A/N: The results of the poll are in, the first 'What if' story I will be working on is 'Strange Alliances'. A new poll is up on my profile for some of my older one-shot ideas that have not been touched yet. This new poll will be up indefinitely while I get other things done, both writing-related and not.

What if 7

The timer went off, a high-pitched howling filling the room. Amity set down her copy of The Good Witch Azura volume 2 and went to the oven. Using her magic, she opened the oven and levitated the fairy pie she had been baking out. She let it hover in the air while she checked to see if it was done and was rewarded by the delicious aroma in the process.

Satisfied, Amity set it onto the counter to allow it to cool. She checked the time and was pleased to see it was still over an hour until she needed to leave for school. The pie would certainly be cool enough by then. It was well worth having gotten out of bed extra early that morning to prepare it in time.

Amity summoned her abomination and had it stand guard while she went to freshen up. She had eaten a light breakfast already while reading and waiting for the pie to bake. But she had not yet showered, still dressed in her pajamas. It had been oddly relaxing to sit around in her night clothes, nose buried in one of her favorite books.

She made a quick stop in her room to drop off her book and grab her Hexside uniform. A short while later she was clean and dressed. Before returning downstairs, she debated momentarily whether she wanted to tie up her hair like usual or not. Eventually she decided to forgo trying a different style and tied her green locks up in the usual tuft.

After taking a moment to gather her school things, Amity began heading back downstairs. She looked over the essay she had written for her history homework along the way, double checking the spelling and grammar. Finding nothing she disliked, she stowed it into her bag with everything else and went to retrieve the pie.

Back in the kitchen, Amity found that her abomination was still guarding the baked good, but more actively than she cared for. The golem was standing between the counter and Emira, who was trying to get around it to the pie. Amity scowled and twirled her finger, making an extra set of arms sprout from the abomination and granting it a better chance to defend the pie.

"I didn't make that for you, step away from it." Amity irately demanded.

"What, too good to share your lunch with your big sister?" Emira returned, throwing a cheeky look at Amity. "You can spare a slice."

"I could, but I won't. It isn't for me either. I made that for…"

Amity trailed off, stopping herself just before her secret slip. It quickly became evident to her however, that there was no secret to be kept. Emira turned and faced her with a smirk that was equally knowing and devious. She advanced on Amity, making her younger sister reflexively take a step back. The moment she did, Amity cursed herself for making herself look more obvious and tried vainly to maintain her composure.

"Made it for whom? A certain human, maybe?" Emira asked goadingly. "A little something to show how you feel about her?"

"I-I have no idea what you are talking about!" Amity blurted out defensively. "I had to bake a fairy pie for my home demonics class!"

Emira clucked her tongue. "Mittens, we both know that Mom would never allow you to sign up for a useless course like that. Now be honest with me and I promise that I will leave the pie alone. But if you don't tell the truth… I'll just steal it and eat it with Edric."

"Okay! Fine! I did make it for Luz." Amity crabbily admitted. "But it's only as a gift to welcome Luz back to school. Nothing more than that."

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, baby sister." Emira replied. "Whatever you say."

She drew a spell circle and levitated the pie off the counter. It swiftly flew around Amity's abomination and over to her. Then it came to a stop, hovering at level with her shoulders. Amity grabbed it and held it away from Emira as she went to exit the kitchen. Her sister giggled and passed her by, giving her finger a small twirl to lift the pie the tiniest bit out of Amity's hands before letting it drop back into them a moment later.

"Hey!"

"Relax, I'm just messing with you. I'll keep my promise."

"You'd better!" Amity barked, her anger then giving way to confusion. "Wait… why didn't you just use your magic to take the pie in the first place?"

"Because, I knew why you made it the whole time. I just wanted to hear you say it."

Amity fumed silently as her sister walked off, leaving her alone in the kitchen. She dismissed her abomination and went to the counter to get a square of parchment large enough for the pie. Once it was wrapped up, Amity left for school.

The trip to Hexside became increasingly nerve-wracking for Amity. While she was dead-set on giving the pie to Luz, there were so many little things worrying her. Her mind was frantically fretting over any tiny thing that could go wrong. Luz may not be there after all, or she won't like the pie, or Amity might not see her before classes start and the pie will get cold before she could give it to Luz, or one of the lockers might attack to get the pie, or all the lockers would attack, or…

She stopped and shook her head. Her negative thoughts were persistent and she took a deep breath to try and calm herself. It did very little and she continued her way onto school grounds full of anxiety.

Once she finally crossed the threshold into Hexside, she heard the excited screams of Luz and her friends. Relief washed over her as she saw the three embrace each other. Amity removed the parchment from the pie as she watched Luz reunite and with Willow and Gus, allowing them a minute to catch up before going over to join them.

"Hey, Luz." She softly greeted.

"Amity!" Luz replied, clearly excited to see her.

"In celebration of your return, I've brought you a homemade fairy pie." Amity told her, holding out the pie.

"Oh, wow! That sounds so…" Luz began, trailing off as she looked at the offering. "...Good..."

"The ingredients are... very fresh." Amity added, looking away and blushing as Luz accepted the pie.

"Thank you. You know, after everything that's happened, I'm just happy to return to some sense of normalcy.

The words had barely left Luz's mouth then a noise sounded through the PA system. They could hear the voice of their principal, who sounded upset. His was accompanied by another voice which Amity found all too familiar

"You can't just barge in here!"

"Yes, we can. We are the Parent Creature Association. Luz Noceda, Willow Park and Augustus Porter, report to Principal Bump's office now! And you too, Amity."

Amity felt her jaw drop in surprise. "Mom?!"

The shock faded quickly and her worry returned. She went with Luz and co to Principal Bump's office where he and her mother were waiting. Her father was their too, flanking the principal along with her mother. There was an unsettlingly confident look on her mother's face, Amity's own expression souring instinctively. Bump gestured for them to sit in the chairs set out in front of his desk and they all did so with deep apprehension.

"I'm sorry to have to call you in here after the first bell." Bump said sincerely. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here."

"If they do, then it's all the more reason for the PCA to step in." Odalia interjected. "The three of you have caused a lot of trouble and have not been properly punished."

"But…" Luz began.

"The abomination situation, the destruction of detention, the rampage of Grom." Odalia went on, ignoring Luz entirely. "These are but a few of the incidents that have endangered Hexside students, including our daughter.

The moment she heard herself being mentioned, Amity shot her mother a deadly glare. She had to use all her willpower to hold her tongue. Her mother meanwhile continued her castigation while her father became distracted by playing with the tail of the imp that Bump wore on his head.

"So, the PCA has decided to..."

Odalia trailed off, noticing Alador and cleared her throat. He snapped from his distracted state, and straightened up. It almost seemed as if he had forgotten why he was there in the first place.

"Oh, right. Um, these three are bad influences and must be executed." He stated, earning a shocked gasp from the kids. Their reaction was ignored as he realized his mistake. "Ahem, I mean expelled."

"What?!" Luz and Gus blurted out in unified horror.

Amity glowered at her mother; eyes full of fury. Odalia met her gaze with a look that was as cold as it was strict. Her hand touched the stone hanging around her neck and Amity heard her mother's voice through her own pendant.

[Take this as a lesson, mittens. A Blight always upholds their end of the deal.]

A soft gasp escaped Amity and her anger drained away. She let her head hang a little, a dejected look on her face. The mood in the room became so dour that it was palpable. Even Principal Bump seemed severely depressed by the turn of events.

"Sadly, I have no choice in the matter." He somberly told them. "Luz, Willow, Augustus, effective immediately you are no longer students of Hexside."

"No!" Luz objected, standing up. "But us... Good... Amity, tell them!"

Luz turned to her, but Amity couldn't meet her eyes. Odalia was staring at her sternly and Amity could only meet her with a defeated expression. Never one to allow a moment of weakness to go unexploited, Odalia struck while Amity was docile.

"Good. Now, you'll be taking double the classes to make up for lost time. Actually, I'm appalled that you're not in class right now. What are you thinking?"

"Right, sorry." Amity said pitifully.

Odalia snapped her finger and the door to the office burst open. Two of Hexside's guards barged in and accosted Luz, Gus, and Willow. The three all tried to get away, but their efforts were in vain.

"No, wait! Ahh! No!" Gus cried out as he was snagged by the hook of the guard. "W-w-w-wait, I'm a good- I'm a good- Ahh!"

Willow let out a frightened squeal as she was also nabbed. "No! Please!"

"No, please! No! Wait! No!" Luz defiantly exclaimed, but was caught just as easily as the others. "Amity! Amity!?"

The guards took them out of the office, their cries filling the hallway as they were taken away. Odalia came to stood by Amity's side, placing her hand onto Amity's shoulder. Amity looked up sadly at Luz just before she was gone from sight and regretted it immensely.

The sight of Luz calling to her reaching out for her… it sliced into Amity like a red-hot blade. But to her shame, she didn't do anything except hang her head. Once the door closed, Amity felt her mother squeeze her shoulder.

"Starting to see the error of your ways, Amity dear?" She asked, her tone smug. "Good. Because I'd hate to have to resort to more drastic measures to get my point across."

More drastic measures? What was that supposed to mean? Was her mother planning to have bounties put on her friends next? Or would they all just get locked away in the Conformatorium for whatever stupid reason? Well, Luz associated with a known criminal, but still…

Amity saw her mother scowl at her. It was then that she realized that she had started to glare at her mother. She quickly let her head hang again, but it was too late. The defiance she had been displaying was undoubtedly going to come back to bite her. Hopefully it would only be her and not Luz, Gus, and Willow too. Her lip trembled and she felt the sickening feeling in her gut worsen.

"I'm sorry…" She said softly, feeling bile rising in her throat.

"Well, I would certainly hope so." Odalia replied. "Between your pitiful performance in school lately and how you've dared to associate with those troublemakers, I am very disappointed in you. I've had your teachers prepare some extra credit assignments for you. I expect you to be working on them the minute you leave school today."

"Yes Mom. I'll be sure to do that."

With newfound self-disgust, Amity begrudgingly began to make her way out into the hall. She dragged her feet to her first class of the day, slinking in and finding her seat. Professor Hermonculus acknowledged her with a glance and then resumed the lecture. Amity set to taking down notes, struggling to stay focused. Before she knew it, the bell screamed and her classmates began getting up to leave.

Before leaving the classroom herself, Amity stopped by Professor Hermonculus's desk to get her extra credit work. She received a thick packet of worksheets with instruction on which chapters to read in her textbook. Without a word, Amity stacked the sheets onto her notebook and went to her next class.

The rest of the day went pretty much the same way. She'd sit in class, take her notes, and get an assignment from the teacher. History class required a research paper on the founding of Bonesborough, her Organic Alchemy class would need her to do another worksheet packet along with more reading, her advanced placement math teacher had given her a week's worth of assignments. Little by little, the stack of books and papers she was carrying began to grow until she was barely able to manage it by the time school let out.

As she made her way onto school grounds, one of her books began to slide atop the pile and Amity struggled to keep it balanced. It didn't work and the book fell to the ground with a thud. Someone noticed and came over to help. Amity was surprised, and riddled with guilt, to find that someone was Luz.

"I'm uh... I'm sorry." Amity lamely said. "I was a coward in there. But my mom…"

"Hey, I get it." Luz softly cut in. "You're scared of her, but I'm not, and I need you to take me her. She seemed open to talking things through."

"No, no, Luz, you don't have to do that."

"Yes, I do. Willow and Gus don't deserve this." Luz insisted, picking up Amity's book and holding up to her while down on one knee. "So, will you help me, please?"

"I... I can't." Amity replied.

Amity spotted her parents coming back towards the school to pick her up. A feeling of panic rose in her as she knew her mother saw her with Luz, a scowl of disapproval coming to the woman's face. She grabbed her book and turned away from Luz, beginning to walk away from her, and hating herself for once again failing to help.

"Mittens!" She heard her mother call. "Quit associating with that human and come along! I won't tolerate you procrastinating when you have all that homework to do!"

Amity mumbled out a quick goodbye to Luz and hurried over to join her parents. Their ride home was a carriage made of abomination goo, pulled by phantom steeds summoned by Odalia. Alador made the goo part to allow them to enter, Odalia stepping in first. Amity followed, needing a moment to get her homework in and set it down. After she was situated, Alador climbed in to sit beside Odalia and they set off for home.

The ride back to the manor was long, quiet and for Amity, very uncomfortable. She tried to pass the time by reading some of the chapters assigned to her that day. But it was difficult for her to focus since she still felt rotten inside about not doing a thing to help Luz and her friends. Her mind kept dwelling on how they must've felt, especially Luz, who had only recently started learning magic.

"Amity, are you feeling alright? You've been staring at the same page in your book for a while now." Alador noted. "You aren't getting motion sickness from trying to read in the carriage, are you?"

"No, Alador. She's just slacking off. Again." Odalia said, narrowing her eyes scathingly at their daughter. "This is precisely why we had to intervene. Those three delinquents are a horribly negative influence, not only on our darling daughter, but on every other student at Hexside. Honestly, Bump should be thanking us for doing the school such a big service."

"I'm honestly surprised that you were willing to make a deal with the human child." Alador admitted. "Considering how you see her as the primary source of the problem, I'd think you'd want nothing more to do with her."

"Just because she is troublesome and should stay away from our children, doesn't mean that she isn't useful to us." Odalia replied. "It will be quite beneficial if she does take up my offer. Not only will we get some free labor out of the deal, but Amity will have one less obligation to concern herself with today. She can dedicate that extra time to getting her schoolwork done and reclaiming her place as Top Student!"

"What do you mean by that, Mom?" Amity asked warily, her stomach starting to tie itself in knots. "You won't make Luz do anything dangerous, will you?"

"Amity, that human girl has sown chaos everywhere she goes. Any of the incidents she has caused have put her into plenty of danger already. And to make matters worse, she's even gotten other students involved, including you." Odalia argued. "I still cannot believe you let her talk you into allowing her take your place as Grom Queen. Do you have any idea how bad it made our family look for you to cower out of such an important role, and then your replacement goes and let's Grom chase her out of the school?"

"But…" Amity began.

"Do not interrupt me when I am speaking, young lady." Odalia warned darkly. "Those other three may have been expelled today, but things can always get worse for them."

"Haven't you done enough already?!" Amity snapped, briefly letting her emotions get the better of her. "You can't go around messing with other people's lives like that!"

Odalia glared sternly at her, quickly reminding Amity of her current position. She shrank back, hiding her face behind her book. The change in behavior didn't do much to appease her mother, who leaned forward as if to corner Amity. The cold look in her mother's eyes swiftly extinguished the flames of Amity's temper and she could barely maintain eye contact with her.

"I can, Amity. And I will, if I must." Odalia calmly stated. "In fact, should that human take me up on my offer, I believe I'll hand her over to Warden Wrath afterwards. From what I understand, she's caused him some trouble too. I may even get a little reward out of it."

The carriage came to a stop as they finally arrived back at Blight Manor. Alador and Odalia got out, leaving Amity to sit in horrified silence. When she noticed that her daughter wasn't following them, Odalia sighed and poked her head back through the carriage door.

"Amity!" She barked impatiently. "Quit wasting time!"

She made a gesture to Alador and a moment later, the carriage tilted sideways. Amity fell out and was caught by a bubble of goo, but her homework scattered on the ground. The shadow of her mother loomed over her, with a scowl no doubt. As she hurried to gather her fallen books and papers, she looked up and found her mother about to start berating her again.

"I am becoming completely fed up with this nonsense, Amity. Go up to your room and get to work! You won't be having dinner tonight either unless you finish every assignment you have first!"

"But…"

"Don't you dare try to make excuses! I will make good on my promise to get rid of that ill-behaved human brat and I will do it tonight!"

"NO!" Amity screamed, her temper suddenly returning full force. "You aren't doing anything to her! I won't let you!"

Before she even realized what she was doing, Amity threw her things down on the ground again. She drew a large spell circle, conjuring a flame that she used on all her books and homework. Odalia's jaw fell, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, stunned into silence. Amity took the opportunity to draw another spell circle, creating a barrier around both her parents.

Then Amity ran. It was all she could do after her outburst. She dashed towards the front gate, hearing her mother shrieking after her. Amity dared to look over her shoulder and saw her mother conjuring a spirit to send out in pursuit. Her father meanwhile was raising himself and Odalia up with a pillar of goo so they could escape through the opening at the top of the barrier.

The rush of adrenaline through her body was her saving grace as it allowed her to make her escape. Fortunately, the barrier was effective against spirits as well as the living, forcing her mother's specter to have to fly over it and lose valuable time. Amity ducked into the trees and summoned a small abomination a short distance away. The moment the spirit drew near, Amity made her abomination lob a chunk of itself off into some bushes. It seemed like a longshot, but it worked and the spirit flew off in the direction of the noise.

Amity began moving again, staying low and moving as quietly as she could. She kept an eye out for her parents as she went in the opposite direction of the spirit. The coast remained clear and as soon as she felt confident she was far enough away from the manor, she broke into a run again.

She wasn't sure for how long she was running, or even if she was headed in the right direction. At some point her foot struck a tree root and she tripped. Her body twisted as she fell and she landed flat on her back, her hair tie falling out. A groan escaped her and she sat up, wincing from the pain.

Someone stepped in front of her and for a moment, Amity feared her parents had caught up. But the person in front of her was a far more welcome sight. She held out a hand to Amity to help her up, concern in her warm, brown eyes.

"Are you okay, Amity?" Luz asked.

"I'm… No, I'm not okay." Amity confessed, getting up. "I did something very stupid and can't go back."

"Go back where? Wait, are you saying you ran away from home?!" Luz exclaimed. "Oh, Amity… it's going to be alright. I was going to talk to your mom about the deal she wanted to make. We can go together and…"

"Don't!" Amity interrupted, grabbing Luz's hands. "Don't make a deal with her! She can't be trusted! Please, Luz, don't…."

"Okay… okay, I won't." Luz calmly replied, gently squeezing Amity's hands. "I'll… figure out some other way to help Willow and Gus get back into school. But what about you? What are you going to do?"

Amity hesitated. "I don't know. But I'm not going back home… and… and I'm not going back to school anymore! If you can't get learn there, then I neither will I!"

Luz's brows rose, her eyes widening. "Wow… I did not see that coming. Are you sure you want to do that? Sounds like you're already in big trouble as it is."

"I don't care. I've made up my mind. Going to school isn't worth it if my friends can't be there!"

"Aww… that's sweet. Rash, but sweet. I don't like the idea, honestly, but I guess I can't force you to go back. But if you need a place to stay, how do you feel about coming to the Owl House?"

"Would Eda allow me to?"

"Are you kidding? I bet she'll be impressed with your decision!" Luz told her with a giggle. "She never liked the idea of me going to Hexside anyway. So I'm positive she'd be happy to support your choice. Come on, let's go talk to her about it now."

She released one of Amity's hands and started to lead her through the forest. Amity blushed and felt her stress and fear fading. Her eyes focused on Luz while they walked, the admiration she had for the girl growing.

"Hey, Luz? Thanks." She said. "I really appreciate this."

"Don't mention it." Luz replied. "It's what friends do. And besides, this could be pretty cool, having you stay at the Owl House. I'd love to have a roommate!"

Amity's blush grew, covering her whole face. "R-roommate?!"

What if Amity dropped out of school?

Title: Wild & Free

Outline: Not yet started

Synopsis: After making a very bold and impulsive move, Amity has fled her home and dropped out of Hexside. She must find a new path in life while staying in the home of the Boiling Isle's most wanted and dealing with the persistent threat of her mother.

Ships: Luz Noceda and Amity Blight (Gradual)

The above notes will remain in place until the next 'What if?' chapter is posted. After which they will be transferred to the author's profile page. The synopsis and ships are subject to change prior to the polls in which the story may be voted on in the future.