Nova's Dawning

The dreams returned, except this time the guy’s face was slightly blurred. I couldn’t make out as many details, no matter how hard I tried to focus on him. I even grabbed him, and I could tell that he smiled, but still he started to fade.

“What’s your name?” I asked him.

He opened his mouth, and I could tell he was speaking, but I couldn’t hear him.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Again, he spoke, but no words reached my ears.

I hugged him tight, not sure what to do.

“Don’t leave me.”

I felt myself waking up that day and as my eyes were opening, I could have sworn that I heard something. However, the more aware I became the more I realized it was probably just Bee saying something to her mom, who she was on Skype with.

“Be good! I love you!” I heard her mother say.

“Love you too, mama bear.” Her voice was gentle and calm as she ended the call.

Suddenly my chest ached, so much that I almost fell out of bed.

“Star?!” Bee stood up and walked over to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved her off. “I’m fine, just a bit of heartburn. It came on so fast it startled me.”

“Must have been those fake burritos you had to eat before bed. We should go out today, like for real. I need coffee, and maybe there’s a bookstore nearby, and some place where we can buy Poutine.” She smiled with those big eyes at me as she made sure I was fine.

By then my heartburn had subsided, but that had been the weirdest thing to me at the time. Burritos had never given me heartburn.

“Wait, did you say Poutine?” She nodded, already at work on her makeup. “How do you know what Poutine is?”

“Oh, I have some pen pals from here. Not here as in Quebec, but here as in Canada. My friends live in Newfoundland, like St. John’s.”

“Yeah, I know where that is. It would probably take a while to get there from here. I think it’s a pretty short air ride though.”

“Mhm. It’s 12 hours by car and one hour by plane, but they’re both pretty expensive options. So, I won’t be going out there anytime soon.” she curled each eyelash to perfection.

“You should go see them though before you leave, like definitely.” I threw on something comfortable for walking, yet warm enough for the weather. She nodded, winging her eye liner like a goddess.

Meanwhile, I looked like a hobo. I took a glance in the mirror and blanched.

“Hey... Will you do my make up for tomorrow?”

“Yes.” she said quickly, while putting on mascara.

Then she was done.

“Wait...” she said, getting up and then sitting down sadly.

“What?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

“What should I wear?”

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Bee said that the closest place to Moonlight for coffee, besides the small cafeteria on campus was Blanc-Sablon. Apparently, before Moonlight, this place had a population of just a little over a thousand, however, we brought it up due to the amount of people that wanted to attend the college. The weather isn’t too bad, even though it’s cold and rains more often than not, but it was bearable if you dressed right. The town was still small, but there were shops for younger kids now, and not just places to buy fresh fish.

Bee and I got huge cups of hot coffee, and then we headed to what was a strip mall of sorts, and by of sorts I mean that it included two clothing stores, a place to buy desserts, and a toy store. Due to Bee and I being adults, we went into the toy store first. There were lots of cute knick knacks, and mugs, but really, we just went to look.

“Star, looks at how cute this is.”

It was a onesie for a small child. I almost cried. It was adorable.

“You like children?” Bee asked.

“I love them. I want five.” Bee looked at me surprised for a minute and then shrugged.

“I mean, I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them. Right now, I’m in a place where I don’t really think they’re for me, but maybe that’ll change when Oren and I start our lives together. Who knows?”

I nodded, totally understanding that.

“I feel you. I don’t even have a boyfriend.” I said, laughing.

We said farewell to the employees there and made our way towards the clothing stores.

It was at that moment that I realized Bee had an issue. She loved clothes, like LOVED them. It was no wonder our closet was overflowing.

“What do you think of this?” she would ask me holding it to her torso.

“Well do you need it?” I would ask her.

“No... but I really want it.”

“Well, how much is it?” I would say, checking it out thoroughly, sometimes nodding, depending on how cute it is.

“Um... Twenty-five.” I would grimace.

“Nope, not worth it.”

“You’re right.” Then she would set it back down on the hanger and move on to the next article of expensive clothing. We lucked out with a couple things, but I’m sure that if I hadn’t been there for her, she would have bought it all.

“Thanks for going on this adventure with me. I don’t really like being cooped up inside, even if the weather sucks.”

And just like that thunder cracked through the sky.

“YOU ANGERED THE BEAST.” I yelled at her over the rumble above us. We bolted into the dessert shop and as soon as we closed the door behind us the bottom fell out. The dessert shop had big windows so we could see the storm hit outside.

“You know,” I whispered to her, “We are totally in hurricane territory.” She laughed and we went to order some warm pastries. As we were checking out, I looked at the cashier. “Do you know the closest place to get some poutine?”

The cashier’s Canadian-French accent was thick, but understandable.

“It’s ze’ small fast foo’ place a couple miles down ze’ road. Order it with’ extra cheez’.”

I thanked him, put my change in the tip jar and we sat down inside, watching the rain get lighter and lighter as I devoured my muffin and cinnamon roll. As soon as it stopped, we bolted for the car and made our way towards the small fast food place down the road. We went through the drive through and I bought us two Poutine with extra cheese.

It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great either to say the least. Bee hated it. Even with the extra cheese the gravy tasted too processed for her. Her southern gravy would probably taste much better.

“We should make our own Poutine. We need to go grocery shopping anyway. I’m running low on snacks.” she agreed and we headed off towards the tiny grocery store near Moonlight.

“This place doesn’t have a whole lot of stuff, but it’ll do.” said Bee. Grocery shopping with her I learned how quickly just how much of a chef she really was.

“Wow. You really know a lot about cooking.” I said.

“Yeah, my mom taught me how to cook and bake. She has her own baking company. Her name is Daphne, and the company is named after her, and I want to get good in business so that I can help her run it, so yeah... My mom is really cool, maybe one day you’ll be able to meet her or taste her cakes.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

I grabbed some things that looked appetizing and that I could whip up quickly before class or something and then Bee and I headed to check out. Everyone was so friendly in Canada. I literally never met one person who was rude. Of course, I never saw them behind closed doors, but it was hard to imagine someone being mean after being so incredibly nice.

On our way back, Bee talked more about her mom and her dad. They sounded like really wonderful people, and I hoped that I would get to meet them one day, even then I knew it would never happen.

We unloaded our groceries into our small fridge and then decided to head to Moonlight’s cafeteria for dinner, which was really just a big kitchen in the basement of the small building. The only thing Moonlight wasn’t covering was a meal plan, even though I really didn’t need one. We paid for our food by the pound and the few times I went had only costed me a couple dollars, which was better than getting fast food for my wallet and my stomach.

Hardly anyone was there, so we ate at a table alone, and in peace. I had a bit of everything on my plate, so I had a wide variety of savory flavors. I took in every bite, with it being so cheap, and had to force myself to keep away from all the chips and salsa.

As we finished our food, I could have sworn I saw a head of familiar curly hair.

Bee looked at where I was starring and nudged me.

“Um, Star?”

“Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew, but then I remembered I wasn’t in Michigan anymore.” It was a small lie, but I didn’t want to come off as looney.

“You don’t really talk about home that often.” she noted as we started to head back.

“Ah, well, it’s not nearly as exciting as your home. Michigan is like... It’s like the poutine we had earlier versus poutine we will make ourselves which is the equivalent to your home.”

“It can’t be that bad.” she said scrunching up her face, making a beeline straight for her car. I twiddled my thumbs as she turned the music down. We weren’t super far from our place, but it seemed like she had wanted to talk now. “Well... Basically, my parents weren’t home very often. They both worked a lot. I’m an only child. I had a dog until I was sixteen, then she passed away from old age and my parents never got me a new one like they said they would. Every year they pick a place to go on vacation for a week, but this year our vacation was the trip up here. My mom was good at having powers, in fact, she was one of the best, but instead she had me, and as you know, that meant her powers transferred into me. I feel like I have to do well, for her sake, because if I don’t then I could possibly disgrace the things she accomplished before I was born.”

Talking about my childhood wasn’t something I had ever comfortably done before, and it was strange how it just kind of all fell out at once in front of Bee. There was a sadness in my voice I had never heard before and her eyes grew concerned.

“I’m sure that’s not true.” she said softly.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. Sorry, no one has really ever cared enough to ask.” I smiled, even though I knew the action didn’t match what I was feeling.

“It’s cool. Moving away from everyone is hard, and it heightens our emotions.” she said, giving me a light pat on the back.

“Unfortunately, for me it was all too easy. I really didn’t have anyone there for me... you know?”

We reached our place and when we stepped inside, I immediately got undressed and hopped into bed. I wasn’t feeling being awake anymore.

“I’m sorry I asked about your family.” I heard from above me.

“Nah, it’s cool. I’m glad you asked, that way I know you really care.” I rolled over, snuggled deep in my warm blanket.

“That’s what best friends are for.” she said from above me.

I smiled and listened as she passed out.

That night I had another crazy dream, but it seemed even more real than the previous ones.

The first thing I saw was him. His face was almost completely blurred now, and I could barely tell where his lips were.

“Talk to me.” I told him, so that I could feel his face and try to see him. I could feel him smiling underneath my hands and his dimples were prominent. “You’re cute.” I told him over and over again. Suddenly we were lying down and I was just staring at his blurred face. He never said anything to me, however the area around us continued to change. At one point we were in a foreign kitchen. Ironically it was a kitchen out of dreams, it was so beautiful with marble counters, and an area with built in cutting boards, and stainless-steel appliances. I was drooling, yet he was cooking. He was making me poutine. Then Bee was there, telling me I needed to wake up.

Until I actually realized Bee was shaking me awake in the real world, telling me to get the hell up unless I wanted to miss the cool trip.

I groggily slid out of bed.

“Come on, lazy bones. I’m going to do your makeup so that you can look fly for Osiris.”

I groaned and rubbed my head in my hands. “What if I hate this guy?”

“Then we will hate him together and you’ll still be the hottest one on this trip, now get over here, we are running out of time.”

That was the day I met Osiris.

Bee made my skin look flawless, and I felt like a queen when she was done with me. I can never forget how good I looked on that day. My blonde hair fell in waves around my face and whatever she had done to my eyelids made my eyes look like the ocean.

We were all supposed to meet in the main lobby, however with everyone there it was kind of cramped and hard to find our friends. The first thing I took care of was dropping off my questionnaire. There weren’t many in the box, but the paper beneath mine was sloppily written, and I couldn’t even make out the name. I snorted and went back to looking for our friends. I could see Mo from a mile away once I really started looking, due to how tall he is, with Bee in tow the rest of our friends appeared before us when the crowd parted.

“Hey guys.”

“Damn Star. I like the makeup.” Mo gave me a big grin and two thumbs up and I laughed. Mo was cute, but in that brotherly way. That’s what made him so sociable. He was like everyone’s brother.

“Where’s Osiris?” Bee asked. I turned and glared at her, but my palms started to sweat and my heart was racing. I searched the crows once again and that’s when I saw the little tuft of curly hair.

“Osiris! Over here!” Mo called.

And HE turned his head, smiled, and maneuvered his way through the crowd, towards me. I recognized him immediately and I felt the world slip out from underneath me. The recognition had thrown my pounding heart into overdrive and I was overcome with the feeling of being sick. When I came to, Bee was nearby, and we were in a classroom.

“Was Osiris really that attractive to you?” She asked, laughing. It took me a minute to realize what she had said and then I remembered.

“I’ve seen him before... Like in my dreams. I’ve been dreaming about him like all week.”

“Woah, that’s weird, but I mean you probably saw a picture of him like at their apartment or on their phones or something. Or maybe you saw him when you were drunk.”

“No, the dreams started on the first day of Orientation. I just... I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. It just kind of freaked me out. Do you think they’re going to make fun of me for it? I just felt so sick suddenly, I could barely stand.” I was nervous my episode would make our brand-new friends think less of me.

“Not on my watch.” Bee pulled out a candy bar and handed it to me. “Eat this.”

She pulled me out of the room and everyone was still crowded in the lobby. Our group of friends walked up to us concerned, but noticed I was eating the candy.

“Low blood-sugar, huh girlie?” asked Jack.

I nodded, embarrassed, since I hated lying. “Sorry to scare you, guys.”

“The only person you really scared was me.” said Osiris, coming to my left side. His voice was like silk against my ears and something about him just felt wrong, yet it felt really right, too right.

“Nice of you to join us, Osiris.” said Mo sarcastically.

The name sounded weird coming out of Mo, but this entire situation was weird to me.

“Star is okay now. Thanks for being so concerned.” said Bee, even more sarcastic than Mo.

Osiris threw his hands up in defense. “I didn’t mean anything bad. I was worried too. I was just trying to make light of the situation. Sorry.” he looked directly at me when he apologized, and I noticed that his eyes were bright green. His hair was dark and definitely not as curly as I thought it would be overall, however it was very curly at the ends. He had those same dimples when he smiled, and his face was round, like mine.

“He caught you though, Star, so at least there’s that.” Said Sam. I looked at him questioningly and he smiled. I had to look away.

“Attention everyone!” The counselors were gathering us together, preparing for the trip. “We will be splitting into groups. It is alphabetical so those of you with A-M will be on Bus One and those of you N-Z will be Bus Two. Please do not mix up the buses due to the fact that we will be taking roll ON the bus. Dismissed.”

After a quick check, we all realized that our last names put us on Bus One together. All of us.

“I want to sit with Bee.” said Jack, surprisingly.

That was the first of many unpredicted moments.

“I thought you were glad to see us gone.” said Bee. She looked to me for help, but Osiris stepped in to further the chaos.

“I’ll sit with Star, if that’s okay with Mo. She’ll be fine.”

“There’s nothing going on with me and Mo, so-”

“Great! Then we can sit together.” and then we were out the door. I could have protested more, and looking back I should have, but I was curious. I wanted to know who this guy was and how he was invading my dreams.

However, I never really got to ask him any questions. He kept making me laugh. It was the worst. I was trying to keep my composure, and be serious, yet, all I could do was smile and laugh, and when I mean laugh, I mean I was crying by the time we arrived at our destination, which was this large port with a cruise ship.

“This is our destination, everyone.” said the counselor. “As you all know we are a very diverse school, from entertainers to lawmakers. As some of you may know this ship is a part of our college. It’s where most people intern and take part of extracurricular activities. It’s an old ship, so we rarely ever have it set sail, but we have a couple of aspiring engineers on campus already who are working hard to see that dream come true. However, this ship is where we have parties, events, and any sort of gathering, due to the small size of our campus. Our entertainers perform here, and there’s even a small court room aboard.”

She began to lead us all onto the ship and we could see immediately that this was no ordinary ship. There were parts of it that had been combined to form bigger spaces, for filming or performing. There were mini sets everywhere that we could use, and there was a couple of kitchen areas that resembled break rooms.

The deeper we got onto the ship, the more it started to hit me.

It smelled like books.

“I want to bring this ship to life.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Osiris had appeared beside me, our friends taking the lead above us, listening to every word the counselor was saying. I’m pretty sure it was some sort of history lesson, and I’ve forgotten it since then, but I still can’t forget him.

“You mean you want to be an engineer? And you want to fix the ship?”

“Yeah, I mean look at it. It’s so beautiful. She’s old, but she’s sturdy and she just needs some love.” he said, as we fell even more behind from the group.

“I’m sure that if all she needed was some love that she would be sailing more.” I said, trying to walk a bit faster. The smell of books was increasing, making my heart beat faster.

“Maybe, you’re right, but I still want to try. I want to take part in something bigger than myself.”

For some reason, those words hit me. “What do you mean by that?” I was slowing down, and he could tell. He smiled.

“You know, I want to help a greater cause. Getting this ship on the seas, even if it was for just one more time, would help this school really get out there. They’re small, but they offer such great opportunities for people of all skills and talents. They deserve to be recognized.” he was so enthusiastic about it, it made me smile.

“You have a point, but have you ever thought that they don’t want to be recognized. Fame is great and all, but if there was more demand, it would cost more, and the acceptance rate would jump up, leaving this as ‘just another public college’, you know what I’m saying? I just think that with where they’re at, they should stay low, at least for now.”

By this point we were really lagging behind the group and they were almost out of sight.

“Do you really want to catch up to them? Or do you want to take a detour?” he asked me. I looked at his smiling face, and his green eyes made my heart flutter through the roof.

“Detour.”

He grabbed my hand and quickly we maneuvered through the hallways, which gave me really weird deja-vu to a scene from Titanic. He knew pretty much everything about this ship, like he had been studying it his whole life, and his passion for nautical things made me giggle. I didn’t want to stop him, but I wanted to know how he knew so much about the ship. I wanted to know everything about him.

My phone started to ring in the middle of him speaking. I was sitting on a chair in what seemed to be the biggest kitchen ever and I honestly hadn’t even heard it until he said, “Are you gonna get that?”

It was Bee.

“Um, hello?” I knew my cheeks were flushed, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Star, where are you? You have to see this. We’re in the Library.” I stood up.

Books.

“Okay, be there soon. See ya.”

“You wanna see the library?” I nodded, but then felt bad.

“We don’t have to go though, we probably won’t be able to get away again, and I like your tour more... So.” I played with my hair, avoiding eye contact.

He chuckled. “Our tour is pretty much over, and we’ll need to be with them when lunch is served anyway.”

“Lunch? But we just got here.” I said, following him out the door.

He laughed, not even looking back at me. “You sure are cute.” I checked the time and sure enough we had been here for a couple hours already.

I felt my cheeks heat up and within minutes we were sneaking our way into the library where the group was.

“Osiris, how do you know so much about...”

That’s when I saw. We were in the library, the library of my dreams. The smell of books engulfed me and I wanted to literally bathe in it.

“According to our records the previous ship owner did this for his wife.” I heard the counselor say.

“Goals.” someone said.

I nodded, wanting to respond, but not being able to. We were in the ballroom of the ship, except the walls were lined with books, thousands of them. They ranged from middle school level to classic literature. It was a dream come true to me at the time, and I had the biggest smile on my face, I only knew because Osiris walked up to me and had to shut my mouth for me. I was in awe.

Never had I ever seen so many perfectly aligned books, it was an OCD dream.

“You really like books, huh girlie?” said Jack.

Our group of friends approached us, but I could hardly speak still, and Osiris laughed. “I was giving her the ‘O Special Tour De Ship’ If that’s okay with you Mo.”

“That doesn’t sound too good.” said Bee, concerned for me.

“I can’t help it O, I’m a hugger when I’m drunk. You know that.” Mo said.

I laughed, finally able to think about something else.

“Guys, I want to live here.” They all laughed at my awe, but Osiris just smiled at me, as if he was admiring my passion, like I had been doing to him earlier. “Thanks for taking me on the tour. I really enjoyed it.” I said to him, as the rest of the group began the move again.

“I’d like to take you other places too, if you’ll let me. There’s a lot of Quebec that most people don’t know about.” He smiled at me, but that time it made my heart flutter again.

“We’ll see about that.” I said, not wanting to seem too eager.

I was definitely intrigued by him, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue him like that. He was kind and sweet, but something still felt wrong.

Later that night, when we had finally returned to our room, I got advice from Bee. She seemed to know a thing or two about men and she encouraged me to go after him, but only if it felt right. That was where I was struggling.

“Osiris was really sweet, and he really knows how to make me laugh. There’s just something in my gut, you know?” I was laying on my bed, contemplating my options.

“Oh, I totally know. Always follow your gut girl, it will save you lots of pain.” Bee climbed into her bed and within seconds she was asleep. However, it took me a while. My head was spinning practically as the thoughts twirled in my head. My mother had said similar words to me over and over again when we were talking about what it would be like when I got my powers.

“Trust your gut, my Star, you never know how things could turn out.” My mother’s voice rang in my ears as I finally bit the dust.

However, the dreams continued.

When I became aware in my dream, I was sitting on my bed but it was bigger and the walls were blue. He came in, a towel around his waist. I looked down and realized I was in pajamas I thought I threw away when I was twelve.

“Um, hello?” I said, not sure of what was happening.

“Hi, baby.” it was really muffled, but that’s what it sounded like.

“Baby?” I asked, confused, but then understanding. I was dreaming about dating Osiris. It looked just like him, the build, the hair was a bit curlier, but I assumed that was from the shower. His face was only half blurred, but it must have been some dream version... but then he got closer and closer.

I started to realize that this person was practically identical to Osiris. He crawled into the bed with me and snuggled up to me under the covers. He then looked up at me and kissed my neck, which is when I realized the difference.

This man’s eyes were brown.