Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The alarm clock on Lux's nightstand blared, an insistent electronic shriek that cut straight through her dreams. The digital display read 07:42 AM.
Lux's eyes snapped open.
For one blissful second, her brain refused to process the number. Then it hit her like a physics equation slamming into reality: her biology midterm started at 08:15 AM. She had spent the entire night hunched over her desk, memorising the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain until the words blurred together, finally collapsing face-first onto her textbook at 03:00 AM with a highlighter still clutched in her hand.
"Oh no, no, no, no!" Lux cried out, her voice cracking with panic.
She vaulted out of bed so fast she nearly took the duvet with her. Her uniform blazer lay crumpled on the floor exactly where she'd flung it the night before, one sleeve turned inside out. She scooped it up and dragged it over her shoulders while simultaneously attempting to brush her hair with the other hand — a feat that resulted in more knots than progress. She hunted for one of her signature pink ribbons, patting down her desk, her pillow, the gap behind her nightstand, before finally giving up entirely and settling for a single, lopsided ponytail.
Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard was the epitome of the overachieving bright spark — the kind of girl who colour-coded her revision notes and still somehow ended up racing the clock every single morning. She was bubbly, relentlessly optimistic, and carried the heavy, invisible weight of her family's expectations on her shoulders like a second backpack. With her bright blue eyes and untamed blonde hair — currently more untamed than usual — she spent her days trying to balance being the perfect student, a loyal friend, and a beacon of positivity for absolutely everyone around her, even when she herself was falling apart at the seams.
She grabbed her backpack — half-unzipped, a trail of loose flashcards already slipping free and scattering across her bedroom floor like breadcrumbs she didn't have time to follow. She didn't stop to gather them. She bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time, and nearly went sliding straight across the polished hardwood floor of the Crownguard residence in her socked feet.
The kitchen was a stark, jarring contrast to the whirlwind she'd brought down the stairs with her. Sunlight streamed in through tall windows, catching the steam rising off two cups of tea. Her parents sat at the long dining table with the quiet, composed stillness of people who had never once been late for anything in their lives.
"Luxanna, decorum," her mother, Augatha, said without so much as glancing up from her tablet, her tone clipped and precise, uncannily similar to her formidable sister Tiana's. "A Crownguard does not sprint through the halls."
Her father, Pieter, lowered his newspaper just enough to fix her with a stern, disapproving look over the rim of his glasses, before raising it again without a word — which was, somehow, worse than if he'd said something.
By the front door, her older brother Garen stood in front of the hallway mirror, methodically adjusting his tie. He was already dressed in his crisp, formal attire for his internship at the city prosecutor's office, every crease pressed, every button aligned. He looked pristine, structured, and entirely immovable — the human equivalent of a filing cabinet.
"Late again, Lux?" Garen asked, the corner of his mouth twitching into a small smile despite his stern expression. "You know, a proper sleep schedule improves cognitive function by—"
"Don't have time for a lecture, big bro!" Lux yelled, already moving. She ducked right under his arm before he could finish the sentence, snatching a slice of toast off the counter on her way past. "Wish me luck!"
"Eat your toast!" Garen called after her, but his voice was swallowed by the door slamming shut behind her.
---
The morning air of Valoran City was crisp, carrying the faint smell of rain that hadn't quite decided whether to fall yet. Lux sprinted down the pavement, her backpack thumping heavily against her spine with every stride, toast held clenched between her teeth like a soldier storming a hill. The distant screech of brakes echoed from two blocks away. The school bus was already at the corner.
"Wait! Please wait!" Lux wheezed around a mouthful of toast, pushing her legs to move faster than they wanted to.
At the designated stop, three girls stood waiting.
Poppy stood firmly near the kerb, her oversized sports duffel bag slung over one shoulder, arms crossed. She was frowning down at her watch, shifting her weight from foot to foot with barely restrained impatience. Poppy was a fiercely loyal, no-nonsense tomboy — short in stature but unmatched in sheer determination. She hated lateness the way some people hated spiders, valued discipline above almost everything else, and had appointed herself the unofficial, protective bodyguard of their little friend group, whether they'd asked for it or not.
Next to her, Lulu was thoroughly distracted. She was crouched by a flowerbed at the edge of the pavement, completely absorbed in watching a ladybird crawl across a leaf, whispering soft, incoherent words of encouragement to it as though it might understand her. Lulu was an eccentric — technically a year below the others, but sharp enough, and strange enough, to have been bumped up into their class regardless, which had done little to change her reputation as the school's resident "weird kid." She had an untamed, whimsical imagination, and a habit of drifting off mid-conversation to talk to things nobody else could see.
Janna stood slightly apart from the other two, her headphones resting loosely around her neck, her long lilac hair stirring gently in the morning breeze. She was gazing up at the sky with a distant, faintly melancholic expression, as though she were listening to something none of the rest of them could hear. Janna was a quiet, elegant senior — mysterious in the way people are when they never quite explain themselves, carrying an air of mature grace that made her feel disconnected from the petty dramas of high school, as if her mind lived somewhere else entirely.
"She's cutting it closer than yesterday," Poppy muttered, arms tightening across her chest.
"Look, look! It has seven spots!" Lulu cheered, pointing at the insect with delight. "That means it's a lucky day!"
Janna blinked, pulling her gaze down from the clouds. She glanced down the street and smiled softly. "Speak of the devil. Here she comes."
Lux rounded the corner at full sprint, face bright red, gasping for air, toast still miraculously clenched between her teeth. The yellow school bus pulled up to the kerb with a loud hiss of air brakes. The doors folded open.
"I... made... it..." Lux panted, bending double with her hands braced on her knees, holding up the mangled remains of her toast like a trophy.
She looked around, eyes widening as she counted heads at the stop. Poppy, Janna, and Lulu were all there — but someone was missing. The one person Lux always looked for first, before anyone else, without even meaning to.
"Wait... where's Jinx?" Lux asked, her heart sinking slightly.
"Take a guess," Poppy sighed, grabbing Lux's arm to haul her toward the steps. "Move it, Crownguard, you're blocking the aisle. She's skipping again, obviously."
Lux hesitated on the bottom step. She looked down the road, toward the poorer, more chaotic district of Valoran City where Jinx lived. They had been inseparable for as long as she could remember — since before either of them could properly explain what "friendship" even meant. Everyone at school joked that they were attached at the hip. Honestly, anyone with eyes could see the intensity of it — the lingering glances, the way Lux always leapt to defend Jinx's wildest behaviour without a second thought, the way Jinx's chaotic edges seemed to soften, just slightly, whenever Lux was in the room. They had never once talked about it. They had never needed to. The bond was simply there, undeniable, woven into the fabric of both their lives.
Lux pulled her arm free from Poppy's grip and stepped back down onto the pavement.
"I can't go without her," Lux said, her voice turning stubborn in that particular way it only did for one person. "If she misses this midterm, she's going to fail the year."
"Lux, you're going to miss it too!" Poppy yelled over the rumble of the bus engine.
"Good morning, Lux!" Lulu beamed from the steps, entirely unbothered by the unfolding crisis. "Tell Jinx the blanket monster says hello!"
"Go on ahead," Janna said, a knowing, gentle smile tugging at her lips as she rested a calming hand on Poppy's shoulder. "We'll save you two a seat, if you make it. Good luck, Lux."
The bus doors hissed shut, and the heavy yellow vehicle pulled away into the morning traffic, trailing a faint cloud of exhaust. Lux didn't waste another second. She spun on her heel and took off again, sprinting down the pavement in the opposite direction, toast forgotten, midterm forgotten, everything narrowed down to one single, stubborn thought.
---
Three blocks away, the neat suburban streets gave way to a cluttered, vibrant neighbourhood — mismatched fences, overgrown front gardens, the occasional wind chime clinking against a porch post. Lux knew she was close when she heard the muffled bass of heavy rock music rattling the windows of a weathered, two-storey house. Above the music, the unmistakable sound of crashing porcelain and screeching arguments spilled out into the street.
Sitting on the front porch steps was Vander.
He was a massive, broad-shouldered man with a weathered face and kind, tired eyes — the kind of tired that came from decades of exactly this sort of morning. He wore a stained denim vest and was quietly enjoying a cigarette, treating the front porch like a peaceful island in the middle of a hurricane. He looked up as Lux came skidding to a halt at the front gate, chest heaving, gasping for air.
"Morning, Lux," Vander said, his deep voice calm and unhurried. He exhaled a slow plume of smoke into the cool morning air. "Let me guess. Midterm day?"
"Hi... Vander..." Lux wheezed, clutching a stitch in her side. "Are they... at it again?"
Vander chuckled softly, gesturing with his cigarette toward the front door. "Vi came home late from her gym session, knocked over one of Jinx's scrap metal projects by accident. They've been throwing household appliances at each other for twenty minutes now. I had to step outside before I lost the rest of my hair."
Right on cue, a loud THUD rattled the front door, followed by Vi's muffled roar — "I told you it was an accident, you crazy brat!" — and Jinx's shrieking reply — "Accident?! You murdered my laser-toaster, fat-hands!"
Vander gave Lux a sympathetic look, the ghost of a smile pulling at his mouth. "You're a brave girl, Luxanna. If anyone can get her out of bed and into a school uniform, it's you. Go on in, before they bring the roof down."
"Wish me luck," Lux said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders.
She pushed the front door open and stepped right into the crossfire.