Loyalty & Light

by BlehBluhBlah

"You and me, hermana... always." Ever since the Noceda sisters were kids, Lealtad had one thing in mind, and one thing only: protect her little sister's smile. Follow through a journey of The Owl House, as canon events unfold with Luz's big sister watching over her. Can Lealtad keep her sister grounded in her true home? Or will she lose her to this new world's fantastical themes?

14. Our First Day

A/N: Lol, remember when like, I said in chap 1 to expect +10K words going forward? Honestly, +15k might be more accurate for the rest of the series. I DO want to dial back here and there, but also, I have a feeling y'all don't mind having more. In any case, hope you guys enjoy this one!

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Chapter Summary: After a successful entrance exam, the Noceda sisters' first day at Hexside begins! While Luz continues to strive to learning as much as she can, Lealtad finds herself actually intrigued by what Hexside's classes have to offer.

Word Count: 15,338

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Our First Day

Today was a big day.

It felt on par with Lealtad's feelings before a big biology presentation, or a math test, or in class English essay. Given the circumstances, it was quite a similar situation too. She looked at Luz and smiled at the girl's openly stressed expression. Right. Of course she was nervous too. Only illuminated by the singular light glyph hovering between them, all she could see was the stress and worry in her sister's eyes. Leal took a deep breath as she bounced her foot, rolling her tongue around in her cheek. "We got this, hermana," she softly encouraged her.

Her sister nervously frowned. "I-I dunno, Leal." Her eyes cast to Eda, who had joined their huddle with a big grin. "I-I'm not ready for this Eda. Maybe we should go back."

"Nah, kid, you got this," Eda assured her, "Just do what we practiced!"

Leal cringed. "What we finally practiced," she corrected. They ran through many presentations and ideas, and lots were very… Drama Club-esque. While she was all for her sister's imagination, there was only much she was willing to do herself.

"But what if... what if I mess something up?" her sister asked, "Or what if I do something wrong?" She gasped, looking between Leal and Eda worriedly. "What if I die?"

Lealtad shuddered at the thought. This school was capable of anything. Maybe failing the entrance exam would actually mean death?

"Hey. Calm down, calm down." Eda placed her hands on both Luz and Leal's shoulders, smiling at them. "I had to do the same thing when I was a witchling. It's like a rite of passage!" the witch excitedly explained. Her eyes glanced away as a smug look overtook her face. "Granted, I was a little more skilled."

"Eda."

"Clawthorne."

Both Nocedas frowned at the woman.

"Right, right. Sorry, sorry," she amended, holding her hand up. She stepped back and clenched her fist. "Now, get pumped!"

"Pumped!" Luz echoed, pumping her fists.

"Get ready!"

"Ready!" Leal replied, holding up her ice glyphs in her left hand. She looked to her sister, and the two shared a nod. Luz pulled on the hood of her cloak while Leal crouched low.

"Now go!" Eda shouted, pushing the two forward.

This was it.

Entrance Exam to Hexside. They've been practicing for a couple days since Luz learned the ice glyph. And now it was time to show their merit to the one and only, Principal Bump.

As the curtains peeled open and the spotlight hit the stage, Leal kept low and behind her sister as Luz took centre stage, announcing, "From the humblest beginnings… a hero will rise!" Lealtad slid out her glyphs onto the floor, spreading two out on either side of Luz. "With noble counsel from my elder sister, I come from another realm bearing great purpose: to learn long forgotten ancient magic techniques from the greatest witch to ever roam the Isles!" She spun around, gripping onto her cloak. "I am… Luz Noceda!" she announced, tossing her cloak off.

With the obstruction gone, Leal poked her head out from behind her sister, only to be greeted by Bump in the front row of the auditorium, staring at them disinterestedly.

"A-And, this is my sister, Lealtad!" Luz awkwardly added, stepping aside as she tossed out confetti from her fanny pack. "Confetti!" she announced with a chuckle.

Leal sputtered at the airborne papers, removing them from her face. "This was not part of the plan," she hissed at her.

"I panicked," Luz whispered back.

"Well we're still on, so focus up," she reminded her.

"By all means," Bump spoke up monotonously, "Keep going. It's not like we're here to examine you or anything…"

Luz turned around and stood further forward. "A-Anyway! It has been said that humans can't do magic. But I've discovered a lost technique that changes everything," she explained as she pulled out a couple of light glyphs. She proceeded to tap a bunch and toss the balls of light into the air, all while Leal sprinted out from behind her and tapped each ice glyph from Luz's right down to her left, creating a series of tall ice pillars that pierced high into the stage ceiling.

"Behold," Luz shouted.

Leal sided up next to her sister as she finished, "The Art of the Glyph!" And much to her reluctance, she mirrored Luz's pose, both of them doing jazz hands as they gestured around them just like they rehearsed. A series of floating light glyphs high above them with large ice pillars surrounding their background. A perfect demonstration of what they knew!

And Bump stared at them in surprise.

"Spells cast with paper?" he observed. "I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing," he pondered aloud, cupping his chin, "But is it enough to pass the exam?"

Lealtad's eyes widened. What. But the only spell requirement was knowing two spells! She and Luz looked to Eda, who just gripped at the curtains as she whispered, "Improvise!"

"What? Why?" Leal asked. "We—"

"Can do other things!" Luz announced, straightening up. She turned her body around and brought her fingers up to her eyelids. Leal's eyes widened in fear. Oh no. There was no way she was going to—Luz spun back around facing Bump, demonstrating her ability to peel her eyelids upward with her fingers as she made them blink. "Bleep, bloop, bleep!"

Lealtad shuddered at the sight as she gagged, turning away from Luz and stepping back. And then all Hell broke loose. Apparently, practicing outside on the nice soft grass instead of on a stage with hardwood floor meant that when the ice melted, there was a massive pool of water. Leal slipped on the hazard, barrelling right into one of the ice pillars and causing it to crack. As she rubbed her sore back, Luz looked up above her in alarm.

"Look out!" Luz pointed above.

She followed her sister's warning and hopped to the side, rolling off the stage and causing a bunch of her ice glyphs to slip from her army jacket pocket. As Leal rightened herself up, she watched her sister hop off the stage—or rather, slip—and land square on her butt atop one of the many icy glyphs scattered in the floor before Bump. There was a brief second where she and Luz exchanged a panicked look, before glancing back at Bump as the glyph activated. The ice pillar didn't grow high, but it grew enough to awkwardly place Luz right above Bump's face.

But only to then cause her to slide forward, making her cat hoodie catch on the pillar's edge and pitting her face to face with Bump's blank face.

Leal cringed as she hastily hopped onto her feet, rushing over to her sister. "M-Mr. Bump I—we are so sorry!" she pleaded as she arrived at the ice pillar.

Luz awkwardly chuckled. "We, uh, failed didn't we?"

"Believe it or not, I've seen worse," he dryly replied. Leal's face lit up while her sister's hood finally slipped, dropping her on her rear onto the floor. Bump's expression shifted into excitement as he pulled out two red pamphlets. "Welcome, Luz and Lealtad Noceda, to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics!" he announced as he dropped one onto Luz's head and handed the other to Leal.

"Hurray," her sister weakly cheered, rubbing her butt.

Lealtad grinned and turned back to the stage, witnessing a proud smiling Eda behind the curtains. "We did it!" she shouted.

It looked like they were attending Hexside this coming week.

::TITLE OPENING::

Getting dressed in a uniform was already a new experience for Leal, but it was another thing entirely to get dressed for a magic school. After they received their enrolment pamphlets, they had to pick up uniforms from the office and make a list of textbooks to buy. But that presented a different issue in that Luz didn't exactly know which Coven she wanted to study. So while they gathered a list on the needed course materials to purchase and collect, nothing was actually purchased since there was no final decision. Eda had asked Leal if she had any comments to make but Leal merely shrugged.

Sure, she was a bit interested in Potions, but ultimately she wanted to be with her sister. So she and Eda just let Luz handle the scheduling as her sister was intent on cramming all nine tracks into a working schedule. Eda was impressed by it and Leal thought while it was a lot to jam in, it did its job of circulating every track into a school schedule. Leal did make a joke about the extensive schedule when she first saw it though. "Great, I left high school for another school," she sarcastically stated.

Luz flushed a bit about it, but expressed her gratitude in knowing she wouldn't be alone.

And Leal assured Luz she wouldn't. All they needed to do today was tell Bump what their plans were when they stopped by his office. Which would lead to them switching out of these plain coloured grey palette they had going on. It was the "undecided" uniform according to Eda. The idea of it changing colours upon the track they enrolled in made Leal wonder what a multi-tracked one would look like since the sleeves and pants were very singular in their colour theory.

Regardless, Lealtad decided to take today as a challenge: see Hexside student life as she would a new student at a regular high school. Or, human high school she supposed. Luz was stressing about first day jitters, but Leal decided to remain optimistic and seek the learning opportunity. She had only ever been the new kid once on occasion and it was when they first moved to Gravesfield back in middle school. Back then, Leal made her presence known but didn't leave off any bad impressions either. She thought today would be a cake walk, but her sister on the other hand…

"Mmm, we gotta go back," Luz shouted, pointing her arm backward and nearly hitting Leal in the face. "This was a mistake! I'm gonna mess things up again and everyone will see, and—"

"Alright, you gotta calm down," Eda lightly interjected, "What are you nervous about? You've been to school before."

"That's why I'm nervous," Luz replied. "At my human school, I didn't make a good first impression. This is a chance to be seen as something other than a screw-up."

Leal's heart nearly broke at her sister's admission. "Aw, c'mon hermana, there's no need to stress so much 'bout it."

"Yeah!" Eda agreed, smiling back at the two. "Don't worry about what those dorks think. If you want my advice, walk into class and punch the first kid you see," she mimed the gesture with a proud smile, "To establish dominance."

Lealtad chuckled while her sister awkwardly smiled. "Aww, thanks but, I won't be doing that."

"Anyone gives you a hard time and I will," Leal flatly stated. Her sister whipped her head around with a blank stare, making Leal wilt a bit. "¡Estoy bromeando! I'm kidding, Sunshine." She laughed, though Luz still seemed unamused.

Okay, so maybe she meant it a little.

"As long as it's with your fist and not your bat, Bean Head," Eda said, "some twerps can't take a hit like that very well."

Leal smiled at that as she tapped her bat's knob, which was sticking out of her messenger bag.

"Not helping," Luz muttered.

Leal and Eda shared a laugh as they neared Hexside. They soon descended at the pathway and hopped off Owlbert, while Eda stayed on. Luz shouldered on her backpack, conversely Leal already decided she'd be using her brown messenger bag like she did for school. Sadly it meant clearing out some things—which was really all of her books aside from Peter Potionist, much to her displeasure—but she managed. Lealtad felt an awkward sense of familiarity with getting off of Eda's staff. The two could've gone ahead, like the other students passing by, but Leal found herself waiting a bit… for some reason.

"Um…" she suddenly spoke up, drawing all attention to her. As Eda's eyes looked at her prompting, Leal found her words immediately. "Thanks for lunch, by the way," she softly said.

Eda's cheeks tinted a bit as she waved her hand. "Eh, no biggie, Bean Head. Can't have ya spending precious snails on all that cafeteria food after all!"

Leal smirked at her. "Right. Your methods are purely selfish," she sarcastically teased. Grilled Bitter Biter Bread with scrambled griffin egg, tucked away in a classic paper brown bag. She was honestly looking forward to it.

Eda smiled at the two as she placed her hands on her hips. "Last chance to back out, and earn a new Bad Girl Coven patch," she offered as she pulled out a badge with a witch's smug face proudly holding their palms up, "Quitting: It's like trying, but easier!"

Lealtad snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Nah," Luz jerked her thumb to her chest. "I'll just earn it when I quit showering."

"Uh, there is no when," Leal chided, narrowing her brows.

"Bye!" Luz said as she grabbed her backpack straps and walked off.

"Hold up!" Eda twisted off her left hand and threw it at Luz's head, causing her to stop in her tracks and turn around. She mirrored her sister's expression of confusion as the hand hopped off and crawled back to Eda, who was pointing at Luz. "Just try not to be too much of a goody Luz shoes," she advised while screwing her hand back on. "You got this."

"Thanks, Eda," Luz replied. She reached into her backpack's side pockets and pulled out two sock pockets, both bearing similar appearances to Eda and herself. Leal cringed at the sight as Luz said, "In fact, I have written a heartfelt sonnet to commemorate this occasion."

But before she could continue, Eda was already up in the air, waving at the two. "Whoops! A gust of wind just got me. See you after school! Byyye!" she shouted, fading into the distance.

Leal chuckled and patted her sister's shoulder reassuringly.

"'You're gonna do great, kid,'" Luz puppeteered. "Thanks, Puppet Eda!"

"Do I have one?"

Her sister's eyes lit up. "You want one?"

She winced a bit at her excitement, averting her eyes toward the banner up ahead stating, WELCOME TO THE NEW SEMESTER. "Oh uh, c'mon we better get going!" she addressed, turning away and walking.

"Right, right, right," Luz agreed, catching up with her as she tucked her sock puppets back into her bag's pockets.

Walking the pathway was basically no different than the other times they had, but the atmosphere definitely was. The new semester must've had the duality of reinvigorated hope and depressed exhaustion, with the mood of the students ranging from bright happy smiles and tired faces. Leal supposed school was still school no matter where it was—magic or not. As they walked along the path, they came across a familiar face walking the opposite direction of them.

Amity Blight, who had an abomination (that was considerably larger than what she had the last time Leal saw her) that followed after her, mirroring her movements. The summon was carrying some of her extra books as she held hers close to her chest. The witch noticed the two and happily approached, greeting them. "Hey, Luz, Leal! Congrats on getting in." She lowered her voice and brought her hand near her mouth as she added, "And not being in the baby class."

"Thanks Amity!" Luz raised her hand. "Up top!"

The witch stared for a moment, confused, but Leal chuckled as she slapped her own hands together. "It's a high five," she explained, "You slap it."

With a shrug, Amity happily high fived Luz's hand, only for her abomination to mimic her gesture and end up high fiving Luz's face. Leal laughed at the sight of her sister trying to wipe off the goop as Amity and her abomination walked off. "Hand wipes?" she offered, already producing a pack from her bag.

Luz accepted with a bright smile, wiping her hands clean as she looked up at the banner in excitement. She tossed the wipe into the trash bin then she placed her hands on her hips. "Wow, my first day at Hexside. A chance to discover my true magical potential," she brought her fingers together mischievous as she said, "And maybe meet a hot yet vulnerable upperclassman."

Leal's brows raised at that but before she could comment, a familiar laugh erupted from Luz's backpack. "Dream on!" came King's voice as he stuck his head out from her bag.

"King?" she and Luz exclaimed as her sister turned her shoulder a bit.

He responded in turn by extending his arm and poking Luz's cheek. "Boop!" He then hopped out of her bag and landed near a trash can.

"Why're you in my bag?" her sister asked.

"You're a free ride to the best buffet in town! Nyah!" he exclaimed before shopping into the bin. Lealtad winced at the sight as the demon emerged with a half-eaten donut. "The trash cans here are filled with half-eaten gold!"

"Make sure to at least wash it down with something?" Leal gently pleaded.

"Oooh! There's a half-drunk juice box in here? That okay?"

"I meant something along the lines of water but nevermind," she exasperatedly remarked, shaking her head. "Just don't stuff yourself too much. And don't get wrapped up in more Stranger Danger, hi-jinx please?" Leal begged as she turned away, not wanting to be late.

"Sure thing!" King said as he shot a thumbs up. "I'll be all healthy and junk!"

"Okay, and if anyone asks, you don't know me," Luz stated in a low voice as she began walking after her.

"Have a wonderful school day, person-I-don't-know!" King shouted as they walked away.

Lealtad shook her head and chuckled as Luz caught up with her. Hopefully he'll be around when Eda comes by to pick them up later today. As they made it to the entrance staircase, they were greeted by a cheerful Willow and Gus. Luz had spoken with them a couple times on the crystal ball, letting them know about their preparations for the entrance exam, but this was the first time Leal was seeing them since the Grudgby game day. It was her first time seeing Willow since then.

But both of the two simply beamed smiles at them as they threw up their arms. "Luz!" they greeted.

Lealtad smiled as she let her sister pull ahead. "Hello, fellow Hexoleos!" she greeted back.

"Hello, classmate!" Willow winked, with an impish grin.

The two then turned to Leal and smiled. "Congrats to you too, Leal!" Gus cheered.

She chuckled, shaking her head as she raised a palm. "Don't mind me, just enjoy your moment," she mused as she gestured to Luz.

"Hey, you both did it!" Gus exclaimed, drawing up a spell circle. He then grabbed it and tossed it upward, summoning above them in blue letters, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME! Lealtad cackled at the sight while Willow threw her friend a glare. "Sorry, I was, uh, covering all my bases," he sheepishly explained as he scratched his cheek.

Leal shook her head, smiling. "Nah, don't worry 'bout it Porter—that's hilarious!"

Willow stepped forward and gestured toward the banners covering the pathway. "So, do you know who those witches are?" As Leal and Luz turned to look at the banners, Willow went on to explain, "Those are the heads of the main nine covens. Each one excelled at a magic school like Glandus, St. Epiderm, and, of course, Hexside." She then gestured toward the steps. "Are you prepared to enter these hallowed halls?"

Leal's brows raised at that, surprised by the sudden pressure and excitement enticed by Willow. Luz looked thoughtful at the inquiry, cupping her chin.

"Hmm, that's what I'm gonna figure out right now," her sister replied. "See you on the other side, friends!" she shouted before walking up the steps.

Lealtad threw the two a peace sign. "Guess that's my cue!"

"See you later!" Guz waved another spell, and out came, GOODBYE FOREVER!, making Leal laugh once more as she walked up the steps. "You know what? I'm uh, I'ma just get rid of these," she heard Gus mutter.

"Hey Leal!" came Willow's voice.

Lealtad stopped on the steps, turning to look at the girl.

She shot her an encouraging smile. "Good luck," she softly said.

A sense of relief washed up inside of Leal as she smiled back. "Thanks, Park," she nodded with a wink. "Catch you guys later." She made a move to turn but then shot Gus a finger gun. "And Porter? Absolutely do not get rid of those. They're great!" She quickly turned around and rushed up the steps, catching her sister right at the doors.

Luz stood before the opened doors, letting out a deep breath. She turned to Leal with an excited smile.

This was it.

"You ready, Sunshine?" Leal smirked with a raised brow. "It's time to enter a new school."

"A magic school, hermana," her sister corrected.

"Right." She nodded. "Time for magic school."

And with that, they stepped right into Hexside's doors once again, but for the first time…

As students.

::::

Luz was just about ready to waltz on in Bump's office but Leal stopped her, choosing to knock on the door.

"Who is it?" came his reply.

"The Nocedas!" Leal replied.

"Come on in!"

With that, Leal looked at her sister, who beamed and eagerly opened the door. As predicted, the witch sat at his desk, hands folded on its top as he looked at them patiently. As they walked in, Luz waved and said, "Hiya, Princy-B!" She shot him with a pair of finger guns. "Can I call you that?"

Lealtad snorted. Eda was way too much of an influence on her.

"Absolutely not," he flatly replied. "Now, today we'll be visited by the Emperor's Coven for a routine inspection. If we want to impress them, you'll need to join a coven track before they arrive," he explained, pointing at the two.

"Actually," Luz raised a finger, dipping a spare hand into her backpack, "Principal Bump, I've made my own schedule."

Lealtad's smile grew as she watched her sister pull out her scroll and unfurl it, causing it to unroll onto Bump's desk. She had been working on that schedule for two days now. Leal thought it wasn't allowed to study multiple tracks at once but Eda encouraged Luz to try it out. Nonetheless, she saw her sister's passion bleed through at the possibilities of studying every track in Hexside. Though Lealtad herself had no qualms about studying anything.

As long as she was with her sister, she'd be fine.

Her sister went on as Bump cupped the end of the scroll inspectingly, "First, Vet Care for Mythical Beasts, then Healing and Dealing, and then after lunch—"

Principal Bump interjected with a laugh. "Studying multiple tracks at once? No one does that." he remarked.

"Then I'll be the first!" Luz earnestly stated, placing her hand on her chest.

Leal grinned at her sister's declaration. That was her Sunshine alright.

"No, you won't," Bump sternly replied, making Leal gulp. He closed up the book on his desk, gesturing to the title, RULE BOOK. "According to the rules," he explained as he opened up a random page toward them, "a good witch needs to hocus-focus," he said while gesturing his hand in a cutting motion. He then glanced upward and pointed to the banners hung above his desk. "You can only pick one of the nine tracks." He then narrowed his eyes as he pointed back at Luz. "And you do not want to embarrass me in front of the inspector."

"But all the tracks are sooo cool!" her sister whined. She poked her cheek as she asked, "Is there some sort of enchanted article of clothing that could sort this out for me?" Leal laughed at the innocent inquiry, but Bump seemed unnerved by it.

"Well there used to be, but…" his voice trailed off, as a look of regret and morbidness crossed over his face. He seemed as though he was recollecting something, but when he finished, he shuddered.

Okay then.

Lealtad was torn between wanting to know and not wanting to know.

"I don't know if I can choose just one," her sister said, sincerity pouring into her face.

Bump sighed and rose up from his desk, walking around behind Luz and Leal. "Then I'll choose one for you." He pointed up at the banners. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!" He landed on Potions, but Lealtad was too busy being surprised by the familiar nursery rhyme being sung here. "Ah, yes!" Bump exclaimed. "The Potions Track. You humans are filled with liquids, right?" He smiled at Luz as he drew up a spell circle, creating one at the base of her feet. It proceeded to go all the way up, turning Luz's tunic and cowl into the standard Hexside colours while her legging and sleeves turned to yellow.

Luz smiled a bit as she looked at her new accents. "Oh, I guess I have always liked pouring things into other things."

He turned to Lealtad. "And what about you, Lealtad?"

Leal glanced at the pot, then to Luz's unenthused expression. She then turned to Bump and shrugged. "I'm fine, as long as I'm with mi hermana. So yeah," she held out her hands, "Potions me, Mr. Bump!"

He chuckled, then casted the same spell for Lealtad, changing her uniform into Potions track.

"I expect you to be on your best behavior." He folded his hands behind his back as he turned to the corkboard on the wall next to his windows. Lealtad noticed a good portion of the pictures shown were… of Luz's last visit to Hexside's fair grounds. She sheepishly chuckled at the sight as Bump sighed. "Based on the costly repairs from recent incidents, we could really use a donation from the Emperor's Coven. Now, off to class," he told the two, waving his hand to shoo them away.

The two nodded and turned around, making their way out the door.

"Oh and Leal?"

She stopped at the doorway, turning to look at Bump.

He smirked at her. "Great work on those photos."

She fought back the flushed feeling in her ears as she nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Bump."

::::

Despite the excitement of their first official magic school class (Leal wasn't counting the time she snuck in with Willow), she could sense Luz's irritation about her curriculum. She had known her sister was really excited about all the opportunities, but she wasn't sure what to say. They looked over their schedules given to them by Bump's secretary and made their way to their first class. As expected, it was all Potions. It even said Potions 'Till You Die and Potions After Death, which honestly made Leal wonder if there was a potion for resurrection or something of the sort.

Nonetheless, it was evidently clear how singularly focused one track was.

Lealtad didn't exactly see a downside to their randomly chosen curriculum. After finishing Peter Potionist and doing all that QnA work with Eda, she had more of an understanding toward Potions than any other Coven so far. Even if it was minimal, she was sort of excited to put it into practice. Yet she knew Luz didn't feel the same way at all. If not by the way she frowned, then because of her longing looks to each classroom they passed as they walked the halls.

"C'mon," Leal nudged her sister with her elbow, "you don't even know how it's gonna go yet!"

Luz's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "I know, I know." Her gaze fixed onto one more classroom with an opened door—there wasn't even anyone inside it—before she looked back at the floor. "I just… I was really looking forward to learning everything, you know?"

Leal frowned.

What would their mom say here? She could empathize with Luz's plight, though she hardly had any idea on what to say to reignite Luz's passion for today. It started so strong for them, for her, yet this one action seemed to throw a wrench in all of that excitement. Her sister was the type to take on as much as she could, to try out all the flavours if possible, but only when it matched her excitement. However, that was just not possible right now. Leal wasn't sure what they could do. But she did know one thing: it was by no means an excuse to settle.

"Hey, who knows?" She placed her hand on Luz's shoulder and shot her a smile. "If Willow can swap from Abominations to Plants—you can too? Maybe you can swap around each track to get a taste of them all?"

Her sister's head raised at that, but her eyes didn't seem to match the excitement in her smile. "Yeah, that'd be cool," she softly said.

"Yeah it would," Leal encouraged, shaking her sister's shoulder a bit, almost as if she was trying to spark her enthusiasm. Her gaze glanced ahead, right at their first Potion's class where a number of students already began piling in. She moved her hand off her sister and pointed in front of them. "But this is now," she told her. "Can't be sad about what ya haven't tried when you haven't even tried what's right in front of you."

At that, her sister made a childish pout, but still shifted into a bigger smile. "You're right, Leal." She proceeded to march forward confidently. "Let's go learn!"

Leal smiled as she followed after her sister. "Let's indeed."

Walking into the classroom was a different kind of shift than just peeking into them like she did before. Massive desks seating two students per table, a long table at the back of the class with several cauldrons laid out and cabinets filled with ingredients. Their teacher, Miss Ayla, had a yellow tunic and matching beret-like hat, as well as pale lime skin and short teal hair. She shot the two a big smile as she continued to write on the board. Potions 101 along with "Let's mix it up!" underneath. Leal chuckled at the simple pun.

Her gaze then shifted to the rest of the classroom. She expected the gazes of the students in the class to fall on them curiously or even the teacher to speak up about their arrival, but instead, the teacher merely announced it was time for everyone to take their seats and move on. Luz's look of nerves dissipated instantly at the moment and she heeded Ayla's order. Leal personally welcomed the blasé introduction as she'd rather slip in then their presence being a spectacle.

Of course, there was one student who noticed them.

The three eyed girl Amity was friends with: Boscha.

Lealtad noted how the girl was at the front of the class, at a desk by herself. Her eyes widened in surprise at Luz, more than Leal, but there was nothing more from that. Following her sister, Luz walked over to the middle row, on the right column, and took the window seat. As Leal sat beside her sister, she set down her messenger bag underneath the table.

"Welcome to a new semester!" Miss Ayla greeted. "Let's get stirring! Today we'll make," she dug underneath her desk and pulled out an orange potion, "fog brews!" She proceeded to smash the potion on the floor, creating a navy blue puff of smoke. Then, out of nowhere, another puff of smoke appeared in front of her desk, and out their teacher emerged, with her hands out. "Begin!"

Lealtad's brows raised at the straightforward start. No lead in? Wow, they really were expected to know a lot going into this, huh? She looked toward their peers, noticing them all move to the back of the class to gather their cauldrons and ingredients. She looked to her sister, who shrugged in confusion. "I'll go," Leal stated, rising up from her seat.

But then Miss Ayla appeared beside them, with another fog brew cloud. "Luz and Lealtad Noceda, yes?" At their nods, she smiled. "Since you're new to my class I'll have to assign you your own cauldrons." She raised a finger and drew up a spell, causing two cauldrons stacked in the back to float over to their desk. As they landed perfectly in front of the two, she explained, "These are your designated cauldrons for the rest of your time here at Hexside. Do be mindful to keep track of them and maintain their upkeep!" Another spell cast later and their table was filled with ingredients, vials, and two instruction books.

Before Leal could even ask where to start, she noticed the cauldron before her slowly gained an engraving near its base, as though an invisible calligrapher was inscribing it. LEALTAD NOCEDA, it read. She let out a chuckle of wonder as she leaned closer at the cauldron. Something about this having her name on it was pretty damn cool. She looked to her sister to see if the excitement was matched, but only found Luz pulling open the ingredient book with a hesitant smile.

Following suit, Leal flipped open her book and went to the designated Fog Brew page.

"See, potions are fun!" her sister exclaimed. "You could spend the rest of your life studying this, right?"

"Sounds like you're convincing yourself more than me, hermana," Leal mused as she continued reading the instructions. A large blast from outside the class erupted, but one glance to the teacher and the rest of her peers told Leal this was nothing to be concerned about. Which was great, because she wanted to see what the fuss was about with this potion.

One vial of smoke toad spit, three vials of scream squid ink, stir until mixture settles into lime green, add a drop of fire bee honey, then stir until fog starts to emit and transfer to potion bottle. "Huh," Leal exclaimed, reaching for the vial of smoke toad spit, an orange substance, "seems simple enough!" She made a move to begin pouring but once she glanced down, Leal realized her camera was still on her. "Dios mío, I forget this thing is 'round my neck sometimes." She chuckled, tucking it in her messenger bag in the other corner away from the barrel of her bat.

After pouring the smoke toad spit, she reached for the three dark purple vials of scream squid ink and proceeded to pour them in, watching the substances sink into the cauldron of water slowly. But as she reached for her wooden spoon to begin stirring, she noticed a mist of lime-yellow blowing nearby. Leal flinched at the sight before turning to the source. "Luz!" she hissed, realizing her sister left her cauldron unattended and Miss Ayla was stood behind her staring.

Her sister turned around and met the witch's unimpressed look. "Sorry, sorry," her sister apologized as she grabbed her spoon and began stirring.

The woman merely walked away, shaking her head as she continued to make her rounds around the classroom.

Lealtad fixed her sister with a look, and she responded with a sheepish smile. "Did you even look at the recipe?" she asked.

Luz frowned as she looked away, keeping her hand stirring.

Leal sighed as she grabbed her own spoon and began stirring herself. "Luz, how can you already be bored with this stuff when ya haven't given it all a try yet?" Luz responded with a pout, making Leal roll her eyes. "Even if you were to study all the tracks this is one of them. Don't you wanna try first?" She raised a brow at her. "'Member what Mamá always says? 'Nada funcionará a menos que lo haga funcionar'."

"Yeah," Luz sighed. "You're right." Her gaze flew toward the window. "But the other tracks are practicing with each other right now!"

"Well, technically we're practicing too!" she argued, glancing into her cauldron. Wow, it did not look anywhere near lime green yet. This was gonna be a lot of stirring, huh? Peter Potionist mentioned how much stirring was a crucial part of the process in potion making. And even Eda attested to its exhaustion. But man did Leal wish it was an exaggerated take. One glance to her sister and her pout remained. "Hey," Leal said, "a lot of Dama Búho's methods didn't seem 'fun' or 'exciting' but you learned somethin' out of those, no?"

"You're right, you're right," Luz replied with a grumpy nod. "Doesn't mean the rest aren't also cool."

Leal closed her eyes and took a breath. "How 'bout you complain about the rest when you've at least finished one class?" Honestly, she just wanted to focus on her potion right now. "It can't be that bad…"

::::

It was bad.

Real bad.

For Luz at least.

It was honestly a tiring but yet decent workout, but stirring for that long really was exhausting. About five minutes into stirring, Leal asked Miss Ayla about the process and she remarked that this was what Potions was all about! And it was then Leal noticed a good portion of their peers were using magic to levitate and stir their cauldrons. Great, another biological handicap for her and Luz. And it didn't help that Boscha would shoot them smug looks every so often.

It also unfortunately meant few were ahead of them, as magic alleviated their muscles from tiring out, so Leal and Luz were a couple steps behind. Or rather, Luz was and Leal was doing her best to keep up. After the lime green and adding the drop of fire bee honey, the stirring was almost twice as long after that. So of course, Luz whined about the exhausting process nearly every step of the way. These were the moments where Leal's patience truly was tested. She understood her sister's ADHD could act up and make it hard to sit still, what with her restlessness clearly wanting to engage with something, but she just wished she'd let her stir in peace for a bit.

Class ended with four bottles of fog brew at every table—the standard batch per brew—and Miss Ayla stating how proud she was that (nearly) everyone managed to follow the instructions. One potion reserved for a test, to which she graded them on performance and Leal managed to pass it. They were then permitted to take their potions with them, and Leal made the possibly stupid decision to stuff hers in her bag. She took out her camera and bat of course, but she really wanted to bring it home with her. It was her first potion! She wanted to show it off to Eda—though she knew the witch would probably have a teasing remark if anything.

But Luz on the other hand, didn't get to finish in time since she had to start over, which meant a fail on today's participation mark. And so she was left with an unfinished cauldron that Miss Ayla had to dump out. Along with some potions that weren't up to par. Which did not help with her excitement.

"Ooh boy! Stirring is the pits," her sister hissed as she massaged her left arm.

"It's certainly a workout," Leal mused.

"What else is on the schedule for today?" Luz asked, reaching for her schedule.

"Uhh, Potions in Motion," Leal recalled. "I believe it's down the hall."

Her sister's expression fell as she read the rest of their schedule. "Aw, man!" Luz groaned. She looked to her left arm which was still hanging in the air. "I'm sorry, elbow!"

"Well, technically, it's not just your elbow feeling the strain," she corrected, gesturing to her right arm with her bat, "Wrist, fingers, hand, the forearm, shoulders—"

Luz shot her a blank stare.

"I mean… you'll get used to it?" she sheepishly offered.

Her sister's gaze then flew toward in front of them. Just on the opposite end of the hall was a cabinet filled with crystal balls. And it looked like an Oracle Track student was returning one just on the shelf. Unfortunately, the cabinet was still left open, no doubt for other students to return and pick up a crystal ball of their own. And more unfortunately, Lealtad recognized that excited glint in her sister's eyes.

"¡No lo hagas, hermana!" she hissed at her sister.

Luz pouted at her. "But it's a crystal ball," she replied, gesturing toward the object.

Leal scoffed. "I know, we have one back home, 'member?"

Her sister rolled her eyes. "Not that. I mean, it's one strictly being used by Oracle students! Maybe it can show me if I'm on the right track."

"Sunshine, you have to know how much of a stretch that is," she drlyly remarked.

"No, no," Luz shook her head. "You're right, Leal. I can't be tempted!" She massaged her forehead as she began to walk off. "It's my first day. Make a good impression," she whispered to herself.

Leal proudly smiled at that as she walked with her sister. "Exactly! Good on ya, Sunshine. And who knows? Maybe during lunch we can—"

"Whoa!" Lealtad turned around and quickly realized Luz was no longer beside her, but instead already holding an orb. She facepalmed in disappointment.

Almost immediately, a transparent spirit emerged from the orb like a genie, wrapped in bandages as it said in a ghostly voice, "You will be in trouble very soon!"

"Wow! Wait, what'd you say?"

Suddenly, a voice cleared their throat and Leal glanced over, realizing Principal Bump was just standing a few metres away from Luz. Her eyes widened as she straightened up while her sister shyly returned the crystal ball to its original place. Bump frowned at Luz with his hands folded behind his back. "What was the one thing I asked of you?"

"B-But—"

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Bump," Lealtad hastily said as she began walking over. "I-I promise it won't happen a—"

"Lealtad Noceda," he said in a stern voice, making her freeze. He slowly turned to her. "I suggest you head to your next class, as you wouldn't want to be late." He whipped his head back to Luz. "You… will be heading to detention.

Luz gulped while Leal's eyes widened. Oh no. "Sir, please: I promise I'll look after her," she argued, standing beside her sister, "y-you can deal your punishment after school but I promise she won't—"

"I wasn't studying other tracks!" Luz shouted, waving her arms about. She looked at Leal. "Leal, c'mon!"

"It's not that," Bump replied. "It's that I can't trust that you won't try again." He fixed a look at Leal. "Lealtad. Last chance. Head to class now."

She steeled herself, gripping her bat (for support, not that) as she stood tall. "I'm sorry Mr. Bump. But she's my sister," she sternly said, "I can't just—"

"Leal," Luz interrupted. She glanced down at her sister, who looked up at her pleadingly. "Just go. Don't be late."

Her eyes widened. "Luz—"

"I can handle this!" she asserted, narrowing her eyes. This… This tone, this kinda talk, it reminded her of their fight a few weeks back. Was… she upset at her for sticking up for her? Leal frowned a bit as she stepped back. No… was it because she didn't want her hovering? This was hovering? Her mental plight must've been obvious to her sister, as Luz let out a small sigh. "Leal, please. Hermana, no te metas en problemas también," she begged her, "not for me."

The look in her face, it then hit Leal.

Luz realized her mistake immediately and not only regretted it, but hated it the second she realized Leal was going to insert herself into it.

She had so many things she wanted to say but… one more glance to Bump and she knew he was out of patience.

Leal took a breath and nodded. "I'll try taking notes for you," she lightly said, turning away.

And as she walked off, she could hear her sister begin profusely apologizing and defending herself as Bump led her to detention.

Dammit.

She promised to look after Luz, to stick by her side, but she was literally leaving her.

But Leal closed her eyes and took another breath. Who was she kidding? There was nothing she could've done to make that situation better. Luz brought it on herself. That line of thinking made Leal click her teeth irritably. What was with her sister? Why couldn't she have just given it one day? Lealtad shook her head. Why was she so upset about this?

Was it because she was disappointed in Luz?

Or… something else?

She didn't feel that disappointed in her sister. Maybe a tad, but not enough to warrant this… feeling she had in her heart. Lealtad sighed as she reached her next class. Maybe she was just due for a distraction. And schoolwork was the most welcomed chance at it. Entering Potions in Motion, she was greeted with practically the same classmates and teacher. Miss Ayla smiled at her as she motioned for Leal to come inside quickly. "Class is about to start!"

The arrangement of the class was identical as well, so she took the same spot as the last class. As the bell rang, Ayla asked her, "Lealtad? Where's your sister? Running late?"

She felt her ears flush a bit as the attention suddenly called toward her out in the open.

Really?

She sheepishly smiled. "A-Ah, Principal Bump's taking her to… detention," she explained. She ignored the obvious snide chuckling coming from Boscha's seat, choosing to look her teacher straight on.

Her face was ridden with shock, but credit to her professionalism, she quickly recovered with a polite smile. "Ah! Well, then I suppose I won't have to worry about tardiness." She straightened herself up and gestured toward the class. "Welcome to Potions in Motion! As you're aware, now is the best time to apply and go over our recently learned knowledge! So, the fog brew!" She grabbed a piece of chalk and started writing on the board. "It's recipe, although simple, is what we call in Potions a Preciser! Meaning, it always requires the exact measurement to vials, amount of water, and stir time!"

Lealtad hastily dug into her bag and pulled out her notebook and a pencil, desperately trying to catch up and write this down. She hadn't expected this class to start off with a lecture! The last one was hands on! She tried to jot down the bare essentials of what Miss Ayla was saying, but the woman was not letting up. She knew it was a return semester of the same year, but couldn't she slow down? And then it hit Leal as she glanced up once more to check the board and match her pace.

No one else was writing.

Leal's eyes widened with alarm as she glanced around, realizing everyone was looking on boredly.

They already knew this?

This was recap.

Lealtad ignored the embarrassed feeling she felt as few glanced her way, and kept writing. She was so behind. That meant Luz would be even further behind in every track she chose to study. They were really in it for a curriculum, huh? Well, if this was what Luz signed up for, then it was what Leal did too. The pace was difficult, and it didn't help that Leal started so late, but she was managing. From Ayla's tone alone, it wasn't hard to grasp that this was basic recapping. Or at the very least, a pace the rest of the class were already familiar with.

She had gone on and on about fog brews: the way it can be used and applied, how much it sells for in places like Bonesborough or Latissa, or even just basic principles on maintaining and gathering the ingredients themselves. It was a lot of notetaking. Things she was used to in a Human school setting, but not at all what she expected here. And it was all kinds of overwhelming and familiar. She easily had three pages of notes by the time Miss Ayla finished her lecture.

"Okay!" she clasped her hands together. "Now that the review and in-depth is done, you're all free to brush up on what you've learned! Just let me know if you're potion making so I can mark if ingredients are being taken!"

At that, Leal was still finishing up her last note, but glanced around and noticed all her classmates leaving their desks and getting their cauldrons along with a handful of ingredients. She looked around in confusion. What now? Some were preparing the same ingredients required of the fog brew, others seemed to be working concoctions or things she wasn't familiar with. Her confusion must've been clear, as Miss Ayla walked over to her with a patient smile. "Something the matter, Lealtad?"

She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as she replied, "I-I'm kinda unsure on what to do now…"

"Ah right," the witch nodded. She glanced around and gestured to the back of the class. "This portion of class is reserved for experimentation; practicing brews, mixing and trying new things to potions we've learned in the previous class, or even just a chance to try new potions yourself!" she excitedly explained. She leaned close and stage-whispered, "Feel free to take a crack at whatever you like!"

With that, Ayla left Leal to her own devices, tending to another witch how had a question.

Looking at the only cauldron left in the back of the class, Lealtad decided she might as well join the herd and try the fog brew one more time. Practice made perfect and all that. As she went to grab the needed ingredients, she noticed it was actually her cauldron too: the same engraving and everything! Leal blinked in wonder before taking everything she needed back to her desk. It must've been some sort of magic that brought it here, which would explain why Miss Ayla stressed not losing them.

Lealtad took a glance at her notes, reading up on the recipe she had jotted down, before assessing the ingredients. It felt… different, having to grab everything herself and arrange it. Miss Ayla did it for her and Luz last period, but having to set up everything herself now felt… like cooking.

"Having trouble, Human?" a bratty voice chirped up.

Leal glanced over toward the source, not all surprised to see Boscha smirking at her. Wow, that was what she sounded like? Could not have been more of a cliché! She just blankly stared at her.

"Couldn't help but notice you looking out of your element," she teased, "need us to slow down a couple years?"

Leal noticed how there really wasn't much of a reaction from their peers. People looking sure, but not the typical snickers or provoking thoughts of "oooh-ing" going on. She just frowned at the witch and said, "Hey if spouting nonsense is the only way you can get yourself to focus in class, by all means keep your childish insults to a dull roar." She grabbed her pencil and tapped her notebook. "Some of us, are trying to focus?"

At that, a few giggles erupted, surprising Leal.

Boscha's brows narrowed but before she could quip back Miss Ayla clapped her hands. "Alright, alright, enough chatter! Please keep all talking reserved to your seatmate! Otherwise," she walked by and gave Boscha a glance before turning to Leal, "focus on your individual work."

Lelatad happily smiled at her, firing up a salute. "Copy that, Ma'am."

Returning to her notes, Leal readied the bottles of water. After pouring in the required amount, she quickly moved to pour the vial of smoke toad squid and three vials of scream squid ink. And thus the stirring began. She let herself slouch forward, leaning on her right arm as she comfortably stirred. Watching the mixture slowly blend together, she felt a bit entranced. Right now, she had three more bottles of this stuff in her bag, and here she was making more! She glanced at the potion bottles she was going to fill with this brew and gave it a quick once over.

If she really thought about it, her brown messenger bag could actually fit a lot of bottles! Well, if they were all around that size. But judging from what she'd seen after delivering potions for Eda, it seemed to be the average size. She chuckled to herself as she glanced at her opened notebook. What was she thinking? Just stuffing her bag with potions and leaving no room for her books? Sure, her notepad she used for glyphs could fit in her bag's front pocket and her wallet could go in her jeans, but the other things: the mini compact first aid kit, her bottle of hand sanitizer, her photo printer—

She winced a bit, shaking her head while turning her attention back to the pot. She sounded ridiculous. Rationalizing putting what were basically unstable bottles of chemicals into her bag. But at the same time, having to remove her favourite books, she started to realize how much… well, how much it was. The compact first aid kit had a collection of things she still needed to use, yet also things she was running out of. At this rate, she was going to run out of plasters and then bandages next!

She doubted that shoving potions would help the situation at all.

"Wow, Lealtad!" She nearly shook, turning toward Miss Ayla attentively. The woman was beaming at her proudly? "Nice form, good pace!" she pointed at her. Leaning over her cauldron, she nodded in approval. "Keep in mind everyone," she spoke up a bit louder, clearly addressing the class, "a good stirring speed and technique can make the difference in quality and time! Miss Noceda here is a great example of how sometimes, the old hands on approach might do you good!" She bid another nod at the girl before turning away, moving back to the front desk.

Lealtad looked down at her pot, realizing the mixture was slowly starting to make a lime green hue. Wow, had time flown that quickly already? But Ayla made it seem like she was doing something different. Leal frowned a bit as she looked to her notebook, unsure if she should jot this down after as she didn't even know what to say! "This just feels natural," she muttered to herself, looking back at the cauldron.

And it was weird how natural that felt to say.

After the mixture turned lime green, she added a drop of fire bee honey and stared at the pot as she stirred. Something about this, it was… relaxing. It felt like being a kid, just mixing and throwing things together, but instead she was actually making something. She smiled at the sight as she leaned onto her right palm, maintaining her causal stir. "It's sorta like Chemistry but… actually fun?"

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

::::

Lunch was not any different than human school.

While Leal was tempted to go find a staircase and eat in private, she figured Bump wouldn't like that and didn't want to risk worsening things. So, she resigned herself to the cafeteria. To her surprise however, it wasn't as packed as she expected. But she did notice some classes were still packed, so she wondered if they all had a similar lunch schedule. Or if some just didn't choose to eat in the cafeteria. Either way, she found herself an empty table and a chance to dig into Eda's grilled Bitter Biter Bread with scrambled griffin eggs.

She pulled out her phone and sent Luz a message.

Best Sister [11:40 AM]: Hey hermana! I'm just chilling in the cafeteria rn.

Best Sister [11:40 AM]: you probably can't see this because you're in detention but reply when you can!

She cringed as she lowered her phone. "Dios mío, I sound like Mom." She really did hover. She forgot that her sister couldn't even see these messages yet, not until they got back home! She ignored her embarrassment as she pocketed her phone and proceeded to munch away at her sandwich. She honestly forgot about its spacing inside her bag, so it was a bit of a hassle to pull out when she had seven fog brew potions in there. Miss Ayla noticed her plight and reminded her the bottles are quite sturdy so they wouldn't break in her pack with her rifling around the way she did. The witch seemed quite intrigued with her, which made Leal a bit nervous.

She's had teachers express interest in her schoolwork before, but Leal couldn't tell if this time it was because she was human or if it was because she was actually doing well. And when she transferred to Potions (Again), she immediately learned Miss Ayla was one of those concerned types—especially for new kids. It turned out her third class on her schedule was a reserved study period; an allotted time for students to continue practice with brewing—with their teacher's permission—or review notes or even ask questions. During that period, Ayla made sure to be attentive to Leal. Though Leal wasn't really opening herself up to inquiries, she appreciated the woman's assistance.

An entire hour and ten minutes passed where she played catch up, so she was definitely going to savour her sandwich and relish in this thirty minute break. Of course, her solitude was short lived as two familiar faces slid into the seats in front of her.

"Hey Leal!" Gus greeted.

"Porter, Park." She nodded at them as she took another bite.

"So, Potions huh?" Willow addressed with enticing brows. "I guess after delivering all those potions for Eda you pick up a thing or two, huh?"

She chuckled as she shrugged. "Wouldn't say that," she argued. "Honestly, I kinda got roped into it 'cause Bump just decided for us."

"You liking it so far?" Gus asked.

"Yeah, actually!" She smiled. She wiped her hands with a napkin and quickly grabbed one of her potions from her bag, placing on the table. "Check it, my first fog brew potion!"

"Oooh!" the two cooed simultaneously, making her laugh.

"It's kinda fun," she admitted, tucking the bottle back into her bag. "Of course, that's just my opinion though." She took another quick bite of her sandwich.

Willow furrowed a brow as she looked around the cafeteria. "Hey, so, where's Luz? We did some rounds between our classes but we didn't see her in any class." She pointed at her sleeves. "Gus said he saw you in your third class for a moment but didn't see your sister with you." The boy nodded along, his face riddled with curiosity.

Leal frowned a bit as she chewed.

Their expressions shifted into worry.

"Did something happen?" Willow asked.

She swallowed, nodding sadly. "After our first class, Luz got caught looking at a crystal ball from one of the Oracle classes and Bump wasn't having it. She's in Detention."

"Detention?" the two echoed in shock.

"Yuuuup." Leal sighed. "Haven't seen or heard from her since." She took a big bite of her sandwich, letting her frustrations out in her aggressive chewing.

Her companions seemed to share a silent conversation, exchanging looks with each other. It varied from worry to contemplation, but eventually they looked back at Lealtad. "We can go look for her if you'd like?" Willow suggested.

Her eyes widened in relief. "Really? Would you?"

Gus beamed at her. "Of course! Though, it'll be hard because Actual Detention's still in need of repairs since what we did." He cupped his chin thoughtfully. "So I'm not sure where Bump took her."

"No better time than now to start looking!" his friend pointed out. She turned to Leal and shot her a confident smile, pumping her fist. "We'll get her out and see what we can do!"

Leal chuckled, nodding her appreciation. "Just… don't get wrapped into trouble too? Please?"

"Heh, no promises!" Gus shouted, darting away from the table.

Willow shook her head good naturedly before rising out of her seat. "See you around, Leal!" she said as she rushed after Gus, waving goodbye.

Lealtad let out a sigh.

She really wanted to help her sister, but they were Luz's friends after all. She'd likely accept their help over hers right about now. Leal scoffed, shaking her head. She really needed to get over this. If Luz didn't want to rely on her, then she'd have to accept that. And at the same time… she didn't want a bad record on her first day of school. Luz was already behind enough as it was, and now missing the first day of classes was definitely another hindrance. She had to do her best to make sure she had some good notes for her little sister at the end of the day.

Checking the time on the clock on the wall of the cafeteria, Leal realized she had just about forty minutes left of lunch. Freeing up a hand, Lealtad dug into her bag and pulled out her notebook. Might as well pass the time and keep learning after all.

::::

The school could be a labyrinth sometimes.

Okay, maybe a lot of schools were like that at first, but Hexside really felt like a maze of halls and corners. Leal knew where Still Potions was, but she decided to spend the last ten minutes of her lunch break actually being early for a change. So she left herself at the mercy of the halls of Hexside, turning corridors and walking down seemingly endless halls, on her way to her next class. She tapped the grip of her bat with her left hand, humming to herself as she looked around.

Luckily, it seemed like no one had a problem so far with her holding her bat around the school so she supposed it wasn't a problem.

As she walked, her right hand would occasionally sway every now and then against her messenger bag. With the potions inside it, it was easy for her hand to collide and create a series of clinks. And it was also easy for her hand to slip in and pick one up. It still blew her mind how… remarkably small it was in her hand. She did have semi-large hands for her age, sure, but still. Leal smiled as she proceeded to toss the fog brew up and down, maintaining her stride all the while.

It felt… comfortable, in her hand.

Kind of like a softball. Of course it had some heft to it, but the way it felt in her palm, the way it was balanced, it felt… natural. And there it was again, that feeling.

Her first swing with a softball bat, her dad roared with encouragement while her mom and sister cheered for her to run around the yard. Her first photo she ever took, brought a smile on her sister and mother's face that she just knew she wanted to keep forever. Her first potion? It was quiet. Just a normal classroom setting. Luz wasn't even excited about it because she was upset about her own progress. And Leal just felt like she finished an assignment. It didn't feel like it was anything special. But here she was: transfixed with her own potion.

She made this.

So why did it feel like it was worth making a big deal over? There were still eight other tracks available here. And her sister seemed determined to try them all! Today felt like a regular school day but also… so brand new. She gave the potion one more toss before establishing a firm grip on the bottle, inspecting it carefully, watching the liquid slosh around. This was the sole thing racking her brain. And for the life of her, she just couldn't figure out why. "What I'd give to have Sunshine's take for a change," she muttered to herself as she turned another corner.

And that was when she heard it.

The echoing sounds of snarling and screaming.

"¿Qué diablos?" she exclaimed in alarm.

Caution and curiosity getting the better of her, Leal gripped on her bat and ran toward the source. Just as she made it around another corner she was greeted with the horrifying sight of a gigantic snake-like creature with large sharp teeth and frog-like eyes. And before it, stood Luz, with a slumped over Gus and Willow behind her, looking drained and weak. Luz launched into action, fearlessly pulling out her notepad and slapping the pre-drawn light glyph she had. "Eat this!" her sister shouted, throwing the entire notepad at the creature.

And for some reason, it did.

Swallowing the glyph whole, it erupted in its mouth, causing it to belt out the shredded paper and wince in pain. Luz turned back to Willow and Gus, attempting to pull them away, but visibly struggling to do so. And it looked like the creature was already shaking off whatever damage Luz did. Leal glanced at the potion in her hand one last time before stepping out from the corner. Switching her bat to her right hand, she arched back her left arm and threw an overhand toss, launching the fog brew at the creature's face. Luz gawked at the sight of the mist expanding and enveloping the creature's body, to which Leal then sprinted forward.

She grabbed Willow from Luz and proceeded to carry the girl piggyback style.

Her sister gasped. "Leal!"

"Not now, run!" she shouted.

Luz nodded and turned away. "Follow me! I know a safe place we can hide!" her sister shouted.

Even though a part of her wondered how, Leal still trusted her sister and let her take the lead. Running down the halls, her sister kept glancing at random doors, as if searching for something. Eventually, she locked onto one near the end of a hallway. One that Leal would've assumed was a closet of some sort, but Luz darted toward it, kicking the door open and screaming, "Guys! I need your help!"

Leal tracked in with her sister and was met with a huge room, spiraling seemingly endless upward, with a ramp wrapping around the wall. But covering everything else: were doors. From the walls to the floors, there were doors of all sorts decorating the room. As Leal set down Willow and shut the door behind them, she soon realized even the door they came through was similar to the others. She turned back to Luz and realized there were three other people in the room. All wearing the same uniform of Luz, sitting on the floor with scowls on their faces. But one of the students was a dog. It was the one she met last week at the book fair! Barcus, was his name?

Though Leal had no time to really process the familiar face as the girl with a fish hook earring flatly remarked, "Oh. You're back."

"I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, but please listen!" Luz begged, placing Gus on the floor next to Willow.

That seemed to collect their attention, as the three stood up in alarm. "What happened to them?" the girl asked.

"Something horrible is loose in the school," Luz explained as she climbed the ramp a bit and grabbed one of the doors. She proceeded to open it, exposing one of the hallways? Leal blinked back in disbelief—because what—but the others seemed more in shock with the creature. It was surrounded by students, inhaling violently like a vacuum as it spun around, making everyone look as drained as Gus and Willow.

The girl rushed toward the door, closing it shut as she hissed, "Don't let it see us!" As Leal and the others gathered near the two, she went on to explain, "I think that's a Greater Basilisk. I heard about them in a class. My cousin at St. Epiderm said she saw one, but those things should be extinct."

"It must've attacked the other schools, and now it's come for us!" Luz concluded.

Leal held up her hand. "And, real quick, what exactly is it doing?" She pointed back to Gus and Willow. "'Cause I'd like to know if we can help Park and Porter." She ruffled through her bag as she said, "I-I don't think I've got anything—"

"Bandages and plasters won't help them, Leal," her sister countered. "That thing's using magic!"

"Well," the fish hook earring girl tilted her head, "somewhat. It's draining their magic." She looked down at Leal's bag. "And unless you've got a potion that can heal people—which, doesn't exist—the only thing that'd probably help is Healing magic." The girl then sheepishly rubbed her arm. "B-But I-I don't think I could conjure a spell strong enough to replenish them."

"We have to do something," Luz stressed, slamming her fist onto her palm.

The tall lanky boy spoke up, "But if Bump catches us mixing magic again—"

"He'd kick us outta school," the girl finished.

Lealtad awkwardly glanced between the three then to her sister. She was missing a great deal of context right now, but she knew action needed to be done. But then her sister's face shifted into determination as she hopped back down to the floor. She gestured to Gus and Willow and shouted, "Hexoleos are out there gettin' hurt, and we're the only ones who can save them!" She pointed at the doors. "We're troublemakers, right? So let's go out there and make some trouble!"

"Hell, you know I'm always with you, Sunshine," Leal spoke up, shrugging casually.

The other three exchanged looks of contemplation before settling into silent agreement, all nodding at once.

"Alright," Leal said, shouldering her bat as she turned toward the three, "I'm clearly a bit behind on some things here but it's fine." She stuck out her hand toward them. "Lealtad Noceda, Luz's older sister. You can call me Leal. Looks like we'll be working together in today's perilous plot," she mused.

"Yeah," the girl nodded, shaking her hand. "Barcus told us about you," she jerked her thumb over to the dog. "I'm Viney," she introduced.

"Jerbo," the lanky boy chimed in, shaking her hand as well.

Barcus barked, causing Leal to politely nod and smile at him.

"Oh," Jerbo chirped. "He asks, 'How's that book treating you?'"

Her brows raised. "Ah! It's good! Just finished it." She awkwardly smiled, nodding her head over to Luz. "But, uh, maybe we can break the ice after we deal with the Basilisk?" she gently suggested. The three exchanged embarrassed looks as they nodded, then all of them moved to gather around Luz. "So, hermana, what's the game plan?"

Luz furrowed a brow at her. "Why do you assume I have one?"

Leal chuckled, shrugging. "Because you're you," she easily replied.

Her sister flushed a bit, but still rolled her eyes good naturedly. She looked to her new companions and stated, "Each of us brings something that can help! I'm student to the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles and if there's one thing I've learned from her, it's that being able to use everything you know is what makes a resourceful witch!" Leal proudly smiled at that statement while Luz went on, "We'll have to lure the Basilisk somewhere away from everyone else, that way it runs out of magic to feed on."

"Preferably," Viney chimed in, "we should also knock it out cold." As all eyes fell on her, she explained, "That'll cause it to release all the magic it drained."

Luz smiled confidently as she nodded. "Perfect! Then we need to trap it." She dug into her pocket and pulled out a few pieces of pre-drawn glyphs. "I have some ice and light glyphs and Leal can draw up some more if we need."

At that, Lealtad eagerly dove into her messenger bag and pulled out her notepad, handing it over to Luz. Her sister raised a confused brow but she shrugged. "I have a few pre-drawn glyphs but those took me like thirty minutes to get down," she admitted. "No idea how you can draw perfect circles the way you do, hermana, but you're better off with the glyph drawings," she said as she handed her a pencil. "I still have a couple myself and my bat and—" she stopped herself, glancing down at her bag once again. She smiled back at Luz as she pulled out a fog brew, tossing it up and down. "Six fog brew potions," she proudly listed.

"I know some healing magic, but not enough for huge injuries." Viney gestured to herself. "But we'll likely need to rely on Puddles." Leal furrowed a brow, to which the witch explained, "Ah, he's my griffin. I-I know Beastkeeping too." She pinched her fingers together. "A bit."

"I can summon a medium sized abomination," Jerbo added, "and know a bit of vine techniques from Plants."

Barcus barked, panting excitedly as he looked between Luz and Leal.

She just furrowed a brow, leaving Viney to say, "Barcus knows Potions and Oracle magic."

Leal's confusion only grew. "Wait, wait, why do all of you know two kinds of magic?"

"Same reason why I'm wearing these colours," Luz explained as she gestured to her sleeves, "We're the Detention Track. And these kids like to mix magic too!"

Leal just looked on in disbelief. Wow, so it wasn't just her sister, huh?

"But that's what's gonna save this school!" Luz knelt down and motioned everyone to do the same. "First! We're gonna go swipe a crystal ball for Barcus, so he can use his Oracle magic to help predict where the Basilisk is gonna go! And then, We'll use Leal's fog brews and my ice glyphs to narrow its paths, and give it something to chase."

At that, Viney made the excellent point of asking, "And who's it gonna chase?"

The two Nocedas locked eyes in an instant.

But before Leal could say anything, Luz threw up her right fist, holding out her left palm flat. With a sigh, Leal set down her bat and mirrored her sister. Together, they screamed, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

And the bait was decided.

::::

She could have fought harder on being the bait, but it was times like these Leal just had to respect her sister and let her take the reins. Or rather, it was times like these where there was literally not enough time to argue and knowing her sister, her stubbornness would be impossible to break in such a pressured window. Either way, the plan was decided and everything was in motion. Barcus' fortune telling wasn't exactly perfect nor was it too distant, which made sense given how none of them really were able to learn much of their desired tracks. Yet still, Barcus could foresee that they were all going to end up in the auditorium.

So that was something to work off of.

From what they could scope out from the Secret Room of Shortcuts (a name Leal later learned), the Basilisk was still roaming the halls of Hexside. They last caught it moving in the Plants Track side of Hexside. It was risky, dividing themselves and spreading out, but the Secret Room of Shortcuts mitigated this issue by the turn of a handle. Leal took a deep breath as she gripped onto the fog brew in her left hand while firmly securing the ice glyph in her right. Her bat was tucked into her bag, a likely dangerous decision, but her true worries laid within her actual potions. Barcus gave them a once over and even with his limited knowledge, attested that they were good.

But Leal still had doubts. She didn't exactly see the effects of her fog brew when she threw it at the Basilisk earlier. In the best case scenario, she was just trying to buy time for Luz. She thumbed over the cork stopper nervously. There was no time like the present to really put them to the test, she supposed. A slithering sound echoed from down the hall, causing Leal to press up against the corner of the wall she was waiting at. A four way intersection was the best way to start boxing it in, it was just a matter of making a few Scooby-Doo runs first.

"Hungry," she heard the Basilisk hiss, "Still hungry!"

Its slithering sound was growing closer. It was soon time for Luz to come out. She had many theatrics planned for this distraction, but Lealtad fought with her sister in terms of necessity. Luz's idea sounded solid, but the need for flair was not really needed right now (maybe in another adventure she would have approved of Barcus using palm reading for a one liner, but too much was at stake right now to consider it). She just wanted this to work.

Then it happened: the crackling sound of an ice glyph activating and soon enough, a large ice wall had shut off the route the Basilisk came from.

It was show time!

The Basilisk hissed out of agony as Leal heard several loud thuds, shaking the halls. She peeked out in time to see the creature get up and shake off its discomfort. Luz then emerged from the other side of the intersection, waving at the creature with a fog brew potion behind her back. "Over here!" she shouted. Within an instant, her sister threw down the potion and was gone, running down the other hallway. The Basilisk took the bait and dove straight at the cloud, colliding with the ice wall and nearly shattering it. The older Noceda quickly set down her ice glyph on the floor and readied her fog brew right as the Basilisk regained its composure.

Lealtad whistled, pulling its attention back to her. Acting immediately, Leal then threw down her potion and slapped the glyph, running back a few feet and straight toward the lockers up against the wall. She grabbed at the wall and pulled, revealing one of the entrances to the Secret Room of Shortcuts and hopped inside. Another echoing thud and hiss erupted from back in the halls as Leal turned to shut the door, catching a glimpse of her cracked ice wall and fog brew mist emerging from the gaps. With the door shut, she turned to the Detention Track kids and shouted, "Get ready!"

Jerbo rushed toward the trapdoor in the centre of the floor while Barcus and Viney darted down the ramp and to one of the doors next to the weird painting picture they had. Peeking into it, Leal was able to see a long straight view from the other hallway end of the intersection. The Basilisk was still shaking off its third collision, while at the same time, Luz's second ice glyph wall activated—shutting off the way the Basilisk charged from and effectively creating a dead end.

One of the doors from the top of the ramp opened and Luz shouted, "Viney, Barcus, do the thing!"

The two launched from out the secret room and into the hallway. Viney casted a spell as Barcus held up his crystal ball. A screech pierced from down the halls, and soon enough, Puddles the griffin came flying through. Making a sharp turn right before their eyes, she flew right at the Basilisk, sending it back to the ground. Meanwhile Barcus conjured a spirit from his crystal ball, not much larger than Puddles, and ordered it to charge at the Basilisk, helping Puddles hold it down.

"Now, Jerbo!" Viney shouted.

Lealtad turned to the boy as he summoned his abomination. On his command, it moved to open the trapdoor while Jerbo casted plant magic, creating several tendrils of vines and shooting them up toward the trapdoor in the centre of the ceiling. "On it!" he said as he gave the door a tug, causing the Basilisk to fall through and land right into the opened trapdoor on the floor. Lealtad gasped as she realized the creature was stuck, but before she could act, Luz came hopping down from above, stomping the creature straight down into the hole.

Leal raced after her, watching the beast crash into the stage of the auditorium while Luz bounced off its gut. The creature strained a bit as it tried to get back up, and that was when Leal made her move. Leaping down, she arched up her bat and brought it down hard on the Basilisk's head, creating an echoing slam across the room. She bounced off the creature's face and landed off to the side, smiling in satisfaction as it fell limp on the stage. "Hit it!" she shouted, looking toward the curtains. Puddles screeched at her cue, chomping her beak down onto one of the stage ropes and causing the massive group of sandbags hanging above to plummet, right on the Basilisk's (supposed) gut.

For a moment, Leal thought she was witnessing the literal wind get knocked out of it, before realizing it was actually just spewing out all the magic it drained. A myriad of these spectral, blue flame-like lights flew across and out the room, some even going through the Secret Room of Shortcuts. Two stopped just short of the stage, where Leal realized laid Bump and Amity. Their expression and tones coloured once again, as though life had been injected back into them.

Lealtad looked to her companions, all who had dropped down from the ceiling next to the unconscious Basilisk. Viney was busy healing a cut on Puddles' arm, Barcus was recalling his summoned spirit into its crystal ball while Jerbo called his abomination away. Luz rushed toward her friends, enveloping them in an impressively large group hug as she squealed. "You did it!" she exclaimed. "You were amazing! You guys—"

"Are in so much trouble," Bump spoke up. He climbed onto the stage, approaching them with an angry look in his eyes. "Leaving your homeroom, mixing magic and—is that a secret hideout?" His finger flew up above, pointing to where Gus and Willow seemed to be peeking out from, though the two were quick to hide themselves.

Lealtad groaned, throwing back her head. "C'mon, Principal Bump," she said exhaustedly. "They just helped save the school!" she gestured to the kids.

"And let's think about this, Principal Bump," Luz spoke up, stepping toward him. She gestured to her new friends as she asked, "Why would kids in the Detention Track need a secret hideout?"

His gaze cast upward as he frowned at the trapdoor. "I don't care to know the ins and outs of rascality," he remarked. Pulling out the rule book from behind his back, he began to flip it open and read. "But if the Emperor's Coven can send an actual inspector this time—"

"Okay, you need coven money," Luz addressed. "But if you have to hurt your students to get it, what's the point? My sister's right, they saved Hexside. They should be allowed to study what they wish."

"B-But—" Bump hugged the rule book protectively.

"Do the right thing, ya dingus," Gus' voice came from above, making Leal chuckle.

"Alright," he sighed, tucking his rulebook away. Leal's eyes widened at that. Seriously? "I'm smart enough to know when I've made a mistake." He turned toward them with a smile. "Which tracks would you like to be in?" he asked, gesturing toward the kids.

"F-For real?" Leal gasped.

He chuckled, nodding at her.

"Healing and Beast Keeping," Viney excitedly answered.

"Plants and Abomination!" Jerbo proudly said.

Barcus let out a cheerful bark, and while Leal still couldn't understand him, she knew he was saying Potions and Oracle.

Bump drew up a spell circle. "Then so be it," he replied as he cast his spell. Then their uniforms changed colours, all switching from Detention Track to their desired studies. "But if any of you cause more property damage, I'm feeding you to the choosy hat," he warned. Turning to Luz and Leal, gestured toward Luz with his palm. "And you?"

"Oh, I still can't choose," her sister sadly admitted. "Maybe it's crazy but I wish I could study a little bit of everything—whoa! What's going on? What is this?" Luz exclaimed as her uniform started to turn into somewhat of a rainbow coloured theme. "Whoa-ho! This is so cool! Yeah, yeah," she pumped her fists as she cheered, "I'm gonna study everything!"

Leal smiled at her. "Congrats, Sunshine," she patted her sister's shoulder. "You're in all the tracks now." Luz happily grinned back at her, and for that, Leal's day was made.

"You know," Bump said, "only one other student wanted to study every track." He drew up a spell circle and down came that framed picture of Lord Calamity. "Unfortunately, she was never given the opportunity." With a wipe of his hand, the graffiti disappeared and under it was none other than a young Eda.

Luz and Leal both gasped, then shared a look before chuckling. "I should've guessed," her sister mused.

Lealtad nodded in agreement. "Honestly explains all the stuff we saw on her record," she recalled. But still, seeing the picture of Eda made Leal realize something she hadn't considered before. Sure, she saw it back when they looked at Eda's rap sheet, but seeing this now—it just caught her eye. Eda was also in Potions. Looking down at her own sleeves, a strange sense of pride filled within Leal for some reason.

And she couldn't place why.

Looking up, she noticed Bump staring at her expectantly, to which she furrowed a brow. "What about you?" he asked. Leal blinked in confusion. He chuckled, gesturing to her sister then to the former Detention Track students. And it clicked.

"O-Oh!" she exclaimed, holding up her hand placatingly. "Nah, I-I—" she stopped herself. Part of her was instinctively ready to decline but… looking at her sister, who stared at her curiously, then to their new companions, she thought for a moment. Her sister was truly an amazing girl. She's seen her fight nearly dozens of things and triumph over some ridiculously dangerous odds. But at the end of the day, Lealtad herself couldn't do much to stop Luz from doing it. She glanced down at her bag, looking at the remaining four fog brews. These could only do so much to protect her, huh?

In the end, it kind of took all of them to amount to anything worthwhile happening here. Different kinds of magic. And there was only one person Leal could think of who embodied all this well. Her gaze flew to Eda's picture. The most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. Every kind of magic at her disposal. Magic she practically saved Leal's life with just several days ago. Leal wasn't sure if she was aboard Luz's boat of wanting to be a witch like Eda but… as her gaze fell down to her bat in her left hand, she gripped on it tightly.

The night she told their mom she was gonna go with Luz to Reality Check, there was one thing she asked of her.

"Look after her well? Please?"

Lealtad chuckled to herself, nodding. "It's a promise, Mamá," she whispered to herself. Looking up at Bump, she confidently smiled as she said, "Potions… and Healing."

At that, she could hear an excited gasp from Viney while her sister stared at her in awe. Bump was pleased to meet her request, another spell circle and Leal looked down, her leggings were now blue. She took a deep breath and nodded. "Thanks, Principal Bump."

He nodded back. "I'll have a proper schedule worked out for you all tomorrow morning. So come by my office first thing," he announced to everyone, before turning away. "Now if you excuse me, I have much work to be done after an incident like this." Luz took that as a cue to go toward her new peers, all while Gus and Willow made their way down to chat with them. But as Leal watched the older witch walk away, she couldn't help herself.

"Uh, Principal Bump?" she called out, stepping toward him as he got off the stage. He stopped and turned, looking up at her with a raised brow. "Did… Did you put us in Potions because Clawthorne was there?"

She knew that he did it with eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

She understood it could've just been coincidence.

But still…

And as if to satisfy her inquiry, he smirked at her. "As a teacher, you notice things about students, and well, you hope your small nudges here and there make an impression on them… in any way, no matter how small." He shrugged, turning back with his hands folded behind him. "But it was just a coincidence," he added as he walked away.

She laughed, shaking her head. "Sure," she muttered. Moving back to the group, she waved at Viney and Barcus, garnering their excited attention. "Guess this means I'll be seeing y'all a lot more now, huh?"

"Definitely!" Viney nodded.

"Guess a formal introduction is as good as any," Leal stated, holding her hand out to the two, "Lealtad Noceda, Potions and Healing."

Their faces lit up.

"Viney Maki, Healing and Beast Keeping," the girl introduced, shaking her hand. Barcus barked as he moved his paw to shake her hand. "Ah, and, Barcus Baker, Potions and Oracle," Viney translated.

Leal grinned, nodding in acknowledgement. "I look forward to working with you guys. Heh, Titan knows I need the help," she mused.

Barcus barked again with an eager smile. "Oh, he asked if you wanna exchange Scroll info?" Viney said, gesturing between them and her.

"Oh, u-uh, I don't have one." Leal suddenly felt weird at this exchange. It was… familiarly very high school. "Sorry," she said, almost by reflex.

"Oh, that's okay!" the girl assured.

Barcus barked and Viney nodded in agreement. "Ah that's right," she said to him. "Got a crystal ball?" she asked.

Lealtad awkwardly nodded.

"Nice! That works too."

And the next thing she knew, she was handed some slips of paper with their crystal ball contact information, making Leal blink in surprise.

Barcus barked, and before anyone could translate for him, he had something typed out on his Scroll. It'll be nice to have someone to exchange notes with, it said. At that, relief surprisingly welled up inside her. That was right. She looked to Viney, then to Barcus, and smiled at them. She hadn't known them for long, but from the brief amount they did go over, she knew they were at least dedicated to their studies. All things considered, that was something she could use right now.

Lealtad clutched the slips of information and winked, tucking it into her pocket. "I'll be sure to keep in touch!" She threw them a two fingered salute before turning away. It was strange. She'd received plenty of contact information from kids her age over the last few years. And it was always related to school. Her mind easily flew back to the dozens of unanswered texts she received at the start of the summer. But this time…

She spared a glance back at the three, all of which were still giddy about their new tracks.

This time, Leal could see herself actually looking forward to giving them a call.

"Hey, Leal!" Luz shouted, moving away from Gus and Willow. She reached her, still holding her big smile as she bounced in place. "We did it! Multi-tracks!"

She snorted. "Well, technically, you're multi-tracked," she pointed out.

Her sister rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "Still, I'm surprised you had Healing in mind. Where'd that come from?" she asked, curiously tilting her head.

Leal just smiled. Unable to help herself, she wrapped her right arm around Luz, giving her a one-armed hug. As she buried her little sister against her armpit, she laughed at Luz's protests.

Managing to free herself, Luz pushed Leal's chest with a pout. "Okay, now where'd that come from?"

"Eh," she shrugged. "I'm just proud of you."

Her sister flushed as she rolled her eyes once again. "Jeez, hermana, and you say I'm cheesy." She placed her hands on her hips and furrowed a brow. "Are you gonna answer my question? Or was that your way of trying to dodge it?"

Leal shook her head. "Nah, it's not like that." She tilted her lead and continued to smile at her Sunshine. "It was just… just instinct."

---

A/N: A LOT of readers theorized and guessed what Leal's tracks would be. And aside from an obvious hint sitting on the cover art with Leal having potions, Healing was something that came in when I considered Leal's idealization of Camila during my early development of her character. At the time I wrote the notes for this chapter, pre-season 2, we knew Camila worked in some sort of medical field based on her scrubs. From there, I wanted Leal to embody an aspect of her mother but also what she vowed to do: look after Luz. I think Healing and Potions was a good way to cover those bases.

Her not getting thrown into detention seemed like an obvious route for me in that Leal—despite her confrontational attitude—wouldn't blatantly cause trouble especially when it's made clear Bump is in no mood to be pushed AND that Luz wouldn't want that. She's the studious type, so I think she'd find Potions to be genuinely intriguing having a brief brush with it via selling it and the book Barcus lent her. Making Leal get invested with the school curriculum was a way to adhere to her inner nerd, showing how she's fallen in love with Isles but how differently her journey is to Luz's.

And for a minor note in case any are wondering: yes Barcus had a small moment with Luz inside the Secret Room of Shortcuts where he asked if he met her before, as he confused her with Lealtad for a second. There's nothing of huge significance here because they never exchanged names and only met for a bit back in chapter 12, so it'd be understandable. Just something I wanted to call attention to in terms of POVs we can't see outside of Leal's. And on that note, some of the conversation when Willow and Gus find Luz is obviously different as they now have context as to why Luz is in detention.

Also, I named the Potions Teacher! I'm gonna have to be doing that for a LOT of the teachers/students in Hexside as they're currently unnamed as of the time I am writing this. If a name is ever revealed later in the future for some reason, I'll go back and edit it and provide an update in the most recent chapter at that time to let everyone know. Just a warning in advance! (I understand it's a minor thing but I like to be accurate as possible.)

And on the note of names (because it's not mentioned in the chapter), Jerbo's last name is Galvin. I know it's not really necessary to give them last names but considering how nearly EVERYONE in the show has last names, it doesn't seem like it's a common thing for people NOT to have them. So for Viney and Jerbo, I based their last names off of their voice actors' last names, but for Barcus? Well, I just like Dee Bradley Baker and all his animal roles so I thought Baker was fitting. Which of course means Barcus' full name is Barcus Bradley Baker. Aliteration is fun! And in any case, them having last names isn't a big deal either. Just always thought it was weird they didn't have any is all.

To the point of what I changed from canon, I honestly do not regret any of the changes especially in terms of the fight. It was a good fight in canon of course! But my boy Barcus really didn't do anything to help—at least not outright explicitly for the audience—and Puddles bodying the Inspector for more than several seconds made me feel like there could've been a BIT more struggle on the Inspector's part. Luckily, having Leal adds that kind of flair of rewriting! I'm basically forced to add or subtract more. But of course, the fight itself isn't really the point, it's the cohesion of mixed magic that sells it.

And I hope I did that justice.

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Review Responses:

starrat: Thanks!

MarauderPrime12: Glad you think so! Hm, wonder you mean by that?

LostKagamiWitchInTheIsles: AH, RIP. Heatwave has been rough on my end too! Hope all is well! Ahhh, I'm SO glad you addressed that detail about Leal reminding WHY they're here! I do find your points regarding Leal's thoughts about needing to learn magic quite interesting. Last chapter was definitely a mark of Leal's steps toward independence from Luz but also her interest in the Isles and magic. Chapter 12 was the turning point of Leal consistently and willfully venturing on her own, but there IS a layer of duty behind it. Can't wait to see how you feel about the rest to come! Glad you enjoyed!

Thomas Holmes II: I'd like to think so! Well, this chapter reveals a bit more, but as for the beginning of the "why", Leal just happened across that potions book from Barcus. And that was enough to get her a bit interested is all.

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As always, feel free to hit me up on tumblr if ya got asks! And leave a comment if you liked this chapter!

Next chapter update: September 27th, 2023

Stay safe, and stay lovely y'all.

Until next time,

- Bleh