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countessofravenclaw · 18 days

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Secretos o las ruedas y el mar: act 2

In 2024 group of our favorite skaters ended up having a bit of an time traveling escapade. Now over 20 years later, two girls find the very mysterious book and end up discovering that they definitely do not know everything about their parents' past.

“Cosa diavolo?!” Stella exclaimed as the light subsided. “How? Why…? You know what? I am even afraid to ask.”

“I think we’ve been moved again,” Aurora said while looking around. Something clearly had changed. She and Aurora were now standing on the foot of the stairs, not on the hallway… something was off.

“Moved?” Stella was making an extremely confused face, “I can’t believe I am asking this, but define “moved”. Where did we move, because we’re still at Blake?”

“It’s not “where”,” Aurora scrunched her eyebrows, “It's “when”.”

“Should have guessed that.”

“Hold this,” Aurora dropped her backpack off her shoulder and handed it to Stella and started rummaging through it. “This is kind of like we’re having a force vision. We don’t control what we see.” She pulled out her notebook and a pen.

“So, when are we right now?” Stella questioned again after Aurora had taken her bag back.

“That’s not the hard part,” Aurora remarked and took her phone out. It was quite intriguing that their phones, which were the highest of ends in technology, still worked 30 years before they had ever existed. But it was not like this was supposed to make sense, something that Aurora hated. “It’s 2016.”

“2016?” Stella sighed again, “So we have gone even more back in time.”

“Actually at least one and a half years,” Aurora wrote the last date on her notebook and the current date under it.

“So, we’re going backwards?” Stella shook her head. “Why can’t it be at least in order? I didn’t sign up for this. We were supposed to listen to ten different teachers preach to us about how we really need to put it to work this year if we want to graduate in three years.”

“You think I did?” Aurora rolled her eyes, “Look it’s not like I knew that this was going to be happening either, but the thing is that we were just presented with a mystery and now we're being shown the clues to solve it. We aren’t getting out of here before we solve it. This is basic mystery writing 101. Mom could write a whole manual on that subject alone.”

“That’s great and all, but we don’t have a manual!” Stella continued, “What clue are we supposed to find here? We don’t know what’s happening—”

“You were amazing. I can’t stop saying it. You can tell you really enjoy skating.”

“I don’t know how to explain what I felt on the rink.”

Aurora and Stella jumped out of the way before they were walked through. Their moms walked down the stairs.

“It definitely is 2016,” Aurora made a statement. What she was feeling while watching this, was definitely strange. She and Mom really did look alike. “They’re literally our age right now.”

“This is bizarre,” Stella laughed nervously, “Maybe you should start wearing red glasses.”

“Never, I don’t need glasses,” Aurora shook her head. Apparently, Mom had started wearing more contacts at university. She only really wore glasses at home, and those were black. “Mom always says that she had zero fashion sense when she was in school. I guess the red glasses are proof of that.”

“Well, we really can’t tell,” Stella tilted her head, “Everyone is unfashionable when wearing the Blake uniforms, although… they don’t have the vests on.”

“Maybe they were a new addition in 2017?”

“So how are we solving that some sort of mystery with your parents?” Stella continued.

“We need to keep watching.”

“Your dad isn’t even here.”

“Just watch.” Aurora huffed as they started following their moms around the corner.

“At first, I didn’t think we could make it, but then I remembered my dream.” Luna turned around gushing. “Yes, my dream. In my dream, I turned around, flipped, moved at a fast speed, then back. It looked like I was flying.”

“Your mom has literally changed zero amount,” Aurora said amused while looking at Stella. Both Stella and Milo, in appearance, resembled Matteo more than Luna. Personality wise it was pretty different. With Stella, it wasn’t as easy to tell like it was in some cases. Victoria for example was basically a reincarnation of Delfi.

“And you did great.”

“What are they talking about?” Aurora thought out loud as she wrote in her notebook.

“Some competition I guess,” Stella shrugged, “Mom’s first was when she had just moved here at 15.”

“So about now,” Aurora nodded and made a note in the book.

“Thank you, my friend, it’s all thanks to you.” Luna continued, “If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be in that room.”

“What room?”

“It’s Mom, don’t question it,” Stella shrugged again, “Who knows how many times she got herself locked into somewhere. She still does it.”

“...there will be a logical answer.”

“Are you sure you’re like your dad more than mom?” Stella asked Aurora. “You have literally said that sentence before.”

“It’s subjective,” Aurora rolled her eyes. Most accurate description of her probably would be Grandma with some Granny sprinkled in.

“As amusing as this has been, I still don’t get why we’re here,” Stella shook her head again, “Shouldn’t your dad be here?”

“Hmm, maybe you have a point,” Aurora was about to make another note when she looked at her mother again talking to Luna and saw that her eyes had focused on something behind Luna. Luna had noticed too as she turned to look toward whatever Mom was looking at. “Or you don't. There he is…with…Delfi and Jazmin?”

“Your dad had blonde highlights?” Stella exclaimed. “How has this never come up? How has Dad never mentioned this? This is like gold blackmail material right here.”

“Says the person who dyes her hair completely blonde,” Aurora shook her head.

“What are they doing?” Stella asked next as they kept looking at the set up.

“I mean Jazmin seems to be filming them,” Aurora squinted.

“Why two of them?”

“You tell me,” Aurora shrugged, “I think Dad once said that he and Delfi were often paired for skating, since Mom didn’t skate and stuff.”

“Plus, there is nothing romantic about skating,” Stella noted, “Mom and Dad are their own story…”

“I’m so happy we skated together,” Delfi started speaking. “I think we make a perfect couple…”

Something was very off. Aurora saw it as soon as Delfi placed her hand on Dad’s arm. Yes, he was 30 years younger, which looked bizarre on its own, but she recognized that uncomfortable shift. It was the same reaction as anytime Dad got a work call in the evening which he answered speaking German, French or that one Scandinavian language to the phone. It meant that he would rather be anywhere else at that moment.

“On the rink…” It was very shuttle so not everyone would notice it, but that was her father. Of course, Aurora could see it.

“Jazmin’s really using a tablet here?” Stella remarked suddenly, “I bet it would make her faint now if she did that. I mean, she goes nowhere without her GoPro now…”

“That’s what you’re taking away from this?” Aurora looked at Stella. “This doesn’t look odd at all to you?”

“Now that you mention it…” Stella tilted her head.

“Would you rather skate together or alone?” Jazmin seemed to ask next.

“Together!”

“Alone.”

“Am I crazy or…” Stella started speaking again, “...does Delfi like your dad? No way, right?”

“No,” Aurora shook her head, “I think that’s exactly what is going on here.”

“No,” Stella’s eyes widened, “OMG, this is not real.”

“I wouldn’t believe it either if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes,” Aurora wrote words down in her notebook. If they were to make any sense of this, things needed to be documented. “But like… I think it's one sided. It doesn’t really look like Dad’s into it.”

“I don’t know,” Stella seemed to just keep staring. “What is this supposed to tell us? Uuf, this just looks like it’s Oscar and Victoria and is tripping me up. Do you think I should be worried about Victoria?”

“No,” Aurora looked at Stella, disturbed, “Victoria is a sensible woman who’s studying screen and creative writing at UCA. She has more sense in her head than lust after my brother for no apparent reason.”

“I’m not lusting,” Stella tried to defend herself, “and I have reasons. He saved my life—”

“You were never going to fall off that tree.” Aurora interrupted Stella. “Now shus. I am trying to hear.”

“That’s it? No more questions?”

“What else do you want me to ask you?”

“There’s a million things. I can’t ask and reply.”

“Next time, instead of skating, you can be the interviewer. That way, you can ask what you want.”

“Unbelievable. Well, since you’re free, I’ll see you at practice.” Delfi said to Gastón after Jazmin had stormed away and was about to turn the other direction.

“Wait, wait. Would you like to go for an ice cream after class?”

“No. Yes, I do. I’d love to.”

As they walked off, Aurora and Stella were just left staring.

“Uhmmm, so, I hate to say this, but that really looked like he just asked her out.” Stella’s eyes had widened once more.

“Yes, I heard and saw what you did,” Aurora tapped a pen on her notebook, “But it just doesn’t seem right.”

“Let’s be real here,” Stella continued, “You haven’t ever actually seen him ask anyone out. I can’t believe it though, your dad and Delfi? Why haven’t we heard of this ever?”

“Who said it was something significant,” Aurora noted, “I mean, they might have gone out, it didn’t work, moving on… I mean, it’s not like it would make things weird. Ambar and Matteo are still friends and didn’t Luna and Simon date briefly as well. I remember your mom said that once.”

“Exactly, we know about those.” Stella blew a strand of her hair off her face. “They laugh about those around the coffee table. Arg, I still don’t get what we're doing here? What does Delfi and your dad maybe having a fling has to do with your mom and dad?”

“I think we’re about to find out,” Aurora had turned around. She had suddenly remembered that Mom and Luna had been watching this whole scene unfold.

Her hunch had been right as she saw Mom’s eyes fixate on Dad as he walked past with Delfi before lowering her head.

“What’s wrong Nina? Why are you like this?” Luna asked, putting a hand on her shoulder before smirking. “Is it because of Gastón?”

“Gastón? What about Gastón?”

“Well geez, what could it possibly be?” Stella remarked sarcastically. “It’s good your mom never got into acting, because she’s bad at it.”

“Oh, come on.” Luna seemed to think so too. “You can’t stop staring at him.”

“I wasn’t staring at him. I was watching the interview.”

“Uuuu, so they never were friends in the first place?” Stella tapped her hands together in excited fashion, “Sudden interest in university my face… How long has she been in love with him? When did this start?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora responded. She stared at the wall for a while. Mom had told multiple stories about this, but she realized that it had always just included what she loved about Dad and why. Never fully how, or when. She didn’t even really know how they had originally met. It made sense now, given that it wasn’t the full story.

“Especially the interviewee, right?” Luna continued, “Do you like him?”

“That should not be a question,” Stella remarked again, “But... wait, how does Mom not know? I mean, your mom is being super obvious.”

“If my timeline is correct,” Aurora scanned her notes, “This is like when she had just moved here. You said yourself that they were talking about her first competition. They don’t know each other that well, right now.”

“That’s weird to think about,” Stella made a face, “It feels like they have known each other forever. I guess you needed to start from somewhere.”

“No, I could never like a boy like him.”

“Your mom really did like lying, didn’t she?” Stella laughed. “Never turned out to be, how long is it until they got married?”

“It’s 2016, the wedding was in 2024, so in eight years or so,” Aurora turned back onto her notebook. It was quite weird, hear and see Mom say something like this, given that still to this day, or well, 30 years later, they were still deeply in love. Obviously, no one was able to predict the future.

“So, what were we supposed to learn from this again?” Stella pulled her hair back, “That your mom didn’t want to admit anything or that your dad and Delfi were maybe a thing?”

“I think it’s more of the full picture,” Aurora said while scribbling down notes. “We know that they were together at one time, while Mom was a Junior. They allegedly got together “again” at Oxford or something… That’s the mystery. I think this is background more than anything else. Maybe some reasoning can be found from here. It has been over a year to the moment we saw last.”

“Hey, we were talking about you.” They realized that some part of Luna and Mom’s conversation had gone past them.

“Okay, Luna, but the word “boys” is not in my vocabulary.”

“That… didn’t sound straight at all. I’m just gonna say it.” Stella remarked.

“You really think all our parents are straight?” Aurora looked at Stella. “Seriously?”

“No, I mean…”

“Half of them have to be bi at least.”

“Did you forget I’m the invisible girl?” Aurora turned her head around. Something about what Mom said, struck in her ear. She knew that Mom had used to have super low self-esteem. Half of her brand as an author was built around the discovery of self-confidence.

To this day, she still had some amounts of anxiety. In her own words, she would skip all the public events with cameras if she could, but she couldn’t because of her popularity as an author and lyricist for several famous musicians like Matteo.

Well, it was not like Dad liked the cameras any more. He had grown up, being kept out of the public eye while Grandma and Grandpa had made a name for themselves. He wasn’t uncomfortable in front of them himself per se, it was more about keeping Oscar, Aurora and Laura furthest away from that as he could.

They were never allowed to attend anything that wasn't a private, familiar gathering with friends. None of Mom’s book releases or charity benefits. Anywhere where there might be a camera present. It was a bit annoying, but Aurora understood that it was all for security. They were descendants of formidable business figures in Buenos Aires and a really on demand lawyer and quite a known game designer as well. Dad had pretty much been the poster boy of the Castillo Corporation ever since he had joined the executive team over 20 years ago. And like…her parents circle in general was quite famous. Aurora’s godfather was the front man of the infamous Roller Band after all, and Ambar was pretty much called the undefeated family lawyer by the media.

Also, the thought of someone taking pics of her creeped her out.

“Soooo…” Stella’s voice shook Aurora out of her thoughts. “What next? Do we just sit here until the classes and—”

As soon as Stella had said that, the white light struck again.

This time it was different. While the light was blinding them completely, they still saw hazy images and…

“It’s like writing with images.”

“Come and sit with me.”

“They’re very similar to mine. You weren’t copying right?”

“Well, if you ever feel bad again, remember the worst birthday of my life. Maybe that’ll make you smile.”

“You have a similar point of view.”

“I also love to read and that doesn’t make me a nerd.”

“Is it just me or are you getting closer to Gastón every day?”

“If I wasn’t Blake's invisible girl, I might say that he was flirting with me?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but Nina is not your style, brother. What’s the matter with you?”

“She’s authentic, she’s real.”

“I can’t believe there’s a person who reads faster than me.”

“Yes, I know, but right now you and I are talking.”

“Relax, I’m here with you. I won’t let you fall.”

The white flash finally disappeared. Aurora and Stella found themselves standing on a grass in a park.

“You know what?” Stella brushed her hair out of her face, “I’m not even going to ask. I’m just going to wait for you to explain what just happened.”

Aurora thought for a moment while flinging her braid over her shoulder. That flash had been different, almost like it had been trying to give them information. The flashes and voices had been brief, but somehow her comprehension of them was perfect.

“I think that was like telling us some in-between information,” Aurora took her phone out of her pocket, “I think, what that was trying depict like Mom and Dad growing closer and I think Dad’s supposed to have feelings for her, but she doesn’t believe it, or something.”

“Okay,” Stella nodded smally, “So, how is this supposed to tell us about why they lied about how they got together in the first place?”

“Like I said before, I don’t think they were fully lying,” Aurora looked around at the park. “We knew nothing about any of this. There is a story here… and I hate to say this, but this might not fully make sense.”

In her mind, she had already subconsciously accepted that the why of it all was probably never going to be discovered, but the how and what were still very much a fair game.

“Okay, then,” Stella huffed, “I take we moved again? When are we?”

“Still in 2016,” Aurora wrote the date down, “but like it’s spring now.”

“Okay.” Stella nodded simply, but Aurora had no time to pay attention to that as she saw her dad walk past them.

As she followed him with her eyes, she noticed the same thing he did. Mom, sitting on a bench. She was writing down something in her notebook, which wasn’t an unfamiliar sight. She wrote all her notes by hand. The book outlines were found in notebooks in their library… and they could probably be valuable someday, not that Mom and Dad would ever sell them. Mom had like a million notebooks, and Dad gave her a new one every Christmas.

It looked like Dad almost got stuck looking at her for a moment before approaching her.

“Hi, am I interrupting?”

“Yes. No, I mean yes. No!” Mom jumped completely. So was this the jumpiness Dad always talked about being something Mom did when she was younger and how cute it was? Obviously, Aurora had thought he had meant uni when he had said “younger”.

“Those books tell me you were studying. Excuse me.”

“It looks like your interpretation of those flashes was right,” Stella remarked as Gastón just casually went to sit down next to Nina while she nervously dropped her books.

“Maybe you were thinking of something else.”

“No. What do you mean?”

“Maybe you’re tired of studying, and started thinking you need to relax, go to Ambar’s party.”

“Is it just me or is your dad really caring about your mom going to some party of Ambar’s?” Stella pondered. “I thought they all weren’t even exactly on good terms with Ambar and stuff, during this time.”

“Well, they still were on the same team,” Aurora said after she finished a new note on the books. Something about this discussion… It was hard for her to take her eyes off it.

“Yeah, definitely not thinking about that. Parties are not my thing.”

“Why don’t you try something different? Like me. Every time I go to a party, I find something to do. For example, to observe how everyone tries to perceive.”

“As you were taking a picture.”

“Or lots of them, and each picture tells a different story.”

“Of course, and imagine it, making up that people are laughing, looking each other. I love that.”

This was so odd, Aurora had to admit it. These were her parents, and it was so different, they were her age. But at the same time, it was exactly the same as it always was. Them getting lost in a discussion that no one else could understand. The way their eyes were meeting, was the exact same way they looked at each other to this day, literally in this morning.

“Awwww,” She was startled by Stella leaning her head on her shoulder. “But this is the moment you say gross right?”

“No,” Aurora shook her head, “This is actually kind of cute.”

“That’s a lot coming from you,” Stella laughed, “But like, not everyone gets to watch their parents fall in love. I mean, I don’t know if I would want to see Mom and Dad, because that surely was not pretty.”

Aurora rolled her eyes affectionately toward Stella, before she turned her eyes back toward her parents. They weren’t even together right now, but Dad appeared not to be able to get his eyes off of Mom.

“No, no, sorry.” Mom had clearly noticed it too and had taken the staring the wrong way.

“No, don’t apologize. It’s great that you like that. Maybe you can go and try that. If we both go…”

“We? Where?”

“No, sorry, sorry.” Aurora was quite surprised by how suddenly Dad got flustered. “I have to finish my essay. I’m behind. I’ll see you.”

“Did your dad just chicken out on asking your mom out?” Stella covered her mouth for a moment. “Oh my god, the tea.”

“Yep,” Aurora crossed her arm. It had been quite amusing, but also so unlike Dad. He was probably the biggest romantic in the world, and never shy about romantic gestures…

They didn’t really have time to think about it as the blinding light returned. So, did the images and voices.

“I don’t know how I feel about Nina. My heart races when I see her, I feel things.”

“Did I tell you how beautiful you were yesterday?”

“I fell in love with your words, without thinking. You’re the girl of my dreams.”

The flashes were really hard to see completely clearly, but Aurora was sure she had seen a red rose in them. That was not surprising… Dad and roses had a thing, especially when they were red. Any occasion, Valentine’s Day, Mom’s birthday, Mother’s Day, their anniversary, he always gave Mom a red rose. Aurora and Laura always got pale peach roses on their birthdays.

“Maybe you should be the one writing.”

“Don’t change the subject, I know you too well.”

“...but I don’t want to leave Nina alone here.”

“What does Gastón have to tell me and why didn’t he tell me before?”

“Your face doesn’t look like that. What is wrong?”

“The truth is, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Why do you think you’re gonna lose me?”

“I saw it Luna. It was the form to enroll at university. But Gastón didn’t tell me.”

“...for a couple it’s difficult to be together but far away.”

“Gastón, whatever you choose, our relationship will never change.”

“It’s difficult to make a decision that will make us be apart.”

“You’re the one to talk. We’re in the same boat. Or have you told Nina you’re going to sacrifice your future for her? Hm?”

The white veil cleared up and Aurora and Stella found themselves standing on grass once more. It was some sort of a park once more.

“So, now I am going to ask.” Stella started, “What?”

“Hold on a second,” Aurora thought for the best that it was the smartest to get the date on record immediately. “We crossed the threshold, it's 2017 now… I think we might be building toward the scene we saw first.”

“Okay, great, but what's with the flashes and voices?” Stella kept looking around. “Hey, this is the park you walk to Blake from Hoja.”

“I guess so,” Aurora nodded. Blake South College was located in a way from their house that you couldn’t really walk the distance. Not because it was too far, only about three kilometers, but because the fastest way crossed the centrum and boatload of traffic. It wasn’t that safe. La Hoja de roble, their former school on the other hand was half the distance from home and had similar distance to Blake as well. The way to Blake from the other direction was totally walkable.

Aurora, Oscar and Laura had walked from preschool to 8th grade. When Oscar had started at Blake, Dad had driven him on his way to work, either dropping him off in front of the school or at UCA, which was really close by. It really had depended on whether he was going to his office at Castillo Corporation or to teach at the university. That hassle had been the biggest reason why Oscar had taken his driving test the day after his 17th birthday, so he was able to drive himself and Aurora to Blake when she had started last year.

“I am still waiting for an answer,” Stella continued.

“Okay,” Aurora thought, “I would call the flashes context. Important information that we’re supposed to know, I guess.”

“I could barely make out any of it,” Stella remarked. “What’s even happening? I still don’t get this.”

“I mean it’s a new year, so what I gathered was that Mom and Dad are together now, but Dad’s going to uni next year.”

“Oh, right, I did get that,” Stella’s eyes widened, “He’s thinking about Oxford, but for some reason doesn’t want to do that.”

“Yeah…” Aurora started saying, but got interrupted by voices coming from behind them.

“Nina, that’s so romantic! It’s great!” That was definitely Luna’s voice.

Aurora and Stella turned around to see Luna and Nina walking down a path towards them. Luna was clearly getting excited about something while, to Aurora, Mom didn’t look that happy.

“Yes. It’s very romantic but it’s not fair. I don’t want him to make sacrifices. He should think about his future and do what he loves.”

“Well, he can do that here.”

Aurora didn’t really need the added context to know that they were talking about Dad here. The some reason seemed obvious now. From what she had gathered, Dad had apparently decided against going to Oxford because that would make them apart as he went to England.

Aurora felt herself so stupid in that moment, not to have realized that right away. She had never considered that Mom and Dad’s age gap—which was literally only three months—would have ever been any source of conflict.

“He decided to stay here because he loves you.” Luna continued.

“Who knew that Mom was good at relationship advice,” Stella pondered out loud, “Do you think that is still the case? Maybe she could help me with Osc—”

“NO.” Aurora shook her head. She could vividly imagine the disaster that would form if anyone of their parents found out about Stella’s feelings for Oscar, especially if Luna found out. “I don’t want to hear you mention my brother again, before this is done. Please? This is enough information to deal with on its own.”

“I love him too, but I don’t want to disrupt his life.” Nina seemed to continue.

“Wow,” Stella seemed to suddenly be holding in laughter, “I’m sorry, but… Your Mom doesn’t want to disrupt your dad’s life? Little too late. Disruption standing right here.” She pointed toward Aurora, arms extended out.

“Funny,” Aurora rolled her eyes. She did have to admit, maybe it was a good thing that Stella had gotten roped into this with her. Aurora could get a little hyperfocused at times and Stella always found the way to bring the humor.

This whole scenario definitely needed some lightening up. Aurora did find it quite hard in a way, to hear Mom think herself a nuisance in Dad’s life.

Aurora turned back as Mom had stopped explaining something about physics and Einstein to Luna.

“Einstein would’ve done it anywhere. How do you know he didn’t choose that for love? Maybe he studied physics to impress his girlfriend, or something like that.”

“So, I got the math skills from Mom I see,” Stella remarked once more, “But even I can tell that that’s not it would have ever gone.”

“I don’t want to be a distraction to anybody…”

“Nina, look, if a guy did that for me, I’d faint like this…” Luna pretended to fall down to Nina’s arms, but Aurora and Stella weren’t able to see it as they were obscured by the white again.

The time travel agent or whatever was guiding them seemed to be in a hurry.

“Yes, Gastón, I know that you’re not telling me the whole truth. I overheard you talking to Matteo. He said you were staying here for me.”

“I love you and I don’t want to be far.”

“I don’t want you to miss anything because of me, or regret it.”

“I don’t need a B plan. I’m happy with my decision. You’ll have to stand me.”

“I just sent the enrollment form to Oxford.”

“How could you do such a thing?”

“Cavolo!” Stella exclaimed as they could see in front of them again and found themselves sitting on top of the lockers at Jam & Roller. “Look, I can do grass. I can do teleporting around Blake, but this is too much!”

“As long as you don’t start “falling” again.” Aurora joked.

“No, I can sit here,” Stella shook her head before looking at Aurora. This time her face was concerned. “Uh, did I hear right… about those flashes… but… this could just be me, but it sounded like…like your mom sent your dad’s application to Oxford.” She was clearly looking to Aurora to confirm or deny it.

“That’s… how it sounded.” Aurora nodded.

“WHAT?!” Stella exclaimed, “Isn’t that illegal? Her mom is a lawyer, right?”

“Granny was a lawyer, yes,” Aurora nodded again, she honestly couldn’t believe it either. “It is illegal… I don’t know. I think at least…”

“How did she get away with it?”

“I doubt anyone knows,” Aurora tried her best to stay analytical, “Grandma and grandpa would never have accepted that…”

“Does your dad know?” Stella asked carefully. She knew as well as Aurora what this implied. Aurora really didn’t want to start discovering some sort of dark secrets about her parents’ marriage. This couldn’t be what she was sent here to discover… There was no way Mom would have been able to conceal that from him for years.

It looked like they were about to find out, as it seemed. Aurora saw her father walk to the locker room. He looked little different from what they had seen him last. Taller, older and no blonde highlights… and he also didn’t look happy at all. His expression was a mix of anger, disbelief and misery, something that Aurora had never seen on his face before, at least in this sort of combo.

“Hey.” Mom suddenly walked up, looking equally miserable. “Can we talk?”

“Look, Nina, I’d rather not talk right now.”

“Okay, I understand if you don’t want to but hear me out, please.”

“Okay.”

“Look, I sent your application because I really wanted to do the right thing.”

“I had already made my decision, Nina. I chose to stay here, with you.”

“Okay, I know I was wrong, and I should’ve asked you…”

“It’s too late for that, isn’t it?”

“No, Gastón. Please don’t go.”

Aurora couldn’t really do anything else, but just watch… She couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. She knew it was going to be okay—she and her siblings existed, duh, but… she couldn’t fully describe how it felt seeing her parents like this on the rocks, were they teenagers or not. Mom basically begging Dad’s forgiveness, granted for something she had actually done. Everyone fought, obviously they did, no one was perfect, but these were her parents… The one thing she placed her definition of love on, the reason why she believed it even existed…

“So, I think it’s safe to say that your dad knows,” Stella sighed suddenly, “so, at least your mom has not been carrying a secret for over 20 years of marriage and we don’t know anything we shouldn’t…” Stella turned to look at Aurora, “...you good?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Aurora shook her head.

“You’re doing that ring thing.” Stella pointed to Aurora’s right hand.

“Oh,” Aurora detached her left hand from her right. She had been unconsciously twirling her golden signet ring she wore on her right ring finger around nervously.

The rings were a family tradition that grandpa had started. Grandma had the actual heirloom one that she had been given on their first Christmas married. Dad had given Mom one on their first Christmas as a married couple as well, making it a tradition. Both Aurora and Laura had been given their own on Christmas after they had turned ten.

Everyone’s rings had a different design in them. Grandma had a sun, Mom had a rose and Laura’s was a heart. Aurora’s ring looked like it was a star—It wasn’t a star. It was a spark that lit the fire, cause she was a firecracker. That was what had been written on the card.

Mom and Laura wore theirs occasionally outside of Christmas. Aurora wore hers always, she preferred gold to silver.

“This is just so bizarre.” Aurora responded, “I never knew this happened… It’s weird to see it now.”

“So, is this why they got back together at Oxford?” Stella questioned, “Because they broke up because of this?”

“No,” Aurora shook her head, “This still is before that first thing we saw… where Mom was planning on going with Dad… I don’t really understand it either right now, since she didn’t do it.”

“So, we solved nothing?” Stella sighed, “What now?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora shook her head. God, she hated that sentence—

The white flashes returned once more.

“I can’t stand being separated.”

“One moment I feel like holding her forever. Something between us broke and it will be difficult to repair.”

“I realize too late I have to do something to get my girl back.”

“It looks like it was a pretty intense thing, right?”

“Yeah. Too intense.”

“I’m her ex-boyfriend.”

“My plan was to reconquer Nina bit by bit.”

“When I thought I had lost you, I felt that my world fell down.”

“I am not confused at all. I know what I want.”

“I know who I love and I have always known.”

Suddenly, Aurora and Stella were dropped down in the middle of Roller’s cafeteria.

“I still don’t get this.” Stella spun around to get better footing under her feet. “When are we again?”

“Still in 2017.” Aurora looked at her phone, “Wait… this is after the first scene.”

“Then I definitely don’t get this,” Stella shook her head, “Let me recap, and stop me when I get something wrong. Your parents broke up because your mom sent your dad’s application to Oxford. Then they got back together, and your mom planned to go with him, but we know that she didn’t do it.”

“That’s pretty much it,” Aurora scanned her notes. “The answer might yet still be coming. I just don’t understand why Mom didn’t go with Dad…”

Aurora’s eyes trailed in the cafeteria space until her gaze caught on Mom. She was hunched over in an armchair writing something on her notebook. Extremely not an unfamiliar sight, if she really got an idea, she would get into such a trance that only Dad was able to break her out of it.

“Are you inspired?” Almost like on queue Dad appeared behind her, snapping her out of the trance exactly in the same manner he did today, tapping her on the lower back. “Are you writing something?”

“No, I am trying to help Luna?”

“Luna? With what?”

“It’s a personal matter.”

“Oh, is this the same time when Mom was running haywire looking for clues about her past?” Stella questioned, “Didn’t realize. Her stories about that have never been consistent.”

“I mean I think Mom helped her with that so yeah, it’s possible,” Aurora nodded.

“Fine. It’s your friend’s secret. How are you?”

“Yes. I’m fine.” The way Mom was delivering that didn’t convince Aurora one bit. Good thing writing was her artistic discipline, because she would have sucked on stage. The performative qualities that especially Laura exhibited had had to come from Dad’s side somewhere. Well, the actress Evelyn Mendez was Dad’s cousin, which was always followed by it’s complicated, since she wasn’t related to Grandpa, but also not related to Uncle Jonathan, Aunt April and the rest of Grandma’s family. That was a mystery for another day.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Nina, I know when you look down, you are hiding something.” Aurora tried not to get tripped up by how familiar this all was. Like, of course it was familiar, these were Mom and Dad and they acted the same. But at the same time, it was so weird to see stuff from times that she hadn’t existed in and never knew that even happened. “What’s wrong?”

“Okay, I am not so well. I am happy because we are traveling and going to the competition, but then I remember that you’ll go away, and I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

Aurora opened her notebook. So, right now the arrangement was that Dad was going to Oxford next year, while Mom was staying in Buenos Aires—It looked like they were not going to get to be privy on why she had decided to stay.

“Don’t think about that. We’ll speak everyday by video call.”

“And will you also take my hand like this through a screen?”

“No, but I will remind you how much I love you every day.”

“Okay, this is extremely cute and all,” Stella started speaking, “But like, aren’t we still at the starting point? They’re back together and it doesn't seem like they are breaking up again soon. And you still insist that the Oxford library thing is not made up when your Mom makes up stories for a living.”

“Not to her own children,” Aurora sighed, “It’s not possible that it was a lie… Something must have happened after this, although I don’t know what.”

Everything faded to white.

{}

Okay, not a lot of note here right now... but hey, tell me what do you think is going to happen next. I also wanna clarify that I did not mean to apply that Gastón speak fluent French, German and that "Scandinavian language" (by that I mean either Swedish or Norwegian, but Aurora is unable to distinguish the two). He knows and is able to speak them somewhat due to the years working in an extremely international field.

#soy luna #soy luna fanfiction #gastina #Lutteo #soy luna next gen #time travel #Here I go

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countessofravenclaw · 8 months

Text

Secretos o las ruedas y el mar: Act 1

In 2024 a group of our favorite skaters ended up having a bit of a time-traveling escapade. Now over 20 years later, two girls find the very mysterious book at the Blake library and end up discovering that they definitely do not know everything about their parents' past.

So, this is a little bit of a Daughter fic/Spin-off of Memories of Time, so I recommend reading that before this. Like a Red Rose Blooms in the Oxford Garden is also recommended for some context.

“Don’t get in trouble!”

“You said that last year as well. Why on earth would I get in trouble?” Aurora rolled her eyes at her brother Oscar, who had dropped her in the front of Blake South College. Their younger sister Laura had already come in early for freshmen orientation, so Oscar only had had to drive Aurora to the school.

“Well, Firecracker, if someone of us gets detention someday, it’d be you,” Oscar laughed at her, “And I am not explaining that to Mom and Dad.”

“Don’t call me that!” Aurora yelled as Oscar drove the car off to park it. As he was out of view, she just shook her head and walked through the heavy wooden doors.

Firecracker was a nickname Dad had given her years ago, even before Laura had been born. Aurora didn’t mind when he called her that, but it was their thing, if anyone else did it, it was one of the most annoying things ever. Only Dad was allowed to call her that.

Oscar always loved to tease her. He was the firstborn, who had their mother’s intellectual, calmness, and sensitiveness. Laura had the artistic talents of both of their parents, while Aurora was the headstrong, charming, inquisitive perfectionist who apparently reminded Grandma a lot. Three of them were pretty different in some aspects, but anyone who ever met them always said that you could not mistake whose children they were.

Aurora’s phone dinged again. Her best friend Stella had been blowing up her phone all morning. She was apparently panicking about something that she refused to tell her about via text… Honestly, with Stella, it could be anything, especially since it literally was the first day of their sophomore year.

“Oh good, you are finally here!” Stella jumped to hug Aurora as she met her at the door to the library and her blonde-dyed natural curls went straight to Aurora’s face.

Aurora shook her head, as she hugged her back. She had known Stella all her life, or more like all Stella’s life, Aurora had already been ten months and there were pics, taken by her dad, of them meeting at the hospital. Their parents always joked that they were the reincarnation of their moms, who were best friends, just like their dads were as well.

“Oscar was driving,” Aurora explained, “So, what is so urgent that you woke me up with your alarming texts? I had to be on my phone so much, that Dad full-on asked me who I was texting. Now he thinks that I have a secret boyfriend. So, thanks a lot.”

“But your dad’s not protective,” Stella shrugged.

“You’re only saying that because he is your godfather, not your father,” Aurora scoffed, “I mean, he pretends that he is not. Always says that we can go out, but we need to let them know where we’re going and he wants to meet the guys first, just to put faces to the names. It’s a miracle Alex has not run away yet, or that Laura didn’t get grounded for meeting him at camp.”

Alex was Laura’s boyfriend, who she had met during the summer at a skating camp she had attended with her best friend Ivory Alvarez. He didn’t go to Blake and Laura had spent the whole of last evening talking with him on the phone.

“I need this book,” Stella took her phone out and showed Aurora a picture of a book cover, “I have this perfect move that I could do on the rink with a snippet of this, for the book tok.”

“This was about a book for your TikTok?” Aurora crossed her arms. She had known Stella for almost 16 years and still, she was able to surprise her. “I thought you were on fire at least.”

“I need your help,” Stella pleaded, “Blake library for sure has that book, but you know I can’t go deeper than two shelves before getting lost.”

“It’s really not that hard.”

“For you, it is not,” Stella grabbed Aurora’s arm, “It’s in your blood. We all don’t have the library navigation genes that the Peridas carry.”

“Just because Mom and Dad got together while spending way too much time at the library at Oxford, doesn’t mean there is genetics involved,” Aurora shook her head. She had heard that story more times than she would have liked, but Laura the hopeless romantic, had always pleaded with Mom and Dad to tell them the story more times than was possible to count when they had been younger.

Mom and Dad had known each other while they had been at Blake and in the team of Jam & Roller and Stella’s Mom and Dad had been—and still were—their best friends. Then both of them had gone to study at Oxford and ended up in the same circles again. Apparently, sparks had flown pretty quickly, but they had actually done something about it once Dad had volunteered to help Mom with some physics course she had taken. Who knew why a literature major who would become a well-known author later ever took physics, but that was not important. They had gotten married six months after they had moved back to Buenos Aires after Mom had graduated with her masters.

“—And we can talk about how Stella Balsano can’t play the guitar to save her life.”

“Okay, you made your point,” Stella started dragging Aurora towards the library, “Now, lets go find that book.”

“Okay, so it’s fiction so stocked at the very back,” Aurora said as they entered the library. “And the author’s name started with an S, right? That means left…”

“Told you, Master Navigator,” Stella teased her as they started walking deeper in the library.

“Do you know where we are?” Stella started questioning as they walked even deeper into the library.

“Of cours—” Aurora started saying but stopped in her tracks, “Except that I have never seen that before.”

They were standing next to the wall that had a big, engraved stone board.

“Huh?” Stella walked towards the board, “Notable Alumni of Blake South College.” She read. “Cool, I didn’t know they kept tabs on these. Wonder what these people have done?”

Aurora walked next to Stella and looked at the board herself. It read a bunch of names, their graduation year from Blake, then a degree and the school. “Yale, Harvard, Cambridge. I don’t think these are notable because of what they have done, but because of what school they attended after graduating from Blake. Blake seems to take a lot of pride in stuff like this.”

“Wow, look,” Stella exclaimed suddenly, “Your parents are on here.”

“What? Really?” Aurora moved to the right side of the board where Stella was standing. There it really was.

About maybe five names from the last one read:

Gastón Perida; Graduated in 2017; Master of Science and Technology, University of Oxford 2022

Nina Simonetti; Graduated in 2018; Master of Literature, University of Oxford 2023

“Well, it does make sense why these are stacked here then,” Aurora had noticed that on the shelf next to the board held all of her mother’s books, from her debut trilogy, the five-part SciFi saga to the currently only published part of the new mystery series. The shelf even had the stand-alone book that her parents had written together. That was currently the only time Mom had published something under her current name: Nina Perida, instead of her maiden name Simonetti, which she had kept as a pen name.

Mom had always said that Blake had her books in stock, but Aurora had never been able to find them, well until now. She had always wondered where they were. The couple of research articles Dad had done —he had argued for a Ph.D. after Laura had been born and now gave occasional lectures at the University of Buenos Aires and UCA in addition to being one of the senior engineers in Castillo corporation’s executive team— were well on display at the library’s entrance.

“Hmmm, wonder if Oscar knows about this board,” Aurora looked back up from the shelf, “Because if he does, he must be hell-bent on getting his name on it. I heard him working on his personal essay yesterday with Mom…typical of him, better be early than on time. School started today! He appears to forget that he still needs to actually graduate before he can go to college, and that aint happening till the end of the year.”

Oscar had, ever since Aurora could remember, always wanted to be a doctor just like Aunt April. About a year ago he had set his eyes on Oxford. “Continuing the legacy” Aurora guessed.

“It’ll be weird to think that he’ll be gone.” Stella looked up, her eyes getting a dreamy look in them. “Well, across the ocean, but still not here. All alone, without any of us. I’m gonna miss him.”

“Steallaaaaa, I really need you to stop,” Aurora groaned. She had not yet been able to pinpoint where Stella’s ludicrous crush on Oscar had appeared, but it had already run its course with her patience over the summer, “He is my brother, that is gross.”

“Well…” Stella just shrugged her shoulders.

“I am saying this because I care about you,” Aurora took Stella by the shoulders, “He is not interested in you, and never will be. He will go to Oxford, find some english girl, and bring her home. Plus, your dad will kill any guy who even dares to approach you… And contrary to popular belief, I don’t want Oscar to die.”

Honestly, those words didn’t hold as much weight as you might have thought. Yes, Aurora didn’t want her big brother getting killed in Matteo’s hands, but that wasn’t any surprise to anybody. Oscar, she and Laura were actually really close, had always been. They were only about two years apart from each other —Laura was a freshman, Aurora a sophomore, and Oscar a Senior— and Mom and Dad had made sure they had made a lot of memories together growing up. They had travelled the world: a lot of trips to the states, to Disneyland and Disney World, multiple Disney Cruises and had been to Europe more times than you could count. Aurora had been able to speak fluent English since she had been 11, if not younger.

“He wouldn’t kill his own godson…” Stella pondered, “...and who else is Dad supposed to approve of?”

Aurora shrugged, “Lucas?”

“Lucas Arias?” Stella questioned.

“I wasn’t being serious.” Aurora shook her head, “I just feel weird about even considering dating anybody offspring from our parents' circles… we’re all basically cousins. It just feels wrong…and he has a girlfriend. Oscar should get one, so you would get released from under that spell.”

"Don't tempt fate like that."

Aurora had gone back to looking at her mom’s books and her attention suddenly focused on a book next to them. It was a thick book called With the Speed of Light by Markus Tuominen. Aurora had never heard of that before. The book looked really intriguing.

“What are you staring at?” Stella walked next to Aurora.

“Ever heard of this book?” Aurora pointed towards the book. Aurora had grown up with two bookworms as parents, so she obviously was a nerd quite profoundly, but Stella loved reading too. Luna and Matteo always said that it had been due to Aurora’s parents’ influence as Stella’s godparents.

“No.” Stella shook his head.

“Me neither.” Aurora grabbed the book and tried to pull it off the shelf. It was heavier than it looked, and it was extremely hard to get it moving. “Something about the name Markus Tuominen sounds familiar to me.”

“Let me help.” Stella took hold of the spine of the book and together the girls were able to get it to moving.

It was a struggle, but they finally got the book pulled out of the shelf, but it was so heavy that they instantly dropped the book onto the ground…

Suddenly a bright light, almost like lightning had stricken inside, blinded both of them.

“What was that?!” Stella screamed as they jumped away from the book.

“Something just happened,” Aurora shook her head. “That was very weird.”

She bent down to pick the book off the ground, and to her confusion, it was much lighter. Aurora was able to lift the book up with ease.

“Aurora… look…” Aurora was just about to open the book when Stella’s horrified voice stopped her. She looked toward Stella, who was pointing to the Notable Alumni board.

Aurora saw the problem at once. The board was limestone, the type usually used in gravestones and all the names were carved into it… It was not possible to remove them. Still somehow, someway, her parents' names were gone and so were all the other names that had been after them. The last name that was on the board now, had graduated in the year 2012.

“They’re gone…” Stella said in a horrified whisper. “How’s that possible? We’re not crazy right? They were there carved on stone, you saw them.”

“I did,” Aurora walked closer to the board. This was strange…

…something came into her mind in a flash…It was not possible, but what other explanation was there?

“Aurora?” Stella’s voice sounded again, “You are being too quiet.”

“Just got an idea,” Aurora mumbled and pulled her phone out of the blazer pocket, “This is absolutely crazy…but…”

“But? But what?” Stella’s voice grew more frantic, but Aurora ignored her for the time being. She opened her phone and…

It wasn’t possible… but at the same time, it really was. Aurra stared at the right corner of her phone. The date couldn’t be right.

“My phone says that it’s 2017.” Aurora finally said and looked at Stella, whose face was absorbed by shock.

“No,” Stella started shaking her head, almost like she was trying to detach the skull from the spine. “That’s not possible.”

“Would explain the board,” Aurora felt her voice waiver…

“It’s not possible,” Stella was still standing more still than she ever had in her life.

“It shouldn’t be,” Aurora looked at the book again. Had it caused this? What had that big flash been? “But everything is evolving. Dad sometimes says that he wouldn’t be surprised if material teleportation was invented in twenty years’ time.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that we should not be time-traveling now! Why? How?”

Aurora shook her head, “It has something to do with this.”

“A book?” Stella stared. “A book caused us to travel back in time?”

“You know light-speed is a type of time-travel, and how the book was super heavy, but now it is not.” Aurora continued, “I mean if you don’t believe me, look at your own phone. When have they ever been wrong about the dates? Technology doesn’t fail like that.”

Stella pulled her own phone from the pocket of the uniform…and stared at it. “No… no no no no. It’s not happening…Non è possibile! Come è successo!?! Devo stare sognando, questo deve essere un incubo. No no no, questo non è reale. Non sono nemmeno riuscito ad andare al college. O avere il mio primo bacio! O sposare Osc...” She started pacing around while words kept coming out of her mouth.

“Stella,” Aurora sighed. Ever since she had been little, she had had this aspiration of speaking languages. She wanted to be able to speak four or more, by the time she finished college. Spanish was her native and English had come along quite naturally as their parents had made sure they all had learned it, not just from school. Aurora had been studying Italian since the seventh grade since La Hoja de roble had not offered it before which had been extremely frustrating. She was actually quite good at it already and often understood it quite well… but when the bi-lingual Stella went off, no one could understand her… “Can you cool it with the Italian?”

“It’s how I panic!” Stella stopped her pacing and stared at Aurora.

“I know,” Aurora nodded, “But there’s no reason to panic.”

“THERE’S NO REASON TO PANIC?!” Stella grabbed Aurora by the shoulders, “There is every reason to panic! We just have traveled back in TIME! To 2010s! The feeble early years of the 21st century! This is literally 30 years before where we were!”

“Okay, yeah, I get it,” Aurora tried to keep her voice calm, even though Stella’s panic was starting to catch on. There were thons of other places she’d much rather be, but Aurora Perida would not panic. “But this is not helping.”

“What will help?”

“But we have to start from somewhere…” Aurora put the book back on the shelf and started looking around the library. “Now we first need to figure out what kind of time travel this is.”

Aurora stood in place for a moment thinking, before walking next to the nearest bookshelf and knocked on the wood. It made a sound. This would need some testing. She could cross the consciousness transferring off her list, given that she and Stella would have not been born for over ten years.

She ran her hand on the shelf before picking up one of the books. Aurora turned it around in her hands… and then threw it on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Stella stared at her.

“Just wait.” Aurora said while not taking her eyes off the book on the floor. Then she suddenly blinked and…and the book was gone. Aurora turned her head back to the bookcase and saw that the book was back on the shelf, exactly at the same place where she had taken it from. “Fascinating.”

“What?” Stella was looking extremely confused, “Mind telling me what’s going on here?”

“I think I figured it out,” Aurora finally turned to look at Stella. “Were like observers.”

“Meaning?” Stella pleaded, “Aurora, I’m not you. My mother is not an author, I don’t speak fluent poetry. Please don’t speak in riddles.”

“Okay,” Aurora leaned into a bookcase, “You see I’m leaning on this. I can touch it, so we can interact with stuff, so we’re not ghosts like…like in A Christmas Carol. You understand?”

“I think so?” Stella’s eyes were wide open.”

“The thing is, you saw the book, that we can interact with things, but can’t influence them or impact.” Aurora continued, “In other words, we can’t change the past in any kind of way.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yes, it is,” Aurora nodded, “We can only observe. This is cool.”

“Aurora, you're the only person in the whole world who can find this cool,” Stella groaned.

“Well, I am the daughter of Nina and Gastón Perida,” Aurora rolled her eyes, “You said it yourself, it’s in my blood.”

“So, what do we do now?” Stella was running behind Aurora who had started walking.

“First figure out if anyone can see or hear us,” she responded and stopped next to the library's office, a little bit away from the library entrance.

“You mean we’re going go amongst other people?” Stella asked alarmed, “What if they can see us?”

“Then we’ll just blend in,” Aurora shrugged. Yes, she was a bit scared herself, but also getting more and more excited by the second. There was something so fascinating about this… “You have seen the pictures from our parents’ school days. The uniforms have not changed one bit.”

Aurora peeked inside the librarian’s office. Maybe if she banged on the glass, she could see if she was getting a reaction—

“Oh my god!” Stella suddenly screamed and Aurora jumped around.

“What?” Stella was pointing toward one of the hallways between the bookcases. Aurora saw a back of a student, whoever they were, walking away.

“He almost ran over me.” Stella squeezed herself against a bookcase, “Like he didn’t even see me.”

“He didn’t see you!” Aurora exclaimed.

“Why do you sound happy about me almost getting trampled to my death?”

“It proves that no one can see us,” Aurora continued as relief flooded into her. Whatever this was, at least it was following the rules. “Or hear us… since you have been yelling a lot. Let’s go!” She grabbed Stella’s hand and started pulling her toward the library exit.

“Go where? Shouldn't we stay at the library and find a way to get back?”

“Yes, of course,” Aurora nodded but still kept walking, “But first let’s look around. We have nothing to lose, and I want to see how Blake has changed. Let's go explore…I mean we don’t know if we’ll even ever remember this.”

“You really are enjoying being in this Sci-Fi novel?” Stella tried to keep up with Aurora.

“Maybe just a little bit,” Aurora shrugged, “No harm done, plus I kind of feel like there is something that someone somewhere wants us to see, hence why any of this is even happening.”

“Like what?” Stella really seemed like she wasn’t going to have any of this. “What on earth could there be to see in 2017?”

“We’ll need to figure that out. “Aurora shook her head.

She looked out of the library’s entrance. The time was 9:15 pm so the first class of the day had just ended and the second one was about to begin in 15 minutes. The hallway was crawling with students…and yep, the uniforms had not changed one bit.

Aurora tried to look around everywhere as she and Stella joined in the flow of students leaving their classes. Stella on the other hand was jumping from place to place making frightened noises.

“You don’t need to keep dodging,” Aurora raised her eyebrow at Stella. “They can’t see us.”

“I know that,” Stella stopped for a moment, “But I rather not know what it feels like to have someone else’s body morph through mine. Can we go somewhere where is not this crowded?”

“Sure.” They turned left from the hallway and entered the school’s main hall. It was much less crowded, thankfully.

Aurora looked at the walls. How ancient was this school? Again, almost nothing had changed in 30 years. Only the touch screens on the walls were missing. Her eyes saw a paper calendar on the wall. Those really had been real? Seemed like it.

“Aurora?” Stella was poking her on her shoulder.

“What?”

“If this really is 2017…?”

“It is,” Aurora pointed toward the calendar. She had no idea what Stella was getting at. “Look at that calendar. It proves it, once and for all.”

“Yeah, that’s great and all,” Stella didn’t turn, since she was looking at something, “But…If it is 2017…then what is Oscar doing here?”

“Oh my god!” Aurora yelled. How on earth could Stella think about Oscar at a time like this? “Just why? Okay, I get it! You for some godforsaken reason have a crush on him and think he’s the love of your life and want him to be your first kiss and stuff… I get it that, no matter how disturbing it is, you see him in your dreams, but this is not the time or place!”

“No,” Stella shook her head, actually sounding serious for the first time in her life, “I didn’t mean that. Although I do see him in my dreams…” She shook her head, “But he’s actually here, look.”

Stella pointed toward where she had been looking and Aurora turned and froze.

Stella hadn’t been just kidding or dreaming…A tall, brown-haired guy was standing around the door that led to the cafeteria…and he looked alarmingly alike to Oscar.

It wasn’t possible. Thoughts were spinning in Aurora’s head. The book was the cause for the time travelling, and she and Stella had been touching it…there was no way Oscar could have had…

Wait.

The longer Aurora looked, the more and more it became evident it wasn’t her brother. It looked like him, quite a lot, but not enough… The only explanation was…

“Dad?”

“What?” Stella whipped her head around to look at Aurora so fast that all her hair went to Aurora’s face.

Aurora just kept staring at—at her father. It was him. Aurora had seen more than enough pictures of him as a teenager to be positive. He was on his phone and looked up every once and a while—Waiting for somebody perhaps.

“Wait wait,” Stella was showing her shock a lot more animatedly, “That, that really is your Dad? My godfather? Dr. Gastón Joakim Perida?”

“You know he hates to be called that,” Aurora rolled her eyes, “It’s not like he’s an M.D., he just has a doctorate. But yeah, it is him… Of course, it is 2017, so he would be 18 and is a senior right now. Why didn’t I realize it sooner?”

“That our parents are all here somewhere as teenagers right now?” Stella asked she spun around on her feet.

“I mean yeah,” Aurora nodded.

“Well, that explains why I’m seeing your mom.”

“Where?” Aurora turned around to look where Stella was looking.

It was like looking into a 3D mirror, except that there were certain things out of place. Green eyes, hair was straight instead of wavy and glasses, otherwise she basically saw herself walking down the hallway. It was weird.

Aurora looked back at her dad, who had put his phone away and was now looking straight ahead. Aurora realized that he was looking at Mom, and that she was walking toward him…

Well, that wasn’t that weird. They knew each other and probably had agreed to talk about something.

“Uuu, this should be interesting.” Stella was jumping some more. “I wonder what they were like when they weren’t in love yet. Well, we’re about to see.”

Aurora had to agree with the sentiment. Her parents—especially Dad—had never shied away from showing affection toward each other, sometimes to disgusting degrees, at least in Aurora’s opinion. On the other hand, she never could imagine them being just friends. So, this would be extremely interesting.

“Hey. I got your message,” Dad started saying as Mom walked up to him, “Is everything okay?”

Maybe it was because she knew what was to come, given that she, Oscar and Laura were the result, Aurora got a kind of non-platonic vibe from this conversation. Something about the body language and the looks, the fact that Dad’s hand had gone on Mom’s upper arm almost automatically, but she probably was just imagining.

“It’s better than okay,” Nina had a very wide smile on her face before wrapping her arms around Gastón’s neck and kissing him.

Or not. Aurora realized very quickly that she in fact had not been imagining.

“What is going on?” Aurora had almost completely forgotten that Stella was standing next to her. “I thought they got together at Oxford. Why are they kissing now?”

“They told us that they were just friends during this time.” Aurora couldn’t get her eyes off the sight.

“Well, you seem happy this morning,” Dad smiled at Mom as his arm left from around her waist.

“Well, I got some good news,” Mom looked like she was beaming, “My parents told me I could go.”

“Really, Nina? I can’t believe it. Great! I thought they were going to say yes.”

“It was all thanks to you. What did you say to them?”

“I had to tell them how I felt about their daughter.”

“Yeah, because this looks so much like friendship,” Stella crossed her arms amused, “Unless the definition has changed drastically in the last 30 years. What is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora shook her head. She wasn’t the best person with surprises. She was the one who always knew what was going on when no one else did. If she for some reason didn’t, she would always have a way to figure it out. There was no way to figure out her and Stella’s current situation, they were time-traveling for crying out loud. Aurora could feel the small amount of control that she felt like she had over the situation, slipping away, and she didn’t like it.

“Things must be dire if you don’t know,” Stella turned toward Aurora with eyes wide, “That’s not something I hear from your mouth often.”

“Funny,” Aurora rolled her eyes before they focused on another short brunette who suddenly came through the door, “Hey look! It’s your Mom.”

“Uup, I came in at the wrong moment, didn’t I?” Luna stopped on her tracks and tried to walk away before Nina stopped her.

“Huh, she really always has been that short,” Stella remarked, “I was kind of hoping that she shrunk during childbirth or something…just so I could have more tall genes.”

“We’re doomed to be short, both of us,” Aurora tapped Stella on the shoulder, before focusing again on the conversation between her parents and Luna, “Apparently Laura is going to be taller than me, which is no fair.”

“My parents allowed me to go to Oxford.”

“Hold up,” Stella piped up again, “Why is your mom going to Oxford now? Your dad was the senior here, isn’t she a year younger?”

“She is,” Aurora nodded while wracking her head. This was making her way too confused… “I honestly don’t know what she is talking about…unless…unless she somehow finished high school in England.”

“But if she did that,” Stella continued, “and went with your dad…and since they are together now…Does that mean that everything about their story never happened? Your mom having roommates who knew your dad and then him helping her with physics…and the library thing? Thats just a story and not real?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora tried her hardest not to snap. She had already said I don’t know way too many times today. “This is not making any sense. I mean… maybe they are not together right now.”

“We just saw them kiss.”

“I know,” Aurora wasn’t fully sure what she was saying herself anymore, that confused she was, “But that doesn’t hundred percent mean that they are exclusively together.”

“So, what do you reckon is happening here?” Stella rolled her eyes.

“Maybe a casual relationship?”

“Aurora, do you hear yourself? This time-travel juice has really gotten to you,” Stella grabbed Aurora by the shoulder, “You just talked about your parents and a casual relationship in the same context.”

“Yeah, I realized that as soon as it came out,” Aurora cringed. What had gotten into her?

“Nothing in this world—even the existence of, well, time travel—can convince me that your parents weren’t madly in love before they ever slept together.”

“You can drop that topic right there,” Aurora gave Stella the sternest look she was able to muster.

“Come on,” Stella huffed, but she clearly also was very amused, “I know that you know how it works. How do you think you exist otherwise?”

“Of course, I know how it works,” Aurora sighed again. She was 16, not six for crying outloud, “But I’d rather not discuss it when it comes to my parents… or do you wanna talk about yours and that?”

“Oh, no no no no no,” Stella started laughing before suddenly stopping, as the door her mom had come through, opened again.

“Hello, how are you? I’m Matteo Balsano. I know you’re happy because my album is coming out soon. I promise you will be the first to hear it because I love you all very much.”

“I was wondering when Dad was going to insert himself into the situation.” Stella noted as Matteo walked through the door and everyone else was giving him very questioning looks.

“Me too,” Aurora responded. With their parents, where was two, the other two almost always followed, curse or blessing of being four coupled best friends. “What album is he talking about?”

“How would I know?” Stella shrugged, “Isn’t he like 18 too? Ooooh, this must be the one that got canceled.”

“Are they even together right now?” Aurora asked as Luna and Matteo started arguing almost instantly.

“Again, no idea—” Stella shook her head, “—and I’m not going to figure it out. They always say that they didn’t know themselves half the time were they together or not. Honestly, that’s what I thought was the reason why your parents didn’t really get it on before college, since the tensions between Mom and Dad… Now I obviously do see that they in fact did get it on—I still don’t get this. Why did they make it up about how they got together and when?”

“I have hard time believing that they made it up,” It didn’t make any sense to Aurora. All of it couldn’t be a lie. There were too many moving variables. Marlee and Ariana were real people, who existed and had known Dad before Mom. All of Mom and Dad’s Oxford friends would have needed to be in on it. “Neither of them are very good liars.” A sudden realization hit her, “This doesn’t make sense because Mom didn’t go to Oxford.”

“What do you mean?” Stella was looking at Aurora with the most flabbergasted expression, “Of course she did, her diploma is literally framed on the wall of your place.”

“I didn’t mean the University part,” Aurora sighed. Of course, she knew that, “I meant that she didn’t finish upper secondary there, like she is planning at this moment. She did her senior year at Blake and graduated with your mom and Jim and Yam. There are pictures of it, and Dad wasn’t in them.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Stella seemed like there were at least three hundred gears turning in her head, “But that doesn’t answer anything.”

“I have always felt like the there is more to that story about the library,” Aurora started, “They definitely omitted some facts.”

“It still doesn’t all add up.”

“It doesn’t,” Aurora agreed before slight gasp left her lips.

“What?” Stella looked at her concerned.

“That is why we’re here,” Aurora started explaining, “We have just been presented with a mystery. “What happened or didn’t happen between my parents?” Now we need to solve it.”

“And how do you presume we do that?” Stella leaned against the wall, “We don’t exactly control any of this. Look, I will take ten calculus classes over this any day. You hear me universe! I’LL NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT MATH AGAIN!”

“I should have forced you to read more Agatha Christie,” Aurora looked at her disapprovingly, “Nothing will get solved by just standing here.”

“So, we’re basically in a murder mystery?” The comparison didn’t seem to amuse Stella at all, “What if the people who end up being dead end up being us?”

“No one is going to die,” Aurora gabbed Stella by the hand as she noticed that her parents had slipped away from Luna and Matteo’s argument, “Come on, let's follow them.”

As they started walking, they were once again blinded by a bright light.

{}

I once swore I would never write any nextgen content for Soy Luna, because I wasn't fully able to imagine it and I have not really enjoyed any of the fics I have read about the topic either (personal preference, no hate to the stories at all). But now I have found myself coming up with headcanons and characterizations for the kids, especially the ones Gastón and Nina will have. My biggest problem with next gen content has been that he kids have always been one group. I will not do that, since they all wouldn't be one friend group. They're different ages and have different interest, so on and so forth. They obviously all know each other and have a good relationship, they are basically cousins because they are very close family friends. Only some are like besties with each other, often because they are the same age etc. like Stella and Aurora and Ivory and Laura. Anyways, here I go again, writing timetravel, but I am just obsessed with the trope. The scene we see here is the scene from S2E70 where Nina tells Gastón that she can go to the Oxford with him, if it wasn't clear, I just added stuff in the beginning of the conversation. So if you have missed MOT... we're back... well, kind of. This isn't exctatly the same style of time travel, but we'll see what happens next. Leave predictions please what they will see next

#soy luna #soy luna fanfiction #gastina #Lutteo #soy luna next gen #time travel #Here I go

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