Under the Stars (a lunar chronicles Modern AU)

Chapter One: Returning

None of the girls were excited to return to school after the summer holidays, Cress especially. She would rather stay at home on her computers for the rest of her life rather than return to her dorm room in lunar academy; the boarding school had bad wifi and even worse food.

She might have considered coming up with some excuse to delay her return if that didn't mean abandoning cinder and Iko. She didn't suppose they would really blame her, they had each after all, but she didn't want them to get back into the loop of school without her.

So on the last day of the holidays she loaded her bags into the car, pulling out her phone and texting the other girls that she was on her was as her Dad drove her away from her home.

"Don't worry," he told her as they approached the school grounds, three hours from home, three hours from her parents, "it'll fly by. You'll be home before you know it." His words were reassuring, but the lies in them were unmistakably obvious, as was his ignorance to how much she truly hated being away from home.

The only good thing that really came out of it was that she no longer had to hide her hacking from her parents; the school didn't care.

When Cress arrived, the academy was already bustling with life, students hurrying from cars with luggage, waving goodbye to parents, greeting their friends from last year. Cress was mesmerised by the madness as much as she was terrified. Being such a small girl it was so easy to be trampled in the chaos, so easy to be overlooked in the school.

Her dad helped her carry her luggage out of the car, standing it by the side of the car and wrapping his arms around her.

"Cress!" a voice shouted from not far away: Iko.

Cress lifted her head to see Iko galloping towards her, Cinder following not far behind. Iko pulled Cress from her dad's arms and enveloped her in a hug, squashing the smaller girl against her.

"Hello Mr Darnel," Cress heard Cinder say. She pulled away from Iko, seeing for the first time the girl's bright blue braids that had been a much duller shade of pink last year.

Cinder pulled Cress into a much lighter hug that lasted only a few seconds in greeting, muttering a hello in her before pulling away.

That's when she saw him.

A blonde boy, or more accurately: a man leaned over Cinders shoulder, peering over at Cress before turning his head and pressing his lips against Cinders cheek. Cinder sprung away, slapping the man across the cheek and yelling "I did not bring you here to show me up!" while the man looked mildly amused at her.

"Then you shouldn't have let me come here, should you?" the man teases, his lips adorned with a smirk. Cress felt flustered from the whole affair, and confused. Cinder had never told her she had a boyfriend, if that's what he was, besides, last time she'd seen her Cinder had had a massive crush on Kai, one of the most popular, most adored boys in the school, two years older than them.

Cinder, of course, knew she never had a chance with Kai, and she made sure Cress and Iko knew this too, just in case.

"I'm so sorry about him," Cinder said to Cress, moving away from the man and taking her place between Cress and Iko. "This is Carswell,"

"But you can just call me Thorne," he said, winking at Cress in a way that made her unable to stop herself from blushing.

Cinder looked mortified.

"As I was saying, this is Carswell Thorne, Iko and I were bunking with him over the holidays." Cinder pointed at somewhere behind him. "Leave. Now."

"I really have to..." Cress's dad interrupted, placing a kiss on Cress's head from behind and giving her one last hug. "Remember to call," he said before getting back in the car and with another wave, drove away, looking back several times before he disappeared into the distance.