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rohad93 · 4 years ago

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Moonlit Masquerade: Read All About It! Pt 2

Luz sleeps only because she cried herself to complete exhaustion the night before.

She wakes up slowly. Her whole body is tired. She manages to push herself up, blinking away the remnants Knowing of sleep, and looks around. She's still wearing her school clothes. Eda probably carried her up here after she passed out. She'd cried in Eda's arm till she fell asleep, never making it out of the living room.

She looks at the window, the sun hasn't risen yet, casting her room in a cool gray-blue of predawn. She needs to get ready for school, but she knows that she has to talk to Eda first. Everyone is probably wondering just what all that was last night.

She climbs out of bed sluggishly and straightens out her uniform, and brushes her hair into some form of compliance before leaving her room and walking quietly down the stairs.

The living room is empty, but there are sounds coming from the kitchen, the clatter of plates, and silverware, and she can smell something delicious being cooked. Pancakes?

She walks in to find Lilith and King sitting at the table, the former sipping on her customary cup of breakfast tea, and the latter, gnawing hungrily on a fork.

King notices her first.

"Luz!" He drops the fork and jumps down from his chair, and scampers up to her, wrapping his arms around one of her legs and looking up at her worried. “Are you okay?”

Luz looks down at him and picks him up, kissing his furry cheek.

"I… don't really know how to answer that…," she says and King lets out a whine, nuzzling closer to her, which makes her smile a little.

"How ya feeling, kid?" She looks up at Eda as she walks over, and she shrugs.

"I… don't know," she admits.

"You wanna tell us what happened now?" she asks softly.

Luz sighs, but nods and Eda leads her to her customary spot at the table and they sit. Luz tells them about the events of yesterday. A variety of emotions filter across both Clawthorne sister’s faces as she recounts the day before Eda’s finally settles on rage.

"That rotten little bit-"

"Edalyn!" Lilith scolds before turning back to Luz. "I'm sorry you both had to go through that, Luz." Lilith frowned.

"So now you're just… waiting?" Eda asks and Luz nods. The older witch sighs. "I'm sorry, Luz." Eda laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"Thanks…," she mumbles.

"Chin up, kiddo. We'll deal with it as it comes. For now, how bout pancakes?" She smiles and Luz realizes that she's absolutely starving. She hasn't eaten since breakfast this time yesterday.

"Please," she moans. Eda grins and stands to grab Luz a tall stack of pancakes.

She wolfs it down in record time to fill her empty belly that’s eating itself and when all that remains on her plate is a puddle of syrup, she sighs contently, satisfied.

"Thanks, mom," she says as she stands to leave.

"Have a good day, Luz," Lilith says as she grabs her bag and makes for the door.

"Thanks, and you're right." She turns to Eda, who cocks a brow at her. "Boscha is a bitch," she says and runs for the door. "I love you guys, bye!" She bolts out the front door and heads for school leaving Eda cackling behind her. Lilith rolls her eyes at them. In another universe, Luz was definitely Eda's.

When her laughter fades away Eda's face grows more somber and she sits in Luz's empty seat across from Lilith, looking at her seriously. Lilith looks back at her, waiting, as she takes a sip from her cup.

"Theoretically…," she starts, tapping her long nails on the table. "We could just... kill this girl and dump her body in a river, right?" she asks nonchalantly.

Lilith looks at her over the rim of her cup for a long minute before she takes another long sip.

"Theoretically…" she agrees and sets her cup on the back on the table with a quiet clink. “But it would be easily discoverable in the river… burning on the other hand…”

Luz isn't surprised when she arrives at school and more people than usual look her way when she passes them.

She doesn't care about them though. Her only worry is about Amity and her parents. In the human world, she was used to people whispering behind her back or looking at her strangely. It's gotten easy for her to ignore.

Her friends and Amity are waiting out front, near the stairs.

Luz runs up to them.

"Hey, guys," she greets and it's noticeably more subdued than most mornings.

"Hey, Luz." They smile at her and if it's a little sad, she doesn't say anything. They too have noticed the looks their group is getting from other students. Amity is the only one who seems a little shaken up by it, shoulders tensing every time other students walk by into the building past them and their gaze lingers before they start whispering to themselves. It stabs at Luz’s chest, as well as the exhausted look on her girlfriend’s face.

She grabs Amity's hand and squeezes.

Amity blinks at her, surprised, but then she squeezes back. Everyone already knows, they have no reason to hide it anymore.

"Anything happen last night?" she asks quietly and Amity shakes her head, leaning her shoulder against hers.

"I don't think they've heard yet…" she frowns. Luz hums.

“There’s no point in worrying about it till something actually happens.” Willow reasons. It hurts her to see the two so solemn.

“Yeah, try not to worry about it for now,” Gus agrees.

“They're right.” Luz looks at Amity and she nods tiredly.

“Right…,” she mumbles, leaning her head on her shoulder, but their friends' words don’t bring her any comfort and Luz knows it, they don’t help her much either, but she appreciates the effort. She presses a kiss to green hair.

“Try not to worry, mi amor,” she says and Amity nods.

The bell screams soon enough and they have to all make their way to class.

They meet up again at lunch and it feels like everyone’s eyes are on her as Amity walks into the cafeteria with her lunch. She sees the table in the back where Luz and their friends are sitting and quickly makes her way over, she doesn’t look at anyone and tries to block out all the quiet whispering that she knows, without even having to hear, is about her.

She quickly sits down next to Luz. They try to just have a normal lunch, but Amity feels like she’s crawling in her skin with all the attention centered on her. She glances at Luz, who doesn’t seem at all bothered by it. She wishes she could do that, but between the gossiping and the looks in her so far today in class and just passing in the halls, not to mention the threat of when, not if her parents are going to find out, looming over her head, she just feels like tightly wound spring, looking to release all the tight energy spiraled up inside her.

Luz looks up at Amity to see her staring intently down at her uneaten food with a pensive face and frowns.

"When was the last time you ate?" Luz whispers, jolting her out of her thoughts as she turns to look at her. It takes her long enough to answer that Luz knows that the answer is probably sometime yesterday.

"I'm not hungry," she finally mumbles, still picking at her food.

"I know… but please, eat something. For me?" Luz tries. Amity looks at her and the meaning is clear.

'that's not fair'

Luz smiles at that and Amity sighs and finally takes a bite.

It tastes like sawdust in her mouth but she eats it all anyway, for Luz, and maybe she does feel a little better with her belly full, but she's not going to say so. Luz looks happy about it though, and that's good enough for her.

What does lift her spirits are when a surprised shriek fills the cafeteria, and from where they're sitting they can see Boscha, jump up from her table, covered in her own lunch.

As she does, more food flies from several more directions, pelting her in the back and the face.

The whole cafeteria erupts into laughter as she wipes the green goo out of her eyes, especially as yet more food flies through the air to hit her from several directions and she runs out with her group of cronies behind her and screaming with rage.

Gus snickers to himself and they look at him.

"What was that about?" Willow blinks, and he grins.

"The illusion track," is the answer.

"Whaddaya mean?" Luz asks.

"Ed and Em rallied the illusion track students this morning to play pranks on Boscha. They've actually become really popular since they stopped all the mean jokes, not that it was hard to convince anyone, no one really likes Boscha," he explains. "Oh, you guys missed it this morning, but someone magiced her locker to explode trash slug slime on her when she opened it!" he laughs.

Luz and Willow grin at that and Amity smiled.

Her brother and sister are too much sometimes, and she loves them.

With the distraction of Boscha's drive-thru lunch, no one seems to be looking at them anymore and Luz throws her arm over Amity's shoulders, tugging her close. The human grins at her and Amity feels herself relax some.

Maybe the threat of her parents is still looming over her, but for now, here with her friends, knowing her siblings have her back and saddled up close to the girl she loves, she's happy.

The rest of the day goes by quickly. Thursday and Friday are easier, after Wednesday the luster of their secret has already worn off and people are more distracted by the constant pranks being played on Boscha by the illusion track. Her locker has been filled with all sorts of gross and disturbing things between every passing period and something always goes awry at lunch.

Ed and Em deny ever doing a single thing to the girl when Luz asks them, but the devious looks on their face tell another story altogether.

It seems being one of the top students in the beast keeping track gives Viney some pull too if the griffin excrement in Boscha's locker or the baby chupacabra she finds in her bag during potions Friday morning are anything to go by.

Not to mention that Luz is well-liked by most of her classmates in all her tracks, and it doesn't take long for word to spread to the other tracks about what's going on and they soon join and collaborate with each other. There are a few people at Hexside Boscha hasn't bullied or demeaned, so no one blinks an eye at the potions slipped into her lunch that have… less than favorable effects or the sound effects the bard track adds whenever something bad happens to her. The members of the healing track are always curiously absent as well from the medical wing whenever Boscha has to go see them, for chupacabra bites or the like.

After school Friday they tell Eda and Lilith about the potion someone must have slipped her that made her break out in a full-body rash. Eda, as the chaotic witch she is, is delighted by it and even Lilith grins, though she tries to hide it behind her teacup.

They go upstairs Luz jumps on her bed with a tired sigh, Amity makes an agreeing noise as she plops down next to her, letting Luz curl up around her tiredly. She smiles to herself and runs her fingers through her girlfriend's soft, dark locks, they hang down the back of her neck now and her bangs droop around her eyebrows. Amity thinks it's a cute look, and while she of course isn't forbidding Luz from cutting her hair if she wants, when asked her opinion, she simply says she likes it how it is, which is enough to keep Luz from cutting it. She needs to cut her own soon, her roots are showing again, much to Luz's delight.

Luz hums contently in her grip and they just lay there.

"Hey," Luz starts after a while.

"Hmm?" Amity's eyes are closed, face buried in the warm girl's neck.

"I've been thinking… about switching to all potions track…," she finally says.

Amity's eyes snap open at that and she leans back to look at Luz. The surprise is clear in her wide eyes.

"What, really?" Is all she can ask and Luz nods.

"My potions teacher thinks I could go really far if I took potions more than once a week," she says.

"I'm sure you could, you're already the top student after all… but you love taking all the tracks." She frowns, brows furrowing between her eyes.

"Yeah, I do, but focusing on the thing I'm really good at seems like the more… responsible thing to do…," she says and now Amity knows something is up, and she has a pretty good idea of what it might be.

"Luz, does this have anything to do with my parents?" she asks and Luz frowns, eyes glancing away and Amity knows for certain now.

"I mean… they don't really like the multitrack thing right? Besides, I'm good at potions, maybe they wouldn't mind us being together if I was just the top student in the potions track only," she reasons, looking back at her again and Amity frowns. "I just don't want to lose you…," she mumbles under her breath. There's a pain In her heart at those words, that strikes Amity like a hot coal, her burns, hot in her chest

"Luz… no," she starts, pulling her hands away from the back of Luz's neck to cup her face, thumbs running across her warm cheeks. "I don't want to lose you either, but I also want you just as you are, I don't want you to change to try and please my parents, I do enough of that for the both of us already…" she says quietly. "If you want to take all potions, then do it because that's what you want to do, not for me, and especially not because of my parents. I love you just the way you are, querida." She presses her forehead against Luz's, who smiles, reaching up to hold the hands pressed to her face.

"I love you too," she says, leaning in to close the small distance between them with a firm kiss.

"You two are gross…" they both jump at the voice and turn to see King standing in the doorway, with his arms crossed.

"Probably," Luz grins, tightening her grip on Amity. "Did you want to come snuggle with us, King?" She asks in that baby tone.

"No!" he squeals.

"Good, more for me." Amity huffs, wrapping her arms back around Luz's neck, but is smirking to herself, face hidden in her girlfriend's neck. Luz grins, knowing what she's doing, and cuddles closer.

King lasts all of thirty seconds before he screeches and runs over, scrambling up the side of the bed to wedge his way between them.

"King demands cuddles!" He shouts as they laugh and squeeze him between them. Once he's settled down, they share a look over the top of his head, smiling at each other.

When Amity gets home she heads straight for her room and sets her bag down.

She's just sitting down at her desk when her siblings burst in unannounced, as they usually do.

"Hey, Mittens." Edric grins at her, as they make themselves comfortable on her bed.

"Soooo, how"s school been?" Emira drawls with a sly, knowing grin that completely betrays her.

Amity smirks at them.

"Rather uneventful on my part actually, though Boscha seems to be having an unusually hard time, but I'm sure you two don't know anything about that, do you?" she asks.

The twins glanced at each other, both wearing equally shit-eating grins.

"I can't say that we do," Edric says, kicking his feet as he lays on his stomach across her bed, head in his hands.

"Doesn't ring any bells." Emira flips her hair over her shoulder and leans back on her hands.

Amity just shakes her head at them, she's grinning.

A knock on the door makes them all freeze, smiles falling away.

"Yes?" Amity calls, trying to keep the sudden nervousness out of her voice.

The door opens and her mother appears.

Odalia Blight looks as prim and proper as ever. Her dark chartreuse hair pulled into a perfect bun atop her head and her lavender dress perfectly pressed and tidy. Her face is stiff and serious, though it's hardly anything other. Her sharp, olive eyes land on Amity.

"Amity, dear, your father and I would like to speak to you in his study," she says.

Those words send ice coursing through Amity's veins. This has to be it, the moment she has been dreading for two days.

"Yes, mother." The response is automatic, she doesn't even realize she's saying it. Her mother nods and disappears down the hall toward her father's study.

Amity takes a shaky breath as she stands.

The twins scramble off the bed to lay a hand on each of her shoulders.

"It's gonna be okay," Emira says and Edric nods.

"Relax, take a breath."

She nods and takes a slow steadying breath. The twins pat her and she walks out of her room and down the stairs toward her father's study. The large wooden door is indistinguishable from the rest of the house, unassuming, but it is one the Blight children never enter unless they've been summoned.

She knocks and a deep voice calls for her to enter.

She takes the handle with a shaking hand and pushes it open.

The room is large and spacious, lined with bookshelves fit to bursting with thick, leather-bound tomes. A large, violet rug lays over the dark wood floor and one large window fills the opposite wall from the door, in front of which an old, sturdy desk sits.

Behind that desk, sits her father, looking down at something in front of him. Her mother stands next to him, hands folded in front of her.

Alador Blight is a tall, thin man, with auburn hair that extends in a well-groomed beard that follows his jawline and grows long on his chin. He is never seen in less than long, black dress pants and dark gray, and white pinstriped dress shirt under a black vest, a gold chain hanging from one of the buttons to the pocket where his pocket watch rests against his chest.

He looks up and gold eyes the same shade as her own land on her.

"Come here a moment, Amity, we'd like to discuss something with you," he calls.

"Yes?" she asks quietly, folding her hands in front of her tightly as she stops in front of the desk.

"We were hoping you could explain this," her mother says, picking a piece of paper off her father's desk and holding it up to her.

She can't help but wince as the poster of her and Luz is held up in front of her face.

She swallows thickly.

"It's… a poster, Boscha posted at school," she says simply. Her mother makes a sour face at that.

"Clearly it is a poster." There's a sharpness in her voice that cuts at Amity. "What we are referring to, is what you are doing in this… scandalous photo," she says. Her father watches silently.

Amity doesn't see any way to mitigate this other than the truth, after all, it's right there, in full color. She mumbles something and winces when her mother sighs sharply.

"Blight's do not mumble, Amity. Speak clearly," she scolds.

"Kissing my girlfriend." She says louder, cheeks turning pink as she says it out loud to her parents.

"Girlfriend?" Her mother looks appalled. "The human?" She's aghast. "How long has this been going on?" she demands.

"Almost six months…"

"Six months?!" Her mother's olive eyes are wide and her father's brows tick upward at that.

"You've been gallivanting around with that human for six months?" Odalia is beside herself at that news, and Amity's shoulders hug her neck. Her mother presses a hand to her temple and shakes her head, but every time the word 'human' slips past her mother's lips makes Amity's stomach roil with anger. Like that's all Luz is and that's all they need to know about her, that she's human, not that she's the kindest, most thoughtful, loving person Amity has ever known

"The human…," her mother starts again.

"Luz" Amity finally speaks, cutting off her mother who looks at her, startled. Her father is also looking at her surprised now. Amity swallows, but plows on.

"Her name is Luz. Luz Noceda."

Her mother only frowns at that.

"Of all the witchlings on the Boiling Isles, you choose that girl of all people…, why?" her mother makes a face and throws up a hand, begging to understand why their most level-headed child has done this.

"I…" she glances between her parents. She has nowhere else to go with this. "I love her," is her simple, honest answer.

Her mother scoffs, rolling her eyes as she sets the offensive paper on her father's desk.

"You couldn't possibly know what love is," Odalia says imperiously. Amity clenches her fists.

She might be young, but she's not five. she's read enough books and seen enough people in love to know what it's supposed to look and sound like.

She's learned over the last six months exactly what it feels like to.

It's an all-encompassing desire to be with someone, wanting nothing but to make them happy, and being happy just because they are. Taking care of each other, knowing they're there for you no matter what, even when no one else is.

Luz has literally shed blood for her and kept on fighting, and if all that isn't love, then Amity is sure no such thing exists in this world.

She's been head over heels in love with Luz for long enough to know this, and maybe she's never bled for her, but she can at least make this stand for her.

"Yes I do, and I love her!" Her voice raises as she slaps a hand to her chest, leaning forward, gold eyes narrowed and mouth pulled back in a snarl, and her mother looks at her like she's lost her mind.

Auburn brows shoot upward into his hairline as Alador regards his youngest daughter from across his desk. He can't remember the last time Amity argued with them, and he doesn't think she's ever raised her voice at them, much less the look directed at her mother now, whole body rigid. He's intrigued by this, by this human girl that elicits such a strong reaction in his youngest, and usually, most well behaved child.

He speaks before his wife gets the chance to open her mouth, and he can tell she's about to harshly scold Amity but cuts her off at the pass.

"Tell me, Amity," he finally speaks since this conversation started, steepling his fingers in front of him."...Tell me about this, Luz Noceda," he says, leaning back in his chair. Odalia's head whips to look at him, but his gold eyes are trained on Amity, who is looking back at him with the same eyes.

That catches her off guard, and she blinks back in surprise. She never expected that from her dad, who is looking at her curiously, waiting.

Normally, on any other day of the week she could confidently sing her girlfriend's praises to anyone, but at the moment, put on the spot in front of both of her parents, she struggles to speak for a minute.

"She's kind…," she finally starts. "She's always kind to everyone, but especially to me…," she says, unsure. Tons of things come to mind, but she knows well enough that some of them are things that most people would not find as endearing as she does, especially not her parents.

Her father doesn't say anything, only continues to look at her expectantly, she does her best to ignore her mother, looking at her with narrowed eyes. She knows the kinds of things her mother wants to hear.

"She's very intelligent, and studies all nine tracks at school..."

"Yes, we saw her… interesting uniform, in the photo," her mother says distastefully. Whether that distaste is aimed at Luz's education choices or the content of the photo, Amity is unsure, and her cheeks pink a little, the fact that her parents saw that photo… but she doesn't have time for that right now, she can sense that this is her make or break moment by the simple virtue that they're having this conversation at all.

"She's one of the top students in beast keeping, and is the top student in potions," she says, standing straighter, shoulders pushed back proudly at Luz's achievements. Her mother blinks surprised at that. Being the top student in any of the tracks is nothing to sneeze at. "Humans don't have bile sacs, so she can't do magic the same way we do, but she works hard to work around that, harder than anyone, we spend a lot of time studying for abominations," she tells them.

"Interesting, how does she perform magic?" Her father tilts his head.

All three Blight children know exactly how best to appeal to their parents. Anything that makes them look good is the quickest way to get their mother to agree to something.

Her father, however, has a natural, insatiable curiosity, anything that grabs his interest is the best way to garner his attention. Amity inherited her curious and studious nature from the man, after all.

"With glyphs, usually on paper, but anything she can draw on. She's taught me some."

"Show me," he commands, sliding his desk notepad and pen across to her.

Amity steps forward and takes the pen, she hesitates a moment before deciding on which glyph she wants to use, and carefully drawing it out on the paper and tapping it gently. The paper crumpled up, forming a floating orb of light, it's gentle glow casts shadows across both father and daughter's faces.

"Fascinating…" Alador pulls at his beard thoughtfully as he observes the light spell floating above his desk. He's done his share of research about ancient magics and this reminds him of what he's read, to see it, is another matter entirely, even if it is only a simple light spell.

"Wild magic…" his wife frowns.

"She's the Owl Lady's apprentice," Amity says, and her mother's olive gaze turns to her.

"Edalyn Clawthorne…," her mother sneers. "A brazen criminal…"

"A former criminal," Alador says, drawing both their attention. "The Emperor himself pardoned her and her sister by the will of the Titan," he reminds. "It is thus, not our place to question that… even if her character remains… questionable," he says. "There is no denying that the Clawthorne sisters' are both formidably powerful."

Odalia frowns but doesn't argue either point.

He hums and glances at the poster still sitting on his desk, and the photo of his daughter wrapped in a rather passionate embrace with the human he had heard rumors off. He doesn't like this obvious power play by his colleague's daughter, trying to discredit Amity, but that is a concern for later.

"I'm intrigued, Amity," he finally addresses his daughter, and stands from his desk, cupping the light spell in his hand as he walks around to stand in front of her.

He towers over her, but he towers over everyone in the family, Edric aspires to be as tall as their father someday.

"Clearly this, Luz, is of importance to you, so I wish to meet her," he says and Amity balks.

"You do?" Is all she can say. Her mother looks just as shocked.

"Yes, I've heard the rumors of the human attending Hexside, and her magic is interesting. I'd like to separate the facts from the myths myself," he says and hums thoughtfully. "I believe we have no prior engagements Sunday? "he turns to his wife questioningly, who nods. "Invite your girlfriend to dinner Sunday night, Amity. I will gauge her character for myself," he says with finality.

Amity's tongue works soundlessly in her throat before she nods.

"Yes, father," she finally managed to say.

"Good, that will be all, Amity." He dismisses and she nods before quickly leaving the room.

When she's far enough away from her father's study, she books it back to her room.

Edric and Emira are standing inside, waiting for her.

"Mittens!" They practically jump on her.

"What did they say?!"

"Dad… wants to meet Luz," she says, still shocked by this.

"Really?" Emira blinks.

"Yeah… he wants me to invite her to dinner Sunday night." She looks between them.

"Well, that will be an interesting dinner…" Edric cocks a brow and Emira elbows him.

"I have to tell Luz!" Amity runs over to her desk and pulls open a drawer, sitting next to the little maroon box that her brooch rests in is a large, folded up piece of paper. She pulls it out and unfolds it on the floor. it's poster size, and has a large, intricate glyph is drawn on it.

She taps her hand to it and a portal blazed to life.

"Fold this up and put it back in my drawer, I'll be back soon." With that she hops into the portal and is gone, leaving the twins alone.

"Okay, we have got to get her to draw one of those for us," Emira says. Edric nods.

Amity appears, dropping onto the floor of Luz's bedroom.

Luz screams, falling out of her desk chair, where she'd been bent over some homework.

"Amity?! Don't do that!" She gasps, pressing a hand over her chest where her heart is beating rapidly against her ribs. "I coulda been changing or something…"

"Sorry!" Amity says, helping her stand. Carefully choosing not to mention that her changing is a moot point after her drugged dunking in the river and she had to help her change clothes. "I had to come to tell you right away." Luz's face turns concerned at that.

"What, what happened?" she asks quickly, grabbing hold of Amity's hands.

Before she can say anything the bedroom door slams open and Eda, Lilith, and King burst in, staves at the ready.

They take one look around the room and see the two teenagers standing there holding hands. Eda scowls, lowering her staff.

"What part of 'door open' do you two not get?" Eda frowns as she stands in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Eda, I just got here, my parents found out today," she says and Eda's annoyed look quickly melts into surprise as she steps into the room, the other two following.

"What happened, kid?"

"They want Luz to come to dinner Sunday. My dad wants to meet you," she says, turning back to Luz.

"Well, that's a good thing right?" she asks, looking confused. Amity looks very worried about a dinner invitation.

"I… don't know," she admits. "My mom certainly didn't seem happy about it…," she says.

"Okay, but this is our chance, they didn't outright forbid you from seeing me. We can do this!" Luz smiles and Amity can't help but return it. Luz always has that effect on her.

"You at a fancy-schmancy Blight dinner? I'm not sure you have the right breeding for that kid." Eda plants a hand on her hip.

"Hey, you don't know what kind of breeding I have!" Luz huffs.

"Eda's right… your usual table manners are fine… most of the time…" Amity gives her a sideways look, and Luz knows she's referring to the eating contest she and Gus had, where she shoved her whole face into her lunch tray a couple of weeks ago. "...but dinner at my house is a little more formal," Amity continues.

"Couldn't you teach me?" Luz asks.

"I don't have time tomorrow and I snuck out just now to tell you…" Amity bites her lip.

"I think I could be of assistance." Lilith steps forward.

"Hey, yeah, Lily is the queen of all that prissy, pompous stuff." Eda slaps her sister's back, making her jerk and she rolls her eyes.

"I often had to attend dinners and ceremonies during my time in the coven. I am quite up to date on the necessary etiquette that the Blights would employ at formal dinner." She agrees.

"Yeah, Lilith's a great teacher!" Luz says.

"So?" Lilith looks between the two teens. Luz turns back to Amity who nods.

"Perfect, we're about to have dinner, Luz, I can assess what you know and what areas we need to work on."

"You stayin' for dinner, Kid?" Eda asks Amity, who frowns.

"No, thank you. I need to get back before my parents realize I'm gone," she says. Eda nods and the sisters make their way back downstairs with King.

Luz squeezes Amity's hands and tugs her in for a quick kiss.

"Don't worry, mi amor, I will learn everything!" Luz promises with a determined nod that makes her smile.

"I know you will." She says before she steps away to the permanent portal glyph drawn on Luz's bedroom wall and taps it before disappearing inside.

#Moonlit Masquerade #lumity #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Willow Park #Gus Porter #Emira Blight #Edric Blight #Odalia Blight #Alador Blight #Eda Clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #gay #fic #toh #the owl house

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grell-writes-stuff · 4 years ago

Text

A Self Indulgent First Chapter

Enjoy...something

Words: 2,549

Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal

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Slam!

Gasp!

And then the apathetic yell of “Walk it off, Willow!” from Coach Martin. No stopping the game or running over to make sure I’m not deprived of air or dying or something. Just “Walk it off, Willow!”

I suffer for a second with the wind knocked out of my body. My inhaler finds its way from my pocket to my hand, and while I hold the one breath I force myself into and wait for my crap lungs to jump-start again, I contemplate the most-likely-illegal play that landed me flat on my back in the middle of the field. Quarterback Tom Styles’ outstretched elbow connecting with my neck at full speed in his chase for the checkered ball and high school sports glory, clearly confusing his claim-to-fame varsity moves with a pickup game of soccer since I doubt he has the brain cells to remember the rules to two sports at once. And probably a little bit on purpose. Because he’s a dick.

My chest wheezes a little, but at least it’s something, and the weak inhales finally start to catch as a sun-freckled face appears above me and blocks out the light. Ivy offers me her hand.

“Did th-that look a-as bad as it f-felt?” I sputter.

Ivy tilts her head from side-to-side like it’s the scale measuring how uncool I am. “Worse. Very pathetic. You will die alone.” She yanks me to my feet and acts like a support in spite of the height difference.

“P-Please stop making m-me take gym with y-you.”

“Nah. It’s too funny.” She ignores my scowl. “Come on. Let’s get you some water and wait for those shitty lungs to work again.”

She escorts me – hobbling like some eighty-year-old man with spine problems and not just what will soon be a terrible, ugly bruise – toward the bleachers, empty except for the water bottles of our classmates. I’m happy enough to sit on the sidelines, not just while recovering from having all of the air robbed from my chest, but for the rest of gym class, and also forever. Ivy is equally as happy, but only because it prompts the girls’ teacher, Coach Caruthers, to scream in her booming voice:

“Hammond! Back on the field!”

Without missing a beat, Ivy responds, “In the event of moderate injury, students are allowed to have a friend or fellow student for mental, emotional, or physical support. It’s in the code of conduct.”

I don’t know if that’s actually something in our school’s rule book, but Ivy has read the whole thing cover-to-cover for the sole purpose of seeing how many provisions she can disregard without getting into trouble through malicious acts of over-compliance or sheer dumb luck. So, she’s either following the rules to the letter or lying about them. As I sit, I see that Caruthers does not look impressed when Ivy plops onto the bench next to me. The whole reason our gender-segregated phys. ed classes collaborate so often is because they’re full of athletes – and me, the outlier – so more often than not, it’s just an extra practice for the varsity players. Even though Ivy was born with the “good at physical stuff” gene, and talented enough to be a forward on our girls’ soccer team, she prefers to rely on the natural part of her ability and not the practice part to the vexation of literally everyone.

“Hammond!” Caruthers screams. “On the field, or off the team!”

Ivy squirts a stream of water into her mouth and quickly swallows before passing the bottle on to me. “Cool. Who’s replacing me?” she retorts.

I focus on downing some water and breathing evenly again and not on the vein beginning to pop out of Caruthers’ angry-red neck. She can’t say anything back because, well, Kinross High School isn’t huge. Pretty much everyone who can play sports is already playing sports, and as far as Ivy’s tendency to disrespect anyone of authority can go, she’s also crucial to securing victory over visiting teams. Caruthers just grits her teeth and returns to refereeing the game where Tom Styles has once again stolen the ball that got away from him, this time without incapacitating anybody since the one guy with asthma has left the field. (Asshole.) I watch as Abby Jefferson starts to gain on him, and Tom makes the choice to skillfully send the ball flying across the grass to the next open player, Drew Young, the only person in our gym class who does even less than I do.

That’s not for lack of talent either. I’ve seen Drew actually try on the rare occasion, and he could absolutely score a spot on a boys’ sports team. But most games, like today, he receives the pass and kicks the ball along to the next open player – it’s intercepted by one of the girls – and continues pacing the field leisurely. Coach Martin yells at him to get his head in the game, but Drew doesn’t bother. If the activity doesn’t involve selling the pens that he stole from the cheerleaders to the football team, the little weasel has no interest.

The game continues on.

Ivy reclines until her shoulders are touching the bench behind us, tilting her head back and staring at the sky. I have to wonder how comfortable it is.

“My dear Sid,” she theatrically addresses me. She likes to be dramatic sometimes. She thinks it’s funny. “I have a proposal for you.”

“I told you I’m not training a messenger pigeon with you. We only live three houses apart.”

“I’ll wear you down eventually, but no, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” She looks over at me without breaking her questionable position. “I know what we’re doing tonight. I’ve concocted a perfect plan, you see, for this most All-Hallowed of Eves.”

“You can say ‘Halloween’ like a normal person. It’s okay.”

“Let me bring you back in time,” she continues, ignoring me, “to the Kinross of yore. Just decades after its founding, the Salem Witch Trials came about and our town was no exception to the noose–”

“Salem is two hours away, Ivy,” I interrupt with the fact.

“Shut up. The Salem Witch Trials swept across the state of Massachusetts, migrated into Kinross, and thus the most famous trial of Kinross history was set in motion when one Ann Kelly was accused of being a creature of the occult!”

“Can I get the abridged version of this plan please?” I ask her. “Like, the part that takes place in this century?”

Finally fed up with my interjections, Ivy sighs exaggeratedly and rolls her eyes at me. “Blah, blah, blah, she was hanged, she’s buried in the historical section of Riverview, and we’re going there tonight during the witching hour to see” – she switches to her best spooky voice with elongated, trembling vowels – “her haunted grave.”

“Hard pass.”

That makes her sit upright again with a slouch to her posture. She’s wearing a fabricated pout. “Sid,” she whines.

“Ivy, I’m not sneaking out with you at three in the morning on Halloween to go see a ‘haunted grave.’” She opens her mouth, but I follow up with, “Our parents would kill us. Besides, what’s-her-name probably just angered a bunch of Puritans and got executed because of religious prejudice. That doesn’t mean she was a witch.”

“Well, of course. I think angering Puritans was a mandatory activity back then. But come on, Sid! The legend says she’s a witch, and it’s the perfect Halloween thing! I think we are obligated – if not encouraged by the spirit of Halloween herself – to go see a ghost witch.”

“Does the spirit of Halloween have a gender?”

Ivy pushes past that and waits to catch my eye dead-on. “Bet you a hundred bucks we actually see Ann Kelly’s phantom.”

My lips part to say no just a split second before I register the number. “Wait – a hundred?”

Something cocky has taken up her face, and she recites with inflated confidence, “Ten A-Hams. A Franklin. A thousand Roosevelts.”

“You know what? Fine. I’ll take your money,” I tell her. “You’re on.”

Her grin is smug as we fist-bump on it and close the deal, but I decide that I don’t care so much with the promise of an easy hundred dollars coming my way. Ivy ingests another stream of water, and swallows while her eyes quickly scan the grass to catch up with the game again. Suddenly, a yell flies from her mouth:

“Box him out, Julia! Come on!”

Then she’s up off the bleachers and jogging back out onto the field. As unwilling as Ivy is to make an effort and practice, she’s also equally as competitive, even if this is just a gym class where victory doesn’t really matter. I, on the other hand, take my time on the bench. Struggling to breathe isn’t my idea of fun. I need to stop letting Ivy manipulate me into taking phys. ed. If she keeps it up, she might kill me.

***

I can nearly be qualified as a mess by the time Ivy and I reach our lockers after final period, and she’s humming like she’s got live wires for veins despite just spending an hour burning off energy. Meanwhile, I’m still recovering from my last bout of airlessness after I returned to the field and ran for maybe ten minutes. And I feel gross. The benefit of having P.E. last period is that I don’t have to shower here and can wait until I get home or to Ivy’s. The con is the window of time in between. I usually try to keep the gap as short as possible, and therefore, my time at my locker brief. I think Ivy and I took enough time getting changed after gym to avoid most people – at least the non-athletes.

“Hi, Sidney! Hi, Ivy!”

A mixture of feelings suddenly rockets through me and don’t add up in the end. While my chest is beginning to slowly overclock, and the hallway seems a few degrees warmer and rising steadily, I’m ready to play dead as Naomi Park opens the locker right next to mine on the opposite side of Ivy’s. Her shoulder is a fraction of an inch from touching my arm which is probably too close when I’m still drenched in gym sweat. Ivy greets her politely with ease while my brain is trying to catch up with the mundane situation and not think about how she smells like some kind of flowery perfume and I smell like crap.

“Hey, Naomi,” leaves my mouth and sounds too drawn-out and weirdly cheesy, so I just try to smile to make up for it. That feels awkward too, but she thankfully doesn’t seem to react to that, and her glossy pink lips tilt up without much effort into a perfect grin.

She puts some books on the shelf in her locker. “Any exciting Halloween plans?”

“Nope,” Ivy says immediately, likely because our actual idea involves a wager and might not be entirely legal – it’s a misdemeanor at the least. I just take the hint and don’t add anything to refute her answer.

“You? Any plans? For tonight – Halloween?” I wish that had come out differently. It could have at least sounded coherent.

“Nothing tonight,” Naomi responds. “But Heather’s having a ‘Belated Halloween Bash’ on Saturday while her parents are out of town so I’m ‘required’ to be there.”

“Oh, cool. That’s…cool.”

“I guess so. Heather’s parties get a little boring after a while though. I bet your plans for Saturday are much more fun.”

“Yep. Pints of ice cream, horror movies, and making bets on how long it takes Sid to hurl when the blood starts gushing,” Ivy interjects.

“Ivy.” I mutter the snap of her name so it doesn’t sound as harsh as I want it to. The temperature in the hallway rises astronomically.

Naomi giggles, which hurts. Well, it would if her laugh wasn’t so musical and twinkly. It’s like a damn harp quartet. “Sounds like a good time,” she comments. Her locker door shuts. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Yeah, totally – tomorrow. See ya’, Naomi!” She’s nearly out of earshot down the hall, and I wait until I know she definitely can’t hear anything before I say to Ivy without daring a look at her, with the heat of embarrassment and shame boiling me alive from the inside, “Please say nothing.”

I can hear the grin on her face when she speaks. “You realize she’s just another human being, right?”

“Are you kidding? She’s at the right hand of Heather Loch. She’s popular. I’m shocked she still knows my name.”

Ivy shuts her own locker with a characteristic slam. “Dude, you’re ridiculous. She likes you back. If you just talked to her, and told her that you like her, you would have a girlfriend.”

“Ivy, she thinks I’m a loser.”

“I think you’re a loser and I still like you sometimes.”

I roll my eyes and can’t say anything to that. I don’t care if Ivy thinks I’m lame. It’s not the same. We’ve been together for as long as I can remember, so at this point, she’s locked into this friendship, no matter how easy it would be for her to hang out with the people at Kinross High who are actually popular and liked.

I close my locker and we start walking to the main exit of the building and eventually across the school’s student parking lot. Some groups linger, but most people seem to be dispersing and heading home for the day. Ivy and I walk straight through the lot as always, avoiding the cars pulling out.

I want to avoid the Styles’ Ford Everest – which is so bright red that it’s an assault on the eyes – but we have to walk past it and the clump of popular kids loitering next to it: blonde, perfect, popular Heather Loch, Asshole Quarterback Tom and his not-as-terrible twin, Ed, and my locker neighbour and secret crush, Naomi. The girls are under the guys’ arms like they belong there, popular with popular. There’s usually not much interaction between our pair and their group because I’m pretty sure most of the popular kids either don’t know who I am or just hate me for no reason, but today Tom decides to rub in his full-contact plays on the soccer field.

“Nice moves out there, Pussy Willow!” he shouts clear across the lot. It makes me feel the bruise on my back, still fresh, but I’m past the point of being mad about it. Really, Tom’s just an annoying jerk, and that’s all he’ll ever be.

I try to tap into Ivy-like sarcasm and passiveness. “I get it. Because my last name is Willow, and you’re insulting me. That’s really funny. It’s original.”

He yells something back that includes one of Ivy’s favourite swear words, but we disregard it and turn out of the parking lot in the direction of our houses. Ivy states that we’re going to my place because, in her mind, it’s easier to sneak out of a single-parent household. I don’t try to refute it because arguing with Ivy when she has her mind made up is like talking to a brick wall.

#writing #wip #untitled #my writing #my ocs #ya #young adult #writeblr

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