The Elusive Heart of Nova Hart ✔

21// like last summer

dedicated to Spread_ur_winggss for reading and voting :) thank you xx

LIKE LAST SUMMER

EVEN THOUGH NOVA WISHED SHE could've stayed in bed a little while longer, she walked into school with a secretive smile gracing her lips.

She did not regret going to bed late last night (this morning, to be exact). And if she had to do it again this night, she would. In a blink of an eye.

"Hey, girlfriend," Adelaide's voice greeted her from her left as the girl bumped her hips with Nova's.

"Heya," Nova chirped, a certain spring in her steps.

"You went ahead and made contact with him, didn't you?" Addy asked with narrowed eyes but her lips had formed a smirk.

Nova felt the warmth flood her face but succeeded in not grinning like a creep. "Maybe."

"So what'd he say?" Addy was biting down hard on her lip, excitement rolling off her in waves as she awaited her friend's reply.

"He asked me if I'd like to be a stag," Nova told her truthfully.

Addy blinked, the expression on her face making Nova want to erupt in boisterous laughter.

"Umm..." Addy hesitated, "...is that the romantic way of asking whether you'd like to wear the pants in the relationship?" Her tone was uncertain.

Now Nova really couldn't help bursting into fits of laughter.

Addy's cheeks grew red in mortification. "What?" She snapped defensively. "The stag is the male, yeah? And the doe is female. Its a perfectly normal assumption for me to make when you put it that way!"

Nova was still laughing heartily.

The annoyance on Addy's face softened eventually and affection poured in instead. "You're such a dork," she muttered.

Nova threw her arm over her best friend's shoulders and pulled her closer. "You love me anyway," she said cheekily, causing Addy's smile to widen.

"Nova," Coach Hadley nodded to her as he walked past the duo. "Hope you're ready to kick ass in two days at Brookeback."

"As if you have to ask," she countered good-naturedly, watching his cheeks lift in a smile as he disappeared from view.

"Right," Addy said from next to her, "you have a tournament."

"Mm hmm," Nova nodded as they came to a halt by her locker.

"Doubles?"

Nova shook her head, "singles," she amended. It was a one-on-one match, though Nova most times preferred the tournaments where she had someone else by her side out on the badminton court.

She was pretty confident regarding her skills and ability to hold her own but having someone play beside her usually helped ebb the jittery sensation.

Addy opened her mouth to say something, but whatever the words she had intended to say were lost in the moment as Nova opened her locker and a yellow iris fell out.

This time, it was different though. It wasn't the whole flower; instead, the long stem was cut pretty short and there was a small black hair-slide attached at the end of it as if she was meant to...

And then it hit Nova.

He wanted her to wear it. Just like he'd seen her do at that beach party last summer.

She curled her bottom lip into her mouth, her fingers buzzing as they trailed down the short length of the stem.

"Are you going to wear it?" Addy's voice was a hum in the background as Nova's senses were lost in the surrealism of it all.

Addy must have read her mind though because she pulled the flower out of Nova's hands and began placing it amidst the soft blonde curls behind Nova's right ear.

Securing it in place with the hair-slide, Addy stepped back and gave her handiwork a once-over.

"You're pulling it off just fine," she smiled, "like everything else, of course."

It was summer season so Nova didn't feel all too self conscious about the flower; she'd blend in just fine.

And even if she didn't, it didn't really matter, did it? Nova had always stood out; it'd be no different this time around.

_______________________________________

next chapter features somebody else's POV ;) this person was shown in a tiny part in an earlier chapter... Who can make the lucky guess? ;)

Thank you for reading xx