Chapter Text
Two days later, Amity and Luz were sitting in their final lesson of the day (English, of course). They’d just gotten their first homework assignment back. Amity had gotten a B; her worst grade in years. She frowned and could already hear her mum moaning at her about it. Dread filled her bloodstream, which she tried to ignore, and instead focused on Luz, who looked absolutely delighted.
“Look Amity! I got an A+!” She exclaimed, brandishing the homework. Amity smiled and felt a blush form on her face. She remembered when she saw Luz with that homework and was completely surprised because she had cruelly decided Luz would never do homework, with absolutely no evidence to base it on. She'd embarrassingly stared at it without reading the words for what felt like an eternity, before Ms Clawthorne took it away. She'd just felt such a sour feeling in her stomach, that she hadn't been able to look away. That feeling was rapidly returning.
“That’s great!” She was enthused, even though she felt like sobbing at that moment.
“My mamí’s gonna be so proud of me! I never do this well. In my old school, whenever I tried to write, I was always told I was ‘too creative’.” Luz rolled her eyes at that. “But I disagree.”
“Vee told us about how you set spiders on the school during a biology project.” Amity deadpanned, though a smirk crept on her face at the end of the sentence. Luz pouted at that.
“I can’t believe Vee’s telling everyone my embarrassing secrets!” She dramatically moaned, holding her hand to her chest, which elicited a giggle from Amity. “Besides, that was biology, not English, two different subjects.”
“Right, of course, how could I have gotten it so wrong?” Amity said with an adoring smile.
“You silly goose.” Luz stated, tapping Amity’s nose. Amity let out another loud giggle, before her eyes rested on Luz’s homework. The work where she had done so much better than Amity had. Curiosity itched at Amity, as she really wished she could see the work. But she didn’t want to show Luz hers, so she had no right to ask Luz.
“Are you okay?” Luz asked, an eyebrow raised. “You’ve been staring at my homework for the past like five minutes.”
“It’s not been that long,” Amity answered with a roll of her eyes, actively avoiding the question. Which Luz, of course, picked up on.
“Is my homework really that exciting?” Amity started chewing her lip at that question, trying her hardest to stop herself from asking.
“Do you think- do you think I could read it?” She tentatively blurted out before she could even register what she was doing.
“Sure!” Luz handed it to her, not fazed at all, and Amity took it carefully, with a small ‘thanks’. She was also secretly thanking Luz for not mentioning her homework or asking to see it, Amity wasn’t sure she was ready to show her something she had done so badly on.
Amity took the paper and read the title. It looked familiar, but she was sure that was just her imagination. Amity started reading, and realised it was about Good Witch Azura , perhaps even a fanfiction. She hadn’t realised they could use characters from other media in the homework, but Luz had managed to, so clearly they could.
“It’s a little bit cringy I know, but it’s fine, that’s what the point of this is for, right? To show our improvement.” Luz was hasty to explain, probably embarrassed at the fact it was effectively Good Witch Azura fanfic. Amity didn’t care about that though, this was basically a gateway to thinking about her own fanfiction, without actually thinking about it. So, she got to reading it as quickly as she could.
As Amity kept reading further, she started frowning and quickening her pace. She’d recognised a few sentences at first, but as she kept going, she recognised more and more. She could be mistaken, but she was convinced she had read it before, on ao3. Amity noted a few of the things Luz had written in her paper, then asked Ms Clawthorne if she could go to the toilet. The teacher said yes, and Amity rushed down there, brandishing her phone out as soon as she sat down on the seat. She went onto GoodWitchLuzura’s ao3, and found a fanfic from three years ago with the same title. She skim-read through it, and just like she thought, most of what Luz had put down was on there.
Amity felt her breaths shorten and her face heat up; fire was burning through her veins. She couldn’t believe it! Luz had cheated! Luz had taken her online friend’s work and taken it as her own! And she even used an old one to reduce the risk of anyone figuring it out! Well, she hadn’t considered that Amity reread Luzura’s fanfics all of the time, and could easily recognise the work when she saw it. Amity clenched her jaw, and walked back to the English classroom. She couldn’t bear to look at Luz anymore, not after knowing what she had done.
“Are you okay?” Luz asked softly. Amity couldn’t get any words out, so she simply huffed and looked away. Luz looked quite wounded at that, but Amity couldn’t care less. Luz didn’t deserve an explanation, she didn’t deserve anything from her!
As she walked home, Amity was filled half with dread for the inevitable berating from her mother, and half with annoyance about Luz. She could barely believe that Luz was a cheater, but the evidence was right in front of her. Amity was slightly protective over her online friend, as she had been through so much, especially in her new school, so definitely did not deserve getting her work stolen. Sure, it was only for a piece of English homework, but it was still stealing and cheating, which was incredibly dishonourable in Amity’s opinion. In fact, she could go as far as to say it was dishonourable, full stop.
When Amity got home, she was greeted by her siblings’ childish antics. They came up to her with malicious smirks plastered on their faces, and mischievous intent in their eyes. Anger was still burning Amity’s insides, so she barely let them come near her, before yelling a loud: ‘go away!” The twins looked incredibly shocked, which gave Amity a short-lived sense of satisfaction. She stormed off, trying to be silent in her walking, while all she wanted to do was make a noise and mess everything up.
As soon as she was in her room and the door was shut, Amity collapsed onto her bed then screamed into her pillow, an attempt to relieve her tension. All it did was shorten her breaths further so she was breathing heavily, with her jaw clenched. Her hand brushed the top of her thigh, and her mind was immediately cast to the scars there. This was her foolproof way of helping calm herself down, so quickly grabbed the scissors and took her leggings off then lifted her skirt up.
Amity was just letting the blood trickle down her legs, mesmerised by the crimson liquid flowing over the pale flesh, when she heard her mother’s feminime voice calling for her. Amity’s eyes widened as she hurried to clean her leg. Her mother grew impatient, so Amity realised she had no time to put the plasters on, so put some tissue over them, and pulled the leggings over the top, hoping the tight material would keep the tissue there. Then, Amity wiped her eyes and made herself look presentable, just as her mother’s voice screeched through the mansion.
“You took your time.” Her mother snarled at her, looking very annoyed.
“Sorry, mother,” Amity mumbled out, trying to stand up straight, but became increasingly aware of her stinging thighs. Her mother huffed and looked at her once over.
"Sit." She demanded, which Amity did. It caused a biting pain down her thigh, so she bit her lip to stop herself wincing. "I heard you got your English homework back." She said in a faux innocent voice. Amity knew exactly what that meant. Her mother knew about the grade.
"I did."
"How did you do?"
"I, uh, I got a B"
"A B?!" Amity flinched as her mother shouted.
"Sorry, mother."
"What was the reason for such a bad grade?"
"I don't know." Amity mumbled out, feeling tears pricking in her eyes.
"I'm disappointed in you, Amity. Incredibly."
"I'm really sorry."
"Sorry isn't good enough. Prove that you're sorry! I want the rest of your grades this semester to be A+ or else!"
"Yes mother." Amity felt her mum's fiery glare burning over her, before she finally relaxed.
"You're dismissed."
Amity rushed out of the room, and practically ran to the bathroom. She peeled the tissues from the dried blood with a wince. Then, she put the plasters over and felt a bit of relief.
That got rid of the dread, but there was still ire in her mind. She was so mad at Luz. She just couldn't believe it! Amity thought she trusted her, liked her incredibly, maybe even loved her… well, that could be going too far. But it didn't matter now! Luz had betrayed her. Betrayed her online friend. She could never forgive her.
Amity considered telling GoodWitchLuzura about the situation, but she couldn't bear to bring a painful message. She wanted to protect her friend from this for as long as possible. Technically, Luzura would never find out if she didn't tell her, considering she didn't go to her school, so did she really need to hurt her with the information?
GoodWitchLuzura: How was your day today? :))
Witchchick128: It was okay.
GoodWitchLuzura: Just okay?
Witchchick128: A lot happened but I don't wanna get into it. How's your day been?
GoodWitchLuzura: Aww, I hope you're okay :(( my day was alright, but my kinda friend was distant again, I'm so confused.
Witchchick128: How annoying, I'd just give up on her if I were you, she's just too iffy.
GoodWitchLuzura: Yeah, I guess. Wanna stream and write to distract ourselves.
Witchchick128: Absolutely!
Amity set her Discord to share screen and watched as Luzura did the same. She was her usual goofy and fun self, which slightly cheered Amity up. By the time they had to end the call, Amity was feeling much happier and had almost forgotten why she was so upset.
Of course, the negative feelings crushed down onto her like a heavy weight, completely overwhelming her. Before Amity could realise what she was doing, the tears were flowing out, her breaths were heavy and painful. Amity fell to the floor and curled in on herself. She wanted to talk to Luzura again, but she was busy, and Amity couldn’t be annoying and dependent on her. So, she was alone. She may have considered messaging Luz, but now that was out of the question. Amity pulled her knees up to her chin and buried her face in them, letting her tears stain the leggings.
Eventually Amity’s mind emptied, and she thought only of the fanfic. It helped relax her; it made her happy and forget all of her stresses. She couldn’t be bothered to get up and write anything down though, so just daydreamed in her head, knowing she would remember it later on anyway.
This satisfied Amity for a little while.
Until she realised what the time was. And how she’d wasted the evening. Her mum would be so angry. With a sigh, Amity pushed herself off the floor, and wiped her eyes. Then, she dragged herself to her desk and put her schoolwork out. Her mum hadn’t specified which subjects the A+ grades had to be in, and considering they were talking about English at that point, it would seem that she meant just that subject. But Amity knew better. Her mother was expecting A+ grades in every subject, in every assignment for the rest of the semester, and probably the rest of the year as well. If Amity dared to slack, then, well… a shiver went down Amity’s back as she considered how cruel her mother could be. She didn’t want that. So, she would push herself hard. She wasn’t exactly sure how well this English project would go with Luz cheating, but she could work hard enough to keep it successful - she had to!
Amity spent the rest of the night, and well into the morning, doing revision and homework, until tiredness washed over her and she could barely keep her eyes open. Her mind felt foggy and heavy, and she couldn’t really remember what the last meal she had was. It was lunchtime now, so she decided she probably should have something. So, Amity washed her face and badly redid her makeup, and changed her clothes to look somewhat presentable, to then go downstairs. Her siblings glared at her as she passed them through the living room, but she couldn’t care less, much too focused on her own issues to care about them. Especially since they were only sad and annoyed because she didn’t want to let them be childish and play tricks with her. Which she decided was even more immature from them.
In the kitchen, her father was much too distracted by his own thing to even notice she had entered. Her mum hadn’t even graced this section of the house with her presence. She probably sent for a maid to get her some lunch. But that was life in the Blight Manor. A family who never spent time together. Unlike Luz’s house, which was a messy bunch of people who always spent time together in their cramped living room. It always felt so much warmer there, much more cosy. Tears stung the back of Amity’s eyes, then she remembered she was not supposed to be thinking about that cheat!
Amity made herself a sandwich, and sat at the kitchen table, picking at it. She knew she needed to eat it, but just didn’t have the motivation to. The whole time she was in there, her dad didn’t look up once, didn’t acknowledge her at all. Finally, she abandoned her half eaten sandwich on a plate and left the kitchen; she couldn’t stomach anymore. Amity ignored her siblings again as she walked back, but did get good fortune to cross paths with her mum on the path to her bedroom.
“Shouldn’t you be doing schoolwork?” Her mother made the passing comment, not even stopping her walk.
“Sorry mother.” Amity mumbled back.
For the rest of the weekend, Amity repeated the process of thinking about the fanfic, writing the fanfic with Luzura, and doing her schoolwork.
*****
By the time Monday rolled around, Amity was incredibly exhausted which made her easily irritable. Which meant English would not be a great lesson for her. She’d decided she would be telling Ms Clawthorne about Luz and her cheating (who cared if Luz lived with her sister?) and had already rehearsed what she was going to say. She just had to get through the two hours with Luz trying to get her attention and speak to her. But, Amity just ignored her, and stayed silent as she did her work the whole time.
At the end of the lesson, as people started filtering out of the classroom, Amity hung back slowly packing up her bag. Soon, the classroom was empty, besides Amity and Ms Clawthorne, all wanting to get to morning break.
“Are you okay, Amity?” Ms Clawthorne asked gently, a shadow of a smile on her face.
“Not particularly…”
“Oh? What’s up?” Amity took a deep breath, and got ready to say her rehearsed speech.
“I have evidence that Luz Noceda has been cheating.”