The second part of the match was... more intense than the previous one. Initially everything seemed to go well, and in fact they easily maintained the lead; but then Amity started acting strange. She seemed to have completely abandoned any more defensive tactics and focused exclusively on scoring more points. Very soon her teammates began to feel the effects of this, especially Boscha, Cat and Amelia, who were forced to gain ground every time to score as they were the attackers; but despite their obvious tiredness, Amity didn't stop ordering them to keep working harder and harder. At one point the poor three girls looked like they were about to faint. At that moment Willow couldn't hold on any longer and to everyone's surprise she broke formation and with her incredible leaps quickly went to the other side of the field, helped by the fact that Hunter was keeping most of the opponents busy as usual, and once she reached Boscha she took the ball from her and scored in her place. Although normally such an action would have angered the magenta-haired girl quite a bit, in that moment she felt only gratitude and when the referee blew the whistle for the point she even leaned on Willow to be dragged back into their half of the pitch.
Amity was furious: "Willow, what's wrong with you? That's not your role!"
Willow glared at her: "It's wrong with me that in five minutes at most our team will be down to nine players if you keep forcing Boscha, Cat, and Amelia to play like this! You're pushing them too far!" she exclaimed, and for once Boscha nodded vigorously at her words, and Cat and Amelia, who could barely stand on their legs, immediately agreed.
"Don't say nonsense! They can handle this effort!" Amity replied.
"No, they cannot!" Willow protested. "That's enough, let's stop for a while! Let them rest! Let's just play defense, so they can catch their breath!"
"Don't even talk about it!" Amity said. "We can't win without scoring points!"
"We can't win!? Did you realize that we have three times as many points as our opponents?" Willow pointed out. By now the score was 36-12.
"It doesn't matter! If we show our opponents weakness even for an instant, they will attack us with all their might!" Amity replied. "So let's continue with this strategy!"
On the sidelines, Hunter whispered to Luz: "Do you think she remembers that I've been blocking half the opposing team by myself since the beginning of the match?"
Luz let out a sigh. To think that their opponents could somehow break through their defense was absurd... but it was certainly not the craziest thing Amity had done in the last few minutes. She was seriously worried about her... even though the mint-haired girl kept saying she was fine, it was clear as the sun in the sky that something was really wrong.
The others had noticed it too, especially Willow: "Amity, are you listening yourself when you talk!?"
"Of course I'm listening, and now stop protesting! I'm the captain, so do as I say!" Amity replied, and that sentence closed the conversation as the referee blew the whistle again at that moment.
So they continued that way. And even though the score continued to rise, Boscha, Cat and Amelia continued to feel the effects of all that physical effort. In the end Boscha was so tired that she unintentionally stubbed her foot and fell onto her back, also dragging Amelia in the process who hit her knee instead. Fortunately, just at that moment the second half expired and the referee blew the half-time whistle, so the two girls could be carried away by their team. Once away from the playing field, Skara, who of all people was the one with the greatest medical knowledge, had quickly examined them and concluded that despite the pain there didn't seem to be anything broken, at most it could be sprains; Hunter offered to go look for Eda and Lilith to take them there and have the two unfortunate people treated.
Willow was livid. "I hope you're happy now! They got hurt, just like I told you!"
Amity had a crestfallen look on her face. Judging by her look it was clear that she felt terribly guilty. "Yes... you're right. I exaggerated" she admitted.
Willow's anger waned a little. "Well... this is not the time to talk about it. Let's think about a new game plan and..."
"A new game plan!?" Amity exclaimed, widening her eyes. "We can't change the game plan in the middle of the match! We've been practicing these positions for weeks!"
"Well, we have to do it! Even if Eda and Lilith cure these three poor things, they won't be able to restore their lost energy!" Willow said pointing to Boscha, Cat and Amelia, who no longer even had the energy to speak. "They need to have a role where they don't have to run or jump all the time, or they'll actually end up fainting!"
Amity bit her lip as she looked at her classmates reduced to that condition, but despite this she didn't give up. "But... we didn't train for this! Changing the formation out of the blue will definitely penalize us!"
"First: we are in the absolute advantage, even if we went through the last half without scoring a single point and conceding ten goals from our opponents, we would still be the ones to win!" Willow replied in a stern voice. "And second... the health of our companions comes before anything else! Look at Boscha, she can barely keep her back straight! O Amelia, she can't move her legs anymore! O Cat, she must have lost at least two kilos with all the sweat she's shed, I'm surprised she hasn't dehydrated yet!"
Amity looked at her three companions and she felt as if a snake was squeezing her heart. Amelia was gritting her teeth and clutching her knee in pain, and Cat was pouring gallons of water on herself just to cool off; finally, Boscha was leaning on Skara, who was literally feeding her just to get her to drink some water, since she didn't even seem to have the strength to raise her arm, in fact she literally seemed one step away from collapsing. "Okay" she finally said. "Let's change formation, at least for a while. Let's see, I can take Boscha's place and..."
"You are definitely not taking Boscha's place!" Luz intervened. "Amity, you don't look good either! All you've done is run in every direction fulfilling every role possible! Stay back and let someone else take Boscha's place!"
Amity had used her position as captain throughout the second time of the game to improve the ball passing and ensure the team scored more points; even though she wasn't as tired as Boscha, Cat and Amelia, she was still very tired from the effort. Every muscle in her body was practically begging her for mercy. Under normal circumstances, perhaps Amity would have considered that factor, but at that moment she only got angry: "What do you mean with 'you are definitely not taking Boscha's place'!? Since when do you give me orders, Luz?"
"I'm not giving you orders, I'm trying to keep you from acting stupid!" the puppet replied. "We won't win anything if you get hurt too!"
"Let me take Boscha's place" Willow said, trying to be a little more diplomatic. "I'm not as skilled as her, but I'm more agile and physically stronger thanks to my cricket muscles. Edric and Emira can take Cat and Amelia's place. Matt and Gus will take Edric and Emira's place, so Cat and Amelia will take theirs and they won't have to run too much. Boscha can take Skara's place in goal, and Skara can take Luz's place, and Luz will take mine. Maybe we won't be as efficient as before, but we will be enough to finish the match in a dignified manner"
But even though Willow's proposal wasn't bad at all, Amity didn't even listen to her and instead continued to look at Luz, "How dare you say I'm acting stupid? I'm just trying to get a landslide victory!"
"No one here asked for a landslide victory! We are here to have fun, to play! It's okay to be competitive, but this is too much!" Luz replied. "Come on, Amity, you can't deny that this is crazy! Winning this match isn't that important! It's just a game!"
"It's not just a game!" Amity exclaimed. "Not for me!"
Luz was about to retort, but it was Emira who did it for her: the eldest Blight sister stepped forward and said: "Mittens, even if mom is watching you, you don't have to act like that"
Amity's eyes widened and her breath stopped for a second. "What does mom have to do with it now!? Why do you two always have to accuse her!?" she growled in hostility.
"Come on, Mittens, it doesn't take a genius to understand that you're freaking out because you want to get a phenomenal victory while mom watches us" Edric intervened, supporting Emira. "You don't have to do as she wants, you don't have to be this kind of perfect rugby player just because she called you her perfect Mittens!"
Amity turned red. "This... this has nothing to do with it!"
"I don't think so!" Luz exclaimed. "I don't know what's going on in your head, but you're not fine! And you are not fine ever since your mother jumped off the bleachers after that asshole opposing principal told you that your father doesn't love you!"
Silence fell between them. Luz realized too late what she had said and turned pale, and she put her hands in front of her mouth. The color on Amity's face went from the bright red of anger to pearly white, and her eyes and mouth opened so wide that they almost filled her entire face. Luz felt the urge to slap herself. "Amity... I'm sorry! I didn't mean..."
Too late: Amity turned and ran away as fast as the wind. She clearly heard the puppet's desperate screams calling her back, but she ignored them and continued to run away, until she reached the changing room and forcefully closed the door behind her. As soon as she was inside she leaned her back against a wall and slid to the ground, and she felt her breathing quicken more and more until it became even more labored than when she ran during the game. Why was she reacting that way? Why did Luz's words have that effect on her? She already knew that her father didn't love her. Hearing it from someone else shouldn't have made any difference. Why instead did she feel like she was on the verge of an epileptic seizure?
She dragged herself in front of a mirror and looked at her reflection. He was sweating so much that his face was reflecting the light. "It's okay" she whispered to herself as she wiped her forehead. "You just need to calm down. It's not hard. Make... make happy thoughts. That time Luz forgave you... or when you went to her house... or when she was wearing those cute otter pajamas...". But as much as she kept trying to remember happy moments, every time she tried to open her memories she only heard the puppet's last words echoing inside her mind, and her labored breathing and sweat loss didn't slow down in the slightest. "Oh, come on, Amity! You can't freak out now! Happy thoughts, are those so hard to think? Are you really..."
Her body froze and her sentence was cut off midway when she looked up at the mirror again and realized something that made her blood run cold: a brown hue had appeared at the base of her hair. She had sweated so much that the mint green dye had faded, and she had involuntarily rubbed it off her face. "No, no, no!" Amity exclaimed as her heart and lungs raced faster and faster. "No... not now! I have to... I have to fix myself! I have to... where is that damn dye!?"
She ran towards her clothes that she had left there after she had put on her uniform, throwing everything in between on the floor (even a small vase placed next to the mirror which shattered as soon as it touched the ground), and she almost tore them to pieces to extract from her pocket a small jar containing some of her dye, which she had brought with her for emergencies. She rapidly grabbed the brush and took a large amount of paint, but she couldn't lift it even three centimeters before it slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor because her fingers were shaking too violently. "No, no! Stay still!" Amity screamed at her trembling hands. "Please! Don't tremble now! I need this! I can't... I can't let mom see me like this! She left her precious job to come here... she's so proud... I can't show her this indecent sight !". She desperately tried to block her hands, even going so far as to block them under the elbows and force herself to cause pain, but they didn't stop, on the contrary: their trembling spread like an infection, affecting first her arms, then her shoulders, and finally her whole body began to tremble violently. Soon Amity completely lost her balance and fell to the ground, because her legs were shaking too much and had become too weak to support her. "No, please! Come on, you stupid body, stop shaking! I don't want you shaking! I'm the one in charge! Stop shaking... stop... stop, I'm begging you!"
But of course her body didn't stop, and she started breathing so hard that she literally felt like she was suffocating. And soon again she could hear her mother's voice in her ears.
"Mittens, what are you doing?"
"Mittens, why can't you control yourself yet?"
"You know how important it is to control your emotions, Mittens"
"A good girl never loses control, Mittens"
"YOU can never lose control, do you understand, Mittens?"
And then, very quickly, her mother's voice faded and was replaced by a much younger, more immature one. Amity heard her own voice speaking to her in her head and breathing out everything she was trying to suppress.
"You're miserable"
"Look at you, on the ground shaking like a leaf?"
"How dare you call yourself a good captain?"
"It's your fault"
"You're terrible"
"T-That's not true" Amity whispered. "I-It's not like that... I'm not..."
"You aren't what, Amity? What aren't you? Oh, right… everything"
"Nothing but a little girl playing tough, but fragile inside"
"Mom believes in you so much, but we both know that you're actually deceiving her and that you're not at all as mature as she thinks. You're deceiving her just like you always deceive everyone... but you're just a crybaby"
"A bug"
"Someone who hurts others rather than face them"
"A coward"
"A weak"
"A disappointment"
"A failure"
"Are you surprised that dad doesn't love you?"
"HE IS RIGHT NOT TO LOVE YOU!"
"AND SOON MOM WILL ALSO NOTICE HOW WEAK YOU ARE AND SHE TOO WON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!"
"AND NEITHER EDRIC AND EMIRA!"
"NOT EVEN LILITH!"
"NOT EVEN LUZ!"
"YOU WILL END UP ALONE... BECAUSE YOU'RE NOTHING MORE THAN A FAILURE!"
"S-Shut up! Don't say another word!" Amity screamed at the top of her lungs, putting her hands over her ears in an attempt to silence her subconscious, which started laughing at that pathetic attempt. By mow she was shaking so much that anyone who saw her could easily think there was an earthquake in the room. And soon Amity began to feel her cheeks getting moist too. She looked up at the mirror and saw her face streaked with tears. Her appearance was a real disaster: the dye in her hair had faded and disappeared in several places, her forehead was beaded with sweat, her eyes were watering like two waterfalls and her breathing was so deep that it could have been mistaken for the sound of a bellows. "Okay... okay, calm down now" she whispered to herself, then she looked into her reflection's eyes. "It's okay. You're fine. You MUST be fine...". Her gaze fell on a shard of the vase that she had previously dropped on the floor; she reached it and picked it up, squeezing it tightly between her fingers. "You just... you just have to force your body to stop shaking... you have to make it forget that you're upset... maybe... maybe if you feel pain... you'll think just about that... and not all the rest... yes..." and as she said this she raised the sharp shard over her arm. "Yes... yes, it can... it can work..."
"AMITY!"
Amity turned her head mechanically, with a lot of difficulty because her limbs had become hard as steel, and that was how she saw that Lilith had appeared at the entrance to the changing room, and she was looking at her with a terrified look.
The way in which Boscha and Amelia get injured is the same as that shown in Amity's flashback, where she, playing grudgby in order to win and be better than everyone, ends up hurting them, which leads her to abandon that sport (and even though no one ever said it, Boscha and Amelia should get big kudos for being willing to forgive Amity after she literally sent them to the infirmary out of her own selfish desire. And then people say I make Boscha too good in my stories... no, it's Dana who forgot to delve into her as a character until the third season, where she just threw her in there as a sop to the fans). Obviously in this AU neither of them end up in the infirmary, but they still get pretty hurt and need a break.
