Luz hummed to herself as she tuned her guitar in front of Amity's locker. Eda had recently found one in a trash slug and the human had lost her mind at getting to practice music again. Her mother had always tried encouraging it as a 'safe' way to express herself, though she decided it'd be best for Luz to stick to covers after 'Griffin Death Cult'. She didn't mind too much though, as it had let her focus on her ability to play.

She grinned at the thought before raising her arm with the guitar pick up. Many of the nearby students covered their ears as they'd been getting 'blessed' with intermittent rifts from the excitable girl. Fortunately, Luz did hold some skill with the instrument but it wasn't quite the mastery she thought she had so random, off the cuff performances weren't exactly the best, especially when had a tendency to play as loud and fast as possible. Not that Luz cared. To her she was letting them all know who rocked the hardest!

Though that depended on who you asked. "Who's skinning a cat?" Boscha then turned the corner and found herself face to face with Luz as the human finished her most recent demo. "Oh. And you think punting a kitten is the worst thing you can do when you play like that?"

Luz glared at the other girl for a second before she went back to tuning her guitar. "Sticks and stones, Boscha. Sticks... What are you doing?"

Boscha stood back up after having kneeled for a second. "Sorry, looking for stones."

The bully grinned as Luz let out a shout of exasperation. "At least I know how to play an instrument!

Boscha raised her eyebrows before placing her hands on her hips. "I'd say twelve flubs in a minute isn't knowing how to play an instrument. Besides, who said I didn't?"

Luz opened her mouth to argue that she did better with sheet music in front of her but rather than giving her rival simply another chance to maybe jab at her, she squealed. "You know an instrument? What is it? I'm actually waiting to see if Amity wants to join me in forming a band together for the talent show coming up! I was thinking 'Bomination Buddies'."

"That is the worst band name I've ever heard." She then paused as she wondered if Luz had somehow seen her bestie playing something. "B-Besides, Amity doesn't know any instruments. She would have played for me at some point."

"You keep saying those things but keep bein-" Luz very quickly decided not to risk the death glare she'd suddenly earned turning into a death punch. "B-b-but I have heard her sing! P-Plenty of times. So she, uh, could be lead vocals."

Boscha turned pale at the thought of what sorts of songs Amity may have sung to the idiot, especially given what she'd been singing the one time the bully had heard her bestie sing. Of course, she didn't know that that was also the only time Luz had heard her sing either. "Oh, yeah, of course. She's done that for me hundreds of times. Probably thousands. She's done it so many times I just didn't think about it."

Luz and Boscha both refused to look at the other as they waited for their bluffs to be called. Fortunately, neither felt much like opening up their lie to scrutiny by saying anything. At least, until Luz finally said, while holding on the first word for a while, "So, what do you play?"

Boscha let out a sigh of relief before trying to look cool by pulling out her phone. She then looked at Luz and said, "Pose."

"What?"

"Pose." Boscha raised only one of her eyebrows this time before adding, "If I'm going to even consider this, I need to see if people can think for even a second that you look like an actual metal head with that guitar."

Luz blinked a few seconds before grinning and running back. She then turned around and yelled, "I prefer-" before sprinting and last second hitting her knees as she slammed her pick across her strings, "rockstar!"

Boscha took the picture right when it looked like Luz was managing a power slide to give the idiot a chance. After all, she did like the idea of performing with Amity but she doubted that Amity would agree to just playing with her if she had to pick between Luz or her. Not that she liked admitting it or would ever out loud, but she was still trying to make nice with the idiot.

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She didn't make it easy though when the human quickly went into the fetal position from almost breaking her knees on the tile floor. "It always looks so easy on tv..."

Boscha rolled her eyes before pulling out a stick of gum and popping it into her mouth. "Anyways, I play drums."

Luz blinked a few times before rolling over to her back and looking up at Boscha. "Wait, how? That's like the loudest instrument in the world."

The angry girl growled for a second before sighing. It was a pretty reasonable response, even if it was insensitive. That would take the ability to think about what you said though. "Hexide has a band room and before I was able to do Grudgby as an outlet for my anger."

Luz snickered for a second before wrapping an arm around Boscha's neck. "I can't believe it. Boscha," she then paused to hold out a hand and wave it to the side as if this were some big reveal, "Band Geek."

Boscha slowly turned to the girl whose cheek was touching hers. "First," she said as she grabbed Luz's ear and almost ripped it off as she pulled the idiot off of. She then crossed her arms and asked in the dryest tone she could manage, "Second, you really think I joined Band to play the drums?"

Luz paused for half a second before smacking herself. "You stole a set from a Band member."

"If it helps, I give them back when I'm done."

"That..." Luz said as she lifted her head up, "that sounded oddly like present tense."

Boscha tilted her head to the side. "What do you think I do outside of Grudgby season? Read shitty kid's books like your dumb Aruza?"

Luz forced herself to not break out into the widest smirk she could. She would wait for another day to ruin Boscha's life with who else read 'dumb kid's books'. It was getting close to when they needed to head to class though so she wanted to focus on the band thing. "Wait, if you use it to try not being angry... You realize that playing drums is more than being fast and loud, right?"

"Really?"

The human raised a finger before pausing for a second and saying, "Most of the time."

Boscha rolled her eyes as she looked at her phone and standing up. "Don't worry, I know how to read sheet music and what not. Though I do freestyle a lot." She then frowned and looked around them. "Where's Amity?"

Luz mimiced her rival for a second before asking, "Shouldn't you know? Oh, maybe she came early? Earlier than five in the morning..."

Boscha perked up for a second at that. "Oh, you get up stupid early too? I could use a jogging partner if that's the case and Titan knows you could use the excercise."

Luz giggled for a second. "Were you being nice for a second?" She then yawned before shaking herself out. "I set an alarm but, as Eda puts it, I'm 'so out of control that I can't sleep'. I say I should be proud to be able to run on four hours of sleep."

Boscha snickered before saying, "Oh, I'll make sure you need a bit more than that." She then sucked in her lips. They had maybe three minutes before they would need to book it to get to class on time. "Amity didn't though. Edric and Emira told me that she might end up sleeping in but I thought they were just pulling my le-"

Scree-Thud!

Both girl's heads snapped to the source of the sound and saw Amity face planted into the floor. The normally serious girl then scrambled to her feet and ran to her locker. She barely let out a panicked, "Hi," while she tried for a second to rip the flesh wall open before remembering to tickle it. Her hair was an absolute mess, wasn't tied back, and her shirt was on backwards. In general, she also looked exhausted like she'd stayed up half the night.

Both of her friends glanced at each other before Luz asked, "Uh, Amity, you okay? You look a little more, uh, sprinty than usual."

"You look like a fucking mess." Boscha then pulled out a hair tie from her pocket and began quickly fixing her bestie's hair. "Give me ten seconds and I can help a little so not everyone thinks you stayed up all night."

Amity swayed on her feet as she tried staying still to let her old friend help her. She mumbled out though, "I did. Haven't been practicing enough... For the recital."

Luz gasped at the last word before reaching towards Amity's hands. Boscha grabbed her by the face first before saying, "We don't have the time for you to get all weird on her."

Luz flailed her arms for a second before shouting, "When is it? Can we come? We were just talking about trying to form a band so this would be a perfect time to see what you can do!"

Amity answered the questions in a voice that resembled a zombie more than any living witch while relying on her mind to give automated responses. "Tonight at five. Yes. That's what mother says about it." She then threw her books into her bag before taking off.

She then realized what she'd just said as Boscha and Luz promised to see her tonight. Her familiar moved to cover her mouth so she could scream but she shook her head. She was too tired and too in a 'Blight' mindset today to scream. She needed to be ready for tonight after all. But if they were going to be there... The panicked girl put a hand over her chest as she fought for each breath.

Maybe... Maybe they'd behave and stay quiet so she didn't even notice them. They were good at both of those things after all.

...

Or maybe they'd forget and not show up?

...

Amity looked up as the bell for first period rang and groaned as she began making her way to class again. Not that she'd be a good student anyways while she slept for half of the day. For once though, she considered that to be an okay trade off if it meant she made no mistakes tonight.