Nova & Cole

“I was made aware of your situation… So you can introduce yourselves…” the teacher says smiling and they both nod confused. 

“Class.” She snaps. “Our two new students whose introductions were interrupted… Are going to reintroduce themselves.” She says smiling and the whole class quiets down. 

“Uhm… Well, I’m Cole… And she’s Nova.” Cole says smiling. The class stares at them silently before someone yells, “What are your pronouns?” “Oh…” Cole pauses. “She/Her right?” she asks and Nova nods slightly. “Mine are He/She…” Cole says hesitantly. 

“What are you?” Someone else asks. 

“I’m nonbinary.” “No? What species and race are you?” Someone asks, confused. “Oh? Well, we’re afro Latina and indigenous… So…” “We are Native Naiad and elf hybrids…” Nova says. 

“Well, how old are you?” Someone asks, confused. “I’m 16 in a few months… She’s 13. She got skipped.” Cole says, glancing at Nova. 

A boy raises a hand, smiling at them and the teacher nods. “You're really pretty.” He says smiling. “Me?” Nova says confused and the teacher shushes him. “Enough Jeremy…” He rolls his eyes and she points, “You can sit there and there.” 

They sit down and Cole elbows her smiling, “He was totally flirting with you…” Nova looks at him confused, “Was he? Because ‘your pretty’ is more like an opinionated observation” “You're hopeless.” Cole says smiling. 

~

They both glance at each other and then at everyone else talking loudly in the cafeteria. “Hey! Over here!” A girl yells waving at them and they walk over to them. “Hey? Wanna join the cheer team?” The girls asks smiling and Cole pauses, “depends am I gonna be doing what the girls are doing or the boys?” 

“Uh… Are you afab or amab?” She asks and the boy elbows her. “I… Don’t want to answer that?” “Then whichever one you want.” The girl says handing her a signup sheet. Cole quickly adds her name and she hands the paper to Nova. “Uh… I’m gonna pass.” Nova waves at Cole before walking away and he looks at her confused.

Nova sighs and sits at an empty table and someone quickly sits next to her. “Hey? New girl! What was your name again?” They ask, smiling. “Nova…” She mumbles and they smile before screaming, “Ali! We’re adopting another one!” They grab Nova’s wrist and quickly pull her to another table.

“Oh?” Jeremy says, staring at her and she waves, slightly confused. 

“I’m Kasey. That’s Jeremy… And Alii. We’re both freshmen… Yes embarrassing I know. And Jeremy’s a sophomore but has no friends his age because he has a… Tendency to fight.” She smiles and Nova nods. “Okay…” “I use any pronouns… And Alii uses she/her. And Jeremy uses he/him.”

Ali turns around to them and sits down, “Oh? She’s cute? Who’s this?” “Nova…” “Hi, Nova… You like girls?” She asks and winks. “Yes…” “Don’t mind her… She’s aro ace but overly flirty…” Jeremy says before asking. “Do you like boys?” Kasey sighs and Nova says, “I think so…?” Hesitantly. 

“Well, have you gotten your thread yet?” Kasey asks and Nova looks at him confused. “My what?” “She’s from the other side of the border, remember?” Jeremy says, shaking his head. “They don’t have threads? How do they date?” Alii asks, confused. “You just date who you want… Get married… Divorced… Probably married again…” Nova says blankly. “But what does the thread do?” 

“It's a thread on your ring finger that connects you to your soulmate. You get it when whoever's younger out of you and your soulmate turns any age from 17 to 20. It’s unlikely you’ll get it before that  but it does happen.” Jeremy says smiling and she nods slowly. “It’s like a mood ring! But it is about emotions instead of body temperature.” Kasey says excitedly. 

“Yeah, I haven’t got one of those…? I only just got powers…” “Really?” Alii asks, scoffing. “Probably because she was around humans so long.” 

Jeremy smiles and asks, “So..? Are things different here?” Nova pauses and says, “Well there are more black people here. Uhm… The food tastes better. But that may have to do with the influx in black people… And… Your houses are bigger? Stuff on the news is usually about the royal family and not people getting killed… So that's a plus. Uh-” 

“Wait? So it’s true humans actually die?” Kasey asks with wide eyes. “Don’t you?” Nova asks confused. “From childbirth and suicide? But other than that we can’t. And if someone dies from one of those we can turn them or bring them back. Well… As long as their brain still has activity.” 

Jeremy pauses and asks, “So where do their souls go if no one has powers?” Nova pauses and says. “Well religious people say heaven or hell? Hell’s like you being burned alive forever and heavens everything you could ever want… And Heaven’s for good people and hells for bad… But I’ve also never died so I can’t really confirm that.” 

“If we die permanently our bodies are buried and turn into trees and we’re reincarnated… Or our souls sealed into a room where your family members can come visit you,” Alii says smiling. “But… They say if you were a bad person nothing will grow over you. If your under a tree.”

Nova scoffs and says, “If you can’t kill each other, what bad can you do?” Kasey shrugs and says, “Uh… Stealing, fighting… Rape… Uh… I can’t really think of more?” She chuckles. “Wait do humans even do that?” He asks confused and Nova nods, “It’s like 1 in 3 women? And like 1 in 6 men.” “Here it’s 1 in 5 out of everyone. Except our population hasn’t reached 3 billion yet and humans are at like 12 billion.” 

“Well, good thing there are four of us.” Ali says jokingly and Jeremy stares at her, “That’s not something to joke about.” She rolls her eyes and says, “Well who’ll lighten up the mood if I don’t?”

~

“So? Anyone, you got your eye on?” One of the girls asks, smiling. “We have a lot of good-looking guys. Or girls- if you're into girls” Cole shakes his head, “Nope… There are no guys I have my eye on…” She says looking around and a red thread wraps neatly around her ring finger. 

She pulls her hand away confused and a guy is pulled quickly in his direction, but Cole continues shaking her hand and tugging at the string not paying him any mind.

“Hi? I’m-” He pulls harder at the thread and he stops. He stares at her silently as she tries to pull the thread off of herself for a few minutes before she gives up and looks at him. 

“Hi… I’m Micheal” He says nervously and he stares at him. “Did you do this? Take it off.” She demands and he looks at her confused. “No? I didn’t do it? It’s-” “Then who did?” He asks seriously and he sighs before grabbing her wrist and pulling her in the opposite direction.