you have any idea how many times I've told your brother how much of a bad influence she is?!"
"Sweet Potato. Cálmate. Respira profundamente." Luz held her wife's shoulder whom began to take breaths.
"Dear, we're glad you understand the length of your mistake." Luz said to her daughter. "And we're glad you do. So, I hope you under…"
"It's not that." Azura interjected as tears fell out of her eyes. "I'm sorry for failing you."
The mothers looked at one another with concern wondering what she actually meant. "Failing us?"
"I'm sorry that I'm not becoming the powerful witch you wanted me to be." She said. "I broke your promise."
Luz and Amity looked baffled but both gave some concerned stares at their daughter. "Azura, what promise did you make?" Amity asked.
Azura sighed. "Ten years ago, you were reading The Good Witch Azura to me and you said to me that it would be so cool if I was as powerful as Azura."
"Yes. It was a compliment." Luz explained to her daughter.
"But it's what you wanted from me." Azura said.
"No!" Amity interjected. "We did not want you that way."
"What do you mean?" Azura asked.
"We wanted you to be whoever you wanted to be." Luz explained to her daughter. "We just assumed that you wanting to be like Azura was something you wanted not you misinterpreting what we said years ago."
Azura was in complete disbelief over what her mothers said. "Wait, you never cared for what I would become in the future?"
"Of course not." Luz replied. "You just misheard what we said all those years ago."
"So those ten years were pointless?" Azura asked like her life had been an entire lie.
"Yes. I would never, ever, ever bully my daughter to be someone they are not." Amity assured her gobsmacked daughter.
"I….I….I wasted my life." Azura said. "Wanting to be something I truly didn't want. All the hard work, all the disconnecting, for nothing! Oh Titan. I'm such an idiot." She hung her head in shame as she felt a strong hint of guilt for all those ten years of being disconnected with her friends and family because of her studies and now. It wasn't there when she began, but now it was there.
There was a long awkward silence before Principal Terrace broke the silence. "You just look like you had a huge revelation you need to talk about. I could recommend a therapist." The mothers narrowed their eyes at the principal. "Too soon?"
