Archive of Our Own

“Come on, open up already you stupid thing,” Luz muttered as she fussed around with the front panel of her locker in an attempt to coax it open.

The storage-demon gave her a half-lidded stare from its single eye, but stubbornly refused to cooperate and allow Luz to get the textbook she needed for her morning Potions class.

There's a million lockers in this school and I had to get the only one that's not ticklish, Luz thought.

It eventually took bribing the locker with half of the sandwich that she'd packed for lunch before it could be persuaded to unclench it's jaws, unroll it's tongue and present Luz with her potions book.

She glanced up at the ornate clock on the wall and then braced herself for the scream of the morning bell, annoyed that her fussy locker had made her late again .

This morning, however, instead of the usual horrifying shriek that announced the start of class the bells all simultaneously cleared their throats (or whatever the proper term was for the equivalent magical organ they had), and began to speak. Even when not screaming their voices were still extremely loud and the sound immediately drowned out all the normal morning chatter of students greeting their friends in the halls and teachers hurrying their tardiest pupils along. Luz was surprised to find that the bells all spoke with refined accents, like a chorus of fancy butlers rather than horrifying magical devices that mostly preferred to communicate in screams.

“By order of Principal Bump, the first period of class is postponed this morning,” the bells announced throughout the halls in ringing tones, “All students and faculty are to report to the auditorium for a special assembly immediately.”

Oh thank god , Luz thought.

If I was late for this class just one more time I was going to have to scrub out the class's cauldrons for a week and Boscha always makes an extra-huge mess whenever she knows it's my turn.

Luz grinned at her unexpected good luck and joined the crowd of students that were already turning away from their usual routes to class and heading off toward the location of the auditorium. When she had made her way inside of the large room Gus managed to flag her down, quite literally, and she squeezed her way between the milling crowd to join him along with Willow and Amity who had all found seats together in one of the middle rows of chairs.

“Good morning my fellow Hexoleos,” Luz said, shooting her friends a grin.

“How many times am I going to have to tell you that's not really a thing?” Amity asked.

“If you can come up with a better nickname for us I'd love to hear it,” Luz replied.

“Does anyone know what this is going to be about?” Willow asked, “I'm on greenhouse duty this morning and the plants get kind of cranky if they have to wait too long for their breakfast.”

“Maybe it's the annual Stranger Danger presentation?” Gus said.

Luz turned to him in surprise.

“You guys have those here on the Boiling Isles too?” she asked.

“Of course,” Gus said, “Though I'm surprised to hear that humans also have a problem with Stranger Demons crawling out of the shadows to steal their blood – I thought you said that your realm didn't have demons at all?”

“We don't, our presentations were about a totally different kind of thing,” she said.

Luz could see that Gus was starting to reach for his notebook to ask her some more human-related questions, but before he had the chance Principal Bump emerged from behind the curtains and shuffled to the center of the auditorium stage.

“Good morning students,” Bump began in his raspy voice, “I know many of you must be eager to get back to bettering your young minds, so I'll try and keep this announcement brief.”

There was some half-hearted muttering from members of the audience who had likely been hoping that they'd be able to ditch the whole first period (including several of the teachers), but it subsided fairly quickly.

“The time has come, once again,” Bump continued, “For one of Hexside's most ancient traditions – a contest which will challenge the very limits of a students bravery, skill and creativity.”

Luz's ears perked up at those words and she leaned in closer in her seat.

“Participation in this ceremony is entirely voluntary – but the student or students who defeat their fellow competitors to claim the top prize will be forever immortalized in the school Trophy Hall alongside the great champions of the past,” Bump said in a voice that rose dramatically.

There was some low key whispering among the students gathered in the auditorium at those words and Luz felt her heart start to pound with excitement in her chest.

This was it – a chance to leave her mark in the Boiling Isles, so that even after she managed to find her way back to Earth there would always be tales told at Hexside of Luz, the Human!

“They will also receive a gift card worth 100 Snails which is redeemable at many of the fine shops, restaurants and cafes located in the Bonesborough Marketplace,” Bump continued in a much more normal tone of voice, “And the prize for second place is a gift card worth 50 Snails.”

The chatter of excited students rose to a much higher pitch at that announcement.

A gift card might be nice too I guess , Luz thought.

“Yes, I thought that part might get your attention,” Bump muttered under his breath, though the sound-enhancement spells cast on the stage still carried his words throughout the auditorium with perfect clarity.

Luz glanced back and forth at her friends and noticed a variety of expressions on their faces – excitement on Gus's, terror on Willow's and outright indifference on Amity's.

“What is this contest anyway?” Luz whispered.

Before any of them could answer, Bump raised his clawed hands high over head and a great banner unfurled behind him on stage.

Luz read the lettering on the banner, and then read it again when she was sure that she must have made a mistake the first time.

“Yes, students – it is time once again for the annual Hexside School of Magic and Demonics Talent Show!” Bump declared.

It seemed that she had not.

“As always the rules are simple – students may enter the contest either alone or in groups no larger than four. The purpose of the show is for students to showcase a talent or skill which they possess – while some use of magic is allowed in your act, the focus of the act itself cannot just be a display of magical power. You're all here to learn magic, but the talent show is a chance to teach your fellow students what hidden abilities you may possess already. All acts will be rated by myself and a panel of judges selected randomly from among the faculty,” Bump continued.

There was some dark muttering from the teachers that were assembled in the auditorium at that, but it quieted down quickly when Principal Bump shot a cold blue stare out into the row where most of the teachers had chosen to sit.

“The sign up sheet will be pinned to the bulletin board located in the Bard Track hallway and the show will be taking place in two weeks. Creativity is encouraged and acts to display any kind of talent will be allowed, but I would like to insist that any student that wishes to put on a show involving trained demons must have actually trained the demons first,” Bump said, “We don't want a repeat of last years tragedy if we can help it.”

Bump dismissed the assembly after his speech concluded, and Luz shuffled off to the Potion hall alongside the other students wearing the colors of that track with her brow furrowed in thought.

“So, what kind of act are we all putting on together for the talent show?” Luz asked without preamble when she sat down at the lunch table beside Amity.

Willow, Gus and Amity all turned to Luz as one.

“Pardon me?” Willow asked.

“Well, principal Bump said that students could perform in groups no larger than four and we're a group no larger than four,” Luz said, “Plus since the contest isn't all about magic it means that I wouldn't actually be at a disadvantage competing against the other students for once – so I'm dying to enter and show everyone here what I can do!”

Gus was the first to shake his head.

“I'm sorry Luz, but I'm afraid I can't join your group,” he said, “I was already planning on entering this year's contest as a solo act.”

“Wait, really?” Luz asked.

“Yeah,” Gus said, “I've been honing my standup material ever since last year's show – I'm sure I'll manage to get at least a chuckle out of Bump this time around!”

“Well if you've already been planning on doing this for that long I wouldn't want to get in your way,” Luz said with a look of obvious disappointment on her face.

She turned to Willow and Amity and beamed a hopeful smile at them.

“I guess if Gus is out that means that it'll just be us joined together as an unstoppable trio then, right?” she asked.

Amity felt her heart sink in her chest at the semi-desperate look on Luz's face.

I really don't want to hurt Luz's feelings by turning her down , she thought.

She knew that she would have to though. Her parents had made their attitudes about the Talent Show very clear when Ed and Em had been forced to withdraw after they had first tried to enter several years ago. A Blight did not stoop to acting like a clown and performing for the amusement of lesser witches, according to her father.

Amity didn't really believe that herself – at least not as strongly as she used to anyway. Luz had already proven time and again that being silly didn't mean you couldn't be strong since she was both one of the silliest and strongest people that Amity knew.

Her parents would never see it that way though.

“I'm out – sorry Luz,” Willow said before Amity had a chance to find a much gentler way to phrase her own refusal.

“You too Willow?” Luz asked in a stricken voice.

“Yeah,” Willow said, “I just get horrible stage fright when it comes to public performances and even the thought of signing up for the talent show kind of has me breaking out in hives.”

Luz sighed.

“That's understandable,” she said, “There's no point in asking you to join in if you wouldn't have any fun doing it I guess.”

“I'm really sorry,” Willow said as she reached out a hand to give Luz a consoling squeeze on the shoulder, “Believe me, if it wasn't for the thought of all those people in the audience staring at me like a circling pack of bloodthirsty predators waiting to tear me limb from limb I'd definitely want to join you.”

“Maybe I should just forget this whole talent show thing after all?” Luz said, “It had seemed like fun earlier at the assembly but I was really looking forward to doing it together with you guys. I've never had friends that I could do big group projects like this with before. It just wouldn't be the same if I was up on stage all by myself.”

The way that the human's normally sunny smile had fallen from her face to be replaced by a disappointed frown had grabbed hold of all of Amity's heart strings at once and then given them a sharp pull that practically tugged her out of her seat and toward Luz.

“I'll sign up for the show with you,” someone said.

When Amity's brain finally caught up with her ears, she realized that the someone who had said it was herself.

Luz's sunlight-bright smile flickered back to life in an instant and she turned the full force of it's rays in Amity's direction.

“Really? You're actually interested in doing an act together with me Amity?” she said.

“Sure,” Amity stammered, “I'd love to enter the talent show with you... what are friends for after all?”

Luz made a happy squeal and pulled Amity into a tight hug which sent the beat of her heart skyrocketing into the kind of rhythm that was more commonly associated with hummingbird wings.

This human is going to be the death of me , Amity thought to herself.

After the initial shock of being grabbed wore off a silly smile began to spread its way across Amity's face as she felt her stress and doubts melt away in Luz's warm and slightly-crushing embrace.

Well, at least it's not a bad way to go...

Amity was still so dazed from the experience that she didn't quite manage to find her way out of her happy mental fog until she realized that she was now staring at the inked lines of her signature drying on the Talent Show sign up sheet beside Luz's.

Okay , she thought to herself, So apparently this just happened.

Just how long was I out of it anyway? This hallway is on the opposite side of the campus from the cafeteria!

Amity drew in a deep breath to calm the rising tide of panic inside her chest when she realized that she was now committed to going through with this.

It's not the end of the world though. I just have to make sure that mom and dad don't find out that I'm going to be in the show and everything should be okay.

Amity turned to Luz, determined to make the best of the situation that she had found herself in.

Who knows, maybe this could even be a nice way for us to get closer together?

She felt herself squirm internally at the thought but tried her best not to let it show on her face. Amity had long since stopped trying to deny to herself how she felt about Luz, but actually working up the courage to tell Luz about those feelings had proven to be too much for her.

So far anyway.

How about this , Amity told herself.

If we do win the contest together, I'll tell Luz how I feel. No backing down this time like I did on Grom night.

“Well Luz, now that we're all signed up together I was wondering – what exactly were you planning to do for the show that made you so eager to participate?” Amity asked.

Luz turned to Amity with a smile and clapped a friendly hand on her arm.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” she said.

Oh Titan help us! We're both doomed and I'm going to die alone , Amity thought.

Luz paced back and forth beneath the shade of the trees while Amity sat on a nearby stump going over her homework for Abominations.

"Oh!" Luz said with a quick snap of her fingers, "How about this? What do you think?"

Amity glanced up from revising her essay about the importance of using fresh ingredients in abomination goop and then gave a startled yelp when she saw Luz's face.

"Pretty great, right?" Luz said as she pointed at her flipped eyelids.

"Well, it's certainly... unique ," Amity conceded, "But don't you think it might be kind of hard to stretch that weird human face-trick of yours out into a whole three-to-five minute long act?"

Luz sighed and then returned her eyelids to their proper configuration.

"You have a good point there," she said, "Plus, I just remembered that I already showed it to the principal when I was taking the entrance exam and he didn't seem too impressed with it then."

"What had made that seem like a good idea?" Amity asked in a baffled tone.

"I was panicking at the time," Luz said, "Believe me, things only went downhill from there."

Amity looked like she wanted to ask how that was even possible, but seemed to decide against it. Perhaps she felt there were some things it was better not to know.

Luz blew out a frustrated breath and glanced up at the sky. School had let out only an hour ago but she could already see the first hint of the stars begin to peek out from behind the clouds. Nights came early on the Boiling Isles and they seemed to last far longer than those Luz remembered from the human realm.

So far she and Amity had tossed at least a half-dozen ideas back and forth for potential acts but none of them had seemed quite right yet. Luz was starting to get nervous.

Did I make a mistake signing us up for this without any kind of plan? , she wondered.

Maybe I should see what audiences are into in this world? It's pretty different from Earth in a lot of ways.

"You've seen the talent show before, right?" Luz asked.

Amity nodded.

"Yeah, attendance is mandatory on pain of detention," Amity said, "Though some students do feel that's the better of the two options."

"What sort of performances have gotten the biggest reaction from the crowd before?" Luz asked.

Amity stroked her chin as she considered the question.

"Well, I know that Boscha caused a pretty big commotion with her act last year," Amity said.

"What did she do?" Luz asked.

"She threw flaming knives at someone tied to a spinning wheel," Amity answered.

Luz whistled in surprise.

"Wow - did anyone get hurt?" she asked.

Amity shook her head.

"Thank the Titan, no," she said, "Boscha was always lousy at knife-throwing so she missed every shot."

Luz blinked a few times at that but decided that it would be best to move on instead.

"That's a little too attempted-murder-y for me... how about we try and do a comedy routine instead? I don't know about witches and demons but humans all love having a good laugh," Luz suggested.

"Well, we do enjoy laughter in this realm too, but isn't Gus already doing comedy for his act?" Amity pointed out.

"Gus said he's doing a stand up routine, but a two-person act would be totally different - more like a skit really," Luz insisted, "Plus you have a really good deadpan so you'd probably make an amazing straight man!"

Amity's eyes widened in shocked surprise and a hand flew to her heart.

"What have I ever done to give you the impression that I was straight – or a man for that matter?" she asked in a confused voice.

Luz burst into uncontrolled laughter

"See - that's perfect! This act practically writes itself," she said with a grin.

Amity quickly shook her head.

"My parents are already going to kill me if they find out I've signed up for the talent show," she explained, "But if they knew that I'd be ruining the Blight name by going up on stage and acting like a nitwit for laughs they'd hire necromancers to raise me from the dead so they could kill me all over again."

"Okay, so we'll have to find something more dignified than comedy is what you're saying, right?" Luz said.

“If possible, yes,” Amity agreed.

Luz resumed her pacing and wracked her brain for an answer.

Maybe we could try doing a dance routine together? , she thought.

I already know that Amity is an incredible dancer.

Luz thought back to the night of Grom and felt the tips of her ears begin to burn as she recalled the sight of Amity bathed in the moonlight and moving alongside her in the steps to a dance they seemed to both know by instinct.

On second thought maybe not , Luz thought to herself.

That dance had been an amazing experience but she wasn't really sure if they would be able to re-capture that same magic for something as simple as winning a talent show competition instead of a matter of life-and-death like fighting Grometheus had been.

Even if they could have though, Luz couldn't deny that there was a part of her that still felt like it was something too special to share with a crowd by displaying it on stage.

We were just dancing as friends that night though , Luz reminded herself for what felt like the millionth time.

Amity already had someone that she had wanted to ask to the dance and I was just being a good, supportive friend and sharing a totally platonic ballroom-style dance with her in order to defeat an ancient evil that would have drowned the land in endless nightmares if we hadn’t stopped it.

Totally normal friend stuff.

Luz paused in her pacing, intent on asking Amity more questions about other talent show performances that she had seen in the past when she was suddenly struck by a soft, beautiful sound floating through the air.

Luz hadn't noticed it before since she was lost in her own thoughts, but she realized that Amity had been singing quietly to herself after she had turned her attention back to finishing off her homework. Luz may not have been able to recognize the tune, but she could tell right away that Amity was singing it very well.

“Amity,” Luz said with a grin, “How does the idea of a musical act sound to you?”

Amity glanced up from her homework and cocked an eyebrow at Luz.

“Is that another pun?” Amity asked.

“Yes, but it's also an honest question,” Luz said, “You've got a great voice and I don't think my own singing is that bad either – we could perform a duet for the talent show!”

Amity considered the proposal.

“Well, singing would probably be more acceptable to my parents if they found out about it than if they learned I had been up on stage acting like a clown,” Amity said.

“Even better,” Luz said with growing excitement in her voice, “We could perform a song from the human realm – one that no one has ever heard here on the Boiling Isles before. I'm sure that would get us a few points for originality at least.”

“I don't know any human realm songs either though,” Amity pointed out.

“I've got a few of my favorite songs saved on my phone,” Luz said, “We could listen to them together and pick one that we could sing for the show.”

“That's... actually a pretty good idea,” Amity said.

“No need to sound so surprised that I'm capable of having them,” Luz said in a dry voice.

“Can you really blame me after... you know,” Amity said as she mimed messing around with her own eyelids.

“Fair point I guess,” Luz said with a shrug.

“Do you have the songs with you right now?” Amity asked.

Luz shook her head.

“No, I left my phone back at the Owl House since it doesn't really work that well in this dimension. Would you want to come with me and check out what we have available?” she said.

Amity pulled her scroll out from the pocket of her uniform and checked the time before answering.

“I'd like to, but I'm already going to be getting home late as it is,” she said, “Could you bring it with you tomorrow so that we could pick the song then? I think I know a pretty good spot where we would be able to practice singing at school after classes let out.”

“That works for me,” Luz said, “I'll check out which ones I have saved when I get home to try and narrow down the list for us tonight.”

Luz wished Amity a good night as the witch headed off through the woods toward her home. She waited until Amity was totally out of sight before she turned in the opposite direction and made her own way toward the Owl House, hoping that today would be one of those rare, lucky days where Hooty was either asleep or too busy bothering someone else to notice her arrival and start telling her all about his day in excruciating detail.

As she ducked beneath low hanging branches and avoided the occasional pit of mud or cluster of poisonous mushrooms dotting the forest path, Luz found herself deep in thought about the events of the day. The fact that she wasn't able to perform in the show with Willow and Gus had been kind of a downer – those two were her oldest friends on the Boiling Isles.

Which also meant that they were her oldest friends, period, since she didn't really have any back home to speak of.

Still, she couldn't deny that there was a small part of her that was happy that she'd be able to share the experience with just Amity.

Heck, maybe it'll be a good chance for us to get a little closer together?, Luz thought to herself with a small smile.

"Are you sure you know how to get in there? This whole area looks a little spookier than normal, even for Hexside," Luz asked Amity.

Amity nodded and then stepped up to the forbidding looking door of the disused Bard Track practice room.

This whole hallway was supposed to be off limits to students after a rogue demon attack several years ago had left the area extremely damaged and it hadn’t been able to be repaired yet, but it was easy enough to sneak into if one knew the way past Principal Bump’s wards.

Thankfully, Amity did - sometimes it paid off to be related to a pair of troublemakers like Ed & Em, even if their help usually came at a steep price.

"Yeah I should be able to get it open, Skara showed me the trick to the practice room doors in the new Bard Track hallway once and I think this one should use the same style of locking spell," she said.

Amity traced a spell circle of glowing violet light directly against the wood of the door with one finger and then rapped her knuckles against it five times in a familiar-sounding rhythm.

*Knock - Pause - Knock-Knock-Knock - Pause - Knock*

The violet circle of magic began to glow brighter with each successive knock but the door still didn't budge even after the final tap.

"I don't understand," Amity said, "I'm sure that was the rhythm key that Skara said would work. Did I forget a knock somewhere?"

The light of the spell circle began to pulse in a steadily increasing rhythm, accompanied by a rising hum.

"Um, Amity - why is it doing that?" Luz asked.

"The spell that I'm using to unseal the door is waiting to be completed," Amity said in a tone of voice which sounded much calmer than she felt, "If I don't finish it in time then the spell that binds the door shut will release its energy."

"Is that dangerous?" Luz asked.

"Not if we turn around and run right now," Amity said as the hum from the circle began to reach a disturbingly high pitch.

Luz reached out her hand and gave two quick knocks against the center of the circle with her knuckles.

The humming tone instantly stopped and the violet energy of the circle shifted colors to pure white light, then dispersed through the sealing-runes carved into the door. There was a loud click, and then the door swung open with a creak on its rusted hinges.

"We have a similar way of knocking on doors in my world," Luz said when Amity shot her a surprised look, "I thought it was worth a shot."

“You do know that if you were wrong you might have lost your hand in the magical backlash, right?” Amity said.

“I didn't know that actually,” Luz said with a nervous grin, “So I guess it's a good thing I was right.”

How in the Titan's lost name has this human survived so long here? , Amity wondered to herself.

The interior of the old practice room was actually something of a let-down after the sight of it's forbidding rune-etched doorway. The walls and floor were made from simple grey stone blocks, and it had nothing in the way of furniture except for a few plain wooden chairs stacked up in the corner. A thick layer of dust covered every exposed surface, and the walls were bare except for a few tattered old scrolls displaying the musical scales which the Bard Track students used to harness their style of magic and several faded posters advertising past dramatic productions that the schools more artistically-focused tracks had helped put on.

Still, even if the room was disappointingly mundane despite being in one of the areas of the school normally forbidden to students it was also both private and magically sealed to prevent sounds from filtering in or out.

"We should be able to use this place to practice our performance as much as we need to without worrying about anyone interrupting us," Amity said.

"It seems kind of weird to put a death-trap lock on a place like this," Luz said, "There aren't any ancient magical treasures being guarded here. It mostly just looks like a lot of dust and an old poster for some play called Hexside Story ."

“The lock spell on the door wasn't lethal – it probably wouldn't do anything worse than take off a limb at most. I think they just wanted to keep students from sneaking in here to cut class or make out," Amity said.

She immediately flushed brick red as she realized just what she had said and to whom she had said it.

“Well, too bad for them because we did,” Luz said, “Sneak in here I mean... but for different reasons than that!”

Luz, for her part, had also gotten a little redder in the cheeks and she had quickly spun on her heels to take in the sight of the room once more rather than meet Amity's eyes directly.

The awkward pause stretched on just a beat too long and Amity forced herself to break it.

“So, what human songs did you want to show me? Did you find anything that you think could work for the talent show?” she asked.

Luz spun back around to face Amity and gave her an excited smile.

“You bet I did! I think I actually found something perfect,” she said as she dug around the pockets of her uniform to draw out the weird human-scroll that Amity had only seen a few times before.

“What makes it so perfect?” Amity asked as Luz ran her fingers across the cracked glass surface of her scroll, searching for wherever her music was hiding in it.

“Well, it's a heartfelt and beautiful song about two women who share a deep and unbreakable bond with each other - also they're both witches,” Luz said.

Amity blinked several times and felt the blush which had recently receded from her face threaten to return in full force.

Remember to breathe , she told herself, this is just Luz being Luz, she's not trying to kill me on purpose.

“Is it the fact that the song is about witches that makes it so perfect?” she asked.

“Hah, yeah of course... you know me so well,” Luz said with a grin that seemed a bit less confident than Amity was used to seeing on her face.

"Well, let's hear it then," Amity said.

Luz tapped away at the screen a few more times and then a woman's voice began to sing out from the phone.

"I'm limited

Just look at me

I'm limited

And just look at you"

Amity was struck by the beauty of the singer's voice as well as the feeling of sadness and longing in the lyrics.

The second singer in the duet joined in soon and continued with her own part - poetic lyrics about the impact the singers had on each other's lives.

"Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good"

Amity was about to ask Luz to tell her more about the context of the song, but she saw that Luz's eyes were closed and she was silently mouthing along to the words, so she decided to hold her questions for later and just focus on the music for now.

It wasn't a very long song, but it seemed to contain such a depth of emotion that Amity felt herself start to sink into it just as Luz had. She found herself wondering who these singers were, and what was apparently forcing them to part despite the obvious care they had for one another.

When the song came to an end both Luz and Amity shook themselves out of their reverie and returned to reality.

"Well, what did you think?" Luz asked, leaning in toward Amity with a curious look on her face.

Amity considered the question for a few moments, trying to frame her answer in her mind.

"It sounded beautiful," she said, "Kind of melancholy, but beautiful. Is this song part of an opera or something? I feel like there's some story behind these lyrics that I'm missing."

"Well, it's not exactly an opera - but it's from a different type of musical play that's pretty popular in my world," Luz said, "After I had read all the Azura books I was on a big witch kick for a while and tried to find more witch related stuff to enjoy. While doing that I stumbled on this musical called Wicked , which is where the song is from."

"Humans wrote a musical play about us?" Amity asked.

"Well, it’s not about real witches - just fantasy one's, sort of like Azura," Luz said, "I really liked it though. The main character of the story is called Elphaba, she was an unpopular outcast who tried to fight against injustice. I sort of identified with her a lot. She was the first singer in the song."

"Who was the other singer then?" Amity asked.

"Glinda," Luz said, "She starts out as a snooty, popular jerk who hates the outsider Elphaba's guts, but they eventually become best friends. Remind you of anyone?"

Amity crossed her arms and glared at Luz.

"Ha. Ha," she said in a flat monotone.

"Anyway this song is about the last time they ever get to see each other," Luz said, "And it's just packed with all these feelings about how much they mean to each other and changed each other's lives. I can see why they make such a popular ship together, really - I always thought that Glinda and Elphaba had a lot more chemistry with each other than either of them ever did with Fiyero."

Oh, okay - so the song that Luz wants to sing with me is a duet between a pair of close friends that she feels have a lot of romantic tension lingering between them, Amity thought.

Nope, I'm definitely not going to read anything into that at all.

“Could I listen to that song again?” Amity asked.

Luz nodded and tapped at her scrolls broken screen again to replay the song.

Amity closed her eyes and focused on the song once more, trying to imagine the characters that Luz had described singing their parts. Some part of her mind reminded her of Luz’s snide joke about how the start of their own friendship seemed to mirror that of the characters and that was all it took for the lyrics to take on a whole new dimension of meaning for her.

I wonder if this is how I’d be feeling if... no... when, Luz manages to find a new portal back to the human realm? Would I also be thinking of how much just being with her has changed me and my life? Would she be thinking of how I changed hers? Would I even be able to tell her these things or would I be left speechless and unable to say anything at all when she just disappears from my life forever as suddenly as she first appeared in it?

The thought brought a sharp pang to Amity’s chest, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat as it coincided with the rise of the singer’s voice.

“Are you okay Amity?” Luz asked.

Amity scrubbed at her face with the back of her hands and nodded.

“I’m fine,” she said, “This place is just really dusty - some of it must have gotten in my eyes.”

“Aw, it’s okay to get emotional - it’s a very touching song,” Luz assured her.

“Yeah, it really is,” Amity agreed, “And I think it could probably work well for the talent show. Singing a duet isn't as flashy as throwing knives, but I remember hearing a rumor that Principal Bump was in the Bard Track himself when he was a student so he might have a soft spot for musical acts.”

“Perfect!” Luz said, “Then we’ll be able to dazzle him with music from another world and blow our competition out of the water.”

“We should write out the lyrics for our parts - I assume you’d want to be the outcast one... what did you say her name was again?” Amity asked.

“Elphaba, and that’s a really good idea,” Luz said, “Oh! We should make costumes too! I think our act would have a lot more flair if we were dressed up like witches.”

Amity gave Luz a confused stare.

“Luz, I’m already a witch. Anything I wear is automatically me dressing like a witch,” she said.

“Not real witches,” Luz said, “The human kind.”

“Human witches?” Amity asked with obvious confusion.

“You know what I mean - the ones who dress like Azura and wear the big pointy hats,” Luz said.

“Oh - well, it’s a little old fashioned, but I guess it might be eye catching if we do it right,” Amity said.

The pair settled down onto the floor of the practice room while Luz brought out a notebook from her bag and began to sketch up ideas for costumes and Amity started transcribing the lyrics of the song into her own notebook in order to memorize her part.

I wonder if we could actually win with a song like this , Amity wondered.

I’d been worried that we'd be making fools of ourselves at first when Luz told me she had no idea what she was doing, but we might actually stand a chance now if we can learn our parts well.

Amity recalled the vow that she’d made when she first agreed to sign up for the show with Luz and felt a spike of panic shoot through her chest at the thought that she might actually have to go through with it after all.

Does breaking a promise with yourself count as going back on your word?

As the day of the talent show drew closer Luz had found herself looking forward to her singing rehearsals with Amity after school in the abandoned practice room with growing anticipation.

The first few sessions had been a little awkward - while Luz did enjoy singing she hadn't ever sung together with anyone other than her mother before so it took her a little while to adjust to it. She had also been worried how her own voice would sound when compared with Amity's, but those fears had gradually fallen away the more they practiced which made the rehearsals run much smoother.

Still, Luz couldn't help but feel deeply affected by the sound of Amity's voice whenever she sang her part of their duet - she had even missed her own cues a few times because she'd found herself starting to get lost in the music.

"Sorry," Luz had apologized after it happened yet again, "I guess I was just feeling a little distracted. That was great though - you’ve really got your part down!"

Amity had frowned in annoyance at the interruption in their practice, but the harsh expression softened after only a moment at the added compliment.

"Thank you... but try not to get distracted like that when we're up on stage. This song is supposed to be a duet after all, so you need to sing your part too," she chided Luz.

Luz gave Amity a solemn nod.

"Don't worry, I'll be one-hundred percent focused during the show - we're going to win this thing or die trying!" she said.

"There are a lot of terrible ways to die on the Boiling Isles, but I'd rather not meet my end during a school talent show if I can help it," Amity said in a dry voice.

"Okay, maybe we'll leave out the 'die trying' part then - but we're still going to win," Luz said, "How could we lose when we've got a voice like yours on our side?"

Amity flushed a delicate shade of pink at that remark.

"My singing isn't really that good - I don't even have any training aside from going to scaryoke with Boscha and Skara after school a few times," she said, "Anyway, you know your part way better than I do."

"What's with all this sudden modesty? Is this really the same Amity Blight that loved flashing around her Top Student badge every chance she got back when we first met?" Luz teased.

"Oh shut up," Amity snipped before turning back to her hand-written sheet of lyrics with furious concentration.

Luz felt a fond smile creep up at the corners of her mouth at the sight of the blush on Amity's face.

Even when she's annoyed she's really pretty , she thought.

Luz gave her head a quick shake. 

I’m doing it again .

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with recognizing that Amity was pretty of course - Luz knew that anyone with eyes could obviously see that was the case.

It was just that Luz had started to grow aware of it more and more often the longer they spent time together in the old practice room. The spells that made the room a perfect environment for practicing music also transformed it into an island of calm, as if Luz and Amity were the only people that existed in the whole world as long as they were tucked away within its walls.

The intensely emotional lyrics of the song they were practicing probably weren't helping matters either.

Luz found herself worrying that her increasingly muddled and warm feelings toward the witchling would end up being glaringly obvious when she was belting out that Amity would be with her forever like a handprint on her heart at the top of her lungs from a few feet away.

Glinda, not Amity , Luz reminded herself.

Glinda will be with Elphaba like a handprint on her heart - we're not actually them. Amity and I are just two good friends singing their roles in a contest to try and win fame, glory and a pretty sizable gift card.

Sometimes it was hard to remember that though when Amity was looking at Luz with the absolute softest expression that Luz had ever seen on her face and singing her own half of the song in the shared solitude of the practice room. Her voice always rang out with an undercurrent of powerful emotions similar to the original recording but with enough subtle differences to make the performance feel unique to Amity.

Whenever Luz found herself getting too lost in the sound of those feelings woven through Amity's performance she would have to forcibly snap herself back to reality.

What Amity is doing is called acting , she reminded herself.

Just because something sounds real doesn’t mean it is - that’s the whole point of a performance in the first place.

Amity is apparently just really good at it - just like she is with magic, dancing, sports and almost anything else I've ever seen her try to do.

"Luz?" Amity asked.

Luz snapped herself out of her wandering train of thought.

"What's up?" she asked.

"It's almost time for me to go - would you want to do one last run-through of the song together first though?" Amity asked.

Luz nodded, and then cleared her throat to begin.

"I'm limited

Just look at me

I'm limited

And just look at you

You can do all I couldn't do"

As she sang she couldn't help but feel a little stab to the heart at the idea that it felt somewhat true. She'd had to fight hard to find her own way to do all those things that came naturally to Amity and the other witches at Hexside. Luz was proud of how far she had come with the magic of her glyphs, but every new spell she earned was its own unique struggle.

Maybe some of those feelings had leaked into her singing, because when Amity looked at her there was a flash of something almost like understanding between them. The young witch reached out a hand to place it on Luz's shoulder and then sang her part next in a voice as clear as a bell.

"I've heard it said

That people come into our lives

For a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return"

Luz knew that Amity's words were just the normal lyrics of the song, the same as they had practiced it together at least a dozen times by now, but it still felt good to hear them in response to the doubts that she'd been having.

She sang her own part with renewed energy after that, until the song came to an end with Amity's voice joining hers for the final line.

"You know," Amity said after a brief pause, "I think we didn't mess up once that time."

Luz smiled.

"I think you're right," she said.

They exited the room and made their way through the secret hallways that lead out of the abandoned Bard Track wing and into the fading sunlight of the outside world.

Amity pulled her scroll out again and grimaced at the time, then made a hasty exit when she explained that she was going to be late for a dinner party that her parents were hosting if she stayed much longer.

Luz hefted her bag over her shoulder and started to make her way back to the Owl House once more, lost in thought about the day’s practice session and of how many times her mind had wandered off course while thinking of Amity.

Not for the first time, she found herself regretting her choice of song.

Why didn't I suggest "What is this feeling?" instead? , she thought.

It's a cute song, really funny, still a duet and it wouldn't sound like I'm basically shouting out how much I care about her right to her face... granted I'd be singing about how much I hate her guts instead but we'd both know it was just an act for the song.

Any chance of trying to change their act had probably long passed though considering that the Talent Show was scheduled for the end of the week, and it was already half over now.

I just have to keep it together for a few more days , Luz assured herself.

Just a few more practices until the performance and then maybe everything will just go back to the way it was before and I'll stop feeling so weird and off-balance when I'm around Amity.

Luz snorted to herself at that thought.

Also, maybe I'll suddenly find a portal back to Earth in my morning bowl of porridge and a nice sparkly fairy will appear and give me a big book with every single glyph in it plus my very own magic staff , she thought.

She kicked a small pebble in her path in frustration and wasn't even particularly surprised when the small stone started cursing at her in a gravelly voice as it bounced off into the grass. Not even Boiling Isles weirdness was enough to drag her out of her pining-induced funk.

Maybe what I need to do is just confront the situation head on? , she thought.

Luz paused and tilted her head back to look up at the stars peeking out from around the clouds as she considered the matter.

How about this , she thought to herself.

If Amity and I win the talent show, I'll tell her how I feel. She's got a good heart and she'd probably let me down easy if she's not interested - it might hurt for a bit, but I'm sure we'd be able to stay friends and I’d be able to stop being so weird around her once it’s out in the open.

Plus, there's always the chance that she might not be totally uninterested.

Maybe.

Luz watched helplessly from behind the curtains of the auditorium with one hand clapped over her mouth as the tragedy continued to unfold onstage.

This is brutal - can’t anyone put a stop to this?

Sadly, help did not come in time and Mattholomule was able to perform yet another extremely unskilled celebrity impersonation to the pained groans of the assembled audience.

I don’t even know who any of the celebrities of this world are and I can still tell that was terrible.

From the wings of the stage Luz saw Principal Bump make a curt gesture with one hand from his place seated at the center of the judges table. There was a burst of smoke onstage and one of the school guards, wearing a tuxedo in addition to their normal creepy upside-down skull mask, emerged from the cloud of mystical vapor and dragged the hapless impressionist off-stage using their hooked staff.

The audience erupted in cheers of relief at having been spared any more of the act. Maybe it was a little mean spirited, but Luz couldn’t blame them - watching Mattholomule’s impressions had felt like the longest three minutes of her life.

“Tough crowd,” Luz said, as she shot Amity a nervous smile.

“Crowds are always tough,” Amity replied in the firm voice of a stage veteran, “That just means that we need to be tougher.”

They were inspiring words, and delivered well, but Luz couldn’t help but smile anyway since Amity was saying them while dressed in the costume that Luz had prepared for her to wear during the show.

Amity had objected, strongly, to anything overly frilly or excessively sparkly and Luz had been forced to try and find work-arounds for Glinda's traditional costume design since it was heavy on both elements. She'd settled on going for something simple and white instead since it would serve as a good contrast to the black witch outfit that Luz would be wearing herself. In place of Glinda’s traditional crown Amity wore a tall white witch hat instead, which was somehow both cool and adorable on her at the same time.

If Luz hadn’t been sure of how she was feeling before, seeing Amity dressed up in her costume and looking like a miniature off-brand version of the Good Witch Azura had removed any last shred of doubt.

This has to be love, right? 

Nothing else in the world could possibly feel this embarrassing.

Luz was feeling pretty happy with how her own costume had turned out too - the dress part was just okay, but the gauzy black cloak she wore which billowed out behind her like the wings of an overly dramatic bat at the slightest breeze more than made up for its shortcomings.

Luz had originally planned on also wearing the traditional green face paint that her role called for, but she decided to leave it aside after Amity pointed out that it probably wouldn't have the same impact with an audience composed of witchlings and demons (many of whom were already naturally green as it was).

The talent show had been a surprisingly normal event so far, completely lacking in any sort of dark Boiling Isles-style twist that Luz had secretly been expecting in the back of her mind the whole time. There had been a great variety in the acts which the students had put on, with feats of acrobatics, dramatic recitations, dance routines and a number of musical performances of all kinds.

With Mattholomule out of the way that left only two acts to go before it was time for Principal Bump and his fellow judges to select a winner from among them.

The detention track professor who had been “volunteered” for the job of managing the backstage area signaled to Luz and Amity that it was time for them to go on. Luz felt a sudden flash of panic as she realized that their moment had finally come.

The last time she’d had to perform on this stage hadn’t gone well, but hopefully today would go a lot better than her entrance exam - if nothing else Luz was grateful that she wouldn’t be up there alone this time.

“Are you ready?” Luz asked Amity with a nervous smile.

Amity took a deep breath and nodded in return.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said.

On impulse Luz’s hand shot out and grabbed Amity’s to give it a quick squeeze, which elicited a startled squeak from her lips.

The witch’s eyes darted down toward their joined hands and then back up to Luz’s face. A flush crept it’s way across her cheeks, spreading out till it engulfed practically everything from her chin to her forehead in a sea of pink.

“Sorry,” Luz said, “I know you aren’t super touchy... I just felt like I needed a little moral support right now.”

Amity cleared her throat and darted her eyes off to the side.

“It’s fine,” she said, “I don’t mind at all.”

Luz felt Amity’s slender fingers give her hand a tentative squeeze in return, and her heart skipped a beat in her chest.

Luz swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat.

For one moment she forgot where they were and what they were doing - it was if she had been transported back to the privacy of the old practice room with Amity once more.

“Amity, I -” Luz began to say.

“Are you two going on already or what?” the detention track professor griped, “The crowd is getting restless out there!”

The moment of solitude and stillness disappeared as quickly as though a bubble had been popped.

“We’re going already!” Luz snapped back and then felt an embarrassed flush creep across her face when she realized that she was snapping at a teacher, “Sir.”

Amity’s grip on Luz’s hand tightened and she dragged the human after her onstage before she could get herself into more trouble somehow.

They stepped out from between the folds of the heavy blue curtains with the stage lights glaring into their eyes, turning the audience into a shadowy mass that rustled and filled the air with whispering chatter.

Amity nudged Luz with her elbow when she saw that the human was frozen with a thousand yard stare on her face at the sight of the crowd.

Luz jerked quickly at the nudge and then gave Amity a grateful smile with her weirdly unpointed teeth that made the witch’s heart melt for what felt like the millionth time.

“Ladies, gentlemen and demons - tonight I, Luz the human, and the amazing Amity Blight shall be performing a song for you; a song from the human realm,” Luz declared, “I hope that you will all enjoy this traditional ballad from the mysterious and exotic land of Broadway!”

There was an increase in chatter from out in the audience at that announcement and Amity noticed that Principal Bump had leaned forward at the judges table with a curious tilt to his head.

Amity felt a sense of calm settle over her. While performing on stage wasn’t a daily occurrence for her she’d had enough experience appearing in exhibitions and contests of all kinds in the past that crowds no longer bothered her.

This is going to go well - we’ve practiced the song over and over again until we were both word-perfect on the lyrics , Amity reminded herself.

A sudden sense of warm pressure against her fingers almost made Amity jump, but her old instincts kicked in and she managed to avoid making a fool of herself in front of the crowd when she realized that she hadn’t actually ever let go of Luz’s hand after they’d come onstage.

Sweat beaded like dew on Amity’s forehead as she debated internally whether or not she should try and pull her hand away from Luz’s grip, but before she could come to a decision the human had already begun to sing the opening lines of the song.

Amity felt her heart swell at the sound of Luz’s voice. All through their practice sessions the human had been lavishing Amity with praise, but Amity had always felt that Luz’s singing skills were just as praiseworthy. There was a sincerity in her song that reached deep inside Amity’s chest and wound its way around her heart like a silk ribbon wrapped around a gift box.

Tonight her voice sounded better than ever, and Amity was barely able to wait until her cue before she sang out her response.

The song wasn’t anything like a traditional love song, (at least not one familiar to witches that is - Amity had no clue what human love songs were like), but the depth of care that the singers showed for each other seemed to touch at something far deeper than most of the love songs she knew did. This wasn’t about wanting something from another person, but a declaration of just how profoundly that person had changed their life on a fundamental level.

Just like she knew that Luz had changed her. She didn’t know where she would be now if this strange visitor from another world had never dropped into her life, but she knew that she wouldn’t be as honestly happy as she was now.

Not for the first time, she hoped that Luz might be able to feel some of the truth of the lyrics as she sang her part back in response.

“Because I knew you,

I have been changed for good,”

Almost before she knew what was happening the song was over as Luz joined hers for the final lyric, their voices rising together in practiced harmony.

There was a moment of long silence following the final note and then the audience burst into cheers and applause. Amity turned to Luz with a smile, and received a warm grin in return.

The two gave a quick bow and then retreated behind the curtain where they collapsed against a nearby wall in a fit of relieved giggles.

“Remind me to never sign up for anything like this again,” Luz said with a sigh.

“What, am I really such a terrible duet partner?” Amity asked with a raised eyebrow.

Luz gave a nervous laugh.

“No, you were great - I’m just starting to think that Willow might be onto something about crowds because that was kind of terrifying,” she said.

The applause and excited chatter could still be heard even through the muffling wall of the curtain.

“Well, terrifying or not they seemed to really like it,” Amity assured her.

“I’ll say,” the detention track professor said, “They’re going crazy out there. I’d really hate to be the poor chump that has to follow an act like that!”

An irritated cough from the side drew their attention to Gus, the final entry in the show.

“Hey, don’t listen to that guy Gus,” Luz told him, “You’re going to do great out there.”

Gus shot her a cocky grin.

“Of course I am,” he said, “I’ve been preparing for this all year.”

The young witchling brushed a speck of lint off the lapel of his jacket and then strode out onto the stage.

Two students sat together on the edge of the stage of the empty auditorium with their feet kicking idly in the still air.

The audience had left long ago, along with their fellow performers following the awarding of the prizes but these two had stayed behind as if by some unspoken agreement.

“You know,” Luz said as she looked down at the fifty-snail gift card in her hand, “I don’t think I’ve ever come in second place at anything before in my life.”

Amity gave a disappointed sigh.

“Yeah, me neither - sorry,” she said.

Luz’s hand reached out to give Amity a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.

“No, I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” she assured her, “I just meant that I’ve never actually placed high enough at any contest to be second before. This is actually a huge step up for me!”

Amity smiled back at the enthusiasm in Luz’s voice.

“Still though,” Amity said, “I’d really been hoping that we’d win.”

A thought flashed through her mind, wondering if winning first place would have really given her the courage to say those words that remained locked away in her heart or if that had just been another fantasy of hers.

“Well, I was hoping for first place too,” Luz said, “But you heard Gus’s act - he earned it fair and square.”

Amity nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t know that Principal Bump was even capable of laughing that hard,” she said.

“Seriously, I thought his teeth were going to fly out of his mouth at some point - and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually have dentures,” Luz said.

Amity gagged at that mental image and gave Luz a light shove on the shoulder that made the human giggle. The spontaneous note of joy in that sound sent a spark of boldness up arcing Amity’s spine and she spoke before her usual sense of hesitation and doubt could return to stifle it.

“Well, maybe we didn’t get first place but I still think we were a pretty great team together up there,” Amity said.

“Yeah,” Luz said with a warm grin, “I’m really glad that you wanted to do this with me Amity. I really loved singing together with you.”

“I did too,” Amity answered.

She looked at the gift card in Luz’s hand. Somewhere in the back of her mind she imagined the Amity who she might have been in another life - one who would have been horrified at the idea of taking any prize other than the first, who would have felt the crushing weight of countless generations of ancestral Blights bearing down on her at the thought of even attempting something so common as singing in a talent show.

Or of falling in love with a human for that matter.

Well, she wasn’t that Amity now and she was sure that she never would be again. She’d changed too much to go back to that life now.

“You know,” Amity said, “If you’d want to sing together again we could take that gift card down to the marketplace tomorrow and do some scaryoke together. Maybe I could teach you a few of the songs we have in this realm... If you’re interested that is.”

Luz turned to Amity and gave her a smile that was poised halfway between joking and sincere.

“What, like a date or something?” she said with a nervous laugh.

Amity’s heart lurched in her chest, but she gave Luz a steady gaze in return.

“Yeah,” she said, with a note almost like defiance in her voice, “If you want it to be.”

Luz’s eyes widened and she gulped.

“Yes,” she squeaked out before clearing her throat and continuing in a much more normal tone, “Yes, that sounds good to me.”

Amity’s own eyes widened.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, it’s a date,” Luz said as a blush swept across her face.

The only reason that Amity did not immediately leap to her feet and start doing a joyous dance across the empty stage was probably due to the final shreds of dignity that she’d managed to cling to even in the face of her all-consuming crush.

Instead she hopped off the stage, feeling light as a feather, and turned back to give Luz her best attempt at a smooth smile.

“Okay then, see you tomorrow,” she said as she made for the exit.

The fact that she stumbled over one of the chairs in the auditorium on the way out since she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Luz’s face was somewhat embarrassing, but even that wouldn’t be enough to ruin her night.

She had a date with the cutest, weirdest girl in all of the demon realm after all and that was way better than winning some silly contest.