ASHES ASHES | teen wolf

one. first day blues

Nova sat up so quickly she could have sworn she almost broke her neck in the process. Her chest was heaving and she was pretty sure she smelled something burning before rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes, shaking her head.

A loud banging on her bedroom door was apparently what woke her up, and she threw a pillow angrily in that direction, groaning when she heard her cousin laughing softly on the other side of it.

"Come on," Cadmus called, sounding way too happy for someone awake at barely seven in the morning. "I swear, if my mom finds out I let you be late for your first day, I'll never be able to get her shoe out of my ass."

A snort forced itself out of Nova's throat, shoving the negative thoughts that threatened to plague her to the back of her mind. "That sounds like a you problem, doesn't it?" Her cousin audibly huffed , and Nova could have sworn she smelled something burning again. "Please tell me that the smell is you cooking and not me having a stroke," she pleaded, grinning a little when she heard Cadmus swear and run down the stairs. The idiot probably forgot that he was making toast, she concluded before pulling herself into a sitting position and slowly moving from the bed so she could stand in front of her mirror.

Her first day at a school, in a new town. Her aunt had been pretty gentle with her since she'd moved in a two weeks ago, understanding that jumping back into school a few days after burying her father wasn't the best idea for her mental state. Part of Nova wanted to beg for more time, looking at the boxes all around her room she hadn't been able to unpack. The other part, a part that sounded suspiciously like her father, told her to get dressed. She wasn't a china doll and she refused to be treated like she would crack with a little bit of pressure.

Turning on her heel, Nova grabbed the first pair of clean jeans she could find and paired it with a grey tanktop covered by a green plaid shirt. Brushing her hair softly, Nova had to sigh when she looked at the dark bags under her eyes that made her face look a little sallow. Normally she wasn't one to care about appearances, but looking like she was one step into the grave probably wasn't the best way to start the year at her new school. So she fumbled through the little bit of makeup she owned and patted at it like she'd seen on Youtube videos until she was sure she looked mildly better, grabbing her shoes before jogging down the stairs.;

Cadmus was holding out a granola bar and an apple for her as she entered the kitchen, making her raise an eyebrow. "I had been going to have cereal," she pointed out, making him shake his head with a little grin.

"Think about that next time I have to get to the school, I have lacrosse."

"Right..." Nova actually had forgotten that her dorky, slightly nerdy cousin played such a high contact sport such as lacrosse. Rather than saying that though, she managed a small scoff. "I don't see why you can't play football like civilized people."

Cadmus made a sound in the back of his throat that almost resembled a hissing shriek. "You are going to be eaten alive at school if you keep talking like that you know," he pointed out as he grabbed his car keys from the table. "Grab your bag, we'll eat on the way."

Grumbling, Nova obliged and tried not to think about all of the things that could possibly go wrong that day as she gingerly placed her flute case in her backpack and grabbed her violin case. It was hard not to be negative, but she just followed Cadmus out the door, taking a vicious bite of her apple as she went.

The drive to the school was pretty uneventful, the cousins briefly bickering over who got to connect their phone to the car to play their music. Nova won, but she wasn't dumb enough to think it was because Cadmus just gave up on arguing. He was still walking on eggshells around her, and he had been since she moved in.