ONE
Jupiter
Noodle was sittingon my face.
Notbesidemy face on the pillow, notnearmy face on my neck or shoulder, actually on it, his sleek black body draped over my forehead. He decided my skull was the finest lounging surface in all of New York City and he wasn’t going to be argued out of it.
I peeled him off carefully, because he was still technically asleep, which was incredibly impressive and I was super jealous. I held him up in front of me in the gray pre-dawn light and stared at him until one glossy black eye cracked open.
‘Warm,’he said, which actually meant,I was comfortable and you’ve ruined it.
“I thought we talked about personal bubbles.”
‘Warm,’he said again, more firmly this time, like a whiny child. Then he coiled himself around my wrist and went back to sleep.
I lay there for a minute after that, staring up at the water-stained ceiling of my apartment, the one the Assembly had set me up in three years ago when I turned eighteen, aftermy designation manifested and everything got fucked beyond repair.
The radiator clicked and hissed in the corner. Outside, a cab driver repeatedly honked his horn. I hoped someone would toss a shoe out the window at him soon. The light through the curtains was a pretty shade of gray-blue, telling me it probably wouldn’t rain, but it might be chilly. The weather here changed on a dime.
Today was the day I left for Dominion. Twenty-one was the year zodiacs were required to begin attendance at the war college. So I knew it was coming for a long damn time. Enough time to psych myself out.
I sat up slowly and looked around my apartment, which I’d already half-packed the night before because I do not make good decisions when I’m anxious and reorganizing things makes me feel like I have control over my life even when I absolutely do not. My combat gear was rolled tight and packed first, which said something about my priorities. My books were packed second. My skincare third.
Noodle’s temperature-regulated travel case was on top of everything else because he went where I went and there was no arguing, though Dominion sure had tried.
My phone was buzzing on the nightstand. I didn’t have to look to know who it was.
L: You awake yet, lazy?
My best friend Lydia was a morning person, which was disgusting.
J: It is 5am. Being up right now feels like a crime.
L: Tye’s already dressed. He’s been dressed since four and even made breakfast.
J: Tell him I said that’s very mentally stable of him and I resent it.
L: He says you’re welcome and that he also packed extra protein bars because he doesn’t trust the dining hall situation at the school yet.
Fair,I admitted to myself, and then I set the phone down and sat on the edge of my bed for a moment with Noodle still draped around my wrist, his scales cool and smooth against my skin, and I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. I would not let anxiety ruin this for me. My mom taught me some breathing techniques to help, and they did, but only to a degree.
My family sacrificed so much for me, and I was dreading having to leave them, even if I wouldn’t be going very far. They had built a whole life in New York around making me feel normal, making me feel safe.
I was grateful for the childhood they’d given me, even if I’d never fully forgive the secrets. Still, what could they have said?‘Hey, Jupiter, you might turn out to be a normal Scorpio, or you might become something that hasn’t existed in thousands of years’?
The Ophis designation was just a roll of cosmic dice in my family tree. It wasn’t even supposed to be possible.
I stood up, dislodged Noodle gently into his temporary sleeping coil on the pillow, and went to the bathroom to get started on being a person. I tied my long black hair into a loose braid that was still long enough to reach my hips, moisturizedmy face and swiped some black eyeliner on. That was all the effort I’d be putting into today.
I got dressed in black jeans, a fitted black long-sleeve shirt, and my worn leather jacket that belonged to my mom. Noodle woke up when I opened his travel case and regarded me with a deeply unimpressed expression.
I narrowed my eyes. “We’ve been over this.”
‘Don’t want,’he said with a hiss.
“Get in the case, bro.”
‘Don’t waaant.’
