First Kiss {LUMITY}

Hooty's Terms

Luz and Amity awoke to a high pitched voice shouting

"Wake up love birds! Hoot hoot!". Amity turned red and snatched her hand off of Luz's.

"We're not in love, and we aren't birds," she spat, shoving Hooty out the window. Luz sat up, chip bags falling off her chest.

"You OK, Amity? You look like you've seen a ghost!" she asked, moving to place her hand on Amity's arm.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," she muttered in reply, her face turning redder with contact.

"Let's get some breakfast," Luz smiled, brushing Amity off before doing the same to herself. She then went over to the door and pulled the handle, but it did not budge. "Hooty, let us out!" she complained angrily. An owl face appeared in the window, a smug grin on its beak.

"Hoot hoot, no thanks! Hoot!" it smirked. Luz let out an angry grunt before flopping back down on the sleeping bag bed.

"Wait, you're just giving up?!" Amity asked, panicked. She pulled at the door, fear forming a film over her eyes.

"Hooty's my friend, and we can't really do anything anyway," Luz explained, pulling out her spell pad and drawing an ice rune. "Wanna melt this so we can have something to drink?" she asked, turning to her friend. Amity nodded and drew a small circle with her finger in the air above the ice block. A small flame appeared, and she quickly drew another circle, conjuring two cups, then floating the water into them equally. "Nice!" Luz grinned, taking a long sip of her cold, refreshing drink. Amity did the same, watching Luz the entire time. The two sat in silence for a while, lost in thoughts of an escape plan.

"How are we gonna get out of here?" Amity whispered, thinking out loud. Once again, a smug owl face snaked its way through the broken window.

"If you want your escape from here to be quick, perform for me one simple trick. Not one of magic or spells or potions, but one of the simple and heartfelt emotions. When two lips touch, a single kiss, one that hasn't gone amiss, that is when the door will open, only then will the lock be broken. Hoot hoot!" Hooty recited before slinking away again.

Amity was now the color of a tomato, looking for a way out the broken window. Luz, however, was not so quick to understand.

"Wait, Hooty, come back!" she yelled, standing next to Amity at the window. For the third time he appeared, this time for Luz to plant a kiss on his beak. "Let us out now?" she asked. Hooty shook his face and left. Amity felt a twinge of jealousy, along with the sudden need to punch the owl square in the eyes.

"That's not what he meant," she mumbled. Luz looked at her, confused."What do you mean?" she asked. Amity rolled her eyes and picked up Luz's Azura and Hecate dolls, writing 'Luz' and 'Amity' on little paper slips, attaching one name to each doll before putting their plastic lips together, redder than ever before. Luz looked at the doll with the name 'Amity' on it then back at her friend. She understood the what now, but not why.

"OK, so we kiss, no big deal! Friends can kiss, right?" she said, walking over to Amity.

"No! That's the thing! I don't...want us to...just be friends," Amity admitted, mumbling. Luz looked over at her newest friend, the most talented witch at Hexside. Thinking back to all their interactions, everything began to make sense. Amity had a crush on Luz. How could she have been so oblivious? 

"I don't want our first kiss to be because someone tells us to," Luz finally said, standing up. She walked over to a wall covered in chalk drawings of Azura and Hecate, erasing it with one swipe of a felt block. In the place of the drawings, she wrote 'How to Get Out Without Kissing' at the top. "First we need to see if we can go out the window," she decided, picking up an uneaten chip and chucking it out the broken glass opening. The chip bounced back and landed in Luz's hand again.

"This is pointless, Luz," Amity sighed. Luz walked over, grabbed Amity's cheeks, and forced her to look at her.

"No, it's not. There's always a way. If being here has taught me anything, it's that nothing is impossible or pointless. Now use that Top Student brain to help me find a way out of here!" she said, finishing her pep talk with a flourish. Amity nodded, walking over to the wall and picking up the chalk.

"We could try to break the force field by overwhelming it with a barrage of items all at once, but one of us would need to throw while the other duplicated it mid-air," she thought out loud, scribbling her plan out on the wall.

"I have a pretty good throwing arm," Luz told her, picking up a basketball from the pile of things and holding it up. "I also don't know how to duplicate things yet," she confessed. Amity chuckled and nodded.

"OK, so I'll duplicate everything and you'll throw it," she said. Luz nodded and handed Amity the ball. She drew yet another air-circle, then the one basketball became three basketballs. Luz took two of them and pelted the force field while Amity continued to make more. The amber-colored dome began to crack, and Luz cheered before hurling another three at it. A hole appeared, and then the force field shattered. Luz grabbed Amity's arm and leaped out the window. The two slid down the gently sloped roof before dropping, Luz managing to catch Amity.

"Oh wow...force fields," she blushed as Luz giggled and set her down.