"What the hell is going on?" asked Natalie in a shaky voice.
Her face was painted with both surprise and confusion as she stared at the sight before her. And it wasn't just Natalie. Van, Tai, Shauna, and the rest of the girls had the same reaction as they all silently watched the woman in front of them.
Agami, who just woke up and is still half awake with only an eye open, immediately headed out of the cabin when she noticed that she was the only one who was left inside. She was yawning on her way out and accidentally bumped into Travis since she didn't even notice the man standing in the way. Puzzled by the silence going on with the group as they all stood in line at the cabin's porch, Agami pushed her way in to finally join everyone, standing between Natalie and Mari.
"You fucking broke her, Dick," Natalie told Agami, her gaze not moving and still fixed on the woman in front.
Agami rubbed her eyes so she could see properly what they were all staring at.
And there, Jackie was holding an axe, lifted over her head, then swung it down with all the force she had as she chopped the log in front of her in half. She wasn't even looking at them, as she was too focused on what she was doing, taking on the pile of woods on her side one after another.
A moment later, she finally shifted her gaze to her side, looking at the others but showing no sign of surprise or any emotion to her audience.
Jackie wiped the sweat forming on her forehead as she asked the girls a question. "Do you guys think it's still too big?" she said in a plain voice.
Shauna opened her mouth, but nothing came out of her lips, as if she still couldn't process what was happening in front of her. After not getting any response from everyone, Jackie shrugged her shoulders off as she spoke again.
"It is, right? Whatever. I'll just chop them all in half again."
Agami ran her hand through her face, finally understanding the situation and what Jackie was doing. She then gave Natalie a quick look before speaking in front of everyone.
"Anyone up for a little swim? We all stink," she said, trying to get the attention of everyone instead of fussing over Jackie's actions.
Before she could even turn around to go back inside the cabin with everyone to get her things, Agami met Jakie's gaze, locking eyes, but didn't exchange a single word.
***
[2021]
A sound of heels echoing can be heard in the cold, long, and empty hallway. The woman's eyes focused on the displayed blue and yellow decorations as she slowly approached the familiar door.
Her lips curled upward upon reading the sign hanging on top of the doorway. 'Welcome back, Wiskayok High School Batch '96!'
She didn't wait any longer and pushed the door immediately, walking confidently as she entered the gym and smiling beautifully, knowing that there would be cameras lurking around to take everyone's photo. Although her eyes took a few moments to adjust from the blinding lights of the whole space, she didn't stop searching for a specific table and looked around.
As the woman roamed her eyes everywhere, she saw some people from what she thought was the best part of her life staring at her as they exchanged whispers with the person they were talking to. She tried her best not to roll her eyes at them and just gave them a fake smile.
None of them matter, and she was only present at the event for one reason.
When she shifted her gaze to the left, she felt her heart beating faster than its usual pace when her eyes met the pair of big brown ones. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of the woman in a dark floral dress who was now standing from her seat and holding a glass of drink, not taking a step to meet her halfway, but obviously waiting for her to finally join them.
"Finally wearing a boob dress," she greeted Shauna, who then gave her a longing smile before responding.
"Jackie..." replied the woman.
Without thinking twice, she pulled Shauna into a tight embrace, caressing the woman's shoulder like she always does whenever they share a hug. When she caught the familiar smell of the woman, a sudden knot formed in her stomach, which she hadn't felt in a long time.
Their moment was interrupted when a woman from the same table they were at spoke.
"I hate to cut whatever this tender moment that is happening between you guys, but everyone is staring at us," said Van, her eyes roaming around. "And I despise attention."
Shauna and Jackie let go of each other and took their seats.
"So, where were you these past months?" the red-haired woman spoke again, making a new conversation with Jackie at the center of it. "Hiking rocky mountains, digging tunnels, or messing up with volcanoes?"
The woman rolled her eyes at Van, trying not to let her get on her nerves.
"I was in France taking art classes with some fancy people," Jackie responded nonchalantly.
Van let out an amused laugh once again. "There she is, the Jackie Taylor we know!"
"I'm allowed to take a break. Stop making everything I do a big deal."
The red-haired woman was about to say something again, but Taissa stopped her, knowing that it could lead to something else. She then took her turn speaking to Jackie.
"How's life lately?" Tai asked the woman in a friendly tone.
"Fun, exciting-" Jackie replied. "full of discoveries. Not what I imagined it would be."
"With all honesty, you're not exactly how I imagined you'd be," Van commented again, taking a sip from the glass she was holding.
Jackie rolled her eyes at the woman, a mannerism she'll never be able to let go of and will never vanish no matter how many years have passed, as it is one of Jackie Taylor's trademarks.
"Do tell me what you thought I'd be," she countered at Van.
"I don't know. Maybe hosting galas and inviting elites into your parlor while you all share expensive tea and give backhanded compliments to each other? Or probably spending most of your days in a country club and doing nothing but sunbathe," said the red-haired woman. "Instead, you're traveling the world and taking Professor Lidenbrock's personality too seriously, but hey, at least during break, you turn into Marie fucking Antoinette."
Jackie will not deny the fact that the first person Van mentioned was a real influence on her, big time, but she doesn't have any idea who the woman was referring to in the latter part, so she just simply ignored Van and faced Shauna instead.
"So," said Jackie as a starter. "how's Callie?" she asked Shauna, who let out an exaggerated sigh.
"No, Jax. Why don't you tell me how my daughter is? She's talking to you more than she's speaking to me," responded Shauna, which made Jackie laugh.
"She said you're no fun and no offense, but I do believe her," she mocked her best friend.
"I get it. I'm not the cool mom she wants me to be. But I don't like her that much either." Shauna responded to Jackie, shaking her head.
"What?" Jeff cut in on the conversation between his wife and her best friend after hearing Shauna casually drop a statement against their own daughter. "You're joking, right?"
"Our daughter is slowly turning into a real cunt, Jeff. Her attitude is worse than what you and I combined when we were in our teens."
"Jesus, Shauna. I didn't know you were holding a grudge against our daughter."
Van's giggles filled the awkward atmosphere at the table as she couldn't contain her amusement in a very serious situation. She can't believe that the little girl she used to carry on her shoulders and play frisbee in a park on some afternoons from years ago is now turning into a real ass that even her own mother starts to dislike her, and she couldn't be more proud of Callie.
Before they could even get into a serious quarrel, Taissa spoke again to finally end the tension between the married couple.
"I assume you're here for the same reason as us," Tai stated, her eyes fixated on Jackie.
The woman shifted her gaze to the right side of the gym from where they were all sitting, eying a specific person who doesn't really stand out among the crowd but is the sole reason why she attended the reunion.
He was a tall man wearing a charcoal gray suit, which Jackie knew at first glance was not the expensive kind of one like Jeff was wearing, and mingling with the people who surrounded him at their own table.
She tried to recall if they even had any interaction back in high school, but there was nothing-no memory of her talking to the man or even just seeing him around in Wiskayok back then. If it weren't for the recent photo that was sent to her, she wouldn't know who the person was or how she was going to ask everyone around just to find him.
Jackie smiled mischievously as her eyes darkened, looking back at Taissa to give her response before leaving their table.
"Maybe," she told Taissa. "But I have my own plans."
She was no longer the young and naive Jackie Taylor that most people at their school and even friends thought she was. Them, surviving in the wilderness and being forced to do things horrible enough that still make her sick to the stomach even after more than two decades every time she remembers them is what shaped her into the person she is now. The passage of time didn't help heal her at all, like what others claimed would. Instead, she didn't have a choice but to move forward in life, leave things from the past behind, and pretend she wasn't a different person when they came back from the wilderness.
Jackie stood up from her chair and ignored the calling of her old friends asking her where she'd go. Slowly, she approached another table packed with unknown people she couldn't even recognize from high school. The moment the man was within her reach, Jackie tapped his shoulder lightly to get his attention.
"Everett McLeign, is that you?" Jackie squealed, her tone as pretentious as the smile plastered on her face.
The man tilted his head as he stared at the woman, his mouth slightly open from the random interaction that was currently happening between him and Jackie.
"Oh, hey, yeah. Jackie...Taylor, right?" he asked in a very uncomfortable voice. "Or not Taylor anymore?"
"Silly, it's still Taylor! I will never trade the freedom I have and just be tied down with someone for the rest of my life," Jackie replied jokingly, as if she were having a conversation with a really close friend she hadn't seen in a while.
Everett could only nod his head in agreement, not having any idea how to respond to that, so he just simply tried to open a new topic.
"I'm sorry, kind of confused here. Do you want anything from me?" he inquired suspiciously, then shook his hand in front of Jackie as a gesture that he wasn't trying to dismiss the woman. "Although I'm not trying to be rude here, just asking."
Jackie let out a heavy breath but still remained composed.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked the man finally in a sincere voice.
"Just you?" Everett tried to clarify, because from where he was facing, it seemed like the woman in front of him was not being totally honest with her intention.
"Yeah, duh," replied Jackie, her old attitude peeking through.
Instead of responding to the woman, Everett gestured at what was behind Jackie, which she immediately checked.
And there they are, standing behind Jackie like they used to do in high school whenever they had to wait for the woman to finish talking to a random person she knew in Wiskayok before they could start their practice. She obviously didn't notice the girls following her due to the loud music playing and the party lights.
Jackie groaned in frustration before facing the man again.
"Fine," she said. "Can we talk to you for a few minutes?"
Everett faced his circle of friends and excused himself for a while, then gestured to the old champions of Wiskayok to just lead him where they could have a peaceful talk.
Van brought them to what appears to be the school's science laboratory now, which was so different from what they all remember, given that it was a former club room during their time.
The man stood behind the desk in front, his arms crossed to his chest, and waited patiently for the girls to start. Shauna and Jackie exchanged meaningful looks, as if they were asking each other who would speak first. In the end, Shauna took the lead.
"This might be a little strange since we cornered you, but we just want to talk about a few things," Shauna said in a collected voice, trying not to make their situation any more awkward.
To their surprise, Everett let out a chuckle.
"No, actually," he said as a starter. "Ever since you all arrived earlier, I've been wanting to talk to you. I just can't find the courage to do it."
Van's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why do you want to talk to us?"
The man stared at her with intent. "I don't know, man. Maybe to ask you about what happened out there, or at least just what happened to her out there," he replied in a mournful voice.
Everett met everyone's eyes, particularly at Jackie and Van, as he spoke more.
"I get that you guys spent months with each other, surviving, and probably making some bonds that cannot be compared to anything. But-" he stopped, taking a deep breath as he recalled some memories of Agami. "she was my best friend too."
Van couldn't help but clench her fists upon hearing Everett's last words.
"It's not easy to outlive someone knowing that you somehow took part in their death."
Confused, Jackie inquired more. "What do you mean?"
"It was supposed to be me going on that plane with you," he replied.
"No." The red-haired woman shook her head in disagreement. "She told me your club adviser chose her to go with us, and she said yes for the sake of her college resume."
Everett smiled at Van as he responded. "I told our adviser to just send her instead of me since, at that time, Agami had a better chance of getting into a college than me."
The man then paused for a while before he continued.
"And I know she would love to go with you all, given that she's there."
Van nodded in understanding, as she knew who the man was referring to.
"Lottie," she whispered to herself, but the silence in the room was too loud for the rest of them to hear. "I fucking knew it."
"What is it?" Jackie asked the red-haired woman.
"She obviously had a thing for Lottie!" Van exclaimed.
"Wait, Agami had a thing for Lottie?" Shauna asked in surprise.
"Does Lottie have a thing for Agami? Lottie is not-" Taissa said, confused. "you know, right?"
Everett laughed hysterically at the women's exchange, which earned a questioning look from the group.
"No, no, no," he told the girls, his voice then changing into a gentle tone. "If you know Agami enough, I think you'll realize she's capable of devoting herself to people and caring for them more than herself without actually being into them."
Trying not to choke from repressing his tears and crying in front of everyone, Everett continued speaking.
"I'm sure some of you can understand how annoying it is sometimes the way Agami will look at you as if you were her world and say things that will make you feel that you actually matter."
A tear finally escaped his eyes, which made all of them both uncomfortable and overwhelmed at the same time.
"When I heard the news that your group was finally rescued, I waited in front of Dickinsons' house holding a bunch of goddamn Mars and Hersheys because I knew that those 19 months without her eating chocolate were a real hell," said Everett, wiping his tears.
"The problem was that I never prepared myself that I might see Kristoff coming back without her in the passenger seat of their car. Because that day, I was looking forward to hearing her stories of how she managed to survive out there with the help of all the random things she knows about survival after reading tons of apocalypse booklets."
Jackie shut her eyes after hearing the reason behind Agami's knowledge of survival, which saved them in many ways. But what she wasn't ready to hear was the absurd explanation behind it, although at the same time, she could only smile at the man's statement. It speaks so much about Agami and the kind of thing that the woman would really do.
"God, I miss her so fucking much," he said.
Slowly, Shauna approached the man and tapped him gently on the shoulder as a way of comforting him. She then gave the girls a meaningful look, asking them without speaking if they should start questioning Everett about the only reason why they approached him in the first place.
"We mentioned to you earlier that we wanted to ask you something," Shauna said as a starter. When she received no response from the man, she simply continued. "Do you recognize this?"
Although confused, Everett took Shauna's phone that she had in front of him. He then checked whatever she was trying to show him in silence, and he felt his heart hammer through his chest upon seeing the photo.
"Where did you get it?" he asked Shauna, his voice now suspicious of the girls.
"So you know about it too?" Taissa asked. Before the woman could even ask further questions, Van stopped her wife.
"Tell us first what you know," said the red-haired woman, not fully trusting the man and worried that he might have just been fooling them so he could gain some information he was not supposed to know for his own interest.
"Alright," said Everett, then proceeded to fold and lift up the sleeves of his clothes.
They watched as he slowly uncovered his fully tattooed left arm, showing it to the girls like it was some kind of amazing art. "See it?" he asked them, pointing to a specific design tattooed near his wrist.
"It's Agami's ugly symbol, right? Her initials?" Everett asked, which was enough to confirm that he wasn't just trying to fool them into believing that he recognized it, but rather that he actually knows the meaning behind it.
"I got this before I got married," he explained to the girls. "To finally close the deal we once made."
"Deal?" Van asked. Everett snorted before replying.
"To live pathetic lives in Boston together, then do the Boston marriage but make it between a man and a lesbian," he said, laughing as he reminisced. "But where did you get it anyway? Is that a book?"
The women exchange looks before responding. It was Jackie who decided to speak.
"We suspect that someone might be using it to profit from it," she told the man.
"Profit from it? How are they going to profit with just that?" he asked in confusion.
His question proves that he didn't know about any other things aside from the symbol of Agami's initials.
Van massaged her temple in frustration, as it was clear to them that the man wasn't any help at all.
"Hold on, is that the reason why you guys approached me? You think I'm the one who might be profiting from it?" he asked the women, feeling a little offended.
"No," Shauna responded to the man, trying to smooth the situation. "We were actually hoping you might help us, but I guess you're just as clueless as us."
Everett rolled his sleeves down again and fixed himself as he faced everyone one more time.
"I respect Agami and our friendship with all I have, but it's been a long time since I lost her," he told everyone. "Coming to this reunion and hoping I could talk to some of you about her was all I had left to do to finally have the closure I've been wanting to get after her death."
He then looked at Van and Jackie, giving the two girls a sympathetic look. "I think it's time for you to let her rest too. You've been with her for 19 months. It's not a long time. But I know it was far too different from normal days, and that is why I understand how it was harder for you to let her go."
The man took his wallet out, getting something from it and handing it to the group.
Both Jackie and Van stared at it, memories of Agami with a blurry face finally recovering upon seeing the woman's photo.
"That's the only picture of her that I have left, and I was planning to put this in the hallway display with the rest of your pictures. But I guess you need it more than anyone else," said Everett in a gentle voice. "And I already memorized the face of that asshole anyway, so take it."
Van took Agami's photo from Everett's hold and stared at it with so much emotion.
With that, he left the laboratory, leaving the women all silent.
Jackie's knees weakened, her hands unconsciously grabbing the nearest chair to her and taking a seat. Everything that the man just told them is sinking slowly into her system, like new information being inserted into her mind all at once. And it wasn't just her. The same thing was happening to Van.
Agami's existence never felt more real to them than now. Most of them only got to know the woman in the wilderness and didn't know anything about her life prior to the crash. She had people waiting for her return and a life looking forward to living, and it was crushing to the heart hearing it from someone who was present in Agami's life-the version of the woman they never got to meet.
"Wait," said Taissa in a stern voice, which got their attention. "How did he know that Agami was with us for 19 months?"
"That information had never gotten out to the public, and even her own father was told she died a few months after the crash due to some injuries and was cremated." Shauna added.
Jackie stood up from her seat, realizing something. They had been fooled.
Suddenly, the door of the laboratory burst open, revealing a woman in glasses and wearing a tight black dress layered with a coat, panting heavily like she had just run a mile. After catching her breath, the woman brushed her frizzy, curled hair up, then looked at Jackie.
"Dang, Jackie, the target almost caught me! Have you talked to him?" asked Misty.
Van stared at the woman in a red dress in disbelief.
"The own plan you were bragging about earlier was Misty fucking Quigley? Are you insane?"
Jackie rolled her eyes at the red-haired woman. "I had to improvise, okay? I'm in a rush, and I can't just tell random people about it."
"Wow, ladies," said Misty, smiling at everyone. "What happened to 'Hey, Misty? How are you doing? Sorry for neglecting your calls. We're busy tracking someone who might open Pandora's box'?"
Taissa blows out some air, stressed over their situation, but the only one among the girls who still remembers the problem that just arose.
"We should follow him, we can't let him escape," she urged everyone.
"Nah, he left already. He was driving so fast, actually," said the woman in glasses. "I think you scared him."
"Fucking great!" Van exclaimed in anger, but Misty simply smiled again at them as she spoke.
"Don't worry, don't worry," she assured everyone. The group then gave her a questioning look, urging her to explain more about what she meant by her words.
"I put a tracker-slash-listening device on his car, and it's connected to my phone. So, if he makes a call to someone, as long as he's in his car, we'd be able to listen," Misty stated in her usual tone, as if she didn't just commit a number of crimes.
As if on cue, her phone started to make static noises, which slowly turned into high-quality audio that let them hear the same voice of Everett talking nervously.
"Stop whatever the hell you're doing and call me when you can. We need to talk. You have some explaining to do."