┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

They only had to stay at the hospital for another night, Cal was eager to get out of the hospital, ever since his fever broke, he'd been talking about returning to school non-stop, Cassie even caught Cal asking Mr Williams about it when his parents were out of the room.

Grace and Ben were much less comfortable with Cal leaving the hospital, Ben especially.

As the car pulled into the driveway, Cassie looked through her rearview mirror, Kayla was sleeping soundly, her head leaning against Michaela who had decided to sit in the back rather than the front. Things have been tenuous with them since they argued at the hospital, neither Cassie nor Michaela knew what to say to the other, so they had decided not to speak.

Michaela got out of the car, and picked up Kayla, "I'll put her in bed."

Cassie nodded, "Okay."

Cassie stayed in the car as Michaela took Kayla, she watched as Grace and Ben pulled up behind them, they had to take two different cars.

Cal got out of the car, he looked fragile, his pale skin paler than what it usually looked like. "Cal!" Olive cried as she raced out of the house and hugged her younger twin.

"How was your sleepover?"

Olive chuckled, "Good, it was good." Olive put a hand on Cal's forehead, "How was the hospital?"

Cal shrugged, "It was okay, I was asleep for most of it," he frowned, his eyes suddenly widening as he remembered something, "Guess what Ol?!"

"What?"

"Mum and Doctor Williams said I can go back to school tomorrow!"

Cassie looked at her brother, Ben had his arms crossed, he was smiling but his smile looked faded and wary. Grace clapped her hands. "That's right, but it's already past your bedtime, so come on, inside and brush your teeth."

"Race ya!" Olive said while taking off, getting herself a few seconds ahead.

"Not fair!"

Cassie locked her car, she looked at Ben who was wiping his face, "You okay?"

Ben nodded, "Yeah, I'm good. I just need a minute."

"Are you sure? Because I'm a teacher, Cal will be going to my school, if you have questions, I can help."

Ben shook his head, "It's not about that, Cass."

Cassie burrowed her brow, she started to walk towards the house when she remembered something Grace told her, she balled her fist, her tone softened, "Is it about... the voices?"

"What- How?"

"Grace told me- Don't be upset with her, she's just concerned, so am I."

Ben exhaled heavily, "It's not like that, I'm not crazy, and neither is Mick, the plane did something to us, none of us actually know what."

"I know, one of my students was on the plane, her guardian was telling me about how she was seeing stuff."

"MJ?"

"Yeah! How did you-"

"MJ had the same calling as us, that's what we call them... callings."

Cassie nodded, she didn't know the science or physiology about it but she tried to wrap her head around it, her brother and a few hundred people were all hearing and seeing the same things, cool. Cassie crossed her arms, "So these callings... Is it like a voice whispering to you or something?"

"It can be... But it's not usually a random voice, normally it's mine, like a thought was placed in my mind and echoed," Ben shook his head as he tried to explain it to her. "It's not always a voice though, Michaela had a calling the other day, it was a heartbeat."

"Wait— Like her own heart beep?"

"From what she explained, it was her heartbeat but whenever she felt it, she could feel nothing else, it was like the world blurred and in one small moment all she could feel was the beating of her heart."

"I don't understand, how do you know it's a calling? I could feel my heartbeat right now if I tried to."

"It led Mick to a murderer, the calling saved an old man's life."

"MJ..." Cassie muttered to herself.

"What about her?"

"MJ's guardian was telling me about how MJ had a calling that led her to save a lady from being robbed."

Ben sighed, his hand over his mouth, he looked so tired, Cassie hadn't noticed that before. "She's so young, other than Cal, she was the youngest person on the plane, she shouldn't have had to deal with that by herself."

"She wasn't by herself, her guardian was with her," Cassie tried to convince Ben but the truth was, that MJ was alone. Being a teacher, Cassie picks up on a lot more than most people know. She can tell when a kid is struggling at home or when a kid needs a bit of extra support and MJ ticks all the boxes. Amber might have been there for that calling, but how many had she missed? Ben, Cal and Michaela had each other, they all knew what each other was going through, but who did MJ have?

"I don't understand why she gets callings, Cal— He gets them but they're different, at least I think," Ben looked at the house, all the lights were off, Cal and Olive had probably already fallen asleep, "Cal's in trouble."

"He's okay, the doctors said he was okay."

"He's linked to another passenger, one that the government is treating like a lab rat. They've stopped testing, that's the only reason why Cal's fever is gone, the second they start testing again—" Ben's throat went dry, but he didn't need to finish the sentence for Cassie to know what he was going to say.

"Cal's fever would start again and you might not be there."

Ben nodded, "That's why I don't want him to go to school."

Cassie's head was spinning, she was trying to wrap her head around it all but it was becoming too much. She thought about what Grace told her, 'Ben was talking about government schemes,' Cassie didn't blame Grace was thinking Ben sounded crazy, Ben did sound crazy, but for some reason, Cassie believed him. "Well," she straight her back, trying to sound as confident as possible, "I'll be there and trust me, Cal won't leave my sight. Darius is Cal's teacher, he's a good friend of mine, the second Cal starts acting weird, he'll let me know."

Ben smiled, "Thank you, Cassie."

Cassie grinned, "It's no problem, Ben, if Kayla was in danger, I'd expect you to do the same."

"No— Not just for watching out for Cal. For believing me, Grace didn't take this all that well."

"I know, but Grace has been through a lot, she's a tough woman, give her a second, and she'll come around."

Ben chuckled softly, "Grace is tough, that's one of the things I love about her. Oh! Cass, I have a job interview tomorrow, I'm pretty confident about it, could you let your boss know that I'm no longer available?"

Cassie nodded, "Sure."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

Cassie's hand was tightly around Cal's. The Stones walked throughout the school hallway, Cal was wearing a shirt from his favourite show and a pair of plain pants, "You don't need to hold my hand so tight, Aunt Cassie."

"Right, sorry," Cassie let go of his hand, she looked around the school, students were staring at them but Cal didn't seem to notice. Cassie couldn't imagine how difficult returning to school is for Cal, she noticed the whispers and glances MJ got on her first day back, she was a passenger, a miracle and the number one unsolved mystery in America; Cal wasn't just a passenger but also the cancer kid.

"Your class is just around here—"

Suddenly Cassie felt the hard pressure of another body. She fell to the hard ground, hard books raining down on her. "Cassie! I'm so sorry—" a deep voice said.

Cassie shook her head, she started picking the books up, "It's okay, I'm fine." She picked up the books and gave them to the other teacher, "Although you would probably watch where you're running Mr Terry, there are little ones around."

Darius chuckled, usually his laugh was warm enough to make even the coldest of people warm, his usual honey-sounding voice was strained and breathless as if he had just run a marathon. "Will do—"

He went to run off but Cassie spoke up, "Darius!" The teacher turned around to face her and saw the smaller face next to her, "This is my nephew, Cal, he's going to be in your class this year. I was hoping I could talk to you."

Darius gasped as he saw Cal, his eyes widening, "Cal... You haven't aged a day!"

Cal ducked his head, "Yeah, I've been told that a lot Mr T."

"You know Cal?"

Darius nodded, "Olive and Cal were my students before the plane disappeared." Darius' eyes softened, "I would love to chat before class but I need to set up Mrs Dawson's room before class. I'll see you in ten minutes, okay Cal?"

Cal nodded.

"Wait— Why are you setting up Hannah's classroom?"

"She called in sick and Stacey couldn't find a substitute."

"What..." Cassie shook her head, that made no sense, Ben would have been more than happy to be a substitute for Hannah, especially on Cal's first day. Even with Ben's job interview coming up, there was no way Ben would have missed Cal's first day back.

"I gotta go, bye Cal!" Mr Terry ran off.

Cassie sighed, "I need to run to the office, do you want to stay here or come with me?"

Cal put his bag on the rack which was outside the classroom "I think I'll stay here if that's okay."

Cassie ran to the office, she knew that she only had ten minutes to talk to Stacey, so she made sure not to waste time walking slowly. Cassie knocked on the principal's door as she waited for Stacey to answer, the office staff gave Cassie weird looks but ignored them. Stacey opened the door, "Miss Stone? Why aren't you preparing for class?"

"I need to talk to you, can I come in?"

Stacey moved out of the doorway, "Of course."

Cassie walked inside the room, she took a seat as she waited for Stacey to close the door. "I trust that your nephew is settling in?"

Cassie nodded, "He is but that's not why I'm here, I'm here about Ben."

Stacey's face dropped as she closed the door behind her, "I see..."

"Why didn't you get him to sub for Hannah?"

"He simply wasn't a good fit."

Cassie shook her head, "Ben is a good fit, he's more than qualified and I'm half as good of a teacher as him."

Stacey sighed, "Cassie, I like you, you know I like you, and I want to help your family, truly, but Ben wasn't a good fit."

"So you would rather Darius juggle two classes by himself?"

Stacey stared at Cassie, her expression was caught off guard, as if a deer had just run into headlights, she didn't speak, a few times she opened her mouth but no words came out. After a few seconds of this, she sighed and looked at Cassie, "I am truly sorry, but it wasn't up to me, the school board thinks hiring a passenger will bring too much attention. When Mary Jones became a student here, dozens of parents complained, no doubt the same amount of backlash will be received when news gets around about Calvin. I wanted to hire Ben, but you could imagine the backlash we would receive if I let that happen."

Cassie frowned, "MJ, Ben and Cal are just as much as human as the rest of us, just because they went through something none of us can explain doesn't mean they should be punished."

"Cassie, I agree! But there are people in higher positions of power who believe otherwise, I wish I could tell you more but I can't—"

Cassie shook her head, "This is wrong, and you know it," she pushed herself out of her chair, walking over to the door, "And so you know, Ben isn't looking for a job anyway, he found one, no thanks to you."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

It's hard to miss gossip in a classroom of thirteen/fourteen-year-olds, so MJ wasn't surprised when she heard that there was a new student in Grade 7, what did surprise her but learning that it was Cal Stone. MJ had often wondered what happened to Cal, she had seen Mick and Ben since the plane landed but not the youngest Stone. She had wanted to though, if anyone understood what she was going through, it was Cal.

MJ sat down in the corner of the cafeteria, her plate was full as she didn't have much of an appetite. She had her earphones in, wondering how Cal's first day was going, had he been experiencing the same amount of stares that MJ had? MJ hadn't been paying attention as she felt a sudden gash of air as someone sat down next to her. She looked around and saw familiar blue and black hair, "Natalia-Jean?"

The girl smiled, "Hi," she said barely above a whisper, "I thought you might want someone to sit with."

"Okay..." MJ pulled out one of her earphones.

She expected Natalia-Jean to say something but she didn't, the girl just picked up her sandwich and took a bite. MJ didn't quite understand what was happening.

MJ looked around the room, trying to avoid the awkwardness she was feeling, that was when she spotted Cal sitting at a table filled with students from the high school. Natalia-Jean caught MJ looking and said something, "It must be weird returning to school, I mean after a 5-and-a-half-year break."

MJ shook her head, "It wasn't a break, we don't remember anything from the plane."

Natalia-Jean tilted her head, "That's so weird..."

MJ smiled, oddly enough she found that comforting, she would much rather someone call the situation she was in weird than to lie and call it something else, "Yeah, it is."

Natalia-Jean nodded before turning to another bite of her sandwich, "I don't go by Natalia-Jean, I prefer Natty, that's what my friends call me." MJ had seen Natty sitting alone in every class and lunch break, she felt like there was meant to be a if I had any friends, added to that statement but she decided not to say anything.

"That's good to know, Natty."