Amity sighed as she flipped the page in her book. It was just after school on Thursday, i.e. the best time of the week. Before recently, it was just another afternoon. Another time to spend listening to Bosha complain about some annoyance and wonder what she was going to do to avoid Edric and Emira. But that had changed recently and now she found herself tucked in a nice, small corner of the school library as she waited.

“Hey, Amity, any new fanart today?”

Luz walked over to the seat next to her before flopping into it. She then quickly began shifting around in her seat and Amity slowed down her breathing. It was the fifth time they’d done this. It was normal at this point. Absolutely normal. She just had to stay calm for what was to come and she’d get to enjoy it instead of going into mental collapse for five minutes and having to improvise her opening notes.

Amity thought, ‘Azura, give me strength’, as she traced her thumb over the front of her book which just so happened to be the witch in question. That’s what happened when you had a secret book club after all…

Just like it was totally normal for the girl you totally didn’t like to slip her arm around your neck and smush her cheek against yours as she tried to see exactly where you were in your book. Nope. This sort of contact was just part of reading. Totally normal. Bosha and her had never done it just because they were always studying dumb textbooks. Yep. Dumb. Totally unlike Azura teaching Calculus to a cat.

======+++++======

Boscha blinked for a moment as she felt the warmth of another person so close to her face. She looked over to where Skara, who was weirdly sweating for some reason, was awkwardly beginning to reach behind her. “What are you doing?”

Skara leapt away before waving her hands in front of her. “Nothing! Uh, my math textbook is over there.”

Bosha glanced next to her, where there wasn’t a textbook in sight, before rolling her eyes. First Amity and now Skara. Was weird actually contagious now or something?

======+++++======

Luz reached forward and pointed at the page before saying, “See, I’m happy Sarafune is willing to include stuff like this but it makes me really wish math didn’t make my eyes spin.”

Amity fidgeted a little as she continued to force herself to keep her heart calm. Play it cool Blight. “I mean, I’m in Advanced Magic Mathematics so if you wanted, I could maybe find some time to teach you the basics.”

Luz’s eyes gleamed for a moment as she sat back and gave Amity some space. “Really? I’ve been wondering what the difference between math and magical math is. I, uh, would have a class for it but my schedule is busy with everything else.”

“I’ve told you you’re not going to get sympathy here for me about your wish gone wrong.” Amity flicked the next page over with a small smirk on her face. She always liked when she had a chance to poke Luz’s ‘all courses’ style. After all, it’d be so much nicer if they were both in the abomination track. In fact, maybe Luz would be willing to be one of her monsters then, just like she’d been for Willow. Then she could get the idiot to sit still and only come over when she could handle it. No more ‘you’ve gone soft on me,’s from her then. At least, until the two ki-

“Ack!”

Luz jumped at the sudden shriek. “Are you okay?”

Amity scrambled back onto the arm of her chair as she yelled, “Back in your pot abomination!”

Luz blinked a few times before tilting her head. “Amity, do you need help with your homework now?”

“Yes! I mean no!” Amity slowly slid back into place as she ran a hand through her hair to calm herself. “I mean, uh, it’s a pretty common issue in class. You spend so much time on sin and cosin that the consistency of the muk you’re trying to measure begins trying to escape.”

The excitable girl gasped at the thought of a half dozen abominations trying to slip away while homework was getting done before shrieking, “You have to take me one day!”

Amity rolled her eyes slightly, even if she couldn’t help but smile. “You still have a schedule you know.”

“Yes, but schedules can be broken for dreams! Or at least a good story, in my opinion.”

Luz frowned for a moment before looking up and gasping at the figure that stepped out of the shadows. “I thought I recognized that voice! Come over here.”

Amity scowled at the figure as she properly closed her book this time. This was her and Luz’s time. Well, her, Luz, and Azura. It was definitely not for some weirdo in a ponytail and a tattered, purple… The serious girl paused for a second before pinching the bridge of her nose. She was trying to think less like that after all.

But then she looked back over and watched Luz give the girl an extra squeeze in their hug. Her eyes narrowed as an Amity with red sleeves and beak mask showed up on one shoulder and said, “You have fire magic you know. One good fireball and whoosh!”

A second Amity, this one in the same Hexide student uniform but with white sleeves, appeared on her other shoulder. This one also had conspicuously round ears that might explain why she seemed to think she needed to shout, “What about the books? Or Luz? Besides, a friend of Luz is a friend of ours.”

The shoulder devil rolled her eyes as she sat down against Amity’s neck. “Oh fine. Abomination, grab something extra heavy and head upstairs. Just make sure it looks like an accident.”

“Amity!”

Amity blinked a few times as she realized it wasn’t her shoulder angel that yelled her name but instead Luz. She looked up and found the fanged intruder holding her hand out to her. “What?”

The stranger giggled for a second before she stood up. “Luz was just trying to introduce us. I’m Kat and I hear you two made an Azura book club so I raced over as fast as I could. Um, and when it was a Thursday.”

Luz squealed in excitement before shouting, “She does fanfiction! Sure, usually of food, but she said she’s sometimes considered making Azura a potato with wires from which she powered all of her spells. Wouldn’t that be so cool?”

“That sounds…” Amity stopped herself from calling it the dumbest thing she’d ever heard since Luz was right there but it did give her an idea. “Awkward to say the least. How would she manage enough power for the Thorn Vault then? Or for that matter, have arms to wield her staff to channel her best spells through? Or can a potato inherently levitate things too.”

Kat frowned for a moment before taking a step back to get out of Luz’s way as the energetic girl stepped between them. “Whoa. Come on, there’s no reason to be like that Amity.”

Amity looked away with a huff. “I’m just saying that I don’t think you need to change Azura into something she isn’t just to make her interesting enough to you. If you’re going to do that, then go somewhere else that has characters that actually interest you.”

There was a hesitation as Luz looked away and Kat began blinking rapidly as she looked between the two of them. “But it could be a really interesting idea for her. Besides,” Luz said as she wrapped an arm around Amity’s neck, “think of Glidersnake as a burnt loaf of bread.”

Amity blushed a little as she glanced at Luz for a moment before whispering back, “Wouldn’t dragonfruit be more fitting?”

Luz stepped back before hissing, “How dare you suggest a thing? Only one as well bread as myself could challenge you so well after all. Don’t you agree, Azura?”

Don’t play into it Amity. Don’t- “Well, I believe you should have seen me crepe-ing closer and closer to your lair then. But instead you were too focused on the most reason yeast that the farmers gave you.”

Luz gasped before jumping onto the back of one of the seats before beginning to flap her arms like wings. “Well, now that you’re here, I’ll make sure to give you well more than just a slice of me.”

Amity slipped a bit of her hair behind an ear before cocking an eyebrow at her mortal enemy. “And I look forward to savoring every moment it takes to toast you.”

“Now clap his buns.”

Luz and Amity looked over at Kat before in unison going, “What?”

The fanged girl looked between the two before her cheeks heated up for a moment. “Oh, sorry. That’s just usually the sort of stuff my villains say before things get… rough.”

Amity crossed her arms before asking, “Where would buns even go on a bread dragon?”

Luz gasped as she jumped down from her perch. “How about his wings? They’d be like giant, sesame ovals of death!”

“Well, if that’s the case,” Amity whipped around before lightly smacking Luz’s arm, “what will you do now that I’ve grounded you?”

Luz’s eyes shined at that before she swayed back and put a hand on her forehead. “Oh no! Please, Azura, I know you’re too good a witch to ever kill me. What is it you demand of me for my life?”

Amity raised an eyebrow before glancing to the side. She then sighed before properly looking at Kat and asking, “I don’t know. Maybe our new member has some id-”

“I have so many! Like… Like, uh, Luz, now ask for Azura to step on you!”

Luz blinked a few times before going, “What?”

“And Azura could then make Gildersnake grovel at his feet as she grinds the sole of her shoe into his head.”

Amity took a very slow step back away from the new girl before saying, “Um, It’s ‘good’ Witch Azura. You know that, right?”

“Yes, but…” Kat paused for a second as she looked between the two of them. “Oh. Right. I guess you two are just a little too young to be getting into the good stuff.”

Amity’s face darkened before she said, “If you’re about to start talking about Azura being only for kids or something, I am going to have to ask you to leave as club president.”

Kat frowned for a second before looking at Luz. “I would have guessed you were the president.”

The human shrugged with a giggle. “We tried, but Bump refused to trust me with a budget for no reason.”

Amity’s gaze now turned to Luz before she said, “Yes, because wanting to buy a life sized statue of Azura by holding a raffle that we then bought a casino with to raise the money through was ever going to be accepted.”

Luz pouted as she mumbled, “If I’d gotten the zoning rights then it would have been foolproof.”

Kat giggled for a moment before patting Luz’s head. “Well, I’m going to take off. Make sure to share anything you two end up making but until you’re ready for bananas and melons, I’m not sure how much I’d fit into your club.”

Luz frowned a little more before turning to Amity. “What do you think she meant by melons and bananas?”

Amity shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably something weird like splitting them open or-”

Luz blinked a few times as Amity’s whole being froze. She waved her hand in front of the still girl but if she was able to see how she was then she wasn’t responding. Of course, Luz knew one way to usually get Amity to wake up whenever she went catatonic like this. She careful moved to Amity’s side before slipping an arm around the stunned girl and pressing her cheek against Amity’s. “Say, whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

Amity blinked once. Twice. And then on the third shrieked as she pointed to behind Luz and screamed, “Look, nothing!”

Luz glanced behind her before looking back and seeing a smoke cloud where Amity used to be. A moment later, a crash came behind her and she turned like a dime to see a comically large safe behind her. When she looked up she saw an abomination leaning over the railing who shrugged before moving on.

Meanwhile, while the two puzzled out what the weird stuff Kat had been talking about, said fanfic author was stopped by her two informants just outside the library. Edric and Emira both grinned at her as they said, “So, when should we expect your first story?”

Kat frowned for a moment as she turned between the two of them. “What are you talking about? I’ve written hundreds already.”

Emira rolled her eyes before crossing her arms. “We don’t mean your weird… whatever it is you write. No one wants that. No, we mean,” she said as she glanced into the library and frowned at the Amity shaped cloud that was now in the air, “about them.”

Kat visibly recoiled from the statement before gagging. “Look, I use way more sauce than I need on my food, but I’m not so gross as to write fanfiction about other people so find someone else for your weird incest stuff.”

Edric opened his mouth before blue screening as he realized that they were asking for fanfiction about their sister. Emira was a bit calmer than him about it as she sighed. “Well, best we can hope for is that Eda lets us go now that we’ve done her dirty work for her.”

They didn’t get past Lilith before being laughed at for five minutes for even dreaming that awkward work requests were going to be the end of their nightmare as the Clawthorns’ ‘interns’.