Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe)

Amber watched as students rolled in like usual. From her posse, to the nobodies, to the nerds, to the jocks, and to the losers. When one was at the top of the social ladder, it was vital to memorize every position. Not that it was too hard, when she was naturally beautiful and charismatic. It didn't take much to gather a following, and even less to keep everyone in line.

Luckily the biggest threat, Kevin, was out of her hair after he graduated. Being rich did not mean you could do anything and still be popular, there was a line you had to draw SOMEWHERE. She heard around the grapevine that he got his ass kicked by some punk chick at a party recently, so already that loser was being forgotten.

The only real threat to her were the occasional outliers. The odd balls, the weirdos, and non-conformers of the norm. Aka crazy kids that did whatever the hell they wanted, and around school, in her grade at least, there was one girl that came to mind.

Luz Noceda. A chaotic mess that caused nothing but trouble and disaster wherever she went. They were lucky enough to get a month without that freak around. Now she was back and it was only a matter of time before some poisonous animal ran rampant through the school. Even the teachers seemed to be less happy with the crazy chick around, expecting her to unleash a rabid badger at almost any moment. It was so bad the school made about a dozen rules specially aimed at all of Luz's antics.

Amber watched as the partner in crime to the crazy girl walked into the room. "So, how long do you think until your friend causes another accident?" She asked the smartest, yet unluckiest girl in the grade, Connie Maheswaran.

"Probably longer than it will take you to mind your own business." The glasses-wearing girl grumbled back at her.

"Hey, don't give me attitude, I just want to prepare for when something crazy happens." Amber argued. "You're always getting dragged along, figured you'd have an early warning system for this kind of thing."

"Do you really have nothing better to do than to guess when Luz causes a problem?" They asked.

Before Amber could respond, Noceda herself walked inside, placing a stack of papers onto the teacher's desk, before walking to their desk. "You'll get the other half by the end of next week."

"You sure you don't want to double check your work?" The teacher asked her. "Because if I grade them right now, that's going to be half your grade for this half of the quarter."

"Just take the homework." Luz hit her head against her desk. "I had to skip sleep the last three nights to make a schedule."

"Aww, is someone needing to be held back just to make ends meet?" Amber asked with a smirk.

"Mhm." The girl hummed, dazed out and ignored her.

"Guess there is a god after all. The karma is hitting her strong." Amber laughed.

"Seriously, is this really the only thing on your mind right now?" Connie glared at her.

"What, you hate her too. I thought you'd be happy she's so miserable right now." Amber countered.

"I don't get off on the suffering of others." The glasses girl rolled her eyes.

"Alright everyone, quiet down, class is starting." The teacher spoke. Great, the only thing worse than an insufferable crazy girl…busy work. At least she didn't have to get a rabies shot…for the tenth time.

========================================================================

"So you never went to school either?" Hunter asked Vee as they hung out at the beach house for 'human' lessons. As someone who lived in the Boiling Isles now living on earth, she was the second best teacher when Luz wasn't around.

"Nope. The gem's aren't exactly considered 'citizens', so I couldn't really go to one if I wanted to, since I technically don't exist on paper." Vee answered.

"If they don't count as citizens, why hasn't the government done anything about it?" He asked.

"Don't know, suits used to show up one or two times before, but I think Rose scared them off." Amethyst said something as she raided the fridge. "With the Pink Diamond reveal, she probably threatened to bring Homeworld down on them or something."

"She only did that once!" Pearl screamed, making everyone stare at her.

"Oh, did she now?" Clawthorne said. "You keep trying to portray her as this 'absolutely flawless and perfect' woman, yet you refuse to acknowledge the shady things she did."

"What are you on about? Pink is the bestest of best friends. No matter what nightmares or destruction she causes." Spinel gave a rapid nod.

"... So, what did Rose do to enter the Boiling Isles?" Hunter asked, ignoring that for the moment. "It's not like she had Titan Blood on Earth."

"That…I am unaware of the full details." Pearl sighed. "Witches used to travel back and forth between the realms constantly through the use of Titan's blood, but it was a finite resource, hence why you don't see witches travel back and forth today. Rose was working with Evelyn and Caleb on a more consistent means of travel, but… something came up that made Rose stop."

That hit Hunter. "Like … Caleb Wittabane?"

"Oh yeah, he was a fun guy back in the day." Amethyst said, pulling out some oil. "Rose had the hots for him back then. Constantly competed with Evelyn for it." She looked at Hunter. "You actually kind of look like him now that I think about it.

Hunter froze, not wanting to get into the grimwalker situation anytime soon. "So my womb donor had terrible taste in partners. Figures." Clawthorne snorted, derailing the conversation.

Even if no one understood the full context, Hunter knew the jab was aimed at him, and it just rubbed him the wrong way. "You know, maybe if she picked the first option instead, we might have had a better outcome in our lives."

The boy stopped chuckling, glaring. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, life would be much easier for a lot of people if you didn't exist." Hunter crossed his arms. "The larceny, the arson, medical bills, witches lives made infinitely worse by crossing your path." 

"Oh hey, how about I show you two Video Games." Vee tried to suggest.

"Oh, you're into that now, Mr Emperor's second in command? Tell me." Clawthorne marched over to him. "How many people did you help Belos kill before you realized you were on the wrong side? How many people would have a much better life if you didn't exist?"

"I dunno, a lot of people in the streets tend to shout your name in horror a lotmore than they do mine."

"Because you were a propaganda peddling lap dog serving a genocidal maniac whose plan's got so far because YOU helped him!" Clawthone accused.

Hunter gripped his hands tightly. "You do not want to pick this fight."

"New flash, I already won it. I beat you ever since Bismuth, and I'm the only one of us who can throw a punch. Or did you forget you haven't really picked up the weight in anything we've done."

"No, but I can still do this." Hunter grabbed Clawthorne's shoulder and teleported, slamming the brat into a wall.

"Lucifer!" Pearl shouted, ready to take out that spear.

"Stay out of this!" Clawthorn put up a wall, pushing the pale gem away. "This is between me and the Golden Tool!"

"That's it!" He sent forth fireballs to slam into the bastard.

"Our house!" He could hear a shout as the flames spread against the wood.

"Fire? Hah, my girlfriend is hotter than you, in more ways than one." The brat grinned as he took out Sugar, and slammed a fireball right back with that damn hammer into his stomach. "News flash Golden Tool. If you can do magic with your staff, so can I."

"Yeah, you're rowdy, undisciplined, and just one huge mess." Hunter teleported behind him, and rammed an ice spike right through his shoulder, pushing him against the warp pad. "I've trained to be precise, controlled, and actually know what the hell I'm doing."

"Then why the heck do you keep making our lives difficult!" He shouted, slamming his hands on the wattpad, making them disappear as the devil pushed Hunter off him.

"LUCCI/HUNTER!" The cries of the others called out to them as they went up into the sky.

"You're the one who feels like they need to antagonize everyone they meet!" Hunter argued.

"Just the people who deserve it! And I wasn't even trying to insult you! You were about to freak out over the Caleb thing, I derailed the conversation."

"Just the people who deserve it!? You argue and get angry at every human we meet because they're giving you a fake identity you can live with! It's petty!"

"Because that's not who I am! Everyone else gets to keep their name! You get to keep your name, you're blank slates here! Everyone here either calls me Steven, calls me Mr. Universe's son, or calls Me Rose's kid!"

"And how many people call me Golden Guard!? You don't see me going off rails every time someone called me that back at Hexide!"

"Because you're not ashamed of it!"

"OF COURSE I'M ASHAMED OF IT YOU MORON!" He screamed as they fell off the warp, into what looked like a jungle, rolling into the crash. "Everything I did was a lie! I thought no matter what horrible thing I had to do, no matter how guilty I felt, it would all be for a greater cause, but it wasn't, it was all snorseshit, and I have to live with it every single day! You…you were raised as a criminal, by a woman who actually gave a damn about you. It doesn't matter how much wrong you do, she's going to be proud of you no matter what! I don't have that! I have NOTHING!"

"You have a Palisman! And for some reason, Willow and Gus give a damn about you!" The boy kicked him in the ribs, causing what sounded like a crack. "Stop thinking I have it better than you damn it, I'm forced to live with everyone thinking I'm the wrong person and saying they know what's best, when clearly they're all just ruining everyone's lives!" He growled. "I thought you'd understand that at least. Because if I really, really wanted to hurt you, I'd call you Philip's brother." Hunter winced. "Yeah, that's what it feels like for me." The boy got up. "Now I'm going to go back to Spinel, and have some fun …" He paused. "How did we end up here?"

"Don't look at me, you're the one who can use the pad." Hunter groaned.

"Yeah, but I need to imagine a place with my head. I've never been here."

"Chirp." You were both using Paliman magic on it.

"Hsssh." Sugar seemed to agree.

"So it's just like the galaxy warp incident except on the planet this time." Hunter summarized.

"Then we can just go back." The boy said, walking over to the warp pad. "I do not need this to become a whole incident-

Whack

The boy fell backwards. "Ow."

"What, you're so weak that the mild breeze knocks you back?" Hunter snorted.

"No …" He stood up, walking forward again, only to stumble back in mid air. "What the …" He pressed his hands out. "... There's something here."

"Uh huh." Hunter walked on…feeling nothing in the way. "You were saying?"

"I'm telling you, I felt something!"

Hunter groaned. "Move and let someone with actual skill handle it." He walked forward with his staff, hitting the pad.

Jrrrr

… And earning a growl from the air. "… What are the chances that this is a gem thing vs the boiling isles leaking into earth?" Hunter questioned.

"Given how much the universe hates us at the moment, I'm going out on a limb and saying it's a gem thing." Clawthonre sighed.

" GREEEEEEEEEEEE!" Something growled as…the air itself knocked Hunter off the pad, and threw him into a tree. 

"An invisible monster!" He shouted, groaning in pain.

"HSSSSSSSSH!" Sugar freaked out, hiding into Clawthornes hair.

"Not just a monster….I think this is an invisible Corrupted gem." Clawthorne paled, as he was grabbed by the shirt and flung into a rock, smashing it to pieces.

"Well … that's a plus." Hunter groaned as he got up.

"Why would that be a plus!?"

"It's too stupid to capitalize on anything other than invisible swings, and it'll be very noisy while doing so." He grinned. "And we do have an advantage. They're drawn to Palisman, so we know they're always going to be close."

"Chirp." Please don't use us as bait.

"We're not, we're going to keep you on us at all times. We just need them to focus on one of us while the other makes the killing blow." Hunter concluded.

"Huh, not bad, Golden Boy." Clawthrone smirked.

"I was head of the Emperor's coven for a reason." He had to learn some things. "Now I'll fly up, you be bait." He already had broken ribs as it was.

"Not the first time I've heard that." Clawthorne shrugged, cracking his neck. "Alright, let's do this."

========================================================================

Connie hadn't felt this awkward since Vee admitted she was a girl. She'd been assigned to Luz as a tutor to help her improve grades, which was met with no buts, now they sat together in awkward silence in the middle of the school library.

The main problem was that Connie and Luz haven't really been on speaking terms since they've come back. Yes Connie hung around the group and was friends with them…most of them at least, but she and Luz had kept a…respectful distance away from each other outside of sword training.

Had the circumstances had been any different, she'd continue to keep away from the troublemaker, but the cold shoulder from Amity made Connie reflect just a little on her behavior towards Luz.

"So since this is an exponent, you need to use a logarithm to carry the two over and solve for X." Connie explained.

"Uh huh.." Luz tiredly responded, looking down at her paper.

"Then you can simply divide by three, and you have your answer." She went on. "Why don't you try for number four?"

"... Thirty two?"

"... You just guessed. You didn't show your work at all." Connie said.

"Why bother?" Luz groaned. "No one wants me to succeed anyways, and if I did, someone's life will probably end up worse for it."

Connie resisted the urge to slap herself in the head. "Luz, would it be….so bad…for you to just try?"

"No point in focusing on something not important in my life at the moment." She deadpanned.

"School is important.."

"Is it? Is it really when magic exists? When other worlds are possible, along with space travel, not to mention that your girlfriend is an adorable puppydog shapeshifter?" Luz glared. "Is school actually important when that is all possible?"

"It is when you want to have a stable job in the future and actually do something with your life." She stated.

"I have done something with my life. I've done things most people don't get to experience in over thirty years in six months. Far as I'm concerned, school's not even a blip on the rader."

"Luz! If you could just be serious for one second.."

"I am serious. Serious about getting my friends back home." Luz growled back. "That's the only thing that matters to me now."

"And that's going to take time. Which means right now you have to focus on your life here, right now…"

"What life? The life where everyone hates me, thinks the worst of me? Where you don't even want to spend five seconds alone with me?" Luz scoffed. "If Vee was stuck somewhere, you'd want to help her before school, wouldn't you?"

"Stop bringing Vee into this." She growled.

"Well how about I bring up the homesick witches, or the crazy gems, or the mad god collector, of the invading homeworld, or taming the Centipeetles to the point that they don't actively try and harm my friend's palismans who have rightfully reached the point they hate my life existence, or how about I focus on stopping Lucci from getting so frustrated his emotion based powers trigger an explosive reaction equal to an atom bomb?!"

"Shssssh!" The librarian told her.

"Oh shush yourself Doris!" Luz fired back, before going back to Connie. "You may want to focus on a meaningless earth life, but I'm focusing on my friends!! Because they mean more to me than anything else right now, and I'm not going to let them suffer while I get to be home when they can't be!"

"Maybe you should focus on yourself for a change." Connie growled. "Or did you forget every year we went to school together, where you just focused on everything but schoolwork?"

"I did focus on school work! Art projects, school plays, cheerleader tryouts! I put myself out there, and everytime I did, I failed! The whole school hates me, and I just want to get it over with! Is that what you want!? You want me to go back to being miserable!?"

"Let me tell you what's going to happen." Connie groned. "If you fail, you repeat the year, and get stuck here even longer. So it doesn't matter how much you don't want to do the work, you do the work!"

"Shhhs!!"

"Can it Doris!" Connie yelled. "Look, I'm  the one stuck with you, so if you fail, the teachers will start looking at me in a bad light, again!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry for you! I'm sorry Ms straight A's will have a few glares thrown at her. It must be so hard for people not to instantly like you." 

"The first person to not instantly think of the chaos you threw at me was Vee. Every time you set the school on fire, or bring in wild animals, I'm dragged in as an accomplice." She argued. "I don't want to hang out with you, but I'm shoving down my emotions, because that's what people want. So why can't you do the same?!"

" Because that's all I fucking do in this stupid world! " Luz shouted, throwing the table to its side. "That's all anyone wants me to be! To not be myself! It took finding an entirely different world to find people that accept me, and I fucked that up too!"

"Shhhs!!!"

"Can it Doris!" Connie was on the edge of physically attacking. "Well maybe being yourself is the problem."

Luz glared at her. She closed her eyes, and took a breath..

Smack

…Before slapping her across the face! "See you tomorrow." Luz began walking away.

"Oh, you do not get to walk away from that!" Connie tackled her from behind. "I am not putting up with your shit anymore!"

"Both of you out of-"

"SHUT IT DORIS!" They shouted as Luz gripped her arm, rolling her into a bookcase as she tossed a punch.

"Good, because that wasn't the only punch I had reserved for you!" Luz shouted, diving and burying her in the fallen books. Connie was going to maim this girl.

========================================================================

"Hey, invisible thing, don't I smell tasty!?" Lucci shouted as he waved his arms around, running as far as he could with the vegetation around them. It was a little insulting to have to be the bait, but one of his greatest skills was riling up the enemy. That and he could always claim he could take a punch better than the Golden Boy.

"Hsssss!" Sugar fearfully screamed from his hair. "Hsssssh!"

"You don't have anything to worry about, No palisman will ever get hurt on my watch." He assured Sugar. She's been on edge ever since Amity brought over the Centipeetles. Sure, the fact that two highly untrained creatures of acid hung around the house unnerved most … but watching Luz's smile instantly got most of the group to accept the necessary cost.

 That and he bubbled the palisman at night; none of them felt safe. "Raaaaaagggh!" The air shouted at him as he felt a whoosh go past h 

"Hey, how familiar are you all with gems?" Lucci asked aloud. "Because for the life of me I can't figure out what kind of crystal can just make high level illusion and glyph magic irrelevant."

"I'm still trying to get used to saying corrupted gems and not crystal devils, this space stuff is really confusing!" Golden boy shouted from the sky.

"That's why I tend to tune out those crystal morons." Lucci responded as another tree went down. "Alright there missy, lets see how big you are." He threw a couple of bubbles to test the boundaries of what he was dealing with. They kept stacking up…and up…and up…until they finally reached a breaking point…where the creature was about six times his own height. "Okay…not the smallest monster I've ever fought but certainly not the biggest either."

"Rrrraaaaa!"

He was smacked through a few trees. "But definitely ranks up there in one of the more 'pissed off' ones." Lucci groaned as he got up. "Is that all you got, miss invisible? My mama hits way harder than you! That's not even me trying to insult you, that's just a fact!" Especially when she was hopped up on Apple blood, she really let go of her inhibitions. "Come one, bet you can't do that again!" He put up a shield this time to brace for the impact.

"GRRR!!" They began banging on the shield … repeatedly … okay, maybe Golden Boy had a point about the intelligence, it wasn't strong enough to break through and it wasn't trying to get around. Were they all this dumb? Maybe he never noticed because everyone he's ever fought was on the boiling isles, where the smell of witches' bile and palisman was everywhere and probably flooded their senses. 

"Hey, golden boy, you feel like greeting our new friend anytime soon, or are you just stuck feeling the breeze?!" He yelled up.

"It's hard for Flapjack to build up a strong enough strike on Earth!" He shouted back. "A few more seconds … and now!" A giant lightning bolt struck the invisible spot.

" BWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH !" It shouted as a form could finally be made out, its body glitchy in and out of existence as he could make out some rough blue skin with orange spots.

"Now I got you!" He took out sugar and put her in lance mode, putting all the power he had at the moment and shoving her straight through the mass like he was piercing through solid steel. Quite the thick hide.

" GEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA!" It screamed out once more as a massive poof exploded in his face, a gemstone finally being made visible as it landed in front of him.

"We got it….YES! WE GOT IT!" Hunter cheered.

"Yeah…we got you…you bastich." Lucci bubbled the gemstone as it fell off. "Now off you go." He tapped it and sent it away.

"Where….did it…go?" Hunter asked.

"To my … mother's … hair …" The boy was silent. "…"

"You had a teleport…to the isles…this whole freaking time!?"

"It doesn't work on people. Gems and palisman, yes, people no." Lucci responded. "And given everything, I wasn't even sure that it still works across dimensions.

Hunter looked off for a moment. "… Would it work on a Grimwalker?" He asked.

Lucci paused for a second. "I don't know…you sure you want to try?" He asked. "Because A, you'd be alone at the whims of the collector, and B…it basically means…my powers…don't consider you an actual person."

"Belos didn't consider the last twenty Golden Guards people, may as well try." He said. "Maybe I can sneak King away and open a portal from that end. It's worth a shot."

"Okay…just…hold on." He placed a bubble around Hunter. "Prepare in five…four..three…two…" He tapped the bubble…..and nothing happened. "Nadda. Guess we're all still stuck here."

"Figures." Golden boy sighed as he let him out. "If I wasn't an actual person, I could've gone back home….how messed up is that?"

"You want to talk about messed up? My sperm donor said my gem used to belong to my womb donor, who ceased to exist when I was born." Lucci rolled his eyes. 

"I was grown from the corpse of the man your womb donor had a crush on."

"And I'm practically carrying around her corpse on my stomach."

"… Why do our lives have to be so traumatic? We're just kids." Hunter laughed hollowly.

"I think the universe just likes being a dick to us." Lucci snickered. "If the collector is any indication, then the people running the universe are beyond messed up."

"Did you not hear that story book you read? If anything he was the nice part of the family."

"I'd rather forget about the most traumatizing day of my life, thank you very much." Lucci groaned, looking to the warp pad. "You did good out there, Hunter. It was a good plan."

The boy paused, before nodding. "Yeah, well you weren't terrible yourself, Lucifer. You make a great punching bag."

"Yeah, my bones don't crack after one hit." Lucci retorted as he made his way to the warp pad. "You think the others are still panicking?"

"I think our friends can be a bit more rational than that." Before they could warp away, the pad glowed, and Spinel came out.

"Spinel, hey, what's up-" Lucci didn't finish his greeting as the lanky gem wrapped herself completely around him.

"LUCCI! DON'T EVER LEAVE AGAIN!" She shouted. "I'M GONNA MAKE SOME CHAINS AND NEVER LET THEM BE UNLOCKED!"

He gave a look to Hunter. "I stand by what I said. OUR friends are reasonable. She's clearly just yours."

"Oh right, I forgot, there was somebody I needed to kill for taking you away from me!" Spinel grabbed her lazer scythe and aimed it at him. "Say goodbye to that neck!"

"Spinel, no!" 

"Spinel, YES!" She began chasing the golden boy, and he desperately followed, trying to stop her…..how the heck did it come to where he DIDN'T want the golden fool to die?

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Luz slammed Connie onto the book cart, dragging her through the door as she punched her face. "I tried everything to be friends with you and you wanted me to leave! Now you want me to just sit still and do nothing when I want nothing to do with you!" She shouted. "Make up your damn mind!"

"I did! You just NEVER listened when I said anything!" Connie swept her legs and pushed her against the lockers, having her foot planted on her chest, dragging her against the lockers as they rode down the hall on the cart. "You're too stuck in your own world to give an actual shit about anyone!"

"I'm not stuck in my own world!" She shouted, grabbing Connie. "I just care more about the demon realm than anything here! Other than my mom, there's NOTHING for me here!" Luz bit down on the arm. 

"Do you know how selfish you sound right now!?" Connie repeatedly slapped her in the face.

"I don't care! I tried to be friendly to people here, and I failed, hard! I did it in another world, and I succeeded!" She shouted, slamming Connie's head into the cart. "And now I'm fixing my mistakes, for once in my life, and you're telling me to just ignore them!"

Crash

They both fell out, landing in a classroom. Luz slowly stood up, reaching out for anything, snatching a ruler, holding in a familiar stance. "Really?" Connie asked. "You couldn't beat me in training and you want to transfer this to sword style?"

"That…that right there….I'm SICK of you always looking down on me!" Luz screamed. "I've actually been in fights…multiple times! How many have you been in that haven't been training sessions with Pearl!?"

They picked up a Ruler, glaring under their glasses. "Enough to say I actually can claim to help my friends."

Luz smirked at that. "What friends?" Connie let out a scream, pushing against Luz's ruler as they began sliding into the cafeteria. "Yeah you have Vee, but she's your girlfriend. Not even that if you haven't actually done anything after the whole Museum event." She pushed back, sending Connie into a table. "Do you know why I tried to be your friend so much? It's because you were all alone, being ignored by everyone! I tried to be your friend, because you were exactly like me!"

"Oh I was nothing like you!" They sent a kick into her ribs. "I could separate fantasy from reality, focus on my goals, and I always made sure I could spend time to enjoy my books when I wasn't busy! All you did was focus on fun fun fun!" They repeatedly hit her, overwhelming Luz as she was pushed back with small bruises.

"And you were a stick in the mud too afraid to do ANYTHING!" Luz gathered her strength and whacked Connie right in the side, before punching her right in the throat, making the girl gag. "You were lonely but you never did anything to change that! I even bet Vee was the one who came to you! You had happiness fall on top of you, me…I had to fight for it!"

"Oh, like a magical portal to another land was your creation!" She shouted, shoving Luz back and hitting hard and fast. "That was luck, and ending up in a place through the ENTIRE MULTIVERSE that just so happened to have witches was pure luck!"

"Luck?! Luck!? Nothing about me being in the Demon realm was lucky! I had to learn how to live there, how to survive on foods that I could barely digest, on a culture I needed to understand, on a system I had to learn from the ground up! I WORKED to live there, and even though it was hard, it was still a million times better than this!" Luz blocked the attack and headbutted Connie.

"If you worked so hard, then why did it all fall apart!" Connie shouted, preparing another charge as they jumped up on the tables.

"BECAUSE IT WAS EITHER THAT OR EVERYONE WOULD'VE DIED!" Lux shouted, pushing her against the surface. "We were put in an ultimatum, and it was either death by instant blow or by a thousand cuts! I actually have a sliver of a chance to stop it , and I'm not letting anyone or anything get in my way!"

"Then stop acting like I'm going to get in your way!" Connie screamed back! "Vee likes you guys, and she's a forgiving person, and I want to be like that too, so maybe ask me to help and stop giving me the cold shoulder and we can actually get somewhere!"

"Unless you can turn enough power to destroy a country into a portal to another world, we don't need your help!" Luz shouted, jumping onto another table as she hit Connie.

"You need all the help you can get! It'd be dumb to turn down another hand!" Connie hit her back.

"Wow, same as always." Amber noted as they jumped on her table. Wow, they completely didn't notice it was lunch time. "The freak causes chaos and drags the innocent into it."

"Would you shut up?!" The two of them shouted at the cheerleader, wacking the rulers they were using on Amber's head.

They watched as the girl went slump on the floor, eyes rolled up into the back of her head. The two of them looked at each other. "...So we both agree she's at least worse than either of us, right?" Luz asked.

"Absolutely." Connie sighed. "Look Luz… I get that we don't have the best history….and maybe…no…definitely some of that was my fault for not…giving you a chance."

"It's fine, I learned in the Boiling Isles I can be too pushy." Luz laughed. "Let's just get back before-"

The door slammed open, as the principal walked in, looking at the two of them with fury. "My office, now."

"I definitely didn't miss this about the human world." Luz grumbled.

"Same here." Connie sighed as they began walking towards the office.. "Well, at least the partners in crime thing is slightly more true in this instance. Truce?" She offered her hand.

"Truce." She shook it. The ONE bright side to this awful.

========================================================================

Camila was silent as approached the house, stopping the car in the driveway. She had gotten a call at work, her daughter and Connie had been in a fight so large they caused property damage and knocked another student out. She had to leave work and apologize for an hour on behalf of her daughter. 'The Camp was supposed to help prevent this. It's like she learned nothing while there.'

"... Mom." Luz spoke up. "I-"

"Don't say anything right now." She responded firmly as Camila took in a breath. "You're grounded for a month. You can go out for school, but any other time you're going to stay in your room."

"Mom, I can't.."

"You can and you will."

"No, I literally can't, my friends are counting on me to get them home!"

"Your friends will have to do it themselves." Camila made sure to hold in her frustration. This situation was difficult to navigate emotionally. "Now, don't argue with me. To your room, before I raise my voice."

"...This is why we don't understand each other." Luz grumbled as she left the car.

"What was that?" 

"I said this is why we don't understand each other." Luz repeated, opening the door to the house. "The world is bigger than Gravesfield. You just want me to stay stuck here."

"I don't-" She didn't get the chance to finish as Luz slammed the door.

Camila banged her head against the wheel, letting the horn blare as she vented her frustration. She let out quite a few curses that were drowned out by the horn. "Ahhh…" She blinked, turning her head to see Hunter and Lucci stare at her from the outside. "..Was that Spanish or any other language…?" Hunter asked.

"... I lost track halfway through." She admitted with a sigh. "Can I help you two with anything at the moment?"

"Nothing in particular, you just look like my mom after she had an argument with me." Lucci observed.

"Yeah … Luz is grounded for a month for getting into a fight at school." Camila said as she got out of the car. "She's not going to leave her room."

"And if she breaks out?" Hunter asked.

"Then that extends to two months with adult supervision." She said, making her way to the door.

"Luz is a great person, you know." Lucci spoke up. "She's hard to understand sometimes…but…I don't doubt she has a good heart."

"I know, I know so much." Camila sighed. "But reasons like this are why I had her sent to camp. Her imagination runs wild to the point it's hard to pick out what's acceptable or not. Imagine if she got into trouble like this at whatever school existed in the Boiling Isles."

"Oh she did, tons of times." Lucci said.

"... Great, of course." She sighed. "Now I have to try and spend more time with her and stop her from getting into fights and carrying wild animals all together."

"Well at Hexside, that's just kind of part of the curriculum."

"..." She turned to him. "Are you saying that they encouraged her wild behavior?" Camila asked with a darker tone.

"I think this is a miscommunication." Hunter spoke up. "At Hexside, there's many tracks of magic to study in. Plant Magic, Beast Magic, Bard magic, e.t.c. We learn to control many things about life there. Beast magic allows witches to tame wild animals for service, abomination magic control magic mud for various uses of life, potions for how to handle several deadly concoctions ...."

They … this entire world just fueled Luz's misconceptions … she needed more help … her daughter couldn't keep living thinking the world was a magical fantasy without something crashing down. "I need to make a phone call." She went inside.

"...I think we said too much." Lucci muttered. No, they said quite enough…more than her daughter had said about her time in that demon realm. She had given her daughter more than enough time to process her feelings about everything. It was time to take the next step into her hands, and sign them up for therapy. Camila just hoped Dr. Waybright was ready to handle the…less than normal circumstances of the situation.