Amity is beaming.
And this since the few days since she became, officially, the girlfriend of Luz Noceda. And everyone who is willing to listen knows that by now. Not even the fact that, since yesterday, she also has her own palisman beats that.
Among the first people she told after that very day were her siblings, and although they try to tease her about it every day, they have had little success with it so far.
"YO, MITTENS!", Amity hears Edric call from outside through her closed bedroom door. "Hurry up! You don't want to be late on a Monday... Or do you rather be busy chatting with your... girlfriend?", he teases her. At this point, however, he doesn't need to know about the fact that she has been talking to Luz on the phone via crystal ball every day so far. But in fact, she is busy getting dressed into her purple school uniform for the day.
As soon as she has thrown her packed bag around her shoulder, put on her shoes, and picked up Ghost, Amity kicks open her bedroom door to the outside, just barely not hitting her brother's face. He almost falls backwards against the railing, from which it is possible to see the entire living room. Edric's pulse races, clutching his chest, as Amity simply struts past him. A few meters further on, however, she stops, turning around.
"For your information, Luz doesn't have scroll.", she explains, before continuing on her way, unfazed.
When she reaches the front door, she notices Emira already waiting for her as well, impatiently tapping her foot.
"There you are, finally. Just because you have a staff now as well, doesn't mean you can dawdle...", she says, "Wait. Where's Ed?"
"He came too close to my door.", Amity says, shortly before Edric also enters the front room of Blight Manor with his staff in hand. Both Amity and Emira look at him dismissively, causing him to rub his neck, ashamed.
"Yeah, it's my fault. But hey, at least the door didn't hit me."
"Wow, great Ed, you should be nominated for an award.", Emira says sarcastically. She turns around, opens the door, and grabs her brother by his collar. "Now come on. We're late."
Amity is the last to leave the Manor, closing and locking the door behind her. The three Blight siblings get on their staffs, immediately heading for Hexside.
Indeed, neither Edric nor Emira had been lying about being late. On Mondays, classes for all students always begin at seven thirty. For the rest of the week, the times often differ. On Thursdays, for example, Amity does not start school until eight o'clock.
As they left Blight Manor, it was already seven fifteen, and if they did not have the option to fly, it is guaranteed that they would have all been late. Fortunately, the three siblings are quite fast flyers, even if Amity is still a bit unsure due to the lack of experience.
With only three minutes to spare, the three of them land on the forecourt of Hexside. Principal Bump stands outside from the large, wide-open doors of the school, arms folded and a serious expression on his face. It is directed at no one in particular. However, all the remaining students outside hurry and even partially run into the building.
Edric and Emira dismount briskly from their staffs, and with a hurried 'bye' they run inside, leaving Amity behind, who's merely rolling her eyes at their sudden eagerness for school. She herself, however, is a lot more relaxed compared to them, but admittedly rather excited. After all, it's her and Luz' first day of school together as girlfriends.
Amity looks around in search of any familiar faces. However, there is no sign of them.
'Huh, maybe they're already inside...', she thinks to herself, calmly making her way towards the main entrance. She makes her way through the crowded hallways to her locker. On the way there, she runs into Skara, but apart from a brief exchange of pleasantries, there is not much interaction between the two girls.
Arriving at her locker, she puts her bag away and pulls out the two books she needs for the first class of the day: Two periods of 'Abomination 101'. With Luz.
'Okay, so Luz isn't waiting by her locker either...', she notes, 'Where are Willow and Gus?'
Before she can follow up on answering that question, the bell rings that class is starting. Fortunately, her classroom is just two doors away from her locker. She locks it down, making her way to the class. Just before stepping through the door, she notices Professor Hermonculus walking in her direction in the hallway. She exhales in relief that she's not late, but also hopes that he hasn't seen her just entering the room, briskly making her way to her seat in the front row, right by the window.
It's quite a small class, not only in terms of the number of students, but also in terms of space. There are only six, albeit quite large, desks, each with room for up to three students. However, only five students are enrolled for the 'Abomination 101' class: Miranda, the dark-skinned student with the curly violet hair and the two ram-like horns on the sides of her head, Eric, the light-beige skinned, spike-headed student, Jerbo, the rather tall and slender student who switched to this class after the Basilisk incident, Amity herself, of course, and the only human witch in the Boiling Isles, Luz. However, there is no trace of the latter.
'She's not here?', Amity wonders, just as Professor Hermonculus enters the room, closing the door behind him and making his way to the slightly raised podium at the front of the class.
"Good morning, students.", he greets them before his gaze swings to the empty seat next to Amity, "Where is Miss Noceda?"
"I'm afraid I don't know, Professor.", Amity replies, at which he frowns.
"Well, in that case, I trust you will share your notes with her, Miss Blight."
"Yes, Professor."
As soon as the professor turns around and actually starts teaching, Amity's mind fills with worry, confusion, and disappointment, as she's trying to think about possible reasons why her girlfriend isn't with her.
'She might be on a new adventure with Eda and King... instead of here, with me... her girlfriend...', her heart hurts, but fortunately she snaps out of it immediately, 'Nope! She wouldn't just dump me like that... Maybe she learned something new from the Echo Mouse about this Philip's portal...'
The longer she thinks about possible explanations, the more her anxiety actually decreases. However, when Luz is still not there at the end of the double period, Amity assumes for the rest of the day that she has either overslept or, for whatever reason, is not coming to school today. A short visit to the Owl House after school should ideally clear things up.
As soon as the school bells announce the end of the double period, Amity quickly makes her way out of the room, though not to get to her next class quickly, but because her unawareness of where Luz is, has taken up more space in her mind than she had anticipated and she needs answers right now.
Her first go-to person for information is Willow. Since this is the first slightly longer break of the day, Amity knows that Willow is usually either in the school greenhouse or in the plant lab during this time. Fortunately, these places are quite close to each other, but at the other end of the school. Therefore, she immediately sets off.
Barely two and a half minutes later, she arrives at the plant lab, where there are still a few students, but no sign of Willow. At that, Amity speaks up.
"Hey, um...", she catches the attention of the other students, "Can you tell me where I can find Willow?"
"Probably in the greenhouse. She left as soon as the bell rang."
"Thanks.", Amity thanks her as she leaves the lab again, making her way to the greenhouse, which luckily is only three doors down, right next to the door that leads outside towards the sports fields.
Amity looks through the window into the greenhouse and sure enough, both Willow and Gus are there. Amity knocks, at which Willow turns to her, inviting her in.
"Amity...", Willow sounds surprised, "good to see you. But it's odd to see you here of all places."
"Yeah, um, do you happen to know where Luz is?", Willow and Gus give each other questioning looks, "She wasn't in my Abomination class just now, and I'm slightly concerned."
"You don't know?", Gus asks confused, "I thought you'd be the first to know..."
"Know what?", Amity asks.
"Luz is sick. She has the Mold.", Willow clarifies for her. "Eda had texted it to us before school on Penstagram."
'Oh...', Amity thinks to herself as she summons her scroll, remembering that she hasn't used it even once today, before now opening Penstagram.
THEOWLLADY
[THEOWLLADY - 6:51]: Yo, Blight. Luz is sick
[THEOWLLADY - 6:51]: Got infected with the Mold somehow.
[THEOWLLADY - 6:52]: I'm going to assume you're going to come in later and take care of her.
[THEOWLLADY - 6:54]: I'll take your silence as confirmation. Bring stuff.
[WITCHCHICK128 - 9:06]: What kind of stuff?
Amity looks back up at the others.
"Did she send you the same texts?", she wonders.
"Well-", Gus begins, "Eda had texted us that Luz was sick, and asked if we wanted to help make her feel a little better."
"To me she had written that I should bring... stuff.", Amity chimes in.
"What kind of stuff?", Gus asks, causing Amity to just shrug her shoulders. "But if you're going to be there later, we can let you in on our plans. Wait, I'll add you to the group, it's all in there."
THEOWLLADY, HELLO_WILLOW, HAS_GUS, WITCHCHICK128
[THEOWLLADY - 6:55]: Luz is sick
[THEOWLLADY - 6:55]: sick_luz
[HELLO_WILLOW - 6:56]: She's really not looking good.
[THEOWLLADY - 6:56]: Are you guys coming over later? I'm sure Luz would love it if you guys came to see her.
[THEOWLLADY - 6:57]: Also messaged Baby-Blight, but she's not responding.
[HAS_GUS - 6:57]: Of course we'll come. Right, Willow?
[HELLO_WILLOW - 6:58]: Sure. Anything you want us to bring?
[THEOWLLADY - 6:59]: Anything to keep her sane enough once she starts hallucinating.
[HELLO_WILLOW - 7:01]: So, do you think the Mold is going to go the same for her as it did for us? I mean, Luz is not a witch...
[THEOWLLADY - 7:02]: It's just the Mold, it's harmless.
[THEOWLLADY - 7:02]: Just come here after school.
[HELLO_WILLOW - 7:03]: Of course
[HAS_GUS - 7:03]:
[HAS_GUS - 9:08] - Added WITCHCHICK128 to the group
"'Something to keep her sane enough'? That's pretty vague.", Amity says.
"Well, we're her friends... plus girlfriend, and we know Luz best.", Willow replies, "Or Eda already has enough on her plate to worry about that too."
"Okay, here's my idea, since the break is about to end and I have to run across the school for my next class: Let's meet up later at lunch and discuss exactly what each of us wants to do for Luz, and how we can help her. What do you think?"
Willow and Gus look at each other briefly before nodding in agreement.
"Great.", Amity continues, "I'll see you later. I've got to go."
Ultimately, this visit with Willow and Gus, while resolving her uncertainty and worry about where Luz is, has now been replaced with worry about her health. Worry, combined with an evolving plan. A plan to prove to Luz what an awesome girlfriend she can be.
Later, during lunch break, Amity makes her way to the cafeteria. Still not seeing Gus or Willow, though, as she looks around, trying to find an empty table.
As soon as she found an empty one, she made her way to the food counter, where she takes a small bowl of salad and adds extra tomatoes. Right as the returns to the table, she notices Willow and Gus entering the cafeteria, waving at them. They wave back at her, and after grabbing some food as well, they sit down with her.
"Hey.", Amity greets them, "Have you guys thought about what you'd like to do for Luz yet?"
Gus speaks up first. "I want to try to make her feel like she's back in human realm. I've already smuggled some of the stuff out of the H.A.S. room.", Gus opens his bag for the others to look in. Amity and Willow risk a glance.
"You stole from them?"
"Borrowed.", Gus chimes in, "I'll bring them back once Luz is fully recovered."
After that, Amity's and Gus's eyes shift to Willow.
"Well, whenever I'm sick, my dads always make me their delicious Get-Well-Soup. It's an old family recipe from my papa, so I just have to pick up the recipe from home first and check with Eda to see what she has on hand.", Willow tells them, "And what are you doing, Amity?"
"I know that rest and peace are both especially crucial when it comes to recovering, so I'll probably team up with Eda and-", Amity shudders, "-Hooty... to join forces to eradicate any disruptive factors in Luz's environment."
"Sounds... radical.", Willow acknowledges.
"There's nothing more important than getting her well again.", Amity declares, and in principle Willow and Gus agree with her as well, though not quite as energetically.
The rest of the lunch break goes on quite smoothly, and the three of them, contrary to Amity's expectations, can easily talk and pass the time even without Luz being around, and without it seeming forced in any way.
Towards the end of lunch, Willow is the first to get up, as her next class is on the top floor of the school, leaving Amity and Gus behind. The two don't really have anything to say to each other, which isn't surprising considering that she and Gus have never done anything together before, or even been in the same room by themselves. That is, until she remembers that she wanted to ask him a question. She clears her throat, catching his attention.
"I... wanted to ask you something...", Amity begins awkwardly, "a-about the human realm..."
"Well, as the former president of the Human Appreciation Society, I have a distinct knowledge in that regard, and I'm always happy to share it with someone.", Gus proudly announces, "And if I had to guess, it has to do with Luz, right?"
Amity nods in confirmation before turning briefly to her bag, pulling out a small object.
She hands it to him, whereupon he inspects it with a curious glance. It is yellow and egg-shaped, with cat ears on the top. A cat face can be surmised in the front, under which is a kind of green, plain material, with three purple buttons below it.
"Do you have any idea what this is?", she asks.
"Where did you get it?", he asks right back.
"Luz had given it to me. She said, with this, we could talk when we're not seeing each other at the time. But I have no idea what exactly it is, though."
Gus continues to examine the object. "Well, this green thing in the middle here reminds me a little of Luz's human scroll from how it feels like, though it's much smaller.", he says, "If you'd like, I could take it home and examine it more thoroughly, and report back to you in a few days. Or you could simply ask Luz what it is and how it works."
'Luz cannot think that I am too slow to understand her human device. I'll figure it out myself, sooner or later.'
Amity holds out her hand and Gus hands her the device back. "It's all right. Thanks."
With the lunch break now over, Amity and Gus are now saying goodbye to each other as well, heading to their respective last classes for the day.
The last class passed by very fast, but at the same time, strangely enough, not fast enough. And Amity is excited about the possibility of being able to take care of her sick girlfriend and prove herself to be an awesome girlfriend.
Instead of now being on her way to Owl House, however, she is flying straight back to Blight Manor. As she's landing and entering the Manor, she's surprised to find her siblings there already.
"Ed? Em? You're home already?"
The twins are sitting on the couch in the living room as Emira speaks up.
"Mister Heoke is sick, so we've been back since our future prediction class.", she explains, "You know, the thing mom wanted us to do."
"And? Say, Mittens-", Edric speaks up, trying to tease her, "How was your first day of school together with your... girlfriend?"
"Luz wasn't in school today. Eda said she is sick.", Amity explains, at which the twins look genuinely... sad.
"Oh...", is all Edric is able to say to that.
"I'm just here to quickly change before flying straight to the Owl House.", Amity explains, before making her way up the side railing by the living room, all the way past the twins' rooms to her own room. She enters, closing her door behind her, and tosses her bag onto her desk. Briskly, she takes off her school uniform and changes into her favorite outfit: Brown leggings, her black mid-sleeved dress with the gray belt, and her black shoes with the golden crescent moon buckles. She also casts a thoughtful glance at her round golden necklace with the purple-colored gem embedded in it, which lies lovelessly thrown on her bed. She quickly decides not to put it on.
She turns her attention again to her bag on her desk, empties all the contents on said desk, and packs only what she thinks will help Luz. This includes her yellow egg thingy, one of her notebooks, in which Amity occasionally likes to draw or write her own short stories, and a few unopened snacks she has lying around on her dresser.
As she approaches her door again, she takes one last look around her room, just in case she might have forgotten something, or might spontaneously find something she wants to take with her. She finds nothing, and leaves her room, making her way back out of the manor. Before she reaches the front door, her siblings approach her.
"Do you want anything?", Amity wonders.
"We just wanted to ask you to wish Luz a quick recovery from us.", Emira replies, looking equally sad as her brother does.
"I... am sure I can do that.", Amity replies, a bit unsettled by the twins' sudden change of mood. At the same time, she doesn't care enough to follow up. "I'm going to leave now."
Amity turns around, leaving the manor, sits on her staff and flies off.
"Fly safe. And watch out for yourself!", Emira calls after her.
'Why are they so worried all of a sudden? Doesn't seem like them...', she wonders, 'Unless they know something I don't...'
The flight to the Owl House ends up taking about fifteen minutes. She would have sped up more if her siblings hadn't been acting so strangely, which she had to let her mind deal with first.
When she lands not far away from the Owl House, the confusion about her siblings is still present, but she manages to put it aside for Luz' sake. Noticing that Hooty is somewhere inside the house through a window next to the entrance, she approaches the front door and knocks a few times in quick succession. Through the door she hears the sound of something glassy hitting the floor and shattering, followed by mild cursing and footsteps heading in her direction.
The door opens, revealing disgruntled Owl-Lady.
"Oh, you're here. Good.", she says, not sounding as annoyed as she looks, "Come in. One of the others is already here, too."
The two of them enter the house into the living room, where Amity spots Hooty stretching up to the stairs to the upper floor.
"Who is it? Willow?"
"No, the other one... Goops, or something. He's upstairs with Hooty and King, going through some of my old human stuff."
"Uh, okay.", Amity replies, "And... how's Luz?"
"You're welcome to find out for yourself. She's in her room.", Eda explains, "You know where it is. I have to take care of the mess in the kitchen first."
Eda turns around, but Amity stops her before she can leave the room.
"Wait.", Eda turns back to her, "Umm, I had been thinking a little about what we can all do for Luz to help her recover, and I wanted to ask if you and Hooty could help me with that..."
Eda thinks about this for a moment before turning and calling out, "YO, HOOTY." After a moment of silence, he retreats from upstairs all the way back to the living room.
"What's going on? Luz' little friend and I were just exploring the human realm-", he says before spotting Amity, before gasping in excitement, "Luz' gf is here? I have to tell her!"
"Wait! I need your help!", Amity's words are music to his ears as an excited grin appears on his face. She continues, "In order for Luz to get better as quickly as possible, I think it is essential that there is nothing that can stress her out in any way, or upset her. Therefore, with your help, I would like to draw up a plan on how we can effectively protect the surrounding area."
"I can help. I can help.", Hooty replies full of energy and enthusiasm. Eda, however, is not quite as energetic, but has a few ideas as well.
"Alright. You two work out a plan, and I'll take care of the mess in the kitchen first.", she turns around, leaving Amity and Hooty alone in the living room.
"Before we start, I'd like to check on Luz. I want to see how she's doing.", Amity suggests.
"I HELP. HOOT!", Hooty calls excitedly, moving between her legs, picking her up, and carrying her all the way to Luz' closed door. He stops abruptly, causing Amity to stumble forward, almost falling. When she regains her balance, she turns to the owl-demon with a grave tone of whisper.
"Never. Do that. Again!", her face is all red, and he actually looks quite guilty.
"I'm sorry.", he replies, causing Amity to calm down.
"Good."
Amity turns to Luz's door and opens it slowly, sticking her head inside her girlfriend's room.
Luz is lying in the middle of her room, on a not very comfortable looking mat, and under her sleeping bag. Her room is full of all kinds of stuff, even more than usual: her ceiling is decorated with a string of lights, though her window to the outside is strangely blocked by a somewhat too small red cloth. The walls to her right and left are covered with several paintings, while under the window there are several cuddly toys, one of which she holds in her arms in the form of a cat. In addition, several used tissues are lying all around her.
Luz just lies there cuddling with her stuffed animal, not yet noticing that Amity and Hooty are standing in the open door.
"Luz? It's Amity...", she speaks softly. Luz, however, does not react and just stares at the ceiling. "Luz? ... How are you doing?"
Luz raises her head slightly, revealing the various mushrooms that have already grown on top of her head. They already cover much of her hair, and individual strands are stretching down to her neck already. It takes Luz a while to even realize that someone has entered her room. She picks up her cat snuggie.
"Meow.", Luz meows softly at them before slowly lying back down. Amity is concerned and she turns to Hooty.
"When did Luz first start showing symptoms?"
"Sometime last night or so. She was sneezing out spores.", he explains. Amity drifts off into thought.
"This is happening too fast... It usually takes at least twenty-four hours for the first fungi to form, and her hair is already almost completely taken over by them..."
"And she doesn't recognize who you are.", Hooty states.
"This will pass. Until then, we-", Amity picks up the trash can that stands next to the door, and with abomination tentacles she collects the numerous used tissues and throws them away. In addition, she creates a mini-abomination about a meter tall, "-shouldn't leave her alone."
"I can stay here and keep her company.", Hooty offers excitedly, "I can keep her awake with stories of my life."
"I'm sure you can, but I need you for something else.", Amity ushers him out before taking one last look at Luz, closing the door behind her. "Hooty, I want you to secure the perimeter. No one, except Willow because she's not here yet, is allowed to enter the compound and disturb Luz. No one, understand?"
Hooty salutes (?), and retreats all the way outside and begins to secure the perimeter, while Amity also heads back down the stairs to the first floor, sitting down in the living room, and pulling out the notebook she packed into her bag earlier.
She picks up a pen, tapping its end thoughtfully on her blank sheet of paper.
'Okay, Hooty will take care of protecting the house... I should check with Gus to see what exactly he's doing. As for Eda...', Amity looks up from her list, trying to see if she can see or hear Eda, 'I should go see where she is. ... Okay, let's see... what else?'
Unconsciously, she starts chewing on the end of her pen.
'Oh, right, Willow was going to make soup for Luz... Should you bake her a fairy pie? She'd enjoyed it last time.'
Helping Luz get well
[ X ] – Securing the surroundings (Hooty)
[ ] – Distracting Luz with human stuff? (Gus)
[ ] – Find Eda (Me)
[ ] – Homemade Soup (Willow)
[ ] – Bake a Fairy's Pie (Me)
[ X ] – Finish writing this list (Me)
"Yeah, this is good.", she glances at what she wrote down. A sudden knock from towards the kitchen, throws Amity out of her thoughts, forcing her to listen for more noises and voices in particular.
No sound stirs from the kitchen, except for another knock. This time Amity stands up, her list in hand. She enters the seemingly deserted kitchen and at the door outside stands Willow.
"Willow!", Amity is glad to see her. She opens the door for her, letting her in as she's carrying two heavy looking bags of fresh groceries.
"You gathered supplies?"
"Yes. We're already attacking from all fronts.", Willow salutes playfully. At right that second, Gus enters the kitchen, accompanied by King, who are both holding several discs and cassettes.
"Willow. Amity. Didn't realize you were here already.", Gus greets them.
"What do you have there?", Amity asks him and King, eying them skeptically.
"Rain? Beach Waves?", Gus reads to them.
"Something called 'lo-fi beats to study and be gay to'? We've got it all."
"Eda showed us some old boxes filled with soothing human noises.", Gus explains.
"Speaking of which: Where's Eda?", Amity wonders.
"King and I saw her go into her room."
"What?", Amity asks in confusion, "How is that supposed to help Luz? I'm going to go talk to her."
With that, Amity leaves the kitchen, heads up the stairs, walks past Luz' closed door, and all the way to Eda's room. But even before she reaches it, she hears some strained screams.
'What the-', Amity opens Eda's door and is greeted by the startling image of Eda the owl lady, standing completely strained and tense in the middle of the room, screaming away with all her might. '-fuuu...', she trails off. Eventually, she notices the younger witch.
"Whoo!", she wipes non-existent sweat from her forehead, "Ah, don't mind me. I'm just learning how to turn into Harpy Eda on command. According to these human workouts, you just gotta scream a lot until you force your inner beast out."
Eda continues strainfully grunting and screaming from the top of her lungs. Meanwhile, Amity grabs the VHS-box Eda just pointed to, on the cover of which is written 'Dragon Claw - Z'.
"This looks ancient.", Amity observes. Eda takes the box from her hand.
"What, no. It's only... 30 years old?", Eda is taken by surprise, "I remember seeing this in theaters."
"Yes, you're old. Who cares? We have a crisis on our hands."
"Chill, bossy boots. Everything's fine.", Eda tries to calm her down.
"FINE?", Amity now almost wants to scream herself, "When was the last time you checked on Luz?"
"I don't know, this morning or something...", Eda replies, with a hint of defeat, "Ugh, fine, you win."
Amity turns around to leave her room again, honestly hoping that Eda understood the subtext.
When she reaches Luz's room, she hears that Eda indeed did not follow her.
"Eda!", she calls into the hallway leading to her room, from which an annoyed grunt follows. Amity now actually hears her leaving her room and walking in her direction.
Amity grabs Luz's doorknob, opening it.
"Hey Luz. Eda and I were just checking to see if- ... if-", Amity's words stop in her throat as she catches sight of the scene in front of her. Luz has a tight grip around the Echo Mouse she's holding in her hand... which is missing its head. Luz' mouth is dripping with blood and remains of the Abomination that Amity previously summoned to keep her company, which lies completely torn to shreds throughout the room. The mushrooms, which were previously only on her head, have now worked their way down to her back, even through the fabric of her shirt.
Amity drops her notepad in shock, drawing Luz' attention, whose head immediately snaps at her. It made a sound like she just snapped her own neck.
Luz' eyes are black, and her irises are no longer brown, but blood red. She growls violently at Amity. Seeing the horror before her, she slowly takes a step backward. She is shivering all over her body.
Suddenly Luz dashes off against Amity. She can't even react before Luz slams her with all her body weight against the wall opposite her room.
Amity wants to scream, but she can't.
Luz clutches her fingers around Amity's neck, her nails digging into her flesh. She looks deep into Luz' eyes, hoping to find the girl she loves, but all she can see is… nothing. No love, no joy, no fear, no regret. Nothing.
"E- da-", Amity tries to scream frantically, but nothing more than a whisper comes out of her mouth.