You Will Be Found (A Lumity AU)

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Chapter 14

Four days had passed, and it was now Thursday afternoon. Luz had spent a lot of time with Amity since Sunday, and spent every lunch hour in Mx. Whispers' classroom. Out of all her friends, Amity was the only one who knew where she was. She had come to all of the practices for her friends' band, which she learned was called the Hex-men. It was honestly a pretty clever name.

Currently, Luz was sitting in the learning resource room, reading her copy of the Good Witch Azura five. She mouthed the words that she saw on the page, tuning out the world around her. She wasn't doing her homework because she couldn't pay attention for the life of her, and she was too nervous to ask for help.

Maybe Amity could help her, but Amity and her had only done one tutoring session. How would she ask? Also, Amity had been acting kind of overprotective of her, and Luz really didn't want to look any weaker in front of Amity than she already had. Logically, she knew that Amity wouldn't judge her, but her anxiety was telling her to not say anything so she wouldn't be embarrassed.

Luz sighed and shut her book, as she had already read it countless times and knew what was going to happen next. She didn't realize that it was lunchtime until the librarian told her to leave. Maybe she would try and sit in the cafeteria today, as Mx. Whispers had told her yesterday that they would be absent today, and their classroom locked. At least Amity would be there.

Luz felt a lump form in her throat at the thought of the purple haired girl. What was Amity doing to her? Every time they hung out together, it became harder and harder for Luz to control her nerves. She packed up her bag and left the library. As Luz walked through the hallways, she kept her head down and shoved her hands in her pockets. The bright lights were really bothering her because she had just come out of the dimly lit library. Her ticks were acting up right now, because they sometimes did that even when she wasn't stressed or anxious.

When Luz reached the cafeteria, she saw Amity talking to some of her gurls from the soccer team, and some guys from the lacrosse team. They were all sitting at the table, and some lacrosse guy was sitting way too close to Amity for Luz's comfort. But as overwhelming as this situation looked, Luz wanted to be near Amity, so she would try and sit with them today. Everyone stared at her as she sat down at the edge of the table. Amity looked surprised at Luz's presence, and smiled happily. But the lacrosse guy started talking to her again and she continued her conversation with him.

Luz sat awkwardly at the table. She was really hungry, but decided not to say anything because she didn't want to distract her friends. She was also nervous that they would hate her if she kept on bothering them with her needs. She looked around the table and saw that one the guy sitting next to Amity was looking at her strangely. Then his face dawned with recognition, and he spoke.

"Hey, you're Luz Noceda! That crazy autistic girl from Glandus!" Oh no. Luz froze up as everyone at the table looked at her. Amity looked at the guy oddly.

"How do you know Luz, Matt?" Willow asked. The guy, Matt, had a sneering expression.

"My friend Doug over at Glandus told me about her! He said that she attacked this guy Jared once. He got a video and everything." Everyone looked at Luz, slight fear in their eyes. Amity looked concerned, and a little confused. Luz could feel her brain starting to go fuzzy, and her ticks started acting up like crazy. But then Matt directly addressed her.

"So why did you do it? Why did you attack that guy?" Luz wasn't even processing at this point. Amity seemed to recognize the look on her face, because she finally spoke up.

"Give it a rest, Matt." Matt rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Oh please. She deserves it after attacking some completely innocent guy." Luz hunched her shoulders and covered her head with her hands, grabbing at her hair. Tears were running down Luz's face now, and she faintly heard some yelling, then the scraping of a chair through the white noise that was filling her head. Then she felt the soft touch of a hand on her shoulder. A familiar voice whispered in her ear.

"Luz? Come on, let's get out of here, and calm down, okay?" Luz, who was too lost in her spiraling thoughts to process who it was, nodded. All she knew was that the voice sounded safe and kind. She felt herself being guided out of the cafeteria and brought into an empty classroom. Luz heard a door close, snapping her her senses back in place. She was still extremely anxious, but the quiet helped. Once she had processed where she was, she also processed who she was with.

The other person in the room was none other than Mrs. Halle. Her vibrant red hair was unmistakable. Luz's english teacher sat at her desk and pulled out her computer. She grumbled angrily to herself as she typed what Luz assumed was some sort of incident report.

"Luz, I know you must be upset, but can you tell me what brought on Mattholomule's inappropriate behavior? I need to know so I can report it to Principal Bump." Luz slowly nodded, and took a deep breath. Mrs. Halle was safe. Luz stared down at her desk, feeling all of the pent up emotions and depression bubble up and escape her mouth before she could stop it.

"H-he brought up something that happened at my old school. I attacked this guy; Jared Greenburg. But it wasn't my fault. He always bullied me, and injured me, and he still does. Last year he was just tormenting me like usual, but then he crossed the line, he insulted my parents." Tears we're coming down her face again. "He said some awful stuff about how my mamá doesn't care about me, and how my papá committed suicide because I'm a freak. He used the 'R' word to describe me, but I hate saying that word. I guess I just snapped. I tried to attack him, but he ended up injuring me more than I did him."

Luz was sobbing now, and Mrs. Halle came over to her desk. She knelt and placed a hand on Luz's shoulder, and Luz threw her arms around her teacher, and sobbed into her shoulder, feeling weaker than she had in a long time. She left Mrs. Halle's classroom right when the bell rang, her eyes were red and puffy. She plugged in her headphones and selected the first song she thought of.

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say

I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow
In New York City

Until you've seen this trash can dream come true
You stand at the edge while people run you through

And I thank the Lord
There's people out there like you
I thank the Lord there's people out there like you

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night

For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light

This Broadway's got
It's got a lot of songs to sing
If I knew the tunes I might join in

I'll go my way alone
Grow my own, my own seeds shall be sown, in New York City

Subway's no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown

And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night

For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say

I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow
In New York City

Subway's no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown

And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night

For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why

They know not if it's dark outside or light

They know not if it's dark outside or light