A/N: Hello?
Anyone still here?
Nope? Okbyethen!
Turns out depression, writer's block and being a lazy asshole isn't a good mix, who woulda thought?
This chapter is completely different for what I had planned, I rewrote/re-edited this chapter so many times and kept getting stuck in the middle of it. This chapter was hell on me because it was supposed to be this crazy late night adventure with Nova and Damon, but I couldn't finish it for some reason. And then it hit me that I should progress the story a little and fill in some gaps.
It might be really boring compared to my last chapter, but it's a new year, and I just want to move on from this hell chapter and start writing a new chapter.
I wanna thank HPuni101, and leftzonkpsychicland on Tumblr, for making me feel like less shit, they really pulled me out of some dark moments where I was doubting myself as a writer. Also, thank all of you so much for the fuckin sweetest reviews, each and every single one makes me smile every time I look at them, which is a lot.
I also wanna thank everyone new who started following my story! I don't know why you decided to do this to yourselves, but I love you for it! No, but seriously, I wasn't sure if 12 people would like this, it fills my heart whenever I get an alert.
I've been using a website called shoplook, if you're curious about Nova's style and visuals, you can go check it out at Randomfandoming. You can bother me anytime on Tumblr, I love talking about my story and sometimes I'll make edits for Nova and post them there, it's the same name pretty much; Randomfandoming1, blog name is called the musings of a fangirl.
But, anyway, let's jump on in and check on Nova!
Nova managed to sneak back into the house before dawn with the taste of alcohol on her tongue and a smile on her lips. Ignoring the fact that her feet were one second away from killing her, she tiptoed into the quiet house in a poor imitation of a ballerina, attempting not to wake anyone up.
The streetlights were bright enough to shine through the curtained windows, bathing the house in dark golden hue, the light just barely lit her way towards the living room.
Just barely, she thought to herself, cringing at the noise she made as she tripped over the pile of books she noticed a moment too late.
She held out her arms in front of herself, aiming to catch hold of the back of the couch to break her fall but she missed her target and instead face-planted into the cushions.
"Fuck," she groaned, absently noticing her sister was no longer on the couch as she peeled her midsection off the back of the couch.
This time she slowly made her way towards the twins shared bedroom, abandoning stealth - which just meant she stopped tiptoeing in the dark like a fucking idiot - to make sure she didn't collide into anything else.
She pulled back the beaded curtains with the back of her hand, cringing at the loud noises of the beads inevitably clinking together, she quickly stepped into the room and let the beads fall behind her.
Nova knew her sister wasn't asleep for some simple reasons; for one, there was no dragon-like snoring, and also, the light coming from her sister's phone was kind of a dead giveaway.
Bonnie probably had guessed where she'd gone off to and deemed it necessary to wait for her to come back home to make sure she hadn't gotten eaten by the town's definition of local wildlife.
Nova immediately slipped between the covers, completely unsurprised by both the weight of Merlin by her feet and the weighty sensation of being stared at by her sister. She ignored both feelings for a moment, too busy nuzzling her face into her pillow, inhaling the smell of Grams' homemade lavender and chamomile fabric softener.
"I can literally feel the judgment coming from you, Bon." Nova broke the silence, waving her hand in the general direction of her sister, her voice muffled by the giant pillow.
"...I'm too tired to judge you. Maybe in the morning?" Bonnie replied as she turned off her phone and slid down her headboard and onto her pillow.
"M..kay, sounds good, can't wait," Nova mumbled into her pillow, the smell of freshly cleaned sheets along with the feeling of home lull her to sleep in mere seconds.
Nova had no fucking idea why she was awake when it felt like she had just closed her eyes; it wasn't a nightmare, her dreams had been blissfully tame if weird but something had woken her up.
She opened her eyes when something smacked into the back of her head, and that was when she noticed the weight that had moved from her feet and onto her back. Merlin was perched on her back, his tail lazily hitting her on the back of the head.
She knew from experience that he was hungry and if she didn't get up now he'd escalate onto using his claws, the little fucker had done this before when she was late feeding him. Muffling her groans into her pillow, she let her impatient Familiar jump off her back before she pulled herself from her pillow and quietly slipped out of the room.
She shivered when her bare feet hit the cold floors of the hallway, her mood worsened when the sunlight that pooled from the half-open curtains decided to hit her right in her bleary eyes.
Definitely too much alcohol, she thought, squinting when the morning sunlight nearly blinded her.
Annoyed - at the sun, at Merlin for waking her up, but mostly just by the fact she was awake - she waved her hand in a wide circle as she walked towards the kitchen, her annoyance fueled her Magic and simultaneously all of the curtains from the living room to the kitchen closed.
Merlin was hot on her heels as she stepped into the kitchen, watching with bright green eyes as she fetched his food from the cabinet at the bottom of the sink that housed at least eight different cat foods, all gifts from her friends.
She emptied the canned cat food into the silver bowl already placed on the floor, watching jealousy as he immediately began nibbling on his food. "Spoiled little shit," she whispered, a fond grin on her lips.
The reincarnated girl sighed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes when she realized she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
Lowering herself down on the floor next to her feasting cat, she leaned on the cabinet behind her and pulled her phone out of the pocket of her Batman onesie, scrolling through her notifications she noticed a new text:
'hey, could we make that a brunch instead? - Caroline'
She stared at the text in confusion and it took her a very long and frankly fucking embarrassing amount of time before she remembered that last night the girls had all agreed to rehash on what the fuck had happened to them in the past couple of days.
Nova ran her free hand through Merlin's soft black fur, glancing curiously at the time stamp she saw it was sent about twenty minutes after she had fallen asleep. She frowned as she tried to think of a reason for Caroline to be awake that late, but she eventually decided she was probably just being paranoid... probably.
"Hope it's not the trauma of being kidnapped by a Cullen keeping her awake. Or - nature forbid, she binge-watched without me," she gasped the last part in mock horror to her Familiar, who was ignoring her in favor of his food.
Honestly, it was moments like these that she stopped questioning why she had him for a Familiar because that was just so fucking relatable.
She gave him one last scratch behind his ears before leaving him alone to eat in peace. Walking towards the bathroom, she swiftly typed out a reply, copying and pasting her response to Elena as well.
'You losers can sleep in until brunch ;) - Nova'
She flipped the switch on the bathroom light, shuffling into the now lit bathroom, her eyes were immediately drawn to the mirror that hung above the blue-green vanity.
"What the.. putain d'enfer," she finished her curse in French, flinching at just the sight of herself; her face looked like she hadn't gotten any sleep and her hair looked like it'd been hit by a mini tornado.
She groaned and reluctantly began her daily routine, brushing her teeth, washing her face and taking an unnecessarily long and scorching hot shower. Once she stepped out of the shower, she felt a little bit more functional, even though she would rather be dead asleep in her warm bed.
Nova was careful to not wake up her sister as she dug in the closet for something to wear, yanking an old Daredevil comic tee shirt that claimed 'I do my own stunts' from its hanger and she picked up a leather skirt that had fallen on the floor of the closet. She sat on her unmade bed, finishing her outfit with black thigh high boots over lace leggings.
While she struggled to pull her curls hair into one giant braid, Merlin came in and claimed her pillow as his napping place, thus preventing her from making her bed.
Little shit, she thought, rolling her eyes at the exaggerated purring coming from him.
She left the room as quietly as she could and started walking towards the kitchen to see if she could cook up a decent enough breakfast for everyone.
A couple hours later and a 'decent enough breakfast' ended up being an understatement.
"And what is all of this?"
Nova turned to look at her Grams with wide eyes, it took her a moment of just staring at her very much alive grandmother - Of course, she's alive, idiot, she reassured herself in a berating manner - before she processed the words that had been spoken to her.
"Oh, uh, Carebear and Lena are coming over soon, and I just wanted to cook..." she trailed off, finally taking notice of the total mess she had made of the kitchen.
Nearly all the bowls and spatulas were dirty, there was flour on nearly every inch of the kitchen, empty egg shells littered the counter - she could continue to take note, but it was just better described as a fucking hot mess - like her thoughts decided to take form.
"I can see that," Grams replied dryly, walking into the kitchen she moved to put the kettle on, only to startle when her granddaughter stepped in front of her, holding out a mug.
"...Thank you," she accepted the mug, watching as her granddaughter poured warm tea into the mug. The older woman kept her narrowed eyes on the younger woman even as she sat down at the table with her mug clutched in her grip.
"No problem," Nova replied with a beaming-if-somewhat-manic smile, it was obvious that she was way too hyped up from her fourth giant cup of coffee; the hyper teen turned her attention back on the stove, checking on the food that was still cooking.
"Why don't you sit down, take a break," Grams said when the younger woman checked the oven for the third time within a handful of seconds; the chair across from the older woman was pulled out from the table in a casual display of Magic.
The use of Magic clued her into the fact that it wasn't a suggestion.
Nova enjoyed disobeying authority figures, probably too much if she were being honest, but she was never too eager to do that with Grams. And so she ignored her rebellious side for the moment and obediently sat down on the offered chair.
"Now do you want to tell me what's wrong, sweetheart?" Grams immediately questioned, concern written all over her face.
She did have a reason to be more than a little concerned; the food that was accumulating on the counters and that was still cooking was frankly alarming and couldn't be anything other than stress cooking.
Nova had a list of things she needed to figure out before the year was over, but right now she was focused on present worries - worries that would be arriving in literal minutes.
"I'm thinking about telling my friends about the whole... reincarnation thing. At least, Caroline and Elena. They're my best friends, they deserve to know." Nova answered, her fingers twirled rapidly around the ends of her braid as she kept glancing at the clock.
"Are you trying to convince me of that... or are you trying to convince yourself?" Grams asked before sipping on her tea, not visibly shocked by the explanation.
Nova was having a hard time figuring out if the older woman thought telling them was a bad idea or not, but she guessed that was probably the point of the poker face Grams was sporting, so she wouldn't be swayed by her opinion.
"I just would rather have them find out from me than from someone else," Nova said honestly even as she frowned at just the fucking thought of telling anyone else so soon.
She didn't regret telling her sister, it had been therapeutic, a weight off her Soul and she had promised ages ago and she tried not to break promises.
But it had also been emotionally fucking exhausting, and just the thought of going through those rollercoasters of emotions again was enough to give her a headache. And whenever she thought about putting it off for another day - or lifetime - Emily's words rang through her mind.
"The secret of your birth, or rebirth, as it were, should be revealed before it is too late." Not to mention, "- sometimes if a vampire is old enough, they'll be able to sense something."
In her mind, all of that was translated to mean that Katherine would know what she was the moment they meet and she should start telling the people she wants to know before the Vampire came into town and decided to use it as a way to sabotage her relationships.
Maybe it was just Nova jumping to conclusions without concrete evidence - which was likely, she had a bad habit of doing that - but she knew that keeping her family and friends safe meant that sooner or later she would end up gaining the immortal doppelganger's attention.
And not even the good kind of attention.
Warnings from her ancestors aside, it would be better to tell Elena and Caroline before someone with less pure intentions could do it for her, it would be more logical.
But logic has never felt so fucking small in the face of her bundle of restless emotions.
"I guess I'm afraid they'll be angry about me keeping yet another secret from them," Nova told her all of the thoughts that had constantly run through her brain while stress cooking.
"We're family, you guys have to put up with me and my secrets - they don't have to." She knew it was irrational and unfair of her to think so little of her friends, not to mention that she didn't believe in what she had said about family.
But the fear of being discarded like a dirty tissue came from her old life and it just loved to drop in every now and then for a visit.
For all her talk about her independence, she was pretty reliant on her friends for emotional support and just the thought of losing their incredible friendship made her feel alone, and the thought of being alone in this universe made it hard to breathe -
Nova blinked rapidly when she realized Grams had changed seats and was sitting right next to her, her hand was gently pulled away from her ruined braid. Her braid came undone as Grams ran her fingers much more gently through her tangled hair; the soothing motions helping calm her down as she knocked away her thoughts and just breathed.
Inhale.
Exhale.
She inhaled, the smell of coffee and chocolate muffins somehow calming her.
She exhaled, staring blankly at the stubborn ray of sunlight that peeked through the kitchen curtains, illuminating the dust particles that floated around the aromatic kitchen.
When she was calm enough she turned to face Grams unwavering stare that told her that she was in for a lecture.
...Uh, oh.
"You're right about some things. You, me, Bonnie, and your... father, problems aside, we are a family." Grams began, a sour look appearing on her face as she included dad in on her speech, but she pushed through her dislike for the twins father to continue.
"Now I can't speak for the rest of them, but I think they'll agree with me when I say we don't 'put up with you' just because we're family. We do it because we understand that knowing things like you do isn't easy and we want to help ease that burden."
Nova opened her mouth to speak when it seemed she was finished, but the elder woman continued on. "And while I admire your desire to be one-hundred percent honest with your friends. I don't think you should tell them because you need to, but because you want to."
And when Nova still looked uncertain and more than a little guilty, Grams added, this time more gently. "It's not a crime to have your own secrets, baby."
She knew her grandmother was right, people did have a right to their own secrets, but she's always felt a pang of guilt when her friends shared more about themselves than she did.
Nova let her head thump on the table when a random stray thought hit her, wincing at the resulting pain, she groaned into the placemat. "Oh, no," the reincarnated teen groaned. "If I do tell my friends, I'll have to have to tell dad. I'd be a pretty shitty daughter if I told my everyone but him."
Grams rolled her eyes as her granddaughter basically ignored everything she had just said. "Oh, don't worry about that, baby," the older woman said, gently rubbing her back. "He already knows."
Nova's head snapped up to stare at her grandmother in shock, her mouth was agape as she struggled to find the right words.
"...What?"
Grams gave her a suitably unimpressed look at her unintelligent response, adding more sugar in her tea, she was calm in the face of her granddaughter's confusion as she replied, "He's known for as long as I have."
Nova stared at her grandmother for a moment, waiting for more of an explanation, but when none came she asked the question she's wondered about since she got the memories of her past life back.
"...And how long have you known?" she prompted, visibly on the edge of her seat as she waited for a response.
"Oh... I believe you and your sister were about four - no, six months old when I noticed." Grams responded casually like she hadn't just shattered Nova's entire perception of her second childhood.
Six months, not fucking years, but months.
Bonnie shuffling into the kitchen knocked Nova out of her state of shock, besides mumbled morning greetings, her sister ignored both of them in favor of the coffee machine.
Nova opened her mouth but didn't get to question her grandmother further because at that precise moment someone decided to knock on the door. She rolled her eyes at the absolutely terrible timing but stood up to answer the door when she noticed neither her twin nor grandmother were in a rush to get it.
She piled her hair into a loose bun before she pulled the door open, blinking in shock when something rushed past her as soon as she opened it.
"Hey! Is anyone in the bathroom?" Caroline asked but didn't bother waiting for a reply as she dashed into the house and towards the bathroom.
"Okay then..." Nova said under her breath, watching her friend disappear in almost a literal blur that made her jokingly question to herself if her friend wasn't already a Vampire.
But considering she regularly likens Caroline to a whirlwind, she was less surprised with that and more surprised when she turned back around to close the door only to see Matt, awkwardly trying to walk down the porch steps before she noticed him.
The boy was nearly six feet tall and had the shoulders of a literal football player, so to say him trying to sneak away didn't work was an understatement.
She gave him a once-over, taking in his messy hair and wrinkly clothes - naughty sleepover, maybe? - before making eye-contact with the teen who had the deer in headlights look on his face.
"Good morning, Matt. What a surprise! What brings you over?" Nova asked but the teasing smile on her face said that she had already figured out and just wanted verbal confirmation.
"Hey, morning, Nova. I was just giving Caroline a ride," Matt said, returning her smile, and even though it was a genuine smile, it was obvious to her that he was wary of the way her face was lit up in amusement.
The poor guy has definitely been getting shit from Tyler about his blossoming relationship with Caroline, he probably didn't want any more from her.
But alas, she couldn't contain her dark side: cue prolonged evil laughter.
"Aw... that's so sweet of you," she declared, dramatically placing her hand on her heart with a shit eating grin in place.
"It was nothing." Matt, having known her for years, waved it off before she could continue to gush in an over-exaggerated manner. "I should get going before..." he trailed off, hesitating on continuing his sentence when he realized who he was talking to.
Before his ex-girlfriend got here, she heard the unspoken words anyway as he worriedly glanced back at the currently quiet street.
"I thought Elena was cool with you and Caroline playing tonsil hockey?" Nova questioned before he could run away, she had a feeling if Matt wasn't such a nice dude he would have actually run away from her.
"She is cool with it. Or at least, she seems fine with it... it's just still a little awkward. We just started to go back to being friends and suddenly I'm hanging out her best friend." Matt explained with a frown, obviously torn about the fact his girlfriend seemed so over him that she was chill with him 'hanging out' with Caroline, one of her best friends.
"Sounds complicated," it was all Nova could come up with as a reply, too busy thinking about how glad she was to be single.
"Well, before you run away from your ex like a scaredy cat, I have something for you." She abruptly changed the subject, opening the door and motioning for him to come inside without further explanation.
"Cool shirt." Matt decided to strike up the dreaded small talk as he followed her toward the kitchen, ultimately confusing her when he pointed towards her boobs.
She wondered if she'd accidentally flashed him as she absently looked down and saw the comic book version of Daredevil on her shirt - well, that made so much more sense, she thought with a sheepish grin.
"Oh, thanks. Did you hear about the upcoming Avengers movie?" she questioned with a happy grin; it would be years before the first Avenger movie came out, but she was pretty sure they announced the movies years before.
Hopefully, she got the year right.
Hopefully.
"Yeah, I can't wait to see all of them team up together."
She struggled not to cringe at his hopeful tone - her memories on the movies weren't crystal clear, but she had the vague feeling of pain whenever she thought about them - well, at least she got the year right.
Matt was noticeably more relaxed by the time they got to the kitchen, chuckling at her admittedly terrible Daredevil impression. It was probably the most mundane conversation she's had all week, and it was honestly a nice reprieve from all the nonstop Supernatural Drama talk.
"Matthew, it's so good to see you, it's been so long since you've visited." Grams greeted the boy in typical grandmother fashion that made you feel warm and welcome, but also guilty for not visiting more often.
Grams managed do that all while not so subtly pouring rum in her fresh cup tea.
Nova gave her friend a look of understanding sympathy but didn't bother muffling her chuckles as she walked past them and towards the oven. She glanced around the kitchen and took notice of her missing sister who was probably talking - cough, gossiping, cough - with their blonde best friend.
She absently listened to the conversation happening behind her as she started pulling the food from the oven and placing it on the many cooling racks that were laid on the counters.
"Hi, Ms. Sheila. It's good to see you too. I'm sorry about not visiting, things have been... crazy lately." Matt was unsurprisingly suckered into feeling guilty by the woman who used to babysit him on occasion.
"That's ok, baby. I know you're growing into a young man, it's alright to admit you don't want to visit an old woman."
Wow, Grams was really milking it today, she thought with a roll of her eyes.
She tuned out her oblivious childhood friend reassuring her devious grandmother and focused on sorting out some food; four croissants, three French toasts, a slice of baked eggs, and a butt load of bacon all went into a big Tupperware bowl.
She rummaged in the fridge and began placing a few leftovers she knew Grams didn't want on top of the growing stack of food.
" - I hear you and Caroline are going steady these days?"
Nova paid attention when Caroline's name came into the conversation, she kept herself busy with pulling the final batch of muffins out of the pan so she wouldn't be caught eavesdropping.
"Yeah, we've, uh, been hanging out lately."
She rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed by hearing the words 'hanging out' coming out of Matt's mouth, again.
What the fuck did that mean?
After wheedling more information about his life out of him, Grams eventually took her bottle of rum with her into the living room, leaving the two teens alone in the kitchen.
"So... Matty," Nova started, turning around with a smile on her face, she casually leaned on the counter behind her, staring intently at him. "Have I threatened you lately?" she questioned, tilting her head in question.
"...No, I don't think so?" Matt's answer came out more like a question than an answer, he stared at her warily -
Well, more like he was staring warily at the knife in her hand, she noticed and, with a roll of her eyes, she set the knife down on the counter. She gave him a look that said 'is that better?', but of course, he wasn't as good at translating her looks as her sister was and so he just assumed he was being glared at, she decided to just get to the point.
"I love you, Matt. I think you're a good guy and an even better friend," she told him with a genuine smile appearing on her face as she studied the somehow still wary teenager.
"Thanks?"
She ignored his very much unneeded reply and continued her speech. "But you know the drill, this is the part where I threaten you," she said with a deceptively light tone that didn't match her expression, she stared into his blue eyes for a dramatically drawn moment before she started speaking in low tones.
"Caroline means a lot to me and if you hurt her, in any way shape or form, I'll make you disappear off the face of the earth faster than anyone who went into the Bermuda Triangle. Got it?" Nova threatened him, a dead serious look on her face as she stared at him.
"Got it." Matt, to his credit, was still coherent enough at the end of that speech to say, but she could tell he was still nervous; it had been a while since she had given him the shovel talk and her threats had gotten even more creative - and violent, can't forget violent.
"Good! Now take this!" Nova suddenly broke the knife cutting tension as she carried about five different Tupperware bowls towards him.
"This is too much, Nova." Matt tried to refuse when she held out the Tupperware bowls towards him.
He probably thought this was a pity thing. She would be thinking the same thing in his shoes, but it was less about pity and more about somewhat understanding his situation.
Everyone's situation was different, of course. But in her last life, her days were filled with her taking care of herself and other people with barely a word of complaint coming out of her mouth.
And in some ways, things were still like that.
Because even with Grams and dad taking care of them, the twins still end up with more responsibilities than children should have; but she supposed that was what broken families did, it forces kids to grow up in different ways.
But at least the twins had each other to lean on, Matt didn't have anyone until his train wreck of a mother wandered back into town and who knew when and if Vicki would come back.
Besides that, she liked taking care of her friends, she thought they would know that by now but, apparently, they didn't.
She cut off his protests with a single look that said; 'are you really about to fucking test me after I just got finished threatening you?', he still didn't understand her non-verbal communication, so she rolled her eyes and resigned herself to more talking. Eugh.
"You've been working your ass off at The Grill, and along with school, I doubt you've had anything more than takeout. So, yeah, you're taking the fucking food, Matthew." As she spoke - ranted - her sister walked into the kitchen with Caroline close behind her.
"That was her aggressive way of saying she cares a lot about you and just wants to help." Bonnie translated for her twin, greeting Matt with a small smile as she immediately went to grab a muffin from the cooling rack.
"It's best to nod, smile, and go along with her when she's like this," Caroline said in agreement, smiling over at them as she opened the fridge and poured herself a glass of orange juice.
"Like you aren't just as terrible when you're trying to rope me into doing your bidding." Nova shot back towards her friend, receiving an uncaring shrug in return.
"You get roped into doing my 'bidding' because you love me," Caroline replied with a glare that dared her to rebuke her words. Smiling brightly when her friend didn't deny it, she turned to address the still hesitant Matt, placing a lingering hand on his shoulder. "It's better to just accept the free food or we'll be here all day, she's that stubborn."
Bonnie hummed in agreement to her friend's words but didn't pitch in further, too busy devouring a second muffin.
Matt still looked hesitant, looking between Caroline and Nova, who didn't deny the blonde's words and instead held out the food towards him again, unabashedly confirming her friend's words.
Nova liked to think it was the sight of how good her food looked that had Matt accepting all of the food, but it was probably the efforts of her best friends who helped her convince him.
"I hate to do this, but I've gotta go get ready for a shift at the Grill," Matt spoke up when he saw the time on the clock. "Thanks for the food," he thanked his aggressive mother hen of a friend, hefting the bowls into his arms.
Nova waved off the thanks but she had a feeling he was no longer paying attention to her when his eyes drifted towards her friend.
The twins turned around to give the pair a moment of privacy, but they couldn't help but watch from the corner of their eyes, both of them curious about the relationship.
"I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, I'll call you when my shifts over."
"You better."
When they started leaning towards each other the twins completely turned their attention to something else.
Nova locked eyes with her twin, pretending to barf as the honestly pretty chaste kissing noises went on in the background; her twin hit her with a drying towel in response, a smile on her lips as they waited for the cute shit to stop.
Thankfully, they stopped sooner rather than later. Matt, somehow, managed to avoid any possible relationship drama, leaving the home literal minutes before Elena knocked on the door.
Elena was dragged into the kitchen as everyone had shown a surprising amount of patience and had waited for her to arrive before they sat down to eat.
They all dug into the feast laid out on the table with unreserved enthusiasm, it didn't take long before the conversations started.
"Did you sleep in late?" Bonnie questioned their late arrival, curious as to why the doppelganger had arrived so late.
Nova shoved a mouthful of eggs into her mouth to keep herself from groaning at the sappy look on Elena's face. Please don't say it, she closed her eyes and internally pleaded to every known deity.
Please.
Don't.
Say.
It.
Please -
"No, uh, Stefan came over to check on me this morning... we talked and lost track of time." Elena ignored Nova's internal pleads and began talking about it, the Salvatores.
"One day. One day, I'll go a whole day without hearing about one of the Salvatore brothers." Nova muttered bitterly, dipping her french toast into more syrup, she bit into the sweet toast with an unnecessary amount of aggression.
Both Grams and her blonde best friend heard her mutters and reacted to her comment in different ways.
Caroline bit her lip to hide her smile and aimed an understanding look in Nova's direction before turning her attention back towards the conversation, obviously more interested in Elena's love life than her.
And Grams, well, Grams just patted the back of her hand in a way that Nova assumed was supposed to be reassuring but ended up being just a little patronizing when the older woman didn't bother to look away from the morning paper as she did it.
Bonnie and Elena missed the non-verbal communication going on between the three of them, too engrossed in their own more verbal communication to notice anything else.
Nova rolled her eyes when she realized that the rest of the breakfast would be spent talking about Stefan Salvatore and his amazing conversational skills. Not wanting to risk saying something that would ruin Elena's sappy smile, she grabbed the can of whipped cream from the center of the table and promptly attempted to empty the bottle into her mouth.
After breakfast, the girls split the chores between them while Grams made her way outside to put row covers over the garden on the very rare chance that they'd get snow this year.
"I had way too many muffins, and bacon," Elena said with a groan, leaning heavily on the counter as she washed the mountain of dirty dishes.
"A lot of bacon," Bonnie said in agreement, wiping down the damp counter as she waited to be handed a plate to dry.
Nova was sipping on a cup of tea - caffeine free, for her poor heart's sake - her feet propped up in a chair while Caroline had the hard task of trying to sweep under the chair her feet occupied.
Nova ignored the not so subtle glare Caroline was shooting her because no matter how much she glared, the four of them had a deal, whoever cooked shouldn't have to clean up the aftermath.
"So... Matt gave you a ride?" Nova asked, an innocent smile on her face.
"...Yeah?" Caroline said, confused as to where this was going but wary of her friend's smile.
"Is that all you rode?"
Caroline turned towards Elena with panic in her eyes, slumping in relief when she saw the other girl was busy talking with Bonnie. "Not so loud," the blonde said, but the grin she was trying to hide told Nova she wasn't upset by her blatant dirty joke theft.
"So…how good is Matt in bed, like on a scale of one to like, eleven," Nova continued, completely undeterred.
Elena sure as hell never divulged the interesting information about her relationship, and while Matt wasn't her type, she was curious if he was as vanilla as he seemed.
What if he was like really kinky?
"Ooh, is he kinky?" she voiced her thoughts out loud - because that would be a real plot twist.
"Nova!" Caroline exclaimed with a growing blush, still struggling not to laugh and mostly failing as she gave up sweeping and sat down next to her.
"What's so funny?" Elena inquired with a smile, looking between them curiously as she pulled rubber gloves off, tossing them on the table before she sat down.
Bonnie was seconds behind her as she sat down with a relieved sigh, she leaned her elbows on the table, looking at the two of them curiously.
"Nothing!"
"We were talking about riding Matt," Nova talked over her flustered friend, ignoring the panicked look that was thrown her way. "Specifically, Caroline riding Matt." she continued without remorse, her devious smile still in place.
Maybe she was being a little bit of a bitch.
Maybe, no matter how unlikely it seemed, her friend wanted to keep her first serious relationship private.
But there was no way in any version of hell was she letting the fact that Caroline happened to be dating Elena's ex-boyfriend ruin any part of their friendship.
She also might be getting revenge for all the times they teased her about the inevitability of her sleeping with Damon - but that was a minor, nearly unrelated, detail.
"See! This is why I didn't want to bring it up." Caroline waved her hand at the awkward look on Elena's face. "I didn't want to make the fact that I'm dating Elena's first love even more awkward than it already is."
"No - no, it's fine, Care." Elena was quick to reassure the other girl, she leaned across the table to squeeze the hand of her visibly unsure friend. "I know it's a little... awkward, but Matt and I have both clearly moved on -"
At this, the other three girls shared a dubious look.
Clearly, Elena underestimated how much Matt loved her. He was obviously trying to, but all of them doubted he had completely moved on - at least, all of them but Elena, who continued, either unaware or ignoring the exchanged looks.
"I want to hear everything, well, maybe not... everything." Elena amended when she glanced over at the dirty grin that had eased back onto Nova's face.
"Buzzkill - whatever happened to friends sharing the smut?" Nova teased her friends, her mug barely hiding her dirty grin as she took a sip of her cooling tea.
"There's not really anything to tell, it's nothing like the epic love story of Stelena, we're just getting to know each other," Caroline said, obviously trying to shrug off the conversation.
"Epic love story?" Nova questioned skeptically.
"Stelena?" Elena said at the same time, her nose scrunched up at her and her boyfriend's ship name.
"You know we don't care about how 'epic' your relationship is with Matt, right? We just want to know if he makes you happy." Bonnie finally spoke up, ignoring her other friends in favor of focusing on the uncharacteristically tight-lipped blonde.
The three of them had watched so many immature dicks ruin Caroline's confidence piece by piece until the blonde was forced to put up a confident facade. Kids were cruel, horny teenage boys even crueler.
All they wanted was for her to finally find someone that made her happy.
"He's been really great," Caroline smiled gratefully at Bonnie before hesitantly continuing after getting an encouraging glance from all of her friends.
"I was having a hard time falling asleep last night and when I told him.. he came over and watched movies with me until I fell asleep," she explained with a small almost bashful smile on her face.
Well, that explained the rumpled clothing and late text message.
She was upset she hadn't been there to comfort her friend, but she was grateful Matt had been there and almost felt a little bad for threatening him... almost.
"Well it sounds pretty epic to me, Caroline," Elena told her, sharing a smile with her obviously smitten friend.
Nova grinned at her best friends, content with the fact her friends were happy - and even more content with the fact their boyfriends knew if they hurt them that they'd have to face her.
"So how did you love sick idiots get kidnapped?" Nova changed the subject after a moment, already bored with the topic even though she was the one who brought it up.
Elena shared a long look with Caroline before letting the blonde take the lead. "Well, after I got off the phone with you guys, I went to find Lena," the blonde began to tell them. "On my way to the boarding house, I found her car flipped over, in like, the middle of the road."
"There was a man, standing in the road on my way back home. I tried to swerve out the way, but I must have crashed right into him." Elena explained it from her point of view, she pulled her hair out of her face with a sigh.
"Only there was no one around when I got there," Caroline chimed in.
"So… a vampire?" Bonnie guessed correctly, a speculating look on her face as she threw a glance at her sister.
"Anna said she had someone stalking Jeremy, maybe it was the same vampire?" Nova voiced her thoughts out loud, looking back towards her friends when it looked like they had more to say.
"I was freaking out when I went to check the SUV, obviously. I mean, Elena already mysteriously survived one car wreck, I wasn't sure if she had enough luck to survive another one." Caroline rambled, doing that thing that thing where she unknowingly put her foot in her mouth.
Bonnie stared incredulously at Caroline before looking worriedly at Elena, who quietly hid her expression behind the curtain of her hair.
"...Awkward," Nova couldn't help but comment, a tight grin on her face as she tried to defuse the tense situation.
"What? What'd I say?" the blonde asked, looking them with a confused frown.
Nova just nodded her head meaningfully towards Elena when the blonde remained confused.
Caroline grimaced when she realized her own words but didn't get to apologize as Elena came out of her hair cocoon and hesitantly continued to recount the night to the twins.
"Caroline managed to help me get out the car, but the head rush must have been terrible because she told me I fainted," Elena explained, sending her friend a glance that spoke of forgiveness when the blonde kept sending her rueful glances.
"...And before I could call the ambulance, someone came up behind me and knocked me out." Caroline finished her side of the story, placing her hand on the back of her head as though remembering the moment.
Elena continued to tell them what happened when she woke up on a bathroom floor with Caroline still knocked out in the bathtub. She was adamant that she heard three different people arguing when she woke up, but by the time Bonnie and Stefan got there Ben was the only one there guarding them.
"Wait, hold on, Ben? Who the fuck is Ben?" Nova questioned them, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"You know, Ben, Ben McKittrick, the guy who was on the football team a few years ago? The bartender that works - worked the night shift at the Grill?" Bonnie continued describing him when her twin remained confused, a slightly amused smile on her face.
"Oh, you mean the kind of cute guy who once flirted with you, that Ben?"
"Yeah, that Ben."
"Huh," Nova frowned trying to remember a Ben from the 'plot' but nothing stuck out to her, maybe she didn't write about him in her journal?
Caroline told the twins what Ben had divulged to them - which was surprisingly a lot for a guy who was supposed to be guarding them - and unsurprisingly, it was the usual shit that sometimes happens to people who stay in one place all their life.
Ben had felt stuck as a small town bartender and wanted more out of life, so he had accepted Anna's offer to turn to be her little spy and in return, she gifted him with immortality.
As much as Nova could understand his motivations, he had kept her friends captive in a b&b bathroom, so she wasn't too torn up to hear Stefan had killed him.
"I have something else to tell you guys," Elena said with a hesitant look on her face before she divulged what she had found out from her boyfriend this morning - from Stefan being the one to save her the night her of the night her parent's car drove off the Wickery Bridge to the reason why Elena and Katherine look like twins.
In other words, Elena found out she was adopted.
"I can't believe you're adopted. I never saw that coming." Bonnie said, disbelief written all over her face.
"...Wow," it was old news to Nova, but she tried to look surprised, she failed horribly if the suspicious looks that were thrown her way any indication.
"That's insane, Lena, like, fucking soap opera level insane," Caroline said with a bewildered look on her face, drawing the attention away from her friend.
"And it gets weirder. I looked at my birth certificate, it lists Miranda and Grayson Gilbert as my birth parents." Elena said with a furrowed brow, she rubbed her forehead, clearly frustrated. "None of it makes any sense."
"Well, your dad was a physician. He could have forged your birth certificate if he was there during your birth," Nova spoke up, finally stringing a believable sentence together.
The other three girls thought on her words for a moment.
Bonnie broke the thoughtful silence, her green eyes moving curiously towards her friend. "Do you think Jenna knows?" she asked.
"I asked her last night, she didn't seem very shocked," Elena answered, a bitter frown on her face.
"...Well, come on! Don't keep us in suspense! Did she tell you anything?" Caroline blurted out with an eager look on her face.
"No, I've been avoiding her since last night," the doppelganger admitted, she didn't seem too eager to talk to her aunt about much of anything.
Nova sighed at the stubborn look on her friend's face, sharing a look with her other friends they silently decided to tag team it.
"First of all, the Elena I know would always want to know the truth whether it was good or bad," the youngest twin started.
"And second of all?" Elena asked with a small smile, not denying the very true statement.
"Second of all, if you want to know anything useful, you should start by talking to Jenna about it," the eldest twin said, somehow resisting the urge to add 'duh, you stubborn idiot' to the end of her sentence.
"I mean, after finding out you have a freaking vampire for a boyfriend and a twin ancestor who has dated said boyfriend, finding out the truth about your birth parents can't be that bad," Caroline ranted when the brunette still looked hesitant.
Nova struggled not to wince at her words but failed to cover up her emotions, thankfully, no one noticed her odd expression.
"Unless they turn out to be aliens," Bonnie commented with a teasing smile, trying to lighten the mood and succeeding as they all chuckled.
"Okay. Okay. I'll talk to Jenna." Elena held up her hands in surrender, a smile on her face as she admitted defeat.
The four girls chatted about lighter topics for a little while before growing quiet when Grams came back inside the house. "I think it's about time we go check out the tomb." the older woman declared.
The girls didn't even have to look at each other to know all of them were on board with checking out the Tomb, or more importantly, the aftermath of the Magic performed last night.
So they all grabbed their things and packed like sardines into Grams orange Pontiac Vibe - well, Elena, Bonnie and Caroline squeezed themselves into the backseat with a bunch of ungraded papers and books on the supernatural.
Nova, however, had called shotgun before anyone else could and sat comfortably in the front with Merlin relaxing on her lap.
Thankfully, for those crammed in the back, the drive wasn't far away.
No, it was the walk that was going to be hell.
"Ugh, more walking." Nova groaned when they were forced to abandon the car when the trees and bushes became too thick to safely drive through.
"No, this is good. We need to work off all the calories we just ate," Caroline said, trying to give her a positive look on their hiking, it wasn't working.
Nova gave her friend the stink eye but tried to keep her whining to a minimum as it almost had her tripping in her thigh high boots, wedge heel or not, these boots were not made for walking in the woods in.
With how long it would take to get to the ruins she started to miss Damon and his super speed, but mainly his super speed.
The long walk did give her a moment to think, her mind unsurprisingly drifting towards the question Grams had poised to her - did she want to tell them? - but thinking about it more didn't help and by the time they got to the ruins of Fell's Church, she hadn't magically gotten her answer.
"Do you have any answers, ol' wise familiar?" Nova whispered, she fondly looked down at Merlin who was napping in her arms like a fucking baby.
The first thing she noticed as she made her way down the steps was the fresh layer of grime littering the stone floor, and the inside of the actual Tomb even worse.
"Was there sand in here before?" Caroline inquired, staring curiously at the elder Witch as she bent down to examine the 'sand' in question.
"...I don't think its sand, Caroline," Nova replied after bending down to examine it herself, her eyes on tattered clothes that she found in the 'sand'.
"What is it then?" Elena asked her, briefly flashing her flashlight in the other girl's eyes as she turned to face her.
Nova shared a look with the other Witches in the room and found they had come to the same conclusion if their expressions were anything to go by, but her friends hadn't figured it out.
"Pretty sure this is the remains of the vampires," she responded bluntly.
"Oh," Elena said breathlessly, looking at their surroundings with new eyes.
"My god," Caroline shivered in disgust, her hand that had been reaching out to touch said remains retracted as though she had almost touched hot coals.
"Well, I think it's about time I get all of you back home," Grams spoke up, sensing the unease that was now hanging in the air, she ushered the teenagers out of the Tomb and back into the forest.
It was funny how seeing the literal ashes of dead Vampires so early in the day dampened the mood so much that the walk felt even slower as they began to make their way back towards the car.
Seeing it didn't bother Nova in the way it bothered her friends, but it did serve as another reminder of how fucking random life and death could be and how fucking angsty she was being over something relatively small in the grand scheme of things and -
"Nova? Are you ok?" Elena asked with a worried frown when the other girl stayed worryingly silent.
And it was as Nova stared into the eyes of one of her best friends that she finally figured out that, yes, this bitch did want her friends to know - but before she could think of an excuse, her mouth went ahead and decided to blurt everything out.
"...I'm a reincarnated soul."
Woop, der it is, her mind unhelpfully supplied as everyone was looking at her like she had just spoken Gobbledegook, even her grandmother looked surprised by her outburst.
"Uhm… what?!" Caroline was unsurprisingly the first one to recover from her shock to ask questions.
"I was once in a completely different universe and now I'm a completely different person in a completely different body," Nova explained, oddly calm despite how crazy her words probably sounded to them.
It was weird, now that she had said it out loud to them, she was less nervous.
"Wait, so, you're being serious? You're a…" Elena trailed off, her mind frazzled as she tried to remember what her friend had just told her.
"A reincarnated soul. Yeah, I wasn't completely kidding when I joked about being out of this world, just ask Bonnie." Nova threw her sister under the bus to get a reprieve from the questions.
Their still baffled friends turned to look at the younger twin for more answers while their grandmother wisely walked a little aways away to give them the illusion of privacy.
"Uh, yeah, she's telling the truth. She told me last night, actually... Apparently, reincarnation is possible but really rare." Bonnie said, not too upset with her sister directing the questions towards her, but that was probably the shock.
Elena opened and closed her mouth for several moments as she struggled to form words, so Caroline took it upon herself to start grilling the twins.
"Okay, but, how is this possible? Did you.. I don't know freaky friday body switch with someone else? Or is it like a witch thing?" the blonde questioned rapid fire.
Nova shrugged her shoulders, leaning her weight against a tree to alleviate the pain in her feet. She was suddenly aware of how she probably should have planned this conversation a little better, or at all - or maybe she just shouldn't have blurted it out in the middle of the woods?
"I died in my old universe and was reborn as a baby in this one, this might not have been my first life but it is mine," Nova was quick to reassure her friends, taking in the relieved yet still bewildered look they shared.
"It isn't a witch thing. I wasn't a witch in my last life and magic didn't exist in my world - at, I don't think it did," she added because she was hardly an expert on how the universes worked.
"So you basically have no clue how you got here, in a completely different dimension?" Caroline guessed, folding her arms over her chest as she gave her friend a knowing look.
"I'm pretty sure it's a different universe, not a dimension - but yeah, I have no idea how I got here," Nova was quick to admit when the blonde's look intensified, the victorious look on her friend's face was a little annoying but expected.
"...So, uh, why are you telling us this now?" Elena questioned, surprising the other girl as she had been silent for the most part.
All of them looked curious to hear her answer, even her sister.
"I don't know, it's just.. after telling Bonnie, it just seemed like the next step to tell you guys. This is a part of who I am, it's a completely different life, that I… want to share with my best friends. " Nova answered the question as best as she could, feeling her nervous energy return as she waited for her friend's response.
Elena and Caroline shared a long glance before looking back towards her with matching looks on their faces.
"Well, I don't really know what to say… But, thank you for telling us," Elena said with a small yet reassuring smile on her face; she was obviously thrown off kilter by another crazy secret being thrown her way, but she also seemed relieved that Nova had told her rather than let her find out on her own.
"I'm totally bitter you didn't tell us sooner… but I'll forgive you if you tell me more about this mysterious universe," Caroline said, a teasing smile on her face as she put emphasis on the word 'universe'.
Nova thought that went better than she thought it would have, like surprisingly well - maybe her unnecessary worries about her friends not accepting her were really just that, unnecessary.
"Sure, what do you want to know?" Nova said as they began making their way towards where Grams stood, patiently waiting for them with a knowing smirk on her face.
"Are the guys any hotter there?" Caroline asked - because of course she did.
The reincarnated teenager happily spent the rest of the walk back answering questions. Usually, the walk would have filled her with dread, but the fact that she had her friends firmly on her side made it more bearable.
Grams dropped the twins off first, their friends sent them sympathetic glances as they drove off, leaving them to face the music alone.
"Did you bring the apology cake?" Bonnie asked as they slowly made their way up the porch steps with Merlin following behind them.
"Of course," Nova replied, holding up the reusable shopping bag that held the cake they had made. "Hopefully the chocolate will make him less angry."
Bonnie smiled but didn't look very convinced, she was visibly nervous, her shoulders hunched in a resigned slump as they stood in front of the door, neither of them too eager to unlock the door.
Merlin wasn't as reluctant to enter and ran between their feet and in the house via cat flap with a loud meow that could only be described as annoyed.
So much for going in quietly, she thought dryly, sharing one last doomed look with her twin.
Bonnie dug out her keys from the pocket her purple knit cardigan, and sadly, she didn't waste any more time and swiftly unlocked the door.
Nova was expecting their dad to do the stereotypical waiting in the living room for the kids to come home thing, but what she hadn't expected to see was the absolute mess he had become in such a short amount of time.
He was asleep on the couch in wrinkled clothes and, thankfully, hadn't reacted to Merlin running into the house nor them closing the door behind them. Several pillows had fallen on the floor because of what Nova assumed to have been a fitful rest and half-eaten Chinese takeaway lay abandoned on the coffee table.
The twins hadn't scrounge up the courage to approach his sleeping figure, but a guilty look began to work its way to their faces; they exchanged a look before quietly moving closer to clean up the mess that had been made.
Nova gave the egg rolls and crab rangoons a mournful look as she threw them in a trash bag, her heart nearly breaking all the while throwing out the food. She eyed the bottle of alcohol sitting on the table, it seemed as though he had barely taken a sip out of it, but their dad was the total opposite of Grams, he hardly ever drank - let alone kept alcohol around them.
She grabbed the neck of the bottle, planning on pushing it in the back of the cabinet just in case he decided to join the Mystic Falls alcoholic parents club; but the moment she touched the cold glass of the bottle, a violent shiver went down her spine, she tried to keep a firm hold on the bottle as her eyes glazed over.
"Happy anniversary, my love,"
Nova's vision was attacked by the image of a slightly younger version of her father and who she assumed was the woman who gave birth to her and her sister.
"Thank you," Abby said, a fond smile on her face as she accepted the strange combination of red roses and a bottle scotch.
The same scotch that had pulled her into this moment, she noticed.
"We'll open it after your mother comes to pick up the girls," Rudy said, returning the smile tenfold, currently unaware of what would be happening tonight.
Abby seemed liked she had something she wanted to say, but she kept silent, giving her husband a tight-lipped smile that didn't reach her brown eyes.
She always feels weird whenever she Sees things that normally would have been private moments. Maybe she should be used to it since she's already watched years worth of other people's lives, but Visions had a way of making everything seem more private than scripted television.
The moment changed before she could feel too uncomfortable, and she suddenly found herself looking at her father standing on Grams porch, gazing out at the setting sun.
Abby suddenly walked out the front door, a determined stride to her steps that faltered when she saw her husband. "Honey? What are doing here?"
"...I could ask you the same thing, Abby," he said, eyeing her with a severe frown on his face that was a deep contrast to the smile had been on his face earlier.
"You know," she said, exhaling wearily when he nodded in response.
"I thought you decided not to do it, for the twins sake," Rudy finally spoke up, breaking the tense silence.
Nova did not want to witness what was obviously turning into an argument, but she didn't have much of a choice as her Vision kept her in its ironclad grip.
"No. You decided, Rudy. That was you, not me," Abby replied, visibly trying to control her anger.
Nova noticed the way she clenched her jaw, it was eerie, how much that small tic reminded her of her sister.
"I know that you've never really understood magic," she tried to reason with him, keeping her distance as she tried to make her case.
Nova felt an irrational feeling of annoyance bubbling up inside for seeing parts of herself in the woman before her, but she tried to ignore the similarities and focused on the moment.
"I understand enough," he cut her off, never raising his voice but his tone let her know how upset he was. "I understand that your own mother said it was dangerous magic, dark magic, Abby -"
"It doesn't matter. This is my choice - not mom's and not yours. Mine. And I'm choosing to help a child from getting senselessly murdered, Rudy." Abby returned the favor and cut him off.
Oh, she became ten times more uncomfortable as she realized what she was Seeing.
"But what if you don't come back."
Her dad looked so utterly defeated, it was hard just looking at him, but she had no choice but to watch everything play out before her eyes.
Abby seemed to soften as she finally closed the distance, taking his hands in hers, she looked at him with a confident look in her eyes. "I've got this. I can control it. And… and after this, I promise, no more magic, okay?
I'll come home and we'll live normal lives with our beautiful daughters."
But she never did come back.
Nova blinked rapidly as she slowly came out of the past and into her present, she glanced down at her sleeping father with a conflicted look on her face.
He's never been the best father in the world.
He was terrible with actually talking to them and spending time with them, and instead liked to run away on business trips to fuck who knows where.
But she could admit to herself that she's never made a real effort to actually form a relationship with him, and as a child, her sister had been prone to unconsciously copy what she did. She feels terrible about it, but she's never had a constant relationship with her father in her old life, and so she always feels clueless when dealing with her father in this life.
Sure, she considers him family, but she kept her distance from him in a way that she hadn't done with Bonnie and Grams.
She wasn't going to start begging for his attention, because their awkward family dynamic was his fault as much as it was hers - if not more. But as she watched her sister place the pillows back on the couch, she realized she could try and extend an olive branch, for her sister sake if nothing else.
She's always wanted a picture perfect family, but she figured trying to work on having a more functional family would be just as nice.
Bonnie looked at her curiously when she set down the bottle of scotch back on the table with a loud thud; her twin didn't get to question her sister on her odd behavior because their father had been jolted awake by the sound.
Whoops?
He seemed confused as to what had woken him up, sitting up from the couch, he looked around the living room, his eyes immediately landing on his daughters. "..Bonnie - Nova?" he looked relieved to see them, but he didn't seem angry - yet.
Nova abandoned the trash bag next to the coffee table and walked over to stand next to her sister. "Hi, dad," the twins greeted him in unison, a sheepish look on their faces.
It was uncomfortably silent for a long moment before it broken by the twins rambling.
"We're really sorry about leaving, again -"
"We should have never left town without your permission -"
"We should have picked up your calls -"
"We're so sorry -"
Their rambling apologies got cut off by their father pulling them into his arms, he hugged them tightly, as though he had been afraid of them not coming back.
And maybe he had been.
"...So, does this mean we aren't grounded?" Nova spoke up, sharing a hopeful look with her twin.
Rudy finally gave them more breathing room, looking down at them with a look that spoke volumes about how much that was not going to happen.
"I am still furious with the both of you, but we'll talk about that later, for now, I'm just happy to have the two of you home," he said, looking them over for any injuries, he only relaxed when he saw they were unharmed.
"Okay, we'll talk about it later," Bonnie agreed, the twins were all too eager to put off their impending doom.
The three of them would eventually have to air out their issues. But for now, the twins took great joy in showing their dad the chocolate cake they had made; the 'sorry we almost gave you a heart attack' written in pink decorating gel had gotten him to smile so there was that at least, whether it would lessen their sentence had yet to be seen.
Turns out, chocolate wasn't enough to lessen their sentence.
The twins couldn't go anywhere but school and back, they were pretty much cut off from their allowance until next year - the new year was close, but she was still relieved she saved her money regularly - and even though they were allowed friends over, they couldn't have any sleepovers.
To be perfectly honest, she could live without most of the things being taken from her - but it was the fact that they wouldn't be able to use their cars for the next unforeseeable future that made her the most upset.
The only thing that calmed her down when she was told the news was the fact the twins had gotten to actually talk about everything.
They talked about his aversion to Magic to all of their aversion to talking to each other instead storming off; the talk had ended up going...okay, they weren't going to fix sixteen years of stilted relationships in one night but it was a start.
After the impromptu family talk, she had retreated into her room for some much needed alone time.
She grabbed a random book before collapsing on her bed, slipping her earbuds into her phone, she hit play on the Spotify playlist titled 'don't fuck with me rn', it was something she only played when she was trying to drown out the rest of the world.
Merlin hopped onto the bed before curling up on his favorite pillow, lazily looking at her as she stared blankly at the pages.
It took all of twenty minutes before she abandoned the book with a tired huff.
She was too lazy to actually get up and so she leaned over to unlatch her bedside table, quickly reaching in and pulling out her journal when her fingers brushed up against familiar worn down leather.
Nova settled back on her mountain of decorative pillows as she opened her leather bound journal, hoping to find something that would give her more information on the past few days. She quickly skimmed through the pages until she found the page she had written 'Season One', her eyes quickly skipped over the list of events that had already happened but her eyes strayed back up when some keywords had caught her attention.
"Well, this bitch done fucked up," she muttered, cringing as the words 'Damon saves Elena from vampire/car crash. They take a trip to Georgia. ' stared back at her.
She really should check her journal more often.
Nova tore a blank page from the back of her journal and began going over everything that had changed these past few days.
The timeline had sped up. It was something she had noticed earlier, but it still put her on edge when she noticed how far away the Tomb opening was actually supposed to be.
She anxiously twirled her pencil between her fingers as she continued going over her own writing.
Elena was actually supposed to get kidnapped - what a shocker, she thought sarcastically - but it had happened much later on and Anna was the one who was supposed to take her, not one of her lackeys.
Bonnie had also been kidnapped to open the Tomb, not Caroline, the only mention of her blonde friend getting kidnapped was by Jenna's now dead ex, Logan Fell.
"Wow… my friends get fucking kidnapped a lot," she said to her feline roommate, a tiredly amused smile on her face as she looked at him.
Merlin meowed softly as he met her gaze, staring at her through half-closed eyes, he was too busy grooming himself to pay much attention to her.
There was no mention of a Ben in her journal, but she had written about a douchebag who was supposed to seduce and kidnap her sister.
Nova didn't know what to feel about that, on one hand, her friends had gotten fucking kidnapped and she should have been in town to prevent that. But on the other hand, she had unknowingly kept her sister from entering a fake relationship with a manipulative douchebag.
She guessed she should just happy it had worked out in the end, she thought, slipping off into a light doze with her music playing lightly through her earbuds.