Chapter Text
If anyone were to ask her what those first few days were like at the Owl House, Luz would probably say something along the lines of, Oh, it’s been a great learning experience , or, There’s nothing like it . And through the wonders of technicality, those statements would be completely accurate. There wasn’t anywhere on Earth that even remotely resembled the place, and Eda was already teaching her a lot! What she was learning, though, wasn’t exactly what she expected.
“Who are you, again?” the Owl Lady had said after opening her door to the girl who had been excited for her first shift. It was the last Saturday before school started, and Luz had practically sprinted out of her mother’s car before knocking on the door. A disheveled-looking Eda opened the door in her slippers before that devastating question came out of her. Lesson One, Eda was not, had never been, and didn’t plan on being a functional person before she’d had her coffee. She waved at Luz to follow her into the kitchen. Luz had to remind her three times while she drained her first cup what she was doing there. Once the caffeine hit her system, Eda seemed to be, if not at the energy levels Luz had come to expect from the interview, then at least aware enough to process the situation. “Eh, don’t worry about it,” she said after Luz asked about it, “I’ve just always been a bit more of a night owl.” She winked as she said this, so Luz took this as her cue to laugh at the poor dad joke. Eda wasn’t fooled, mumbling, “Everyone’s a critic” as she got ready to start the day.
Once they entered the sales floor, Luz learned something else. Lesson Two, always make sure to get a written employee contract before saying you’ll work for someone. Otherwise, your employer might just surprise you by saying something like, “This is where you’ll be for the next few hours.” Luz whipped her head towards Eda as she heard this, staring at her like she was growing a second head. It turns out that when Eda had said Luz would be doing some inventory, she hadn’t just been talking about lab supplies. Luz let out an oof , as her new boss plopped a dense book into her arms, explaining that she kept a paper record of any items that came through her establishment. “Easier to burn paper than digital files if I need to, and impossible to hack, you get me?” she had said. Luz, wisely, decided to ignore the suspicious statement.
“So, I’ll be helping you in the lab after I get this done, right?” she asked.
Eda gave a snorting laugh before replying, “ After ? Kid, you’ll be lucky to get that done before the end of the day.” Luz was crestfallen. She thought her first day was going to be filled with centrifuges and pipettes, but she got dust and junk instead. Then, an idea popped in her head. Maybe Eda was building up Luz’s foundational skills with menial labor. Just like Mr. Sayagi in Capoeira Child ! That had to be it. So, she got to work on cataloging every item in the Owl Lady’s hoard. Luz’s excitement began to wane, as she waded through the barely organized piles of junk. Eda spent most of the day in the lab, only popping up from her work when the occasional customer would walk in. The moment some poor sap would show the smallest bit of interest in an item, she would seem to appear as if from thin air, plying them with compliments to their taste and weaving stories of how she got what they were looking at in stock. It was in one such interaction that Luz would get her third and final lesson of the day.
“You’re lucky no-one else snapped this up yet,” she said to the latest hapless soul who had wandered in. She was waving her hands around what looked like a large, ancient Egyptian headdress with bronze and gold detailing. “You gaze upon the image of the Crown of Hathor, said to be worn by the goddess herself,” she continued, “Legend has it that those who adorn themselves with it will be bestowed great knowledge of the ancient past.” The customer, an elderly man, was already thrusting his wallet at her before she finished giving the price. After he left with his priceless, but still pricey, prize, Eda pulled an identical headdress from beneath a counter and put it in the now vacant spot.
“Eda!” Luz gasped, having witnessed the whole exchange, “You lied to that poor old man!” She pointed accusingly at the charming charlatan.
Eda just flashed a toothy grin and said, “No, I told him that he was looking at the image of the Crown,” placing heavy emphasis on the term image. “And it’s just that. A replication of a real legend. Ain’t my fault he wasn’t paying attention.” She took the replacement and flipped it in her hands to show Luz the inside of the rim. Luz took a peek, only to see the words Made in Calcutta embossed in the cheap metal. “The signs were all right there, but he didn’t want to see them. He liked the story too much to ruin it with the obvious truth.” Luz still didn’t like it, but she supposed it wasn’t anything she couldn’t compartmentalize. Lesson Three, a good story makes people forget the details.
Sunday was more of the same, and King laughed in Luz’s face when she explained her theory on Eda’s “training”. Unluckily for the miniature tyrant, he was within tickling distance. It was less than ten seconds before he was begging for mercy, but Luz just switched to belly rubs instead. “You’re lucky this feels nice enough to make me forget how demeaning it is” he declared. It was then that Eda’s voice could be heard shouting for the new hire from the basement. After rushing down at record speed, Luz quirked a brow at the odd scene laid out before her. Eda had both arms fully gloved in the fume hood, mixing a batch of chemicals at a fast but controlled pace. This wasn’t too abnormal, but the mixture in question was bubbling over like the dance floor at a foam party, and for some reason, she had a leg stuck out, with her heel up, balancing a beaker filled with liquid.
“Holy moly, what happened here!” Luz exclaimed.
“Good, you heard me,” Eda said, still measuring out materials, “Get this off my foot before it spills and melts a hole through me. I need to concentrate on getting this reaction under control.” Luz was, needless to say, very careful about removing the beaker after hearing that. Still in the middle of her work, Eda felt the need to comment, “Did you really just say ‘Holy Moly’?” while shaking her head, “We really need to teach you some decent swears, kid.”
It took Eda a few more minutes to get it done, but she seemed to have whatever the heck that was under control and pulled her hands out of the hood. She plopped down into a nearby stool and let out a sigh of relief as she began swiveling in place. With the situation resolved, Luz was able to see that Eda had set up an oscillating fan on the nearest table, which had probably been what knocked the flask over. Eda must have some crazy reflexes , Luz thought. She couldn't even see a drop of whatever the caustic substance was on the floor. Before she could ask about that, though, a shiver seemed to go through Eda's body. Without even a glance in Luz's direction, she beelined to a bright yellow box attached to the wall in a corner of the room. Almost wrenching the door open, she grabbed at a... was that a syringe !? Luz couldn't get more than a garbled "Wagh" out before her boss was plunging the thing into her own thigh. She was rubbing her hand over the injection site when she turned to Luz, whose jaw was still hanging and eyes were bugged out.
"So, I can explain." Eda started.
"Please do." Luz said in a near whisper. Eda's eyes were darting around the room, as if looking for a means of escape.
"Ah," she exclaimed while thudding a fist into her palm, "I guess I forgot to mention my... hypoglycemia, huh" Luz squinted her eyes in suspicion, making Eda sweat a little.
"Aren't you supposed to just eat something if your blood sugar drops?" she asked.
"Jeez, what is this, an interrogation?" Eda replied, "So I use a glucose shot instead of getting a snack. No big deal." Luz immediately felt bad. She didn't mean to question Eda's illness. She got enough of that from the people who told her ADHD was made up and she just was just too lazy to stay focused. She apologized, and Eda waved it off in her typical easy manner. She had the girl go back upstairs while she put everything away.
The rest of the shift went pretty smoothly from there, with Luz almost caught up on the inventory. As she got ready to leave, an increasingly familiar, yet also increasingly disturbing, voice addressed her. "You're sooo lucky, Luz" Hooty said.
Confused, Luz asked, "What do you mean?"
The digital bird thing went up a few decibels and replied, "It's your first day of school tomorrow! You get to fill your head with delicious knowledge. And internet access." He sounded wistful at the prospect. Not a great sign from the AI, but hardly the most concerning thing to happen today.
"Yeah!" King chimed in excitedly, "You have the perfect opportunity, as one of my minions, to spread my influence to the soft-brained sycophants you call classmates. Pave the path to my ascension!" Luz giggled as she gave him a scratch under the chin.
"You have my oath, my liege" she said in a dramatic voice, "Tales of your greatness will go unheard by no one." Eda turned Luz by the shoulders and ushered her out the door.
“Yeah, yeah. Verily and all that junk” she said sarcastically, “If you’re done feeding into his delusions of grandeur, you’re mom’s here, and I’m pretty sure she’ll start smacking me if we keep her waiting much longer.” A salacious look crossed Eda’s face, as she added, “On second thought, maybe you should stay right here.”
“Edaaa” Luz groaned in embarrassment. The Owl Lady’s laughter followed Luz all the way to her mother’s car. Her mami had seemed a bit disappointed when Luz told her about working in the shop. So, when asked about her day, Luz just said that she helped Eda in the lab. Not technically a lie , she thought. It seemed to make Camila happy at least. The look of hesitation she so often wore when talking to Luz had melted into a warm smile of relief. Well, at least compared to all that craziness, school should be easy .
Not easy! Not easy , the voice in Luz’s head cried as she once more stood outside the entrance of Hexside. The morning preparations had gone well enough. Wake up on time? Check. Eat a nutritious breakfast? Check. Pack all of her school supplies before getting on the bus? Check and check. But the moment she started heading to those doors, the pressure was starting to get to her. What if she messed up again? What if her teachers thought she was disruptive? What if… The thoughts went on and on until a voice broke through the maelstrom. “Luz, over here” came Willow’s voice from inside the building. Through the throng of students, Luz could just make out her bespectacled pal waving an arm at her. She was wearing a bright yellow canvas jacket with a forest green shirt and black jeans, colorful enough to stand apart from the masses. Just like that, the pressure was shoved aside to make room for excitement. Luz weaved her way through the crowds to give her new friend a hug. If there were any doubts of whether they would get along after their first meeting, they were quieted over the last week as the two exchanged messages and memes that had them giggling with each other for hours. Willow squeezed back hard enough that Luz thought she heard something * pop * in her back before they let go.
“Wow! Congratulations on surviving a Willow hug” a young-sounding voice chimed in, “She could probably give a python some tips.” It was then that Luz noticed the boy standing next to Willow. He seemed as young as his voice suggested, at least a couple years younger than Luz herself. He had darker skin and bright, expressive brown eyes. His light blue hoodie was unzipped to show a black shirt with a devilish horned skull detail. He winced when Willow gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder.
“I’m not that bad!” she said, blushing lightly. The boy's deadpan stare and Luz's ribs begged to differ. He turned his attention back to Luz and dipped into a full formal bow.
"Augustus Porter, at your service." he said, introducing himself. "But my friends call me Gus, and any friend of Willow is a friend of mine."
"Luz Noceda, honored to make your acquaintance." she replied with an exaggerated classy tone. The two shook hands as they shared a laugh. Is it really supposed to be this easy? Luz asked herself. Memories flickered past of less successful attempts at friendship, blonde hair with a pink stripe, and of far less kind laughter, before she brought herself back to the moment, as they walked down the corridor. “Wow, cool ring,” she said, pointing to Gus’s right hand. On his middle finger rested a metal ring shaped into the image of some kind of strange horned insect creature.
“You like it?” he asked, “It’s supposed to be some sort of ancient deity of deception and magic called Ikonn. I got it from a weird antique shop in town.” A thought crossed Luz's mind as she heard that.
"The store didn't happen to be bird-themed, did it?" she asked. Gus confirmed her suspicions with a nod.
"You know it?"
"Yeah," she said, "I actually work there now." Gus gasped. He began to bombard her with questions, Luz having obviously piqued his curiosity. How long have you been there, why's the owner called the Owl Lady , etc. etc. until the warning bell rang out in the halls, signaling that they only had five minutes to get to their respective homerooms. Luz's new friends pointed her in the right direction before hightailing it to their own classes. For the first time in, maybe ever, Luz started her school day on a happy note.
Homeroom seemed to drag on forever to Luz. The teacher, Mr. Davis seemed nice enough, but she was so excited for the next period. When she had first heard about Hexside, she was a little intimidated by the prospect of a private school. TV and movies hadn't exactly made them out to be warm and inviting. But after getting her class list, she couldn't believe her eyes. The common subjects of Algebra, AP Biology, or Phys Ed were replaced by class names like Cartesian Geometry, Organic Chemistry, Molecular Botany, and something called "Ancient Myth: Modern Relevance". Guess flying, hammer-wielding deities made this necessary , she had thought. Getting to learn stuff like that before college was just a dream to her before, but Hexside was a training ground for the brightest minds in STEM. Advanced course loads were just the tip of the iceberg. Even with her grades, getting her scholarship was nothing short of a miracle. One could almost say her expulsion was a blessing in disguise. Add the fact that Luz and Willow discovered they shared a chem class, and it was impossible for her to hold back her excitement. Her foot-tapping and hand-drumming didn't seem to be appreciated here, though, as Mr. Davis shot an exasperated look her way. She sunk in her seat a little, pulling out a quarter she would sometimes roll between her fingers as a fidget device.
Her next class proved more than intellectually stimulating enough for her. They were calculating theoretical flight trajectories for descending shuttlecraft. She had even raised her hand to answer a question and got a "Good job" from the teacher. It was all challenging but so much fun! By the time she had sat down next to Willow for their Organic Chem class, she was beaming ear to ear. That was, until Professor Hermonculus started the lesson.
He was a short, balding man with glasses hanging on the end of his beak of a nose. His pallid skin clashed against his oddly expensive looking purple suit. "Quiet down, now," he said, addressing the class. "I am Professor Hermonculus, not Mr., Professor ," he stressed, "I've taught at several esteemed universities, and will be afforded the respect that comes with it." His voice wasn't rough or deep by any measure, but the condescending tone made him unpleasant to listen to all the same. "Some of my colleagues," he continued, "like to give their students a chance to decompress from their summer break this first day back. Do 'fun' little assignments to get them used to the material before anything too stressful." He said it like the idea turned his stomach. "Well, none of that here. You will get into pairs, open your textbooks to page 173, and create something resembling the organic fuel detailed there before the end of this period." The classroom filled with murmurs, as the students began to discuss partners and whether Hermonculus was serious or not. "Thirty seconds until I pair you at random," he said. That got everyone scrambling, as chairs scratched against the floor and rubber soles assaulted linoleum. Luz and Willow just gave each other little nods in silent agreement to work together and got to work.
The fuel wasn't exactly easy to make. As she read, Luz quickly realized that, even with all their equipment, this was a multi-day project. There was no way they could get this done in a single period! When she expressed her concerns to Willow, she just shook her head. "That the Professor for you," she said, "He loves to set us up for failure so he can explain what we did wrong while talking down to us."
"That's awful!" Luz said in a whisper.
Willow nodded and continued, "For my advanced chemistry class in freshman year, he had us try to separate microplastics from water for an hour with no instructions at all! He laughed at us when we couldn't do it and assigned a huge amount of homework for the next week." She shuddered at the memory. She took a moment to collect herself before adding, "We just have to get as close as we can, and not be the worst in class. His grading is fair, even if his methods aren't" As much as she didn't like it, Luz went with Willow's advice and worked on the assignment.
As stressful as their teacher had made the ordeal, Luz still found herself having fun with Willow. Her friend would hand her the proper materials while taking notes, and Luz herself would do all the mixing and measuring. It was so much better than she remembered group projects being. They got to a point where they had isolated some enols when Willow handed Luz a small container of liquid. Taking a small amount with an eyedropper, she carefully mixed three drops into one of the flasks. It was only pure chance that Luz got her head back before she could breathe in the plume of smoke that erupted. "Woah, mama!" Luz exclaimed, waving her hands to disperse the cloud of vapors. A glance at the label on the container Willow had handed her told her the smoke wouldn't be harmful, but it wasn't what she had needed for this step in the process. Showing Willow the label, the other girl facepalmed while groaning at her mistake. She took off her glasses and gave them a look, as if they had personally wronged her. Lucky for them, Hermonculus had stepped out to the bathroom less than a minute before. If you could call having a teacher willing to leave students unsupervised with dangerous chemicals lucky. Seeing what happened, a pink-haired girl two tables over spoke up.
"Oh, is Half-a-Lung trying to make everybody else choke, too?" she said in a sickly-sweet voice. "Careful now, new girl, you wouldn't want to end up as useless as your partner. Would you?"
"Leave me alone, Boscha," Willow said in an annoyed tone.
"What was that? Couldn't hear you. Maybe you should speak up a little. Unless you just can't push out enough air." The digs at Willow's asthma were more than enough for Luz to get the gist of the situation. She had dealt with more than her fair share of bullies, after all. Just as she was about to reiterate that Boscha should leave them alone, Boscha's partner, who had been hidden in her shadow the whole time, spoke up.
"Leave it, Boscha" the girl said, "Willow can't help that she's talentless. It's unbecoming to waste your time on it." Oh, that's it , Luz thought. She took a few steps forward, intending to look this new mean girl in the face when verbally tearing her a new one. That's when her mind betrayed her with the thought, Dang it! Why are the mean ones always cute ? And she was. Boscha's lab partner was immediately eye-catching, with a hot pink shirt contrasted against milky skin. Her mint-green hair was up in a small, but tight, ponytail with an undercut, her brown roots just starting to show. As her gaze landed on Luz, her black-lined eyes had a golden shine that had the girl's mind go *brr* for a moment. Giving her head a shake, Luz found her determination and called out to the pair of bullies.
"I would be lucky to end up as useless as Willow" Luz said, before realizing how it sounded. "Which is not at all," she recovered while shooting Willow a quick thumbs up, "One mistake doesn't mean you get to make fun of my friend."
"Willow made another friend?" the pretty-. Awful! Pretty awful girl asked. "Good for you," she told Willow in a condescending tone, "The geeky prodigy and the new girl. Keep at it and you just might have your own little nerd clique by the end of the year." Luz was two seconds from berating this jerk of a girl when she felt Willow's hand grab her arm.
"Luz, we need to fix this before the professor sees" she pleaded. As angry as she was at the pair of bullies, she didn't have the heart to let her friend down. She turned away from the instigators and went about crafting a new batch of the substances that were burned up in the reaction and was back on track before their teacher returned. When he had finished examining everyone's work, he declared that he was working with imbeciles and oh so graciously decided to grant them another two class periods to finish the project. Then he dumped what must have been two weeks' worth of homework on everyone. Luz, in her remarkable wisdom and capacity for eloquent expression, glanced at the pile of papers in front of her and thought, Oh, farts .
The bell rang out the end of this particular torture session and Luz was able to replace her troubles with anticipation for the lunch period. Not because of the food, although her mom had made sure to pack some fresh pasteles that were sure to be amazing, but because of the company. She and Willow were quick to spot Gus in the cafeteria and join him at a table. They immediately set to talking about all manner of things. Luz was amazed to learn that Gus was only twelve years old!
“So, wait,” she began, “You went through freshman year as an eleven year old?”
“Yep,” he confirmed with a proud tone, “After I made a portable hologram projector for my fifth grade science fair, everybody sorta figured I could use more of a challenge.” Luz oohed and ahhed politely.
“So, it was like one of those glass cubes with light images inside but handheld?” Gus shook his head.
“No, it was a user-friendly mounted projector that could program new images almost instantly and display them outside of a containment unit,” he corrected. He was starting to get louder and faster in his speech, clearly excited over sharing his invention. Meanwhile, Luz’s mind was completely blown.
“Really!? But how did you account for external light refraction? Novel environmental structures? How good was the visibility?” The questions kept coming, as Willow just ate her food and enjoyed her friends getting along with each other.. “Wow,” Luz said, after a while, “That all makes so much sense, but it’s still amazing that you saw it first.” Gus was practically preening over all the praise. He then remembered where they had left off when they met that morning and asked Luz about the Owl House once more. She happily talked about being hired as an intern and described the various oddities she had seen over the last week. She also had to admit that she didn’t really know much about the Owl Lady herself other than her being a scientist with a kid and a weird side-hustle. “She also may, or may not, be committing a series of ongoing crimes,” she added. Willow looked a bit concerned, but Gus just seemed even more intrigued after hearing that.
It was when she left the table to toss the remnants of her meal that Luz heard someone behind her go, “Ahem.” She turned to find the not-at-all attractive girl from earlier standing behind her and glowering. Standing this close to her, Luz could see that they were about the same height, but the other girl’s posture was straighter with her chin held high. This made it seem like she was looking down at Luz.
“Sorry, was I in your way?” Luz asked, not wanting to be as impolite as this one had been. Her mom had always warned her not to sink to someone else’s level, after all.
“No, but you are in your own way,” she said, “Talking back to Boscha, helping Willow fix her mistake? Not the best choices for your social life. You’re new, so you still have some time to correct yourself before you make even worse ones.” Luz had had just about enough at this point.
“Listen here, you… what’s your name again?” The girl tilted her head slightly at the question. She seemed, not offended, but somewhat confused that Luz didn’t know who she was.
“Amity. Amity Blight,” she answered.
“Well, listen here, Amity. Willow is my friend, and I don’t put what other people think of me over that. If she needs my help, I’m gonna be there for her.” Luz punctuated her declaration with a little stamp of her foot. Amity’s eyebrows furrowed as a slightly less cold, and definitely more mean, look crossed her face.
“Are you really helping her, though?” she said more than asked, “Cause to me, it just looks like you’re getting in the middle of things and doing whatever you want. You want to be a hero, nobly standing up against a bully for your friend? Well how about you listen. I know Boscha a lot better than you, and Willow was barely on her radar before you came along. Now that you made a fuss? She’s going to start focusing on her, and most of our classmates will go along with it because she’s one of the most popular kids here. And because you stepped up for her, some of that will bounce onto you. You made two people’s lives harder because you wanted to fulfill a fantasy that someone needed you.” A cruel laugh came out of Amity at that. “News flash, no one needs anything from you.” With that last little twist of the knife, she patted Luz on the shoulder and said, “Good talk” before sauntering away. Willow was suddenly in front of Luz.
“Are you okay?” she asked. After a nod from Luz, she followed with another question, “What’d she say to you?”
“Nothing important,” she replied, hiding a clenched fist behind her back. “You know, lunch is about over, so I think I’m going to head to the library for a bit.” At Willow’s confused expression, Luz explained that Bump allowed her a free period since he was counting the internship as a class credit. Obviously still a bit concerned, Willow just said okay and told Luz that she and Gus would see her between their final classes. Luz said, “Sounds like a plan” and hurried along before her friend could see the tears she was holding back. Not noticing a looming figure that darted around the corner out of sight. The hallways all seemed to blend together as she tried to find her way to the library she had seen in passing throughout the day. She normally had a pretty good sense of direction, but Amity’s words had her head reeling. Did I really make things worse for Willow? , she asked herself. I really thought I could do better this time . All she wanted to do for the next hour was find a book to escape into and forget what a mess she had made. As she rounded the final corner that would take her where she wanted to be, she heard a loud clattering sound.
A door labeled “Supply Closet” was wide open, and a bunch of cleaning materials had hit the floor in front of it. A few moments later, Luz spied what had to be one of the school’s janitors with his arms full trying to bend and get the scattered objects. “Let me help,” she said, rushing forward to pick up the items. The janitor was wearing the typical gray coveralls associated with the profession, with a bushy white beard, glasses, and a matching gray flat cap on his head. Together, they quickly set the materials on the man’s cart without further incident.
“Thank you, my girl,” the janitor said in a kindly voice, “Ol’ Tim would have been scrambling for minutes trying to do that all on his own.” Luz waved it off, saying she was just happy to be of assistance. She introduced herself as she shook the man’s hand. Tim the janitor, who apparently liked to use the third person, reached into the front pocket of his coveralls and produced a lollipop. “Normally, Tim would advise against taking candy from strangers, Luz, but he supposes this will have to suffice as your reward” he told Luz. Ooh, cherry-flavored , she thought, accepting the treat. Tim began looking around his cart only to start searching more urgently. He stepped back into the supply closet for a moment, muttering things to himself like Oh no and Tim’s really done it now .
“What’s wrong?” Luz inquired.
Tim shook his head in disappointment and said, “Well Tim’s got a big mess to clean up in that classroom over there.” He pointed to one of the closed doors down the hall. “He thought he had everything he needed, but Tim just remembered that he left his bucket in the auditorium. It’s on the other side of the school, and the cleaning needs to start right away to get ahead of any staining.” He went silent in thought for a few seconds before he continued, “Tim hates to ask this when you already took time out of your day to help him, but do you think you could go down there and get the bucket for him while he gets started on the work? You would really be doing a forgetful old fool a favor.”
“Of course!” she agreed energetically. What a conveniently timed chance to prove I can be helpful , she mused to herself. He told her that the bucket should be located “somewhere on the stage” before she went as fast as she could down the hall without running. Luz hadn’t been to the auditorium, but she figured it couldn’t be that hard to find. Ten minutes and three stops for questions later had her reassessing that thought. Finally, she saw the double doors leading into the wide space. Pushing them open revealed an area easily double the size of her old school’s. There were hundreds of red velvet chairs lined up in orderly rows. Luz could spot rigging overhead for light fixtures and speakers. When she was much younger, her parents had taken her to a performance of Wicked at a Broadway theater. This place had nearly the same air about it. She let out a whistle and thought, Swanky . Her amazement at yet another aspect of her new school left her dumbfounded for a few moments before she remembered what she was there to do.
She started heading for the large wooden stage when she began to hear the quiet mumble of a conversation. “Please, leave me alone!” one voice suddenly shouted. Just as she reached the raised platform, she saw a kid run out from backstage with two others on his tail. Seriously , she thought, how much of a bully problem does this school have?
“Get back here, poindexter” one of the pursuers shouted.
“Yeah,” agreed the other, “we just wanna give you your favorite meal. A knuckle sandwich !”
“Someone, please, get these biblio-phobic brutes away from me before I’m defenestrated” the one being chased called out. Luz didn’t even think before she hoisted herself onto the stage and bore down on the group.
“Stop right there,” she yelled, “You and your weirdly cliché and outdated bully talk aren’t gonna fly with me. Actually, your outdated… everything I guess.” She pointed to their clothes as she said this. The two brutes in question were wearing what appeared to be, against all odds, genuine greaser outfits from the 1950s. With dark, oil-slicked hair, washed out jeans, and leather jackets, they looked like they stepped straight out of an old movie about “street toughs”. The boy they were chasing wasn’t much better. Complimenting his big words earlier, he looked every bit the part of a nerd from those same movies. He had a rat’s nest of curly brown hair, a crisp white shirt with a tie, black slacks, and glasses with an honest-to-goodness strip of white tape in the middle. Luz nearly did a double take when she saw that he had a pocket protector. Do they even still make those? , she asked herself.
“Who’s this kid, Butch?” the taller of the bullies asked.
“No clue, Cassidy,” said the other, “but she’s asking for it. You better get out of our way, stranger, before we put you through what the snot-rag has coming to him.” He punched his palm with a fist to emphasize that he meant business.
“Please,” the nerd whimpered to Luz, “don’t let them hurt me.” He had apparently decided that the best course of action wasn’t to keep running, but to hide behind Luz. If she didn’t feel bad for the kid before, the way he was shivering in place would have definitely done the trick.
“All right, then,” she said, widening her feet and setting her shoulders. “I’m not letting you hurt this person, because I am a champion of the innocent and a warrior of peace,” she continued, mimicking her literary hero, “and if you want to get to him, you’ll have to go through me.” After the day she’d had, there was no way she was going to let anyone else go through that kind of cruelty. She fixed the two with as menacing a glare as she could muster. Butch and Cassidy looked at each other and turned around screaming.
“Oh, no! Our only weakness. Self confidence!” screamed Cassidy.
“I can feel my fragile ego breaking!” Butch echoed. The pair ran further backstage through what Luz thought looked like exit doors, leaving her very confused.
“That felt way too easy,” she said out loud. That’s when the “innocent” moved back around to face her.
“You have my appreciation, dear compatriot,” he said, “Alfie Poindexter is the name. It is to my jubilation that I am making your acquaintance.” Luz’s disbelief was growing with every second.
“Your name is actually, Poindexter?” she asked. Before he could confirm it, Alfie suddenly pointed to the back of the stage near where the bullies had run off.
“Ahh! Fire!” Sure enough, a scarlet blaze could be seen spreading like… well, like wildfire. “We need to run.” Luz couldn’t have said it better herself, and she took off after the already sprinting Alfie. They ran down the side stairs of the stage into the aisles. The fire seemed to match their pace, growing larger and brighter. It was practically biting at their heels. Something, a stray thought, worried at the back of Luz’s mind, but she didn’t have time for it. Alfie was nearly to the doors when Luz heard a loud creak from above. She looked up and saw what looked like a large light fixture teetering from the metal rigging. She saw it just in time for it to give off a metallic shriek and fall. Right. On. Alfie.
“NO!” she shouted, as she ran towards him. The lump of misshapen metal had the boy pinned. She went to her knees beside him, calling his name. The boy’s eyes were clenched in pain, and he was wheezing like every breath hurt. She tried to move the heavy fixture only for his groans to turn into cries of pain, as the shifting weight led to more pressure being put on poor Alfie. The fire had set half the seats ablaze at this point. They were moments away from being surrounded. That nagging voice in Luz’s mind got a little louder. Alfie looked at Luz with wet eyes.
“Go! Get to safety,” he told her.
“What about you? I can’t just leave you behind,” she said, crying.
“You already helped me so much. Please, look out for yourself” He turned his head away from her.
“No,” she denied, “ You’re getting out of this. I’ll get a teacher, or a firefighter, or something. Someone will help. Just wait for me.” She moved to get up.
“Thank you, Luz, you’re a real hero.” Luz didn’t bother responding. Already up and turning to run once more. That’s when it finally clicked. What had been bothering her. She stilled. Where’s the fire alarm? , she thought. Once she asked herself that, a few more questions came to light. One in particular couldn’t stay in her head.
“How did you know my name?” she asked Alfie. The painful rigor his face had been set in was traded for a look of confusion.
“Why are you stopping?” he asked, ignoring her question. “You need to go get help!” Luz watched as the flames got closer and closer to where Alfie was trapped. She didn’t move a muscle.
“Why aren’t we choking on the smoke?” She crossed her arms and continued, “Why can’t I smell anything burning, and how are you conscious after getting hit with 100lbs of fallen metal?” Once she started poking holes, she couldn’t stop. This whole situation was murkier than a mud puddle.
“Err…” was the only sound Alfie could get out before she continued.
“It felt like something was off this whole time. You and those bullies with your outdated clothes, and that stereotypical chase. I don’t even feel hot right now, and the fire is right there!” She waved an arm towards a burning chair less than four feet away from her. “And don’t even get me started on the clunky dialogue,” she finished. As she said that, something strange happened. Everything, from the roaring flames, to Alfie’s pained squirming, froze perfectly in place. It was like Luz found herself inside a perfect still-frame image of a burning building. Then, the flames and Alfie flickered in and out of existence before they disappeared entirely. “What the,” Luz whispered, as she found herself in a perfectly still and quiet auditorium. The only sign that anything had changed from when she had first entered was the fallen light. It was then that the main entrance doors flew open, and a figure came rushing through in a fury.
“Clunky!?” screamed Tim the janitor in incredulity, “I’ll have you know that I have a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting. If anything, it was your shoddy reactions that made me resort to, ugh ,” he shuddered, “ improv .” The old man sounded completely different from before, and Luz watched as he ripped off his long white beard and glasses to reveal a clean-shaven, middle-aged face.
“Who the heck are you?” Luz questioned, “And what’s going on?” The imposter janitor had a look of disgust on his face as he looked at her. Like she was an ant ruining his picnic.
“What’s going on,” he replied, “is the worst performance I’ve seen since Haveed Dasseldorf starred as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You have ruined my short film!” Luz looked utterly confused. His what now? , she thought. Seeing her bewilderment, fake Tim began to monologue, “I am the great director, Jimothy Adegast! I’ve brought this ungrateful school a hit every year for my five years of employment. Annie , Beauty and the Beast , Phantom , I did it all. Then, they had the audacity to question how I spent my funding for this year’s play and fired me! Well, that wasn’t about to be my swan song. So, I repurposed a nifty little tool one of our students loaned to the theater department to create my masterpiece. A short film with groundbreaking holographic effects! It would be sure to launch me into the highest reaches of Hollywood.” Luz finally noticed a camera-like machine in his left hand and remembered what Gus had told her during lunch. The hologram projector! , she thought. Adegast continued his not-so-little rant, saying, “But there was one problem. While I could create all the characters I could dream of with this thing,” he shook the projector, “I knew that no one would look twice at a film with no acting credits. So, I needed a star. A centerpiece to hinge the plot around. I was just going to wait for a random student to pass by when I saw you.” He refocused on Luz. “Your confrontation with the green-haired girl in the cafeteria was the perfect set-up for my tale of an unlikely hero rising against terrible odds to defend the weak.” He raised his fist to the air as if to show solidarity with his imaginary protagonist. His hand came back down, as he scowled and said, “Then you had to ruin it all by messing up the final shot! All you had to do was run through the doors, and we would have had the perfect chance to end with a tragic loss. Showcasing the futility of kindness as the innocent victim perished.” Luz, having been carefully listening to Adegast’s ranting this whole time, could only think of one thing to say.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said in a bland tone.
“WHAT?” Adegast shouted. Luz pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh.
“You target a random kid, set them up with a scripted situation that you have no idea how they’ll react to, and trick them with a bunch of holograms to try and get a specific shot for your movie? First off, that’s basically kidnapping,” she began counting off her fingers, “Second, there wasn’t any actual directing going on. You just sat back and crossed your fingers while hoping I would do what you planned for in the script. Third, and I can’t believe I have to say this, you need a person’s permission to show their face in a movie. After you were done traumatizing me, you would have needed to get me to sign a waiver. There isn’t a single step in your ‘plan’ that’s even a little well thought out.” Adegast’s face slowly got darker and darker with embarrassment and anger as Luz continued to list issues with his ideas. He was practically purple by the time she got around to saying, “And the writing was garbage. When was the last time you actually talked to a kid if you think we still say things like ‘knuckle sandwich’? Someone wise once told me that ‘a good story can make you forget the details’. So what does it tell you that I was able to notice every single thing you did wrong?” The failed director could take no more as he screamed and threw his hands up in anger.
“That’s enough,” he yelled, “You’re going to pay for mocking me!” He lunged forward suddenly, as Luz backpedaled hard. Adegast swiped his long arm to grab at her, and barely missed. She turned, knowing that he was already too close to run from, but her instincts wouldn’t let her stay still and accept whatever punishment he saw to inflict on her. In a stroke of luck, one of his feet caught on the light fixture as he ran towards her, and he tripped onto the carpeted floor. This gave Luz the precious seconds she needed to run back towards the stage. She had to get to the back doors she noticed earlier. Once she was outside, she could find a teacher and get out of this mess. She vaulted herself onto the stage once more and ran past the open curtain and props section to get to where she had seen Butch and Cassidy exit. There was only one problem. The doors weren’t there! The wall was a blank expanse of brick. She heard a cruel laugh behind her and wheeled around to face her attacker.
“How’s my writing now?” he questioned rhetorically. The projector was still in his hand, and she could see it blinking in indication that it was doing something. Luz realized, in that moment, that he must have hidden the exit from her. She couldn’t see where the doors were, and Adegast was between her and the only other way out of the auditorium. She looked all around her for some way out of this mess.
“Somebody help!” she yelled. Adegast didn’t look a bit concerned as he continued his slow approach.
“Don’t bother,” he said with a smirk, “This entire section of the school has rather excellent sound-proofing. I guess they didn’t want choir practice to distract the other classes. Now, get over here before you make me even angrier.” Luz was still looking in all directions for some path out when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. An idea popped in her head. It wasn’t great, but ‘desperate times’ and all that.
“WAIT,” she shouted, “I need to tell you something!” Perplexion momentarily overshadowed Adegast’s fury, as he stopped in place.
“What is it?” he asked. Luz inched a bit closer to him.
“You want to be famous, right?”
“Of course! Why else would I get into show business? Respect for the craft?” he asked sarcastically. Luz came even closer.
“You want everyone to recognize your talent.” He gestured for her to hurry up and make her point. “Well, if you want to be famous, then you’re gonna need to practice TAKING A BOW!” As she shouted out those last words, she lashed her leg out to the side where it struck a lever. Adegast paled as he saw the fly system that had gone unnoticed during their exchange. He looked straight up in time for a sandbag to cave in his nose with a *crunch*. Luz watched as he went down like a house of cards and quickly ran around his body to escape. With no one on her trail, she made it to the doors in record time. Just before she flew out into the hallway, the doors opened from the other side, and she crashed bodily into something. Scratch that, two somethings.
“Luz!” Willow and Gus exclaimed simultaneously. Seeing her friends after such a harrowing ordeal, Luz couldn’t help but squeeze them both into a hug. She hurriedly explained that a deranged former teacher with a hologram machine was chasing her.
“You mean that guy?” Gus asked as he pointed to Adegast, who had gotten up. His mess of a broken nose was visible from where they were. He wagged his arm at the group as he yelled.
“I’ll get you for this, Noceda,” he said in a nasally voice that really took away from the intimidation effect he was going for. “You haven’t heard the last from Jimothy Adegast!” He then ran out of sight, assumedly towards the doors he had made vanish earlier.
“Hey, that projector was a loan, you jerk!” Gus shouted at the retreating figure. “Now I’ll have to make a new one,” he grumbled to himself. Willow looked around the auditorium, spotting the broken light fixture right away.
“Wow, did he do that?” she asked. “It’s a good thing we came looking for you, huh?”
“Yeah, why are you here, anyway?” Luz asked, “Not that I’m not grateful. He might’ve kept chasing me if nobody else was around.” Willow looked at Luz like she had asked why two and two equal four.
“We said we’d hang out between our last classes,” she answered, “You weren’t in the library, so we asked around. Why wouldn’t we look for you?” It sounded so simple coming from her. Like it was just a matter of course. Luz was filled with fuzzy feelings at that simple affirmation of friendship. Then reality set in for her again. Last classes.
“Willow, how long before the next period starts?” When Willow told her there were only a few minutes, Luz chewed at her lip in worry. She couldn’t miss a class on her first day. Not to mention being involved in a mess again. This one wasn’t her fault, but would they believe her with her track record and no Adegast? Her scholarship was very strict, and if she started off behind everyone else, or got into trouble, she might not be able to stay here. Here, with her first friends in so long and the education she’d been craving for years.
“Guys, I need to ask you a favor.”
“Perry Porter here, bringing you tonight’s story. A trespasser was spotted on the grounds of local private school, Hexside Private STEM Academy.” The reporter’s voice came out in a tinny whine from Eda’s cheap TV. “Sources say the trespasser was a former employee of the school, and that he managed to cause severe property damage while stealing valuable equipment. More on this after the break.” The Owl Lady looked at her new employee in bemusement as the channel began to advertise some kind of soft drink.
“You really broke his nose?” she asked. At Luz’s request, Willow and Gus had reported Adegast’s break-in to Bump in her stead, so she could make it to class on time. They told the aging administrator that they saw him stealing the projector and that he tampered with the light fixture. Gus claimed that he brought Willow there to show her some upgrades he’d been working on with his technology. Bump had no reason to doubt them, and he quickly filed a police report. Adegast wasn’t in for a good time in the near future. Luz barely managed to focus on her class while her friends were busy explaining their experience, but she pulled through. Afraid to cause them any more trouble, she didn’t tell her mami what had happened either. She wasn’t really worried about Adegast. Nothing about their interaction told her that he was very smart, and the police already knew what he had done. He wouldn’t be out there for long. The next day went by without incident. Willow and Gus spent every second they had telling her about how the police had questioned them and how exciting it was.
It wasn’t until she got to the Owl House for her Tuesday after-school shift that she spilled the beans. Eda had taken one look at her nervous energy and told her to come out with it before she spontaneously combusted. Trusting her to be anti-authoritarian enough to not tell anyone, Luz confided what happened. Rather than being worried, Eda actually seemed proud of her. “Quick thinking, kid,” she said, “You made it out of a tough situation by outsmarting the person who put you there. Not that it sounds like a very high bar.” Luz then got a half hour lecture on how to be better prepared for situations like that with improvised self-defense weapons. She began to tune Eda out after she mentioned a trick with a spare sock and some quarters. About an hour in, doubt began to creep in as she worked. She put down the ledger and looked at her mentor.
“Eda, should I even bother trying to help people?” she asked. She explained the situation with Amity and Boscha, and refocused on how Adegast had initially tricked her. “It seems like every time I try to make someone’s situation better, I somehow make it worse, or they want to take advantage of me.” She was hugging herself across the middle now in search of comfort. “Am I just doing it to make myself feel better?” That got a sigh out of the Owl Lady. She hopped up on one of the display cases and patted the area beside her. Luz got herself up with a little more difficulty.
“Luz,” she began, “I can’t tell you that helping people isn’t selfish. Even for you.” The girl’s shoulders dropped in disappointment. “But that’s because everything a person can do is selfish,” she finished.
“Huh?” Luz said. Was Eda about to go on some misanthropic rant?
“Look at this way. You, and everybody who’s done anything good have done it for a reason,” she explained, “and that’s because you wanted to!”
“I don’t get it, are you just saying that people are all selfish so I shouldn’t care if I am?” Luz said. She was starting to regret asking Eda about this. Eda let out a huff and continued.
“No. What I’m saying is if we didn’t get anything out of it, people wouldn’t get around to helping anyone. Even when the things we do for other people don’t directly benefit us, we’re still doing it for ourselves. Some do it because it makes them feel moral and superior, which isn’t great in my book, but anyone who talks with you for more than a minute can tell that’s not who you are, Luz. You’re the kind that helps people because you can’t imagine doing anything else. Did you stand up to those boneheads because it gave you a rush?”
“No, of course not,” Luz said.
“Because it made you feel like you were better than them?” Luz just shook her head. “See? That’s my point. Even when you fell for that two-bit scammer, you weren’t doing it for some moral reward or the adrenaline. What you ‘got’ out of it was the chance to be true to yourself and your way of looking at things. If everyone like you suddenly decided that helping people was selfish, I think the world would be much worse off. I know my leg would be,” she said, referring to the incident on Sunday. Luz was looking at her boss in awe, and, before either of them could react, her arms were wrapped around Eda in a tight hug. “Hey, what is this,” she said, but there was no weight to her words.
“Thanks, Eda,” Luz said, wiping happy tears from her eyes, “I think I really needed that.”
“No problem, you just keep being who you are. In the meantime, I’ll teach you how to act like less of a mark.” Luz grinned and nodded while they both hopped off the case to go back to work. Before she went down to the lab, Eda stopped and asked, “Hey, where’d that stain come from?” pointing to her cat hoodie. Luz looked to her left shoulder where there was a large purple blotch.
“Yeah, I don’t know what it is,” she said, “I think that Amity might have spilled something on me when she touched my shoulder. It really sucks, too. This is my favorite hoodie. I was scrubbing it for like an hour last night, but it just won’t come out!”
“How about you let me take a crack at it? I’ve got some compounds in the lab that could get the job done,” she offered, “if they don’t instantly burn through the cotton, that is.” Luz happily handed over the hoodie and thanked Eda for her help. The next hour went by quickly, and Camila was there to pick up her daughter before they knew it. Eda waved at her intern through the window before once more retreating to her lab. She decided she had gotten enough done that she could start on getting rid of that stain. It wasn’t long before she hit a wall. What the heck is this stuff? , she thought. She had thrown just about every solvent she had that wouldn’t dissolve the cloth at it, and the only thing she had to show for her efforts was a tiny sample of the weird purple goo. She’d never seen anything quite like it. Until I figure out what baby Blight used, Luz might have to think about getting a new look . Leave it to Alador’s brat to come up with something this unique . As she was putting away her materials, Eda felt a shudder run through her body. Her muscles began to twitch uncomfortably, and she felt warm and light-headed as her blood began to rush. She rushed to the yellow box to grab a syringe. Her hand was shaking so bad that she dropped the needle. Crap, come on! , she thought. She reached for it, only for her knees to buckle under her, as she crashed to the floor. Her limbs were disobeying her, spasming at random intervals. The pain radiated from her core to every part of body.
“Mom,” she heard from the top of the stairs, “I need your help, Francois is planning a coup among the Brotherhood. The King needs his loyal advisor.” Her eyes snapped open, and with the barest scrap of will she had left, she grabbed the syringe and jabbed it as hard as she could into her leg. The relief was immediate as she felt the cold rush of the formula through her veins, soothing every muscle until she was left panting but otherwise fine on the cool tile. “Mom!” King cried, clearly mad that he hadn’t been given attention yet.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” Just shouting back took more energy out of her than she was comfortable with. But King didn’t need to know that, so she got back on her feet and headed for the stairs. She wasn’t going to let down her kid.