the moon (a rini au)

INTRODUCTION/PROLOGUE

For as long as he could remember, all Ricky has wanted was to be like his mother. Elizabeth Marie Bowen was a renowned astrophysicist who had led over 10 successful space missions in three decades. Her last mission however, ended in tragedy; Ricky had just started junior high (seventh grade) and Liz was on a 4 month mission to the moon based on her study she had been working on for two years. The spaceship spun out of control and blew up halfway through, killing the whole crew of fourteen. Her research was discontinued and archived in the NASA NYC center's storage, her lab cleared out, her office however left as it was, frozen in time. 

Her death struck Ricky hard, it tore him apart. Michael Bowen was broken, the light of his life, his love, pride and joy taken away so suddenly; but he was a good man, a good father so he pulled himself together. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah with his son, far away from all the grief. New York was just.. haunted, everywhere they looked, every corner was a memory of the woman who was no longer with them.

Mike focused on his son, helped him get back on track and tried his hardest to hold everything together. Eventually Mike got re-married to Ricky's high school drama teacher and after Ricky graduated high school they moved to Australia and Ricky and Mike grew apart. Now they'd barely talk once every few months or so and send occasional e-mails back and forth. 

his senior year:

him and eliza:

(HAAHAHHHAHAHAHAAHHA NO LYNNE) 

___________________________________________________

The universe had been very cruel to Nina Salazar-Roberts. At the age of 7 she lost both her moms and her lola to a car accident caused by a drunk driver, having no direct relatives on the same continent she was put into the foster care system. Some children get lucky, taken in by kind people who adopt them soon after, Nini was not one of them. No one wanted a 7 year old, she was bounced around from foster house to foster house usually in different states, all over crowded with abusive or neglectful foster parents, most homophobic and racist. The only thing that kept her going was her dream of being an astronaut and some of her foster siblings, who over the years had vanished from her life, she still kept in contact with a few of them. 

Senior year of high school was fairly decent for Nina, she was in a home with 6 other kids and a women who basically only fostered for the money from social services, she wouldn't even feed the kids but she never physically hurt them, which for Nini was the best it could be. It was also the only year she went to a school dance. There were three kids who were in elementary school around 7-10 years old and a sibling pair who were also seniors, Frankie and Ezra Wong (Madison and Conan). The three would work at a coffee shop and make enough to feed the kids and themselves and before they turned 18 and left for good, they gave the kids as much money as they could, eventually they lost contact with the trio and moved to separate states. 

But if you were an outsider looking at Nina Salazar-Roberts you would never be able to tell that she's been through all of that, all that hardship and still she never came off as bitter or cold. Don't get me wrong, she had walls higher than mount Everest up around her and no one would really get close enough to know anything about her past, but she was kind to everyone, always there to lend a hand. 

her senior year:

A/N

ahhhhh i cant tell if this is shit but im trying