Wolf Heart

Chapter 2

Planet: Eteran

First Insurgency War

AVA

I have to make Dad proud. He's coming home for our graduating Quad. I've got a lot of work left to do before school starts back up again...

Her poster of the band 'Aetherium Werewolves' rested on her wall above her stand of musical pods with all their songs, with one drumming out a tune in her ears. Her steps followed the beat as she shimmied to the music and held her datapad close to her heart while it dropped the beat like a hammer into her chest. It wasn't work, but she gave herself some room to enjoy herself and the news. In a held thrum in the song, she tossed her datapad onto her bed with the switch of tempo. A cold breeze wrapped around her from her open window as light from the sun shone through her split blinds.

It drummed against her walls, and she twisted on her heel to her door, too caught up in the tune, where a mirror image stared at her, not dancing. In her vanity, her true mirror image danced with her, and she switched back to the entrance to her domain.

"James!" she screeched and fumbled for her podplayer. It frizzled with realisation. "How long were you standing there? Aren't you supposed to be at the Starcross field with Jon?"

"Mom wanted me to let you know lunch is ready. She went out to get stuff for dinner and took Janie," James said with a wry smile at her. "Also, I was, but then I heard you blasting that band and couldn't concentrate on what I was doing, so I came over to take a peek." He shrugged his shoulders and whisked a strand of their shared dirty blonde hair off of his brow, and he ran a hand through his hair to finish it off. "I did call you—"

"No, you didn't." Ava pursed her lips.

"I did." James chuckled. "You were just so invested in it, and I'm not that rude. I'm heading to the pitch now." He threw his thumb behind him in indication, then Ava shook her head when he did a little slide in her doorway. "I'm sorry for interrupting, Miss Homework, but you should know better than to—" He hesitated on his own beat, then with one last slide, tipped her pens over, where they rolled on her dresser. "—Ignore me." He bowed, and then rushed out of her doorframe, leaving it open.

"Why do you always have to knock over my pens? And close the door when you leave!" she called, and scoffed when the front door opened and shut. And there he goes. I'll have to mark that down. Over to her desk, she shuffled through her infopods to find her school holoboard, swiping her notes to her datapad. Got to get these notes to Meryn, and then it's gym time.

Everything snug tight in her bag, she hauled it over her shoulder before whisking her hair in her ponytail and leaving their little house down the forest path. It wasn't too long a walk to the small town of Eastpoint, on the cusp where forest met hills. Quiet, and full of close company.

As she walked down main street, she spotted some of her classmates on their routines before the start of the Quad. Yvonne and Kylie, who hovered around the candy shop, with their famous delicacy of chocolate and vanilla lavacakes — on sale, from the gleeful expressions on their faces. Roads split, but the quiet reigned. Few cars clogged up the roads, with some quickly going about their business, or parking off to the side of the buildings themselves. Music danced out of the convenience store in Eastpoint's largest plaza, the same tune she played before. I wonder if their 'Wolven Heart' album is out yet... A frustrated puff escaped her as she checked for any hint on the anticipated drop, before hesitating outside the electronics and edevium store, where an I-Screen showed the planetary news. On the edge of the screen, reports of the First Insurgency War, along with pirate attacks on the borderlands — as with the usual safety measures in place for some of the larger cities packed together.