Dear Diary,

So apparently Luz is gonna be a student at Hexside now. Or at least, she's gonna apply to be one.

She told me today at the market when I was returning the Azura book she loaned me last week.

(Side note: she found my bookmark, the cartoon I drew of me and Malingale the Mysterious Soothsayer, at the back of the book. At that moment, I simply wanted to melt into nothingness. Honestly, if I wasn't solely into girls, I'd date him in a heartbeat. I also had to lie to her and say the book was "fine". I. LOVED. IT! There was so much action and romance, and I'm really sad that that's the most recent one I can get my hands on. Okay, back to the actual entry.)

She was so excited to join my class, but I had to tell her about the admissions exams, specifically the ones she had to do to be at my level. I don't mean anything rude by this, but how could she be in my class? I thought she only knew that light glyph she showed me back at the Covention. She seemed a little hesitant after I told her that, and I had to tell her about the baby class. But, Ed and Em believed in her a little more than I did, and they actually invited her to train with us up at The Knee. Luz said she had plans, and then abruptly left us to attend to them.

I actually kinda wished she initially decided to train with us. I thought it would have been fun to hang out with her, to see if her kindness isn't just an act. I also wanted to see what the other spell she says she mastered was, I thought that maybe I could somehow put a spin on it with my magic.

A few hours after we returned home from the market, the twins and I packed some provisions and headed to our training site. We set up our tent, camping supplies, and practice range, and began warming up. Emira told me to cast a few small spells with my training wand, something I already knew, just to get everything flowing. During my warm-up, I accidentally sent a spell away from the target. I heard a woman tell someone to duck, and heard them hit the snow-filled ground. It was so quiet up there that I thought it was only Ed, Em, and I. I yelled out a quick sorry before they reemerged, but instantly recognized the large gray poof of hair that came up over the wall that separated us. It seemed that Ed and Em did too, since they started calling out for the figure that accompanied her to come join us.

I didn't know Luz would be there, I guess Eda didn't tell her where they were going to be training. Maybe we could train together after all! The twins and I went to greet them, and I told Luz how I wanted to beat their scores on the placement exam next week. I wanted to play it cool, but in true Ed and Em fashion, they had to tell Luz about my training wand. They started asking her about what she was working on, and Eda came back and attempted to make her eat snow for some reason. I suggested that Eda probably didn't wanna show off her style of magic, and the five of us returned to training with our own groups.

I was working on defense spells, one that would send anyone who was hit by it back a few yards, and another that created a force field around my wand. I was getting pretty good at them, too! I was in the zone... at least, until I noticed Luz and Eda watching us train from above, and Edric decided to open up a hole in the snow for me to sink into while I was waving to them. Though I was stuck in the freezing snow, I could still feel my cheeks radiating heat as I blushed. I'm kinda glad she didn't see my face at that moment. We trained together for a little while longer, and then Ed and Em left me to do some solo work while they started to prep dinner. At some point, Edric found a bat, and Emira and I had to try to convince him to just put it back in the forest where he found it. I remember sticking my spell book and wand into our tent, and following Emira into the woods, trying to instill a fear of rabies into our brother.

We couldn't convince Edric to leave the bat alone, so we retreated back to camp and heated up some of the griffin chicken mom sent us with. We were just finishing up our meal when we heard what sounded like a firework. We assumed that Eda had done something for Luz, and decided just to continue on with our meal. We cleaned our campsite and retired to our tent for some general relaxation and fun before bed.

A few minutes later, a beam of light flew over our campsite, and a large BOOM followed. Ed joked that it was a wishing star, and said we should all make a wish. He quickly shut up after we heard an angry growl, and what sounded like a struggle going on. Against our better judgement, we decided to go investigate. When I went to grab my wand and spellbook (what, I didn't know what we were going up against, sue me!), I couldn't find it. I knew I stuck it in there! There wasn't much time to look, so the three of us ran empty-handed to the source of the sound, only to find Eda, Luz, and my wand.

Of course Luz would have it.

Why she took it from my tent, I don't know. I know she's dead set on learning magic (hence why she was training "with" us), but wasn't Eda teaching her everything she needed to know? And again, why does Luz always mess with me like this? I thought we were getting closer to each other, and now this?

I saw she had my spell book too, and I can only pray to the Titan that she didn't see the little drawing of me in it.

So Ed and Em started to fight the beast, and they almost had it. They used some illusions to grab the beast by its legs, and they were yelling for Luz to help them. Luz kinda shuffled back, and meekly admitted that she didn't actually know anything that could help them. At that moment, the spell the twins had on what Eda later told us was a slitherbeast broke, and it lunged to grab us. I quickly fell out of its grasp, but it now had Ed, Em, AND Eda. It ran back to what I assumed was its lair, and left Luz and I standing there alone, hearts pounding and unable to catch our breath.

Luz asked what we were doing to save them, and I told her that "we" weren't going to do anything. She yelled something about Eda being trapped with Ed and Em, but I wasn't having it. It was her fault for them being caught in the first place, so I did what I had to do. I conjured up a forcefield to keep her from following me, and I ran off on the path the slitherbeast took, trying to at least rescue my siblings.

In all honesty, I didn't know what I was gonna do if I found the slitherbeast. I just didn't want to see Luz getting hurt, I didn't think she could really defend herself by just knowing one glyph and not having Eda to help her. I also didn't know what I was capable of doing either. Sure, we had defeated Otabin together, but we somewhat knew what we were up against. Now, I was running into the unknown, but I at least had a few skills mastered that I thought could help me along the way.

When I arrived, I snuck into the cave and hid behind a tall rock, not before noticing how Ed, Em, and Eda were stuck to the slitherbeast's wall. I was devising a plan when I heard someone coming up behind me. I was ready to start fighting until I saw it was Luz. I didn't have time to figure out how she got here, as she pulled me in and started to whisper her plan into my ear. With a slight hesitation, I agreed with her idea, I couldn't think of a better solution to our problem.

She jumped behind the beast and started yelling for it to come after her, teasing it and leading it around the cave. Meanwhile, I climbed up to where the beast was holding our families captive. Emira yelled for me to use the new fire spell we had been working on, but I told her that I didn't think that I could do it without the wand. I had just learned it that afternoon, and it sometimes takes me a while to master new spells. She encouraged me to try though, and to just focus. I took a deep breath, and soon felt the spell forming in my hands. A few seconds later, a flame grew in the air, and I aimed it so the goop holding what woul dhave been the slitherbeast's next meal would melt. Emira said something about not actually thinking I could do it, and a small part of me began to wonder why I decided to help them in the first place.

When they finally slid off the wall, Luz came charging around the corner, the slitherbeast not far behind her. She lured it outside of the cave, and onto another one of her glyph things. This time, instead of a ball of light, a tall pillar of ice emerged from the ground, launching the beast into the air. When it landed, it charged at us again, and Eda subdued it with a sleeping spell. Eda, Ed, and Em congratulated the two of us, and thanked us for saving them, telling us how proud they were.

I told Luz that it looked like we'd be in the same class, since she mastered her second spell. She got so happy at the realization, and she started talking about founding an Azura book club at Hexside. I think I'm the only one there who reads it, so I think we'd be a club of two. Regardless, I told her we should keep it a secret club, lest people find out I have a dorky side. In true sibling fashion, Ed and Em said they would tell everyone at school about it. I know they were joking, but when will they not try to get under my skin? After that, we decided to call our trip off a little early, we had done more training in one day than we thought we would all weekend. So, while Luz and Eda went back to the Owl House on one of Luz's ice glyphs, we elected to pack up and go home with the abomicarriage we came in.

You know, I'm actually really proud of Luz. As little as I show it, I admire her tenacity in trying to get on my level. She's done in a few weeks what it took me (and any other witch, for that matter) months to do. And since she doesn't have a bile sac or her own palisman or anything like that, I know it's a million times harder for her to do things like this. She's actually adjusting to this world pretty well, from what I can see.

I have my placement exam on Monday, and I need to continue working on the spells that I learned this weekend. I think I have them down, but I have mom's "your best isn't perfect, only perfect is the best" mantra lingering in the back of my mind. I really want to beat Ed and Em's scores, but I think I'll be okay if I don't. I realized that I need to have more faith in myself and my abilities, that I'm capable of a lot more than I let myself believe. I think I have a certain set of people to thank for that, all of them being with me this weekend.

Proud and ready,
Amity