Supernova

Prologue: Starquake

"Why I believe the black hole to be the saddest thing in our universe, by... uh, Pop..py? Poppy, yeah." I giggled, tucking my hair away from face.

A gentle laugh rippled through the classroom, although the teacher was puzzled by my chosen topic. She nudged her glasses further up her nose, giving me an approving nod so I could begin my presentation.

"A black hole is a region of spacetime, which-"

"What's spacetime?" a boy on the second row asked, promptly being shushed by the girl next to him. "Uh, well, that's an excellent question. It's a... I guess a model- or any model that operates with..."

Think. C'mon, you've held this presentation in your head so many times, you can't fail here.

I forced my vocal cords to go back online. "We've had about the three dimensions that make up volume. They work for space in general, and spacetime is when you add in time."

You could've heard a pin drop in the room, and I smiled through the cold sweat. "Don't think too much about the technicalities. Anyway, a black hole is what happens after a star's gravity becomes too strong for the inner pressure to handle, making it collapse and explode in a supernova."

Did I overestimate my own ability to explain? Was my entire presentation bullshit?

"A black hole is, as I said, a region of spacetime with such a strong gravity that nothing can escape it. That's why we think it's black, actually, because we see due to light bouncing off things, and... uh, light can't bounce off black holes."

The teacher was tapping the back of her pen against the paper, waiting for me to get to the point. I swallowed, using every nerve in my body to keep my fingers from digging into my palm.

"I think that the sun can be seen as a human being. The inner pressure is the will to fight and affect the world around it, and the gravity is everything else trying to beat the individuality of the human down." I pressed my thumb against my index finger through the paper.

If I ever had to hold another presentation, I was going to hire a hitman to take me out if I gave a specific signal.

But despite bubbling anxiety, I continued. "When the human's independent identity is fought so badly, it acts up. Like with a scary, traumatizing event, the long term effects don't show themselves until after the event is over."

She finally put the pen down. "If the black hole represents the same person, it shows what happens when somebody is hurt until they begin to hurt back. We forget that behind all the anger, there's a person in pain, and... we forget that they used to be a star. Yeah, that's it."

The applause was mediocre, probably because the conclusion was non-existent. I knew I should've tried to execute it better, but I had already explained the fuck out of my idea and was not about to beat a dead horse.

Before I could sit down, the teacher raised her hand. The look on her face told me she was interested, but in what way, I wasn't sure. "Poppy, the task you were given was to induce thought in under five minutes. I have to say that this was quite good, so tell me; how did you come up with it?"

If the question had been asked alone, I might have come up with a lie that would make me sound professional. However, my brain triggered on the praise, tearing down the filter between my mind and my mouth.

"I read Twilight fanfiction last night."

-|-|-

Hello!
This is a brand new story I'm starting up that I've been planning for a good six months at this point. There's a lot of trigger warnings to be mentioned here, including (but not limited to):

-Very many mentions of serial killers. Especially ones that have been particularly gruesome, although nothing will be described in excruciating detail.
-Brief mentions of some gore.
-Mentions and non-extreme demonstrations of emotional abuse and neglect of a child.
-Underage drinking.
-Mentions of bullying, depression, CPTSD (complex PTSD) and suicidal thoughts (again, nothing extreme).
-Malnourishment, but not because of an eating disorder.
-Destructive habits.

I will add a short trigger warning at the start of a chapter to warn you, so please read these and make sure you're up to reading this kind of content. This is a slightly darker story than I'm used to writing, admittedly, but I will not write anything explicitly sexual. However, this is a romance, so some things like kissing and whatnot will show up.

I'm very excited to start writing this for you all!

yours truly,
bodacious baekon <3