“I’m home!”

Eda looked up and smiled as the young girl slipped her book bag off of her shoulder. “So, how was going back to clean halls, structure, and everything else that makes that place hell?”

Luz giggled at that before walking over and collapsing on the couch. “You would not believe how many people were asking me about the Emperor's Palace. Was asking about how his mask got chipped and then screamed when I told them about the walloping I gave hi-”

“No one even brought it up, did they?”

Luz leapt off of the couch and threw her arms up as she yelled, “No one! If I knew someone had gone there, I’d have been all over her for the next three days trying to get every last detail! Like, I don’t know what his breath smells like, but couldn’t have someone at least asked!?”

Eda chuckled as she got up herself and patted Luz on the head. “Sorry, kid, but Belos is a little stronger than most are willing to even admit. They’d probably rather things go back how they were. I’m going to bet even Gus wasn’t willing to drill the questions out of you.”

Luz laughed as she squirmed under her teacher’s hand. “Oh come on. We both know I’d have to explain why a plunger wouldn’t do that. Or,” Luz tilted her head and put a finger on her cheek as she whispered, “would it? I’ve never had someone to help me try that…”

Eda rolled her eyes before going towards the kitchen to work on her next concoction. She still had plenty of old recipes to force feed her sister after all. “How are those fellow pests? Did they get into trouble without you?”

Luz hopped up onto the counter next to Eda before shaking her head. “You know not everyone is like you, right?”

Eda couldn’t help but let her fang show off in the light as she smirked. “Why wouldn’t they want to be?”

Luz giggled before elbowing Eda’s arm. “Oh, and what about being happy that I wasn’t like you?”

This. This was why she couldn’t be sappy. You do it once and suddenly you’re mocked at every turn when you’re being your bad self. “Don’t make me dump you into this pot and don’t think I couldn’t hide that from Lilith. ‘Summer Camp’ is a very useful way to pretend something disappeared after all.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The two girls stared at each other for a moment. Or, what was supposed to be a moment. Now that they were jabbing at each other, locking eyes just meant that the one who blinked was the loser. Or, more of a loser than they both relished in being. Unfortunately for Luz, Eda had never been, and never would be, for playing fair and so yanked her ladle up and splashed the poor girl in the face with the green goop in the pot.

“Ack!” Luz brought her hands up to her face where the nice, warm paste tried to cling to her. When she pulled her hands away though, and long strands of slime hung between her face and her fingers, she asked, “Is… Is this the stuff you gave me for my hands this morning?”

Eda raised her ladle and sipped it for a second before grabbing a handful of salt. “Yeah. I’ve never tried having it but it didn’t taste half bad this morning. Of course, the biting in your stomach could be a problem?”

Luz shivered at the image before jumping off the counter. “Well, let me get out of my uniform before making me wrestle it, okay?”

For a moment, Eda almost just said okay. She’d had her fun after all and wanted to go back to her experimentation. However, Hooty shouting that Lilith was almost home, something he still did because he sometimes forgot she was living here now, reminded her that she had one more thing to cover. “Say, that girl this morning, how is she doing? You and her were acting awfully cute with each other after all.”

Luz’s face turned bright red before she laughed it off. “Oh, Amity? She’s doing fine. But, need I remind you,” she said as suddenly brought her hands up like cat paws and winked at Eda, “I’m always cute? So why would it be any different with her?”

Eda’s eyes narrowed before she muttered, “Whatever.” She somewhat meant it of course. If it was going to be that easy to get the two to start holding hands then what fun would there be in it? Besides, the kid was too innocent to not be straightforward. She just needed to be shown how dumb she got about that Blight girl.

Or, so Eda thought as Luz pulled out her diary. She flipped to the back of the book with a sigh before getting to the last few pages. Pages she’d been using specifically to make sure she remembered what she needed to. The first couple of them had stupid things like needing to wash King or to not be in the sitting room at two seventeen because Hooty always checked for someone to talk to then, but then they became uniform. The same few rules she wrote down now. The ones for school.

1. Have fun.

2. Be yourself.

3. Never apologize for bothering someone else.

4. Unless you actually make them upset.

5. Avoid the slop in the cafeteria (the first of these had a doodle of it trying to eat her next to it)

6.

Six. Rule six. Or, what was five before the cafeteria incident. She always paused on writing it down. She didn’t want it to be there. She’d give anything to not have it there. To act like her mom’s words didn’t ring in her ears when she said it was wrong. That everyone’s stares back home didn’t burn into her brain. Didn’t remind her what would happen even if she could bring Amity back with her.

Luz shut her eyes as she failed to hold back her tears. Two weeks. Why had two weeks made this as hard as it had been after Grom? Nothing had changed after all. Amity kept running from her and she kept screwing up in front of her. They were as they always had been. In fact, Amity had less reason to like her now since she probably saw her as even worse for her future now.

She was going somewhere after all. She was normal. She would find a guy like a girl was supposed to. She was going to keep it quiet instead of wanting to scream it out loud everytime she was even reminded of the guy she liked. She’d find another, nice witch to be with and not some dumb, not witch.

No, six had to stay. Even if she might never leave, it didn’t change anything. Nothing ever would.

6. Treat Amity like everyone else.