(TW: Beginnings of a panic attack, please proceed at your own risk)

Dear Diary,

Out of the eleven years I've been in school, I think today was the craziest first day of the term I have ever had.

There were the entry exams, and a basilisk, and Luz started classes at Hexside, and-…

Okay, that was a lot, let me start from the beginning.

Since it's the start of the term, everyone had to take an aptitude test and demonstrate their spell mastery to Principal Bump in the auditorium. We were grouped by tack, and mine was the first to go after the newly admitted students. As luck would have it, I happened to be the last student on the roster, I guess Bump wanted to save the best for last! That gave me plenty of time to go over what I was gonna present to him.

On top of the demonstration of my abomination skills, I had to also present the two spells that I worked on this weekend. I think I went over them at least a hundred times each, and I felt pretty confident in myself!

All until I started watching my classmates and began second guessing myself.

Mary, a girl in my track, conducted an abomination pep band to play our school's fight song, and used her two spells to create a light banner that said "Hexside Pride!" and set off some mini fireworks behind it. I thought it was pretty cool, but Bump thought otherwise, at least from what I could tell by the way he called the next student into the exam.

I started thinking about how skilled she had to be to command all those mini abominations at once, and I thought about how I still struggled with commanding just one. I had to snap myself back into reality and remind myself that I'm just as good as my classmates, if not better than a few of them. That this exam is easy for me, and I had nothing to worry about except for beating Em and Ed's scores.

I was beginning to feel better, then the next student entered the room. I think his name is Spike, we don't really talk much. Now that I think about it, I don't really talk to a lot of the kids in my track, mom and dad would absolutely have something to say about all of them. For his exam, he made his abomination style his mohawk, and used his two spells to summon hair products and clean up the mess that was made as a result of the haircut. Once again, I thought that his exam went well, but I don't think Bump appreciated that one either.

At that point, I felt my heart rate begin to go up, and it felt like my throat might have been closing up. I couldn't breathe, and I felt my stomach lurch. I snuck out of the auditorium, hoping a teacher wouldn't catch me. I just needed to be alone for a few minutes.

Shaking and barely able to keep myself on my feet, I elected to sit on the floor and try to catch my breath. I leaned my head back into the lockers, nearly hitting my head on the metal door. The cold tile shocked me, it almost grounded me back into reality, but part of me was still freaking out. Mom's words had burrowed their way into my head, and I could hear my classmates and siblings talking about me and teasing me after my inevitable subpar performance.

In the midst of my panic attack, Luz of all people popped into my head. I have no clue why, but her words were more than welcome. She was telling me to calm down, that all my stress was just an illusion. For once, she was being rational while I was the one who was in my own head. So, I took a few breaths, and I felt my heart rate lower instantly. I managed to get a few sips of water down, and I stopped shaking.

You know, I happened to see her before the bell screamed this morning. She was so excited to start classes with me, and I guess she had just gotten out of a successful exam with Principal Bump. I was on my way to do a final test run, and had an abomination in mimic mode behind me. She had on a gray uniform since she didn't choose her track yet, replacing her normal crop top and leggings.

As we parted ways, she offered me a high five. I returned it, but the abomination smacked her in the face immediately after I did so. I guess I left it entranced in the mimicking spell when I was talking to her. I walked away like I didn't notice what it did, but I was dying on the inside.

Just as I felt better, a new mini-crisis emerged: why Luz made me feel better.

Like, I know we're getting closer, but why was she the first thing I thought of? And why did she bring me so much comfort? There are plenty of other people I know who could have done so, but why was it Luz in that moment? Since I no longer had jelly legs, I decided to take a walk and clear this and the lingering fear of my test out of my mind. I had bigger things to worry about than feelings, after all.

I paced down the empty hall, talking to myself since no one was there to hear me. At least, I thought so. It's kinda funny, after I said something along the lines of "so you two go to the same school now, that doesn't change anything," I heard either a door or a locker shut, but saw no one around me. I chalked the noise up to being another mind trick since I was so nervous.

I eventually realized that she's the same old Luz that fought with me at Covention, and the library, and the Knee. And nothing is going to change just because I'll be in the same building as her for seven hours a day, five days a week. And then probably eat lunch with her. And study with her. And-

Wait, why am I thinking like this? Back to what I was actually writing about.

With Luz and my anxiety both somewhat out of my mind, I decided it was time to return to the auditorium. I have no clue how long I was out in the hall for, but when I returned, only two or three students were ahead of me. The whole experience probably felt longer than it actually was due to what felt like millions of thoughts and insecurities flowing through my head at the same time.

Eventually, it was my turn to show Bump my skills. With one last deep breath, I emerged from behind the curtain, acknowledged him, classmates, and guests, and began my exam. I summoned an abomination, and ordered it to attack me. It charged, but I deflected it with the blocking spell that Emira taught me. After a few hits, I put up a defense barrier like the one I stuck Luz into. Like we rehearsed, the abomination retreated once it realized that the wall was impenetrable. I let the wall down and honed my inner Azura in a quick monologue about how we could be allies, and the exam ended with the abomination lifting me into the air as a sign of friendship. As my feet returned to the stage, I was met with an uproar of applause from my classmates and Principal Bump alike.

I was glad I decided to go the more tactical route and do defense spells, I didn't know an inspector from the Emperor's Coven would be watching my presentation. Or that Principal Bump made me the unofficial representation of the track for the school. I guess that's a perk that comes with being the top student in your class! I just wish he had let me know his plans ahead of time.

I was even more satisfied with my decision when the "inspector" tried to fight me.

She said my presentation was good, but she told Bump that she wanted to see if I could "put up for of a fight. She walked up to the stage and gave me a sinister grim before transforming back into her basilisk form. She bared her fangs and licked her lips, obviously hungry for all the magic the school had to offer. I sent my abomination to protect me, but she wound up catching it and swallowing it whole. Principal Bump tried to separate us, but she ended up sucking a lot of energy out of him. She ended up sucking my energy out too, leaving me weak and subdued on the stage.

I don't know much about what happened at this point as I was half-conscious, but I heard from a few people in hiding that they saw some of the detention track kids fighting the basilisk. And I heard that Luz may have been fighting alongside them. I don't know how she managed to make it into the detention track on the first day (okay, maybe I do), or how she had the strength to fight for the entire school, but it's something to add to the list of things that I admire about her.

Speaking of Luz, I ended up seeing her after school too. She looked tired, but was still her usual happy self. The only change that I noticed was her uniform, which was now covered in different shades of purple, pink, blue, and green. She told me that she convinced Principal Bump to let her study something from all the tracks, all because she did in fact fight the basilisk with the detention kids. She told me that she used some of her glyphs again, like she had done in her meeting with Principal Bump earlier that morning. She asked me where I was when everything was going on, and I told her I was stuck in the auditorium due to the basilisk. She looked concerned, but I told her I was feeling somewhat okay, and I thanked her for her help in saving me and the school and told her I was proud of her. Emira and Edric found me, both looking a little worse for the ware, and the four of us split ways shortly after that, heading to our respective homes.

When we were walking, Em and Ed told me how they too had come face to face with the basilisk. They were doing an illusions assignment out on the Grudgby field when they began to hear some commotion. People were running out of the school, and telling them not to go in because of the beast. Being the rebels they are, they cast an illusion of themselves so "they" could run into the school to see what was going on. The basilisk soon caught the illusions and ate them, and drained their energy like it did with Principal Bump and I. I told them about my experience in the auditorium, and told them what Luz had told me about her and the detention kids. Emira brought up that her friend Viney was in the mix, and made a mental note to talk to her about the day when she could.

We got home later than expected, and I didn't even have time to drop my bag on the floor before mom got on us demanding to know where we had been. As he was in a lot better shape than Em and I, Edric told her about the basilisk attack. Mom nearly stormed into the school to interrogate Bump as to how this all happened. As the head of the Parent Creature Association, she wanted to know why no parents had been notified, and what security measures had been in place before the basilisk snuck in. But, it took dad holding her back and suggesting that perhaps she could present this as an opportunity to upgrade the school's security system to the administrators, rather than getting all defensive about it. She considered the idea, but told him that Bump would absolutely be getting a piece of her mind. As she said that, the twins and I took it as an opportunity to sneak away, and we headed up to our rooms to change and try to shake off the crazy day we just had.

As I climbed the never-ending stairs to our side of the house, I realized something: of course they want to make their kids almost dying into a business venture. Not once did they ask if we were okay, as if they didn't know what a basilisk could do to a witch. Nothing new there!

At this point, I'm too tired to care about anything other than food and sleep. I don't care about whether or not I scored better than the twins. I know I did an amazing job, and that's all that matters right now. I need a fairy pie, some milk, and a bed. I'll write more later.

Exhausted and just done with everything,
Amity

A/N: So I was trying to look for students in the abomination track, and I only found two outside of Amity (I'm not counting Jerbo because he wasn't technically in it until the end of the episode). The TOH wiki said that there's a student named Mary, and a "Spiked Haired Student" (who I dubbed Spike), so I went ahead and used them)