The Supernova Effect

Chapter 3

Nova

The room still smelled unfamiliar.

Cardboard. Dust. A trace of my mother's lavender detergent clinging to clothes half-hanging from open boxes.

Late afternoon light spilled through the blinds in thin gold stripes, cutting across the floor of my childhood bedroom like the house was still trying to remember me.

Or maybe I was trying to remember it.

I stood in the middle of the room turning slowly, taking everything in.

The same pale yellow walls.
The same tiny crack stretching above the window.
The same old ceiling fan whining softly overhead.

But it all felt smaller now.

Boarding school had stretched time strangely. Two years somehow felt both endless and unfinished.

Behind me, my dad set another box down with a quiet grunt.

"Well," he sighed, brushing his hands against his jeans, "that should be the last of it."

I glanced over my shoulder.

"Crazy how my room got smaller while I was gone."

He laughed softly. "That's called growing up."

I made a face. "Growing up's overrated."

He laughed softly as he headed toward the door.

"Get used to it," he said. "This is only the beginning."

Then he disappeared down the hallway, leaving the room quiet again.

A second later, my phone buzzed against the bedspread.

A group FaceTime.

Of course.

I smiled before even opening it.

Maria's face appeared first, way too close to the camera.

"AHH, BITCH, YOU'RE FINALLY BACK—"

I jerked the phone away from my ear immediately. "Jesus Christ."

Giselle burst out laughing.

"Maria," Giovanni groaned somewhere offscreen, "why are you always overly loud?"

"Because my best friend is HOME," Maria snapped dramatically. "And unlike y'all, I know how to express emotions."

"You express them like a fire alarm," I laughed.

The screen shifted wildly before settling again. Giovanni appeared eating chips while Giselle fixed her lip gloss in the corner of the frame.

God, I missed them.

Missed this.

The noise.
The chaos.
People talking over each other like silence didn't exist.

Boarding school had never sounded like this.

"You better be dressed cute tonight," Maria warned. "I'm serious."

"Oh my God," Giovanni muttered, "here she go."

"We are going OUT after graduation," Maria continued, ignoring him completely. "And if Nova shows up looking academically responsible, I'm sending her home."

I laughed softly, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"I'll do my best to disappoint my parents properly."

"That's my girl," Giselle grinned.

Maria leaned toward the camera suddenly. "You better not come alone either."