HEAT WAVES. manifest

chapter three: set them free

┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"I don't understand why I can't have today off school," Olive said bitterly as she sat in the back of her aunt's car.

"You have to go to school because you have an exam today, tomorrow is Saturday, you can take tomorrow off." Cassie looked at Olive through the mirror, the young sixteen-year-old was holding it together. By looking at the girl, you wouldn't be able to guess that her father, aunt and twin brother miraculously came back from the dead only two days before. Cassie frowned at the sight. Cassie watched as Olive twisted her long brown hair, playing with the curly locks. She knew Olive wasn't coping as well as she appeared to be. Ignoring her own emotions for the sake of her loved ones was something that Olive Stone excelled at.

Olive rolled her eyes, "My teacher would understand."

"I know he would, but you're still going."

"I like school!" Kayla beamed as she played with her Cinderella doll.

Cassie chuckled, "I know you do, Kayla."

"School's my friend."

Olive grinned, "We know that Kay-Kay."

The toddler smiled to herself proudly as she went back to playing with her doll, Olive went quiet after that. Olive looked out the window of the small car, she watched as trees and buildings stood in front of her, next to her, behind her and then vanish from her sight. She sighed, as she thought about Cal, he's alive but he's still sick, a cruel act of fate. Her brother miraculously survived a plane going missing but is still battling with the same sickness that he was battling five and a half years ago.

"What's on your mind, Ol?"

"Nothing."

Cassie bit her lip as she shook her head, she can't make Olive talk to her, Cassie knew better than anyone that teenage rebellions start with pushy parents.

Olive looked down at her phone, scrolling through her messages, she sighed, "Has mum said what she's going to do about Danny to you? She refuses to talk to me about it, I think she's too scared to make a decision."

Danny! Cassie couldn't believe she had forgotten about Grace's boyfriend, a man who had been like a father to Olive for the last two years. "Grace hasn't said a thing about him to me."

Olive sighed, "Can you let me know when she does?"

"Of course."

When Cassie got to the school she parked in the middle school car park, luckily the primary school and the high school were right next to each other. "Do you need me to walk you in?"

Olive laughed, "Why? So you can flirt with Mr Terry?"

Cassie flipped her hair at the mention of her coworker, "I never flirt with Darius, he always flirts with me."

"Gross."

Cassie chuckled. Kayla looked up at her mother and cousin, "Can I go to school now?"

"Of course, you can say bye-bye to Olive."

The four-year-old girl gave Olive a tiny hug, "Bye-bye Olive, see you after school."

"Bye Kay-Kay," Olive said as she patted the small girl's head, she looked at Cassie, "Have fun at work."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"Sisters Hallie and Samantha Pyler of Astoria were abducted from their backyard early Sunday morning. The case has resulted in thousands of calls to NYPD, according to 129th Precinct Detective Jared Vasquez," MJ listened to the car radio as she tried to avoid talking to Amber.