Grom in the Moonlight

Leaning against the cold gym wall of the Hexside dance was Amity Blight. This was the first dance she'd ever been to.

Amity was popular by default due to her status and friend group, something that made her automatically expected to attend the dance. She came close, once, when she was studying late in the library. She had forgotten what night it was. The music was disruptive and the people were loud. The ground shook when people would jump to the beat and the only time that the chaos calmed was when a slow song began playing. Boscha called that night when she was on her way home, talking about how one of the most popular boys in school danced with a freshman. She didn't really listen.

This year was different though. The human asked her to come.

She was listening to Luz ramble in the hallways. She had started walking to class with her as of late, she was much more interesting to talk to than who she used to walk with.

"Speaking of, Amity, what's grom?"

"Just a school dance." Amity chuckled softly. "Not that I'd know, though, I've never been."

Luz gasped and looked toward Amity.

"You've never been to a school dance?" Amity didn't understand why Luz was so surprised. It was just a dance, not that big of a deal. She shook her head gently in response.

"They're so fun!" Luz went on to tell a story about spilling a punch bowl and getting lost in the schoolyard on her way home.

"Who knew crickets were so active at night! Or that they could jump so high!" Amity had no idea what a cricket was, but she really could care less. Luz was a wonderful storyteller, and listening to her get so excited made her stomach feel fluttery.

The fluttering wasn't new. It confused her at first, the feeling first appearing during the event that Amity and Luz dubbed "The Library Incident."

It scared her.

It reminded her of when she first started Hexside and became friends with a girl named Roe.

Roe was spontaneous and loud, surprising considering her small size. She had short,
unruly hair and often wore little clips in it. She refused to wear any color but pink, and her nails were always messily done, assumedly by her.

The first time they met was when Amity saw one of her clips on the ground during recess one day. It had fallen out when Roe was climbing. After some careful consideration, Amity decided to pick up the fallen clip and take it to her. It took much more courage than Amity thought it would, and all of the courage that she managed to muster was hardly enough, as she stuttered the whole time they spoke.

Roe had to look up to meet Amity's gaze, but she was smiling widely. Amity held out the clip, her hands cupped gently around the little pink butterfly in her grasp. Roe took it from her quickly, their hands brushing for a moment. Amity's face felt a bit warm.

Roe stood up on her tip-toes, butterfly clip in hand, and reached up towards Amity's brown hair. The tip of her tongue stuck out and her eyebrows were furrowed while she struggled to reach. When she finally clipped the butterfly to Amity's neatly done-up hair she bounced back on the balls of her feet to reset her stance.

"You should have it! You look pretty."

Amity followed Roe around the playground for the rest of the year, the stomach feeling returning every time she was close.

After that year Amity never saw her again.

The feeling was reoccurring, coming back during friendships with many girls throughout the years she was in school. While listening to other girls talk about boys she realized that the fluttering was what happened when you had a crush. And all the stuttering and acting stupid, all the sleepless nights and dreams, that came along with it.