Immediately after breaking link with Joshua, Cassie shot a grin over to Brie.

Hey, girl. What up? She tried to sound as casual as possible. It didn't work super well, apparently, because Brie furrowed her brow and continued to study Cassie. She looked like a very confounded scientist looking at something that shouldn't exist.

You're hiding something. I just can't figure out what it is or why you're keeping it a secret, Brie thought, and Cassie froze. Not a hard to reach deduction, but one that Cassie had hoped she wouldn't reach for a while.

Cassie bit her lip. We all have secrets.

Oh no, you don't get to go all poetic and not tell me about what's going on. Brie crossed her arms and pursed her lips in an expression that was 'one hundred percent done with your shenanigans, Cassandra'.

Look, can you go invisible yet, Brie? Cassie asked.

You can't just change the subject either!

But can you do it?

Brie rolled her eyes and nodded. What of it?

Come to my room after bedtime, okay? Just don't let Jazz catch you. If you come fifteen or twenty minutes after lights out, she should be asleep. Cassie knew that she would have to tell Brie about her brother eventually. She figured she could trust her friend not to tattle on her, so she might as well introduce them. Brie mouthed 'okay' from where she sat and smiled just slightly. Cassie smiled back. I have to introduce you to someone.

Once class was released and as they made their way to PE, Brie bugged Cassie every second. In response, Cassie just smirked and then giggled when Brie shoved her lightly.

"If my team wins, you have to tell me," Brie said, huffing impatiently. Her friend just laughed again.

"I'm telling you at like nine o'clock tonight, anyway! What's your hurry?" Cassie ran over to her side of the volleyball net. They were all practicing with the promise from the coach, a girl named Christa, that the class would get to play a game outside that Friday. Plus, the winning team always left early while the other team put away the net and frame for the equipment.

Brie kept shooting Cassie looks during the entire class period, and then after class while Cassie's team cleaned up the equipment. She kept doing the same thing until that night, when they were both brushing their teeth.

"See you in twenty," Cassie called before leaving the room. She would go back to her room, she decided, and tell Joshua about Brie and warn him that she has going to introduce them to one another.

Cassie was on her bed talking to Joshua when Jazz came in and swung up into her bed. She rarely ever really used the ladder. Skye and Eve both did the same thing, which Cassie knew from the times that they would all pack into one of the rooms to hang out without the noise of the commons.

Yeah, sure. But you've gotta make sure that she doesn't tell anyone and they come looking for me. I don't trust that project you're at, no offense, and I need to get to Rachel's house without getting found out. Cassie breathed a sigh of relief, glad that phase one was done. Now she just had to sneak Brie into her dorm room to introduce the girl to the boy currently hitching a ride in a cab across the country.

With a hand balanced on the wall so as not to make any noise, Cassie opened the door a few inches and peeked outside. She didn't expect to see anything, as she had told Brie to come invisible, and true to her expectation, no one was there. Then Cassie felt a hand on her arm, wedged in the doorway to keep it from closing. She had to make a conscious effort to not scream, instead opening up the door and letting her invisible friend into the room.

Brie took down the glamour once the door was shut behind her, and she smiled to Cassie. "Ready to tell me what's up?" Brie whispered, sitting lightly on the edge of her friend's bed. Cassie shrugged.

I'm going to link you in to someone, psychically. You haven't met him yet. Probably didn't know he existed, but you wanted to meet him so here is my twin brother, Joshua. Cassie frowned and concentrated on her friend as she connected the link from Joshua to Brie.

Brie, meanwhile, looked like a train had hit her. If there was one thing that she had been told by everyone at the project, it was that no one had any relatives. Everyone who did have a sibling had their sister or brother there with them. This contradicted that.

Heya, Brie. What's up? I'm Joshua. You can call me Joshua because I don't like Josh. Pleased to meet you. Brie almost fell over where she sat as she stared up at Cassie.

Um, hi. I'm Brie, yeah. Why do you? What...

Cassie cut the link between her friend and her brother, before calling over to Joshua, I'll talk to you in a bit, okay? I'm going to explain some stuff to Brie.

In response, Joshua only said, Just don't tell her too much, Cass. This could end badly.

YOU'RE HITCHHIKING ACROSS THE COUNTRY! Cassie exclaimed, before cutting the connection and turning to Brie. "So. Yeah. I have a brother."

"Why? I mean, I know why but how come you didn't tell anybody? Is he a psychic too? Why wasn't he brought here with you?" Brie asked, furrowing her brow slightly.

"Yes, Joshua is a psychic. I don't know for sure why he didn't get brought in, really. I didn't tell anyone because at first I didn't trust this place. Now I do, but Joshua still doesn't. I'm not going to turn him in to Miss Benn if he doesn't want me to," Cassie told her.

Brie nodded, and then nodded again. "Okay."

"That's it? Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. It makes sense. I'm glad you told me," Brie said, once more smiling at her friend.

"And you aren't mad at me. And you aren't going to tell." Cassie looked dubiously at where Brie was still sitting. Her voice was a hushed whisper so not to wake Jazz.

Brie shook her head. "I won't tell. And I'm not mad. I might be annoyed if you wouldn't tell me after I asked you, but like you said-we all have secrets. I'm not angry that you wanted to protect your brother."

Then she carefully stood up, gently moving so that the bedsprings would not make noise so to wake Jazz. Cassie held open the door as Brie cloaked herself in invisibility and hurried from the room. "I'll see you tomorrow," Brie whispered as she passed.

The minute that the door shut, Cassie breathed out a relieved sigh. Brie was understanding enough, but Cassie had still been unsure whether or not the other girl would be upset over the kept secret. They had talked every day, after all, and Cassie had never let out a whisper about her twin. But Brie had just smiled and promised not to tell. Awesome.

Joshua was waiting when Cassie reattached their link, and he told her about how great his trek was going. He had stayed in the same first cab until around dinner, then he had found a restaurant that had less-than-expensive meals. With the bit of money he still had from allowances over the years, Joshua got a bit of food for himself. Then he had caught another ride to travel in for the night, where he intended to sleep.

Cassie waved him off when he asked whether she would like him to stay up to talk with. Reckless hitchhikers need their sleep, she had told him. So they both went to sleep for the first time before midnight in a week and a half.

Though she didn't approve of Joshua's plan, it did seem to be working, Cassie decided as she got ready for classes the following day. Joshua had informed her as soon as she had woken that he had successfully switched into a new cab. He just complained that the woman he had distracted had less of a frightened or worried look and more of a thoughtful expression. (I made rooster noises in her brain! What was she possibly contemplating about that?)

Cassie had just laughed. Be thankful that you haven't been arrested yet, she told him, not entirely joking.

Now she was getting ready for another day of classes with a promise from her brother that he would make sure not to ride all day in a single cab. (Much more likely that someone reports the cab and tracks you down if you don't switch rides, Cassie had told him.) If he wasn't foolish about it, Joshua might be able to make it to where Rachel was. The boy had said that the trip would take about three or four days of driving, and he was already nearly one day through.

Luckily for Cassie's sanity, her classes were back on track with learning new material. That kept her busy during most of the time, as opposed to driving herself mad worrying. During the first half of the school day were the fun classes, anyway.

Jazz had pulled Eve from her specialties practice to be their guinea pig for the day, and... well, honestly it wasn't any easier to connect to her than it had been the day before with Skye. Cassie managed to do it, though, and delivered another ridiculous message through her friend to Jazz.

All of her friends went to the disjunction class during second period, like always. The artist who could bring drawings to life was no longer there, but Skye wasn't phased. "I guess she graduated. Good on her," she had said. "Move past her glitch and now she gets to learn like everyone else."

"Have you checked out some of the case files during the evening yet?" Rose elbowed Cassie lightly and quirked her eyebrows when the younger girl turned to face her.

Cassie frowned. "What case files?"

"The files on all of the different types of specialties, of course. All you have to do is ask a teacher and they'll let you use one of the computers to look at them. I think they might have been redacted a bit, but they're still really neat to see," Rose told her. "And they have examples of disjunction under each power's file."

"No, haven't seen them. Why?" Cassie shook her head. The only file she had read was the one about psycholocation, or whatever it was called. And Cassie couldn't exactly call what she did reading exactly, so much as skimming a few paragraphs and getting bored.

Rose smiled and said, "Because they pass the time. You seem really antsy today and I've spent hours and hours over the years looking at those files. After all, we have quite a few different types of powers here, but there's records for hundreds of different specialties."

Cassie blushed slightly when Rose mentioned her impatience with the day. It was true that she wanted to hurry through the hours and finish the next few days so that she could finally talk with Rachel again, even if indirectly.

"Skye always gets mad when I hole up in one of the classrooms and research, though. Says I'm abandoning her. Anyway, I found out that there was a boy who was a heavy insomniac that had the same specialty as I do. He was training at the Canada facility like tenish years ago. It took him like three months to figure out how to use the power at all. But he got it in the end. Your power is more interesting, though."

Cassie raised her eyebrows, turning her head back up from where her gaze had been fixed on the floor. "Oh? How so?"

"A kid with psychic specialties never figured out how to use his power at all. All he could do was silence all of the minds around him. He had a severe fear of social interaction. I don't mean that he was an introvert or that he didn't like talking on the phone a bunch, like really antisocial. Anyway, he could turn off that voice in your head. Make it go completely quiet," Rose told Cassie. "But like I said, you should check out the files."

Cassie nodded. It was a good idea, if for nothing else but to pass the time. On top of that, the page about psychics might have a list of things that she could learn to do. Obviously the power wasn't limited to talking to others mentally. It went beyond that. Cassie just had to figure out how far.

"Why're you so jumpy today, anyway?" Cassie just shook her head at Rose's question. To talk about Joshua would mean actually telling someone about Joshua. She would later. Just... not now. Maybe she would talk to Brie later.

The Disjoint teacher let them leave a few minutes early, so they beat the rush of everyone for lunch. Brie tugged Cassie off to the side after they had gathered their food and were heading back to their table.

"So, when's Joshua going to come here? Or is he not?" Brie looked more than slightly surprised when she asked the second question.

Cassie sighed. "I honestly don't know. He's trying to hitchhike-sorta-over to where our friend Rachel is with her counterpart. He promised to check in every night with me, but it's freaking me out."

Brie raised her eyebrows and twisted her mouth slightly. "He's traveling by himself? Why didn't he ask his CP to drive him? I'm sure that he could convince him to give him a ride or whatever."

"Yeah. Joshua's convinced that his CP was close to looking into his files. He thought that the Counterparts Program would double check their work and find that he's supposed to be here. I don't know why, but he just doesn't trust the project," Cassie explained. Brie shook her head in understanding.

Brie said, "I still think he should come here."

"Yeah... Me too." Cassie shrugged. "But there's nothing I can do, really, without making Joshua super mad at me."

They walked over to where their friends were at the tables. Cassie took a deep breath and smiled over at Eve. There was no point being hyper about things she couldn't control. She would talk to Joshua that evening and then she would be able to breathe. Actually...

Hey, Josh. You doing okay?

Cassie waited a moment and toyed with a bit of her food, swirling the pasta around her plate with her fork.

Oh my god, you scared me Cass! I'm getting ready to switch cabs. Go away. I'll talk to you later. Don't you have class or something? Cassie laughed as Joshua told her to shove off. Even if he was irritated, he was fine and she knew that now.

Yeah, okay, sure. Cassie cut the link. She didn't have much to say to her brother. Apart from telling him to be careful (which she could tell him several hundred times), there was nothing specific to talk about.

Brie looked over to her friend from where she sat beside her. She quirked one eyebrow and Cassie smiled and nodded. "He's fine," she said.

Classes were a bore. Well, no more dull than at any other school, apart from the fact that if she weren't in them, Cassie could be practicing to use her powers with her friends. So, it was only boring because of what she could be doing if not there. Plus, every time that Cassie tried to talk with Brie while the teacher was lecturing, her friend wouldn't let her. ('You should be listening to class, Cassie' then 'You have to listen to pass this class' then 'Cassandra, I want to get an A so I need to hear the teacher'.)

In the end, Cassie resorted to actually participating in the class until they finished the school day. Then she headed back to her room and dropped off her school bag. Brie said that she wanted to play handball with a couple of the other kids and hoped Cassie would come and play. She did want to play, so Cassie decided that she would look at the specialties reports or files or whatever Rose had called them the next day.

Thankfully for Cassie, the day passed quickly. After showering and getting ready for bed, Cassie hugged Brie goodnight and slipped into her own room. Jazz stayed up reading a book while Cassie waited for Joshua to talk to her. Even though Joshua said that he would rather make the connections between them, for practicing being able to, Cassie got impatient. She ended up giving up on Joshua and supposing he had forgotten.

Hey, Josh! How are things going?

Cassie waited for her brother, but he was giving her the silent treatment. Probably because she had established the connection instead of letting him do it.

Stop being a baby, Josh. How are you doing?

Still nothing.

Joshua? You okay?

Josh?

JOSHUA!

Cassie froze completely still and swallowed. What was going on? Her brother wouldn't mess with her that much. She took a few deep breaths. Scratch that. She tried to take a few deep breaths, and succeeded only in beginning to hyperventilate.

Joshua, are you okay?

"Cassie, what's going on down there?" Jazz leaned over the railing of her bunk to peer down at where Cassie was sitting. The younger girl was staring at the wall on the other side of the room, tears forming in her eyes. Cassie turned to look at her mentor.

"My brother's missing."