Hey, how's it going? I forgot to mention that it's most likely that I will update this fic on a monthly basis at best, sometimes it might take longer than that. I'd love to do it more often like on earlier days but the truth is that I don't have enough time with my classes, not to mention that my inspiration comes on and off these times. Now this would not be the case all the time, if I can update faster I will, it's just that Idk if I would be able to.
I have gotten so much inspiration to write a fanfic based on my own version of an ending of s2 (it was good, but I feel like it could've been better) and maybe make my own AU of S3, mostly based on the theories I had while the season was airing. The sad thing is that with my slow writing and my attention span this fic would take more time to update (since nowadays I'm basically updating once a month it would take two month to get another chapter done more or less). What do you guys think? Would you be interested in this? Everything up to s2e10 would be cannon and the chapters would be the same length, probably would be a short fic of ten chapters.
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! (not that I´m forcing you), all feedback is appreciated! As long as you don't yell at me XD
English isn't my first language, please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters except my OCs belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark (Plz go read his comics, I beg you).
-Amity-
Cliffside Highschool, east gravesfield / Monday August 29th 8:05 AM
Amity walked hurriedly back to classes, cursing under her breath as she sprinted past the school entrance. She should have entered alongside the rest of the students when the bell rang five minutes ago but she couldn't. Willow and Luz went inside the school together and she just ran in the opposite direction, after that she needed some time to compose herself before going to class. She must've lost track of time because before she knew it the bell rang and she had to sprint to not be late.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" She was really mad at herself for not seeing this coming
She stopped running once she was in the halls, arriving late to class because someone scolded her for running would be the stupidest thing ever. Class had started a couple of minutes ago but luckily she picked up her schedule and books before so that saved her some time. Amity could see that she wasn't the only person who was struggling to get to first period: A lot of late-comers were wandering the halls and more than half of them looked like they didn't even know where their classroom was.
Finally she reached her homeroom and took a moment to fix herself and catch her breath. Amity really did not want to give the idea that she had been running to get here on time, even if she was. After a little bit she braced herself and opened the door.
"...And in this year we will-" she interrupted professor Hermonculus in the middle of his speech, Amity was glad to see that some of her classmates were still putting things out of their backpacks and the teacher wasn't done writing his name on the board "Oh! Miss Blight, arriving late? what a rare occurrence"
"I am sorry professor Hermonculus, I-uhh" Oh great she forgot to think of an excuse "Received an important call and I lost track of time"
"Hmm, is that so?" The professor looked at the clock in the wall "Well it's only five minutes after class started so it's not a big deal, I think we can let it slide given your impressive record"
"Thank you sir" this did not mean that her wouldn't hear of this but she could be hopeful.
"Don't mention it, now go and find your seat"
Amity nodded and searched for an empty seat, all the front-liners were occupied so she had to go to the middle of the class. While she walked she could hear the whispers of people gossiping about her "did the star student Amity Blight arrive late to class on the first day? *gasp*" she just rolled her eyes and kept going while trying to ignore them. Did these people not have anything else going for their life that they have to comment on something so insignificant?
Once she sat down and grabbed the things on her backpack she allowed herself to relax. The professor was just explaining some chemical compounds that she had already heard in her summer classes so she didn't need to pay attention. Over the years she had mastered the art of daydreaming while looking like she was listening to the class, so now she could think about what happened this morning.
"Oh my gosh, I was so stupid!" Amity wanted to hit her head against her desk but she had drawn enough attention to herself today, so she just limited to bite her cheek. The reason for her sour mood was none other than the transfer student: Luz Noceda.
She had met the latina a couple of weeks ago when she gave her a tour of the school. Amity thought she was weird at first but once she learned that Luz had been homeschooled all her life she understood her better. Not being able to interact with kids her age had made her socially awkward to the extreme, which made her wonder how she was going to develop in the hellish social hierarchy of high school. Despite her strange mannerisms the girl could be endearing in some ways and it was kind of refreshing after being flooded with ordinary people from school, so when Bump asked her to be her tutor for the entrance exam she gladly accepted and asked for her phone. They never met in person after that, they just mainly chatted about the exam, but Luz sometimes sent her cute pictures of her cat called King and Amity responded by sending her ones of her own cat, Ghost.
Over time she started to enjoy their conversations and was eager to start classes with Luz because she wasn't in her friend group: Boscha and her cronies were selected to be her friends from an early age because their parents were associated with Blight industries, they were actually ok most of the time but her main issue with the group was Boscha. She was a bully in every sense of the word and she was obsessed with social status, almost getting to the point of treating it like a cast system: She never lets anyone "unpopular" be around their group and girls in her group aren't allowed to be with anyone that she doesn't approve. One time a boy asked her out but she rejected him in front of everyone, later Amity asked why she rejected him because he looked like her type, Boscha simply answered that she couldn't date him because he wasn't popular enough.
Now having only one person in their group with these types of ideas was bearable, especially when the other girls were fun and kind. The problem was that everyone else worshipped Boscha like she was their queen, which boosted her ego even more. There were a lot of times when the girls in her group did something really mean just because Boscha asked them to, even to the point of manipulating the girls into doing what she wanted. Amity wanted them to snap out of it and see her as the bitch she was, but it was impossible. It seemed that these girls were incapable of having an independent thought.
"Miss Blight, do you care to answer the question?" Her inner ramblings stopped when the professor talked to her. Amity wasn't paying attention but with just one look at the board she could tell what they were talking about.
"The answer is ethanol, sir" She had done this exercise in her summer classes so she said it with total confidence.
"Correct as always, miss Blight" Then he turned to address the rest of the students "Why can't you all be more like her, huh? A new year and she is still the only one that can get my answers right" and the rest of the class erupted in complains.
Some students glared at her while others were whispering about how the 'little miss perfect' was showing off again. Amity just sank deeper into her seat.
"Do they think that I actually like being the teacher's favorite? All I did was answer his question! I didn't ask him to compare me to you guys" She really needed to talk with professor Hermonculus about boundaries.
Amity felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see a girl from her friend group, Skarra. She was holding a note for her to grab so Amity quickly scanned the room to see if the professor was watching them, luckily he was distracted arguing with some boy who got tired of being compared with her, she couldn't blame him for it honestly. She quickly grabbed the note and proceeded to read it, only to be massively disappointed.
"Maybe you shouldn't try so hard next time? You know that they are going to mock you for this later"
Amity just looked back and stared incredulously at Skara, who only offered her a sheepish smile. She frowned and ripped the note into pieces in front of her, then she proceeded to look at the front of the class and not pay attention to her supposed friend for the rest of the period. When chemistry class ended she just bolted outside of the classroom as quickly as she could without bothering to look at anyone else, she knew that Skarra was going to be insufferable when they meet again but Amity did not care.
Skarra was an interesting case among her friends, while most people in their group were obsessed with status and popularity she could not care less about it. She was a carefree soul that spoke her mind and did all the trendy stuff because she actually liked it, not because everyone else did it. Skara would be Amity's best friend if it wasn't for a tiny detail: She followed Boscha's command to every word like it was coming from the holy bible, if she asked her to prank the freshman girls she was going to do it, if she asked her to lie to teachers about her skipping classes she will do it, and if Boscha asked her to share the exam answers with her she will do it. When she asked Skara why she always did what Boscha told her the girl told her that they were childhood friends, they have always stuck together so she just sees these things as 'favors'.
"I can't wait until highschool is over, Skara said that she wanted to major in music and Boscha wanted to play professional baseball. I really hope that once the end up in different colleges she snaps out and finds out how much she manipulated her"
Once she reached her locker she grabbed her books and headed to her next class, she checked her schedule to see what it was and grimanced. Maths, the class that she always shared with Willow.
"Well this day is turning out to be lovely isn't it?"
Amity resigned herself to her fate and walked to the classroom, she arrived there before the teacher and most students weren't even there. Amity was pulling her books out of her backpack when a voice called to her.
"Amity, hey!" She turned back and saw her friend Amelia "It's been a while! How come we haven't talked for the rest of the summer"
"Hey Amelia, sorry I've been busy with summer school and my job. Are you and Arnold still a thing?"
"Oh no, we are more than done. Can't believe I actually liked that jerk, did you know he has a fart problem?"
"Eww, why would you tell me that! And I thought that his workout smell was the worst thing about him…"
"Oh girl you have no idea, this is the last time I date a gym bro…"
Just like that they started to chit chat about the gossip Amity had missed during the summer. At one point Willow entered and Amity tried not to look in her direction as hard as she could, it usually worked well. Later the teacher arrived and they had to stop talking, as the class got into its usual stupor Amity drifted back into thinking what happened this morning.
She had hoped that Luz and her could be friends but now it was impossible just because of two simple reasons: Luz was friends with Willow and Boscha hated her. Amity had to keep her status in the school and not because she wanted to, her helicopter parents monitored her every action and if they found out that she was 'associating' herself with 'lowly people' they would freak out. Willow was one of the most unpopular people in the school and people often bullied her and whoever she interacted with, it meant that whoever was friends with her was immediately on the bottom of the school's hierarchy. Also the fact that she managed to piss Boscha off before even entering the school was against her.
"This is so stupid! I shouldn't have to worry about something like that, I hate this" To make things worse she reacted badly when Willow appeared and practically ran away "What was I supposed to do? Tell her to stop being friends with Willow? That would be acting like Boscha, I don't own her"
Amity sighed and resigned herself, she was happy to finally meet a person outside of her parent's circle but it wasn't the case. Thinking about all this complicated stuff made her yearn even more for college, once she's not a minor she could hang out with whoever she wanted.
"I wonder how Luz's first period went"
-Luz-Cliffside Highschool, east Gravesfield / Monday August 29th 12:30 AM
Luz slumped into her seat and face-planted into her table. It was lunch time already and only a couple of periods had passed, but it was more tiring than that one time Raine made her clean the entire headquarters.
"Hey Luz!" She heard Gus' voice coming from behind her but she didn't even bother to get up "How was your first day?"
"Eeeeuuuaaaghhh" she groaned from the table.
"That bad huh? Well to be fair, we did warn you about it but you still wanted to come"
"I knoooow, Eda's gonna have her 'I told you so' face" she turned around to look at her friend
"But no really, what did you do?"Gus sat down at the chair beside her and started to eat his lunch.
"I managed to make Willow mad at me before I even entered the building"
"Ohh. So that's why she was in a bad mood before, what did you do?"
"I'd rather not talk about it until she gets here"
"Well in my experience Willow doesn't stay mad for a lot of time, so you just gotta wait a little"
"Yeahhh, but still…"
"Well that what's got you down? I figured it would be something more serious than just pissing off Willow"
"Oh it's way more than that"
"What happened? It has only been half of the first day! There's no way you could've enough time to get in trouble…"
Luz winced and started telling her friend how her day went.
Four hours ago
Luz was trembling from head to toe, the excitement was too much for her. She was glad that she didn't have breakfast this morning, because if she did she would've already puked out of nerves. She had arrived before the bell rang and sat on her seat waiting for the teacher to come, she felt like everyone was looking at her so she kept looking at the sides but it seemed that most of the students were still partially asleep. She supposed it was due to the 'first day' effect that Willow and Gus told her about.
Finally the teacher arrived: A middle-aged woman with a robust build and brunette hair, she was really tall but her expression was kind and she spoke in a calm manner.
"Hello, everyone! I hope you had a beautiful summer. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mrs Barnes and I'll be your english teacher. This year we will be seeing the…"
Some people groaned upon hearing that. The ones sleeping suddenly woke up and started paying attention as she described the contents she would be teaching.
"Also I am pleased to announce that this year we will be having a new exchange student! Please come up and introduce yourself"
All the students looked at her and she gulped, apparently not everyone had noticed Luz when they entered so some of them were just realizing that there was a girl they hadn't seen before in the classroom. Feeling the nervousness in the pit of her stomach she got up and slowly walked to the front of the teacher and turned down to face her classmates. There were far too many eyes looking at her so she felt it would be better if she focused on a point at the wall instead, she took a deep breath and forced a smile.
"Hello everyone! I'm new here, my name is Nuz Loceda and I'm happy to meet you all"
There were some people who waved at her, someone even said "Hi Nuz". The teacher checked her notebook and looked at her confused. Only then Luz realized what was wrong.
"W-wait no! I'm sorry! M-my name is Luz Noceda! Umm hi…" She wanted to die.
There were a couple moments of silence before the class erupted with laughter. The teacher looked at Luz with sympathy before telling her to go to her seat, she could hear whispers and remarks about her but she tried her best to ignore her. When Luz reached her seat there were some people still mocking her and the teacher was having a hard time getting the class back on track. She just ignored everything and wished for the earth to devour her, those things could happen in the human realm right?
Two hours later
Luz got out of another class feeling quite disappointed. Luckily she managed to not embarrass herself this time but it's not like she made a good impression either, so it was kind of a mixed bag. She had been hoping to be in a class with Gus or Willow but so far no luck, she couldn't even check on with Amity to find out what happened this morning. Luz was going down the hallway towards her locker when a voice called out to her.
"You!" She turned around to see a very dumbfounded boscha looking at her as if she couldn't believe she was there "What are- What are you doing here?!"
"Oh hey Boscha… I'm studying here now! Surprise…" The other girl just continued to stare at her for a couple seconds before walking towards her.
Luz wasn't in a confrontational mood so she just turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. Sadly Boscha chased after while calling her names so she had to speed up, they ended up scolded by some teachers for running in the hallways.
Present time
"...Then after those guys were done lecturing us I had to hide from Boscha in the janitor's closet, I arrived to class half an hour late"
"Well that surely was… interesting" Gus was trying his best to not laugh.
"Luckily none of them gave us detention because it is the first day, but still it's not a good sign for my academic future"
"Well it could've been worse!"
"How?" Luz looked at her friend incredulously.
"You could've seen Amity! And you should count yourself as lucky, because if you manage to piss her off its over for you"
Luz groaned and slammed her head against the table again in frustration.
"Oh please tell me you didn't" Gus was looking at her worried.
"I don't know if I did! She was acting weird this morning with Willow and…"
"Whoa whoa whoa, let's backtrack there for a second. Willow and Amity interacted?"
"Well yeah, that's why I think they are both mad at me. I've been waiting for a chance to talk with them to explain what happened, but so far I had no luck"
"Well you could try doing it now" A voice spoke at their backs. They turned to see Willow behind them holding her lunch tray. She sat down at their table and looked at Luz with a calm face "How come that you knew Amity?"
Luz sighed and started telling them everything. How she met Amity when she came for the tour of the school, how she also helped her with the entrance exam, and how she kept having pleasant conversations with her by sending cat pictures. They listened to her with curiosity while they ate lunch
"...and when I talked with her today she seemed fine until we found you, then she just went away" Luz finished her explanation and hoped that her friend wasn't mad at her.
"Ok well that was less complicated than I thought" Gus actually sounded relieved.
"What?"
"Yeah it's easy to figure out knowing her: She gave you the tour and helped you with the exam because Bump told her to, Amity tends to take her academic duties very seriously. I think that she tolerated you just for the sake of her duties and now that those are done she will ignore you" Willow had a bitter expression on her face.
"But… That doesn't-" Luz didn't want to believe it. She knew she was easy to trick but she truly believed that she made a connection with the blight girl.
"Just leave it, Luz. Now that she's seen we're friends she's not going to talk to you" Willow looked really pissed.
"Hey guys things are getting too grim for my liking, so why don't we change subjects?" Both girls nodded "Great. Luz, which subjects did you have?"
With that the mood brightened and they spent the rest of their lunch break eating together. Willow seemed to calm down after they stopped talking about Amity and she laughed at Luz's first day shenanigans. Eventually the next period started and Luz left in a better mood, determined to make a good impression in her next class, maybe she can find new friends there!
A couple hours later
Luz walked hurriedly towards her classroom, she got lost in the hallways (again) and was arriving late to her last class of the day.
"It's not my fault! Why do they have to make these look like a labyrinth?" She wanted to make a run for it but she was afraid that a teacher might see her and decide to give her detention despite being the first day of school "why would anyone want to ban running anyway? That is such a stupid rule!"
She arrived at her classroom and took a breath to calm herself before entering. This was the last period of the day, which meant it was her last time to make a good impression with her peers. The last two attempts had been… unsuccessful. She managed to break five test tubes in chemistry class (professor Hermonculus wasn't happy about that) and she started ranting about dragons in biology, so now everyone believed she was some fantasy-obsessed nerd who could not differentiate reality with fiction.
"Well that isn't too far from the truth, but still! How was I supposed to know that the largest flying creature wasn't a dragon? And what the heck is a condor? Oh nevermind that, focus noceda this is your last chance to leave a good impression today so you can't afford to mess up again. Here we go, you've got this!"
She opened the door with more strength than necessary and entered the classroom at full force "Hello! Sorry I'm late, but I got lost"
The teacher was in the middle of his lecture but he stopped to look at Luz with annoyance. She gave him an apologetic smile and scanned the crowd, luckily she saw Willow who waved at her.
"Ahh our new exchange student, miss Noceda was it? You are ten minutes late" The teacher was a middle-aged man with a bored expression on his face, he was wearing a brown suit with a tie and glasses.
"Yeah, sorry. This is a new school so I got lost"
"Well since this is the first day I'm going to let it slip, but try to be on time for the next class!"
"Yes, I will" She made a mental note to memorize the school's map later and stepped inside the room. Then she turned to face her classmates and started to present herself "Hi! My name is-"
"Up bup-bup, you can stop there" The teacher interrupted her "There's not enough time to do your little presentation, maybe if you have arrived earlier"
"What? But-"
"But nothing, now go seat so we can finally resume the lesson" The teacher pointed at an empty seat
Luz gave up and started walking towards the direction he pointed only to stop in surprise. Right next to the seat the teacher was pointing sat Amity blight, who looked just as surprised as her. Luz quickly looked to see if there was any other empty seat, but to no avail.
"Well? Come on, we don't have all day"
With that she sat and waved towards Amity, who chose to ignore her. The teacher resumed his history lesson and the class went painfully slow for Luz. When the bell rang, pretty much everyone rushed towards the exit before the teacher could finish his speech. Amity also ran with the horde of people without looking at her direction even once. Then it was only her and Willow.
"Hey…" Willow quietly approached her "do you wanna walk together?"
"Yeah, sure" Luz got up and they walked towards the exit in silence.
"I'm sorry about what happened before" Willow said after a while.
"Huh?" Luz was unsure what she was referring to.
"I was kinda angry with the whole Amity situation. The thing is that something similar happened to me in middle school: I had a group of friends there, but they all left to be a part of 'the popular girls' circle. They even started bullying me, just because that's what everyone in their friend group did. I was… kinda worried you would do that too"
"Hey I'm not going to do that, you are not getting rid of me that easily" Luz hugged Willow and she could feel the other girl relax "Who cares about popularity? Tell you what, why don't we just try to ignore this whole Amity business and just focus on having a good time?"
"Pfft yeah, good luck with that" They heard a voice behind them but there was nobody when they turned around "Over here!" Now that they were closer they could see that the voice came from a locker, and it sounded really familiar.
"Gus? What are you doing in your locker? Did the basketball team put you in there again?"
"Nope" The dark-skinned boy opened the door in his own "It wasn't locked, I'm just hiding"
"From what?" Luz looked around, they were the only ones in this hallway, the majority of the students already left the building.
"From that masacre" Gus pointed at a window and Luz understood what he was talking about: outside of school many students were cramped together at the school's entrance and she could see how a group of them was bullying some kids by taking their backpacks and tossing them to each other like it was a game. Luz could recognize a few, they were in the track team gathering last time she came to school.
"Oh it's that time of the year isn't it?" Willow asked with sadness
"Wait, what's happening?"
"It's the bullying session of the first day" Gus came to look at the window as he explained it to her "to 'celebrate' the first day of class the jocks from all the teams gather and pull pranks on everyone they consider inferior: First years, nerds, loners, and unpopular people. The tortures they inflict go from swirlies, to public humiliation, to actual theft, to whatever they did to that poor fellow over there" he pointed at a freshman boy who was soaking wet and missing a shoe "the worst part is that, since everyone involved is an athlete, they posses a certain inmunity. They can do whatever they want as long as there isn't any property damage or severe harm to other students. The local bullies have mastered the art of cleaning up after their messes, so I can guarantee you that they won't get in trouble for this"
"That's crazy! All of that because they know how to play a game!" Gudgby was also a big sport in the boiling isles, but the fanatics would never get this annoying! "What about the parents? There's no way the would be ok with this"
"This isn't a small town but hexside is the only public school, a lot of the parents studied here and they remember being fans for the local teams. This place is big in sports pride so the athletes get a lot of respect" Willow informed her sadly.
"Not to mention that a lot of parents actually believe that this is a good method for rising their kids, they just tell them to 'tough it up' as if that is going to help them" Gus added with a bitter tone.
"Aw man" Luz whined and sat down on the floor "this really different than all of those netflix shows. I was expecting to make a big impression on my first day, but I failed miserably"
"Hey don't be sad" Willow sat next to her "This kind of stuff is an extreme situation that only happens on a couple of days. I promise that usually it isn't that bad, the most they usually do is ignore us"
"Yep! She's right" Gus sat down at her other side and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly "They only put this kind of show on the first day as a 'welcome back' celebration, although I'm sure that the jocks are just depressed that the summer ended and bully the others just to cope"
"Thanks guys. It's just, well… this isn't what I had in mind when I told Eda about joining school"
"We did warn you" Gus smiled at her.
"Well you know what?" Willow got up and offered her hand "this school might not be the place all that media made you believe, but that doesn't matter. You have us! And we can make sure your time here is great, right Gus?"
"Yeah! We managed to survive these past years with only the two of us. So by pure maths our chances automatically get better if you stick with us"
Luz smiled and got up. Yeah school wasn't as good as she thought but that didn't mean she was going to quit just yet. Besides reading Azura taught her to never judge a book for its cover, so she wasn't going to get depressed just for a bad first impression. They all started marching towards the school's entrance while they planned how to avoid whatever was happening outside.
"Well you don't have to worry" Gus commented "Those guys never go for girls unless you really bother them, so you two ladies are safe"
"Ehhh, I wouldn't know about that Gus" Willow pointed at the entrance gate where Amity, Boscha, and some other girls were there. They weren't bullying the other people like the athletes on the other side (Although Boscha gave mean remarks to people if they got too close). They were just standing there, as if they were waiting for someone…
Luz gulped.
"Nope, nope. I'm not dealing with that, please tell me that you guys have a plan" Luz begged with fear in her eyes.
"Well at this time all the teachers tend to not be in the front of the school, so that they can pretend they didn't see anything the bullies are doing" Gus started to lead them to one of the classrooms in the front of the buildings "I think we could just try to open one of the windows and sneak away"
"Wait, are you serious?" Willow stopped walking "Are we really going to do this so we can avoid Boscha? Shouldn't we try to, I don't know, face our fears or something?"
"I'm a big fan of running away from my problems" Luz answered honestly.
"It's not like it's a big deal. Like I said the teachers aren't around here, so we are not going to get in trouble unless we break something"
Willow sighed but didn't say anything else. Gus led them back to the chemistry classroom, Luz cringed when she remembered the accident she had this morning and how she broke multiple test tubes "I am really used to handling things with magic, I should really practise hand-eye coordination". Once inside they could see that the windows were closed, they tried to open them but it seemed that they were locked too.
"Well this is it, then" Gus lamented "I don't wanna force them because these windows are ancient, they break easily. That could really get us in trouble"
*sigh*"There's no time to try anything else, I guess we gotta face Boscha now" Willow started to go back towards the school.
Luz panicked and quickly casted a spell to unlock the window when they weren't looking.
"L-let's not give up so easily guys! I'm certain that this one just needs another shove" Then she walked towards the one she unlocked.
"Luz wait!" Gus was going to stop her but she just opened the window with just a little tap "huh, I guess they weren't locked"
Willow looked at her suspiciously "But how? We tried to open them all before"
"Oh you know, sometimes it's about technique" Luz immediately regretted using magic, she was horrible at lying "well, what are we waiting for people? Let's move!" With that she stepped outside the window.
They were on the ground floor so they didn't have to jump or anything, one couple of steps and they were already outside of the school. It sounded like the jocks had stopped their bullying but they didn't bother to check, the three of them kept going.
Finally they all arrived at a park near the school and sat on a bench to rest. It was a nice day and school ended, so the park was full of little kids playing around while their parents watched. It was honestly refreshing to see after the hectic day she had: Luz felt both physically and mentally drained, she was thankful that Eda gave her the day off work.
"Today was a long day" she turned to look at her friends "do you guys deal with this stuff everyday?"
"Well today was specially bad, so no. Don't worry Luz-"
"Shh!" Gus interrupted them. He got up and quickly crouched in front of a big bush, as if he saw something there "guys come over here!"
"Not now Gus, I'm tire-" Willow pulled her from the seat and dragged her to the bush before she could finish her sentence. Luz was about to complain that she did not want to see whatever Gus had found when she heard a familiar voice.
"...and she was just right there! Apparently this girl studies in our school now, can you believe it?" Boscha's yells filled the air and now Luz understood why they were hiding here.
"Boscha, can you let it go? You've been complaining about it since lunch!" Another girl talked and she sounded closer. Gus signaled her to come closer and when she did Luz noticed that she could see them through the bushes branches. There were five of them and Amity was in their group.
"Skara is right, Boscha. You also made us wait twenty minutes in the entrance so you could beat her up, enough is enough" Amity looked at the other girl in a disapproving manner.
"You stay out of this!" Boscha turned to scream at Amity's face and pointed an accusing finger at her "You helped that girl get away last time, remember? I've been generous enough to let you back in the group, don't let that go to waste"
"First of all, don't scream at my face" Amity was surprisingly calm "second, I only interfered that one time because you were going to beat up the new girl in town just because she spilled your coffee. Everyone here agreed that was a bitch move" Amity looked at the others for reassurance and the other girls slowly nodded "Third, I promised to not intervene anymore with your stuff and so far I've kept that promise. I just want to spend my free time doing something else than hearing you complain about the new girl"
Boscha made a series of grunts and noises that reminded Luz of a wild animal. It was clear that she wanted to retort but she didn't have an argument.
"Guys, cut it out. What did we say when Amity rejoined the group? No more fights" a dark skinned girl put herself in between them "Let's just go to my house, my parents aren't there"
*Hmph* "Fine" Boscha didn't look fine but she stopped talking, the group changed the subject quickly and resumed their march. They walked past the bush without noticing them, a few seconds later Luz was able to release the breath she had been holding during this whole time.
"Well" said Gus after a while "that was interesting…"
"How long do you think you can keep avoiding Boscha?" Willow looked at her with worry.
"I don't know…"
"This was a terrible first day…"
-Kikimora-
The MCU's headquarters, connecticut / Wednesday August 31st 4:30 PM
"Here are the reports, ma'am" Her assistants voice distracted her from her tea "I've highlighted the important stuff as you requested and I took care of the rookies as well"
Kikimora sighed and put her teacup back on the table, it seemed that her break was about to end earlier than anticipated.
"Thank you, Ralph. Did Marcus contact you about our storage problem?"
"Negative. So far we don't have any information on the three witches that raided our facilities"
"Well that's fantastic" Kikimora grabbed the file that Ralph gave her and opened it. She forced her sight and squinted her eyes, but it seemed that she couldn't distinguish the small letters "Agh where are those? I think I left my glasses at the conference room… again"
"The ones in an orange casing, right? I'm going to look for them" He then left before she could stop him.
She grunted and threw the papers back at the table with disdain. She wasn't dumb, she knew that the high commnd had put him there to take her job. It was the only reasonable explanation why a capable agent with years of experience such as Ralph ended up as her assistant, especially when there were rookies to spare in this division. Kikimora was literally training her replacement, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She looked at her wrinkled hands with disgust. Long ago she had been a field agent, the best of the best. She slowly climbed up the ranks and gained reputation over the years. She did all of that with one single goal in mind, something that she was promised and something she deserved. Her superiors told her she just needed to be patient, so she kept going mission after mission. But then after all the years fighting her body started taxing her came the arthritis, then the myopia, then diabetes, then her heart problems, and then her respiratory issues. Before she realized her bosses stopped sending her to missions and started to ask her to fill paperwork. Now she was just the adviser of someone that used to be a rookie in her division, she still held power but it was fleeting.
That was why this case was so important to her, it was a chance to finally get what she wanted after all these decades. She was sixty five years old, several people have been talking about her retirement already. So she couldn't afford to screw this one up.
"Excuse me, ma'am" Kikimora looked up to see one of their agents poking her head from her office's door "We've received a message from commander Clawthorne, she's requesting a video meeting with you and the other officers"
"Can't it wait? I am fairly busy here and I doubt that the others have free time" Also the last thing she needed today was to deal with Lilith.
"She said it was urgent ma'am"
"Ah, fine. I suppose this can wait" She sent a message to Ralph telling him she was busy. Then she got up from her table and walked with some difficulty. Her knees were giving her some pain but she refused to use a cane. They arrived at the conference reem with the screen already set up, she could see that Lilith's username was requesting a call.
"Should I call the other officers in this building?"
"There's no need for that, I'm sure that I can deal with whatever she needs. Besides if this is so important I can rely the information to Marcus later, you are dismissed"
"I understand" With that she left her alone in the room.
Not wasting any time she accepted the call and Lilith Clawthorne appeared on the screen. Despite being on vacation on a tropical island she was dressed with her casual business suit.
"Hello, Kiki" Judging by her expression she was hoping to see someone else. Not surprising, considering that Marcus was her mentor "Where are the other officers?"
"Ralph is doing some errands for me, Marcus on a mission outside of this location" That wasn't true, but Lilith had no way of knowing that "And I doubt that you'd want to talk with the new guy, Lawrence. That kid barely knows what he's doing"
*Hmph*"Fine, I'll go to the point then. Starting with my first issue I want to know why I wasn't notified about a level eight rift opening inside my designated territory"
"Simply because you weren't in your designed territory when said event happened"
"Second point: why wasn't I informed of this earlier? We have protocols for these situations!"
"Well I am not sure of that myself. Your former mentor was the officer at charge when it happened, so you might want to take your frustrations on him"
"I would if I could" Lilith was grinding her teeth out of pure anger
"Is this all? Not all of us are in vacation, some of us have jobs to do"
"That is my third point. I've spoken with the high commanders and they have greenlit my return, I am going there now"
"As far as I recall, only the officers that are in the operation can decide if someone is allowed to come here or not. So you are not going anywhere until I say so"
"But- This is an unprecedented crisis! Don't you need all the help you can get?"
"I can assure you that we are more than capable to handle this situation, your help isn't needed here. You may go back to sunbathe in that revealing bikini of yours" That managed to throw her off.
"You saw that photo! How!" Her face was blushing which was really noticable in her pale skin.
"You should be more mindful on what your subordinates do, rumors spread like wildfire in this organization"
"Steve! I'm going to kill you!" She was looking somewhere outside the screen, but judging from the yelling that person heard her.
"Anyway, back to our topic. If you insist on ending your vacation prematurely, I'd appreciate it if you covered my area in the pacific northwest now that I am here. You know that there's always something to do in Gravity Falls"
"Wait no! You cannot keep me-"
"Goodbye, miss Lilith" With one press of a button she ended the call.
Stepping outside of the conference room she found Ralph, who was carrying her glasses.
"Did I hear Lilith's voice coming from there?"
"I'll explain later. Now tell me, do you still have that contact in Hawaii?"
"Yes, why?"
"Fantastic, I want you to cash in that favor" She leaned in closer to the man to whisper in his ear "Make sure that Lilith Clawthorne doesn't get here, do you understand?" He widened his eyes in surprise.
"Lilith? But why?"
"Ignorance is a bliss my friend"
"I still don't like this, shouldn't we get everyone that can help over here-" Her look silenced the man before he could finish that sentence.
"Let me give you a word of advice: In order to get what you want in life you have to do anything, and I do mean anything to arrive at your goal. Do you understand?"
Ralph nodded.
"Good, now go and do that" She let him go and watched as he left "I want the inform I asked you in my office, in less than twenty minutes you lazy bastard!"
"There's no way I'm letting Lilith Clawthorne join this operation. The last thing I need is more competition, especially from someone as competent as her"
Disclaimer: I do not know much about north-american highschools, but I hope that I managed to make a good interpretation. As you may know I am not an American and my country's highschool experience is really different to theirs, but I really wanted the sense of authenticity in my story and since the setting is in the United states… I wanted it to be a bit realistic, even if all the info I have comes from shows and movies.
I hope I'm not being too cliche by painting all of the jocks as bullies, hopefully I didn't offend any athletes reading this.
I based that part on Boscha and the banshees (that sounds like a cool band name now that I think about it). I took inspiration from two episodes to write this chapter: Wing it like witches and witches before wizards.
The part where all the jocks have immunity comes from the Boscha episode, I know it's not realistic but I wanted to keep the essence of the show intact. Then there's the part when Luz finds out that juman school life is nothing like her little novels and series, that scene correlates with the one when Luz finds out that the boiling isles is not the fantasy world she dreamed about, but that doesn't make it a bad thing.