Zero

Chapter 12: Bonanza

"... and that's how I tried out for the cheerleading team! Watch this!"

Luz stepped in front of Amity, halting in her tracks momentarily before spinning around.

"Bleep boop bleep!"

Amity clamped a hand over her mouth to refrain from laughing out loud at Luz's ridiculous looking flipped eyelids. Biting her lip, she managed to compose herself.

"I take it the cheerleaders and coaches didn't appreciate your eager display of... talent."

Luz slumped and fixed her eyelids, blinking away the tears that had gathered at the corner of her eyes. She fell into step beside Amity as they walked across the bridge connecting one train car to another.

"Yeah, I didn't make the team." Luz frowned for a moment, but then her expression brightened. "But it's okay! There's always next year!"

Amity hummed in response, and silence fell over the duo as they made their way to the next train car. It had been three days since they had left the Autumn car, and bid an emotional farewell to Alan Dracula (yes, Luz had been on the verge of tears as Amity forcibly dragged her away from the deer).

"Can't we keep him?" Luz had pleaded.

"No!" Amity puffed as she struggled to keep Luz from running back to the deer.

Amity shot her dreams of having a magical animal companion down in an instant, but Luz was undeterred and kept trying anyway.

"What if I let you rename him?" Luz grinned. "How does Amity Jr. sound?"

Amity hadn't answered, electing to continue pulling her towards the exit door. When they reached it, Luz had squealed with excitement when she noticed that her number had decreased from 115 to 105, and thoughts of Alan Dracula had evaporated in an instant. Curious, Amity had checked her own glowing number to discover that it had also decreased, from 120 to 110. Amity thought back to One-One's orientation and figured her apology to Luz and the conversation that followed had something to do with the change.

Since then, things between them had improved greatly. Amity no longer resisted Luz striking up a conversation, and they talked about a lot of things. First about their shared interest in Azura but then they branched out to other topics. Today, Luz began sharing more of what life was like back home, starting with every incident that had gotten her in trouble at school.

Amity had initially guessed Luz was quirky and outgoing, but not to the point where she was getting kicked out of school. While she did feel bad for her, Amity couldn't help but admit that Luz definitely needed to learn to make decisions a bit more rationally and less spontaneously.

"Things got so bad that my mom sent me to summer camp hoping that it'd help." Luz's nose wrinkled. "But not a fun one- it's called Reality Check Summer Camp, and it's about as horrible as it sounds. Despite all of the near death experiences, I'm glad I ended up on the train instead."

Amity raised an eyebrow. The camp definitely sounded terrible, but Amity couldn't help but find its name quite apt for what she had been doing with Luz since they had met- talking her out of bad decisions and rescuing her from dangerous situations she had jumped into without a second thought. Though to be fair, Luz had done her fair share of saving too, so Amity supposed that they were even.

"Looks like the monumental task of reforming you has fallen to me then," she remarked.

Luz perked up and leaned in towards Amity, causing her to gently push the excitable girl back by the shoulder. Amity didn't like people invading her personal space, even if they were as amiable as Luz. Luz was unbothered by the action and took it in stride.