It Started With a Spinny

I Will

"And we should both make that promise to Amity as well."

Luz shakes her head, "No deal! She'll... she'll be sad I went alone."

Vee holds Luz's head against her shoulder, "She'd have been even sadder if you went and got yourself captured by a crazy joke of a Witch Hunter."

"He wasn't there."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" Luz leans back enough to talk, stops, frowns, "I mean, you're right that I didn't know that when I went alone, and I should," her frown screws up tightly as she closes her eyes and squeaks: "I should tell Amity and promise not to do it again!"

Vee squeezes her shoulder, "We'll tell her and promise her together, okay?"

Luz nods, "But yeah," she opens her eyes with a smile, "he'd been fired!"

"For being a crazy joke of a Witch Hunter?"

"And for editing the exhibits to make himself a hero."

"Yikes!" Vee blinks, "So who'd you buy the cards from then?"

Luz blushes. She nods empathically down at the cards Vee still holds against her chest, awkwardly admitting: "They, uh, they gift wrapped them for me. For you I mean."

Vee lifts up the cards to examine them, the expansively tied magenta ribbon hiding a small cardboard note, reading: "455 7890, Call me!"

Vee blinks sideways, "I, I don't-"

"Do you remember Masha? From camp?"

Vee stares, "Oh my god Masha, of course I do! Awesome enby with deep brown eyes, awesome winged eyeliner and a mauve collar?"

"Is mauve a kind of purple?" Luz smirks, "And deep brown eyes you say?"

Vee blushes, "Well, well they were really nice to me at camp, made me feel so welcome, and it was so much fun hanging out with them and learning all about cryptids and anyway," she shakes her head, "Masha works at the Historical Society now?"

Luz nods through an awkward frown, "And they were very pleased to see me. I mean you. I mean they thought I was you, even despite my amazing disguise."

"Disguise?"

"Oh this," Luz steps back enough to pull from her jacket pockets an old pair of Camilla's red horn-rimmed glasses and a comically fake moustache, wearing them both with a proud, "Tada!"

Vee makes a strangled noise, covering her mouth. "It looks, um, very convincing?"

Luz smirks proudly, "Yep it lasted right up until I walked in, opened my mouth and heard them say: 'Luz?'"

Another strangled noise. "Impressive."

Luz pokes out her tongue. "Well we can't all shapeshift you know."

Vee nods, "Uha," she swallows hard, saying with a mostly straight face, "And what happened then, oh Master of Disguises?"

"And then," Luz proudly states, "I panicked!"

Vee reaches out, "Oh I'm sorry."

"No it's okay," Luz takes her hand, "I mean I caught on pretty quick, played off my, uh, disguise as a joke, and when they mentioned camp it all fit into place. I said I'd, that you'd been busy with school but I'd, I mean you'd missed them too, and when I asked if there were any more cards left and then they, um, they-" Luz is blushing again.

Vee smirks as she leans forward, "And then they gave you their number?"

Luz nods, then shakes her head, "No they gave you their number! They thought I was you and they hadn't seen me I mean you in ages, and then they went into the back and gift wrapped them and didn't let me pay but said I could make it up to them later if I want to and I nodded as if I understood but it wasn't until I was outside that I saw they'd given me I mean you their number and aaaah this is so confusing!"

"Breathe Luz."

Luz takes several deep breathes, still looking down as she asks, "How did you do this?"

Vee blinks, "Do what?"

"Keep straight who was you and who was me?"

Vee frowns, "I, kind of, didn't, remember?"

Luz nods, "But, I think I understand now. When they started talking and insisted I was someone else, someone they knew and liked, I kind of, went along with it?"

"You were trying to keep me safe."

Luz nods, then shakes her head, "It was more than that. Less than that. I don't know, I just - it seemed so natural to just be who they thought I was, and by the time I'd stopped to even think I'd already accidentally kind of agreed to call them. I mean, I'd agreed you'd call them, without even asking you first, without even thinking about you, and I'm, I'm sorry."

Vee squeezes Luz's shoulder. "Hey no, Luz you didn't-"

"I'm saying I understand, like, I really understand!" She squeezes Vee's hand, smiling sadly, "I already did in a way: I..." she takes a deep breath, "I know exactly what it's like to look at other people and want to be them, want to have what they have so much it hurts!" She laughs without mirth, "Coñazo Vee! If I could have just become one of the popular kids at school, the kids who knew how to make friends and have girlfriends and be everything I was supposed to be, everything the teachers and the principle and mami all kept telling me to be and, and-"

"Breathe."

Luz breathes, for a long time. When she speaks again her voice is small and honest as she admits: "Then I would have done it in a heartbeat, without even thinking about the consequences. It just would have been so much easier just, being what everyone told me I should be, what everyone else found so natural but I never ever understood. I'd have been that, taken that if I could, without a second thought." She looks down, "And even without shapeshifting, I still pretended to be you today, without a second thought, or even a first thought! And it was scary, and exciting, playing along, having someone treat me like they knew me, missed me," Luz blushes, "and like, like they really wanted me to call them. Wanted you to call them I mean."

Vee blushes too.

Luz allows herself a little smirk, "So, are you gonna call them then?"

Vee blushes harder, "They, uh, they would recognise my voice at least."

Luz frowns, "Yeah they said I sounded flat."

"I like you voice!"

Luz smiles, "Thanks." Her smile brightens, "I think, I think you should call them, if you wanted to. Heck, I'd call them if I were you, and I was you, so I, um... I don't actually know where I was going with this."

Vee giggles. She looks down at the cards, and the note, smiling fondly. "I'll, I'll think about it. I have missed hanging out with them, but I didn't know how to explain me not being you. And I will still need to, but maybe, maybe I can just call them first?"

Luz smiles reassuringly, "I think you should."

Vee holds the cards to her chest tightly, "But what do I say?"

"'Hi' often works."

Vee sticks out her tongue. "Okay Mr. Master of Disguises."

"Hey I actually like the moustache!"

"Good, it looks good on you!"

"Good!"

"Fine!"