Luz found that first lesson to be quite enjoyable; contrary to what she had always imagined, she wasn't finding school boring. She was seriously starting to wonder why she had had so many doubts of going there: the things that the teacher was explaining were very interesting, and even if some of them weren't exactly to her taste (for example mathematics), it was still gratifying to be able to learn something new. In that small classroom no larger than forty square meters she was learning more than she ever had in all her travels. It was fascinating to discover how everything in the world could be calculated using numbers, or how it was possible to exploit all those words that she had almost always used inappropriately to compose extraordinary works called poems. Sure, she had some difficulty following everything the teacher was explaining since she was so far behind in the program, but she was learning quickly; everything would have been fine... if it hadn't been for the unpleasant person who was sitting next to her.

"How can you not understand such a simple concept!?" Amity was saying in an extremely annoyed voice, and the fact that she was whispering so as not to disturb the rest of the class made she even more threatening. "And this writing! I can barely read it! It almost seems like you're illiterate!"

Luz bit her lip; technically Amity wasn't wrong, since until the day before she had been totally incapable of reading, writing and doing numbers. Luckily Eda had taught them to her right after they went to buy the uniform, so that she wouldn't have to be put in a class of small children and start right from the basics; it would have been decidedly humiliating for her and the fairy had wanted to spare her that shame. However even if Luz had learned to write and had trained for a whole day, this didn't mean that she knew how to do it very well, and in fact her writing, besides being extremely unclear, also had countless spelling errors.

If Amity had given her some constructive criticism or something like that Luz wouldn't have complained; after all, she was there to learn, and even though she didn't like being scolded, she had now understood verty well that it was better to listen to people who knew more than her. However, she felt like the girl next to her was pointing out her mistakes just to make her feel inadequate. She did her best to hold back any impulse or else she would end up crumpling up the paper she was writing on and shoving it into her mouth forcibly to silence her. In the end she couldn't hold it any longer. "Can't you cut me some slack!?" she blurted out silently so as not to be heard by the teacher. "I know I'm not good in this, and in fact I'm trying to get better!"

"The teacher told me to help you, and that's what I'm doing. It's my duty to point out your mistakes" Amity replied sourly, without showing the slightest empathy. Even if she wasn't changing her haughty and cutting expression in the slightest, her tone of voice made it clear how annoying staying next to the puppet was for her too; evidently, even if she pretended nothing happened, she must not have taken well the fact that Luz had called her pompous and arrogant or that she had called one of her friends her personal slave.

"I know, but you can do it nicely! Don't treat me like I can't even tell you what color the sky is!" Luz said.

"Why not? Ignorant people should be treated like ignorant people. Making them feel guilty for their total lack of knowledge is the best way to encourage them to improve themselves"

"To me it just seems like the best way to dash their hopes and make them feel inadequate, and perhaps lead them to abandon any prospect of improvement precisely because they won't feel capable enough"

"Which means that they are weak individuals who deserve to remain on the extreme margins of society. A strong person, if insulted for a flaw of them, would strive to resolve that flaw in order to make their opponent take back those words. If someone decides to abandon themselves to desperation instead of fighting, they don't deserve to have a chance. That's how the world works, and if you don't like that, it's none of my business"

"Are you serious? I don't need to come to school to understand that what you're saying is morally wrong"

"Only from a weak person's point of view. And so I'm not surprised that it's your point of view"

"Are you calling me weak!?"

"Also slow to understand, I should add. But we had already established this"

If she had any functioning veins, at least two or three of them would have exploded on Luz's forehead by now. Amity was exasperating and she couldn't help but imagine strangling her; she was stopped by the thought that probably that was exactly what Amity wanted her to do, so as to make her look like the one in the wrong and get her kicked out of class and maybe expelled from school. However, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to kick her from under the desk when no one was looking... no, she shouldn't have: she had promised herself to behave like a good girl and she wouldn't give up her intentions because of a pompous arrogant girl with mint hair. While she was thinking this she noticed that Amity had stopped writing on her paper, and this intrigued her since until then she had practically never left her pen. "Hey, what's wrong? Didn't you understand that passage?"

Amity remained silent, but she held her breath and her face quickly turned red, so much so that for a moment Luz thought she was about passing out. "It's your fault! You distracted me and I lost track!"

Luz had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. So when Amity got really angry she risked fainting? It was hilarious. "Well, ask the teacher to explain it to you again! What are you waiting for?" she grumbled, since in her opinion the solution to that problem was extremely simple. The teacher had been very helpful whenever anyone had to ask questions; virtually every person in the class had asked at least one, and Skara even three.

But Amity shook her head. "There is no need. Once the lesson will be over I will do some research on my own and fill this gap with my own means"

Luz raised an eyebrow. From his point of view that was a totally illogical thing to do. "Why? The teacher is there at the blackboard, you can fill your gap in less than a minute if you ask him for help!"

"I don't need anyone's help. And I certainly don't need to have something already explained to me explained to me again" Amity replied adamant.

"Oh, come on, that's ridiculous! Excuse me, teacher!" Luz exclaimed as she raised her hand and got the teacher's attention. "Amity got distracted for a moment to help me and she lost track. Could you restart, please?"

For some reason the whole class seemed to freeze for a moment, including even the teacher who seemed quite surprised, but who quickly recovered and said: "Of course, no problem. Let's go again, and listen carefully this time". But while he calmly resumed the lesson, many of the kids continued to stare at Luz as if she had declared she had seen a ghost. The puppet didn't understand the reason for such looks, but then she turned her head and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw the livid expression Amity was painted on her face. "You're dead" she hissed, in a voice that almost seemed to come from the underworld.

Luz visibly swallowed. Amity's cold eyes made her feel as if the mint-haired girl was actually planning her murder. What had she done this time to make her so angry?

The answer came to her as soon as the bell announced the end of class and the teacher left the classroom telling the students they could go home: Amity jumped up and for a moment seemed intent on knocking down the desk, or taking the chair and slam it on the puppet's head. "I told you not to embarrass me!" she growled, pointing an accusing finger at the puppet.

"Embarrass you? I was just helping you!" Luz retorted. Even though Amity's murderous eyes were scaring her quite a bit, she still wasn't about to let herself be treated that way. "What's so embarrassing about asking for help? Everyone did it! It's normal, people do it all the time! Maybe a Blight like you isn't allowed to ask for help?"

"Exact!" Amity snapped, causing Luz to fall silent. "I've always done everything myself! I've never needed someone to explain something to me more than once! Now, because of you, my reputation is tarnished!"

Despite being angry at the ingratitude Amity was showing, Luz felt quite uncomfortable. So Amity never asked a teacher to re-explain a concept to her that she didn't understand? Or she never had even asked anyone for help outside of school, and had always made everything alone, with anyone supporting her? It didn't seem like a very good thing to her, let alone healthy. She hoped that the mint-haired girl was just blowing things up a bit and wasn't really serious. "Now you're exaggerating. How important can it be to ask the teacher to repeat a concept for once? By tomorrow everyone will have forgotten it! No, I bet that practically no one will remember it in less than an hour!"

"But I'll remember it! I will always remember it! This matters to me!" Amity exclaimed, then her gaze became more evil than before. "But I don't expect you to understand... a puppet like you should stay in the closet, instead of coming here and damaging your reputation!"

Now Luz was really angry. "Hey! If you really want to know, I don't care about your reputation and your mental delirium!" she growled, standing up as well and looking Amity straight in the eyes. "I won't let you talk to me like that! I'm a puppet, it's true, but I have just as much right to go to school as you! And I'm working hard to improve and become..."

"What? A real girl?" Amity laughed evilly and without warning ripped the piece of paper that read 'Real girl in training' off her uniform, threw it on the floor and crushed it with her foot. "Stop dreaming. You're not a real girl and you never will be. You're just a puppet who causes me problems and who doesn't know respect, so at least have the decency to give up now and give up this unachievable fantasy of yours"

That gesture was the last straw for Luz; to hell acting like a good girl, she wanted to make her pay after she ruined the gift Gus and Willow had given her! And those rather wicked words only increased her anger. Without further delay she grabbed Amity by the collar of her uniform and brought her face a few centimeters from hers. "Okay, that's enough. Since you like to fight so much, then let's fight. Let's go out to the yard, so I can teach you some sense with my fists!"

Even though she was jerked very hard, Amity still didn't bat an eyelid; she simply raised a hand and grabbed Luz's arm. "First of all, let go of my uniform. This collar costs more than the wood you're made of" she told her, forcing her to let it go; even though she was rather thin and skinny, she possessed quite remarkable strength, and Luz was almost unable to oppose her. "And secondly, while it doesn't surprise me at all that an ignorant scapegrace like you intends to resolve this issue with her fists, I don't intend to stoop to such barbaric and primitive actions. But if you really want to be humiliated, I can grant you a challenge"

"I gladly accept it!" Luz exclaimed without thinking twice. "And when I'll win, you'll have to admit that I was right to try to help you and that you're just an arrogant pomp!"

"So be it! And when I'll win, you will admit that you are not a real girl and that you never will be!" Amity replied back, then she grabbed her things and walked away. "I'll be waiting for you in the courtyard in fifteen minutes. Then we'll see if you'll still act so bold!"

Luz watched her go as her fists shook with anger. She couldn't wait to leave that annoying girl in the dust. Suddenly Willow and Gus emerged from her pocket and looked quite worried. "Luz, what are you doing?"

"Huh? I just accepted the challenge! So I'll teach that pompous mint-haired girl a lesson!" Luz replied.

Both arthropods sighed and shook their heads. "Luz, do you realize that you accepted without even knowing the challenge, right? Amity may very well ask you to do something that only she can do" Gus pointed out.

A strange light passed in Luz's eyes signaling that only then had she realized that detail, and immediately after her determined expression turned into a worried one. "Oh damn, what have I done!?" she exclaimed, putting her hands on her cheeks.

"You acted without thinking, as usual, and you let that girl influence you, which led you right into her trap" Willow said in a tired voice. "Well, that's how it's gone now. We can only hope that at least that girl respects the concept of sportsmanship and chooses a fair challenge"

Luz gulped and cursed herself at least ten times; she really wasn't good at thinking well before acting, it was definitely one of her worst flaws. Even though technically telling Amity that she wasn't a real girl and couldn't become one would have had no consequences other than inflating that arrogant girl's ego, Luz would have felt defeated admitting such a thing exactly on the next day in which she promised herself to work hard to fulfill that dream. But it was too late now, so she put her things in her locker and then she went to the courtyard where Amity and her friends were already waiting for her. "And here comes the challenger! This is going to be fun" Boscha exclaimed, rubbing her hands together with a grin; evidently she was liking the situation a lot and was enjoying it to the fullest. "Well, since Amity has granted me the enormous privilege of being the referee, allow me to explain to you what this challenge will consist of. It is the traditional test with which the students of this school have challenged each other for decades whenever they have issues in suspended and are intelligent enough not to give in to impulses and start punching each other in the corridors: the terrible and extreme Witch Duel! What the challengers will have to do is reach the nearby Mirkwood, in which a long time ago the witches who lived near Bonesborough performed their cruel rituals, and there they will have to look for a fragment of something that belonged to them and bring it back as evidence; the first one back here wins! And of course if any of them are hit by a late curse, they will have to fend for themselves! Are there any questions?"

Luz had at least a thousand questions, but when she tried to open her mouth to ask at least one, Boscha completely ignored her and spoke over her: "Great, I'm glad none of you have anything to ask! Well, let's not waste any more time! Amity, Luz, get on the starting line! Let it be a clean challenge, without cheating and... I don't remember what I was supposed to say anymore, but it doesn't matter! Three, two, one... GO!"

Amity took off running so quickly that for a moment Luz found herself behind her, but the puppet didn't take long to recover and chased after her, easily managing to keep up with her and catch up. Well, at least it didn't seem like Amity was going to perform a too unbalanced challenge, but rather that she had chosen a fairly balanced one... but she wasn't sure how good an idea it was to go and slip into a forest full of remnants of rituals of witches and touched anything she found.

However whatever doubts were present in her mind immediately vanished when she noticed the disdainful look Amity was giving her as they ran; in a split second, the only thing in Luz's head was an absolute competitive spirit. "Do you think you're going to discourage me!?" she thought furiously. "I say to you, do you think you're going to discourage me? I broke into a police station, I almost got burned by a circus owner, I was hanged by two assassins, I broke out of prison, I contributed to a riot against an evil greater basilisk, I crossed the sea on a small boat, I saw a storm that you can't even imagine, I even participated in a pirate attack... and you, arrogant mint-haired girl, think you can discourage me!? It doesn't matter what should I do, I swear I will make you take back all your words one by one!"


In the original book when Pinocchio goes to school for the first time he is immediately targeted by his classmates, who obviously think they can take advantage of him just because he is a puppet, but he reacts by kicking them and thus earns everyone's respect; this is because according to nineteenth-century Italian tradition (when the book was written) it was normal to believe that boys had to assert themselves with their fists over their classmates. What we today would consider bullying were "normal kid's things" at the time (yes, I know it's bad to say this, but we can't pretend that the past never existed! Anyone who doesn't remember the past is destined to repeat it after all). In this AU the situation goes differently: Luz is targeted by her classmates, especially by Amity, but she tries not to react with violence because she wants to behave like a good girl, and only when Amity tears away her note "Real girl in training" that Gus and Willow had given her and crushes it (clear reference to what Amity does in the canon when Luz challenges her to the Witch Duel) finally gives in and decides to fight her, but the two girls prefer to use another type of challenge rather than the physical one (or at least, Amity prefers it, also because she is not stupid and knows that Luz, being made of hard wood, would have the advantage in any hand-to-hand fight); now we'll have to see where this challenge will lead. Oh, and just to clarify: the witches Boscha is talking about are not the ones from The Owl House canon, who are just ordinary people; this story mainly exploits classical folklore, therefore just as fairies like Eda are always good, witches are always evil (unless they are white witches; I will explain this distinction better in a few dozen chapters), this is why Boscha refers to their rituals as "cruel". And obviously the "Witch Duel" in this story is not a real duel between witches, but just a children's game that involves the "duel" taking place in a place previously frequented by witches.