“So, this is your world?” Boscha squinted a little as she stepped out of the abandoned house before looking back at Amity. “Does it look off to you too?”

Amity frowned for a second as she stepped next to her friend after retrieving the portal. The two had decided that for meeting Luz’s mom that it would actually be best if Luz didn’t come. After all, Boscha was often on her best behavior around Amity, or at least didn’t get violent with her, but not so much with Luz and Amity. It would also make sure that the serious girl focused on getting Camila to like Boscha instead of constantly swooning against Luz because she was still having issues.

Or, well, what other people considered to be issues. “No. Is it maybe the sun?”

Boscha shook her head before rubbing at her eyes. “I don’t think so. It just seems like everything is a little less crisp. Not really fuzzy even just that I’m missing a bit of depth. Do you understand?”

Amity paused for a moment as she looked up at Boscha. She then blinked before asking, “Boscha, can you open your eyes for me? As wide as you can.”

The rough girl raised an eyebrow before shrugging her shoulders. It wasn’t the weirdest request she supposed. “Like this?”

Amity nodded before reaching into the bag beside her and pulling out a Hexide ball cap for her. “Okay, good news is that this shouldn’t bother you too much to wear. Bad news is that your third eye isn’t opening.”

“My eye isn’t what!?” Boscha smacked herself as she reached up to check on it but Amity was right. It was as dead as a doornail over here. “Why the fuck would that be the case?”

The shorter witch shrugged empathetically at her friend. The small amount of experimentation she’d managed to do with magic in the Human Realm had mostly hinted that there was some sort of force that was trying to normalize things. Keep it all to what was possible here instead of the more rampant freedom of forces that was the state of the Isles. If magic was everywhere at home, it was nowhere here. Or, it tried to be nowhere. “At least you still have two so depth perception shouldn’t be too bad.”

Boscha rolled her eyes before grimacing in annoyance now that she could tell that her third eye wasn’t moving with the others. She then snatched the ball cap from Amity and put it on. “If this fucks up my eye permanently, I’m tossing Luz off a cliff.”

Amity sighed as her shoulders dropped some. “Please just remember not to say anything like that in front of Camila. I don’t even care if you threaten other people, just don’t threaten Luz. Her mom is already terrified enough when it comes to Luz’s safety that she doesn’t need to think one of her friends is something to worry about.”

Boscha rolled her eyes at that. They’d been over this half a dozen times before now but she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Amity tried to cover up the fact that they had the portal at all when the rough girl had overheard them talking about a trip to the Human Realm. Her best friend was just worried about her getting along with people though. Luz’s main concern was that people actually acted on assault and pressed charges where she was from.

She had no plans to cause trouble though. After all, it’s not like anything she did over here mattered. The only reason she wanted to see it in the first place was because Amity planned to spend time on this side of the portal and Boscha wasn’t about to let that be a Lumity exclusive sort of thing. They might be dating now but that didn’t mean Boscha was just going to let that cut her back out of Amity’s life. It was even more important now in her mind actually. After all, Luz was a major fuckup so someone had to make sure she was being an at least okay girlfriend. “Trust me, I get it. Not like I can’t emphasize the fact that I can protect her even on this side to make her chill about my strength.”

Amity pinched the bridge of her nose before bluntly saying, “Assault charges, Boscha.”

That got the rough girl to groan before she looked towards the path leading out of the forest. “Fine. Can we just get going then?”

Amity nodded, even as she nervously looked over her shoulder. After all, Boscha didn’t know that Amity and Luz hadn’t, well, caught Camila up on the news yet. Luz wanted a good day for it was what she kept claiming but Amity knew her girlfriend was just scared. It didn’t matter though. She didn’t expect Boscha to bring it up after all, especially with how surprisingly chil she’d beenl about them being together. Her exact words had been, ‘Why would I make a thing out of it? It’s not like this changes our relationship after all. We’re just friends. Worse for me and Luz even.’

If there was anything that Boscha had ever said to make her trust the rough girl more, Amity couldn’t think of it. “Yes and I’m sorry I’m such a mess. What Camila-”

“Amity,” Boscha said as she glared at her bestie, “if you keep going, I’m starting this conversation by letting her know that I still want to see how good Luz makes for a target.”

Amity smacked a hand over her mouth as her cheeks burned before looking away. “You wouldn’t dare. After all, it’d look poorly on me to have a friend who was so violent.”

Boscha raised an eyebrow before smirking. “Oh no, whatever would I do if you stopped having a place to stay on this side and so had to stay in the Isles more often? That would be the worst.”

Amity smiled back at the joke before the two began to walk. The short witch got to watch Boscha stretch her legs, roll her shoulders, everything that she eventually did as she acclimated to the world. In fact, she imagined Boscha felt the effects of the Human Realm’s suppression more than her since she wasn’t as human adjacent. Would she actually have her freakish level of strength or would that be ripped from her here? Amity didn’t like to consider that her friend might be forced to feel vulnerable in that way, just as Amity had felt somewhat naked without her full power, but there wasn’t much to be done about it.

Boscha showed no real concern. In fact, unlike Amity or Luz still, she didn’t pause before knocking on Camila’s door. Amity knew she shouldn’t be surprised but it still made her pause. Didn’t she recognize how important this was? This side of the portal meant so much to Luz after all. Then again, Boscha was here just so she could do things like try out fireworks with her and Camila was too nice to just turn away a friend of Luz and her daughter’s girlfriend. She really hoped that wasn’t what Boscha was thinking though.

Camila didn’t get to even speak before Boscha did. In fact, the older woman barely had opened the door before the rough girl began her introduction. “I’m Boscha, I tolerate your daughter while she calls me her friend, I’m,” she said as she lifted the ball cap to show her third eye, “a triclops alongside of being a witch, could probably bench press…” Boscha finally paused as she looked around them. She hadn’t figured out a good target for this before walking up to the door but shrugged as she decided to go with the biggest car she could see, “That and I make Luz light on fire when I want to and that’s without magic. Isn’t that right, Amity?”

The serious girl’s face was bright red at both everything Boscha dumped on the poor human but even more so from her friend telling Luz’s mom that her daughter thought of her as an eleven out of ten. Fortunately, Amity was pretty sure that should be done with. Right? Boscha hadn’t really tried seducing Luz since they’d gotten together… No, it would be fine. Fine. Absolutely fine. Why was she deja vu all of a sudden?

Camila blinked a few times before extending a hand to the rough girl. “Um, I’m Camila. So you’re a friend of Luz’s?” She’d of course heard Boscha say that but she was still in the process of looking at the truck that Boscha had pointed at and the idea that a fourteen year old could lift that. Then again, this was the Isles and she was ready to believe most things about it.

Boscha shook Camila’s hand with a surprisingly gentle touch, at least to the older woman. “Yeah. I’m more Amity’s friend though. I had to make nice with Luz to keep that though. The idiot seems to have this weird way of making people just… better around her. Or, well, depending on your definition. I’m still convinced she just made Amity dumber.”

Amity decided it was finally time to put an end to this, especially since this line of statements was going to lead to something she absolutely didn’t want Camila knowing about her past. “Hey, you know, Boscha, why don’t we let Camila breathe for a moment as we figure out lunch and then we can talk while we eat?”

Camila looked at Amity for a second before nodding. “That sounds like a great plan, mija.”

Boscha blinked a few times before asking, “The fuck does that mean?”

The older woman frowned at the curse before brushing it away. “It’s a term of endearment older women like myself use for young girls like yourself. Would you be comfortable with me calling y-”

“Yeah, no.” Boscha smirked a little at Amity’s twitching eye and Camila’s frown, especially as she put her hands on her hips. “I wouldn’t want you thinking I’m something special to Luz. She calls me a friend but she hates my guts about as much as I do hers. We barely get along and mostly argue or take jabs at each other. I don’t think you want to be getting too cozy with that, do you?”

Amity glanced away at it all. They had agreed not to admit to that. Camila was supposed to like Boscha after all. This wasn’t exactly going to help with that. But, unlike almost anything that her old friend could have said, that was just Boscha being honest. Upfront. Like she always was, consequences be damned.

Camila spent a second acting like she didn’t know what to do with her hands before narrowing her eyes as she met Boscha’s. “Is it really that bad?”

Boscha paused for a second before looking away. “I guess not. It meant something to me that Luz really cared about what I thought about her and Amity after all.”

Amity went white as a sheet as her lips disappeared from how hard she sucked them in. Why did she let Boscha say anything? Ever? She then let out a nervous chuckle. “She, uh, means that about when they first became friends. Yeah. Luz started really caring about keeping Boscha around after that since she is the friend I’ve had the longest.”

Camila narrowed her eyes a little as a smile crept to her lips. She then looked at Boscha and asked, “And?”

Amity rushed over to try and shove Boscha into the bushes but instead only got sore wrists from trying to move the brick wall that was her old friend. Said friend simply smirked back at Camila before asking, “What does Novia mean?”

There was a second of shock on the older woman’s face at the confirmation before a smile slipped to her face as she looked at Amity. The panicked girl had no such confidence as she stepped away from the door and looked towards the woods. “Uh, say, you know, I’m just remembering some plans I had with L- Edric! Yep! Quality time with my brother and totally not anyone else. Nope. Especially no one with beautiful brown eyes…” She took in a deep breath as a smile slipped to her lips before her eyes widened as she remembered why she was trying not to think about Luz. Her eyes darted between Boscha and Camila for another second before she simply turned on her heel and ran.

The two left behind simply stared after her before she looked at Camila. “But no, seriously, what the fuck does it mean? Luz keeps using Spanglish or whatever and I’m getting real tired of it.”

Camila giggled a little before gesturing for Boscha to come in. “If you’d like, I could get you something that could teach you Spanish.”

“You don’t expect me not to care enough for that?”

The older woman paused before shaking her head. “I don’t know. Do you?”

Boscha was quiet as she thought about it before sighing and putting her hands behind her head. “Fine. Gives me something to do when I’ve got nothing better to do with my time like cleaning the gutters.”

That only made Camila smile. She doubted she felt as strongly about her daughter as Amity did, but she definitely seemed to like her more than she was going to let on. That was fine. After all, with another glance at the girl, Camila couldn’t help but worry about what sort of bad influence she would be on her daughter. She could only trust in her daughter’s judge of character though, something she was certain would lead her in the right direction.

At least right up until the moment that Boscha admitted to straight up being a bully even to this day, something that made Amity leave for about fifteen minutes so she could scream about her friend in the woods.