Thankfully, Cara is sitting in an otherwise empty café. The only barista is on break, leaving her alone with her pile of textbooks, her perfectly manicured study notes, her collection of pens and highlighters, and the coffee which swirls on the table in front of her. Normally, she tries to only take out only one subject at once, but since everything has been piling up (figuratively), everything is piled up (literally).

Cara puts her head down against the notebooks on the table. She is trying to cry as softly as possible, and her notes do a good job of muting her. Sure, a pen is stabbing her, and everything is starting to feel soggy, but what does it matter? Her body can heal itself. The police are investigating her. For the first time ever, her studies are not the most important thing in her life, which is terrifying.

Though there is no storm and no lover, Wesley feels his stomach tug. He wonders if it is the breeze that blows him towards the café or something deeper inside him. Instead of continuing down the street, Wesley scoops his skateboard up beneath him.

The streets of Hamilton are picturesque, but the town has been overcast since that night. Perhaps nothing has changed, but Wesley knows better. He has never seen anything through rose-coloured glasses, and there would be no reason that at what is arguably the best time in his life, he would switch to shades.

Something bad is coming, and maybe it's the feeling in his chest.

When the bell chimes, Cara looks up. She sees Wesley, standing in the doorway, staring at her. Quickly, she tries to wipe her eyes, but she knows she has been spotted.

The barista comes back out. Wesley dips his head down and walks over to her. He orders a muffin, quietly, which the woman hands over. As rapidly as she appeared, she disappears, which Wesley is thankful for. He holds the muffin in his fingerless gloves, stalking over to Cara.

Wesley pulls himself into the booth beside Cara. The girl doesn't quite understand why. Since that night, Wesley has been nothing but cold eyes and grimaces, scrunched noses and backtalk.

It's warm in the café. Wesley silent pulls off his gloves and shimmies out of his coat. Though it is difficult, he sinks down in the booth so that he is low enough to lean against Cara's head.

The two exhale at the same time.

"What are you learning about?" He asks her, reaching one of his arms forward and picking up a note off the counter.

It looks like something off Tumblr. On the page is a hand-drawn diagram of the musculature in the back. It's colour-coded and highlighted, and there are at least three different handwriting styles on the page.

"I thought trapezius was only at Circe du Soleil," Wesley finally looks up at her, forcing his mouth into a straight line.

When Cara cracks a smile, he joins her.

~~~

Finally, the bell rings. Erik gets up from the chair, scooting past the chatty twins in the front of the classroom. He gets as far as the door before he hears the teacher speaking.

"A word, Mr. Crossford," Mr. Hamby calls out.

Erik's fist tightens around his backpack, which has been slung over his shoulder. Kids begin to push their way around him out the door, so he takes a step back to let them through. Separated from his teacher by a cascading wall of students gives Erik a second to cool down. He leans against the chalkboard behind him, smearing whatever was written onto his black backpack, which is a blessing and a curse.

When the final student leaves, Mr. Hamby gestures for Erik to come forward.

"I talked to Miss Giancarlo," the teacher sighs, leaning back against the desk. His tie is skewed, and his shirts are rolled up in that way, you know, the cool teacher way? The one who is trying desperately to be hip and in turn just alienates the students? It seems the first week of school has taught Mr. Hamby nothing.

"Poor you," Erik scrunches his nose at the mention of his horrible chemistry teacher.

Mr. Hamby widens his eyes but says nothing. "I thought you had improved your behaviour when I saw that you hadn't been fighting-"

"I'm still fighting, I'm just getting better," Erik decides that he has absolutely no fucks to give. Not with June yesterday, and not with Lee's existence, and not with doom rounding the corner. High school wasn't his thing, but now it might not even be an option. "And I didn't cheat."

"I know," Mr. Hamby surprises Erik.

In fact, Erik takes a step back and begins to blink. He loosens his grip on his backpack, feeling the tension release from his body. "What?"

"I believe you," Mr. Hamby says. "So much so, that I got the accusation off your record. The detention stays because you were being a bit-"

"Of a dick?"

"Confrontational," Mr. Hamby corrects, while he tries to hide his smirk. He pulls himself off his desk, gesturing towards the door. "I'm not talking to you again."

Erik nods, not even bothering to offer a thank you. While he hopes that Mr. Hamby is correct, he feels badly anyway.

~~~

The door slams and Jamie wakes up. His eyes still struggle to open, so he grabs his cellphone off the coffee table and peers at the time.

It's like 3:00 PM. He hasn't slept this late in years, and he feels better than ever.

Crap. June.

Jamie falls off the couch on to the floor as he tries to jostle himself awake. He hears a familiar laugh coming from the doorway. The boy tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes and peer at the doorway. "Kyle?"

His roommate nods, slowly lowering his bag to the ground. Kyle is gaunt. His jacket, which had fit him just a week ago, hangs off him. The kid has lost ten pounds, maybe fifteen. Kyle kicks his shoes off and saunters into the apartment.

He opens the fridge and frowns. "There is no milk."

Jamie shakes his head back and forth, not bothering to hide his shock. To be honest, he had never expected to see Kyle again. He had become so accustomed to hosting the gang in his spare bedroom, that he hadn't considered it becoming occupied again.

"What are you doing here?" Jamie asks, biting his bottom lip. He had expected to feel happy if Kyle had shown up, but now his body feels too heavy.

Kyle laughs, shaking his head at Jamie. "Umm... I live here?"

No, he doesn't, Jamie thinks. At least, he hasn't. Never mind his absence, he has never paid a bill. The animosity strikes Jamie more than Kyle's reappearance. Maybe he has been spending too much time with Wesley, and thinking about Wesley, and fantasizing about his lips.

"Are you back then?" Jamie swallows, finding courage in his throat. "Because if you are using, you can't be."

"I went on a detox," Kyle tells his friend, and though Jamie wants nothing more than to believe him, he can't. After all, the kid has, quite obviously, lost too much weight for a detox.

Finally, Kyle peals himself out of the fridge. He rubs his hands together. Jamie sees the goosebumps all over the boy's skin and shivers himself.

"Do you want to watch Netflix?" Kyle asks.

Jamie nods. He doesn't want to watch Netflix, but he can't say no.

~~~

His hands are freezing. Every time Eden dips his fingertips into the water, he worries that they are going to turn to ice. If he had known it would be this cold on the water, he would've convinced June to do anything else.

Canoeing seemed safe enough though, especially since the river in Penobscot reaches only as deep as his waist.

June likes the peace of the water. She stares up at the sky above her. It is cloudy and threatening to rain, but (unfortunately) the forecast does not call for a storm. The tide is as high as it has ever been, and June feels most at home in raging waters.

"You haven't done this before, have you?" June asks Eden, who is struggling to hold his paddle properly. He keeps bleeding on the paddle, but every time his hand rips open it heals and then rips again. If only he could build up calluses.

It heals and it breaks, again and again.

"No, I haven't," Eden has been trying to keep a dialogue with June, but his stomach has been churning since their kiss. He worries that at any moment, trapped above the lake, she could lean forward and kiss him again.

June shrugs, turning the canoe around the bend. "We have a cottage in Northern Michigan. Every summer, my brother and I would go canoeing on the lake."

She glances over at Eden, watching him. He isn't paying attention to her, which makes her heart drop. If she is going to be puppy-guarded at all times, can't it be by someone who at least enjoys her company?

"Eden?"

The boy snaps his eyes over to her. He tries to look at the girl in front of him, with her bright hair and freckled face, but his eyes are everywhere. It is truly beautiful out here. Thea would love the wilderness here, and she would probably be able to talk to June, unlike him.

"Why don't you take me to do something you enjoy later?" June asks.

Eden, his mind absent, nods.

~~~

Her hands shake as they grab hold of the door handle. A bell chimes above her, alerting the staff to her presence. Hope seems to be the only patron here.

She realizes that she is underdressed. A quick google search on Percy Coleman led her to the fanciest restaurant in town. Though she is a frequent patron, it hadn't occurred to her that showing up in brown slacks and a worn turquoise sweater would prevent her from camouflaging with the crowd.

A server in a white shirt with a black tie approaches her. He nods as he sees her. "Is there anything I can do for you, Miss?"

"Is Percy working today?" Hope asks, taking a step closer to the man.

He drops his arms and hunches his shoulder. The man breathes out a sigh of relief, before gesturing her to follow him. He brings her to a table in the back corner and gestures for her to sit.

Hope does, careful not to rest her hands on the white cloth table. She is germy after all, and her body feels out of wack from missing her meds so much, but for the first time ever she doesn't care. The man disappears, and Hope admires the delicate flower in the middle of the table. It is trapped by a glass vase.

"Hey," she is pulled out of her daze by Percy.

Though the girl wasn't expecting to have guests, Percy doesn't mind that Hope is here. Maybe it's a little weird that she knows where she works, but also, she might have mentioned it. It's been a week exactly since she met Hope, but it feels like decades ago.

How exactly Percy feels like someone knows her as intimately as her bed while she knows nothing about Hope is unclear.

"What are you doing here?" Percy cuts through the silence, raising an eyebrow at Hope.

Percy's clothes are stained with sauce from fancy dishes and oil splashes. Her hair is haphazardly curled underneath a hairnet but threatens to explode at any second. Hope has never thought Percy is more beautiful.

"The police are investigating you," Hope tells Percy.

Percy scoffs, shaking her head back and forth. Not that she minds Hope company, but this is what brought her here? "Yeah, no shit."

Hope pauses, quickly correcting herself. "No, it's not just that. They... um... they know that..."

"What?" Percy asks.

"They think you are covering for Eden and Cara," Hope finally offers. "They think that Eden is blackmailing you, with... um... something I shouldn't know about you."

Percy feels like the ground is slipping out from underneath her. Her mouth goes dry. Though she seems mysterious, there are very few things that Percy has actively tried to keep hidden. Really, only one that sticks out.

"What do you mean?"

Hope is surprised by how calm Percy appears. I don't know, maybe there are things that Hope assumed ought to be kept in private but are really not a big deal.

"They have footage of you... you in the back alley-"

"Got it," Percy stands up quickly, accidentally jolting the table. The vase gets knocked over, but the flower remains trapped inside. "I've got to get back to work now. Thanks."

Percy turns and walks away. Bile is climbing her throat, but she swallows. This is not good. This is very much not good.

Slowly, Hope stands up from the table. She lingers, watching Percy leave.

~~~

Lee steps into the room and is nearly hit in the face by a flying sock. At the last second, she ducks out of the way, and the sock goes sailing into the hallway.

"You know, people generally do spring cleaning in the spring," she jokes, taking a step closer.

Her brother doesn't look up at her. She watches him shove items of clothing after item into a bag before he gets up and examines the room. Whatever he is searching for, he doesn't find it because his eyes land on his sister.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

Cassian grabs the backpack off the ground, slinging it over his shoulder. He shoves past Lee, leaving her so caught off-guard that she can't grab hold of him. She chases after him down the stairs and into the main room. In nothing but her socks, she follows him out of the front door.

"Cass!" Lee's voice is climbing in her throat. She grabs his arm, dragging him around to face her.

He struggles to get out of her grip. "Let me go! I need to get out of here."

She listens, letting him stumble back. Her brother slams against the ground.

"Why?"

Cassian rubs the palms of his hands, looking up at his sister. He runs a hand through his dark hair, shaking his head. "I hacked the FBI to see what they had on you, and I set off their firewall. Something bad happened that night. They know that there was some explosion that resulted in Thea's death and knocked out the power, but nobody has ever seen anything like it. The closest thing ever was in 1881 in a village in France and someone died then too. That night, they think that Percy girl was there, as well as a few other people. Your name is on their list."

Lee's mind is moving a mile a minute. "Cassian, I don't understand-"

"Novalie, will you listen!" He begs, looking around to see if anyone is watching them. He gets up off the ground, his joints groaning under her weight. "I know too much. Whatever has happened, the government wants to cover up, and they are going to come for me. I won't do well in prison."

Lee can't believe her brother's hysteria. "Then just leave! I told you not to snoop, and you did. Just go."

Cassian takes this opportunity to run. He leaves his sister, whose skin is turning bright red and whose hands are shaking on the sidewalk.

~~~~~

I'm sorry that I was gone for so long, but I'm back again baby! I promise that I won't do you like this again. In exchange for your patience, I'm debating doing something. Like, I think spoilers are coming. For example, there are a couple people who end up basically ruining their relationships with their families. The first character commented, I'll spill the beans on if everyone ends up happy-go-lucky or not.

Thanks! I hope to see you soon!