The Second First Day
Amity’s POV
Amity shifted in her seat as her siblings drove into the school parking lot. There was some fresh powder floating to the ground but the roads had been plowed during the night leaving piles of slush against the edges of the roadway.
“You good back there Mittens?” Emira called back, making eye contact with her through the rearview mirror.
Amity forced herself to sit still, clenching her fists within her sleeves in an attempt to relieve the tension she felt building up inside of her. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Just… not excited to be going back to school is all.”
“That’s right!” Edric laughed from the passenger seat. “Sucks to be you but Em and I don’t go back for another two weeks!”
Emira smiled and accepted Edric’s offer of a fist bump while Amity rolled her eyes, her sibling’s stupid banter helping to put her at just a bit of ease. “Hey, Amity,” her sister said in a slightly more serious tone, “we do get it though. High school can suck sometimes.” She shrugged as she pulled over for Amity to get out, “it’s only a year and a half more though, right?”
Amity paused for a moment before stepping out of the vehicle with a curt nod. Only a year and a half to go, and then what? She’d still be under her parents thumb, just attending a college instead of a high school. She’d still be in the closet and she’d probably still be a miserable anxious mess, maybe even more so than she was already. Amity swallowed a lump in her throat before stepping outside of the car, her boots crunching in the slush that waas pushed up against the sidewalk. Would a year and a half be enough time for Luz to talk to her again?
A shiver ran down her spine from the cold as she began the schlep up the stairs from the parking lot to the entrance of the school. Neither she nor the other members of their party had received word as to whether or not Luz would be back at school today. Amity had even tried stopping by Eda’s one more time but the woman had seemed even more closed off about the subject than she had before. None of their attempts to reach out had been accepted, including the email that Amity had sent, not that she was sure why she even thought that it might have had a different result than every other attempt to contact her. She wondered if Luz had even seen it in her inbox to begin with.
Then, right before Amity walked through the front doors, her breath caught in her throat. She must have stood by that bike rack for hours on end during finals week, trying to convince herself that if she just waited for one minute more, Luz would appear on that crappy old bike of hers and they could finally talk. She had been just shy of late to nearly every exam last week as a result of that waiting but she’d waited anyway. Then throughout the holiday, Amity had nearly managed to convince herself that she might never get to see that crummy old bike again. That she had pushed Luz past the brink in one fell swoop and would never see her again. But, now, on this cold, gloomy, first day back at school, there it was. In its usual spot, at the bike rack, the rust smearing red coloring against the metal and the bike lock swaying slightly in the freezing wind.
Without hesitation, Amity heaved open the front door to the school and booked it to her first class. Their first class. She didn’t even stop to throw her coat in her locker for the risk it might take away a precious second between her and Luz. It was early in the morning, the buses hadn’t arrived yet and the school was almost vacant save for the other kids who had alternative means of getting to school.
Practically skidding to a stop in front of the classroom door, Amity took the briefest second to right herself before pushing it open. Her eyes immediately fell directly upon the figure in the purple hoodie and duct tape on shoes that had been at least partially soaked by snow sludge, sleeping with her head down against the desk.
Amity froze. They were alone in the classroom, Mr. Bump hadn’t even arrived yet. She could say something to them, have that talk that they so desperately needed to have. She could tap her on her shoulder and wake her up.
So why wasn’t she doing that?
Why wasn’t she moving any closer, why was she trying to quiet her breathing and hoping that the pounding of her heart in her chest wouldn’t do anything to stir Luz? Why was she shutting the door behind her as quietly as possible and practically tiptoeing into her seat next to Luz’s desk? Why did she do nothing but stare at Luz’s sleeping form with the barest hint of tears forming in her eyes until Mr. Bump entered and she pretended to have been getting her books out of her bag as the rest of the class filed in?
Oh right. Because she’s a goddamn coward.
Amity saw Willow’s eyes go wide in surprise at seeing Luz in the classroom, but the lesson was about to start and Bosha entered right on the girl’s heels so there would be no time to do or say anything. Amity was only able to give Willow the barest shake of her head, an indication that she hadn’t said or done anything yet.
Boscha pushed past Willow and made eye contact with Amity as she kicked Luz in the shin with the toe of her snow boot. Luz, Willow, and Amity all flinched at the contact that had definitely startled Luz awake. She didn’t do anything though, didn’t say anything, didn't even raise her head from above her desk.
After everyone had taken their seats, Mr. Bump began to read off the names on roll call. Amity didn’t fail to notice how Luz’s shoulders stiffened as Amity rang off a ‘Here.’ Mr. Bump didn’t notice though, he just kept on going all the way down the list, down to the ‘L’s to the ‘M’s and at last to “Luz Noceda?”
Amity couldn’t help but stare as Luz slowly pushed herself up from the desk. Her expression was stiff, focused, like an animal preparing to go into a flight or fight response but wasn’t sure which one yet. Amity’s heart dropped at the realization that there was still somehow a hint of a bruise marking her cheek where the worst of it had been. Luz kept her eyes forward, away from Amity, above Willow, and refusing to flinch as Boscha subtly poked a pencil into the small of her back.
“Here.”
Luz’s POV
Luz could feel Amity’s eyes boring into her every time Mr. Bump turned to face the board and it took every ounce of self control she had not to glance over at her. At first she tried to distract herself by actually paying attention in class for once but that proved to be just as unbearably boring as it had been last semester and Boscha’s spitballs weren’t helping at all. Of course, Luz was just as tired as she always was in the morning but… she didn’t feel safe falling asleep with Boscha literally breathing down her neck.
Mr. Bump started scribbling out a practice problem exactly like ones that she’d mastered last year and decided that enough was enough. Careful not to accidentally direct her gaze in the direction of any of the several people she was avoiding, Luz reached into her bag and pulled out her sketchbook, flipping it open to where she’d left off with the design of the clockwork soldiers.
She’d spent the remaining free time of her winter break chugging along with the design for her level and had even placed a basic layout into her private server but, thankfully, she still had a lot of work to do in order to make it into the masterpiece that she had in her head.
A frown tugged at Luz’s lips as she took another look at the design in her sketchbook for her automated soldier. As she was mostly reskinning a golem, she had to stick with the tall humanoid format, which was fine, but she’d had the thought to give them a faceplate that looked like the bottom half of a woman’s face crafted in porcelain with a single large camera lens in the center of where the eyes would go. She’d thought it looked cool when she’d drawn up the sketch last night but a fresh set of eyes revealed it to actually look extremely creepy.
She scratched out the design for the face and started to sketch out a few other ideas before finally settling on a kind of wooden bird head that kind of resembled a plague doctor mask. It fit really well into the world of The Boiling Isles and into the steampunk feel of the artificer class as a whole. She liked it. She liked it a lot.
The tip of her tongue peaked out over her lips as she started scribbling out more ideas for details that could be worked into the design. She had the thought to give them a second camera in the back of their head making it so that they could only be snuck up on if you went at them from the sides which would present a really cool challenge but might be a little too difficult. She then decided that only a few of the soldier’s would be ‘active’ and roaming around the hallways like guards at the start of the game. However, there would be many more standing ‘idle’ off to the side. The idle soldiers wouldn’t have their cameras active but could be easily awoken by loud noises like gunshots, bombs, or guards calling for backup. Luz had always been a fan of stealthing her way through things, it’s one of the reasons why she’d chosen ranger as her primary class, along with her liking the bow mechanics that it offered too much to have just gone full rogue.
The thought had just popped into her head to give it a second set of arm blades so that if it did spot the player it could swing twice as frequently as a normal guard would be able to when the school bell rang and snapped Luz from her thoughts. She didn’t waste a second as she scribbled the numbers of the homework problems into her sketchbook, tossed everything into her backpack and ran out of the room, not sparing a glance at a single other person in it.