Ficool

Chapter 9 - Something Ventured, Someone Framed

At Hexside, Gus stood in front of a small group of students showing off various objects incorrectly labeled to them. "Behold. The wonders of the human realm," he began holding up a paper clip. "This little fella's one of their most valued objects. It aids in the compiling of printed wisdom, the scratching of gunk from under your nails, and my favorite...It even mimics the sounds of the human ocean," he said as twanged the paper clip.

"Aah! The human realm. So beautiful. It's safe to say that the pay-per-clorp is a stunning testament to human ingenuity. Any questions?" Gus asked the four students who all looked thoroughly bored. Before a young witch raised his hand.

"Ah! Our newest member: Mattholomule."

"A-Augustus, is this what the president of the Human Appreciation Society thinks passes as "Human Artifacts"?" Mattholomule asked, confusing Gus. "Because at my old school, we had real treasures," he said, pushing all of Gus' human objects off of the table before he emptied his bag out. From his bag came an egg with a skull drawn on it labeled "human skull", a rock labeled "cellular phone", and a mold of mud and leaves made to look like a shoe. The members of the club all gasp seeing the new objects in front of them.

"Wow!"

"So real. I-I wanna touch them."

"Go ahead. In my club, we didn't have any dumb rules," Mattholomule said, pointing towards the board and Gus' paper of rules for the club. "Shh. He didn't mean that," Gus said, caressing the paper before he glared at Mattholomule and took all of the object from the other members against their protests.

"Well, this isn't your club. Thankfully," Gus said, slamming the mud shoe onto the table smashing it slightly. "Exactly, who thinks I should be president?" Mattholomule asked the other members.

"I do," said Eileen, a biped demon with a single eye covering most of her face, in a muffled voice.

"Mattholomule for prez," said a young female witch named Bo

"I'm an undecided voter. I wanna touch all the objects first," said a unicorn biped demon bard student.

As the three members began to discuss and argue with each other Gus picked up the "phone" and began to examine it before his eyes widened in realization. "These are fakes," Gus said, shocking the members.

"You can't prove that!" Mattholomule said, stammering before inhaling and composing himself. "You're just trying to distract these human appreciators. You're afraid of getting kicked out of office. It's your word versus mine." The members of the club began to murmur as Gus backed up towards the chalkboard as he saw a newspaper clip with a picture of Luz and Cruz, suddenly gaining an idea.

"What if I brought in an expert?" Gus asked, gaining all of their attentions. "Yeah, right. Who can you find that's a bigger human expert than any of us?" Mattholomule asked skeptically. "How about a couple of real humans?"

"Why the secrets?"

"Show don't tell, man."

"Yeah. Uh-huh. And you've never brought your friends here. Why?" Mattholomule asked, crossing his arms. "Well, they're busy. They've got a couple of jobs. But I'll bring them in tomorrow. They'll be able to prove that I'm right. "Ah, sure you will, Augustus. Sure you will," Mattholomule said with a scoff, causing Gus to grow nervous with how he was going to bring them in.

At the Owl House, Gus is standing in front of the Noceda twins as Eda and Cruz are rummaging through boxes. "Gus, we'd love to go to school with you. But I don't know how we could. Principal Bump banned us from Hexside," Luz said, pointing towards the banned poster of her and Cruz.

"But nothing. Bump did you two a favor. There ain't nothing for you at that dweebus factory. No offense, dweebus," Eda said to Gus as Luz and Cruz didn't look pleased with what Eda said to their friend. "It's okay. I come from a long line of dweebuses," Gus said as Luz slammed the box she was holding onto the ground making it clatter.

"Well, I would love to go some day. Better than unpacking boxes in the Eda Coven," Luz said as she angrily crossed her arms. "Oh you think you're clever," Eda said as she put her hands on her hip.

"Ooh! Fight, fight, fight!" King said as he jumped onto a box and punched the air. "Don't encourage them," said Cruz with mild annoyance. "He's right. Can it King! First off, it's the "Bad Girl Coven" and second off, I guess you don't want in on the T-shirt order, huh?" Eda said holding up a piece of paper with a drawing of a purple shirt with what looked like Eda riding on Owlbert like a skateboard and lightning bolts surrounding the words "Bad Girl Coven".

"If you've got any other colors I might consider it," Cruz said with amusement, liking the shirt design a bit.

"I don't care about T-shirts, Eda! I want to learn magic, and they teach that at Hexside!" Luz said in exasperation gesturing towards Gus. "I mean, yeah, well-" Eda began to say before grunting walking towards the door. "I don't wanna hear another word about Hexside, unless it's "Hexside is on fire" and "let's grab front row seats!" she said slamming the door behind her.

"Aw, look what you did. I'm gonna go rub it in," King said as he laughed following after Eda. Luz sat down on the couch with an exasperated sigh as Cruz pulled a pair of brown worker gloves from a box and sat next to her. "Sorry about all that Gus, Eda can be pretty stubborn about magic school and all their rules," Cruz explained while feeling some annoyance towards Eda and the situation.

"G-guys, about the ban, I , uh, used my H.A.S. presidential authority to pull some strings. You've been given a full pardon!" Gus said, gaining the twins' attention.

"Wait, are you saying what I think you are?" Cruz questioned with some hope in his voice.

"I got the ban lifted!" Gus said, trying to hide the nerves in his voice hoping they had bought it. "Oh my gosh. Yes, yes, yes!" Luz began to shake Gus with excitement as she and Cruz stood up from the couch.

"Of course we'll be there tomorrow! Gus, this will be great!" Luz began as she was jumping on the couch. "We get to see the school and save the president."

"Just tell us when to be there and we'll show up ready!" Cruz said with equal excitement as Luz. "Great! I'll see you tomorrow!" Gus said as he left the Owl House.

Once the front door was closed, Gus began to dance in pure joy. "Yes! You did it, Gus! You did it, Gus. You're the smartest You're the best~" he said in a sing-song fashion. "Sweet moves, little dude," Hooty said, startling him.

"I always forget you're there."

"I forget I'm here too. Boop," Hooty said, pointing his beak towards Gus as he stared at him for a moment.

"This is gonna work out after all," Gus said with glee.

"This isn't gonna work out at all," Willow said as she and Gus stood outside of Hexside the next day waiting for Luz and Cruz to show up.

"Well, I feel like I took care of any potential problems," Gus defended himself. "You lied to our best friends and told them you got the ban lifted. That seems like a potential problem to me."

"You don't understand. The members were going mad. They were bloodthirsty. They were touching objects. I had no choice!" Gus argued. "Really? What about all the wanted posters around school?" Willow pointed out as Gus pulled out multiple wanted posters that used to hang inside of the school. "What wanted posters? I also got this," Gus pulled out a pair of cowls from his bag. "To keep them undercover."

"Undercover from what?" Luz asked as she and Cruz walked up to the two. "Behold your new cowls," Gus said as he quickly put the cowl on the twins backwards. "Whoa. I love it," Luz said as Gus adjusted her cowl and Cruz adjusted his own after a slight tug. The two sniffed the cowls as Luz had a smile on her face while Cruz's scrunched up.

"On the Boiling Isles, new things smell old," Luz said.

"Not sure how I feel about that, but hey can't argue with free stuff," Cruz said, letting go of his owl cowl.

"Yep. Put it on. Hide your ears. Wanna keep you under wraps 'till the big reveal,'' Gus said with a nervous chuckle. Willow has a deep frown at Gus, not liking his plan one bit. "Oh, a showman. I totally get it. You bring the razzle, I'll bring the dazzle," Luz said as she pulled up the hood on her cowl and released confetti from her hands, earring stares from Willow and Gus.

"Does she always have confetti on her or…?" Willow began to question looking towards Cruz. "Honestly…I don't even know where she gets that stuff from," he said, shaking his head. Gus' demon watch begins to scream out, when he pulled up his sleeve, the little purple demon with a clock head for an eye was biting down on his wrist. Gus poked the demon in its eye causing it to stop screaming.

"That's my alarm. Uh, we better get going. See you after school, Willow," Gus said dragging Luz away with Cruz following close behind. "Bye, friend. Be safe. Make good choices," Luz called out waving to her. "Like you're one to talk," Cruz said to his sister as he waved back towards her as well.

"Oh, Gus. I hope you know what you're doing," Willow said with worry knowing so many things could go wrong.

Inside of the halls of Hexside, a biped blue bat pig demon, beast keeping student was walking away from his locker before his backpack began to float, and him with it before slipping out of the straps. The backpack floated away from him as another beast keeping student and an oracle student played keep away with it. "Hey! Give that back!" the student said, trying to no avail to grab the bag back.

The beast keeping student playing keep away was interrupted as a hook grabbed him from the hip and pulled him away towards a pair of demons. The demons both had their eyes sewn shut wearing a black uniform and had a blue tunic on their front. One of the demons bent down to sniff the student. "Trouble…"

The backpack fell onto the ground as the oracle student backed away before another hook wrapped around his waist as well pulling him towards the other demon. "No! Detention!" he said with fear evident in his voice. "The only thing I'm guilty of is being too real!" cried out the beast keeping student as he was dragged away towards detention as Gus and the Noceda twins entered the hall.

"That's new," commented Luz. "Well, they kind of showed up after your last visit. They smell trouble. Literally," Gus explained. "I really hope they can't smell anything I did back in the human realm," Cruz said with slight worry, knowing that some of his experiments could be considered too dangerous for a school.

One of the demons turned and looked towards Cruz and Luz. "Trouble…" it said, turning its head slightly. Gus began to chuckle nervously knowing that if they got too close Luz and Cruz would be exposed and thrown into detention or worse.

"Okay, time to run for no particular reason," he said, grabbing onto Luz and Cruz's wrist pulling them away. As Gus was running he ran into Mattholomule standing near a water fountain. When he fell on the ground all of the wanted posters spilled out of his bag landing all over the floor. Gus quickly began to pick up all of the posters to make sure neither Luz or Cruz saw them.

"Augustus, you should really watch where you're going. Don't want the president of the H.A.S getting hurt on his last day in office," Mattholomule said condescendingly as he looked towards Luz and Cruz examining the two. "These must be your humans. Hmm. Look like a regular pair of witchlings to me," he said skeptically.

"Psst. Psst! Dazzle," Gus whispered to the two as he pulled on his ears. "Oh!" Luz began as she made trumped sounds before her and Cruz both pulled down their cowls showing their round ears, "Ta-da!"

Mattholomule gasped in shock, seeing their ears and immediately recognizing what they were. "Humans!"

"Not just any humans. A pair of expert humans," Gus said triumphantly. "Yeah. We've been doing this for years," Luz stated proudly. "It's been the same amount of years for both of us," confirmed Cruz.

"They're here to authenticate your treasures. See you at the meeting," Gus said as he walked away with Luz and Cruz following closely behind. "Oh, no, no, no, no," Mattholomule said, sinking to the floor. "They can't know I lied. Then they'll never make me president. Huh?" he picked up the pair of banned posters with Luz and Cruz on them as a devious and knowing smirk formed on his face. "Ooh, Gus, I have you now."

"As president of the H.A.S, I should feel bad about dunking on one of our own members. But as a Gus I feel like doing this," Gus began to dance in celebration. Cruz watched him dance with a smile on his face as Luz walked towards a trophy case to see the awards Hexside had earned. "Wow! Who got the trophy for the most bones?" she asked. "How do you even get a trophy for something like that?" Cruz asked in curiosity. Close by, a school guard was walking around as he sniffed the air closely to where Cruz and Luz were standing. Running quickly to them, Gus grabbed both of their arms and began to run away from the school guard.

"Whoa!" Luz exclaimed in shock. "There isn't a reason to keep dragging us around like this Gus, we've got perfectly good working legs," Cruz said as he tried to not trip when being pulled along. "We don't have time for this right now. We gotta get to the clubroom," Gus explained. "Okay. But next time you have to give us a full tour," Luz said with some hope in her voice. "Yeah next time," Gus said with a nervous laugh.

As they ran in the hall a familiar witch was standing in the hall, or more precisely was being held up by an abomination. It was the abomination teacher, profesor Hermonculus. "Ooh. It's the abomination professor. I should introduce myself. Apologize for the incident," Luz said.

"Seems pretty fair since we did trick him with that," Cruz said in agreement.

"Hey, Mr. Abomination Professor," Luz called out gaining his attention "The "abominominator." Remember me?" she began to act like an abomination trying to jog his memory. Hermonculus simply raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. "Oh, wouldn't you know it? We suddenly have time for a full tour of Hexside," Gus said as he pushed the twins away from the teacher. "Again with the pushing," Cruz said, confused.

Outside of Hexside in a sports pitch that has basketball hoops on both sides, Gus, Luz, and Cruz all sit on the stands looking towards the field. "This is where we play the sport," Gus explained. When Cruz looks closely towards the field he notices a familiar witch. "Hey it's Skara," he said with a small smile on his face. "You know her?" Luz asked with curiosity. "Oh yeah I met her the other day when you had that whole body switching incident," Cruz said, realizing that he'd neglected to tell Luz in more details about what he'd done that day.

On the field, Skara ran towards the ball in the center before being picked up by a griffin as it pulled her up into the air. "I hate this game!" she cried out as the griffin dropped her into one of the baskets when a horn blares signaling the time had finished. Gus and Luz applaud seeing this while Cruz has a slightly concerned look on his face. Close by, a school guard begins to sniff at the air, and when Gus notices the guard he pulls the twins away from the field and back towards the school.

Back inside of the school the trio pass by a door as something inside catches Luz's attention. "Ooh. What's in here?" Luz asked as the three looked into the class they saw a variety of different plants including giant trees and mushrooms. "The plant homeroom," Gus explained as Boscha's green haired friend, Amelia, was taking notes. A large Venus fly trap opened up to reveal four eyes before closing its petals around her trying to eat her. Willow quickly runs over to the plant and began to tickle it causing the plant to spit out Amelia.

"Willow, hey," Luz called out as Willow turned around and waved at her with Cruz waving at his friend as well. Gus looked into the class and gave her a nervous wave. "Hi," Willow's face fell when she saw Gus and shook her head confusing Cruz at her reaction. "Bye," Gus called out as he dragged the two away from the plant room.

Gus led the two towards another classroom full of mirrors lining the walls. "And this is where I spend my time. The illusion track homeroom." Inside of the classroom, the illusion teacher, a bipedal purple demon with three eyes and purple skin, was evaluating her three students. The first was Emira Blight, who used an illusion to double the length of her legs. Following her was Edric, using a spell to change his appearance completely with a new hair style, clothes, and even his face changed completely. The last student, a young witch with orange hair, created a shaky spell circle causing her illusion to remove her face completely. As they panic, the teacher creates a spell circle to return their face unharmed.

"Wait, if you're here, who's that?" asked Luz as the three look into a classroom from across the hall they see Gus sitting at the desk taking notes on a piece of paper. "That's one of my illusions. It takes notes for me when I'm not around." The illusion held up the paper it was writing on to show them the words, "I'm not paying attention" before laughing as he pointed towards the paper. "He doesn't always do what he's told," Gus explained angrily that his illusion was goofing off.

"Wow, Gus. You're good," Luz said in admiration.

"Seriously, it's so impressive what you can do," Cruz said in awe.

"Yeah, I moved up a couple of grades," Gus said before his watch began to scream at him before he poked its eye. "Oh! Time for the H.A.S meeting," Gus, Luz, and Cruz run off towards the meeting room before Gus doubles back and looks towards his illusion making it nervous. The nerves double when Gus dragged his finger across his throat. With the threat made Gus left, and his illusion decided to pay complete attention.

Inside of the H.A.S club room the members are all banging on the table in complete anticipation. "Human, human! Human, human!" they all called out as the door opened with Gus gaining their attention. "Human appreciation society, it's my my distinct pleasure to introduce to you..." Gus said as he twanged on his paper clip. From the doorway Luz moon walked into the classroom before spinning almost falling onto the ground. Before she could fall, Cruz reached out and pulled her up grabbing onto the door frame for support.

"This is why you don't spin after a moonwalk," he said with a chuckle as he and Luz took off their hoods. "Luz and Cruz the humans," Gus said, gesturing towards the Noceda twins.

"Such showmanship," said Bo

"They're horrifying," said the unicorn student.

As Luz, Cruz, and Gus approach the table, Mattholomule begins to grow nervous about being found out. "Luz, Cruz, will you inspect the items?" Gus asked. "Not an issue, we'll be able to tell immediately if they're real," Cruz said looking towards all of the items.

"Of course, Mr. President. Allow me to determine if they're truly of our realm's origin," Luz said as she began to reach for the "shoe".

"Stop!" called out Mattholomule as he knocked off all of the fakes before jumping onto the table. "Don't make another move human! I...have something to say. I'm new here at Hexside. M-Making friends has been hard, so I lied. They're all fakes," he confessed, surprising all of the H.A.S members. "I thought if I was important enough people would like me. But I've caused enough drama. So, I'll go. I'm sorry."

"Hey, man. It's okay. You're only human. Well, you know what I mean," Luz said.

"Yeah, no reason to lie just to try and get accepted. This place would still welcome you," Cruz said with a smile.

"He's right. Mattholomule, you aren't alone. You have a place here in the H.A.S," Gus said with a warm smile with the other members giving him encouragement. "Thanks, guys. I knew you'd understand," Mattholomule said, feeling accepted by his fellow members.

As the meeting ended all of the members began to leave and head back to their homes.

"Thanks for coming," said Bo

"Come back soon," said the unicorn student. While Eileen mumbled saying "thank you" earning a slightly confused look from Cruz as he tried to understand what she was saying. "Hey Augustus, Luz, Cruz, thank you for being so forgiving," Mattholomule said sheepishly. "We've all been the new kid before. Right, Gus?" Luz asked towards him.

"Yeah."

"Being new at school can put a lot of pressure on you and you can do some crazy things to get accepted. Trust me, I would know," Cruz said, remembering some of the times he'd gotten in trouble at his school.

"Well, I just have one thing to say…" Mattholomule began to say as the door swung open and a pair of school guards walked in. "There they are! They're the intruders!" Mattholomule said holding up the banned posters of Luz and Cruz. As the guards walked in they began to sniff the air. "Trouble."

"No, it's fine. The ban's been lifted. Tell 'em, Gus," Luz said before she and Cruz were grabbed the school guard's hook. "Oh we haven't been unbanned have we," Cruz said finally putting all the pieces together as he and Luz were dragged away. "Oh, who's the liar now, Augustus?" Mattholomule said with a smug smile.

Back in the plant room Willow was watering the plants while thinking out loud to herself. "Maybe I've been too hard on Gus. I mean, what trouble could they get into?" she said before hearing a scream from the hall.

"Help!" As Willow and the plant she was watering turned towards the hall they saw Luz and Cruz being dragged away by the school guards.

"I don't even learn here!" Luz cried out

"Seriously! You want trouble? Give me two seconds and I'll give you trouble!" Cruz cried trying to break away from the school guards but failed.

"Luz! Cruz!" Willow cried out in worry.

"Where are you taking us?" Luz asked

"Detention," said one of the guards

"Oh that won't be so bad," Luz said as they stopped in front of a pair of giant doors. The doors suddenly opened three eyes and its mouth to reveal its fangs. "Of course detention is sentient. I should've expected nothing less," Cruz deadpanned.

Back in the H.A.S room Gus had a look of absolute bewilderment. "I can't believe you three actually fell for that," Mattholomule mocked.

"What. Did you. Do?"

"Ah, bo-hoo. I'm sorry. "I'm the new kid." "I want friends." Mattholomule said in a mocking tone. "Ha! No. I want power. And I want drama. And I got one of those right now. So, what are you gonna do, Mr. President?"

"Executive action," Gus said as he reeled his fist back before grabbing the tongue of the fire alarm causing it to spray them both in water.

The school guards came back to the club room and began to drag the two away with Mattholomule arguing the entire time. "But I didn't pull the alarm! It was Augustus! Are you even listening to me? I demand justice!"

As the doors to detention are opened up, Gus and Mattholomule are thrown inside before the doors close up again. "Wait! Get me out of here! Open up!" Mattholomule called our whole banging on the door. When Gus looked up he saw both of his friends hiding behind a pair of rocks. "Luz! Cruz!"

"Gus! You said the ban was lifted!" Luz called out

"It wasn't lifted, was it? That's why we had to hide ourselves and run when the school guards showed up," Cruz explained, now understanding why Gus acted the way he did.

"Well, I-"Gus was interrupted when the floor opened up like a pit as rows of teeth came from it along with eyes and multiple blue tentacles. At the bottom of the pit there were blue pods with students floating inside of them. When seeing this Luz and Cruz screamed out in fear. "It gets worse! How does it get worse!" Cruz called out.

"How is this detention?! This is a death sentence!" Luz shouted in disbelief.

"I don't know! I've never been to detention before!" Gus said as Mattholomule walked closer to him. "Welcome to my world. Believe it or not, at my old school I was in detention plenty of times," he said.

"That isn't hard to believe. You're kind of a jerk," Luz said with annoyance. "Seriously! When we're out of here I'm so going to punch you in the face!" Cruz called out in annoyance.

"Well, down in detention, this jerk is king. So, if you wanna get out, you better do exactly what I say," he said walking forward. "But first, before anything else, we gotta-" as Mattholomule began to explain a snake with a human face erupted from the ground and shot a blue webbing at Mattholomule' foot grabbing it. "Already?" The webbing pulled at him sending him down towards the pit.

"Mattholomule!" Luz called out in concern. "You lied to us. You lied about the ban! Why?"

"I was afraid, I acted stupid," Gus confessed

"Yes, you did!"

"To be fair it's both you and Mattholomule's fault. Him for getting us in here and you for lying. We trusted you and you lied to us," Cruz said.

"You're right, I'm sorry. Being younger than everyone is hard," Gus said as he made his way to Luz and Cruz. "You're overlooked. Ignored. But at the H.A.S I mattered. I could make sure no one would ever get left behind. I didn't wanna lose that. I'm sorry."

Cruz gave Gus a look of sympathy knowing exactly how he felt. In the human realm due to his own age, most people see him as nothing more than some crazy and dangerous kid that keeps messing with chemicals when he shouldn't be. It's only due to his results that they took anything he said seriously.

"I get it. I just wish you'd told us the truth," Luz said, placing a hand on Gus' shoulder. Several snakes slither up from the pit making their way towards the three. "Okay, now that's just nightmare fuel right there," Cruz said as he pumped his arm back getting his boom hammer ready.

"Let me make it up to you two. I've got a plan," Gus said as Luz kicked one of the snakes. "We're in. Where do we start?" Luz asked as Cruz punched a snake that made its way up.

"By leaving no one behind," Gus said as he grabbed Luz and Cruz's hand and jumped down into the pit. As they fell into the pit Luz, Gus, and Cruz bounced off of an eye landing on the floor. As they get up they all pull down the pod that's holding Mattholomule noticing that his eyes are wide open with a blue glow. "You will be a good student," said a voice in the pod.

"I will be a good student," Mattholomule repeated. Luz sunk her teeth into the pod before pulling away and ripping a piece of it off. "Why? Why would you think that's a good idea, that stuff gotta be nasty," Cruz said in exasperation. "You know, it didn't taste as bad as I thought it would. Oh, you're a witch. Do magic," Luz said, turning towards Gus.

"Oh, I'll use magic," he said, pulling out the paper clip and unbent an edge. "Human magic," Gus stabbed the paper clip into the pod, ripping it open as they freed Mattholomule.

"Am I…a good student?" Mattholomule asked. "No, you're still an idiota (idiot)," Cruz said as he pulled Mattholomule over his shoulder. "They have got to feed you something, you're so light." Multiple snakes began to surround the trio hissing.

"This is part of the plan right?" Luz asked with worry. "Or the illusion of a plan," Gus said as he created a spell circle creating multiple copies of the three of them that began to run around confusing the snakes.

"A genius and a wordsmith," Luz said with a smile as Gus picked up a giant bone and the three ran off towards the top of the pit. As they made their way towards the top of the pit, the three used all of the eyes as stepping stones as Gus pulled himself up before Cruz handed Mattholomule to him. As more snakes made their way up Luz kicked a few down while Cruz punched them making sure the charge wasn't high enough to hurt either Gus or Luz.

"We're gonna have to bust down the door," Gus said as he ran towards the door holding the bone. "Right behind you," Luz said as she picked up Mattholomule. "Leave the door to me," Cruz said as he pumped his arm back bringing the charge of his gauntlets up. "Three charge…shot!" Cruz called out as he punched towards the door.

Outside of the door Willow began to lift the crossbar from the front. As she lifted the bar off of the door rounding the corner she could hear principal Bump and Eda coming towards her. "I washed off all the graffiti. Apologized to Jenkinmeyer for stealing her teeth. Caught all the wild cerebi. Ah, we should be good," Eda said satisfied her debt had been paid off, even if only a bit.

"It will be very exciting to a pair of real human exchange students," Bump said, shaking Eda's hand. "And you won't tell the Emperor's coven about this, will you?" Eda wearily fearing what the Emperor's coven would do to her students to get to her.

"No. Hexside School is safe for you both. I'm the principal, not a stooge. Consider your pupils our pupils," Bump reassured her as from behind them they heard someone yell out.

"Shot!" The door of detention was blasted open as Cruz, Luz, and Gus stood at the door. "Whoo! I knew three charges would be enough. And it didn't even burn me either," Cruz said with a smile on his face before seeing who was outside of the door.

"Eda?" Luz asked in confusion. "Didn't expect to see you here. I thought you didn't like Hexside?" Cruz asked.

"Guess who got you two into Hexside," Eda said happily while Bump looked rather annoyed. As the snakes were about to grab the three Bump snapped his finger gaining the snake's attention. "Uh, sorry, principal Bump. Sir." The snake retreated back into the detention pit.

"What did you two do?" asked Bump angrily at Luz and Cruz

"Ugh, kid," Eda said facepalming. "To think that any student of yours would be capable of doing anything but create chaos...Eda, take your students and leave! You are all banned from this campus!" Bump said angrily.

"Argh, come on kids. Let's go," Eda said as Luz and Cruz began to walk away from the detention door. "Wait, principal Bump," Gus called out, gaining their attention. "Don't blame them. I told Luz and Cruz the ban was lifted. We were fighting over the Human Appreciation Society. I brought them in because I wanted to win. This is all my fault."

"If that's so, Augustus, would you be willing to accept their punishment as your own?" Bump asked. "Yes, principal Bump. I would," Gus answered.

"Huh. Dang, dweebus," Eda said in admiration

"Very well," Bump said, turning towards Luz and Cruz. "In light of that, barring any more trouble, you shall officially be enrolled in Hexside School next semester." Luz and Cruz gasped before a large smile formed on their faces.

"Uh, hold on. Hold on," Eda said as she placed a hand on Luz and Cruz's shoulder. She then glared at Bump and motioned for him to give her and her students some space. After Bump had backed up two steps, Eda kneeled down in front of Luz and Cruz. "I'm only doing this because I believe in you two. And I know that both of you are too smart to fall for that one-witch, one-coven nonsense. You can learn a lot from the witches here. And maybe teach them some of that bad girl coven magic too," Eda said with a smirk.

"I didn't hear that," Bump said, turning towards Gus. "As for you, I would be saying detention right now but that seems to be out of order. So, as of now, I'm removing you from the Human Appreciation Society."

"Does that make me president?" Mattholomule asked weakly from the ground. "Impressive. Still alive. Yes, I suppose you are," Bump threw the H.A.S crown at Mattholomule's head.

"Yes.." Mattholomule said weakly as Cruz facepalmed that Mattholomule still managed to avoid any real consequences.

"Now, with that accomplished, Eda. We still have some paperwork to fill out," Bump said as he began to walk away. "Wait! I gotta do more stuff? Ugh!" Eda said in annoyance before turning towards Luz and Cruz. "You two better enjoy this place," she said following Bump.

Luz and Cruz turned towards their friends. "Wanna finish off that tour?" Gus asked. "I can show you guys what plants not to touch in the greenhouse. And then I can let you touch them," Willow added in with some excitement.

"Yeah! Let's go," Luz said as they all held hands and began to walk away to finish the tour of Hexside. "Hey! Wait," Mattholomule called out from the floor still feeling the effects from detention. "Take me. I'm your president," he said before a bottle filled with Cruz's sticky potion fell on him. "Oh. Come on."

Back at the Owl House, Eda was going over her permanent record. Things like letting loose a pack of feral ghosts in the girl's locker room, starting an abomination food fight at lunch. Hexing the school bells to play pop music, letting in "two giant bug things" that ended up destroying the classrooms and feeding the school griffin enough spicy snacks to cause it to throw up over the Grudgby field.

"Wow! Bump was not exaggerating. You were a terrible student," Luz interrupted Eda's reminiscing as she gave a surprised look and finally realized that she and Cruz were sitting on the couch looking over her shoulder to see the photos.

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