10 Ways To Get A Human To Fall In Love With You

Dueling and Spying

"So what exactly is a 'witches duel' anyway?" Kevin asked as he, Luz, Gus, Willow, and Amity walked out the front doors of Hexside. School had just ended for the day, so now it was time for his fight with Boscha.

"It is exactly what you'd expect. Two witches fight until one is no longer able to, or until one surrenders. Things can turn real nasty real fast; the last witch Boscha fought ended up in the infirmary for a whole week," Amity informed him, wary of what was about to happen. Boscha has always been ruthless to the opponents she actually liked or held no ill will towards. What would she do to someone she hated?

"You know you don't have to do this, right? Oh I know! We just have my illusion take your place and when it gets destroyed, we can lie and say that's what happens to humans when they get hurt! How about it?" Gus asked as he drew a spell circle into the air, and in a poof of blue smoke, an illusion of Kevin appeared next to him.

"Gus, buddy, I truly mean no offense by this, really I don't. But even if I had an hour, I couldn't list all the reasons why that won't work," Kevin said as gently as he could, disappointing Gus and the illusion, and as a result the Kevin illusion poofed away. "Don't worry, this'll be easy. Besides, I'm not scared of some stereotypical mean girl bully from literally every show or movie filled with teenage angst and drama aimed towards teenagers.

"...Wow that's uh, that's quite the description," Willow said, surprised at how accurate, albeit rude, his description of Boscha was.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Missed breakfast because of a certain someone and my lunch was screaming at me so I didn't eat it. I kinda turn into a bit of a bitch when I'm hungry."

"Only a bit?" Luz joked, causing Kevin to snort.

The group could see a gathering of students off in the distance, and in the middle of those wanting to watch the duel were Boscha and her lackeys, conversing with one another.

"Step right up and bet against the human! Or, bet for him, although we don't know why you would!" Edric called out as he and Emira walked around, trays hanging from their necks as they collected the bets from those who believed Kevin would lose.

"Nice, real classy you two," Kevin rolled his eyes as he walked past the twins.

"No offense, Kevin; we're just taking advantage of the current situation. No hard feelings, right?" Emira asked as Ed nodded in agreement. Kevin could only shake his head and sigh at the two of them. Is this what Amity always dealt with?

"Surprised you came. I thought you were going to chicken out or something," Boscha said with a smirk as her lackeys backed away into the crowd. The students formed a circle around the two.

"Meh, I had some time to kill." Kevin shrugged. "So what are the stakes exactly? Bragging rights? Lifelong servitude? Does the loser have to switch schools or something?"

"The loser has to wear this until the winner says so," Boscha said as she pulled something out of her pocket and showed it to Kevin. It was a pin that had the word "LOSER" in bold blue letters with a background that was an ugly green color. "The pin is magical and will always appear on your clothing, even if you change clothes."

"Is-Is that it?"

"It'll also gives whoever wears it awful and horrific nightmares that will eventually drive them insane."

"Yup, there it is. I was waiting for the ever so classic 'magical item with a deadly curse' trope to rear its ugly little head. Cliché after cliché," he mumbled to himself. "Okay, let's just get this over with. Luz is supposed to show me around the Boiling Isles," Kevin said as he readied himself for a fight. Then it dawned on him that he had forgotten something. "Wait a minute. How do witches in the potion track fight exactly? Like, what can they do?" he asked while turning to his friends.