Things were going swimmingly at the Hexside School of Magic and Demonics. It was another calm day where the students were going about their business, trying to either learn magic or feed their dreams of popularity. At first, everything seemed normal, but unbeknownst to the students, it was a day that showed the first sign of change.

The students of the Abomination track were ready to show their projects to the teacher: their abomination golems formed in cauldrons.

Professor Hermonculus was checking the project of a female student. However, her abomination had plenty of feet sticking from various places, with the toes wiggling around.

"Hmm. Too many toenails in unexpected places. Fail. Pathetic!" the professor declared, making the abomination deflate, and the student looked to the floor in shame. She wheeled her abomination off the platform at the front of the room as the professor turned to the other students.

"The biggest abominations are all of you!" he shouted. "If the next abomination is a failure, everyone gets extra homework for a month!"

The other students grumbled, worried and unsatisfied.

"Extra homework? Not again!"

Just as everyone stopped murmuring, the professor cleared his throat.

"And the next one to come up is..."

He was interrupted when Amity Blight, Hexside's top student, raised her hand and stood up from her seat with a confident smile.

"Excuse me, sir, but I am ready to present my abomination. Rise!"

With a single command, the monster emerged from the cauldron, posing like a ballerina. The professor just chuckled.

"I've always saved the best for last, Amity. You'll have to wait your turn. There are two more students. How about... Mr. Sturm."

"That guy?" asked one of the students as everyone else turned to the student.

"Oh, boy..." another said breathlessly.

Everyone in the room turned their attention to Sturm, who sat right behind Willow. He was 15 years old, thus a few inches taller than Amity, and wore the Abomination track uniform like everyone else. However, he had a fingerless glove on his left hand. His skin, eyebrows, and eyelashes were bone white, but his eyes were red, giving him a very uncanny appearance. His ears were hidden by his shoulder-length white hair.

He seemed to have a near-permanent scowl, making almost every student look at him nervously. No one from Hexside knew much about him, making his presence even more unsettling.

Sturm closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose before grabbing the wheelbarrow with the cauldron to get to the platform in front of the class.

With everyone watching him, Sturm casually lifted the cap and leaned it against the cauldron.

"Abomination, rise," he commanded in a monotone voice, raising one arm.

And thus, his golem emerged from the cauldron with its arms stretched. His creation seemed ordinary at first. It didn't look different from Amity's. Even the professor seemed somewhat pleased. Everyone in the classroom looked at him hopefully; he was their only hope of escaping extra homework.

However, when Sturm's gaze traced over the classroom, he saw Amity glaring at him with disapproval. Of all the students from her track, Sturm was the only one she didn't want to succeed. No one in the classroom noticed the silent animosity between the two students.

After a short, intense moment, Sturm rolled his eyes in defeat and put his left arm behind his back. Making sure no one would notice, he made a tiny, white spell circle and thrust his index finger inside, covering it in a white aura.

With a simple gesture, he made the abomination turn its arms into blades before forcing it to stab itself in the head and abdomen. After that, it quickly collapsed into the cauldron. The professor and the other students looked shocked at what just happened. On the other hand, Amity smirked smugly, much to Sturm's contempt.

Even though he despised Amity and wanted to beat that smug look off her face, he ultimately managed to hide his feelings with a mask of apathy.

"It just couldn't take it anymore," Sturm said flatly, turning his head to the lifeless cauldron of purple goop.

"What? You were so close to perfection, Mr. Sturm! Again!"

"Oh, no. My bad," the white-haired student continued, secretly glaring at Amity before taking his wheelbarrow away from the platform.

"That attitude of yours will get you nowhere, young man!" the professor scolded as Sturm returned to his seat.

When no one was looking, the green-haired witch taunted Sturm by sticking out her tongue and pulling her eyelid. His rage was boiling inside, but he managed to keep it stifled. The professor sighed and looked at the other students.

"Alright, since Mr. Sturm was this close to giving a proper abomination, I'm willing to give the class one more chance. The next one is... Willow!"

"Not Half‐a‐Witch."

"Great. Homework for a month."

Everyone except Sturm and Amity looked at the shy witch, who pulled the cowl of her uniform over her head in submission as she heard the word 'Half-a-Witch.' Sturm knew full well that Willow's abominations were abysmal and that she was always the butt of all insults, but he couldn't care less at that moment. He didn't care about the homework, he didn't care if his classmate's project failed, and he didn't care about the consequences.

Just then, he unintentionally noticed something strange about her cauldron. The cap seemed to open slightly, and he could hear whispers from it. He saw Willow give a small smile and a nod. At first, he paid no mind. After all, Willow's last project was just a puddle that babbled incoherently. He figured that this time would be no different.

But little did he know that he was about to be proven wrong.

Willow brought her project in front of the class and took a step back.

"Uh, abomination... rise!"

Suddenly, and without warning, the lid was punched up into the air, and a smaller, goo-covered figure jumped out, twirling before landing and striking a pose.

"Ta-da!"

The students gasped in surprise at what they saw. Unbeknownst to mostly everyone, this was Luz Noceda disguised as an abomination. Everyone gasped in shock, especially Amity. The last time she saw Willow, her abomination was just a lifeless pool of slime.

Sturm was staring at Luz with wide eyes. Unlike Amity and the other students, who believed she was an abomination, Sturm was not fooled.

"Is that... a human?" he whispered. Willow's presentation was not done, though.

"Abomination, bow!" she commanded, pointing to the ground as Luz obeyed.

"Very impressive! But does it speak?" the professor asked. Luz quickly turned her head to the professor and improvised.

"Uh, I may be your abomination, but you're my a-mom-ination," Luz said as she stumbled over to Willow and cuddled up to her. Everyone found that adorable, but the only ones who didn't share the same sentiment were Amity and Sturm, who were dumbfounded. Too shocked to say or do anything.

The professor let out a bellowing laugh.

"Haha! 'A-mom-ination!' Splendid wordplay!" He approached Luz and painted the red grade on her forehead. "A+!"

While the other students cheered, Amity's shock turned to anger and suspicion. Sturm wasn't as angry, but he did narrow his eyes at the shy witch and the eccentric newcomer.

The bell rang/screamed, and the class was dismissed. Willow rolled her wheelbarrow out of the classroom when the professor moved over to her.

"Wonderful work today, Willow. Looks like we have a new top student."

Amity, who was leaving the room, gasped in shock and stopped moving, dropping the book she was carrying. Without another word, Professor Hermonculus took the top student badge she'd worked hard to keep.

"But..." Amity was about to protest, but the professor had already pinned the badge to Willow's cowl. The shy witch was surprised but smiled nonetheless.

"Uh‐‐ Thank you, sir."

The professor nodded and moved away. Willow turned to leave but suddenly stopped when she saw Amity standing before her, even though she was just in front of the classroom a moment ago.

"Hey. Last time I saw you, your abomination was mush. What did you do?"

"I, uh, took your pep talk to heart, Amity," Willow said meekly.

"I bet you did. I've got my eyes on you, Half‐a‐Witch. That badge is mine."

She started walking backward, not breaking eye contact with Willow even as she bumped into another student. When Amity was out of sight, Willow became very worried.

"Uh‐oh. I think Amity is onto us."

She took her cauldron and moved away from the classroom's entrance. However, she was unaware that Sturm was standing in the doorway and watched her leave with her 'project,' staring at her with a glare.

"Ooh, she's not the only one."

A few minutes later, Sturm entered the cafeteria and got his food. While looking around, he saw Willow and Gus sitting at their table. Sturm stood there in silence and watched them with suspicion. It wasn't long before Luz's head popped out of Willow's cauldron, grabbing a PB&J with her mouth before sinking back.

Sturm's red eyes narrowed before he slowly walked over to the three, ready to harshly interrogate them. ... But before they could even notice him, Amity got there first and jumped on the table, much to Sturm's shock.

"I SAW THAT!" Abominations don't eat!" she shouted as she got in Willow's face. She then turned to the cauldron and started to yell, not noticing that the whole cafeteria was watching her. "I know you're in there! You can't hide from me! What are you?! Who are you?! I want answers!"

She grabbed Luz by her shirtfront and shook her violently. But it wasn't long before Professor Hermonculus came by with a harsh look.

"Amity Blight!"

Amity stopped shaking Luz and turned her head to the professor. Her anger quickly faded to fear as she knew what was coming.

"I suspected a twinge of jealousy. But this? This is just sad," the professor continued in disappointment.

"But I‐‐ No! Look at it," Amity stammered, desperately trying to show what was wrong with Willow's 'abomination,' but Luz continued to play possum.

"Report to Principal Bump's office."

"But‐‐"

"Now!"

With no other choice, Amity dropped Luz and ran off in a huff with the professor left as well.

Sturm couldn't help but smile when Amity finally got into trouble. Every single teacher and even the principal saw her as a perfect little angel despite her being an arrogant brat, and he found it unbearable. Seeing her in such a state gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"Heh."

He didn't feel the need to interrogate the other two students anymore, so he turned back and continued his lunch.

An hour had passed, and after watching Luz and Willow for some time, Sturm had to return to his things. This 'Luz' girl was an interesting character, to say the least, but he couldn't keep an eye on her all day.

He was at his locker, and just when everything was peaceful, he heard a pair of rapid footsteps approach him from around the corner. Whoever made those noises stopped and panted as they caught their breaths. It was Luz and Willow, and they were already in trouble.

"This is all my fault, Willow. I just wanted to see what a real magic school was like."

"Well, how do you like it?" the witch asked.

"It's lovely, actually," the human smiled before she and Willow giggled.

"Just wait till you get a load of the bathrooms," Sturm said from the corner, smirking. The girls jumped a bit, taken aback by Sturm's voice.

They looked around the corner and saw the young man close his locker before looking back at them.

"Well, Luz, looks like your cover is blown," he continued. Luz blinked when he said it.

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Let's just say you suck at being discreet. I could tell you were human from a mile away. No offense," Sturmed said, making Luz avert her eyes in embarrassment. "No worries, I won't do anything to you. But you should get out of here before-"

Sturm was cut off when large, red light patterns with lines and runes converged on the walls. When they reached a doorway, a red shield blocked it off. Several more entrances were blocked off. Soon enough, the patterns took over the entire school.

"...Well, it looks like I jinxed it," Sturm shrugged.

"We're trapped here!" Luz yelled.

"Calm down, don't panic," Willow said to the human.

"Yeah, don't cry just yet," Sturm continued, "I'll see if there's a way out of here."

Before either Luz or Willow could speak up, Sturm leaned his body forward and drew his right leg and right arm back. And in a second, he was gone. He ran at a blinding speed through the hallway and turned to the left, leaving only a blur behind.

Both girls were surprised by what they saw. Luz had yet another thing to add to her list of weird stuff she'd seen.

"Are there plenty of witches that can do that?" Luz asked.

"No?" Willow responded, seeing Sturm's blurry figure reappear, running in the other direction. After a few seconds, Sturm ran to a spot where the girls could see him.

"Good news, there's another hallway that's not sealed off! You can try and escape through there," he called, waving and pointing in the direction he was referring to.

"Oh, okay, thanks," Willow smiled, running with Luz to escape.

"Thanks, my dude! You're a lifesaver," Luz smiled as she ran past him.

"Hey, I'm only doing this to get back at Amity, not because I want to help," the white-haired boy replied, watching them go.

He then took about a minute or two to put the rest of his things inside the locker before following the girls. The path they took led to the central atrium. It took the girls over half a minute to get there, but Sturm could reach his destination in seconds. Upon reaching the doorway, he was startled when a bunch of large briar vines spread rapidly throughout the school, and they were coming towards him.

Sturm gasped in fear, but he couldn't stop running. All he could do was avoid the plants. He jumped and sprinted through the thrashing vines. Eventually, Sturm managed to hang onto a wall near the ceiling and waited for the vines to stop.

Eventually, the vines stopped moving, and the red patterns on the walls vanished. Sturm breathed a sigh of relief and got down, reaching the central atrium. He looked around and was impressed to see how the place had changed. Vines now covered the entire atrium, curled around pillars and reaching from the bottom-most floor to the absolute ceiling. Pink petals fell from above, and several vines had flowers on them.

While admiring the view, he looked up and saw Principal Bump pinned to the ceiling by some vines. He, too, was impressed. This must've been Willow's doing. While she was never good at abominations, she always had a knack for plants.

The silence was then interrupted by the sounds of angry screams and moaning abominations. Sturm looked to his right and saw the doorway leading to the exit hall. He went over there and saw Willow surrounded by vines and abominations summoned by Amity. Luz was nowhere to be seen, but Sturm assumed she had escaped.

His red eyes traced back to the abominations and grinned.

Sturm then clenched his fists, and lightning crackled around his hands. He pointed at one of the abominations and shot a lightning bolt, instantly electrocuting the golem. The bolt then leaped to the other abominations, hitting them one by one.

Once the electricity passed through all the golems, they were reduced to piles of mush. Amity gasped in shock, and Willow had trouble processing what had happened.

Amid the confusion, Amity looked behind Willow and saw Sturm standing at the end of the hall, smiling at her. When no one but Amity was watching, Sturm stuck out his tongue and pulled his eyelid before zooming out of sight.

"See you, loser!"

As Sturm fled the scene, he could hear Amity groan with fury, much to his amusement and delight. Then he saw Principal Bump free himself from the vines and make his way to Willow while accompanied by Gus. Knowing him, Bump would either transfer Willow from the Abomination track. Or maybe he would have to listen to Amity ask if today could count as extra credit.

Either way, he knew this was the beginning of an exciting time.