Chapter Text
It started when Luz saw Amity at the library.
“… No fucking way.” Amity’s jaw basically broke a hole into the floor.
Now that usually isn’t how they greet each other. It’s similar, but it’s less hostile than what they’re used to. They’re used to purposefully crashing into each other in the halls. Amity is used to stealing Luz’s beanie from her head and running through the school with it. Luz is used to towering over Amity, making her face go red with anger (or embarrassment). Basically, they’re used to being each other’s carbon life form of evil.
It can go way back, possibly to the beginning of sophomore year. It was Luz's first day at Hexside, being the only human there. So naturally, Amity teased her. But the teasing was all in good fun. Amity meant no harm.
Luz clearly took the teasing as rivalry, as she started throwing Amity challenges every which way. She challenged her to eating contests, to races through the halls, she even challenged her to a grudgby match (Amity was the team captain of the grudgby team. Anyone could take a guess who won that challenge).
This annoyed Amity. She was tired of the human seeing her as competition, as if she could lose any of the challenges. Amity began to grow hostile towards Luz, and Luz reciprocated the energy. Always stealing each other’s school supplies, always breaking into the other’s locker and filling it with obscure things (Amity kept very agitated mice in Luz’s locker; Luz just filled Amity’s locker with shaving cream. It’s still a mystery how she managed to do that).
This continued every time Luz returned to the Boiling Isles. Camila allowed Luz to return to the Boiling Isles for school at Hexside, or to just visit Eda and the gang. As long as she always came home for human school and for own mother, of course. Luz was thrilled that her mom was accepting of letting her step through a magical portal every couple weeks, and to even stay there for the summer. But every visit got ruined by Amity and her ruthless teasing.
But it got worse when entering senior year. Luz looked at her schedule for Wednesday’s and Thursday’s. The days she had abomination classes and simple magic history.
“Hopefully I don’t get as much Blight in these classes as I did last year.” Luz leaned against the locker next to Willow’s, offering to clean her glasses. Willow handed them over.
“You were unbearable last year from all the complaining. Trust me when I say I want that as much as you do.” Willow kept a hand out for her glasses. Luz swatted it away, making sure it was extra clean before giving it back.
“Even if I get one class with her. I will lose it. I will. Seriously.” Luz said, returning her friend’s glasses. There is no way she could be in more than one of my classes, this school is huge and every schedule is different, Luz thought.
Apparently, there was a way Amity could be in more than one of Luz’s classes.
There was a way Amity could be in every single one of Luz’s classes.
It was the last class on Thursday when Luz confronted Amity about it.
“Are you obsessed with me or something?” Luz glared.
“What?”
“How are you in ALL of my classes? What kind of shit did you pull?”
“I didn’t pull anything,” Amity rolled her eyes. She looked just as irritated as Luz.
“Then how the FUCK did we get every single class together. EVERY SINGLE ONE! Even history…” Luz twirled her hair around her finger, and Amity stared.
“I don’t know Luz, but I really don’t have time to fight,” Amity sounded tired. “I have work.”
“Fine!”
“Fine.”
Luz held her glare for a bit too long, she thinks, as Amity’s face grew red and she walked away. It was different, because Amity didn’t purposely bump into Luz’s shoulder whilst walking past her. That was odd, considering it became something they were used to. The intentional shoving, the eye-rolling, the colour that would flood Amity’s face when Luz pissed her off.
It was weird experiencing a change in the system.
Luz walked outside to her car, rummaging through her bag to find her keys. The school allowed designated parking spots for students with vehicles, and Eda was more than happy to steal Luz a parking pass. She stood in front of her car for a good five minutes, unable to find those damn keys. She heard the car next to her start, and by reflex, she looked at the driver. And the driver looked at her.
“…”
“… You HAD to pick the spot right next to mine, Luz?!” Amity rolled down her window to yell at Luz and to throw a gum wrapper in her direction.
“Don’t litter! You’re disgusting!” Luz picked up the wrapper and kicked at Amity’s tires. Amity was about to throw her water bottle out the window, but Luz found her keys and rushed into her car. Luz stuck her tongue out. Amity rolled her eyes, and backed out of the spot.
Back to normal, Luz thought.
And things were supposedly back to the same old routine. Fight, bicker, tease. The usual.
A week into the new school year had passed, and Luz was at her locker when Amity approached her.
“So how’d you do on the quiz?” Amity asked, painting a smirk over her face. It was Luz’s turn to roll her eyes.
“I didn’t check my score when they handed it out.” Luz kept her eyes off Amity’s.
“So I’m going to guess that you flunked and I aced it. Cool!” Amity leaned closer into Luz’s locker.
“Okay, you know what, Blight?” Luz started, making sure to add an extra bite to Amity’s name. Luz was about to spit a mountain's worth of shit Amity’s way, when Willow pulled her back. “You- wait, Willow!” Luz stammered.
“No fighting today, Luz, you told me to make sure you show up to your first day in one piece.” Willow kept her face still. Willow was not one to show her emotions with her face. It was using words that fit best for her (she was blunt, in other words).
“But-”
“No.”
“But she-”
“No.”
“Amity’s being so-”
“Luz! No!” Luz slumped her back and pouted. Amity let out a laugh.
“And what are you laughing at, Blight?” Willow shifted her attention to the green-haired witch, causing Amity to flinch at the harshness of Willow’s voice. “So you’re good at school. Who fucking cares?”
Amity just stared.
“Can you guys bite each other’s asses another day? Luz, it’s time to go.”
It was Amity who left first. Amity was hurt by hearing what Willow said, but she didn’t let anyone see it. She would never let anyone see it.
“I could’ve done exactly that without your help, dude.” Luz frowned at her friend.
“And risk you being late to your first day of work? Yeah right. You literally told me to prevent anything getting in your way so you make it there on time. You know, since you’re always late.”
Luz tried to fight back. But she knew that Willow was right. Willow was usually always right about everything.
“…Fine,” Luz said between clenched teeth. “Walk me to my car?”
Willow and Luz made their way to the parking lot, noticing Amity’s car already out of her spot. Luz found that weird, as she usually stays in her car after school to go on her scroll, fix her makeup or just blast music while staring into space.
“You still haven’t told me what job you got. Plus, I thought you already got that potion selling business with Eda?” Willow opened the car door for Luz.
“Yeah, but that’s a weekend thing. I want to help around the house more rather than just… using her and the owl house as a dormitory everytime I come back here. I wanna help make some extra cash! Even if it’s just temporary.”
“So where are you working? So I can visit you during your shifts and annoy the shit out of you.”
“The library! You know I’m a nerd for books, it’s a perfect job for me.”
Willow blinked.
“… Hellooooo? Willow?” Luz said, confused at her friend’s empty response.
“The library, huh?” Willow snorted a little. “Good luck.”
Willow patted the top of Luz’s car and walked away.
“Wait, what? What do you mean ‘good luck’? Why do I need luck? Willow!” Luz shouted out of her window.
“I got to go, I’m meeting with Gus! Have fun!” WIllow ran away, leaving Luz even more confused.
It’s a job where I’m surrounded by beautiful, wonderful books. Why would I need luck? Luz thought.
Resume.
“… No fucking way.” Amity almost dropped the stack of books she was holding.
“Amity, this is Luz. You’ll be training her for her first day. Please show her around and make her feel at home.” Malphas pushed Luz towards Amity. Fuck.
“We… We know each other.” Amity said, holding onto the hem of her dress. She kept her eyes locked on the floor.
“Oh, that’s great! You two should get along just fine, then. Teach her just the basics for today, Amity!” Malphas left Luz and Amity alone, leaving both of them shocked.
Luz let out a nervous laugh. And Amity began to look angry. “You know what, you don’t have to train me, I can find someone else to-”
“Really, Luz? Here too?”
Luz froze.
“This is the one place I can be myself. No parents, no stupid fake friends, no you. Are you serious…” Amity rubbed her fingers between her eyes.
“Hey, you’re the one that started all of this! We could have been on good terms if you hadn’t made fun of me when I first came here.” Luz kept her voice down, not wanting her or Amity to get in trouble.
“Well, we can’t go three years back in time, can we?” Amity sighed.
Luz couldn’t explain how she felt. Was it… sympathy? She knew she always felt bad for the girl because she knew how shitty her parents were. She knew Amity had to be the top of her school to impress her good-for-nothing parents. Fuck, even her friends were chosen by them. Luz’s heart sank whenever she remembered how screwed up Amity’s home life was. But wasn’t Amity her rival? Her sworn enemy? Isn’t she supposed to feel nothing but happiness when she sees her rival go down?
Maybe Luz was too good of a person at heart to be like that.
Luz said nothing. Amity stayed professional by showing her around the library and gave her the task to put away the beast fiction novels. Amity made her way to the kid’s corner, and Amity’s tired and sad demeanor disappeared when the kids began running up to her.
Luz had never seen Amity look genuinely happy before. It was like a breath of fresh air. Amity began to read a picture book, bringing it to life with her voice. The kids around her sounded astonished, intrigued. It made Luz happy to see Amity behave in a way that was healthy and real.
It also made Luz upset, realizing that she’s one of the reasons Amity wasn’t happy.
Luz couldn’t have it.
Both Amity and Luz’s shifts finished at the same time. Before Amity could leave, Luz rushed over to her.
“Amity!” Luz breathed, after running from the break room to the front of the library.
“… Luz. How was your first day?” Amity asked, deadpanned.
“Am I making life miserable for you?” Luz wasted no time.
“What? No. Is this because I acted out earlier? Listen, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I was having a bad day, and I know that’s no excuse, but-”
“But aren’t I making it worse?”
Amity furrowed her brows. “Making what?”
“Making your day worse! Or your life, even. I’m sorry Amity.”
“… It’s fine, Luz. You don’t have to apologize.” Amity realized she forgot her purse in the kid’s corner, and Luz came with her to get it.
“I… I have an idea.” Luz said.
“Yeah? And what’s that?” Amity kept her voice unimpressed.
“We don’t like each other, yeah?”
“Debatable…” Amity said under her breath.
“Huh?”
“What? I didn’t say anything.” Amity’s face grew red again. I’m annoying her, Luz thought.
“Okay, so… What if we, like, made a list of rules we have to follow, so we stay out of each other's hair?” Luz stood right in front of Amity, and Amity seemed to have taken notice of their height difference again. Amity’s eyes grew wide and she turned her back away. Luz took that reaction as a sign that she was irritating her even more.
“What?” Amity shook her head at Luz’s idea.
“It’s like- okay, have you ever seen To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before?”
“… No? What is that?”
“Oh, right… Boiling Isles. Anyways, in the movie, she has to pretend to date this guy she used to have a crush on to help him get back at his ex-”
“Wait, you- you want to fake date me?!?” Amity’s face went red again.
“What? No! Oh my god, no. Fuck, Sorry…” Luz winced at embarrassing herself. “No, they pretend to date, and- and they made this list of boundaries they had to keep during. It’s a pretty good movie, you should watch it if you can. Although, I don’t like the main guy but- I just realized how unnecessary this story was.”
“Just, what are you getting at, Luz?” Amity’s patience grew thin.
“What I’m trying to say is… We should make a list.”
“A list of what? Boundaries?”
“Yes! Exactly!” Luz’s voice got a bit too loud, causing the remaining people at the library to shush them.
Luz cleared her throat. “It’ll be like a rule book. To keep ourselves from making school and work unbearable.”
Amity was quiet. The idea seemed bizarre, having to make a list of rules so they stop bickering every single day. It was something dumb teenagers do.
Unfortunately, both Amity and Luz were, indeed, dumb teenagers.
“If you really want to do this, then… fine.” Amity kept her voice low, but her face was stern.
Amity was down for the idea.
They found a secluded aisle in the library to get to work on their list. They sat down on the floor, with Amity pulling out a yellow notebook, and Luz pulling out multicoloured pens.
“Can you believe no one really goes into the romance section of the library? Romance is like the second best genre of books.” Luz sprawled her legs across the floor.
“What’s the first, then?”
“Fantasy fiction. One hundred percent.”
“Wow, you are such a nerd. Why do you suck at history?” Amity laughed a little. Luz’s chest tightened. From being angry. Obviously.
“You-! Just- OKAY, we’re getting off topic! How many rules should we have? Ten?”
“I don’t know,” Amity started. “I feel like having ten would be overkill.”
“Then… Let’s just do three broad and simple rules.”
“Why three?”
“It's my favourite number.”
“Humans have favourite numbers?”
“Yes- whatever, we can talk about that later!”
They began to brainstorm different rules they could follow. Many ideas came up, like to avoid as much eye contact as possible. But, they deemed that to be unrealistic considering how they’ll probably have to look at each other during work.
After a good thirty minutes of bickering over which rules to pick, they were able to come to an agreement on two. The two rules were written with a purple pen:
- never talk to each other when it is not necessary.
- don’t communicate with the other’s friends and/or family.
“Damn, guess I can’t tell you why three is my favourite number, I’d already be breaking the first rule.” Luz leaned back on the shelf, getting comfortable.
“One more rule… What d’you think?” Amity studied the rules, making sure they were possible to abide by.
“How about… You can’t fall in love with me.”
“WHAT?!?” Amity almost ripped the paper in half from genuine shock.
Luz started to laugh. “I’m just kidding! I’m kidding. Please, you falling for me? As if that would ever happen.”
“Right…” Amity let her shoulders fall back. “Let’s just do.. What about no physical contact?”
“Aw, how come, Blight? Know you’d lose against me in a fist fight?” Luz said in a low voice. Amity made her body stiff again.
“No! Just- are you cool with the rule or not?”
“I got no objections. So is that it?”
“I guess so.”
They revised the rules again, and decided that the rules should take effect the next day. Amity was ready to leave, when Luz stopped her again.
“Wait!”
“What- hey!”
Luz grabbed Amity’s scroll from her hand and took a picture of the rules. She handed back Amity’s scroll.
“Make it your background pic.”
“And why would I do that?”
“So you don’t forget!”
“Luz, my memory is not as bad as yours. I think I can manage.”
“Just do it! You’re no fun.” Luz pouted.
Amity always caved when Luz made that face. “Fine.” Amity changed her phone wallpaper to the blurry picture of the rules in Luz’s messy handwriting.
“Guess I’ll… Not talk to you tomorrow?”
“Mhm.” Amity gave a faint smile and walked out of the library. It was dark outside, how long did they stay there?
Amity got inside her car and began thinking. She rested her head against the steering wheel, allowing words Luz had said swirl in her brain.
‘Please, you falling for me? As if that would ever happen.’
Oh, but Luz, it already did.
Three weeks.
It had been three weeks since the rules were established, and everything was running smoothly. They barely talked to each other, other than brief sentences at work. Amity stopped stealing Luz’s beanie, and Luz stopped going to Amity’s locker to fill it with obscure items. It was possibly the calmest three weeks of their whole high school experience.
So why did they feel empty?
Did Luz miss Amity’s non-stop bragging? Did Amity miss Luz challenging her to every little thing?
It was a change in the system, they thought. It takes time to get used to changes. It will take time.
However long that may be.
“You and Amity are being weird.” Gus finally said during lunch.
“… You noticed?” Luz said with a mouth full of a peanut butter sandwich.
“Luz, everyone noticed.” Willow claimed.
“Oh…”
“So are you going to tell us what’s up?”
Luz said nothing. Instead, she opened her phone and showed Willow and Gus her background photo.
“No unnecessary talking, no physical contact… What are these? Rules?” Gus said, trying to read the blurry picture.
“Eeeexactly. So we’re not at each other’s throats every second of the day. Isn’t it nice?” Luz took another bite of her sandwich.
“What happens when you break a rule?”
“Huh?” Luz looked at Willow.
“Is this like a game? When you break a rule is there a punishment? Or is there a prize when you follow the rules for a certain amount of time?”
Luz blinked.
“No?” Luz said, confused.
“Okay, then what’s the point of writing it down and everything? Just stay away from each other.”
Luz didn’t say a word. Willow kept going.
“I mean, would you make rules with Boscha so you would stay away from each other? You already do that without having any rules to follow. Why is it that you have to make official rules with Amity to stop yourselves from interacting?”
“…”
The lunch bell screamed.
Gus let out an ooh. “Saved by the bell!”
Luz was so relieved she didn’t have to answer Willow’s question. Why she was relieved was something she wasn’t quite sure of. “Well! I have history now, I’ll see you guys after school, Bye!” Luz immediately stood up and jogged to her next class.
She was there before the teacher arrived, which meant more time for Luz to nap during the lecture. But she couldn’t fall asleep, as the only other witch waiting for class to start happened to be Amity.
The air grew thick around them, staring at each other with awkward eyes and fiddling fingers. It was weird, though, because it shouldn’t be awkward between them. It wasn’t as if they were friends in the first place. They never lost a friendship. They never grew apart. They weren’t anything to begin with. Amity should just be another stranger to Luz.
But they both knew they were far from strangers.
Luz walked to her seat at the back of the class, without saying a word to Amity.
Amity kept her head facing the front.
And class began. It was a class like every other day. Amity was taking a copious amount of notes, and Luz was doodling in her sketchbook. What was different was the fact that they weren’t allowed to tease each other at the end of the day. And that difference was enough to make their hearts sink.
Why did it sink though? Who fucking knows.
Luz finally paid attention when the teacher announced a project that was to be completed with a partner. Luz began to look around the room, choosing classmates that she could tolerate and help her get a passing grade. Everyone in the class was already making eye contact with the person they wanted to partner up with, when the teacher interrupted.
“You will not be choosing your partner, as I have already done that for you. Please sit beside your partner when your names are called.”
Luz groaned. She didn’t like not having the option to choose who her partner would be. She leaned back in her chair and began to doze off again, until she heard her name being called.
“Luz Noceda and Amity Blight. Sit together please.”
Luz got whiplash from hearing her and Amity’s name being called together. Amity almost fell out of her chair. They were partners. Amity tried to ask the teacher to switch partners, but they didn’t allow it. Luz and Amity both sunk into their seats, eyes wide and nervous. They looked at each other.
Well, fuck, this is going to be hard.