Chapter 16: Back to School

Emily was lounging on the couch, staring at her phone's empty contact list, feeling a weird mix of loss and frustration.

She tried logging into her account to restore the latest backup, but there was nothing in her cloud storage. Panic set in as she wondered if she had really lost all her contacts from over the years.

Desperate, she quickly opened Facebook and logged in. When it finally loaded, she let out a huge sigh of relief. All her contacts were still there.

She never thought her first day back home would be spent tracking down friends and saving their numbers. The only silver lining was that the school work group had a backup folder with everyone's numbers. Otherwise, she wouldn't even know how to reach her bosses.

As she was busy saving numbers, her phone suddenly rang, making her jump and almost drop it. She quickly composed herself and answered.

"Emily, I heard from James that you got discharged from the hospital?" Robert's voice came through.

"Yeah, I just got home today," Emily replied.

"Good. How's your health?" Robert asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. The doctor said I just need to rest at home."

"That's good to hear."

Emily could tell Robert had something on his mind but was hesitant to say it, so she decided to ask. "Is there something you need from me today?"

"You've always been sharp since you were a kid; nothing gets past you."

"Uncle Davis, you've known James and me forever. We're not at school now, so just say what you need to."

There was a brief pause before Robert said, "Emily, I'll get straight to the point. You just got out of the hospital and should be resting, but since your injury, Cameron Aiden has been handling the school infirmary alone. Yesterday, Cameron had a family emergency. Even though our infirmary mainly deals with minor injuries, we can't have no one on duty. I heard from James that you were discharged, so I wanted to ask if you could come back to work tomorrow?"

Emily hesitated for a moment but quickly replied, "No problem."

"Great, you don't need to come in early tomorrow. Just be at the school by ten. See you tomorrow."

"Okay, Uncle Davis. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Emily was actually pretty happy. She had been wanting to get back to school.

She'd been cooped up in the hospital for a while, not talking to anyone. Going from a busy routine to doing absolutely nothing was driving her nuts.

Thinking about it, she dashed to her room to pack her clothes for work the next day.

When James got home that evening, Emily told him she was heading back to school. Seeing her so happy, a stark contrast to her lifeless state in the hospital, James paused for a moment but just said, "Got it."

After dinner, James went back to his room.

Sitting at the dining table, Emily patted her chest and let out a sigh of relief. She'd been so nervous telling James she was going back to work. She was ready for him to get mad, but he actually agreed.

Emily got up to clear the table, put the dishes in the sink, and after putting on an apron and gloves, she happily hummed a tune while cleaning the kitchen.

Once she was done, she grabbed her change of clothes and headed to the bathroom.

While Emily was in the bathroom, her phone on the dining table flashed and vibrated before going silent again. James, who had come to the kitchen for a drink, noticed it.

He walked over and picked up the phone just as it vibrated again, showing an unknown number. He immediately hung up and put Emily's phone on silent mode. After thinking for a moment, he turned it off and put it back in its place.

Meanwhile, John, sitting in his car, held Joshua's phone, listening to the ringing until it stopped. He redialed without hesitation, but this time Emily's phone was off.

John deleted the call history from Joshua's phone and handed it back.

"Emily, looks like the last incident wasn't enough of a lesson for you," 

John gazed out the window, lost in thought.

After her shower, Emily picked up her phone from the table and went back to her bedroom. As she dried her hair and tried to use her phone, she found it unresponsive. She plugged in the charger and turned it on, only to see the battery was still at 80%.

Emily was puzzled. "That's weird. It had power, so why did it turn off? Maybe the battery's shot? Oh well, I'll get a new one during the holidays. It's been two years; it's about time it broke."

She didn't think much of it. She set an alarm, dried her hair with a blow dryer, and went to bed. She couldn't be late for her first day back at work.