Esper, Luz, King and Eda were enjoying their time at the local park. Apprioprately called the "Slayground" in the Boiling Isles. Esper sat next to Eda and Luz on the bench, watching King play with the other children of the Boiling Isles. Luz was visibly nervous, "What if he gets hurt? What if the kids are mean to him?" She then gasped, "My parental instincts are freaking out, man."

Esper raised an eyebrow at her, "Dude, he's just playing with some four-year-olds."

Eda smirked, "Esper's right, he's fine. Just look at him!"

The three witches look at King, who is trying to climb the slide. Not knowing that the three are talking about him.

Luz relaxed her shoulders as she sat down, "It does look like he's having fun." King grunts as he continues to climb up the slide, using his claws to dig into it.

The human giggled as she watched him climb, "Aw... I wonder what cute little game he's playing."

The redhead shrugged, "Eh, probably just some baby game..." She turned to Eda, "...He is a baby, right?"

The older witch then shrugged at the smaller girl jokingly.

Meanwhile, the tiny demon shouted at the other kids, "Stand back, cretins! He grunted as he reached the top, "Yes! Yes! This is a throne worthy of a tyrant! Now bow to me, you snotty underlings. Bow!"

Two kids looked at each other shrugged, "Okay."

One kid does a handstand while the other does a backbend, much to King's amusement.

King laughed loudly, "Yes, appease your master!"

A smaller child climbed up and walked behind the small demon, "This isn't for standing, it's for sliding! You try." He then shoves King down the slide.

King screams as he is shoved, "Whoa, whoa!" He lands on the ground with a grunt but gets up with tears in his eyes, "Eda!" He runs to his friends on the bench, clings to Luz's leg, "That monster took my throne!"

Esper scratched the back of her head, "You mean the baby? Pretty sure his name is Lok-"

The little guy stomped his foot, "No, Esper, he is the usurper! Eda, I want you to go over there and blow him up! Kaboom!"

The witch boy, now known as the Usurper, is riding a spring rider, "Kaboom!"

Eda unscrews Owlbert from her staff, "Yeah, I'm not using Owlbert to blow up a five-year-old." The small wooden owl then hoots in Eda's hands.

The old witch smiles at her tiny friend, "He's got better things to do. Like this..." She then pets him, making Owlbert warble.

Luz smiles softly at the owl, "Aw, what a sweetie. How did you get him?"

Eda tilted her head at the human, "Get? I made Owlbert from the branch of an ancient tree."

The young redheaded witch gasped, "Oh wow, that's so cool! He's adorable for being carved from a tree! So is he like a familiar or something?"

Owlbert hops onto Eda's hand, hooting at the younger witch.

The older witch shook her head, "Oh, he's my palisman and we're bonded for life." Owlbert hops to her shoulder and nuzzles her cheek, "I'd annihilate anyone who'd hurt him..."

Esper's eyes sparkled with joy, "Woooooah, I hope I get a Palisman one day then."

King pouted at the three witches, "Fine! Don't help! Revenge will taste all the sweeter if they fall by my hand alone." He then laughs maniacally.

The usurper then walks over and shoves King over again, "Tag, you're it!" He laughs and then runs off.

Eda began to giggle, "Oh, man. Here we go. King's squeak of rage."

King stands up, "Nyeh... nyeh..." He squeals while wriggling and punching on the air, pauses, then continues squealing as he charges after the usurper.

Eda laughs fully, "He is like a little tea-kettle." She keeps laughing, causing her to snort. Esper snickers slightly, using her hand to try and cover her giggles.

Owlbert scratches at his face, which Luz notices.

The human tilts her head, "Hey, what's that?" She points to Owlbert's foot, which seems to have a hole.

Eda held up Owlbert's leg, "Oh, that's his interlock. So he only fits on to my staff. Every palisman has one!"

She then closes her eyes and when she opens them, everything but her, her staff, and the bench disappears.

The old witch gasped, "Luz? Esper?"

She stands and looks around the void. Both her staff and the bench disappear.

Eda continued to walk around in the darkness, "Hello?"

She can hear Esper's voice echo in the void, "Woah!"

Luz's voice also echoed, "Eda?"

The witch shouted, "Esper! Luz!"

Meanwhile in the real world, Luz, Esper and Owlbert look over Eda.

The human looks over the older witch, "Eda! Eda! Wake up!"

Eda's eyes open as she sees Esper shaking her body. The older witch is now laying down on the bench.

Luz and Esper both help Eda up from the bench, "Are you all right?"

The old witch shudders, "What? Oh, no! The curse. Hey, we have to get home. Now!" She picks up her staff and begins to leave.

Esper yells for their demon friend, "King, we have to go! Now!"

King was about to confront the usurper but his shoulders dropped when he heard her, "Aw come on! Five more minutes, please!"

Luz pouted, "King!"

The small demon pouted and pointed at the other child, glaring at him, "Ah, man... This isn't over."

The small child smiled at him, "Okay, let's play again real soon!" He then walks closer and hugs King.

King screams, trying to squirm out of the kid's grasp, "No, no! Keep those sticky hands away! Oh, no! He's touching me!" He then screams again before Esper walked over and picked him up, walking back to Eda and Luz with him in her arms.

Upon reaching the Owl House, Eda tosses her staff to the couch. She then yawns and jumps face first onto the couch.

Esper begins to walk upstairs, "I'll go get your elixir."

The older witch raises her hand, "Don't worry about it. I'll get it myself in a bit..."

Luz looks at her excitedly, "Do you need me to stay home and take care of you?" She gasps, "I could put King in a little doctor's outfit."

This makes everyone look at King, who looks up from a stack of paper. He tilts his head, "Meh?"

Eda shakes her head, "No one wants to see that."

Luz smiles widely, "I do."

Esper giggled, picking King up in her arms, "Me too, actually."

The old witch crossed her arms, "Look, I know how to take care of myself, girls. I've had this curse longer than you've both been alive. Combined."

The small witch whispered to King, "Woah, that's a super long time." King had to hold back a giggle.

The human moved closer to her, "So, how'd you get it?"

The grey-haired woman shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't know."

Esper nearly dropped King in surprise, "You don't know?"

The older witch pushed Luz, "Somebody gave it to me. I don't know who and I don't care because I'm fine, all right? Anyway, don't you two have plans with Tweedledum and Twerpledee?"

The human spoke, "Well, Esper, Willow, Gus, and I are going to the grudgby game between Hexside and Glandus High."

Eda screws Owlbert back onto the staff, "Since when are you two into sports?"

Luz grabbed Esper and pulled her close to her side, "Since we found a little something called "Hexside Pride." To think that Glandus, whoever they are, would dare face us! But if you need me or Esper to stay..."

The old witch shook her head, "Ew! Gross. Sympathy. Go! Go have fun at sport."

The human girl cheered, as did her childhood friend, "Hooray! Hooray for sport!" Luz then kisses King's skull, "Hugs and kisses, King! Mwah!" She then giggles at him, "Don't spend all night plotting revenge."

King mocks Luz's tone of voice, "That drooly-faced heathen will know my wrath."

Meanwhile at Hexside, the students are lined up to get on a dragon bus. Luz and Esper are running toward it but not paying attention. The redheaded witch is giggling as Luz tries to come up with a good cheer for the game.

The human pondered out loud, "Hexside's gonna wreck your side!" She then stops walking, causing Esper to stop as she shakes her head. Luz tries again, "Huh, no." [Keeps walking.] Hexside is the best side in the west side. She then yelps as Esper pulls her back. The dragon bus nearly bites Luz but her childhood friend pulled her out of the way.

The human wipes the sweat off her brow, "Phew, thanks, Esper..."

Her childhood friend shrugged her shoulders, "No problem, dude."

The goldened eyed girl then saw two familiar students, "Ah! Friends!"

Willow and Luz cheer as they hug, "Woo-hoo!"

Gus lets out a fake roar next to them, "Game day roar!"

Esper laughed and gave the illusionist a high-five, "Hey, nice one, dude!"

The brown haired girl smiled brightly, "Happy game day, fellow, uh... Are we Hexidians? Hexies?" She then gasped, "Hexoleos?"

Willow tilts her Hexisde cap dramatically, "Actually, most people call us... winners!"

Gus jumps up and down, "Grudgby games are the best. The players go through these action-packed trials. And the audience gets to wave flags. Look, I practiced!" He pulls out two flags from his pockets, spins in a circle as he waves them and hums.

Luz looks at her hoodie, "Is it weird that I'm not wearing anything Hexside?"

Willow scratched her cheek, "Um, it's weirder that you're wearing Glandus colors." The plant witch points to a sign behind Luz, her hoodie's colors matching the Glandus High's school colors.

A giant boy witch shouts from the dragon bus, "Get ready to be creamed, Glandus nerd!"

Luz gasped, "Hey! I'm a Hexside nerd!"

Esper laughs, looking at her hoodie and jacket combo she was wearing, "Wow, looks like my colors are Hexside colors. Nice!"

She high-fives Gus, who had a huge smile on his face.

The human looked down at her hoodie, "Aw man, lucky. I gotta change out of this shirt. Where can I get a Hexside one?"

The illusionist waved one of his flags towards Hexside's entrance, "I know! There's a lost and found box in the cafeteria!"

Luz smiled brightly, "Ah! The lost and found. Where mouthguards go to retire!"

Esper shrugged with a smile on her face as Luz began to walk to the cafeteria of the school, "Hey, it looks like the... Dragon... Bus thing is going to leave soon. I'm going to get us some seats now on the ship. Just make sure Luz doesn't take TOO long."

Gus waved his flags at Esper, "Yup, we got this, Esper!"

The plant witch nodded, "We'll see you on the bus!"

Meanwhile at the lost and found, Luz finds a giant chest. She opens it and pulls out a hat, "Yes!" She throws a Hexside shirt over her hoodie and grabs two more items before rushing to the front doors of the school. Luz exits in full Hexside apparel waving pom-poms in the air.

She cheers, "Goooo, Hexside!" Then she does a split as she lands on the ground and winces as a crack is heard, "Well, I never did that before... Uh, where is Esper?"

As the dragon bus starts to fly away, the giant witch shouts, "Hexside rules!"

Upon feeling the dragon bus move, Esper looks over and sees Luz, Willow and Gus attempt to ride Owlbert. She sighs as she sees them start to fall with Owlbert, facepalming to herself. The young redhead puts her foot over the side of the flying ship, ready to jump off until a hand suddenly grabs her wrist and yanked her back into her seat.

The young witch glared at the person next to her, "Hey, what was that for?"

An older boy's voice rang out as she was pulled back in her seat, "Oh, I'm sorry for saving your life! You're not seriously going to jump from here, are you?!"

Esper pulled her hand from the boy, "Well yeah, obviously! I gotta get to my friends somehow, Jasper."

Jasper Beaumont was taller than Esper, as he was a year and a half older than her. A fifteen year old boy with dark skin and light blue hair in a dreadlock ponytail, highlighted with an almost unnoticeable pale yellow at the tips. His outfit consisted of long sleeved white collared undershirt with a dark grey vest over it. The vest was fastened with two belts over it with pale gold buckles, in the middle of the vest was a pale gold star. His pants were black and also had dary grey boots. His look was complete with a blue bowtie around his neck.

Jasper's eyes widened, "Uh NO? Not when we're flying in the air already! My Titan, Esper, you sound like one of my brothers."

Esper stuck her tongue out at him, "Well meh, maybe your brothers are cool..." She put her head in her hand, "So... I guess Luz, Willow and Gus are going to miss the game then."

The taller boy shrugged, relaxing in his seat, "Eh, they'll make it here one way or another. It's fine. Besides, you can hang out with me, if you want. We're in the same boat after all, we got invited as guests to attend this game."

The redhead shrugged, "Uh... Actually, Jasper, I'm going to be attending Hexside next semester with Luz."

Jasper's shoulders dropped, "Oh... Well, aren't you girls lucky."

The rest of their ride to the game was awkwardly silent, even as the other students filled the wind with laughter and cheers for their team.

As they arrived at Glandus, the dragon bus landed right next to the grudgby field. Principal Bump made sure all the students were filed into the seats intended for Hexside students in the stadium. Jasper and Esper took a seat next to each other at the edge of the stands as everyone walked to their metal seats. The younger witch put her head in a hand before looking at the field, "Man, this is going to be so boring without Luz, Willow and Gus." The older boy simply shrugged next to her, not knowing how to comfort her.
Esper blew a raspberry at the sight of Boscha when the pink girl made her way onto the field but then the redhead heard a noise amongst the crowd cheering. Esper looked at her side, seeing a plank of wood move in front of one of the entrances of the school.

"Well, that's peculiar..."

She gets up from her seat and Jasper looks over at her, "Uh, Esper, we're supposed to stay in the stands until half time."

Esper puts a finger to her mouth, "Shhh! I'm investigating something! Now you can either follow me or pretend you didn't see anything."

The older boy put up his hands, "Okay, okay! I hear you." He gets up from his seat and follows the young witch, the crowd's cheering covering the sounds of them leaving the stands.

As they got off the stands, Esper moved the loose plank of wood and walked through the open door. Jasper covered the door back up with the wood behind them. The school was dark, all the lights were off which made a bit of a spooky atmosphere. Jasper held onto the back of Esper's hood in fear. The girl rubbed her neck, "Do you HAVE to grab onto my hood like that?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Well I'm sorry, I'm nervous! We're really not supposed to be here, what if we get caught? What are we even looking for?"

The redheaded girl crossed her arms as they continued walking, "We're looking for whatever I saw enter th-"

"Hey, you're not allowed over here, Hexside loser!"

Both Esper and Jasper jumped in surprise, turning around to find the source of the voice. Which was a Glandus student who happened to see the duo walk into their school. Esper put up her fists as she walked in front of Jasper, "Back off, Glandus students, we're not! ...Okay, I'm not scared of you."

There was one student who stepped out of the shadows, then three more appear. One student wearing a green uniform looked at her curiously, "Oh yeah well we're not going to let you get the mascot again-Hey, you're not wearing a Hexside uniform!" Another in a red uniform tilted his head at Jasper, "Neither is he, what gives?"

Esper puffed out her chest proudly, "Well, that's because..."

"Esper, wait, we can just lea-"

"...We're both coming to Hexside next semester!" She interrupted, pointing her finger in the air proudly.

Jasper groaned, rubbing his forehead. He sighed, "Uh, listen, we don't want any trouble. We're just going to-"

Then a thud is heard in the distance, causing all the teens to turn their attentions towards the noise.

"Dang it, Victor! Now we gotta deal with some kids!" A female's voice rang out. A male's voice was then heard, "I'm sorry, Miltilda!"

Two coven scouts were on the far side of the room, trying to sneak off while the kids were arguing. Upon seeing the two, Esper started to run towards them, causing the two coven scouts to start to sprint.

Esper yelled back behind her, "Come on, Jasper! Or else they'll get away!"

The boy hurried behind her while the Glandus students tried to decide if they want to follow after them and the Coven Scouts or not.

The younger coven scout ran ahead of his superior as they headed into another room. This got him out of danger while his mentor was in between in him and the kids.

Esper formed a green circle with her finger, causing a few vines to catch Miltilda's foot. She suddenly tackled the older Coven Scout, trying to stop her from moving.

"The heck?! Get off of me, kid!" The larger figure grabbed Esper and threw her to the side. In the chaos of the scuffle, Esper managed to knock off the Coven Scout's mask and her hood came down. When the Coven Scout turned to her, she looked to be an adult woman with dark skin, her black hair was fastened into braids. She glared her blue eyes at Esper.

Jasper knelt down next to the younger witch after she landed, "Esper! You alright?" Esper groaned in response but shook her head, "I'm fine, I'm fine!"

The taller boy stood in front of her, "Allow me to take care of this!" He raised his hand and formed a white circle, which then flashed different colors before landing on light blue. The light blue circle simply formed a small ball of water that dropped to the floor rather than shooting at the woman.

The redheaded witch looked down at the puddle of water, "...Wow, my hero." She said sarcastically at the taller boy as they got surrounded. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Don't worry, Hexside Losers! We got you!"

Suddenly the group from earlier showed up. The bard student glared at the older woman, forming a red circle with her hands which blasted offkey music in the air. The one in the yellow uniform threw a potion at her, which she jumped out of the way to see the potion melt the floor. The girl in green made more plants surround the Coven Scout's legs. The boy in dark blue formed a magic circle around the redhead, healing her injuries.

Esper formed another circle, this time shooting a fireball at the Coven Scout. She leaned back to dodge it, glaring at the children. The redhead looked at the older boy in blue, "Jasper! Come on!"

Jasper's shoulders tensed up but nodded, "Oh! Uh okay! Let's try again!" He formed a white circle with his finger, which then changed colors until it settled on purple. Abomination goop shot out of the circle and it fell onto the Coven Scout.

"That's ENOUGH!"

The oldest witch formed a yellow circle, causing fog to appear around the whole group. Obscuring their vision, the Coven Scout made her escape, making eye contact with Esper one last time.

Just as the fog got thicker and thicker, it became harder to breathe. Which forced the kids leave the the area and outside, where they say the grudgby game was over but no one noticed that all of them were gone.

The Bard Glandus student shrugged as he walked closer to the redheaded witch, "You know what, you're alright, kid. I'm Kepler by the way."

Esper tilted her head, "Wait, really?"

Jasper also tilted his head, "Yeah, really?!"

The bard student nodded, putting his hands on his hips, "Yeah, even though you don't even go here, you chased away some intruders when you didn't have to. So you're good in my book." He stuck out his hand for Esper to take, "These are my buddies, Cindy the Potion Master, Alvin the Healer and Nocturna the Plant Lover."

The redheaded witch shook the other's hand, before being surrounded by the other Glandus High students. Cindy slapped her on the back in appreciation as Nocturna, Kepler and Alvin all talked to her and each other. Esper spotted Jasper awkwardly standing by and she pulled him closer, "Hey, let's not forget Jasper here!"

Alvin shook Jasper's hand, "Oh yeah, that was a pretty powerful fire spell you did back there!" Which made the other Glandus students start to speak his praises as well.

The blue haired boy smiled, "Oh uh, I didn't really didn't do anything important, really. But, uh, thanks, guys." The group continued talking until they heard Principal Bump start taking attendance. So they decided it was best to start to separate.

Kepler held his fist out to Esper, "Oh! And Esper, can't wait to see you next semester. Good luck at Hexside."

Esper smiled and bumped her fist into his, "Likewise, Kepler. We'll have to hang out some time."

The boy nodded before walking off with his Glandus friends, all saying goodbye to the two Hexside associates.

The blue haired witch rubbed the back of his neck as he approached the younger witch, "Uh... Thanks, Esper... For helping me out back there. I wouldn't have been able to do anything if it weren't for you yelling for me."

Esper smiled, "Hey, it's no problem. I'm sorry for not listening to you the whole time we were hanging out."

Jasper shrugged, "No no, I get it. I can be a real stick in the mud sometimes. So, uh, thanks for making today fun. Even if we almost died multiple times."

The redheaded witch giggled, "Pffft, hey, what's a little 'almost dying moments' between friends?"

The two then chatted the whole way back to the school. Once they arrived, they separated as Jasper was picked up by one of his older brothers while Esper walked back to The Owl House.

As Esper arrived at The Owl House, she realized she was the last one to arrive in the house. She saw Luz holding Owlbert after he landed on her shoulder. The human whispered to him, "We'll keep this one to ourselves, shall we?"

Esper raised an eyebrow at her, "Keep what to yourselves?" Luz rushed to hug her friend, "Esper! Where were you! You totally missed it, I tried to fly

The redhead let out a tired laugh as her childhood friend rambled on about her day, just happy to be back home with her friends. Though unknown to the two young girls, the elixirs have stopped working on Eda's curse...