Nova's Dawning

I didn’t want to make sense of my dreams. Honestly, with the weird first week I had, I was pretty much done trying to make sense of anything. I just wanted to try to adapt to my new schedule as fast as possible.

We had gotten our schedules when we returned to Moonlight after the trip on Saturday. Osiris had dipped by the time I had gotten mine, but everyone else was able to compare and contrast with me.

We were a trimester college, which meant there were supposed to be three quarters in a school year. Each quarter I was told I was going to take four classes, which was the equivalent of sixteen credits. It was kind of confusing at first, because I came from a two-quarter high school, where I was taking eight classes each quarter. In high school I went to school five days a week, but here I would only be going two or three, maybe four if I was unlucky. Each class was only once a week, but it was a FOUR-HOUR LONG class.

“God, this is going to be exhausting. How am I going to survive four hours of math??” said Bee, as she was putting her war paint on as we prepared for class. I just shook my head, unable to speak when makeup was involved. “Tell me the schedule again.” she said, applying mascara.

I had to set my makeup down. “Um, today is Monday, and we have Astronomy first thing at two o’clock, and then from seven to eleven I have Principles of Production, and you have Principles of Business. Our schedules are pretty different from there on out. Tomorrow I have Screenwriting at two and you have Accounting. Then at seven I have History of Design and you have... um... I believe you have a Communications class.”

“Gross. How come your schedule sounds so much cooler than mine?”

“Because we have completely different majors.”

“Ugh, I just want to start my mentor training already. I want my powers to show up.” She looked down at her hands sadly and went back to her makeup.

“I’m sure you’re just a late bloomer, sometimes stress can affect it.”

She nodded, putting her lipstick on.

I finished my face and then we headed out to her car, her getting the map up to school and me getting the map up OF school, so we knew where to go when we got there.

It would become our daily routine, until we no longer needed it. Every time we pulled up to the school it seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, or maybe it was just that people were always coming and going.

I directed us to our class, but then HE was there. It wasn’t that I hated him, but I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. He wanted me to sit next to him, but every time I looked into those green eyes, I saw the brown ones looking back, and it gave me an uneasy feeling.

Our professor was this short dorky guy with a clogged nose and a lisp. His curly hair and glasses made me feel like I was watching some cartoon character, however he was actually really smart, too smart. It was clear to me that he was going to turn astronomy, into physics. When he called roll, he made an awful astronomy joke about my name, that I don’t even remember anymore. I sighed heavily and opened my computer, taking notes, aka scrolling through Facebook. Suddenly, I got a friend request from an Osiris Moore. I rolled my eyes and hit accept; I swear I saw him smile.

Suddenly; Hey.

I looked at the message and rolled my eyes even harder than before. I decided to humor him since I did find him funny.

Why are you messaging me during class? Shouldn’t you be paying attention?

Sure, I guess so, but I could ask you the same thing.

... What do you want Osiris?

Let me take you out somewhere.

I was trying not to smile, because even though I was cautious he was still cute, and I didn’t get hit on very often.

Like where? The shore so that we can look at ice and frozen fish?

The ship’s library, any library. Or maybe you’d prefer a coffee shop first date?

All I could think about was how did he know me so well?

I like both of those ideas.

We can go get coffee in-between classes if you’d like, and then later in the week we can visit the ship.

Okay. I looked up at the teacher, not realizing I was smiling, trying to make it seem like my note taking was of the utmost importance. However, at that point we were barely thirty minutes into the class.

I looked over at Bee, and put my head in my hands, as if I was going to fall asleep. She nodded and chewed on the end of her pencil in boredom.

After what seemed like the longest lecture in the history of lectures, he finally let us go, he even released us a bit early due to it being the first day.

“Don’t get too comfortable with it though, I intend to use the full four hours of every class.”

I groaned internally and suddenly a hand found mine, and then it pulled. Bee looked at me confused, but I shot her a smile and I waved as he very quickly pulled me through the crowd, his sweaty hand released mine when we were outside.

“Come on, my car is this way.”

When we reached his small little Honda, he opened the door for me, and as I went to turn to say thank you he was leaning in to, I assume, kiss me on the cheek, but his lips found mine and I jerked away, bringing my fingertips to my lips.

“That was a bit soon, don’t you think?” I said, he chuckled, but I could see he was embarrassed. It was getting colder as the sun was going down.

“I do apologize, ma’am. I was not expecting that at all.” He gave me a small bow and I giggled as he shut the door, making his way to the driver’s side.

Contrary to me jerking away, the real reason was because it had electrified me. The slightest touch of his lips had made mine tingly and warm, as if he had struck a match against them.

His music taste wasn’t much different from Bee’s, except his stuff was a bit more rock rather than the roll. He informed me there was a coffee shop just around the corner from our school, but I’m not sure if anyone else ever found out about it. It was so small and quaint that I feel like if you weren’t looking for it you wouldn’t even know it was there. When we went up to the door, he opened it for me and bowed his head at me. I giggled and thanked him.

“What a gentleman.”

When we walked in, he went right up to the cashier and ordered what he wanted, and what I would want. A medium white chocolate mocha, hot.

“Okay who told you what my favorite coffee is?”

He whistled, ignoring me. I pulled on his sleeve, and I gave him the pouty face.

He took one look and I could feel him melt. “It was Bee!! Chill with the face, it hurts.” I laughed and we grabbed our coffee and sat down.

“So, what other information has Bee betrayed me with?” he shook his head and put his hands up.

“Not much, just that you aren’t that good at multitasking and that you love to read more than you like to breathe.” He ducked as I threw a crumpled-up napkin at him. We laughed and I could feel my cheeks burning up. He stepped away for a minute and brought me a blueberry muffin back. “She also told me the kinds of food you like, and that you’re a closet vegetarian.”

“Good to know she’s told you the important stuff.” I mumbled.

I ate part of the muffin and then slid the rest over to him. Their muffins were huge and as wide as my hips which was a shame since I only had a stomach half the size of half a stalk of broccoli, even with my voluptuous figure.

He smiled at me and swallowed the rest of the muffin in one bite.

“How... Never mind.” That time I put my hands up in defeat.

For some reason he tried to laugh, and some of the muffin fell out onto his lips. I grabbed a piece with my fingers and stuck it into my mouth. I saw his cheeks flash red and I laughed really hard. I couldn’t help it, due to the fact that he looked like an embarrassed chipmunk. So naturally I took a picture of it.

At that moment all my hesitations had melted away, as I shared laughter with this guy who had just recently been a stranger, but who was now forming into a solid crush.

We threw away our garbage, and I held the door open for him this time, as we still laughed at the picture. He shoved me just a tiny bit too hard and my foot hit a particular patch of just soft enough ground and I felt my feet slip out from under me. It was honestly one of the scariest moments of my life, because it happened to be as we were crossing the parking lot, and it was a busy coffee joint.

I don’t remember hitting the ground, or the car that almost nailed me, but somehow, I woke up in his car, unscathed. “Are you all right?”

“Huh? What happened?”

He sighed; his face scrunched up like he was in pain.

“Me, a self-proclaimed idiot, shoved you a little too hard, and you slipped, and you almost were badly hurt, but instead of hitting the concrete I caught you in my shield, but the impact was still a bit too hard. I’m sorry Starlite. I ruined our date. Feel free to take that photo of me, blow it up one thousand percent and post it on every inch of the campus.”

“Wait, shield?” I was suddenly confused. I had concluded that he was a dream walker and that was why he acted like he knew me so well on day one.

“Yeah, my power is a shield. I can protect myself from the elements, and a wide variety of other things, plus I can protect other people as well, but its not as effective as I want it to be. I need more training, that is for sure.”

“I…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt conflicted, but there was one thing I knew for sure.

“Osiris, you saved me. Even if it wasn’t a perfect save, you saved my life. I owe you, not just once, but twice now.”

“I don’t need you to owe me, I just want you to still let me see you. Ever since Mo and Sam mentioned you, I’ve wanted to know more about you, who you are, what you want in life. I don’t know why, but I knew that when I laid eyes on you, that you are someone worth knowing.”

My heart sank a little, and I wondered if he knew exactly who I was but was just playing around with me.

“Before this goes any further, I want you to know the truth…” He nodded, and I sighed, upset that my secret would get out before I had even received my ability. “Have you heard the story about the Seer of the Century?”

“Yeah, totally. I love that story. The woman became a famous psychic and read everyone’s futures from Presidents’ to the Queen’s. She was amazing at what she did, and her powers were beyond anything that anyone had expected. Her premonitions saved hundreds of lives a day, and by the time she passed on her gift to her child the world felt like she should have never had a child to begin with. That child took the powers of a Seer that the world could have used to help end starvation and even ninety five percent of the wars, well that’s what they said at least.”

I teared up a little bit, and I looked at him with a plea for him to understand that I did not ask to be born, that I was just a victim in this.

“You’re the child…” His eyes grew big and I knew he was starting to understand. I watched as emotions flickered across his face, and I knew that the outcome would be like it had been with everyone else who had found out who my mom was. They would look at me with disdain, wipe me aside, and never speak to me again. I looked away unable to take it. We had been parked at school for a minute now, and I started to get out.

“Wait. Star. If you think that makes me any less interested in you, you’re wrong.”

His words froze my body, like when someone sees the first snow fall.

“I didn’t know who you were, but I still want to learn all your secrets. You know that no matter what, you don’t have to live in your mother’s shadow. Maybe I’m the first to tell you this, or I could be the hundredth, but you are your own person, and whoever blames you for a choice that was out of your hands clearly doesn’t understand the circle of life nor did they deserve to even set foot in your presence. Your mother was the Seer of the Century, but you could be the Seer of the Millenia, or even of all times.”

At that moment I took his face in my hands, and I kissed him. It was sloppy, like it had been a while since he had kissed anyone, but it was soft and warm.

“Well this is unexpected.”

I smiled against his lips and put my nose against his. “Sorry I just-”

“Don’t apologize. I did almost kill you so.” At that I laughed. I laughed so hard I was crying, and he smiled, enjoying my tears.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said as he squeezed my hand and started to get out of his car.

I followed suit and when I met him on the other side, he held his hand out to me.

“Do any of our other friends know the truth?” he asked me.

“I hope not.” I said, taking his hand.

“You should probably tell them. We can have a little get together tonight at my place, and you can tell everyone the truth, and I will hold your hand the whole way, okay?”

I nodded, and we started back into the building.

Walking back into the school building was weird for me, because it meant that I would have to explain everything to everyone, and Bee. I wasn’t sure how to explain it.

‘Well, he’s interested me since before I even met him, because I was dreaming about him, but that’s not weird or anything, right guys?’

So, we parted for class and I met up with Sam and Jack in our Principles of Production class. Apparently, news travels a lot faster than I anticipated, because the second I sat down they were asking me when I was expecting children.

“Woah, guys. Calm down. We aren’t even like official or anything, we just had our first date please relax.”

“But smooching on the first date? Huh, Star?? That sounds serious.” said Sam. She wiggled those dumb brown eyebrows at me again, and I sighed.

“Your innocence is adorable Sam.” said Jack.

“Like you’ve got experience at all, Jack.”

I giggled and sighed in relief. The last thing I needed on that day was more stress.

“Welcome class!”

Our teacher was... scatterbrained to say the least. He was young, but still had some graying in his beard. He was short, and thin, probably due to stress. He fumbled with his briefcase, which was overflowing with papers, and finally he sat in his chair, rubbing his face.

“I’m Cain. My last name is hard to pronounce, so just call me Cain. I’m gonna move really fast in this class, so I hope you guys can keep up. If you need me to slow down, you need to say something to me. We clear?”

We all nodded, and he sighed in relief, sitting forward in his creaky chair.

“Now let’s have some fun.”