Revamped!

[Ah, yes, new arc and it's named right after Carswell Thorne and I finished writing this arc so long ago, meaning that this will be published periodically.

Please remember that this arc takes place RIGHT AFTER Kai's arc.]

A Thorne in His Side: Part One

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

One early morning, Thorne unlocks the door to his grand estate and swings it open after a long night out. He shuffles to where the door opened and slams it shut, not caring who's still asleep since he knows that nobody is.

"Mom, Dad, anyone home?" Thorne asks obnoxiously loud purposely.

There's no response, like he expected, only silence, which he also expected.

Thorne laughs to himself. "Of course you're not here. When are you ever?"

Bitterness aside, Thorne runs up the staircase and heads straight to the bathroom, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind him. He turns on the light and opens the shower to start it. He takes his phone out of his pocket and sees a text. Normally, he would ignore the text at the moment and shower since he cares a lot about his appearance and he's currently sweating and covered in dirt from last night's adventure with Wolf and dirt-biking. But this text takes his breath away and for a second, he thinks that the lack of sleep from his all-nighter is making him hallucinate nightmares but his eyes aren't deceiving him.

Sweetheart Fallow: I'm visiting Commonwealth for a bit. Can we meet up and talk?

He has no words for her and he doesn't need them, so he leaves her on read.

Sweetheart Fallow: I know you're ignoring me. What are you doing tomorrow?

Thorne: Having my tomorrow ruined by whatever you'll ask me to do.

He had to answer her to let her know where he stands (although it's not that tall since that's still her contact name). Thorne hides his phone underneath his dirty laundry after he undresses and steps into the shower, making it hotter not only to wash away the dried mud but whatever left him spooked from those texts. The former goes down the drain in a soapy stream whereas the latter stays on the shower wall for him to stare at and not forget. Thorne swipes it away with his palm as he turns off the water and steps out. He grabs his towel and runs it through his hair before wrapping it tightly around his waist and stepping out to go to his bedroom.

When he closes the bathroom door behind him with his phone in his hands, he turns his head and sees the family housekeeper, Jeanette, cleaning up the mud stains he left moments ago. He was about to blame the dog but only Thorne wears sneakers.

"Sorry about that, Jeanette," Thorne says.

She looks at him and smiles. "Don't be, Captain Thorne. It gave me something to do for five minutes since your house is always so clean due to constant inactivity, and gave me the heads-up on where you were in the house."

"Right…" He mutters. Jeanette had it easy compared to past housekeepers. The Thorne estate was always clean since nobody was around to make it a mess. To add to that, Jeanette was paid so well and had generous vacations.

"Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, thanks, I lost my appetite."

-o-

At Kai's place, Kai was amid sorting through his father's things. It was hard to do since every item he picked up made him think and reflect, sometimes even cry if the triggered memories were too much for him. Then, there was the hoard of flowers of all types in different vases that ranged in sizes on every surface. All those came from the funeral and he couldn't leave them there (although he seriously wanted to). It all made Kai realize that he can never love people as much as he can miss them. He wonders if he reacted like this with his mom.

It doesn't help that he hasn't been back here for long since the funeral. Ever since his father passed, he's been living with Torin and his family.

Eventually, Torin and Levana stopped by to help out not only with the legal domestic issues that were still standing but with the ones in accordance to Commonwealth. The two adults started with what happens to Kai, but he made them start with the city since that affected more people compared to himself. Torin was chosen within his father's Cabinet to be the interim mayor since there would be so much to prepare in terms of the future and sudden election.

"Kai," Torin calls, snapping Kai out of whatever daze he was in. "Are you ready for the reading of the will?"

"Don't we need a lawyer for that?" Kai questions for formality reasons and trying to prolong reading his father's dying words.

"I have it handled," Levana replies.

Kai looks at her. "What do you know about the law?"

"I went to law school in Luna after double-concentrating in political science and economics," Levana replies. "Never finished, though."

"Why?"

"Channary became a firm believer in her dictatorship and nepotism," Levana smirks evilly as Torin and Kai keep quiet. "A will is a will anywhere and nobody will know or care if we had a lawyer present or not."

Kai nods as Levana pulls his father's will from her purse sitting on a spot on the dining room table that had no flowers on it. Levana opens it and her eyes flicker at Kai for a slim second before she starts to read it and already after the first few words, Kai zones out.

"- being of clear sound and mind, consider this document with its codicils to be my final will and testament."

He still couldn't process that his father was gone. Everything that happened the past few days was just a blur of condolences and flowers. The more vases that came into his house, the more often his mind would wander off into a deep and tight spiral of thoughts.

"I place my son, Kai Rikan, under the custody and guardianship of our closest family friend -"

His father is dead. Dead. Kai has no more parents and he isn't even an adult. He's still an orphaned child. He has more petals in his sight than years or even days on his life.

"As for our estate, I trust that my son, Kai Rikan, will handle the finance after the selling of the property when he should do so."

A property he barely recognized.

This wasn't a fairytale. There was no magic carpet or a genie. This was a tragedy. There was death and downfalls. This was his life now and he didn't like it.

"All remaining cash and assets, stocks, bonds, personal belongings, and anything that was failed or forgotten to be mentioned in this will, I bequeath to my beloved son, Kai Rikan."

Here he was comparing his current life to some story when the only words he should be considering was his father's will. His father's last hopes and wishes for the future were being read for him and he can't even spare a part of himself to listen. How rude of him. His dad was only dead for a week and he was already being selfish. Kai sighs as if he's the one who needs pitying now and he knows he doesn't.

Levana trails off when she looks up and sees Kai completely out of it. Even when she stops talking, he doesn't notice. Levana gives Torin a look and he's already glancing at her.

"Give me a moment alone with him," Levana says to Torin. He seems a bit skeptical. "Trust me, Torin, I have dealt with wills and grieving children. I know what I'm doing."

"Alright," Torin says.

Levana watches him walk out before turning her focus towards Kai. She snaps her fingers and Kai jumps, returning to the conversation. His expression towards Levana is spooked and she takes a seat beside him.

"Look," Levana states, "I know what it's like not wanting to be present at a will reading. I had to sit through my husband's and listen to everything about him just change. Cinder and Winter weren't there because they wouldn't understand so I was alone. I know you want everything to be how it was and it can't, and sitting here just makes it worse. Everything your father had, including you, is now moving around."

Kai says nothing. He already moved. Contents of his room and clothes were in Torin's guest room. He wasn't a guest. He just looks down at his hands, which are fiddling around in his lap.

"If you don't want to talk to me, I get it," Levana continues. "Talk to Winter, if you want. She's been through this before and you may not believe this, but you're handling this better than she did." She takes a breath. "Kai, you're welcome at my place any time."

Kai finally makes eye contact. "Thank you, Levana, I appreciate it."

"It's the least I could do since your father was such a good man and all your weird friends are always there anyways."

-o-

Andromeda Academy, Luna

Jacin takes a deep breath as he wheels his suitcase down the stone pathway of Andromeda Academy. He didn't know he would be back so quickly. A part of him didn't want to leave Commonwealth but he knew he had to. His parents were here and he couldn't just leave them forever, especially after running away and having them worry for so long. And there was also Iko and Kinney who he couldn't leave alone with each other for so long or else one of them would kill the other. Also, there was school but he didn't care much about that since that was what he was running from.

He doesn't have to knock on the door to his dad's office because it flies open and his mother pops out and hugs Jacin so hard that he almost stops breathing and falls over. He never knew that his mother and her skinny frame had so much strength but that was his mother for you. His father joins in which suffocates Jacin. But he feels happy that he was being choked with love through hugs and not with hands on his throat.

"We'll get back to you later, son," Garrison tells Jacin. "First, say hello to your classmates who need to get back to class."

Before Jacin could get a word out, he walks out to the courtyard and is jumped by Iko who, he swears, came out of nowhere. He lands on the grass with a thud and has to push Iko off of him. Kinney comes over only pulling him up and not her.

Iko looks up at Jacin, shrieking excitedly and pointing at his blue hair. "Oh, my stars! We're matching!" She holds up her weave that has strands of blue braids in it. "Now, we have to dye Kinney's hair!"

Kinney glances at Jacin who is laughing a little. "You should've stayed in Commonwealth. First, you get blue hair and now you're laughing. Who the stars are you?"

"Someone to take a selfie with!" Iko says as she rises from the ground and pulls out her cell phone from the pocket of her uniform.

"Ah, yes, the true form of artistic expression," Jacin mutters sarcastically.

"Jacin's back!" Kinney exclaims, faking an over-exaggerated gasp.

Iko wraps an arm around Jacin, snapping some selfies with them and their blue hair before handing Kinney her phone for some candid shots of them and their blue hair looking up at the blue sky. Jacin didn't like his photo being taking, especially when it was a selfie but today, he's in the mood for it. Somehow, he was blessed with this group of ridiculously amazing people and he needed these photos to remember that in case he thought to run off again.

-o-

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

Cress sits in the food court of the mall and picks at her food a lot, taking apart her sandwich and rearranging it. In front of her sits Cinder who eats mouthfuls of noodles and Winter who dips her fries into ketchup. Cress laughs a little as Cinder takes a forkful of Winter's fries and combines it with her noodles before shoving it in her mouth.

The three of them decided to hang out since Winter needed a distraction from the fact that Jacin went home today and after circling the mall so many times that they lost count and got hungry, so now they're here eating. Well, Cinder and Winter were the ones eating and Cress was playing with her sandwich.

Cress looks up from her lettuce arrangement and her eyes fall on a girl who texts on her phone as she walks through the food court, stopping against the glass barrier as she continues to type away on her phone. Cress almost didn't recognize her without the Lunar Academy uniform and big round glasses. Now, she has smoother and perfect legs, acne-free skin, long caramel hair, deep eyes, plump lips - she looks too flawless from the short time Cress has seen her before.

It's her. It's Kate Fallow. It's Thorne's ex-sweetheart. The relationship they back then had was too goals for her just to be an ex-girlfriend. Lunar Academy worshipped then when they dated and they were only twelve when they started. For a relationship that started in middle school, it surpassed the hand-holding and like-like feelings like shooting stars. When Thorne was shipped off to Andromeda Academy, he and Kate tried a long-distance up until he got expelled and sent back home. Rumour had it that Thorne got expelled to return to her. But Kate was soon leaving town for her father's new job and when Thorne returned, he caught her making out with another guy. Cress came into town just when Thorne came back and witnessed the downfall of their relationship, only to start fancying the charming ex-cadet with the broken heart.

According to what Cress heard, Kate became the girl who blended in with magazine covers and didn't have to flirt to get attention. Boys would come to her because of her beauty. She would make her uniform skimpier and her cheekbones higher. All that combined with high intelligence that was there before the blush and her relationship with Thorne increased her popularity and self-confidence. She's the girl who would call herself beautiful not because it was cocky but because it was confident.

Cinder and Winter notice Cress staring at something behind them. The Blackburn girls turn around and see the girl in short denim shorts and a tiny frilly shirt that's spooking Cress. Her face resembles seeing a horror ghost from her past.

"Do you see what she's wearing?" Cinder asks.

"Nearly nothing," Winter replies with a snorting laugh.

They look back at Cress and Cress can't help but notice how gorgeous Cinder, Winter, and even Kate are. Scarlet too but she's not here. Hot people flock like birds migrating for the winter and there are so many of them in Cress's life that she didn't think of herself as one of them. Cress doesn't find herself as beautiful as Winter, bold like Cinder, bodylicious like Scarlet or breathtaking as Kate. And those were only the girls!

Cress looks like a shell - as if someone came in and sucked away every ounce of her life. That someone being Kate and she hasn't even batted a single lash at Cress. Cress didn't know her lungs could contain so much air. She inhales for so long that it makes herself dizzy. She starts to feel pain in her chest as if someone grabbed her heart and squeezed it tightly. Then, she feels tears on her cheeks. She looks down at her palms and sees that her fingernails have left painful crescent imprints by the time they were lifted off.

"She came back for him…" Cress mutters.

"What?" Winter questions.

Cress jumps out of her seat and runs to wherever her feet will take her. Cinder and Winter try calling her back before they have to follow her to see what's up.

[I don't know if there was a communication error or misunderstanding but I'm continuing this story! THIS STORY ISN'T EVEN HALFWAY DONE! Still, I love all my readers and your support.] [2020: Still true today. Still not halfway through and I love you all.]