Part One

Cassie Ford and Aisha Jarrah were best friends. It wasn't surprising, really, they had lived next to each other all their lives, they went to school together, they spent every afternoon and every evening together. Really, they weren't that different to any other pair of fifteen-year-old girls, apart from one crucial point: They were both born on a mysterious island that seemed to be hidden from the rest of the world, after their parents had been in a plane that crashed there.

Cassie had light blonde curly hair, blue eyes just like her father, and a scattering of freckles across her nose like her mother. Aisha meanwhile had dark, straight hair and olive-coloured skin, and soft hazel eyes. The girls were just two of over a dozen children who had been born to the survivors of the Flight 815 crash. Cassie had a seven-year-old brother Jamie, and Aisha had a little brother called Adam and a sister called Rebecca. The girls were among the oldest children on the island – the eldest was Aaron Pace, whose mom had been pregnant when she got on the plane, and the other teens were Tahira Kwon, the second eldest, and Connor Shepard, who was two weeks younger than Cassie but a week older than Aisha.

Right now, the girls were sitting on the beach together, but at the other end of the beach from the main camp. They had finished their school lessons for the day, and now they were free to enjoy themselves. Unfortunately, they still had to do homework – in this case exercises in Korean to practice.

"I don't know why they make us learn this stuff, Cass. I mean, it's not like we're ever going to need to speak Korean, or Spanish like Aunt Ana-Lucia teaches."

"I think they want to keep us busy. So we don't get into trouble."

"Oh, come on. What trouble could we get into here?"

"Uh, there was…"

"Cass, I know the stories our parents tell about the monster made of black smoke and the mysterious "Others" on the north side of the island. Nothing like those stories has happened for years, we're safe here."

"We need to be careful though." Cassie was more serious about the dangers of the jungle than Aisha – because Cassie's parents had both been kidnapped by the "Others" and had warned her about being alone in the jungle many times.

"Yeah, I know… but I still wish they would trust us more."

"Can we talk about something else, Aish? This is getting boring."

"If you want. So…. have you got a crush on anyone?"

"Aisha!"

"You wanted to talk about something else."
"I dunno… I really like Aaron, you know? I don't know exactly why, I just do."

"Aaron? But he's like, seventeen. Your parents will never let you be with him."

"It's not Mom and Dad I'm worried about. Have you noticed recently that Aaron and Tahira are always together?"

"Cass, we're almost always together. They're friends, that's all."

"No, it's more than that. If you've seen how they look at each other, you'd know. They're not just friends, Aish. It's more than that, I know it is."

"I dunno, Cass, I've not seen anything."

"Well, maybe if you paid attention to what other people are doing, instead of staring at Connor all the time…"

"I do not stare at him all the time!"

"Yes you do."

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"Aish, you do. I've noticed."

"I do?"

"Yeah, you do."

"I didn't think anyone had noticed…"

Then, Kate came over to where the girls were sitting. "Cass, honey, could you help me out for a bit?"

"What is it Mom?"

"I'm going to get some more water from the spring, could you watch your brother for me until I get back?"

"Can't Dad watch him?"

"Cassie, your father's busy. Please, you just have to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't go in the jungle or the ocean. You can sit and do your homework while you watch him, he's just playing down by the house."

"Okay, mom, I'll watch him."

"Thanks honey. Oh.. Aisha, your mother's looking for you, you might want to go and find her."

"Okay Aunty Kate."

As Kate walked away, the girls started to gather their things together, and instead sat outside the Fords' hut, watching Jamie play with Alex's little girl, Danielle.

----------------------------

Aaron Pace thought about his life a lot. His mom had told him all about what had happened while she was pregnant – how her boyfriend Thomas, his biological father, had walked out on her, and how she had been on her way to Los Angeles to have the baby (him) adopted when the plane crashed. Aaron had been raised thinking that Charlie was his father, so when his mom got pregnant again when he was four, his childish mind thought that everything was certainly going to be all right.

When Charlie died, Aaron could barely understand what had happened, though he knew something was horribly wrong and he knew his mommy was upset. From then on he saw that his mommy spending a lot of time with Uncle Desmond – events which culminated in Desmond and Aaron's mother becoming involved, and having a daughter when Aaron was nine.

He had come to accept Desmond as his… well, as his stepfather, really… in the last few years, and as he had grown up he had become a thoughtful young man, who spent a lot of time with his Uncle Jack and was well on the way to becoming the camp's doctor after Jack.

He was also very good friends with Jin and Sun's daugher Tahira, who was a very beautiful sixteen-year-old. They had always been close – as they were the two eldest – but now that he was seventeen he had started to see just how beautiful she was.