I missed T. More people got their assignments. I didn't know whether it was more or less antagonizing that T never seemed to get hers. There were five girls she'd gotten assigned to, but there were no announcements. She insisted that she'd get Jamie. She said it worked well. They'd both have professional soccer careers and they'd both retire in fame and glory. Plus, she said she detested the tone of the notes. Like it was an inside joke that no one actually wanted someone else to choose their future for them.

T could work outside the home if that failed, and Jamie would be the perfect housewife. But none of that comforted me.

It was only the day after I'd gotten mine, but announcements were coming early. The school day was a blur. I evaded Mrs. Johnson the whole day which took almost all my energy. At least Chase was on the train that day.

He sat next to me when he got on the train.

"How's college? I feel like I never see you anymore."

"It goes. Painfully. Slowly."

I smiled. "How's Jessie?"

"She's good. She got a dog. I can't wait until I graduate."

"I didn't tell you... I got my announcement."

His eyes flashed. "Yeah? Corey?"

He was careful in public. More careful than I was most of the time. I couldn't wait until we got home. I hated not knowing if there were government agents leering around the corner. The high-speed trains were one of the few public spaces without mics or cameras.

"Yeah. Mrs. Johnson was the first person to congratulate us."

I tried to force some happiness into my voice, but I sounded like a balloon that had just been let go to zoom around the room.

"Is she staying out of your way?"

"Yeah, mostly. She's given up on trying to get me to have that surgery."

He leaned back. I could see the thoughts forming on his face. When he lied, the skin just to the left of his nose twitched. That spot was spasming.

"She means well."

I nodded. The train emptied. Jamie smiled at Chase. He ignored her. Jamie wasn't even attracted to guys or to my brother, but she was still a regular attendee of his fan club.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around. You know I really can't get away from school. They've been working me to death."

He ran his hands through his light brown hair. The same as mine.

We sat in silence. There wasn't really that much to say that we could say here. T sat next to me.

"Hey, Chase. Sonnet, you wouldn't believe the day I've had. Jamie's back to talking about how we're meant to be. Makes me sick."

"God, I couldn't imagine being engaged to her. I lucked out with Jess."

Chase, right there with reminding us how he was lucky. Credit to him, he heard it after he said it. I leaned into him, my squeezing T's hand.

T technically wasn't allowed to use the main door of Ifine Manor. But the only person who said that was her father. We all felt rebellious walking into our own home.

"Race you to your room."

"No! No fair!"

T tackled Chase and jumped on his back.

"No fair. Sonnet, get back here. Tell your girlfriend to follow the rules."

"Never!" I yelled. I made it to my room first and T was close behind, followed by Chase.

"Settle down over there! I need to focus!"

"On what, Tommy?" Chase yelled back.

An irate Tommy appeared in the doorway.

"There's a family meeting in an hour. Until then, act like civilized people. Or if that's really so hard, act like you care about decorum."

T scrunched up her face. "Decorum."

"I could tell your father about you being... here."

"And I could tell Mr. Alam about the porn in your desk. So?"

Tommy's face turned beat red. "Touché. Be on time for the family meeting. Even you, T."

"I'm not family."

"You're a rebel. It's close enough."

T groaned. You'd almost imagine she didn't adore the rebellion with every fiber of her being.

"What's so important?" I wondered aloud.

Tommy just shrugged and slammed the door behind him. It didn't matter if we yelled anything after him. The walls were old and thin, but none of us cared enough to try.

Tommy had been around forever. He'd been here before I had. I remembered seeing his round face for the first time. I remembered hearing him correct me for the first time. He was younger than Chase but older than me, which meant in the early days, he'd mostly ignored Chase.

Chase left after the first half-hour. He wasn't a fan of my engagement with Corey, and he expressed that using language to make Tommy actually tattle on us.

Then it was just me and T. T was easy enough to just be around. We talked about everything and nothing all at once. We'd either find ourselves talking about the meaning of existence or debating what the prettiest shade of blue was. That day was the latter. We both needed a distraction.

Eventually, we found our way to the family meeting. The sound studio was just a cover up. The only one of us with any musical inclination was T, and T barely ever made her way up to the attic to practice. Her guitar was barely holding itself together, but she wouldn't let anyone buy her a new one.

A dumpy boy sat on a stool, Mr. Jim and Mrs. Whiney on either side of him.

"We'd like you to meet someone."

He looked at me intently. Me specifically. I looked over at Chase. He was back and forth between us. I wasn't making it up. He was staring at me. 

"This is Rob."

Break eye contact. Don't look him in the eye.

But he still stared at me.

"New adoptee?" I swallowed the lump in my throat. I couldn't bear to live with him. Not if he acted like that.

"No," Mrs. Whiney said. "He's from the shelter."

I relaxed. He wouldn't be staying under the same roof as me.

"But he can stay here as long as he wants."

"Thank you, Mrs. Alam," he said. His voice was just as terrible as his stare.

"Rob is..." Mr. Jim was prone to trailing off routinely.

"From the past."

We all looked at her. Tommy coughed.

"From the past? We're all kind of from the past if you think about it."

And there was Tommy with his academic ways of making everyone else wrong. But this time I didn't mind it.

Rob looked down. "That's fair. I... I don't know how to explain this."

He looked to me like he was expecting encouragement.

"Well, get it out," T snapped.

"I was born in 2002. My boss was a scientist, Agatha Reese, who invented time travel, tested it out on me and sent me to the future."

"Agatha?"

I couldn't help myself.

"You know her?" His eyes looked so hopeful.

"Yeah, I know her." A tremor was in my voice.

I met T's eyes. There was no way the chosen one was a creep fixated on me. It just couldn't be possible.

But he'd invoked the name of Agatha Reese. Either he was deep government come to kill us all, rebellion come to make sure we were following protocol, or someone who'd actually been sent to the future. I hoped it wasn't the last one.

T's eyes flashed. She was thinking the same thing.