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I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby

Chapter 10: An Apple is A Lunch Fruit

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I told you she was sorry!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You were right.” Willow rolled her eyes, giggling as Luz stuck out her tongue. “But can you blame me for not believing her at first?” 

“No, not really.” Luz swung her legs back and forth, a grin stretched across her face. “But I can be glad that you guys don’t hate each other anymore.”

“And if Amity keeps her word, at least we won’t have Boscha picking on us anymore!” Gus chimed in, Luz’s enthusiasm contagious. 

The three were in the Ag. room, eating lunch as usual. Eda was out for once, saying that she had a ‘teachers meeting’ to attend to, but her car wasn’t in her parking spot like normal. Luz didn’t think much of it, but she did hope that Eda came back in time for class. She didn’t want a repeat of the last time she wasn’t there to pick Luz up.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about it. She had other things to think about, like teasing Willow and congratulating herself on her plan working. “Yeah! And know I don’t have to worry about my friends hating each other, so it's a win-win for everybody!”

Willow rolled her eyes and was about to say something when the three suddenly heard the classroom door open. It wasn’t a particularly exciting sound, but it was unusual, seeing that the trio and Eda were the only ones who usually came into the ag. room during lunch. And it was even weirder to find none other than Amity awkwardly standing in the doorway, hands coming up to tightly clutch the straps of her backpack as she met the surprised stares of Willow, Gus, and Luz.

“Amity!” Luz shot up, excitedly making her way over to her crush. It was an unexpected, but welcomed surprise to see the other girl, and as Amity seemed to feel the same, loosening her grip slightly. “What are you doing here? Decided to ditch your other friends today?”

“Kinda.” Amity smiled as Luz grabbed onto her arm, pulling her over to where Gus and Willow were still sitting. Her free arm came up to rub the back of her head, sheepishly standing in front of the group. “Don’t really wanna see Boscha after yesterday, and I know by now she already talked to the other girls, so I was wonderin’, if I could… sit with ya guys?”

There was a slight pause, and for a moment, Luz nervously looked over to Willow and Gus. She, of course, would have immediately said yes to having Amity sit with them, relishing at the thought of being able to hang out with all her friends at once. But she knew it wasn’t really up to her. For all the teasing and kidding around she had previously been doing, she knew Gus and Willow weren’t friends with Amity yet. They didn’t hate each other now, and they all liked Luz, but she didn’t know if Willow and Gus would actually want to hang out with the other girl.

Her panicked thoughts were quieted when Willow shrugged, and Gus beamed at Amity, scooting over to pat the table beside him. “Sure! You can sit over here!”

Luz could practically feel Amity relax as the tall girl gratefully smiled at Gus’s enthusiasm, plopping down beside him at the table. Luz was thankful for Gus’s cheerful personality, and couldn’t help but smile as he immediately started talking to Amity about some project in one of their shared classes. Amity looked initially surprised by his sudden enthusiasm, but it was quickly reciprocated as the two chatted.

Luz glanced over to Willow, seeing that the other girl was also watching the other two chat. The bespectacled girl had a slight smile on her face, and Luz could see a soft look behind her glasses. She couldn’t tell what Willow was thinking, but Luz was glad to see that she was happy. Everything seemed to have worked out.

The lunch period passed quickly by, and soon the bell rang. As students began to file in, Luz found herself glancing at the door. Eda still wasn’t back yet, and there was less than a minute left before the bell rang. It was unlike the countrywomen. Sure, Eda was generally lazy on the whole, but she was never late. And as the seconds ticked down, Luz felt worry gnaw at her gut. 

“Hey, you guys think Eda’s ok?” Luz turned towards her friends, grabbing at her sleeve to run a worried thumb over the material. “She’s never this late.”

“Miss Clawthorne?” Amity questioned, looking over towards the empty desk at the front of the class. “Don’t know why she wouldn’t be. Probably just gettin’ lunch or somethin.”

Willow stretched out an arm to give Luz’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “It’s ok, Luz. She'll probably be back any sec-”

A loud slam instantly silenced the room, the school bell ringing at the same time. All heads turned to the door, where a muddied figure stood wheezing. The red hair gave away that it was Eda standing in the doorframe, along with King trotting in after her, equally as muddy. The students were silent as their teacher trudged to her desk, pulling off the bandana and pair of googles concealing her face. When she finally turned to face the class, Eda had a broad grin on her face, as if she didn’t just come in looking like a lunatic.

“Alright, kids, ya know the drill,” she announced, clapping her hands together and sending clods of dirt to the ground. “Amity, come on up here and give us the rundown. And don’t leave out anything about the competition! I love hearing about Glandus losing.”

Luz watched as Amity, ever the professional, stood up and walked to the front of the class. As she began to recount their wins and other FFA news to the class, Luz's focus was instead directed at Eda. The teacher had moved closer to the desks to give Amity room, and so while the class was distracted Luz quietly moved towards her.

When she was finally in range, Luz tugged on the women's flannel. Eda quickly turned to find the girl giving her a worried expression, and the corners of her mouth twitched down. Luz’s eyebrows knit together as she got a closer look at Eda, noticing that along with the dirt and mud, there were also scratches on the woman's hand and arms, her shirt even torn in some places.

“What happened to you?” Luz whispered, trying to avoid drawing attention from the rest of the class. Eda’s smile finally fell, and as she sighed, Luz could hear the exhaustion. The redhead ran a hand through her mane of hair, loosening some of the dirt that clung in it. “I was starting to worry.”

“Oh, kid, ya don’t have to worry about me,” Eda clucked, only to watch as the girl's eyebrows furrowing closer together, clearly not satisfied with the answer. The countrywoman sighed again, before putting an awkward hand on Luz’s shoulder. “Look, there’s things I gotta go deal with sometimes that don’t always pop up at the best moments-”

“Like the other week?” Luz interrupted, raising a brow. Eda winced, remembering the strongly-worded lecture she got from Camila for abandoning her daughter. 

“Yeah, sorta like that. And I know it's frustratin’, and worryin’, and I can’t tell ya what it is…” Eda squeezed Luz’s shoulder, kneeling down so she could look her in the eyes. “But I promise that I’m ok. If anythin’ bad really happened to me, I’ll tell you and your mom. Alright?”

The look on Eda’s face was the same as when Luz had found her in the barn, a mixture of guilt, regret, and expecting her apology to be rejected. And just like before, Luz could feel her stiffen in surprise as she suddenly hugged Eda. But this time, she gladly hugged back.

Luz couldn’t be mad at Eda. Despite all the teasing she did, all the wild schemes she roped Luz into, and all the worry she caused, Luz knew she could trust her. Eda was like family now. Luz knew it, and for all the arguing they did, she felt like her mother knew it too. And you trusted family.

The hug only lasted for a few seconds, and as Eda stood up, no one seemed to even notice. Amity was still talking about their competition at Glandus, and everyone seemed impressed with the group's wins. Even Boscha, who had been glaring at Amity ever since she had walked in the door, smirked as some of the classmates congratulated her.

When Amity was finally done and had sat back down, Eda once again went to the front to address the class. She cleared her throat, before dramatically heading pulling a giant wheeled whiteboard from behind her desk. Written on it were two words: GROUP PROJECT.

A groan rose up from the entire class.

“Alright, it's not that bad!” Eda rolled her eyes at the kids' dramatics, popping open a marker. She began to write on the board as she addressed the class, messy handwriting barely readable.

“Even though most of ya have other classes like welding or floriculture that have count as agriculture grades already, some of ya don’t. This project is for those people.” Luz felt Gus nudge her with his elbow, hitting him back. They were both part of said group. Willow did floriculture class, of course, and Luz remembered Amity saying how since she was Chapter President, her leadership class somehow counted, but she and Gus only really had this class to put them as FFA members.

“I want ya to break inta’ groups of four,” Eda continued. “Each groups gonna pick some sort of agriculture product- could be a crop, livestock, machinery- and your gonna research it, then present it to the class. Easy enough. Only three rules. Each group has to represent a  different  product, y'all got to talk when your presenting, and everyone has to contribute in some way.”

As Eda neared the end of her speech, she turned around to look at the class, capping the pen. “This is one of the few assignments ya have to do in this class. It’s graded on how much effort I think ya put in, and at the end, there’ll be a group revue. Now if there's no questions-” the class was silent. “-come on up, write who’s in your group, and what you're doing! Projects due Friday!”

Luz almost squealed. While she had dreaded group projects in the past, on account of having no friends to do them with, that was no longer the case. In fact, this project had come at the best time. 

What better way to get Willow, Gus, and Amity closer than working on a mandatory group project?

Luz turned to her friends, already finding Gus and Willow talking. Amity seemed to be looking over towards Boscha and her other friends, grimacing at the thought of working with them. She had to work fast.

“Gus, Willow, Amity!” Luz leaned in towards her friends, drumming on the tabletop to center their attention. The three immediately turned to their enthusiastic friend, who had already pulled up her bag and was digging through it, looking for a marker. “Decide on a subject, quick! Before the good ones are taken!”

“Uh, cattle?” Amity answered out of instinct, saying the first thing that popped into her mind. 

Willow answered right after. "Bouquet flowers?”

“Apples!” Gus chirped. Amity and Willow gave him a puzzled look at his random answer, to which he just shrugged. “You guys picked what you liked, and I picked what I like. And I like apples.”

Luz, after successfully finding a marker, pondered over her friend's suggestions. Both Amity and Willow had picked something they were really interested in. What they needed was a neutral option, so they could all bond over it. And since Luz hadn’t thought of anything herself, that meant…

“Apples it is!” Luz smiled, walking over to write their names on the board.

 

They spent the rest of the class starting their research. Luz took the liberty of making a group chat for everyone, while Amity had pulled out her laptop and started compiling info. By the end of class, they had gotten a good head start. Willow, to Luz’s glee, even suggested that they all meet again at lunch tomorrow to work.

The only trouble came as they were saying their goodbyes. Luz, of course, gave both Gus and Willow a goodbye hug, as was custom. And, of course, gave one to Amity as well, so she wouldn’t feel left out. What she didn’t expect was the hug back. 

The last time she had hugged Amity, it had been quick, and somewhat awkward as there had been seat belts in the way. Luz expected Amity to stiffen up like last time, which she did, but she wasn’t prepared for the others' arms wrapping around her soon after. Luz felt the familiar sensation of her face turning red as she remembered, ‘Oh, ya, I have a huge crush on Amity. And she is currently hugging me with her very big, very strong arms’.

Luz was disappointed when the hug ended, both because of the pleasant butterflies that it brought to her stomach, and because her blush had been hidden. Luckily, Amity had quickly turned to leave, giving a grin and a wave as she ran to catch up with her siblings. Luz enthusiastically returned the gesture, giggling as she watched the other girl run away.

Luz didn’t notice the questioning look Willow shot at her.

 

The next day at lunch, there were an extra two attendees. 

Luz, Willow, and Gus had gotten to the classroom first, laptops and papers out, ready to work. They had just begun when they heard the door open, and they turned, expecting the fourth member of their group ready to work. Instead, they were met with an exasperated looking Amity, trailed by both her siblings.

“Howdy, cuties!” Edric and Emira chimed together, sauntering ahead of their sister to pose in front of the table. Gus gave a friendly wave, while Willow was just surprised at the sudden appearance of the blonde twins, turning to give Amity a questioning look as she came to stand by the table.

“Sorry, guys, I tried to get them to leave, but they have selective hearin’, it seems,” Amity sighed, pushing past her siblings so she could sit down. Her cold shoulder seemed to be ineffective, however, as Edric just leaned on her, resting his arm on her head.

“Aw, can’t we just hang out with our baby sister, for once?” Edric mockingly cooed, expertly avoiding the punch Amity tried to give him from her seat.

“Yeah, Mittens,” Emira joined in, throwing her arm around Luz’s shoulder. Luz could see the clouds of anger beginning to roll in over Amity as the brunette glared at her sister. “We wanted to see your new friends since you're not hanging out with Boscha anymore.”

Luz, ever the optimist, tried to diffuse the situation before the mention of Boscha or the twins teasing made her crush even madder. “Oh, come on Amity. It’s ok if they stay, I’m sure they have their project to work on too!”

At the mention of work, the twins' grins dropped a little. Amity, seeing her chance, glared at the two. “Fine. Ya can only stay if ya work on your own project.”

Edric and Emira groaned a bit at that, but thanks to Luz’s pleading, and a shout from Eda to ‘quiet down’, they eventually agreed, allowing the younger classmen to get back to work. Gus was eager to talk with them, as he did some activities with them in Colorguard. The twins, taking the chance to not work, chatted throughout lunch.

Even after they stopped teasing her, Luz could still see that Amity was flustered having the twins there. She glanced over to find the other girl huffing, not able to focus on her work. Luz was at a loss at what to do to comfort her friend until an idea popped into her head.

Discreetly scooting her chair closer to her, Luz dropped the arm closest to Amity to her side. Mimicking what she had done at the tournament, Luz gently poked her leg. Amity, who had been roughly erasing her paper, suddenly froze. There was a still moment, and Luz wondered if she made a mistake, before Amity slowly drew her own arm back, letting her hand fall underneath the table.

It took a few tries since she wasn’t looking, but Amity’s hand eventually found Luz’s, rough fingers intertwining with the city-slickers' softer ones. Like before, the two tried to be discreet, working on their parts of the assignment diligently. But a faint dusting of pink on both their cheeks told the truth.

 

The next day, it was Skara who came uninvited. She pleaded to Amity, saying how unbearable Boscha had become lately. Surprisingly, it was Willow who seemed eager to let the girl eat with them. When Luz had asked her why later, she was surprised to see ever the slightest blush on her friend's cheeks. Willow stammered something about getting to know her on the floriculture team, and how she really was nice when she wasn’t with Boscha. In the end, Skara joined them and proved to be a great source of music to listen to while they worked, since she had a portable speaker in her bag. She had been in a similar situation to Amity, forced to hang around Boscha by her parents. Amity sympathized and accepted her back into her friend group.

The day after that, it was Jerbo, Viney, and Barcus. Admittedly, they hadn’t come to hang out, but rather, ask Eda a question about the assignment. But the twins had popped their heads up as soon as the group had entered, going over to talk to them. They returned only minutes later, Emira with an arm slung over Viney’s shoulders, announcing that the three would be joining the lunch group. Everybody seemed fine with that, and the lunch group grew once more.

It was on Friday when trouble sparked up. Lunch was practically over, and everyone was taking the time to practice their presentations. Luz was putting the finishing touches on their apple-shaped board, making sure all the info was there. The twins were dramatically reciting the script for their talk about chickens, and everyone else was going over notes. It was a peaceful moment, or as peaceful as you could get with so many students together. Eda had gone out to grab the papers for grading, and everyone was waiting for the bell to ring.

Luz didn’t even look up when the door opened, focused on her project. Only when she felt a sudden crushing grip on her shoulder did she attempt to turn around, yelping in pain. The hand stayed firmly attached, nails digging into her shoulder as she turned. In the back of her mind, she was dimly aware that everyone had suddenly fallen silent, but she could only focus on the cold blues eyes that were glaring at her as she turned, framed by strawberry blonde hair.

Boscha.

A mean chuckle rose from the bully as she looked at everyone, a sneer forming. “Well, seems we got a lovely little lunchtime study club goin' on here, don’t we?”

“What do you want, Boscha?” Willow snapped, shoving back her chair to stand. Luz felt the bully’s nails dig into her shoulder again, causing her to wince. Amity stood up then as well, anger plastered on her face.

“What, can’t come to gawk at the nerds? Although, I must say,” Boscha chuckled, eyes scanning the group, glaring in particular at Skara, who lowered her eyes from where she sat beside Willow, and the twins, who simply returned the look. “There’s a surprising number of you.”

“Can’t you leave us alone, and go do something useful for once?” Luz huffed, bringing an arm up to try and pry Boscha’s grip off her. It was unsuccessful, however, as Boscha simply pulled Luz around to face her once again, anger glinting in her eyes as she gave a wide grin to the other girl.

“Making fun of you guys, and making sure you know your place at the  bottom  of the social period is me being useful, hun.”

Luz felt those nails begin to dig into her shoulder once again before they were suddenly ripped away. Luz stumbled back, glad for the freedom, to see that her savior was none other than Amity. The tall girl was tightly clenching Boscha’s wrist, pulling her away from Luz and pushing her back as she let go. Boscha was stunned for a second by the quick movement, but a snarl soon appeared, attention focused solely on Amity.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Blight?” Boscha spat, walking up to yell in Amity’s face. Everyone watched in shock as the bully’s arm started to reel back, words still flying from her mouth. “Ever since that stupid city-bitch got here, you’ve been a real ass, you know? Matter of fact, I’d say you've gone SOFT!”

Boscha’s fist flew, and a sharp crack echoed throughout the classroom. Everyone gasped as Amity’s head was knocked back, and she took a step backwards to steady herself. There was a moment of quiet, as Amity stood still and Boscha huffed as she brought her fist back down. Luz could feel the anger mounting in herself and the large group, Willow already taking a step forward. But they were stopped from charging as Amity suddenly brought a hand up.

She wiped her nose, pulling back to reveal shiny red covering her fingers. Luz let out another small gasp, bringing a hand to cover up her mouth in shock. Amity simply contemplated the blood for a few seconds, before turning to look at Boscha. 

From where she stood, Luz could see Amity’s face. Back at the diner, Luz didn’t understand why Boscha had been so scared from a few simple words. But now, as she watched Amity’s expression change, she could see why. The girl normally didn't bother hiding her emotions, whatever they might be. Now, it looked as if she wore a mask, blood dripping from her quickly bruising nose. The look in her eyes was one of what could only be described as pure, pissed-off anger, directed directly at Boscha.

“I’ll tell ya again, since ya didn’t seem to understand the first time,” Amity rasped, a hand roughly grabbing the collar of Boscha’s jacket. She had frozen again, like the diner, but this time Luz felt the same way, despite being an innocent bystander. Amity's cool anger leaked off her, silencing everyone in the room.

“These people here are my friends. My  real  friends. Not some shitty excuse for one like you were. Any if you lay a single finger on  any  of them after this…” Amity began to slowly walk to the door, dragging Boscha along with her like a dog held by the scruff. She kicked open the door with her foot and brought Boscha up so she could look her in the eye one last time. 

“I won’t hesitate in making sure your life is hell.”

And with that, Amity practically threw Boscha out, letting the door swing slowly closed. The room was dead silent, as everyone processed the scene that had just unfolded in front of them. The twins were the ones who broke it first, quietly murmuring their worries to each other. That triggered everyone else to do the same, hushed whispers laced with worry and shock.

Luz slowly walked up to Amity, who still stood unmoving by the door. Her back was to Luz, and as the smaller girl brought a hand up to carefully rest it on her shoulder, she could feel Amity flinch. Luz watched with sorrowful eyes as her friend turned around, blood still dripping from her nose, staining her shirt. It mixed with the blood that came from silent tears, a whole drippy mess covering her face.

Luz didn’t care if she got dirty as she brought Amity into a hug, holding her weeping friend close.

Notes:

Remember when I said I'd try to post more?

Anyways, its finally here! First chapter update of the new year. Sorry I made everyone wait until February, but like I've said before, I've been pretty busy with a new job and school. But, I'm doing my best!

In other news, I finally feel confident to share that I have a tumblr now. I used to have one along time ago, but I deleted it cause I was done with social media at the time. But I have one again! Theres not a lot since I haven't posted much, and it will inevitably turn into a jumble of whatever my interests are, but I'm possum-down on there too! Feel free to interact, if ya'd like.

Also, thank you to all the people who like and leave comments. I don't reply to all of them, but I'd like to say you all are very sweet, and I'm glad my dumb writing makes you happy :^)