High School Observers
Rumors. Rumors were simply collective thoughts, they held truth to them no matter how many falsehoods they contained. The students of Gravesfield High knew rumors, the favored subject of them? Luz Noceda. There wasn’t a day that went by without words of the strange girl filtering through the classes.
The rumors had always been thrown about her but they really started after the finale incident the previous year. Luz had been sent to some reform camp, something that even the worst of the worst tormentors in the school felt uncomfortable about. If being weird meant reform, what did actively trying to hurt people get you?
Nonetheless, no one really thought of the weird girl during the summer. Too busy with their own summer activities to think of the loser who was clearly not going to be having fun. In the end the summer camp became just another rumor. A girl so weird she was punished, sure Luz’s name was still on it and sure most people knew it was at least a little real. It still served to let kids scare the younger ones into being a little more normal, for a few days at least.
Sometime around halfway through the summer Luz Noceda had returned. She was of course noticed by everyone, how could she not be? Taunts of "oh look out, local weird coming this way." Had been commonplace. Except there was something off, she dressed a little differently, her cat hoodie nowhere to be seen. She had friends but what's more?
She didn't talk about Azura, at all ever. Good Witch Azura was the one topic that was off the table for bullying, usually at least. Most of the older kids knew what that series meant to her so to stop hearing about it? Something was wrong.
And so a new rumor was born.Luz Noceda went to summer camp and something came back wearing her face. Oh it was good, it got some of her little tics, her obsessive nature down. But where Luz was laser guided on an interest this creature was like buckshot. Luz loved witches, this creature was knee deep in fantasy and roleplay.
Of course inevitably someone pointed out that Luz's mother had to know. Others offered the counter that even if she did Camila Noceda would adopt the imposter and so as if to reconcile an impossibility Camila must know exactly where Luz was.
This new Luz never really beat the rumors out, her attendence at school only fueled them. And then one day, as if to mock the students, Luz changed again. She arrived to school with a beanie, new scars and a letterman jacket no one recognized. She was in a sour mood most of the time and her doodles had become impeccable renditions of symbols.
As was inevitable, rumors continued. She clearly joined some witch cult. Yes, the perfect answer. She showed up with new friends, wasn't seen with her old camp group, it made too much sense. So that was the story, Luz joined a cult and a shapeshifter was on the loose. All wrapped up in a bow, they'd solved it.
Then Luz failed to arrive at school for three days. Camila's car lay abandoned where she parked it on Halloween. Some strange girl no one had ever seen usually answered the Noceda's door.
"Oh sorry no, my mom and sister are sick." She'd say when asked for either of them. When pressed she'd continue, "Sorry they don't want to get anyone else sick, I'll tell them you came by."
Ah ha, thought everyone. The Noceda's are hiding something. No one ever got past the door. Well Jacob Hopkins claimed he almost did, no one listened. Rumors sprang up that Masha, one of Luz's camp friends, got in but they denied it, said Luz hadn't spoken to them in weeks. There was something fishy with that.
Then without warning Luz reappeared. This time she was flanked by the girl that was answering the door and one of her strange friends. Yet again she looked different. Her hair was longer, fluffier, it hid her ears. She wore a long coat that flared behind her, black on the inside and a deep almost mystical purple on the outside. The sleeves were short and she wore dark jeans.
It wasn't what they could see that people whispered about. No, what got everyone's attention was what they couldn't see, couldn't explain. When Luz walked it wasn't the squeak of rubber on polished floor but the click-clack of bone on stone that they heard.
When you shook her hand or gave her a high five it wasn't the sound and feeling of skin impacting skin. It was one part soft like fur and another part hard and sharp like claws. That furry feeling came no matter where you touched her. Most thought she was a werewolf or some other monster.
These stories only grew with new additions. A girl stood next to Luz in the bathroom and the other girl's reflection had distinctly inhuman eyes. Luz ducked a little to clear doorways and gaps almost a foot taller than herself. She displayed freakish strength. Everything was just off enough for them all to wonder.
“What do you mean the illusion over your eyes is non-reflective?” WAs the beginning of a conversation that only added gasoline to the fires. Amity Blight was strange in her own right. She didn’t understand aspects of human culture, didn’t get their food or their normalcies.
“Where’s the fun in the perfect disguise?” Luz replied, laughing. Her laugh was another thing that's changed, there was something deep overlaid on it, something that sent shivers down their spines.
“Uh as the resident basilisk, perfection is the entire point of a disguise.” Vee said, vindicating many. Although most had called that she was the suspected shapeshifter, basilisk was not one thing they’d expected at all however.
“Oh come on, you expect anyone to hide forever?” That was fair, no one was sure how Luz had kept it hidden for five minutes. It was odd that they still had no idea what was going on.
“Giraffes did.” That was the end of what people had heard because what the hell did that mean? Giraffes had something to hide? What?
Everything came to a head on costume day, a second halloween of sorts the assorted nerds had bullied the staff into allowing. Most kids showed up in their incredible labors of devoted love they called cosplay, other half assed it and many more hit a middle ground. Luz and Vee though? They hit differently.
Luz was covered from the neck down in fur, boney ridges covering parts of her body. Little spikes of bone poked out of the back of the coat-like portion. Her fingers were replaced by claws, her eyes matched the girl from the bathroom's description. She had a pair of horns on her head and a furry witch's hat that looked like it was part of her, although people saw her without it during the day. The little ball of light at the tip of the hat never went anywhere though. Vee for her part was green and scally. She slithered over the ground laughing compliments off.
What was noteworthy though was the things that stayed the same. The feeling of touching her body was the same fuzz. High fives were the same plush and sharp combination. The same click-clack of bone as she walked. Students whispered as she passed
While the school had had costume day, the Noceda’s decided not to wear theirs for a day. After that day the siblings could be seen without their disguises every so often. A furry witch sitting atop a staff looking up at the stars, a basilisk moving carefully through the dark woods there. A trio of magical creatures spotted defacing Hopkins’s car.
Eventually the supernatural beings gave up the pretense of hiding entirely, to little fanfare. Luz’s deep dark fur became commonplace, unworthy of note. Vee’s scales were just another way to know she was there.
So yeah, Gravefield High knew what rumors were, and rumor had it if you payed attention right you’d see true magic anywhere in the city.