Nova June Morshower

# Nova June Cassidy

Nova June Morshower, also known as 'Nova Cassidy' after her adoptive mother's surname, 'Novalee', or simply 'Cassidy' by Leo, is the main character

   in the novel Once, We Existed. At the start of the novel she is fourteen. She is the second and youngest child of the deceased Arden Morshower and his wife Ophelia Morshower. She had an elder sister named Elodie Morshower and a younger half brother named Octavius Nightingale. She was born in the City, a place unspecified in the country of New Zealand in the twenty-sixth century. Her father was a bestselling author with a passion for astronomy. She was found on the streets after she and her sister had been denied ability to live at an orphanage at three years old and adopted by the late Andromeda Cassidy. Her best friend was Alya Cassidy, an human-resembling artificial intelligence assigned to those under eighteen.

## Nova June Morshower

### Aliases

Andromeda Cassidy (adoptive mother, (deceased))Alya Cassidy (adoptive sister, artificial intelligence)

Leo Callister (best friend, boyfriend)

Ophelia Morshower (mother)

Elodie Morshower (sister, (deceased))

Octavius Nightingale (half-brother)

Micaiah Callister (boyfriend's uncle)

Emilia Callister (boyfriend's cousin)

Cosmos Cassidy (former pet black cat)

### Relatives

Ophelia Morshower (mother) Arden Morshower (father, (deceased))

Elodie Morshower (sister, (deceased))

Octavius Nightingale (half-brother)

'Baby' Morshower-Callister (future child)

### Affiliation

Morshower family Cassidy family

City citizen

## Physical description

### Eye color

bright green or blue, unspecified

The story starts when Nova is fourteen and meets a young boy a year her elder named Leo Callister, her future boyfriend, atop the balcony of Apartment 59362, where she lives. They instantly bonded because of their love of astronomy and drawing. After Andromeda's death, they fell distant, Nova blaming Leo for the cause of her death because of his current homeless state. They started dating when Nova was fifteen when they both realised they had feelings for one another. At the end of amethyst gardens: chapter three part one, Nova finds out she has a living sister and searches to find her. After ages trying to find her sister, when Nova's about ready to give up, Leo takes her out to the City and they run into one another at a bookshop.

In the next chapter, Nova falls ill to the Disease, a COVID-19 like mutant which kills 99% of its inhabitants, which is when Leo realises how much he truly loves her and confesses to her. Nova is heartbroken when her sister dies from the Disease, as she'd only just found her. An unexpected visitor shows up at their door - her long presumed deceased mother Ophelia and her almost four year old son Octavius. Octavius and Leo immediately bond.

On Nova's sixteenth birthday, the whole of the City finds out they have to undergo a severe Lockdown because of the virus the day post. No one is allowed to go out, even to buy food, so the household rushes to the shops. We find out that Leo has a brother, Beckett, which is why he was so good with Octavius. Nova and Leo get into a fight and refuse to speak to each other. She tells him to leave so he does and they don't see each other for weeks until Leo shows up on her balcony one night and confesses his love to her once more. They apologise and kiss.

The Apartment's heater breaks so Leo goes out to get some firewood and gets hypothermia. Only days after he recovers unexpected visitors show up at their doorsteps - Leo's uncle Micaiah and fourteen-year-old cousin Emilia Callister. With the extra people their food stock is running low, so the family head to the supermarket, to find the shelves bare. Leo and Nova raid some nearby houses and collect a few cans but Nova's asthma worsens so she has to go back to the Apartment.

In unexpected: chapter ten, the hologram flicks on to reveal the New Zealand deputy prime minister, declaring that the City is going to be burnt down in seven days and they are to leave and head north as soon as possible because of the Disease. From the presumed millions who lived in the city, only seven hundred remain. They head to a deserted house a few days north of the City in the country which once belonged to a friend of Micaiah's. He doesn't specify who but it seems the previous inhabitants had moved out or the house had been robbed from the lack of much furniture. Leo reveals he wants to marry Nova in the future.

The next chapter starts with Octavius begging to carve pumpkins, as it's near Halloween, so we guess it's been about a month or two since they've left the City for their new life. Nova and Emilia start a garden and they begin talking. Emilia mentions her mother, whose never been spoken about before, but is presumed to have been Japanese, by Emilia's features. At the end of the chapter, Nova reveals a surprise to both Leo and the audience - she's pregnant with his baby. Only Leo and Alya currently know.

In Oh Baby, Nova gives birth to their daughter, Andromeda Ophelia Morshower-Callister.

In Nostalgia, Nova has three children - Andromeda, who is currently seven, Arden, who goes by his middle name Beck, who is currently three (almost four) and Juniper, who is currently an infant.