A New Life

They don't know who she really is. Not the kids at school and not her family. Nova is an actress and has been her whole life. She watched from her bedroom as her brother left the house to go to a party or something. Both of her parents and her other two siblings were gone already. They never really spent time together, we all had separate lives and just happen to live with each other.

Nova turned to the mirror. It wasn't her, but it was the person everyone expected her to be. A party girl who slept around. That is what everyone saw her as, just a crazy cheerleader. She wore short skirts, although she made sure that none of them would ever show anything when she bent over. She would wear the occasional crop top, but would never show off her cleavage. Her whole wardrobe was designed to show off her shape and yet not show too much.

Her family thought that Nova was going to a party tonight which is why she was wearing a short light blue and white flowy skirt. She loved it because the pattern looked like marble. A simple white crop tank top complimented the skirt and showed a touch of her toned stomach. It was cute, but also comfortable and so Nova had picked it.

Nova rarely actually went to parties. If she did, she would simply go to get in a few pictures and then disappear. She had never had alcohol nor drugs and parties just weren't her scene, but it was what was expected. Most people would just suppose she was off with some boy or doing something stupid so no one noticed.

A freshman in high school and she had quite a reputation. Guess it helps that her older sister, Kelly, was the cheer captain and Kelly's twin, Blake, was the football captain. They were both known to be crazy and her other brother, Carter, was a rebellious bad boy. Nova was expected to be just as crazy as her siblings and so she acted the part.

Right now though, everyone was gone and so she quickly moved over to her computer and opened up her school work. Nova actually had one of the highest grades in her class, but she had asked the principal to keep it under wraps. All of her teachers were in on it, none of them were allowed to tell her parents that she had straight A's and never missed homework.

Sometimes, she would have some nerd do her "homework" to keep up appearances, but all of Nova's teachers would just ignore and throw away those few things. School ended in two weeks and she needed to finish all the final projects, luckily she was on the finishing touches on all of them and it didn't take her too long.

The last one sent to her English teacher and she leaned backward. Everything was officially done and now Nova could relax. Normally, she would watch a documentary on some species of animal. Nova was actually a huge nerd when it came to animals. She would literally watch hours of documentaries on everything from ants to eagles to wolves. While picking a favorite animal was hard, she had to say that most canines caught her heart.

She had always been obsessed with animals, but she had started hiding it all the way back when she was about 4. Her parents had gotten her into dance and cheer at 4 and not long after going, she saw a fox while she was waiting for her parents. No one was watching and so she was able to slip into the woods after it.

The fox decided to play with Nova for a bit until she had to run when her parents called. The moment was so special and yet her parents didn't listen to her when she tried to tell them. In fact, they shut her down and said "later”. "Later" never came. She was continually drawn to all these different animals but soon noticed the other girls weren't.

Nova stopped talking to her parents about animals and more about the same things the others would talk about and her parents got happier. She never dropped the animals herself, of course, she just kept them to herself. That had been the start of her acting to be who she was "supposed" to be. Now 10 years later, she was still hiding her adoration of animals. Her parents had no clue she was planning on being a zoologist.

Tonight was beautiful and the moon was high. So instead, Nova decided to leave her computer and enjoy the beautiful night. With a smile, she stood and grabbed a book to take to her favorite place in the house, the garden. It was warm enough outside that she didn't have to worry about a coat and soon she was breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the sweet scents of flowers.

Her eyes glanced around the dark garden as her feet unconsciously carried her to the large oak at the very back. Nova sat down in the woven hanging chair that hung from its massive branches. The cricket's song and the bright moon bringing a soft smile onto her face and she tucked her feet up and opened the book.

"Now why is a beautiful young thing as yourself out here all by yourself?" Nova jumped at the mysterious voice and looked up to see a man standing in the open back gate. That gate was supposed to be locked. Her eyes widened and she started to stand when a hand covered her mouth. There was a cloth in it and soon everything went dark as arms picked her up from the woven hanging chair.

The time that followed was a blur of white. There were times of heat and times of cold. Some pain was also in the blur, but she couldn't make anything out. There was nothing substantial until Nova woke up in the woods. She was wearing the same outfit she had been wearing at her house, but it was much dirtier.

Her head ached as Nova slowly sat up and looked around. She had no clue where she was nor how she had gotten here. There was only one way she could find out though, and that was to get up and walk. So, that is what she did until she ran into a family hiking and they brought Nova to a hospital. That is when they told her she had been missing for three months.