┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

MISS STONE WAS ANGRY. It was weird to see. The blonde haired teacher was usually calm but for the entire day she looked as if she was a ticking-time-bomb ready to go off. MJ appreciated the change of pace, because of Miss Stone's mood, the class had a silent day, catching up on term work, homework or reading. MJ had her earphones in and read a book, it was probably her favourite day at school yet.

When the bell rang, MJ found herself at the bike track, she grabbed her key and took off the lock around her skateboard.

Christy had offered to give MJ a lift to school on her way home from work but MJ refused, she enjoyed riding her skateboard to school. The feeling of wind sliding along her, her earphones in, nothing other than getting to her destination mattering, she felt free when skating.

MJ was about to put her earphones in when she heard a person calling her name. She turned around, curious to who the strange voice could be. "MJ!" MJ's eyes widened as she spotted Cal Stone running up to her. The preteen boy was smiling wildly as he waved at her, "Hi!"

MJ smiled, "Hey, how was your first day?" She asked. MJ remembered seeing Cal sitting at a table of High Schoolers, it wasn't exactly like her first day back at school but then again, she did skip to solve a murder with Cal's dad and aunt.

Cal shrugged, "It was okay..."

MJ crossed her arms, "It was bad wasn't it."

He nodded.

"My first day wasn't the best, I had people staring and whispering about me all day, your aunt helped but—"

"She only understands so much."

"Yeah..."

MJ bit her lip. She didn't know what to say, the last time she had seen Cal was on the tarmac, he looked sickly, half-asleep and terrified in his father's arms, MJ had been jealous that Cal had someone there to comfort him. "Hey, what's been going on with your family lately? I haven't heard from Ben or Michaela recently."

Cal raised an eyebrow, "You talk to my aunt and dad?"

"Oh—" MJ realised that Cal wasn't as in the know as her. A part of her felt jealous, she wished she never got caught up in all the madness of callings but the other part of her felt bad for him. "I..."

"Cal!" A teenage girl called as she ran up to the two, "There you are! I thought I lost you." The girl turned to face MJ, "No way..."

"Do I know you?" MJ couldn't help but feel something familiar about the girl, she had long curly brown hair with dark eyes and tan skin.

"I'm not sure if you remember me, Olive, from the airport?"

"Oh! Woah..." MJ stared at the 16-year-old girl, suddenly she remembered where she had seen her brown curls and tan skin, she was the energetic eleven-year-old girl who introduced herself and Cal at the airport. "You are old."

"Geez thanks," Olive said playfully with a laugh. "Cal, we gotta go home now, Aunt Cassie is giving us a lift."

Cal nodded before turning to MJ, "Do you wanna come?"

MJ shook her head, "Um... No thanks, but maybe another time?" She offered.

"Sure, I'll give you my number," Olive grabbed out her phone and flashed MJ her number, she wrote it down in her phone.

"Well... bye!"

MJ waved at them, watching as they hopped in her teacher's car before putting her earphones in and returning home.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

She hadn't meant to spy on Amber and Christy, it just happened.

MJ returned home and put her skateboard away, the apartment was quiet which confused her since Amber didn't have class and Christy should have been home from work already. MJ took her earphones out, and slowly she walked around the apartment, checking her room, the study, and the kitchen and then approached Amber and Christy's bedroom. She knew she wasn't meant to spy but curiosity got the best of her, as she slowly approached the bedroom she heard whispering, she grinned as she saw the door was slightly wedged open. MJ snuck up to the door, peeking through.

The scene confused her, and honestly made her feel guilty for even looking. The girls were sitting on the bed, looking at a laptop, Christy was crying, her head shaking in her hands. Amber reached over her, patting her on the back. "It's okay."

"No, it isn't!"

"Chris—"

"Amber! It's not fucking okay!"

Amber frowned, she closed the laptop, before crossing her legs, her body facing towards Christy. "I know... It's not okay. Fuck, Chris. I was there when MJ almost took a bullet because of those freaks."

MJ gasped, they were talking about her, Christy was crying because of her.

"Why didn't you tell me?! She's my best friend."

Amber shook her head, "I was in shock, MJ was nowhere near the lady but somehow she could hear her cries for help... It didn't make sense."

"None of it makes sense! Why didn't she age a day?! How doesn't she remember anything, where is her aunt? I love Mary, really I do but we're not financially fit to take in a teen Am, the only reason we can afford this apartment is your father."

"I get what you're saying Christy, really, I do but MJ needs us to stay calm, especially about that website, we can't let her know about it."

A website? MJ had no idea what they were talking about, Michaela and Ben hadn't told MJ about any website, was it about the plane? Why didn't they trust her enough to tell her?

Amber grabbed Christy's hands, "MJ's aunt isn't important, what is important is that we're here for MJ. I'll get a job, maybe you can talk to your boss about a raise? Don't worry love, we can do this."

Christy smiled, she kissed Amber, "I love that you're so confident about all this but I'm still worried about MJ, she has no one, it's been over a month and her aunt hasn't said a word... We're not her parents—"

"But we could be."

"What?"

"I have some friends who study law, they could help us out with adopting MJ if you want to?"

MJ couldn't believe what she was hearing, Amber Fiona Lahey, a girl who once was her bully, wanted to adopt her.  MJ wanted to storm into the room right there and then, yell at Amber, asking if it was some type of weird joke but her body betrayed her mind as tears started to fall from her eyes, her body frozen as she watched the most intimate conversation she had ever seen.

"Y- Yeah! Am, I would love that!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah!" Christy threw herself into Amber, attacking her with kisses, MJ ran away from the room, she felt sick, she didn't want to be adopted but a small part of her still refused to believe that her parents had even died. MJ ran to her room, slamming the door behind her, no doubt alerting Christy and Amber that she was home.

Suddenly she remembered Amber saying something about a website. Frantically she unlocked her phone and went to Google, she googled "FLIGHT 828 WEBSITE" hoping that would be enough but she was sorrowfully mistaken, hundreds of news articles came up about her miraculous return from the dead, she rolled her eyes. Another memory came to mind, the lady who thought MJ was some type of miracle granter, she took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever whack-job conspiracy theory rabbit hole she better go down. She added a word to her search. The first website that came was called Flight 828 Central, she clicked on it and what she saw left a bad taste in her mouth.

In a large font, highlighted, was the tagline, "THE PEOPLE OF MONTEGO FLIGHT 828" Underneath that was bold writing 'Before and after they went missing for 5 1/2 years.' Then there was in alphabetical order, all of the passengers with a link and photo next to it. She hurriedly scrolled down to the Js there she saw her name and a picture of her on her phone, she felt sick, the picture was generic she couldn't even remember when they had taken it. She clicked on her name and found a whole page with her entire life story on it, she felt like she was to going to throw up, MJ ran out of her room, racing to the bathroom, her phone still in her hand. She puked in her toilet, barely anything coming out but her body still gagging. Thoughts screaming through her mind, how? How?! Did they find all this out?! When did they take that picture of her? Do they know where she lives? Her school?

When she finally trusted her body not to be sick, she turned her phone back on, she needed to read the page, to see just how much they knew. MJ started to read it but realised just how long it was, which made her even sicker, so she skimmed through only reading the important bits.

Before— Troubled child, recently kicked out of school, was on a visit to her aunts. Eldest child of two, biracial mother, Cuban father, recently sister to a newborn boy.

After— Parents passed 3 years prior, it's unknown where she is staying but her aunt has been seen still in Jamaica with MJ's brother while MJ has been seen in NYC. Not much else is known about her life after the plane.

The ill feeling began to fade as she realised they actually didn't know that much about her, they knew a lot about her life before the plane, probably because of the Mary Aid but her current life remains a mystery to the internet. On her page are a few pictures of her out in public, one of her with Amber and Christy, she made a note to herself to be more aware of her surroundings when she's out in public.

MJ shook her head, she closed the app down, looking at her contacts, still no message from the Stones or Saanvi... Surely they knew about the website, why didn't they say anything? She scrolled down, looking at her newer contacts; Natty and Olive.

MJ's finger hovered over the two contacts, she didn't want to be alone right now but she didn't want to talk to Amber or Christy either... She went to call Olive but hesitated, what if Ben and Mick were home? She didn't want to talk to them right now, not after finding out what they'd been hiding. She clicked on Natty's name.

It rang... "MJ?"

"Hey, Natty... Are you doing anything right now?"

The girl on the other side of the phone was silent for a moment, "No, why?"

MJ frowned, she suddenly felt really awkward, calling someone she barely knew, "Oh, I just needed someone to talk to."

Natty's tone suddenly shifted, she went from shy and confused to happy and cheerful, "Oh, yeah I'm free, what's up?"

MJ told her everything, every little thing she had been dealing with, it all came spilling out, she started by telling Natty about the website, then it turned into her parents and then Amber and Christy and finally her callings. She expected Natty to hang up but she was a good listener, MJ found herself crying by the end of it.

"MJ... You aren't crazy, you know that right?"

MJ nodded, not knowing why since Natty couldn't see her. "I know but I still feel like I am. How am I meant to tell them? Would they still want to adopt me if they knew how much of a freak I am?" She sobbed.

"You are not a freak. You are strong. And if they want to adopt you, I'm sure nothing you can tell them will change that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

MJ wiped her nose, "I'm so sorry... I just dumped all of this on you. You probably want me to delete your number hey?"

"No way! You think you're a freak? The entire school thinks the same about me, I don't mind a little weird."

"So you're not weirded out by the callings?" MJ asked, she didn't believe it, if the roles were reversed, MJ doubted she would have believed Natty if she said she heard and saw things from the future.

"You didn't age a day for 5 and a 1/2 years, you could tell me anything and I would believe you."

MJ laughed.