Whenever he had a spare moment, Noah's mind kept going back to Chris's party.

The incident in the backyard was proof that the five of them were connected in some way, and that the fainting wasn't a one-off coincidence.

The more he kept thinking about it, the more nervous he became.

He could live with getting a few headaches now and again, but if more trees started catching fire, there was definitely a problem.

The others were all talk and no action - he had been the only one with enough presence of mind to call the fire department that night.

Noah had never been the kind of person to take the initiative and get things done, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Going against every single instinct he had developed while trying to get through high school, he decided to approach the blonde newspaper girl again.

He always headed straight home after school, but that day he waited awkwardly near the parking gate, digging through his bag to appear busy.

Not that anyone noticed him, but still.

After what seemed like an hour, she finally came through the gate, pushing her turquoise coloured bicycle.

Noah detached himself from his spot and follwed her out to the super store by the corner, trying to make it seem like this wasn't a new thing for him.

"About what you said at the deli-", he began a little apprehensively, "I think-"

"Did you say something?", asked Amy,  turning to face him with her hands still on the handlebars.

"Yes", said Noah, scratching the back of his neck. "At the deli, you said that the five of us are connected somehow, and I think you're right."

Amy rolled her eyes at him.

"Not such a huge waste of time now, is it?"

"Just- we need to get the others together and figure out why we're connected."

"No", said Amy firmly. "I'm not doing anything about this anymore. I waited for half an hour at the deli, I went to Chris's party, and still you people refuse to listen to me. I'm done."

Noah guiltily remembered their conversation in Chris's kitchen, when he and Justin had laughed in her face when she was talking about seeing jars on the school library shelf.

"Fine", said Noah, unable to think of any comeback.

She pedalled away without another word, and Noah turned away, deep in thought.

                                ***

Justin was slouched in a lawn chair in Noah Green's small backyard, wondering how his life had come to this.

The others were sitting in similar chairs,  all talking at the same time.

The incident at Chris's party had shaken them all, but he hadn't thought that Noah, of all people, would call them to his house to talk about it.

Noah had also managed to get school records from somewhere, and they had gone through every single one of the neatly typed pages.

From that, the only thing they understood was that the last time they all had been together in the same class was in elementary school.

Ten years ago.

"There's nothing that we have in common", Kat was saying.

"Except that we're in the same school, we live in the same town, and we're of the same age,'' said Noah drily.

"So does is else in our batch, you idiot", said Chris. "That's hardly any solid proof. The question is, why the five of us in particular? Or did someone pick our names out of a hat and decide to make us go crazy?"

A memory suddenly popped up in Justin's head, and he sprang up from his chair.

As everyone turned to look at him, he said, "I know where we can find answers. Do you guys remember the visit to the medical school that year in elementary school? They divided us into random groups, right? They literally picked names from a hat."

"And we all were in the same group", said Amy slowly.

"I knew it!", said Noah. "There had to be something."

"Still", said Kat thoughtfully, "There were twenty others with us in that group. That doesn't exactly -"

"It's the best lead we have", Justin cut in.

"It's the only lead we have", Chris corrected, and Justin shot him a look that said, 'who's side are you on? Mine or Kat's?'.

"For what it's worth, I think we should check it out", said Amy.

Kat bit her lip, like she was about to make a decision she might regret.

"Fine", she declared. "I'll go with Amy to the medical school.'

As the conversation continued about what questions they should ask at the school and what they should look for, Justin felt that finally, they were taking some steps in the right direction.

A/N:
Do you think their going in the right direction?