Hunter, King and Eda were standing around the living room of the Owl House, unpacking boxes. Hunter had had the question on his mind for a while now, and decided to ask.

"Hey, Eda? Did you manage to find anything on powerless witches last night?" Hunter asked. Eda froze and tensed up, but quickly recovered.

"Uh... yeah, I did." Eda said. Hunter looked up at her with excited eyes.

"What did you find?" He asked. Eda looked at his face for a long moment, trying to muster up the courage to tell him... but couldn't.

"Oh, yeah - powerless witches are a thing, but they're incredibly rare. Only one is born every century, so... you're likely the only powerless witch on the Boiling Isles." Eda lied, turning back to rummage through the boxes. Hunter bought the lie, however.

"Huh. Well, I'll just have to train harder and find more glyphs, then." Hunter said, and continued rummaging through the boxes. Eda frowned. She didn't like lying to him like this, but she couldn't shatter his world either.

Suddenly, the front door swung open. "Hey guys! You've got a visitor!" Hooty said. Hunteer looked up and saw Gus.

"Hey Gus!" Hunter said with a smile.

"Hey Hunter! Um, I need to ask you a favor..." Gus said. "I need you to come to Hexside so that you can come judge human artifacts at the Human Appreciation Society. You've lived in the human realm, so...?"

"I'd love to, but I'm not sure I'm allowed, since I don't attend there..." Hunter said.

"I'm sure Principal Bump will be fine with it - plus, Eda said you'd eventually attend Hexside once you learned two spells, so..." Gus looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Alright, I'll come." Hunter said, then turned to Eda. "You okay with unpacking the boxes by yourself?"

"Eh, I'll be fine. Go help out your friend." Eda said, waving a hand.

"I'll come back soon!" Hunter said, leaving the house with Gus.

+.*.+

Hunter walked into the cafeteria, Gus leading him to a table with Willow sitting on it. Willow looked up from her PB&J sandwich and waved, Hunter and Gus waving back as they approached.

"Hey Gus, hey Hunter! What's Hunter doing here?" Willow gasped. "Are you enrolling at Hexside now?"

"Not yet, but Eda promised that she'd teach me a second spell soon so I could." Hunter said.

"Hunter's coming with me to the Human Appreciation Society so that he can judge our artifacts!" Gus said. "The new kid's artifacts don't look real, and he keeps wanting to overthrow me as president, so Hunter here is gonna stop him from doing that."

"Alright then. Good luck!" Willow said, just as the bell screamed.

"Thanks, see you later!" Gus said, grabbing Hunter's hand and running out of the cafeteria.

+.*.+

While Hunter and Gus were walking in the hallway, Hunter noticed a Beast Keeping witch's backpack fly off him and into another student's hand.

"Whoa! Hey, give that back!" The first student said, while the two other students laughed, floating the backpack between them.

However, one of the bullying students got hooked by a guard and dragged away. "Huh? Whoa!"

A second guard came, sniffing. "Trouble." It said.

The third student backed away, dropping the first student's backpack to the ground. However, he also got hooked by the guard.

"No! Detention!" He yelled, trying to get out of the hook but failing.

"The only thing I'm guilty of is being too real!" The second student said, before the two students were dragged away by the guards.

"Uh... have those guards always been here at Hexside?" Hunter asked Gus.

"Nope. They were added a week ago, and they literally smell trouble." Gus explained. Hunter gulped.

"How... fun." He said. They walked around a corner and accidentally ran into someone.

"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." The student said, getting up and dusting himself off. Hunter gave the student a cold look. The student looked at him. "This must be that witch you mentioned was raised in the human realm. Seems like a regular witch to me."

"Well, he knows how to operate a human device. Show him, Hunter." Gus said. Hunter reached into his jean pocket and pulled out his phone. The student gasped when he saw it.

Hunter turned it on, before opening the camera app, and taking a picture of the student. With flash. The student took a step back, covering his eyes.

"Agh! You've blinded me!" He said.

"Nope. I just took a picture of you." Hunter said, showing him the screen. It was of the student looking nervous. "Wonder why you look so nervous here?"

"Well, he's here to authenticate your treasures, Mattholomule." Gus said, walking past, with Hunter following him and putting away his phone. "See you at the meeting."

+.*.+

Gus entered the classroom, and told Hunter to wait outside for a bit before he'd give a signal to come in.

"Human Appreciation Society..." Gus said, twanging a paper clip. "It is my distinct pleasure to introduce you..." He gave the signal, and Hunter just walked inside awkwardly.

"Hunter the human expert!" Gus said. The students gasped. Hunter walked towards the table, looking at the artifacts.

"Hunter, will you inspect the items?" Gus asked.

"Sure." Hunter said, looking at them. One of them was a rock painted with what looked to be a cell phone - an egg with a drawn skull on it - and a shoe made of mud and sticks.

"Stop!" Mattholomule interrupted. Everyone looked at him at he quickly took the items off the table. "Don't make another move, human expert! I... have something to say. I'm new here at Hexside. M-Making friends has been hard, so I lied. They're all fakes."

One of the students gasped.

"I thought if I was important enough people would like me. But I've caused enough drama." Mattholomule finished. "So, I'll go. Sorry."

"Wait." Gus said. "Mattholomule, you aren't alone. You have a place here in the H.A.S."

The other students nodded, giving him words of encouragement and comfort. Something didn't sit right with Hunter though. He sensed red flags... almost like he'd been a victim of them once before...

"Thanks guys. I knew you'd understand." Mattholomule said with a smile.

After the meeting ended, everyone left except Mattholomule, Gus and Hunter.

"Hey, thanks for being so forgiving." Mattholomule said.

"We've all been the new kid before. Right, Hunter?" Gus said.

"Uh, yeah." Hunter said, coming back to the room. He'd been zoning out during the rest of the meeting.

"Well, I just have one thing to say..." Mattholomule said. The doors burst open, two guards coming in. Mattholomule pointed at Hunter. "There he is! He's the intruder!"

Hunter and Gus' eyes widened, confused and shocked.

The school guard sniffed. "Trouble."

"What? I don't even enroll here!" Hunter said, but was hooked anyway by the guard.

"Exactly." Mattholomule said with a grin.

"Gus!" Hunter yelled.

"Hunter!" Gus called, as Hunter was being dragged by the guard.

"Where are you taking me?" Hunter asked the guard as they rounded the corner, still struggling against it.

"Detention." The school guard answered simply. Hunter stopped struggling.

"Oh. That won't be so bad." Hunter said.

They stopped in front of a giant door with three closed eyes. The eyes open, red and yellow, and the bottom of the door lifted up to reveal a mouth with sharp teeth.

"Nevermind! I take it back!" Hunter yelled, struggling again.

He was thrown inside anyway, the door closing behind him with a growl. The ground was cracked, and as Hunter took a step forward, the crack widened into a giant pit of teeth, eyes, and blue tendrils and pods, inside of which were students. One of the tendrils tried to grab him but he quickly ducked, hiding behind a rock.

A few minutes later, he heard the door open again, hearing Gus' and Mattholomule's grunts as they landed on the ground.

"Wait!" Mattholomule said, getting up and running for the door. It closed as he banged on it. "I didn't pull the alarm, it was Augustus! Get me outta here! Open up!"

"Hunter!" Gus said, running over when he noticed him.

"Gus! You said that it'd be fine if I went in the school!" Hunter said.

"Yeah, I thought it would be! I really didn't know you'd be put in detention." Gus said.

Some tendrils reached for Gus but he hid next to Hunter behind the rocks quickly.

"How is this detention? This is a death sentence!" Hunter said, but he paused. "But I guess this is the Boiling Isles - what was I expecting?"

"I don't know! I've never been in detention before!" Gus cried.

"Welcome to my world. Believe it or not, at my old school I was in detention plenty of times." Mattholomule said.

"That isn't hard to believe." Hunter said. "You're a jerk."

"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-"

He yelped as a blue tendril grabbed his ankle. "Already?!" He yelled, as he got dragged down into the pit.

"Mattholomule!" Hunter and Gus yelled.

"Look, Hunter, I'm sorry I got you into this mess." Gus said. Hunter put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. You didn't know - it's not your fault." He said. "And right now, we need to focus on getting out of here."

Gus nodded. "Right. And I think I've got a plan."

A tendril snaked up from the pit towards Hunter, but he kicked it away. "I'm in. Where do we start?"

Gus grabbed his hand. "By leaving no one behind."

He jumped in the pit, Hunter screaming as he got pulled down too.

They landed on an eye and bounced, with grunt as they fell on the ground. Hunter and Gus got up and dusted themselves off, before pulling down the pod Mattholomule was in.

"You will be a good student." A voice said from inside the pod.

"I will be a good student." Mattholomule said, in a trance. Hunter shivered.

"Can you use magic to open up the pod?" Hunter asked.

"I could. But I'm doing it human style." Gus said, getting out a paper clip and bending it. He stabbed the pod with it and sliced downwards, creating an opening for Mattholomule to fall through.

"Am I a good student?" He said. Hunter grabbed him (with some trouble due to his nerd arms) and carried him over his shoulder.

"For someone so little, he is really heavy." Hunter said.

"I think that's just you." Gus said.

"Hey!" Hunter said, but three tendrils hissed as they surrounded them.

"This is part of the plan, right?" hunter asked.

"Or the illusion of a plan." Gus said. He drew a spell circle, and multiple clones of Hunter and Gus popped up around the pit's ground. The tendrils focused on the copies as they ran around, trying to catch them but instead just going right through them and poofing.

Gus picked up a giant bone, and the two of them climbed out of the hole. The tendrils hissed as they followed. Gus got to the top first, taking Mattholomule from Hunter's shoulder. Hunter kicked a tendril as he pulled himself up, then spinned and kicked another. Gus grabbed a bone and smacked a third with it.

"We're gonna have to bust down the door." Gus said. Hunter nodded, and the two ran towards the door.

+.*.+

"And you won't tell the Emperor's Coven about this, will you?" Eda said, across the hallway from where the detention room was. Principal Bump shook his head.

"No. Hexside school is safe for you both. I'm the principal, not a stooge. Consider your pupil our pupil." He said. Banging from the detention room door interrupted them, however.

Another bang hits the inside of the door, and then a third before the door shattered, Gus and Hunter bursting through, panting.

"Eda?" Hunter asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Guess who got you into Hexside!" Eda said.

"What?" Hunter said, confused. A tendril came from the detention room door, hissing at Hunter. Principal Bump snapped his fingers.

The tendril slithered back into the detention room. "What did you do?" Principal Bump asked, turning to Hunter.

"Ugh, kid." Eda grunted.

"To think that any student of yours would be capable of doing anything but create chaos..." Principal Bump said, turning back to Eda. "Eda, take your student and leave! You are both banned from this campus."

Eda sighed. "Come on, kid. Let's go."

Hunter and Eda started to leave, until Gus spoke up.

"Wait, Principal Bump. Don't blame Hunter." Gus said. "I thought that Hunter would be allowed on the school campus, even if he wasn't enrolled here. We were fighting over the Human Appreciation Society. I brought Hunter because I wanted to win. I'm sorry."

"If that's so, Augustus, would you be willing to accept his punishment as your own?" Principal Bump asked.

"Yes, Principal Bump. I would." Gus said. Hunter's eyes widened.

"Very well." Principal Bump said. He turned to Hunter. "In light of that, barring any more trouble, you shall officially be enrolled at Hexside next semester."

Hunter smiled.

"Uh, hold on, hold on." Eda said, putting her hands on Hunter's shoulders. She glared at Principal Bump and gestured for him to step back. He did so, and Eda kneeled down in front of Hunter. "I'm only doing this because I have faith in you. And I know you're too smart to fall for that 'One Witch, One Coven' nonsense. You can learn a lot from the witches here."

She looked over her shoulder and smirked. "Maybe teach them some of that Bad Girl Coven magic too."

"I didn't hear that." Principal Bump said, turning to 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." He took Gus' crown.

"Does that make me president?" Mattholomule said, groggily getting up from the floor.

"Impressive. Still alive. Yes, I suppose you are." Principal Bump said, throwing the crown on his head.

"Yes!" He said weakly.

"Now, with that accomplished, Eda, we have some paperwork to fill out." Principal Bump said.

"Wait! I gotta do more stuff? Ugh!" Eda turned to Hunter. "You better enjoy this place, kid."

Hunter grinned and looked at Gus. Willow ran over, confused.

"Uh, why is the detention room busted? And why did I see Eda with..." Willow gasped.

"Yup, I'm enrolling at Hexside next semester!" Hunter said. Willow squealed and hugged him, making his ears and cheeks go red.

"I can show you what plants not to touch in the greenhouse!" Willow said, pulling out of the hug.

"And I can give you a tour of Hexside!" Gus said just as excitedly.

"Sure!" Hunter said, and the two Hexside students grabbed his arms, running through the halls happily.

+.*.+

"So, what made you suddenly decide to head to Hexside and get me enrolled?" Hunter asked that afternoon, as he and Eda rode on Owlbert to the Owl House.

"Oh, you know - you asked me about it this morning and I thought I might as well do it now. You're welcome, by the way." Eda said.

"Oh, sorry - thanks." Hunter said.

When they arrived in the Owl House, King was busy cuddling with Francois. Eda and Hunter smiled at him, while King glared, quickly throwing Francois on the other side of the couch. "You saw nothing."

"Welp, I'm gonna go in my bedroom and read. The past few nights I've fallen asleep on the couch and it's getting annoying." Hunter said.

"Alright, nerd!" Eda said as he climbed the stairs.

"Stop calling me that!" He yelled from upstairs, closing the door behind him as he walked inside his bedroom.

He eyed the bookshelf, but didn't really have the energy to search through there for a book to read, so he settled on sitting on his sleeping bag while scrolling through his phone.

But eventually, he grew tired, and realized he'd been up for hours - the sun long set and the moon high in the sky. Putting his phone away, he snuggled into the sleeping bag.

+.*.+

A child's laughter filled the halls, as Hunter - five years old - ran through them, following a small bird that flew in through an open window. The bird flew into a room and Hunter stopped, knowing he wasn't allowed inside. He looked through the crack and saw the bird landing on the ground, chirping.

The child decided to head inside anyway, diving to catch the bird but instead bumping into a desk. He stood up and rubbed his head, looking around and noticing the bird was now on top of a bookshelf. The child pouted, but looked around before attempting to climb the bookshelf up to the bird.

However, the child accidentally kicked down a picture frame, its glass shattering when it hit the ground. Hunter quickly dropped back to the ground, picking up the picture. It was of someone who looked like him, but older, standing beside someone who looked like his uncle, but younger.

The door of the room suddenly swung open and Hunter gasped.

"Uncle, I'm sorry! I know I'm not supposed to be in here, but-" Hunter started, but his uncle quickly snatched the picture from him.

"Get. Out." His uncle said. Hunter clung to his uncles robes, pleading.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to break it-"

"I said, get OUT!"

His arm turned into a goopy spike, slashing at his cheek as Hunter screamed-

+.*.+

Hunter sat up, gasping, his hand on his right cheek, where his scar was. When he realized he was back at the Owl House he sighed in relief, laying back down as he tried to calm himself.

This is the second weird dream I've had since arriving in the Boiling Isles... He thought. I called that person my uncle in that dream, though - and is that how I got my scar?

He frowned, staring at the ceiling. He'd felt all of those emotions during the dream - like he'd felt it before. He sighed, turning to the other side.

I'll think about this tomorrow.