a/n: hope you're all doing well! i know this website is dying out but i did notice that some people are still reading my fic on here so im still gonna cross post this fic, but for other fics i will be solely posting on ao3, my ao3 is the same as here: sunlitscribe
CHAPTER NINE: THE MOON KNOWS ALL MY SECRETS
Sometimes she wondered whether it was change or control that she was trying to achieve, if she could even tell the difference between the two anymore.
The truth of it all was that with every step that she took in one direction, her knowledge would eventually become useless and she would be forced to rely on her intuition and sight. There would always be multiple paths, full of what ifs, a full picture that not even she was permitted to glimpse in its entirety. Insanity lies there.
Control over anything let alone everything was a futile effort on her part, and yet at the end of the day she just couldn't help herself, could she?
Even in her spinning thoughts as she mentally ran over her next steps, the silence of the room became too much, rattling inside her head until a scream threatened to crawl its way out of her throat. It was a simple kind of desperation, to chase away the loud, hungry hum of nothingness that threatened to consume.
Nova bit her bottom lip and swallowed it all down, her control over herself slipping until she could feel her magic humming beneath her skin, itching to react outwardly to her distress. She needed air, to move, to escape from others in a way that she wished she could escape herself. She slipped from the warm hold Caroline had on her body, shuffling through the opening of the giant blanket fort the girls had made with childish glee.
She managed to leave the mess of blankets and pillows without waking anyone up and with a sigh, she stole the blonde's discarded soft blue hoodie when she failed to find her robe in the darkness of the living room.
Her journey was an aimless one at first, itching to get away from the suffocating nature of her own thoughts. She nearly walked out of the house, though she thought better of it and her feet eventually led her to Jeremy's room.
She needed an outlet that wouldn't potentially get her hurt, and he had spare paper and pencils that he didn't use anymore.
Nova tiptoed up the stairs, resisting the urge to hum to herself lest she wake anyone up. Her panda slippers nearly slipped off her feet in her eagerness to tiptoe around. Usually, if her friend's caught her awake, they were the first to comfort her and make an effort to get her to talk about what was bothering her or comfort her. Right now though, anything they could offer was not what she wanted.
Not now, when words were a struggle to pull from her mouth, a leash on her tongue that she didn't own.
She didn't bother knocking, only opening his door enough to slip in because she knew it liked to creak with how often he slammed it. She wasn't expecting the bright light in the room to nearly blind her, it took her a few blinks to adjust to the sudden flood of light when she had gotten used to the dark.
Jeremy looked over at her when he heard the noise of surprise that escaped her, quiet though it was, it pierced through the silence of the room. He hurriedly clicked off whatever website he was on, from the brief glimpse she got it looked like some kind of suspicious forum.
She narrowed her eyes at him, hoping he wasn't listening to crazy ass bigots online.
.. nah, she trained him better than that.
".. Sup, minion," she softly closed the door when he didn't immediately shoo her out with a glare, if anything he actually paid attention to her without her having to pester him.
She wasn't a fan of the smell of weed, dirty laundry and axe body spray that permanently seemed to have made itself a home in his room lately. She was, however, not going to say no to spending time with someone that wouldn't ask her questions.
Miserable loves the miserable or whatever the fuck was the saying.
Nova was sure that Elena was just as miserable as Jeremy, the girl's eyes screamed survivor's guilt wrapped up in a concoction of depression and denial. It was just.. sometimes easier when she wasn't around someone who was constantly trying to fake being okay, or worse try to make her feel better.
Jeremy and Nova could get on each other's last nerves, but they let each other exist in each other's space with nothing but a quiet understanding.
She made herself at home by plopping herself on his full sized mattress, fighting with the pillow until it helped keep her back properly cushioned against the wall. She quickly searched through the mess of garbage on his bed for the elusive sketchpad. Her eyes eventually caught sight of it on the floor by his bed, and also, a baggie of two pills on top of the sketchpad because of course she did.
"Hugs not drugs, Jer," she said sarcastically, impulsively grabbing the sketchpad, pencils and baggie. Threesomes were heavenly.
She probably shouldn't.
Definitely shouldn't.
She swallowed both pills down with a nearby can of Redbull, ignoring the blip of internal panic that threatened to break her apathy and flipping open the slightly bent sketchpad.
She carefully chose a page that hadn't been taken by his sketches, and doodled whatever came to mind. Random sigils were drawn until they were quickly abandoned for a clean page.
Eyes, misshapen at first but quickly fixed by her more precise strokes, then a mouth was drawn, though a crooked grin would be more accurate. She found herself fixating on those lips, adding more detail to them and those eyes than she did anything else. As minutes of nearly obsessive sketching went by, the clearer the image became, hair curled around a mischievous face, those eyes looked up at her, filled with a dangerous kind of humor and –
Her muse flashed across her vision in high definition quality, her sketch pathetic compared to seeing the subject's breathing body flash before her sight.
Pouty lips curled into a sharp grin, dimples doing nothing to soften the image of blood staining the corners of his mouth. Long fingers caressed the naked spine of his willing victim as he consumed them once more, soft moans of both pain and pleasure escaping as they happily surrendered to the monster in their bed.
Nova shivered as magic rolled down her spine, releasing her all too quickly and leaving her unconsciously grasping for more. She stopped herself before she truly pushed for a stronger connection, it would do her no good to go digging into things that she wasn't ready to face quite yet.
She quickly ripped out the page once the remaining magic disappeared from her sight, balling up the page into her fist.
Her face slowly began to burn when she belatedly realized who exactly she had been drawing, how her heart had been so eager. Nature below her, she needed to stop thinking with her pussy for one second. Someone she had yet to even meet properly, a person she had no connection to, still found a way into her mind enough to trigger a vision. And in all of her absentmindedness, she wasn't even sure if magic had been guiding her to see the present, past or a potential future.
After a few minutes of mentally pacing back and forth in her mind, she realized Jeremy still hadn't spoken a goddamn word.
Little dude was moody and depressed, to be sure, but not particularly quiet when you got to spend time with him one on one.
Jeremy hadn't even complained about her making herself at home on his bed, something he always did — it was never even true annoyance, it was just the way they worked.
She made herself a nuisance in his room. He complained and made a fuss about her being nosy as hell. They always did it, without fail. Him suddenly being quiet made her even more on edge, especially after that sudden vision but she kept that to herself and untangled her thoughts enough to attempt to speak.
"You should've seen your sister crying earlier. About the talking dog of all things to be sad about in that movie. It was hilarious…Would have been nice to film it. And I would have, if I wasn't also crying but—"
Jeremy got up from his chair, the squeaking noise cutting through her attempt at making lighthearted conversation. His eyes met hers, expression too excited to be called an accusing glare. "I know what you are," he said, causing her heart to skip a beat or so.
"Say it, out loud," she replied, because what the fuck else was she supposed to say to those words that he handed to her on a silver platter.
"Were you ever gonna tell me you were a witch?"
Ah.
Well.
Wasn't this… an unintended development?
She could almost hear it, it being the universe itself, laughing in her face at her so-called control unraveling so fast it bitch slapped her.
This was honestly the twins fault, for confessing in the living room of all places. Given how important secrecy was to Bennett witches, their Ancestors were likely rolling in their graves like rotisserie chickens at the moment.
And y'know, she could deny it, gaslight him, knock him out and make this seem like all a dream or even all of the above. Hell, his sister might even thank her for it later.
None of those solutions sat right with her and her stupidly weak heart.
"Well, shit," was all she said, and hoped whatever drugs she had taken would either knock her out to avoid this conversation.
Spoiler alert: it did not knock her out, apparently they were just fucking mints because that was just her luck.
Nova avoided looking into extremely annoying puppy dog eyes, sighing heavily until her sigh became a groan. She slipped down further onto the bed until her neck threatened to break from the uncomfortable position. Dramatic sighs and groans continued to make their way past her lips, as was her goddamn bisexual right.
Her body felt worn down and aching despite all of her supposed youth, brown eyes that continued to see too much felt heavy in her skull with each movement of them painfully aware of even she closed them. She patted the bed next to her and he relented in his stubborn nature in the face of her own and sat down next to her, the tiny bed shifting underneath their combined weight.
Fuck, she could literally feel his eager gaze on her even with her eyes closed.
Inhaling and exhaling, she opened her eyes with a grimace when all she could smell was the seriously horrible smelling body spray coming from his lanky body slumped next to hers. She idly reminded herself to make sure he at least tried to shower in the morning, there was no reason her sinuses had to suffer the change of the seasons and à la Teenage Angst. Her head knocked into his briefly when she sat up, his hissing was ignored in favor of correcting her positioning on the bed.
"Wasn't something I was planning on keeping a secret from you for good," she said, silently soaking in the guilt of knowing that she hadn't exactly been planning on telling him.
Nova had no intention of trying to force him out of this part of the world, it would drag him in regardless of what his sister wanted. Not just because of his family being who they were, but because the little shit was too curious and open minded to not stumble onto this shit. But her choice to not include him in the big reveal was intentional. She had gotten caught up in trying to maintain some sort of balance between changing enough but never so much that things could spiral out of her control.
Being overly cautious and selective about what she changed had gotten her nowhere except caught off guard and not even a little bit high. She would hopefully learn from her mistakes before the decade was over, hopefully. She honestly wasn't holding her breath for anything that wasn't swimming and pussy eating.
"I just didn't know how or when to tell you," she said, all but whispering. "Surprise…." She coughed when all he did was look at her weird.
"So.. you're a witch," Jeremy said, not asking for confirmation, though he was still stunned that she wasn't denying it.
Nova kept her mouth shut and opened the paper she had crumbled, inhaling and exhaling until her body relaxed. Quick fingers began to fold the paper until it resembled a bird. It was a little fucked up and pathetic, but she thought their new friend's design perfect. After all, the two of them were a little fucked up too, it would fit in just fine.
He looked at her dubiously with an opened his mouth, possibly to ask her what the fuck was that supposed to be, cupped so tenderly in her hands.
"Volare," she whispered. On crumbled wings, the bird flew towards him. His mouth closed audibly, eyes wide in a way that reminded her of Elena's amazement just a handful of moments ago.
Nova let herself calm, content with showing off with such carefree spells that did nothing but bring her and her friends joy. She giggled softly at the childlike joy on his face, pleased with herself for pulling this reaction out of a grieving boy who had yet to throw a true smile her way in months. As the bird flew freely around the room, so did her magic, twisting and turning around in a manner that quietly spoke of her control over this at least.
"Yeah," she said, catching his attention once more and letting the bird land gently back into her awaiting palms. "I'm a witch."
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"And how is my favorite witch doing today?"
Nova dropped her gaze from calming blues and warm sunshine, wind brushed through her freshly washed curls and obscured him from her vision until they came upon a stop sign.
"Where are we going, least favorite vampire?" Nova smiled with all of her teeth on display, sparkling red fingernails curled around the lock of the door.
Damon sent her a faux-insulted glare over the top of his pitch black shades. "And I suppose dear ol' Stef is your favorite?" He scoffed with a roll of his eyes as he continued to take her… somewhere.
She hummed non-committedly, her expression of disgust giving her away. It wasn't as though she was uncaring of his situation, but considering everything... That he had forced immortality on his brother. Found time to condemn his admittedly sadistic brother and ignore his own problems in the process. Had yet to find true balance or acceptance of what he had become and instead denied it until it became a problem for everyone around him. Let's just say she didn't find him very interesting in terms of his nature.
"Are you telling me that there's someone in this town who hates my brother?" Damon let out an overexaggerated gasp, his fingers tapped on the steering wheel, on beat with the grunge music that acted as background to their conversation.
"Yeah, you can look in the mirror and find him," she said, tone dry and uninterested as she narrowed her eyes at him.
He smiled over at her almost happily, a denial nowhere to be found, and just the sight of him, suddenly so real next to her, made her tense in the passenger seat.
Fear did not make itself known within her, it was more complicated than fear, though her hands curled a tight grip around one another the longer she observed him. She assumed that she was experiencing derealization, once again. Hardly surprising, she rationalized, given she was sitting next to someone that had been a fictional character up until their meeting. Even when she realized where she was, the Salvatores hadn't stopped being fabricated beings.
There had been a simplicity in making them just another set of characters in her journal, a safety in it that her younger self had needed.
Mystic Falls had become a place that she had planted her roots to grow in long before it had the chance to become a place of falsehood. These moments of surrealness were sharp enough to cut through her defenses, a reminder of how complicated reality could be. She could feel her grip on reality fading, falling through her hands as sand would in an hourglass. She moved her eyes away from his form and cleared her throat, eyes focused back on watching scenery pass by, seeking out her magic to ground herself in the moment.
His blue eyes were piercing on the side of her face as they came to a slow stop in front of a familiar house.
The Lockwood's were the wealthiest in Mystic Falls, and it showed in everything they owned, everything they touched. From fanciful events to school budgets. Even with the town boasting of its founding families, there weren't many people above lower-middle class in Mystic Falls. Those that were, showed their wealth by making it obvious their family came from a long line of white people that profited off of slavery.
Oh, sure, they liked to pretend otherwise now, but it was kind of hard to ignore how they got their money when they glorified the town's part in the Civil War, confederate soldier outfits and all.
Home sweet home, she thought dryly, side eyeing the vampire who was very much apart of every fucked up history in this town.
"Why are we here?" Nova asked, crossing her arms and leaning further into the well loved leather seat, a blatant show of refusal to move.
Damon parked in an inconspicuous spot, his car hidden from view of the main entrance by large hedges and thorny roses. "We need to open that tomb. And this gaudy place just so happens to be the first step, sweetheart," he said, twirling the key around his finger twice, exiting the car and expecting her to follow dutifully.
She instead sat in the car a moment longer, dramatically plonking her head on the window and breathing in and out heavily. Fogged up by her unsteady breaths, she absently drew a heart on the cold window and pondered on what to do.
Emily Bennett's ugly ass talisman.
He wanted it earlier than she had expected and while that would be all well and fine if it was just her looking, but she couldn't take in all of the variables if the situation changed this much.
Nova had tried to get it by herself, years ago, along with the elusive stone everyone would be obsessed over soon enough. She had tried, many times, over many years, fate or maybe even just her bad luck had decided it was never the right time. She always ended up getting interrupted, either by a Lockwood sniffing around like a bunch of bloodhounds, or the fact that she couldn't remember where it was at all.
She had tried locator spells, but without much connection to Emily besides their blood relation, she had run herself into the ground trying to find the thing.
She had ideas for making her own locator spell that had yet to come to fruition and instead laid half-abandoned in her sketchpad. Unfortunately, she couldn't just make a spell and expect it to work the way she wanted. Spellcrafting remained either the easiest thing in the world, or a literal headache to go along with an anime pervert looking nosebleed.
Her idea was good, and could work according to Grams, it was just missing something, if only she had more time to —
Knuckles rapped gently on the window she leaned on, the noise rattling in her brain and interrupting her spiraling thought process. She slid sunglasses on to hide her light sensitive eyes and swiftly opened the door. She let out loud giggles left her lips when she accidently hit him with his own car door.
"What's so important about this mysterious item?" Nova asked when he finished checking his car for dents, sending him an impish grin in response to his ire.
"It was used to close the damned thing, ergo it'll be helpful to open it back up," Damon said, smoothing his hair back and snatching her sunglasses to place on his own face. They looked better on her, in her correct opinion. "Think of it as a magical key that your adorable self gets to use." He patted her head, softly but somewhat condescending in that he was using his grip on her head to keep her from moving closer and grabbing her glasses back.
Nova huffed with a pout, folding her arms and suffering in the bright sun more so than the vampire at her side. It was odd, she didn't mind his touch nearly as much as she did yesterday. Regardless of her almost feline instinct to either bite his hand or nuzzle into it, the former more tempting than the latter.
She figured it was due to him not using their proximity to make her or his brother uncomfortable so much as to tease her.
There was even fond amusement in his eyes at her behavior, his fingers gently scratching her head, letting go of her with one last tug on her hair and she almost missed the affectionate touch.
She killed that thought before her mind could fixate on that and focused on his words, wondering if she should be shocked or not that he was withholding information from her. About her own ancestor at that.
Though supposed she could hardly talk given her own track record. Some things were better left unsaid in order to get what you want, and she could almost respect that, if it wasn't insulting that he thought he could get away with obscuring the truth from her of all people.
"Okay then, go in there and do your thing, Draculaura." Nova leaned back on the car door, looking towards the mansion with its massive landscape and freshly pruned roses. "I'll be over here, for moral support." She let a mocking smile come across her face, waving an imaginary pom pom in her hand.
Honestly, she was surprised none of the gardeners had spotted them and called the cops for loitering yet. She wondered which was worse: Mrs. Lockwood and her inner Karen or an immortal love sick white man.
He pulled on her arm so she was no longer leaning on his car, standing behind her and patting her shoulders roughly in order to stop her from running away from him. "Adorable. Really. I admire your guts. But there's only one of us who has free access, and it isn't me. You're my in."
Nova ignored his pestering to check her phone, fingers tapping on the bedazzled monstrosity until the screen loaded. She looked at the time and date, sighing before closing it with a flick of her thumb. She slapped his hands off her shoulder until she could squint up at him, hoping it came off as more of a glare than her suffering in the light of the sun.
"I doubt I can get past the foyer without Tyler there, who is at school." She blinked, looking away from him, grin threatening to break her pensive expression. "Unless…"
Damon huffed, his brow furrowing the longer she talked and didn't move in the direction that he wanted her to. "Unless what?" He asked, impatient glare peering down at her above her own sunglasses.
Unless you stick to canon you dumb fuck.
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Death would always be her bitter lover at this point, her first love. Her most vivid memories as a child in each life were of death, and the heavy hold it had on those around her. It had burned her as a toxic lover might, held her too soon and too tightly until she was forced to flee, guided from one universe to the next.
She would never truly escape death, it would always be a postponed reunion.
Funerals always came hand in hand with death, and funerals were the heavy duty that most black daughters felt at a young age. Be strong, be there. Don't cry, they're in a better place. Sorry for your loss. Hug family you only see at funerals. Be strong. Add more food to the plate of your elders, your plate cold by the time the rest are served. Loud screams of grief, for our loved ones gone from the world we know, for our ancestors that were never allowed to grieve or be anything other than silent.
She had yet to be invited to a wedding, or a baby shower — celebrations of life in many ways — in all her years, but a funeral? Those were regular, even before she became a resident of Mystic Falls, a resident of this body.
With her least favorite class skipped, her day was supposed to be improving. Not whatever the fuck this was, that kept haunting her footsteps like an unwanted ex.
She stared down at the deer, an impassive expression in place of the unexplainable pain that shook her.
Light began to dim in its brown eyes, slowly breathing its last as all living things must.
She crouched down, smoothing her hand along smooth fur, a body that had once been filled with so much life. A car had hit it, not a vegetarian vampire or any witch that dabbled in blood sacrifice. Just a car. Left for dead on the side of the road because this was just what happened when you drove in Mystic Falls. Better a wild animal than a human some might say.
It would take days before anyone came to bury the creature. And by then, other creatures would feast on the easy meal until only bones remained.
Nova couldn't explain why, but for some reason, the thought made tears escape her own brown eyes.
beep!
She jumped when two consecutive beeps came after the other, causing her to turn back to the car waiting behind her.
Damon.
She hadn't really expected him to wait for her, though they had shared a moment of singing along to rock classics on the ride to take her to school, none of that made them friends. She figured that he would eventually grow bored of her and leave to annoy someone else. Was hoping for it, in all honesty.
He didn't leave. His footsteps were loud behind her when his obnoxious car horn was ignored in favor of turning back towards the still twitching animal in front of her.
"By that tasteless ringtone of yours, I would guess we have about an hour before they send out a search party." He commented, not sounding all too concerned by the very real possibility. Amusement was his default when he wasn't pretending not to care about anything while simultaneously trying so hard to bring back the woman he loved.
Funny how contradictions worked.
She was so ready to kill for her family, chosen or otherwise and yet here she was, a small death making her question her resolve.
"..are you crying over roadkill?" Damon asked, heedless to the way in which she ignored him. All the confirmation he needed was the glare she sent up at him, tears flooding her vision until his figure was blurred.
She felt stupid then, for crying over an animal near a man that was also a monster. He had cruelly taken far more innocents than she had ever attended funerals.
"No," she denied, feeling the absurd urge to get angry but all that came from her were more tears. Her throat burned and her head hurt from the heaviness that settled around her body.
Grams had always taught her to honor the dead, from ancestors that passed down their knowledge to animals that nourished them. Maybe she was a little sensitive to that knowledge, given what would happen tonight.
Tanner was an unlovable asshole that made every MFHS student insecure just before he went back home to his white picket fence life, one that came with a brainwashed wife, two unsuspecting kids and an overpriced dog. And her relief over his impending demise tangled with her guilt because — she could prevent it, feasible plans came and went in her mind. But she wouldn't. Just as the countless people who drove past this dying animal, she had decided a life wasn't worth trying to save.
Damon looked down at her for what felt like an eternity, as impassive as she wished she could be in this moment.
"Alright, come here, bambi," he said, for a second she thought he was talking to the deer at her feet until cold fingers were gripped in her warm ones. "You're an ugly crier." He squeezed her shoulders, wiping the tears that fled past her chin. It was a quick comfort that left all too soon when he moved her out the way.
Replies died on her tongue when he disappeared from view, the only sign of the hit and run not being her imagination was the puddle of blood that slowly stained her black and white chucks.
Something closing brought her out of her daze, causing her to turn swiftly towards the noise.
"You gonna help or just look at me with those freakishly big eyes of yours?" Damon asked, shovel slung over his shoulder and another smaller one, offered to her with an expectant brow raised.
She accepted it quietly, snot making its way down her face until he looked away from her in visible disgust. Why the hell did he have shovels in his car? She couldn't help but think, knowing who he was but still stuck on the small detail.
She kept her mouth shut and followed him, looking at him from the corner of her eye like she couldn't quite believe he was still there. And she couldn't. No matter how many angles she looked at this from, doing this didn't benefit him or Katherine in any way.
Sometimes he was painfully obvious in his tricks and schemes and other times..
Nova wasn't in the mood to question him, to dig deeper for the truth that she might not even uncover. Instead, she helped dig a shallow grave, just deep enough that hopefully it wouldn't be dug up by some curious animal.
By the time they finished it was well past early morning, her tears had long since dried as she gently smoothed dirt, nail polish thoroughly chipped.
She laid her head on the tree behind her, its bark a solid weight behind her, her eyes closed for just a moment, relishing in the breeze that cleansed the smell of rot and death that clung to her. Her eyes opened at the cold brush of death sent shivers down her spine. She stared at the vampire that sat beside her, cheeks flushed and raven hair shifting in the breeze.
"Do you ever think about it," she sighed, returning his intense gaze with her own until she sighed. "About what's waiting for us when we die?"
Damon's hand slipped in his pocket and pulled out a silver flask. "Not much reason to think about it, that's the beauty of eternity." He seemed glib in his words, the truth of whatever he felt was buried behind stone walls that she was uninterested to climb.
She stole the flask from his loose hold, hoping the burn would drown out her thoughts. It burned like hell going down her throat, still she drank until she could no longer, the strong liquor more penance than holy grail.
"Everything has its time to die, everything," she replied, wiping her mouth on her jacket, warmth making its way from her stomach and blooming into her cheeks like dark rosebuds.
"Buzzkill," he said, earning a half-hearted smile from her. "Guess I'm going where all the good Catholic vampires go." Sarcasm dripped from his mouth stronger than the whisky had slid down hers.
She snorted once then let out a high pitched cackle that shook her shoulders and made her stomach ache. Eventually, she slid onto the dirt ground beneath her, stomach aching the longer laughter shook her body.
It wasn't that funny, she wasn't sure if it could even count as a joke let alone a funny one. Still. It was laughter or tears. And hell, she was tired of crying and this tiredness that clung to her like a second skin.
"Alright, that's enough booze for you, c'mon chuckles."
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Caroline shifted on the bed, fingers curled around her most treasured stuffed animal, a brown bunny with pink bows tied around his ears. Her blue eyes were struggling not to blink as eyeliner was added carefully, the black of the liner highlighting her already gold eyelids that sparkled in the room's light.
Nova tucked her hair back behind her ears when hair obscured her sight of her careful work above the blonde. "I'm not gonna poke your eye out, I promise," she said with a grin on her lips, finishing the wing with two more careful strokes.
"I know," the blonde girl huffed, pursing her lips into a pout and her eyes expressive even when she was trying so hard to remain silent.
Nova bit down on her bottom lip, stifling the urge to laugh in her friend's face. She dotted moon shaped stickers on the apples of her cheeks, dusting glittery gold and red eye-shadow around the sticker. She carefully peeled the stickers and fixed the smudges of the crescent moons with a thin brush.
She noticed after she finished, just how silent the girl was, and picked up the pink makeup brush that laid next to blonde curls, and tapped her nose with the brush until soft giggles gently left her mouth — the softest spun sugar would never be as sweet as the sound of Caroline's laughter.
"You gonna tell me whatever's going on in your brain? I can hear the cogs turning," she said with a soft smile, actually picking up the blush and gently using the brush to add onto the natural flush spreading across her cheeks.
Caroline curled her fingers in the few strands of her that fell back into the brunette's face, tucking the hair behind her ear, staring up at her with blue eyes wide before sighing. "Am I going crazy or does it feel like we're all growing apart? I don't know, god, maybe I'm being needy, it's just, things feel different now. You and Bonnie are mega powerful witches. And even Elena is .. busy with her new shiny boyfriend."
Nova stayed as quiet as possible during the whole ramble, carefully thinking about what she could possibly say in response. Her immediate reaction was to reassure her that nothing was going to change between them, but the future was unclear even to someone like her, people and their actions made the future more uncertain and convoluted.
"Maybe we will grow apart, maybe we won't," she shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
"Very reassuring," the blonde scoffed.
Nova rolled her eyes, ignoring the pretty pout on the blonde's lips to continue. "People grow together and grow apart, it's a part of life. I can't promise you that we won't but what I can promise is that I am going to fight like hell for a future where we're together until we're old as dirt."
Caroline beamed at her, the setting sun making her glow beautifully. "Do you think we'll be hot when we get old?" the blonde mused, pouting her lips for a swipe of clear lipgloss.
"The hottest granny's, with only the craziest stories to tell the kids," she said, amused at the thought of them old and gray and just as wild. It didn't escape her notice that this was the first time she had even managed to imagine the future past her youth, it was scary and hopeful in equal parts.
Soon they were finished with their matching makeup, slipping into their cheer uniforms and leaving the house with arms linked together. By the time they made it back to school it was packed with a decent crowd, the air vibrating in excitement — not so much for their team to lose, but the celebrations afterward, if nothing else Mystic Falls residents knew how to throw parties to amuse themselves.
She soon lost her friend to the crowd of sycophants that nipped at the blonde's heels, eager little worms who fell over themselves to kiss the shoes of her feet in hopes of getting in the good graces of the head cheerleader and the soon to be president of the student council. This was done moments after talking shit about the blonde behind her back, those two faced bitches couldn't care less about Caroline outside of what she could do for them.
Nova sighed and pulled her phone out of the pocket underneath the maroon skirt that marked her as a cheerleader. Her fingers glided over the glued-on gemstones that sparkled underneath the last of the sunlight peeking through dark clouds, flipping open her phone and finding her contacts.
where r u ;(
carebear abandoned me to go order round the plebs D:
Her sister didn't respond for a minute before sending her a picture of said plebs being ordered around near the football field. She sighed and put away her phone, figuring she ought to avoid being caught in the crossfire, at least until Mr. Tanner's usual spiel about team unity and all that jazz.
Caroline never treated them the same way she did the other girls, but they were just so stupid sometimes, and if not stupid then slacking off and making it harder on everyone else. She didn't do well watching people behave stupidly when she could just do it herself, it was a problem that she wouldn't have if they were just competent. Right now though, she didn't have the energy to handle helping take care of things.
She instead found solitude underneath the infamous kissing tree — infamous was a strong word, but the girls had all pressed shy kisses to others underneath this tree — that was planted right near their school sign. Grass kissed her knees, a stray weed caressing her ankle, the bark behind her a firm rest for her head as she briefly closed her eyes.
She felt at peace here, enveloped by nature in its soothing embrace, her breathing steady and mind free of anxious thoughts for a blissful moment.
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘ ༓ ∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
Her peace didn't last long of course, it never did, the sun went down and the moon came up and all too soon she was required to go on the field and put on her best cheer face.
She loved cheerleading, really she did, but she preferred cheer competitions over having anything to do with the local embarrassment that was their football team. She would rather cheer for their chess club, at least they didn't suck.
She shivered as she discarded her jean jacket by her bag, the chill of the night sending shivers down her spine, enticing a coldness in her body that refused to go away.
Moving through the crowd with crimson and silver pom poms raised high, she eventually found her place amongst the other girls, shoulder to shoulder with her little sister. Watching as they did their pre-game ritual and set fire to the scarecrow wearing their opponents jersey.
"Hey," Bonnie said, a peppy smile on her face that failed to reach her eyes. "Full moon tonight."
She looked up and sure enough, the full moon was high in the sky, a beautiful sight that only served to make them both nervous. On any other day, they wouldn't have paid attention to the full moon beyond its beauty and its potential to power spells. Tonight though, the air was filled with a tension waiting to unleash mania and the full moon would only fuel its power. It wasn't just a myth, the moon could make people act stupid as hell if given the right concoction of circumstances. Their power as well as everyone's emotions would only be heightened tonight, and god wasn't that joke, to be surrounded by a bunch of already emotional high school students on a night like this.
It was a powder keg, waiting for a spark to light it.
Nova clenched her jaw, resisting the urge to flinch when the flames of the bonfire burning the poor scarecrow grew; the fire was hungry to consume and reached towards the sky when it couldn't find anything to grab onto.
For reassurance, she looked for her best friends. Finding Caroline was easier than breathing at the moment, her pom poms kissing as clapped her hands to the beat of the school band's drums. She panicked for a few awful seconds when she couldn't find her other best friend, Elena was noticeably absent from the crowd of girls dressed in red black and white, but was easily found when her eyes found her boyfriend. They were standing close, brushing shoulders together and easily captivated by each other the same way that the crowd was to see something burn.
Nova felt as though she was being watched, and could scarcely say if it was her instincts or if she was simply on edge; regardless, the cold of the night never left her bones even when the warmth of the bonfire drifted closer. She tried to ignore it though, for the sake of her sanity, she put on her best smile as she let her mind focus on moving the correct body parts and trying not to focus on how unsteady her breathing felt.
"Wait, wait, wait," Tanner took to the podium, his voice loud enough to cut over the roar of the crowd, his words making them quiet to a mere murmur. "Let's be honest here. In the past, we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us!" Popcorn spilled out of someone's hand as Mr. Tanner's words caused a ruckus, the emptying of the popcorn bag left a trail of buttery mess on her shoulder, just barely missing her very expensive cheer uniform. She glared at the person behind her who ignored her to boo along with the crowd.
"But that is about to change," Tanner said, the happiest the school had ever seen him, his excitement was infectious to the crowd and soon the crowd of about half the student body and their parents cheered.
Nova sighed and stood even closer to her sister, just about on her way to being overstimulated with how much everything was becoming — the noise, the lack of personal space, and the restless feeling crawling in her body like a living breathing thing existing along with her. She tried to remind herself that this night would be cut short anyway, but that thought only served to make her feel guilty enough to swallow down nausea.
"We've got some great new talent tonight starting on the offense, and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore!"
Nova blinked out of her haze long enough to join in the cheering, pom poms lazily saluting the man of the hour when their eyes met across the bonfire. Her eyes eventually were drawn to the burnt figure that was now more ash than straw and sticks, skin crawling when her mind refused to let go of the image of insistent hands pulling her to burn in its stead.
"..Your Timberwolves are hungry." Mr. Tanner drawled into the mic, soaking in the sound of the crowd as though he had discovered a pot of gold instead of a competent high-school football player.
She fought to leave the crowd that only grew louder, taking deep breaths in and out when she finally managed to escape.
"Wait, no! Ty! No, leave him alone."
Full Moon. Tyler. Rage issues. Untriggered werewolf.
…Right.
"Oh, what do you care? Don't look so down. You can have her when I'm done."
Nova could only sigh, exasperated as she was shoved straight into bullshit that she didn't feel like shoveling up. Regardless of her anxiety and every rational bone in her body telling her that she should just look the other way, the moment fists started flying was the moment she ran towards the commotion.
"Tyler, stop it!" Vicki shouted, a worried frown on her face, her words making some of the crowd behind them turn towards the sound of her yells.
Nova ran past the girl as Tyler whaled his fists on the younger boy, who to be fair, wasn't lying down and taking the hits at all. Even when he was getting his ass kicked, he still managed to get a few punches of his own in. It was just… Jeremy was a tall fucking twig who only fought in video games, and compared to Tyler, who was a beefed up football maniac with a werewolf just itching to stain his hands in blood so he could crawl out.
It was a disaster waiting to happen.
Enter her, involving herself with no thoughts in her mind.
All that she saw was someone who was hurting Jeremy, someone she considered family, and well, she was always a biter when wrestling with the boys. Figures the habit never went away even when they stopped being cool with her roughhousing with them.
Nova kept her thighs wrapped tight around the boy's back once she latched onto him, sunk her teeth into the back of his neck again, harder this time, until she tasted metallic spilling on her tongue. She refused to let go, no matter how painful his attempts to shake her off where.
"What the fuck!" Tyler said, grunting as he tried to fend off her and Jeremy at the same time, his attacks on Jeremy slowing. Her hand gripped tight in his hair, tugging sharp enough to pull out strands of hair from his stupid head.
Eventually though, she was tossed aside like a rag doll.
"Nova!"
Nova let out a painful grunt, her face meeting the ground painfully, her vision turning black for what felt like a small eternity. Shit that fucking hurt. She managed to get up, rolling onto her side and glaring at the blurry sight of Tyler who was still fucking beating the shit out of a kid half his size. The pain was a hum in the background compared to the adrenaline flowing through her, begging for her to jump back into things. She tried to get up and do just that, unhindered by the blood dripping out of her nose and pooling in her mouth but very much stopped by hands on her shoulder.
She turned and aimed a sharp glare at the person who tried to touch her, just barely managing to stop herself from lashing out when she saw who it was.
Elena.
"Hey, he's down! Enough!" Stefan eventually managed to calm them both down and separate with the help of Matt, the useless few that gathered to simply use the fight as a form of entertainment scattered quickly when the fight was broken up.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked, fretting over her even more when she spat the blood out of her mouth onto the grass. "What the hell were you thinking jumping in the middle of that?"
Pain rolled through her body when she was forced to finally stop, her shoulder ached no matter how much she stretched it and her face burned with the pain.
"Eh, I lost the rest of my brain cells but I'll be fine, probably," Nova said, poking her nose with a wince that was hard to hide underneath the gaze of her best friend even as she tried waving off her friend's fussing. "Gonna go wash up in the bathroom, good luck with the doofus." She nodded her head towards Jeremy who was trying to ditch them, causing his sister to sigh and try to chase after him after one last reassurance from her that no, she wasn't gonna die just tired.
Would this night ever end?
All she wanted was to go home, ice her shoulder, eat a shit ton of ice cream and slather some healing herbs on her face until the pain was nothing but a numb memory.
Instead, she found herself pressing down on a bleeding wound, eyes blurry with tears as she stared down at the image of her dying teacher laying in a pool of his own blood.