Music Under the Spotlight (Lumity Band Au)

The news

Boscha POV: 

"Am I winning?" I asked, glancing up from my cards. Emira snorted while shaking her head, making sure to keep her cards covered. 

"Not even close." She chuckled, placing down another card. I sighed, placing down a card as well. The cards then quickly sprung to life and started attacking one another, making small growling noises. 

Edric sat on a bean bag by us, watching the cards fight. He had messaged me about half an hour ago, asking if I wanted to hang out with them. Since Willow was busy and I had nothing better to do, I agreed. 

So I met up with them at the studio, finding out that he decided to have us meet here since Matt and Emira were already here. When I asked why they were already here, Matt gave a brief response of "Speaker checking." before he disappeared off to his room. 

That left me with the Blight twins, where we just hung out chatting for a little while before Emira challenged me to a game of Hexes Hold'em, with Edric being our spectator. 

"How are you so good at this?" I groaned, feeling frustrated that I was losing. Emira chuckled again, swiping away her few fallen cards. I copied her actions, though I was removing a lot more cards off the table. 

"It's a mix of playing with Ed when we cut class and playing against a lot of people during lunch." Emira told me with a smirk, replacing her fallen cards with new ones from her hand. 

"And how do I know you aren't cheating?" I squinted at her, placing down my next set of cards. The twin laughed as the cards came to life again, hissing and snapping at one another. 

"Boscha, it's damn near impossible to cheat in Hexes Hold'em." Now it was Edric's turn to laugh, shaking his head at his twin. 

"Yeah no, not impossible. After all, that's how the owl lady won against you." Emira froze up, then turned towards her brother, a look of shock flashing across her face. 

"I... are you serious?" Her voice went slightly higher, making Edric laugh even more. He nodded his head, making her eyebrows furrow together. "I lost fifty snails to that game!" 

"What'd you expect?" He paused, taking in a deep breath to stop his laughter. "You told her you were impossible to beat, and she was gonna do anything to prove you wrong. Not only that, but you put money on the line." 

Emira scowled, but that quickly changed when the cards flopped back down. "Emira wins!" The game spat out, the flames dancing in the air for a moment before turning to thin wisps and disappearing. 

I let out a long sigh and threw my remaining cards down on the table, Emira pumped her fist in the air. Then, she shot me a smug look, leaning against the table in her signature pose. 

"Geez, fine." I fished around in my jacket's pockets for a minute, then pulled out five snails and slid them across the table to her. She stopped the coin from falling off with a quick flick of her finger, floating the money right into her pocket. 

"Thank you." She said smugly, folding her arms over one another and placing them on the table. "Wanna play again?" Her eyes held the same mischievous glint it always had, making me roll my eyes. 

"And lose more snails to you? No thanks." I muttered, pulling out my scroll. The Blight twin chuckled, shaking her head. Taking a glance at the time, I realized it was a little after three. "Where'd you say Amity was again?" 

"Oh, she told us this morning that she was heading to the old band shop before hanging out with Luz!" Edric quickly said before stretching his arms over his head with a low sigh.