Something has changed in luz noceda, and everybody can sense it.
She walks into school on her first day with new hair, new clothes and a whole new attitude. She almost looks intimidating, but no one in their right minds is actually scared of luz noceda. Or at least, they're not scared because of her appearance, of all things.
So she walks into her first class and immediately everyone holds their breath– because goodness sake, they thought they were rid of that weirdo. Now they have to endure a whole nother few months of hashtag Quirky entrances and loud declarations and unfiltered brazenness. And they sit with shared anticipation as she walks in, prepared for any wonderful and wacky hijinks, and... she sits down without a word.
Well, okay. People change. It's a blessing, really.
She has adopted a new habit, though, of pulling her phone out under the table and typing away at it. She hides a laugh every now and then, and rolls her eyes fondly at intervals, and once or twice her face goes a little red. People are almost inclined to think she's texting a friend, but no. That's impossible. Luz noceda doesn't have friends.
She's also become... muted. In maths it's clear that she can't understand a question and is getting increasingly frustrated. Luz from six months ago maybe would have groaned dramatically and declared how boring this class was, drumming on the table and singing to herself to pass the time. But present day luz just closes her eyes and scrunches up her face, counting one, two, three, four on her fingers as she breathes in and out. She resigns herself to drawing symbols in the corners of her pages. No one can decipher them, but she taps her fingers rhythmically on the little circles as if they were buttons waiting to be activated.
Later on in the lesson she raises her hand to answer a question. When she gets it right, her feet stamp on the floor and she makes an excited little squeak sound in her throat. They boy next to her makes fun of it. She doesn't raise her hand for the rest of class.
She spends her lunch in the girl's bathrooms. As expected, there's already a gaggle of girls there, blasting music through earphones and talking mirror selfies and shit talking other students. At some point, their comments start being directed towards luz, but she's too absorbed in her phone to care.
She gets frustrated at her work again next period and begins rapidly shaking her head with her eyes screwed shut. The girls on her table laugh in bewilderment and ask her what the hell that was. She doesn't answer. Next time she gets upset, she schools her expression and starts bouncing her leg and biting down on her pen; but cheap plastic isn't very strong, and soon enough it explodes in her mouth. Bitter ink and all.
The teacher gets mad and sends her out the room. She silently complies as she spits into a tissue.
Then the Incident™️ happens just before last period. A girl approaches luz at her locker, and no one is completely sure of what she's saying, but they can all tell it's nothing good. And this goes on for minutes on end. The girl keeps prying and luz keeps counting one, two, three, four and pretending not to care. But eventually she must have started pushing all the right buttons, because in less than a second, luz noceda slams her locker door shut, snaps her head around and all but verbally spits in her face. And she's not loud about it, which is probably the most terifying part. Her voice is low and level as she claims that she's been through far too much to have to put up with the likes of her, and that she's tired, and that the girl should turn around and walk away if she didn't want all her pretty hair to be turned into a handbag.
The girl weakly retorts out something back, calling her an overdramatic loser.
Luz laughs and offers some more creative alternatives. They lack any real venom to them, and so witnesses briefly wonder if her words are even aimed towards the other girl.
And then just as quickly, she regains her bearings and storms off to the bathroom. She doesn't show up next period. She's crying, some say. Probably for attention.
Everyone is avoiding luz noceda by the end of the school day. Luz keeps her eyes on the ground, so either she doesn't notice or she doesn't care. Or maybe she's glad; going from the school's punching bag to the quiet kid that no one wants to talk to must be a bit of a relief. Students part around her like water. Some joke that it's because they don't want the weird girl touching them. Others openly admit that they're terrified of the new her.
There's also five unfamiliar faces waiting outside when the bell rings. A girl with fading purple hair, chatting with a girl with pigtails and a polaroid camera strapped around her neck. A younger boy, no older than maybe fourteen, wearing an earring that definitely goes against the school dress code. Another boy, blonde with a hooked nose, that all the school girls are staring and giggling at. He's looking around with a carefully neutral expression as he hovers around pigtails girl and the youngest, as if he were their own personal bodyguard.
There's also a final girl with green and blue hair and colourful eye contacts. And while most teenagers would be waiting idly on their phones, the group appear to be huddled around a single tablet that this girl is holding, going between chatting amongst each other and watching some obscure mewtube guy.
Luz steps outside and then there's a flash. Pigtails girl lowers her camera with a smile.
Luz grins the widest she has all day.
She bounds forward and hugs the purple girl so tight she lifts her off the ground. Everyone is laughing. Luz kisses her on the temple, high-fives the younger boy, pats pigtail girl's head, grabs the blonde boy's face and asks if she can kiss him. He says yes, and she blows a raspberry against his cheek.
She hugs the green and blue girl too, excitedly asking what everyone is doing here.
"There was an emergency at the vet clinic, so mom wanted me to pick you up," she explains in a high, rasping voice that sounds younger than luz's. "Then everyone else begged to come along."
There's something offsetting about that notion, at least to the onlooking students.
People wanted to see luz?
Luz goes to respond but words catch in her throat when someone shoulders her from behind and causes her to stumble forward. She doesn't need to turn around to know it's the girl from earlier. Some people hold their breath, awaiting round two of their fight... but luz whispers a rushed onetwothreefour, and goes back to smiling.
"Let's get out of here."
And as they're walking out the school gates (with the blonde guy now staring everyone else down with nothing but ice in his gaze), they find the girl from earlier complaining about finding some weird purple gum under her shoe.
And once they're outside the school gates, they hear her scream as she trips and falls into a bush, then just as quickly scramble to her feet and claim that the branches reached out and pulled her in.
The youngest boy mutters a quick complaint under his breath. The green and blue girl giggles and pats his shoulder sympathetically.
Everyone is now slightly more scared of luz noceda.
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im sorry i have to rant im so fucking pissed
my exams end on 19th and I have to get rid of some books and buy some books which are quite pricy online so I had planned on going to college street on 20th and selling my books and buying the new ones at a cheap price and i was frankly really excited about it because all I get is a one day break to relax bcz i have to start studying for entrances from 21st so all I have is 20th and i wanted to spend it at college street and then get some food and basically have like a solo date kind of thing.
and i was so so excited about it i told my boyfriend about it like 500 times bcz i kept forgetting i've already mentioned it and it was literally on my mind a lott so i kept bringing it up and ik it seems like not a big deal cz i can just sit at home and chill too but i literally do not get to go outside my house. like- the last time i went out was new years eve and after that the only time i've gone out is to school or to give my boards that is it. my mother has some weird like problem wiht me going out like even if i tell her that i just want to go to our terrace for 5 minutes just to get some fresh air she won't even allow that she'll be all suspicious and like sTaNd In ThE bAlCOnY aNd TaKe FrEsH aIr like she herself doesnt leave the house (and blames it on me and my brother ???? when have we ever stopped you bro, she said I HaVe To Be HeRe To KeEp An EyE like im 18 i dont need to be watched 24/7 stop blaming me for choices you put upon yourself) and i just feel so suffocated ALL THE TIME i feel so overstimulated and im so sick of rotting on my bed and i dont want to wait for some birthday party or friends meet up to be able to leave my goddamn house i just wanted to go and have a fun day and get me some books thats it.
anyway so initially the plan was that my mom would go along but something came up so she wanted to postpone it to 21st and i didn't want to bcz i'd already be missing 3 days bcz of my boyfriends birthday, holi and my brothers birthday (all of which are important and i dont want to miss which makes me the villain apparently bcz i should "adjust" and cancel my "parties" instead of trying to stick to my plan bcz that makes me too demanding and selfish apparently) so i suggested that ukw why dont u go do ur thing which came up and i'll go to college street by myself...which is when the solo date idea came which i had really wanted all along but didnt bring up bcz i knew she'd say no but now there's a valid reason for me to go alone so like, its a pretty easy fix i can just go alone but noooo. First of all,
I've been to college street multiple times before so its not like its an unknown area to me
im going by metro which is quite safe
im going when there is stark daylight and i will return home much much before it gets dark and im literally 18
she never lets me go anywhere alone, not even take ubers alone if i want to get back from somewhere my bf has to come drop me everytime and then go backwards to his house which is so so so stupid and i never get to go out alone unless accompanied by family or by a male friend, so obv when i said i'll go to college street alone she refused to let that happen and started screaming about how 'if its so important to go on 20th bcz u dont want to miss a day of studying then cancel ur 'parties' and study then' and i was like no its not about missing a day its just that there's a very easy and logical fix to this problem which is i go alone and its not inconveniencing anyone so why cant i just do that but she will not listen to that bcz im 'adamant' and 'everything has to be according to me' bcz i found a viable solution to the problem. so instead of letting me just go she was literally ready to pay much more money and buy the books online, like.....why cant i just go bro??? (and she keeps telling me im a waste of her money bcz i will amount to nothing in life and my education was a failed investment or wtv so like now why are u wasting more money??? im literally trying to save the money that u 'waste' on me so just let me ???)
anyway i called my dad last night and told him and he was super ok with the idea he said its a good idea that i go alone and that he would speak to her but then today when i asked her if dad spoke to her she said yes, we'll go on 20th and i was like .....we? so apparently she CANCELLED her previously immovable thing for which she wanted me to cancel my 'parties', she cancelled that and agreed to go with me on 20th just so that i dont get to go alone- like ???????????????? what is ur problemmmm
so obv i was super annoyed and i went on a whole ass rant about how i literally struggle to even cross roads bcz i dont know shit about basic travelling bcz all my life ive been in a car and its a running joke with all my guy friends that i 'cannot navigate' and 'dont know any places' and obv??? if im never allowed to go anywhere then how tf will i know the places- the only places i know is bcz recently i've been paying a lot of attention and asking my dad stuff about what roads to take to reach certain places and when i go out with my friends i kind of try and learn a bit but thats it i've only ever gone alone completely alone to two places which is my beauty parlour thats 5 minutes away from my house and one bazaar one time that was 2 bus stops away, thats it. thats my extent of public travelling alone. and now im supposed to go to a whole new STATE for college and i cant even call myself an auto without struggling. and like- is this not a basic life skill??? like ok yeah its not rocket science and i will probably figure it out even if i start later in life but why not now? most of my guy friends literally go everywhere alone, why not me? and my dad agreed with all of this but my mom was just like "you'll be in the hostel only, no need to go out of the campus" like ARE YOU FOR REAL????????? and she's like "if u want to learn skills learn how to cook" like ok yes i will also learn how to cook for sure but i wont have a fucking kitchen in the hostel but somehow cooking is an urgent skill i should learn but going places by myself is unimportant bcz i should just never? leave? the? hostel?
anyway after much screaming and shouting my dad gave up and just cut the call bcz he doesnt want to get into an argument with my mother and my mother was being all suspicious like why do u hAvE tO gO aLoNe AlL oF a SuDdEn even though i literally explained why i want to do this alone but she doesnt think thats valid. so she refuses to let me go and i asked her for one reason why i shouldnt cz usuallt its always "no u have exam what if smthn happens" but now i literally dont even have exam so whats ur excuse now? streets will always be unsafe forever so "what if smthn happens" is not a reason to never let me go out without a man so just gimme one reason and she couldnt give me a single reason she just said "i said no, thats it".
and now she's gone off about how im useless and blah blah and "high maintainance" bcz i want books and "everyone else (some pishi's son) just studies online" and so the whole option of college street is apparently now cancelled and she's trying to set up a whole ass kindle account (half the books i need arent even available as ebooks) just because i wanted to go by myself.
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