Paper Planes Back Home

BOARDING . SIX

Breakfasts equate to dinners in Anna's upside-down schedule, and today is the first time in more than a year that she's actually having breakfast after a full night's sleep. Unfortunately, she's having a stomachache. It's not because of the food—which is pretty decent if only the omelette isn't so salty—nor the cruel weather outside. In Anna's world, these sudden stomachaches are more psychological than anything else.

She's anxious.

She sticks her fork on the half-eaten omelette and spots Jeannie as she walks into the diner. "You're late!" someone calls out from behind the counter, and Jeannie responds with "And good morning to you too!"

Anna lets Jeannie get settled behind the counter, work apron and all, before she comes up to her again.

"Um. Hi."

Jeannie recognizes her right away. "I gather you weren't mistaken the first time."

"Y-yeah," Anna says, letting out a nervous chuckle. "I know you're on duty, but I was hoping to speak to you a moment."

"What's this about?"

Anna slides a hand into her bag, pulls out the bundle of letters addressed to Jeannie. Reluctantly, she puts it on top of the counter and slides it toward Jeannie, whose face turns pale at the sight. "H-how...," she stammers, looking up at Anna with tears in her eyes. "How did you get these? Who are you?"

"I'm a nurse at Hunter General Hospital...where Mr. Levin is currently confined." She hears a soft gasp from the dark-haired woman in front of her, and she continues. "These are the only personal effects retrieved from him that's connected to anyone in his life. His records show nothing about relatives, next of kin..."

Jeannie's fingers run along the string that held the bundle of letters together. "He's an orphan," she says softly. "We both are."

Anna doesn't reply. She hates it when she's right sometimes.

"I want to see him."

* * *

A sudden thunderclap breaks the otherwise-silent atmosphere between Skylar and Gianna, and both look up to see a flurry of paper planes arriving in a rather odd fashion. Instead of flying gently downward, the planes seem to be plunging with great speed, making Gianna's cloud shake as they landed roughly. She glances at Skylar questioningly, but she could surmise by the expression on his face that this is the first time he's seen something like this as well.

She picks one plane up, but quickly lets it go when she feels a searing heat on her fingers. Gianna's eyes widen, startled at how impossibly hot the plane was. It's as if someone set fire to it but actually stored the heat instead of making the plane burst into flames.

Curious at her knee-jerk reaction, Skylar approaches the edge of his cloud and watches her. "What's wrong? Did you get hurt?"

Gianna stares at her fingers. There's no burn, but they still feel tingly. "I picked it up and it burned me."

"They...burned you?"

"Yeah. It's strange. I've gotten warm planes...," she reveals, pointing to several ones now sitting on the bench. "They were all from Aaron, and they feel like—I don't know, pieces of paper that sat way too long under the sun. But these..." She stares at the new planes warily.

"Maybe you should let them cool down a little. Or...hang on," Skylar trails off, and Gianna watches as he runs to his tree and jumps to break a small branch off it. He brings it to her right away, extending his hand out so she could reach it.

She takes the branch. "Try using it to open the planes. And maybe...push the new ones away from your ride. If they're really hot like that, you never know what'll happen. We don't want to see your ride go up in smoke."