Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luz raced behind the school toward the soccer pitch — she couldn’t be late for tryouts, but new constructions blocked her usual route to the motorbike parking spots, and her friends group-called her to wish her good luck.

Catching her breath, she stopped at the table at the entrance of the pitch and introduced herself to the coach who was waiting for the students to sign in.

“Ah yes, Luz Noceda, now everyone is here.”

Luz rubbed the back of her neck, cheeky smile on her lips. “Yes. Sorry.”

The coach chuckled. “You’re fine. I’m the Coach, Eda Clawthorne, but call me Coach Eda. Here’s your bib, number 31, it’s based on the alphabetical position of your name on the list. Now go warm up, we’re starting soon.”

“Thanks. Though can my panic-sprint here count as part of the warm up?”

Coach Eda blinked. Then grinned. “Get going.”

Around sixty students were spread out across the pitch. Amity finished her thorough warm-up and was drinking from her water bottle. She glanced at Coach Eda to see whether she was still there waiting for the final people to arrive, already annoyed at the person who would barely make it on time for the first day of tryouts, when her eyes landed on Luz leaving the table. Amity’s eyebrow raised immediately. She narrowed her eyes. 

What the hell is Noceda doing here?

Luz walked toward the side of the pitch to put her things down. Usually, players would equip their soccer gear upon arriving, but she had learned to anticipate the potential of being late so she had left her house already geared up. She jogged for a bit then stretched until Coach Eda called everyone over to her. A couple of people that recognized Luz smiled at her, prompting her to smile back. The dozens of students all gathered in front of the coach and the assistant coach.

“Welcome, students, to this year’s soccer tryouts. I see a lot of familiar faces, and many new faces too.” She winked at the crowd. “You know me as Coach Eda, and…” She pointed at the young man next to her.

He waved at the students with a wonky smile. “Hi, I’m Coach Steve.”

She continued, “Today, we’re going to do some fitness tests and drills to assess your skills. Tomorrow, we’ll work on the more technical and position-specific drills, and test your teamwork. On the last day, we’ll focus on practice matches, to assess your overall performances when playing in a full team. This will determine the final rosters for the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams, eighteen players in each. Are you all ready to start?”

A collective “Yes!” with head nods confirmed everyone’s readiness. Luz buzzed in anticipation. Coach Eda went into detail about the specifics of the fitness tests and the drills, and once everything was clear, the students started spreading out across the pitch to where various cones were set up for the different exercises. There were exactly 58 students so the first 29 were to stay with Coach Eda, and the rest to follow Coach Steve. 

Luz followed her group to one side of the pitch, but when passing by the other group, suddenly, her eyes landed on the revered Varsity captain, brilliant top student, picture perfect, Amity Blight. Glaring at her. Luz immediately squinted, ready for whatever bullshit was coming her way. 

“You’re trying out for soccer?” Amity raised her eyebrow.

“Yeah, I am,” Luz scoffed, but mischief flared in her eyes. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Amity grinned. “You won’t make it past the first hour.”

“Oh yeah? Watch me.”

They shared a glare before walking past each other to follow their respective groups.

Luz grunted, then shrugged — that kind of went as expected.

They’d never exactly talked before, but the looks they shared needed no words to speak the thoughts they had regarding the other, when crossing paths in the hallways and accidentally glancing at each other in classes. Reputations seeming to precede them, and what they saw in the other swaying them, their distaste for each other was gut instinct.

Luz, of course, knew that Amity was captain, but that couldn’t stop her from wanting to join the team. Though, it did kind of come out of nowhere. So, a couple of months ago when she had announced to her friends her plans on trying out for the soccer team, their shocked expressions didn’t surprise her. First, because why wait until senior year, second, because they knew very well of Luz’s disdain for the captain. 

But two things happened: they remembered that this was Luz and they had learned to stop questioning the spontaneous randomness of her choices, and they had always known her love for the sport, and that she was good. They had played with her a lot at the park and witnessed her natural skills with a ball, and saw all the trophies she had won displayed in her living room. They knew she played in clubs until middle school but stopped once starting high school, her rationale being that she simply wasn’t interested in competing anymore. But now that she was, her friends of course supported her decision with bright smiles, pats on the back, and thrilled hugs. And their instant confidence in her making the team only solidified her desire to try it out.

But there was still the problem with Amity, and for that, her friends had no idea what to expect. They witnessed the tense fire that ignited in Luz and Amity’s eyes whenever they crossed paths, and feared destructive collision if brought together on a field. But again, questioning Luz’s decisions stopped a while ago, so in her they trusted.

Luz had the most logical of hunches that Amity wouldn’t be happy, but she was on a mission. One that sincerely meant a lot to her, for reasons dear to her heart. She was dead-set on playing more seriously the game she adored, and on making the team for her senior year. Captain be damned.

Thus, the second Luz launched her foot forward to do her first sprint for the fitness drills for tryouts, everything else vanished and only a fresh rush of adrenaline fueled by being on a pitch again prevailed. The drills went by smoothly and she aced the fitness tests. Her body thanked her for going to the gym all summer. Having a soccer ball in her vicinity got her heart pumping, and the brightness of her smile probably concerned the people around her.

“Hi, I’m Luz, what’s your name?” she asked the person panting next to her at the zigzag drill area.

“Vee,” she said, catching her breath. “You’re the Luz who graffitied the doors in the bathroom on the third floor?”

Luz cocked her head to the side. “How did you know?”

Vee laughed lightly. “It’s written ‘Luz was not here.’”

“Oooh, forgot about that one.” Luz grinned, nodding her smug head. “Some of my best work.”

Vee gave her a shy smile and chuckled. “Did you get in trouble for that?”

“Allegedly.”

The quizzical look Vee gave Luz was the sign to start the drill again. Her hand went to her forehead to salute before she started slaloming between the cones.

Coach Steve announced the start of the passing drills where players had to pair up and pass the ball quickly using one touch. Luz looked at Vee, who nodded, thus forming a pair.

“So”—Luz grabbed a ball from the floor and kicked it toward Vee—“were you on the team last year?”

“Yes, Varsity. This is your first time trying out, no?” Vee kicked the ball back. 

“Yeah, I’m hoping to make Varsity too.”

They continued passing the ball effortlessly.

Vee looked at her curiously. “Hm. How long have you been playing for?” 

“Ever since I was one, I accidentally kicked my dad’s ball when I was learning how to walk and the rest is kinda history.”

Vee laughed.

“You don’t believe I’ll make Varsity on my first try, do you?” Luz asked, smirking.

“It’s not that I don’t believe it, it’s just that it’s really unlikely. Last time I saw it happen was Amity in Freshman year.”

Luz nodded, but her smirk stayed confident on her face. “Pass the ball quicker.”

“Okay…?”

Vee tapped the ball more quickly toward Luz, who tapped it back just as quick. Vee smiled — she understood the mission. 

Both of them started tapping the ball toward each other rapidly, keeping up a fast pace. Then Luz started kicking the ball slightly to the side to make Vee run a bit, and Vee immediately retaliated by returning the sneaky gesture. Beads of sweat started forming on both of their foreheads the more the speed and the distance increased. Luz was grinning the entire time.

From across the field, Amity’s laser focus on the ball put her passing partner at a severe disadvantage. Her taps were swift and precise, which should have made it easier for her partner, but she struggled with the speed while Amity was barely trying.

Coach Eda approached her. “Hey Cap’, go easy on her,” she said quietly, with a wink. Amity nodded once, and slowed down her kicks. Due to the increased easiness of the passing exercise for her, her gaze absently flitted behind her partner to the other side of the pitch. Two players in particular were going at it with respectable speed and range. Her eyes zoned in on the players only for her to squint when noticing that it was Luz and her teammate, Vee. And for some reason Luz couldn’t stop grinning. 

Still passing the ball to her partner without much effort, Amity’s eyes lingered for a bit on them playing: Luz’s posture was too relaxed which slowed down her running speed. Her movements weren’t economical enough and thus she was exerting energy unnecessarily. Amity grunted.

But then the ball rushed past Luz because she started laughing. Amity’s mouth went slack. She rubbed her temples. Of course Luz wasn’t taking this seriously, what else did she expect?

Her focus drifted back to her passing partner who seemed to be having a hard time keeping up again. That’s when Amity noticed that she had accidentally been kicking harder than expected.

Luz was having such a fun time kicking the ball around with Vee that at one point she couldn’t stop her laughter from bubbling up. The ball sped right past her but it took her a moment of clutching her stomach before turning around to grab it and bring it back to Vee. At seeing Luz, Vee couldn’t prevent herself from laughing as well. Luz came back and raised her hand for a high-five that Vee happily offered.

“That was awesome!” Luz panted, “We were so quick.”

Vee smiled. “Yeah, you’re good, Luz. It was getting hard to keep up.”

Luz shot her a sneaky smile. Then it softened a bit. “Thanks.”

Tryouts continued with different types of shooting drills, where players had to pass and shoot the ball into the net from various different positions, with and without defenders. Luz had always played best as a forward, those being the players who were focused on playing the offensive and on scoring the goals. The other positions included the defenders, who protected their goal and prevented the other team from scoring, the midfielders, who played both offensive and defensive roles, and the goalkeeper.

Luz particularly excelled at shooting. With defenders, without defenders, from the center, the sides, even long-shots, her shots were impressively precise. Coach Steve even ended up giving her a fist-bump when she scored after placing her further away from the goal than what was expected, his idea to raise the stakes a bit.

She went to drink some water after a while and in passing glanced at the other side of the pitch. Amity’s shots were excellent: her unshakeable focus when eyeing the ball and the goal, the precise placement of her body to be at just the right angle to shoot in the intended spot in the net, her confident composure and perfect posture, and the rapidity and swiftness of shooting the ball as soon as she put it down in front of her. She spent a commendably minimal amount of time thinking about her position before shooting, knowing immediately upon the ball appearing in front of her how to shoot it for it to land where she wanted in the goal.

Luz knew of Amity’s skills, of course, with the myriad praises of her performances, from students to professors; Amity was a venerated captain. So Luz wasn’t surprised, but she couldn’t say she wasn’t impressed. That only fueled her desire to join the team and show that she was a good player too. That would really piss Amity off. 

Luz smirked. She indeed lasted more than an hour. It wasn’t her intention to go out of her way to piss Amity off, on the contrary, she’d rather stay the hell away from her. But this was soccer, and soccer for Luz was sacrosanct. She just wanted to play her favorite game. And nothing could stand in her way.

Tryouts ended and exhaustion slapped everyone on the back. And Luz was brimming with satisfaction. Just as she had collected her bag and motorbike helmet and headed to the exit of the field, she heard Coach Eda say from not too far away, “Keep it up, Cap’!” 

Then Coach Eda approached her. “Hey, you did good today. I saw how you handle the ball, I can tell you have natural talent, that’s good.”

Luz tried to hide her cheeky smile but it cracked through her lips anyway. “Thanks, Coach Eda.”

Coach Eda grinned. “Keep it up.” 

Luz nodded, and when turning away, she discreetly thrust her fist into the air. Then she noticed Amity walking in front of her. Luz had no choice but to follow her to get out of the field. Arriving at the parking lot and nearing her car, Amity paused to get her keys from her bag, glanced around, and noticed Luz behind her. Upon locking eyes, they instinctively stared each other down. Luz was absolutely not in the mood to deal with Amity, but she knew that Amity had heard what their coach had said, and questioned whether she’d actually say anything about it. They’d never really talked before today, and Luz had no particular interest in engaging further.

But Amity was not backing down from their staring stalemate. So Luz stared her down even more.

“You think I don’t know who you are?” Amity asked.

“No, I know you do. You have this tendency to glare at me for some reason. But tell me, who am I?”

“You’re a rugged punk who doesn’t take anything seriously. I notice how often you arrive late to class, and you might as well bring a pillow to detention with how much time you spend there. And who the hell ends up at the police station because of almost hitting someone with a bat? And do you ever even wash that beanie that you wear every single day?”

“Wow, Blight. Looks like someone’s been paying attention to me. Obsessed?”

“You wish. It’s hard not to notice someone so painfully inadequate. You stick out, and not in the good way.”

Luz narrowed her eyes, but grinned. “I see you too, Blight. You walk around school all high and mighty and think you’re so perfect when you’re actually just a stuck-up snob with a stick up her ass who can’t relax and let loose for shit. Such a fun existence, I look up to you so much.”

Amity’s jaw clenched. “Watch your tongue, Noceda. You better stop fucking around on the pitch.”

“Just you see.” Luz cracked her knuckles. “I know how to play.”

“You might, but that doesn’t mean you should. We didn’t win all those trophies by luck: it’s hard work, practice, dedication, commitment to the team and to consistently getting better and surpassing oneself. We’re looking for players who take this seriously, who don’t barely make it on time for tryouts or fail passing drills because they’re not focused enough and can’t control their laughter.”

“Ah, so you saw me having some fun. I’m telling you, you should try it from time to time.”

“I saw you slacking off and showing disregard for Vee who actually takes things seriously.”

“I’ll have you know, we were having a great time challenging each other.”

“Challenge yourself harder, or quit while you’re ahead.”

“I’m not quitting anytime soon.” Luz sighed contently, gazing off into the distance. “Love the game too much.” Her eyes narrowed back on Amity. “Enough to handle your bullshit.”

Amity closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, aggravation patent on her face. “This is ridiculous. You won’t even make the team.”

“Oh yeah?” Luz’s smirk was criminal. Her voice lowered. “Watch me.”

At that, she walked past Amity to get to her motorbike. She heard a low grunt, but Luz didn’t look back.

Once at her motorbike, a sound rang from inside her bag. Her face lit up upon seeing her friends’ names on the screen.

Willow: Luz we need updates!! How’d it go?

Gus: We’re at the coffee shop with Hunter if you wanna join?

Her lips curled upwards.

Luz: On my way >:)

Helmet fastened, keys in the ignition, gloves gripping the handlebars, the motorbike revved to life. Direction: the Owl Café. The sun shone in the cloudless mid-August sky. After riding across town, Luz parked her motorbike near the coffee shop and made her way to the entrance. Her friends were sat at the booth in the corner near the window. They bounced up in excitement to greet her upon seeing her arrive. She slid next to Hunter, in front of Gus and Willow.

“So? How did it go?” Willow asked, but they all already had a hunch of how it went.

Luz couldn’t hold in her smile. “It went great.”

“Yes!” They high-fived each other around the table.

Hunter nudged her, making her laugh before she shoved him back. 

He said, “Of course it went great. But what was it like? What did you do?”

Luz explained the tryout process with the fitness tests and the ball drills, then she mentioned meeting Vee, impressing the other players, getting friendly with Coach Steve, and Coach Eda’s comment at the end.

“The coach already noticed you,” Gus beamed. 

Hunter nodded. “You’re making the team.”

Luz’s grin widened. “I gotta play even better though. Really show what I can do. Damn, I missed playing soccer more seriously like this. I gotta up my game and show the coach that I definitely have what it takes.”

Willow said, “Oh she’ll know. You still have two days to show everyone that you’re meant to be on the field.”

Luz nodded, determination fastened on her face. “You bet I will.” Then she snickered. “Guess who confronted me.”

Her friends instantly exchanged knowing looks.

“Yep,” Luz said, popping the “p”.

“What did she say?” Gus asked in a slightly frightened tone.

Luz deadpanned. “First she came at me before we started the drills like ‘What are you doing here? You won’t last, gnagnagna’ and I was like ‘bet, whatcha gonna do about it?’. Then we didn’t see each other again after that on the pitch, thank god, but then later she confronted me again, and she actually started going at it saying that I’m a punk and I never take anything seriously and that I should quit if I won’t stop goofing around when, excuse me, but, having fun while playing soccer isn’t a damn crime. And I was doing good too, and she overheard what the coach told me which must’ve pissed her off even more. She even brought my beanie into it like what the actual hell is her problem?”

Her friends shuddered.

“Sorry you had to deal with her wrath.” Willow winced.

Gus whispered, “She’s so scary.”

“And she’s obviously talking shit,” Hunter groaned.

Luz rolled her eyes and tilted her head back. “It’s crazy. She’s had it out for me for years.”

Willow raised her eyebrow. “I mean, you too.”

Luz paused. “Fair. But as much as her existence pisses me off,” Luz grumbled under her breath, “fucking princess ice-queen,” she spoke up normally again, “and I wasn’t planning on being all buddy-buddy with her either, but yenno, kind of like ‘actors that hate each other off screen but act well on screen for it to be believable’ type thing, I wasn’t planning on any sort of confrontation, and I didn’t think she’d actually come right at me, what the actual fuck is her problem?”

“Thinking logically, you’re kind of exactly the type of person she would dislike. You both hate what each other stand for.” Willow then chuckled lightly. “And you do kinda shoot her death glares whenever you see her. ”

Luz raised her hands up in defense. “Hey, I didn’t start the glaring. I literally just used to ignore her. Then for some god forsaken reason we started making eye contact more often and the more we made eye contact the tenser it became. And being in the same classes didn’t help at all. My god, the death stares she’d give me those times I arrived late to English. You’d think she’d just ignore it at some point but no, every single time, it’s like she made it a point to let me know that little miss princess disapproves. And I swear I could feel her eyes roll whenever I spoke up. And I was scared my ears would start bleeding whenever she’d raise her stupid hand.”

Willow and Hunter exchanged wide-eyed glances at seeing Luz unknowingly balling her hands into fists on the table. Willow planted her hand on one of Luz’s, who relaxed and held Willow’s hand back.

Hunter spoke up, “I know you can handle things by yourself, but if you ever need some back-up, we’re here.”

Luz chuckled. “Thanks, Hunt, but if ever you guys needed to actually confront her for me and argue with her, Willow would freeze, Gus would faint, and you’d probably forget how to use words. Sorry.”

Gus nodded vehemently. “She’s right.”

Willow let out a sheepish smile. 

Hunter rubbed the back of his neck and started chuckling too. ”I mean… We’d still try.”

“But seriously, we’ll always be here for you, okay?” Willow said, “Forget survival instincts.”

Luz laughed in a light-hearted way. “Thanks guys. But I can handle Blight myself.”

“Well this year is going to be interesting.” Willow sighed.

Gus asked, “So what are you gonna be doing about it tomorrow?”

Luz shrugged. “Avoid her as much as I can. Unlike what she thinks, I’m not playing to fuck around. I actually am serious about it, but no way am I apologizing for having fun playing soccer. Hopefully she’ll just ignore me too.”

“Hard to ignore how good you are, though,” Gus said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Luz wiggled her eyebrows back with a smile. “Thanks, Gustabon.”

“I take it back.”

They all laughed, and started talking about their upcoming plans this final week before school started again. They stayed a while chatting and joking around before everyone headed home.

Upon arriving back at hers and entering the living room, Luz’s mom immediately swooped her into a hug and asked how the afternoon went. Luz explained how it went well and how she impressed the coaches, and her mom pulled her into another hug and whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”

Luz’s heart thumped harder and her eyes closed as she squeezed her mom a little tighter.

“Gracias, mamá. I’m doing my best. I’ll make the team.”

“You know, mija, it’s fine if you don’t.”

“No, I will.” Luz squeezed her even tighter, her heart thumping even harder. “I need to. You know why.”

Her mom gently rubbed her back. “I know.”

Luz released a heavy breath before they separated from the hug. But her mom's soft gaze continued comforting her.

“I have to go to work but I prepared dinner for you, it’s in the fridge,” she said as she went to the living room to get her bag.

Luz followed. “Thank you so much, I’m so hungry. See you tomorrow. Love you!”

“Love you too, amor,” her mom said before kissing the side of her head.

As soon as her mom closed the door, Luz released a deep breath and plopped down on the couch. She glanced around the room and saw some of the trophies she had won when she was younger, which her mom insisted on keeping on display.

Her face softened.

I can do this.

On the second day of tryouts, Luz was even more focused on doing well on the drills and proving to the coaches that she was a good player. Everything was going great, and luckily, she hadn’t crossed paths with Amity. They saw each other from afar but didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to, to know what the other was thinking. The embers in their irises ignited the second their eyes would lock, but stayed tamed. Luz brushed it off; she was there to play, and nothing would stand in her way.

After some time focused on drills, the coaches announced the start of the small-scale practice matches, where smaller teams would play quick matches against each other, on each side of the pitch: given there was only one goal on each side, alternating groups of six would play one-on-one against each other, with one group playing offense with the goal of scoring goals, and the other playing defense, with the purpose of preventing such. The large group of students was split down the middle again, so numbers 1 to 29 on one side of the pitch, and 30 to 58 on the other. Fortunately, this meant that Luz and Amity were on opposite sides.

The focus of these ten minute small-scale matches was on quick passes, positioning, communication, and teamwork. Luz had no trouble at all with those, on the contrary, she was thriving, and was doing great in whichever group she played with, communication and teamwork coming with great ease. At one point she played a couple matches with Vee, and realized they played particularly well together, silent communication being specially on point, and Luz was comfortably building camaraderie with the others. 

The teams switched up again and while waiting for their turn to play, Luz and her team started talking. She recognized one of her teammates and was immediately skeptical. She waited a bit before engaging to gauge the situation. Said teammate was surprisingly bubbly which took Luz aback, and Luz cautiously yet curiously waited to see how the teammate was going to react to her presence, really hoping that no tension would arise.

“Hi! Luz, right?”

“Right, hi,” Luz said, her slight confusion hidden behind an intrigued smile. “Skara, right?”

“Right.” Skara nodded, returning the smile.

Luz instantly relaxed. She didn’t know whether it was for the sake of playing together or whether Skara was actually being nice to her, but that didn’t matter, as long as there was no hostility between them. That was one thing she apprehended that was now out of the way.

Skara was one of Amity’s best friends, always spending time together with their other friend Boscha, who was currently playing on the other side of the pitch. As much as Luz had tense history with Amity, she never really cared for Amity’s friends. Skara never outwardly showed negativity towards Luz, though Boscha did mostly eye Luz in a more skeptical way, it wasn’t hostile per se, rather dry, indifferent, in a ‘I couldn’t care less about you’ way, in a ‘don’t fuck with me and I won’t fuck with you’ way, which Luz never minded because she couldn’t care less about Boscha either.

But Luz didn’t know whether Skara and Boscha had disdain for Luz by proxy or not. To Luz’s great relief, at least Skara seemed fine with her. They weren’t becoming friends anytime soon, but at least things were peaceful between them.

And to add to Luz’s relief, Skara and her played well together, too. Their teamwork was smooth, and between matches, Luz was invested in Skara’s tactical analyses of the other teams’ games as they were playing.

A bit before the end of tryouts, the coaches merged the two sides and switched up the teams. Again, most luckily, Luz and Amity still ended up on opposite sides of the pitch. After the merge, Luz realized that she wouldn’t be able to escape Amity tomorrow, as they’d be doing full-team matches, 11 v 11, and the odds were too grand for them to finally cross paths. But Luz brushed that idea to the side, as she had skills to display and matches to win. 

At one point after she had scored a particularly skillful goal where she had to dribble past two defenders at once and shoot from an awkward angle on the side, she looked around her to see whether any of the coaches witnessed it. And she directly saw Coach Eda smiling at her, then writing down something on her notepad. Luz bounced back to the starting position. She shook a fist and whispered to herself, “Aw hell yeah,” but got jump-scared when some of her teammates came up to pat her on the back with “Nice one!”s and “Awesome shot!”s. Luz couldn’t contain her growing grin. Playing soccer, feeling the camaraderie, having fun on the pitch. She had missed it. She had missed it so much. Warmth spread throughout her body and she inhaled cleansing breaths. Then the match started again, and she chuckled out of joy.

Tryouts ended for the day and Luz was on a high. With absolutely no desire to have another encounter like the day before, she wasted no time in getting to her motorbike and driving home. Luckily, there was no Amity in sight.

But then it was day three of tryouts, the final day. Full-team matches. The ultimate test. 

And Luz was ready.

She arrived, early, dressed, confident. After putting down her stuff, she was about to start jogging when she saw her. And Amity was marching straight toward her.

Chapter Text

Luz’s jaw tensed up upon seeing Amity’s sharp gaze approaching her. Amity placed a hand on her hip and halted right in front of Luz. 

“We might end up on the same team today. And performing well today is crucial. I, of course, will be excelling in all cases, but it’s going to be a bit more fatiguing with someone careless like you on my team. If we do have to play together, do not fuck this up, Noceda. Understand?”

“If we do end up on the same team”—Luz crossed her arms—“I can be civil. Can you?”

“When it comes to soccer, obviously,” she asserted.

“For soccer, me too.”

But both of their fists were clenched and their eyes seemed to refuse to withdraw. They stared at each other — furrowed brows, narrowed eyes, knuckles white — until Amity spoke in a dauntingly low voice, “See you on the pitch.” She turned around and walked away.

Luz exhaled through gritted teeth. Then she puffed and rolled her shoulders to release some tension, shaking her hands as if to shake off some of the Blight.

She started jogging then stretching until she felt fully warmed up, and because she was early, had some time to relax before doing some more light dynamic stretching. Coach Eda called everyone over and explained today’s schedule and the importance of generally playing well by showcasing individual skills, stamina and endurance, and teamwork communication capabilities. Luz was confidently optimistic.

Five teams were formed for the multiple 25-minute matches, and luckily, Luz and Amity ended up not being on the same team, at least not before the rotation. Content sighs escaped their mouths, until the realization hit that they would most probably end up playing against each other, which was tremendously better than playing together.

Luz’s first match already showcased her skills with the ball. Yet, due to the previous days, that wasn’t a shocker at all. The smoothness of her steps, the intuitive way she dribbled past opponents, it was akin to someone dancing with innate, instinctive flow. 

But, her skills on a technical level, when scrutinized more strictly, weren’t flawless. They were still overall remarkable, and she flowed so skillfully that her natural talent, evidently, successfully worked. However, depending on perspective and on the strictness of the coach when evaluating more precise, formal technique and the importance of such, it could hinder her chances of making the team.

And when Amity from the sidelines was watching the players, judging who the strongest were, the most skillful ones, who she thought might make Varsity and all, she ended up watching Luz, and she noticed some of the slight cracks in Luz’s formal technique, as well.

“Does Noceda even realize that she sometimes dribbles with her head down? She’s lucky that she looks up in time to see when to pass the ball or when opponents are near her.”

Next to her, Boscha, boredom in her gaze, eyed the pitch where Luz was playing. “I don’t see it.”

Amity huffed, “Just wait.”

Skara joined in, “I kind of noticed her doing it once or twice yesterday but it didn’t really affect her playing.”

Amity slowly turned her head toward Skara. “Are you kidding me? It’s the type of poor technique that can quickly lose us the ball.” She scanned the field to find Luz again. “And her posture when running. Sometimes it’s too relaxed. It hinders her reaction time and mobility. And sometimes she leans slightly too far forward. It limits her agility. Does she even realize?”

Boscha tilted her head. “Still don’t see it.”

Amity narrowed her eyes at her. 

Boscha smirked and rolled her eyes. “Just messing with you, relax.” Then she looked at Luz again. “But I still don’t see it.”

“I don’t see it either,” Skara added.

Amity groaned, “Coach Eda should see it. Blatant lack of effort in perfecting her technique.”

Boscha shrugged. “She’s a weird one, but she’s good.”

“Weird? That’s how you’d describe her?” Amity asked, peeved.

Boscha shrugged again.

“This is Noceda we’re talking about,” Amity specified, watching the match. “You know, an absolute nuisance for years?”

“Yeah, still don’t know what’s up with her staring at you. She always looks like she wants to punch you. I know it pisses you off but it’s kind of fun to watch.”

Amity snapped her head toward Boscha, who grinned.

“Relax, Am, I know she’s sketchy as shit, her face is annoying, and she’s obviously not worth our time.” She watched Luz on the pitch. “But she’s good. She might make the team. And if she does, she better step up to the max. We’re going for glory this year,” she smugly asserted, “again.”

Skara noted, “As troublesome as she may be, she is quite good. I played with her yesterday, and she knows what she’s doing.”

Amity’s muscles stiffened. “I swear if she makes the team…”

“If she doesn’t, that’s one pleb out of the way. If she does, then we get a good player on the team,” Boscha stated, her resting bored face back.

Amity groaned again. She knew that Boscha was right because after watching the matches, Luz was a particularly strong player in every situation she was in. Amity rubbed her tense forehead and shook her head before focusing back on the match.

In another stroke of luck, Luz and Amity actually ended up not playing a single match together before the rotation. And in even more strokes of luck, they weren’t on the same team after the rotation either. But the luckiness of them not having to interact with each other ended when in one of the last matches of the day, their teams went head-to-head.

Theoretically, they wouldn’t be crossing paths much because both were forwards on their own team, so they’d be consistently positioned farthest from each other throughout the match since both needed to stay nearest to the opponents’ goal. There were, of course, instances in which that was not the case. And that started even before the first whistle sounded for kickoff.

Near the center circle, each on their side of the pitch, they stood across from each other, waiting for the whistle. Despite both having made the mental choice to strategically ignore the other, thus focusing solely on the players in the center awaiting to pass the ball, both Luz and Amity, even without looking at each other, felt the underlying tension between them, sizzling, waiting for a touch of their eyes to be fueled. They both shook it off, waiting for the whistle — because once in the match, they’d get lost in the game. 

And the second the match started, all their focus channeled into the ball, completely captivated, absorbed, engrossed in the game. Their brains could barely even acknowledge the other and the intrinsic thoughts and emotions tied to the other. It helped that they never went face-to-face, never had to look each other dead in the eye.

But then Luz scored the first goal. And Amity’s blood started pumping.

Then Amity scored the second goal. And Luz cracked her knuckles.

The match was on its final minute and all the players were stacked on one side in the penalty box, waiting for the corner kick, meaning that even the forwards in Amity’s team were present to snatch the ball first before players from Luz’s team could shoot or header the ball into the goal.

Focused on positioning themselves in ideals spots in front of the goal among the dozen players readying themselves as well, due to the inevitable closeness of the players all moving around and bumping into each other, they inadvertently ended up right next to each other, only truly realizing it when they locked eyes, right when their arms brushed together. Skin instantly flaming up, Amity’s arm jerked away from the touch as if burned. Luz abruptly stepped back as a fiery jolt rushed through her arm. Heat surged through their chests and they looked at each other fleetingly before the whistle blew and their heads snapped toward the corner where the ball was being shot, regaining focus.

A player from Amity’s team intercepted the ball and started sprinting to the other side of the pitch, but a couple of defenders from Luz’s team were ready for the chase, and one successfully tackled the ball away, when the final whistle blew, ending the match in a draw.

Luz’s muscles relaxed and she high-fived her teammates and everyone congratulated the other team, sharing smiles and compliments. But when face-to-face with Amity, the only thing they shared was loaded silence, and coldness. 

Tryouts finally ended and Coach Eda gathered them all together to say that the final rosters would be sent out in two days, on Friday.

Vee approached Luz and they high-fived.

“Hey, I hope you make the team. I genuinely think there’s a chance,” she said, her smile revealing surprise.

“Thanks, I really hope so,” Luz returned with a soft grin.

On their way to the parking lot, they exchanged their socials before parting ways. Once at her motorbike, memories of some of her good plays on the pitch provoked a smile on her face. A content one, confident, proud.

“Willow, I’m telling you, aliens exist.”

“And I’m telling you to prove it, Gus.”

Luz and Hunter watched this eternal debate unfold between their friends, again. All of them were chilling at their favorite park, under the sun, on a large picnic blanket.

Luz’s phone beeped. Her hand snatched it from the middle of the blanket.

“Is it??” Hunter asked.

Her pulse sped up.

“Oh my god. It is. It’s an email from Coach Eda.”

Her friends shuffled closer to her.

“Well open it!” Willow said.

Luz nodded. “Here we go.”

At Skara’s house, Boscha and Skara were relaxing in the pool, talking about how Boscha didn't know what to reply to the message her ex-boyfriend had sent her that morning. Amity was relaxing on one of the pool lounge chairs, idly listening to the conversation, adding comments here and there when prompted about how she thought Boscha should ignore the message.

Her phone buzzed from next to her. It was an email from Coach Eda. Casually, she said, “Rosters are out,” but they all didn’t care much because they knew they made the team. But then Amity squinted. She opened the email and checked the names of the players who made the Varsity team.

Her jaw dropped. She abruptly sat up. Her friends noticed and looked at her quizzically. 

“Noceda made the team.”

“I made the team!!” Luz bounced up and zealously shook her fists to the sky while a glowing smile spread across her face, heart racing. Her friends bounced up too, cheering with her, shaking her, hugging her in celebration.

“Woooohooooo! She made the team!!” they all cheered.

“I made the team!!”

“You made the team!!”

Joyful laughter vitalized the air around them, overflowing with excitement.

“Oh my god, I actually made it.”

Hunter slapped her on the back. “Of course you did!”

Luz grinned and ran her hand across her face. She looked at her friends who were gathered around her. Her grin widened and she pulled them all in for another group hug. 

Boscha’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Wow. She actually made the team. Huh.” 

She turned to Skara, who barely looked surprised. Skara slightly shrugged. “You saw her play.”

They looked at each other, then looked back at Amity whose jaw was still loose.

“Noceda made the team,” she repeated.

Boscha whispered to Skara, “She looks broken.”

Skara nudged her. “I think she’s in shock.”

“I can hear you.” Amity narrowed her eyes. “Am I the only one shocked?” she asked, incredulous.

Boscha shook her head. “Not really.”

Skara cautiously spoke up, “I mean, she did play really well.”

Boscha shrugged. “She did.” She rolled her eyes. “She better keep it up.”

“Um. Yeah!” Amity fumed. She scanned her phone again. Then grunted, “Noceda better watch her back.” She grunted again, “Now we have to see her every day?” She gritted her teeth. “It’ll feel like taking care of a child.”

Skara and Boscha glanced at each other.

“As captain, there is no way I am going to let her infect our team with her disruptive nonchalance. If she doesn’t step up, she’ll regret having ever even thought about trying out.” 

Her voice lowered. “I’ll be watching her.”

Luz entered her house and rushed to the living room, hoping to find her mom there. Her mom stood up immediately in anticipation, knowing that the rosters came in today.

“So? Did you ma-”

Her sentence was cut short when Luz flung herself into a hug.

“I made it.”

Her mom squeezed her tightly. “Oooh yes! Mija, that’s amazing news! Congratulations!”

Warmth spread throughout Luz’s body, a wide yet soft smile graced her face. “Gracias, mamá.”  

Her mom rubbed her back. “I’m so proud of you. I knew you’d make it.”

Luz’s heart swelled. Heat rushed to her face and suddenly her eyes grew hot with warm tears wanting to be released. Luz shut them, concealing all she stifled away. She had celebrated the joy when bouncing with her friends, but could ache in bliss when finding refuge nestled in her mom’s safe embrace.

Her mom started tearing up as well, but neither of them could see the other’s hidden, held-back tears while hugging, and neither of them let go.

“I made it,” Luz whispered.

They finally separated from the hug and Luz rubbed her chest where her heart was. Then she softly rubbed her left arm, right above her elbow. After exhaling a long breath, she released a heartwarming grin.

Her mom cupped her shoulder, and winked. “There are maduros waiting for you on the counter.”

Luz beamed, shaking her mom’s shoulders lightly, “You made my favorite?”

“Of course!”

Luz thanked her profusely and headed to the kitchen with her. They spent some more time together until her mom had to leave for her night shift, leaving Luz at home alone.

Her comfortable bed awaited her with undone blankets and the promise to catch her when collapsing on it. Luz launched herself face-first, landing on her stomach, to then turn onto her back and stare at the ceiling. She still had those glow in the dark stars that her parents had stuck to the ceiling when she was younger. And now she gazed at them, the stars that knew her wishes, who looked back at her, ready to shine brighter tonight.

Luz’s friends were hanging out in front of their high school and upon seeing a signature red beanie amid the groups of students who were waiting in front of the school as well, waved her over, exchanging happy greetings once all together.

“Excited for senior year?” Willow asked her.

“Oh definitely. I got you guys, I made the soccer team, I love my electives, so I’m feeling good about it, yeah.”

Gus glanced at Willow, and asked, hesitating, “And… Amity?”

Luz’s jaw twitched. She paused. “Indeed, the Blight situation.” She scratched the back of her neck. “She’s definitely gonna be on my back during practice, but she’ll just see. I’m not serious about a lot of things, sure, but I’m dead serious about soccer. And I’m good. If she can’t handle the fact that I can actually bring something to the team, then that’s on her. And she’d be a shitty captain if so.” Luz snickered. “We don’t need to like each other to play the game. And there’s this thing that happens when I’m on the pitch and just forget about all my problems.” 

Luz shook her head. “Point is, I can definitely handle it. Besides, it’s only like two hours in the afternoon. Not like I’ll be seeing her from morning to evening. So… yeah.”

Her friends nodded slowly.

“Well, okay then,” Gus said, blinking rapidly. “That’s good!”

“Yeah, look at you all sensible,” Willow said.

Hunter swung his arm around her shoulders. “You got this.”

Luz chuckled and elbowed him away, “Hell yeah I do.”

They entered the school and headed toward their first class. Willow and Luz luckily were in the same English Literature class, and were joking around when entering the classroom. Luz’s grin dropped when immediately she noticed Amity sitting at the front row, who noticed her right back. Exasperation washed over their faces. 

Luz grunted, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Amity huffed, “Seriously? Now I have to see her snarky face in class too?” to Skara who was next to her.

Luz and Willow passed by them to sit two desks down to the left.

“You have literally got to be kidding me right now,” she muttered, dropping her bag on the floor. Her fist pressed against the desk as she slumped in her chair. “Blight. Every morning. Every afternoon. You have got to be shitting me right now.”

Willow sat down and cautiously placed her hand over Luz’s fist. 

Luz relaxed her hand and leaned her head on Willow’s shoulder. “I take back what I said about being excited for senior year.”

Willow patted her head, with affection.

Luz chuckled. “Quit petting me. It’s not gonna work this time.”

“It always works.” Willow patted her head harder.

Luz sat up straight and whacked Willow’s shoulder, stifling a smile.

The bell rang, the students settled down, and the teacher spoke up.

“Good morning everyone, welcome to English Literature. I’m Mx Raine Whispers, your teacher for the semester. I go by they/them, and you can either call me Mix or Teacher Whispers, or just Whispers.” They smiled at the class: seemingly shy presence, but kind and welcoming demeanor.

They continued by giving a brief overview of the course, the different topics and themes, then elaborated on the syllabus, the different types of assessments, group projects, and overall the main objectives of the class.

“Now, let’s go around the room and introduce yourselves, and as a little ice-breaker, maybe mention a fun thing you did over the summer.”

One by one, students introduced themselves and shared something fun they did over the summer.

“Hi, I’m Skara Shay, and something fun that I did this summer was travel around Asia with my parents!”

“Hi Skara, that sounds very exciting. Traveling is one of the best ways to explore the world and different cultures, which is one of the great things we can achieve with literature too, the potential to discover different perspectives that are not necessarily ours.” They then nodded to the person next to Skara.

“Good morning, I am Amity Blight. This summer I most enjoyed attending a Yale Summer Session course. It was an excellent opportunity to explore more intensively the fields I’m interested in and prepare for college.”

Luz recoiled and her face crisped up. She whispered to Willow, “That’s her idea of a fun summer?? More studying??” She shuddered. “Not judging summer schoolers because sure it can be interesting but of course princess try-hard overachiever obsesses over studying even during what’s supposed to be one of the most relaxing times of the year.” Luz recoiled again. “Fun fact my butt.”

Mx Whispers said, “Wonderful, Amity. Pursuing intellectual paths is an excellent way to enrich the mind, and indeed, a smart way to prepare for college.”

A couple of students later and it was Willow’s turn.

“Hello, I’m Willow Park, and something fun I did was spending time with my dads planting tomato seedlings in our garden. It was simple, but I love spending time with them.”

“Willow, that sounds precious. Spending time with family can be… fruitful for the heart,” they said, warranting chuckles from the students.

Then it was Luz’s turn. “Hey, I’m Luz Noceda. And I guess something fun that happened during the summer was…” Her eyebrow raised mischievously. She lifted her arm and flexed her bicep. “I got gains.”

Laughter erupted throughout the classroom and she turned to the other students, saying “I can protect you all,” which made them laugh even more.

Amity’s eyes rolled out of her head. She looked at Luz with the most unimpressed, revolted dead stare, but Luz was too busy winking at her peers to notice. Amity turned her head, appalled, toward Skara, who was stifling a laugh. She ground her teeth.

“Exercising and getting stronger is a superb pursuit, Luz. Well done on those… ‘gains’,” Mx Whispers smiled, admittedly amused as well.

The last students introduced themselves and then class was over. Luz put away her stuff. “The teacher seems really chill, and the topics sound cool,” she said to Willow as they stood up and walked toward the door. “What do you—” She paused in her tracks before almost bumping into Amity who was on her way out too. Their glares were instinctive — no words, just silent disdain. Amity tossed her hair back and strutted away with Skara following suite. 

Luz looked up and shook her head to the skies. “Seriously? Did I kill in my past life?” She turned to Willow. “Patting’s not gonna cut it. You’re gonna have to bang your fist on my head this year.”

Willow let out a nervous chuckle. “I fear you might be serious.”

Luz swung her arm around Willow as they continued walking toward the exit. “Potentially.”

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and after classes ended, Luz made her way to the locker rooms to get into uniform before heading to the pitch for the first soccer practice. Coach Steve was handing out the school’s official soccer team practice t-shirts: forest green with their high school’s logo on the top left, a flame with an open book inside, with the letters H H for Hexside High. The match jerseys were similarly forest green with the high school logo, but also with the player’s number behind, which they’d receive before the competition season starting in a couple of weeks.

Luz beamed and clutched her team t-shirt to her chest upon receiving hers. Quickly gearing up, she made her way to the pitch situated not far behind the school where most of the other players were waiting by the benches on the side of the field. 

Vee saw her coming and instantly lit up and approached her. “Luz! You made the team! I saw your name on the roster and honestly, couldn’t say I was too surprised.”

Luz grinned. “Thanks, Vee. I’m really happy I made it. Can’t wait to play.”

“We were just talking about the new team with some of the girls from last year and it’s honestly promising. Come, I’ll introduce you!”

Luz followed with keen confidence. Almost everyone was near the benches waiting for practice to start, talking among themselves in smaller groups. Vee weaved around the different groups, introducing Luz. Luz recognized a lot of the players from tryouts with whom she had already built some easy rapport when playing together. Everyone greeted her enthusiastically.

Approaching another group, Vee said, “This is Amber, Katya, Bo, and Cat.”

They all exchanged eager salutations.

“Welcome to the team,” Katya said before turning to the others, “We played together on day three and she’s actually great.”

Luz slapped her hand to her heart. “I’m honored.” Then she released a genuine smile. “No but thanks, I really appreciate that. I can’t wait to play with you guys!”

They exchanged a bit before Vee steered Luz toward another group.

“And this is Boscha, Skara, and Amity, our captain.”

Luz stiffened when Vee pulled her directly in front of the three. 

“We know her,” Boscha said, eyeing Luz up and down.

“Hi, Luz,” Skara offered with a small smile but then she pursed her lips.

Amity’s eyes shot daggers toward Luz, who caught those daggers and shot them right back at her, leveling her glare in retaliation. 

Vee furrowed her brows and looked at Boscha and Skara after a couple of seconds of silence, wondering why Amity and Luz were staring intensely at each other. 

Boscha shrugged. “Don’t ask.”

Vee nodded slowly, then turned toward her new teammate. “Luz?”

At hearing her name, Luz turned toward the voice as if regaining awareness of her surroundings. “Hm?”

Amity snapped out of it too, quickly crossing her arms.

Vee’s face was riddled with confusion. “Okay… Luz let’s go to the next group, come.”

Luz gave Boscha a nod and Skara a smile before following Vee.

“What was that?” Vee asked as they got farther away from them.

“Let’s just say that Blight and I have some… history.” Luz shook her head. “But it’s fine, what happens outside of the game stays outside of the game, don’t worry, I’m chill.”

Vee raised her eyebrows. “You sure? I have never seen Amity look at someone like that before.”

Luz chuckled. “I’m sure. I’m here to play soccer, not guerrilla warfare.”

“Okay,” Vee said, shrugging, “because you’ll be playing a lot with her in particular. You’re a forward, right?”

Luz blinked. She hadn’t exactly connected the dots until now but indeed, both she and Amity played as forwards. “Right.”

“Your communication is going to have to be amazing then.”

“Right.”

In particular, the forwards on a team worked together to score and create scoring opportunities, meaning that they had to be on the same wavelength to know and anticipate what the other was thinking strategically and their potential moves the second they gained possession of the ball and raced toward the goal.

Luz had years of training in teams, her first experience in a club being at four years old in youth soccer, up until fourteen before entering high school. She had always been a great teammate, but she’d never had to play with hostility on the pitch. That was going to be the real challenge. And Luz was absolutely ready for it.

“Yes, right,” she repeated with more confidence.

“Great!” Vee exclaimed. “This season is going to be fun!”

“Fun,” Luz echoed, distantly. She looked around and saw the pitch, and her love for the game, the innermost contentment of playing soccer, warmed her heart; her smile blossomed in fondness, and grew, and she repeated, “Yeah, fun. We’re going to have fun.”

Coaches Eda and Steve arrived at the benches and gathered everyone together. Roll call confirmed everyone’s presence, and she cheerfully congratulated every player for making the team. She gave the rundown of what this fall’s competitive season would look like, starting from the everyday practices to the start of the official matches on the Friday of the third week of school, which gave them three weeks to work on perfecting their individual skills and building solid teamwork. Then she presented Amity as the captain, keeping her role from last year.

The focus of their first practice included intensified fitness exercises and ball drills. After Coach Eda told the players to warm up, Luz felt the need to approach her.

“Coach Eda?”

“Ah yes, Luz Noceda. You really nailed it at tryouts. Congrats on making the team.“

“Thank you.” Luz smiled, rubbing the back of her neck. “I just wanted to say, thank you for giving me a chance.”

“Luz, I’ll put it simple. You’re gifted. It was an obvious decision. I could easily picture you on the starting team during matches, especially now that some of our really great players graduated last year and we need to fill in those spots. And, I know you can improve even more with structured practice. You seem passionate and dedicated to the game, fit right in with the players you teamed with during tryouts, some of which were actually already on the team which was an even better sign, you’re a true natural with the ball, and I saw you having some fun while doing that too.”

Coach Eda winked at Luz, then looked fondly into the distance for a moment. “I had the best time when I played in high school. It’s always good to feel the genuine enjoyment we get from playing the sport we love. But when it comes to it, you need to be serious. We’re here to win. But I saw how serious you get when you’re in the game. So, keep it up, and focus on honing your skills and building that essential camaraderie with your teammates. Got it?”

“Yes Coach. Thank you, Coach.” Luz saluted her. “You won’t regret it!”

Coach Eda grinned. “I’m watching you, kid. Now go warm up with the others.”

Luz nodded then jogged away. 

After warming up, the players gathered to start the fitness tests including timed runs and sprints, then were divided into smaller groups for the technical drills that included passing, possession, shooting, defensive, and tactical positioning drills. Amity and Luz were too focused on their own plays to think about the other, because that was the thing: as much as their mutual animosity existed in the background, fizzing, primed for their embers to spark, as soon as they were on the pitch working on themselves, there was essentially no place in their minds to have a focus on anything else.

Almost no place.

“Hey Katya, think fast!” Luz swiftly kicked the ball in Katya’s direction, catching her off-guard as she was coming back near their group after drinking some water on the side.

Katya’s foot received it right before it could pass by her. She chuckled and kicked it back to Luz, who was waiting for her turn to shoot during the shooting drills. Luz had been doing great at the drills, making a solid first impression to those who didn’t know her, and gaining even more approval from those she had already played with. She was easily getting along with her teammates and fit right in.

After Katya kicked the ball back, Luz’s foot caught the ball in a way where the ball ended up on top of her cleat, and started juggling, the goal being to not let it fall to the floor, meaning that she consecutively lifted her foot so that the ball would bounce up, to then catch it with her other foot as it fell, balancing it in the air. She juggled the ball like that for a couple of seconds, then made the ball bounce off of her chest to her feet, which bounced up again and landed on her head where she kept it balanced for a few seconds before catching it on her foot again.

Juggling was, essentially, the playful soccer flex. Something fun to do to admittedly show off one’s skills. 

Katya smirked and shook her head. “Real impressive, Luz.”

“Why thank you, Katya.” Luz’s foot flicked the ball up again and her hands caught it. “I try.”

Katya chuckled and walked ahead to get in place to shoot.

Someone cleared their throat from behind Luz, to then speak with a thinly-veiled irritated tone. “Noceda?”

Luz tensed up for a second and squinted in anticipation, turning around with a blank expression. “I’ve been summoned?”

Amity’s hands rested on her hips, eyebrow raised. “Focus.”

“I’m focused.” Luz was trying very hard to keep a blank face for the sake of the great soccer cease-fire masquerade, but when directly face-to-face with venom-toned, flaming-eyed Amity, she couldn’t for the life of her control the way inner gusts of fire infected her body with aversion.

Amity closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath, before sternly looking at Luz. “Listen. As captain, I’m tasked to, among other key things, keep the team organized and make sure that everyone gives their best effort during practices. That means that I have to keep an eye on everyone, including you. You and I both understand that the game comes before all else, and on the pitch, we are teammates. I am, obviously, mature enough to keep my soccer-life and my personal-life separate.”

Amity paused and raised her eyebrow.

Luz equaled her expression. “Yep, obviously same.”

Amity nodded once. “We’re both forwards so it’s particularly vital that we play in sync. If you’re as good as you say you are, you’ll be able to competently internalize the different strategies we use, and thus anticipate my every move. If you’re that good. If not, then work even harder and become that good. It goes without saying that I’m able to do that, so this is on you, Noceda. I never thought I’d have to say this but I trust you to learn how to work with me as a team. And I absolutely won’t hesitate to be on your back if you goof around like I just saw. We’re here to win. You need to be serious and focus. Got it?”

Amity narrowed her eyes, embers fueled with suppressed displeasure.

The embers in Luz’s irises flickered with censored distaste.

“Got it. And I am serious, and focused. And to be fair, juggling requires concentration and focus, can improve ball control, builds coordination, balance, and stamina, and many things.”

Amity tapped her foot. “Noceda.”

“It’s true. Also I know how to work in a team, I played in teams for ten years, ever since I was a kid, this isn’t my first time.”

Amity’s eyebrows subtly furrowed. She figured this wasn’t Luz’s first time on a team, but she didn’t think that she’d been playing for that long. “Then you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Teammate treaty on the pitch, then.”

“Treaty on the pitch.”

The idea of a handshake revolted both of them, physical contact an odious nightmare scenario, so instead the strategic armistice concretized via balled up fists. 

“I’m watching you, Noceda.”

“Watch me all you want, Blight.”

They shot each other heated glares, treaty be damned.

The eye contact simmered for a moment before Amity switched to looking at her expectantly, waiting for Luz to retreat to start working on the drills again.

Luz glanced at the ball by her feet. They were situated at a tricky angle to the left of the penalty box — not an easy shot. Looking around to make sure she was in the clear to shoot, she looked back at Amity, stared her dead in the eye, smirked, and effortlessly scored.

“Did you watch that, Captain?”

Luz was good. 

And Amity knew it. She deepened her glare.

Treaty be damned.

Chapter Text

Luz didn’t wait for a response and simply walked away to continue the shooting drills, not looking back. Amity stood there rigid for a couple of seconds before spinning on her heal to march to the other side of the pitch to get into position behind a ball. She eyed the ball, eyed the goal, stepped forward and slammed her foot into the ball, shooting it straight into the middle of the net. A hot breath escaped her mouth as she prepared herself for another shot.

Glancing around to make sure she was in the clear to shoot, she noticed a couple of players looking at her. They immediately looked away.

“You okay?” Skara’s hand softly landed on Amity’s shoulder from behind her.

Amity blinked. “I’m perfectly fine.”

Skara nodded. “Okay good, just making sure.”

“Why would I not be fine?” Amity asked, getting into position behind a ball again. She eyed the goal.

“Oh, no reason! Just asking.”

Amity smashed her foot into the ball, sending it hurling into the goal again.

Boscha approached from behind.

“Wow, are you okay?”

Amity’s head snapped toward them. “I’m perfectly fine.” She blinked. “Are you?”

Boscha and Skara exchanged glances before answering, “Yes.”

“Good. Now let’s focus on the drills.”

Skara and Boscha nodded and moved toward the players who were on the left side of the goal, leaving Amity near the center.

“Imagine if she plays with that much intensity during the entire season,” Boscha said.

Skara looked back at Amity and winced when Amity’s foot once again struck the ball.

The rest of practice went by great for Luz on her side of the pitch without Amity breathing down her back, allowing her to relax a bit and have some fun while practicing. And it went by smoothly for Amity too, with the expected seriousness and order on her side of the pitch, no distractions, discipline up to par.

Soccer practices the next days revolved around fitness conditioning, technical ball drills, defensive and attacking drills which are more group-focused with emphases on unit formations, positioning, and tactical patterns. The coaches introduced the various team strategies and favored formations, those being the strategic positioning of the players as a unit such as the ideal placement of the forwards and midfielders on the pitch.

Luz and Amity’s mornings included disgruntled looks in class every time their eyes unfortunately met — the gut tension simmering, an encrypted clandestine duel with each instinctive glare, fueling the flames even more, and even worse now that they breathe near each other on the pitch, because knowing of each other was one truly distasteful thing, but experiencing the other was a whole new realm, a whole other level with the snowballing realizations that their initial instinctive judgments about the other were verifiably justified.

“Okay”— Luz panted —“what about now?”

“8 seconds.” Vee smiled, holding her hand up.

Luz slapped it in a high-five. “Nice! That’s close.”

“You wanna go again?”

“Absolutely,” Luz replied before making her way toward the starting line for the seventh time to time her sprints.

She looked at Vee’s raised hand, who started counting down with her fingers, lowering them with each passing second. Once her last finger lowered, Vee started the stopwatch and Luz launched herself forward and sprinted toward her.

As soon as she crossed the finish line, Luz bent down and rested her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.

“And now?”

“7.8!”

“Yes, I’m so close!”

“You did great!” Vee smiled widely and patted her shoulder. “You should really take a breather now.”

Luz looked at her, determination in her gaze. “Not yet.” She was still trying to steady her breathing. “I know I can beat my record.”

Vee nodded, impressed. “Hm, okay then. Nice.” 

Luz took a couple seconds before she slowly walked toward the starting line again, making sure to calm her breaths. Once she felt ready, she gave Vee the thumbs up, who started counting down with her fingers. When the last one lowered, Luz raced forward and sprinted the life out of her, falling to her knees once crossing the finish line.

“And”— Luz panted heavily —“now?”

“No way! 7.5! You did it!!”

Luz looked up to the sky with a beaming grin. “Finally!”

“That’s amazing. How are you so quick?”

Luz fell on her back, still panting. “I practice when running from the cops.”

Vee’s eyes widened.

Luz laughed through heavy breaths. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” But then she glanced at Vee. “Or am I?”

Vee laughed back, maybe a little nervous yet certainly amused. “I’ll never know. So, are you finally gonna take a break?”

Luz sighed. “Yep.”

“Good! I’ll be right back, Cat’s waving me over for some reason.”

“No prob, see ya later.”

Luz stayed lying down for a bit, eyes closed, still catching her breath, waiting for her heart rate to calm down. 

Someone loudly cleared their throat.

“Noceda, what the hell are you doing?”

Luz’s eyes cracked open.

“Resting.”

“You’re slacking. Get up and go back to doing the drills.”

Luz huffed and propped herself up on her elbows. “I literally just beat my sprint speed record.”

Amity placed her hands on her hips impatiently. “That does not mean you can just stop doing the sprints. Now get back to it. Now.”

Luz gritted her teeth while slowly getting up, and once stood up, Amity finally left. Luz pressed a fist to her mouth as she watched her leave.

Amity was passing by the groups of players who were waiting to shoot during the shooting drills, hearing bits and bobs of conversations. After passing by those positioned in the center, she walked near those who were on the left of the penalty box.

“Why do soccer players do well in school?”

Amity squinted at hearing Luz’s voice, but she continued walking, too focused on making her way toward Coach Steve.

“Not another one.” Cat giggled. “Why?”

“Because they know how to use their heads!”

Amity deadpanned, closing her eyes in fed-up exasperation. That was the dumbest joke she had ever heard in her life.

Cat laughed. “Luz, that’s even worse than the last one.”

Of course Noceda was spending her time spewing ridiculous jokes and distracting her teammates. 

Amity shook her head — that was an altercation she couldn’t be arsed to have. She had already caught Luz being too relaxed and casual during passing drills instead of focusing on enhancing movement efficiency and speed, tempting others to face-off in dribbling or juggling contests instead of rehydrating during their breaks, or even teaching some of her teammates different handshakes instead of mentally getting into the zone when in line for the shooting drills. Amity told her to knock it off enough times for her to hope it would be enough by now.

“Wait wait wait! I have another one!”

Amity rubbed her temple as she continued walking passed them.

This is not worth your time.

“What’s a soccer player’s favorite drink?”

She side-eyed Luz to see that she was next in line to shoot but didn’t notice yet that it was her turn, thus slowing down the flow and efficiency of the drills, disrupting the few teammates behind her who were currently all waiting for the punchline of Luz’s joke.

That’s it.

Amity was about to stomp toward her when Luz finally noticed it was her turn, nonchalantly kicked the ball, and easily scored.

“A penal-tea!”

Amity strenuously held back a grunt and massaged her tense forehead. She stiffly continued her path toward Coach Steve, the laughter of her teammates becoming more distant the farther she moved away.

“Okay guys maybe don’t aim for the face! I kind of like it!”

Amity heard Luz being obnoxiously loud from not too far so she turned toward the voice, only to see Luz bouncing like an energizer bunny and flailing her arms in front of the goal.

Amity darted toward her.

“Noceda, you are not the goalkeeper.”

“The goalie’s drinking some water, relax Cap’.” She turned to Bo who was in the center behind the penalty box. “Go for it!” 

Amity turned toward Bo as well. “Don’t.” Then back to Luz. “Do you even know how to catch?”

Luz shrugged. “I’ve dabbled.” 

“I’d suggest you step away until Viney comes back.”

“For the purpose of efficiency and allowing the other players to continue the drill, I volunteer as goalie.” She turned toward Bo again. “Go for it!”

Amity glanced at Bo. “Don’t.”

Luz narrowed her eyes. “I thought you were all for maximizing time spent on the pitch?”

“Oh my”— Amity closed her eyes and released an aggravated breath —“Noceda, fine. Knock yourself out.” She grumbled under her breath, “Or let the ball knock you out.”

She stepped away from the goal, nodded to Bo, placed her hand on her hip, and watched. 

Bo made her shot, targeting the center-right of the net. Completely winging the direction in which she’d go but remembering Bo’s preferred direction having watched her practice shooting multiple times, Luz swiftly moved to the left and managed to block the ball with her hands. She stifled a laugh, looked at Amity, and winked.

Amity’s jaw stiffened as the hand that was on her hip clenched, crumpling her t-shirt in her fist. She stared Luz down, who stared her down right back.

“Thanks Luz, you were right, water was a great id-” Viney started saying but her steps slowed down when reaching Luz. She furrowed her brows and was about to glance in the direction Luz was facing when Luz spoke up, ripping her eyes away from the silent duel.

“No problem.” Luz’s face relaxed. She glanced back at Amity to see her already walking away. Then her eyes landed on a visibly-perplexed Vee who was next in line to shoot.

“I’ll leave you to it!”

“Thanks.” Viney grinned. “Now get back there. You’re excellent practice.”

Luz wiggled her eyebrows. “Next time I’ll aim top-right in the corner.”

“I don’t even know how you manage to reach that spot every time.” She chuckled, shooing Luz away, who jogged to join the queue again.

Bo turned toward her.

“Nice save!”

“Thanks! I liked practicing different positions when I was younger and being goalie was always fun, but that was pure luck.”

Bo looked at her skeptically. “And you’re humble too.”

Luz laughed. “No seriously.”

They back-and-forth’d for a bit and continued joking around. When it was Luz’s turn, she pointed toward the top-right corner to tease Viney, who grinned, amused determination in her gaze. Luz grinned back while taking her shot, and bowed when the ball hit the net. 

Viney laughed and shook her head. “Next time! I’ll get it next time!”

Luz giggled. “Top-left!”

Amity arrived at the benches to quickly rehydrate with her water bottle before starting another drill session, regrouping with Skara and Boscha who were recuperating too. 

“That’s the punchline?” Boscha was grinning. 

Amity rolled her eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been infected by Noceda’s idiot jokes.”

Skara pursed her lips. 

Boscha shrugged. “They’re so stupid that they end up being funny. Did you hear the one that starts with ‘why do soccer players do well in school’?”

“Unfortunately.” Amity snickered. “Thankfully that was a joke because she sure doesn’t.”

“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” Boscha said.

Skara asked, “Is it that bad? Because she has to maintain an adequate average to stay on the team.”

Amity sighed. “Yet another reason why context matters when it comes to letting Noceda on the team.”

Skara’s eyebrow raised curiously, so Amity continued with fed-up contempt.

“It’s like she absolutely does not care about her studies. I know she’s always been a hopeless student from the past years; she arrives late, she skips class, she often dozes off when in class, never answers any questions, her presentations were always unstructured and all over the place, and I’ve already seen her hand in almost blank sheets of paper for tests. I don’t know her average, but I’m not exactly convinced she’ll maintain an adequate one to stay on the team.”

Skara’s brows furrowed in slight worry. 

Boscha sighed in annoyance. “We’ll see whether she can step up for her studies too then. ”

“She might be good with a ball, but when it comes to everything else, she’s a failure.” 

Amity looked around the pitch and noticed Luz who was near the benches too, back turned, conversing with some of their teammates. Amity’s eyes suddenly zoned in on something black on Luz’s arm, she squinted, peering closer, and her eyebrows shot right up. 

“This miscreant has a tattoo??” 

Boscha asked, “Really? Where?”

“On her left arm, right above her elbow.” Amity scoffed then grimaced. “That’s so uncouth. She’s even more of a delinquent than I thought.” 

“Can you see what it is?”

“Not from here, it’s rather small, and I am not interested in witnessing what this unrefined brute would consider ‘art.’”

Skara asked, “But she’s seventeen. How did she get a tattoo?”

Amity paused, then her face scrunched up. “Her parents let her get a tattoo?? What kind of parents let their kid get a tattoo? That’s exceedingly irresponsible. Maybe that’s where Noceda gets it from. Or maybe some of her criminal friends gave it to her.”

Skara tilted her head in confusion. “She has criminal friends?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.” Amity’s eyes narrowed in on Luz’s arm again. She recoiled. “A reckless minor flaunting a tattoo on her arm. Rogue behavior.”

“Good luck to her if she regrets it in the future,” Boscha added.

Skara hesitantly nodded.

Then Luz turned around to make her way to the benches. She accidentally made eye contact with Amity, who couldn’t help but give her a harsh judgmental, condemning look when thinking about the careless, unprofessional, vulgar, permanent blotch so gracelessly showed off on her skin. 

Immediate annoyance and slight confusion washed over Luz’s face at the particularly scornful look shot her way, not knowing what the hell Amity’s problem was this time. She glared back in defiance. So Amity stared her down even more.

Throughout the days, Luz and Amity felt this tension, suppressed, shadowing them on field. It built up, and heated, more and more with every interaction, every remark spat and retort received, every ‘disrespectful taunt’ and ‘domineering critique’, the pent-up tension threatening to unleash, treaty subtly cracking at the seams. 

And on the pitch, their true thoughts were cloaked, concealed, tamed for the sake of the game. But outside of the pitch, those bottled-up thoughts risked an untimely reveal.

On the Thursday morning, Luz and her friends met up outside of the school and made their way toward her and Willow’s classroom, Hunter and Gus’ class luckily being right down the hall. They were chilling and talking about the party that one of Hunter’s friends was hosting tomorrow, when from afar, Luz spotted Amity and Skara coming their way. 

Amity, irritation etched on her face, muttered to Skara, “Here we go,” rolling her eyes as they approached the classroom. 

Luz heard and mimicked her in a whiny tone, “Here we go.”

Amity squinted then chuckled in the most haughty of ways. “Immature much?” she said as she was about to walk past Luz. 

Luz leaned toward Gus and coughed, saying under her breath, “Bitchy much?”

Amity stopped right next to her. “What did you just call me?”

“Sorry, should’ve spoken louder. I said, ‘Bitchy, much?’”

Amity narrowed her eyes. “You’re seriously calling me a bitch?”

“I can call you other things if you’d like”— Luz tried holding back a grin —“I have a repertoire.”

“Oh yeah?” Amity deadpanned, unimpressed. “Surprise me.”

“Okay, here’s a very silly one: ‘stone-cold goody-two-shoes.’”

“At least I’m not a lazy imbecile.”

Luz raised her eyebrow. “That’s seriously all you got? I thought an ‘eloquent’ girl like you would have more creative insults, or have you exhausted all your braincells of the day delusionally thinking about how pretty and perfect you are?”

Amity took a threatening step forward, her pulse speeding up. “Talking with you is the only thing that could deplete my braincells. But trust me, I have more than enough to know that you’re an absolute waste of my time.”

Luz dangerously moved forward too, heat growing in her chest. “You’re right, you’re wasting your time by talking with me when instead you could, I don’t know, maybe lighten the fuck up? Seriously, are you just immune to having fun?”

“I’ll be having plenty of fun while I succeed in life, it’s just sad to watch you be a lost cause every day.”

Luz clenched her fists. “At least I don’t have a stick up my ass.”

Amity hissed, “At least I have a future.”

“You won’t if you die of boredom and arrogance first.”

“I think I’d rather die than be a fuck-up like you.”

Hunter urgently yet extremely cautiously placed his hand on Luz’s shoulder, attempting to make her step back as Luz and Amity were getting riskily close to each other’s faces. But their glares stayed sizzling, tension suspended in the air between them. Willow and Gus glanced at each other, eyes wide, Skara’s eyebrows were raised, everyone stunned shut.

Luz then felt the hand on her shoulder and slowly leaned away from Amity, but her blood was still boiling. Amity suddenly became aware of her surroundings and immediately straightened her back, but flames stayed burning in her chest. 

She faced Skara. “Let’s go inside.”

Skara nodded slowly before following her. “Sure.” 

Luz unclenched her fists and exhaled a loaded breath.

Willow whispered, concerned, “What was that?”

Luz grunted, “Fucking Blight.”

At soccer practice that afternoon, under the patchy cloudy sky, the palpable remnant spite following their unmasked confrontation lingered but they had to force it aside for the sake of playing well. They both thought it easiest to completely avoid each other, but Coach Eda had other plans: that afternoon forecasted small-scale practice matches, and they both ended up on the same team.

Luz had quickly picked up on the team’s favored strategies, recognizing most combinations from her earlier years of training, and intuitively understanding the new tactics, so playing as a forward with Amity was going to be easy on the strategy front.

The match began and the ball and the game became their sole focus. Gaining possession of the ball and defending it, intercepting and retrieving it, utilizing tactics and varying the strategies to throw their opponents off were at the forefront of their minds throughout the game.

At one point, Luz raced toward the goal after having dribbled past a defender. Approaching, she smiled mischievously at the goalkeeper, Viney, hoping to catch her off-guard. “Center-right!” 

Viney paused for a second then grinned and shook her head.

Luz tried holding back her laughter which slowed her down and she ended up weakly kicking the ball right into Viney’s hands.

“Luz, you’re an idiot,” Viney teased.

Luz covered her mouth to stifle her laughter, then winked and shot her finger-guns. She turned around to her teammates. “Sorry guys, won’t happen again!”

Amity seethed, incredulous.

She goofs off during matches too??

The match continued and at one point Amity had the ball. She rushed toward the goal but two opponents blocked her path. She glanced around to see that Luz was clearly open and close to the goal in an ideal spot, but the midfielder, Vee, was open too, so she instantly passed the ball to Vee who she knew for certain would make the most of it and not waste any opportunities. Luz looked at her completely confused, but Amity ignored her and focused on the game.

So, the next time Luz got the ball and Amity was open and ready for the pass which would’ve allowed for Amity to make a notably skillful shot, Luz looked at Amity to signal she was intending to send it to her, but instead last-second passed it to Vee, which was still a good play.

Vee ran forward and in the meantime a defender caught up and circled Amity who was to the left of the goal. So Vee went to take the shot but got tackled by a swift Katya who sent the ball outside the line behind the goal, resulting in a corner kick.

While Vee made her way to the corner to make the kick, Amity approached Luz a bit to the side so that the others couldn’t hear.

“What the hell? I was clearly open and in an excellent position to score.”

Luz defiantly shrugged. “Vee was in a good spot too, and apparently that doesn’t bother you when you do it.”

Amity stepped forward, sharpening her tone. “I passed it to someone who was taking the game seriously.”

Luz stepped closer bringing them face-to-face, lowering her voice. “Just because I’m less dead-strict doesn’t mean I’m not serious.” 

“You’re sabotaging the game.”

“Says you.”

“I play to win.”

“Me too.”

Tenseness rushed between them, dangerously close, scowling at each other in heated silence.

Coach Eda called out from the sidelines, “Girls, back to your positions!”

Luz and Amity tore their gazes away from each other to join the rest of the players in front of the goal for the corner kick. They managed to fully focus for the remaining few minutes of the match, which they ended up losing, but Coach Eda still sensed the tension when the match was over.

She called them over, brows furrowed. “Hey, get your acts together.”

Amity’s face flamed up. “Yes, definitely, sorry, Coach Eda.”

“Sorry Coach, won’t happen again.” Luz nodded.

“Good,” Coach Eda said, looking between them, “Now go drink some water and cool off.”

Amity and Luz nodded before parting ways. Luz roamed off casually, while Amity breathed heavily, cheeks red, straightening her posture while walking toward the benches.

Then the teams rotated and they were to face each other off. To say the tension dissolved completely was a blatant lie that neither believed. But this time, thankfully, there was absolutely no cooperation needed, and playing on opposite teams was a much more enticing prospect.

Near the center circle waiting for the kickoff whistle to blow, they sneaked each other a glance, determination fastened on their faces. The twenty-minute match flew by quickly, fast-paced. Amity and Luz weren’t near each other often, but the couple of times they were, they made sure to take advantage of it.

At one point, Amity had the ball and was racing toward the goal and Luz was the main obstacle between her and the goalie. Pulse speeding up, Amity skillfully dribbled past Luz with excellent technique, duping her by feinting left before swerving past Luz to the right. Amity grinned when she scored right after. Luz cracked her knuckles.

A bit later, Luz intercepted a pass and rushed toward the goal, dribbling past Cat, with only Amity left to cross, who was ready to kick away the ball as soon as Luz approached. Slowing down slightly as she neared Amity to face off close-range, she looked up, smirked, and smoothly kicked the ball between Amity’s legs, outplaying her with the skillful show-off move. Amity’s nerves fired up and Luz snickered in pride when scoring the goal.

There weren’t many more face-offs, but the more they outmaneuvered each other, the more frustrating it got, and the tenser they felt. By the end of the match, neither of them had the upper hand. They only had balled-up fists instead of high-fives.

Practice ended not long after, and after taking her time in the locker room as she chatted with Vee, Luz headed to the parking lot toward the motorbike parking spots. But to get there, she had to pass by Amity who was waiting for her friends near her car.

Amity exhaled through her nose as Luz approached. 

She ground her teeth, but ended up speaking up. “Noceda.”

Luz cursed under her breath, stopped next to her, pissed at being bothered yet again. “Blight?”

“You are the last person I want to talk to right now, but we need to talk about how today was unacceptable. Need I remind you of the treaty?”

Luz scoffed, “You think it’s my fault?”

“It certainly is not mine.”

“This is ridiculous, get off of your high horse.”

“It’s not my fault that you were goofing around—”

Luz grunted loudly, “Not this again.” 

“—during that first match and missed a goal—”

“I’m so done.”

“—which lost us the game. If you don’t work—”

“Actually kill me now.”

“—on your behavior, we’ll lose at the competitions.”

Luz gawked. “You’re such a broken record with this whole ‘stay serious, stay focused, stop having fun’ and all that shit! My ears are legitimately going to explode, I get it, you’re obsessively strict and insanely bossy, now quit being on my back and let me practice in peace.”

Amity’s eyebrows shot up. “I repeat it because it’s true and absolutely problematic; you think I want to be constantly reminding you of the basic etiquette of our team? You think I enjoy having to take pauses between drills to keep your tomfoolery in check?” Frustration seeped through her tone. “It is incredibly maddening to see you distracting the other players and disrupting the flow of the drills! There wasn’t this unruliness before, and guess what? Before, we were winners. And we’re here to be winners.”

“Oh, my, god,” Luz snapped, “relax! This was practice, we’re weeks away from the real matches, I got sidetracked like once, and the rest of the time, I played great, and you know it.”

“Sidetracked one time too many. Practice matches prepare us for the real deal, they’re what matter most, how can you not understand that? I’m the Captain, it’s my duty, I’m supposed to make sure things go smoothly and that everyone steps up and works their hardest,” she rasped, “like how it’s always been! Knock your ‘funny’ socks off all you want outside of the pitch. But on the pitch, you have to understand that you need to be consistently giving it your all.”

Luz’s hand covered her mouth. “This is such a waste of time.” 

“Clearly,” Amity spat.

Luz closed her eyes. “Bye, Blight, see ya tomorrow,” she said, bitterness in her tone, before stepping away.

Amity muttered through clenched teeth, “To my absolute greatest disappointment.”

The next day, after the absurd amount of conflict that had erupted all throughout the day before, Luz and Amity completely avoided all chance of eye-contact in the morning. 

The second Luz saw pink and black clothing strutting in the distance, heat sparked in her chest and she turned around, repositioning herself in her friend circle so that she was facing the other way. When Amity spotted the red beanie down the hall, her chest thudded and her head tilted up, eyes focused on the classroom door.

During class, Amity didn’t turn around once, even grabbing her entire bag to bring it in front of her when needing to collect stuff inside of it, so that she didn’t need to turn around to do it. And Luz, when not doodling or dozing off, tried to avoid her often-distracted eyes zoning out on the front row.

In the afternoon, Luz made sure to take extra time to arrive at the locker rooms as she knew that Amity was one of the first one’s in. There weren’t any practice matches thus no need to play together; so, by their standards, it was a very good day.

That evening, Luz and her friends met up at Willow’s for dinner, all ready to go to the party that Hunter’s friend was hosting. Willow’s parents were away for the weekend on some nature retreat with some of their friends, so they were all crashing at hers that night.

Thanks to a guy Luz’s age that she’d met at the motorbike repair shop last year who talked about some motorbike events he attended that were 18+, revealing that he had ‘underground connections’, that Luz, of course, was interested in, lead to her acquiring a fake ID. So, she came prepared with three packs of beers for them to bring to the party.

After playing some card games and ordering dinner, the friends left Willow’s and made their way by foot to the house, around a fifteen minute walk. Another debate on whether ghosts existed absorbed Gus and Willow, and Hunter and Luz talked about their plans on continuing to go to the gym on the weekends.

They arrived at the house and opened the door to find around two dozen people in the huge living room, cups and bottles scattered around on the tables, music thumping in the background, and people coming in and out of what seemed to be the kitchen. Hunter said that he wanted to find his friend first and Luz wiggled her eyebrows and told them that she’d bring the beers to the kitchen. She darted ahead of them and the friends looked around the living room. 

Hunter nudged Willow and told her and Gus, “Look at the back to the right.”

There, they spotted Amity, Boscha, and Skara.

Hunter and Willow glanced at each other, and grinned.

Willow slyly said, “Maybe with a bit of alcohol Luz will realize that she hates Amity a little too much.”

“I still don’t see why in the world you’d think that,” Gus said, shaking his head, eyes slightly wide at seeing Amity. “Every single day she goes on about how Amity constantly aggravates her to no end.”

Hunter patted him on the back. “Sweet innocent Gus.”

“No but seriously, have you seen the fire in her eyes when they argue?”

Willow said, “Exactly.”

Hunter smirked. “Let’s go see Luz." Then he gulped, and very nervously chuckled. "We all need a drink before she realizes who else is here.”

Chapter Text

Hunter, Willow, and Gus went to the kitchen to find Luz holding multiple beers in her hands. She handed them to her friends and decapsulated each of them by holding the bottle in one hand and cupping the top with the other: using the ring on her middle finger as a lever, she positioned it under the cap and with a forceful forward tilt of her hand, popped the cap off. It was a technique that a guy showed off to impress the ladies at a party Hunter and Luz went to that summer — a noble pursuit, that Luz the charmer had to learn.

Once the bottles ready in everyone’s hands, they all clinked them together, said “Cheers!” and took an excited swig. Luz and Hunter released satisfied sighs while Willow and Gus’s faces crisped up at the fizzy bitter taste of the beer, needing a second to get used to it again.

“Next drink I’m making a mojito with the limes and mint over there.”

Luz snickered at Willow. “Even in drinks you want plants.”

“What can I say?” Willow shrugged with a sarcastic smile. “I have taste.”

Hunter whispered loudly to Willow so that Luz could hear, “I’ll make it for you, don’t worry.”

Luz scoffed. “Traitor!”

“Could you make one for me later too please?” Gus innocently said to tease Luz even more.

Her hand raced to her chest. “Double traitor!”

“Traitor squared, if you will,” Gus noted, rubbing his chin in mock reflection.

“Traitor squa— Gus, no maths, please, I beg you,” Luz dramatically pleaded. Then she chuckled. “We’re here to relax after this first week of senior year.” She sighed contently. “Parties are amazing. Friends, spicy drinks, games, we’re gonna have a great time!”

Bright smiles spread across her friends’ faces.

Luz continued, “Literally unless one of you dumbasses gets blackout drunk and we have to carry you home—”

Hunter shot her a look.

Luz scoffed but conceded, “—or… me… which isn’t gonna happen… anyways whatever Hunter go choke—”

He snickered.

“—other than that, I don’t see what could go wrong! And shit do I need to breathe after this week.” She shook her head. “I really need to breathe after this stupid week.” But then she sighed peacefully and her face relaxed even more as she took another sip.

Her friends exchanged furtive looks, all knowing exactly what the other was thinking.

“Yep!” Willow exclaimed, plastering a smile on her face. Then her stiff smile relaxed, confident that they’d have a great night together. She noticed Hunter’s face ease up as well, and nudged Gus to snap him out of his rapid blinking.

They headed out of the kitchen into the long corridor, where they heard chatter and cheers coming from inside one of the rooms. There was a bit less than a dozen people and Luz immediately noticed a beer pong set up on the table in the center of the room. Someone said, “Who thinks they can take them?”

Luz grinned at her friends and instantly stepped toward the table and spoke up, “Alright chumps, you’re on!” They arrived at the table and Luz looked across to actually see who the opponents were.

Her jaw went slack. “There’s no damn fucking way,” she said under her breath upon seeing Amity who had just noticed her too, hosting the exact same disbelieving glare. Luz gritted her teeth as her hand clenched the glass beer bottle that would’ve been crushed had it been plastic.

She turned toward her friends and talked in a low enough voice for only them to hear. “We managed to avoid each other all day. It was a good day. There’s no damn way we’re in the same room right now at a party on a Friday night.” She shook her head in complete, riled-up disbelief.

Hunter hesitantly spoke up, “If you want, we can skip this game and take on another team later?”

Luz clenched her jaw and turned her head back toward the other side of the table to see Amity, Boscha, and Skara talking between themselves as well. Then she caught Amity’s gaze.

They squinted harshly at each other from across the table, tension igniting in their chests, until Boscha spoke up.

“So are we playing?”

Luz and Amity’s eyebrows raised slightly. The corner of Amity’s lips twitched up.

Luz said, “Game on.”

A dozen people surrounded the dinner table including the teams who were at the opposite ends. Each team of two had ten cups with beer inside that formed a pyramid in front of them with the tip pointed toward the opponents, the goal being to take turns throwing ping pong balls in the opponents’ cups. When the ball landed in a cup, the opponents had to drink that cup and discard it to the side, and the team to remove all the cups from the opponents won.

Luz asked her friends while setting up the cups, “Who wants to play?”

Gus vehemently shook his head. 

Hunter nudged Willow, and smiled. “You should go for it.”

“Are you sure? You’re way better than me.”

Luz wiggled her eyebrows at her, done pouring beer in the cups. “It’s gonna be fun, don’t worry.”

Willow chuckled nervously. “Okay, sure.”

Luz grinned. They turned toward the other end of the table.

Boscha and Amity finished setting up the cups as well. Boscha asked, “Rules: wrists or elbow?”

“Elbow,” Luz replied, to which Boscha nodded. “Blowing?”

“Yes. Trick shot?”

“Hell yeah.” Then Luz noticed that Willow looked highly confused.

“Oh yeah, wait I’ll explain! So first, your elbow has to stay behind the table otherwise the shot doesn’t count. Blowing means that if the ball gets in the cup but starts spinning around the cup before touching the beer, you can try to blow it out, and if the ball pops out then it doesn’t count.”

Willow nodded. “What about ‘trick shot’?”

Luz smiled mischievously. “If you toss the ball but it ends up rolling or bouncing back towards us, if we catch it before the opponent swats it away, we get another shot. But it has to be a trick shot, meaning we either turn around and lob it behind us, or we close our eyes, yenno tricky stuff like that.”

Willow looked skeptical at that but chuckled. “Sure.”

Luz turned back toward Boscha. “The other basic rules too? Racking?”

“Also fixing.”

 Luz nodded and said to Willow, “I’ll explain them to you as we go. You ready?”

“Let’s see?”

Boscha asked, “‘Eyes’ to see who starts?”

“Let’s do it.” 

So Luz and Boscha both grabbed a pingpong ball and dunked it into their team’s cup of water that was on the side to wash it off; not part of the rules per se, but a fairly common practice before each turn because most often the balls would fall on the floor, and Luz followed Boscha’s lead. Then they looked each other in the eyes and without looking away, aimed their ball toward the other’s cups. Boscha missed while Luz’s landed in one of their cups. Some of the people surrounding the table went “Ooooh!” Boscha shot her a skeptical look and Luz grinned at Willow. “That cup doesn’t count, it was just to see who would start, so it’s us.”

Luz and Willow each grabbed a ball and dipped them in the water cup.

“We got this.” Luz winked at Willow, who turned toward Hunter and Gus with a ‘please help me’ look. The guys stifled their laughter and shook their heads. Willow pouted before facing the table again.

Luz eyed the cups, then her gaze flickered up and saw Amity looking right at her. Luz squinted back at her then eyed the cups again. She tossed first, then Willow, and neither of them got any cups. Then Boscha aimed, and missed. Amity carefully eyed the cups, positioned her arm with precision as if she had calculated the perfect angle.

Luz mumbled to Willow, “How is she so serious during party games too?”

Willow shrugged. “Does it surprise you?”

“No, no it doesn’t.”

Amity tossed the ball meticulously, and it landed in a cup. The people around her went “Oooh!” as spectators loved doing every time someone dunked a ball into a cup, and Amity released a subtle grin.

Luz squinted as she picked up the cup to remove the ball and take the first drink. Willow aimed again and missed, the ball going over the cups and directly into Boscha’s hand. Then Luz casually lifted her arm and nonchalantly tossed the ball, which landed in a cup. The spectators went “Oooh!” again, and Luz could especially distinguish Hunter and Gus’ cheers among the others. Luz grinned, and watched Amity take the first drink.

The rounds continued, both teams missing and succeeding in their shots. Luz and Willow joked around between turns, patting each other on the back and laughing at themselves when they played particularly badly. At one point they jokingly re-enacted a ‘flirty’ scene where Luz came behind Willow and ‘taught’ her how to aim by hugging her from behind and guiding her arm into position. They tossed the ball together in that position and almost everyone went crazy when the ball actually hit the rim of one of the cups but didn’t go in.

When it was their turn again, Hunter said to Willow, “You got this. You got this.”

Luz raised her eyebrow, slight smirk toying at her lips. “Hey, where’s my support?”

Hunter let out a crooked smile and rubbed his neck. “You got this too. Happy?”

Her smirk grew before she turned toward the table again.

Gus asked her at some point after she again so casually tossed a ball into a cup. “How did you get so good?”

Hunter and Luz smiled sneakily at each other. “Remember the college guys that Hunter and I met at the gym when you were at astronomy camp and Willow was away with her dads’ at their cabin? We went to a couple of their parties and there was always beer pong. It was like their national sport.“

Hunter patted Luz’s back. “She was a natural. All the guys were impressed.” Then he leaned in and lowered his voice as if ready to admit a scandalous secret that only his friends were allowed to hear. “So were the ladies.”

Luz laughed and whacked his shoulder. “Hunter!”

He tried keeping a straight face. “Just saying.”

Both Boscha and Amity were, somewhat surprisingly, very solid at the game, Boscha being her usual smug self and Amity’s cockiness being increasingly palpable. Luz and her often caught each other’s gazes and couldn’t help the dirty looks that they shot each other, especially after one of them would land a cup. And every time they had to drink because of the other’s shot, the beer tasted extra bitter.

At one point, Boscha tossed the ball into a cup, and both she and Luz said at the same time, “Heating up!”

Luz nodded at her, admittedly impressed that she knew the esoteric term, which could be called out when a player landed a cup two rounds in a row. Boscha returned the impressed look, and nodded back at her in acknowledgment.

Then it was Luz’s turn and she sank the ball again, making it two rounds in a row as well. She didn’t say it but looked at Boscha, who let out a small smirk and a nod of acknowledgment. Luz gave her a small smirk back. Then she noticed Skara smiling at her too. Luz chuckled and smiled back.

Then Amity sank a cup, making it two rounds in a row as well. But the only thing heating up was her and Luz’s duel as their challenging eyes fought again. Despite the more lighthearted happenings around them, this tense sensation faintly hummed in the background, on standby in the back of their chests. It intensified every time their gazes crossed paths, impossible to control, inescapably sucking them back into each other’s flames, trapped in their inexorable battle whenever near.

“Trick shot!” Willow exclaimed when Luz caught the ball that she had just thrown when it bounced back toward her. “Right?”

“Right!” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Do you wanna take it?”

“Nope.”

Luz let out a laugh. “Here goes nothing.”

She decided to trick shot from behind, so she turned around, looked behind her shoulder for a moment as she positioned her arm.

Hunter shook his head. “I swear if you make it this time, I’ll call the college guys, tell them that you practicing back shots with them actually paid off, and convince them to hire you for their frat party tournaments.”

Luz stifled a laugh. “You don’t know what I do during my weekends, Hunt.”

Hunter snickered. “She’s unhinged.”

Luz looked behind her shoulder to eye the cups again before focusing and tuning into her muscle memory, remembering the motion that she had practiced with the college guys who had taken her under their wing at beer pong after witnessing her natural potential. There were four cups left, luckily all close and touching each other. After releasing a deep breath, she lobbed the ball over her head, spun around to watch, and the spectators completely lost their shit and screamed when it hit the rim of one of the cups, bounced off it, to then splash into the cup next to it. 

“No fucking way,” Hunter cheered as he laughed in disbelief, “There’s no way!”

Luz burst out laughing too as she shook her fists to the skies. “Shit, it worked!”

“The worst is that this probably won’t even shock the guys! They knew you’d land one at some point.”

“Tell them I say ‘hi’”—then she lowered her voice—“and that Wrath’s girlfriend is hot.”

Hunter slapped her shoulder. “You’re actually unhinged.”

Luz’s head tipped back as she cackled. She wiped her invisible tears and turned back toward the opponents to see Boscha drinking that cup, and Amity rubbing her forehead.

Amity and Boscha quickly caught up and both teams now had three cups left. After chuckling at something Willow said, Luz turned toward the table again to see Amity staring her down, ping pong ball in hand. Luz defiantly stared back. Amity lifted her arm in a calculated manner, elegantly tossed the ball, and it smoothly landed in the center of one of the cups that was positioned alone to the side. She shot Luz a challenging look, as if to say, “Drink.” Luz’s jaw tightened as she removed the ball and lifted the cup to her lips, gaze steady on Amity. She downed the beer in one go before looking back at her with matching intensity. 

The same ball that Amity had just thrown ready in Luz’s hand, without breaking eye-contact, she lifted her arm and chucked the ball toward the cups. A subtle grin grew on Luz’s face at the satisfying plop of the ball landing in the beer. Her challenging eyes said right back at her, “Drink.” Amity clenched the cup before downing it as well.

Willow then tossed the ball and it landed in a cup, bringing her successful shots to three, prompting Luz to turn and zealously high-five her.

“Let’s go!” Luz chuckled, rubbing her shoulder.

Willow beamed, “Only one cup left!”

“We got this.”

But quickly enough, Boscha sank one of theirs first.

Neck and neck, the atmosphere was getting heated, one cup remained for each team. Luz was evidently carrying her team, and Boscha and Amity tag-teamed fluently. Luz quizzically looked at Boscha and pointed toward the two cups. Boscha understood what Luz was asking and nodded, so Luz announced to everyone that their game included the “revenge round,” which meant that once a team sank the last cup, the other team could try and get revenge by having one last shot at it. If that team also landed the cup, then none of the cups were removed and the round reset.

Luz, evidently amused, finally asked Boscha, “How do you know all this?”

Boscha shrugged. “Gavin hosted a lot of parties during the summer.”

Luz’s face lit up in understanding — now it made sense. Gavin was Boscha’s ex-boyfriend, and he was the step-brother of Hunter’s friend, Angmar, who lived here too. But now Luz was wondering what was happening between Boscha and Gavin and whether they were back together. She pondered for a silly second before shivering out of that ludicrous rabbit hole to refocus on the game.

The faint music coming from the other room faintly thumped in the background as everyone quieted while Boscha and Amity positioned themselves. Boscha’s ball hit the back rim and fell behind the cup. Then Amity carefully lifted her arm, practiced the tossing motion with her hand, steadied her breathing, and sent the ball flying above the table. It splashed right into the beer. 

The crowd went crazy with that flawless shot and all gazes darted to Luz and Willow to see whether they could come back from that with the revenge round.

Willow carefully eyed the single cup and tossed the ball but it bounced on the table just a couple of inches to the left of the cup. When it was Luz’s turn, she puffed out a breath, rubbed the ball between her hands, lifted her arm and tossed the ball straight toward the cup. The ball hit the inside rim of the cup but it spun around the rim as if teasing the beer. Then Amity swiftly dipped her head and powerfully blew into the cup, making the ball pop right out, and she snatched it with her hand before it could roll back toward Luz.

The spectators went absolutely feral at the save and cheered with excitement for the winners of that game, Amity and Boscha. Luz’s mouth fell open but she bit her lip to keep it shut. The smirk that tore through Amity’s face was criminal. She oozed with cocky pride, and Luz’s heartbeat spiked when Amity looked at her with fire in her eyes and a tauntingly raised eyebrow. Amity’s pulse rushed when Luz stared her down with matching flames.

Then Willow said to her friends, “That was actually so fun!” And Luz heard, and her face immediately softened and she turned toward them.

Hunter gushed a little, “You did so good, Willow!”

Luz scoffed but didn’t even try hiding her smirk. “She absolutely did do great yes”—she patted Willow on the back with much affection—“but hey!”

Hunter stuck his tongue out and patted Luz’s beanie. “You did good too.”

Luz swatted his arm away and laughed, shoving his shoulder. Hunter laughed and shoved her back, which made Luz roll her shoulders and square them, her signal that she was not afraid to fight. Hunter cracked his knuckles and lifted his head, squaring up as well.

Gus’s eyes popped open and he thrust his arm forward between them. “Not here please!”

Hunter and Luz burst out laughing and Gus and Willow couldn’t help but join in.

On the other side of the table, Boscha winked at the loving spectators with a smug smile and a casual shrug as if to say, “Obviously we won. No big deal,” when of course Boscha was bathing in the praise.

She nudged Amity, who, brows furrowed, jaw clenched, was staring across the table at Luz and her friends who were all laughing together despite having just lost. Amity blew out a frustrated and irritated breath before turning toward Boscha. She ended up releasing a faint chuckle at seeing the cocky smile on Boscha’s lips that she knew too well.

Boscha raised her voice, “Who dares go next?”

Unspoken fear rippled throughout the spectators as they all glanced at each other, before two buff guys not-so-confidently stepped up. “You’re on.”

Boscha and Amity looked at each other, trying to stifle their snide laughter.

Before filling and repositioning the cups, Amity glanced up and saw Luz moving away from the table to let the guys set up. Amity shook her head and refocused on the cups.

Luz and her friends headed to the living room, but while stepping away from the table, she glanced toward the other end and saw Amity setting up the cups. Luz exhaled through her nose and continued out the door with her friends.

The dimly-lit living room hosted a bit more than a dozen people split into smaller groups chatting among themselves. The long sofa was pushed to the wall to make more space in the middle of the room, and the two large speakers thumped with background music on each side of the flat screen TV. The tables on the side were filled with cups, bottles, chips, and candy. 

Looking around, Hunter finally found Angmar, his friend, who waved them over to his group and introduced the new faces to each other. They all keenly exchanged greetings and the conversations flowed easily, with a good dynamic between the groups. Funny stories, random anecdotes, lighthearted debates, and overall interesting discussions animated everyone. They were having a great time.

At one point between chuckles, Luz raised her bottle to her lips to then realize that it was empty. She pouted.

“You guys need a refill?”

Angmar’s friends said that they were fine while Luz’s friends asked her whether she was sure, offering to come with her to the kitchen.

“Totally fine no worries! I’ll be quick.”

They thanked her before she stepped away.

A content sigh left her mouth when walking down the corridor. She had to swerve past a couple of people who weren’t exactly walking straight, herself feeling the buzz with all the beer in her system at that point, but still walking ironically straight. 

The clock in the kitchen displayed 11 pm. Luz grabbed two fresh bottles from the fridge and placed them on the counter, then took two clean plastic cups from a stack and searched around her for the necessary ingredients, finding everything she needed. Luz shook her head with spite as she poured white rum, soda water, slices of lime, sugar, and mint leaves into the two cups while the two fresh beer bottles judgmentally watched her betray them.

“Luz?”

The sweet voice beckoned her to turn around, smile instantly growing on her face. “Masha?”

They smiled too and Luz wrapped her arms around their waist while Masha’s arms softly wrapped around Luz’s neck; they gently squeezed each other for a moment before letting go. 

Luz’s hands absentmindedly lingered on Masha’s waist. “How’ve you been?”

Masha’s hands lingered on Luz’s shoulders. “I’ve been good, thanks. First week was a hot mess though. And you?”

“Tell me about it.” Luz chuckled. “Honestly same. But, yenno, life. What do your card readings say for this year?”

Masha gently pushed her shoulders but they couldn’t stifle their grin. 

Luz feigned pain from the shove and rubbed her shoulder dramatically. “Always so violent.”

Masha snickered. “Says you.”

“Please, that threat was self-defense when that jackass came at me and I only flipped him off in the first place because he was looking at you funny. Remember?”

Masha rolled their eyes playfully. “My savior.”

Luz scoffed. “I can see your card readings predicted you’d be an even bigger pain in the ass this year.”

“Luz”—Masha laughed, shoving her shoulders more forcefully—“how are you even more annoying than last year?”

She opened her mouth ready to snap back, but ended up giggling. “I have no comeback.”

Their eyebrows raised teasingly. “Your snide ass has no comebacks, huh? I’m disappointed.”

Luz pouted and poked Masha’s forehead. “Ouchie.”

Masha laughed. “How many beers?”

Luz tried pursing her lips but they quirked up anyway. “None of your beeswax. Anyways! Can’t believe I hadn’t seen you yet. Have you been having fun?”

“Yeah, Angmar and Gavin really threw a big one to start the year off right. What about you? Having fun?”

Luz nodded.

Then Masha noticed the four drinks waiting on the counter behind Luz. They teased, “All for you?”

Luz chuckled. “Hey, it’s gotten much better okay?” 

Masha’s face softened, caught off guard by the more sincere response. Gently, they said, “That’s really good.” They tentatively asked, “So, only at parties now?” 

Luz’s hand subconsciously went toward her left arm above her elbow. Masha noticed and their hand was about to go cup Luz's shoulder but hesitated. 

After a couple of seconds, Luz let out a small, sincere smile. "Yeah. Only at parties with my friends.” Then her smile turned sneaky and she winked. “And it’s damn fun.”

Masha held a bright, reassured smile. “Totally.”

Luz giggled. “Wanna go to the living room?”

“Yeah, let me get a drink first,” they said before quickly pouring some random liquor and soda in a cup.

Luz laughed. “Do you even know what potential monstrosity you just made?”

Masha shrugged and elbowed her in the stomach. “Have you ever seen me care?”

“As feisty as ever!”

Masha smirked. “And you’re as goofy as ever.”

Luz smirked back as she clumsily picked up the two treacherous mojitos in one hand and the two beer bottles in the other before exiting the kitchen with Masha. They asked whether they could help carry any of the drinks, to which Luz shook her head, jokingly offended.

“As stubborn as always, too.” Masha smiled as they followed her down the corridor, which made Luz scoff in amusement and side-eye them.

They both entered the living room and noticed only a few people Luz didn’t exactly know chatting in the center of the room. But then Hunter appeared almost out of nowhere from the side.

“Hey Luz, come here!”

Luz could tell immediately that alcohol was flowing through him by the way he weakly swung his arm around her. She chuckled. “What?”

Then Hunter noticed Masha. “Masha! How’ve you been?” He let go of Luz to lean in for a hug.

Masha reciprocated the hug with a smile. “I’m good, thanks. You?”

“Great.” Hunter winked. It looked bad. “Guys come here.”

Hunter walked them toward the side of the room where a dozen people sat chilling in a circle. Hunter pulled her to sit down between him and Willow. Masha noticed a friend of theirs that pointed to the space next to him, so they smiled at Luz and sat down next to their friend.

“I’ve come with spicy drinks!” Luz giggled as she sat down crossed-legged between Hunter and Willow in the circle. She handed the cups to Willow and Gus, who thanked her, surprised at Luz actually bringing them something other than a beer.

“You didn’t.” Willow gasped dramatically.

“I did.” Luz winked. It looked a bit more suave than Hunter’s. Then she handed Hunter one of the beer bottles.

Hunter’s hand floated to his chest. “You didn’t.” 

“You dumbass.” Luz laughed lightly.

She looked around the circle: Angmar, his friends, Masha, Skara—Oh no…Don’t tell me— Amity. Across from her.

Not. Again.

Luz huffed in fed-up desperation. Not a-fucking-gain.

And Amity noticed her. She stared her down, thinking the exact same thing.

She turned toward Boscha who was to her right, who was the one to drag her into sitting down with them for the game that, naturally, Amity was absolutely not interested in playing.

“There’s no way I’m staying. I can’t be bothered.”

Boscha rolled her eyes. “You have to.”

“I actually do not.”

“Come ooooon. A deal’s a deal!”

Amity narrowed her eyes at her. 

Boscha smirked. “I sank that last cup fair and square.”

“Remind me to never accept any of your bets ever again.”

“I won’t.”

Amity huffed. She turned away from Boscha who was snickering and absentmindedly looked across from her. Hunter was handing Luz an unopened beer bottle while saying, “Can you do the ring thing, please?” which sparked a wide grin on her face. She gripped it with one hand and placed her other hand on the top of the bottle, with the ring on her middle finger positioned against the cap, then she abruptly tilted that hand and the cap popped off.

Amity blinked, eyebrows slightly arched in a ‘what the fuck did I just witness’ way. 

Of all the skills, of all the useful skills that one can learn… Noceda really chose to learn how to open a beer bottle with a ring?

Amity held the flattest, most tired expression.

Gavin spoke up which made everyone quiet down, “Okay guys, let’s start the game of Truth or Dare. Who wants to start?”

“I’ll go,” Angmar said as he turned toward one of his friends, Derwin, with a devilish smile. “Truth or dare?”

Derwin squinted at him. “Dare.”

“I dare you to show us your five most recent DMs.”

“Nope,” he said immediately with a sneaky smile. “I told you, you’ll never know.”

Angmar eyed him, filled with skepticism. “One day.”

“Nope,” he repeated before taking a satisfied swig of his drink. “Anyway, Masha, truth or dare?”

Masha shrugged. “Truth.”

“Hm…” Derwin thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Okay, what was one of the scariest moments of your life that almost made you shit yourself?”

Masha immediately looked at Luz, who covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide her diabolical smirk.

“Last year, there was this one night where I went to that abandoned house near the forest with someone, and that someone’s flashlight turned off when we were in the middle of the second floor, so we couldn’t see anything, it was pitch black, and everything went completely silent. Then that stupid someone snuck up behind me in the dark, and suddenly screamed in my ears while shaking my shoulders.” Masha glared at Luz while shaking their head, but ended up chuckling at the memory. “Scariest moment of my life.”

“That’s so evil!” Angmar cracked up along with the others.

Derwin said, “I would’ve shat myself so quickly.”

Luz couldn’t stop laughing and Hunter patted her on the back. Masha narrowed their eyes playfully at Luz, who shot them finger guns.

“Let’s just say I discovered that I’m a ‘fight’ not a ‘flight’ type of person,” Masha said with a growing smug smile.

Luz was still chuckling but winced and rubbed her stomach as she nodded.

“Anyway. Barc, truth or dare?”

“I think I’ll choose truth.”

Masha asked, “What’s the wildest thing on your bucket list?”

Barc lit up. “Go to Vegas and play Texas Hold’em poker,” he said, then grinned at them, “with you, of course.”

Masha returned the wide grin. “That’s true we actually talked about that. We’re definitely going.”

“You guys are actually addicted,” Angmar teased, “you play it way too much.”

“You would too if you were any good at it,” Masha teased back, which sparked “Ooooh!”s from the others in the circle. Angmar laughed it off.

Barc spoke up, “Gavin, truth or dare?”

“Hit me with a dare, Barc.”

“Okay, perform twenty squats while carrying the person you’re most attracted to here on your back.”

Gavin turned his head toward Boscha. “Bosch?” he asked with a badly hidden grin, but also with sparkles of hope in his eyes.

Boscha looked disinterested. “Whatever,” she nonchalantly replied.

He smirked while standing up and went around the circle. His hand extended toward hers to help her up, and she rolled her eyes and ended up taking his hand. Then he squatted down and she got on his back.

“Hang on tight,” he said, and Boscha squeezed him just a bit tighter.

He performed the twenty squats and with Boscha clinging onto him, still maintained excellent posture throughout. By the end, he was breathing a bit heavier but hadn’t broken a sweat. Boscha dismounted his back and crossed her arms while the others cheered. Gavin smirked at her, proud, and she went to sit back down. He went back to his spot too, and gave Barc a knowing smile, who winked at him.

“Okay,” Gavin said as he looked around the circle. “Amity, truth or dare?”

Amity exhaled a disinterested breath. She subtly shot Boscha a dirty look before looking back at Gavin to begrudgingly answer, “Truth.”

He thought about a question for a couple of seconds, then asked, “Okay, how many guys have you kissed?”

Amity’s brows faintly raised and her jaw clenched shut. 

She composedly said, “I don’t kiss and tell,” before gripping her cup and taking a drink. When lowering the cup from her mouth, her gaze flitted ahead and accidentally made eye contact with Luz, who, eyebrow raised, was trying to stifle a grin. Amity rolled her eyes and glared at her.

Gavin grinned and said, “Mysterious.”

Amity turned toward him and retorted, “Very.”

Boscha snickered from next to her and said, “Your turn.”

“Fine. Boscha, truth or dare?”

She smirked. “Dare.”

“I dare you to finish your cup.”

Boscha scoffed. “Too easy.”

She brought the cup to her lips and easily downed it. Then she looked around the living room and saw a random guy standing up and talking to some other non-participants. “Hey, blue shirt,” she called out, making him turn his head toward her, and his eyes widened slightly. She said, “Bring me a vodka coke.” He immediately nodded and rushed toward the kitchen, returning in about twenty seconds. “Excellent, thanks,” she said, dismissing him.

Boscha pointed toward Hunter. “What’s your name again?”

His eyes widened. “Hunter.”

“Okay, fine, Hunter. Truth or dare?”

He furtively glanced at Luz in slight fear, who grinned and took a sip of her beer.

He gulped. “Dare?”

Boscha smirked. “I dare you to kiss Luz.”

Luz choked on her drink and started coughing as she burst out laughing with Hunter who was trying to catch his breath. Willow and Gus were laughing too, so was Masha on the side. 

Boscha’s brows furrowed, highly confused. “Hm?”

Luz wiped her eyes from laughing so hard. She said, “Hunter’s like my brother and I’m too gay for this shit.”

Hunter took a big swig of his drink, struggling to calm his shaking, holding his abs from the laughing.

Skara’s lips slightly curved upward. “You’re gay?”

“Masha and I literally dated last year.”

Masha smiled. “It’s true. We broke up after about two months but we’re good friends now.”

Luz returned the warm smile before saying to Skara, “So yes. I’m actually bi so I wouldn’t mind kissing a guy but still, Hunter’s my bro so there’s just no way.”

Amity blinked, stunned shut at all that new knowledge — hints of hotness spread throughout her chest and creeped up her face. She took a slow sip of her drink, and felt her heart thumping harder for some reason. Then, the tiniest bit of what felt like anger rushed through her, the heat in her chest and on her face faintly deepening.

Skara said, with a genuine smile, “Hm. That’s cool.”

Luz shot her a grin, with slight surprise at that reaction. She took a swig of her beer and looked across from her when lowering the bottle.

She and Amity immediately locked eyes, but neither of them unlocked them, so they stared at each other for a couple of seconds, an intoxicated tenseness palpable in their alcohol-flavored gazes, until Amity averted her eyes to look at Skara. Luz’s gaze lingered on what she could’ve sworn was faint pink on Amity’s cheeks. Amity’s head moved and Luz abruptly looked away.

Boscha noted with slight intrigue, “Hm. Respect,” then continued, “Hunter, your turn to choose.”

He tilted his head in thought for a second before smiling wickedly. “Luz, truth or dare?”

Luz said, “Truth I guess.”

“Is there someone who always gets on your nerves and makes you angry, like, their existence pisses you off? Kind of like an enemy?”

Her head immediately turned toward Amity, who looked at her with the flattest, most unimpressed look. 

Luz smirked, very amused at the question. “Oh one hundred percent yes.”

Without missing a beat, Hunter asked, “What’s your favorite trope?”

“Enemies to lovers, why?” she answered automatically. 

Silence.

Then it hit.

Her eyes shot wide open. Her cheeks flamed up and her eyes instinctively darted toward Amity, whose face was bright red.

Hunter and Willow were cackling while Skara was hiding a laugh, Gus was chuckling nervously, and Boscha and the others looked very confused. Luz glared at Hunter then reluctantly looked back at Amity who was taking a big swig of her drink.

Luz shut her eyes and facepalmed, lowering her voice so only Hunter could hear. “Hunter, you little piece of shit. That has nothing to do with anything. In case you forgot, I genuinely hate her.”

“You do?”

“I will kill you in your sleep,” she said, with red-tinted cheeks.

Amity’s hand was hiding her face, waiting for the blush, and her heart rate, to calm down, blaming the alcohol for causing these rushes of emotions. She didn’t dare look toward Luz.

Luz cleared her throat loudly after unclenching her fists.

“Anyway, Skara, you’re next. Truth or dare?”

Skara looked at her curiously, but skeptically.

“Dare?”

Luz rubbed her chin mischievously. “I dare you to show us the last screenshot you took on your phone.”

Skara nodded. “Sure!” She got her phone out, and after a couple of seconds her eyes went wide, she locked the screen and grabbed her cup to take a drink.

Luz laughed. “Ay, Skara’s got secrets!”

Skara squinted playfully at Luz, but then giggled. “I’m actually a really private person.”

“Sure you are.” Luz grinned.

Skara rolled her eyes but couldn’t help her amused smile. “Moving on,” she said before asking the next person.

The game continued, and Luz and Amity avoided looking at each other during the entire rest of the game. But a couple of times, they caught each other’s eyes, which made them look away immediately. But the visceral sensations of tenseness, and anger, would start simmering in their blood when their eyes would link for a bit longer, especially when remembering how maddening the other was. But then they’d lock eyes again a couple of minutes later, to then avert their heated gazes away again, most often followed by sips of their drinks.

At the end of the game, all of the players were very much feeling the effects of the alcohol. Amity sprung up first, followed by a cool Boscha and a merry Skara. Amity paved the way toward the kitchen, soon-to-be-filled cup in hand. Skara chuckled at witnessing Boscha’s almost-imperceptibly wobbly walk, who started whispering about how strong Gavin was when leaning against the kitchen counter. 

Amity took a big drink from her now-filled cup and subsequently released a loaded breath, but she couldn’t help but let out a more lighthearted chuckle at seeing Boscha attempting to keep a composed and cool demeanor as if she wasn’t swooning when mentioning how Gavin had asked her to hold on tighter. Skara eyed Amity with skeptical amusement, knowing full well that Amity was a bit more tipsy at this point.

The living room at that point had filled up again and more than a dozen people were conversing around the room. As soon as everyone stood up from the circle after the game, Luz, when looking at Hunter, suddenly remembered his questions during the game. 

She shoved his shoulder in a part-playful way. “Are we gonna talk about how you set me up back there, you little shit?”

Hunter tried keeping a straight face. “Dunno what you mean.”

Luz squinted. “How could you even remotely think that there could be anything other than absolute hatred between us?” Then her brows furrowed. “I genuinely don’t get how you could think that. If I had the choice, I’d never see her ever again. Things would be so much funner that way.” 

Then she grunted, “Can you imagine soccer without her being on my back? Without her being so bossy and strict and stuck-up and just so serious. The dream! Oh and her not glaring at me in the mornings? I fucking wish.” She huffed. “There’s genuinely no damn way I could ever even come close to ‘liking’ her or some crazy shit like that. Liking an arrogant princess who doesn't know how to let loose and have some fun? There’s just literally no way. Even just thinking about her at school and, especially, on the pitch makes me want to rip my hair out.”

She clenched her fists, before releasing a breath. Then she started chuckling. “There’s just no way.”

Hunter stifled the wideness of his grin. “You’re right, there’s really no way. I was just teasing you.” He patted her beanie. “Looks like it worked.”

Luz deadpanned but then grinned as she swatted his hand away. “You little frickin' shit.”

While she was distracted trying to get Hunter to quit patting her on the head, he glanced at Willow who, with a knowingly raised eyebrow, confirmed she had overheard the conversation. Willow grinned back at him while slowly shaking her head.

“Hunter stop!” Luz giggled, trying to shove his shoulders to get him to back off instead.

“Okay okay!” Hunter laughed before Luz could push him even harder. “I regret taking you to the gym, ouch.”

“You’re just scared I’ll beat you in an arm wrestle.”

Hunter sneered. “You wish.”

“Wanna go?” Luz squared her shoulders.

Hunter scoffed, squaring up too, “Whenever.”

Gus, seeing from the corner of his eye Hunter and Luz squaring up, flung his arm between them again. “Please not now.”

Hunter and Luz paused, glanced at each other, and burst out laughing.

“Children, Willow, we’re dealing with children!” Gus sighed dramatically before taking a sip of his drink.

Willow rubbed Gus’ back as she laughed as well.

Then Angmar stepped toward them. “Guys, I’m showing the others the basement, wanna come?”

They nodded with excitement.

“Great, downstairs there’s a mini-fridge with beers and other drinks inside too, in case anyone wants to fill up."

Luz beamed, “You have a mini-fridge with drinks?”

Angmar winked. “Sure do.”

She raised her hand for a high-five which he happily slapped. 

Then he led them toward the stairs to the basement. Hunter and Gus keenly complimented the layout, gushing at how it looked like a game room with a whole multiscreen computer set-up, a TV with different consoles, and a round table in the center that looked very practical for card games. 

Luz noticed a pack of Uno cards on the table and mischievously asked whether anyone was down to play. Her friends side-eyed her, fully aware of Luz’s luck at that game with the uncanny amount of +2s and +4s she would get. Apparently Angmar was lucky too, because his friends side-eyed him as well when he confidently nodded.

They all ended up chuckling though because in reality, everybody loved Uno. So they sat around the table and got ready to play, mentally preparing themselves for the upcoming treason that was about to go down. And very consciously, Hunter, Willow, and Gus decided to sit across from Luz and not beside her, letting Angmar’s blissfully-unaware friends take the danger zones.

In the living room, Boscha, Skara, and Amity were chatting with Gavin and his basketball teammates. Boscha and Gavin stood next to each other, with Gavin clearly trying to act cool with her while she acted indifferent, but the way her body was leaning toward him betrayed her. Skara and Amity were conversing with three of the other basketball players. 

The one who was next to Amity kept gazing at her in what he thought was a discreet way, that Amity immediately picked up on. He’d look at her after cracking jokes to see whether she laughed, he’d lean in slightly toward her as if wanting to brush shoulders, and when laughing he’d gently elbow her arm. Amity paid him no attention, but apparently he wasn’t getting the hint. 

At one point, while the others were talking, he leaned in toward Amity and asked, “Hey, what are you drinking?”

Not turning to look at him, Amity curtly said, “Gin tonic.”

“I’m drinking a Screwdriver: vodka and orange juice. Do you wanna taste?”

“No.”

He brushed his shoulder against hers. “You sure? I make a mean Screwdriver.”

She finally turned her head to look him dead in the eyes. 

He gulped.

“I’m very sure,” she said.

He quickly nodded and leaned away, focusing back on the group.

His friend next to him noticed the interaction and snickered, muttering to him, “Seriously? You tried with Amity Blight?”

His face flushed as he rubbed his neck. “I mean… have you seen her?”

“Yes, rejecting half the team,” his friend said, patting his back, to then snicker again. “How does getting rejected for once feel like?”

He drank a big chug. “Piss off, man. Maybe next time.”

Amity rolled her eyes as she overheard everything, the alcohol apparently making the boys deaf given how unintentionally loud they were.

Boscha suddenly called, “Shots?”

Amity jumped on the opportunity. “I’ll get them.”

After counting how many wanted a shot, she made her way toward the kitchen.

She grabbed the shot glasses in one of the cupboards and laid them out on the table in the middle of the room, with her back to the door. She was filling them up with tequila when she heard loud footsteps stumble into the kitchen.

“Watch it,” she said sharply while pouring tequila into another glass as a warning to that person to fall anywhere except on her.

“Relax, princess.”

Amity gritted her teeth. She turned her head to see Luz giving her a snarky look while walking toward the fridge.

“Stop calling me ‘princess’.”

Luz opened the fridge. “Or else what?”

“You don’t want to find out.”

“Try me.” 

Amity tipped her head back in exasperation, too buzzed to want to refine her words. “God you’re so aggravating.”

“Likewise, princess.”

Luz closed the fridge after having gotten a couple of beers and looked around for more cups. She saw the tequila shots in front of Amity, grabbed one and downed it without flinching. She smirked.

“I was preparing those for the others.”

“Just pour another one.”

“You’re so fucking aggravating.”

Amity poured more tequila into the shot glass, but Luz went to grab it again.

“Not this time.” She snatched the shot and downed it herself, without flinching either.

“Damn,” Luz said, “you know how to handle tequila. Impressive for a prissy princess.”

Amity sighed and without thinking said, “Yeah well practice makes perfect.”

Luz’s eyebrow raised. “What?”

Amity blinked, mentally cursing herself for the slip up, the alcohol really getting to her. “Nothing. Now leave.”

Luz squinted a bit but then shrugged, poured random alcohol and soda into the cups and grabbed the beers. “Good luck with the hangover Blight, maybe that’ll shut you up for once.”

“I will actually kick you, Noceda.”

“Do it,” she said while stepping out the door. “I’ll kick you back.”

Amity released a very deep grunt. She could’ve crushed the tequila bottle with her fiery grip. After pouring the last tequila shot, she eyed it.

Luz arrived back at the basement and handed out the drinks, that everybody needed after having emptied out the mini-fridge. She immediately took a big swig of hers, easing up. The clock on the wall revealed 1 am. She scanned the state of everyone, and couldn’t help but crack up. Then she stood still and tried tuning in to how she herself was feeling. She laughed harder.

The friends stayed for another hour until it was truly time to go home, and on the way back to Willow’s, they were essentially all giggling wrecks.

Near 2 am. as well, Amity and the others left too. Though Boscha stayed behind.

“Just for another half-hour,” she assured, which made Amity and Skara shoot her knowing, highly skeptical looks. 

Skara ended up giggling uncontrollably, and Amity shook her head while chuckling upon seeing Boscha’s attempted-serious gaze and pink-tinted cheeks. She sarcastically said, “Text us when you get home.”

Boscha crossed her arms and muttered, “My phone might be out of battery, you know?”

Amity amusedly exhaled through her nose and said, “Sure. Have a good half-hour,” before leaving with Skara.

While waiting outside for their rides, Skara asked, “Did you have fun at this one?”

Amity, feeling more loosened with the pleasant buzz, shrugged.

Skara’s mind replayed parts of the night, then her face lit up. “You played so well at beer pong with Boscha! Didn’t lose once!”

Amity did end up nodding smugly. “Yeah,” she said with a loose smirk at remembering the beer pong matches where they annihilated the competition. Then her smirk fell when remembering the one against Luz. Her hands automatically balled up.

The first week of senior year, despite her typical confidence in the school year going excellently as always, did not go as planned, as it was infected by a rogue threat to her sanity.

Then she remembered the game of truth or dare, and Hunter’s insinuation.

Absolutely not.

Her brain couldn’t even fathom associating anything other than revulsion when it came to Luz — the disrespectful glares, the blatant lack of seriousness and discipline, and disruptiveness at practice, the complete neglect of her studies and her future, the delinquency and rebelliousness, the snarky and provocative behaviors, so on — there was absolutely no reason for Amity to start liking any of those traits. It was literally not possible. There was just no way. 

And Amity gritted her teeth in utter exasperation when realizing that one of the first things she’d see on Monday morning was her.

Chapter Text

Monday morning rolled around and Luz and Willow were chatting at their desk while waiting for the class to start.

“I swear I can still taste the beer from Friday,” Willow said.

“I think I sweated it all out at the gym yesterday with Hunter.”

They exchanged amused smiles, thinking back at last week. Mondays were always rough but this was only the second week of school so naive freshness still flowed in the air.

Signature pink and black clothing strutted into the classroom which caught Luz’s distracted gaze, and upon inadvertently locking eyes, their stares turned sour real quick. But this time upon seeing Amity, Luz remembered Hunter’s questions and insinuations from the party. She snapped out of it quickly only to see Amity looking back at her in a highly confused way. Hints of heat creeped up on Luz’s cheeks and she immediately looked away with a frown.

Amity sat at her desk a bit flustered, with Skara following suite.

“It’s 8 am, and she’s already pissed me off.”

“Luz?”

“Do you know any other hooligans?”

Skara pursed her lips to hide a chuckle.

The bell rang and Mx Whispers asked for everybody to settle down.

“Good morning students, I hope you were all able to relax during the weekend.” The lesson started and everything was going as usual: text analyses, discussions, Luz doodling and trying not to doze off because this subject was actually interesting.

Near the end though, Mx Whispers said, “Now let’s talk about the project you’ll be working on for the next few weeks. It’s a group project, so you’ll be paired with another person.”

A sneaky grin appeared on Luz’s face while looking at Willow.

“I’ve already prepared the pairs.”

The sparkles in Luz’s eyes died.

“I’ll explain in detail what the focus will be once paired up. You’ll be sitting together only for today so you can discuss and start planning the project before organizing meetings in your own time. The pairings are as follows.” Mx Whispers started reading out the different duos written in their notebook.

“Kyle and Loris,” they announced, going down the list, “Skara and Willow,” which made her glance at Luz somewhat nervously, then, “Amity and Luz.”

Their jaws abruptly dropped. They both muttered, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Luz whispered to Willow, “What’s this cliché trope-y shit about pairing the two people who hate each other together??”

Willow grinned and whispered back, “Enemies to lovers.”

“Willow I swear to god shut the actual hell up.”

She raised her hands in defense. “The teacher’s the one trying to write fanfic right now, not me!”

Amity’s hands covered her face. “Why me?”

Skara tried hard to suppress her amusement. “Team-building exercise? Coach Eda would love this?”

Amity uncovered her eyes to glare at her.

Skara bit her lip and stood to swap seats with Luz as the teacher had finished listing the pairs.

Luz saw Skara get up and huffed, realizing she had to move. She lazily stood up and grabbed her bag, exchanged a “hi” with Skara, who felt bad at seeing Luz, pissed and miserable.

Luz dropped her bag behind the chair to Amity’s left and slumped down on the seat.

“Don’t even look in my direction,” Amity said.

“Wasn’t planning on it, I’m not too fond of your face.”

“I’m not too fond of your existence.”

From the back, Skara and Willow looked at each other.

“You see it too, right?” Skara asked.

“Yep.”

Mx Whispers started elaborating on the project.

“Since the focus of this class is 'Identity and Society’, we’re examining how personal identity is shaped, challenged, and redefined through relationships, societal expectations, and personal desires. One insightful way to explore this is by analyzing forbidden relationships — for instance forbidden by society, family expectations, or personal beliefs — and how they impact the individual. For your project, you will choose a literary work that features a forbidden relationship, and you will discuss how that relationship influences the characters' identities.”

Mx Whispers continued by explaining that this project was a written presentation and that they had flexibility in how to present their work. After elaborating more on what was expected of the students, the teacher let them discuss between themselves.

“Were you paying attention?” Amity asked, looking at the notes she took during the teacher’s breakdown of the project.

Luz looked at the singular line on her own notebook page, which was the question they had to answer. “Yep.”

Amity glanced at Luz’s notebook, and slowly closed her eyes in defeat.

The only reason why Amity wasn’t full-on combusting in her seat was because studies, notably English literature, were very much her comfort zone and she knew that in all cases, regardless of Luz’s shoddy participation, Amity could easily make the project good on both of their sides, even if it meant working more to compensate, which she would do with great pleasure anyway. But she still had to cooperate with Luz.

So Amity sighed in defeat, letting out a breath which relaxed her clenched hand that she didn’t realize was a twitch away from snapping her pencil in two, when looking at Luz’s practically blank page. “You do know what’s going on, right? What we have to do?” 

Luz finally looked at her with the flattest expression, which prompted Amity to face her too, the familiar tension spiking with the piercing gazes, before Luz answered.

“Yes, indeed, I know what we have to do. We have to prepare a class presentation that essentially talks about how forbidden relationships influence identity. Good enough for us to start working on it. Now where’s my cookie?” 

Amity forcefully released the pencil from her grasp before it actually snapped.

“We have to agree on a literary work that features a forbidden relationship.” She ran through the catalogue of the classics in her mind. “Wuthering Heights?”

“What-ring heights?”

Amity paused, preparing for disappointment.

“Anna Karenina?”

“Anna Kare-to elaborate?”

“The Scarlett Letter?”

“That movie with Emma Stone?”

Amity exhaled through her nose. “Romeo and Juliet?”

Luz’s face lit up. “There we go.”

“Bravo. Then it’s settled: Shakespeare. You do know the play’s from Shakespeare, right?”

Luz squinted. “Yes I know it’s Shakespeare.” Then she whispered under her breath, “Condescending bitch.”

“Excuse me?” Amity blinked, unsure of what she heard.

Luz acted oblivious. “You’re excused.”

Amity inhaled and exhaled a painfully deep breath.

“Anyway, we have the literary work. Now we can discuss it and think about how to approach the topics.” She looked at Luz blankly, who blankly stared back. 

“Noceda.” She closed her eyes. “Don’t tell me that you’re unable to discuss the topics right now because you don’t actually know the story enough and only recognized the name...”

Luz shrugged. “‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.’”

Amity’s eyebrows shot up. “You read the play?”

Luz grinned. “I watched the movie.”

Amity blinked. “The one with guns?”

“Baz Luhrmann is a masterful director.”

Amity rubbed her forehead. “You know what? Good enough for me.”

Luz smiled smugly. Romeo and Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann was actually one of her all-time favorite movies growing up, which was an incredibly satisfying plot twist to take Amity aback.

Thanks to their common knowledge of the plot and characters, they went on to discuss the project and the different angles they could take. The discussions were not relaxed, both were still very much on edge about working together, and they butted heads on a good couple of points, already knowing that debates would inevitably ensue the more they worked on it together. But at least they compromised on a general idea of what to focus on, and what they both had to prepare on their ends before their first begrudgingly agreed-upon meeting on Friday after practice.

The bell finally rang and they immediately got ready to stash their things into their bags to leave. But when hastily moving around to put away their things, they accidentally brushed hands. Amity sharply retracted it as if she had just touched a flame. Luz froze.

Amity blinked rapidly, then cleared her throat. “Take my number so we can text each other if we have any questions.” She quickly scrawled her number on a piece of paper that she ripped out of her notebook.

Luz snapped out of her frozen state. “Sure.”

She stayed sat there for a moment after Amity rushed out of the classroom, brows furrowed at the disturbing tingling sensation that her hand had felt. Then her brows furrowed deeper as a surge of anger rushed through her.

“You okay?” Willow asked from next to her.

“Fucking project. Fucking Blight.”

But she looked at the hand that Amity had burned, and it turned into a hard fist. 

She whispered under her breath, “Fucking Blight.”

At soccer practice that afternoon and the following days, they mainly avoided each other as the main agreement of their pitch treaty. Luz still goofed around of course, but had sort of developed a keen sense of spatial Blight awareness, essentially meaning that she knew more or less when she could get away with it by knowing whether Amity was near enough to notice or not. 

Amity, on her end, avoided even thinking about Luz on the pitch. Her focus stayed on the drills and on watching over the truly determined and dedicated teammates. She wasn’t willingly watching over Luz, but she absolutely did have to sharply call her out when Luz was sabotaging practice by distracting their teammates. 

During practice matches, Amity and Luz played together as forwards, only exchanging words when necessary to let each other know that they were open to receive the ball. Despite them consciously avoiding each other, they played surprisingly well together, firstly because both were exceedingly good players on their own, secondly because the ball captured their full attention when playing the game, but also because they had internalized the strategies that the coaches taught them, and both went a step further by truly studying the strategies and potential situations to analyze and anticipate the other’s moves, which was clearly working. Thus, avoiding each other wasn’t hindering the matches, avoiding friction, and they stayed on top of their game.

During one of the small practice matches on Wednesday, they were playing on opposite teams, which was a different story. When playing on the same team, cooperation was primordial, and they had the same ultimate goal of winning the match together. But when playing against each other, cooperation was the enemy, and their competitiveness and hostility could finally unleash.

They were playing a match against each other. On the left side of the pitch, Luz intercepted the ball, instantly dribbled past Katya, and rushed toward the penalty box. She eyed the ball while sprinting for a couple of seconds and looked up to see Amity close ahead, moving toward her from the right — Luz could either try to outrun her by racing forward before Amity could tackle her from the right, or she could steer right and try dribbling past her.

Luz feinted right toward her with the intention of actually running forward, but Amity was too close at that point and hadn’t anticipated Luz feinting last-second; it caught her body’s reflexes off-guard, meaning she wasn’t prepared to swerve away. Next thing they knew, their bodies crashed into each other with Luz knocking Amity down and falling on top of her.

Sharp pain travelled through them at the impact and their heads were spinning from the fall. In a haze, Luz grunted as she propped herself up on her elbows, trying to regain awareness of her surroundings. Amity blinked slowly, her mind foggy and disoriented. Then they realized that their faces were inches apart. Instinctive flames flared in their eyes when they locked, their gazes instantly blazing. They glared deeply at each other, into each other’s fire, too deep to move, too deep to look away, captured by their flames. Until footsteps and voices rang louder upon approaching them.

Amity and Luz’s eyes widened, their positions, the feeling of their bodies pressed together, finally sinking in. Luz immediately jumped away from her, Amity rushed to her feet, heartbeats racing, heat furiously flushing throughout their bodies and their faces.

“Are you guys okay??” Viney asked, followed by Katya and Vee.

“Yes, excellent, fine,” Luz blurted.

“Just perfect,” Amity snapped. 

Coach Eda rushed toward them.

“Girls, are you hurt?”

“Nope!” they both said.

Coach Eda eyed them up and down. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Amity replied, fists clenched.

Luz nodded adamantly, grinding her teeth.

Coach Eda eyed them again, pausing on their red-tinted cheeks. “You should sit the rest of the match out to recover.”

They both reluctantly nodded, bodies still heated, hearts still thumping, blood still sizzling. When arriving at the benches ready to sit, to make sure they were far enough away from each other, they unwillingly glanced at each other at the same time. Their anger flared up, and they sharply looked away.

Throughout the week, their loyalty to the treaty, as well as their need to stay sane, kept their interactions to a strict minimum, both on and off the pitch. Cooperating during matches was no issue, and the more they played together, the more synchronized their playing became. Analyzing their playing styles to anticipate each other’s moves silently, despite the fact that it should be more challenging, came easily, thanks to them being naturally smart players. And unexpectedly, not concerting each other actually helped, because it forced them to develop a deeper, stronger understanding of the other’s strategical thought patterns and reflexes.

But of course, this was solely possible in-game. Outside of matches, there was absolutely no need to cooperate. They were very much content about avoiding each other, repulsed, and had no desire, whatsoever, to even think about fraternizing. Complete waste of time and energy for someone irredeemable.

So, throughout the next few days, they barely interacted.

Amity was walking toward the benches to rehydrate after a particularly taxing sprinting drill session. She looked around with satisfaction at her teammates working hard as always.

“She’s really trying to beat her record again?”

Near the benches, Amity overheard Katya from a couple of yards away while she was searching for her water bottle.

“Yeah!” Vee chuckled. “She’s crazy to keep trying to beat it.”

Katya chuckled back. “Are you surprised though?” 

“Not at all. When she’s determined, she’s determined.”

Amity drank a gulp of water and curiously turned toward them to see who they were talking about. She looked in the direction they were facing and her eyebrow lifted upon seeing Luz, in position and ready to sprint, fully focused on Vee.

Vee lifted her hand and one-by-one lowered her fingers. Luz launched herself forward after the last finger lowered and raced toward Vee and Katya at a truly impressive speed. She fell to her knees upon reaching the cones that acted as the finish line.

“And now?” Luz panted, clutching the neckline of her t-shirt.

Katya and Vee looked at the stopwatch and glanced at each other. Katya grinned in awe and nodded zealously. Vee laughed lightly and said, “That’s not her record.”

“How is that not her record??”

Luz chuckled and fell onto her back.

“But you were so close though!!” Vee said, stepping toward her and extending her hand, palm up.

Luz slapped it in a high-five.

“Now you’re resting,” Vee said.

“But—”

“Nope.”

Luz narrowed her eyes but said, “You’re right. Welp, I tried. Maybe next time!” which made Vee laugh.

Amity turned away from the scene and took another big gulp of water. She blinked and discreetly looked back to see Luz still lying down while breathing heavily. After putting her bottle down, she walked back to the pitch, in another direction.

Luz was roaming around on one side of the pitch, trying to decide which angle she wanted to practice during the shooting drills. Three lines of a couple of players were spread across some of the more tricky angles around the penalty box. While gauging the most complex angle of the three, she noticed Amity near the left line. She wasn’t in the line waiting to shoot, but next to the line, watching the players.

Luz was near enough to overhear them talking.

“I missed it last time. This is my weakest angle,” Cat said, looking down, sadness in her voice.

“Hey,” Amity said, “That only means this is an angle that needs more attention for now. You’ve been doing great, there’s no reason why you can’t do great here as well. Okay?”

Cat lifted her head, flickers of hope in her gaze. “You really think so?”

Amity’s voice softened a bit. “I know so. You’ll get it in no time if you keep practicing like you’ve been doing. I see how hard you’ve been working.”

“Thanks, Amity. You’ll see, I’ll get it.”

Amity nodded with confidence. “That’s the spirit.” She looked at the ball at Cat’s feet. “Now position yourself.”

Cat stepped behind the ball.

“Focus on the ball. Focus on the goal. Breathe. It’s alright if you don’t get it this time. But I know you have it in you. You’re a skilled player.”

Cat nodded once. She stepped forward and kicked the ball, sending it a bit too high, making it hit the crossbar. Her shoulders slumped.

“Hey, it’s fine, you’ll get it soon enough. There’s still some practice time before the season starts. I’m not worried.”

“You’re not?”

Amity chuckled lightly. “No. You’re a very skilled player, Cat. And you’re determined. Just keep at it. You’ll get it, don’t worry. But keep at it.”

Cat smiled weakly but gratefully. “Thank you.”

Amity gave her a nod. “Anything else I can help with?” she asked the two others who were in the line.

They shook their heads. “All good, thanks!” Bo said.

Amity nodded. “Keep working hard,” she said before walking toward the other side of the pitch.

Cat turned to Bo with a shy smile. “She’s such a great captain.”

“She really is,” Bo beamed.

Luz blinked slowly. She rubbed her eyebrows to relax them after realizing they were raised that entire time. After standing dumbstruck for a moment at witnessing whatever that side of Amity was, she shook her head roughly and got in the line on the right.

Amity waited behind two players in one of the lines for a shooting drill. Watching the teammates around her practice brought her solid contentment — everybody was evidently working hard, which was exactly what Amity liked seeing. Her gaze wandered around until landing on Cat drinking water by the benches, and she remembered how frustrated and sad Cat was at not acing those shots earlier. And Cat still looked sad and disappointed.

The player in front of Amity had finished her shot, so Amity stepped ahead and went to take hers. The ball flew straight where she was aiming, into the top-right corner of the net. She went to grab another ball from the stock behind the lines and returned to her line.

She looked back at the benches and saw that Cat was now smiling, wondering what in the world managed to cheer her up so quickly. Then she saw Luz in front of her, talking to her with a silly grin. Cat burst out laughing and Luz smirked and shot her finger guns, which made Cat laugh harder. When Cat calmed down, her face stayed bright, and Luz rubbed her shoulder with a kind smile. She gave her a quizzical thumbs up, to which Cat nodded, which made Luz’s grin widen, and her hand raised for a high-five that Cat slapped with a genuine smile, Luz having evidently brought her joy, and so naturally too.

Amity’s eyes softened a bit at the scene. Then she blinked. Her head slowly turned away to face the goal again.

Small 4v4 matches were being held on one side of the pitch. Luz and Katya walked toward the sidelines together, breathing heavily after the end of their match. While waiting for their next game, they stayed by the sidelines to watch the other teams play. Luz sent Vee two thumbs up as she passed by them while heading toward the center of the pitch.

“I love watching Vee play,” Luz gushed. “This is gonna be good.”

Katya nodded. “Boscha’s in as a defender. Good luck to the other team.”

Luz chuckled, nodding as well. “I’m gonna get water, you want some?”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” Luz said before walking toward the nearby benches.

The whistle blew while Luz was drinking and when she returned to the sidelines, Katya was fully engrossed in the match. Luz quickly spotted the ball traveling across the pitch.

“Who’s attacking first?” she asked to know which team was supposed to be scoring and which was defending.

“Vee’s team.”

Luz scanned the pitch to see the other players. Vee lobbed the ball over Bo toward Amity. Luz blinked. Amity noticed two players ready to flank her so she approached the incoming ball and caught it by bouncing it off her chest which made it land by her feet. She glanced toward the goal to see a defender rushing toward her. Instead of sprinting to dribble past, Amity moved forward steadily, keeping the ball close to her feet. The defender, ready to tackle, slid her leg toward the ball. At the last second, Amity used the inside of her right shoe to flick the ball to the left and hopped over the sliding leg. She caught the ball with her left foot, kicked it forward, landed the jump, and instantly chased after it.

Luz gazed at the scene, captivated by that technical move that Amity made look effortless.

Katya said, “Amazing.” It was the type of move that showcased true technical skill, especially when performed under pressure during a match. Luz knew how to do it, but not that elegantly.

She nodded absentmindedly, eyes glued to the pitch.

“I’ve seen her work on that one a lot. She’s really mastered it. Really goes to show how practice makes perfect. It’s genuinely inspiring. Always working on herself and practicing so hard, always focusing on refining her technique.”

Luz nodded passively, having not really listened as her focus was on the match. Then the words slowly sank in. She blinked.

Katya sighed with a sincere smile. “She truly proves to the team that drive, determination, and hard work can really make us great.”

Luz saw the contentment, and admiration, on Katya’s face. She blinked some more. Then she turned toward the match again and witnessed Amity score.

Katya’s smile widened and she looked at Luz as if to say, “See?”

Luz’s face softened the tiniest bit, and she, so faintly, nodded once.

On Friday, there was a particular kind of tension: tension coated with a layer of dread. Their first project meeting was after practice. They were not excited. Amity had to mentally prepare herself for incredible feats of patience and utter disappointment, and Luz all but flipped a coin to decide whether to even show up or not. Having a choice was a utopian dream though, because she knew that Amity would give her hell on the pitch if she didn’t attend.

At one point during practice, Amity was doing fitness drills on one side of the pitch, where players had to sprint between cones situated far away from each other, repeating the loop without stopping to practice speed, endurance, and agility.

After running toward the cone and quickly spinning around it, she surged forward again with increased speed. 

“Amity!” someone called, catching her off guard, “Watch out!”

She instantly turned her head toward the voice coming from the left and started slowing down, only to see a ball rapidly rolling toward the path ahead of her, seconds away from colliding with her feet if she didn’t stop. She tried to abruptly halt her steps but her momentum sent her diving into the grass. She landed on her forearms thanks to the reflex of protecting her face from hitting the grass first, immediately feeling the pain from the impact, and she needed a moment to catch her breath.

Luz who was nearby saw the ball quickly rolling toward Amity after hearing someone shout the warning, and she witnessed Amity dive right into the grass. She winced slightly, and watched as Amity slowly got up and rolled her shoulders, to then gently rub her forearms with a blank, indifferent expression. A couple of teammates rushed toward her and she looked around and accidentally caught Luz’s gaze. Amity’s brows furrowed in both confusion and somewhat annoyance, and Luz looked away, focusing back on continuing the fitness drills.

A minute later when Luz had done another round of zigzags, she noticed Amity already back in action, in the middle of a drill as if her crashing abruptly into the ground a minute earlier hadn’t even happened. Luz watched her for a quick second before turning away and starting another drill set.

Practice ended and still, both had the same idea of not approaching each other yet until finally necessary to actually meet for their session. Amity waited at the parking lot after exiting the locker room first, and crossed her arms in discomfort and displeasure upon seeing Luz approach.

“Hm. You actually remembered our meeting.”

“Yep,” Luz responded flatly. “First unappealing Friday evening of my life.”

Amity sighed. “Have an idea of where to meet?”

Luz thought about a familiar place as she wouldn’t be able to follow directions on her phone while on her motorbike.

“The Owl Café?”

“Where is that?”

“A couple of minutes away from the Night Market area.”

Amity’s face scrunched up. “You go there?”

“All the time.”

Amity looked at her in mild disgust. “Of course you would.” She paused for a second. “Is it safe?”

Luz snickered. “Of course it’s safe. You think I’d take you somewhere where you’d shit yourself?” A lightbulb flashed in Luz’s mind. “On second thought, we could—”

“Fine, I’ll meet you there. Be quick,” Amity said before heading to her car.

Luz chuckled while walking toward her motorbike. But she exhaled a slow breath before putting on her helmet.

They met up in front of the café and silently walked in and found an empty booth. It was a bit before 6 pm, the place wasn’t too crowded and it was calm enough to study. On their way over, their instinctive aversion had progressively transformed into apprehensive uneasiness. And now sat face-to-face, awkward tension grew on both of them at admitting they actually did have to cooperate and have productive conversations, and for that they knew they had to control their natural hostility. Kind of like on the pitch, so it wasn’t exactly new, but now that it was a much more intimate setting where it was just the two of them face-to-face, it was much more disconcertingly hostile, uncomfortable, awkward, and a different kind of tense.

Stalling even more them interacting in this newly aversive setting, they took turns getting coffee at the counter while the other set up.

“So…” Luz said, warily, awkwardly.

“Have you done some research into the topic?” Amity asked, uneasy too.

“I took some notes yeah, you?”

“Yes, I’ve found an array of academic papers on the different themes we’d mentioned on Monday.”

Monday in class wasn’t the most productive they’d ever been. The question was “How does this forbidden relationship influence the characters’ identities?” and all that was essentially accomplished was agreeing on the basic overarching themes, such as love, rebellion, secrecy, family, and societal expectations. Luz was to initially look into Juliet’s arc, and Amity Romeo’s, and they’d discuss and refine further during their first meeting. So they hadn’t really gotten to the meat of the subject yet.

“So, I was right, I read the play again and there were some details we had missed in class when going off of memory.” Amity eyed her. “You’re aware of those too now, right?”

“My mind has been refreshed, yes.”

“… Summaries?”

“Detailed summaries.”

Amity tapped her fingers on the table. “They better be.”

Luz smiled sarcastically. “They were.” 

Amity sighed. “Okay. I wrote them down if you’re not confident in your knowledge, but let’s just start by going over what we discussed on Monday so we’re on the same page about what themes we’ll be looking into specifically, and how they tie into the characters’ identities, now that you’ve looked into Juliet and me Romeo—”

Luz nodded slowly, questioning all of her life’s decisions and how the hell they brought her here.

“—so we can refine our focus.”

“Great.”

Amity squinted. “Do you remember the themes we talked about?”

“Yep, love and family and all that.”

“Indeed, ‘and all that,’” Amity said, flatly. “You know what, let’s start by simply going over the plot and see what we had forgotten in class, as those details could be important in what we do decide to zone in on.”

“Sure.” Luz shrugged.

Amity inhaled a deep breath before, obviously, taking the lead in recounting the plot. They talked about the general gist again — the feud between Romeo and Juliet’s families, them meeting and falling in love, sneaking around to get married, the conflicts and misunderstandings that ensued, and their tragic demise — then went into more specific details such as how the story was cut into five arcs, discussing what happened within those arcs, the major themes throughout the story and specific themes for each character, and after a while, they ended up on the theme of loyalty when Luz mentioned her thoughts on Romeo arguably becoming a more loyal person after his marriage with Juliet.

“—so by marrying Juliet, he became part of the Capulet family, and became loyal to them too. And he even proved that loyalty when Tybalt, who’d always hated him, challenged him to a duel. And Romeo refused to fight, because he didn’t consider Tybalt an enemy anymore because he was Juliet’s cousin.”

“But by becoming loyal to another family, he wasn’t loyal to his own. Romeo trying to broker peace with Tybalt, out of nowhere might I add, and refusing to defend his honor and by extension, his family’s honor, can easily be seen as a betrayal of the Montagues. That’s why one of his closest friend’s Mercutio gets angry and steps in for him, because it’s so uncharacteristic of a Montague to not step up when faced with a Capulet. And that directly led to Mercutio dying in that fight.”

Luz fidgeted with her pen.

Amity continued, “And then Romeo, out of sheer rage over losing a loved one, that he could’ve avoided by, I don’t know, maybe revealing the marriage which would’ve calmed Tybalt down and helped Mercutio understand why he wasn’t willing to defend himself, or maybe not going behind everyone’s backs and marrying your family’s enemy on a whim, or even by stepping up to defend his and his family’s honor, he ends up killing Tybalt. So yes, excellent, choosing to share loyalties between two feuding families was evidently so wise.”

“Romeo tried to get between them but they were both too caught up in the fight, so he did try to make peace. And after Mercutio—” She cleared her throat. “Romeo immediately reacted and went after Tybalt, yes because he was overrun with emotion and rage, but also out of his loyalty to his loved ones, to avenge Mercutio.”

“A bit too late with that loyalty.”

“How would you feel if your loyalty was divided between your family and your love?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten into that situation in the first place because loyalty to one’s family is paramount.”

“You’d let your family get in the way of pursuing new feelings?”

Amity’s grip tightened around her pen. “I’d prioritize family over impulse, yes.”

 “But why? You wouldn’t want to get to explore such beautiful feelings just because of”—Luz’s brows twitched—“fear?”

Amity scoffed. “Love is futile and leads to reckless decisions, and it’s not out of fear at all. Avoiding irrational emotions that defy more important things like family is proof of having your priorities straight. But you wouldn’t care, obviously. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d throw away what little intelligent priorities you have, if any, out of sheer impulse. You clearly don’t seem to be the type to actually be scared of recklessly giving into such frivolous and ephemeral emotions like ‘love.’”

Luz felt a tiny pang in her heart. She blurted, “I’m not scared of anything.”

“Clearly.”

Luz’s jaw clenched as her leg bounced up and down. She quickly searched for something to retort. “At least I wouldn’t let my family dictate my life and I wouldn’t be scared of going against them.”

Amity’s heart rate spiked for a second. She said through gritted teeth, “It’s not a question of family dictating one’s life, it’s about respecting one’s values, morals, traditions. And it’s not fear of going against them at the first emotional impulse that appears. It’s being rational.”

“Yeah, right. Because avoiding emotions is so”—Luz’s brows furrowed the tiniest bit—“rational.” She cleared her throat. “And what are you even talking about with this whole spiel about values and morals and shit? Because you can’t possibly be talking about the Capulets, let’s be real, what kind of ‘values’ do they even have?”

Amity paused. “The Capulets have… loyalty to family honor, respect, pride, legacy, and they adhere to the social norms of the time.”

“Please.” Luz scoffed. “They’re so damn strict and controlling about everything, it’s so seventeenth century.”

“Sixteenth.”

Luz squinted.

“You think the Montagues are any better?” Amity countered.

“At least the Montagues are actually somewhat concerned about Romeo’s well-being, and he can be open about his emotional side like when he was into Rosaline at the beginning. He wasn’t terrified of showing it because his family and close ones, even though they still care about upholding family honor and reputation of course, especially with the feud, aren’t Capulet-level authoritarian control freaks obsessing over social status and appearances above everything else.”

Amity’s grip on her pen weakened. She needed to pause for a second before huffing, “Look where that got Romeo. His family’s complacency with his ridiculous moaning about his stupid emotions only encouraged his impulsiveness. Romeo’s cousin, Benvolio, encouraged love in general and didn’t exactly criticize him for pursuing the enemy. And Mercutio teasing Romeo about his whining during his Rosaline-infatuation phase only undermined the seriousness of giving in to irrational and frivolous emotions. Even Mercutio himself thought Romeo’s feelings were trivial and exaggerated. And because nobody seemed to care about the consequences of their actions, Mercutio actively pushed Romeo to attend the Capulet party with him, where he then met Juliet. Absolutely reckless behavior that shows exactly why ignoring the rules can have disastrous consequences.”

“Sue them for finding some fun in the midst of such a ridiculous feud.” Luz snickered. “And they did have fun, alright. I probably would’ve crashed their party too.”

“Of course you would. It was risky and irresponsibly rebellious.”

“It was playful and entertaining.”

“Yeah well look where that lead.”

“What, Romeo falling in love, becoming determined and courageous, and encouraging a blindly conforming girl to finally want to break free of her family’s unfair control?”

“Romeo’s impulsivity and recklessness causing the death of six people in four days. Including himself.” 

Luz’s gaze fell to her cup. Her hand twitched as she reached to hold it, silent for a moment, longer than she thought. Amity’s eyebrow faintly raised. Then Luz quickly quipped with a chuckle, “Eh, he’s a bad but sad boy.” 

Amity blinked. “That’s… one way to describe him.” She shook her head and released a breath. “Anyway. I think we can agree on the fact that loyalty is a big theme.” She flipped through her notebook and scribbled something down. Luz fiddled with her cup and absentmindedly looked around the café.

Amity suggested they move on to researching the other themes, so both agreed on what they would each focus on and the best angles to approach answering the topic question, and they continued their meeting doing research on their laptops, their silence eased up by the faint background music and the distant chatter of the others in the café.

They’d ask each other questions from time to time, such as whether they had found specific articles or which symbols and leitmotifs appeared the most. Luz had unexpected awareness of some key symbolism in the play which slightly took Amity aback, and Amity’s dissection of the light and darkness motif was relatively interesting to Luz.

The more time passed, especially in silence, the less heavy the air was around them.

Luz took a break at one point, getting up to stretch a bit. After sitting back down, ready to relax for a couple of minutes, she glanced at Amity who was still fully focused on her laptop.

“You don’t take breaks?”

Amity didn’t look up. “Don’t need to.”

“Everybody needs breaks.”

“I’ll take one later.”

“If you say so,” Luz said as she closed her eyes, resting her head against the booth. After a couple of moments, she opened her eyes and sure enough, Amity was still focused on her laptop. She absentmindedly looked around the café and noticed a couple of people chatting. Then she noticed a scrape on Amity’s forearm and remembered that brutal fall. Luz’s eyebrows twitched.

“You feeling okay?” she asked passively.

Amity looked at her with blatant, utter bewilderment. “What?”

“That was a nasty fall at practice. Does it hurt or something?”

“Since when do you care?”

Luz rolled her eyes. “Okay damn I was just wondering,” she retorted before reaching for her cup. 

Amity closed her eyes and released a breath. 

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt.”

Luz’s grip on her cup softened. She nodded slightly. “Okay.”

Amity narrowed her eyes and refocused on her laptop. “You should get back to reading.”

Luz sighed and snarked back, “Yes, sir.”

They continued their separate researches, occasionally discussed the framing of their project and continued to refine the topics further. At one point, Luz was getting distracted again so she gazed around the café some more. Her eyes landed back on Amity with the play in one hand, whose expression looked somewhat softer, almost peaceful, when reading. Luz focused back on her computer.

Near the end of their project session, they started discussing their next steps and how to divide the work for their next meeting. They agreed on each focusing on different acts to identify specific quotes and symbols that they’d be including in their project.

“I’ll take the first three acts and you the last two.”

“Can we switch?” Luz quickly asked. She gazed at the cup she was holding.

Amity glanced at Luz’s hand that was fidgeting with the cup.

“Sure. You do the first two then, and me the last three?”

Luz nodded. “Yeah.” She released a quiet breath. “Thanks.”

Amity’s eyebrow raised slightly. “Sure.”

After another half hour they decided to leave. The session was, all things considered, productive. Amity was satisfied with the direction the project was going in, and Luz was just happy she at least enjoyed what they were working on. The topic of how forbidden relationships influenced identity was interesting, and studying her younger self’s favorite movie instead of some random ancient book made it more entertaining. 

But their gazes locked after packing up their stuff and standing up to leave, marking the end of their meeting for that day. And they were reminded, out of instinct, that when nothing was forcing them together, they still wanted nothing to do with the other, whatsoever. 

As they walked out the door, Luz passively said, “See ya next week, Blight.”

Amity steered left without saying a word.

Luz squinted and flipped her off behind her back, muttering under her breath, “Fucking Blight.”

But then Amity’s head turned around after taking a couple of steps and she said, “Bye, Noceda,” and saw Luz’s middle finger up. “And fuck you too,” she said as she continued to walk away.

Luz’s raised hand turned into a fist and she cracked her knuckles. She whispered through clenched teeth, “Fucking Blight.”

Chapter Text

Skara’s voice was too lively, especially on a Monday morning. “I’ve been thinking about the match on Friday! Coach said she’d reveal our main strategy today. Honestly, our team is really good. Like, as good as last year, if not better.”

Nonchalant, the corner of Amity’s smug lips curled upward as she continued to grab the items from her bag to set up her desk. “Of course we’re good.”

Skara nodded with vigor. “I think Coach Eda will choose a formation that’ll make the most out of our forwards. You are amazing.” Stars in her smile. “So is Luz.”

Amity blinked but continued setting up her desk, but then acquiesced with a slow nod, because she couldn’t not admit it. A quiet sigh. “Yeah.” They were good. A more satisfied nod. “Yeah.”

The team always trusted Coach Eda’s strategies, even the more questionable ones at first. Especially the more questionable ones. With the maverick, it was often ‘trust the process’, and the team did. Her toothy smirk last week upon mentioning that Monday would focus on the strategy breakdowns absolutely hyped the players up. They had already been preparing their formations and tactics of course, but Coach Eda always had an extra something up her sleeve. A wild card, some would say of her; brilliance incarnate, others would vehemently proclaim.

The bell rang, the students quieted down, and the teacher started their lesson.

But about ten minutes in, knocks on the door disrupted Mx Whispers’ soft voice.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Amity’s head snapped toward the door.

Noceda??

What a surprise. And she didn’t even look sorry. She actually looked terrible. Her worn-out beanie barely hid her particularly disheveled hair, and the dark circles under her glazed-over eyes clearly confirmed both her lack of basic makeup skills, and her lack of caring about appearing like a somewhat well-adjusted member of society.

Amity rolled her eyes.

“Good morning, Luz. Come see me after class,” Mx Whispers said.

Amity suddenly narrowed her eyes. She could not have cared any less about Luz arriving late and reaping the consequences of her carelessness. However, this year, Luz getting detention actually mattered, because it meant she’d miss practice after school. Amity ground her teeth and the already-firm grip on her pen tightened. It was absolutely careless, and selfish for the team. And Luz didn’t even look sorry.

She casually nodded and when turning toward her desk, their eyes met. Luz stared her down as she walked past.

Amity scoffed. Luz better not get detention. Though Amity realized how likely it was for Luz. Throughout the years, her arriving late happened so often that practically all of her consequently-pissed off teachers had lost all patience with her, resulting in systematic detentions, even if only a minute late. Amity slowly exhaled through her nose. Extremely likely, yet no confirmation, yet. She shook her head and focused back on the teacher, refusing to risk a headache before 9AM.

Class ended and Luz sauntered toward Mx Whispers to talk. Amity’s hands clenched tighter around the items she was putting back in her bag with the reminder of Luz risking detention only a couple of days before their first match, when soccer practice was even more crucial to prepare their final strategies and solidify their tactics and teamwork.

Their eyes met again, and Luz’s glare was ice cold before she faced the teacher. Amity released a low grunt. As she stood after having packed up her things, she heard Luz say, “Detention after school?” 

Her gaze immediately narrowed on Luz, who looked so casual as if she couldn’t have cared less. Amity marched out of the classroom. She seethed.

The chair that practically had Amity’s name on it waited for her in the library before her afternoon classes. Food fed her stomach, and her friends fed her the drama. Especially Boscha. It was bizarre; she didn’t care much about others and most often things and people just bored her to death. Mostly indifferent. Yet sometimes, she reveled in random gossip and typical high school drama, and didn’t mind stirring some up herself. Queen of drinking games, things were spicy, or became spicy. Somehow always in the know. Dating the captain of the basketball team didn’t help a drama-detox, because surprisingly or not, guys talk, and they, or someone they knew, were most often involved in such drama.

Skara knew things as well. Friendlier, distinctly more approachable, and less overall scary than the other two, she had her sources. She had also dated a guy from the basketball team, but he left for college this year and long distance wasn’t ideal. They used to double date with Boscha and Gavin. 

They’d set up Amity to come as well. She’d sometimes come but her unreciprocated disinterest was palpable. And her friends wondered why she’d sometimes even agree. Never complained though; and it was very entertaining, especially for Boscha, to see guys try so hard to impress, and Amity so coldly break their poor delusional hearts. 

Amity had her reasons to go on dates. None of them involved actual attraction. Masquerade balls. But all this socializing meant she was in the know of a lot of things too.

That sumptuous buttocks, that was poorly disguised as a ‘union between two unique-looking balls’, graffitied on the ceiling of one of the hallways? Apparently it got featured in a photography expo on ‘Unique Artistic Visions’. You could still see some remnants of the black-inked “L.N” behind the layers of cover-up paint when squinting hard enough. 

The holes in Mrs. Snapdragon’s Tesla’s tires that one time? … No footage to incriminate. But it was the evening after her students got detention for not having reminded her of essays she was supposed to pick up. 

One of the signposts in the school’s outdoor parking had a noticeable dent. So did the front of a red motorbike.

Luz Noceda getting cuffed and detained was one of the juicier news’ last year. Drunk, high, criminal gang plotting, blackmailed, remunerated hitman coup, mafia hazing, personal vendetta — theories galore. None confirmed.

Some students had more popular reputations than others. Amity Blight, queen of Hexside High, knew all of them. The most recent gossip that Boscha spilled at lunch included condoms found in one of the bathrooms. Amity gagged on her apple.

She made her way to the library after lunch to both psychologically detox from the drama and to mentally rejuvenate with the finer words of Dickens. Soccer practice couldn’t come any earlier though, as she couldn’t wait to physically relax with the breeze tickling her face and the ball swooshing into the net after smashing it with her foot.

Rugged, aesthetically displeasing red beanie down the hall. Amity rolled her eyes. But a loaded grunt escaped her mouth, instantly reminded of Luz saying “Detention after school?” and what that meant for practice later on, and how Luz didn’t even seem to care.

But that detention wasn’t indubitably confirmed. Luz was so necessary for practice later on that Amity couldn’t help but hope that for some god forsaken unmerited reason, the malefactor got away with her customary irresponsibility.

In all cases, she needed to confirm when exactly Luz would be arriving on the pitch since she herself had no knowledge of the timing of after-school detentions. Obviously. Depending on the time, she needed to tell Coach Eda to reorganize practice and wait before all the crucial strategy talk.

So Amity’s jaw stiffened, having no envy at all to engage, but needing to as captain.

She begrudgingly called out, “Noceda?”

Luz turned toward her, low grunt audible, dark glare palpable.

Amity instantly leveled her look. “You were late this morning.”

“No shit, Blight.” Luz’s glare sharpened. “And?”

Amity crossed her arms, already so done with this conversation. “And did you get detention?”

Luz snapped, “What the hell do you care?”

“I do not,” Amity scoffed, her face instantly recoiling, revolted that Luz could even conceptualize Amity actually caring about her. “But I need to know whether you’ll be at practice later or not.”

“You can practice without me, can’t you?” Luz sassed. Snarked.

Amity clenched her fists. “Noceda, did you-”

“No!” Luz yelled. “I don’t have detention, now back the fuck off,” she threatened before charging away.

Amity’s face burned red, knuckles white from clenching her hands so tightly. She forced out deep, loaded breaths to relax after whatever the fuck outburst that was. As she marched toward the library, the students in the halls moved out of her way particularly quickly.

Amity stretched her muscles after having warmed up her body with energizing jogs. She cracked her neck, again, and breathed fresh breaths, ready to play. Coach Eda would soon call them over. Telling her to reorganize practice and the unpacking of the game plan for their first match wasn’t necessary, since Luz, thankfully for the team, confirmed her attendance.

Of course, injuries or sicknesses could strike the players, so not everyone could make practice every time; and in the case of absences, the coach would always need to be notified beforehand. The captain had already checked in with Coach Eda in the afternoon, who happily confirmed everyone’s presence, so they could efficiently talk strategy now that the coaches had a clear view of the team’s strengths and weaknesses, and so they could immediately practice the main formations and finalize which positions suited the players best.

Amity looked around the pitch to make sure Luz was indeed warmed up and ready, but she pressed white knuckles to her mouth upon not seeing her.

She better enter the pitch already warmed up in the next two minutes or I’ll actually crush a ball with my bare hands.

Deep breaths. She decided to continue stretching the last bits of newly-inflicted tension instead of hawk-eyeing the entrance for her own sanity, but was mentally preparing to tell the Coach that one of their starting forwards potentially wouldn’t be here, already conceptualizing the different ways to reorganize their time on the pitch.

“Ladies, huddle up! Strat time!” Coach Eda beckoned them over with excitement.

The captain’s jaw tightened. She glanced at the entrance again, and finally saw Luz, casually strolling in. Amity’s head shook in disbelief, jaw even tighter, mouth clamped shut yet yelling internally at Luz to hurry the fuck up.

Coach Eda broke down everything the players needed to know for the season and their first match after having figured out their team’s best strategies based on individual skill and team dynamics. She never had set formations already in mind when starting the season — what worked last year might not work this year, as she wanted to fully focus on making the formations work for the players, rather than making the players work for the formations.

They had been practicing multiple different ones, such as the classic 4-4-2 formation with four defenders, four midfielders, and two forwards, so Coach Eda now had a good idea of which ones to focus on.

The main card up their sleeve: 4-3-1-2 Diamond Midfield formation.

Amity’s lips slyly tugged upward. Risky.

This would introduce an attacking midfielder as the playmaker to find creative opportunities to make strategic passes between the deeper midfielders and the strikers when playing between the opponents’ defensive and midfield lines. So, instead of having mainly midfielders focused on maintaining possession and defending, the playmaker would take on a much more offensive role.

It had its risks, like in all formations, here being its defensive weaknesses width-wise with the lack of wingers and the focus on a central-build up. But it was even riskier because it required specific player profiles to fill the roles effectively, making it not exactly viable for every team.

After analyzing the players and their dynamics with each other, Coach Eda realized that Vee would suit the playmaker role superbly thanks to her keen ability to understand and anticipate Luz’s more fluid playing style, as well as her technical intuition that meshed well with Amity’s. 

Amity thought it was an excellent idea, especially given how in tune they both became throughout the years, and how uncannily quickly connected she seemed to be with Luz on the pitch. 

But, this meant the two forwards needed to be even more in sync.

The effectiveness of a playmaker relied on the extent to which they could read and predict the forwards’ movements, forcing them even more to act as a cohesive unit. Both needed to anticipate the playmaker’s more targeted passes, and in doing so, they needed to anticipate each other’s plays even more. 

The playmaker would be seeing and thus creating opportunities for combined play, meaning the forwards needed to consistently be thinking about the scenarios the playmaker would think viable between them, and they needed to have their tactics immediately in mind to get in position for the playmaker to understand their tactical intentions.

More critically, the playmaker would often draw the focused attention of the opponents’ defenders and thus be marked, meaning that in such cases, the forwards would need to be even more in sync in their respective positions across the pitch to cover the most strategic gaps to facilitate the playmaker’s quick decision-making.

Sufficed to say, Amity and Luz would need to be even more synchronized now that a playmaker was tasked with setting them up.

Coach Eda continued by explaining their approach to player rotation, that being when players would adjust their positions fluidly depending on the situation. If the opponents marked the playmaker too aggressively, one of the forwards would fall back and drop deeper into the midfield as a secondary creator, and to make it temporarily look like a 4-3-2-1 or a 4-3-3, which could confuse the opponents’ defensive line. This meant Amity and Luz would have to be in accordance to know when and who would drop deeper. 

Synchronization was crucial.

Coach Eda continued by elaborating on their defensive strategies, such as player rotations that focused on defenders backing the midfield line and creating a 3-5-2. Such defensive tactics concerned Amity a bit less but were still vital to understand overall strategy.

Once the coach finished unpacking the rest of the team’s game-plan, it was time for some quick drills before the practice matches.

Amity grinned on her way to the cones. Diamond formation. Risky. It had not been the team’s go-to the previous seasons. 

But Coach Eda was good. And their team this year was good. It could work. For instance, Boscha on the defensive line was a menace to society and definitely had the brute stamina to cover the wings. Skara in the midfield had sharp tactical vision so she had no trouble spotting gaps in their defenses. Vee as the playmaker made perfect sense as the creative link with the forwards, and Amity and Luz — well, they both complemented each other well in game, their chemistry, albeit feigned, still instinctively strong in the game.

Fully in the zone, Amity turned around the cones in record time. She wiped her forehead with the edge of her t-shirt after another satisfying lap, feeling quite parched yet too on a roll to pause for water. The gratifying sight of her teammates working hard kept her satisfied. She continued glimpsing around but her hands immediately balled into fists when she then noticed particularly abysmal posture during notably sluggish sprints — shoulders hunched, head facing down, ergonomically inadequate turns around the cones.

“What’s wrong?”

Amity’s eyes kept narrowed on Luz for a moment before she stiffly turned toward Skara and Boscha who had arrived by her side. She said through gritted teeth, “She arrived late this morning, carelessly risking detention, then she misses the warmup, and now she’s not even taking practice seriously.”

Skara looked Luz’s way for a moment and frowned. Her mouth opened as if to say something but then closed.

Boscha glanced over and passively said, “She looks rough.”

Amity tapped her foot as she watched for another moment.

Skara added, “Maybe she’s just tired?”

Amity’s eyebrows arched up. “She’s not even trying. Look.”

As if on cue, Luz stepped on a cone and almost tripped because she clearly wasn’t paying attention during the drill.

Amity forced her arms still to control the violent urge to throw her hands up.

“Bad day for her.” Boscha shrugged, visibly bored. “Happens.” Amity turned her head toward her, incredulous. “What? We all have our days.” 

Amity was still gawking. Boscha snickered passively. “And why do you care so much about her specifically?”

Amity scoffed, even angrier.

“It is the week where we all need to be giving it our very best to be fully prepared for our first match on Friday. These are the last few days to perfect our skills before the season. I’d hope Noceda wouldn’t be stupid enough to not realize that, but I guess I stand corrected. When the others have bad days, they still evidently try. Noceda’s not even trying.” Amity looked at Luz again, who was all but jogging instead of sprinting. “She’s not even trying.”

Boscha squinted at Luz. “You gonna tell her to step up then?”

Amity ground her teeth. A part of her hoped Luz would step up without needing the reminder. Then she remembered how particularly disrespectful Luz was earlier in the hallways. Amity’s glare deepened. She ripped her eyes away from Luz’s poor posture and inhaled a loaded breath, before releasing it through gritted teeth. “Not yet.”

Later, Amity was walking back to the pitch for the shooting drills after having spoken with the coaches, and her teammates were still doing evidently well. On one side of the pitch: Viney — excellent save. On the other side: Bo — precise left shot. Then the sound of a ball hitting the goalpost echoed in her ears. Her eyes narrowed when seeing Luz. And her jaw clenched when Luz playfully shrugged while saying something that clearly amused her teammates.

Amity headed towards one of the lines to join the drill. A glance to the side revealed Luz getting ready to shoot again. Amity watched carefully. Luz hit the post again. Amity’s eyes twitched. Then Luz laughed. Amity’s jaw fell open as a surge of anger rushed through her. What the actual fuck?

Her stare kept locked on Luz who made her way back to the line, fully expecting her to continue making a joke out of everything and distracting everyone, but Luz went quiet. Amity watched for a couple of seconds. But then Cat turned to Luz and they started laughing and high-fived. Amity deadpanned before looking away. Her focus shifted from Luz to her own flawless shots, and she was satisfied to see the others nailing theirs.

After ignoring Luz’s line for a bit, she decided to look again. Luz was preparing her shot. Amity watched expectantly. As much as Luz was an absolute pain, she was a good player. She could joke around all she wanted, but, she was still a good player. Amity placed her hands on her hips as she waited to see which corner of the net Luz decided to target, the corners tending to be her usual practice zones. But the ball rolled next to the net. Amity blinked slowly, and her brows knotted together. Luz missed her shot, again. How?

Suddenly Luz was staring directly at her. Glaring. Furious. Eyes menacing. What the fuck? Amity immediately scoffed at the gall of Luz being for some reason furious at her when Luz was the one who’d been acting out and fucking up all day, and Amity instantly glared back before turning her head and refusing to waste another second on Luz. Now she really better step the fuck up.

During the passing drills, Cat’s leg jerked to the side to catch the zooming ball that Amity had slyly kicked her way which caught her off guard.

“Nice catch,” Amity noted passively, keeping focused on the ball’s movement around the circle.

Cat smiled and her determination increased.

Amity was already prepared for the ball when Boscha kicked it her way after having analyzed the angle of her foot before receiving it. Amity easily kept up with the ball’s intended movements between the players, a bit more than her teammates; hence, teaming with her during the passing drills meant a slightly increased challenge.

She left the group to infiltrate another, and noticed Luz, sat on one of the benches alone. Not drinking water, just sitting. Amity waited for her to get up and go back to the drills for a moment, but she stayed sat, not doing anything. Amity slowly exhaled through her nose, feeling the anger threatening to rise, but decided to leave it.

A random group captured her interest. After having stressed them out enough upon joining with her sneaky passes, she went to go add a bit more challenge to another group. Luz was still sat on the bench, alone again as everyone else was practicing. Amity’s nose flared as she exhaled through it slowly, her patience wearing extremely thin, but again against anyone’s better judgement, decided to begrudgingly leave it once more instead of telling her to get the fuck up and practice with the others.

Vee’s passing group particularly enticed her, figuring it would be especially potent to practice with her for a bit. After a good couple of minutes, Skara enthusiastically waved Amity over to her group, and before she left, Vee asked whether she knew where Luz was. Amity understood the interest of Luz joining in, so, squinting, she said she’d go find her. After scanning the other teams across the pitch to no avail, Amity truly hoped for all things good that Luz wasn’t still on the bench.

Luz was still on the bench. More than ten minutes later and Luz was still on the fucking bench.

No more hesitating. Amity stormed toward her, ready to tell her to get the fuck up and go back to practicing. But nearing her, she slowed down a bit. Her brows furrowed when she arrived in front of her. Luz’s eyes were closed, it looked like she was… sleeping?

She paused for a couple of seconds.

“Noceda?”

“What the actual fuck do you want now, Blight?”

Amity’s eyes shot open. “Excuse me?”

Luz death-stared her. “Your strict-as-fuck ass really is that controlling, huh?”

Amity’s jaw dropped. Her blood started boiling. “Noceda, watch your tongue. I was just going to say—”

“Yeah, I know the stupid damn drill.” Luz shot her a dirty scowl before getting up and brushing past her. “Leave me the fuck alone.”

Amity was stunned shut, blood pumping fire. Her fists crumpled and all but tore the bottom of her t-shirt. She waited for her face to stop burning before turning around to go back to the drills. Her passes were extra brutal.

Practice matches started. Luz completely avoided eye contact with her, which Amity vehemently knew was best because one more glare her way and her own t-shirt would end up shredded by her hands. They had already tested out the Diamond formation once and in general knew their respective sides so no talk necessary.

It was going more than well — Vee as the playmaker instantly clicked and as expected, it magnified the team’s strengths. The forwards already had the combo plays nailed, both being able to read the other too well, so, like since the start of practices, no need for verbal communication. But they still needed the heightened focus to receive and respond to Vee’s more tailored passes which led to more quick-witted combo plays.

Luz was zoned in, almost like on autopilot; she was catching the passes and passing the ball effectively. Bare fucking minimum. And she would absolutely hear about it if the bar wasn’t met. Amity was still on guard and scrutinizing her after her piss-poor attitude and drill performances.

Vee was on point, analyzing the forwards’ positions on the field and coming up with strategic passes to bypass the defenders. Luz and Amity’s combo plays facilitated by the playmaker’s passes were diabolical. Amity was, thus, very happy.

The combo plays intensified with Amity setting the more complex ones in motion. And Luz was keeping up. Again, for them, bare fucking minimum. But, Amity noticed that Luz seemed to get out of breath more quickly with some of the sprinting combos, and was slightly slower than usual. It wasn’t obvious, but it was enough for Amity to notice, like a faintly off-beat metronome to the usual music that only them two could hear. So Amity, almost instinctively, slowed down her passes the tiniest bit, and the metronome synced back to the music. And it proved to still be remarkably effective — no need to comment, so no comment made. The match thus continued going well.

Amity lobbed the ball over an opponent toward Luz, and she tried to make the shot, but Viney caught it with her hands. Amity’s head shook in bewildered frustration at the rookie lack of power in Luz’s kick. She wanted to rip her own hair out when Luz held a bashful smile on her way back to the starting position.

She made a particularly skillful pass to Amity which resulted in a goal. But the next time Luz tried to score, Viney caught the ball again. Luz covered her face with her hands very briefly before going back to her starting position. Amity pinched the bridge of her nose tightly in utter exasperation. What the actual hell? That should’ve been so easy for Luz. Not necessarily for others, but Amity knew Luz’s potential, and for Luz that was rookie’s play. She scored a couple of minutes later. Relief should not have been the feeling Amity felt after a goal by Luz.

The matches ended for the day. Amity offered encouraging nods to her teammates, a sign of her overall high satisfaction with how they displayed mastery of all the tactics they’d been practicing and their adaptation to the formations. Upon seeing Vee, Amity gave her an even more intentionally acknowledging nod, which sparked a bright smile.

Heading for the exit, from her peripheral vision, she saw Luz nonchalantly approaching Coach Eda. Amity grunted and closed her eyes. Deep breaths. Luz was an extreme nuisance the entire day, start to finish, even more than usual which Amity genuinely didn’t know was possible. Fucking shit show. 

Fucking Noceda. 

Arms crossed, tapping her foot, Amity waited by her car in the parking lot for her friends because Skara needed to give her back a textbook. After a few moments, she cursed under her breath when it was Luz who was walking in her direction. She was looking down, slightly hunched. Amity looked to the sky and cursed under her breath again. 

When she lowered her head, Luz’s pace had picked up, her back had straightened, and she was looking straight ahead. Amity averted her eyes completely and clenched her mouth shut, crossing her arms even tighter. Deep breaths. Luz really better snap out of whatever shit she was on by tomorrow, because the match was on Friday, and there was no way in bloody hell that Luz Noceda was going to be the reason they’d lose the game.

The sun shone on Luz’s face as she eyed the goal set up in the nearby park where she was alone. With one swift kick, the ball flew straight into the center of the net. Satisfied with another precise shot, Luz went to the side to fetch her water bottle. While drinking, she noticed another person place a ball down, getting ready to shoot. Luz peered closer and saw that the person looked like a younger version of herself. Her younger self shot the ball into the center of the net with ease, and, beaming, she ran inside the goal, and disappeared. 

Curious, Luz went toward the goal and stepped inside too, only to immediately be transported into a forest. There was a path ahead of her, encouraging her to follow it until she reached a house that looked just like hers. The front door being open encouraged her to step inside, which transported her directly to the backyard. Younger Luz was sitting on the grass, looking at the sky. 

Luz sat next to her. “Are you okay?”

Younger Luz nodded, lightheartedness in her tone. “I’m having fun! I’m doing great!”

“Take advantage of it,” Luz said as she patted her shoulder.

Younger Luz tilted her head to the side. “What?”

Luz was about to answer but suddenly got transported again. Chatter and jovial laughter infiltrated her ears as she looked around what seemed to be a bar. She spotted her friends around a table, and upon approaching, noticed an older Luz among them, all of them probably in their 30s. Luz smiled; she kind of looked badass. 

30s Luz grinned at her once she arrived at the table. “Are you taking advantage of it?”

Luz was about to answer but got transported again. This time, in a living room. The scent wasn’t exactly familiar, yet weirdly familiar all the same. Cozy. But, that warming coziness gradually felt colder the more Luz looked around, until the couch caught her attention. There sat another Luz, who looked to be in her 40s. She coughed, and, for some reason, her face hosted some sadness — that downturned curve on her lips wasn’t exactly familiar, yet weirdly familiar all the same.

40s Luz looked at her with dimmer eyes, and asked, “Did you take advantage of it?”

Luz immediately got transported again, but this time, with a heavy feeling in her chest. She slowly looked around what seemed to be a bedroom, illuminated by only a bedside table lamp, those orange-tinted ones that made a room feel a bit warmer, less clinical. But a glance to the side revealed a Luz, in her 50s, lying in the bed, under a blanket that looked warm but that Luz just knew wasn’t. 

50s Luz was staring at the ceiling, tears pooled in her eyes. Tears started welling in Luz’s eyes as well, and her heavy chest tightened at seeing her fifty year old self so down, and dimmed, and despondent. The room looked so warm, but Luz felt the cold pervading older Luz’s bones, and felt that chilling sadness pervading her own blood. Small tears escaped Luz’s eyes, both younger and older, simultaneously, as if linked. The sound of a heart rate monitor pulsed in the background.

50s Luz’s gaze slowly turned toward her younger self, blurry, distant, yet connected in their aching. “Did you take advantage of it?”

Pitch black. Hot tears streamed down Luz’s face, thicker, quicker, as the cold and visceral emptiness of her 50s self grew within her, now alone in the dark. But a heart rate monitor beeped in the distance, blood-red line spiking up and down, progressively speeding up. Her shaky hands went to wipe her tears away, in vain, as they fell down her cheeks and chin, for some reason that she couldn’t control.

Then a Luz, audibly much older, as if her voice carried the damage of experiences, hidden somewhere unreachable in the dark, spoke with a weaker, quavery voice. “Luz?”

The heart rate on the monitor, that Luz viscerally felt, sped up even more with every silent second that she didn’t know how to fill, until it felt like the machine would burst with the red line aggressively jolting up and down, and the beeping nearing the pulses of a jackhammer.

“You didn’t take advantage of it.”

Younger Luz’s heart dropped. “But—”

A whisper in her ear. “You broke your promise.”

Deafening flatline. The red line from the monitor shot toward Luz, speared through her chest like a bullet through the bull’s-eye, and ripped open her sore, tender heart, blood bursting—

Luz jolted upright in bed, panting, tears hot behind her eyes, clutching her left arm, waiting for her real heart rate to calm down. After a couple of moments spent reassuring herself that she was safe and back to reality, she let go of her left arm to wipe the couple of tears that had trickled down her cheeks, and her heart rate evened out. 

Her body curled up in a ball again, blanket pulled up to her chin, deep breaths attempting to keep her calm. She tried falling asleep so closed her eyes, but the heart rate monitor appeared in the dark, sporadically beeping. And right as she felt herself finally dozing off, it flatlined, which shocked her body back awake. 

Tears lingered in her eyes and her heart still ached. One thing. She knew there was one thing that managed to help her sleep. But she didn’t want to resort to it, so she tried to sleep again. She shut away the lingering tears, only to witness the monitor flatline again.

Her phone displayed 3:47. She needed to fall back asleep, so sat up, ready to get the one thing that could help, that she kept just in case, hidden, that didn’t make her proud at all. But then she slowly lay back down. Looking at the fluorescent stars on the ceiling, she wished for her heart to stop aching. But they weren’t listening. So she closed her eyes again, with full awareness that sleep wouldn’t save her from the darkness of the night, or from the light of the blood-red line.

It was a bit past 4 am when Luz couldn’t stand staying still in bed anymore. School started in around four hours, which meant a lot of time ahead of her. Her phone kept her company for a while, a solid distraction for her mind, and her thirst for water led her to the kitchen at one point. An idea popped to mind: there was enough time to cook one of the longer recipes that she and her mom loved but rarely made, and a glance in the fridge confirmed the ingredients were all there.

Coffee was the first step in attempting to activate Luz enough to cook. She stretched a bit and started setting up everything needed for the recipe on the counter, taking her time as there was no rush at all. She diced and sautéed the veggies, cooked the meat, added the seasoning with extra spice, added the rest of the ingredients, and finally left everything to simmer in the pot for more than an hour, as the longer it cooked, the deeper the flavor.

While waiting, Luz continued to scroll mindlessly on the apps, but the memes weren’t hitting like they should’ve, until her usual wake-up alarm rang, reminding her of the time. She went to finish preparing the stew, and when looking at the time again, realized she’d be late if she didn’t speed up to get ready. Getting carried away cooking before school was not a first for her at all, even with the quicker recipes, but especially this morning, she couldn’t be bothered to speed up.

She wrapped the food to keep it warm, like with every dish prepared in the mornings when her mom had a long night shift, which was often, so that her mom didn’t need to cook upon returning home. Her mom never asked for it, but Luz did it anyway.

The mirror in Luz’s room felt lonely with the lack of attention. The stars on her ceiling didn’t, though. For some reason, they caught Luz’s gaze while looking around her room for clean clothes. She didn’t linger much on them. After throwing on some clothes that didn’t make her recoil when taking a whiff of them, she grabbed her stuff, walked out, and then mounted her motorbike to ride toward the school on the cloudy Monday morning.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said to Mx Whispers upon entering the classroom.

“Good morning, Luz. Come see me after class.”

Luz nodded, but while turning to make her way to her desk, her distracted gaze landed briefly on Amity, who was staring her down with this particular annoyance. Luz exhaled deeply through her nose as her jaw clenched, but continued making her way toward her desk where she slumped down in her seat.

“Breakfast?” Willow whispered.

“Yeah. Took longer than expected again.”

“That’s the first time this year, not bad.”

Luz shrugged slightly. “Yep, I tried.”

“She’s gonna love it.”

For the first time that morning, a smile wanted to grace her face, but didn’t.

She spent the rest of the class trying to listen and not doze off, and when the bell rang, approached the teacher’s desk. While waiting for Mx Whispers to wipe off the whiteboard before talking, Luz absentmindedly looked around and accidentally landed on Amity as she was sitting right in front of the teacher’s desk. And Amity was glaring at her, again. Luz’s jaw clenched tighter than earlier, knowing exactly what Amity was thinking behind that familiar brand of ridiculous glare. Luz coldly looked back for just a second before turning her head away, too fed-the-fuck-up for this shit.

“Luz, you arrived late.” Mx Whispers asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, all’s good. Sorry for being late.”

They gently asked, “Was there a reason you arrived late?”

Luz fidgeted with the strap of her messenger bag. “I overslept and didn’t hear my first wake-up alarm is all. Sorry.”

Mx Whispers looked at her for a moment, as if scanning her face.

“So…” Luz tried to fill the silence. “Detention after school?” she asked with feigned nonchalance.

“No, not this time, Luz. But don’t make it a habit, okay?”

Luz’s lips weakly curved upward in gratefulness. Mx Whispers smiled back.

“Thanks,” Luz said before they let her go for her next class.

Willow was waiting outside. “You okay?”

“Yeah, they didn’t give me detention.”

“That’s great. But”—she eyed her—“are you… okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good!” Luz chuckled. “See you at lunch?”

Willow eyed her some more. “Yeah, see you later.”

Luz quickly turned away toward her next class.

At one point during their lunch break at the cafeteria, Gus mentioned something about aliens again.

“You really think this ‘Aliens Appreciation Society’ could work?” Hunter asked, tone oozing with skepticism.

Willow elbowed him lightly in the ribs, sporting a solid smile. “I think it could definitely work. Right”—she elbowed Hunter harder—“Hunter?”

Hunter’s face scrunched up as he tried to avoid whining in pain from the unwarranted violence. “Mhm!”

Luz snickered.

Gus’s hand floated to his chest. “I’ll talk to Principal Bump.”

Luz chuckled again, and Hunter glanced at her. Then he glanced at Willow, who was looking at him too. She subtly shook her head. He nodded back.

He asked Luz, “You alright?”

“Hm?” She blinked. “Yeah, yeah I’m good, you?”

After a pause, his tone softened. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz closed her eyes before releasing a defeated chuckle. “Honestly, I’m just tired as hell. I ended up bingeing the new season of my favorite show and next thing I know it’s like 3 am.”

Hunter grinned. “You better not spoil.”

“I swear, Luz…” Gus squinted. 

Luz stifled a smile. “I wasn’t going to, but there’s this gin—” 

“Nope!” Willow clasped her hand over Luz’s mouth, whose chuckle became muffled. She poked her tongue out and Willow’s hand jerked away. “Did you finish it though?”

“No, I just watched the first act.”

Willow pursed her lips. “You’re gonna love the rest. Trust me, at one point you’re really gonna feel fantastic.”

Luz chuckled, both skeptical and amused. “Noted…? Anyway, what did you guys do yesterday?”

“Homework.” Gus’ tone perked up. “For Calc, there were a couple of differential equations that were tough to crack but man, what a rush!”

The conversations continued, Luz’s smile tried to keep up, but it kept dying down, her shoulders kept slumping, and her gaze kept lowering, until classes were about to start again.

Hunter and Gus left the cafeteria, but Willow held her back.

Silence settled between them for a moment, Luz trying to keep eye contact when Willow’s soft eyes caught hers.

“Did you have another nightmare?”

Luz’s gaze flickered down. “Yeah.”

Willow’s hand hesitated to reach for her shoulder. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz stayed quiet for a moment before gently shaking her head.

Willow nodded. “… Do you want a hug?”

Again, she paused, but then she gently shook her head. “Thanks.”

Willow nodded, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to. And neither of them made a move to walk away. 

“I think I’ll go to the roof,” Luz admitted.

“You know you risk detention if you do…”

Luz weakly shrugged. “Nobody will catch me, and I won’t be long.”

Willow nodded slowly, comfort in her gaze. “You know I’m here though, if ever.”

Luz nodded slowly, faint smile contrasting her tired eyes.

They exited the cafeteria and both went their separate ways.

Luz was thinking about the best way to sneak up to the roof, feeling increasingly relaxed the more she envisioned sitting up there in silence, away from everything—

“Noceda.”

Luz’s chest heated up immediately. Her jaw clenched as she turned to the side to face the god-awful voice. And she was also faced with a punchable glare and a whole lot of judgment, just like this morning. Luz released a low grunt.

“You were late this morning.”

Luz’s fists clenched. “No shit, Blight.” She squinted. “And?”

Amity harshly narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “And did you get detention?”

“What the hell do you care?”

Amity scoffed, face recoiled in disgust. “I do not, but I need to know whether you’ll be at practice later or not.”

Luz’s eyes squeezed shut. She needed to get to the roof and breathe. “You can practice without me, can’t you?”

Amity’s harsh glare sharpened. “Noceda, did you—”

“No! I don’t have detention, now back the fuck off.” Luz continued ahead without looking back.

Her fists stayed clenched as she sneaked around the school and up the stairs that led to the roof. As soon as the refreshing air brushed over her skin, she sucked in and released a fresh, heavy breath.

There was a lot of space to explore on the roof, as the massive multi-story building spanned the size of about two soccer fields. It wasn’t completely flat; around a dozen raised rectangular sections were scattered across the area for solar panels.

Luz weaved past them toward the left corner of the roof as there was one raised section that blocked off that corner from sight, only visible if someone deliberately went behind it. She’d never been caught there, only on her way up.

Upon arriving there, she dropped her bag and immediately slumped against the wall. It was silent up there, under the cloudy sky. She breathed in and out to try to empty her mind and alleviate the heaviness in her chest, yet her thoughts kept wandering. Her muscles tensed up when remembering how she crossed paths with Amity on her way here. Or rather, when Amity accosted and came at her out of nowhere.

What the fuck was her problem? The glares she shot, the sass she gave — Luz grunted. Some things would never change. And to be fair, Luz wasn’t planning on tailoring her own attitudes for the other’s benefit either. Didn’t change the fact that Amity could go fuck herself. Luz cracked her knuckles before releasing a loaded sigh. 

Memories of her nightmare then sprung to mind. A shakier breath escaped her mouth. She remembered trying to fall back asleep, not succeeding, then cooking. Hopefully her mom’s shift wasn’t too tiring and that she liked the meal. They used to have that dish a lot more often before Luz started high school, and whenever she or her mom had the time, they tried to do it justice.

She stood up only to sit on the ledge. Her distracted gaze landed on the empty soccer field, as was usual whenever perched on that ledge. Yet this time it hit differently, as she could imagine herself finally playing on it.

She got off the ledge after a moment and searched for the graffitied “Nobody was here”, wondering whether it got painted over yet. Her fingers ran over the ink upon seeing it. The time on her phone revealed that class was starting in a couple of minutes. Slumping back down, she closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall.

After simply resting in silence for a couple more moments, she finally got up and made her way toward her classroom.

“Sorry I’m late,” Luz said, staying at the door, quickly brainstorming excuses upon suddenly realizing the teacher might ask for a reason before letting her in for the second time today, if too-kind enough once more.

Mx Whispers looked at her for a moment. 

“Luz, come in. We’ll talk after class.”

Luz blinked. “Thank you, Mx Whispers,” she said before walking in and sitting at her seat in the front row.

“We’re working on prompts today. You still have ten minutes to write a scene where everything the characters are thinking is communicated solely through subtext. It can be comedic or dramatic, the point is that the reader should be able to understand exactly what is being said, without it being said.” Mx Whispers offered her a small smile.

Luz gave up a polite, bashful one back before averting her gaze for the rest of the elective creative writing class.

The bell rang and the students all exited the classroom.

“Luz.”

“Yes.” She finally met their eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to arrive late, again.”

Mx Whispers sighed quietly. “Is there a reason?”

Luz weakly shrugged. “I guess I just lost track of time.”

“You’re not even going to try to find a more solid excuse?” Mx Whispers shook their head, almost lightheartedly, yet still looked concerned.

Luz’s lips formed a thin line, but the dark circles under her eyes expressed her fatigue. “I got lost in the hallways?”

The teacher released a silent chuckle, but then their tone became more gentle.

“I can tell you’re having a hard day, and I know you have soccer practice later, so this time I won’t give you detention, but make sure it doesn’t become a habit, really, okay?”

‘Wow’ threatened to slip out of Luz’s mouth, but she managed to suppress it. “Thank you, Mx Whispers. It won’t become a habit.”

They nodded and let her loose. Luz exited the class and couldn’t even let the slight confusion about them knowing she made the team settle in because it was very quickly replaced with the surprise of a teacher letting her off the hook.

After her last class of the day ended, she took her time to go to the locker room and get ready, partly out of wanting to save her energy for the pitch, meaning she arrived dead on time for the start of practice. Her teammates were all walking toward Coach Eda so Luz followed them.

Practice started with Coach Eda going over the team’s specific strategies for their first match on Friday. Diamond formation — very interesting choice. Vee as the playmaker? Made perfect sense. Luz definitely looked forward to it, knowing it could actually work really well for the team. 

After that, the players started warming up with the fitness drills. They were going well for Luz, and despite her tired body, she’d been trying her best. But it was starting to get hard to focus.

Then Luz tripped on a cone while turning around it during the cone drills. She focused on her steps even harder, and it went well.

Then she physically felt her sprints being slower. She’d release loaded breaths before trying again. She hoped Vee wouldn’t offer to get the stopwatch out this time. Vee didn’t.

Then Luz hit the goalpost during the shooting drills. She came back in line with a comical shrug and said, “The post needed some love, too,” to her teammates who playfully chuckled.

Then she heard the ball hitting the crossbar again. She sucked in a breath and laughed it off, but stayed silent once back in the queue. 

Cat nudged her and chuckled. “Dedicated to the bit,” she said as her raised hand waited for Luz to high-five it. Luz chuckled back and slapped the hand before Cat went to another line.

Then a bit later after a normal streak, Luz attempted a routine lower-left corner shot. It rolled next to the net. She refused to look around. But then she did to make sure she was back in line, and her nails dug deep, deep, into her palms. Because of-fucking-course Amity was glaring at her, stare flaming, again. Luz leveled her glare, face heating up. Fuming. Her next shot swooshed into the back of the net, and the breath she released was suffocating.

Then it was time for the passing drills, and a couple minutes in, Luz witnessed the ball roll by her, again, and after jogging after it, her foot smashed into the ball to kick it back to her teammates. 

“I’m going to drink some water,” she said, already on her way to the benches.

She sat, fatigue and frustration weighing her down, legs and shoulders heavy, and rubbed her eyes, to then close them. But then they cracked open to make sure she was in the clear to rest a bit. She needed to. And specifically, no captain in sight. Normally, her comments were highly annoying, but today, Luz absolutely could not handle one more stupid glare her way, and god knows she was avoiding Amity, and hoped for everyone’s sake she was avoiding her too. Luz hoped for once that she would leave her the fuck alone to rest for five minutes. So she closed her eyes and hoped her muscles would feel at least a bit lighter with the break. They really needed to. 

“Noceda?”

Not even five fucking minutes. 

Luz’s exhausted heart rate immediately snapped awake.

“What the actual fuck do you want now, Blight?”

Amity gawked. “Excuse me?”

Luz’s blood started boiling at the sheer audacity. She ground her teeth at being carelessly disturbed when all she wanted, all she needed, was to rest a bit. She snapped through gritted teeth, “Your strict-as-fuck ass really is that controlling, huh?”

Blazing bright red lit Amity’s face. “Noceda, watch your tongue. I was just going to say—”

“Yeah, I know the stupid damn drill.” 

Luz stood and walked past Amity without looking back. She clutched the collar of her t-shirt upon feeling heaviness weighing her down. 

“Leave me the fuck alone,” she mumbled to herself. But it wasn’t fueled so much with anger and frustration as it was with sadness, and a knot in her chest, and a lump in her throat. Because she just wanted to rest.

She took deep breaths to force her face to relax upon approaching her teammates for the passing drills. She paid especially close attention to the ball to not miss any passes and after a couple of moments, it was time for the practice matches.

Laser focus — wanted, needed. Attempted.

She was keeping up with the Diamond formation and paid extreme attention to Amity and Vee’s movements. She trusted her muscle memory going into autopilot mode, and thanks to all the practicing she had done prior, it was working. She knew how to read Amity very well and thank the skies that at least that was working out well. 

But her hands covered her face when the ball landed in the goalie’s hands. Her gaze kept to the grass to avoid Viney’s confused look at the lack of strength in Luz’s kick, again. Her gaze stayed averted when the ball swooshed into the net, because seeing surprise on Viney’s face proved worse.

“Come see me later,” Coach Eda mumbled when Luz passed by her in defeat. 

The matches ended soon after, and Luz lifted her head as she walked toward the Coach.

“Luz.”

“Yes, Coach?”

Soft eyes met tired ones, that darted down, and she added, “I’m-um, sorry. For today.”

“Hey, kid, we all have bad days.” Coach Eda’s gentle tone caused Luz’s head to lift. “We still have a couple days before the match.” She scanned Luz’s face for a couple of seconds. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz rubbed her neck. “It’s fine. Thanks, for understanding. Won’t happen again, Coach.”

“You know I’m here, if you want to talk.”

Luz forced her face to stay still unless she wanted her shock to be revealed, like earlier when faced with Mx Whispers. Instead, she straightened her back even more, and nodded.

“Thanks, Coach. Won’t let you down again, Coach.”

A chuckle. “Alright, kid. Go get some rest.”

And Luz’s shoulders naturally dropped once out-of-sight.

Weighed down by fatigue, momentarily confused at another adult’s disconcerting understanding, she only looked up at one point to make sure she was going in the right direction. She was, but of course, of course, the person she wanted to see the least right now stood there like a dreaded checkpoint on the way. Luz kept her gaze straight ahead, and prayed to the skies that silence would follow her to her motorbike. 

She looked at the clouds once safely there, and stayed focused on the road home. Yet, the soothing revving of the engine halted before turning the corner to her house. The time on her phone signaled company back home. She hesitated. Then revved away until noticing her usual parking spot in front of the nearby park.

The clouds took their time, floating in the sky, unlike the days where they sped across as if on their way to a better place. Company would still be at home for a good while. She hesitated. Then secured her helmet back on until slowly unclasping it once faced with the familiar front door.

She hesitated.

“Mija!” Her mom’s smile was comforting. “How was your day?” That smile wasn’t comforting anymore.

“It was good!” The hug should’ve been comforting. But it was, almost, imperceptibly tighter than usual. And that tightened her chest.

Her mom led them to the kitchen and smiled some more. “You must be hungry after practice. I left some of the stew for you. Están deliciosos! Thank you for them.” The gentler tone, and the lingering look, forced the corner of Luz’s lips upward. “You haven’t made them in months.”

“Yeah.” Luz’s hand twitched. “I woke up a bit earlier this morning.” 

She chuckled, but her mom’s silence was louder. Then her mom’s smile turned even softer, with her tone. “Go rest, then. I’m making dinner before going to work, I’ll put it in the fridge, okay?”

Luz’s smile didn’t meet her eyes. “Gracias, mamá.”

Her mom rubbed her shoulder before exiting the kitchen, giving her space. Luz, tired, took it, before heading out.

Her bedroom stayed dark when she entered. Before dropping her bag, she remembered there were essay questions hidden in the notebook inside it. It landed on the floor.

The bed caught her fall. She looked up, but the stars looked down on her.

No wishes this time. 

She closed her eyes.

Chapter Text

The next day, Luz arrived in front of the school and saw her friends. She smiled. Willow beamed. They all greeted Luz before heading inside as the bell was about to ring. Hunter and Gus went ahead while Luz and Willow inconspicuously lingered back a bit so they could talk.

“So you’re feeling better?”

Luz answered bashfully, “Yeah.” But her lips formed a thin line when realizing the extent to which she didn’t hide yesterday’s feelings well.

“Hey, it wasn’t obvious.”

Luz rubbed her forehead. “You should’ve seen me at practice.”

“It didn’t go well?”

They entered the classroom.

“Let’s just say—” Amity, front row. Luz immediately looked away. “I… didn’t… play my best, let’s say.”

As they sat, Luz glanced at Amity for a split second again, and found her looking right at her, brows furrowed. Luz squinted and swerved her gaze away when remembering yesterday, and how Luz lashed out, strongly. But Amity was being a sore bitch as usual. Luz shook her head and focused back on setting up her things on her desk.

“It’s fine, you’ll catch up today and show them all why you’re on the team.”

Luz nodded, focusing back on Willow. “Yeah.” Determination then flourished in her light smile. “I will.”

Amity continued setting up her desk, eyes narrowed after having noticed Luz. Her piss-poor attitude sprung to mind. But, her abysmal playing replaced that thought. Amity’s brows furrowed a bit deeper… Why was she playing so badly? She blinked, and focused back on straightening her colored pens so that they were all neatly parallel to each other on the desk.

Later at practice, Luz did indeed show everyone why she was on the team. Skillful passes, smart combos, precise tackles, excellent shots. Her smiles toward her teammates inspired trust, and she was grateful her teammates seemed unfazed in a way, as if yesterday had never happened.

Amity watched Luz acing her drills and reciprocating her skills during the practice matches. Her face relaxed the more shots Luz scored, but stayed flat when reminding herself it was the bare minimum for her. Yet, it relaxed nonetheless. Amity still wondered what happened yesterday, and her face displayed that skeptical confusion via narrowed eyes when looking at Luz. 

Luz had been refusing to look at Amity when unnecessary and narrowed her eyes that one time she did when seeing Amity’s. Same old, same old, as fully expected. 

They played in synchrony for the entirety of practice, not exchanging a single word, as usual. Tension kept the air between them cold, as usual, because even after three weeks of playing together, they still hadn’t warmed up to the other. As fully expected.

Practice ended and they left off, partly unconsciously, on cold furtive glances, begrudgingly acknowledging each other’s good work.

Amity scanned her surroundings to make sure she was in the clear to make her way toward the back of the school, to the pitch. Coast clear, she grabbed the spare set of keys Coach Eda had lent her once, that she hadn’t exactly asked for back, something Amity perhaps took advantage of a couple of times. But she paused dead in her tracks upon seeing Luz already on the pitch.

What the hell was Noceda doing trespassing on the pitch?

Amity immediately questioned whether to return home or whether to stay and practice despite Luz’s unexpected, highly unexpected, disconcerting, perplexing, presence. But their first match was on Friday. Amity fastened her jaw and unlocked the gate to the pitch.

Luz’s head whipped toward the sound of the metal gate clinking shut.

What the hell was Blight doing trespassing on the pitch?

Past the sun setting after her mom had left for work, Luz had mounted her motorbike, destination: the school and the pitch’s gate she found out was easy to climb with the general gate-climbing skills she had acquired over the years, and her eye for security cameras, finding none that were directly pointed toward the pitch. 

The match was on Friday, and Luz wanted to get the most practice time she could fit in prior. She felt like she needed to catch up for yesterday. And so catch up she would. But seeing Amity on the pitch trespassing like her at 10 pm was not at all on her bingo card that night. Should she leave, or stay? Should she say something?

They locked eyes as Amity made her way onto the pitch, ball in hand, practice uniform on, varsity jacket around her shoulders to protect her skin from the slight breeze that soon wouldn’t be a bother.

The gate was situated near the goal on the side that Luz was occupying. So, Amity needed to pass by her to get to the other side of the pitch where the other goal was. Uncomfortable silence sizzled between them as Amity walked across the field, the tension spanning across the yards between them.

They could’ve asked what the other was doing there, but their soccer balls revealed their obvious similar reasons. And like at the practices during normal hours, their treaty stayed the same. No need to talk, so no talking due.

They practiced on their respective sides for a while. Amity was attempting increasingly tricky shots. At one point, to test her precision in a more specific way, she targeted the top-left corner of the goalpost instead of the net. The ball hit the post, but flew by Amity when it rebounded back toward her. Unfortunately that meant that it crossed the pitch onto Luz’s side. 

Amity noticed Luz fully in the zone, sprinting toward the goal and scoring with a smooth top-right shot. The captain was already surprised that Luz had sneaked in to practice outside of normal hours. It was something Amity would do. It was something Amity was doing. And seeing Luz so focused, so into it — this wasn’t Luz from yesterday. It was almost surprising to Amity, though perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Her face stayed blank upon approaching Luz’s side, perplexed-thoughts hidden behind the cold silence on the field.

Luz, after getting the ball back from inside the goal, turned toward the center of the pitch to start another sprint and shoot drill, and she noticed Amity’s ball rolling her way, with Amity not too far behind. Luz’s foot stopped the ball from rolling any further. They exchanged glances before Luz kicked the ball toward her in tense, awkward silence.

Amity couldn’t help but, begrudgingly, speak up after a couple of seconds, a good distance between them yet her voice clear across the silent field. “Lower center.”

Luz blinked. “What?”

Amity sighed quietly, wishful thinking led her to believe that further explanations weren’t necessary. But Captain Mode seemed to be taking over so no snark dripped from her tone.

“You tend to practice the corners. I don’t really see you practice the lower center.”

Luz blinked again, pensive for a couple of seconds. Indeed.

She acquiesced, “Yeah.”

“It could be advantageous to throw the goalie off, for example during a penalty kick when the goalie would be expecting a complex corner based on your previous plays.”

It wasn’t like Luz hadn’t thought of it, but it was true that she hadn’t noticed how often she prioritized corner shots. Amity’s tone wasn’t accusatory, rather factual and professional. Kind of like during their project meeting where they both knew they needed to work together and not against each other. And they knew, by the end of that meeting, that their collaboration proved effective.

“Of course,” Luz said, but sass didn’t ooze from her tone either. After a couple of seconds, she added, “I noticed you tend to feint right.”

Amity nodded. Admittedly she was more comfortable feinting with her dominant foot, which obviously worked, but ideally should be practicing with her non-dominant more often.

A slight pause ensued, before Luz kicked her own ball toward Amity. She received it, confused, when Luz made a gesture for Amity to come toward her. Amity, understanding, hesitated at first, but nodded. 

They both backed up enough for there to be a sizable distance between them. Amity ran forward and Luz was ready to intercept the ball. Amity feinted left. Luz nodded in place of saying, ‘nice’.

Then Amity went to the goal, and positioned herself in the middle. She nodded. Luz understood and positioned herself at the penalty spot. She kicked the ball toward the lower center while Amity stepped toward the right, like a goalie would if faced with Luz. Luz easily made the shot, and Amity nodded in place of saying, ‘nice’.

She kicked the ball back toward Luz and they continued for a couple of shots, Luz targeting the center, until Amity said, “Now I’ll really defend.”

So Luz practiced various spots. Amity caught a couple by prediction, but those she didn’t predict swooshed cleanly into the net.

Luz approached the goal to signal that now it was her turn. Amity started practicing her shots as well for a bit, until Luz suggested more dribbling drills so that Amity could practice her feinting, with the added benefit that Luz could practice her defending. They trained together for a while, and took turns in silence, the underlying tension increasingly easing up. The training was effective.

After a while, Luz suggested rehydrating and walked toward the benches where both their bags were as far apart as they could be. Amity, beads of sweat on her forehead as well, made her way toward her bottle too. After gulping down some water, they both went back onto the pitch, and Luz sat down on the synthetic grass, fully expecting Amity to take a break and relax for a bit as well after their serious practicing.

Amity stayed stood.

“Do you ever let yourself relax?”

Amity crossed her arms, but a hint of a frown revealed itself behind her stone cold expression.

Luz’s brows twitched, surprised, as she could’ve sworn she heard the almost-silent mumble, “Not really,” like a pin drop on the quiet field. Touchy subject?

Amity noticed Luz’s almost-imperceptibly furrowed brows and cursed herself for letting that slip out of her silent thoughts. She immediately snapped back, “Do you ever mind your own business?” She crossed her arms tighter. “And why do you always care so much about people having fun?”

Luz looked down, pang in her chest, hand instinctively going to her tattoo. 

“Life’s too short to not be having fun.”

Then she blinked, realizing she had said that more seriously than she intended. 

Amity noticed the crack and the somewhat sadness when Luz said that. Since when does Noceda have a sad side? Confused, she also noticed Luz touching her tattoo, and wondered what it actually was.

Luz faked a cough and suddenly stood up, but felt like she looked too serious now. She feigned a sneaky smile. “Defender in the penalty box. All out. Match simulation.”

Amity nodded slowly, taken aback by Luz’s change in expression, but then nodded more determinedly. “Let’s go.”

Amity started on the offensive, zoned in, while Luz readied herself to defend the ball before Amity could approach the goal and score. It was much easier for whoever played forward to bypass and score, since it was their actual role in the team, so it wasn’t surprising at all when Amity skillfully dribbled past Luz and scored. But Luz noticed that Amity’s left-feint was stronger than earlier. Similarly, Amity noticed Luz’s center shots were more fluidly integrated in her arsenal of goal tactics.

At some points, after particularly sneaky feints and shots that kind of sort of made each other somewhat proud of the other, the air felt a tiny bit lighter.

Then they thought about practicing the two-forward combos together, such as the One-Two Pass: while both ran toward the goal, forward A would pass to forward B to shift the focus away from her while continuing to run ahead, then forward B would make a split-second pass with the flick of a foot toward forward A who was now ahead of the opponents, setting her up for a clear shot.

The key to the play wasn’t just the spontaneity of the passes, but also their trust, to understand the intention behind A’s initial pass and their instinctive sense of A’s position when running ahead, that forward B would have to instantly know for the pass to work. So they practiced — refining their quick foot flicks and developing a better instinctive feel for each other’s speed.

Around midnight, they decided to call it a night. Luz was somewhat impressed that Amity stayed up so late, having figured that Amity was the type to, even on weekends, fall asleep at 10 pm. But that Friday night party had already put that idea to the test. Luz was still perplexed by how Miss Princess Amity Blight ended up there, destroying the competition at beer pong and downing tequila. 

Then Luz remembered Amity’s tipsy slip-up in the kitchen. Her saying, “Practice makes perfect,” after downing that shot so easily, that she clearly didn’t mean to say. Luz was so drunk, but she did remember that. It didn’t really sink in on the spot, but Amity letting slip “Not really” after Luz said, “Do you ever let yourself relax?” from earlier reminded her of that. So Amity did have a guard up, and did have things to hide, and did have touchy subjects. Hm.

As Luz went ahead of her toward the exit of the pitch, Amity finally took a closer look at her tattoo. A constellation of stars that form a circle, with the stars inside replicating the pattern of a soccer ball. Roman numerals underneath. It was a quite beautiful tattoo. Amity obviously knew Luz loved soccer, but couldn’t have know she loved the game that much. And what did the roman numerals mean? 1982? Absolutely expected, there was a lot that Amity didn’t know about Luz. Not that she wanted to know, though. Because really, she couldn’t be assed to know. Yet it was a bit curious.

But she remembered Luz’s slip-up earlier, her lack of lightheartedness over the importance of having fun. So Luz did have a guard up, and did have things to hide, and did have touchy subjects. Hm.

They arrived at the parking lot, and, exhaustion catching up to them, both realized how well they trained on the field. 

Before parting ways, Luz awkwardly said, “See ya tomorrow, Blight.”

Amity replied, “Bye. Noceda.”

No middle finger flip-off ‘fuck you’s this time.

Only actual surprising contentment over how effective their cooperation was.

The next day at practice, unexpectedly, they both felt how they were a bit more in sync overall — as if practicing together one-on-one developed a more instinctive understanding of each other’s playing style, making them more aware of each other’s thoughts and intentions during the game.

Upon realizing their smoother flow during the practice matches, it made them somewhat look at each other in a more relaxed manner, before instantly turning their heads the second they realized it. But at some point they made a particularly good One-Two Pass that worked wonders. They couldn’t help but release a small, furtive smile, and that lasted a beat longer — before turning their heads away again, as quickly as the nonsense smiles appeared.

The coach congratulated them on their combined efforts. They exchanged furtive glances, and a hint of lightheartedness, again. But both immediately crossed their arms and looked away, ironically in sync as well.

Outside of the matches they refused to acknowledge each other still. There was still tension in their silence, still the lingering hostility. But, a bit less so.

The next few days though, they found a real synchronized rhythm together. In game, instead of dead silence, they’d sometimes call out, “I’m open,” when they weren’t directly in each other’s line of sight and could benefit from a combo play that wasn’t as obvious if not aware of the other’s position on the pitch. 

But those sorts of explicit ‘heads up’ weren’t ideal as they could tip off the opponents, so they both realized that at times it was a good idea to signal one’s position, but it shouldn’t be giving away their strategies. So, without even concerting each other vocally, they made up logical yet secretive code names for the tactics they had in mind that were a bit trickier, that took a bit more mental effort and full spatial awareness, to predict.

This happened with the Decoy Play tactic, where a teammate would pass to one of the forwards who would run ahead as if to receive the pass but would deliberately let it go past them, so that the other forward, who was also running ahead, could receive it instead. Amity called out “ghost” during a particularly unexpected one, and Luz immediately understood, so she was ready to intercept the ball after Amity didn’t on purpose. It wasn’t the most logical combo to use in their specific positions given Amity was theoretically in an ideal position to sprint ahead and shoot, which was why it was unexpected, but Amity wanted to try it out. And it worked, really well, confusing the opponents and allowing Luz an even clearer shot.

So, surprising both of them, they played even better together, with especially less mental strain since they didn’t need to be laser focused on constantly checking the other’s position, now understanding more the other’s strategic thoughts and calling out special code words when attempting unexpected plays, which even furthered their understanding of each other’s strategic thoughts to the point that they rarely needed the codes anymore. And honestly, it just felt nicer to feel in sync with the teammate they were supposed to be the most in sync with.

It was less narrowed eyes and crossed arms after accidentally looking at each other, and more blank glances before looking away more relaxed, and this happened in the mornings in class too; when not consciously avoiding each other, they’d accidentally lock eyes and simply look away. There was still some underlying tension, but it felt weird, to not feel this instant hostility toward the other when, for so long, them locking eyes sparked inner hints of rage. But now, there were these new sorts of instinctive reactions: still a bit tense, yet lighthearted at the same time. Conflicted. 

But with every aced strategic synchrony, with every time they successfully read each other’s minds on the pitch, the tenseness slightly lessened, the lightheartedness somewhat increased, and the conflicted feelings simmered stronger in the background.

They were confident about their first match on Friday before, but now, surprising even to them, even more.

Then came Friday. Their first match.

They were more than ready.

The morning of, when Luz arrived in class and accidentally saw Amity, they subtly nodded to each other, practically no tension in their gazes, only keen determination. They both knew today they had to play well together, and from the second their eyes met in the morning, they knew they would.

The match was being held on home turf, starting at 4:30 pm, with the rival team arriving at 4 pm. Their usual practice started at 3:30 pm so they had a bit of time for some drills and some final strategy talk.

Coach Steve handed out the players’ official match shirts before they entered the locker rooms. Luz in particular was over the moon excited about finally wearing their official team uniforms. Like their practice t-shirts, they hosted the same color, forest green, and logo on the top left, a flame with an open book inside with the letters H H for Hexside High, but the jerseys looked cooler, and more professional. Luz beamed and clutched hers to her chest, and it made everything feel even more serious.

The tops were numbered at the back, inspired by the traditional position-based numbering system that the professional teams used: typically the goalkeeper was #1, then defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Luz and Amity took #9 and #11 respectively, and Vee took #10 as their playmaker.

“Noceda,” Amity said to Luz, already locked in, as they were exiting the locker rooms.

“Blight?”

“We should talk strategy,” Amity said with outright determination.

Luz nodded with the same determination. “Right.”

“I was thinking…”

That was how they had started talking, fully locked in, actually vocally concerting each other for the first time, no time to waste. They were discussing as teammates for once, finally. And their conversation was fluid, even more fluid than when working on their project together which was the only time they ever really talked without insulting the other. No insults in sight here, only focus, and determination to play as best as they could, as teammates, for their match.

They continued talking on the field before they needed to start warming up when they noticed Vee walking nearby. Luz and Amity nodded to each other.

“Vee!” Luz called out.

Vee approached them, somewhat cautiously, eyes slightly wide. But she relaxed when realizing that Luz and Amity were peaceful with each other.

“We’ve been talking strat,” Luz explained, “and need to fill you in on what we’ve been thinking about.”

They explained some of the sneakier tactics they would be favoring depending on the rival team’s defensive structure and potential formations, emphasizing the different cues they’d be giving each other to notify their intentions.

“If it’s a 5-3-2, Amity can focus on Delayed Shots and if I’m out of her line of sight—”

“I call out ‘Comet.’”

“—which is our code name for it.”

“The defenders will never see it coming and—”

“—we can take them by surprise, by following up with a One-Two, that we sometimes name—”

“—Sync.”

Vee’s eyebrows arched up. Amity and Luz blinked, made eye contact, and bashfully looked away. Luz faked a cough while Amity crossed her arms and cleared her throat. 

Vee watched them for a couple of seconds, both clearly attempting to ignore the fact that they were finishing each other’s sentences now, and focused back on the topic of discussion, impressed at what the two came up with, and slightly surprised at the confidence they had, given those combinations of combo plays required utmost trust and mind-reading on the pitch. “All of that sounds amazing! I’ll remember you can do all that when figuring out what passes to make.”

Amity and Luz’s determinedness instantly came back, and the three continued discussing for a bit. Luz held a sneaky grin, Amity boasted a confident gaze, and Vee’s bright face topped off the synergy that was flowing between the three of them.

The players then warmed up for a bit before starting drills, keeping them lighter to avoid over-exhausting themselves before the match. Coach Eda ran through the team’s formation rotations again, and reminded them of which formations to use depending on the rival team’s structures.

Then the other team arrived, as did the spectators. The pitch was renovated a couple of years ago, and the bleachers on both sides of the pitch had very comfortable seats. Soccer was a renowned sport at their school, a big pride and joy, so matches were always an event that lots of the students came and watched. 

Ten minutes until kick-off. Both teams were warming up on their sides of the pitch. Being Luz’s first game at the high school, she felt even more excitement, yet pressure too. But Luz was completely locked in, and nothing could shake her, or could distract her from the seriousness of the match. She stayed serious, and focused, and determined.

“Heads,” Amity told the referee as she and the other captain stood in the kickoff zone at the center circle of the pitch. “Good with you?” she asked the other captain, without giving her the choice really.

The other captain nodded. “Tails then.”

The referee flipped the coin. Heads.

“We take the kickoff,” she said, meaning that Amity’s team would start with possession of the ball.

Adrenaline filled Luz as she and Amity waited in the center circle for the referee to blow the whistle. The second it blew, Amity tapped the ball toward Luz who tapped it back, officially starting the match.

It was tense. Both teams held possession equally. The passes were fast-paced, the attacking team couldn’t linger long enough on the opponents’ side before they’d intercept the ball and start attacking themselves. There were a couple of close calls, but no clear scoring opportunities on either end yet. The rival team held up well with their Classic 4-4-2 formation, but Amity’s team had the advantage with their attacking midfielder Vee, who, the more got in the groove of things and got a feel for the opponents’ defensive weaknesses, the more she made more unique passes that bypassed the defenders.

About half an hour in, their team was gaining more possession, and had their first scoring opportunity. Vee had lobbed a ball toward Luz who quickly scanned the pitch to find Amity near the edge of the field. Luz was in a prime position to make a header, meaning to receive the ball on her head and bounce it off in a teammate’s direction. She hesitated doing a header to pass it to Amity to signal the start of a One-Two tactic, but decided against it, knowing Amity could skillfully outrun the defender that was closest to her, and Luz in all cases would run forward as backup in case Amity wanted to One-Two. 

So Luz backed up a bit to receive Vee’s pass on her chest and pointed toward the goal before receiving it. Amity, eyeing Luz, noticed Luz point toward the goal and instantly started running forward before Luz even kicked the ball toward her, knowing Luz’s intention.

She skillfully caught the ball during her sprinting without needing to slow down because Luz had targeted exactly where Amity would be, perfectly estimating her speed. Amity, in the clear to shoot, targeted the left side of the goal, and was too quick for the goalie to react. The ball flew into the net and the spectators cheered and went crazy at the first goal of the season. 

Amity grinned brightly as her teammates caught up to her to pat her on the back and congratulate her on the shot. Luz grinned too, but didn’t approach. But she looked at the ecstatic crowd in the bleachers and felt a rush of joy. She looked back at Amity who looked at her too, and they both exchanged genuine smiles — before looking away of course, but their smiles lingered.

After another ten minutes of back-and-forths across the pitch, the referee blew the whistle three times, meaning it was halftime, giving the players a ten-minute break.

“Great work, girls!” Coach Eda cheered as they huddled up. “The defensive line is solid, the midfielders are taking great advantage of the wings, the Diamond formation was the right call, and the forwards? Luz, that was an excellent pass. You knew exactly where Amity would be. And Amity, that was an excellent shot. Well done, girls.” 

Coach Eda explained her analyses of the match and of the other team, their strengths and weaknesses, then theorized about how their opponents would play in the second half of the match, whether they’d switch up their formation, make replacements etc.

Amity noticed how Luz wasn’t joking around at all, but instead held a steadfast determined gaze when listening to Coach Eda. She had never seen Luz so serious and focused. It was… surprising. 

Halftime ended and both teams were back in position after having switched sides. Amity’s team played even more confidently than when they had started, knowing they could keep their score up and even score some more.

“Ghost,” Amity called out while both she, Luz, and Vee were running toward the goal at one point. From the right, Vee had passed the ball to Amity, but a defender ahead stood in Amity’s way. As soon as Vee kicked the ball, Amity glanced right and saw Luz running with an opponent on her tail. Amity knew Luz could easily outrun the opponent, and by pretending to catch Vee’s pass, she’d be distracting the opponent ahead of her away from Luz coming in from the side. So she called out, “Ghost.”

It took Luz by surprise, figuring Amity would dribble past her opponent upon receiving the ball, but thanks to the code name, Luz was more than ready to receive Vee’s pass instead. As planned, the defender who was waiting in the penalty box approached Amity and was left confused when the ball flew by her. Luz had sped past her and outran the opponent behind her, allowing for her first clear shot once faced with the goal.

Smooth top-right. She scored.

The crowd went wild again, cheering for Luz. She jumped and pumped her fists to the sky. Her teammates ran up to her and shook her, congratulating her. Amity stood from afar and watched Luz relish her first score, a small smile on her face at witnessing the pure giddiness. Luz glanced around the pitch until she spotted Amity, and offered her a genuine smile in acknowledgement. Amity smiled back. Before both of them bashfully whipped their gazes away. The team went back to their positions on their side of the pitch, even more pumped by their two-goal lead.

Near the end of the match, both teams were positioned on the side of the pitch where Viney was protecting the goal. Most of the players were in the penalty box, waiting for the opponent’s corner kick. The players were stacked in front of the goal, about a dozen fighting for the right spot. The other team was getting aggressive, needing to score to at least have a fighting chance of equalizing in the remaining ten minutes. 

One of the opponents bumped hard into Amity, who was about to fall down but instead fell into someone’s arms. She groaned but instantly went silent upon realizing she fell into Luz’s arms, with Luz managing to keep her from falling down. Their bodies instantly heated up, fire sparked in their chests as they stayed like that for a couple of seconds. Then Amity jumped away, face red, and apologized quietly while avoiding eye contact.

“It’s—it’s fine,” Luz muttered, cheeks pink, faking a cough while rubbing the back of her neck.

Amity quickly moved away from Luz to position herself in front of the goal, the farthest away from her as possible.

The whistle blew, signaling that the opponent could kick the ball, and luckily, it landed on Boscha’s head and bounced away from the goal. The match continued with Amity’s team dominating possession, keeping the ball mainly on the opponents’ side of the pitch. The opponents took on a more defensive formation to avoid any more goals, meaning the likelihood of them piercing through the defenders was slim, further proving that Amity’s team most likely already won. With only a couple minutes left, it was almost guaranteed.

And indeed, the team won when the referee blew the final whistle. The team’s players, the coaches, and all of the team’s supporters in the bleachers, cheered at their first victory of the season.

Amity was grinning widely, particularly proud of her play and her goal, and some of the teammates came toward her and congratulated her again. 

Luz noticed the brightness of her smile and paused her cheering for a second, appreciating a bit how well she played, and how well they played together.

Then Vee grabbed Luz by the shoulders and shook her in excitement. “We won!” she said, “and you scored!”

Luz laughed excitedly too, “Did you see your passes? They were menacing!”

Amity from afar noticed the pure excitement in Luz’s smile. She watched for a couple of seconds as Luz bounced around with such sincere joy. Then Amity shook her head quickly before focusing back on her teammates congratulating her.

“It was thanks to you all, we truly played like a team and I couldn’t have done it without you,” Amity offered, which was the truth, and she had to remind her teammates that they were all so useful. 

Everyone was so hyped and Skara yelled, “Party at my place tonight!”

After the celebrations chilled a bit, the players went back to the locker room to get changed. Willow, Gus, and Hunter waited by Luz’s motorbike and cheered again, which made Luz feel the emotions she felt when the final whistle blew all over again. She figured she’d remember that feeling forever. And it felt euphoric.

“Party at Skara’s tonight, you in?” Luz asked them. Skara had repeated she’d be hosting a party tonight and gave her address, and noted that the players could invite friends too, so Luz immediately thought of bringing hers.

“To celebrate the team’s win? Of course!” Hunter said.

They all smirked when thinking of just how good the party was going to be with everyone hyped up about their victory.

“Pizza at my place before?” Willow asked.

“Yes please,” Gus replied, “and we need to get drinks.” He fluttered his eyelids. “Luz?”

“My fake ID will always come in handy. But I have to shower and change first so I’ll join you guys later okay?”

They all agreed on that so Luz mounted her motorbike and set off.

When she unlocked the door to her home, she yelled, “We won!”

Her mother came rushing toward her. “Mija! That’s amazing!” she said with great joy. “Tell me everything about it!”

Luz gushed about the game and how she even scored, and her mom listened with a happy smile the entire time, so proud of her daughter, before she had to leave for work.

After showering and getting ready, Luz got on her motorbike, direction: Willow’s place. There was a store where she could buy some drinks nearby and she flashed a smirked when her ID worked. She arrived at Willow’s and they ordered some pizza, and all of them were so ready for the party.

Chapter Text

At around 8.30 pm, Luz and her friends walked through the fancy residential neighborhood until the massive three-story house came into view, that was evidently hosting the party based on the muffled music and chatter that could be heard from outside. 

The front door opened directly into the huge living room where there were at least two dozen people; some sat on the long sofas, others stood near some tables that held cups, cans, bottles, snack bowls — the room was filled and yet there was still place to host more.

The friends walked through the living room to find the kitchen so they could set down their drinks. It was a modern, sleek island kitchen, with stacks of cups waiting to be filled, many alcohol and soft drinks bottles made for mixers and cocktails, some beer bottles that were already empty, and packets of crisps, candy, and other snacks: it was like in the living room, but much more stocked and organized.

Luz grabbed a chip and popped it in her mouth before moving toward the fridge to put the bottles they brought inside. They started with beer, so Luz’s ring, of course, came in handy to decapsulate them, then they headed toward the living room to check out the crowd.

Luz greeted her teammates and introduced her friends to them, and got particularly excited when Vee appeared. She zealously introduced Vee to her friends, saying, “You’d get along so well!”

Gus suggested a ‘cheers’ with Vee. “To the game player…? Is it game player?” 

Vee said with pride, “Playmaker! I’m so happy I got that role.”

“She’s perfect for it,” Luz exclaimed.

“Hey, you’re a perfect receiver!” Then Vee eyed Luz before saying, “Amity too.”

Luz averted her gaze as if distracted by a random passerby. She cleared her throat. “Yep, she’s good.”

She wondered whether Amity was here. Not in sight. Good. Not like she particularly wanted to see her.

They went to explore some of the rooms, the ones with wide-open doors to make sure they weren’t prying too much, and found a game room on the first floor with the most comfortable looking desk chairs, three computers with all the consoles possible, the whole gamer’s dream.

They also discovered a sort of cinema room, with a massive flat screen TV and multiple sofas in front of it. There was a pool table in one of the rooms. And a basement too, that looked like a bachelor’s den, with a couch, beanbags, a TV, a mini fridge, the good stuff.

Then they ended up on the porch in the backyard. They took the couple steps down to check out the patio that was illuminated by fairy lights, and they also approached the oval-shaped swimming pool that was surrounded by pool lounge chairs. LED lights surrounded the inside of the pool to provide some light for late-night swims that Luz theorized someone would take. There was always that one person. Luz giggled to herself. She was often that person. When looking at her friends who were giving her death-stares, she realized they thought she was that person too.

“I wouldn’t!”

“I’m not lending you my t-shirt,” Gus pleaded.

And Vee caught on, because she looked at Luz as if she were ready to cannonball into the pool on the spot.

Luz smirked. “I said I wouldn’t!”

Vee, and the others, sighed in relief.

“Boscha, he’s coming, don’t worry,” Amity said with a small chuckle.

“What? I wasn’t thinking of him.”

But Amity saw that specific look Boscha possessed whenever Gavin came to mind.

“Trust me, has he ever missed one of my parties?” Skara added.

Boscha huffed, red hands on display. 

They were in Skara’s bedroom on the second floor. Boscha was looking for a top that emphasized her waist, and Skara, being the style icon she was, knew exactly which of her tops would fit Boscha. And indeed, they found the perfect one. Amity was content about staying away from all the people, but Skara was itching to socialize nonetheless.

“Ready?” Skara bounced, with a grin. “You look amazing, Bosch.”

Boscha blushed a bit. “Thanks.” But a knowing silence followed.

“And yes Gavin will like it.” Amity snickered.

“Amity Blight I swear—”

“Let’s go.” Skara covered Boscha’s mouth before tugging both her and Amity out the door.

Amity sighed. “Here we go.”

“It’s going to be so fun!” Skara beamed as they walked down the stairs to get to the living room. “And it’s the first time the whole team is together at a party!”

Amity blinked. The whole team. The goalkeeper, the defenders, the midfielders… the forwards. She kind of hoped Luz was too exhausted from the match to attend, but from the small bit she knew of her, she figured even after two all-nighters Luz would still be down to party. And when entering the living room, no Noceda in sight. Skara looked around the room for a moment, then hummed, then mentioned exploring the house to see who was here.

The only place Amity would want to visit was the kitchen that tended to be less filled with people by virtue of it being smaller, but her drink was still too full to refill in an innocent manner. Boscha’s wasn’t filled, though.

“Kitchen?”

“Yes,” Boscha instantly answered.

Amity grinned. Boscha’s tomfoolery was one of the only things that made Amity be somewhat visibly expressive. Their friendship was strong, and Boscha was too entertaining.

In reality, Amity never chose Boscha and Skara to be her friends; their parents, being business partners, would make them play together growing up during their many business meetings. But throughout the years, they got closer. Boscha had been opening up about her crushes since primary school, and Skara was always honest about how she felt like her parents were always absent. Depth and secrets made people bond. 

Amity didn’t have much to open up about. Rather, she didn’t want to open up, so didn’t. But her friends knew just how strict her parents were, and that was enough for them to feel like they knew Amity in ways other’s didn’t at all. And so they bonded, and became real friends.

But that didn’t mean Amity talked to them, not really. About the deeper stuff. She’d complain about her parents sure, but never about how it made her feel. She’d recount events as factual, but never actual felt the stories while she was telling them.

The one who knew her best was probably Skara. She had always been the analytical one between her and Boscha. Skara never pushed, though. And Amity appreciated that.

She gulped quite a bit of her wine so she could refill already, in the mood to relax a little especially after their well-deserved victory earlier.

“Wine or beer?” she asked Boscha.

“Wine, it looks more sophisticated.”

“And why do you want to look sophisticated, Boscha?” Amity asked, rhetorically.

“Oh fuck off.”

Amity grinned. It was kind of fun to tease Boscha. She took another sip of her wine. 

Then she filled Boscha’s cup, but Skara decided to move on to some mixers, so she poured some gin into her cup and searched for tonic water. But then she smirked.

“Shots?” she asked Boscha and Amity.

Boscha responded, “Please.”

Amity looked at the cup she had just filled with wine, then held a little smirk too. “Why not?”

Luz and her friends spent quite a while with Vee on the patio in the backyard, talking and getting to know each other more, and it was going particularly well, good vibes flowing between all of them. And it was particularly fun for Luz, as it was an opportunity to get to know Vee outside of practice, and from the times she spent with her on the pitch, she knew they’d get along very well outside of it. Luz was often on the 'we need more drinks can you please get us more' duty so all of them were getting increasingly tipsy. And it felt good.

It was around 10.30 pm when they headed back inside and explored a bit more. They admired all of the fine paintings on the walls, all the lovely vases and fancy antiques. A bit less than a dozen people were chilling in one of the simpler rooms on the first floor, where there were comfy sofas surrounding a coffee table in the center, and, curious, the friends entered the room and listened in to what was happening.

Bo noticed them and said, “Hey! Come in guys, we’re about to start a Never Have I Ever!”

Luz smirked. She loved that game, despite most often losing, very quickly.

The group of people made space on the sofas for the four friends to join the circle. 

While the others in the room were talking among each other, Luz scanned the room and saw Bo, Katya, Celine, Gavin, Angmar, Barc, Skara, Boscha, and then she paused, because of course there’d be Amity. And indeed, there she was. Taking a sip of her drink, looking around the room. Luz immediately started looking around the room as well. 

Amity and Luz weren’t at all shocked to see each other at Skara’s party. A casual glance, they were ready for, but being in the same room again, playing the same game, that wasn’t something they particularly thought of. Nor something they particularly searched for. But Boscha held a bet over Amity’s head again, and Luz was always ready for a game, especially when her friends seemed excited to play.

Luz continued looking around and spotted Masha. Despite being exes, they still held affection for each other, as they had started off as friends and the break-up had went well. Had they been standing up, their hug would’ve been sweet. Luz waved at them from across the circle. “Masha! You’re here!”

“Hey Luz! Yeah, I came with Barc, Angmar, and Gavin. I saw your match, it was amazing! Well done on the goal.” They winked. “I knew you’d score.”

Luz beamed. “Thanks.”

“Okay people,” Katya said, drawing everyone’s attention. “The rules are easy. Someone says something they haven’t done, and if you’ve done it, you put a finger down. But this time, if you’ve done it, you drink. I’ll start it off. Never have I ever skipped class.”

A few people drank, including Luz, Hunter, Gavin, and Boscha.

“Rebels! Bo, your turn.”

“Okay, never have I ever gotten a speeding ticket.”

Again, Luz drank, and she was the only one.

“Oops. I had my reasons.”

Most of them chuckled at Luz’s sheepishness.

Celine said, “Never have I ever gotten detention.”

Very few of them drank, but all eyes were on Luz, the notorious detention-goer.

“What? I had my reasons too!”

More chuckles.

“Never have I ever done drugs,” Barc said.

Luz and Hunter laughed at each other and drank because of that time they found weed at Willow’s. Seeing them laugh, Willow and Gus remembered that too and drank as well. Gus shuddered before drinking his.

“Weed counts.”

A few more of them drank.

It was Angmar’s turn. “Never have I ever stolen something that wasn’t like clothes or something.”

All eyes were on Luz drinking again. Five for five.

“Again, I had my reasons!” But fun charisma oozed from Luz’s tone, which made the ones who chuckled earlier chuckle even more this time. Knowing Luz, it was evident she wasn’t a reckless driver or a drug addict or a criminal thief, and so wasn’t that much of a danger to society, so it was just funny to hear about her antics.

But ah yes, this was the Noceda that Amity knew and didn’t like. Hooligan behavior. Of course. But upon meeting Luz’s eyes, she still felt the pressing urge to look away, and to take another sip of her gin tonic. She wouldn’t need much alcohol for this game anyway, but she was feeling a little loosened with all the drinks and the lingering high. 

She hadn’t felt like this in a while. Loosened, in the good way, with a hint of nonchalance. The post-victory high, and maybe the four glasses of alcohol and that tequila shot, really got her good. And Skara’s evident tipsiness, and Boscha paying utmost attention to her posture because Gavin was sitting across from her, amused her a bit too. She hadn’t felt like this in a while.

“Never have I ever snuck out of the house.”

Half of them drank, including Amity.

Luz noticed and raised an eyebrow. Oh? Little Miss Princess? Is that how she was able to stay so late that night? She didn’t tell her parents? Oh?

The corner of Luz’s lips twitched up. But her tiny grin fell when realizing she had it in the first place. She took a sip of her fourth beer of the night.

Amity’s cup felt lighter in her hand when she drank again.

“Never have I ever gotten a hangover.”

Amity sighed this time when she and almost everyone drank at that one.

“Never have I ever skinny dipped.”

A few of them drank. Hunter nudged Luz.

“When?”

“That lake near Willow’s dads’ cabin?”

She took a quick gulp. Then she saw Masha drink and so felt the need to drink twice, now thinking of another lake.

“Never have I ever stalked someone’s social media account.”

Practically everyone drank at that one, except Amity.

“Not once?” Skara asked her, shocked.

“I don’t care enough about people to want to.”

Boscha shrugged. “That’s so fair.” But she took another sip.

Barc said, “Never have I ever gone on a blind date.”

Boscha nudged Amity.

“In what world?”

“Astronaut, Chess, who else? Golf—”

Amity’s eyes closed. “Enough.” She took a gulp. A big gulp. 

Boscha snickered. “Remember Hummus?”

Amity couldn’t help but chuckle, feeling increasingly tipsy with the alcohol. “Never again.”

Luz’s eyebrows raised again. Blight has dating lore? And she’s seeming more and more… relaxed? What in the plot twists is this game?  

While chuckling, Amity accidentally made eye contact with Luz. Her chuckles stopped and reflexes meant she took another sip.

“Never have I ever pulled an all-nighter.”

A couple of them drank, including Hunter, Luz, and Amity.

“Never have I ever had a crush on a teacher,” Gavin said.

Luz laughed and drank, mumbling to her friends, “Come on, she’s so hot.”

Amity chuckled to herself and took a small sip too. Guess she was drinking at this game. And it felt a bit freeing. She wasn’t really minding it.

Then she and Luz made eye contact. Ah yes, the shared experience of crushing on a teacher. They chuckled lightly before realizing they were chuckling at each other but luckily their attention was brought to Skara.

“Never have I ever peed in a pool.”

Thankfully, not even Luz drank at that.

Boscha’s turn. “Never have I ever been expelled.”

Again, nobody drank. But Amity snickered and muttered to her friends, “For someone here, not yet.”

Luz heard. Bold move, Blight. “What’s that?” She kind of wanted to grin, but kept a straight face.

Amity went along with it. “Oh, nothing.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Both of them released a chuckle, and that chuckle lasted a little longer than the last one.

“Okay, well, never have I ever illegally snuck into a place I wasn’t supposed to be, otherwise said, trespassed.”

One or two people drank, Luz drank too because she of course had done it, multiple times, but Amity didn’t drink.

“Blight, drink.”

“Excuse me?”

“Soccer pitch.”

Amity squinted. “Go off, Noceda.” But her cup hid her slight smile. “Fine,” she shot Luz a more challenging look. “Never have I ever been escorted to a police station for attempted assault with a bat.”

Luz narrowed her eyes but ended up grinning, and drank. Then she looked over at Willow and her grin softened. Willow gave her a small smile back.

Luz said, “Can someone say, ‘Never have I ever been a teacher’s pet’ or something?”

Amity squinted some more. “Can someone say, ‘Never will I ever join a gang’ or some other cliché delinquent activity?”

Luz laughed. Amity released a light laugh back. They looked at each other. It lasted a beat longer. Then they whipped their gazes away and took big, big gulps of their drinks.

Hunter smirked. “My turn,” he said innocently, “never have I ever had a crush on someone in this room.” Luz eyed him, but noticed his face instantly falling, and pink flourishing on his cheeks. Then she looked at Willow, whose face was similarly red. Luz smirked a giant smirk. Hunter’s fucking stupid on so many levels.

She saw Masha drink and drank as well because of course they had past crushes on each other. But from the corner of her eye, she noticed Vee drink as well, then look as if she immediately regretted it. She would absolutely ask her about that later. Boscha and Gavin both drank, blushes evident. Then she looked over at Amity, whose eyes were set on her cup, but she didn’t drink, and Luz could’ve sworn she saw hints of pink on her face. 

Luz swerved her gaze away, but landed on Vee again, who was looking right at her. Luz blinked, then smirked and whispered, “I’m watching you.”

“I’m watching you too,” Vee whispered back.

Luz paused. “There’s nothing to watch. But you however…”

Vee started blushing before shaking her head, definitely regretting drinking now. Luz continued smirking. 

“Never have I ever kissed a girl,” one of the notoriously gay basketball players said.

The guys drank, and some of the girls drank too. “Spin the bottle,” Celine said, which made the other girls nod. That included Skara and Boscha, but Amity didn’t drink. And again, Luz could’ve sworn that Amity’s cheeks were pink again. How much alcohol did she drink for her cheeks to blush? 

As the next person started saying what they had never done, Amity accidentally glanced at Luz again, and she could’ve sworn Luz’s cheeks were pink too.

The game continued for a bit, Luz and Amity had less trouble keeping eye contact during the moments they accidentally did. After their little jabbing session, the air felt lighter between them, light like when they’d nail a combo on the pitch. Amity did end up chuckling a few times, like when Luz had explained the entire story of how she had prank called a teacher once. And Luz would watch in shock when Amity drank at something unexpected again, like when she drank at ‘never have I ever gone skydiving.’ She was so surprised that Amity had a… fun side. And so they’d make eye contact, and the few times they did, it lasted a beat longer than the last.

After the game, Luz and her friends headed to the living room, but Hunter and Luz needed more beer, so Luz offered to get them. She didn’t exactly stumble through the hallway, but her tipsiness meant her steps weren’t exactly the straightest either. And man did it feel good. Luz was in a great mood. Being at a party, with her best friends, getting to bond with new friends, having alcohol in her system, after having won her first game, after having even scored, making her close ones proud, even her mom, especially her mom.

And even being on slightly better terms with Amity, the person who had made her feel such negative emotions, the person who could ruin her mood — now, not exactly ruining her mood anymore. Who knew how easier life was when not automatically feeling bubbling rage every day. Though she still didn’t want to be particularly too friendly with her. Which was why she avoided looking at her too much, of course. But regardless, especially with that post-victory high among many things, Luz was feeling great tonight. And when she arrived in the kitchen to find Amity alone, pouring drinks, it was easier to look at her.

Amity turned her head upon hearing someone enter the kitchen, and it was easier for her eyes to meet Luz’s too for a bit. 

Luz opened the fridge to grab two beers but this desire to take a shot of sweet tequila overcame her for a second. She looked around for the bottle and found that Amity was holding it, pouring some in three small cups.

“Shots?” She asked without thinking too much, feeling the buzz.

Amity turned her head toward Luz, and chuckled. “Yeah.”

Exactly like last time, Luz approached and was about to grab one of the cups, thinking it would be funny to replicate the last time they were in this situation when Luz had wanted to annoy the shit out of her. But this time, Luz thought it’d be funnier.

“You want one?” Amity asked with a bit of amusement, realizing what Luz was about to steal.

“Yes.” Then she tried to taunt her. “But you have to pour a bit more. In yours too, if you have what it takes, that is.” She released the smirk she was trying to hide.

A grin grew on Amity’s lips. “You’re on.”

“Let’s do this the right way though,” Luz said before reaching for the salt.

Amity instantly started searching for two lemon slices.

“You really know your stuff, huh?”

Amity chuckled. “Practice makes perfect.” But her eyes didn’t widen as much as the first time she had responded like that. Instead, she quipped back, “Says you.”

Luz chuckled back. She didn’t hesitate as much. “Practice makes perfect too,” she offered. She put some salt on her hand then offered the salt shaker to Amity for her to do the same, then Amity passed Luz a lemon slice.

“Cheers, Blight.”

“Cheers, Noceda.”

They tapped their cups together before licking the salt, downing the shot, and putting the lemon slices in their mouths to suck on the juice. And as expected, neither of them flinched. And upon realizing they had the same simple reaction after impressively not flinching, they smirked at each other.

“So, skydiving? No joke?”

“Summer, for the twins’ birthday. They wanted me to do it with them.”

“Huh, did you like it?”

“…It was quite fun.” 

Fun

Amity then chuckled. “We videotaped the falls. My brother’s spit landed all over the instructor’s face. That was fun.”

Luz laughed lightly.

“I remember the twins from when we were freshmen. They seemed so cool. Your brother has my respect. That prank on Snapdragon? I aspire to achieve such levels of badassery.”

Amity’s face fell flat. “Yep. Gotta love the twins.”

“You don’t like your siblings?”

She rubbed her arm. “They’re okay. I’m not too close with them. But they’re very close. They moved away for college and so I’m just home alone. My parents often leave on business trips. But we’ve never been close—” Then her jaw clenched shut so quickly, realizing that she was entering dangerous territory, so she quickly diverted the attention away from her. “Do you have siblings?”

“Nah, only child, so I’m home alone too. Well, of course I live with my mom. My—” Luz blinked. Her relaxed face fell a bit, and her right hand reflexively went toward her tattoo. Her eyes stayed distant for a second before refocusing and making her lips curl upward.

Amity watched as Luz’s hand touched what she now knew was a soccer ball with a date underneath.

Luz interrupted her somewhat curiosity.

“Could’ve been cool to have a twin though, imagine how much shit I could get away with if I had the ‘twin’ excuse.”

Amity deadpanned. Of course Luz’s rebel-tendencies reflexively sprung to mind. But she ended up chuckling. “Danger to society, Noceda.”

“Always, Blight.”

They shared a small smile. Admittedly, it was getting much easier to just… smile.

Amity’s friends arrived, which made them jump a bit. Luz quickly distanced herself from Amity and searched for the beers. Amity’s jaw tightened and she immediately poured some tequila into the cups they had just drunk from, as initially they were for her and her friends.

“Oooh there are the shots!” Skara giggled. “Let’s drink!”

Boscha, Skara, and Amity grabbed their cups, said ‘Cheers’, and drank. Luz, who had found the beers, watched Amity easily down that second shot. Her brows furrowed the tiniest bit for a second, witnessing Amity smoothly handle yet another drink.

How many drinks has she had tonight?

But then Hunter arriving in the kitchen distracted her from that thought.

“Beeeeer,” he chanted.

Yep, he’s drunk.

Luz looked at the clock on the wall. Midnight. That explained Hunter, and perhaps it explained Amity and how much more relaxed she looked and how much more comfortable it was talking with her, and it definitely explained Luz’s own increasing buzzed sensations.

When Luz handed the beer to Hunter, she noticed that Amity and her friends had left. And for some god forsaken, inexplicable, outlandish reason, her brows furrowed the tiniest bit again. But then Hunter attempted to swing his arm around Luz’s shoulder, but ended up almost punching her, which made Luz duck and laugh.

“Come dance with uuuus,” Hunter said.

Luz giggled, took his hand and exited the kitchen.

The living room essentially turned into a club. The tables were pushed against the walls to allow for ample space in the center of the huge living room, the bright lights were off, only colored LED lights illuminated the room, and the multiple big speakers played club songs that you could sing or dance to. 

Luz and Hunter joined Gus, Willow, and Vee. And she was so happy to see that Vee was still with her friends, as she was hoping they’d get along.

“Luz!” Gus said. Rather slurred. “You’re back!”

“Where were you?” Willow asked. Rather slurred.

Luz took a sip of her beer, and said, “Just in the kitchen, getting drinks.” Almost slurred.

Hunter successfully swung his arm over Luz’s shoulder this time, which made Luz laugh again, but in the genuinely joyful way. She watched her friends swaying to the music, and started swaying too, feeling the music take over her body with the amazing buzz flowing through her again.

Across the room that was filled with around two dozen people, she spotted Amity in her line of sight, and the buzz made her gaze linger a bit this time.

Amity was with some of their teammates, also swaying to the music a bit, looking evidently more relaxed as she chatted with some of them, looking like she was having a good time. Watching Amity get increasingly more relaxed throughout the night kept taking Luz aback. This wasn’t the Amity that Luz knew at all.

Seeing her with their teammates reminded Luz of earlier on the pitch. Amity had been hyping everyone up, with fire in her eyes, evidently convinced that they were all winners, and convincing the team that they indeed were. And the entire team hung onto the captain’s every word. She knew precisely what to say to encourage and support them, exactly how to lead by example, instead of fear, which Luz would have assumed before seeing her captain skills in action. No, Amity inspired their teammates, with powerful words of encouragement and exemplary playing.

Having been in her fair share of soccer teams growing up, Luz recognized that the captain skills that Amity possessed weren't a given. Amity truly was a good captain, who the team admired and looked up to. And Luz respected that. She really did respect that. Her teammates saw Amity in a positive light. And maybe Luz was starting to as well.

A bit later an ABBA song came on, and Luz witnessed Amity Blight, the Amity Blight, bounce on her feet, genuinely excited, and she started singing along, almost like a cliché of a girl dancing to her favorite song at the club.

No way in hell. How much did she drink?? Blight really does have a fun side?

“My favorite song,” Amity said, almost slurred, to her friends, who were dancing as well, as excited as she was.

And when the song ended, Amity recomposed herself, but her more-than-tipsy curved up lips lasted a while as she continued swaying to the music with her friends.

But a while after, the music changed vibes. It was less ‘sing your heart out’ songs, but songs with more bass, more melody, with lyrics that were a bit steamier. Sensual. The alcohol had fully caught up to Luz and Amity at this point, they swayed with their friends, even more loosened than before.

Then during a particularly sensual song, their eyes locked from across the room. But, this time, in their drunken gazes, there was a bit of tension. Not the rage tension, another sort of tension. It felt more… intense. Their gazes lingered on each other, before they looked away, and both took a few gulps of their drinks as heat started growing in their chests. But a moment later they looked back to find the other looking at them again. Their eye contact lingered a bit more, and they found that it was a bit harder for them to look away.

Then Masha arrived and wrapped her arms around Luz’s neck. Amity watched as Luz wrapped her arms around Masha’s waist as well as they leaned in to say something in her ear. Luz then held them tighter. Amity’s heart beat a bit harder. Her gaze intensified on them.

Luz wrapped her arms tighter around Masha’s waist to steady them a bit, Masha clearly being drunk with Luz not wanting them to fall. They whispered in her ear, “Hey, so you know Vee?”

While Luz was listening to Masha go on about how they thought Vee was cute, her gaze turned toward Amity, who was talking, quite closely, to this very handsome guy, jacked, with perfectly coiffed hair and a charming smirk. The guy looked very much into the conversation, and Amity as well. He approached her face to whisper something in her ear. Amity smiled. Luz’s chest thumped a bit harder. Her gaze intensified.

Amity saw one of Gavin’s teammates approach her, the one who had tried flirting with her at the last party. She was ready to tell him to fuck off when she looked over at Luz again who was still holding Masha tight in her arms. When the guy arrived, Amity let him speak.

“Congratulations on the game, Amity. You played so incredibly well, you know?”

“I know.”

He leaned in closer to her ear. “You’re the best in your team, you know?”

Amity rolled her eyes at the shitty flirting then held a small grin when remembering her smooth goal. “My team is good.” Then her grin softened for a second. “Really good.”

Her gaze flitted toward Luz, and Masha, who were still holding each other close, and Luz, still listening to Masha, watched the guy continuing to whisper in Amity’s ear. And, with the alcohol flowing deep in their bloodstreams, Luz and Amity’s gazes shifted to each other, and their eyes locked again. Their chests heated up. There was a lot more tension. Intense. But as intense as it was, with their hearts thudding harder in their chests, it was hard to look away.

Despite Masha talking in Luz’s ear, their words felt distant, and after Masha had asked whether she could introduce them to Vee, Luz automatically responded ‘Yes’. So Masha drunkenly kissed her cheek to thank her, before letting her go and wandering off.

Amity looked away and took a big gulp of her drink, and then another one, without even noticing that the guy was still close, very close, talking in her ear. Then a girl pulled him away, mentioning how they needed to find their friend, and Boscha and Skara immediately asked her, “Omg what were you talking about?” Amity started saying how he was just flirting and explained how he had tried flirting with her last time but that she wasn’t at all interested. It was a good distraction, because she was avoiding looking across the room again.

Luz saw Amity’s friends being evidently excited, and figured Amity was telling them all about how handsome the guy was. Luz focused back on her friends, and took a big swig of her beer. Then she took an even bigger one. And avoided looking across the room again.

Her friends being drunk was an excellent distraction, because now Hunter was attempting to swing his arm around Willow, and Willow was attempting to position herself in a way that would facilitate Hunter’s arm going around her shoulders. It was hilarious to look at, and Luz kept winking at Gus, trying to telepathically communicate how Hunter and Willow were so in love with each other. Gus facepalmed because even in his drunken state, he knew exactly where her mind went. 

Luz was drunk, but was the least drunk of her friends. So she decided to get a bit drunker. Because she wanted to. And maybe there was a hidden part of her that felt like she perhaps needed to. So she made her way to the kitchen again, so ready for more beer.

Chapter Text

Luz made her way to the kitchen to search for more beer, but upon opening the fridge, she noticed there weren’t any left. The clock revealed 1 am, and given how drunk everyone was, including herself, that explained it. She huffed but got immediately distracted by the tequila bottle on the counter.

“Hehe,” she said to herself as she found one of the only remaining small cups. Someone came through the door but she couldn’t see because her full focus was on not spilling anything, and she really was trying. After her aiming and pouring mission proved successful, her head turned toward the fridge upon hearing it open and close. Her heart jumped a bit at the sight of Amity, who hadn’t noticed her either based on the way her eyes widened when she turned her head and noticed Luz at the counter.

There was a tense silence between them, their gazes tinted with tenseness, like on the dance floor earlier when they’d lock eyes. But then they had avoided doing so for some reason after Masha kissed Luz’s cheek, after Amity smiled with that handsome guy, and that tenseness in their gazes returned upon seeing each other now. The music was less loud in the kitchen, and was the only thing filling up the loaded silence between them. 

But them prolonging their eye contact perhaps revealed a drunken desire to engage. 

After a moment, it was Luz who broke the silence.

“We meet again, Blight.” But she was way past buzzed, and it sounded funny in her mind, so she covered her mouth to stay serious.

Amity, buzzed as fuck as well, couldn’t help but crack a grin at witnessing Luz’s shoulders starting to shake as her hand tried covering up what obviously was her starting to laugh.

“We do meet again, Noceda.”

And the air between them felt so much lighter already.

“Getting another drink?” Luz asked her.

“Yep,” Amity responded, “my friends are already so drunk so guess I’m drinking alone right now. Looks like you are too?”

“Yep. There’s no more beer. Was there a beer pong? Did you make your opponents drink them all?”

“What I’m hearing is that you think I’m great at beer pong.”

“Pffft. You’re not that good,” Luz said, squinting, but she couldn’t hide her smirk.

“Need I remind you that I beat you last time?”

“Need I warn you that I’ll beat you next time?”

“Is that a challenge, Noceda?”

“There’s always a challenge with you, Blight.”

They smirked at each other, fully engaged in their banter. It was fun.

“What are you drinking this time?” Luz asked.

“I wanted to make another gin tonic, but I can’t find the gin.”

“Is that the only thing you know how to make?”

Amity deadpanned. “Of course it’s not the only thing I know how to make. It’s just my favorite.”

“That’s because you haven’t tasted my mojitos.” Luz winked.

“I have no envy, at all, to taste anything you make.” Amity chuckled, half-serious. Then she spotted the gin at the edge of the counter. “Wait.” Even in her drunken state, she skillfully poured the right amount of tonic into the right amount of gin. “Taste.”

“Yes sir,” Luz mocked. She took a sip. “It’s so bitter.” Then she took another sip. “Bitter like you.”

Amity squinted. “Ha. Ha. You think you’re funny?”

“Very.”

“You’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“I really don’t think so.”

“I think you do.”

“Yeah?” Amity retorted.

“Yeah. Look.” 

Luz stuck her tongue out, and touched the tip of her nose. She found it hilarious, so started laughing at herself.

Amity tried staying serious, but seeing Luz laugh at herself, made her laugh as well.

“See? I’m so funny,” Luz said, but she couldn’t stop laughing, especially when seeing Amity try to hold her laughter in. “What, you don’t want to laugh?” Luz touched the tip of her nose with her tongue again. But it made herself laugh again.

At seeing Luz laughing while her tongue was still touching her nose, Amity couldn’t help but release her genuine laugh this time. It was so, so stupid. She clutched her abs.

Luz bent over laughing.

They laughed together for a moment before clearing their throats and calming down.

“Care to join me?” Luz said, shaking the bottle of tequila in her hand.

“Why not?” Amity replied, getting the lemon slices and the salt and coming nearer so that she was next to Luz.

After Luz poured Amity her drink and Amity passed a lemon slice to Luz, both put salt on their hands, tapped their cups together, licked the salt, downed the shot, then sucked on the lemon slices. And again, neither of them flinched. They chuckled.

“Are you having a good time?” Luz asked her.

Amity thought about it for a second before saying, “I actually am.” She released a small smile, because she actually was. “And you?”

“Oh absolutely! My friends are hilarious and Vee and I got closer too, I love the crowd tonight.”

Amity remembered the dance floor. And it was definitely the alcohol talking when she said, “Yeah, I saw.”

Luz remembered the dance floor. Holding a drunk Masha in her arms, them kissing her cheek. Luz rubbed her neck.

“So… you and your ex?” More alcohol talking, but she was so buzzed, and couldn’t even count how many drinks she had. Plus, there was genuine curiosity. But that was probably the alcohol as well.

“Yeah, Masha.” And the alcohol made Luz feel compelled to explain. “They were actually asking me about someone else, they kinda have a little crush,” Luz said, and she chuckled a bit when remembering how drunken Masha was all but swooning over Vee. But then she remembered how that handsome guy was evidently swooning over Amity.

“Oh,” Amity said, and her face relaxed a bit for some reason, “Good for them.”

“Yeah,” Luz replied, before the alcohol took over her this time. “There are some basketball players here too.”

Amity immediately knew what Luz was referring to. She rolled her eyes at the memory. “Boys are so stupid, that guy in particular. He tried flirting with me at the last party, I of course shot him down, now he’s trying again. Never in a million years. Absolutely not.”

Luz’s eyes lit up just a bit. She ended up chuckling. “Damn, woman. You really don’t like that guy.”

Amity ended up chuckling too. “Yeah, I don’t like guys.” Her face instantly flushed red at realizing what she had just revealed. She blurted, “Who—who don’t know how to flirt.” She snapped her gaze away. “Yeah, he didn’t know how to flirt. At all.” She tugged at the bottom of her shirt. “But some do and it’s really hot, really.” Her jaw clenched and unclenched. “And—and in those cases I love it. So much. Guys are great, right?”

Luz’s brows furrowed ever so slightly at hearing Amity describe the extent to which she liked guys flirting with her and getting so flustered about it. But Luz didn’t know exactly why her own lips curved downward. She cleared her throat. “Yeah. They’re great. Yeah.”

“Absolutely.” Amity faked a cough. “But not that guy, though. I don’t like him.”

“Got it.”

“Yeah.”

Amity rapidly poured another shot into her cup and asked whether Luz wanted one. Luz said yes. They both downed it very quickly before Amity said, “I have to get back to my friends.” And she didn’t wait for Luz to respond before turning around and leaving.

Luz just stood there, not exactly understanding what happened. She stood still while her mind went through all that had just happened, from the tension, the smiles, the shots, to that ending that made her feel some kind of way. She released a deep breath and shook it off before pouring herself a random mixer and exiting the kitchen to join her friends too.

No Amity in sight, not that Luz was looking for her. And she decided to leave the thoughts of her behind and focus on how Gus and Willow seemed to have entered a dance battle. It really made her chuckle, quickly getting back into the groove of the party, letting the buzz transcend her entire body in the best way again. Hunter smiled at her. It was very lopsided. Luz laughed lightly, but in the back of her mind, couldn’t help but wonder where Amity went.

Amity had rushed out of the kitchen after having snatched her gin tonic from the counter and ended up sitting on the sofa in the basement, which had been turned into a mini living room, but much smaller, and cozier. It was sort of meant for quieter times with a more intimate setting, with a sofa, dimmer lights, a coffee table with candles on it, and a TV that was most often used to display a chimney fire, to really set a cozy mood. But her thoughts weren’t that cozy.

She sat on the sofa, letting her back sink into the cushions. Her only company was the background rhythm of the music upstairs, so it was the perfect spot for her to just get away and think. But her thoughts were coated with liquor. So sweetness coated her lips.

She tried relaxing, tried to tune out her conflicted thoughts by focusing on the muffled music. But her thoughts were blurry yet clear, like some memories of tonight, and the sensual music playing in the background brought her back to the dance floor, where gazes locked like her lips to her cup.

But the liquid down her throat reminded her of the kitchen, and the shared shots that followed shared conversations and smiles and laughter and wanting to drown in the disinhibited sensations. With Luz. 

What had just happened? Why had she been feeling comfortable around Luz, revealing enough about her drinking habits with there being a reason, revealing enough that Luz had heard a glimpse of her family life and there being some tension, and even almost revealing her deepest secret that she didn’t like guys. 

She had never told anybody, not even her friends, but felt so comfortable around Luz in that moment that it slipped out of her mouth, that Amity had to control herself and rectify the slip up. That never happened. She never slipped up. But it was easy talking to Luz. The problem was so surely the alcohol. She hadn’t drunk this much in a long time, yes, that was it. But the buzz felt so good, and Amity really liked this feeling. But not if it meant Luz getting to know her more. But for some god forsaken, inexplicable reason, even that was starting to feel good too.

Enough. But Luz was different than what she had thought at first. Was she? No, she was still a hooligan delinquent, who got detentions, and drove recklessly, and committed criminal activities like theft and property damage. She distracted teammates constantly and made a joke out of everything. But, people laughed and had a good time with her, and she’d bring real joy to the table. And the fire and ultimate determination in her eyes during the match, that was a rare type of seriousness, a special kind of dedication. And she wasn’t that much of a danger to society after all.

Enough. Amity drank too much. But it felt so good, to feel relaxed for once, and caring less, about appearances. Everybody was too drunk to remember or be fazed by anything so that was even more of a reason for Amity to just finally loosen up a bit. She felt trapped everyday in maintaining, and furthering, that perfect image, that pristine persona. And it felt like Luz saw through her bullshit. But she could be so snarky and aggravating. But recently, she wasn’t really. But why? Where did the hatred go?

Enough. There was tension earlier. Now that felt familiar. It was intense. Fire in their eyes, it felt intense. Surely it was the tension they’d felt for years that lingered, simmering in the background, waiting to be felt. Exactly. It had always felt intense. But even in the kitchen after, it started intense as well. But the intensity so easily shifted into smiles. 

The feelings of tenseness on the dance floor, where gazes lingered like the heat in her chest, proved that it would always revert back to tension at some point. There would always be that underlying tension, latent, waiting to be felt. She couldn’t just start associating with rebellious, troublemaking Luz, and she couldn’t just let loose, and she couldn’t start opening up about her life to someone, and her walls couldn’t just start cracking when drunk. And just, it was not allowed.

Amity’s drink tasted like mistakes and fucking intensity.

Fucking Noceda.

Eyes closed, Luz was swaying to the melodic music while surrounded by her friends who were laughing at each other’s sloppy dance moves. She had a couple questionable dance moves herself, which she boasted about in action, but when all she was doing was swaying to the rhythmic melodies that coursed through her bloodstream like all the drinks that night, the laugher and the music sounded distant, and her intoxicated thoughts buzzed, just a bit, in her blurry mind, like background noise coated in booze.

She had drunk, a lot. And some of those drinks were with Amity. The shots. The sweet, sweet shots, with salt and sour lemons and the rush of the trusty tequila flowing down her throat. But the mixer she had sloppily made when left to her own devices in the kitchen tasted like an error, because the ability for shots to get you buzzed, quickly, would’ve tasted better.

Not that Luz needed to continue drinking to feel amazing, but some parts of the night inspired her mind to search for more escapes. Too many thoughts she didn’t know she had, because they were all most luckily coated in liquor. 

Some thoughts inhabited the forefront of her mind, though. Like the plot twists she never expected. Including the shots with Amity. And the conversations around them. And the unpredictable revelations during the game. And the unexpected revelations during the night, no words needed, just smiles from across the room, songs that made Amity dance… Fun. Amity was relaxed, and having fun.

That was the biggest plot twist. Luz hadn’t seen it coming. It was so incredibly weird, because for years Luz had only known animosity in Amity’s arrogant eyes. In her bullshit perfect persona that Luz had always seen right through. But now, she saw something different that had been hiding behind them. She learned things she would’ve never anticipated. And, it wasn’t that bad…

Enough. Amity was still this stone-cold princess at school, who never laughed, who never relaxed. That clearly wouldn’t change, and tonight was probably a drunken mistake. Luz realized Amity was a heavy-weight drinker, but there was only so much one could handle. And Amity had been drinking. A lot. 

By what Luz saw, she drank three shots and had three different drinks in hand during the night, and that was only what Luz had seen. Luz on the side had been drinking a lot more too, and she was most definitely drunk. And drinking disinhibited you. It was intoxicated Amity who was fun. Sober Amity could never.

Exactly. But Amity was a remarkable captain, and made the team happy, and smiled so brightly after the match. And her story was kind of interesting, and her slip ups revealed deeper things hiding beneath. And she danced like nobody was watching, and handled her shots like a party pro, and had banter that wasn’t too insulting. And seeing those different sides of Amity in action… wasn’t that bad.

Stop. On the dance floor, there was still that tension, tension Luz knew too well, and that was familiar. But for some reason, it felt different. It was tense, with the lingering gazes and the heat in her chest. But a different kind of tense. Luz didn’t know what it was, or why. Fucking intense.

Fucking Blight.

Around 2 am, Luz, Willow, and Vee went to the bathroom together. A charger in there and Luz’s phone running low on battery meant she stayed behind for a few moments so it could charge a bit. A few moments later, she made her way back to the living room, trying not to wobble too much, when she saw that handsome guy that was flirting with Amity earlier talking very close to a girl whose back was leaning against the wall. Upon closer look, Luz’s face fell when realizing the girl was Amity. She looked even drunker than before, leaning against the wall to visibly keep herself steady.

Luz immediately stepped between them and pushed the guy away.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Who the fuck are you?” Luz retorted.

“I’m her next boyfriend.”

Luz laughed mockingly. “You fucking wish.”

The guy started squaring up. “Go away, we were having a private conversation,” he slurred.

She looked at Amity to gauge her state and she was so evidently drunk.

Luz squared up as well. “My turn to talk to her. Now leave.”

He looked back at Amity. “But we were having a nice conversation, right?” He brushed past Luz and placed his hand on Amity’s shoulder.

Amity clenched her jaw and slurred, “Nope.”

So Luz stepped between them and pushed him away again, as best as she could considering her own drunken state.

He scoffed. “Whatever.” Then stumbled away.

After making sure the guy was out of sight, Luz turned around to face Amity.

“Blight, are you okay?”

“Better now that he’s gone,” she slurred.

“Okay good.”

“You wanted to protect me?”

Luz’s cheeks reddened a bit. “So what if I did?”

“Nothing, it was sweet.”

Luz’s blush intensified.

How fucking drunk is she??

Amity tried walking away but she stumbled a bit. Luz immediately swooped in and placed her arm around Amity’s back to keep her steady. Her heart sped up a bit at the close contact.

“Let’s sit down outside to get some fresh air, yeah?”

Amity nodded, so let Luz lead her to the backyard where they sat on the steps of the porch, side by side. Amity’s head fell on Luz’s shoulder. Luz froze, and her drunkenness was making it much harder to deny that she liked the feeling.

“Thanks for getting that guy away.”

“I remember you said you didn’t like him and you’re drunk.”

“That I am.”

“Have you ever been this drunk before?”

“Nope, I know my limits.”

“So why didn’t you stick to them tonight?”

“I had a lot on my mind. And it feels good to actually let loose for once and not think about my limits.” She giggled. “It’s working.”

“Can’t judge you. I’m drunk too.”

“We’re drunk together!”

Luz chuckled. “That we are.”

After a moment of silence with Amity’s head just resting on Luz’s shoulder, Amity spoke up.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you hate me?”

Luz paused. She used to. Very much. But recently, less so.

“So you hate me,” Amity said.

“Wait no. No, I don’t hate you,” Luz replied. Then she asked, “But do you hate me?”

Amity paused, not saying anything for a couple of seconds.

“Yes.”

Luz’s heart dropped. More than she would have expected.

“You actually do? I knew you hated me, I mean we despised each other. But I don’t know, I guess I’ve been feeling it less. But you still hate me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Luz closed her eyes and wondered what the fuck situation she was in, why the hell Amity’s head was leaning against her shoulder, and when the fuck did her feelings toward Amity start changing and wondered how delusional she actually was.

But Amity broke the silence.

“I hate the way you make me feel.”

Luz’s eyes shot open. Her breath caught in her throat.

“What do you mean?”

Amity lifted her head from Luz’s shoulder and tried to sit up straight.

“I hate it.”

She went to stand up. Luz stood up too. Amity walked back inside but struggled to walk upright.

“Okay,” Luz said, “we’re getting you in a bed.”

Amity whined, “I’m okay.” Then stumbled again. “Okay maybe not.” She giggled.

Luz shook her head. “Oh my god, Blight. Come on, I’ll take you to a room.”

On their way, before heading to the stairs, Luz scanned the living room to see whether any of her friends where there to tell them that she was just helping Amity out. She spotted Willow whose eyes widened when looking at Amity, and she facepalmed when looking at Luz’s drunken state too. 

She whispered to Luz, “Is she okay??”

Luz whispered back, “Not really.”

“Are you okay?”

“Better than her. Listen, I’m taking her upstairs to one of the bedrooms, just so you know, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll let her friends know as well.”

“Thanks, Willow, I’ll text you later. Get home safe if I don’t see you before you leave.”

“You too!”

Then Luz saw Skara. 

She looked at Amity. “Is she okay??”

“Does she look okay?”

“She looks drunk as fuck.” Then Skara looked at Luz. “You do too!”

“Hey, I know how to handle my alcohol, don’t worry about me. I’m worried about her though, is it fine if I take her up to one of the rooms?”

“Of course, she can take the guest bedroom on the first floor to the right. Thanks for looking out for her.”

Luz shrugged, but she held a tiny, shy smile. “Sure.”

Her arm still around Amity, she led them up the stairs.

“Yeah, thanks for looking out for me.”

Luz groaned under her breath. “Fucking Blight.”

She found the room, turned on a lamp, and steered Amity toward the bed. She pulled back the sheets so Amity could lie down but she stayed sat. Luz sat next to her.

“You should rest,” Luz said after a moment.

“Will you go if I do?”

Luz paused. Obviously she’d leave, but she had to make sure Amity was safely positioned on her side before. “Do you want me to go?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

Luz spoke up. “So what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, wanna play a game?”

“What kind of game?”

A sneaky smile appeared on Amity’s face. “Wanna play truth or dare?”

“You actually want to play truth or dare right now? Just us two? Already drunk? Can you even do dares in your state?”

“Depends on the dare.”

“I don’t know if I even want to know the things that go through your head, Blight.”

“Are you scared?”

Luz narrowed her eyes at the bullshit accusation.

“Never.”

“Good, then let’s play.”

“This is ridiculous but sure. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

Luz thought about what truth she could ask, but in reality she already knew her question.

“Why do you hate me?”

Amity said, “Dare.”

“Okay, I dare you to tell me why you hate me.”

“Truth.”

“What the fuck.”

Amity laughed lightly. “Oh right, I already said truth.”

Luz chuckled too. “Are you gonna answer or do you want me to ask you your favorite color?”

“It’s pink.”

Luz gave her a small smile, but sighed because pink wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

“Okay Noceda, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Why don’t you hate me anymore?”

Luz squinted. “Seriously? You’re allowed to ask me that but you won’t answer my question?”

Amity giggled. “Wait your turn!”

Luz let out an exasperated sigh. “What the hell did I get myself into?”

“You got yourself in bed with me!”

Their eyes widened. 

“Wait no, okay you know what I meant.”

Luz burst out laughing. “You’re a menace to society, Blight.”

“Oops. Sue me. Now answer my question, please.”

Luz calmed down and thought about it for a moment. She let her drunken thoughts speak for themselves.

“I don’t know exactly. I guess at one point I started seeing you in a different light. I always knew you as an arrogant bitchy goody-two-shoes who thinks she’s better than everyone and perfect—” 

Amity scoffed and lightly shoved her shoulder.

“—just because she’s smart and pretty and rich. And to be fair, all that ain’t far from the truth.”

Amity hid her face with her hand. “Said like that, I sound terrible.”

“You’re definitely not perfect, princess.”

“Stop calling me princess.”

“Never.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “So what made you change your opinion of me?”

“I guess amid all the bad, I started seeing some of the good.”

“You, Noceda, think I have some good?”

“Surprisingly yes. You actually seem to have some kind tendencies. Sometimes. Like when you’re hyping up our teammates out on the pitch or encouraging them when they’re a bit off their game. You’re driven and ambitious, and I do actually respect that. And I see how your face softens when you read the play, when it was just us two working on our project. I just figure that if I got to know a bit more about you, there’s more good to see in you too.” She chuckled, too buzzed to process her thoughts. "And depending on the lighting, and if I squint enough, you're kinda cute too."

Luz's face immediately dropped once all the words actually caught up to her and she realized what the fuck drunken shit she just said, not even realizing she had some of those thoughts in the first place. Where did all of that come from? What the actual fuck was that?? Luz cursed herself, thinking all of that was way, way too honest. What the fuck.

Amity's heart was thumping, harder, and quicker. Her cheeks burned up. 

She avoided looking at Luz, until she did, and she just said, "Truth."

“Truth?”

“I choose truth.”

Luz looked away. “Why do you hate me?”

“I hate the way you make me feel. Because I’ve never felt like this before. And I can’t understand it. I’ve always seen you as a lazy no-good rogue fuck-up who doesn’t give a shit about anything. But then I realized at some point that you’re none of that. You’re actually a good person. And I think I like that person. I think I like that person a lot. That’s why I hate you. I’m not supposed to like you.”

Luz’s heart beat stronger, a rush of heat spread through her chest.

“Why aren’t you supposed to like me?”

“Because I can’t keep up my mask if I like you, and I need that mask, because I need to be perfect. That’s how my parents raised me. I’m a Blight, I have to act like one. Or else.”

“Or else what?”

“You don’t want to know. But yeah, that’s why. That’s why I hate you. And that’s why I hate that I have to hate you.” She paused, but brushed her hand against Luz’s for just a second. Their skin fired up at the fleeting touch. “But the real truth is: I think I like you.”

Luz blushed, hard. “Truth: I think I like you too.”

And Amity blushed, hard, too.

She then yawned. “I think I need to sleep.”

“Yes.” Luz cleared her throat. “You should actually.” She looked at the time on her phone. 2.37 am, and music wasn’t thumping in the background anymore so the party must have ended. “Yeah, it’s definitely sleep-time. Here, I can tuck you in and make sure you’re in the right position to fall asleep safely.”

“How charming.”

“Shut up, Blight. I take back my truth.”

Amity giggled, but her voice was so soft. “Please don’t, because I can’t take back mine.”

She then got under the sheets and Luz made sure Amity positioned herself on her side. Luz then stood up, ready to leave her alone.

“Where are you going?”

“To leave you alone to rest.”

“You’re not staying?”

“Oh, do you want me to stay?”

“If I say yes, will you?”

“Yes.”

“Then stay.”

Luz hesitated for a second but Amity’s eyes looked genuine. She got next to her in bed and turned off the lamp. A yawn escaped her mouth as she lay down on her usual side out of reflex. So they were facing each other, in bed, in the dark. Amity scooted a bit closer to Luz until their hands brushed against each other. She immediately started breathing heavily, signaling she had fallen asleep.

Luz couldn’t help the feeling of warmth in her heart. Fucking Blight, she thought before drifting off to sleep as well.

Chapter Text

It was late morning, the bright sky illuminated the room through the window. Amity’s eyes fluttered open, and her entire body froze when the first thing she saw was Luz Noceda, right beside her, in bed, hands brushing against each other.

What the FUCK.

She immediately took her hand back, carefully so as to not suddenly wake Luz up, and tried her very best to remember how the fuck she ended up here.

Then the entire night flashed through her mind, and dread coursed through her entire body. Her eyes shut.

Oh no. No, no, no. What the fuck did you do

She tried to remember the most possible. She had gaps that she couldn’t for the life of her remember. But she remembered. Quite a bit.

She peaked at Luz again and for a moment just looked at how peaceful she looked when she was sleeping.

Then Luz’s eyes fluttered open and Amity immediately closed hers and pretended she was still asleep.

The first thing Luz saw was Amity Blight.

What the FUCK.

WHAT THE FUCK.

WHAT.

THE.

ACTUAL.

FUCK.

She immediately ran through last night in her mind to try to remember the events that led to her waking up, in bed, beside Amity fucking Blight.

Then she remembered. Full dread. She turned onto her back. 

But then she turned her head to glance at Amity and just looked for a second at how peaceful she looked when she was asleep.

She slowly got up to leave as silently as possible, but before leaving she placed the blanket back over Amity.

Amity melted just a little bit inside.

Luz trudged down the stairs and saw that the place was an absolute shit show. Cups, cans, and bottles everywhere, some black stains on the floor, and Skara lounging on the sofa, drinking some coffee.

“Hey Luz, you’re up!”

Luz’s head pounded at Skara’s sudden loud cheeriness. Way too early. Her face crisping up must’ve revealed her hangover sensitivity to noise as Skara whispered a, “Sorry!”

“Skara, hey,” Luz said as she rubbed her eyes, still trying to adjust to the daylight shining through the windows, “you okay?”

“Yeah, didn’t get much sleep but it was so worth it. Yesterday was so fun. But I can feel its consequences.” She chuckled. “Did you have a good time?”

Luz grinned when the memory of her drunk friends dancing sprung to mind. Her grin softened into a shy smile, remembering something else. “Yeah I did.”

Skara cocked an eyebrow up, and smirked. “Is Amity still sleeping?”

Luz froze. “Um… “ she bashfully said, “yeah. Didn’t want to wake her up.” But before Skara could comment any further, she added, “Can I help you clean up a bit?”

“If you’re up for it then yeah that’d be really nice of you, thanks! But water, coffee, and breakfast first?” Skara really knew her hangover recipes.

“Yes, please.”

“Sure thing, come with me.”

The kitchen was a shit show too.

While Luz was waiting for the coffee, she wolfed down peanut butter toast and drank an entire glass of water in one-go. Luckily for her being a heavy-weight drinker who was at that point used to hangovers, they didn’t tend to last too long. But right now, she felt it in her bones.

“Omg I remember, you were really drunk,” Skara teased.

Luz scoffed playfully. But gave in. “Yeah I was. So were you,” she quipped back.

“Yeah.” Skara didn’t even try to deny it. “But it was sooo fun!” She giggled.

“Yeah.” Luz couldn’t deny that.

Skara then said, trying to hide a smirk, “Amity was so drunk too.”

Luz paused. “Yeah.”

But Skara’s smirk softened. “I remember. Thanks for taking care of her.”

Luz felt her neck heat up just a bit. She rubbed it. “No prob.”

Skara’s smirk came back. “So she’s still sleeping?”

Luz squinted, wanting to run away from this entire conversation and curse Skara as she was evidently having fun with it.

“It’s just to know whether we should avoid vacuuming!”

Luz released a chuckle at Skara’s antics. “She’s still asleep.”

“Good to know.”

She’s lucky she’s nice.

Luz did like Skara, appreciating her as a teammate but also as a person because Skara truly wasn’t the mean kind. She was also pleasant to be around and much more fun than her friends.

Luz blinked. Fun. One of Skara’s friends was clearly having fun yesterday. Luz smiled a little when remembering that, and when remembering their bedroom talk. It was crazy to think that she and Amity actually liked each other, and admitted to it. Luz wondered how that would play out now, after their drunkenness wore off. She’d wait to see how Amity would react, whether she even remembered anything at all. She actually wouldn’t be that surprised if Amity forgot given how drunk she was. Luz’s brows furrowed the tiniest bit. She would see soon.

After they finished drinking their coffee, they started cleaning around, throwing away the empty cans and bottles into a bag to recycle them, pouring some nasty-looking attempted-cocktails left in cups down the drain, throwing away empty crisps and candy packets, there were even three empty pizza boxes under one of the tables in the living room. 

They chatted a bit while cleaning, talking about some events from yesterday, some spicy drama that had unfolded between one of the basketball guys and one of the soccer girls. Skara was essentially attempting to gossip with Luz, which Luz actually found highly amusing. She listened intently when Skara went on about her theories as to whether that girl and guy were in a secret relationship, and Luz chuckled at the ‘proofs’ Skara explained to her to justify such a theory. Skara was quite entertaining. If not for being on the same team, they never would have talked, but she seemed to be a good person, and Luz did like her.

Skara would sneak in a smirk though whenever the name Amity appeared in the conversation during her recounting of last night’s events or when they talked about soccer, the team, and yesterday’s game, and Luz avoided her gaze every time. But otherwise, they were both in good company as they cleaned up the place.

Amity appeared not long after.

“Amity!” Skara said, “You’re awake, did you sleep well?”

Amity’s face also crisped up at the loud cheeriness. “Yeah I did actually, how are you?”

“Good! Luz and I were just cleaning up.”

Amity and Luz locked eyes. Luz gave her a small smile and Amity bashfully looked away. Luz’s smile faded, but then Amity looked back and offered a shy smile back.

Skara stared between the two of them and smirked.

“The usual?”

“Please.”

“On its way!” Skara said, leaving the two of them alone.

Luz spoke up after a couple of seconds. “Hey…”

“Hi.”

“Listen, do you remember much from last night?”

Amity paused.

“Honestly, only bits and pieces, I think I got really drunk.”

Luz’s lips quirked up. “You were so incredibly drunk, it was actually crazy to witness.”

“Hey! I bet you were drunk too.”

“Yeah to be fair I was quite drunk.”

They laughed lightly together.

Luz turned a bit more serious. “So do you remember how you got to bed?”

Amity thought for a second before answering.

“Not really… I think you guided me there? Didn’t we talk a bit before I just fell asleep?”

Luz hesitated. But then she just said, “Yeah. We didn’t talk much. You fell asleep fast.” But her heart dropped a bit when she realized Amity didn’t remember.

She probably doesn’t want to know that she had told me some deep stuff yesterday, so I won’t tell her.

Amity understood what Luz was doing, how she wasn’t going to remind Amity of all that had happened during the night. Of their deep talk before they fell asleep. Of their “truths”. But Amity remembered.

“Okay that’s reassuring. Thanks for making sure I got to sleep okay.”

“No problem.”

Skara came back with water and coffee. “Here you go.”

Amity instantly downed the hot liquid then the cold water. 

“Look, Luz and I have almost finished clearing up the place!”

“Can I help with anything?”

“Nah, I think we’re fine, I’ll finish up everything later in the day.”

Luz asked, “Sure?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna take a fresh swim and then rest a bit first.” 

“Okay, we’ll leave you to it then. Thanks again for hosting, it was an awesome party.”

Skara smiled brightly. “My pleasure!”

She took back the cups and hugged Amity goodbye, and winked at her. Amity dropped her gaze and gave her a discreet shove. Skara snickered then said bye to Luz.

After closing the front door behind them, they both stood outside the house.

“So, you’re heading home?” Luz asked.

“Yeah. You?”

“Yeah. I don’t have my motorbike though so I’m gonna have a long walk back home.”

“Oh. Where do you live?” 

“Bonesborough neighborhood.”

Amity hesitated, but felt compelled to say, “I can drop you off, if you want.”

Luz’s eyebrows raised slightly. Maybe Amity did remember that they were on relatively good terms?

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s not that much of a detour, and I have some time.”

Luz hesitated but said, “Yeah, I’d actually really appreciate that, thanks.”

Amity looked away for a second. “It’s fine.”

So they silently made their way to Amity’s car that was parked not too far; she had only brought it knowing she would be sleeping over at Skara’s and would need the ride home the next day after sobering up.

Of course Amity’s car was fancy and shiny. Luz got comfortable in the passenger seat while Amity turned on the engine and tapped things on the screen. After Luz gave her the exact address to put into the GPS, they started making their way toward Luz’s neighborhood.

“So…” Luz started, trying to test the waters a bit. “It was a fun party, wasn’t it?”

Amity smiled a little. “Yeah.”

“You were so drunk.” Luz ended up slightly grinning.

Amity scoffed. But she was trying to hide a smile, because she did remember, and she did remember how good it felt. But she couldn’t show it. “Says you.”

“That’s fair. I was drunk off my butt. But damn it felt good.”

Amity released a faint chuckle.

“But you were drunker,” Luz stated.

“Yeah right.”

“Do you remember dancing your ass off to some girly pop anthems?”

Amity felt redness proliferating on her face. Now she remembered that.

“I was just swaying. Don’t tell me you weren’t dancing too.”

“I wasn’t singing and bouncing around.”

“You’re going to judge me? Miss dance battle Macarena?”

“Timeless move, Blight. Timeless move.”

“Oh come on, there has to be moments that you don’t remember either. Don’t think I forgot the tequila shots we took together.”

“Oh so you remember the moments we were in the kitchen?”

Amity smiled a bit but tried covering it up. “I remember you saying I was amazing at beer pong.”

“Unbelievable. Your memory is so selective.”

Amity’s lips formed a discreet thin line. “That was a bit earlier during the party, Noceda. I hadn’t lost my entire mind.”

“You did not too long after.” Luz smirked. But her smile fell a bit, because Amity did black out things later, things Luz remembered, and didn’t necessarily want to forget. She looked out the side window, watching as they drove past the neighborhood’s trees.

“I also remember you essentially challenging me to beer pong right after.”

Luz’s smirk returned as she chuckled.

“And of course you remember a challenge.”

“I like challenges, Noceda.”

“Talking with you is a challenge sometimes.” Luz grinned.

“I can drop you off on the side of the road, right here, right now.”

“Okay okay chill woman, you really are a challenge.”

Amity tried so hard to stay serious, and threatening. But Luz was funny.

“Fuck off, Noceda.”

“Never, Blight, or should I say ‘princess’, I know you like that one.”

“I like it when you shut the hell up.”

“Never, princess.”

“You’re a waste of oxygen, you know that?”

“I know I’m funny that’s for sure.”

Amity remembered Luz cackling while her tongue was touching the tip of her nose. She truly sincerely ardently tried to stay calm.

“Stupidity can often be humorous.”

“Annoyingness can often be… annoyingness.”

“That’s probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”

“Why are you holding back a smile then, princess?”

“I swear to all that’s good that you better shut the hell up before I test out whether the airbags in this car work. All the whilst hoping only mine does.”

“Your threats are so imaginative.”

“What can I say? I have a violent side.”

“You do inspire violence that’s for sure.”

“Do you always have a snarky comeback?”

“Only when inspired.”

“I inspire you to be annoying?”

“You inspire loads of things, princess.”

“Will me actually considering leaving you to the curb inspire you to actually shut the hell up?”

 “I’ll shut up if you will.”

And both of them ended up thinking how the hell they ended up bantering together again. It was just so… easy. And fun.

Amity gripped the wheel a bit harder and loudly cleared her throat.

“We can be productive by setting up our next project meeting.”

“That’s actually a good idea. Who knew—”

“Stopping the car in 3 seconds.”

“Okay okay!” Luz smirked. “But yeah, we should.”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Depends what time, I usually go to the gym with Hunter on Sundays.”

“You go to the gym?”

“Gotta keep my muscles primed and ready for soccer. Plus it just feels amazing to feel strong.” 

Amity thought to herself that that explained Luz’s particularly toned arms.

“Feels like I can protect my friends just in case too.” Luz smiled proudly.

Amity squinted. “You think about the ability to fight when you work out?”

“And why not?”

Amity shook her head. “Anyway. How about around 4 pm?”

“Yeah, that works. Where?”

“Same place as last time? The Owl Shack?”

“Owl Café. And yeah, I love that place.”

“Sounds good,” Amity said. “To the right?”

“Yes, just around the corner.”

They arrived in front of Luz’s house.

For some reason, Amity thought the house looked cozy. “Here we are.”

But they didn’t move for a moment.

“Thanks for the ride.”

“Civic duty.”

Luz rolled her eyes but smiled.

“See ya on Sunday, Blight.”

“Don’t be late, Noceda.”

As soon as Luz closed the car door, Amity immediately sped away.

On her way home, her thoughts took the reins.

During the night, she was so drunk. So incredibly drunk. That she remembered. Stumbling, slurring, needing to lean on Luz to get to a bedroom.

Her face flushed when remembering.

But then she remembered being in the kitchen with her, and smiling and laughing. And that brought her back to their interactions in the car just moments ago, and how it felt so easy.

Amity shook her head.

But she kept remembering moments during the night when she felt loose.

She shook her head.

But she remembered their conversation on the bed.

She gripped her wheel.

Knuckles white until she passed through the gate to park in front of the mansion.

The first thing on her mind was a long, soothing shower. That thought blessed her mind while opening the front door, only for it to crumble upon seeing… the twins?

“Mittens!” they cheered.

There’s no way in hell.

“What are you two doing here??” Nobody was supposed to be home. Her parents were away on another business trip and the twins were supposed to be at college.

Emira said, “You think we’d miss your first match? We were waiting to surprise you yesterday evening but you weren’t here when we got home!”

Edric added, “Where were you? You look like shit.”

“You do.”

Amity groaned. Excellent reunion she never asked for.

“I was at Skara’s.”

“Ooooh a party? Was it fun?” Emira asked.

“Meh. I need to shower.”

“But wait, tell us all about it!” Edric said.

“No.”

“Mitteeeeens.”

“Later.”

“Fine,” Edric said.

Emira winked. “We’ll be waiting.”

Amity saw the twins grinning at each other before walking across the living room and going up the stairs toward her bedroom. She closed the door and sighed. There goes relaxation for the day. She knew the twins wouldn’t leave her alone.

The shower rejuvenated her body, but didn’t cleanse her of her thoughts. They swirled in her mind, and talking with the twins later didn’t help.

“So?” They knocked on her door after a while upon realizing Amity wasn’t going to come out of her room anytime soon.

She groaned as she stepped toward her bedroom door, opened it, stepped out, and immediately slammed the door behind her so that the twins couldn’t go butting into her things. She took the opportunity to head to the kitchen to grab something to eat. The twins followed her there.

“The game was amazing!” Emira offered, figuring Amity would at least talk about that before revealing her secrets.

Amity did smile slightly at that. “First victory of the season.”

“And your goal was flawless!” Edric added. “Really good stuff, Mittens. And you were making killer combos with the other forward. I couldn’t tell exactly but was that Luz Noceda?”

Amity’s eyes widened slightly.

“How do you know?”

Edric snickered. “Even as a Freshman she got a reputation. We’d often see each other in detention. She got my full approval with that prank on Kiki. Great stuff.”

Of course Amity’s troublemaker brother approved of another infamous troublemaker.

“Oh I remember that!” Emira smirked. “She’s a wild card.”

“Can’t believe she’s good at soccer too.”

“Oh yeah, she was great.”

“You’re lucky to have a great forward on your team, Mittens.”

“Yeah, and you seem to complement each other really well on the team!”

“Is she nice? Does she play pranks on the team?”

“Oooh good question, Ed. Does she?”

“Enough,” Amity interjected. She rubbed her temples. “No, thank the skies she doesn’t play pranks on the team.”

Edric frowned. “She should. Don’t strangle her too hard if she does bring some fun to the team, yeah?”

Amity rolled her eyes. But then her lips quirked up a bit. She immediately hid it. “She’s a good player. The entire team is good. We’ll easily breeze through the season.”

“Oh so it was a team victory party yesterday.”

“Yep.”

The twins continued asking her questions about the party while Amity kept focused on her sandwich. She brushed off the questions with ‘yes’ ‘no’ ‘maybe’s, but one question caught her off guard again.

“Was our now-second favorite player there too?” Edric asked.

Amity paused. “Who?”

“Obviously Luz Noceda. Did she pull any shenanigans?”

Amity blinked. None, that Amity witnessed at least. But now that she thought of it, Boscha did keep cursing the person who kept putting sour cream and onion crisps in every single one of the crisp bowls, thereby making it impossible to find the normal flavored ones, meaning she had to drown out the stinky taste with lots of alcohol to fix her breath for… no particular reason of course.

The faintest smile crept up on Amity’s lips.

Luz also did reveal some of her shenanigans during the game.

The game

Memories of the Never Have I Ever sprung to mind.

Amity had been a couple drinks in already when they had started it. She drank more than expected. How could she reveal rogue activities like sneaking out of the house? Unacceptable.

“—Earth to Amity?”

Amity’s attention swerved back to the twins.

“Yes?”

Emira asked, “So Luz did pull shenanigans?”

“Probably.”

Even the twins without ever having met her knew she was the type to commit petty shenanigans.

Edric grinned. “She really is a troublemaker. Her reputation must be even crazier than when she was a Freshman. Don’t get too close, Mittens,” Edric added, starting to laugh, “Mom and Dad would probably kill you if they saw you with her. Her smirk just oozes trouble.”

Amity’s heart rate spiked.

“Yeah, careful Mittens, can’t go associating with trouble.” Emira grinned.

Amity’s heart rate accelerated. The twins were right. She couldn’t just start associating with notorious trouble. What would her parents say? Visceral dread washed over her body.

“I do not associate with the likes of Noceda.”

Edric smirked. “You’re too uptight to hang out with such fun people anyway.”

Amity squinted. “I’m finishing my sandwich upstairs. Goodbye.”

“Mitteeeeens,” the twins said in unison.

“Bye.”

She quickly grabbed her plate and left the kitchen to return to her room. The twins only came to annoy her to announce their departure. They attacked her with hugs that she fought against.

“Bye, Mittens! See you during break!”

Amity’s face stayed flat. “Bye.”

When the door downstairs shut behind them, she sighed in sweet peace.

But the twins were right. She couldn’t associate with Luz.

But maybe she wanted to.

But it could mean pain.

Amity closed her eyes and released a deep breath as she tried to calm her dread. She didn’t want pain.

When she checked her phone, a notification from Skara caught her attention.

“Heyyy Am, hope you got home okay!! Can you send me the videos from yesterday please? And so I didn’t want to ask in front of the devil ;) but what happened with Luz??”

Amity paused. Videos from yesterday? Why was she asking about Luz??

She slowly opened her camera roll.

Why the fuck did she have videos of Boscha?

Suddenly, a brand new memory unlocked and flashed in her mind.

~

Amity and her friends entered the living room after having found Amity in the kitchen with Luz, and both Skara and Boscha raised their eyebrows at her.

“Yes?”

Boscha immediately got distracted by Gavin asking her whether she wanted to get a drink with him so left, but Skara grinned at Amity.

“So, you were gone for a long time…”

Amity’s cheeks flushed. She took a sip of her drink.

“Yep, went to get a drink.”

“With Luz?”

Amity took another sip.

“Noceda was there by pure coincidence.”

“Was it a good coincidence?” Skara smirked. 

Amity blushed harder. She took another sip.

Skara giggled. “You know that it’s fine if you don’t hate her, right?”

Amity averted her gaze, and bit her lip. “But I do.”

Skara raised her eyebrow. Her voice softened. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Amity furrowed her brows. “There’s nothing to say.”

“So you don’t like Luz?”

Amity’s heart spiked but it was just the alcohol rushing through her. “Absolutely not. Me, a Blight? Liking Noceda, the rogue delinquent?” She scoffed. “She’s a”—she tried to remember the words she had used to describe her in the past but for some reason none came to mind—“a bad influence.”

“You know she’s not that bad. And Amity, you’re not just a Blight.”

Amity ground her teeth but her brows twitched and her eyes closed. She took another sip. Her voice was quieter, barely audible above the music pulsing in the background. “But I have to be.”

~

Amity’s eyes shot open. There was no way that happened. False memory. Hangover playing tricks on her. There was absolutely no way Amity had talked about both Luz, but also about ‘being a Blight.’ She had never talked about either of those, never opened up like that. 

Amity cursed herself. She had really fucked up.

But now she knew that Skara knew. Skara wasn’t stupid at all. But Amity was a masquerade master. But drunk Amity was evidently not. She had really fucked up.

And her lips curled the faintest bit downward when she remembered saying Luz was a ‘bad influence’. But she quickly shook her head, before another memory came flashing in.

~

Amity’s buzzing head slowly swayed to the beat, eyes closed. Skara looked at her softly, increasingly aware of how drunk Amity was getting, and decided to switch the vibes up. “Hey, wanna get blackmail material?”

Amity did end up chuckling. “Where is she?”

“Near the TV behind you. Don’t be obvious.”

Amity turned around, very much obvious.

“Amity!” Skara giggled.

Amity’s head turned back toward Skara, with a growing grin. She shrugged. “You really think she’ll notice when staring oh so longingly into Gavin’s ‘pretty’ eyes?”

Skara laughed. “Why is it so entertaining?”

“Honestly I don’t even know but it is.”

“She’s so keen on pretending she’s not that into him.”

Amity let out a light-hearted laugh. “But it’s so obvious.”

Skara looked at Amity, who was squinting at Boscha and Gavin as if trying to peer closer, and smiled at seeing some of the rare occasions of Amity letting loose.

~

Amity closed her eyes at the continuation of that first memory. She ended up releasing a faint chuckle. She did have fun with her friends during the night. And it kind of did feel good. But not if it meant carelessly opening up. But now that Skara knew… Wait. Amity didn’t know whether Skara remembered their entire conversation, or whether Skara was just asking about this morning. Amity had to make sure of that, because if Skara only asked based on this morning, Amity would absolutely not mention their conversation. But if Skara did remember… Amity didn’t exactly know what she’d do if Skara brought it up.

She answered Skara’s message by sending her the video of Boscha and Gavin drunkenly dancing together, without answering the question about Luz. Skara thanked her and didn’t pry further, but Amity knew Skara was waiting for the right occasion to prod more about it.

When Luz arrived home, she finally checked her phone. The group chat with Hunter, Willow, and Gus had many messages waiting for her. Her friends wanted to know what happened at the end of the party and why she didn’t come back to Willow’s with them. Damn Willow ratted her out. They teased her about how drunk she was, too.

Luz scoffed, playfully, and decided to attack back with some pictures and videos she had sneakily taken of them on the dance floor. Shots fired, she waited for any counterattack.

Her friends answered immediately, and their counterattack, after the insults, was shifting the conversation back to what Luz did to not leave the party with them.

Right. She had to explain the whole Blight debacle. Whereas before a shy smile grew on her lips when remembering the kitchen or the bed, now a bashful one blossomed when trying to explain why Luz was the one to accompany Amity to the safety of a room.

Willow: Oh! Now I remember! You were taking Amity to a bedroom!

Gus: She did what??

Hunter: there’s no way

Luz: guys she was drunk i couldnt just leave her to fend for herself

Hunter: there’s no way Amity was that drunk

Luz: i swear she was so drunk she was stumbling and slurring and everything. right Willow??

Willow: Tbh I don’t remember much, all I remember is you with your arm around her waist

Hunter: WHAT

Gus: WHAT

Luz: pls she was so drunk i swear and im not a monster guys cmon

Hunter: wait but I think I remember something, I think they were in the kitchen together once, I remember needing more beer

Luz: you didnt need more beer to be drunk hunter you were wasted

Hunter: you wanna talk about wasted? You were so wasted you ended up befriending Amity

Luz: i didnt befriend blight ok? just bc i was nice enough to not leave her stranded doesnt mean we’re friends now ew

Willow: Right. It’s true that I remember thinking that you were doing something kind. Idk guys maybe Amity was that drunk

Gus: I still highly doubt that Amity Blight would get stumbling drunk at a party.

Luz: guys I SWEAR SHE WAS SO DRUNK how does nobody remember this i mean i know everyone was so damn wasted at the party but seriously??

Hunter: it’s just really hard to imagine xD

Luz: omg fine i gotta do some groceries ttyl bitches

Willow: we love you Luz!! So kind ;)

Luz: f off 

Luz squinted, but the faint blush on her cheeks lingered a bit. Stupid friends.

Then Luz remembered the project meeting with Amity. She might prepare a bit for it later.

She didn’t exactly know how it would go, between them, when the party vibes wore off.

And she didn’t exactly how she’d want it to go.

Guess she’d find out tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Amity had finished most of her homework for the next week already. Evening was rolling around and she wanted to make sure everything was ready for the project session tomorrow with Luz.

She read through her notes for a bit, looked up some academic papers that discussed some specific passages and how they tie many of the different symbols together, and then remembered that Luz loved the movie. The movie with the guns. Amity rolled her eyes. Perhaps she was seeing Luz in a different light, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still absolutely judging her taste.

Yet she couldn’t help the slight curiosity she felt.

Amity paused for a moment, then started looking up where to watch the movie online. She hesitated some more before clicking to start the movie, but sighed, and ended up caving, curiosity getting the best of her.

This movie is vile.

Her body cringed within the first minute. And it only got worse.

Did this man just lick his nipple?

A gun fight in the middle of a gas station??

Why are the Montagues in Hawaiian shirts?

Did Tybalt’s cigarette just explode the gas station???

Amity turned off the movie after the first seven minutes. A movie of literal delinquents, actually offensive to the beauty of Shakespearian literature. Rival mafia business empires? Seriously?

Her head shook at what the fuck she just witnessed. Enough Romeo and Juliet for the day.

Her stomach started gurgling which meant dinner time. She went to the kitchen to make a quinoa salad, and after eating, her phone buzzed.

Her parents. Coming home in the next few days. Amity’s face fell. She shuddered.

She knew they had to come back at some point, so was always ready for the warning, but the visceral dread upon knowing they were coming back soon was too powerful to ignore.

The wine bottle under her bed made a reappearance on her desk when she returned to her room. Red flowed into her cup as stress flowed in her mind. She took a sip while turning her computer back on, so ready to take her mind off things.

The first thing that popped up was the movie.

Amity took another sip before pressing play.

And she took another sip when seeing the Montagues playing pool half naked, Mercutio in a sparkly mini skirt, and Romeo taking drugs.

Juliet appeared on screen and Amity blinked for a couple of seconds. Her blue eyes looked beauti—

Amity’s thoughts took her aback. Immediately another sip.

So the person Juliet was forced to dance with at the party was dressed as an astronaut in the movie.

Amity snickered to herself. She remembered that one date with the son of a NASA scientist her parents forced her to go on. He couldn’t stop bragging about how he’d join NASA too with his perfect grades. What a terrible date that one was. Like all of them.

And now Romeo and Juliet were kissing in an elevator where anyone could see them at any moment when the doors opened. Careless, reckless behavior.

But the camera’s focus on the characters’ faces and facial expressions truly worked in conveying their emotions. The actors were great and were nailing the subtleties of the written script. Amity also liked how they kept the original dialogue, albeit not complete. But it was an interesting twist on a modern retelling of the play.

And the visual colors really worked in conveying some of the key symbolisms in the play, in a very aesthetic way, and reframed how she viewed some of the scenes, now with added visuals and facial expressions.

Then at the end, the suicides scene, the ending that Amity always found stupid, she appreciated how the camera lagged on Juliet when she realized Romeo was dead, and how that lag was successfully utilized to reflect her mental state upon seeing him.

The movie ended, and Amity found herself shocked at how she did somewhat enjoy it, and even more shocked at how some scenes were truly moving, with an intriguing mix of original dialogue within a modern life, and acting that truly conveyed the emotions that the characters meant to portray in a more impactful way, by virtue of them being visually, and aesthetically portrayed. It was a rather interesting movie, and she found herself invested in many of the scenes.

And, the actors acting out the words of passion, acting out their profound love for each other, it reframed the whole romance aspect. Amity had to admit that the portrayal of the sincere emotions tied to the words, when depicted so well, revealed just how beautiful such feelings could feel. The movie portrayed well how sincere, and beautiful love could actually be.

Maybe Luz did have good reasons to like the movie. Hm.

Amity stayed pondering that for a good moment, taking more sips of her wine.

Luz kinda wanted to actually prepare for their project meeting tomorrow, so got her notes out from their session last Friday. They were actually productive, and it was really interesting diving deeper into Luz’s favorite movie growing up. Amity was very keen on the analytical side of things and taught Luz quite a bit on the deeper meaning of some passages. Last time, she gave Luz multiple online papers to read up on for their next meeting, so Luz decided to actually check them out.

One of the papers was meant to contextualize the play within the political landscape of the time. Luz rolled her eyes, but gave it a shot.

In Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare wrote the play, families were deeply concerned with their loyalty to the state and the crown, especially given the rising political tensions. This loyalty was heavily tied to the family’s reputation and social standing. Thus, Juliet’s disobedience wasn’t just a personal issue within the family, but a threat to the entire family’s social standing and reputation, as it reflected a breakdown of the crucial loyalty and authority which were critical in maintaining and upholding that respectable position within their society.

The customary arranged marriages at the time among powerful families were often used to form political alliances that secured power, land, and wealth. Juliet having a secret marriage instead of the arranged one was treasonous, a direct challenge to those social norms and it thus threatened her entire family’s social stability. And this defiance of loyalty to one’s family sparked more violence between the two houses, threatening further the public order.

Not only was loyalty paramount, but the patriarchal context was crucial to understand the violent nature of the families’ feuds. Men were expected to defend and uphold their family’s honor at all costs, explaining the violence committed between the families. Tybalt defending the Capulets was seen as the ultimate good thing for their honor, and Romeo not defending himself against the Capulets was more than just letting down his family, but could be considered high treason to his name.

The more she delved deeper into the papers and the sociopolitical context of the time, she found the story even richer. She had a better understanding of why Romeo was brave to be loyal to Juliet indeed, but why he was ultimately reckless and selfish as well when it came to upholding his family’s name. Similarly with Juliet, Luz realized increasingly how dangerous and deeply consequential it was for her to defy her family, and thus how brave she was to challenge that, but also how truly reckless it was concerning her entire family’s social, economic, and political stability.

So Luz gained a newfound appreciation for Juliet and Romeo’s characters, seeing them in a broader lens.

And Amity already knew all this. Maybe she did have interesting reasons to dig deeper into the academics of the play. It made Luz understand her skeptical perspective more too. And maybe she wasn’t so wrong when claiming just how reckless Romeo and Juliet were. Hm.

Then Luz actually went on to read some of the passages directly from the play, remembering that the movie didn’t have all the dialogue. She didn’t read the whole thing, only some of the quintessentially iconic scenes such as the balcony scene, which was set in a pool in the movie, the marriage proposal scene, which, while displayed in a funner manner in the movie, was actually a more serious, sincere scene in the play, really capitulating on the more profound emotions felt by the two. 

And Juliet didn’t wake up in time to give Romeo a last kiss. Romeo was dead before Juliet woke up. No last kiss. 

Luz teared up a little.

She finished with the play and stayed still for a bit, really appreciating all she just read. From the deeper understanding of the context, to the dialogue she didn’t know as they weren’t included in the movie. Maybe Amity did have a point in recommending she read all that. Hm.

Luz stayed pondering all that for a good moment.

Sunday rolled around meaning they had to meet in the afternoon. But first, Luz had to meet Hunter at the gym, and prayed to all that’s good that he wouldn’t mention Amity Blight.

Upon meeting in front of the gym, Hunter held a smirk.

“Why hello Luz.”

“Hey…? You okay?”

“Oh yeah, just thinking about the party.”

Luz squinted.

“So, Amity?” Hunter really was a little bitch.

But a flashback suddenly unlocked in Luz’s mind.

~

Luz was outside drinking a beer by herself. Hunter arrived and asked whether it had anything to do with Amity, as he had seen them in the kitchen together. 

She said, “It’s just so weird, I’ve hated her for years.”

“You hated a version of her. Maybe you’re just seeing a new version of her, a better one.” 

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing.” 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” 

Luz stayed silent for a couple of seconds. She drank a bit of her beer. 

“I don’t know anymore.” 

She then sported a smirk. “You and Willow, huh?” 

Hunter’s blush wasn’t due to the alcohol. “Let’s dance.” 

“Let’s go.”

~

Hunter and Luz checked into the gym.

“See you at the weights,” Luz said before quickly entering the women’s locker room.

After getting into her gym wear, she made her way to the free weights section. Waiting for Hunter, she started stretching in front of the mirror, and then noticed her tattoo.

Another flashback.

~

In the kitchen, Amity asked, “Do you have siblings?”

“Nah, only child, so I’m home alone too. Well, of course I live with my mom. My—” Luz blinked. Her relaxed face fell a bit, and her right hand reflexively went toward her tattoo. Her eyes stayed distant for a second before refocusing and making her lips curl upward.

~

Luz’s heart rate spiked. She almost opened up to Blight. The conversation was flowing so smoothly with her, it was easy, and stuff about Luz’s life started slipping out, with some deeper things on the verge of spilling. That couldn’t happen. She had to keep her guard up. Because she couldn’t just start opening up. Not when it meant pain. Luz’s jaw clenched tightly.

Hunter arrived beside her and smirked at her again.

Luz gave him a bombastic side eye in place of saying ‘what the fuck do you want now?’

Hunter kept smirking. And she just knew what he was thinking about.

“Why do you keep insinuating I like Blight?”

“So you do?”

“Never said that.”

“You don’t have to.”

Luz’s cheeks started flushing.

“Well I don’t like her, okay?” It didn’t matter anyway, Amity didn’t remember it, so their truths meant nothing. Not that Luz particularly wanted them to mean anything. She was drunk, it was just the alcohol talking. And she didn’t want to get close to Amity. She didn’t want to get close to anyone. But so why did her brows furrow at the thought?

Luz continued, “I just don’t get why you’ve been thinking that. You know how I’ve always felt about her.”

“I know how you’ve always talked about her.”

“And how did I talk about her?”

“Like she was the devil incarnate?”

Luz chuckled. “Still the case, Hunt.”

“You know you don’t believe that anymore.”

Luz averted her gaze. Who was she trying to convince?

“It’s fine if your opinion of her changed, Luz. I mean, I’d never go near her, she’s too scary, and she’d probably step on me if I get too close. But you… Just think about it.”

“Think about what?”

“Think about how you haven’t insulted her in a while.”

“Can I not be a nice person now?”

Hunter snickered. “Think about why.” He patted her head. Luz swatted his hand away. He smiled. And she did smile back. Then she thought about Amity again. And her smile softened.

Hunter said, “Anyway, bench press first? I’ll spot you.”

She immediately agreed to switch the focus to lifting.

“Thank you.”

After a successful gym session with Hunter where Luz had the opportunity to sweat out all the beer from Friday, she was mentally ready for the project session with Amity.

Both Amity and Luz were prepared, equipped with new thoughts, and understandings of the other thanks to entering a bit into each other’s worlds — Amity with the movie with guns, Luz with the academics and actually reading the play — thus seeing each other in even more different lights. That seemed to be happening a lot between them recently. And more and more they realized how it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Good afternoon, Noceda,” Amity said once Luz arrived in front of the Owl Café at 4 pm sharp.

“‘Afternoon, Blight,” Luz replied, slightly amused at the formal greetings, “How are you?”

“Fairly well.” She headed toward a booth in a more secluded area of the café with Luz following suite. “And you?”

“Good.” And Luz was somewhat surprised that Amity even asked, even as a formality. This was the first time seeing each other fully sober since the party, and Luz wouldn’t have been surprised at all if Amity’s usual-school attitude was back. Guess not? Luz was still testing the waters.

They sat opposite each other and started getting their things out.

Luz suggested getting their coffees but Amity said she’d get one after, so Luz got up toward the counter.

“Luuuuuuuz,” the barista, owner of the place, said. Or rather, sung. 

“Hooootie,” Luz replied in the same tone.

“How’s it popping?”

“Good! And you, Hoots?”

“Gooooooood.”

Luz chuckled.

“The usual? Coffee with almond-milk?”

“Of course!”

“Coming right up.”

After Luz got her coffee, she returned to the booth then Amity went to get hers.

“Sooo,” Luz said when she returned. Being sober made it awkward, and there was a slight tension, in that liquor and a hangover weren’t facilitating relaxedness anymore, and after everything that had happened that Amity didn’t remember, Luz didn’t know where to stand. And she didn’t know where she wanted to stand. She tried to make conversation to ease up the air. 

“Are you feeling better than yesterday?”

“Yes,” Amity replied, rather stiffly. After a couple of seconds, she asked, “and you?”

“Yeah.”

They avoided each other’s gazes for a moment, the silence awkward, and kind of loaded?

“Do you remember what we did during our last meeting?” Amity asked.

“Yes. I read through my notes, so it’s fresh.”

Amity hid her surprise at that. “Good. So you did research on your part?”

“I did.”

Amity’s face must’ve revealed something because Luz then asked, “You didn’t expect that, did you?”

She blinked. “No I didn’t.”

Luz tried to hide it but she couldn’t help but crack a small grin. “Well surprise, Blight, I did something studious. Happy?”

Amity rolled her eyes, but Luz just knew it was playful.

And the air between them felt lighter already. Why was it that easy?

“Noceda, it’s the bare minimum. You shouldn’t be so proud.”

“Hey, do you know when’s the last time I read something even remotely academic?”

“I’d be appalled if I knew.”

“That you would.” Then Luz added, “But… it was actually interesting.” She rubbed her neck. “It wasn’t a bad read.”

Amity’s face must’ve revealed more because Luz retaliated with a chuckle and an, “Oh come on.”

“We can finally discuss the academics of the play?” She feigned severe bewilderment.

Snarky. 

Luz retorted, “Your wildest dreams are coming true.”

“The universe has heard me.”

“So you were actually wishing you could engage with me in a more profound way is what I’m hearing.”

“I was wishing I wouldn’t waste my time explaining basic concepts to an imbecile.”

“So I was an imbecile to you?”

“You were more than that.”

Luz contained both the faintest blush and a snicker. “You know how that sounds right?”

Amity’s jaw clenched suddenly before she quipped back. “Only if I were as delusional as you are.”

“You’re the one who had no faith in me actually studying.”

“That wasn’t delusion, that was rational.”

So Amity did have banter outside of party-mode. Luz cracked a smile. And she saw how Amity was holding one back too.

So Luz was still a dumbass, as Amity had always known, but ever since the party, she saw Luz as a different kind of dumbass, with playful, and not severely annoying, banter. She couldn’t help but return Luz’s smile.

They averted their gazes immediately upon realizing what they were each thinking, hints of pink touching their cheeks but neither of them could see because both were looking away.

After a moment they quickly decided to open their laptops and notebooks to avoid looking at each other. And once fully set up to start studying, their eyes finally met again.

“So tell me what you learned,” Amity said, and Luz explained what she had read: the sociopolitical context of the play, how they related to the major themes Amity and Luz had chosen to focus on, and gave examples of events that exemplified such.

Amity listened with sincere shock. This was absolutely not the Noceda she knew. She didn’t know Luz had any studious potential within her. And Amity could not deny the fact that she kind of liked this side of her.

“So, now we should unpack the ending.”

Luz clasped her mug a bit tighter.

She remembered reading that part when checking out the play. She didn’t mean to read until the end, but she had been appreciating the play and didn’t realize that she was nearing the ending, and couldn’t just stop, especially knowing that the endings were different.

Amity said, “I actually liked how in the movie, Juliet wakes up before Romeo dies. It’s like twisting the knife and giving them that second of hope. It was powerful.”

Luz’s jaw fell to the floor.

Amity instantly realized what her saying all that implied.

“You watched the movie??”

Amity averted her gaze.

“Baz Luhrmann’s version??”

Amity closed her eyes.

“There’s no way.”

Amity finally deadpanned and said, “I did.”

Luz’s grin was criminal.

“And you liked it??”

Amity released a chuckle. “It was interesting, okay? I liked the actors. And some scenes were cinematically poignant.”

“I can’t believe you gave it a shot.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “You gave the academics of the play a shot.”

Luz was floored. In the best way. There was no way Blight actually watched the movie. Now that was a side Luz never would’ve expected. And she kind of really liked it.

Luz gave her a smile. Amity rolled her eyes but offered one back.

But they whipped their gazes away. Luz appreciated how easy it was to smile with her. But then her smile fell the slightest bit upon remembering that Amity didn’t remember their talk at the party. Perhaps Luz wanted Amity to remember, but she still wasn’t so sure about that.

They did end up talking a bit about the movie and what they both liked and disliked. Luz loved everything, while Amity of course had her criticism of some things. Luz heard them, didn’t agree, so they debated for a bit, but it was lighthearted.

Then they continued studying for a while, mostly in silence. But sometimes they’d glimpse at each other. Just to make sure the other was doing the research, of course. Of course. Because upon doing so, they’d immediately whip their gazes away, and subtly shake their heads, as if shaking off those soft images from their minds.

They had made great progress, and Luz suggested taking a break at some point. She already knew Amity’s response, but her eyebrows raised when Amity agreed.

“Blight taking a break? Who’d a thunk.”

Amity scoffed. “Going back to studying.”

“No, no, breaks are great! Just you see.”

Amity rolled her eyes, but rested her back against the booth and closed her eyes for a moment.

Luz smirked. What a sight.

“See, taking breaks isn’t that bad.”

“They’re alright,” Amity said, cracking her neck to ease up some of the tenseness.

“Why don’t you take them more often then? I don’t get it.”

Amity paused. She closed her eyes. “Can’t afford to. I have to work hard. I have to.”

Luz’s brows furrowed in slight shock at Amity not immediately getting defensive? Like at the end of the party, when Amity was finally opening up… but then stopped. Was she about to explain further?

“Or else what?”

Amity rubbed her temples, eyes still closed. She remembered her mother’s text message. “Can’t fail.” How they’re coming back soon. “Just can’t fail.” How they’ll ask about her grades. “Need to be the best.” How they’ll set her up on dates she can’t refuse. “Have to be perfect.” How they’ll lock her in her room again if she doesn’t ace this project. “Not allowed to fail.”

“Why not?”

“Because my parents—” 

Amity’s eyes shot open. She sucked in a heavy breath. “What?”

“What?”

All her words caught up to her. Her pulse sped up. What the fuck? She cleared her throat. Her face went completely stiff. She immediately focused back on her laptop without looking Luz in the eyes. “Break’s over.”

Luz sat there, completely confused. Both at what Amity was saying, but also at Amity’s sudden extreme coldness. So, Amity’s parents had something to do with everything. With how perfect she had to appear, her need to be top student — her parents having high expectations was a fairly obvious theory. But to that extent?

Luz’s brows furrowed. She glanced at Amity who was dead focused on her laptop.

Not daring to break the tense silence, Luz finished her break quietly, then resumed as quietly as well.

The meeting lasted only another half hour before both packed up and got ready to leave, having settled on continuing on Wednesday. 

“See ya tomorrow, Blight,” Luz said as Amity exited first.

“Bye, Noceda,” she said before walking away.

Luz walked toward her motorbike, still confused by how tense it all felt after Amity slipped up again. Because that wasn’t her opening up, it was her evidently slipping up, and regretting doing so. And consequently avoiding Luz. As theorized, Amity, sober, was back to being cold. Luz frowned the slightest bit, but sighed then shook her head before putting her helmet on and riding home.

What was so bad about opening up? But Luz sighed to herself, as that was such a hypocritical thought. There were too many reasons why someone wouldn’t want to open up. Luz had just maybe hoped that Amity would.

Amity bit her lip as she started the engine, ready to drive home. She couldn’t believe she slipped up, again, and this time so substantially. She couldn’t believe it kept happening. With Luz. This couldn’t happen again. It felt too easy to just relax and talk, but she just couldn’t. There was too much at stake. Her image, perfectly curated, couldn’t just start cracking in front of someone, in front of Noceda no less.

She couldn’t be revealing the extent to which her parents were abusive to anyone. And what if Luz told someone? What if Amity got in trouble? What if her parents found out that she was talking behind their backs? What if they found out that her perfect persona was crumbling? It would hurt. Emotionally. Physically. 

Adrenaline jolted her upright in her seat. Her entire body tensed up. She gripped the wheel the entire way home.

The next day, on Monday morning, when Luz entered the classroom and their eyes accidentally met, there was tension in Amity’s gaze though she wasn’t narrowing her eyes or anything. Luz looked away.

At practice too, the tension lessened on the pitch when they were playing together, but it was as if the party had never happened. It felt distant. Luz’s brows furrowed the slightest bit when Amity would look away.

It wasn’t like Luz wanted them to be ultra close now, but now having known Amity in a different way, it felt so weird to revert back to how they used to interact before Friday. It wasn’t tense in the rage way, but it was still tense, and that made Luz somewhat sad.

After her multiple slip ups, namely her last serious one during the project meeting, Amity couldn’t look Luz in the eyes. Almost like she couldn’t face what she kept so carelessly revealing to her. Even at the party, when Amity shared her ‘Truth’. That she liked Noceda. That was too much. Too close. There was too much potential to continue slipping up. And their banter too, it was so easy. It was too easy to talk to Luz. Too much risk for her mask to crack further. It just couldn’t. So she couldn’t look Luz in the eye.

Their games didn’t suffer however, because they still excelled at playing together on the pitch with their excellent teamwork that they’d been cultivating throughout the weeks, and especially last week, when they were so in sync. That synchrony stayed the same, almost like instinct that never wanted to leave them again. Almost like a home they had built with matching decorations and foundations so solid that earthquakes could never make it collapse. Their synchrony was their own natural force of nature. Instinct.

After lunch, Amity, Boscha, and Skara were chilling with Gavin and some others outside the school.

One of the basketball players that wasn’t there at the match said, “So apparently you guys played so well on Friday.”

The soccer girls smirked. “Yeah we did,” Boscha replied.

Bria, the head cheerleader, started sneering. “Even that Luz girl played well. Who knew?”

Amity’s eyebrow immediately raised. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

As if on cue, Luz and her friends exited the school and Bria saw them.

She snickered. “Who knew she’d be good at something is all I’m saying.”

“Hey,” Amity said coldly, noticing Luz from the corner of her eye as well.

But Luz heard mocking laughter and turned her head toward the sound. Bria was sneering and staring right at her. Luz paused in her tracks.

Amity said, “Bria, you better shut up.”

Bria scoffed but continued snickering. “Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to hate her?”

Amity’s pulse quickened. Luz was approaching. Amity looked at Luz and subtly shook her head.

“Bria, shut the fuck up or else I’ll kick your head as if it were a soccer ball. And score.”

Bria instantly stopped laughing. Amity looked back at Luz, eyes softened just a bit. Luz’s eyes became a bit gentler, but then sharpened when she sent Bria a death stare before backing away and continuing to walk with her friends.

“Don’t even think about speaking bad about her again,” Amity said, still feeling a rush, especially knowing what could’ve gone down had Amity not stopped Bria from mocking Luz. But everyone looked at her with raised eyebrows.

Amity bit her lip subtly before she said, feeling the utmost need to defend herself, “What? She’s our teammate now. And we respect the team.”

Skara winked at her while Boscha nodded passively. All the others nodded as well, and Bria avoided eye contact.

Amity quietly sighed in relief: crisis averted. But that was close to a slip up. But she couldn’t let Bria continue mocking Luz. She just couldn’t.

Luz’s friends whispered to her, “What the hell just happened?”

“That bitch Bria was laughing at me for some reason and I was about to show her why that wasn’t a good idea. But then Blight stepped in, I think. I couldn’t hear exactly but she made Bria shut the hell up.”

“Amity defended you??” Hunter asked.

Luz felt her cheeks heat up. “Maybe? Apparently?” 

“Wow.” Gus rubbed his eyes.

Willow said, “That’s actually nice of her.”

“Yeah,” Luz said.

Hunter and Willow smirked at each other at seeing Luz flustered about it.

“Fuck off guys. I was nice at the party, she was nice here. That’s it.”

“Suuuuure,” Hunter said, really stretching it out.

Luz shoved him and he stumbled a bit, but he was still chuckling.

She immediately changed the topic.

“Noceda,” Amity said as a greeting when Luz arrived in front of the café for another project session.

“Blight,” Luz replied. They entered and settled in the booth they usually sat at.

While Amity set up, Luz went to get her coffee but had a fairly burning question in mind. So when Amity returned after having gotten her coffee, she had to ask.

“So,” Luz said, turning on her laptop.

“So?” Amity replied, setting her notes in front of her.

“What happened with Bria?”

Amity paused. Was Luz seriously asking about this? She clenched her fists.

“She was being a bitch as usual.”

“It looked like you were defending me.”

Amity bit her lip. “As a teammate. I defended you as Captain of the team.”

“But what did she say?”

“Essentially that it was deeply shocking to see you succeed at something.”

Luz scoffed but chuckled. “That sounds like you before.”

Amity blinked. It did. But not anymore.

She mumbled, “Yeah, well, you’re a good player.”

Luz’s chuckle softened. “Thank you. You’re a good player too.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “I know. Anyway, progress on your part?”

Oh right, Romeo and Juliet.

Luz sighed quietly before changing the topic.

At one point they were exchanging notes, and Amity wanted to see the written version of Luz’s to make sure she had all the essential information in her notebook. Not bad. Key things were indeed evident on the pages, the structure wasn’t terrible either, some fancy academic words here and there. 

She continued turning the pages until one page particularly caught her eye. It wasn’t related to Romeo and Juliet as the title on the top showed “Creative Writing,” with a prompt underneath. Curious, Amity started reading.

It was beautiful. The imagery, the metaphors, the depth. It was a poem that dealt with the passing of time. Amity’s jaw loosened, and she forced herself to stop reading and quickly flipped the page. She never would have expected Luz to be a writer. And a good one. She looked up for just a second and for the first time saw a deeper, more sentimental side to Luz. Amity shook her head, but the feelings of shock and wonder lingered. 

She continued looking through the notes, and what really caught Amity’s attention were the mind maps Luz used to link notes together in a visible way, ways in which Amity wouldn’t have immediately thought of. Using visuals to tie ideas together, with different colors to further make some links clear. Such visuals on the page included doodles of flowers on the corners of the pages though. But they weren’t distracting. The mind maps taking the center stage were truly creatively done and evidently an effective note-system for Luz.

Smart, Amity thought. But she shook her head again, shocked once more at seeing what Luz was capable of. And she couldn’t help but comment on it.

“Your mind maps, they’re really interesting.”

Luz looked up from her laptop, slightly shocked. Her mind maps were all over the place. She squinted a bit. “I guess they just help me see things better. But thanks.”

“I’m serious,” Amity added. “I can see why they make sense.”

Luz’s face relaxed a bit, now knowing Amity wasn’t mocking them. “Oh. Well, then, thanks. I’ve always liked mind maps. Don’t get to use them often though because I don’t often take notes.” Luz chuckled.

Amity sighed. “Why don’t you try in other classes? For this project you managed to be serious, I can see that. And you can be so determined and driven when it comes to soccer, but why not school? Why don’t you take your studies seriously?”

Luz tensed up for a second. But then relaxed again. “Honestly, it’s because I don’t care much about school. Soccer’s just important to me, and I guess for school, it doesn’t really matter. And it’s hard to concentrate. For this project, I kinda have to otherwise you’d kill me, but it’s still hard to concentrate at times.”

“You have a lot of potential, though. And if you worked hard, you could go places.”

“Blight, did you really just compliment me?”

Amity’s lips formed a thin line. Shit. She really did. She cleared her throat. But didn’t know what to say.

Luz’s face softened, like her words. She averted her gaze. “Thank you.”

And Amity still didn’t know what to say, but her eyes were fixed on her laptop. Were they really sharing a moment right now? Nope, something had to change. She cleared her throat again.

“Anyway, take your notes back. Let’s continue doing research on our parts.”

That was good — silence was good right now. Good. She fully focused back on her laptop.

And she couldn’t see the creeping blush on Luz’s face.

“Yep, research.”

That was good. This was too weird.

Silent research continued on their ends.

Luz glanced up again at one point. A flashback instantly sparked in her mind.

~

In bed, at the party. Luz said, “And I see how your face softens when you read the play, when it was just us two working on our project. I just figure that if I got to know a bit more about you, there’s more good to see in you too.” She chuckled, too buzzed to process her thoughts. "And depending on the lighting, and if I squint enough, you're kinda cute too."

~

Luz’s eyes widened and reflexively darted toward Amity. But her gaze lingered on Amity’s face, that looked soft, and her eyes, that glowed with a deep shade of gold, and her—

Luz’s cheeks immediately grew hot, a deep blush blossoming on her face.

And Amity glanced up at that moment, and noticed.

She instantly furrowed her brows, extremely confused. But Luz looked cute with her cheeks pink—

Red rapidly crept up Amity’s face as well. The same flashback crossed her mind as her own face heating up instantly reminded her of when she had blushed when Luz had called her cute at the party.

Both of them whipped their gazes away, dark red evident on their faces. They refused to look at each other and focused back on their laptops, refusing to acknowledge what the fuck was happening, and what the fuck memories suddenly flashed in their minds.

More of the conversations on the bed popped to mind and their blushes kept intensifying. They glanced up at the same time and locked eyes, to then violently rip their gazes away from each other again.

Luz’s head tilted downward to hide her face.

Amity had to cover her face with her hands as the blush wouldn’t go away. 

After a few moments of trying to calm themselves down, their redness dissipated and they still refused to look at each other for a solid ten minutes, when they were sure they weren’t flustered anymore.

Luz’s mentality was: ‘it’s only weird if you make it weird’. So she decided to act as if everything was normal. Which it was. Nothing happened, everything was cool, everything was chill, her blushing never happened. Because nothing happened between them. Good.

“I’m almost finished with my part,” she said nonchalantly.

“Good, me too,” Amity cooly replied.

And they continued by elaborating on what they had written.

It was chill after that. They joked around a few times, and the air felt much lighter.

“Good, I guess we’ve finished the parts we had to do today.” 

They smiled at each other. Luz was happy she made progress, and Amity was increasingly confident that they’d get a good grade.

“Let’s go then, it’s getting late,” Amity said.

“You have plans for tonight?”

“No, just finishing homework. And you?”

“Not finishing homework.”

Amity rolled her eyes, playfully. But no way was she about to say some bullcrap compliment about Luz having potential anymore.

“See ya tomorrow, Blight.”

“Bye, Noceda.”

But they saw each other before tomorrow. Because that night, both ended up sneaking onto the pitch at the same time.

Chapter Text

Luz approached the pitch and heard the oh so familiar sound of someone kicking a ball and it whooshing into the net. She froze and peaked from behind the gate, questioning whether it was Amity, and sighed in somewhat relief when indeed, it was just her. But she should’ve known it was her. Who else would be sneaking onto the pitch at 10 pm on a Wednesday? 

Luz was amused at that thought, because, if not for last time, she never would’ve anticipated Amity to be the one sneaking in. She really did have some surprising aspects to her.

“More Blight today? Seriously?” Luz said after jumping over the gate and approaching her, but her chuckle revealed she wasn’t serious.

“Noceda,” Amity said as her usual greeting. She chuckled back. “Don’t think I’m thrilled.”

But she was once again surprised to see Luz sneaking onto the pitch, though much less so. 

“Do you actually do this often?” Amity asked.

“Not since last time. And you??”

“Not since last time either.”

“So we really got lucky, huh,” Luz said sarcastically. But it was playful.

“Sure did.” Amity rolled her eyes, but it was playful too.

There was a moment of silence, of hesitation.

“Should we take the opportunity to practice together again?”

Luz said what Amity was thinking.

“That would be good, yes.”

“Okay, then.”

And they went through what they could practice together, the conversation flowing easily between them. Admittedly they were on a roll from earlier during their project meeting when conversation was fluid. And, again, talking was just easy with the other.

They started with shooting drills where they took turns being the goalkeeper. Luz was much more diverse with her shots compared to last time as could be seen when practicing on the pitch, here taking Amity by surprise almost every time as she couldn’t predict. Then they tested Amity’s feints, but likewise Luz had already seen how much more comfortable she was feinting left when on the pitch.

They practiced the two-player combos next, paying attention to the other’s cues to further internalize them, the goal being to read each other flawlessly. They read each other already expertly on the pitch, yet there was always room for improvement, and that inspired them to keep training.

After a solid hour, Luz, panting, called for a break. Amity, evidently out of breath as well, couldn’t help but agree this time. They drank big gulps of water before Luz sat down on the pitch, inviting Amity to do the same. They had been training so well, so Amity sat down too, both of them drained and needing the rest.

It was silent on the field, but the silence felt very comfortable between them. They had trained so in sync that they still felt harmony flowing between them.

“Look at the stars,” Luz said. “And the moon is so bright.”

Amity lifted her head and noticed the freckles of light in the sky.

“They’re beautiful,” Luz added.

“They are.”

Amity remembered Luz’s tattoo, the constellation of stars that formed a soccer ball.

They were in such a state of harmony after being unintentionally connected throughout the day, during practice, during their project meeting, while training together, that Amity, subconsciously relaxed in Luz’s presence at this moment, let curiosity get the best of her.

“I noticed your tattoo.”

Luz, subconsciously relaxed in Amity’s presence as well, ended up releasing a faint smile, because she really did love her tattoo. “Yeah. Stars. They make a soccer ball.” Her hand went to rub her left arm above the elbow, where her tattoo resided.

“You really love soccer that much?”

Luz chuckled, but she squeezed her arm. “I really do.”

“How did you even get a tattoo? You’re not 18 yet, are you?”

“No, but my mom thankfully took me when I was 16.” 

“You asked her to get a tattoo at 16?”

“Yeah, it meant a lot to me and she knew that.”

“Soccer means that much to you?”

Luz chuckled faintly. Her eyes closed. It felt good to talk with Amity. And to talk about how much she loved the game. “I’ve been playing it since I was a kid.” Luz’s heart thudded. “And it reminds me of good memories.”

Amity then remembered the roman numerals under the ball.

“What about the numbers underneath?”

“It’s a date.” Luz’s pulse sped up. “One that means a lot to me.” Her eyes shut, tight. “A birthday. It was my—”

Her eyes shot wide open. Her breaths became heavier.

No

No no

“Uh— I—My m-mother’s—”

That’s it

“My mother’s birthday. Yeah.”

Suffocating. She stood up, and chuckled. “What better way to prove I love her, am I right?” She sucked in quiet breaths. “So”—she chuckled again—“I’m so tired. That training knocked me the hell out, haha. I’m gonna go.”

And like that, she grabbed her stuff, said goodbye, and left the pitch, trying her best not to rush out. But as soon as she was well out of sight, she clutched her chest and hoped her heart would stop beating so hard. When it calmed down a bit, she rode home, and once in her bedroom, she sat against the bed, arms around her knees, and stayed silent for a good few moments.

That can’t happen. Ever again. Too close. Too honest. Too much. Hurts. Hurts to talk about it. Can’t talk about it. Hurts. No talking about it. Especially not to Blight. Why did I get so close to talking about it? Why to Blight? I almost opened up to her, about that. But it was so easy to talk to her, why is it so easy to talk to her? Can’t open up to Blight. Hurts to open up. Can’t open up. Can’t open up to Blight of all people. We barely know each other. It hurts to open up. I don’t want to feel the hurt. I don’t want to feel it. Can’t open up. Avoid talking about the tattoo. Keep distance. Can’t open up to Blight. 

Luz’s heart rate slowed down after a moment. She changed and tucked herself tight in bed. 

The stars on the ceiling tried to reassure her, but she closed her eyes.

Amity was left thoroughly confused at what just happened. The connection she had been subconsciously feeling with Luz got shattered in an instant. She didn’t know the tattoo was a deep topic. She most probably shouldn’t have asked about it. 

But now she was even more curious. A birthday. Luz’s mother’s birthday. Why did that trigger her? Because Luz obviously got triggered by it. But it seemed like they had a good relationship. Luz mentioned good memories associated with the tattoo. Why would a birthday of her mother get her emotional? Because it was evident that it made Luz emotional. She could chuckle all she wanted, but Amity wasn’t dense. She didn’t know Luz that well, but she could tell when her smile didn’t meet her eyes.

She didn’t know Luz at all, really. She knew who Luz was on the pitch — her thoughts, her actions, her instincts. But outside of their project meetings, and the drunken party conversations, they never spoke. Not shocking at all. They weren’t close.

But Amity had been seeing different parts of Luz. And such an emotional one, she hadn’t anticipated. Luz looked so carefree and nonchalant with her idgaf and ‘always fun’ attitude. So seeing Luz having an emotional side really took Amity aback. It shouldn’t have really, because everyone had their emotional sides, but coming from Luz, who always boasted this tough and insouciant persona… it was just so weird, was all. 

Different. Amity kept seeing different sides of Luz. Facets. Luz wasn’t just a rogue troublemaker in Amity’s eyes anymore. It hadn’t been for a while now. And Amity didn’t exactly know how to feel about that.

She continued some shooting drills for a bit before heading off as well, wondering how Luz would be tomorrow on the pitch.

The next day, Luz avoided eye contact in the morning, and on the pitch as well. She avoided talking to Amity. No contact. Just playing the game.

Amity was confused as to why Luz was being tense. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t the Luz she’d gotten to know recently. Their playing wasn’t affected, but Amity, and Luz, felt the lack of smiles.

On Friday, the day of their second match, Luz headed toward the cafeteria to join her friends for lunch, but she noticed Bria down the hall. Luz squinted as she continued walking. This bitch. Notorious demon with a face of bullshit innocence. But when they looked at each other, Bria’s eyes widened and she immediately snapped her gaze away.

Luz found it so weird, but then recognized that sort of fear in her eyes, like the look she had when Amity had said something to her that time when they were outside and Bria was laughing. Amity had instantly made her shut up. And evidently what she had said lingered in Bria’s mind. 

Luz’s squint turned a bit gentle. Amity had defended her. And clearly well. What could she have possibly said to defend her that much? Luz shook her head, but the thought that Amity really defended her lingered in her mind for a moment. 

Then it was time for the match. Their first three matches were on home turf then they’d have to travel around to the other schools. Amity of course was already prepared for that idea knowing full well they’d win these games, and she, and the team, were ready, and more than confident that they’d win.

Coach Eda called the team toward her so she could remind everyone of the strategies, but also to discuss and dissect their last game and possible areas of improvement. It was more ‘continue doing this and that’ rather than ‘do this instead of that’ because they had really nailed their last match. Then Coach Eda went to describe her theories about how the other team would play, and how their team should react to potential formations and the likes.

Luz glanced around the team for a second and saw Amity looking so serious. Amity saw the same in Luz, this sort of determination in her entire demeanor that still took her aback a little.

After the talk, Luz and Amity needed to unpack together what the coach said relating to the theories about how the other team would play, so that they could find the best adaptations together. So, all tension or whatever was happening between them put on hold as per usual when on the pitch, Luz looked for Amity, fully locked in.

But when she approached her, looking so serious, it reminded her of when Amity snapped at Bria for her. Luz released a gentle sigh.

“Hey Blight,” Luz said, and she didn’t exactly know why her tone was gentle.

Amity must have noticed, because she looked slightly quizzical.

“Noceda?”

Luz blinked and her voice returned to normal as she locked in again. “We should discuss what Coach Eda said.”

“Yes.” Amity locked in as well.

And just like that, their conversational flow came back so easily. They talked strategy like experts, and even showed excitement when talking about what combos they would focus on, no tension between them, as if it never existed in the first place.

Luz found herself relieved, because conversing with Amity was pleasant. More than pleasant — talking soccer with Amity was somewhat fun despite them being fully serious. Talking about their shared passion and how they were so ready to annihilate the other team. They shared the same determination. And that felt good. It felt good to feel connected again. 

And they indeed felt connected again. That was paramount to them playing even better on the pitch together. Another reason why it felt good to just talk, because they knew it made them feel even more in sync on the pitch. And perhaps outside of the pitch too.

They called Vee in, who reluctantly approached but relaxed when realizing that Amity and Luz were on good terms again. Vee had this sixth sense when it came to them, and knew more than she let on.

It was time for the match. The captains gathered in the center circle for the coin toss. The other team won and decided to do the kickoff. Luz and Amity glanced at each other, and nodded. And grinned.

They grinned at each other even more throughout the game upon knowing their team was dominating the match. The other team played predictably, or rather, Coach Eda’s predictions were solid, which allowed for smooth passes and ease in gaining and maintaining possession.

A strategy they could thus test out was Boscha, one of their defenders, staying deep and near Viney, the goalkeeper. It worked very well, as Boscha intercepted skillfully the ball whenever it got near, forcing the attackers to attempt longer corner shots to avoid her. This meant that Viney, who thanks to practicing the corners a bit too often because of Luz, was ready and could expertly catch those corner shots. They formed a great team. And them being able to rely on that tactic was thanks to the midfielders like Skara and Katya, who managed to keep possession on the wings.

Because the team used a quick passes strategy, it forced the other team to keep running toward the ball thus tiring them out, meaning that Vee had ample space to make those creative passes toward the forwards.

The main strength of the rival team however was their defensive line. The other team’s defenders were good at maintaining possession of the ball whenever they had it. That meant that Luz and Amity had to be extra on point to bypass those defenders, but they were doing a very good job nonetheless, and would sometimes smirk at each other from across the pitch when knowing they were about to nail a good combo.

That happened at one point about twenty five minutes in. Amity had two defenders ahead of her. She feinted left. And then feinted left again. She could’ve attempted her own shot, as she was in the clear with only the goalkeeper to bypass. But she saw another opponent running at the same pace to her right, and Luz running next to the defender, just the slightest bit behind.

So she made a sideways pass in Luz’s direction, taking Luz fully by surprise as that would’ve been an easy goal for Amity. But Luz was always ready for the ball, so she outran the defender who wasn’t ready for such an illogical pass, and Luz received it with ease, to then quickly make the shot.

She scored. The bleachers went wild. So did the team. And Luz’s smile was so bright. Her teammates ran up to her to congratulate her, which Luz loved of course, but her eyes were on Amity who stayed back. Luz smiled at her. A beaming smile.

When returning back to position, Luz approached Amity.

“Hey, thank you. But you could’ve so easily scored. Why would you risk an offside?”

An offside was a sort of sneaky rule in which player A couldn’t pass the ball to player B if player B was closer to the goal than an opponent: there always had to be an opponent ahead of player B at the precise moment of player A’s pass if B was to receive the pass from A. 

Since Luz was just slightly behind the rival defender, she could receive Amity’s pass. But not only did Amity risk the defender intercepting the ball, but if Luz hadn’t been slightly behind the defender, it would’ve been an offside.

Amity smirked. “I saw you weren’t offside. And I trusted you to outrun the opponent, and you did. Well done.”

Luz didn’t know exactly why that made her feel that much joy. Her face showed it. Amity smiled back.

They got back into position. The game continued and their team was still dominating possession. 

Vee successfully lobbed the ball above the head of an opponent toward Luz. Luz ran ahead and saw a defender, who wasn’t running toward her but instead waited for her, ready to intercept the ball for when Luz would attempt to dribble past her. Luz glanced around for a second and couldn’t see Amity. So she ran toward the opponent who was waiting for her, but instead of dribbling past her, Luz blindly made a backward pass. And as hoped for, she saw Amity zoom past her with the ball. That allowed Amity to run ahead without any opponents, which ultimately led to Amity scoring.

Their supporters cheered and their teammates ran toward Amity to congratulate her. Amity looked around to find Luz, and her clear joy travelled across the pitch.

When returning to position, Amity approached Luz.

“You’re crazy, Noceda. How did you know I was behind you?”

Luz smirked. “I couldn’t spot you immediately on the pitch so assumed.”

Amity chuckled. “You know me too well.”

“I do.” Luz smiled.

Amity smiled back.

Back to the game, until the halftime whistle blew a few moments later.

Coach Eda said, “That’s some excellent teamwork, Luz and Amity. Excellent stuff.” She congratulated the rest of the team for their stellar teamwork as well, but Amity and Luz were too distracted with smiling at each other. It lasted a moment, maybe a moment too long for they averted their gazes when realizing their cheeks were heating up a bit. 

Time for the second half.

Their team was still dominating possession.

Luz and Amity played fluidly together, knowing almost by heart where they were on the pitch with barely a glance. And it felt so good to feel so incredibly connected.

Amity had possession of the ball and sped toward the goal, and she found herself in the same position as last time with an opponent to her right and Luz running next to that defender.

She wanted to try something out.

She continued running, fast, but she made sure to run slowly enough so that the defender kept up with her and stayed slightly ahead of Luz. Then, instead of making a pass like last time, she ran until she was in the penalty box and then lobbed the ball forward. Luz understood why she lobbed the ball, and smirked at the intention. Luz thus received the ball on her head and made a header toward the goal, effectively scoring.

Everyone went wild at the header goal. Ridiculously flashy. Risky. But it worked.

Luz and Amity actually laughed with each other because it worked. It was something they had practiced the last time they sneaked onto the pitch. And they were ahead by two goals so could’ve afforded to miss this one, but still. It was risky.

Amity and Luz smirked at each other, and in the heat of the moment, Luz attempted a high five. And Amity, having never high-fived in her life, attempted to. They laughed when it was a messy high five.

The rest of the game went by smoothly, three goals ahead. Amity and Luz were having fun with their combined plays, but the opponents took on a much more defensive role to avoid further embarrassment, so even their forwards acted as defenders until the end of the match.

The match ended, and everyone was so pumped. Luz and Amity kept smiling at each other. And it felt good.

The coaches were over the moon proud, and Amity gave a little captain speech, lauding every single one of the players for how well they all played individually and as a team. She gave a special shoutout to the forward, MVP of this match, Luz. Luz couldn’t stop smiling. It felt good.

On their way to the locker room, Luz and Amity ended up talking about how well the other played during the match.

“Your passes were deadly, Blight. Thanks again for that lob. It was crazy. Can’t believe it worked.”

“Hey, we practiced it last time and it was worth a shot.”

They chuckled lightly.

“Guess our practice sessions really do work. Nice left-feints.” Luz winked, but then rapidly averted her gaze after realizing she winked.

Amity bit her lip. “You want to practice together again next week?”

“You, Blight, are suggesting we sneak onto the pitch again?”

A bit of amusement toyed with her lips. “It’s been working so far, why not see if we can get even better?” 

Luz mimicked the mischievous tone. “I’m so down.”

It felt good.

They parted ways but their smiles kept on their faces.

It felt good.

After leaving the locker room, Skara and Amity hung around Amity’s car while they waited for Boscha, who was caught up talking with Gavin who was congratulating her.

Amity noticed Luz and her friends walking across the parking lot.

Skara smirked.

Amity squinted at her. “Yes?”

“You played well together.”

Amity glanced away for a second. “We did.” But she really couldn’t stifle her smile.

Skara smirked some more. “Looked like you guys were really connected, on the pitch.”

Skara could go choke. But Amity fidgeted with her hands.

“Well, we were. During the game. That’s how we’re supposed to play of course. In sync.”

“You really were in sync, yeah.”

Skara could fall off a cliff. Amity knew what she was doing, especially when remembering Skara questioning her about Luz after the party. Amity had been avoiding any and all discussions about Luz whenever Skara started to get curious.

“Your point?”

“Nothing, nothing. Just”—Skara’s smirk turned into a smile—“you play really well together.”

Amity couldn’t help her faint blush.

“Like, really well together.”

Amity rubbed the back of her neck.

“Yes, Skara, we do.”

“You’re gonna tell me what happened at the party?”

Amity’s blush deepened. She normally didn’t react this way when prodded about Luz, but after having been so connected with her on the pitch, it was hard to avoid the good feelings she was feeling talking about her.

“Nothing happened at the party, Skara.”

“That why you’re blushing?”

Skara could absolutely go fuck herself.

Amity stayed silent. Because she didn’t know what to say.

Then Skara’s voice became gentler.

“You know, it’s fine if you like her.”

Amity’s cheeks turned a bright shade of red.

“Skara. I don’t like Noceda.”

“That why you’re blushing?”

“I’m not blushing. I’m hot is all.”

“Hot for Luz?”

“Skara I swear—”

“I’m just kidding.” But her smirk revealed she was, in fact, not kidding.

“Listen, I don’t like Noceda, nor will I ever like Noceda.”

Who the fuck was Amity kidding. Skara was seeing right through her. So she just hoped Skara would leave it.

“If you say so.” Skara shrugged, but her smirk lingered.

Boscha then arrived.

“Why are you blushing?”

Amity blurted, “Why are you?”

Skara laughed. Because Boscha was indeed blushing too after having talked with Gavin.

“No reason,” Boscha replied.

“No reason either.”

Dumbasses, both of them, Skara thought.

“You played amazingly!!” Gus said while him, Willow, Hunter, and Luz were walking through the parking lot.

“So well!” Willow added.

“Thanks, guys. The match was awesome! And it was fun too.” Luz beamed.

Hunter grinned. “Really looked like you were having fun, yeah.”

“Yeah!”

“Much fun,” he added.

“Yeah!”

“A whole lot of fun.” Willow stifled a smirk.

Luz raised an eyebrow. “Yeah…?”

“Soooo much fun.” Hunter’s smirk couldn’t be stifled.

Luz recognized that smirk anywhere. It was Hunter’s “I’m a little shit” smirk.

She narrowed her eyes.

“Hunter?”

“Yes?”

“Fuck the hell off.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You thought it. Willow too, you traitor. Gus, you’ve always been my favorite.”

“I don’t get it,” Gus said.

Hunter swung his arm around him.

“We’re just saying how Luz had a lot of fun on the pitch. Playing. With her team. With a particular teammate.”

“Which teammate? Amity?”

Willow and Hunter grinned.

“Oh, I get it now.” Gus’ eyes widened slightly, but he started grinning too.

All three of them were grinning at Luz.

“I’m nice one time…” Luz huffed under her breath. But a faint blush was creeping up her cheeks.

Hunter said, “Luz. We know. You don’t have to hide it anymore. You like Amity.”

Luz scoffed. “I do not like Blight.”

“Prove it,” he said.

Luz furrowed her brows. “How the hell do I prove it?”

“Say three things you hate about her.”

Luz froze.

“I—” she blinked. Heat started spreading through her chest. Why the fuck couldn’t she answer?  And her stupid friends were waiting on a reply. 

“She’s annoying.” That’s it. “And too serious.” One more. “And bossy.” Great. But her brows furrowed ever so slightly.

Hunter smirked. “Well, that proves it.”

Luz released a quiet sigh of relief.

“That you like her.”

“What the fuck?”

Hunter laughed.

“Luz, just admit it.”

“Hunter, it’s not true.” But her blush kept lingering and wouldn’t go away.

As if on cue, Luz spotted Amity with Skara. Her gaze lingered maybe a moment too long, because Willow started laughing. She whispered to Hunter, “It’s just so obvious.”

Luz overheard. She grunted.

“You sure you don’t like her?”

Luz covered her face with her hands, because she herself felt her blush deepen.

“Guys, quit it.”

“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Willow asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, so there is something to talk about,” Gus said.

“No!”

“So there’s nothing to talk about?” Hunter asked.

“Yes!”

“So you don’t like her?”

“Yes!”

“So you do like her?”

“N-no! Hunter, shut up, I’ll kill you.”

“So violent.” He snickered. But his smirk turned into a softer smile. “I’m just messing with you. But, you know, you can tell us anything.”

Luz looked away.

Willow, Hunter, and Gus smiled at each other.

“Pizza?” Willow asked everyone.

Luz blurted, “Please.”

And the friends let the topic go, for now.

“Let’s meet up at mine,” Willow said.

“Yep.” Then Luz sped away toward her motorbike.

Once she was finally alone, she released a deep breath. That was the first time her friends grilled her that much. She didn’t like it one second. She touched her cheeks, and they were still a bit warm. She cursed her friends, but then she cursed herself. Closing her eyes, she thought back at the match, and couldn’t help but smile.

On Monday, when Luz arrived in class, her gaze maybe immediately landed on the front row. Amity, as if sensing Luz’s arrival, looked up, and they locked eyes. Maybe for a moment too long. Their lips quirked up. Luz noticed that Amity was wearing the team’s varsity jacket now that it was getting a bit colder outside. She’d maybe ask her about that sometime, because of frickin’ course Luz wanted one.

At practice, they ended up talking a bit, it went so smoothly, and decided to meet that night on the pitch. During practice, they had fun playing together. And it felt good.

In the parking lot, Skara grinned upon noticing Luz, and especially upon noticing Amity noticing Luz. Luz noticed Skara grinning and averted her eyes before they could land on Amity. But that didn’t stop the small smile creeping on her lips.

“Blight,” Luz greeted when she sneaked onto the pitch to find Amity already there.

“Noceda,” Amity greeted back.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. And you?”

“Yeah.”

That was still a bit weird, asking each other how they were. But they were getting used to it.

They discussed what they wanted to practice, this time with a focus on combo plays. And they had fun. And it felt good.

After an hour Luz suggested a break. Amity agreed.

“We’re really nailing Flight,” Luz said as they sat down on the pitch.

“Swerve as well.”

“Oh that’s a good one. We should definitely try that tomorrow during a practice match.”

“Totally. Especially against Boscha. She’d know how to defend against that one.”

“Boscha’s such a good defender,” Luz said.

“She really is.”

“She’s one of your best friends, right? With Skara? You three are always together.”

“Yeah. I’ve known them since pre-school.”

“Wow, that’s a long time. No wonder you guys are close.”

Amity smiled a bit. “Yeah. We’re quite close.”

“Remember that beer pong game?”

“The one I won? How could I forget?”

Luz rolled her eyes playfully. “Here we go.”

Amity chuckled. “What about it?”

“Well, you guys were really good. Like, college guys level good. My level good.” Luz grinned. “You said you played a lot of beer pong during parties?”

“Yeah, during the summer we went to a lot of parties, mainly at Gavin’s. Boscha was dating Gavin at the time.” Amity snickered. “They’re getting closer again. Wouldn’t be surprised if we went to more of Gavin’s parties.”

“I’m still somewhat shocked that you go to parties.”

“Oh yeah?”

Luz laughed. “Obviously, Blight. Who knew you could have fun?”

Amity deadpanned, but then cracked a grin. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Noceda.”

Luz paused for a moment. “Yeah, I practically don’t know anything about you. And hey, you don’t know anything about me either.”

“You think I want to know more about you?” Amity teased. And Luz knew she was teasing. They had gotten to a point in their… Luz didn’t know how to describe it, because they weren’t exactly friends, or at least, Luz didn’t think they were. But they had gotten to a point in their… link? that it started making less sense that they knew so little about the other.

“You think I want to know more about you?” Luz quipped.

Amity squinted, but it was playful. She chuckled. “I know you’re close with your friends, Gus and the other two.”

“You know Gus?”

“No, but I know his name from our advanced Calculus class.”

“Of course you’re in advanced Calc.”

“Yeah, I’m smart like that.”

Luz deadpanned. Amity chuckled.

“And there’s Willow from our Literature class.”

Luz smiled, “Yeah, Gus and Willow. And Hunter too.”

“Yes, the one you go to the gym with on Sundays.”

“You remembered?”

Amity blinked. “Only because we had to set a time that wouldn’t interfere with your gym session with him for our project meeting.”

“Yes, right. We spent the summer going to the gym together to get in shape. Me for soccer.”

“So you knew you were going to try out for senior year.”

“Yeah, I really wanted to.” Luz smiled. “And it worked out.”

“Why didn’t you try out before? You probably would’ve gotten in.”

“You’re saying I’m that good?”

Amity squinted. “I’m saying you could’ve tried.”

Luz grinned. “Well, I wanted to leave the others a chance, of course.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “How considerate of you.”

“Yeah, I’m nice like that.”

Amity scoffed but ended up chuckling.

“Look at us, getting to know each other more.”

Amity’s face fell flat. “Whoopee. Do you expect me to ask you what your favorite color is now?”

“It’s green.” Luz winked. But then looked away immediately. She had to stop winking like that.

She was about to return the question when suddenly she remembered that Amity’s favorite color was pink, because Amity had said it during their ‘truth or dare’ game in bed that night at the party. Heat crept up her cheeks when remembering the conversation surrounding that. She really hoped it wasn’t obvious. But her brows furrowed the faintest bit, as she got a bit… sad? because Amity didn’t remember.

But so Luz had to ask the question back, because she wasn’t supposed to know.

“What about you?”

Amity suddenly remembered that she had already told Luz her own favorite color at the party. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks too at the memory, specifically the other revelations during their ‘truth or dare’ game. And she really hoped it wasn’t obvious. But then, her brows furrowed the tiniest bit as she got a bit… sad? because she was the one who was hiding the fact that she remembered, and for just a second questioned whether that was the right choice. She shook her head subtly. It was the right choice.

“It’s pink.” And both averted their gazes for a moment before nonchalantly remaking eye contact so as to not look suspicious.

“Favorite animal?” Amity somewhat blurted, to change the topic.

“A dog, man’s best friend! And you?”

“A cat,” Amity said with a small smile. “I actually have a cat at home. Ghost.”

“Hey, like our combo!”

“Yeah.”

“Is she cute?”

“The cutest. She keeps me company when I’m home alone.”

“You said you were often home alone, I remember.”

Amity sighed. “Yeah, my parents, they’re often away on business trips. And the twins are at college. So, often it’s just me and Ghost.” Amity chuckled a bit. “Good.”

“You like being alone?”

“I do, actually. I’d rather be alone at home.”

Luz sensed that she was entering dangerous territory as she knew Amity was very private about her home life, but she felt like it was going well enough to continue in that direction.

“Why?”

Amity closed her eyes and sighed. “Because it’s just easier. The twins annoy the hell out of me, they can be so obnoxious. And my parents, they’re strict.” Amity knew that Luz knew all of this already because they had talked about this at the party, so Amity felt a bit more relaxed talking about it. And, it felt good talking with Luz. “They always expect me to be the best, to be perfect. So when they’re not here, it feels like I can relax a bit more. You know, not have my guard up at all times.” It felt good talking with Luz. Amity felt her guard falling a bit.

“Is that why you try to appear so perfect all the time?”

Amity sighed. “Yeah, because I have to. I’m expected to. I’m a Blight, and I’m supposed to ‘maintain the family image.’”

“That bad?”

“Honestly, yeah. I mean you know this, my family owns a really successful business.”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

“Exactly. I’m expected to join the business.”

“Do you want to?”

Amity thought about it for a second. “I don’t know. Because it’s a good business, but the problem is, I feel forced. And I hate feeling forced. I feel like I could do anything else. But I haven’t really allowed myself to think about a career other than that.”

“Wow, that sounds really stressful.”

“To be honest, it really is. And I keep having to act like everything’s perfect when it’s not. It’s—” Amity’s eyes widened a bit when it caught up to her that she was actually opening up about her family situation. She immediately wanted to change the topic, because she couldn’t do that. 

Luz noticed Amity’s rapid shift in demeanor, and how her face went cold.

“Do you believe in ghosts?” she asked to change topics before Amity reverted back to coldness.

Amity paused, caught off guard by Luz changing the topic, but she ended up releasing a chuckle. “Absolutely not. Though I bet you do.”

Luz stifled a grin.

“I bet you believe in witches too.”

Luz released the grin.

Amity shook her head playfully. “Do I dare ask about aliens?”

“Hey, we don’t have proof they don’t exist.”

“We don’t have proof they do exist.”

“Debatable.”

“Let’s not.”

Luz snickered. “Coward.”

Amity scoffed. But she couldn’t help her grin. “Let’s get back to practicing before I start insulting you.”

Luz grinned too. “Deal.”

While Amity walked toward the goal for another shooting drill, Luz started juggling with the ball. While juggling, she noticed Amity deadpanning, almost as if saying “you serious?” So, Luz lobbed the ball toward Amity, almost like a challenge. Amity received it directly on her foot, which bounced the ball up, and Amity received it with her other foot, and started juggling as well. 

Luz’s jaw dropped — no way was Amity juggling as well. She smirked. Amity smirked back. After a moment of juggling, Amity kicked it back to Luz who caught it with her hands. Luz raised an eyebrow at her, and Amity raised one back, as if saying, “See?” Luz shook her head but the corner of her lips tugged sky-high.

They did some shooting drills for a while to work on aim, then went on with passing drills to work on agility. Then they went back to working on some duo tactics to make their combos more complex. At one point while Luz was sprinting toward the goal, she tripped on the ball upon receiving it. It was a bad fall. She scraped her arms. But she got up quickly, it didn’t hurt, besides, it wasn’t a simple fall that would stop Luz from playing. 

But then she froze, and her right arm went toward her tattoo and she realized it got scraped.

Tears immediately started pooling behind her eyes.

She rubbed it gently, hoping it wouldn’t start bleeding.

Amity noticed Luz standing still, and recognized that she was rubbing her tattoo. Amity got closer, and noticed that she was holding back tears.

“… Are you okay?”

Luz blinked. “Yeah, yeah.” She glanced away. “It’s the fall, it’s just a bit painful.”

She sat down, hand still on her tattoo.

Amity sat in front of her.

They stayed silent for a moment. Luz looked up toward the stars. Amity watched the stars too.

To try to fill the silence a bit and distract Luz, Amity said, “You know, one of my favorite lines from Romeo and Juliet is, ‘I defy you, stars.’”

Luz’s heart thudded. She felt the scrapes on her tattoo. Tears started welling in her eyes again.

Amity thought, shit, but Luz spoke up.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m usually not this emotional. It just hurts is all.”

She intended to mean physically hurt, but Amity could recognize the unique brand of teary eyes that revealed inner pain. And for some reason, perhaps out of decency, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of wanting to be there for Luz, she had to ask, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz closed her eyes, partly to prevent the tears from falling. It hurt to feel, but the softness in Amity’s tone for some inexplicable reason felt safe. She felt connected to Amity in this moment. Connected enough to know that talking with Amity was so easy, and just felt… good. Connected enough to talk.

Her eyes were still closed. “It’s the tattoo. It just means a lot to me. Like, it’s a permanent reminder of good things, good times, times I don’t want to forget. And the date, it’s a date that means a lot to me. A date I want to remember.” Luz’s chest heated up. “It’s actually my father’s birthday.” She opened her eyes, only for a tear to escape. “He died a couple years ago.” Her heart pounded. More tears fell down her cheeks.

Amity was stunned shut. She didn’t know what to do. But she felt compelled to come closer, and to place her hand on Luz’s shoulder as some tears continued to stream down her face.

They stayed like that in silence for a moment.

But Luz could hear the heart rate monitor. “I miss him.” Her eyes shut tight, but the tears kept leaking. The heart rate monitor flatlined. Her heart burned. “I miss him, so much.”

Amity gently squeezed her shoulder. But she noticed Luz starting to shiver. She quickly got up and rapidly returned with her varsity jacket. She placed it around Luz’s shoulders. Luz looked at her, a silent thank you in her eyes. She looked back up at the stars.

Amity stayed silent in case Luz wanted to continue opening up, knowing instinctively that this was a moment Luz didn’t often have.

Luz’s eyes shut. She couldn’t believe she was so emotional, in front of Blight of all people. Couldn’t believe she opened up about the extent to which her tattoo was meaningful to her. Couldn’t believe she opened up about her father. Her eyes shut tighter. She had felt the hurt, and she finally cracked.

But telling it to Amity, for some reason, she knew she could. It didn’t feel as dangerous as she’d have thought. Her words and emotions took the wheel for once, and she let it. And for some reason she knew Amity wouldn’t be a stop sign, but a road where Luz could feel safe to drive down. Why was it so easy to talk to Amity? Why did Luz feel a bit lighter after having cried?

She closed her eyes.

“Sorry. I never talk about this. It happened a couple years ago, but I guess I still get emotional over it. We used to play soccer all the time. That’s why I stopped playing after he— you know. I just couldn’t. But I know he would’ve wanted me to continue, and join the high school team. So I finally tried out in senior year. Because that’s what he would’ve wanted.” Some tears pooled in her eyes again. “And I made it. I made the team. And I’m doing good, too. I know he’d be proud. My mom’s so proud. I missed playing soccer.” A single tear fell down her face. “I miss him.”

She sniffled. It felt okay to let that out. The words were just finally coming out.

And Amity, she listened. She was there.

But Luz couldn’t look her in the eyes. But then she did, and saw softness in her irises.

Luz whispered, “Thank you.”

Amity gently squeezed her shoulder, and gave her the smallest, reassuring smile. “Thank you for trusting me.”

Luz’s cheeks heated up. She did trust Amity in that moment. Wow. But it didn’t feel bad. It felt good. For some reason, it felt safe. For some reason, she felt safe.

She clutched the varsity jacket that was around her shoulders, and they stayed in silence for another moment.

And Luz felt a bit better.

After a moment, after her emotions calmed down and she felt better, she released the lightest chuckle. “How did you get a varsity jacket?”

Amity couldn’t help but smile at knowing Luz felt better.

“We get them after a year on the team. But I got it after my first season because I was the MVP.”

Luz released a small, sneaky smile. “Hm.”

Amity lightly grinned. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Hey, those varsity jackets look really cool.”

Amity shook her head, but she smiled. “You might just get it. And it looks good on you.”

And in reality, Amity did kind of hope Luz would get it. It looked good on her.

Then a hint of a blush bloomed on her cheeks upon realizing what she said.

A touch of pink blossomed on Luz’s cheeks too.

They didn’t avert their eyes this time, though. They smiled at each other. 

Then Luz felt some fatigue catch up to her. “I think I’m going to head home. I feel tired.”

“I’m heading home too, it’s getting late.”

They got up and got their bags. Luz returned the varsity jacket with a sneaky grin. Amity rolled her eyes playfully. “We’ll see about that.”

“Yes, we will.”

They chuckled as they exited the pitch.

“See ya tomorrow, Blight.”

“See you tomorrow, Noceda.”

Luz arrived home, went up to her room and sat against the bed.

She had opened up about her father. But it didn’t feel bad. It actually felt kind of good. It hurt, of course. Of course. And she got so emotional. And it was so weird to open up. To Blight of all people. But she was so surprised that it went well. In reality, opening up to Amity wasn’t so bad. Her hands covered her face. What the fuck.

Amity drove home but she couldn’t stop thinking about what happened on the pitch, about Luz actually showing emotions, actually opening up about something so deep. To her. Why would Noceda open up to her of all people? In a way, Amity felt honored. Because she knew that wasn’t the type of information Luz so readily gave.

Amity hoped she reacted okay. But based on how it went, she thought she did.

Wow. Luz had that much of an emotional side. Amity never would’ve expected such. Seeing Luz cry… Amity’s brows furrowed, and her lips curled downward. She didn’t want to see that. She didn’t want to see Luz sad.

Amity shook her head. What the fuck. Why was it affecting her a bit? She shook her head.

But she couldn’t help it. Because she had been getting closer to Luz. And she didn’t not like it. She actually did like it. Getting to know her more. Spending some time with her. Being there for her. Amity’s heart rate sped up a bit. She knew she had already revealed that she liked Luz. But now she was really questioning whether she should’ve said that she remembered it.

Amity shook her head. What. The. Fuck.

Chapter Text

The next morning, when Luz entered the classroom, she immediately spotted Amity, who spotted her back. Their lips quirked up instinctively. And Luz almost bumped into someone, because it was harder to look away.

In the afternoon, they ended up leaving the locker room at the same time and so walked toward the pitch together.

“How are you?” Luz asked.

“I’m good. And you?”

“Good, too.”

And it felt much less weird to ask each other how they were doing.

Luz grinned. “Not too tired from yesterday, you know, when you snuck onto the pitch, again?”

Amity stifled a smirk. “Not so loud. Can’t let people know how dedicated I am.”

“Can’t let people know you’re actually a no-good rebel, got it.”

Amity bit her lip before releasing a chuckle. “You hypocrite.”

“Hey, I know who I am. You, on the other hand, have things to admit to yourself.”

“Do I?”

“You commit crimes, Blight!”

Amity deadpanned but couldn’t contain her grin. “Fuck off, Noceda. I’m not a criminal.”

“That’s how it starts!”

Amity lightly shoved Luz.

Their eyes widened slightly, their chests warmed up at the contact, but god, it felt so natural.

“Shut up.”

Luz lightly shoved her back. Her heart rate spiked a bit. “Never!”

They laughed lightheartedly together. 

Vee watched them enter the pitch all playful. She looked around, eyes wide, to see whether anyone else noticed it.

“I saw,” Skara said, arriving beside her.

Vee looked at Skara who had the biggest smirk on her face.

“I think I’m going crazy,” Vee said.

“You’re not. They totally like each other.”

“That’s been my insane theory too, but, like, fever dream theory, but you really think?”

“Oh, honey, I know.”

They both looked back at Amity and Luz who were approaching, still engaging in conversation. Vee wondered what the hell they were talking about to look so invested in each other.

But she snapped her gaze away when Luz arrived by her side.

“Vee! You good?”

“Yep, great, excellent, and you?”

“Yeah, I’m good!”

During the drills, across the pitch, Luz and Amity kept accidentally making eye contact. And it was accidental. Their smiles were instinctive, however.

At one point, Amity and Luz ended up in the same line for the shooting drills.

“Top left corner,” Luz said behind a fake cough to Amity who was fully zoned in, about to shoot.

Amity turned her head to squint at Luz, but determination lit in her eyes.

She targeted the top left corner, scored, and smirked as she turned around.

Luz applauded. 

Amity rolled her eyes, before saying, “Bottom left.”

Luz smirked. She targeted bottom left. She scored.

“Center left.”

And they did that for a couple of rounds, determination increasing every time. They never missed.

It was time for practice matches and they felt fully connected. As in, no words needed at all connected when in the game. And yet, during breaks, they still found words to share. To talk about tactics, that was. They agreed on trying out some combos they had practiced yesterday night on the pitch. They aced them with flying colors. And grins.

The entire week. Connected. Then Friday came. Match day. Their third.

They were so, so ready.

In the morning, they actively looked for each other upon arriving in class. They shot each other smiles, and chuckled a bit despite not having said anything.

Luz caught herself looking at Amity once or twice. Amity caught herself wanting to turn her head once or twice as well.

At practice, they asked each other how they were, and then talked about how they were so ready for the game. They joked around about how they were going to destroy their opponents.

Luz rubbed her hands like an evil genius. “They will never see Swerve coming. Never, I tell you.”

“The second I see the sign it’s over for them.”

“Yeah!”

They chuckled together. They’d been chuckling a lot together recently.

Amity had finished warming up and looked around the field. She noticed Boscha stretching her legs, Skara still jogging, and Luz, stretching her arms. She remembered how Luz went to the gym. No wonder her arms were so toned, and looked really good—

Amity’s eyes widened. What the fuck. Her face immediately flushed. She cleared her throat and decided to continue jogging.

Luz finished stretching and looked around to see where Vee was at. She noticed Amity jogging not too far away. How did her hair always look so perfect even when running—

Luz’s eyes widened. What the fuck. A blush immediately flourished on her face. She decided to continue stretching.

Coach Eda called them over for their usual pre-game strategy talk, unpacking how the rival team played so far based on past matches. No need to question how Eda knew. She had her sources.

It was one of the teams that went far in last year’s season, one of the last one’s standing. They didn’t beat Hexside, but it was one of the only few close calls.

The opponents’ strengths lied in their forwards, so the team had to have their defense game on point. Boscha, Bo and the other defenders smirked. They were more than confident. The midfielders listened intently on what best formation rotations they should revert to depending on the opponents’ midfield line, and they smirked too, because they were ready. Vee, Luz, and Amity thus had more leeway given that a potential weakness would be the opponents’ defensive line. Yet, the rival goalkeeper was the same one as last year, and had a great track record of saving shots. Moreover, Amity’s team risked having the ball less often if the other team’s attacking side dominated possession.

The three of them discussed this after Coach Eda finished her talk. Luz and Amity broke down their thoughts on the tactics that could work particularly well, that relied on the other team’s defensive weaknesses. In these cases, having a skillful playmaker to support two strong forwards was the best scenario for them, and could allow for more creative passes. They’d know when on the pitch what tactics would work. And the three of them smirked too. Because they were so ready.

So when the rival team arrived on the pitch and it was time for kickoff, everybody was fully locked in.

And thankfully for that. Because the other team was playing well. Both teams gained possession equally. The opponents’ forwards were skillful alright, and their midline defense was on point. But the Hexside team’s defenses were solid, and managed to intercept most passes. Both teams had opportunities to score, but the goalkeepers were good.

A rival forward targeted the left of the net. Viney caught the ball. She immediately kicked the ball toward Boscha, who kicked it toward Katya on the wing of the pitch near the center, who was the farthest away from opponents. She looked around and had the choice between keeping possession for a bit or passing it to Skara. By keeping the ball, she attracted defenders away from Vee who managed to sneak her way onto the opponents’ side without defenders on her tail. And after noticing Vee was free, she lobbed the ball toward her. 

But an opponent sped toward Vee and intercepted the ball with her head. Another opponent caught it and passed it to one of their forwards, who immediately started sprinting toward the goal. But Bo, waiting nearby, tackled the ball away from her, and the ball went in Skara’s direction. She caught it with her foot and glanced toward the opponents’ goal where she saw Vee without defenders. So she made the long shot which Vee successfully caught.

Quick, no defenders around her, but one near Amity who was on the left side of the pitch, and two around Luz who was closer to the goal on the right side of the pitch. Vee knew she had to make a quick pass because the other team’s midfielders were on their way to circle her, so she lobbed the ball toward Amity.

The second Amity saw the ball coming at her, she glanced toward Luz to see whether she was in a good position to receive it if Amity decided to make a header pass to send it above the opponent near her. But Luz would have to hurry to outrun the two defenders. And Luz was waiting on a signal to know whether she should run toward Amity or toward the goal.

The ball still in the sky flying above an opponent’s head, Luz saw Amity move toward the ball instead of moving back, signaling her intent on catching it with her chest. But then Luz noticed that Amity’s head was angled in a specific way, which meant Amity was actually intending to receive it on her head, so she was sneakily preparing a header to catch the defender off guard.

So, Luz didn’t run toward the goal which would’ve been expected if Amity was preparing a pass, but instead ran toward Amity to be in range to receive the header, which confused the defenders. She skillfully received Amity’s header pass after having perfectly predicted Amity’s intention, and thus lost her defenders in the process, so she had a clear route toward the penalty box.

A glance to the left confirmed Amity was following, with a defender on her tail, and Luz glanced a second more to check whether Amity was racing toward the goal or toward the corner. It was toward the corner, and Amity had her hand up and yelled, “Here!” 

But Luz knew it was a feint signal so that Amity’s defender would keep on Amity instead of going after Luz, who was already being followed. Amity’s defender following her meant the penalty box was clear for Luz to focus on scoring and not focus on bypassing an extra opponent.

But they both knew the goalkeeper was more than good, so they had to be smarter than that. And Amity just knew that Luz wanted to trick the goalkeeper by making a last-second pass toward Amity. So Amity sped toward the goal, confusing her defender who had been following her toward the corner, and Amity made sure the goalkeeper realized she was approaching by yelling, “Here!” 

That forced the goalkeeper to fall back toward the goal to have a better chance at saving a shot if Luz passed it to Amity. Luz purposefully glanced at Amity to make the goalkeeper believe she was readying a pass, but instead, Luz made the shot toward the top right corner of the net.

She scored.

Cheers travelled across the pitch and rang in Luz’s ears. She pumped her fists to the sky, and then looked at Amity, who was smiling right back at her.

“Well done!” Amity said as she rushed toward her as the others approached to congratulate Luz.

Feeling the rush of a goal, Luz raised her hand excitedly for a high five. “You distracted them so well! Thank you!”

Amity, feeling the rush as well, high-fived her back. They grinned at each other. Then the team caught up to Luz and congratulated her. But Luz, smiling, kept her eyes on Amity for a moment longer. Amity’s eyes kept on Luz as well.

A bit later it was half-time. The team huddled up around Coach Eda who congratulated them for holding up so well against the tricky opponents. She congratulated Luz, but didn’t forget at all to mention Amity’s expert fake-outs and their connection on the pitch that made them so aware of the other’s intentions.

Back to the game. Despite their one-goal lead, the Hexside team still wasn’t fully sold on having won the match yet. They were confident, yes, but the other team was getting aggressive.

Amity was speeding toward the goal, two defenders ahead of her. She dribbled past the first one, and was about to dribble past the second, when a third opponent appeared and tackled her from the side. She hit Amity’s foot and Amity went flying down, falling on her forearms.

The referee blew the whistle and came rushing toward them, yellow card in hand for the opponent to signal a foul for that evidently reckless tackle. 

Amity grunted as she tried to get up but it hurt a little, so she stood up slowly. 

Luz witnessed the whole scene. Adrenaline fired through her as she and some other teammates ran up to Amity. The guilty opponent looked completely unbothered, and almost held a sort of… grin?

Luz started squaring up. The opponent noticed Luz coming in hot, smirked, and started squaring up as well. Seeing the rage bubbling up in Luz’s eyes as she approached, some others realized what was potentially about to go down, so came between the two to separate them before things got too heated. But, lost in a sort of trance, Luz’s eyes were fixed on the opponent, who was taunting her in a way that could only mean ‘What are you gonna do about it? Come at me!’

Luz’s nostrils flared and her fists clenched, tightly, but their teammates were pulling them away from each other. Luz’s fists unclenched when she heard Amity wince. She immediately turned around to check on Amity, who was surrounded by teammates. Luz rushed toward her. “Blight, are you okay?”

Amity clenched her jaw. “She hit my ankle.”

Luz’s brows furrowed deeply as she turned around to shoot daggers from her eyes at the opponent. She focused back on Amity. Medics came on the field to evaluate Amity’s potential injury. They suggested she stop playing to avoid further strain on her ankle. Amity had to agree, because she couldn’t risk a serious injury that would make her unable to play in the future.

The medics placed her on a stretcher and carried her off the pitch toward the sideline benches.

Luz shot one last death stare at the opponent before focusing on her team and what they were supposed to do now. From the sidelines, Coach Eda called Luz and Vee over specifically.

“Listen girls, we have to replace Amity, so we’re putting another midfielder on the pitch. Vee, you’re now the forward with Luz. Tell the others we’re switching to the 4-4-2 formation.”

Luz and Vee nodded. “Got it, Coach,” they said, determination in their voices.

The team had practiced the scenarios in which replacements had to be made on the pitch. So, Vee had a lot of experience scoring goals as she trained for that too as the plan was for Vee to act as a forward if either Luz or Amity were out. So, the team wasn’t at an extreme disadvantage without Amity, especially that Vee knew Luz and Amity’s strategies well, but nobody could truly replace Amity, and her absence during the game would be felt. 

And that worried everyone, especially Luz. Vee knew of their tactics, but some of them were too specific to Amity and Luz, and some relied on instinct and blind trust, so it reduced their arsenal of potential tricks. But luckily, Vee and Luz had a solid connection on the pitch, albeit less potent than Luz and Amity’s, and she had also always been included in their strategy talks so knew what the plans were.

Luckily Hexside had a one-goal lead, but there was still fifteen minutes left in the match, and a one goal lead, against this rival team, didn’t guarantee anything. Luckily as well, Boscha and co were doing excellent work, not allowing the rival forwards a chance to get in. Viney was on point as well, saving the few shots made against them. 

The four defenders, four midfielders formation allowed their team to gain more possession of the ball, tiring the other team out with quick passes, waiting for the opportunity to pass to the forwards Luz, and now Vee. But it wasn’t working well enough, because Luz and Vee didn’t have many opportunities to get into the opponents’ penalty box to try and score.

A midfielder kept possession of the ball, eyeing the field to figure out who to pass the ball to. The ball was living around the center line of the pitch, where possession was equal. The center line was a dangerous zone as it could be anyone’s ball at any moment. Hexside had to do something.

One of the midfielder’s had the ball on the left wing near the center line, and kept possession of it for a bit. Skara was too far on the wing on the other side of the pitch, Boscha and Bo were near the penalty box, Katya was dead in the center, but surrounded by two opponents. The midfielder had a somewhat clear shot toward Vee who was on the rival’s side. She glanced around before kicking the ball toward Vee. 

But a quick opponent managed to dive in front of Vee and header the ball away from her. Another opponent lurking around caught it with her chest and kept possession for a few seconds, attracting the attention of a couple midfielders who started circling her. The opponent then made a pass toward their own penalty box where two of their defenders were waiting. This made most of the players move toward the rival side.

But then, one of the rival opponents made a long-pass toward one of their forwards who was waiting on the wing of the pitch. That forward skillfully received the ball on their head, making it bounce far toward Hexside’s penalty box, above the head of the defender that was circling her. That allowed for a risky solo run from the rival forward, who managed to expertly dribble past a defender. That rival forward approached the penalty box, with another defender on her tail.

With a risky long-shot, the ball flew straight past Viney whose hand was inches away from the ball, and whooshed into the bottom right of the net.

The rival supporters screamed in joy from the bleachers. The opponents celebrated loudly and ran up to their forward to congratulate her.

The Hexside team was silent, as they watched the rivals cheer and jump around ecstatically at leveling the score.

Luz immediately looked at Amity, slight worry in her eyes. Amity breathed deeply, but shot Luz determination through her gaze, as if saying, “You got this. Don’t worry.”

Instantly knowing what Amity was saying, viscerally feeling Amity’s confidence, Luz gave her that determined look back.

They nodded at each other, in sync from across the pitch. And then, the smallest grin grew faint on their faces at the same time.

‘I trust you. You can do this.’ Amity’s eyes said.

‘You can trust me. I’ll do it.’ Luz’s grin replied.

They nodded again, this time with a softer grin, knowing that the other heard them.

The team knew what to do. They had to play the offensive. But without the two strongest forwards collaborating on tactics to bypass the rival defense, it was going to be harder. Especially that their playmaker was out and now acting as the second forward.

But Luz and Vee were connected, and knew what they were supposed to do.

The ball was stuck in the center, both teams gaining and losing possession equally. When Hexside would intercept a pass, the rivals would take it back, and vice-versa. It was too close for comfort, and only five minutes remained.

The team’s strategy right now was too defensive and not offensive enough, but Luz and Vee didn’t have many opportunities with the ball. So, Vee knew what to do. And it was risky.

She fell back and went deep into the center of the pitch, leaving Luz alone as the forward to receive any potential forward passes. The rival defenders that were circling Vee followed her to the center, leaving Luz with one defender around her, ready to intercept any passes toward them, and also forcing Luz to be offside by making sure Luz was closer to the goal at all times.

But Luz saw Vee fall back, and knew this was a strategy that she and Amity loved, to confuse the rival defenders, one that they talked about with excitement to Vee. Skara saw Vee coming out of nowhere running toward her near the center of the pitch so made the quick pass toward her. 

Vee received it, and unlike what Amity would have done, kept the ball by her feet for a bit to make sure Luz wasn’t offside anymore. Amity would’ve known that Luz wouldn’t have been offside at that point, simply because Luz would have already anticipated what tactic was coming. And indeed, Luz ran toward the center until she passed her opponent, and another one for good measure, and wasn’t offside anymore. Luz needed to think extra hard to time it right since she couldn’t rely on instinct like she would’ve with Amity, but Vee was on point in her strategic thinking at that moment.

So, Vee made the risky pass, the ball flying tight between two rival opponents. Luz received the excellent pass, and knew it was now or never to make the run. Very risky, but she flew solo across the pitch, skillfully dribbling past the two opponents she had passed, which would’ve been only one had Amity been in on the tactic. She could feel her legs starting to burn with the speed she was going at, but there was complete determination in her run, because that’s what Luz knew Amity would have done, and she needed to score.

She entered the penalty box with only the goalkeeper to protect the goal. She had tried multiple shots before, but the goalkeeper was great. Though something she hadn’t tried yet was a clean center shot. So, Luz targeted the center. 

As her foot hit the ball, the goalkeeper stepped left in anticipation. 

And the bleachers burst with cheers when the ball swooshed smoothly into the center of the net.

Her team ran up to congratulate her, but Luz’s gaze immediately whipped toward the sidelines to search for Amity.

Amity was clapping, smiling brightly, proudly, at her.

Luz’s entire body finally relaxed, she shot her the widest smile back, and then celebrated with her teammates that were all patting her on the back.

And Luz relished with her teammates indeed, but a part of her felt like it would’ve felt even better had Amity been there to cheer with her too. 

For the remaining few minutes of the match, the focus wasn’t on scoring anymore but on defending the ball. Hence, the team focused on keeping possession by fortifying their defenses, Vee falling back as a midfielder again, and Luz staying close to the center line.

The whistle blew three times, signaling the end of the match.

The entire team celebrated the victory with ecstatic grins. Luz glanced at Amity again, who clapped like the supporters in the bleachers, the same proud grin still on her face.

Luz, feeling the victory rush, ran up to her.

“Blight, we won!”

“We did!” Amity said, also feeling the victory rush, “You did amazingly, Noceda.”

Luz beamed. “Thank you.” 

Then her voice calmed a bit. “How’s your ankle?”

“It’s okay. Thankfully it’s not a serious injury, I just had to avoid running for a bit.”

Luz sighed in relief. “Good. I kinda missed you on the pitch,” she said teasingly, but it didn’t sound teasing. Upon realizing that, pink started spreading on her cheeks.

Amity couldn’t stifle her smile, or her small blush either. “I missed the pitch too.”

Grinning Vee appeared and their focus shifted toward her.

Amity congratulated her. “You played great, Vee. That shot toward Luz? Excellent.”

Vee looked at her with admiration in her eyes. “Thanks, Captain!”

The entire team arrived and Coach Eda congratulated them all on their well-deserved victory.

Skara said, “Girls, we deserve this one.” Then she grinned a wide, very wide, grin. An illegally wide grin.

“Party at my place!”

Luz and Amity glanced at each other. But their smiles were terribly stifled. Another party, where both would be attending. They thought back at the previous ones. They were always… eventful.

And this time, they were actively looking forward to seeing each other.

Who knew what could happen at another party? Luz wondered whether there’d be more treacherous games, more revelations around tequila and smiles. She wondered whether she’d end up alone again, with Amity. And Amity wondered the same.

Many thoughts, some less reassuring than others, but some more enticing as well. 

Drinks and drunken honesty. Or liquor and lies.

They’d see tonight. And they didn’t know whether they were ready for more potential moments together, tonight. 

Chapter Text

Luz’s friends were waiting for her at the parking lot.

“Congrats!!” they cheered when she arrived.

“Thanks guys, that match was tougher than the last ones but we did it!!”

“Yeah, it looked really tough. The rival team knew what they were doing,” Gus said, “but nothing you couldn’t handle!”

“You were too good,” Willow added. “Amazing, honestly. We knew you’d score again!”

Luz beamed. “Thanks!” Then her tone became a bit more serious. “Blight being out made it a bit more complicated.”

Hunter smirked a devilish smirk. “Can we talk about how you almost got into a fight?”

Luz paused. Oh, right. Then she narrowed her eyes. “It would’ve been deserved. Did you see that girl’s tackle?”

Gus nodded.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you were so ready to throw hands because someone hurt your dear teammate," Hunter teased.

Luz scoffed, but she bit her lip to stifle… something. Though she couldn’t stifle the redness. 

“Was it that obvious that I was ready to throw hands?”

The three friends laughed.

“The guys next to us on the bleachers were making bets on who’d win the fight.”

Luz rubbed the back of her neck, with a bashful chuckle. But then her grin revealed itself. “And?”

“All bets on you.”

Luz laughed. “Damn right.” Her voice became a bit gentler. “I would’ve.” Then her fists clenched. “I would’ve.”

Gus’s eyes widened. “You really would’ve.”

Hunter snickered. “You really would’ve.”

Willow tried hiding a grin. “Violence is never the answer.”

Luz didn’t hide her grin. “Yeah fucking right,” she mumbled. “Anyway, party at Skara’s tonight! We in?”

“Hell yeah!” Hunter said. Gus nodded.

“Pizza at my place again?”

“Hell yeah!” Luz said.

They parted ways so they could all get ready at theirs before meeting at Willow’s.

After Luz took a long shower to wash off the glorious match from her skin, it however not washing off the glorious match in Luz’s cherished memories, she got dressed and rode off toward Willow’s, stopping by the shop to purchase some victory alcohol. Upon arriving at Willow’s, Luz felt even more joy as she was so ready for another party.

Around 8.30 pm, they arrived in front of Skara’s to hear music coming from the inside. Upon opening the door, they saw loads of people already in the living room. Another big one. Luz smirked. She loved a big party.

They headed to the kitchen to put down the alcohol they had brought. There were around a dozen people chilling or getting drinks.

Luz immediately spotted pink and black near the counter. As if sensing her presence, Amity glanced toward the door and noticed Luz, and they smiled at each other. Luz’s friends were distracted with putting the beers in the fridge and making drinks, while Amity’s friends were distracted with talking with some basketball players that Amity had absolutely no interest in.

“Always in the Alcohol HQ, I see,” Luz said.

Amity chuckled. “Alcohol HQ, really?”

“I never trust the punch in the living room, so making drinks here it is.”

Amity squinted. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! I’d just rather get drinks from the source. Speaking of, want some beer?”

Amity glanced at the cup she had just finished. “Why not?”

“One sec,” Luz said as she went to get two beers.

She smirked. “Wanna see something cool?”

“… Sure?”

She handed Amity one of the beers, and proceeded to place her palm over the cap of the other, ring directly above the cap.

Amity raised her eyebrow. Not the ring trick.

In one swift movement, Luz popped the cap off by using her ring as a lever. She grinned at Amity. 

Amity’s face did reveal amusement however, because she did find it quite cool after all. “Of all the skills, Noceda. Of all the skills.”

“What can I say, Blight? I’m skilled at many things.”

Then she handed the cap to Amity who reflexively put it in her pocket, and Luz grabbed the other beer and proudly did the ring trick again. Amity shook her head, but her face still revealed amusement.

When Luz put the cap on the table, Amity noticed a crisp packet right beside her. Sour cream and onion.

“So it was you who put those crisps in all the bowls at the last party.”

Luz glanced at the traitor crisp packet before grinning. “Oops. Guilty as charged.”

Amity chuckled. She leaned her back against the counter and crossed her arms. “I noticed you haven’t done any tomfoolery this year. Or any evident ones at least.”

Luz pouted. “Yeah, I miss it. But yenno, I can’t risk detention because otherwise I’d miss practice.”

“Hm, not bad, Noceda. It’s true you haven’t gotten detention this year.”

“I’m not proud.”

“You want detentions?”

“I want to do goofy shit!”

“Oh, like coming to school in rollerblades like last year?”

“Hey, it wasn’t against the dress code.”

Amity laughed. “You cretin.”

“I can really say I made my mark on the school.”

“The fact that they had to add that to the dress code must make you so proud indeed.”

“I’m unforgettable what can I say?”

“You sure are, Noceda.”

“So you think I’m unforgettable?” Luz smirked.

Amity rolled her eyes, playfully. “Hard to forget the dumb shit you pull. Now put those crisps away!”

Luz on cue started pouring the crisps into the different bowls.

“If you want to avoid bad breath, I’d suggest you stick to candy.”

Amity laughed lightly. “You really are something, Noceda.”

“Is that a good something?”

Amity blushed a bit. “It’s something, alright.”

Luz smirked. But then her smirk softened. “You really are something too, Blight.”

Amity bit her lip. “You can actually shut the hell up.”

“Make me.”

“I will.”

Luz then saw her friends exiting the kitchen, almost like they were sneaking out.

“Gotta go!” she said, but she hesitated for a second, “See you later?”

“At the Alcohol HQ? I bet we will.” Amity chuckled.

Luz smiled before following her friends.

Amity’s friends were still making their complex cocktails, fully concentrated. She sighed and said, “Give me,” and instantly knew what to do: ingredients to add and the precise measurements. Her friends thanked her when she finished the cocktails at record speed. Then, they made their way to the living room.

“Bitches, you were gonna leave me behind!” Luz said, following them to the living room.

Hunter snickered. “We were just gonna go look for… Vee. Right guys?”

“Right!” Willow stifled a smirk.

“Oh,” Luz said. She glanced around the room. “There she is!”

Vee was in the corner of the room, talking with Katya, Bo, and Celine. Luz had already introduced her friends to them at the last party so they all said hi and joined in.

Gus kind of started fangirling. “You were amazing,” he said to the players.

His friends eyed his excitement, but Gus was too much of a fan. Brought his flags and everything.

They thanked him with pride. That started a conversation around the match and the girls started fangirling as well, complimenting each other’s plays. They all continued talking together until the soccer girls went to get drinks. Vee stayed with the friends and their conversations continued when Luz noticed Masha across the room. She grinned before leaving the circle and approached them.

“Masha!” Luz said, always happy to see them.

“Luz! Well done!”

“Thanks. It was a good game.”

They caught up for a bit before Luz said, “Come here.”

She pulled Masha toward her friends.

They greeted her, but Vee held the most sheepish smile as they had never spoken before.

“Masha, this is Vee. Vee, Masha.” Luz’s smirk should’ve been illegal.

Vee evidently short-circuited as her hand jolted outward for a handshake.

Masha’s bashfulness was so evident in how they immediately shook it back.

The handshake lingered before they abruptly pulled their hands away.

Masha blurted, “You played so well.”

Vee rubbed the back of her hot neck. “Thanks. You too.”

Luz laughed.

“I-I mean, thank you! So you like soccer?”

Vee’s blush was bright and treacherous. But Masha’s as well.

“Yeah, it’s a cool sport to watch.”

“Do you play?”

“Not really, Luz sometimes made me play with her, but I wasn’t great.”

“She really wasn’t,” Luz chimed in.

Masha narrowed their eyes at her.

Luz smirked. “Okay, they weren’t that bad. They knew how to kick the ball.”

Masha elbowed Luz, who faked being hurt. “So violent.”

Masha ended up chuckling. “Only when provoked.”

Then their eyes landed on Vee again, who was smiling bashfully. They said, “I’m not that violent.”

“They really are,” Luz chimed in again.

Masha forced themself to not shove Luz out of existence.

Luz snickered. “Anyway, you guys have a lot in common. You both like horror movies and poker.”

That instantly sparked conversation between, so Luz winked at her friends and stepped a bit aside, signaling to them that they should leave Masha and Vee to talk. 

“Really, Luz?” Hunter said when they were a bit aside, but he nodded, impressed.

Luz glanced at Vee and Masha to see slight blushes on their faces while they conversed.

Mission successful.

“Anyway, Gus, you were saying that your opinions on witches changed?”

While Gus and Willow started debating on witches again, Luz glanced around the room. For no reason, of course. Then she spotted Amity on the other side of the room. Maybe Luz smiled at the sight. She saw Amity glancing around the room as well until she met Luz’s eyes. Amity looked away for a second then looked back. They smiled at each other from across the room, before tuning in to their friends’ conversations again.

But that happened a couple of times, when their eyes would drift off and meet. Mostly at different times, but on one or two occasions, at the same time. They even grinned at each other at one point.

But the room kept filling up until at some point they couldn’t see each other anymore. And yet, they still tried, to catch glimpses of the other, but to no avail. And so they weren’t smiling when looking across the room anymore. Both of them went to the kitchen to refill their drinks multiple times, and were getting more and more tipsy to catch up with their lighter-weight friends, and they didn’t cross paths in the kitchen either.

At some point around 11 pm, Amity had finished her glass yet again before the girls, so out of sheer need for more liquor, made her way to the kitchen, again. The girls wouldn’t miss her, because Skara and one of the basketball guys were flirting with each other, and Boscha and Gavin as well. It was way more evident this time given their very close proximity. Maybe they were finally, finally, getting back together. 

Amity was happy for Boscha, but was also bracing herself, as Boscha would be swooning even harder over him if they got back together. She could already hear it. She was also apprehending it a bit, because that meant spending time with more basketball douches. But Amity had already rejected the majority of the team, and was ready to reject the remaining few that tried.

With that thought in mind, making her want even more alcohol, off to the kitchen she went. And of course—

“We meet again, Blight,” Luz said.

Amity rolled her eyes, but they still revealed amusement.

“Or should I say, welcome back?” Luz teased. Clearly tipsy.

Amity laughed lightheartedly. “Honey, I’m home.” Clearly tipsy as well.

Luz laughed back. “Good one. I’m still surprised you got some humor in ya’.”

“Here we go.” Amity bit her lip. Three seconds in and Luz was already making her laugh. Why was she already having so much fun?

The alcohol flowed in her. “You really like teasing me, Noceda. Should I be worried?”

Instant Amity blush. Was that… flirting??

Luz. Blushing too. Think fast. “You’re very mockable. Mock-worthy. Princess Mock.”

Amity stifled a laugh. “Princess Mock, really?”

“You’d rather Princess Boring?”

“You’re Prince Idiot.”

They went on like that for a few moments, insulting each other. When their fun ruthlessness, and laughters, calmed down, they were left smiling at each other.

Luz pointed toward the drinks on the counter that she was preparing for her friends.

“What are those?”

“Mojitos. Wanna taste? I make ‘em mean.”

“Absolutely not.”

Luz scoffed. “You don’t trust me?”

“Why would I trust you with alcohol?”

“Coward.”

Amity narrowed her eyes. She grabbed one of the glasses and took a sip. It, honestly, was quite good.

“Palatable.”

“You know it’s good.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “Palatable, I said.”

Luz smirked. She knew it was good.

“I know what you’d rather be taking though.”

Amity knew exactly what she meant. “Now we’re talking.”

Amity grabbed some shot glasses and searched for the tequila bottle and salt while Luz prepared the lemon slices.

Once the shots were poured, Luz passed a lemon slice to Amity and Amity put the salt on Luz’s hand.

“Cheers.” They clinked their glasses together before licking the salt off their hands, downing the shots, and sucking on the lemon slices. They made eye contact while they were still sucking on the lemons, and at the sight, they burst out laughing, lemon slices still in their mouths.

Luz’s slice went flying out of her mouth while Amity removed it somewhat gracefully with her shaking hand.

“How many drinks have you had so far?” Luz asked after their laughter calmed down.

“About four or five?” And she was, indeed, tipsy. A bit more.

“Damn, Blight.”

Amity squinted. “And you?”

“Same.” She was, in fact, a bit more than tipsy as well.

Amity shook her head with a grin.

“My friends can’t keep up so I have to visit the Alcohol HQ more often.”

“I get that. Evidently. Guess we have something in common,” Amity said.

“Yeah, we keep meeting up here.”

“Yeah.”

The shot was catching up to Luz. “It’s kinda cool.”

The shot was catching up to Amity. “Yeah.”

Stupid shots. Now they were blushing. And looking away.

Stupid shots. Made them look at each other again. And smile.

“Are you having a good time?” Amity asked to break the comfortable silence.

“Yeah! You know this by now but I love parties.”

“Me too. Good to let loose a little.”

“You need it.”

“Noceda.”

Luz grinned. “Hey, and we deserve it after our victory too.”

Amity nodded, bright smirk on her face, looking into the distance. “The victory. That was a good one.” She looked back at Luz. “And you really played well at the end when I was out. Truly well done.”

“Thanks.” Luz’s smile was bright. Then it fell a bit. “How’s your ankle by the way?”

“It’s much better, it only needed to rest for a bit.”

“That tackle was brutal. Should’ve been a red card.”

Amity remembered the commotion going on around her as she was getting up. She had noticed Luz nearing the opponent, clearly squaring up.

“You were ready to fight her?” Amity teased, but her voice was gentler than expected.

Luz felt a rising red ready to heat up her cheeks. “I mean, that bitch would’ve had it coming. Almost guaranteed she did it on purpose.” Then her fists clenched. “Who tackles from the side like that?” Her eyes narrowed. “And then she started taunting me!”

Amity bit her lip. She didn’t know it got Luz that worked up. She stifled a smile.

“You don’t have to defend me, you know.”

Luz mumbled, “Yeah well I wanted to.”

“You what?”

Luz blinked. “I wanted to sucker punch her.”

“So violent, Noceda.”

“Deserved.”

Amity chuckled, but it gentled. Luz really wanted to defend her.

Then she remembered how Luz fell as well, when they had sneaked onto the pitch on Wednesday. 

“How are your scrapes?”

Luz’s brows furrowed for a second. But then she remembered the joy she felt this morning when she felt there weren’t any scrapes on her tattoo anymore.

“They’re okay.” She held a warm smile. “My tattoo’s okay.”

Then she remembered the entire conversation around it. She took a sip of her drink. “Thanks again.” She took another sip. “For having listened. I don’t normally get that emotional.”

Amity gave her a small smile. “Don’t thank me. It’s normal.”

But it wasn’t, in fact, normal, for them. Though it looked like it was now.

“And thanks for letting me be there for you.”

That wasn’t normal either. But maybe it was now.

The conversation felt deep. But it didn’t feel that bad.

Luz still changed the topic though, but not out of discomfort. Because she did feel comfortable with Amity.

“Anyway, we celebrate tonight!”

“Yes. Release the stress.”

“You’re stressed?”

Amity blinked. Should she avoid talking about it?

“Yeah, I’m kind of stressed these days.”

“Oh, how come?”

“Well,” she said, “my parents are coming back tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Luz knew based on what Amity had been revealing throughout their conversations that she and her parents didn’t have a good relationship. “So I guess we’re really drinking tonight.”

Amity chuckled for a second, but a hint of a frown lingered on her lips.

“Yeah.”

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward, though. Rather, it felt comfortable.

“Sometimes I just want to feel a bit more loose, like at parties. But even at parties, I still have to keep my guard up, of course. But sometimes, yeah, I just want to let loose. You know? Have fun.”

“Yeah. Is that why you drank so much last time?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to have fun.”

“You were having fun alright,” Luz teased.

Amity chuckled lightly. “I was.” But her lips turned downward. “And sometimes I just wish that more things could be fun. But I can’t.”

“But why not?”

“You know this by now, because for some reason I talk to you about it, when I shouldn’t.” Amity released a deep breath. “It’s because my parents, they’re not the nicest. They’re strict.”

“Strict?”

“Really strict. There are consequences, when I’m not perfect. If I don’t get good grades, if I don’t appear perfectly put-together. There are consequences.”

Luz furrowed her brows. “Bad consequences?”

Amity’s frown revealed itself, her lips tugged downward, her eyes a shade of sad.

“Yeah.” Amity fidgeted with her hands. “Yeah.” She sighed, deeply, and closed her eyes. “I know they’ll bring it up tomorrow. I put my tests on the table in anticipation. I got A’s on my two last tests in Calculus.”

“Wow, that’s awesome.”

“It’s not good enough. I had A+’s last year. It’s not good enough. Consequences.”

“Really? That bad?”

Amity winced. “Consequences.”

There was a palpable silence as Amity’s eyes kept closed, and Luz, sensing that the conversation was getting way too deep, not wanting Amity to feel pressured to continue talking because she could tell she was getting colder and distant, and Luz didn’t want Amity to be uncomfortable, or sad, decided to shift the topic. 

“Well, you said you wanted to have fun. Do you want to have some fun now?”

Amity’s eyes opened and she eyed Luz skeptically because she didn’t trust Luz. But these days, it was in the good way. Especially when it came to having fun. Because Luz knew how to have fun. And Amity liked that. She liked having fun with Luz.

“Elaborate?”

“Two things. The first involves Alcohol HQ type fun.”

“And that entails?”

“Shots to start, of course.”

Amity grinned. “Now that sounds fun right now. Really fun.”

They prepared another round of shots, which they happily took.

“Okay so now the second thing that’s fun.”

“What’s funner?”

“Destroying competition.”

Amity raised her eyebrow.

“I saw there was a beer pong.”

Amity instantly smirked.

Luz shot her finger guns. “Let’s go.”

Amity’s smirk softened a bit. She all but blurted, “How do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

Too late, and too tipsy, to back down now. And the faint sparkles in her eyes wanted to talk.

“Make people smile. Cheer people up. You always make the people around you happy.”

Luz blinked. 

“I—” She bit her lip. Her heart thudded a bit harder in her chest. She didn’t know why she was getting emotional.

That was one of the best compliments she had ever received.

She didn’t know what to say.

Amity noticed Luz’s uncharacteristic quietness and wondered whether she should’ve kept her mouth shut, but it was getting hard not to speak her mind, and maybe she wanted Luz to know that. To know that Luz indeed made her smile, with her tomfoolery, goofiness that Amity had hated before. 

But now she didn’t hate it anymore. She found it quite amusing. And just, nice. And refreshing. And helpful. But maybe saying that was way too much. Because now they were sharing a moment. And that wasn’t normal. Yet, it was starting to feel more normal. And, good. It felt good.

Then Luz’s sincerity, and a hidden twinkle in her eyes, spoke with softness, “Thank you. That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.”

Amity bit her lip. What she said was clearly too deep. But, she didn’t regret it. It was too easy to be nice to Luz now. She wanted to be nice to Luz. Because Luz and her shenanigan-prone being made people smile and laugh and happy. And Amity truly realized recently the extent to which that was a quality, and that not being serious sometimes wasn’t bad.

Suddenly a memory appeared in Luz’s mind of a conversation they had had that first night on the pitch, when Amity had asked her, in a very defensive way, “Why do you care so much about people having fun?” So Luz replied the same thing she had said then, but this time it wasn’t as much of a slip up; she wanted Amity to understand her, in a deeper way. Because it felt good.

“Life’s too short to not be having fun.”

And now Amity finally understood just how profound that sentence was to Luz.

They shared a silent moment, eyes locked and loaded with softness. But the silence was filled with the soothing feeling of growing connection. Because they appreciated, and understood each other even more.

Luz then grinned, lightening up the deep mood, her cheekiness, and liquid boldness, taking the wheel again. “So you’re saying I make you happy, Blight?”

Amity rolled her eyes. There it was. Little shit Luz.

She crossed her arms, but her soft, bashful smile said a lot. Too much. “Fuck off, Noceda. No, you annoy me.”

And Luz couldn’t help but return that treacherous one as well.

“Let’s go destroy the competition?”

Sweet smirks.

“Let’s go.”

They left the kitchen but didn’t need to go far to hear cheering from one of the rooms. They entered and there were two basketball players smirking, at a beer pong table. “Who’s next?”

Luz and Amity looked at each other. They grinned.

“You’re on.”

“Are you sure?” One of the guys snickered. “It’s Fear Pong.”

Luz chuckled. “I’m not scared. You scared, Blight?”

Amity scoffed. “Never.”

Fear pong was beer pong, but with a twist. Under each cup was a truth or a dare, to be done if the other team landed the shot.

“Alright, then.”

He grabbed some papers and randomly placed them under all the cups while Luz and Amity were setting up. While setting up, it caught up to them that they were about to reveal some truths and do some dares. Their heart rates sped up a bit, apprehending the kind of truth and dares they’d have to say and do, and especially hoping they didn’t involve each other.

But they were always ready for a challenge. And, they were tipsy. And a tipsy challenge sounded fun.

Within the first few rounds, they realized the guys were shit compared to them, and wondered how they managed to win the last game. Good for Amity and Luz, because that meant less truths and dares.

One of the dares was that one of the guys had to remove an article of clothing. Instead of socks or whatnot, he decided to remove his shirt. Of course he did, because he grinned when revealing his six-pack. He winked at Amity. She recoiled, in severe disgust.

One of the guys landed a shot. It was a truth for the girls. Amity took her time downing the beer.

“Reveal one thing you dislike about your teammate.”

At first Amity and Luz chuckled because boy did they have things to say based on their past. But then they paused, because they froze at realizing they didn’t know what to immediately say, even Luz, who recently had to answer that very question when Hunter had asked.

Then Amity smirked. “You’re so annoying.”

Luz laughed. “Says you, you’re so annoying.”

“Cheater, find your own.”

“Fine, you’re—” she had to think of something. “—bossy. Yeah, bossy Blight.”

“I’m not bossy.”

“Your pretty ass is pretty bossy, alright.”

“Did you just call me pretty?” Amity said with a growing grin. And absolutely with growing pink on her face as well.

Luz’s eyes widened. “No,” she blurted. What the fuck? Faint red. “You’re pretty fucking cocky, too.”

Amity bit her lip, trying to contain her smile. “And you’re still pretty fucking annoying.”

Luz ended up grinning, because Amity was so annoying, and shoved her lightheartedly. “Blight, you little shit.”

Amity laughed. Luz laughed with her. They laughed together.

“Girls? We playing?” one of the guys asked.

The girls recomposed themselves.

Luz asked, “Ready to continue losing?”

The guys scoffed, but they were clearly not winning.

The game continued, and the girls were on fire, dunking cup after cup. The guys were doing ridiculous dares, like wearing socks on their hands and answering truths like “Have you ever sent nudes?” And, of course they did.

One of the dares for the girls was to speak in an accent for three rounds. Luz took on the most ridiculous Australian accent. Amity laughed quite a bit at that one, especially that she was fairly nailing her British one.

But then one of the guys landed another cup. 

Body shot.

It was the version where salt was put on the other person’s body, to be licked before downing the shot. They instantly settled, most wholeheartedly, on Amity’s arm. Because ain’t no way were they wanting to do the neck.

But the guys insisted the salt was supposed to be on the neck. And the girls had to admit it; they’d always seen it on the neck. Plus, it was written on the paper, but they had thought they could get away with it. So they had to concede, for the sake of being good sports.

Luz was to take the shot. She gulped as Amity put some salt on her neck, but it wasn’t sticking, so she had to put a bit of beer on her skin for the salt to stick.

She closed her eyes, as there was no way she was about to witness anything Luz was about to do.

Luz went for it — she grabbed the shot in her hand, approached Amity’s neck until she was inches away from her skin, licked the salt, and her heart thudded rapidly when she downed the shot.

Amity’s heart rate jolted at feeling Luz’s warm breath on her skin, and at the cold feeling of Luz’s tongue on her neck.

Both immediately turned deep shades of red, and they vehemently avoided eye contact.

They grabbed the ping pong balls without one word shared between them, so ready to just continue the game. But Luz could still smell the sweet scent of roses from Amity’s perfume, and Amity’s skin was still burning from Luz’s warm breath.

Amity lobbed the ball, fiercely determined for payback. She landed it, and, sweet revenge for them, it was the guys’ turn to do a body shot.

Luz instantly claimed they needed to do the neck like them. They protested, but it was only fair. So they did it. Amity and Luz cracked up at seeing them do it, the boys recoiling, pure disgust on their faces. The girls’ eyes finally met again while they were laughing, and that released the tension they had felt after their own round.

Luz made the shot as well. It was her second in a row.

“Heating up!” they said in unison. They looked at each other and grinned.

It was a truth for the guys.

“Who’s better looking between your teammate and you?”

Of course the boys claimed themselves. They bickered for a bit before settling on… both of them. The girls rolled their eyes. But thankfully, that card wasn’t for them, because they didn’t even want to think about answering that question.

Sufficed to say, Amity and Luz easily won that game. They smirked at the boys, then smirked at each other. Luz raised her hand for a high-five. Amity slapped it skillfully.

They left the room chuckling, to finally meet up with their respective friends in the living room, that turned into a club, dark with colored LED lights illuminating the room.

“Luz! Where were you? You keep disappearing!” Willow said with a chuckle.

Hunter smirked. “We all know where she goes, guys.”

Luz elbowed him, but she was so tipsy that she smiled. “Yes, I was with Blight. We destroyed some guys at fear pong.”

“You did a fear pong with Amity??” Gus asked.

“Yeah, and man were we good!”

“I win,” Hunter said to Willow and Gus.

“Hey, I bet the same thing!” Willow said.

“Oh right, Gus, I win!”

Gus asked, “Can you blame me for thinking the contrary??”

Luz said, “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Hunter replied.

“They bet on you being with Amity,” Gus revealed.

“Guys!” Luz said, but she ended up laughing. “I can’t believe you. You guys are obsessed!”

Hunter laughed. “Can you blame us? This is peak enemies to lovers.”

“We’re not lovers!”

“Not yet!”

“Ew, gross, no, we’re friends if anything. I think. Yeah, I mean we’re closer that’s for sure, but like, not like that, what the fuck, you guys are actually crazy. Insane. Delulu.”

Hunter snickered. “And denial is a river in Egypt.”

Luz narrowed her eyes, but Hunter was such a dumbass. Denial. The Nile. River in Egypt. She laughed.

Then she spotted Amity at the other end of the room. Her laugh turned into a goofy smile.

The friends turned around to see what she was looking at. They burst out laughing.

“Can you be any more obvious?” Hunter said.

“Fuck the hell off.” Luz laughed. “Can we dance now? Can you let me do the sprinkler in peace?”

And the friends, indeed, let her do the sprinkler in peace.

Amity from across the room witnessed Luz do the sprinkler.

Skara turned around to see what Amity was chuckling at.

“Can you just admit you like her?” she asked with the biggest smirk.

Amity refocused on Skara. “Hm?”

“I swear, Amity, you have to stop denying it.”

“Denying what?”

“That you like Luz!”

Amity’s mouth fell open dramatically. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Now, who the fuck was she kidding?

“Amity Blight. You like Luz Noceda.”

She scoffed. “Just because we’re on better terms now doesn’t mean I like her! She’s a good teammate is all!”

Skara squinted, eyebrow raised, letting the silence speak for her.

“Admit it.”

But Amity was too tipsy, she bit her lip, and it looked so guilty.

“No.”

“So there’s something to admit.”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” 

“I don’t believe that for a second.”

Amity looked so, so guilty. “Believe what you want.”

“I will.”

Amity saw Luz do the Macarena. She grinned.

Skara noticed.

“Amity!”

“Skaraaa.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Tipsy.”

“Drunk.”

“Tipsy.”

“Tipsy.”

“Drunk.”

“Amity!”

Amity giggled. She wasn’t dead drunk, she was walking straighter than her sexuality, but she was way more than tipsy, and was having an excellent time. 

After a moment, Amity said, “We did a fear pong.”

Skara grinned. So Amity did want to talk about Luz.

“Together?”

“Yes.”

“Did you win?”

“Obviously.”

“Was Luz a good teammate?”

Amity giggled. “Yes.” 

“So you like spending time with her?”

“Maybe.”

“So you like her?”

“No.”

“What the hell?”

“As a teammate.”

“Sure.”

Amity giggled again.

Skara teased, “Drunk.”

“Tipsy!”

They laughed. It was good seeing Amity laugh. She started swaying to the music.

Skara decided to leave the Luz topic on that fun note, so she started swaying to the music as well.

A bit later, a basketball player approached Amity. Not the one from last time, a different one, one of the few remaining that hadn’t shot his shot with Amity yet. Amity was in a good mood, so didn’t immediately insult him, but she was thinking about it, hard. But she felt the need to entertain it, perhaps as a distraction because it wasn’t him that she was thinking about.

Luz glanced across the room again and noticed the guy and Amity. Luz’s brows furrowed a bit. Another guy. Maybe one Amity liked this time. He was even better looking than the last one. 

But Amity clearly did not look like she was having fun though. Luz’s jaw stiffened. The guy approached her ear, and Amity evidently recoiled and stepped back. She glanced toward Luz. Luz felt compelled to do something.

In an instant, she moved across the room until she was facing them, said, “We need to talk,” came closer until she whispered in Amity’s ear, “I got you,” then took her hand and led her out the living room. They giggled as they rushed toward the backyard to escape. 

It was only when they arrived at the patio that they realized they were still holding hands. They let go instantly, looking away. But then Amity giggled again and dramatically said, “Thanks for saving me.”

Luz stuck her tongue out. “Civic duty.”

Amity chuckled and lightly shoved Luz for repeating what Amity had said that time she drove her home after the last party.

“Shut up.”

“Couldn’t let another dickhead bother you, c’mon.”

“How charming.”

“You think I’m charming?” Luz teased in reference to earlier, but she bit her lip.

Amity blinked, and she tried hard to contain a smile. That wasn’t what she meant, but that also was exactly what she meant.

“Shut up.”

“You love telling me to shut up, don’t you?”

“Yes, now shut up.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll shut up.” Luz was feeling bold. “If you admit that I’m charming.” Terrible idea, now she felt her cheeks heat up.

Amity as well, because for a second, she almost did. Did she really think Luz was charming?

“I don’t think you’re charming.”

But Amity was grinning, and it made Luz grin back. Mission accomplished? Was there even a mission in the first place? Did Luz want Amity to find her charming?

“You think the guy’s looking for you?” She decided to change the topic.

“I really hope not. I can’t take guys anymore.”

Amity’s eyes widened. Don’t be suspicious.

Then Amity remembered, vividly, that she did actually reveal that she liked Luz. Fucking busted.

Luz knowing that Amity remembered? Still a secret. Why was it still a secret?

More-than-tipsy questions floating around in her more-than-tipsy mind.

Luz noted that Amity was looking at her weirdly. Why was Amity looking at her… bashfully? What the heck was going on in her head?

“Our friends are probably looking for us, again,” Amity said.

“Yeah… Let’s go back? Hopefully the guy won’t bother you again.”

“Will you come save me if he does?”

She closed her eyes. Amity, what the fuck.

Luz giggled. “I’ll always come save you.”

Her jaw dropped. She instantly fake-coughed as a hopeful distraction to cover the pure idiocy that came out of her stupid mouth. Luz, what the fuck.

But she couldn’t help her goofy smile at seeing Amity’s.

They went back into the house without saying another word. But some liquor-coated joy followed them there, because who were the eight drinks and instinctive joy at being with the other kidding?

The music was more sensual when they arrived in the living room club. Music thumped from the speakers and the lights flickered between violet and red. Luz and Amity looked at each other, and for the first time that night, felt some tension. But it wasn’t hate tension. It was another kind of tension. It felt a bit… heated.

And they viscerally felt like it was a bit too much for their drunken selves to handle, so their eyes darted around the room to search for their friends for an escape but couldn’t immediately spot them. But they did notice the guy that had accosted Amity checking her out, so Luz stayed by her side. 

The music and liquor flowed through them, and their eyes kept locked on each other.

It was intense.

They couldn’t look away.

Slowly, so slowly, both of them came closer to each other, in sync, as if something was pulling them together. 

They couldn’t look away.

They came even closer.

“Amity,” the guy said, stepping between them, “Let’s talk.”

Both Luz and Amity blinked, as if snapping out of a trance.

“Let’s not.”

“Come on, I just want to talk.”

“Okay, me too: never in a million years.”

“But—”

“I’d suggest you leave now before your ego gets even more bruised. Or should I tell your basketball friends that you’re the absolute shittiest flirter between them all?”

The guy winced. “Got it.” Then he left.

Luz stifled a laugh. “Damn, Blight. You don’t mess around.”

“With the basketball dicks? No, I do not.”

They ended up laughing together.

“Amityyyy, you’re here!” Boscha said, appearing out of nowhere. “I need to talk to youuuu.”

Amity eyed her. “Gavin?”

“Yeeeees.”

She chuckled. She looked at Luz, and whispered, “Duty calls.”

Luz chuckled back. “Good luck.”

“I need it.”

Then Amity got pulled away by Boscha.

Luz released the deepest breath. What the fuck was that? Why was there so much tension? And not the hate tension, another kind of tension. What kind of tension was that?

She shook her head, and finally spotted her friends. She joined them, and they were so evidently drunk, and that just made her laugh. 

2 am. The party was nearing its end. Amity had too much alcohol to drive home. She wasn’t as dead-wasted as last time, though, but she was, in fact, drunk off her ass. 

So when Luz saw Amity walk not-so-steadily upon crossing her in the hallway while Luz was looking for her friends after having gone to the bathroom, she thought Amity needed some help like last time. 

But, Luz was stumbling too, a bit more than her. And Amity realized it was her turn to take care of Luz. She realized she wanted to take care of Luz.

“Bliiiight!”

Amity chuckled, because Luz looked kinda cute when she was smiling so goofily.

“Nocedaaaaa!”

“I think I need some air.”

“Patio?”

“Patio.”

Amity stepped toward the backyard, but feared Luz might stumble, so she took her hand and led her outside.

They sat on the couch, under the LED lights that illuminated the backyard. Nobody was outside, as expected, because the party was nearing its end.

Amity asked Luz, “Where are your friends?”

She giggled. “Dunno.”

“You want me to find them?”

“Not really.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because. I wanted you to find me.”

LUZ. YOU FOOL.

An outrageous blush proliferated on Amity’s face. But she couldn’t deny it, especially with the stupid liquid courage she of course had to feel. “I wanted to find you too.”

Luz shut her eyes when adrenaline jolted in her veins. What in the fuckity hell was going on? And why did that feel so damn good to hear? Her head was spinning. She felt the booze. But it was just so easy to talk with Amity. 

She teased, “Looks like we found each other.”

Amity teased back, “Looks like we did.”

The music from inside the house stopped.

Luz’s phone beeped in her pocket.

Hunter: Heyyy Luz, sorry we already left, Willow was feeling sick, so Gus and I had to rush back to her place. We asked Skara to make sure you got to sleep safely. Sleep tight ;)”

Weird. My friends leaving me at the party? Weird.

But she glanced at Amity, and instantly forgot what she was thinking. 

She knew she was safe.

“Noceda, you’re drunk,” Amity stated, as Luz kept looking at her with an unreadable expression.

“Yep. I have to find Skara.”

“Why do you have to find Skara?”

Luz blinked. “I forgot.” She giggled. “Something to do with making sure I get to sleep safely.”

Amity chuckled. But her lips curled downward for a reason she wasn’t exactly aware of.

“Let’s go find her.”

Amity stood up and waited for Luz to stand, but Luz stayed sat, so Amity extended her hand to help her up. Luz took it.

Amity led them inside the house to search for Skara. They found her in the kitchen.

“Luz!” Skara slurred.

Amity laughed. “You’re drunk.”

“Tipsy!” She grinned. It was so lopsided. “Luz, I have to take care of you.”

“What? You take care of me?” Luz asked.

“Yes, I take care of you!”

“More like we take care of you.”

“I take care of myself.”

Amity and Luz glanced at each other. They nodded.

“Come with us,” Amity said with a chuckle.

Amity swung her arm around Skara’s waist, all the whilst keeping an eye on Luz to make sure she wasn’t stumbling down the stairs when they were going up them, all the whilst being drunk herself so forcing herself to keep steady enough for both of them.

Luz watched from behind as Amity trudged up the stairs while holding Skara. She didn’t know how Amity had the strength to pull Skara up with her, especially while drunk. Amity was so strong. Luz smiled.

Blight’s so strong!

Noceda is so drunk, Amity thought upon hearing Luz giggle from behind.

They finally arrived in front of Skara’s room. Amity made sure Skara was lying on her side in the safety recovery position. Skara instantly fell asleep. Amity chuckled.

After they exited the room, Amity noticed Luz was smiling all goofy again.

“Yep, we’re finding each of us rooms.”

But they opened door after door, and not one room was free. Drunk people sleeping everywhere.

Even the sofas in the living room were occupied by more drunk people.

Then Amity realized, the basement mini living room would most probably be empty.

And when going down the stairs to check, it was indeed empty.

But there was only one sofa.

Of course there was only one bed.

And of course it was in the room with the dimmer lights and the intimate atmosphere.

And of course it was with Luz.

“Wattpad’s going crazy right now.”

“What-who?”

Luz’s hand raced to her chest as she gasped. “You have no culture, woman!”

Amity chuckled. Luz was so dramatic.

Luz chuckled back. Amity’s drunk laugh was cute.

Amity chuckled even more. Luz’s drunk laugh was adorable.

Their light laughter calmed down after a moment, and they ended up smiling, brightly, at each other.

Drunken Luz went to sit on the sofa, but luckily for their eventual comfort when needing to sleep, it was a sofa bed, so drunken Amity needed to unfold it first. She thought it’d be a piece of cake. It took longer than expected.

Once she finally figured it out and put sheets and a blanket over it, also having found pillows in one of the cupboards, Luz sat down and sighed, “Finally.”

Amity scoffed. “Excuse me?”

“For taking so long, I excuse you.”

Amity shook her head, incredulous, yet grinning. She sat next to her.

“You really are a smart ass.”

“So now you think I’m smart!”

Amity bit her lip to stifle her smile and lightly pushed Luz’s shoulder. “I can’t with you.”

“Yes you can.”

“Put up with your dumbass? No, I, in fact, cannot.”

“Then why do you?”

“Who says I do?”

Luz giggled. “You got me there.” 

Amity winked.

Did I just wink?

“Are you tired?” she said, hoping Luz didn’t notice.

Did she just wink?

“Kind of, and you?”

“Kind of.”

Luz said, “I can leave you the bed if you want, there’s the sofa on the patio I can sleep on.”

“You are not sleeping outside.”

“And why not?”

“Because it’s cold?”

Luz paused, then her lips quirked up, lopsided. “You’re right, it’s cold.”

Amity laughed lightheartedly at Luz’s epiphany. “Yes, it is.”

Luz then asked, “Okay, well, then, should we turn off the lights?” 

“Yeah, let’s try to sleep. Can’t take your voice anymore.”

“Well I can’t take your pretty face anymore.”

Amity’s jaw loosened.

Did she just call me pretty again?

Luz blinked.

Did I just call her pretty again?

But then her drunken ass giggled. “That, was a mistake.”

Amity stifled a bright smile.

Does she really think I’m pretty?

“Why’s that a mistake?”

“Too honest.”

“You’re charming.”

Luz froze her giggling.

Does she really think I’m charming?

Now it was drunk ass Amity’s turn to giggle.

“Lights?” she said.

“Lights,” Luz replied so Amity got up and turned off the lights. But when she returned to the bed, they stayed sat. They could see the faint silhouettes of each other in the dark.

There was a moment of silence, where both stayed still, and only their breathing could be heard.

“So, sleep?”

“Yes.”

They both slowly got in bed, next to each other, paying utmost attention to keeping distance between them under the one blanket.

Luz couldn’t believe she found herself in the same position as she did at the last party; next to Amity in bed. This time both were more conscious, and the silence felt heavy, yet so calm.

It felt calm, being in Amity’s presence. But not just calm. At times, it felt exciting. Playing on the pitch with her, nailing combos with her. At times it even felt fun. Downing shots with her, bantering together. And sometimes, it felt deep. Talking with her, about the deep stuff. About Luz’s father. About Amity’s home life. And Luz realized she wanted to know more. Much more. Even the random stuff.

She remembered calling Amity pretty. Not once, but twice. The first time was a pure accident. The second, maybe a bit less so. Did she really find Amity pretty? Well, at least her subconscious thought so. She turned her head to look at Amity. It wasn’t pitch black, and the more their eyes adjusted to the dark, the more they could see each other, faintly. 

Luz gazed at the silhouette of Amity’s face, and noticed Amity’s eyes were open. Those eyes that used to hold so much tension. But Luz thought the gold in her irises looked pretty, and unique. Like Amity. Amity was unique. Luz realized she liked that uniqueness. She liked discovering things about her, she liked getting to know her. She liked her. She really liked her.

Oh

Oh

She liked her more and more and more.

“Night, Amity.”

Amity’s eyebrow immediately raised. “You didn’t call me Blight.”

Luz blinked, lowkey surprised at herself. She tried to find something to say, but her drunken ass was way past sugarcoating.

“Your name is beautiful.” She shook her head, but a smile toyed with her lips. “But I’m still gonna call you Blight though, just so you know. It’s kinda our thing.”

Amity thanked the skies that they were in the dark because her smile revealed too much.

“And I’m still gonna call you Noceda… Luz,” she said. “I kinda like our thing.”

Luz’s smile was criminal. 

She did like Amity.

Amity felt the amazing buzz of the liquor flowing through her, which was the best case scenario in this situation, as she lay next to Luz, who once was her sworn enemy, in bed, in the dark, in a new silence that somehow felt palpably comfortable. It felt comfortable, being beside Luz. It felt comfortable talking with Luz, about many things. About things she didn’t feel comfortable talking about. But with Luz, she felt comfortable. And safe.

They didn’t know that much about each other, but it felt like it didn’t matter, because it felt like they knew each other regardless of facts, regardless of past lore or random daily thoughts. They knew each other intimately on the pitch, and it felt like that instinctive connection transcended the game.

In bed, Amity turned her head and noticed that Luz was on her back too. Silhouette, but Amity looked at Luz, and her face looked soft.

And she remembered how she had called Luz charming. And it was true, Luz was charming. With her stupid jokes and her goofy smile. Her grin especially. It looked dangerous at times, but the kind of dangerous that piqued Amity’s curiosity. Luz was curious indeed, with lots of facets. Facets that Amity was discovering little by little, facets that weren’t that bad.

Facets like Luz’s smart side, yet also her emotional side, her deep side. Sides that Amity liked to discover. And there were more sides to uncover. And Amity was curious. Because Luz was interesting. And Luz was fun. So fun. Amity had always wanted a bit of fun in her life, and she found that in Luz. But Luz used to be her enemy. But not anymore. Not anymore at all. Amity liked her. Luz meant more to her than that.

Oh

Oh

Luz sincerely meant something to her.

“Truth.”

“Truth?” Luz asked.

“I remember.”

Luz’s heart dropped. Amity remembered their conversation.

“Truth: I like you.”

Luz said, “Truth: I like you too.”

Amity’s heart heated up.

“Noceda, can you pick dare for once?”

So Luz said, “Dare.”

“I dare you to kiss me.”

Luz’s heart flamed up. She, so slowly, moved toward her, and gently placed her hand on Amity’s cheek. Carefully, she approached Amity’s face, ready to back away if Amity wanted her to stop. 

But Amity wasn’t wanting her to stop. 

So, Luz slowly leaned in until both of them were inches away from each other. Their hearts were beating out of their chests when they could feel their breaths caressing each other’s skin.

Luz pressed her lips on Amity’s and kissed her. Amity kissed her back, softly, gently. Their hearts were thumping as their lips locked.

Luz pulled away, but their faces stayed close. She caressed Amity’s cheek. But then Amity gently pulled Luz in for another kiss.

Their lips met, with more fire. And then their kiss deepened even more.

After moments of sweet kisses they got lost in, they separated again, and even in the dark they could see their warm smiles. Luz leaned in to kiss Amity’s cheek before laying down beside her, and Amity came closer and placed her head on Luz’s shoulder while Luz sneaked her arm around Amity’s neck.

Amity’s lips were close to Luz’s cheek, so she placed a soft kiss against it. Luz hoped Amity couldn’t feel how hard her heart was beating in her chest. Amity hoped the same. But who were they kidding? This felt magical. No words needed between them to feel each other’s pure happiness at the kisses.

Amity locked herself in Luz’s arms, with her arm over Luz’s chest, and Luz’s arm wrapped around Amity’s back, holding her in place.

“Goodnight, Blight.”

“Goodnight, Noceda.”

And both of them had the warmest smiles sleeping peacefully on their faces.

Chapter Text

Luz’s eyes fluttered open. She felt a weight on her shoulder. Her eyes widened. She froze. An arm over her chest. Amity Blight. In bed. Cuddling her. In bed. Cuddling her.

Luz instantly remembered the night. Remembered the conversations right before sleeping. The truth. The dare. Amity Blight. In bed. Cuddling her.

As much as she was stunned, she couldn’t stop her smile, nor could she stop herself from tentatively squeezing Amity softly. So softly that it wouldn’t wake her up.

But then a bit of dread coursed through her. There was no way Amity would forget what happened, right? Would she want to forget?

The scent of roses distracted Luz from those thoughts, because Amity smelled so sweet. Luz couldn’t help but squeeze her softly again, relishing the moment.

Thirst begged her for some water though, and she needed to oblige for her good health because of the slight hangover she felt in her bones. But it was too hard to get up. And she didn’t want to wake her up.

Amity froze upon waking up and feeling that she was in someone’s arms.

Luz Noceda. In bed. Cuddling her. In bed. Cuddling her.

Amity’s eyes shot open. She instantly was about to start untangling herself from her, but then she immediately remembered. How could she forget? Memories that made her… happy. Her cheeks flushed. They made her happy. Luz made her happy.

But being in Luz’s arms right now — she froze again. She didn’t know what to do.

But then Luz squeezed her so softly.

She couldn’t help but squeeze her back.

“Hi,” she said. It was a bit groggy.

“Hi,” Luz replied.

“I have a hangover.”

Luz laughed lightly. She thought, really? First thing Amity said after such an eventful night?

Amity felt the rumbling of Luz’s laugh as she was resting on her body, and couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“I have a hangover too,” Luz replied.

When the laughter calmed down, a silence settled between them.

“Do you remember?” Luz asked, preparing to be sad, because you never knew with Amity.

“Yes.”

Oh? But another question had to be asked.

“Do you regret it?”

“No, not at all,” Amity said. “And you?”

“Not one second.”

Their hearts swelled. And their smiles were so bright in the dark.

Luz squeezed her gently. Amity squeezed her back. It felt so pure.

“So you remember… the kiss?”

Amity chuckled lightheartedly. “Yes, I remember the kiss.”

“Did you like it?”

“No, I hated it. I never want to do it again.”

Luz grinned. She planted a kiss on Amity’s forehead.

“You hate that too?”

Amity’s face warmed up.

She kissed Luz’s cheek.

“Did you hate that?”

Luz’s turn for her cheeks to heat. But she felt the need to be so sincere.

“I really liked that.”

Her tone was gentle, yet teasing.

“Who knew you were such a softie, Blight?”

Amity scoffed, but she stayed locked in Luz’s arms.

“You really want me to start insulting you right now, Noceda?”

“No, no. I mean you can if you want, I always love it when you’re mean to me.”

“Go off”—She bit her lip—“Luz.”

Luz blinked. She remembered calling Amity’s name beautiful. Oops.

“Never… Amity.”

They’d have to get used to that. Because it felt good. Intimate. Yet it was only just their literal first names. But their thing, of calling each other by their last names, they’d never let go of their thing. For some reason it felt even more intimate now.

“Blight?”

“Noceda?”

Yep. Felt good to say that.

“Truth.”

And Amity knew what Luz meant by that.

“Truth.”

Their smiles came back with a vengeance. Truth.

“Should we turn on the lights?”

“Yeah. Are our eyes ready though?”

“Let’s see.”

Luz got up, regretfully, to turn on the lamp on the table. Both of them recoiled at the bright light, that wasn’t even that bright as it was a warm shade. Intimate.

Luz sat on the bed again. “You ready to go up?”

Amity said after a couple of seconds, “Not really.”

She sat up against the headboard. Luz took the hint and moved next to her until their arms were brushing against each other. Then she lifted her arm to invite Amity closer, so she could slide her arm around her neck. Amity took the invitation and rested her head against Luz’s shoulder, and Luz’s arm locked her in. 

“Do you remember everything from last night?”

Amity chuckled. “I remember us beating some basketball douches at beer pong.”

Luz grinned. “I remember that too. So good.”

“Oh, I also remember you ‘saving’ me from one of them when he started talking to me in the living room. My hero.”

“Always here to rescue you, come on.”

Amity lightly elbowed Luz who laughed lightheartedly, but she ended up softly squeezing her in her arm. Amity leaned against her shoulder.

“I also remember taking shots with you in the kitchen.”

“Classic Alcohol HQ shenanigans.”

“You doing the Macarena, of course.”

“So you were spying on me?”

Amity rolled her eyes. “Shut up. You were spying on me too.”

“Hey, it was so I could save you from any potential guys. And see it happened!”

“My hero.”

“You liked it.”

“Rescuing me from those basketball dicks? Yeah of course I liked it.”

“But you liked that it was me, admit it.”

Amity scoffed. She elbowed her again. Luz squeezed her again.

“Anyway, I also remember you saying that you wanted to find me at the end of the party.”

Luz paused. Oops. She did say that. Bloody liquor always betraying her.

“Yeah, well, look where that led us.”

Amity elbowed her again, so gently. Luz squeezed her again, so softly.

“Hey, I remember you saying you wanted me to find you.”

“I’ll actually hurt you if I elbow you again.”

Luz chuckled. “So violent, so early!” It reminded her to actually check the time. She looked around the room for a clock.

“Wow, it’s 1 pm.”

“We have to get up.”

After a couple of seconds, Luz said, “I don’t want to.”

Amity took a moment as well to say, “Me neither.”

So they stayed like that for another moment before finally separating and getting out of the bed.

Luz removed the sheets while Amity folded them neatly and they made sure the room looked exactly as they had found it. They looked at each other one last time, and smiled, warmly. Then they smiled, brightly, before going up the stairs.

The place wasn’t that much of a mess. Skara and the last wave of the hangover gang must’ve done all the heavy lifting. They found Skara in the kitchen. 

She turned around at hearing footsteps, a demonic smirk already on her face.

“Finally awake.”

Amity and Luz’s sheepishness was palpable in the air.

“Sleep well?”

“Yes,” Amity said.

Luz hummed.

“Coffee and water?”

“Please,” both replied.

“Coming right up.”

Luz and Amity glanced at each other. Faces flushed. But they cracked a bashful smile at seeing the other, both thinking the other looked cute. They looked away.

“I’ll help you,” Amity said.

“I’ll wipe the counter down,” Luz added.

They all did that in silence, but Skara’s smirk kept on her lips.

“Did you have fun last night?”

“Yeah,” Luz replied, memories of her friends springing to mind. “It was so fun. Thanks for hosting again.”

“Oh it’s always a pleasure. My parties seem to always be… eventful.”

Amity shot her a death stare. Skara stifled a laugh.

As she wiped down the counter, Luz squinted: her friends supposedly left her to rot at the party. Or did they? She realized her friends were, a fact she knew already, sneaky little shits. Even more than usual. They set her up. But Luz shook her head. They set her up. To have more moments with Amity. Moments that were so worth it. 

Should she thank them? Nah. They’d feel too proud of their stupid antics. Would they have a field day when learning about what happened? Absolutely. Luz wasn’t ready for their reactions though. She’d never hear the end of it. But Luz had to tell them, because how could she keep the secret? The sweet reality that Amity truly liked her? The sweet reality that they kissed? She needed to talk about it, because she couldn’t keep her joy in.

She couldn’t keep her joy in that something finally happened with Amity. Something she didn’t know she’d really been wanting. But she wanted it. And she wanted more.

After wiping down the counter, Luz came next to Amity, who was next to the coffee machine, and took her hand.

Amity stifled a smile, but then her eyes shot wide open. She looked around to see Skara raising an eyebrow at her with an even bigger smirk.

Amity quickly took her hand back while Skara said, “I’m going to check on something in the backyard,” to obviously leave them alone for a bit.

As soon as Skara left, Amity turned to Luz.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“We can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Can’t just hold hands like that.”

“Oh,” Luz’s lips tugged downward. “Why not?”

Amity sighed. It was a sad one. “We can’t be open about what happened. About what’s happening.”

Luz’s furrowed brows came with a hint of sadness. “Really? You’re ashamed?”

Amity’s brows furrowed with regret. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s my parents.”

Realization dawned on Luz.

“They can’t know.” Amity’s heart rate sped up a bit. “They can’t. Remember how I told you there are consequences? If I don’t act like they expect me to? They can’t find out.”

“Oh…” But Luz understood.

“They expect me to be with a guy. They set me up on dates with the sons of their business partners. I can’t be in a relationship.”

Luz closed her eyes.

Amity glanced away. She thought about it. Because she did like Luz. She really liked Luz. She liked getting to know her, spending time with her, laughing with her.

She liked the kiss. She’d like to have more than one kiss.

She thought about all that for a moment. Because she didn’t know what all that meant. What she wanted it to mean. But she really thought about it.

So, she was sincere when she said, “But I want to be with you.”

Luz opened her eyes, and a small twinkle shone in them.

“You do?”

Amity glanced away. She thought about it again. Because she couldn’t. Couldn’t risk it. But the want was real. At least she wanted to try, and see where it could go. They’d have to be a secret, but she still wanted to be with Luz.

“I do.” Then she fidgeted with her hands. “If you want to be with me, that is.”

Luz thought about it. What it meant. What being in a relationship meant. What getting to know her, spending more time with her, laughing with her would be like. The kiss meant something to her. It really did. She wanted more of it. But all that being a secret? Luz thought about it.

Then she smiled. Because maybe it was worth it. She at least wanted to find out.

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

Amity released a breath. Luz wanted to be with her.

She released a bright smile.

“Can I tell my friends though?”

“Yes, you can tell your friends. But they have to keep quiet about it.”

“They will. I’ll threaten them and they’ll shut the hell up. Are you going to tell your friends?”

“I have to tell Skara. Not because I particularly want to, but she’s known that something’s been going on between us.”

“Oh so you were being so obvious that you liked me?”

Amity deadpanned. “Absolutely not.”

“You’re right, you lied. You kept lying, you knew that I liked you, and that you said that you liked me too.” Luz’s brows furrowed a bit. “Why did you hide it?”

“It’s complicated. Part of me thinks I just wasn’t ready to admit it. But, I just couldn’t like you. You know, I have a reputation to uphold.” Amity hated saying that. “I can’t just… like girls. And especially not you. You’re Luz Noceda, rogue troublemaker.” That made her chuckle a bit.

Luz chuckled a bit too. “Hey, you’re stuck-up ice-queen Amity Blight. I have a reputation to maintain too.”

Amity squinted, but she chuckled again.

“Go off, Noceda.”

Then she became more serious. “And you’re just so easy to talk to. I kept slipping up. And I can’t just slip up. So it was easier to avoid you. There was too much at stake. So liking you… I just couldn’t.”

“But so why can you now?”

Amity gazed at her. “Because I can’t deny it anymore. The fact that I like you. That I really like you.” Amity glanced away for a second, but then she gazed at Luz again. “It’s stronger than all that.” 

Luz smiled bashfully. She tentatively brushed her hand against Amity’s. Then she took it back, chuckled, and cringed.

“It’s so weird. Us saying that we like each other.” She shivered. “Ew.”

Amity laughed. But she shivered as well. “I know right? Ew. It’s like: how can I possibly like you?”

Luz scoffed. “Please, how can I like you? You’re so annoying, there’s a reason why I hated you for all those years.”

Amity scoffed. “You think I forgot how much of a hooligan you are?”

“Yeah but you like it now.”

“Do I?”

“You do, otherwise you wouldn’t have begged me to be in a relationship with you.”

Amity’s jaw fell open. “That is absolutely not how that happened.”

“Tell that to my friends after I tell them.”

Amity lightly shoved her.

“Noceda, you little shit. That’s not what happened.”

“Okay okay. But admit it, you were wrong about me.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “Maybe I was wrong about you. You were wrong about me too.”

“Was I?”

“Little shit.”

Luz giggled. “Okay. I maybe was wrong about you too.”

Amity thought for a moment.

“Hey, I’m… sorry. For how mean I was at times.”

Luz was slightly taken aback by Amity apologizing. But she wasn’t innocent either.

“I’m sorry too. It got really heated at times. And I tend to insult a lot.”

Amity chuckled. “Even when it’s not heated you insult a lot.”

Luz chuckled back. “But it’s just so easy with you.”

Amity grinned. “You’re insult-worthy as well.” Then her grin softened. “We really did hate each other, didn’t we?”

“We really did. You’d make me so mad at times. Like when you’d glare at me, when I didn’t even do anything. Death stares. So much rage in your stupid pretty eyes.”

Amity bashfully looked away. “And you’d get me so worked up. Calling me a bitch? Pointing middle fingers at me? So uncalled for.”

“Hey, you were always glaring at me.”

“You were always glaring at me.”

They ended up chuckling together. They took sips of their coffees.

Luz said, “I can’t even remember how it all started now.”

“Me neither,” Amity said. “Things just... changed.”

“Yeah. I started seeing you in a different light. I always thought you were a no-fun judgmental arrogant ice-queen. And then when I joined the team, my god. You were always so serious, and on my back. Just made me dislike you even more.”

Amity scoffed, but she couldn’t exactly deny that.

“Well— Yeah. I was on your back. I had to make sure you were serious about the team. Can you blame me? You always seemed like a troublemaker hooligan. Always getting detention, never taking anything seriously. And then you came to the team with such a nonchalant attitude and you started distracting everyone with your stupid goofing around.”

Luz couldn’t deny that last part either.

“Guess we did have reasons.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you still think I’m an arrogant ice-queen?”

Luz didn’t think about it for too long.

“No, not really. And I get now why you always seem so serious, and a stickler. You can’t show the contrary. I get it now. And it sucks.”

Amity offered her a small, warm smile. Luz understood now. And that felt good? To know Luz thought she wasn’t really like how she had to appear. Amity felt seen.

“Do you still think I’m a hooligan troublemaker?”

“To be fair, yes.”

Luz deadpanned.

“But, in the good way. You just joke around, it’s not harmful. It’s even funny sometimes.”

Luz’s face lit up.

“And I know now why you always want to have fun. It’s important to you to have fun. I get it now.”

Luz felt her heart heat up. Amity understood now. And it felt good. To know Amity understood something so important to her, and wasn’t judging her for that anymore. Luz felt seen.

“Thank you, Amity Blight.”

“I mean it, Luz Noceda.”

They shared a goofy smile.

“Are we really sharing another moment together?”

“I guess we are.”

Luz laughed lightheartedly. “It’s just so weird.”

Amity shared the laugh. “Every time.”

“Like, wow, I don’t hate you anymore!”

“I don’t hate you anymore either!”

Their laughing calmed down when Skara appeared again. This time instead of a smirk, she held a wide smile.

“So, looks like you two are on great terms.”

Amity narrowed her eyes at her but couldn’t hide the contentment she had just been feeling with Luz.

“I see what you mean now,” Luz said to Amity.

“Oh, that I know?” Skara teased.

“Yep.” Luz took a big gulp of her coffee, finishing it. “I gotta head home. Thanks again Skara for the party. It really was great.”

“My pleasure!”

“Do you have your motorbike?” Amity asked.

“No, walking.”

“Need a ride?”

“Actually, yeah. I’d really appreciate that.”

“No problem.”

Skara grinned. “Goodbye, you two. Have fun together.”

As Luz left the kitchen to head toward the front door, Amity downed her coffee while narrowing her eyes at Skara.

“Not one word.”

“Promise to tell me all about it?”

“Yes, promise.”

Skara smirked. “I never would’ve said anything of course but now you promised so…” 

Amity groaned. “Fine.” But in reality, she wasn’t so against talking about it with Skara, who knew from the start, even before Amity knew herself.

Her tone became more gentle. “Thanks, for the party. It was a good party.”

“My pleasure, Amity. I’m happy for you and Luz.”

Amity groaned again. But she couldn’t escape the joy from within at that.

After exiting the house, she and Luz made their way toward her car.

Luz got real comfortable in the passenger seat.

They spent the whole ride talking, reminiscing over the events of the party, telling each other random things that they remembered, including the dares that the guys had to do at the fear pong. They joked around, and teased each other a bit on the cutesy things they remembered telling each other the night before. 

“You called me pretty. Twice.”

“Well you called me charming. Twice. The second was uncalled for.”

“Yeah, well— your dumbass is charming. Okay?”

“Are you really complimenting me seriously right now?”

“I wholeheartedly take it back.”

“Then I take my drunken compliments back as well.”

Laughs and bashful smiles accompanied them to Luz’s house.

But before leaving Amity’s car, Luz said, “Hey, I don’t have your number.”

“Right. Do you want it?”

“So I can prank call you, absolutely!”

Amity rolled her eyes. “You goof. I know it’ll be you.”

“Oh. Right. Hehe. Well, still, give me your number?”

“So you can annoy me from a distance?”

“Fine, woman. Keep your number to yourself!”

Amity cracked a grin. She told Luz her number, who typed it into her phone before getting out of the car.

“See ya on Monday, Blight.”

“Bye, Noceda.”

As Luz entered her home, her mind was buzzing. Stunned. She was in a relationship? Then she remembered the last time she was with someone. Why it ended. There was a reason why it ended.

It ended because Luz was starting to feel comfortable enough to open up. And at that point she didn’t want that. She wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want intimacy. She couldn’t handle it. Being close to someone like that. 

With Masha, they had a good relationship. It went really well, but Luz started opening up. But the more she opened up, the more she couldn’t handle it. The more she pulled away. She was sabotaging her own relationship the more distance she created. But she couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t open up. Because it hurt. And it was too much to face. Masha was getting too close for comfort.

They noticed that too, and both decided to call things off. There was a lot of respect in the break up. It ended well between them, very well. But Luz just wasn’t ready to open up. She wasn’t ready for intimacy.

She didn’t think that through. She got caught up in the moment with Amity, but Luz didn’t know whether she was ready for intimacy. The emotional kind. The deep kind. The kind where you’d open up, about your past, about your issues, about your life.

But, Luz had already been opening up, with Amity. And it didn’t feel that bad. Luz had opened up about her father, and instead of it hurting, of it feeling too scary to confront, it felt okay. To open up about her past. It wasn’t easy, but it felt okay. And, Amity, she felt safe. Safe, and comforting. For some reason. Luz didn’t know why that was the case, but it was. And maybe Luz was ready to open up some more. With Amity. Who felt safe. Amity Blight. Her… girlfriend.

Luz’s jaw dropped. Amity was her girlfriend.

Her heart beat harder. Amity was her girlfriend.

The most sincere, goofiest smile grew on Luz’s face.

Amity Blight was her girlfriend. Her former sworn enemy. The person she had hated for so long. Was now the person she really liked. Her plot twist of the century. Never would she have ever imagined that would be the case before senior year. But it was the case.

Amity Blight was her girlfriend.

Amity smiled as she drove away. She was still a bit shocked. Being in a relationship? With Luz? With her former sworn enemy? Wild. Ridiculous. But, the best wild and ridiculous. There was no way. But yes, in fact, there was a way. With Luz’s goofy grins and idiot jokes. With her bright brown eyes and stupid red beanie.

Amity shook her head, how did she end up in a relationship with Luz Noceda? The thought of that was so weird, yet felt so nice now. As if it made sense. How could it make sense?

But it felt good. Yeah. It felt good.

But her smile fell a bit.

She wasn’t allowed to feel good. They had to hide their relationship.

Was it that bad though?

Amity’s brows furrowed.

She wanted to be with Luz. Did she really want it to be public though?

Was she ashamed of Luz?

She shook her head.

No, she wasn’t. But it would be the plot twist of the century at school. She could see the headlines in the school newspaper.

“Top Student Amity Blight Dates Renowned Delinquent Luz Noceda.”

Amity chuckled.

“Sapphic Soccer: Top Players in a Relationship.”

She snickered. What even was she thinking? Luz got her thinking all kinds of crap.

But Amity couldn’t be with Luz openly.

She couldn’t risk it.

She sighed, a sad sigh.

Then she thought about the fact that she’d have to open up about at least some parts of her life. Parts she wanted, needed to keep secret. She couldn’t just start slipping up even more. Those thoughts didn’t linger that much though, because they were overshadowed by the thought and the slight shock that she was in fact in a relationship with Luz Noceda.

Being with Luz, it just felt so nice. With her cheeky smiles and stupid laugh. With her stupid charming face.

Being with Luz, it felt good.

Amity smiled the rest of the way home.

As she was parking her car in front of the mansion, her phone buzzed.

Unknown Number: Did you forget about me yet? ;)

Amity couldn’t stifle her smile. Of course Luz would be annoying her by message now. 

As she walked toward the front door, she saved the number and decided to answer properly once in her room.

She smiled as she unlocked the door and opened it—

“Amity Blight. Where were you?”

Amity’s eyes shot open. Her smile immediately collapsed.

“Mom?”

Chapter Text

Odalia asked,  “Where were you?”

Amity’s heart rate spiked, and sped up. “I-I was at Skara’s, studying.”

“In that outfit? With that makeup?”

Amity forced herself to stop stuttering. “Yes.”

Odalia’s eyes pierced through her, like a knife cutting melted butter.

Amity sucked in a breath. She prayed her mother wouldn’t ask more questions.

“What were you studying?”

Amity knew this was a trick question, because she glanced at the table and noticed her tests had been moved.

“Calculus.”

“Yes, Calculus. I noticed your A’s in your last two tests.”

“Yes, Mother. The tests are harder this year.”

“Harder? You’re supposed to adapt and get better. No?”

Amity gulped. “Yes, Mother. I still got A’s, though.”

“Oh no no, that is not good enough, dear.” She shook her head. “You’re not good enough,” she said in the most eerily calm tone. “Pathetic.”

“I am sorry, Mother. I’ll get an A+ next time.”

“You know what happens when you’re a disappointment, dear.”

She took a step forward.

Amity flinched. Her immediate instinct was to take a step back but she forced herself to stay still.

So she quickly took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to her.

“Good. Now go to your room.”

Odalia followed her as Amity climbed up the stairs, making sure her posture was perfect.

As soon as she opened the door to Amity’s room, Odalia shoved her inside so hard that Amity fell to the floor, went to the desk to grab her computer, exited the room, then slammed the door behind her. Then she locked it from the outside.

Amity’s eyes shut tight. She wondered how long she’d be locked in this time.

She slowly got up and instantly went to search the back of her wardrobe, and she released a deep breath of sad relief when she saw the wine bottle expertly hidden between two sweaters. But no more water, and only one granola bar. She was going to stock up before her parents arrived but they had arrived earlier than expected.

Her stomach grumbled, but she had to save the granola bar for later, as her prediction was being locked up at least until tomorrow. At least she had the wine to quench her thirst. And liquor-coat the sadness.

‘Pathetic’ she heard her mother’s voice ringing in her ears. Pathetic. Not good enough. Not good enough.

She shut her eyes tight.

But then they popped open. She had never replied to Luz’s message. 

No, no, no.

“Did you forget about me yet? ;)”

Amity didn’t forget.

But she left Luz’s message on read. Dread coursed through her when imagining Luz believing that Amity regretted it.

No, no, NO

Amity could never forget. She didn’t want to let Luz think that she was ignoring her now, after the alcohol wore off and she had the time to reflect on the situation alone.

Amity could never forget, and she needed Luz to know that. But she couldn’t right now. And sadness coursed through her as dread flowed through her blood. She could never forget.

Luz unlocked the door to her home and plopped down on the couch.

What a night.

What a morning.

She couldn’t stop smiling.

She hesitated sending Amity a message, but didn’t hesitate too long, because now she had free rein to annoy Amity, even from afar. She smirked.

So she sent something she thought was funny, and that she thought Amity would find funny as well, given it was a jab at Amity ‘not remembering’ their Truth conversation. What a sneaky shit. Amity had remembered that entire time. But why hide it? To be fair, Luz pretended to forget as well by not reminding her. Maybe it was easier to ignore it. Deny. Block. Report. Ban.

But so Amity knew that Luz was pretending to forget.

Maybe it made more sense for them to forget. Amity Blight and Luz Noceda, together? Wild, outlandish, ludicrous. It didn’t make sense.

But they couldn’t deny the attraction anymore, nor could they deny they had good times together.

Luz shared drive for their same passion, soccer, and Amity unexpectedly shared the same desire to have some fun. Their instinctive connection on the pitch playing the game they both loved translated to outside of it as well.

So it did make sense in the weirdest way.

At least, it made sense to them, now.

Luz decided on sending the throwback message, expecting it to make Amity laugh. She liked making Amity laugh. Her laugh was cute. And meaningful.

So when Amity read the message, Luz smiled, because she just knew Amity found it amusing.

But she didn’t reply. Luz furrowed her brows. Maybe it wasn’t funny? She decided to wait a bit.

But an hour passed. Amity still hadn’t replied. Luz’s brows furrowed a bit deeper.

The message wasn’t serious. But maybe Amity realized that she didn’t want to remember? That she’d rather forget about their truth, their kiss? The fact that they were in a relationship now?

Questions overcame Luz’s head, but she decided to wait a bit longer.

But then the entire afternoon passed. And Amity still hadn’t replied to the message that was supposed to be a joke, that now felt like it wasn’t a joke.

A pang hit Luz’s heart when she looked at the ‘read’ sign again.

Amity evidently wanted to forget.

Her friends texted her on the group chat to ask about the end of the party, and Luz wanted to tell them everything, but didn’t, because she needed to make sure it wasn’t all just a fluke, so she decided to wait, at least until she was sure that Amity was serious about their relationship.

But Luz had to have trust.

She hesitated sending another message. She ended up doing so, because maybe Amity had forgotten to reply? Maybe she accidentally opened it? Maybe she was busy with homework?

“blight, u here? i was just joking… unless?”

She sent it, but realized right after that the message sounded more vulnerable than planned.

And Luz’s heart thudded a bit harder when an hour later Amity still hadn’t replied. She didn’t even check out the message this time. Luz’s frown was one of sadness. And her downturned lips held even more sadness when the entire evening passed, and it was time to sleep, and Amity still hadn’t answered.

Last ditch effort, because Luz had to have faith. Amity was now her… girlfriend, after all. She didn’t want to be annoying, but she at least wanted some sort of confirmation that Amity was indeed receiving her messages? Because maybe Amity’s phone was turned off or on silent during her study time. Then another kind of dread coursed through her. Did something happen to Amity on her way home? Was she okay?

So Luz clicked the phone icon and called her.

One beep, two beeps, thr— hung up. Amity’s voicemail.

Luz’s heart dropped. Amity hung up on her?

At least she knew Amity was safe enough to pick up her phone. But she hung up on her.

She really was ignoring Luz.

Sadness came back with a vengeance.

Amity did really want to forget about her.

Of course she wanted to forget. Why did it make Luz that sad? Maybe because she actually really liked Amity and now that she truly admitted to it, she had hope of them being… happy, together.

It was too good to be true. Luz realized the extent to which it actually made her happy, the idea of being in a relationship with Amity, now that she was being ignored. She let herself hope. And she ended up cursing herself for having that hope. For letting herself have happy thoughts when it came to relationships. And when it came to Amity.

Her heart jumped when she received a notification before sleeping. But it fell when it wasn’t her. And the lack of hope in receiving a reply swept through her again. So she closed her eyes to sleep, with her heart thudding dully in her chest.

Amity wanted to forget.

Amity took a sip of her wine directly from the bottle. Because she didn’t prepare having glasses in her room either. It was evening, and Amity had been buried in her textbooks all afternoon to attempt to forget about everything and finish her homework.

But she couldn’t forget about Luz.

And she couldn’t forget about the fact that she left Luz on read. She really hoped that Luz would have a bit of faith in her, but with Amity’s track record, it wasn’t a given. And she hoped that Luz didn’t send her any more messages, because that would make it even worse. She especially hoped Luz didn’t call her. Because that would be the end. She knew how it looked.

Her heart dropped deeper the more she thought about it. The more she thought about how it might hurt Luz.

Normally being locked in her room had no real consequences for her social life. Her friends knew Amity was bad with messages during the weekend so they never got worried about her not answering. Amity never told them the reason she’d something go MIA, so she let them believe she was a shitty texter. 

But Luz didn’t know that. Luz didn’t know her parents sometimes locked her up without food or water. Consequences that she didn’t tell Luz about because she couldn’t. Because she couldn’t reveal what her parents did to her. Because she had to maintain the image of a perfect family life. Because it could’ve made Luz worried, or angry; not that Luz would’ve cared.

But now she did probably care. Amity should’ve told her this morning, just in case. That was one of the consequences she could reveal to her. Not the others, but that one, she could’ve. She’d tell her next time. If there even was a next time, if Luz would forgive her. 

Amity’s eyes shut tight. She took another sip of her wine.

Wine. It was wine this time. Last time, tequila. But she had finished the bottle. Now she only had wine.

Wine to replace dinner, wine to coat her thoughts and make them more bearable.

Pathetic

Her mother’s voice rang in her ears at some points in the afternoon.

Not good enough

They buzzed in her mind in the evening too.

Tequila would’ve been nice right now. It hit different. It was easier to forget. But wine was a solid choice too. She could drink more of it in one go, and her stomach was growling. So sips of wine replacing the food she needed was the best choice right now.

At nighttime, she decided to sit on the windowsill and cozy up with a novel.

But she couldn’t help the small tears pooling behind her eyes with all the emotions she was feeling, but also when remembering what her parents did that one time.

It was her favorite book. Her childhood favorite book. The Good Player Azura. She’d read it when she was sad, when she wanted to escape reality for a bit and cuddle up with warm tea and a fictional world she felt safe in. 

When her parents would lock her up for whole weekends, it was the book saga she’d revert to, to feel better, because she loved the story and identified with the characters. Azura who wanted to be the best soccer player. A romance story too, an enemies to lovers. She secretly ate up romance stories.

Amity chuckled a sad, dejected chuckle when she thought of her own life currently. Her faint chuckle quickly died down.

Once, her mother came barging into her room and she noticed Amity wasn’t doing homework right after school. But Amity was reading because she needed her safe space knowing consequences were coming. 

So her mother snatched the book from her hands and pulled Amity by the hair outside the room. She pushed her down the stairs and pulled her until they were in front of the fireplace. Her mother then proceeded to rip the book in front of her and throw the pieces in the fire. 

Amity felt tears burning behind her eyes, but couldn’t cry on the spot. But once in her room, she sobbed, silently. It was her favorite book.

On the windowsill, Amity pressed the second Azura book against her chest. The remaining three books in the saga were hidden in the back of her wardrobe too. She couldn’t risk her mother finding fiction books with colored covers anymore. She only read them around midnight when she knew the house was sleeping. And so she read the second book now, because she needed to dive into a world she loved, because she didn’t love her world now.

But the second book had the whole enemies to lovers plot line.

Amity’s eyes shut tight again. She couldn’t read it. Not now. Not with the thoughts of Luz flowing in her mind, like stars lighting up the dark, like a sun shining in the night. She looked out the window to see stars and they reminded her of Luz’s beautiful tattoo. She had never complimented it before. She would next time. If Luz still wanted to talk to her.

Amity’s eyes shut tighter. She had brought the wine with her to the windowsill, so she took another sip. Then another. And it helped.

Not good enough

A part of Amity did believe she wasn’t good enough. Her mother had been saying it for years and years. Drilled in her head since she was a child. She couldn’t help that part of her that believed it, that little girl in her that got berated every time she wasn’t good enough. That stuck. She could do better, get more A+’s, score more goals at soccer, like guys.

She could like guys. But she had never liked guys. But she tried. One of the reasons she agreed to going on dates that her friends set up for her was so she could at least try to like the guys, to prove that she could like them, but it never worked. Another part was to appear straight, because she didn’t like the guys, but she had to at least pretend to be open to the idea. Because she couldn’t be gay. Not Amity Blight. And especially not with a delinquent like Luz Noceda.

Amity released a deep, dejected breath. A delinquent like Luz Noceda. Luz wasn’t a delinquent. At least, not in Amity’s eyes anymore. Luz was more than that. Luz was way more than that.

But she had a reputation. A reputation Amity didn’t think she’d care about so much if she didn’t need to appear so perfect. And even then, Luz had a new reputation: amazing soccer player on the Varsity team. Now that was a good reputation. A great reputation. So Amity would’ve cared even less about being public with Luz.

Being in a relationship with Luz.

She had to hide it. If it was even still in tact.

Amity took another swig from the bottle.

She fell asleep, wishing she was drunker, but she was a heavyweight, because she drank a lot, alone.

She woke up to loud knocks on the door.

Her mother’s shrill voice pierced through the wood.

“You’re going on a date. Be ready in thirty minutes,” she said as she unlocked the door.

Amity’s slight headache reminded her of the wine. She grunted. But she immediately remembered Luz, because how could she forget?

Then her eyes shut in more sadness, because she was going on a date, when she was in a relationship with Luz.

It wouldn’t mean anything at all, but how could she pretend to be present when her heart was somewhere else?

She slowly got out of the bed and picked an outfit she knew her parents would approve of. A classy top and respectable skirt. No Varsity jacket on a date. Varsity jacket that didn’t have the scent of Luz anymore from that time she wore it on the pitch at night.

She grabbed the clothes from the party that had been discarded near her wardrobe to put them in the hamper when she saw a round shape in one of the pockets. Curious, she reached in to find out what it was.

She froze upon finding a beer cap. Then she remembered. She had put in her pocket the beer cap that Luz had handed her after the ring trick.

Amity clutched it in her hand, then pressed it against her heart. And then she put it in the pocket of the jacket she’d be wearing on the date.

After taking a well-needed shower, putting on make-up and getting dressed, she looked, objectively, amazing. She had to look good. Otherwise her mother would make her change until she did.

She arrived downstairs looking on fire where her parents were ready and waiting for her. They were going to attend a business brunch meeting with some partners, and one of the partners had a son.

“You could do better. But it’ll do for this time. Let’s go.”

A part of Amity hoped her mother would give her her phone back. Wishful thinking.

And she was reminded of her phone being held hostage as she sat in the back of the car.

“Who is Luz Noceda?”

Amity’s eyes shot open. She froze. And for some reason she knew that was a trick question, because, based on what Amity knew of her parents, they had their sources, and probably knew exactly who Luz Noceda was at school.

“A teammate. She’s a forward on the soccer team.”

“She texted and called yesterday. Care to explain why?”

“She’s also my classmate. She probably had a question on the project we’re working on together.”

Amity held her breath. She waited for her parents to say that they knew Luz was a delinquent. But they weren’t saying anything.

The silence was too tense. Amity felt too compelled to add, “She’s one of the best players on the team. She’s a good teammate. We play very well together.”

Odalia eyed her from the rearview mirror as she kept driving.

Now Amity was even more scared of her parents finding out Luz was actually her girlfriend. Amity sucked in a worried breath. They had to be a secret.

Amity’s father was too occupied with drawing blueprints in his notebook. He was always buried in his work. Always. Even at the dinner table he could barely look up from his work. Amity couldn’t rely on him for anything. They barely ever talked. And that kind of made Amity sad. She kind of wanted to have at least a somewhat relationship with him. But he never defended her, because he barely knew what was going on. Amity didn’t even know whether he’d defend her anyway. Because Odalia had her claws everywhere.

“How is soccer?”

“Excellent. We won all our matches so far.”

“Have you been scoring?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Every time?”

Amity’s jaw clenched. She knew to avoid saying she got injured during the last game, because all her mother would say was, ‘You need to be more careful next time.’ She didn’t understand the mechanics of soccer so she’d of course put all the blame on Amity.

“The last match I assisted Luz Noceda’s first goal.” Which was true. They always assisted each other. Expertly.

Odalia eyed her from the mirror again.

“Score next time.”

That was a threat. Amity knew.

“Yes, Mother.”

Not long after, the rest of the trip filled with tense silence, they arrived at the restaurant.

They all said their greetings when the last set of parents arrived. With the son.

Objectively handsome. But he looked like the biggest douche. With the smuggest grin. And the strongest handshake.

“Amity Blight,” he greeted, “It’s an honor.”

Disgusting.

“The pleasure is mine,” Amity said with a smile.

The waiter proceeded to place them at a table separate from, but within eyesight of the parents. 

Amity’s tone was sweet, her laughs were gentle, her smile was bright, and at times, seductive. Because Odalia was watching.

The guy talked about the most random things that came to mind. Terrible conversationalist. Barely asked any questions. But good, because Amity wasn’t interested at all in answering, so she let the guy go on his tangents and half-listened, half-thought about all the things she’d rather be doing.

At one point, his hand reached out above the table, expecting Amity to hold it. Amity extended her hand until it landed on his. She cringed at the clamminess, and, it just felt wrong. So wrong. Because she wanted to hold someone else’s hand. 

With her free hand, she reached into her pocket and squeezed the beer cap. It was cold to the touch, but it warmed Amity’s heart.

The food arrived, and Amity was starving. But she couldn’t scarf down her food as she had to keep her composure. She glanced over at Odalia, who held the most subtle smirk as she looked at her. So Amity took small bites, and each bite rejuvenated her stomach and her soul.

“And there was this one halloween party where I dressed as a vampire. And trust me, I looked good as a vampire. Girls were all over me. Apparently I looked better than this Edwin guy in that movie. I bet you like vampires too.” He winked. “Do you want to see pictures?”

Amity’s eyes wanted to roll back to her brain. But at least she found the nickname she’d give to her friends when she’d bitch about the date: Vampire.

“I’d love to! I already know you looked so handsome.”

He smirked. “I might show you in person next time. I’ll bring the fangs. You bring your neck.”

Amity gagged.

“Sounds delicious.” She smiled. “But I’m so busy with schoolwork and soccer. It might be a bit hard for me to keep in touch.”

“I think we’ll be in touch.” He grinned. “Our parents are getting closer now that they struck a deal. We’ll probably have more brunches together. Isn’t that amazing? You’re so hot, babe. I’m so hot, too. Power couple.”

Amity recoiled internally. She wanted to slap him across the face.

“That’s great news.” She smiled.

Dessert arrived but it tasted sour on Amity’s tongue. The entire date tasted sour. She hated every second of it.

At the end when they stood up, he leaned in for a kiss.

Amity couldn’t do it. She quickly took a step back. Think quick.

She winked. “I don’t kiss on the first date, mister.”

He grinned. “You’re such a tease. When are we seeing each other next?”

“Oh, I don’t know. As much as I’d love to keep in touch, I truly am busy. I am Top Student and Captain of the soccer team, after all. Don’t you find that attractive?”

“Absolutely, babe. You’re ambitious, it’s so sexy.”

“Thank you.” She winked. “So yes, I’m sorry to be such a tease.” She winked again.

“Hopefully we’ll see each other at the next brunch, though.”

“I’ll be dreaming of it, babe.”

“Bye, Amity. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“The pleasure was all mine.”

Amity quickly stepped away to join her parents by their car.

She got in without one word.

Once they were on the road, Odalia asked her about the date with a cheery tone.

“It went well! Though one thing I noted is that he might not be serious about his studies and I don’t believe he does any extracurriculars. I think another man would be better suited for me.”

“You’ll try again with him soon. He looks so charming, no? Confirm he’s indeed not serious enough, then we’ll see. You need someone ambitious, with drive, that will pull you up. You need it. Don’t worry, dear, we’ll find you the right man. Are you excited to find the one?”

Amity smiled. “Yes, Mother. I am excited to find the one.”

But sadness spread across her face when her mother wasn’t looking. Because she already found the one for her.

Amity still hadn’t answered. It was Sunday evening, a day had passed since Amity left Luz on read.

Luz lost hope.

Amity wanted to forget. 

Luz thought about the next morning, when she’d see Amity in class. She wouldn’t be able to look her in the eyes. Then she thought about on the pitch, and wondered whether their connection would be broken, and what that meant for the team. 

If Amity wanted to forget, how should Luz act? She should just pretend everything was fine. For the sake of the team. She had already pretended their Truth conversation never happened, now she had to pretend their Dare never happened either. How could she act okay when her relationship ended before it even really began? She’d have to suck it up.

She’d see tomorrow.

And tomorrow came. 

Chapter Text

On Monday morning, Luz sucked in a breath as she approached the classroom. She and Willow were almost late, so they had to rush in.

She avoided looking at the front row upon entering the room. And she avoided looking at the front row during the entire class.

When the bell rang, she rushed out. But Amity was by the door.

“I can explain everything.”

Luz didn’t meet her eyes. “Don’t bother.”

“But—”

“Don’t.” And she walked away.

Willow immediately asked her what that was about.

“Nothing.”

“But—”

“It’s nothing, Willow. Please, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Willow didn’t have the chance to answer before Luz turned the corner to go to her next class.

Her pulse sped up. What did Amity mean when she could explain everything? What was there to explain? Amity wanted to forget, that was that. End of the conversation. Amity didn’t need to tell it to Luz’s face for her to understand. She didn’t want to hear Amity break up with her in person. The ghosting was more than enough to get the message across.

She shut her eyes. Nothing left to say.

Amity had waited for Luz by the entrance of their first class but the bell was about to ring so she had to sit down. Luz arrived right before the bell rang. Amity’s head perked up but Luz didn’t see her.

During class, Amity, uncharacteristically, had trouble focusing. Because she was thinking of what to say, how to say it, when. She’d wait for Luz by the door as soon as the bell rang. She wanted, needed, to tell Luz exactly why she couldn’t answer during the weekend. Her parents still had her phone, so she couldn’t even text her yet to explain it by message.

Her head turned around a couple of times to see whether Luz would meet her eyes, but she never did. That worried Amity even more. Her not answering must have really hurt Luz. If Luz ignored her all weekend, that would’ve hurt Amity as well. Because as much as their relationship was new, the real feelings had actually been fostering for a good while. Had they kissed, and became girlfriends, only to be ignored after? Amity didn’t know how she’d react. But she knew she’d be really, really sad.

She didn’t even know what Luz had sent, why she had called. But she wanted to know. So she was determined to find out, and was determined to clear things up.

She waited for her by the door as soon as the bell rang.

“I can explain everything.”

But Luz didn’t even look at her.

“Don’t bother.”

“But—”

“Don’t.”

Amity’s heart fell a bit. Luz must really be hurt. That truly saddened Amity. She thought about going after her. But then she saw Luz go around the corner, and Willow planted in the middle of the hallway. She looked around until she saw Amity. Willow looked at her with an unreadable expression, but there was a slight squint.

Oh, no. Luz must’ve told her friends everything. They must all hate her. Not that Amity cared that much, but they were Luz’s best friends, so Amity by proxy cared just a bit.

She went the other way, toward her next class.

At lunch, she told her friends she was heading to the library, but in reality went around the school to search for Luz. She couldn’t find her. She found her friends outside at the benches, but Luz wasn’t with them. She hesitated asking them where she was.

But Amity was determined, so she went up to them.

“Hi.”

All their eyes widened.

Right. She was still the feared Amity Blight. But now she was the Amity Blight looking for their friend.

“Listen, do you know where Noceda is?”

Hunter instantly said, “She said she was going to the library.”

Gus nodded vehemently. “Yes.”

Willow didn’t say anything.

“Thanks.” Amity spun around on her heel, direction: the library.

But Luz wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

Fine. Soccer practice it was.

She got dressed in her soccer training uniform at record speed to wait for Luz outside the locker room. But practice was about to start, so she had to head out to the pitch.

Luz arrived dead on time. Amity couldn’t approach her yet because they had to start warming up. But after warming up, she tried.

“Hey, can we talk?”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“Please, let me explain.”

But Luz didn’t reply, she continued jogging.

Luz avoided her during the drills, and Amity couldn’t just blurt out what happened because there were always teammates around, so she couldn’t explain it unless she and Luz went to the side and spoke privately. But Luz clearly wasn’t wanting that. So Amity had to wait.

Then it was time for practice matches.

And they felt the difference.

They were out of sync.

It wasn’t enough to be noticeable from an outside perspective because their connection on the pitch was truly good regardless, just like when they were enemies, but it was enough for them to feel it, and they had to adapt to the new asynchrony between them. 

They didn’t even think about attempting the more complex combos because they knew they just wouldn’t work, not like this. The simpler, yet great, combos they did excel at, because both were excellent players, but they still felt out of sync. And that made Amity so sad. 

When practice was over and they were in the locker room, Amity couldn’t just accost Luz while she was changing, so she decided to get dressed quickly and wait for her by her motorbike.

Luz finally arrived, and still refused to meet her eyes.

“Can we please talk?”

“We don’t need to. I got it. You don’t have to break it down for me, Blight.”

Ouch. That ‘Blight’ cut.

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Save it.”

Amity clenched her jaw.

“I don’t have my phone!”

“Bullshit, you hung up on me.”

“That wasn’t me!”

Luz scoffed. “Who was it then?”

Amity released a breath. 

“My mother.”

Luz paused. Her brows furrowed. Her voice gentled a bit.

“What do you mean?”

Amity sighed. She had to explain.

“My mother took my phone away. She still has it.”

“But why?”

“Consequences.” Her lips tugged downward. “I’m sorry.”

Luz stayed silent for a moment.

“Okay.” She released a breath. “What happened?”

Amity’s eyes widened a bit. Luz finally wanted to talk? 

Quick. Amity rushed to say, “She locked me in my room without my phone or computer.”

Luz immediately furrowed her brows. “What? Why?”

Amity glanced away. “Consequences.” She released a deep breath. “Remember how I said I only got A’s on my Calculus tests? How my mom would notice?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, she noticed. And as a punishment, she took my phone away before I could answer you. And she locked me in my room. She took my computer too. So I couldn’t even find you on social media to explain. I’m sorry.”

Luz looked at her, in concern.

What?

Amity was locked in her room all weekend?

“Are you okay?” was the first thing that popped to mind.

“Yeah.” She glanced away. “I’m used to it.”

“You’re used to being locked in your room?”

Amity sighed. “Yeah.”

“Does she give you food and water at least?”

Amity glanced away again. “No.”

Luz’s brows furrowed deeper.

“What the fuck?”

“I know… But it’s fine, I’m used to it.”

“Going days without vital necessities?”

“Hey, I had wine this time.” She chuckled, but it was a sad chuckle. 

Luz frowned. “Amity, that’s horrible. I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize it was so bad at yours.”

“It’s fine, I live. But anyway, that’s why I couldn’t answer. I’m sorry I didn’t answer your first message immediately. I wanted to reply something witty when I was in my room, but my parents came home earlier and my mom took my phone as soon as I walked into the house.”

Luz released a deep breath. That really explained it. She released an even deeper breath.

“So you really weren’t ignoring me all weekend?”

Amity gave her a small smile. “No, Noceda. I wasn’t ignoring you at all.” She looked away. A hint of a blush appeared on her cheeks. “I actually thought about you a lot.”

Luz blushed a bit as well. “I thought about you a lot too.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “But, like, it was sad. I was sad. I thought you wanted to forget the whole thing.”

“I could never,” Amity immediately said. “I don’t want to forget about you. About… us. I want to remember.”

Luz finally released a smile. “I want to remember too.”

Amity bit her lip. “Truth.”

A sparkle lit up in Luz’s eyes. “Truth.”

They smiled at each other. 

Amity hesitated extending her hand to hold Luz’s, but then she remembered that she couldn’t. Because they were in public. That made her so sad.

Luz realized the same thing. She couldn’t hold Amity’s hand in public. That made her so sad too.

But Amity looked around, and saw no one. So she hesitantly approached Luz. She looked around again, and upon still not seeing anyone, she planted a kiss on Luz’s cheek.

Luz couldn’t contain her smile. She bit her lip.

“You really just kiss my cheek, Blight?”

That ‘Blight’ sounded so sweet.

“Sue me, Noceda.”

It felt good. They chuckled.

But then Luz’s chuckle died down.

“I’m sorry about what’s happening at yours.”

Amity faintly shrugged. “That’s not the worst thing that can happen.” 

“What do you mean?”

Amity sighed. “I’ll tell you about it another time, okay?” And she would tell Luz. Because she didn’t want to hide things from her. “I have to get back to mine before my parents find it suspicious.”

Luz nodded, but her face still revealed concern.

“You’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be okay.”

They shared a faint smile. 

Amity reached out to hold Luz’s hand. She squeezed it.

Their smiles brightened.

“Bye, Noceda.”

“See you tomorrow, Blight.”

And Amity rushed toward her car.

Luz watched as she pulled out of her spot and drove away.

She released a deep breath. Then she smiled a smile so bright the sun in the sky was jealous.

We’re back! She still likes me!!

Amity’s smile was so silly on her way home.

We’re back! She still wants to be with me!!

The next morning, Luz arrived in front of the school with a bright grin.

She wanted to tell her friends in person so didn’t mention anything on the group chat yesterday.

“Bitches, you’ll never believe.” Then she paused. “Or, you might believe.” She squinted. “Bitches.”

But her friends were staring at her.

“What?”

“So, Amity came up to us yesterday,” Hunter said.

“What?” Luz’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

Gus said, “Because it didn’t seem like the right time.”

Willow elbowed him discreetly. He winced.

“But so yes, she came up to us to ask where you were,” Hunter said.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck. She bit her lip, but didn’t even try resisting her smile.

“About that… I got some news. It’s about Blight. But this needs unpacking, so I’ll tell you at lunch.”

Their jaws dropped.

Hunter said, “What the fuck?” 

Luz winked. “Let’s go in before we’re late.”

She led the way. The friends looked at each other, eyes wide.

Willow caught up to Luz.

“You have to tell me right now.”

Luz’s grin was bright. “I’ll tell you later.”

Her smile got even brighter upon seeing Amity at the front row.

Amity smiled brightly at her too. She waved a tiny wave.

Luz shot her finger guns.

Amity chuckled.

Willow gasped.

“There’s no way,” she whispered to Luz once they sat at their desks.

Luz wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ll tell you guys later.”

Willow’s jaw loosened.

“There’s no way!”

Luz laughed.

The bell rang but Willow was still staring at Luz intently.

She shrugged and stuck her tongue out.

Amity couldn’t help but turn her head once or twice in class. And she was met with goofy smiles every time, that she returned of course. Because she couldn’t help it.

After class, Amity waited for Luz by the door.

“Noceda,” Amity said as her usual greeting. It sounded so sweet. “How’s it going?”

“Blight! I’m great, and you?”

“Not too bad, thanks.”

Oh how they wish they could kiss.

But their relationship was a secret. And Luz was starting to find it fun. Amity as well. Might as well find the humor in it. Luz winked at her. Amity bit her lip and tried stifling her smile as she looked around them to see whether anyone noticed. 

And Willow noticed.

Amity’s lips formed a thin line. But she knew that Willow knew at that point. So she smiled at her.

Willow’s eyes popped out of their sockets. Did Amity Blight just smile at her?

What in the fuck was going on???

She was absolutely going to barrage Luz with questions. But Luz blinked and stuck her tongue out again before saying, “Gotta get to class, byeeee.”

“Spill the freaking tea,” Willow said. She couldn’t take the suspense anymore. They were outside the school eating on the benches. Luz had her sandwich in hand as she stood in front of them.

Hunter couldn’t take the suspense either, “Please, you’re killing us.”

Gus nodded, though his eyes were a bit wide. “What did Amity do?”

Luz grinned.

“So, Blight and I, we’re in a relationship.”

“WHAT?” the three of them exclaimed. Jaws dropped.

“How? What?”

“When? where?”

“For real?”

 Luz chuckled. “Guys, guys, calm down.”

“How can we calm down?? Is Lumity actually canon?” Hunter asked.

“Wh— Lumity? Really?” Luz laughed. “You dumbass,” she said. “But yes. We are together.”

Jaws on the floor.

“But, how? When did that happen?” Hunter asked, he was shocked, yet grinning.

“Tell us every single detail, Luz, right now!” Willow said. She was evidently excited.

Gus’ lips were quirked up, incredulous. “I can’t believe you guys were right.”

Hunter patted him on the back. “Of course we were fucking right!”

Luz laughed. “I still can’t believe you bitches have been shipping us from the start. You happy now?”

“Absolutely,” Hunter said. He high-fived Willow. “Let’s go!”

“Okay now details,” Willow said.

“So, it started at the before-last party, at Skara’s.”

Hunter squinted. “That long ago? How did you keep this a secret from us??”

“Because nothing really happened then. Amity was drunk as fuck, me too, we revealed that we maybe liked each other, but she forgot the next morning,” she said. “Or so I thought.”

Gus said, “What do you mean?”

“She pretended to forget, but wait, I’m skipping details!” She chuckled. 

“So, after that party, I kind of had to pretend that nothing happened between us. And it was weird, because we literally fell asleep beside each other in the same bed. But I woke up first and went to the living room and waited to see whether she’d mention anything upon waking up. But she didn’t mention anything, so I pretended nothing happened.”

“And so she was just pretending to forget?” Willow asked.

“Yes.”

“And you went along with it?”

“Yes. But like, nothing happened. It didn’t mean anything, right? We were so drunk and weren’t thinking straight.”

Hunter snickered.

“Hunter, shut the fuck up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

Luz squinted. But she was grinning.

“Anyway, after that, things kind of changed between us. Wait no, I’m forgetting something, sorry the timeline is a mess. Before that party, I started seeing Blight in a different light. Like, I realized that she’s not that much of a bitch, and she’s not as stuck-up as I thought, she actually does have a fun side, she can actually be nice, and it was going so well on the pitch, we were so connected, and she’s a great captain who uplifts everybody—”

Luz cleared her throat. “Anyway, she started seeing me in a different light too, like she realized I’m not this dangerous criminal who commits unforgivable crimes, and that my fun side is actually cool. Because of course it is.” Luz smirked.

“So we were starting to be more friendly. So it did make sense when we revealed that we maybe liked each other. At least, it made drunken sense. Anyway! Things got even better between us after that. We were playing even better on the pitch, we started joking around together, we bantered a lot together, and it was just going so smoothly with her—”

“And why didn’t you mention any of this to us?” Willow asked.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess I was still in denial? Because it’s just so crazy, the thought of me and Blight getting on so well together, right? It’s crazy.”

Hunter smirked. “Fucking called it.”

“Hunter, shut the fuck up.”

He raised his hands in the ‘I’m innocent’ way. But he stuck his tongue out.

Luz stuck her tongue out as well. Then she smiled, bashfully.

“We got to opening up a bit more about our lives.” She rubbed her left arm.

Willow in particular noticed the gesture. She raised her eyebrow subtly at Luz. Luz nodded. Willow’s eyebrows lifted. Luz smiled.

“So we just got to talking more, and laughing more, she can actually be quite fun, and nice—”

She cleared her throat.

“But I guess I was still in denial, yeah. So cut to last Friday’s party. We talked more, we laughed more, we destroyed some guys at fear pong, we drank shots together, and then you bitches left me to rot at the party.”

Hunter and Willow stifled smirks.

“It was their idea,” Gus said.

Luz rolled her eyes, but her grin was so obvious.

“Well, there was only one bed left.”

“Shut up,” Willow said.

Hunter laughed. “Really? How many tropes can one tick off?”

“Hunter, care to explain how you know so much about fanfiction tropes?”

He shut right the fuck up.

“Anyway, we had no choice! We had to sleep in the same bed.”

Gus smirked. “There’s always a choice.”

“Me sleeping on the floor? Sure, great choice.”

“Hey, if you really didn’t want to sleep next to Amity, you’d have slept in the bathtub or something.”

Luz blinked. He did have a point.

She squinted at him.

“Anyway! She dared me to kiss her.”

“She did WHAT?” the three of them exclaimed.

“Yep, after Blight revealed that she actually remembered our entire conversation, she dared me to kiss her.”

“And did you??” Gus asked.

Luz smiled bashfully at the memory. “I did. And it was amazing.”

Willow and Hunter had twinkles in their eyes.

“Then we slept in each other’s arms.”

“Aaaawww!” they said.

Luz couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah.”

“And what happened in the morning?” Gus asked.

“I was so scared she’d pretend to forget everything again. But she didn’t. And it was just so sweet. But then when we were in the kitchen, I tried to hold her hand but Skara was there. When she left, Amity told me that we couldn’t be in a relationship, because, like, her reputation.”

“What do you mean?” Willow asked.

“Complicated. But so I was like, ‘shit the kiss meant nothing’ but then she said that she did want to be in a relationship with me. But it would have to be secret.”

Her smile fell a bit.

Hunter said, “She doesn’t want anyone to know that you two are together? Isn’t that kind of fucked up?”

Luz sighed. “It’s complicated. But just trust me on this guys, it’s better this way.” Then her smile came back. “And a secret relationship is kinda spicy though when you think about it. Besides, the school would explode if Amity Blight and Luz Noceda got into a relationship.”

Hunter chuckled. “You fucking bet!”

“But so yeah, I guess that’s it. Me and Amity are in a secret relationship.”

The friends were gobsmacked.

“Wow,” they said.

Then Willow cheered, “Congratulations!”

“Yeah!” Gus said.

Hunter said, “Our girl has a girlfriend! Woooh!”

Luz laughed. “Shut up guys, I repeat: secret.”

“Right, right.”

Then Gus said, “So that’s why Amity came up to us asking where you were yesterday.”

“Yeah.” 

“But you seemed sad yesterday.”

Willow elbowed him discreetly. He winced.

Luz was absolutely not about to reveal anything about Amity’s private life to her friends, so she was intentionally skipping the whole weekend debacle.

So she just looked Hunter in the eye and said, “Miscommunication trope.”

He stifled a laugh. That made the others laugh. Luz laughed as well.

She took a bite of her sandwich. Then she said, “It’s still crazy to think about, Blight and me.”

Hunter said, “Hey, jokes aside, we knew there was something between you two.”

“But, how? You guys knew even before I did. Was it that obvious?”

“Yeah, it really was. You just hated her too much.”

“And you read too much Galactic Frontier fanfiction.”

Hunter scoffed. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

Hunter shrugged. Then he stuck his tongue out. “I still win the bet. Give it up, Gus.”

Gus squinted before reaching into his pocket.

“Easiest ten bucks of my life.”

Luz laughed. “There’s no way you bet money on my relationship with Blight.”

“I tell you I could see it.”

“Can you see this?” Luz stuck her middle finger up.

Hunter laughed. Luz chuckled back.

“So, secret relationship, huh. Does she know we know?” Gus asked.

“Yeah, she knows I’d tell you.”

“Who else knows?”

“Skara for sure, she’s too perceptive. I don’t know about Boscha though.”

“Hm, okay, well, then how do we act with Amity now?”

“Gus, you don’t have to be scared of her anymore.”

Gus’ eyes widened slightly. “I’m not scared of her.”

“Gus.”

“Okay, but can you blame me?”

Luz chuckled. “No. But with me, she can be such a softie I swear, like I’m actually surprised at how soft she can be.”

“Aaaawww.” Hunter and Willow swooned.

“Shut up,” she said.

“Incoming!” Hunter whispered.

Luz turned around to see what her friends were staring at, when she saw Amity, her friends, and some of the basketball guys exiting the school to go toward some benches.

She smiled instinctively, and waited a bit to see whether Amity would notice her.

And she did. Her smile was instinctive as well.

Once at the benches, Amity had a hard time keeping the smile off her face. Skara eyed her, because she had noticed Luz as well.

“Don’t you need to talk strategy with Luz?” she said, rather loudly.

Amity’s eyes widened subtly. 

But Skara held a small smile. “Coach Eda mentioned a new tactic yesterday. Better be prepared for practice later, right?”

Skara, you sneaky sneaky bitch.

“Right.”

Skara winked before Amity headed off toward Luz with an expertly-suppressed smile.

“Noceda,” she greeted as she arrived. Luz jumped at the sound, but her face lit up at recognizing the voice.

“Blight,” she replied.

“Noceda’s friends,” she greeted the friends as well. “Hunter, Willow, and Gus.”

Their eyes were wide. Because as much as they teased Luz about Amity, Amity was still the Amity Blight, force to reckon with.

But Amity smiled at them. So they relaxed.

“You know?” she asked them.

They nodded.

Her face turned dead serious. “Keep it shut.”

They nodded with more force.

Then she chuckled. “Good.”

Luz was stifling a grin at the interaction. Amity could be so scary.

“We need to talk tactics,” Amity told Luz.

“Tactics?”

Amity winked. But then her cheeks heated up a bit. She just winked at Luz. When would she get used to anything?

“Ooooh, tactics.” Luz winked back. But her face felt hot. She just winked at Amity. When would she get used to anything?

They stepped away from Luz’s friends until they were outside of earshot.

“Is it weird if I say that I kinda missed you?”

“Eeeewww Blight eeeewwww.” Luz faked recoiling.

Amity shoved her lightly while stifling a grin. “Shut up, you little shit.”

Luz giggled. “Hey, ow, ow! So ruthless.”

Amity smirked. “Deserved.”

Luz stuck her tongue out. “I never deserve violence.”

“Your tomfoolery deserves what then? Praise? I’ve got none for you.”

“Well I praise my own patience because with you it is so needed sometimes.”

Amity narrowed her eyes, but it was accompanied by a grin.

“You’re so stupid.”

“You’re stupider.”

Amity looked at her like she was indeed stupid.

Luz wiggled her eyebrows. “Come back from that!”

Amity deadpanned, but ended up chuckling.

“Seriously… I kinda missed you.”

“I kinda missed you too.”

They smiled all goofy at each other.

Then Luz’s face fell a bit, and her tone became more serious. 

“How’s it going at home?”

Amity sighed. “She still has my phone and computer, but at least I’m not locked in my room anymore. I can actually go get some food and water.”

Then Amity remembered the brunch date she had the other day. Should she mention it? It meant nothing. But she didn’t want to hide things from Luz anymore.

“My parents set me up on a date last Sunday.”

Luz furrowed her brows. “Oh.”

“It was with the son of one of their business partners.”

“… How’d it go?”

“Terribly. He was an absolute ass. Couldn’t stand it.” She chuckled. “It was actually so bad.”

Luz didn’t know whether she should chuckle or not.

“So you didn’t… like it?”

Amity actually laughed. “Of course not. Besides”—she rubbed the back of her hot neck—“you’re the one I like.”

Now Luz smiled. “Okay. Okay.”

Then Amity looked at Luz seriously. “Hey, it won’t be the last time I have to go on a date, but I promise they mean nothing to me. I hope you know that.”

Amity wanted so badly to reach for Luz’s hand, but she couldn’t.

Luz felt the same.

“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”

Then she grinned a bit. “So, terrible you say?”

Amity chuckled. “Terrible.” She raised her eyebrow. “Do you want to know?”

“Yeah! Come on Blight, make me chuckle.”

Amity smirked. “Get this.”

She proceeded to talk about the horrible date, how he kept talking about the most random shit, how cocky he was, how he kept calling Amity “babe” with the douchiest tone and smirk— Luz gagged at that — how he tried to kiss her at the end — Luz held her breath at that — how Amity smoothly rejected him — Luz sighed in relief at that — Amity paused.

“You really thought I’d kiss him?”

Luz raised her hands in defense. “I don’t know what your parents force you to do!”

Amity scoffed. But then she nodded. “That’s fair, actually. But no, I didn’t kiss him. God no.”

Luz re-released a sigh of relief.

Amity rolled her eyes playfully. Then she bit her lip.

“There’s only one person I want to kiss.”

Luz held the silliest grin. “Oh yeah? Who’s that?”

“She’s this really annoying hooligan who never knows when to shut up.”

Luz laughed. “Blight!” She shoved her lightly.

Amity released her laugh. “Ouch. She’s so violent too.”

“Warranted.”

When their laughter calmed, Amity noted that the bell would ring soon and that they’d have to go.

Luz pouted.

Amity got an idea. 

“Let’s have a project meeting tomorrow.”

Luz’s face lit up. 

“Never thought I’d ever be excited about studying. Ever.”

Amity shook her head, amused. “Well be excited, because we do actually have to finish our project.”

Luz nodded, “For sure for sure. But, I’m excited”—she averted her gaze—“to spend some time with you.” Her cheeks lit up a bit. It was so weird being all sweet, she’d really have to get used to it. But how could she? Amity Blight was her girlfriend.

“Ew Noceda eeewww.”

Luz scoffed. “Little shit!”

Amity giggled. Her cheeks lit up a bit as well, because who was she kidding, Luz made her feel all giddy inside, she was her girlfriend. “I’m excited to spend some time with you too.”

Then Luz had an idea. She bit her lip before saying, “Actually, would you want to come over to mine instead of the Owl Café?”

Amity’s eyes widened slightly. “Um-yeah, yeah, that is quite a good idea. A quiet space could be conducive to better concentration, meaning a more fruitful session. Yes, fine idea.”

Luz laughed lightly. But she turned shy. Did she just invite Amity over? And she said yes? Well, too late to back down now.

“Good, cool, yeah, nice, awesome.”

They gazed at each other bashfully, badly-suppressed joy on their faces, before parting ways toward their respective friends.

“Luz, you’re so obvious.” Hunter said when she arrived in front of them at the benches.

Luz’s eyes widened. “Really?”

He snickered. “Your eyes twinkle when she’s around.”

Luz’s cheeks instantly flushed. “N-nah. Not true.”

Gus and Willow stifled smirks.

Hunter didn’t stifle his. “Yes true.” 

“Not true.”

“Look at the school.”

She glanced to the side to see Amity and her friends entering the school.

Maybe her face did soften a bit, and maybe her gaze lingered a second too long.

She looked back at her friends.

They laughed.

She blinked.

“Let’s go in before the bell rings.”

They acquiesced, and finally, finally changed the subject.

Amity and her friends made their way towards their classes. She was walking behind the group with Skara by her side. 

Skara nudged her, amusement in her quiet voice. “How’d it go?” 

Amity blinked. She didn’t know whether she wanted to gently whack Skara on the shoulder, or thank her sincerely for the cover-up. Maybe a bit of both. Though, especially the latter.

She averted her gaze, and mumbled, “Thanks.”

Skara smiled brightly. “No problem." She whispered, "Will you finally tell me what happened between you two?”

Oh right. Amity hadn’t told Skara yet about what happened at the party, and everything that ensued. Did she want to? Could she keep such a meaningful secret from her? Amity released a deep breath.

Skara was a good friend. Giving an excuse just so Amity could slip away to go talk to Luz? Even without knowing that that was what Amity wanted? A chance to talk to her secret girlfriend? Skara probably didn’t realize that Luz and Amity were actually in a relationship, but she knew that something was going on, and she knew that Amity needed backup to make sure that something stayed private.

Skara was a great friend. And that kind of took Amity aback. She actually felt like it was safe enough to tell her. Maybe Amity would tell her. Maybe she should.

Amity released a deep breath. And as a reply, she gave Skara the smallest smile.

Skara squealed for a second then she quieted down to not look suspicious.

“Finally!!” she whispered as they entered the classroom.

Amity rolled her eyes. But she smiled. And it lingered when she thought about how she’d see Luz at practice later on. Her secret girlfriend. Because they were supposed to be a secret. Because they couldn’t just talk and hold hands and kiss in public, because they were a secret.

Amity blinked. She thought back at their interaction earlier. Were they discreet? They had to be more discreet. This couldn’t get out.

Then she thought about how she’d see Luz tomorrow for their project meeting in a more… private setting. At Luz’s. Them two. At Luz’s.

Amity gulped. But joy at that lit up her heart.

Chapter Text

After exiting the locker room, Luz jogged up to Amity who was walking toward the pitch alone.

“Hey,” she said.

Amity instantly smiled. “Hey.”

They asked each other how their day went. And that was a first in some sorts, but it was nice to know what the other was up to. Just the normal conversations, catching up, telling each other about their day. Amity told Luz she got an excellent grade, Luz told her that she told her friends about them and how they reacted. Amity chuckled at that, of course they’d be stunned, anyone would be. But Luz told her that they had their mega doubts prior to her confirming their relationship. Amity deadpanned.

“Surely we’re not that obvious.”

“I didn’t think so either!”

“You’re the obvious one, can’t help but swoon when thinking about me,” Amity said, but her face started heating up, hard. Her hand flew to her mouth. Bold teasing and for what?? Mistakes! But too late to back down now. Game on.

Luz scoffed, but her deep red cheeks betrayed her nonchalance. Time to be bold. Game on.

“You’re telling me your tomato blushes aren’t obvious?”

Amity scoffed. Her blush deepened. “Bet they thought you liked me because you couldn’t stop talking about me.”

Luz’s blush deepened. “Couldn’t stop talking about your annoying ass, checks out. Bet you couldn’t stop talking about me to Skara.”

“Skara apparently misinterprets insults and is too perceptive.”

“Yeah, perceptive of you staring at me with those pretty eyes.”

“Perceptive of you talking to me with a betraying sweet tone.”

“Your tone used to be so condescending but I bet you loved it every time we talked.”

Amity said, “I loved riling you up and seeing you mad alright.”

“Because you wanted me to feel something for you.”

“I wanted my fist to feel your pretty face.”

“Because you wanted to touch me so bad.”

“And hurt you? For sure.”

“And kiss me? Of course.”

“At the time I would have rather kissed myself.”

“But then you dared me to kiss you after.”

“Because I realized I liked you, with your snarky voice and great humor.”

“Yeah well I like you too, with your shitty comebacks and perfect brain.”

“I wish I could show you how much I like you with a kiss.”

“I wish I could kiss you too.”

All of that was an absolute mistake. Their faces were violently red, gazing at each other with soft fierceness in their eyes.

They immediately looked around to see whether anyone was within earshot because they got so lost in their feisty banter that for a moment only the other existed.

Nobody heard them. Thank the fucking skies. Good luck explaining that to anyone.

They gazed at each other as they continued walking toward the pitch.

But they were so close that their hands brushed against each other.

Though upon that sweet touch, that made their skins feel so nice, they made a bit more space between them, and walked silently toward the pitch.

But the silence felt so comfortable, it just felt good, being in each other’s presence, and that nice feeling followed them to the pitch, where they parted ways and started warming up. 

It was time for the drills, and they’d cross each other a couple of times. And again, it just felt good, to be in each other’s presence, talking with each other, smiling at each other, over dumb things, like Luz juggling and lobbing the ball inconspicuously toward Amity who responded with her own quick juggles that still impressed Luz.

But Amity still had to pay attention to how she appeared to the others, so she often just kept her distance. She couldn’t appear too relaxed, because she had a reputation to maintain. But when she was around Luz, she couldn’t help but smile and relax. 

So often they’d only talk with their eyes from across the pitch, then again, she couldn’t help but lighten up. Because Luz made her lighten up. So at some point she tried to avoid even looking at Luz. But it was hard. She cracked a few times. Until she gave up trying to avoid eye contact. So they’d, sometimes, secretly gaze at each other between drills.

But Amity rationalized: Luz was the teammate she was closest to with both being the forwards, and it was so evident that they were so connected on the pitch. That had to mean they had to have some connection outside the practice matches, hence them being lighthearted around each other. Yeah, that made sense. Perfect sense. Excellent sense.

So Amity relaxed a bit, and let herself joke around with Luz. And it felt good.

Yet that didn’t mean that Amity was less serious when it came to practice. She still kept her laser focus during the drills, because as much as she could now lighten up between them, she was still the same dead serious player who aced everything on the pitch. She’d own the passing drills, terrorizing each group she joined and challenged, and made the goalkeeper focus extra hard as she scored wonders during the shooting drills.

Like Luz. Luz was more determined during the drills too, wanting to truly give it her max, distracting her teammates less especially now that they were well into the season and needed to be even more serious during practice. 

And Amity noticed that, especially during the practice matches. Because as much as Luz was indeed serious during those matches before, there was even just a bit more determination in her play.

Amity watched Luz score in Captain contentment, and couldn’t help but like Luz even more at witnessing such drive.

And Luz watched in awe when Amity kept lifting up the players. She used to encourage them, often, of course, but now, there seemed to be a sort of lightheartedness that came with the seriousness when Amity would lift them up and congratulate them on good plays. Amity would smile just that bit more when talking to them, and Luz could see how her teammates beamed just that bit more at being complimented by their Captain.

And she couldn’t help but like Amity even more at witnessing such lightheartedness.

Their connection on the pitch even somehow increased. Barely any need to scan the pitch to know exactly where the other was, what the other was thinking strategically based on the ball’s location on the pitch, based on who the ball was closest to, based on the type of pass Vee made to them, based on the angle of the other’s head when the ball got lobbed toward them. They just knew. 

“Excellent, girls, excellent,” Coach Eda commented at some point between matches.

Vee and Skara noticed it too. Noticed the gazes and the smiles, the joking around.

Even Boscha noticed.

“What is up with Amity?”

Skara stifled a smirk. “She must’ve gotten another A+.”

Boscha hummed. “Makes sense,” she said. “But don’t you find it weird how close she’s getting to Luz?”

“They’re the two forwards, they need to be close.”

Boscha hummed again. “Well it’s been working, they’re both monsters together on the pitch. They should hang out more often.”

“Yep!” Skara giggled. “So don’t be surprised if they do. M’kay?”

Boscha raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”

Skara grinned. Crisis averted. Damn, she was good. #1 Shipper.

But then Vee arrived beside her when Boscha left to drink some water.

“It’s gotten worse.”

“You mean it’s gotten better!”

Vee chuckled. “I mean, have you seen them?”

“Yep!”

“It’s actually fun to watch. Look by the benches.”

From afar, Luz looked like she was threatening to squirt Amity with some water from her bottle. Amity was clearly protesting and protecting her face with her hands, but she was evidently stifling a grin. Then she whispered something to Luz, and Luz instantly composed herself. They started conversing like normal people again.

Skara and Vee laughed.

“They’re actually kinda cute,” Vee said.

Skara couldn’t say anything because Vee wasn’t supposed to know anything. But Vee knew Luz enough at that point to have her rational doubts, and Skara trying to convince Vee that nothing was happening was a lost cause. Last week she would’ve definitely said that she shipped it because that was before knowing that Amity likely wanted to keep it a secret. Now she wasn’t sure what to say.

“It would never actually happen, but I still ship it.”

“You’re right. Amity Blight and Luz Noceda?” Vee chuckled. “Riiiiiight. People would lose their minds.”

Skara nodded slowly. But then, her brows furrowed a bit. She just knew the reason behind Amity wanting to keep it a secret. She knew enough about Amity to know her parents would never allow it. It made Skara a bit sad for her friend. But Amity looked happy with Luz regardless, so her smile came back.

Coach Eda called out that a match was starting again so they jogged back onto the pitch. Skara shot one last glance at Amity and Luz, and grinned. She couldn’t wait for Amity to spill the tea.

Amity waited by her car for Skara when she saw Luz walking across the parking lot to get to her motorbike. 

As she passed by her car, Luz shot her a smile. She glanced around and noticed only a few people getting into their cars, and Skara walking a bit behind her.

Luz figured that Skara knew about their secret relationship, so she decided to walk up to Amity thinking the coast was clear.

She smiled as she approached. “Bye, Blight. See you tomorrow.”

Amity smiled. “See you tomorrow, Noceda.”

Luz waved goodbye as she walked away.

Amity’s smile clearly lingered, because Skara arrived with a grin.

“You’re telling me everything right now.”

Amity blinked for a bit.

“Get in the car.”

Skara squealed. She opened the passenger door and got comfortable in the seat. Yet she couldn’t sit still.

Amity got in the driver’s seat, closed the door, and released a light breath.

“I think you know.”

Skara’s hand flew to her mouth.

Amity sighed. 

“Noceda and I…” she said, but a small smile escaped her lips at the thought, “We’re in a relationship.”

Skara’s jaw dropped. “Really?? In a relationship relationship?? Not just friends, not just close friends, but in a real relationship??”

Amity released a chuckle. “Yes, Skara. In a real relationship.”

Skara beamed. “Lumity confirmed!!”

“Wh— Really? Lumity? You gave us a name?”

She squealed. “Of course! I can’t believe it, Amity Blight, you’re in a relationship! With LUZ!!”

Amity rolled her eyes, but her smile couldn’t be contained.

“Skara, you already knew, didn’t you?”

She giggled. “I mean I had my theories of course, but like, I didn’t know whether they’d come true. Whether you’d actually admit it to yourself, ever.”

Amity paused for a moment. “You saw right through me even before I realized myself. How?”

“I know you, Amity. I know when you hate someone. And you haven’t been hating Luz. And I know that you liked her, because even if you didn’t realize it, you light up when she’s around on the pitch, and your connection with her during the game, it’s almost instinctive. You don’t have that sort of connection with someone you hate.”

Then Skara smirked.

“And let’s not even talk about the parties. Eyeing each other during the games? Watching each other from across the room? You sneaking off to the kitchen to be with her?”

Amity scoffed. “Hey, it was coincidental every time!”

“You sleeping in the same bed at that first party?”

“I was drunk and she helped me get safely to sleep. Besides, it could’ve been that we were just becoming friends.”

“You blushed, hard, when Hunter made a reference to Luz liking you. You think you’re discreet?”

Amity looked guilty.

“Oh, and during beer pong at my first party, the tension was through the roof between you too. It might have been hate tension at that point, but how can you hate someone that much?” Skara chuckled. “You hated her too much, and for what? She’d create such intense emotions in you. It’s almost like you hated her passionately. And one doesn’t hate someone with so much passion. There had to be something more. Besides, friends don’t look at each other like that.”

Amity kept looking guilty. But she, with real innocence, asked, “Like what?”

“Like the way you look at Luz, and the way she looks at you back. Like you’re the only ones who exist in that moment. You look at each other with feelings behind your eyes. And your smiles are so sincere. And I haven’t really ever seen you smile like that. I could tell Luz was special to you.”

Amity blushed a soft blush. She stayed silent for a moment.

“But so how did you know for Luz? Was it obvious that she actually liked me too?”

“Absolutely.”

“But how?”

Skara deadpanned. “She was about to kill that bitch who tackled you.” She chuckled. “But more seriously, same thing. She smiles all the time, but with you it’s different. I could just sense it. Oh and Vee has her theories too.” She smirked. “All it takes is watching you two interact.”

“Vee?? Seriously? We’re that obvious?”

Skara giggled. “You could do a better job at hiding it that’s for sure. And Vee’s gotten to know Luz, and she probably pays attention to you two because you three especially need to be connected on the pitch.”

Then Amity asked, slight worry in her tone. “You think we should pay more attention? This can’t get out. Nobody can know I like… girls. And especially not Luz Noceda.”

Skara thought about it for a second. “I wouldn’t worry about it. The idea of the Amity Blight being gay, and especially being in a relationship with the notorious Luz Noceda is just purely unbelievable. Besides, it makes too much sense for you two to be close given your relationship on the pitch, and the fact that you have to be close teammates. The only thing noticeable is how happier you look when she’s around.”

Amity bit her lip.

“She makes you happy, doesn’t she?”

Amity couldn’t help her small smile.

“She does.”

“Now you have to tell me everything. Beginning to end, don’t skip any details.”

“Skara, I’m not going to gossip about my own life.”

“You promised!”

Amity sighed. She did promise. And maybe a part of her wanted to unpack everything that happened with Luz. To a real friend. She never really talked about her life, to anyone. Sure, she’d talk about the shitty dates, and brush the surface on how strict her parents were, but she never really talked about her feelings especially. Talking about Luz meant feelings were involved. Talking about Luz meant opening up, full stop.

But she realized that maybe talking to Skara wasn’t a bad idea. And, Skara was genuinely excited to know.

“It all really started at your first party. But there were events leading up to that because it didn’t come out of nowhere, I essentially started seeing the ‘rogue’ Noceda in a different light.”

So Amity recounted the events, all starting with their Treaty on the Pitch, where they had to put their differences, and animosity, to the side, for the sake of the game.

She unpacked the new facets of Luz she had been witnessing, facets that she respected, and how their connection kept growing on the pitch, which gradually lessened the tension, and their understanding of each other’s instincts grew which made them feel more and more connected.

Then there were the times they actually started to have fun together. With how they kept having tipsy kitchen conversations during that first party, and the shots they took together. Their banter; how easy it was to banter. And those alcohol-fueled situations led to Amity cracking and saying that her parents were strict. It was all she had said at that point, and she didn’t know at the time why she briefly cracked in front of Luz, but it was because of just how easy it felt to talk with her at that point. It was because Amity was starting to like her. 

And that became obvious to her just a bit later, because then there was the whole Truth situation.

But first, the events that led to that. Also, of course throughout her recounting of the events Amity didn’t mention all the times she blushed, such as after Hunter’s insinuations or that one time they fell on each other on the pitch, and of course she didn’t mention that one jealousy moment on the dance floor when Masha kissed Luz’s cheek because she was still in pure absolute denial and of course it slipped her mind.

Amity made sure to mention how drunk she was however.

“Yeah, how in the world did you end up sleeping in the same bed that night??” Skara asked, eating her invisible popcorn.

“That basketball douche—”

Now Amity remembered how she let that guy talk to her maybe because Luz was talking with Masha. Now her face heated up a bit. Not one word to Skara.

“He kept flirting with me at the end of the party, but, Skara, I swear I was so drunk. I wanted to push him away.”

“Did you??” Her popcorn turned salty for a second.

“Well, Noceda came before I could.”

“And what did she do??”

“She stepped between us and shoved him away.”

“There’s no way she was ready to fight a basketball player. Even Luz wouldn’t go there.”

“Well”—Amity smiled—“Noceda was ready to go there. She started squaring up.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

Amity chuckled. “Yes!”

Then heat crept up her cheeks again. Noceda really was ready to fight for her. Violence was never the answer, Amity knew. But when it came to Luz, it was kind of… hot?

Amity aggressively shook her head. Ludicrous thoughts. Immoral. Bad Amity.

“You find it hot, don’t you?”

Amity scoffed. Then she paused. Then she scoffed again. Then she blushed some more. 

Skara giggled.

“Anyway! She pushed the guy away until he gave up and left stumbling.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“She’s your knight in shining armor!”

Amity bit her lip as she grinned. “Maybe.”

The popcorn tasted so sweet.

“So, and remember how drunk I was at that point,” Amity continued, but in that excited gossipy way, that ‘this is fun to talk about’ way, “We started talking, I was slurring, I said ‘You wanted to protect me?’ and she said ‘So what if I did?’”

“She didn’t.”

“She did!”

“Omg.”

“And at that point I couldn’t walk straight—”

Skara stifled a laugh.

“—so she wrapped her arm around me and led me to the backyard to get some fresh air.”

Amity froze. She realized she was having too much fun talking and remembering the events. She recomposed herself. But she found herself quite surprised at how good it felt to talk to Skara about everything. Who would have known?

“And then what happened??”

It helped that Skara was so invested. That made Amity chuckle.

“Skipping details, I asked Luz whether she still hated me. She said not really. Then she asked me whether I still hated her. I said yes.”

“What??”

“Yeah… But I was still kind of in denial at that point. I couldn’t just admit that I liked her. But I ended up telling her that I hated how she made me feel. Because she made me feel things.”

Skara nodded. “You bet she did. And?”

“Well, at that point I just needed to go sleep.” 

“I remember Luz hauling you in her arms looking for a room! You were so drunk!”

Amity nodded, remembering her deplorable state.

“So she took me up to a room. But I guess I didn’t want to sleep. I guess I just wanted to continue talking with her.”

“Aaaawwww.”

“Quit it.” Amity chuckled. “We sat on the bed and skipping details, we played Truth or Dare, we told each other why we didn’t hate each other anymore, I opened up a bit about why I have to appear perfect, and at the end I said “Truth: I think I like you.””

“And??”

“She said”—Amity blushed a bit, because the memory will always be so sweet in her mind—“Truth: I think I like you too.”

Skara’s hand floated to her chest. “That’s so freaking sweet!”

Amity glanced away. Their truths. One of her fondest memories.

“Then I actually needed to sleep, but I maybe kinda asked her to stay… so she stayed. That’s how we ended up sleeping in the same bed.”

“You’ve been in a relationship since my first party??”

Amity rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, no. Because I pretended to forget all of that ever happened.”

“And why the hell??”

“Again, I guess I was still in denial. Not easy to admit to yourself you actually like who once was your mortal enemy. And also… I mean, she’s a girl. Not that I didn’t know that I liked girls, but, I couldn’t allow myself to like a girl. I couldn’t allow myself to like Noceda especially. You know her reputation. You know my reputation. You know how I need to take care of my reputation. It just wasn’t on the table. So, it was easier to pretend to forget.”

Amity sighed. “But there was also the fact that it was so easy to talk to her, and I had slipped up once or twice, like, I started talking about my family. And I just can’t crack. So, if I avoided her, then I wouldn’t crack. There wouldn’t be any risk of me revealing things about myself. I don’t know, there were just many factors.”

Amity then chuckled lightly. “And again, the denial was so real. It’s only in hindsight now that I realize the extent to which I actually did like her. It was so easy to just forget about everything. But it was after the party that things just started snowballing, until I couldn’t deny my… feelings anymore.”

Skara nodded. “Okay, yeah, I see. That does make sense. So what happened after the party?” She grinned. “You guys started being even more obvious after that. You were on much better terms that’s for sure.”

Amity explained how she continued seeing a fuller picture of Luz and her complexities, all the whilst of course absolutely avoiding talking about the deep things Luz had told her. So skipping details, Amity explained how she continued slipping up, and so kept her distance, which brought back tension between them.

“Didn’t you tell Bria to shut the fuck up at some point?” Skara giggled. “Look at you defending your girl.”

Amity lightly shoved her shoulder from across the seats.

She continued explaining how their connection on the pitch kept deepening until it was instinct. How they started talking more, joking around more. How the more Amity got to know Luz, the more she liked her.

“And it was hard to deny that. I just… liked her.”

“So did you reveal that you remembered the conversation?”

“At your second party.”

Skara grinned. She remembered the morning of, when she witnessed Luz taking Amity’s hand in the kitchen.

“We spent more time talking and joking around in the kitchen, taking shots, we played that Fear Pong together, just lots of things happened that night.” Amity’s neck grew hot. “She saved me from another basketball douche. Led me to the backyard. Then the party ended and we had to take care of your drunk ass.”

“Tipsy!”

Amity laughed lightly. “Drunk!”

Skara grinned. She was drunk. “You were drunk too.”

Amity rolled her eyes. She was drunk as fuck. “Noceda was even drunker. So it was my time to take care of her. Tried to find a room for her and me, but there weren’t any rooms left! Drunk people everywhere. The only available place was the basement living room.”

“You mean the love den?” Skara smirked. “But… there’s only one sofa.”

Amity sighed, she rolled her eyes playfully. “There was only one bed.”

“This is so juicy.”

“Skara!”

She giggled. “Please, continue.”

“Well.” Amity released a soft smile — she remembered her thoughts, when she realized Luz truly meant something to her. “I revealed that I remembered our conversation. Our Truths.”

Skara squealed. “Finally!! And??”

“And then”—Amity sucked in a deep breath—“I dared her to kiss me.”

“Amity Blight shut the fuck up.”

Amity laughed, but her cheeks were burning.

“Yeah. And she kissed me.” Her cheeks burned brighter. “I kissed her back.”

“Shut, the fuck, up!!”

Amity couldn’t contain her wide smile.

“It felt… really good.”

“You had your first kiss with Luz Noceda.”

It was her first kiss. Amity smiled bashfully.

“Anyway.” She decided to skip the detail that they woke up in each other’s arms. “Next day, you saw us. I had to tell Luz that it could never get out what happened between us. But that ended up with me asking her to be in a relationship with me.”

Skara squealed again. She was having too much fun.

“And so she agreed to be in a secret relationship with you. Honestly, props to her. They aren’t easy.”

Amity’s smile fell a bit. “Yeah. She agreed. I mean, we don’t have the choice. My parents. And my whole reputation. It can’t be known. But yeah, she agreed… to be in a relationship with me.” She couldn’t contain her goofy smile. “To be my… girlfriend.”

Skara squealed yet again.

“Luz is your girlfriend!!”

Amity chuckled. “Yeah.” Her smile widened. “Luz Noceda is my girlfriend.”

“But why were you sad yesterday then?”

Amity froze. “You noticed?”

“Of course I noticed.”

Of course Skara was that perceptive.

Amity hesitated really hard to tell her that her parents took her phone away. She hadn’t really mentioned that part to Skara. But in reality, it wasn’t the worst thing to say.

“My parents took my phone away and I left Luz on read. She thought I wanted to forget about the whole thing.”

“With your track record? No wonder.”

Amity frowned a bit. “Yeah…”

“But wait sorry, your parents took your phone away? Why?”

Amity sighed. “I didn’t get the best grades.”

“But you always get A’s.”

“Not good enough.”

“They’re that strict? Wow, I didn’t know.”

Amity closed her eyes. “Yeah.” She wasn’t going to elaborate.

“But so yesterday I tried my best to explain it to her. And finally at the end of the day, she listened.” Her smile lifted again. “And so all’s well between us. Really well. It’s going, honestly, great,” she said. “And so thank you for noon, because I really wanted to talk to her and just, you know, spend some time with her. Thank you for that.”

Skara smiled brightly at her. “Oh, you know I’ll be doing that often. Especially now that I know it’s really what you want. Wow. This whole story. Thank you so much for telling me.”

Amity bit her lip. Damn. She really told Skara everything. And it felt really good. She wasn’t expecting it to feel this good. Maybe she could continue telling things to Skara. Maybe she now wanted to. To talk with a real friend.

“Thanks for listening.”

“Oh, anytime. I love knowing this stuff. And you know, you can tell me anything, right?”

Amity knew that was the case, but she couldn’t tell Skara everything. But for now, her story with Luz was enough for Amity to feel really bonded with her. Especially because secrets bond people together. And Amity wasn’t used to telling secrets. But with Skara, it felt good.

“That actually felt good to talk about.”

“No wonder! This is a secret for the ages!”

“Not one word.” But she knew Skara wouldn’t say anything. She trusted Skara.

“You know I would never.” And Amity knew Skara would never.

She smiled. Skara smiled back. It really did feel nice, to have a friend she could talk to.

“Anyway, I better head home,” Skara said. “But keep me up to date, please, I beg.”

Amity chuckled. “I will.” Then she raised her brow. “And you have to tell me about the basketball guy you’ve been flirting with.”

Skara giggled. “I will.”

“Bye, Skar. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye bye!” And Skara left the car to go to hers.

Amity stayed still for a bit before driving off. That did really feel good. Something she could tell Luz about. Opening up to Skara for the first time. Yeah.

She arrived home, apprehending facing her mother. But she had good news this time.

“Hello, dear,” Odalia said from the couch in the living room upon Amity entering the house.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Any news?”

“I got an A+ in Calculus.”

“Good. You’re not a grand disappointment this time,” she said. “Wait here.”

She stood up, went up the stairs and came back a moment later.

“Your phone and computer.”

She handed Amity her devices.

“Thank you, Mother.”

“Now go do your homework. Dinner at 8.”

“Yes, Mother. Thank you again.”

Amity tried not to rush up the stairs to her room. But as soon as she closed the door behind her, she all but threw her computer on the bed and sat at the edge, and unlocked her phone.

Notifications, notifications, but her first stop was… the message app.

Witty? Meaningful?

“Hi.” was the first thing she sent.

A couple seconds later.

Luz Noceda: hiiiiiiii :D

Luz Noceda: u got ur phone back!!

She chuckled. Of course Luz was expressive even by message. She writes like shit though. But Amity couldn’t help but find it cute on her.

Amity Blight: Yes. I got my phone back!

She read the messages that Luz had sent before. She was definitely not going to make a joke about forgetting Luz.

Luz Noceda: guess i can annoy u by msg now :p

Amity Blight: Please don’t.

Luz Noceda: knock knock

Amity Blight: No.

Luz Noceda: :(((

Amity Blight: Who’s there?

Luz Noceda: me!! i’m here!! here to annoy you by msg :p

Amity laughed lightly. Stupid Noceda.

Amity Blight: you dumbass

Luz Noceda: ur dumbass ;)

Luz Noceda: wait

Luz Noceda: disregard, i am in fact a dumbass

Luz Noceda: sue me

Amity laughed a bit harder this time.

Amity Blight: You’re funny.

Luz Noceda: :D tyty you're funny too

Luz Noceda: funny lookin’

Luz Noceda: HEH

Amity Blight: Go off, Noceda. I have to do homework.

Luz Noceda: noooo blight come back!!

She smiled.

Amity Blight: No really, I have to do my homework. I’ll text you later, okay?

Luz Noceda: okay :D ttyl loser

Amity chuckled. 

Fucking Noceda.

But she couldn’t help but clutch her phone against her chest.

After setting her computer back on her desk, she did her homework until it was dinner time.

When she arrived at the table where her parents were waiting, it was dead silent. Her mother was eyeing her, as if she was late, but she was dead on time. Her father was scribbling away in his notepad. 

Odalia never minded Alador not being fully present at dinner. On the contrary. She’d often get mad when he wasn’t working, because him working meant better inventions, which meant better sales, which meant better business. And Odalia always wanted better business. She always wanted more.

So it was essentially just Amity and her mother at the table. And as always, it was tense. The tension could be cut with the knife that Amity was using to cut the fish that the home chef cooked up for them.

“How was school today?” Odalia asked after a moment. Calm voice. Threatening undertone.

Amity thought about the entire day — seeing Luz in the morning, talking with her at lunch, having fun with her at practice. Then she thought about Skara and their talk in the car.

Amity held back her smile at all of that.

“It was good, Mother. Mx Whispers announced a test for next week and I’ve already started studying for it. Mrs Snapdragon handed me back an excellent score in biology. I spoke to Mrs Kikimora about getting extra credit.”

“Good.”

Her mother only complimented her when she heard exactly what she wanted to hear.

“And practice?”

“It went great. As Captain, I am proud of every single member of the team. They have been demonstrating great determination and seriousness.” She meant that. She wasn’t lying. “We’ll breeze through the season.”

“And your own performance?”

“It’s never been better.” She wasn’t lying either. Because now she was an even stronger forward, thanks to the other forward. And she felt the need to specify that. “With the other forward, we make an excellent team. We read each other skillfully and that benefits both of our performances on the pitch.”

Odalia eyed her. She took a bite of rice. Chewed it very slowly.

“Good. Luz Noceda, right?”

Amity gulped. She remembered. “Right.”

“Also your project partner.”

“Right.” That reminded her. “We have a study session tomorrow after class, if that’s alright?”

“To make sure you get the best grade? I’d expect no less.”

Amity truly tried to hold back her smile.

“We will get an excellent grade, Mother. We’ve been working really hard at it. Luz Noceda proves to be a good partner.”

Odalia eyed her some more.

“Good.”

They finished the dinner in silence.

Once back in her room, Amity continued studying until it was bedtime. She immediately took her phone out the second she was finished.

Amity Blight: Are you still awake?

Her phone buzzed a moment later.

Luz Noceda: no, i’m sleeping

She rolled her eyes. Stupid Noceda.

Amity Blight: You really are a dumbass.

Luz Noceda: :p just kiddin, how was ur evening??

And Amity went on to say that she studied and had dinner, it was tense as usual. 

Amity Blight: I think my mother knows about you.

Luz Noceda: ?? should i be worried??

Amity Blight: You don’t have to be, but I should.

Luz Noceda: :( not me being known as a #delinquent

Luz Noceda: but dwdw we’re a secret

Amity’s lips tugged downward. They sure were.

Amity Blight: I’m sorry.

Luz Noceda: hey, it’s worth it!!

Amity Blight: You sure?

Luz Noceda: yes!! i like annoying u :p

Amity Blight: You’ve been doing a good job at that indeed.

Luz Noceda: :ppp u like it

She smiled.

Amity Blight: Maybe.

Then she looked at the time. She had to go sleep.

Amity Blight: How was your evening?

And they talked for a bit, until Amity really had to go to sleep.

Luz Noceda: night blight!!

Amity Blight: Goodnight, Noceda.

Demons must’ve possessed her because for a second she thought about sending a heart. Disgusting behavior. Report.

After putting her phone down, she turned off her lamp, closed her eyes, and smiled. She couldn’t wait to see Luz tomorrow. But… they had to keep their relationship under wraps. It proved to be a bit harder than expected, because it was just too nice to be around her.

But then she thought about how she wouldn’t need to worry about anyone when they’d be at Luz’s for their project session. At Luz’s. 

Amity’s eyes widened in the dark.

They closed again, and her warm smile lit up the room. 

Chapter Text

Luz Noceda: morning blight, sleep well?? :)

Amity had only just woken up and was already smiling. Really? A good morning message?

Amity Blight: Yes, thank you, and you?

Luz was almost done cooking when her phone beeped.

Luz Noceda: yeah! dream of me yet? ;)))

Amity Blight: No. That’s why I slept well.

Luz Noceda: so harsh and for what

Amity Blight: Dork. Are you getting ready for school?

Luz Noceda: i’m walking my cat

Amity Blight: Of course you’re a dumbass so early in the morning.

Luz Noceda: what can i say? dumbassery doesn’t sleep

Amity Blight: Evidently. I’ll see you later.

Luz Noceda: yes :D ttyl

Being able to annoy Amity before 8 AM. Luz grinned.

Luz being annoying before 8 AM. Amity couldn’t help but smile.

They saw each other when Luz entered the classroom. She wiggled her eyebrows. Amity stifled a grin.

She stayed by the door when the bell rang.

“Noceda.”

“Blight.”

They couldn’t exactly be caught just goofily grinning at each other and talking after class, so they parted ways, but not before sharing a furtive smile.

At lunch, Luz and her friends were eating at one of the lunch tables outside as usual.

“We can tell you if she appears, you know.” Hunter snickered as he sat in front of her.

Luz’s eyes widened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You keep glancing around.”

Oops.

“How’s it going with her?” Willow asked.

Luz’s face lit up a bit. “It’s going great. She’s coming over to mine tonight.”

Gus said, “Really?”

“Yeah, so we can work on our project.”

Hunter grinned. “Right. For the project.”

Luz narrowed her eyes at him. “Hunter, you menace. Yes, for our project.” But her cheeks flushed a bit.

He smirked.

She changed the topic.

Amity’s group didn’t appear though, which made Luz a bit sad.

But they saw each other in the locker room before practice, and Amity nonchalantly took more time to get ready so she and Luz could walk to the pitch together.

Amity glanced around as they exited at the same time to make sure they were far enough away from the others to talk.

“Noceda,” she greeted. Finally they could talk a bit. “How are you?”

“I’m good and you?”

“Good. Though I’m going to need an adjustment period for you being annoying so early.”

“Hey, admit my messages made you smile.”

“Walking your cat? Really?”

Luz grinned. “I’m so funny.”

“Sure you are.” Amity chuckled. “So yesterday I told Skara about us.”

“Omg and?? Wait she didn’t know yet?”

“I had never actually confirmed it.”

“She literally saw us holding hands.”

“Hey, I wasn’t ready to tell her.”

“Okay, but so how did she react? Well I hope? She’s always smirking at me so I assume she’s a shipper.”

Amity deadpanned. “A shipper? Really? You know she has a ship name for us.”

“Omg my friends too,” Luz said.

“—Lumity” they said at the same time.

They shook their heads and chuckled.

“Anyway, it went really well. She was so invested. She wanted to know everything.”

Luz grinned. “I mean it’s a story for the ages.”

Amity smiled. She glanced away. “It’s a good story.”

“Eeeeewwww.”

Amity laughed lightly. “Fuck off.”

Luz wiggled her eyebrows and smirked.

“So yeah, she reacted well,” Luz said.

“Yes, too well.”

“Does anyone else know? Boscha?”

“No, I haven’t told Boscha. She seems to be oblivious anyway so I’m not going to mention it.”

“Okay, so only Skara and my friends.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Luz quickly glanced around, then whispered sneakily, “Operation Secret Relationship is a go.”

Amity chuckled. “Yes.” They arrived onto the pitch, but then she looked down. “Yeah.”

Luz noticed. “Hey, it’s okay. I understand.”

Amity looked at her. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Practice went too well: exchanging sneaky smiles from across the pitch, ending up on the sly in each other’s vicinity to chat a bit between drills, perfect synchrony during the games. As much as they loved playing soccer, they were kind of excited for training to end, because after practice, it was time for their project meeting. At Luz’s.

So when practice ended and Amity got in her car, her heart rate sped up a bit. She didn’t need to input the directions into the GPS for her to know the way to Luz’s.

Luz’s heart rate sped up too as she put her helmet on. They were to meet in front of her place. And this time, Amity would be parking.

And when Amity parked in front of Luz’s house, her heart rate sped up even more. Luz had arrived first so waited by the door.

“Welcome,” she said when Amity approached. She unlocked the front door.

“Thanks,” Amity said as she stepped into the house.

It felt warm.

“Mija!” Camila called out from the kitchen.

Amity’s eyes widened. She forgot Luz’s mother would probably be home.

She was already meeting the parent??

She gulped.

As much as she was good with adults, the idea of meeting Luz’s mom was intimidating. She had to make a perfect impression.

Luz led Amity to the living room where her mother appeared.

She approached her mother for a hug, who returned it warmly. “Hi mamá.”

“Hola mija, I was just about to go to work. Estás bien?”

“Sí, and you?”

“I’m very good. And you must be Amity. Luz said you’d come over to study.”

Amity clenched her jaw.

“Mrs. Noceda,” she greeted, extending her hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Camila’s eyebrow quirked up. She smiled as she shook Amity’s hand with amusement. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too. Qué bonita!”

Amity blinked, but a hint of pink grew on her face. Luz’s mom just called her pretty.

Luz immediately narrowed her eyes and was ready to whisper-shout, "Mom why?!", but Camila spoke up first.

“I prepared some snacks if you girls are hungry.”

Luz un-squinted instantly, and her tone turned very grateful. “Gracias!”

“De nada, amor.” She checked her watch. “I have to go. Amity, make yourself at home! Mi casa es su casa.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Noceda.”

“Call me Camila!”

“Thank you, Camila.”

Camila smiled brightly before grabbing her bag from the living room and heading out.

Amity released a deep, deep breath.

Luz moved toward the table in the living room. “Let’s set up here?”

“Yes, great.”

She went to sit across from Luz and started taking out her notebook and laptop from her bag.

“Your mother is so… nice.”

Luz beamed. “Yeah! I love her. She’s an amazing mom honestly.”

“She looks like it.” Her smile was genuine, yet it was tainted by her own memories.

Luz noticed those unpleasant memories in the silence that followed. She waited to see whether Amity would bring up her own mom, and didn't press when she didn't.

Amity glanced around the room, and noticed Luz’s cups and medals relating to soccer.

She smiled. “That’s a great display.”

“Thanks.” Luz rubbed her tattoo. “It was my father who always wanted to see them. He was really proud of me.”

Amity’s face softened. She noticed Luz rubbing her arm and tentatively extended her hand from across the table.

Luz looked at it and placed her hand on Amity’s. Amity squeezed it softly.

They stayed like that for a moment, Luz looking at the trophies, and Amity looking at her.

“No wonder he was proud of you. You’re a great player. An amazing one. Honestly.”

Luz gazed at Amity. “Thanks. I really appreciate that. Especially coming from you, because you’re an amazing player.” Luz held back a grin. “Our dear Captain.”

Amity rolled her eyes playfully. “Oh and despite what it might have looked like, I knew it from the start, even when I didn’t like you.” Then she chuckled. “And honestly it pissed me off.”

Luz laughed lightly. “I’m a walking plot twist what can I say?”

“Full of surprises.”

“Good ones I hope?”

“Yeah. Good ones,” Amity admitted. “I didn’t know you speak Spanish.”

“Oh right. Yeah, I speak Spanish! My family is actually Dominican so I’ve always spoken Spanish.”

“That’s really interesting.” She hummed. “There’s a lot I don’t know about you.”

“Indeed. You don’t know much Luz lore. I’m mysterious like that. Do you speak some Spanish?”

“Learning it in school.”

“Shit, something I can actually help you with.”

“Actually, yeah.” Amity grinned. “Who knew you could teach me something?”

Luz scoffed, but then nodded. “That’s so fair.”

They chuckled. Then they realized they were still holding hands from across the table. But they didn’t let go for a moment. 

“Anyway, we should get to Romeo and Juliet,” Amity said. “Did you do more research?”

“I did.”

They unpacked the research they had done. This time, the topic they were supposed to focus on was: love.

The project was: discuss how the forbidden relationship influences the characters’ identities.

“So, love essentially makes them challenge who they were raised to be,” Amity said.

“Right. Exactly.”

“The forbidden nature of their love forces them to question the values they were raised with.”

“Especially Juliet.”

“Romeo has his moments too, but yes. It is especially evident in Juliet’s arc. She started off as obedient, and sheltered, and dependent on her family. But her love for Romeo awakens her independence and defiance. She begins making decisions for herself.”

“She defies her family alright. Badass.”

Amity closed her eyes. “Reckless.”

Luz furrowed her brows. “She finally does what she wants.”

Amity sighed. “Was it worth it?”

“For love, it’s worth it. She discovered what real happiness was, finally.”

A faint smile grew on Amity’s lips. “She did.”

They continued discussing the topic, making real progress on their project, until Luz called for a break. Amity agreed.

“I just remembered my mom made some food! I’ll go get it,” she said before heading to the kitchen.

She came back with a plate of maduros and sat back down across from Amity, putting the plate in the middle of the table. “My favorite! You should really try.”

“Sure.” Amity grabbed a piece. She took a bite. Her eyes closed. “This tastes so good.”

“Right? My mom makes them so well!”

“Does she always cook?”

“She cooks dinner most of the time, yeah. I tend to cook breakfast, which is dinner for her. She often works the night shifts so I make sure she has something to eat when she arrives home.”

“You make full meals in the morning before school?” Amity asked in a slightly shocked tone.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck. “Often yeah. That’s actually why I arrive late sometimes. Because sometimes I get carried away with the more complicated recipes.”

“So you cooking for your mother was one of the reasons you used to get detentions?”

“Yeah.”

Amity looked at her with a newfound understanding in her eyes. “Wow. That’s actually really sweet of you. I didn’t know you being sweet was one of the reasons you were in detention so much.” A hint of guilt flashed through her eyes.

“Hey, you couldn’t have known. But see?” Luz chuckled. “I’m not too much of a troublemaker after all, right?”

Amity looked away. “You’re right.” She looked back at Luz. “I’m sorry for having misjudged you.”

“You really couldn’t have known. And I know very well how it looks, especially with the other reasons why I got detentions. But”—she grinned—“thanks. Blight admitting she misjudged me is wild.”

Amity deadpanned but cracked a smile. “Hey, you’re still a troublemaker.”

“That I am.” Luz smirked.

They both took more bites.

They continued talking about the project. In reality, they were almost finished. Amity flipped through her notebook to see what other things they were supposed to tackle when she remembered they had a test next week.

“Did you start studying for the test?”

Luz snickered. “What do you think?”

Amity rolled her eyes. “It’s an important test.”

“I know. But I guess when it comes to tests it’s hard to concentrate on studying. It’s like my mind just constantly drifts elsewhere.”

“Want me to help you with it?”

Luz eyed her. “How?”

“We can go over some of the topics we discussed in class.”

“You want to help me study for a test?”

“Why not?”

Luz thought about it for a moment. She really didn’t care much about the test, but Amity looked serious about it. And it couldn’t hurt to try for a good grade. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

So Amity started quizzing Luz on some topics they had learned in class. Luz didn’t know how to answer some, but generally, she was doing alright. English Literature was one of her favorite classes so she did pay more attention in class, but it was the lack of revising that made her get not-great grades. 

But studying with Amity was helping refresh her memory, especially when Amity would break down some concepts to drill it into Luz’s mind. It was actually helping.

“You’re doing good. Want to continue?”

“Yeah.”

They continued for a bit, and Luz was starting to feel more confident about the test.

“Thanks, for this. For helping me study. I appreciate it.”

Amity smiled. “I know you can do well if you just made an effort. You’re not stupid.”

Luz grinned. “More compliments?”

Amity deadpanned. “You’re still a dumbass.”

“There it is.”

They chuckled.

Then Luz stood up and went to sit next to Amity.

She took her hand.

“Thanks for believing in me.”

Amity squeezed her hand.

“Of course I believe in you.”

They shared a moment of serene silence, but then hints of heat started growing on their cheeks, because they still weren’t used to the sweet moments between them, it was so weird, but the best kind of weird. 

But instead of filling up the silence, they gazed at each other. It lasted beats too long, as they stayed captivated by each other’s softened eyes.

They leaned in, slowly, tentatively, until they were just inches away from each other’s lips.

They kissed. It was so soft.

Luz squeezed Amity’s hand. Amity’s other hand went to cup Luz’s cheek. They separated and gazed into each other’s eyes, before Amity pulled her in again. The kiss held a bit more intensity. Luz opened her mouth just a bit, Amity reciprocated, and they started slowly deepening the kiss.

Amity caressed Luz’s cheek while Luz rubbed Amity’s hand. They kissed for a while, gently, until they separated and their foreheads touched.

“I like kissing you,” Luz whispered.

“I like kissing you too,” Amity whispered back.

Too close. Too intimate.

Their cheeks flushed.

They pulled away.

Amity cleared her throat, but couldn’t help how her lips quirked up.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck, but her smile couldn’t be contained.

“Anyway, it’s getting late. I should go.”

Luz’s lips curled down at that. But she wasn’t going to resist.

So Amity started packing up her things. But she couldn’t stop thinking about how good that kiss felt.

When everything was packed and she was ready to leave, Luz accompanied her to the door.

But before Luz could open it, Amity dropped her bag and pulled Luz in.

They kissed. It was more intense than the last one. Their lips immediately parted and their kiss deepened quickly.

Luz wrapped her arms around Amity’s waist while Amity cupped Luz’s neck. After a moment, Luz moved them until Amity’s back was pressed against the door, pinning her in place. It was getting heated, but they couldn’t stop.

“You should go,” Luz said between kisses.

“Shut up,” Amity replied.

Luz grinned. Feisty. They continued kissing.

After a moment, it was Amity who interrupted the kiss.

“I should go.”

“You should.”

But they gazed at each other, and both leaned in again.

After another moment, they finally separated.

Amity looked at Luz with intensity in her eyes. Luz matched that same gaze.

They didn’t want to stop. But they had to. Amity really had to go.

So she picked her bag up, head buzzing with how amazing those kisses felt.

Luz’s head was buzzing too as she unlocked the door.

“See you tomorrow, Blight.”

“Bye, Noceda,” she said, but before she walked out the door, she kissed Luz’s cheek.

Luz held the goofiest grin as she watched Amity walk toward her car.

When she was ready to leave, she glanced at Luz who was still watching, smiled, and waved goodbye.

Luz grinned and dramatically blew her a kiss.

Amity chuckled and gave Luz a middle finger for the cheesy gesture.

Luz scoffed but laughed. She returned the middle finger.

And Amity drove off, with the biggest smile on her face. She smiled the entire ride home.

Luz locked the door behind her when she entered the house, and couldn’t stop the widest grin from growing on her lips. Her Amity-kissed lips. She really liked kissing Amity. She really fucking liked kissing Amity.

She texted her to ask whether she arrived back home safely. Amity did, and said that she had to do homework. They managed to text each other a bit more before sleeping though, and Luz texted her good morning the next day as well.

They smiled at each other in the morning, and at lunch Luz waited to see whether Amity’s friend group would be coming outside, so she could sneak glances at her, and hopefully more smiles. Because as much as they had to keep their relationship a secret, just exchanging smiles felt good.

But, out of nowhere, this girl approached Luz.

“Hey, Luz.”

Luz blinked. She recognized the girl as being the sapphic flirt of the school. 

“Hey.”

Amity suddenly appeared as she exited the school with her group. She glanced around until she saw Luz talking with the girl. She recognized the beautiful girl. Lesbian serial dater. She dated almost all of the out-and-proud sapphic girls at school. Amity’s brows furrowed.

“Well done on the game last Friday,” the girl said to Luz.

Luz relaxed a bit. “Thanks. It was a tough match.”

She smirked a pretty smirk. “You played sooo well. Honestly you’re the best on the team.”

Luz’s brows furrowed slightly. She glanced around when she suddenly spotted Amity. She released a smile. “I mean, my teammates are really great, but thanks.”

“Well I think you play so amazingly. I’d ask you to teach me something about soccer, but I think a coffee during the weekend would be better.” She winked. “What do you say?” 

Luz’s eyes widened. She glanced at Amity again who was looking at them intently.

“Um, I’m busy this weekend.”

“What about after school on Friday?”

Luz scratched her cheek. “I’m busy too.”

The girl eyed her for a moment.

“Are you seeing someone?”

Luz immediately glanced at Amity before feigning nonchalance. “No. I’m not seeing anyone. I’m just busy these days.”

The girl eyed her some more. Then she winked. “Suit yourself. Tell me when you’re not busy anymore. Yeah?”

Luz blinked. “Sure.”

“Bye, Luz.”

“Bye.”

Luz stood still for a moment. She glanced at Amity again, who was still looking at her intently.

“What was that??” Hunter asked her, her friends having overheard the entire conversation.

“Um, I don’t know.”

“She asked you out,” Gus said.

“Yeah.” Then she sighed. “I had to lie.” Her brows furrowed. She glanced at Amity again.

Amity witnessed the entire conversation. The beautiful lesbian serial dater talking up her girlfriend. She unclenched her fists. Luz had kept looking at her, almost like she was searching for an escape. But Amity couldn’t do anything. Because they needed to stay a secret. Her brows furrowed slightly. She looked at Luz, sorriness in her gaze.

Luz looked back, sadness in hers.

Skara noticed the glances. She mentioned Amity needing to unpack more strategies with Luz. Amity immediately agreed, and headed toward her.

Luz noticed and went to the side so they could talk in private.

“She asked me out,” she immediately said.

Amity looked down. “What did you say?”

“That I was busy. Then she asked whether I was seeing someone.”

Amity instantly looked up. “And?”

“I had to say no.”

“I’m sorry you had to lie.”

“It’s no problem, really. Just, it hurt a bit to say I wasn’t in a relationship”—she averted her gaze—“when I have a cool girlfriend.”

Amity released a faint smile, but it looked sad. “I wish I could hold my cool girlfriend’s hand right now.”

“I wish so too.”

“Hey Noceda?”

“Blight?”

“Truth.”

Luz’s face lit up. She released a smile.

“Truth.”

Amity smiled back.

Truth.

“No dare though?” Luz joked. Of course no dare, but the inside reference reminded them of good times. Really good times. Good times that made them happy.

Amity chuckled. “Sadly no dare.” 

Then they remembered yesterday’s kisses.

Luz bit her lip. “I had a good time with you yesterday.”

“Studying?” Amity faked innocence.

Luz squinted. “Ew. Don’t even joke about that.”

Amity laughed lightly. “Studying can be fun.”

“I can’t believe you’re my girlfriend. Now I’m glad we're a secret. I have my own reputation to maintain.”

Amity scoffed. “Please.” But she released a grin. “What a great reputation.”

Luz’s turn to scoff. “Don’t even get me started.”

“I will.”

They ended up chuckling, until Amity released a deep breath.

“Do you think we have to be more careful?”

“I mean, we never see each other in the hallways so no chance random people can see us interact, we sometimes see each other at lunch but you have good excuses to explain why we can get together and talk, and the girls at practice just think we’re close teammates, and besides, they wouldn’t even think about starting rumors about their own Captain. I think we’re chill.”

Amity sighed. “You’re right. But still. Can’t shake the feeling.”

“As long as you can control yourself and not kiss me in public, I think we’re good.”

Amity scoffed playfully. “You’re the danger here.”

“I have self-control.”

“Do you really?”

“Yes. Proof: I want to kiss you. So bad. But I won’t.”

Amity bit her lip. “I have self-control too.”

They wanted to continue talking, but it was time to head back inside.

Practice went by like the past few days. Walking together to the pitch, ending up joking around between drills, sneaking each other smiles, playing perfectly in sync. Amity nonchalantly took her time to get dressed in the locker room so she could wait for Luz to walk to the parking lot together. They said their goodbyes once arriving by Amity’s car, texted briefly before Amity had to do her homework, then texted a bit more before having to sleep.

Then it was Friday. Their fourth match. An away game, where they’d have to travel to the rival territory.

Luz sent her another good morning message which made Amity grin, and they smiled at each other in the morning.

“Ready for the match?” Luz said when exiting their class.

“Always ready,” Amity said with a smirk.

The bus was to leave after classes ended for the day. Luz and Amity met up in front of the bus while the others were getting in.

“I suppose we can’t really sit together?”

“Would it be suspicious?” Amity replied.

“It’s your call.”

“We could be talking strategy. But people could hear our conversations and I don’t trust you.”

“Please, I don’t trust you.”

And when boarding the bus, they realized they didn’t have the choice. Because Boscha and Skara sat together, Skara winking at Amity upon seeing her enter the bus, and Vee sat next to Katya, meaning all the seats had pairs except the four seats at the very back.

Amity and Luz looked at each other with suppressed grins. They nonchalantly made their way to the back of the bus and sat beside each other, effectively hiding them from the other players.

Once sat, Luz brushed her hand against Amity’s, whose eyes widened. She looked around and realized their hands were hidden from sight. Amity couldn’t suppress her grin.

“I was wondering this earlier but who would survive the longest in a zombie apocalypse?” Luz asked.

Amity chuckled. “You’d definitely go out first.”

Luz scoffed. “Excuse me? Why so certain?”

“You’d try to make friends with one of the zombies because you’d be interested in their ‘mysterious vibes.’”

Luz deadpanned. But then she laughed quietly. “I would never!”

They debated for a while on who would get bitten first, then talked about random things and played some ‘Would you rather’s. Luz would rather fly, Amity would rather teleport. Luz would rather talk to animals, Amity would rather speak every language fluently. 

They didn’t have much in common during the game, and of course it was Luz who asked the weirder questions like ‘would you rather have spaghetti for hair or maple syrup for sweat.’ And Amity absolutely judged Luz when Luz said that maple syrup in all cases tasted delicious.

It was a good ride.

Then they arrived at the rival site, earlier than expected so they had more time to warm up, around forty minutes.

The soccer pitch was modern, evidently renovated recently. Some Hexside supporters were starting to arrive and settle in the bleachers. The place was starting to get crowded, the rival team clearly having popularity at the school as well.

About fifteen minutes into the warmup, Luz, Amity, Skara, Boscha, and Vee were doing tap-tap passing drills where they had to pass the ball with the tap of the foot without breaking the flow. They were passing the ball around, eyes locked on the ball at all times: Skara to Vee, Vee to Luz, Luz to Boscha, Boscha to Amity, Amity to Luz.

“Is that all you got?” Luz chuckled. Luz to Vee who passed it around.

“It’s all you can handle.”

Luz raised her eyebrow. “Try me, Blight.”

“You got something to prove, Noceda? Insecure much?”

“Wow, I smell fear. Don’t you want a challenge?”

“I’m always ready for you.”

“I’m always ready for you too.”

Their gazes immediately stayed locked. They were so distracted with what the fuck they just said that the ball almost rolled by Luz, but she caught it last second and made the pass to Skara. Amity and Luz focused back on the ball, redness proliferating on their faces.

Skara snickered. Really girls? In public?

Vee’s eyes were wide. Oh my god they’re so in love.

Boscha blinked. Why do they keep arguing?

After the drill ended and they had to switch up the passing groups, Amity inconspicuously went beside Luz.

“We can’t do that in front of others.”

“Agreed. But it’s just so easy to snipe you, what can I say?”

“Nothing! You say nothing.” But Amity was holding back a grin.

“Can’t promise that.”

Amity rolled her eyes. “Just, stop flirting with me. It’s shitty flirting too.”

Luz scoffed. “You think that was me flirting? You want to see real flirting?”

Amity raised her eyebrow. “Sweep me off my feet.”

“Fine.” Luz cleared her throat. But then she looked at Amity. It lasted a beat too long. “You’re just so beautiful.”

Amity’s face flushed, hard. She glanced away.

Luz’s eyes widened. That wasn’t even flirting. But she couldn’t help her thoughts. Her face flushed too. You fool.

Fucking Blight.

“Captain, come to our group!” Bo said from not too far away.

Skara then appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and whispered. “Yeah, before you combust.”

Amity’s jaw loosened. She glared at Skara. Then she marched toward Bo’s group. But glanced one last time at Luz, who had a goofy, bashful smile, and stuck her tongue out at her.

Amity shook her head.

“Are you hot?” Bo asked.

Right, of course she still had a fucking blush.

“Yeah, yes, it’s warm. Anyway, let’s start the drill.”

And she couldn’t help but glance back at Luz who joined her own new passing group.

Fucking Noceda

After they finished the warmup, it was time for kickoff.

The match was much easier than their last one. Not that the rival team didn’t put up a fight, but Hexside was dominating.

Amity, after a masterful pass from Vee and a feinting tactic with Luz, scored the first goal about ten minutes in.

The team and the Hexside supporters on the bleachers cheered at the goal.

Amity’s gaze darted toward Luz who was clapping and running toward her with the other teammates. They high-fived while the other teammates came to congratulate Amity on the goal.

About ten minutes later, near the center, Vee lobbed the ball over another opponent’s head toward the left where Amity was clear. Amity glanced toward Luz who was on the right side of the pitch and made a pass that flew by another opponent. Luz instantly made the pass back to Amity who had rushed to the penalty box in the meantime.

Amity caught the ball and immediately made the pass back to Luz who had dashed toward the penalty box as well. Luz again made a pass toward Amity, creating a sot of tennis match between them which probably gave the rival goalkeeper a headache just by watching the ball roll left and right.

As Amity was ready to shoot from the right, the goalkeeper now focused solely on her as Luz was offside given no rivals were ahead of her, Luz suddenly fell back until she wasn’t offside anymore, and Amity made a backward pass with the heal of her cleat. Luz rushed forward again, received the ball, and with one skillful tap of her foot, targeted the bottom right corner as the goalkeeper had been focused on Amity on the right side of the goal. The ball smoothly rolled by the goalkeeper and into the corner of the net.

Goal.

Luz and Amity beamed and instinctively approached each other until before they knew it, Luz was hugging Amity who was squeezing her back. Especially with the rush of a goal, it felt riveting, but then their eyes widened when they snapped back to reality upon hearing their teammates approaching them to congratulate them. They immediately separated, cheeks red and hot. Their teammates jumped on Luz’s back and complimented Amity’s expert assist. Luz and Amity glanced at each other again, and they just couldn’t help but smile.

Then it was half-time. Hexside was leading with two goals. The coaches lauded the entire team’s teamwork, of course mentioning the forwards’ teamwork specifically.

Then it was time for the second half.

Amity scored again with another feint assist from Luz. The Hexside supporters from the bleachers were very confident in their cheering, while the rival team’s supporters looked more and more disappointed in their team.

Then five minutes before the end of the match, Luz had a clear shot toward the net, with only the goalkeeper to bypass.

But Luz had an idea. There was potential for a hat trick. A hat trick was legendary, it was when one person scored three goals in a single match. And Amity had already scored two. If Luz made a pass so that Amity could make the shot, Amity could pull off a hat trick.

So Luz glanced behind her and shot the ball toward Amity. Amity, confused but ready, raced passed an opponent, received the ball and made the clean shot.

Score!

Amity grinned brightly. She couldn’t help but rush toward Luz and feeling the rush of another goal and the hat trick accomplishment, without thinking pulled her in and lifted her for a second.

“Noceda, you had the shot!”

“But, hat trick!!”

“Thank you!!”

They laughed together, feeling the joy.

Their teammates ran up to them and Amity immediately let go of Luz. But her smile never wavered.

“Hat trick!!” they cheered like the supporters on the bleachers who were going feral.

After a bit, the match ended, Hexside having won with a four goal lead. Coach Eda lauded Amity on the hat trick, and didn’t forget to laud Luz as well on her own goal and on her role throughout the entire match.

Luz was pumped. It was Amity’s match. And Luz was so hyped about that.

It was only when the team was in the bus, Luz and Amity having taken the same seats as before, that it finally hit that they hugged not once, but twice, on the pitch.

Amity looked at Luz a bit worried. She whispered, “You think it was suspicious?”

“Teammates hug each other all the time after a goal. I don’t think it’s too bad,” Luz whispered back.

Amity released a breath. “You’re right. But I don’t hug people. I never hug people.”

“With how we constantly assist each other? It’s normal for us to get particularly excited around each other when we score especially after successful combos.”

“Yeah… Okay.”

“Besides, it’s not like the whole school saw. And the team knows we’ve gotten close. I don’t think it’s suspicious.”

“Okay.”

Amity felt a bit better. She glanced around to check whether they were in the clear, they were, so she brushed her hand against Luz’s.

Luz smiled and took her hand and squeezed it before letting go.

They talked the entire way back, brushing hands from time to time, Luz even leaned on Amity’s shoulder at one point when she felt a bit of fatigue. That didn’t last long, because if someone stood up then they’d have seen that particularly suspicious position, but it felt good while it lasted. And both wished it could’ve lasted longer.

Once they arrived back at school, they got off the bus, and said goodbye to each other. No kisses, no hugs, just smiles, and perhaps that wasn’t enough to express the joy they felt, but they didn’t have the choice. 

But before leaving, Luz said, “You’re studying with Skara tomorrow afternoon.”

Amity looked at her, confused. “What?”

“You’ll be out of the house tomorrow afternoon.”

Amity still looked at her quizzically.

“Because I’m taking you on a date.”

Amity’s jaw loosened. “A date?”

“A date. Don’t worry, it’ll be somewhere where people won’t see us. I have an idea.” Luz smiled. “You in?”

Amity bit her lip. Risky. But a date with Luz sounded amazing right now. But risky.

“I’m in.”

“Great! I’ll text you the details later.”

Amity smiled. “I can’t wait.”

“I can’t wait either. Bye, Blight. See ya' tomorrow.” Luz extended her hand formally for Amity to shake it.

Amity shook her hand. It lingered a beat too long. “See you tomorrow, Noceda.”

And they went their own ways toward their vehicles.

A date. Tomorrow. With Luz.

Amity grinned on her way home.

A date. Tomorrow. With Amity.

Twinkles lit up Luz’s eyes as she rode home.

Chapter Text

Luz had texted Amity the place. It was at a lake around thirty minutes away from Amity’s by car.

Amity had told her mother that she was going to study at Skara’s. It worked. Especially that her mother was finally satisfied with Amity’s hat trick. That gave her a bit of leeway, so studying with friends was in the picture.

She texted Skara to cover for her just in case, and she replied with a “Of course ;) Have fun #LumityFirstDate”

Amity drove the half hour and parked near the lake, where she spotted Luz waiting for her. She quickly glanced around and spotted no one, so she leaned in for a big hug, then a kiss. Luz smiled a goofy smile and kissed her back. It felt good to be able to kiss like that.

They walked between beautiful trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves, some leaves on the ground that cracked under their feet, until they arrived at a secluded spot where a particularly big tree provided some shade. The cloudless sky however inspired them to stay under the sun.

“I sometimes come to this lake by this tree when I need a place to just relax.”

“It’s beautiful.”

Luz gazed at Amity, at how the sunlight reflected in her golden eyes. “You really are.”

Their eyes widened. Dashes of pink bloomed on their cheeks.

But who was Luz kidding?

“You really are beautiful,” she said, with more purpose.

Amity looked so bashful. “Thank you…” She gazed at Luz. “You’re beautiful too.”

Luz looked away. She rubbed the back of her neck. She smiled. “Thanks.”

They stayed silent for a moment. But then they chuckled at the silence. It was always so weird when they shared a moment. But the good weird. The best weird.

Luz started setting out the picnic blanket on the grass.

But before they could sit down, Amity pulled her in for a kiss.

It was sweet, and slow. She pulled away.

“That’s for organizing this date.”

“I’ll organize way more dates if it means I get kisses!”

Amity chuckled. “I’ll give you kisses regardless.”

“Oh yeah? Then kiss me again.”

Amity leaned in and kissed her again.

Luz beamed. “Okay. Again!”

Amity laughed lightly. She kissed Luz again.

Luz smiled into the kiss. It was just so sweet.

“Okay okay. Let’s sit down.”

So they sat and Luz got out the fruits and melted chocolate.

“You’re a walking cliché, you know that right?”

Luz scoffed. “Never preparing a date ever again.”

But Amity leaned over, cupped Luz’s cheek, and planted a soft kiss against her lips.

Luz shut right the hell up.

“No more dates?”

“More dates. More dates.”

Amity winked. “Good.”

Luz couldn’t contain her grin.

“Damn do I like you.”

Amity chuckled, grin as well. “Damn do I like you too.”

They continued talking about normal things, like the weather and whether witches existed, and were having a great time just basking in each other’s company under the sun, something they couldn’t really do when at school. So they savored every instant, every random moment where one would just lean over and kiss the other, every time they held hands, every time they locked eyes and smiled without worry. They really needed this date for their relationship.

They learned a lot about each other, for instance, Amity learned that Luz had multiple beloved stuffed toys growing up, until they started discussing what fiction they liked.

“Okay. There’s this saga I love but it’s like a guilty pleasure so nobody knows,” Amity said.

“I’m ready to be surprised. Amity Blight? Guilty pleasure? I mean, I technically have one too, but I feel no guilt. At all. It’s iconic. But so yeah, what’s yours?”

“I’m willing to bet good money that mine is worse than yours.”

“Oh yeah? Try me.”

“It’s…” Amity glanced away before sucking in a deep breath. “It’s this saga called The Good Player Azura.”

Luz’s jaw dropped. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Hey!” Amity lightly whacked Luz’s shoulder. “Don’t judge me!”

“No no, wait, it’s my favorite series!”

“Shut up. I don’t believe you.”

“‘Azura, our paths have crossed only in game. But today I stand before you—”

“—seeking a real teammate.”

They stared at each other, before releasing the widest grin.

Amity even squealed. “There’s no way!”

“Yes way! How do you even know about it?”

“I spent a lot of time in the library growing up. The cover of Azura in a soccer jersey caught my eye immediately.”

“Book one’s cover is peak. But book two? With Hecate?”

”Even better! But so how do you know about it?”

Luz glanced down. Her smile died down a bit, but a faint one stayed on her face. “Actually, it…” She closed her eyes. “It was my dad who gave it to me. Birthday present, right before he, you know.”

Amity’s face fell a bit. Her hand reached out for Luz’s.

Luz took it.

Amity squeezed it.

After a moment where Luz seemed lost in her thoughts, eyes growing distant, she faked a cough, and then started chuckling a bit. “The writing isn’t the best as you know, but like, it’s just so good.”

Amity eyed her for a moment, but then went with it.

“Yeah. It’s such a guilty pleasure.”

Luz started grinning. “You wanna know something that’s even more of a guilty pleasure for me?”

Amity’s eyebrow lifted. “You can do worse?”

Luz nodded. “So I maybe perhaps potentially read The Good Player Azura fanfiction.”

“Now shut the fuck up.”

Luz released her grin. “Yeah. And I swear some are so good you have no idea.”

Amity laughed lightheartedly. “You’re giving me recs. You’re absolutely giving me recs.”

Luz released a sigh of relief. “You’re not judging me?”

“For reading fanfiction of the best series to ever exist? Never.”

Luz laughed. “Okay Blight the fangirl.”

Amity bit her lip. “You want to know something else?”

“Always.”

“I maybe perhaps potentially draw some fanart.”

“Shut. The fuck. Up.”

Amity smiled bashfully. “Yeah. I— Yeah.”

“Woman of my dreams,” she said, tone dripping with sarcasm, but her eyes sparkled.

Amity laughed. “Fuck off, Noceda.”

Luz grinned. “Do you have pictures?”

Heat crept up Amity’s cheeks as she blurted, “Nope, no, absolutely not. Never.”

Luz’s mouth formed an ‘O’. “But—”

“In your dreams.”

Luz frowned. “But—”

“Maybe one day,” Amity said so Luz would quit it.

She pouted. “Okay. Then I won’t tell you I actually did write some fanfiction for it as well.”

Amity’s jaw dropped.

Luz giggled, but heat crept up her face as well. “I’m a sucker for juicy tropes.”

Amity’s jaw was still loose.

“Misses fanart is really judging me right now?”

In reality, it impressed Amity on multiple levels.

“No, no! It’s just”—she shook her head with a smile—“I really didn’t expect you to be a writer in your free time. Not only that, but fanfiction. I’m just impressed is all.”

Luz scoffed, but her face revealed amusement. “You think I do petty crime in my free time?”

Amity grinned. “Not anymore.”

Luz scoffed harder.

Amity then said, “You have to let me read. I am so intrigued.”

Luz squinted. “Only if you let me see some of your art.”

Amity’s turn to pout. But she was too curious. And maybe she did want to share some of her art with Luz. And she definitely wanted to read Luz’s work. She remembered Luz’s poem, and how it was beautiful. Luz knew how to write. 

“Fine. One day.”

Luz beamed. “I literally can’t wait.”

Amity rolled her eyes. But she gazed at Luz with twinkles in them.

The more she learned about Luz, the more she liked her.

And the more Luz learned about Amity, the more she liked her as well.

They spent a moment in comfortable silence, bathing under the sun and the sweetness of learning about each other, then they immediately started talking about The Good Player Azura and diving into their many favorite parts, and the characters.

“Hecate was so mean at first.”

Amity scoffed. “Just because she was determined on the pitch doesn’t mean she was ‘mean.’ And let’s not even talk about how Azura was too nonchalant.”

“Hey! She was just enjoying being there.”

They blinked, and looked at each other.

Luz said, “We’re idiots.”

“Yep.”

They burst out laughing. God were they having a good time with each other.

After a bit it was time for them to leave so they packed up and headed out. 

“Thanks. For showing me this place.”

“It’s a special place,” Luz said with a warm smile. “Maybe we can come here again soon.”

“I’d love that.”

They glanced around when they were by Amity’s car. Amity grinned when she didn’t spot anyone.

“Come here.”

Luz instantly stepped forward. Amity leaned in for a kiss, but instead went in for a hug.

Luz melted a bit at the unexpected softness of the hug.

Then Amity kissed her lips. Luz melted a bit more.

They separated and said goodbye. Amity entered her car, and Luz waved when she drove off. Her grin was so goofy as she walked to her motorbike. She showed Amity one of her favorite spots on Earth. Her secret spot. And it felt good.

Luz’s foot smashed against the ball, sending it hurling into the center of the net. She was at the park, under a cloudy sky. Some raindrops started falling on her head, but for some reason she felt compelled to continue playing. 

Suddenly, a younger version of herself appeared in front of the goal. Luz rubbed her eyes.

Not again.

The younger Luz was beaming, and looked Luz straight in the eye when she said, “Let’s take advantage of it!” before running into the net, and disappearing.

Luz had to do something, so she ran after her, into the net, and got transported to a forest. She looked around and saw a path, and younger Luz skipping down that path, so she followed, rushing, because she had to warn younger Luz.

The path led to a bench, where she was sitting, looking up at the dark clouds.

Luz rapidly approached. “Hey, you. You have to take advantage of it. You have to.”

Younger Luz looked confused. “But I am.”

“Not enough. I’ve seen your future before. You’re doing something wrong.”

Younger Luz frowned. “But I’m having fun.”

“Not enough. Something’s wrong.”

“But—”

“You’re going to die unhappy. You’re going to tell me ‘You didn’t take advantage of it.’ So you have to take advantage of it.”

“I am—”

“Please. You’re doing it wrong.”

“But how am I—”

Tears started forming in Luz’s eyes. “Please—”

She got transported. A bar. Chatter rang in her ears but all she could hear was her thirty year old self across the room, laughing with her friends.

But younger Luz got transported with her.

Luz’s eyes widened. “It’s happening. You’re growing up. Look.”

Younger Luz looked at 30s Luz.

“But it seems like she’s having fun.”

“It’s not enough. This ends badly. You have to take advantage of it.”

30s Luz spotted Luz and younger Luz from across the bar. She beckoned them over.

“Are you taking advantage of it?” 30s Luz asked with a grin once they arrived by her side.

“No, we’re not. Something’s wrong.”

30s Luz took younger Luz’s hand. “Remember to—”

Transported. The three of them were suddenly in a living room, where a Luz in her forties sat on a couch. She was coughing, and her face, it hosted sadness. That downturned curve on her lips felt familiar.

She asked, voice low, “Did you take advantage of it?”

Luz’s face fell. Tears started pooling in her eyes. “We’re trying to.”

“You’re not trying hard enough.”

Her heart started racing. “I know!”

Transported. The four of them arrived in a bedroom, where a Luz in her fifties was laying down, gaze fixed on the ceiling, tears pooled in her eyes like Luz. Luz’s chest tightened.

50s Luz looked at the four Luz’s and said, “You’re not taking advantage of it.”

Younger Luz said, “I was.”

30s Luz said, “I was as well.”

40s Luz said, “I don’t think I was.”

Luz’s heart dropped. A tear trickled down her cheek. “We weren’t, I told you! I told you!” More tears escaped. “We weren’t taking advantage of it.”

A heart rate monitor started sounding in the background.

50s Luz said, “No you weren’t.”

Transported. The five of them got transported into a pitch black space. The heart rate monitor started getting louder. Luz looked around and saw one, in the distance, red line steadily going up and down. Then the monitor started approaching, slowly, with the beeping becoming quicker and quicker.

A much older Luz’s voice rang in Luz’s ears. “I warned you.”

Luz’s chest burned. She fell to her knees. “I know,” she blurted, more tears flowing down her face. “I tried. But I didn’t know how.”

“You didn’t take advantage of it.”

The heart rate monitor got closer, and louder.

Luz shut her eyes tight. “Please don’t remind me.”

“You failed.”

The red line on the monitor bounced up and down, faster, like the beeping, until it felt like it was about to explode.

“Please stop.”

“You broke your promise.”

Luz burst into sobs. The red line shot toward 50s Luz and pierced her chest. Then it sliced through 40s Luz’s chest. It ripped open 30s Luz’s heart, then went straight toward younger Luz, who combusted before the line could rip through her too. Then it targeted Luz.

Luz screamed as she watched the red line approach her. It pierced through her heart, shredding it open, blood bursting—

Luz jolted upright in bed, desperately gasping for air, beads of sweat on her forehead, panting heavily. She clutched the neckline of her t-shirt, eyes wide open, breaths frantic and shaky, chest tight and burning, waiting for her real heart rate to calm down. She then rubbed her tattoo until she realized tears were streaming down her face. She tried to wipe them away but they kept coming. 

After a long moment, her heart rate steadied, her tears had stopped, and her breathing had calmed down.

Her phone displayed 4:18 AM. She absolutely had to try to go back to sleep, so she curled up in a ball and closed her eyes.

But then she saw the heart rate monitor. And she heard the beeping.

Absolutely not.

This time she knew she needed help to sleep. So she got up and went toward her wardrobe to search for the only thing that could help. The thing she wasn’t proud of, but that helped.

She put on her ring. And popped the cap off. And took the biggest swig.

It calmed her a bit. But after finishing it, it was not enough. So she grabbed the tequila bottle. And took a sip. 

It calmed her a bit more.

After more sips, she tried to fall back asleep. And it worked.

Until her nightmares brought her back to the heart rate monitor.

She jolted upright in bed again.

No use trying to sleep, she knew, because experience told her it would just keep happening.

She saw the date on her phone. She knew this day would come, and had feared another nightmare before she fell asleep. It had already taken her a while to fall asleep, but she had wished on the stars on her ceiling that no nightmares would come haunt her during the night. Looked like they did.

Her eyes shut so tightly.

She released a heavy breath.

She took another sip.

Her phone distracted her until about 6 AM when she decided to get up to start cooking. She had the time for one of the longer recipes again. The only good thing that came out of nightmare nights.

But while walking toward the kitchen, she felt the effects of the alcohol. So she slowly made her way down the stairs, and paid attention when chopping up the vegetables.

Her cooking slowly meant it took longer than expected to prepare the dish, meaning she got ready later than expected. The effects of the alcohol had worn off by the time she needed to get on her bike, but she still rode slowly, because she didn’t want to go to school. She just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep the day away. But that wasn’t possible.

She arrived late.

She didn’t meet Amity’s eyes upon entering the classroom. And she didn’t say ‘hi’ to her after class, as Mx Whispers held her back to talk to her.

Their tone revealed worry. “Luz, are you okay?”

She tried to fake a smile. “I’m fine.” 

She truly must’ve looked terrible, because Mx Whispers didn’t give her detention.

Amity couldn’t wait for her after class because she didn’t want to be late for her next one. But she wanted to talk to Luz, because she looked completely out of it. Glossy, crimson eyes, the dark circles under them were prominent. Amity needed to know what was wrong. But she couldn’t for now. She’d make sure they’d be able to speak at lunch.

But at lunch, Luz had told her friends she needed to study for a test in the library. Willow eyed her, evidently worried, but Luz didn’t want to talk.

So she made her way to the roof, to the spot she always went to to breathe.

It was a cloudy day. She watched them move across the sky as she tried to clear her mind, focusing on finding shapes. But they all looked like blobs. Except that one that looked like a ball.

She sat on the ledge and stared at the soccer pitch, thinking about practice, but she was already exhausted. She had to snap out of it and find energy before practice. But her mind was filled with sad thoughts, and her chest was tight and body slouched.

Her phone beeped.

Amity Blight: Where are you? I’m outside but you’re not with your friends.

Luz released a deep breath. She didn’t know whether she wanted to talk to Amity right now. She didn’t want to talk at all. But, this was Amity. But Amity had never seen her in this state before. And it wasn’t pretty. Amity was already disappointed in Luz for arriving late for sure. Did Luz really want to see disappointment in her eyes? But, maybe Amity would understand. Should Luz let her in?

She released another deep breath.

Luz Noceda: im on the roof

Amity replied seconds later.

Amity Blight: On the roof? How did you get up there?

Luz Noceda: there are stairs at the back of the building

Amity Blight: The ones near the teacher’s lounge?

Luz Noceda: yeah

Amity blinked. She hesitated going up there. But she couldn’t risk getting caught. She couldn’t risk a detention. She thought about her mother. Then her heart rate sped up, because she thought about the A in Calculus she received earlier. She couldn’t risk a detention above that.

Amity Blight: I’m sorry, I can’t come up. I can’t risk getting caught. But please tell me what’s wrong. I want to be here for you.

Luz felt a pang in her chest, and she couldn’t help her sadness upon reading the message. The clouds kept moving across the sky. She didn’t reply.

The clouds kept her company for more moments, reflecting her cloudy thoughts. She couldn’t be late to Mx Whisper’s class again, so she left the roof before the bell rang, with heaviness in her chest.

The rest of the day was hazy, but then classes ended and it was time for practice.

Amity waited for her by the door in the locker room so that they could walk to the pitch together.

“Hey,” she said as they made their way toward the pitch, “What’s wrong?”

Luz stayed quiet for a moment.

“You can talk to me,” Amity said.

Luz avoided eye contact. Then she met Amity’s gaze. But she couldn’t hold it.

“I’m tired.” Which wasn’t a lie.

“Did you not sleep well?”

Luz stayed quiet a bit more.

Amity stopped them in their tracks.

“Luz, you can talk to me.”

Luz looked at her.

“It’s just, I don’t like this day.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz didn’t know.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. But, just know I’m here if ever. Okay?”

“Okay.”

They continued walking to the pitch, then they had to warm up.

From an outside perspective, Luz didn’t actually look sad, just tired. Very tired. But Amity could tell from the second Luz walked into the classroom this morning that she wasn’t just tired. She knew Luz enough to know when she wasn’t just tired. 

So for Amity, Luz looked so sad, and she wanted so badly to be there for her.

So when Luz was by the benches for a water break, Amity left her group during the passing drills to go up to her.

All she wanted to do was hold Luz’s hand, and hug her. But she couldn’t.

And Luz wanted to hold Amity’s hand, and hug her, but she couldn’t. And that made Luz even sadder.

Amity hated the fact that they had to be a secret, especially now. She questioned it. Because all she wanted to do now was to be there for Luz. But Amity thought about her reputation. Her stupid fucking perfect reputation. She thought about her mother. Would her mother find out? Did word really travel that far? Her mother had her sources. Of course she’d find out.

But Luz looked so sad.

Amity tried again. She whispered, “You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

And even if Luz wanted to, she couldn’t right now, because there were people around, and she feared showing too much emotion. Luz also had a reputation to maintain. And she couldn’t just start showing sadness.

Vee appeared. “Luz, are you okay?”

Luz must’ve thought about opening up to Amity for a beat too long, as it was apparently starting to show.

Her lips immediately curled up.

“Yep! My clumsy ass tripped and I hurt my foot a little.” She chuckled. “My only weakness, my feet!”

Vee chuckled too. “Hey, happens to everybody.” Then she turned toward Amity. “Captain, Coach Steve is looking for you!”

Amity glanced at Luz, and all she could communicate with her eyes was pain and regret.

“Coming.”

And Luz’s eyes communicated sadness. Because even just Amity’s presence made things a bit better.

Amity left to look for Coach Steve, and left Luz alone.

The rest of practice went by, and it was time for practice matches.

Luz was off, Amity could feel it, but it was subtle. She could only feel it because Luz was out of sync, but Amity knew how to adapt to Luz so did so expertly. Other than that, Luz appeared great on the pitch, nailing the combos and scoring smooth goals. From an outside perspective, Luz looked fine. But Amity knew. And it made her sad.

She was set on actually talking to Luz, so after practice in the locker room, she inconspicuously stayed back.

Luz was about to leave after having gotten dressed when Amity came up to her and whispered, “Stay.” So they waited for the few remaining girls to exit the room until it was just them. The coaches would come to lock up after them in a moment, but Amity needed to do something. So as soon as the last player closed the door behind her, Amity approached Luz and opened her arms, and Luz immediately came closer to hug her.

They stayed like that for a moment, in silence, just hugging each other. Then Amity kissed Luz’s cheek.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for you today. But I’m here now. Do you want to talk about it?”

Luz stayed silent for a moment.

“It’s just, it’s the anniversary of my father’s death today.”

Amity’s heart dropped to the floor.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s—it’s fine. It was years ago. But yeah, it still affects me sometimes I guess.” Luz teared up a little. “Especially today. It’s just a bad day. I always get sad. I’m sorry I’ve been out of it all day.”

“Don’t apologize, please. I’m really sorry I couldn’t be here for you.”

“It’s okay. I have a… hard time opening up. And we couldn’t just openly talk like that.”

“I really wanted to hug you.”

“I really wanted to hug you too.”

Amity leaned it for another hug that Luz immediately fell into again. When they separated, tears started pooling in Luz’s eyes again.

“With my Mom, we usually go get flowers and bring them to the grave. But she couldn’t move her shift, so we can’t do that together.”

She closed her eyes, but a tear escaped.

Amity said, “If you want, we can do that together. We can go get flowers, and go to the cemetery.”

Luz opened her glossy eyes and looked at her for a moment.

She went in for another hug. Amity’s arms wrapped tightly around her.

Luz mumbled near her ear, “I’d like that.”

Amity nodded.

So they picked up their bags and made their way to the parking lot.

But arriving in front of Amity’s car, Luz remembered that Amity had a curfew.

“But wait, won’t your mother freak if you don’t arrive home on time?”

Amity sucked in a quiet breath. “I’ll tell her the coaches held me back for a big strategy talk. It worked once. It’ll work again. Don’t worry.”

“Are you sure? I really don’t want to get you in trouble.”

But Amity knew Luz didn’t realize just how sad she looked.

“I’m sure.”

So Amity got in her car while Luz left toward her motorbike, and the thought that she’d be late which her mother would definitely comment on crossed her mind, but she really wanted to be here for Luz, so she brushed that thought off. Fuck it. This was too important.

They met up at the flower shop that was right next to the cemetery. After buying some flowers, they made their way in silence toward the gravestone.

Luz put down the flowers on the grave. Amity held her hand while she grieved in silence.

Then Luz started tearing up.

Amity held her hand tighter.

Luz stayed silent as she gazed at the gravestone. Then, she spoke up.

“I remember the time my dad first taught me how to juggle with the soccer ball. I couldn’t do it at first. My feet were so small.” She sniffled. “When I finally got it right, he lifted me up and spun me around. He often did that.”

She wiped a tear away.

“Then I got too big so he started doing it less. But he’d still do it sometimes, when I’d win medals for example. He joked about him breaking his back just to lift me up and I’d laugh. But he was a strong man.”

She closed her eyes, but tears still escaped.

“But he stopped doing it. When he got sick.” She said, “But he’d still come to my games.”

She released a shaky breath. “Until he couldn’t anymore. So my mom would video call him during matches so he could watch from the hospital.”

She stayed silent for a moment. Only her sniffles could be heard.

“I couldn’t play anymore, after he died. I just couldn’t.”

She rubbed her tattoo.

Then more tears flowed down her face. 

She looked at Amity, who was gazing at her with pure softness in her eyes.

Luz whispered, “I miss him, so much.”

Amity pulled Luz into her arms. Luz fell into the embrace. Amity caressed her back, and held her as she cried.

They stayed like that for a while, Luz clinging onto Amity, Amity holding her steady.

Luz pulled away after a moment, after her tears dried a bit. She released a deep breath.

“Wow, I’m sorry. That was a lot. I’m sorry.”

Amity reached for Luz’s hand. “No, don’t apologize. I’m here for you. Here for all of you. You can cry, I’ll hold you.”

Luz’s heart heated up at that. She gazed at Amity, tears and twinkles in her eyes.

Amity squeezed her hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Luz squeezed her hand back. “Thank you for being here.”

“Of course, thank you for letting me be here.”

Luz gazed at her some more. She pulled her in for another hug. A tight hug. A warm one.

When they leaned back, Luz said, “Okay, let’s go.”

“You sure? We can stay a bit longer if you want.”

“I’m sure. Thank you. I feel a bit better.”

Amity smiled softly at her. They headed out the cemetery.

Once in front of Amity’s car, she glanced around quickly. Few people around. Worth the risk. She leaned in for another hug and wrapped her arms around Luz. Then Amity kissed her on the cheek. Luz melted at the kiss.

They said goodbye before Amity drove off.

She risked a speeding ticket as she quickly drove home, but she couldn’t waste a second. But it was worth it. Being there for her girlfriend was too important.

She released the deepest breath upon unlocking the front door.

“Amity Blight, where were you?”

Odalia’s tone was sharp.

“The coaches held me back. We needed to talk strategy.”

“For an hour?”

Amity fidgeted with her hands. She forced herself to maintain eye contact. “Yes.”

Odalia narrowed her eyes harshly for a moment. 

Amity knew she was busted. 

Then Odalia said, “Any updates on your grades?”

Amity gulped. She knew her mother was going to check her bag if she said no, because she knew Amity was expecting a Calculus test back.

“I got an A in Calculus.”

Odalia stepped closer.

Amity instantly flinched.

“You got another A?”

“Yes, Mother.” Then she couldn’t help but try to defend herself. “But an A is excellent for a senior AP Calculus class, Mother.”

“You’ve proved you can do better in mathematics when you really try. I expect the same excellence every time. Do you even try anymore?” Odalia narrowed her eyes. “Is it the best in the class?”

Amity knew someone got an A+. She didn’t know whether she should lie. Both telling the truth and lying meant consequences regardless. But maybe lying would make it better.

“Yes.”

“I’ll call the teacher tomorrow.”

Amity’s eyes widened. Busted again. It would be so much worse tomorrow.

She blurted, “Actually I just remembered, one person got an A+.”

Odalia slapped her across the face.

Tears sprang to Amity’s eyes at the sharp contact.

“You pathetic disappointment.”

Odalia grabbed her by the hair and pushed her to the floor.

“Not only did you arrive far too late. Not only did you not get the best grade, but you tried to lie to me?”

Amity didn’t say anything.

Odalia kicked her in the stomach.

“Shameful.”

A tear escaped Amity’s eye but she immediately wiped it away.

“Are you crying?”

“N-no, Mother.”

“Good. Weakness is not allowed in this house.”

“I know, Mother. I am not weak.”

But Amity couldn’t help the few tears escaping her eyes. She desperately wiped them away before her mother could notice.

“Stand up and straighten yourself, dear.”

But Amity winced as she tried to stand up because she was too hurt by the kick to get up quickly, and apparently she was too slow, because her mother grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up.

“Straighten yourself, now.”

Amity straightened her shoulders, and she tried her best not to hunch over and gently rub her stomach to try to soothe the pain a bit. She couldn’t show weakness.

Odalia cleared her throat and slicked her hair back.

“Go to your room.”

Amity held her breath while going up the stairs, praying her mother would forget to take her phone away. She often forgot after hitting her.

Upon closing the door to her room, she sat against the bed and held her knees to her chest. That was when she fully broke down crying. It hurt, so much. She buried her face against her knees and let the tears flow. She hadn’t been hit in a long time because she was doing such a good job at being the perfect daughter.

She cried for a good moment, before her tears dried up and she was left in the silence of her room. Her cheek still stung with the slap. Her stomach was definitely going to bruise. Her mind was filled with her mother’s words. Pathetic. Not good enough.

Her mother had always had a hidden violent side. Severe anger issues, paired with free rein to unleash that anger, meant Amity felt the consequences. Her stomach was the area her mother hit the most because it was what affected her playing the least. That, Odalia cared about. Not Amity’s pain.

Then an image flashed in Amity’s mind. Tequila bottle in one of her bags.

She quickly got up and searched the back of her closet for that bag, and there was a tequila bottle, half empty, from the summer. She released the saddest breath. The tequila hadn’t expired. She took a swig. Her stomach hurt so much. She took another swig.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

For some incredible reason, upon seeing the notification, the smallest smile appeared on her face.

Luz Noceda: thanks again for earlier… ur actually a decent gf, blight. catch me shocked in 4K 

A small chuckle escaped her mouth. But profound sadness lingered in her heart. She couldn’t tell Luz what happened. Tears started pooling in her eyes again. Her entire body hurt, but her heart felt warm.

Amity Blight: You dumbass.

Luz Noceda: ur dumbass ;) im saying it proudly this time, with my chest, rawrrr

Amity released a genuine chuckle.

Amity Blight: My dumbass. Catch me charmed in 4K.

Luz Noceda: ngl ur kodak quality while im high def but anyway ill let u study ttyl blight

Amity smiled faintly. Her entire body did hurt, but her heart felt so warm.

She truly had to study though, as much as she loved talking with Luz.

Amity Blight: Talk later, Noceda.

Luz Noceda: dont miss me too much

Amity Blight: I won’t.

Luz Noceda: :O

Amity Blight: :P

Amity pressed her phone against her chest. Her smile was sincere. It always was, with Luz.

Her smile fell though, because she couldn’t talk to Luz. Not about what happened. Luz would wholeheartedly freak out. Amity didn’t know exactly how she’d react, but she didn’t want Luz to worry. And she knew Luz would worry. But Luz wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Amity’s eyes shut tight. Her chest started burning. She grabbed the bottle again, and took another sip.

Chapter Text

Amity tried studying but the tequila was getting to her head. She was used to it though, so things got done. But after a while she couldn’t anymore. So her attention drifted to texting Luz before it was time to sleep. The thought of the next day filled her with apprehension.

And she woke up with a slight headache. The lack of tequila in the bottle under the pillow beside her caught her slightly off guard. She couldn’t regret it though. Her fingers grazed her stomach which made her instantly wince. Her eyes closed. It was going to be a tough day.

But her day brightened when Luz walked into class. They locked eyes and Luz smiled brightly at her. And Amity, upon seeing that sweet smile, warmly smiled back. It was a sincere smile. Because her girlfriend made her smile. She could be in pain, but Luz would always spark joy within her. So for a second she forgot about the pain in her abdomen, and got lost in Luz’s furtive gaze.

Going up to Luz every day to talk ‘strategy’ at lunch would look too suspicious, so they stayed distant. But they shot each other meaningful glances from time to time, loaded gazes, furtive smiles. Mostly suppressed, but they saw the joy at seeing each other in their eyes. And every time, Amity would forget about her pain, because seeing Luz’s goofiness, even from afar, made her day that much better.

Before practice, they walked together toward the pitch.

“Noceda,” she greeted.

“Blight,” Luz greeted back. “How are you?”

“Good. And you?”

“Great! Ready to practice Hoolahoop?”

Amity released a quiet sigh. No she wasn’t.

And at practice, she pushed through. It hurt, but she had to keep face. She was still a fierce challenger during the passing drills, still scored during the shooting drills, still walked around the field like she owned the place. But, she had to take more breaks, and was that much slower during the matches.

But only Luz noticed. Amity was subtly slower, and was moving around less on the pitch, which reduced their arsenal of tactics. Luz swiftly adapted without needing to discuss it, so their playing seemed seamless. 

At some point Luz approached her between matches.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Sorry, I’m a bit tired today.”

Luz eyed her. “You didn’t sleep well?”

“Not really, I couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Oh. Why?”

“I don’t know. It happens sometimes.”

“Oh, okay. Well, we’re still doing great. Nobody can notice you’re tired. Well done.”

Amity smiled faintly. “Good. But you noticed.”

“Of course I noticed. We’re too connected. But it’s fine, we’re great. Right?”

Amity closed her eyes for a second. It still hurt.

“Right. Let’s practice Hoolahoop.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

So they practiced that tactic, and even with Amity being slower than usual, they were doing good.

But Amity approached Luz after a match again.

“I’m sorry. I can feel I’m off.”

“Hey, we can’t be awesomely perfect every time! And you’re doing amazingly.”

Amity closed her eyes. It really bothered her that she wasn’t playing as well as usual. And she minded that she was probably letting Luz down. Her eyes opened. She mumbled, “You sure it’s fine?”

Luz’s voice softened. “Yes, of course. Blight, you’re incredible.”

Amity released a quiet breath. And she did maybe blush a bit. “Thanks.”

They did one last match before it was the end of practice.

Amity didn’t know how she managed to play that well with the pain in her abdomen. She wasn’t that proud though. But she was deeply reassured that nobody noticed except Luz. But Luz noticed. And questioned her about it. She had to try harder tomorrow.

As was becoming usual, she waited for Luz to get dressed so they could make their way to the parking lot together, where there would be fewer people around by that point.

“I hope you sleep better tonight,” Luz said at some point as they walked toward Amity’s car. She winked. “Princess needs her beauty sleep after all.”

Amity rolled her eyes playfully. “Really? ‘Princess’? You’re going back to that?”

Luz grinned. “Hey, it’s affectionate now, okay? It’s like a half-insult.”

Amity chuckled. Stupid Noceda. “I’m touched.”

“You’re welcome. Anyway, I was thinking, our last project meeting was last Wednesday. It wouldn’t be too suspicious for us to have another meeting tomorrow, right?”

Amity grinned. “Noceda. We actually do have to finish the project. Meeting once a week at minimum is necessary. So yes, project meeting tomorrow.”

Luz beamed. “Awesome! My place again?” she said as they arrived in front of Amity’s car.

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

She grinned. “Perfect.” 

They said their goodbyes, and Luz watched Amity drive off.

Yes! Another meeting at Luz’s. She couldn’t wait to be alone with Amity again.

Amity couldn’t wait to be alone with Luz again too, but she feared tomorrow’s practice, and she hoped she’d play well enough to keep Luz from noticing or asking about it some more.

And the next day went by smoothly. And at practice, Amity played well enough for Luz not to notice anything off.

“Blight, what’s wrong?”

Amity blinked. Fuck.

“Nothing.”

Luz had approached her after the first practice match. She noticed.

“Are you sure? You didn’t sleep well again?”

Amity sighed quietly. “Yeah. I had trouble falling asleep again. Sorry.”

“No, no. Don’t apologize. We’re doing great! It’s just, are you sure you’re okay?” Luz had to ask. She lowered her voice. “Did something happen with your parents?”

Amity’s jaw clenched. She couldn’t tell Luz.

“No, just my mother being on my back as usual. It’s just annoying.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, no wonder. I’m sorry.”

Amity chuckled. “It’s okay, I’m used to it.”

Luz frowned. But Amity didn’t look too bothered.

“So I was thinking we should practice Brink again,” Amity quickly suggested.

Luz nodded. “Sure.”

“Because I’m on the brink of insulting your posture.”

Luz laughed lightly. “You little shit. My posture’s not that bad.”

Amity grinned. Crisis averted. But her grin was genuine, because Luz’s laugh sparked joy in her.

“Honestly it’s better. See, my advice works.”

“Thank you so much for telling me so sweetly that Quasimodo wanted his posture back.”

Amity snickered. “Funny and effective.”

Luz deadpanned. “Let’s go before I start insulting you.”

Amity smirked. “That’s right, avoid me.”

“If you don’t want me to kiss you then I should.”

Amity bit her lip. “Then avoid me.”

Luz huffed, but it was playful. “I will!”

Then they made their way back onto the pitch, badly-suppressed joy on their faces.

After practice, it was time for their project meeting. They met up in front of Luz’s place.

Luz wondered whether her mom was still home, having forgotten whether it was one of the days where she had an evening shift, and she was indeed home because after unlocking the door she heard, “Mija!”

Luz and Amity entered the living room to see Camila on the couch. She stood up to greet them.

“Oh, Amity! Hola!”

“Hola, Mrs Noceda.”

Camila chuckled. “I told you, call me Camila.”

Amity bashfully said, “Hola, Camila.”

Camila smiled back. “How are you two?”

“Good!” Luz replied.

“Fine, thank you. And you?”

“I’m great. Always great to see my daughter before work.” She went to hug Luz who hugged her back.

Amity gazed at the sweet mother holding her daughter.

“I was waiting to see whether I’d catch you before heading off. I have to go now. Food’s in the fridge. Bye girls!”

She grabbed her bag and headed off.

Luz’s smile lingered.

“I have to get my stuff from my room. Wanna come?”

“Yeah, sure,” Amity replied. She was curious to see Luz’s room.

And her room felt cozy. The many pictures of her friends on the wall caught her attention first. The disorganized desk caught her attention second. She chuckled.

“What’s funny?”

“Your desk is exactly how I pictured it.”

Luz grinned. “Wow, you know me so well,” she said sarcastically. Luz then approached her. She wrapped her arms around Amity’s neck, mumbling, “I missed hugging you.”

Amity wrapped her arms around Luz’s waist. “I missed it too.” She kissed Luz’s cheek.

She couldn’t see but Luz smiled warmly.

But then she saw, because Luz leaned back a bit from the hug to lean in and kiss her lips.

Amity smiled into the kiss.

“And I missed your kisses.”

“I missed yours too.”

When they separated from the hug, Luz gazed at her.

“It’s good to be alone.”

“Yeah. You can finally annoy me in peace.”

Luz scoffed. But then she smirked. “You bet! I can shove you with great intention, look.”

She shoved her lightly. 

Amity chuckled. “I can shove you back.”

She shoved her with a bit more strength, enough to make Luz lose balance.

“Hey! You little shit.”

Luz poked her in the stomach.

Amity instantly winced, hard, and bent over at the touch — she couldn’t help the “Ow” that escaped her mouth.

Luz’s brows immediately furrowed.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” But Amity was holding her stomach, and looked in pain.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, yes.” She straightened her shoulders, but the unwanted look of pain stayed on her face.

Luz looked at her seriously.

“What’s wrong with your stomach?”

“Nothing!” Amity blurted.

Luz’s brows furrowed deeper. She didn’t say anything.

Amity released a deep breath. She couldn’t tell Luz. But her abdomen was hurting, and she couldn’t help the expression of pain on her face. 

But her eyes were growing hot, and glossy.

“Amity, what’s wrong?”

Amity rubbed her stomach delicately. It wasn’t the only thing that was hurting. For some reason, she felt emotions rise to the surface. Strong ones. More and more overwhelming. Ones that took her aback. That she couldn’t seem to control. She couldn’t help the tears growing in her eyes.

And Luz was looking at her with so much softness in her worried gaze.

So, Amity lifted her t-shirt, just enough to reveal her stomach.

Luz gasped. There was a massive blue bruise.

Her voice was frantic. “What the fuck?? What is that? Are you okay??”

Amity’s eyes closed.

“Consequences.”

Luz looked highly confused for a moment, before realization dawned on her.

She saw red.

“Your mother hit you?”

Amity stayed silent.

“Your mother fucking hit you??”

Amity released a shaky breath, tears hiding in her eyes.

“Yeah.”

Luz was livid. Her entire body heated up. Her fists were clenched, her eyes began to sting with rising tears too.

“She did this to you?? Who could do this to you?” Her jaw stiffened before her voice went dark. It cracked. “I’ll kill her.”

Amity couldn’t help the tear that fell down her face.

Luz’s fists instantly unclenched, her glossy eyes softened.

She immediately wrapped her arms around Amity.

Amity fell into the embrace. More tears escaped her eyes.

Luz delicately caressed her hair.

Her tone became gentle. “Hey, hey. You’re safe here.”

Amity clung to her, clutching her closer. She buried her head in Luz’s neck as her arms locked around Luz’s back.

Luz squeezed her tight, making sure not to apply pressure on Amity’s stomach, and she held back her own tears at witnessing Amity break down in her arms. But a tear fell.

“It hurts,” Amity whispered. She wasn’t talking just physically. Years worth of trauma hurt her more than just physically. And it was all releasing in Luz’s arms.

She hung on tighter as she cried. Luz kept her steady.

When it truly hit that she was fully breaking down in Luz’s presence, she quickly leaned back and started wiping her tears. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening. I’ll compose myself—”

Luz instantly pulled her in again for another hug.

Amity closed her eyes. And she gripped onto Luz again. More tears flowed down her face as she cried in silence, heart bleeding, held safe in Luz’s embrace.

“You can let it out,” Luz whispered. “I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.”

Amity squeezed her eyes tight. She felt okay to let it out right now. To let out all the emotions she didn’t know she was bottling up.

“Thank you,” she whispered back.

Luz caressed her hair, and leaned back enough to plant a kiss on her forehead.

Amity melted inside.

After moments when Amity’s tears stopped flowing down her face, she released Luz, and gazed at her. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luz asked gently. She sat on the bed, inviting her to do the same.

Amity sat beside her. She felt a bit better after the warm hugs.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s not the first time she hit me, but it had been a long time, because I was doing such a good job.”

“She’s a fucking monster. I can’t believe she just hits you. That’s child abuse. That’s not okay.”

Amity released a shallow breath. “I know but... what do you want me to do? I’m—” Her chest tightened. “Scared. I don’t know. I can’t protest, she’ll just hit me some more. I can’t risk it. Or if it’s not through violence, she always has tricks up her sleeve, she can make my life even more hellish somehow, I just know it. She could pull me out of school, and then I wouldn’t be able to see my friends, or… you, anymore. I wouldn’t be part of the Hexside team anymore.

"Just... the thought of her hitting me more. It hurts. I can’t take it. I can’t risk it. I just can’t. I can’t say anything. I have to maintain this perfect image of a perfect family with a perfect life and I’m just so, so tired of having to pretend like everything is so fucking perfect, when it’s not. It’s not. It’s not perfect.” Amity looked down. “I’m not perfect.”

“You’re not supposed to be. Nobody is.” Luz’s tone gentled. “But you’re damn fucking close.”

Amity lifted her gaze. “Thank you.” Then she glanced away. “But I have to be.”

Luz released a loaded breath.

Her fists clenched. Tightly. “I swear if I see her… I fucking swear if I see her… I know exactly what I’d do. And you wouldn’t have to fucking worry ever again.”

Amity gazed at Luz. Her knight. But Luz couldn’t be, for this.

“You can’t do anything. Please… don’t try. She’d find a way to ruin your life. She has power, she knows too many people. You could end up in jail. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

Luz ground her teeth. “As long as you’re safe, I don’t care what happens to me.”

“I care.”

“But—”

“She’d think I sent you, and I’d feel the consequences of that. Please… you can’t do anything. But thank you, for wanting to. Really.” She gave her the faintest smile. “Really.”

Luz’s fists unclenched. She couldn’t risk Amity receiving the consequences of her actions. As much as threatening Amity's mother and committing violent crimes was the realistic dream right now, because she could’ve definitely made the dream real, she couldn’t risk it. Couldn’t risk Amity getting even more hurt.

She sucked in a breath. “Okay. But just know.” Her gaze was loaded. Her tone dead serious. “I’d do it.”

Amity gazed at Luz, with affection. “I believe you. But nobody can do anything.”

“And your father?”

“He probably doesn’t even know. She’s never been violent in front of him. He barely sees anything she does. I don’t even think he knows why I’m not there for dinner sometimes.”

“And you can’t tell him?”

“I don’t even know whether he’ll care. He only cares about work. And, if he doesn’t care and doesn’t do something about it, she’d knock me out for having told him.”

“Yeah… you don’t want to risk it.” Luz rubbed her forehead. “And what about the police?? Can’t they do something about it?”

Amity released a dejected breath. “Do you trust the system? I told you, my parents know people. She’d deny it, of course, pretend to be the perfect Odalia Blight. And what if nothing comes out of it? What if they believe her? And then what? Everything would be so much worse. So much worse. I just can’t risk it.”

Luz’s eyes shut. There was really nothing she could do without risking making things worse.

She reached for Amity's hand. Her tone softened. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

Amity took her hand. “It happens.”

“It’s not supposed to fucking happen.”

Amity looked down. Luz gently squeezed her hand. 

“I’m sorry for getting so riled up about it.”

“No, if I learned that someone hit you, I’d be livid. Absolutely livid.”

Amity paused for a moment. Then she released the faintest chuckle.

Luz looked at her curiously.

“Looked like you were ready to bring out the baseball bat.”

Luz’s tone was serious. “Trusty fucking bat. You know I would. But I won’t. I can’t. Not if it means you’ll get even more hurt.”

“Thank you…”

Amity couldn’t help but find Luz’s protective side so endearing. She felt safe, with Luz.

Then a memory popped to mind. She looked at her quizzically.

“What even happened that time you went to the police station because you almost hit a guy with a bat? There must’ve been a reason. You’re not just violent for the sake of it, I know that.”

Luz released a soft smile. “Well, there’s a grocery store near Willow’s, one she often goes to. And there are some guys who often hang out near it. Willow has two dads, and the guys saw her with them a couple times. When Willow would go to the store alone, they’d make comments, and start taunting her about it. A couple of times it got too close for comfort apparently. 

“So, once, I accompanied her to the store and waited from afar to see whether the guys would bother her again. And indeed, they approached her when she passed in front of them, and started taunting her. I couldn’t watch, so I approached with the bat I had taken with me just in case to scare them. But then the guys started taunting me, provoking me too.

“So I threatened to use the bat, but I never would have, it was an empty threat, I just wanted to scare them enough so that they’d stop bothering Willow. And I played the part well, because they actually got scared, and that’s when the police showed up. It did teach the guys a lesson, because they never bothered Willow again, so it was worth it.”

Amity looked at her, eyebrows raised. Her tone was soft. 

“Wow. I really didn’t expect that. You ended up at the station all because you were trying to help out your friend?”

Luz chuckled. “Yeah, and it worked. Worth the trip with the police.”

“You let everyone believe the wildest theories about why you almost beat some guys up with a bat.”

“Rumors don’t matter to me. I know what I did, why I did it,” Luz said. Then she chuckled some more. “No wonder you thought I was a delinquent.”

Amity looked at her with respect, and even some admiration, in her eyes.

“You really are loyal.”

“I’d do anything for my close ones. Amity, if I can do something for you, I will.”

Amity smiled faintly.

Then Luz looked pained, because she couldn’t do anything for Amity. She really wanted to do something.

“Is there something I can do to make things better at least?”

Amity thought about it. She bit her lip.

“Another hug would feel nice.”

Luz smiled. “You really are a softie, Blight.”

Amity rolled her eyes but it was accompanied by a warm smile. “Fine, I don’t want your hugs anymore.”

“Come here.”

Luz sat closer to her in bed until she could wrap her arms around her.

Amity hugged her tightly. They stayed like that for a moment.

“Do you feel a bit better?” Luz asked as she leaned away. They stayed sat close to each other, shoulders brushing.

Amity took Luz’s hand.

“I do. Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure. I’m here for you, okay?”

Amity glanced away, but then she looked back at Luz. Their gazes were filled with affection. “Okay.”

“So, you still want to work on the project? Or do you wanna lie in bed and maybe cuddle for a bit?”

Amity was too enticed by the idea of cuddling Luz.

But she checked the time on her phone. They were almost finished with their project anyway.

“Let’s cuddle.”

Luz grinned. “Cuddling it is!”

They lay down and Luz opened her arms so that Amity could rest her head on Luz’s chest. Luz locked her in place by wrapping her arm around Amity’s back. She placed a kiss on the top of Amity’s head. They stayed like that for a while, talking about random things. Amity asked at some point how Luz’s friends were doing, and Luz started laughing about some stupid jokes Hunter made. Amity laughed as well. No wonder they were friends. 

Luz thought Amity’s laugh was beautiful, so she tried to make her laugh even more. And of course it worked. And it was just reassuring. To feel Amity shake in her arms due to laughing with her head on Luz’s chest, after all that happened. To know Amity felt better.

After a while they decided to get at least some progress on their project done, so they went downstairs and set up at the table in the living room.

They were very efficient. Luz had been doing solid research on her part, making Amity proud every time. When Luz put her mind to it, she really could do a good job. Their project was looking good. And Amity needed to get a great grade, and she was feeling confident about that.

A couple of times, they sneaked glances at each other when the other wasn’t looking. They’d see the other focused on their laptop. Luz thought Amity looked endearing when she was in the zone, face softened, looking at the play in a sort of peaceful state. And Amity thought Luz looked adorable when focused; sometimes her brows would be slightly furrowed in concentration, other times she’d look somewhat bored, but it was cute nonetheless.

A couple of times, their eyes would meet. They’d stay met for a couple of seconds, which made smiles bloom on their faces. Luz wiggling her eyebrows was a distraction Amity didn’t mind. And Amity chuckling due to that was a sweet distraction Luz very much liked.

Once they had made enough, satisfying progress, Amity said, “You want to be done for the day?”

Luz’s vigorous nod amused her.

“I’ll pack up.”

Luz’s frown amused her too, though it was true that she didn’t exactly want to leave either.

Once she put all her things in her bag, she stood up and Luz stood as well so she could accompany her to the door.

But.

As soon as Amity was stood next to Luz, she dropped her bag and pulled Luz in for a kiss. Luz’s eyes widened as she saw Amity approach but with absolute envy she immediately leaned in too. Her arms wrapped around Amity’s waist as their lips met. The air in the room turned heated. 

Amity’s hands cupped Luz’s neck. Luz made sure her body wasn’t too close so as to not touch Amity’s stomach, but Amity pulled her closer until their body’s were pressed together.

“Are you sure?” Luz asked between kisses.

“Shut up and kiss me, Noceda.”

Luz grinned into the kiss.

Then she pinned Amity against the table, locking her in place with her hands on Amity’s hips. Amity pulled her even closer as she caressed Luz’s neck. Then Luz lifted her up so that Amity could sit on the edge of the table. Amity found that incredibly hot, and she couldn’t help but deepen the kiss even more. She lightly bit Luz’s bottom lip, which made Luz squeeze her hips and kiss her with more fervor.

They kissed, with fire, for a good moment before they parted and gazed at each other deeply.

“I love kissing you,” Luz said, catching her breath a bit.

“I love kissing you too,” Amity said, breathing heavily as well.

Their gazes softened.

“I really like you, Amity.”

Amity couldn’t help her shy smile. Pink flourished on her face.

“I really like you too, Luz.”

Luz couldn’t help her bashful one, and pink blossomed on her cheeks as well.

Then she chuckled a bashful chuckle. She mumbled, “Eeewww.”

Amity laughed lightly. “You started it.”

“Regrets, I swear I’m too honest sometimes.”

“I like it when you’re honest.”

“Well you’re a softie.”

Amity scoffed playfully. “I’m not a softie.”

Luz grinned. “Sure you aren’t.”

“You want to see a softie?”

Amity instantly cupped Luz’s neck and fiercely pulled her in, kissed her, bit her lip, then released her. It lasted a second, but fuck was it hot.

Luz’s jaw loosened.

Amity smirked.

She got off the table and stood in front of her. Then she patted Luz on the head.

“Point taken?”

“Point fucking taken.”

Amity smirked some more. She picked up her bag.

“I have to go.”

Luz released a breath. “You do.”

They made their way toward the door.

Amity kissed Luz’s cheek. Luz kissed her cheek back.

“See ya’ tomorrow, Blight.”

“See you, Noceda.”

They smiled at each other. It was so affectionate.

Luz waved at her when she drove off.

Goofy fucking grins on their faces.

On her way back home, Amity’s smile became fainter, as she remembered breaking down in Luz’s arms. Crying, feeling all the emotions she bottled up, while Luz held her. 

But, it felt good. Opening up to Luz felt good. Amity smiled, tenderly. She felt good with Luz. She felt safe with Luz. Truth. She liked Luz. She really liked Luz.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Luz and Amity shared gazes of happiness upon noticing each other when Luz entered the classroom. They couldn’t see each other at lunch, because Amity approaching Luz to talk soccer everyday was too suspicious. But they waited for each other after getting ready in the locker room before practice so they could walk toward the pitch together.

“Noceda,” Amity greeted, trying to stifle the joy on her face at finally being able to talk to her girlfriend. But it didn’t work, so it showed.

“Blight,” Luz greeted back, sharing her expression.

From the outside, they looked like two walking goofballs smiling at each other. Luckily nobody was paying attention to them.

Though Luz softened, because she asked her, “How are you feeling today?” The real question, not the small talk version.

“I’m feeling better, thanks. It hurts less, so I’ll definitely play better today. And, thanks, again, for yesterday.” She mumbled, “I really appreciated you being there for me.”

Luz flexed her fingers. She wanted to hold Amity’s hand and squeeze it, but she couldn’t, so she didn’t.

“Of course I’m here for you.”

Amity wanted to hold her hand too, but she couldn’t, so she didn’t.

But Luz did bring her mood up, with a wonky wink and a wiggle of brows.

Upon arriving on the pitch, they started warming up, and before the drills, reconvened to talk strategy. Another match was coming up tomorrow, and they wanted to practice another one of their tactics, this time fully involving the playmaker as it was a three-player combo. They called Vee over.

“Hey, can we practice Threat?” Amity said.

Vee tilted her head to the side. “What?”

“Oh, right.” 

She explained what Threat was in normal terms, because she forgot that Vee didn’t speak Luz and Amity vernacular.

“Right,” Vee said. “Awesome! Why ‘Threat’ though?”

Luz grinned. She elbowed Amity. “See, your codenames are ridiculous.”

Amity scoffed. “Says the person who coined ‘Hoolahoop.’”

“It’s an excellent representation of circling the penalty box.”

“Sure.” Amity snickered. “And ‘Koala’ was an amazing attempt at describing one of us catching the ball on our chest.”

“You think ‘Vice’ is better than ‘Koala’?”

Amity smirked. “Absolutely.”

Luz squinted. “You’re the vice.”

“Yeah, one of my vices is putting up with you.”

“My fist will Koa—land on your face soon.”

Amity gasped. “I’m so scared.”

Vee watched them, eyes wide the entire time.

Then Luz ended up grinning. “You little shit.” She elbowed Amity again.

Amity winced while she laughed. “Excellent repartee, dumbass.”

“You dumbass!”

Vee’s jaw was loose. She rubbed her eyes.

Then Luz and Amity snapped out of whatever that was and cleared their throats.

“So yes, ‘Threat’ later. Kay?” Luz quickly said.

“… Yeah. Kay.”

“Good.” Amity straightened her back before walking off toward the shooting drills.

Vee moved to the side until she was certain that she was out of earshot, beckoning Luz to come over. Luz followed her quizzically.

“So… Amity…” Vee said slowly.

“Yeah? She’s so ready to practice our triple combo. Me too. It’s gonna be awesome.”

“For sure, for sure. But I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

Vee whisper-blurted, “Are you two in a relationship?”

Luz’s eyes popped out of their sockets.

“What??”

Vee raised her hands in defense. “You guys are so close, I just want to know whether you’re maybe a thing or whether I’ve been imagining things.”

Luz froze.

“I-I—We—No. Nope. Nada.”

But Vee really looked at her.

Luz said, “We’re not that close.”

Vee deadpanned. But she didn’t know whether she could push the subject.

Then Luz asked, “You really think we’re close?”

Vee chuckled. “Yep. But you guys are meant to be close, for the game, but like, I don’t know, you guys are just really close.”

Luz pursed her lips.

Vee asked, “Do you like her?”

“As a teammate.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Just as a teammate? Maybe… as a roommate?”

Luz blinked. “Just as a teammate.”

“You know you can tell me, right? We can talk about it if you want.”

Luz sighed a quiet sigh. Barring Amity, Vee was the person she was closest to on the pitch. They spent time together during and between drills, Vee knew almost all of Luz’s jokes, they had a solid connection in game, she hung out with Luz and her friends at the parties; they got close. During the parties especially they got to learn a lot about each other, and being drunk together really tended to bond people. 

So, all things considered, Luz did consider Vee a friend, and not just a teammate.

But, in this case, Luz couldn’t tell her friend.

“There’s nothing to talk about really.”

And that kind of made her sad.

“So there’s nothing happening between you and Amity?”

There was so much happening between her and Amity.

“Nothing.”

Vee nodded. “Okay.”

But Luz had to ask. “Does it really look like Blight and I are together?”

Vee thought about it for a second. “The idea of you and Amity together is just so unbelievable that I genuinely think it just wouldn’t cross people’s minds. You’re not holding hands or kissing in the middle of the pitch, it just looks like you have fun, a lot of fun together. And so I think I’m biased because I know you, and I have to pay particular attention to you two for the game. But, like, I’ve never seen the Captain like that before. It’s like you just make her happy.”

Luz closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe it was that obvious. And she couldn’t believe the heat rising in her cheeks.

“I guess we just get along well.”

“That too! You couldn’t stand each other before, and now you’re all buddy buddy? It’s just, I notice you two. That’s why I had to ask. You being close maybe might not be that obvious to others, but I don’t know. I notice you two.”

Luz closed her eyes. She wanted to tell Vee. She didn’t want to lie to her.

“Well, no, I don’t like Blight.”

She really fucking did like Blight.

Vee said, “Okay.”

“Okay, glad we cleared that up. Let’s get back to drills.”

Vee eyed Luz one more time. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Boscha said, “tell me it’s not weird that Amity is smiling so much when she’s with Luz. I’ve never seen her so… like, happy. Am I crazy?”

Skara pursed her lips.

Boscha continued, “Because, just look at them.”

On the pitch, Amity was laughing while Luz was pulling a face.

“That’s not normal for Amity. And it keeps happening.”

Skara blinked. What the heck was she supposed to say?

“I mean, she probably got more good grades and is feeling happier than usual? Plus, we’ve been winning all our matches!”

Boscha deadpanned. “Skar. Come on. It’s so weird, no? You don’t see it?”

“They’re close but isn’t that normal for teammates?”

“It’s not normal for Amity.”

Boscha and Skara glanced over at them again.

Amity, still laughing, lightly shoved Luz, who was wiggling her eyebrows. Luz cracked up and shoved her back. Then they laughters abruptly stopped and they took a step back, recomposing themselves.

Boscha’s eyes widened.

“Now what the hell was that?”

Skara blinked. For fuck’s sake. Girlies, get it together! Your gay is showing!

“Luz must’ve cracked one of her hilarious jokes?”

“I don’t playfully shove people when they make me laugh. Shit, they really are close. Why are they so close?”

“They have to be, remember, forwards.”

“I swear it’s like they’re in love or something.”

Skara froze. Code red.

But then Boscha’s eyes widened even more.

“There’s no fucking way.”

Code RED.

“That’s crazy,” Skara blurted. “Amity and Luz? In love?” She laughed loudly. “Crazy.”

Boscha’s eyes were still wide. “Wait, no, wait, it makes sense! The way Amity hasn’t insulted her in weeks, the way she smiles, like genuinely smiles when she’s around Luz, the laughing, the weird ass shoving, I mean it could be considered somewhat normal but this is Amity we’re talking about. And Luz is confirmed to like girls.”

Boscha’s jaw dropped. “Shit, I’m a genius.”

Skara clenched her jaw. She closed her eyes. Shit.

“Oh, my god,” Boscha continued, “Maybe that’s why she’s never had a hot basketball player boyfriend. What if she only likes girls?”

Boscha’s face clearly revealed that she was blowing her own mind. “Amity only likes girls?” She paused. “Hold up, this means that Amity likes girls!”

Skara shushed her instantly. “Boscha, keep it down.” She looked around. Nobody heard. Another fucking crisis averted. “If Amity does like girls she wouldn’t want anyone to know.”

“Shit, you’re right,” she whispered, “Oh my god secret of the century.”

Skara released a breath. She absolutely did not know what to say.

But, she wanted to test the waters, do a bit of reconnaissance.

“Is it bad if she actually does like girls?”

Boscha shook her head. “Not at all.” She shrugged. “Power to our girl.”

Skara sighed a quiet sigh of relief. She knew Boscha wouldn’t have a problem with it, but it was good to know she supported it for Amity.

“You know what?” Boscha kept going. “I see the vision.”

Skara released a chuckle. “The vision?”

“Yeah. At first, even just thinking about it, Amity and Luz? Match made in hell. They’re nothing alike. Polar opposites. They’ve hated each other for years. But when you really think about it, Amity needs some positivity and fun in her life, and Luz could need someone to ground her.”

Skara was floored by Boscha being logical right now. Where the hell was this coming from? Maybe she underestimated her.

“Yeah,” Boscha added, “Holy shit. I’m Ancetein.”

Skara sighed. “It’s Einstein.”

“I’m Einstein!”

Skara laughed lightheartedly.

“So do you see it now?” Boscha asked. “My genius theory?”

“I think it’s farfetched but if you’re so convinced, maybe bring it up to Amity so she can deny it herself.”

“I so will. I’m all for it. I see the vision. I support it. Have you seen how well they play together? If it’s because they’re actually in a relationship, I support it even more!”

Skara chuckled. “They do play so well together. Anyway, let’s get back to drills.”

Boscha grinned. “Let’s go.”