HEAT WAVES. manifest

chapter four: saanvi

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

Yet another night spent in a government tent, this seemed to be a recurring event and MJ was not happy about it. The thirteen-year-old paced as she thought about the crazy series of events that had taken place in the last four days, about how her parents had died and how her only living family members, her Aunt and baby brother, ghosted her. She thought about Christy and Amber, her best friend and bully who are now dating and basically acting as her guardian. MJ sat down in the corner, she thought about how she had heard her voice telling her to free dogs from a warehouse, that voice saved two little girls. MJ's breath hitched as she thought about the plane that had exploded only nine hours ago, "Are you okay?"

MJ's looked up at a young woman standing in front of her, MJ's sight was blurred, she hadn't even realized that she was crying. MJ nodded, she wiped the liquid away from her eyes, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" MJ rolled her eyes, the teenager stood up and began to walk away, "Because I'm not, this is all just so much! Too much, if I think about any of it for too long I feel sick."

MJ turned back around to face the girl, she knew that the woman was only saying that to make MJ open up but she heard honesty in the girl's voice as if she was saying these words for the first time. "I'm Saanvi," the girl offered.

"MJ."

"Mary Jones?" An agent called out MJ's name, and her heart dropped as she realized it was her turn to be interviewed.

"That's me, um- thanks for trying to cheer me up."

Saanvi gave the girl a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "If you aren't okay with all this, no one would blame you. You look young, and we've been through a lot, you don't need to act so tough all the time."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"You seem to have a knack for getting yourself into trouble Miss Jones."

MJ rolled her eyes, "Yeah, because I totally planned to disappear for five and a half years only to return as an orphan."

The NSA director frowned as he observed her posture, she was closed off, similar to how she had before he told her about her parents' death. "Why were you there when the plane exploded?"

"Because I forgot about my bags when finding out that you returned from the dead, you forget some things. I was laying down when I realised that I had never received my bag which had a necklace my mother gave me," her words weren't exactly lies, she had only recently remembered her bags which she had left on the plane, a backpack and a suitcase, which had her only remaining possession of her mother's in it. Vance raised his eyebrow, not believing a word she was saying.

"Do you have any other questions, or can I go back to the tent?" There was a small silence which calmed MJ, the NSA director seemed to be out of questions. Vance grabbed his audio recorder and pressed stop, "Wha-"

"Your Aunt never arrived."

Oh, MJ knows what this is. It's the 'you're a minor, but actually not really.' She nodded, "I figured after a few hours of waiting."

"Do you have a place to stay?" MJ was shocked by the man's question and by how concerned he sounded. Vance sounded like a concerned parent, not the government official who had just been interrogating her a second before.

"I'm staying with my best friend. She was my best friend before I got on the plane, she and her girlfriend used to go to school with me."

"They're adults?"