Nova's Dawning

I knew that Moonlight was small, but I had no idea that it really was only one small building. From the outside it looked like a small office building, or maybe a small movie theater. Its gray bricks gave way to how old the building was, as if maybe it had been around since the stone age. We took a shuttle that the school offered for Orientation, but we realized soon that we should have went in Bee’s car. It was cramped, and it was terribly cold. There were maybe four hundred Moonlight students total, and it was located practically in the mountains. The college sits just on the border of Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador, literally. However, more of the school just happened to be in Quebec so that’s where the address ended up. If there is anything that I want to remember about the scenery forever, it’s how beautiful the country was. The snow tipped mountains could be seen in the distance and yet if you looked the other way at just the right elevation there was the ocean, endless and blue. It was a magnificent sight.

There were about thirty people in my orientation group and thirty in the other group that would be coming the two days after ours. Thankfully, Bee was in my group so I wasn’t alone or feeling anti-social. In fact, when I was near her, I felt great, like I could talk to anyone and be anyone, and I knew she wasn’t a big social butterfly, because every so often someone would try to talk to her and she would politely strike up a conversation with them, fidget with her hair, and then excuse herself to find me. Once I had relaxed, I was talking to a lot of people, and I tried to get Bee involved as well. I wanted to make her feel at ease, because it was clear she easily became anxious.

Then the advisors took over, giving us paperwork, collecting paperwork, money, and making sure we were dressed appropriately. It made me feel like a kid again, even though I was basically an adult, living on my own. At least, that’s what I thought back then. They talked to us, gave us a tour of the school, and then that was it for the wonderful breath of central heat. We moved to the outside part of the tour, where we would tour the outdoor facilities, and then we would take the “tiny tests” (that were basically exams) to see what classes we should take our first quarter, and then from that it would decide the entire general education course outline for the remainder of our stay at Moonlight, until we graduated.

It wasn’t life threatening, but unfortunately, Bee hadn’t heeded the dean’s warning about wearing clothes appropriate for the weather. It wasn’t freezing, but it was in the low fifties at least. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and my thickest pair of yoga pants, while she was wearing high heels, high-waisted jeans, and a white crop top with a cat on it. Her hair was down today and she was wearing one of her famous hats. We took our ID photos and while Bee looked like a movie star, I could tell she was cold so I decided to give her my sweater, which was way too big for her.

“But, Star... Won’t you get cold now?” she asked, looking up at me with those big brown eyes.

“Well duh, but you need it more than me. Plus, I have this shirt on still. I’ll be fine, and if we’re cold, then we’ll be cold together.”

She nodded, holding her covered hands up in defense. “You are so right.”

We laughed out loud together and then we were shushed by everyone there.

It was easy to get lost in a conversation with someone who I had clicked with so fast, that’s what I learned that day, because it wasn’t just Bee that I connected with. As the day went on and we were put through more boring paperwork, there were others that were standing out to me.

First, I talked to Sam. A really short girl in a t-shirt with a show I liked on it. Well, it was more like I shouted, “Hey I like your shirt!” at her and then she approached me after giving a small, “Thanks.” Sam was the most nonchalant person I have ever met, but in a good way. She told me right off the bat, “I love cats, video games, and exotic women.” Her carefree attitude was relaxing, and it made it easy to talk to her. Plus, she had good taste in entertainment. Her shaggy haircut would cover her eyes if she moved her head the wrong way, and her way of fixing it reminded me of when dogs tried to dry themselves off.

Then there was Mowgli. He was a tall lanky guy with long dark hair, that was wearing a sweater that looked like it had never been washed, or ever would be. I thought he was kind of cute in the face, but he radiated big brother vibes. He was a good friend of Sam’s, apparently, they had gone to high school together, along with the rest of their squad, and it kind of made me and Bee feel like outsiders, but Mo (that’s what he wanted us to call him, he had this weird obsession with nicknames) did his best to make us feel more than welcome in the group. He had already invited us to their apartment, which they all shared together, so that we could get ‘smashed and play Smash Brothers’.

“Oh, and then we’ll spaghetti and spaghetti!” he exclaimed excitedly as we ate lunch together.

“I’m sorry we’ll what?” I asked, while Bee giggled from beside me.

“We’ll eat spaghetti, and watch a spaghetti western, duh.” Mo dorkily grinned at what he thought was his clever joke.

I almost choked on my tea.

“Okay, but there’s one problem to that.” said Sam.

He looked at her confused. “Yeah, like what?”

“We can’t cook spaghetti. We suck, remember. It’s amazing that we can even cook ramen. If we didn’t have Osiris, we would probably all starve. He’s our other roommate. I think you’d really like him, Star.”

Bee and I cracked up at that one and I tried to hide my warm cheeks.

Sam turned back to Mo, “I’m surprised you aren’t wearing your sweatpants, again.” She shot a pointed look at his worn-out jeans.

“Well I don’t know about Star, but I can cook. I’m from the South, where home cooking is a part of my culture.” said Bee.

“I can also cook. Although I’m not one for gourmet meals. I’m more of a ‘take whatever I can find and turn it into the best damn thing to ever enter my mouth’.” They burst into laughter as I winked and stepped away from the table.

There was another guy, who was burly and had a nice laugh that reminded me of a grandpa. That was Jack. He was our age, but something about him made him feel older. It might have been his love for the fifties, or the way he dressed like a grandpa, but either way, I liked it a lot. Each of them had said hi to us and had expressed interest in being our friends. They seemed to have a large group of friends as if they knew practically everyone here.

The more they talked about this Osiris guy I was getting more interested, but I wouldn’t get to meet him until the end of the week at the big meeting of all the freshman, however Sam and the others were very adamant that him and I would get along well. They told me that he was funny, like me, smooth like me, and that I overall would click with him at the start. According to Sam, he already had his powers, but the rest of them were expecting to get theirs near their next birthday. Jack’s was in November, and Mowgli’s was in December, and Sam’s wasn’t until January. I was intrigued by this other guy, but I couldn’t ask many questions about him since we had reached that point in the day where it was time to head home.

The shuttles came to the campus and took us to our designated housing, while our new friends drove off to their home.

“So, what do you really think?” I asked Bee on the way back to our dorm.

“About what?” she said.

“The group of people we met today.” She fiddled with her long dark hair, braiding one strand over and over again.

“They’re all right, but I’m just not sure how I feel yet, I guess. I think Jack is probably the one I could see myself getting the closest too. He’s more my style. The others are cool, but yeah.”

I laughed. “I like all of them. They’re neat, but I’m kind of nervous about the other one. They kept talking about him like he was super awesome, so there’s probably something wrong with him. And we are probably going to hate him.”

“Probably. We hate everyone.” We laughed. Everyone who observed us thought we were weird, but for some reason I felt like I had known Bee for a long time, even though we’d really only met a couple days ago. She was a wonderful roommate, and an even better friend. Only a few days of spending time with her and already she was more of a best friend than anyone from back home.

It’s tragic really.

It was that night that it started. For as long as I had remembered, I was a vivid dreamer. From the time I was five I could wake up and tell you all the details from the smell of the bacon to the color of someone’s shoes. My parents thought it was because of how powerful my mother had been, but this dream felt different.

It started with me walking in the dark, and I was walking towards a light at a table filled with cups and alcohol. The people I had just met were there. We were all drinking and laughing and having fun, but at one point one of them walked up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. It was strange to me because every time I looked at him in my dream, I fell harder for him. He was taller than me, curly hair that couldn’t be tamed, he was lanky, but he wasn’t skinny in anyway, and his smile lit my soul on fire. Maybe I was drunk in my dream, but every time I looked at him, he was saying my name. I could tell he wasn’t drinking, in fact he didn’t have a single drink, unless you count water bottles. He was there, taking care of me. He wouldn’t let go of my hands and if he did it was to rub my back. His freaking dimples were all I saw under my eyelids, and when I woke up, I was disappointed. I had probably seen that guy in a movie or something once. I convinced myself that he was probably some unrealized celebrity crush, which I had a lot of.

The second day of orientation went much smoother than the first. We had a couple more tests and received some actual insight on the general education classes and how they worked from a couple of the professors. My favorite one at the time was Professor Mic Rits, and one other one that I ended up never having. They taught two different areas, but they were hilarious, both were older men, and they just cracked me up. Bee wasn’t too enthused, but they weren’t as strict or as mean as I was expecting. Growing up I was always told that, “well when you get to college your professors won’t stand for that” or “college is so much harder than this” but if Moonlight taught me anything it was that the professors were more than helpful in trying to make college simple and sweet for us.

“We don’t want to add stress to you, because Lord knows you have much bigger things to worry about such as, car payments, phone payments, and rent. Some of you may also try to pay for school as you go. Being an adult is hard, and your education is important, therefore we will do our best to help you with not only expanding your minds but being a functioning member of society.” said Professor Rits.

The ENTIRE group here erupted into applause, and Sam and I were jumping up and down. We were all standing on one of the lawns around campus getting to have a whole hour to just talk to the professors. Apparently, the other Professor was more in the business side, which is what Bee and Mowgli were here for, while Rits was the head writing teacher, which is what Sam, Jack, and I were here for. Professor Rits was visibly older than the other man next to him, but he acted more like someone of our age. He was a very silly old man.

After the meeting and our lunch, our friends were getting ready to depart.

“Do you guys want to come over tomorrow?” asked Mo.

“Um, yeah.” said Bee.

I remembered what she had told me about how she felt and her agreeing was definitely a good sign towards approval.

We got their address, and then we were shuttled back to our small room.

“If you’re wondering why I agreed it’s because the longer I look at Jack the cooler I think he is. I don’t wanna date him or anything, I just think he’s nice to look at.” Bee was the definition of a taken woman. She looked, but never touched. Oren was her whole world. She talked about him nonstop when she got the chance. I knew everything there was about this man, and I hadn’t even met him yet.

When we shuffled into our place, we looked at our combined (and slightly) overflowing closet and we began to pull out items for the other to judge.

“Should I wear this with this, or maybe this with this?” I would ask.

“Hmmm. Maybe that, with this, oh god what IS that? Throw that out. And these.” Bee said discarding of some of the few things I owned.

It was a long and painful process. The whole time I admired her small clothes, and I even noticed a wooden ukulele, with the name ‘Bee’ carved on the front. I kept my jealousy to myself and took the critique she was giving me.

That night I had another strange dream. This time we were all hanging out around the school, I believe somewhere near the tiny library, because I kept telling everyone I smelled books. No one would believe me, so I followed the scent on my own, but it just led me to that guy. He smelled like new books and I fell into his arms. He wrapped them around me tightly and he petted my hair. He kissed my cheek and he whispered something into my ear. It was mumbled, so I had no idea what he said, but just then my alarm went off, and I bolted out of bed.

Bee was already up, standing in front of the closest, picking out something to wear that was not what we had originally planned. I picked up my clothes and headed to the bathroom so that we could start the day.

And after an hour of preparation we were off like clockwork, jamming out to Queen in her car. I don’t think that I can ever forget that apartment. Not because of the smell, even though it very distinctly smelled like socks and old Chinese, nor was it because their place was always a mess, in fact, it was because it felt like home.

Somehow, these four people had managed to turn this tiny two-bedroom apartment into a home, a place where not only was I instantly relaxed upon entering, I felt like I could sit down, and enjoy myself. They kept the place warm, and when we got settled inside Bee immediately jumped into a game of Smash Brothers.

Her video game talent was out of this world. She was so good with an N64 controller it was like she was born into a family of gaming professionals, instead of healers. It was crazy to see her go from shy dainty girl to a video game slaughtering savage. Her battle cries rang throughout their tiny apartment. The decorative posters and pictures on the walls were large, and took up a lot of space, but without them the place would have felt empty and lonely. Anime and video games figures lined their shelves and once Bee had single handily destroyed every one of us, she finally began to marvel at each one of them.

The guys were drooling all over her, and I don’t blame them. However, she only had eyes for all their stuff and games. After what seemed like a long time of being there, finally I asked the most important question.

“So, who is hungry?”

Several hands in the room shot up and I laughed to myself. I got up and headed into the kitchen with the ingredients I had brought for spaghetti. Then as I began my search for their pots and pans, I noticed something.

Their dishes were overflowing.

Immediately I began washing them, but when I went to put them in the dishwasher, it was full.

“Yo, Mo. Are you busy?”

“Nah, I’m out this round, what’s up?”

“Do you think you could help me unload your dishwasher, I don’t really know where everything goes, but I have to get these dishes out of the way if spaghetti is to be made.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem.”

His lanky body barely fit in this kitchen with my wide one, but somehow, we managed to get a good dish putting away system, and I snagged what I hoped was a big enough pot for all the food.

After we were done, I put up my hand, to high five him, and it went completely unnoticed. I made a little disgruntled noise and he turned to me, startled.

“Are you okay??”

“You left me hanging, man.” I put my hand up again, this time he hit it, shaking his head.

“My bad, but don’t do that again. Made me worried you were dying or something over there.”

I laughed and as he left the kitchen, I began to make the feast. Granted it was one of the simplest dishes known to man, but it was a lot of that one thing.

Everyone was so excited and happy and the air in the apartment was filled with the wonders of being young. It was as if the entire world felt surreal.

In the end, Bee dominated everyone at the video games, and she ate the most of the spaghetti.

I tried to be fair in dividing up the food, but I think I was the only one there that couldn’t eat five helpings of spaghetti, and I was the thickest person in the room.

“We should watch that spaghetti western.” said Bee as she was eating her third serving of spaghetti, “and someone bring me some wine.”

It was finally getting to the point of the night where drinking was to take place. I didn’t want to have too many drinks, but Mo mixed me a drink called ‘The Hangover’ and I was gone. The rest of that night was hazy, but I woke up in Mo’s arms on the floor, still fully clothed and feeling fine. I jumped backwards, not trying to get that close to him again. However, I did take the blanket from him. He made a grumpy face in his sleep and then he rolled over away from me. I giggled, and I shut my eyes.

That’s when I started dreaming.

I laid there on the floor in their apartment and Mo and everyone was around, except Bee, yet they were different. I was calling them different names, and there was another girl there, who started making out with Mo. It was crazy. Everything seemed so real, yet it was so different. Even I had a different name, but yet the name they were calling me was muffled and I couldn’t make it out. I couldn’t make out any of the other names. I felt this impending sadness, it was unlike anything from the real world, and in the morning, I decided I probably shouldn’t ever let Mo mix my drinks again.

When I woke up, everyone was up and about, playing video games. Bee was in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Let me guess Star. You want your usual omelet, with spinach and cheese.”

I nodded, and Bee winked at me.

“Star, you sure did get lucky with a woman like that.” said Sam.

“Back in my day ALL the women were like that.” said Jack.

“Oh, shut up, Grandpa.” Something felt odd about calling him that, like I had done it a million times before.

“Star, you slept right through Osiris getting home and leaving this morning. He was really looking forward to talking with you, but Mo had laid claim to you last night.”

I laughed out loud, starting to feel my hangover.

“Sorry, Mo. I definitely don’t like you like that, and now I feel bad that Osiris saw me like that. He’s probably going to think I’m a floozy.”

“That’s because you are one.” said Bee.

I flipped her off and everyone laughed, including us.

Bee served us a hearty breakfast and after that Jack decided he wanted to take her head on in Smash Brothers.

I patted him on the back, collecting everyone’s empty plates.

“Good luck, man.”

I cleaned up, and somehow, I got that weird sense of deja vu again.

“You okay?” Mo asked, sneaking up on me. I jumped, almost dropping one of the plates and sighed in relief when I caught it.

“My bad, I thought you could see me come up.” He looked a little worried.

“It’s cool. I was just lost in my own little world.... Your place gives me deja vu. I’m not really sure what it is about it, but I just keep getting this weird sense that I’ve been here before.”

“I mean, our apartment is pretty basic. You’re probably just remembering a time when you lived in an apartment when you were a kid.” said Sam, not even looking away from the battle between Jack and Bee.

“You could be right.” I mumbled.

“DANGIT!”

I smiled, listening to Bee wipe the arena with Jack.

“Anyone else wanna take on the champion?” said Bee.

Everyone backed away and I laughed. It was just so easy to laugh at everything back then.

“Then I guess our work here is done. You ready to go Star?” Bee smirked at Jack as she got up from the couch.

I nodded, gathering my things.

“Do you haaave to go?” Sam and Mo asked.

“I’m glad to see them leave.” mumbled Jack.

“Shove it, Gramps.” said Bee.

“Don’t worry. We’ll see you guys at the big thing on Saturday!” I said.

“Yeah! And that’s when you can properly introduce yourself to Osiris.” Sam wiggled her eyebrows at me again.

“Woo!” I replied, still not really sure on how to feel about that.

Bee and I gave hugs goodbye and then we dipped, glad to be on our way to our place.

“It’s not like our place is the best, but it doesn’t smell as bad, nor is it even half as loud.” said Bee.

“Yeah, I totally agree. That was the most I’ve ever had to drink.” I mumbled, rubbing my temples.

“Really?” Bee was very surprised.

“Yeah, I’m kind of a baby.” She laughed.

“Well, I’ll help you to grow out of your diapers.”

“Thanks, Bee. That means a lot.”

When we got back to our place, Bee had dibs on the shower, and I sat down to write.

At the end of Orientation members of the staff had been handing out these little questionnaire things. Most people had thrown them away, but I read over it carefully. It was a chance to possibly win some free books, picked at random based on who you were and the answers you put on the flyer.

I loved reading.

My goal in life had been to get so successful I had a library in my home.

However, at the end of the questionnaire, there was a mini essay.

“Write about a time, someone did something that upset you, or where you were upset due to outside influence, how did you overcome it?′

It was a typical essay question, but there was something about it that just kind of hit a nerve.

The last person to upset me was my ex, but I didn’t really want to talk about him, that seemed so basic.

I sighed deeply, and Bee came out of the bathroom, a puff of steam followed her.

“You okay?” she asked, not really looking at me.

“I’m just trash.” I said, flopping onto my bed.

“No, you’re not. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“Hard... on... Myself?” I could see the light bulb going off above me.

I sat up, “THAT’S IT BEE YOU’RE A GENIUS!”

“Well, thank you for noticing.” She flipped her hair and sat at her desk in our living room, which she had magically converted into a vanity.

I began writing a rough draft on a separate piece of paper, and when I was done, I transferred it onto the questionnaire and then I hopped in the shower, feeling light and free.

I practically skipped out of the bathroom with my hair in a towel, when Bee laughed out loud.

“What?” I asked, feeling defensive now.

“Nothing, you’re like a Disney Princess. Dancing and reading and singing and stuff.”

“Well you are too!” I said, quickly. “Don’t think I can’t hear you in the shower. I know you can sing, and I saw the Ukulele in the closet. That makes you even more of a princess than me.”

She looked at me confused. “Girl, where? I don’t own a Ukulele, at least not anymore.”

“What? I saw it when we were going through our clothes, I thought.”

She rolls her eyes and gets up, opening the closet, revealing nothing just beautiful clothes, lots of them.

“Oh.” I said. “Well still. You’re a princess.”

“Yeah, okay.” she said closing the door and heading into the bathroom.

I towel dried my hair some more and then I climbed into my bed.

I could have sworn I had seen a Ukulele.

The feeling that something was off wouldn’t go away, but I figured that no matter what things would turn out to be okay.