Chapter Eight
I wake up to an empty bed next to me and my first instinct is to turn around and look at the clock.
"Only six..." I sigh to myself. "Better start getting ready, I guess."
I fumble around in the dark room searching for a light when something hits me. Zuma's not in bed.
I quietly check the upstairs, trying not to disturb his sleeping family. When I have no luck, my search continues downstairs and outside. That's when I notice him.
"Why didn't I check the pool in the first place?" I chuckle.
The scent of salt water filters through my nose as the brunet hops out of the water, stretching on the cool pavement.
"Gotta start the day off wight."
"Yeah, but I'd rather not have you smell like wet dog."
"Are you suggesting something?"
"Go shower!" I giggle, trying to act annoyed.
"Okay, okay. Fine." Zuma laughs, planting a kiss on my forehead. "By the way darling, as much as I love seeing you in my clothes, I'm sure the last thing you'd want to do is not wear pants to school."
I blush furiously and his laughs disappears but echoes through the house.
"Wow. Not even a good morning." I grumble.
"Good morning, by the way!" He yells.
"Morning!" I yell back.
I sit outside for a bit longer before deciding to start getting ready for school. I pull my favorite pair of pants and my favorite sweater from my bag along with my lucky socks and my Nike sneakers. My makeup and hair brush follow not long after. I run to the guest bathroom and start getting ready.
Once I'm ready and I see that Zuma's still getting ready and that it's only 7:00, I decide to make eggs and toast for us.
"Thought I smelled food." He chuckles, walking downstairs.
"You sound like Rubble."
"Not even close."
I set the food onto plates, making sure to leave some for his parents and siblings. Soon, the four family members tramp down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Oh, you slept over last night?" Zuma's younger sister Hollace says, amused.
"It was nothing bad, Holl." He pushes his sister's shoulder playfully.
"Did you ask? Tell me you asked!" Hollace's twin brother Kace jumps up and down excitedly.
"Children," Becky Atwater sighs, "leave your brother and Nova alone."
I hold my hand out for his family to see and Zuma's dad walks by, clapping him on the back. "Great pick son." Jack Atwater smiles.
"Thanks dad." Zuma blushes.
I check my watch. "Babe, we gotta go. Fifteen minutes till school starts and I'm sure our friends will want to see."
"Be home later! I'll call if I have a mission." Zuma calls behind him.
"Have a great day." Jack responds.
"Stay safe you two." I could tell Becky had seen my cheek, but decided not to question it. Thank goodness for the Atwaters. They were the only family who really understood what I was going through.
"Yeah, If you want to do it, go in a closet!" Hollace teases.
"Holl!" Jack scolds.
"And don't forget to use protection!" Kace adds.
"That's enough, Kace." Becky sighs again.
We close the door behind us. "I love your family." I smile.
"I do too, but it gets cwazy."
"I'm sure I'll manage."
"You fit in just fine alweady."
I giggle, planting a kiss on his lips. "Let's go conquer the day."
"And off we go."
Chapter Nine
"Let me see it!" Sweetie squeals, her posh accent overpowering the others' voices.
Skye gasps. "Zuma! You got her birthstone!"
Zuma giggles, flustered beyond relief. "Wocky helped pick it out."
Everyone looks at Rocky. "What?" He shrugs. "I guess I just have a good eye when it comes to that sort of thing."
Our friends continue to bombard us with questions until Marshall pulls me aside.
"How's your cheek?" He asks.
"It still hurts a bit, but not as a bad as yesterday."
"That's good. I'll take a look at it during lunch."
I smile. "Thanks Marsh."
"No problem." He starts to walk forward, but his foot catches in a wider crack in the sidewalk and he trips, landing face first onto the concrete.
"I'm good." He groans, voice muffled by the ground.
"Note to self Zuma, remind me later to Marshall-proof the wedding."
"Noted." He taps his temple.
Everest walks over to her boyfriend, helping him up and brushing off his clothes. "Next time, look where you're going." She teases.
"Why don't you just catch me next time?" He smirks.
"Nice try, mister. You've played that one before."
They start arguing about something, probably about Marshall's clumsiness or his bad puns.
"C'mon, we should get to math." Rocky pulls at my arm and taps Chase and Sweetie on the shoulder.
"See you later!" We all call.
"Wow, I knew Zuma picked something really pretty out, but this is better than I imagined." Chase smiles.
"He picked well, didn't he?" I blush. Chase and Sweetie nod in agreement.
Rocky wraps his arm around my waist and kisses my temple. Something he's done since we were kids. "Don't I get a thanks?"
"Thanks Rocky. Zuma would've completely clueless without you."
"Oh, trust me, he still was. I have video proof. Remind me to show you them later."
We share an evil look and Chase glances at Sweetie. "I hate when they have that look. It means something's about to happen."
"Nothing bad, I promise. Rocky was going to show me some videos from when Zuma was ring shopping."
"Can we watch too?" Sweetie asks.
"Obviously."
"Yes!" She fist pumps.
The bell rings for first period and we walk into the math classroom.
"I hate math," I grumble. "let's get this over with."
"Lunch can't come any sooner." Sweetie sighs.
Chase and Rocky raise an eyebrow. "It can't be that bad."
"It's not bad, but I just don't like it."
The teacher comes in, clearly in a bad mood and our conversation is cut short.
"Oh, this'll be soooo much fun." Sweetie says sarcastically. This time, we get nods of agreement from the boys.
Chapter Ten: Part One
Nobody's POV*
"Ryder here."
"Ryder, come quickly, this is a disaster!"
"What's wrong Ms. Goodway?"
"Cap'n Turbot and Francois were diving and they saw a mysterious artifact from an extremely old shipwreck! There's a bunch of odd symbols and Francois is very sure that there's some sort of treasure inside it. The only problem is, it's too heavy and when they tried to pick it up with the diving bell, it capsized it!"
"Don't worry, Ms. Goodway! No artifact is too heavy, nobody's too small! Sea Patrol, to the Beach Tower!"
"Ryder needs us!"
Back to Nova's POV*
"Ryder needs us."
We race to the Beach Tower, all wondering what mission was in store for us today.
Marshall runs into the rope that Rubble and Skye were playing tug-of-war with, somehow getting tangled in it. Unable to walk, he hops as fast as he can, trying to make it to the where we were. In the process, he manages to tangle all of us up with him and we sit on the ground glaring at him.
"Sorry, didn't mean to rope you guys in." We all sigh as we untangle ourselves and race into the Tower.
Once we get to mission control, the team lines up and I take my spot in my spinning chair. It was just then that I notice that Everest and Tracker weren't there. They probably had stuff at home to do.
"Sea Patrol ready for action, Captain Ryder sir." Chase says.
"Thanks for coming so quickly everyone. This is a strange one. Ms. Goodway called and said that the Turbots were in the diving bell and ran into a very old artifact with strange symbols on it..."
I scan the photo and I gasp when I recognize the symbols. Rocky glances over at me with a raised eyebrow but I'm still staring at the picture.
"...When they tried to pull it up, since Francois seems to think it holds treasure, the heaviness of the object capsized the diving bell."
"We've gotta help them!" Rubble exclaims.
"That's exactly what were gonna do. For this mission I'll need Zuma. We'll need your sub to help locate the diving bell."
"Ready, set, get wet!"
"Rocky, we'll need you to man the crane on the Sea Patroller to help lift up the artifact."
"Green means go!"
"And we'll also need an expert who's familiar with these symbols. This mission calls for our newest member. Nova." An electric blue tag with a silver telescope appears on the screen.
"Wait, what?"
"You're an expert on Astronomy and Astrology. If these symbols are what you think, then you're the only one that can decipher them."
"This supernova knows no bounds!" I say excitedly.
Before we leave, I suit up, getting the right badges and everything, and take the oath, adrenaline buzzing through my veins.
"Nova, one more thing, your new buggy has a telescope on it, but once inside, press the green button to turn it into a fully operational submarine."
I nod, taking my place next to Marshall.
"Alright! Sea Patrol is on a roll!"
A platform lowers us into the bridge of the Sea Patroller and we take our seats.
"Load em' up Robo dog!"
We watch as mine and Zuma's crafts are loaded into the cargo hold and I can help but gape in amazement.
"Robo dog, take us to sea."
Sooner than I know, we're in open water and I look out the windows at the vast blue expanse.
"Wow." I murmur under my breath.
We stop at the Turbots' coordinates and drop anchor.
"Nova, Zuma, go go go!"
We drop into our vehicles and I press the start button, my bright blue car roaring to life. We exit out of the boat and I press the green button, surprised as the car turns in a submarine.
"Stay close." Zuma says and I nod.
We make it to the diving bell and as Zuma helps the cousins, I take a closer look at the artifact.
"Ryder, this isn't an artifact at all! It's a cave entrance! The real treasure must be inside!"
"Nice work, Nova."
I squint my eyes at the intricate carvings on the cave door and I gasp once more. "Ryder, I was right. These are the Zodiac signs. But they're all out of order."
Chapter Ten: Part Two:
"What do you mean out of order?"
"It looks like someone moved the rocks out of place to keep someone or something out."
"They look heavy." Zuma adds. "How would they be able to move them alone?"
"There's another thing, Ryder, they look like they've been moved recently. Don't know how recent, but definitely sometime close."
I see Ryder stroke his chin and narrow his eyes at the cave. "I'm coming down. I think we should open it up."
"Copy that, Ryder dude." Zuma looks at me and nods, signaling for me to get my diving stuff on.
"Submarine, autopilot." I get my diving stuff on, and wait outside the stone cave door for Ryder and Zuma to join me.
"Okay Nova, tell us the order and we'll move the stones."
"Okay." I take a deep breath, studying the etched designs in each stone.
"Aries is first, the ram." The stone is set in place and a whirring sound could be heard.
"Next up is Taurus, the bull." The whirring noise is heard once again.
"Gemini, the twins. Also looks like the Roman numeral two." More whirring.
"Cancer. The two circles that look like they have tails." Yet again, even more whirring.
"Leo. The one circle with a curved tail." This time, clicking can be heard.
"Virgo, the fancy 'm' with a loop on the end." More clicking ensures.
"Libra. Looks like a horseshoe." Even more clicking.
"Scorpio, the fancy 'm' with a tiny arrow at the end." Still more clicking.
"Sagittarius. Looks like an arrow with a line through it." Clicking and whirring could be heard now.
"Capricorn, looks like a fancy 'n' with a loop." Same noises.
"Aquarius, double pointed squiggly lines."
"And Pisces. Two half semi-circles with a straight line going through both."
The sound stops and I watch in confusion. Then the door swings open, leading to a dark cavern.
"I did it!" I breath.
"I knew you could." Zuma smiles at me.
I smile back and venture in, but I'm pulled back out. "We need to stay together, Nova." Ryder says.
I nod, squinting my eyes into the darkness. "There's got to be a way to light this up."
"That's it!" I watch as Ryder taps on Chase's badge and Chase's face appears in the screen.
"What do you need Ryder?"
"Chase, we need your spotlight. The cave is too dark to see anything but Zuma's and Nova's submarines are too wide to fit in the entrance."
"Chase is on the case!" He appears next to us a couple minutes later. "Spotlight!" It pops out of his pack and lights up the once dark cavern.
"It looks like it's only big enough for three people at most." I point out.
"You three go ahead. I'll have the others prepare if you need help." Ryder swims off, the Turbots following behind him.
"Okay. Let's do this." Chase mumbles.
I swim in first, following the beam of light as its rays reflect off the water. And then, I'm not underwater all of a sudden.
"Guys, we can breath in here without our scuba gear." I take off my helmet, keeping the ear piece in, and shake my hair out.
Zuma and Chase follow me in and they too take their helmets off.
"Where are we?" Chase asks.
"We're underwater, but at the same time, we're not. This doesn't make any sense."
"Hey, guys, look. Another secret passage." Zuma motions for us to look.
I press the button and another room is revealed. I walk in and am met by the beautiful sight of treasure upon treasure upon treasure.
"Ryder dude, we'll need all hands on deck. There's a lot down here."
"We're on the way, Zuma."
Everyone but Rocky, who was still manning the crane, and even Tracker and Everest helped to gather the treasure and bring it back to the Sea Patroller.
Once we get to shore, Carlos meets us on the beach with his truck and we load our findings to bring to the museum.
"Well well well, what do we have here? Is that treasure I see? And lots of it?" A familiar voice sounds.
"Sorry Vice Principal Humdinger, But this is going to the museum." Marshall says.
"Yeah! I can't believe Nova knew what order those stones had to be in!" Rubble says happily.
"Aw, it was nothing. Just a bit of teamwork, that's all." I laugh, and Zuma wraps an arm around me.
"We're just excited to see this all this in the museum." Carlos says with a smile. "Thank you Paw Patrol."
"And thank you for helping us out in ze water." Francois adds.
"No problem! Whenever you're in trouble, just yell for help."
In my peripheral, I see the vice Principal twirl his mustache and walk away grinning evilly.
I nudge Skye, Rocky, and my boyfriend. "He's up to something. We need to keep an eye on him."
They agree with me and soon, everyone parts and go our separate ways for the night.
"What do you think he's up to?" I ask Rocky as we head to his house to hang out.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Rocky sighs, Zuma nods in agreement.
"What can we do?" Skye asks, she decided to tag along after remembering that her parents were out of town and that Chase had late night trainings the police station.
"We just need to keep an even closer eye on him. We don't need another meteor incident." Zuma refers to our short time as superheroes.
"Or an observatory incident." Rocky rolls his eyes.
"Or literally any other problem he's caused in Adventure Bay." I add.
We all laugh, continuing on our way to Rocky's house.
Little did we know, we were being watched. And not in a good way.
Chapter Eleven
"Mom! I'm home!" Rocky and I yell.
"Hi Jeanine!" Zuma and Skye chorus.
"Hello everyone, how was your day?" The silver-haired lady chirps.
"Nova had her first mission." Skye says happily.
Jeanine's smile grows bigger. "Tell me all about it!"
As everyone explains the mission, I get lost in my own head. Jeanine was like a second mother to me, besides Becky. Both women had told the court that they would look after me when they found out about my dad and how my birth mom's life started going down the drain, but Jeanine was in the long process of officially adopting me and Rocky was ecstatic that I would be his "little sister." I was intended to have actually gone into her care back in sixth grade after "Mom" showed that she wasn't remotely interested in caring for a child. Why on earth she was fighting back was news to me, but I hoped it would be ending soon. I needed to get out of that house for good.
"Nova, are you okay?" Rocky shakes my arm, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."
"Okay." He raises an eyebrow in suspicion, but follows me in joining the conversation.
"So, dear, what was it like?" Jeanine's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"Scary at first, but it felt amazing after that."
"And I heard the test of the team helped as well, but where were you, Rocky?" She raises an eyebrow in amusement, knowing exactly what his answer would be.
"Manning the crane up where it was nice and dry. No getting wet for me." We all laugh as he shivers at the thought of water.
"Speaking of water, Rocky," Zuma smirks at his best friend and I know exactly what he's doing. "Don't you think it's time for you to shower or something? You kinda stink."
"I do not!" Rocky defends.
I sniff the air around him. "No, Zuma's right. You're starting to stink."
Skye picks up on our game and pretends to faint from the smell and Jeanine has to leave the room because she was trying hard not to laugh.
"Oh my god, I really do smell!" Rocky runs up the stairs and bolts into his room, then runs into the bathroom carrying his bathroom necessities.
Once he's out of earshot, we bust out laughing.
"I can't believe he fell for that!" Skye, still on the floor, wipes away a tear.
"It's worked on him since preschool and it keeps getting better." I smile, glancing up the stairs as a series of crashes could be heard from the bathroom.
Jeanine leaves for her shift at the dump, and we chill out on the couch until I glance at my watch.
"No no no! She's gonna kill me!" Skye looks at me worriedly, but Rocky holds her back as she tries to get up. I rush to put my shoes on and grab my other things before rushing outside and down the driveway.
"Nov, wait!" Zuma rushes out after me. "Babe, what's wrong?"
"She told me that if I wasn't home at 10:00, then she and whoever she was bring home from wherever she was would come into my room and do bad things to me."
"Nova, I can't—"
"I'm sorry Zum, I have to. I'm sorry." I peck his lips then rush off down the street to my house.
"I love you." I hear him say softly. "Stay safe please." I remember him saying that he was spending the night at Rocky's and I watch as he walks off toward his house, possibly to grab an overnight bag, which was a couple streets away from Rocky's as was mine. The beautiful home pops into my mind and I tear up just thinking about it.
A few minutes later, I release a teary breath and step into my house, wasting no time in bolting up to my room.
"Bring it on." I mumble to myself as I glance at the clock. 9:45. I was early, but she'd still probably find a way around it.
I could hear footsteps downstairs and some moaning and I hold back a gag.
"Y'know? I have a new way to torture my awful daughter." My mother says loudly as they climb the stairs.
"Lead the way." The man with her slurs and cackles.
My bedroom door opens and the next thing I know, the world goes dark.