The Owl House: A Crushing Experience
Disc.: The Owl House belongs to The Walt Disney Company; created by Dana Terrace.
The library was usually Amity Blight’s sanctuary. It was a place of logic, Dewey Decimal systems, and the comforting, predictable scent of old parchment. But today, the silence was a vacuum, and the words on the page of Advanced Abominations: Volume IV were refusing to stay in their lines.
Across the table, Luz Noceda was vibrating. There was no other word for it. She was trying to stay quiet—Amity had requested "study focus time"—but Luz’s very existence was a loud, chaotic broadcast of energy. She was currently drawing little hearts on the margins of her glyph notes, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration.
Amity felt the familiar heat crawl up her neck. It was a traitorous sensation.
It’s just the heat from the braziers, Amity told herself. Or maybe a reaction to a stray potion ingredient.
But then Luz looked up, her brown eyes crinkling with that blinding, earnest smile. "Hey, Ami? Do you think Eda would let me try to make a glyph for 'sparkles'? Like, not just light, but extra fancy light?"
Amity’s heart did a frantic somersault against her ribs. "I—uh, sparkles? Luz, that’s hardly a priority for the upcoming exam."
"But sparkles make everything better!" Luz leaned forward, her elbows thumping onto the wooden table. "Imagine an Abomination that just... fabulously explodes into glitter. It’s The Noceda Touch™."
Amity stared. She stared at the way Luz’s hair was messy from a day of hijinks, at the smudge of ink on her cheek, and at the way she said “Ami” like it was a secret they shared.
“Oh no,” Amity thought, the realization hitting her like a rogue Grudgball. I’m in trouble.
For years, Amity’s life had been a series of checkboxes. Be the best. Maintain the Blight name. Befriend the right people. Marry... well, her mother had already started dropping hints about "suitable matches" from the upper-crust covens. Boys with prestigious lineages and boring personalities. Amity had always just nodded, assuming that’s how life worked. Love was a transaction, or a performance.
But this? This feeling wasn't a performance. It was a riot.
Luz was a girl. A Muggle girl. A chaotic, glyph-slinging, magic-obsessed Muggle girl.
If Odalia Blight could see into Amity’s head right now, she would likely try to have the thoughts scrubbed out with a memory spell. The Blights didn't do "crushes on Muggles". They didn't do "distractions." And they certainly didn't do... this.
"Amity? You’ve been staring at that page for five minutes without blinking. Are you having a vision? Is it the Oracle track? Should I get a bucket?"
Amity snapped her book shut, the sound echoing through the stacks. "I’m fine, Luz! I just... I forgot I have a thing. At a place. With... Boscha."
Luz’ face fell slightly. "Oh. Ok! I’ll see you at the Owl House later for Hexes-hold-em?"
Amity practically sprinted to the Restricted Section, ducking behind a shelf of sentient encyclopedias that grumbled at her arrival. She leaned her head against the cool stone wall and breathed.
I like her, she whispered to the shadows.
The shadows didn't judge.
She thought about the way Luz looked in that silly otter suit. She thought about the way Luz stood up to Amity’s own parents. Most importantly, she thought about how she felt when she was around Luz: not like a "Blight," not like a "Prodigy," but just like Amity.
It was terrifying. It was a deviation from the plan. It was a total lack of control.
Amity looked down at her hands. They were shaking. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled note Luz had given her weeks ago. It just said 'You're doing great, Amity!' with a drawing of a tiny, smiling ghost.
A slow, genuine smile spread across Amity’s face, eclipsing the fear.
If her life was an equation, Luz Noceda was the variable that broke the math. And for the first time in her life, Amity realized she didn't want to solve it. She just wanted to see where the numbers went.
"Ok," Amity whispered, straightening her cowl and smoothing her hair. "Ok. I like a girl. I like that girl."
She walked back toward the table, her steps a little more certain. The expectations of her family felt like a heavy cloak, but as she caught sight of Luz waving a glyph-paper excitedly at a passing butterfly, Amity decided that maybe it was time to let that cloak slip off.
She had a crush. It was a lavender-scented, human-shaped disaster of a crush. And for once, Amity Blight was perfectly ok with failing the "Blight" test if it meant passing the "Luz" one.
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