This chapter includes spoilers for all three books. It is one of my favorites. (I know I say that a lot, what can I say? I love Nodrian and Osby.)
"I'm bored," Nova said, lying on Adrian's couch.
He was sitting on the floor, sketching a cat.
"What are you doing?" Nova asked.
"Drawing you as an animal." Adrian replied.
"Why is there a dog trying to get Cat Me's attention?"
"That's me as an animal."
"Adrian, we live in the same house now. You're the only thing I pay attention to sometimes. 'Oh, Nova, you haven't hugged me in a minute' or "It's been three seconds since you last kissed me', and my personal favorite 'I'm gonna draw Nova without her consent because she's cute'."
"You are cute!"
"But you have a million portraits of me. It's bordering on creepy. Start drawing your fish."
"At least I don't make the portraits of you come to life," Adrian said.
"That would be even creepier. And if you ever do, I'm breaking up with you."
Adrian chuckled and closed his sketchbook.
"My dads and Max carpooled with Thunderbird to the baseball game, so we can go for a drive and look for something to do," Adrian offered.
"Better than sitting around," Nova said, standing up.
Adrian took the keys from the hook by the door and unlocked the car door.
"Can you believe that they used to use fossils fuels to make these things work?" Nova asked as Adrian adjusted the solar panels. The car used electricity as backup if the sun wasn't out. But luckily it was a beautiful day and the sun would provide them energy.
"Yeah. Almost killed the planet, too. I'm glad they stopped before the ruined the planet completely. We fixed what we could but there's still a lot to do to nurse Mother Earth back to health," Adrian said. (I'm sorry, I am an environment-loving/eco-friendly person and couldn't help myself).
Adrian drove the car around for about twenty minutes. Nova wished that she knew how to drive a car. Simon and Hugh have talked about teaching her, so maybe that's something she needed to ask about again.
"Hey, look at this place," Nova said, spotting a small sign.
It read "Sweet Treats" and nothing more.
"Super creative name," Adrian joked.
Nova scoffed.
"Looks like the bulk of their sweets is ice cream," She said, looking through the windows.
"Let's try it out," Adrian said, pulling into the parking lot.
The place was small, and when Nova entered, it gave her a before-the-first-battle vibe. Before war completely took over the city.
"It's been open since 2010," Adrian said, looking at a sign.
"Wow. That's pretty old," (I always thought the Renegades took place in the future, so 2010 would be old for them).
"Opened by my great-great grandmother," A voice said. She was a middle-aged woman. She wore an apron with a long-sleeved shirt and jeans on. "It's been in the family for four generations." (I think I got the math right, but it was never my strong suit.) Her name tag read Ambrosia.
Adrian and Nova took a look at the menu, and then the ice cream in the display case in front of them.
"All ice cream is hand-made here, in the back room. My son was mostly in charge of that," Ambrosia said. "But I had to hire another girl because he's a renegade now."
She looked at them.
"Oh! You're Nova and Adrian! You probably know my son. His name is Jesse. His alias is Soundwave. He's in back training the new girl at this very moment."
"Oh, yeah, I like him. He gave me a kale smoothie once." Nova said.
Running a shop must be hard, especially in an old building like this.
"How did this survive the battle?" Nova asked.
"I know, it's a miracle. That happened when my mother was still in charge and I was still an underling. We had to do a lot of reconstruction, but managed to save the building's integrity," Ambrosia said.
"Are you the owner/manager now?"
"Yep, my mother is happily retired now. She took an early retirement." The shop owner explained.
"It's a really nice place," Nova stated, looking around at the polaroid pictures of happy customers and pictures of the family as they grew throughout the four generations. The last picture was one of Ambrosia, her son and her daughter, Jesse's older sister.
"Thank you, Nova. Oh! How rude of me! Would you like to sample any of the ice cream? Many of the flavors are unique to my family and this shop."
"What's in this Ambrosia?" Adrian asked, the name was what caught his eye. "Isn't ambrosia food of the gods or something?"
"Yes, but it's also an old American desert. My mother invented that recipe shortly after I was born. She loved food-themed names so she named me Ambrosia, which gave her an idea to convert the traditional dessert into an ice cream flavor. I tried to change the name, because having people asking for your namesake is kind of weird, but people kept asking for "ambrosia", so I changed it back. It has pineapple and mandarin orange chunks, with marshmallow fluff and pecans mixed in. There's a hint of coconut flavor, too. It's a little thicker than the other ice creams. Usually, I make it into a sundae and add whipped cream to make it more similar to the traditional dessert. It doesn't taste the same as ambrosia, because ambrosia is a fruit salad and this is ice cream, but it's close."
"Can we sample it?" Adrian asked.
The woman nodded and got out two sample cups and put a small spoonfuls in each cup.
Adrian and Nova each took a bite.
Nova's eyes widened and Adrian gasped.
"That is really good," Nova said.
"Yeah," Adrian agreed.
He looked at the prices.
The price seemed a little high, even for unique ice cream flavors, but probably because she had more competition and less customers, since it was locally owned and a kind of hole-in-the-wall place.
Nova mentally counted the money she knew she had in her wallet. Adrian did the same.
"Mom!" A voice said.
Ambrosia looked to the source.
"Annie made a mistake and there's an open bag of pecans on the floor," Jesse said.
"I told you to help her carry the heavy things!"
"Pecans aren't that heavy," Jesse argued.
"Maybe not to you, Mr. Renegade," The woman sighed.
"Help these customers while I calm the poor girl down," Ambrosia said, hearing quiet crying from the girl in the back room.
Jesse looked at the pair and his face paled.
"Um, hello, Nova. Adrian." He said.
"Hi, Soundwave!" Nova said.
"Hello," Adrian said a little quieter.
"I didn't know your mom worked here." Nova said. "Of course, nobody really knows much about your mom except that she's a little overprotective."
"Yeah, most people don't know about this place or about my family, really. But this place has been in our family for a long time and she loves it. Plus, she's a single mom and it makes enough to keep our family afloat, which is convenient. If my mom had to close it and take a better-paying job, she'd be devastated."
"Form what your mom was saying, it seems that only women have owned this place."
"Yep. My sister is getting her college degree in business so she can someday take over and keep our family's legacy going. I was told as a child I could never own it, so I'm glad I was accepted as a renegade. I still help out sometimes, but it's more my sister's thing. She loves this place almost as much as my mom does."
"It's a nice place. That ambrosia is amazing," Adrian said.
"Yeah, that's Tara's favorite, too. She was going here long before we started dating." Jesse said.
Adrian thought he was acting a little strange. He knew Jesse didn't particularly like him. There was once a fight that involved Oliver, a friend of both of them, but he thought they were good now. Besides, it was over a year ago.
"Jesse, you're not still mad about Oliver, are you? Because Oliver said it was all good now..."
"No, I'm not mad..."
"Wait, what happened?" Nova asked, totally in the dark. "Isn't Oliver that really dumb guy who likes vegetable muffins?"
"Yeah, he used to be on my team..."
"Nobody told me?"
"Look, can we just stop talking about that?" Jesse asked, a little uncomfortable.
"Yeah, sorry, man. How much money do you have? I can only afford one sundae," Adrian said, turning to Nova.
"I have one dollar and two cents," Nova announced.
"Well, I guess we could share. Sharing a sundae is basically borderline kissing," Adrian said. "And we've done that before."
Jesse squirmed, feeling more uncomfortable by the minute.
"Adrian, I think we're making Jesse feel awkward," Nova said.
"Right. Um, one ambrosia sundae," He said.
Jesse got to work making the sundae, glad that it kept him from seeing Adrian and Nova give each other that look.
He was dating Tara, and he didn't like Nova anymore. There was still a little leftover jealousy. The fact that Adrian, the Renegades Golden Boy, once again, got everything he wanted.
Whenever a new reporter interviews a team about some crime or criminal caught, they go to Sketch's team. It's always Sketch this, Sketch that. It made Jesse furious.
Jesse handed them the ice cream while Adrian pushed the money – exact change – towards Jesse.
Adrian and Nova sat down, digging into the sundae.
Oliver and a smaller kid ran into the building.
"My team won the soccer tournament!" The kid exclaimed, running straight to Jesse.
Adrian recognized Oliver. The younger kid must be the cousin who plays soccer that Oliver constantly brags about. The guy deserves to brag, though. He coaches the team.
"We were just talking about him..." Nova said.
"That's a story for another day, Nova," Adrian said, knowing where Nova was headed.
"Hi, Oliver," Adrian said.
"Hey, Adrian! I guess everyone decided to come here, today. I saw Tara heading in," Oliver said just as the girl made her appearance.
"She almost broke up with me because I preferred cats," Jesse said.
"I like dogs," The young kid said.
"Everyone in our family does," Oliver stated.
Jesse and Oliver began talking amongst themselves, so Nova and Adrian focused on their ice cream.
"I'm glad we found this place. This ice cream is the best I've ever tasted." Adrian said.
Ambrosia came out of the backroom, and Jesse quickly went back, probably to get away from Nova and Adrian.
"Hey, Oliver, can I talk to you?" Adrian called as Oliver's little cousin was busy making a decision about what he wanted.
"Sure," Oliver said.
"Jesse's been acting strange, lately," Adrian said.
"Oh," Oliver said, showing no emotion.
"Would you happen to know why?"
Oliver sighed.
"I'm telling you this because you're my friend, Adrian. So Jesse might have had a little crush on Nova and he wanted her on our team. He's still kind of mad that she chose you." Oliver replied.
"After all we've been through, Jesse should be able to see that I obviously belong with Adrian."
"He does, I think he's still mad that Adrian seems to get whatever he wants. It's kind of true, Adrian," Oliver stated. 'But you deserve it, Adrian. Don't pay attention to him. I've been friends with him for a long time and I can tell you that it probably won't affect your life that much. He wouldn't try to steal Nova, and he has Tara now."
"I want the peanut butter ice cream, Ollie!" The kid stated.
"Well, duty calls. I promised him ice cream if he won the game today."
Nova looked at Adrian, who seemed bothered.
She tried to distract him.
"Oscar would love this place," She said.
"We should invite the rest of the group here next weekend. We can't be greedy and keep this place to ourselves. Plus, Ambrosia is nice and deserves the customers. And maybe, Jesse will start to warm up to me."
The finished their shared sundae and headed to the car.
"Nova, why did you choose my group? Was it really just because I was Simon and Hugh's son?"
"At first, yeah. But as I got to know you, I realized that you were a cool, sweet guy, and I started to like you." Nova replied. "You were the only person who kept me from having nightmares when I slept. This isn't about who I was before the second battle, it's about who I am now, and the person I am now is totally, without a doubt, head over heels in love with you. I never would have picked Jesse over you."
Nova knew she sounded gross and cheesy, bur Adrian ate this stuff up, and she loved seeing him smile.
All throughout the car ride, his smile didn't fade.
So I have had this idea floating in my brain for awhile, and I love this was fun to write. I love creating new characters and Ambrosia was fun to create.
I involved Jesse and Oliver because I want to demonstrate the connectedness of my OCs (make them seem like an actual part of the story instead of a one-time character) and the original characters and illustrate their complex relationships and kind of delve deeper into those. Jesse and Adrian definitely aren't fans of each other.
I plan on explaining a little more on Oliver's part in their dislike of each other in a later chapter but haven't gotten to that yet.
Ok, that is all!
Until next time,
Keep reading!
