'Lumity' Story

The last bell of the day rang in the halls of Hexside. Amity left class, books in hand, and walked to her locked. Quickly putting everything away for next Monday she made her way back down the hall. Not her usual route to get home. Amity turned a corner and saw her, Luz. She was still at her locker, struggling to get it open to put her stuff away for the weekend.

Amity’s heart began to beat faster as she saw Luz. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. She had been preparing for this all day. Or rather, all week was more accurate. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

‘Just go up and ask.’ Amity thought to herself.

Shakily, and with a flashing thought of running away, she walked over to Luz’s locker.

“Rrgh, just get in there!” Luz half-shouted at the locker, trying to push a book past its teeth.

Amity came up to the side of Luz, enough for her to notice Amity in her peripheral vision. Luz quickly looked over, acknowledging Amity before turning back to what she was trying to do.

“Hi, Luz…” Amity started.

“Hey, Amity,” Luz responded without looking back at her.

‘This isn’t how I imagined it at all. This is awkward. I don’t even have her full attention. Maybe it's not too late to bail.’ Amity thought to herself, waiting for Luz to get finished fighting the locker. ‘No, I told myself I would do this, and I’m going to!”

“Here, it works better if you do it like this.” Amity offered, reaching past Luz and touching what appeared to be a sensitive spot on the locker monster, forcing it to open its mouth. Luz quickly stuffed the book inside, then turned her attention to Amity.

“Thanks,” Luz said.

“No problem…” Amity said. There was a slightly awkward pause.

“So, What’s up?” Luz asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uhh… Nothing much.” Amity kicked at the ground. “But… I was wondering. Did you know that the carnival came into town the other day?”

“Oh, yeah I saw one of the flyers around town,” Luz said. “I have never been to one on the Boiling Isles, I wonder how different it is.”

“Well… would you like to go...? With me?” Amity asked. Her face flushed bright red.

“Yeah! That sounds like a lot of fun!” Luz said without a second thought.

“O-Okay. Great! Umm, I’ll come by your place later tonight?” Amity offered.

“Yeah tonight works, I didn’t have any training with Eda planned or anything,” Luz confirmed.

“Great. How’s 6 o’clock sound?” Amity asked.

“Sounds good,” Luz replied.

“Cool. Well… See you tonight?” Amity asked.

“Yep,” Luz replied.

“Alright, I better get going before Ed and Em get suspicious,” Amity said, excusing herself.

“Alright, bye Amity.” Luz waved as she walked off.

~

Amity walked home with her siblings, dodging questions about why she was late. The couple of hours she had to wait for her ‘date’ was agonizing. It seemed to move so slow, and the closer the time got to pick Luz up, the worse the butterflies in her stomach got.

‘Uhhg, Why is this happening to me? Why does my stomach always feel so knotted up and heavy when I’m around Luz, or even think about her? It’s like she makes me sick or something and yet… I want nothing more than to just be around her.’ Amity contemplated while laying on her bed, half-way through picking out what to wear for the night.

She eventually picked a nice looking mint green skirt and a white blouse with black pinstripes running down the length. And the clock eventually struck 5:30. It was time to leave and pick up Luz. She snuck out of the house, lucky enough to not be spotted by Edric and Emira. And made her way down the road in the direction of The Owl House.

Upon arriving, she knocked on the door. And hooty immediately stuck his head out.

“Hoos there?” Hooty asked.

“Amity Blight.” She replied through gritted teeth.

“One second.” Hooty chirped before elongating his neck and bringing his head up to the second floor of the house. Where he then began to peck at the window. After a moment, Eda opened it.

“What?” Eda asked.

“Amity Blight is here,” Hooty said.

Eda looked down and saw Amity, who waved.

“Be down in a second,” Eda said before ducking back inside. A couple of seconds passed before Amity heard the door click open. Eda was there, and she Invited Amity in.

“Have a seat. Luz will be down in a second.” Eda offered.

Amity sat on the couch and waited. After only a couple minutes Luz appeared on the stairs. She was dressed in a casual look. Some jeans and a good T-shirt.

“Hey, Amity.” Luz waved as she came down from the stairs and over to the couch.

“Hi, Luz,” Amity said.

“Are you ready to go? You weren’t waiting too long, were you?” Luz asked.

“No, I only just got here a few minutes ago,” Amity Reassured her.

“Okay, cool if you are ready then, let’s head out,” Luz said.

“Have fun, you kids!” Eda yelled from the kitchen.

“We will!” Luz shouted back as the two walked out the front door.

Amity led the way to the carnival. It wasn’t too far from The Owl House. On the way there, Luz told Amity about carnivals in her world, and Amity explained what was different here. Which was a lot. They arrived at the carnival and had to wait in a bit of a line to get admission tickets.

“So, what do you want to do first at your first Boiling Isles carnival?” Amity asked.

“Hmmm, there is so much. I guess we should ride rides before getting anything to eat or we might puke. Maybe we should just start with games, it looks like they are in the front.” Luz said, looking past the crowd.

“Okay, sure.” Amity agreed.

They got to the front of the line and paid for their entrance. They walked into the carnival proper and began to look around. The games were in the front, then there was a food court area with a lot of stalls selling different kinds of weird food. Then in the back were the rides.

They started doing a circuit around the games area, picking which ones looked fun, or that they thought they might be able to win something at. They played a ring toss game, a game that had them fishing for a prize in a small pool, and a game of darts. Each game had its own Boiling Isles twist that made it weird or just plain unfair.

Regardless, Amity ended up winning one of the games and got a stuffed animal. It looked like a dinosaur with multiple sets of teeth and too many legs.

“Aww, it's so cute! King would LOVE this.” Luz said, gushing over the toy.

“Then here. You have it.” Amity said, pushing the plush into Luz’s arms.

“But you won it, it’s yours,” Luz said.

“Yeah well, I already have one.” Amity fibbed. “So you keep it.”

Luz smiled at her, accepting the gift, and Amity’s heart fluttered.

Then, Luz’s stomach growled.

“Hey, let’s go get something to eat,” Luz suggested.

“Before the rides?” Amity asked.

“Well, we just won’t go on any of the tough rides first,” Luz said as she grabbed Amity’s hand and began to pull her towards the food stalls.

Amity took note of how soft Luz’s hands were. She had secretly imagined what it would be like to hold hands with Luz for a while now, and she wasn’t disappointed.

They got in line at one of the deep-fried food stands and waited for their turn.

“What are you wanting to get?” Amity asked.

“Deep-fried mystery meat. On a stick.” Luz proclaimed.

Amity looked over the menu and decided on something that didn’t sound foul. They got up to the counter, placed their order, paid, and in a matter of minutes had their food. They walked into the big main food court area, which was littered with chairs and tables. They were able to find a small 2-seater table and sat down together.

Luz dug into her meat on a stick, smearing it all over her mouth. While amity picked at her food of choice, eating it gracefully. Amity chuckled lightly at Luz’s ferocity at which she ate. Once done with their meal, they decided to go to the rides section of the carnival.

“Let’s pick something slow for now, we just ate after all,” Luz said, patting her stomach.

“How about the Ferris Wheel?” Amity asked, pointing to the towering structure no more than one hundred feet from them.

“Sounds good. Nice and soft.” Luz said before the two girls started walking towards it.

The line for this ride wasn’t exceedingly long, so they were quickly able to get on. It was positioned right in front of a vast lake, the shore of which was where the carnival had decided to set up. The sun was half-way down by this time. It made the water shimmer and the sky turn all colors of red, orange, and yellow. They got to the top of the wheel and it stopped momentarily to let on new passengers.

“Wow… It’s beautiful.” Luz said, looking out over the water.

“Yeah, beautiful…” Amity was staring at Luz. She bit her lip with anxiety. She also knew she had no better moment than now to do it, though.

“Luz?” Amity said, leaning half-way across the small cart.

“Huh?” Luz turned away from the water and towards Amity.

Amity leaned the rest of the way in, closing her eyes as she did and gently kissed Luz on the lips. It was soft and fleeting, it was over in a moment. Amity pulled away and opened her eyes. Luz had a look of pure confusion on her face. But after a couple of moments, she snapped out of it, her eyes blinked a few times and recentered on Amity.

“Oh…” Luz said, her eyes shifted to the floor. “Uhh…”

“I’m sorry! I’m so dumb! I shouldn’t have done that.” Amity says, regretting her decision.

“I uhh… didn’t know you felt that way, Amity,” Luz said.

“Well… Now you do…” Amity said hesitantly.

“Haha.” Luz smiled and laughed nervously, still not looking up to meet Amity’s gaze.

“Um… Amity.” Luz’s eyes finally looked up into Amity’s. Amity looked like she was holding her breath, waiting for an answer. “I love having you as a friend.”

Amity’s eyebrows furrowed a little bit. Unsure of Luz’s meaning.

“But… I’m not… Like that.” Luz finished.

“O- oh…” Amity said, her hope deflating. “I see…”

“I still want to be your friend, though!” Luz said, trying to salvage the situation.

“Y-yeah sure,” Amity said, looking at her feet.

The ride began to move again, bringing the two of them back down to ground level. They got off and began to aimlessly walk around the carnival.

“I hope… This doesn’t make things all awkward between us.” Amity said, apologizing. She was the one looking at the ground, avoiding Luz’s gaze this time.

“Oh, no. I don’t think it will… do you?” Luz asked.

“I don’t know… Maybe?” Amity answered.

Amity looked back over the water at the sunset.

“Umm… if it’s okay with you, can we just call it an early night?” Amity asked.

“Oh, Uh, sure. We did most of the stuff at the carnival anyway. Do you want me to walk you home?” Luz offered.

“N-No, I’ll be fine,” Amity said.

“Alright…” Luz said as they walked to the entrance of the carnival.

They two said their awkward goodbyes and parted ways. The walk back to her house was miserable for Amity. The night’s events and her big blunder kept playing on repeat in her head.

‘Did I ruin our friendship? Of course, I did, there is no way we can go back to the way things were after that…’ Lumity scolded herself for her carelessness.

As Amity reached her front porch, the door opened.

“Hey, Mittens, didn’t hear you sneak out. So, where you been? Out on a date with your girlfriend?” Edric asked all at once, in his normal teasing tone.

Amity lifted her head to look at him. Edric’s face went from its normal smugness to concern. He could see Amity’s eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and her cheeks were wet from tears.

“Whoa, what happened?” Edric said in a much softer tone.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Amity said as she pushed her way into the house.

Edric closed the door behind her and watched as she went straight for the stairs, and disappeared into her room.

The morning Bell rang on Monday. Amity was running a little late. Her mind had been preoccupied for the last couple of days. She had been brooding on what she had done, isolating herself in her room, and crying a lot. When Luz rejected her like that, It felt like her heart had been ripped out. For days, her heart had been aching, literally. She hadn’t been eating much, and after a day or pestering by the twins, she finally told them what happened. Edric and Emira consoled her as much as they could, but it didn’t make Amity feel any better.

Today was going to be… awkward, to say the least. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to Luz when she saw her. ‘Hey, sorry for thinking you were gay and kissing you.’? She felt like she should just avoid Luz at all costs.

The first couple periods went well, Amity attended her classes and there was no sign of Luz. She wasn’t able to focus in class, but that was fine. It was around third period that she started to notice people staring at her, and whispering to one another when she walked past in the halls.

Amity tried to ignore it, at first. Unsure what they were talking about, or if it had anything to do with her. She went to her next class and she could feel eyes on her, staring. There was the occasional whisper and giggle, but again she didn’t know what the deal was.

It wasn’t until lunch that she found out what was up when she met up with her two friends. They sat down together and her friends looked apprehensive.

“So...Amity.” Boscha started.

“Yeah?” Amity replied

“What did you do this weekend?” Boscha asked.

“Umm…. nothing much.” Amity lied.

“Did you go to the carnival that’s in town?” Boscha continued.

Amity furrowed her eyebrows and squinted at her friend, unsure where she was going with this.

“No…Why?” Amity asked.

“Well, the word is that you took a certain human to the carnival, and tried to kiss her,” Boscha said.

“What?! Where did you hear that?!” Amity’s stomach dropped, and a lump formed in her throat.

“Everyone’s talking about,” Boscha said.

Amity quickly looked around, and sure enough, she caught some eyes staring at her. Her face flushed a deep red.

“So… You aren’t gonna like, try to kiss us next, are you?” Boscha asked

“What? No, of course not!” Amity said, getting angry.

“Good,” Boscha concluded.

The next period was gym. Amity was furious and embarrassed that Luz would tell anybody what happened. She went to the gym, conscious of everyone giving her weird looks. She got to the locker room and started to change. That's when her ears perked up at some of the other girls whispering. She was actually able to hear them this time.

“I don’t really want to change in front of her.” One girl whispered to another, standing in front of her gym locker with her gym clothes in hand.

“Maybe we should just wait until she leaves?” The other offered, pretending to be doing something, stalling for time.

Gritting her teeth, Amity finished getting dressed and stomped out of the locker room.

No more incidents happened until sixth period, just one more hour until she got to go home. On her way back to her locker, she noticed more people giggling in her direction. She tried to brush it off and came to her locker.

In big fat black marker, in the middle of her locker was the word “dyke”. Amity closed her eyes, trying to suppress her rage and urge to just break down and cry. This day had been the worst. She just wanted to crawl into her bed and sleep forever. Amity got what she needed from her locker and slammed it shut, going to her last class of the day.

After school Amity was on the hunt for Luz. She needed to get to the bottom of this. She eventually found Luz, Willow, and Gus together in front of the school beginning to make their way home. Amity ran to catch up with them.

“Luz!” Amity called.

Luz, Willow, and Gus all turned around and saw her running towards them so they stopped and waited.

“Hey, Amity,” Luz said as she got up to the group.

“Luz!” Amity said before looking to the other two in the group. “Why did you tell people?”

“What? I didn’t tell anybody anything. Only these two.” Luz pointed at Willow and Gus.

Gus looked around nervously.

“Well somehow EVERYONE knows what happened!” Amity practically yelled out of frustration.

“Uhh. That might be my fault.” Gus admitted. “I might have told one of my friends in the illusion course.”

“Well great now everyone knows,” Amity said.

“Sorry.” Gus apologized.

“Sorry doesn’t help, Gus!” Amity yelled.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Gus asked.

“No! Just… just leave me alone.” Amity said, defeated, as she walked away from the group, back towards home.

She got home and was mentally exhausted. She didn’t know how she could keep dealing with all this crap. This was only one day. She collapsed on the couch and a single teardrop slid down her cheek. The twins arrived home a little later and they saw Amity sprawled out on the couch in the living room.

Amity went ahead and confided in them everything that happened that day. Again, all they could really do is console her.