2024 Updated: 19h ago
 304Chapter 106
Twenty minutes after Amity had been given the lowdown on what was going on with the littlest kids, she got a message from Luz that they were going to start the operation soon.
...If Camila approved the conditions, then it would probably be fine. Luz would be okay, and then they could make the portal and get everyone out of here while they confronted the Collector.
She just needed a distraction from her nerves, and luckily, wrangling the children would serve her well.
She found the pack of kindergarteners ranting and raving and chasing one of the Oracle students... Whose name Amity never caught. Ugh, Luz would know who it was; she was friends with almost everybody.
"Hey!" She called out, "What do you think you're doing!?"
Immediately, all the kindergarteners froze, as if they recognized her voice. The oracle student escaped in the confusion, and as the children turned around and saw her.
Braxas was the ringleader. "Miss Amity?" He asked with all the shock and fear of a child who'd just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"Is this how good little witchlings are supposed to act?" Amity asked sternly.
"...No, Miss Amity," a few of the children chorused.
"I've heard you've all been acting up while I was gone," Amity continued. "And I'm not mad, but I amdisappointed," she said. "I know it's hard, and how you must all be really scared with your parents missing, but you're all much better than this."
And that did the trick. Within moments, a dozen ashamed toddlers were babbling their apologies.
Amity held up a hand. "It's okay. Now, if you all promise to be on your very best behavior from now on, I'll read you all a story."
This was met with a chorus of agreement, and Amity started to lead the children back to where the Baby Classes were taught, until one of the children realized where they were going and said, "Miss Amity, one of the big kids took over our class."
"What?" Amity asked.
"Yeah, and she's mean, too," another kid said.
Amity sighed. "And you didn't tell any of the grownups?" She asked. "Or any of the nicer big kids?"
Blank stares and shame from the more self-aware children were all that met her question.
"...I'll take care of it," Amity said with resignation.
Once they were in the hallway where the children's classroom was, she got all of the small children to sit pretzel-legged in the hall like they were sitting down for story time at the Library's kids' corner, and then she entered the room.
At first, she didn't see any 'big kids' in the room, but then she noticed a familiar crab standing guard over a desk. Maya crawled over the back end of the desk, and moments later, Boscha shot up, staff in hand.
"Get out! This is my territory!" she declared in the tone of someone who had just woken up in a panic. She then stumbled on her own sleeping bag, forcing Amity to use some abomination slime to catch the other witch.
As the pink-haired witch fully awoke and realized what was going on, Amity simply sighed again. "Hey, Boscha."

"Amity!" the other witch exclaims in a mixture of what Amity senses is both excitement and relief. "I mean, Blight."
"Boscha," Amity started... "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" the three-eyed witch insisted. "I'm more than fine. I've cut out my own little kingdom here," she said while gesturing to the classroom that Amity now realized was in disarray.
"...You don't seem fine," Amity replied.
"But I am," Boscha replied.
"You're fine squatting alone in a kindergarten classroom?" Amity asked.
"Yes!"
"Alone?"
"Yeah," Boscha insisted. "I don't need anyone. Not friends, not teacher, not that Miki chick."
"Who?"
"Oh, some refugee posing as a teenager," Boscha dismissed. "Turned out she was a member fot he Emperor's coven trying to start crap. That Steve guy shoved her into to detention pit."
"She didn't hurt anyone, did she?" Amity asked.
"No, she didn't," Boscha replied. "All she did was... Don't want to talk about it. You, you were all caught up in the Day of Unity, what happened?"
"Belos tried to kill everyone, a godlike elementary schooler he was manipulating got loose and was mad, we all got stranded in the human world for a few months, so did Belos, Belos died horribly, we all got trauma counseling and worked on ourselves while trying to find a way home, now we're here and have a plan to deal with the Collector and save everyone."

"Look, you're good, but I don't think that anyone is strong enough to beat the Collector," Boascha denied. "It'd be best to go out and claim your own little fiefdom in the ashes and try to live as best you can with..."
"Boscha, things like the Day of Unity and the collector are terrifying beyond belief, they're life-defining events... For us," Amity continued. "But in the human realm, things like this happen two or three times a year. They're experienced in dealing with it. Titan take me, in the last few months I helped fight a deranged alien serial killer that allied himself with Belos, Luz and I had to danve around negociations with a narcissistic Warlock from the human realm, all of us fought off a full scale invasion, and just last week we almost had to fight some kind of reality bending dream god... Until Luz outsmarted him. We've got this."
Boscha scoffed, and then paused when she looked Amity in the face. Her eyes went wide with realization, "Oh my Titan, you're serious."
"It's like one of those manga you like," Amity continued. "The protagonists spend months struggling in a death world or some other extreme environment and come back stronger and better able to deal with the threats back home. Luz and I even got power-ups from near-death experiences."
"...Oh my Titan," Boscha replied.
"But seriously, are you okay?" Amity asked again.
"I told you, I'm fine!"
"Boscha," Amity began, "We saw what happened with Amelia."
Boscha's posture changed instantly, and she slumped over in defeat. "You gonna blame me for that, too?"
"Why would I—?"
"Because it's my fault, okay!?" Boscha shouted before she stepped back to the wall and slid down. "I snuck out to see what was going on after the draining spell stopped, and that's when the Collector's star things took Amelia and Kat and... They pushed me out of the way, and then a bunch of the adults came out to help, and they got and..."
Amity sat down next to her former friend. "You made a mistake. That doesn't make this all your fault, and we will get everyone back."
"Does it matter?" Boscha asked. "Everyone I love either leaves me or gets taken away."
"Boscha?" Amity asked.
"All I have are my accomplishments, really, and those are all meaningless... I can't even force people to respect me anymore, not even through fear, so... " Boscha scowled. "It's not fair. Why do I always have to feel so empty inside?"
"...Boscha, how long has that been going on?"
"As long as I can remember," Boscha said. "My parents aren't like, arne't like yours, but... For as long as I can remember, Mom would always qualify any praise I got in terms of what I've done. Never just..."
"Have you ever talked to your parents about that?" Amity asked.

"No," Boscha said. "It's not like it'd make a difference."
"Have you talked to anyone about this before?"
"No, it's just... Everything that's worthwhile about me comes from being strong, the best, dominating, respected, and feared, and... I'm nothing without that."
...This was starting to sound an awful lot like a form of that depression thing Luz was struggling with, Kind of felt like it too. And the way Boscha described what made her feel was familiar to Amity more personally.
"Boscha, I know what it's like to feel worthless," Amity said. "Lots of people do. But... It gets better. You can learn how to feel like you matter without having to be constantly doing things to earn it."
"How?"
"It starts one day at a time," Amity said. "But it gets easier when you have help. Once we rescue everyone and you have your parents back, and Kat and Amelia, you can talk with them, and maybe... There are experts you can talk to, and other people who have been where you've been, and... And I'll be there to help you, too."
"Hmm?"
"Boscha, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't give you a fair chance when we first started hanging out. I'm sorry I never opened up to you, I'm sorry that things didn't work out, that I wasn't able to find time for you despite my best efforts, and that I don't like you the way you wanted me to," Amity said, "but... Even if we can't have he kind of friendship we were trying for, or the kind of relationship you wanted... I still want to try and be our friend," she insisted. "And you're not a bad person. I'm sure that with a little help, you'll be able to make lots of friends who can help you not feel empty."
"...you promise you're gonna get everyone back?" Boscha asked suspiciously.
"On my life."
"...On your human's life?"
"No, but she would if you asked her," Amity replied.
"...Is there anything I can do to help?"
"We have a plan to evacuate the school," Amity said. "There are people in the human real prepared to take in everyone until this all blows over, you know, in case things get a little hairy trying to deal with the Collector. The adults are trying to organize things for once we're ready to go, and someone who knows how to take charge would be a real big help."
"I can do that."
"But first, I promised the children I'd read to them."
Boscha didn't exactly apologize as they called the children in. She mostly stayed out of the way, but Amity noticed she was paying awfully close attention as Amity started.
"Otabin spent his days alone, amongst the many books he'd sewn. With needle and thread, the pages he'd mend, but all the while he longed for a friend."