>>"It's April. The twenty-fifth of April, 1996. I just turned 12 last week..."

Gemma blinked. Even though she had a growing suspicion, she did not expect that. She expected the kid to be confused or unsure... but he answered promptly and without hesitation.
He was also a good sixteen years off the mark.
And with Nate's powers.

"Um... well, this is interesting." she sighed and looked at the kid "All right Stephen, I want you to stay calm, okay? What I am about to tell you will sound confusing and scary, but I will help you figure it all out okay? I promise."

She considered things for a moment. Saying them out loud was not easy at all.

"This is not 1996, this is 2012. I think you are somehow out of your own timeline and... well, in your future. Does the name Nate Holloway ring a bell to you?..."

>> "Um... well, this is interesting. All right Stephen, I want you to stay calm, okay? What I am about to tell you will sound confusing and scary, but I will help you figure it all out okay? I promise."

This was not the best start, admittedly. She obviously knew he was not going to be ready for her news, but she promised they would figure it out. She was nice to him and she seemed confident, so he would believe her. "I'll stay calm. I trust you, Miss Gemma."

>> "This is not 1996, this is 2012. I think you are somehow out of your own timeline and... well, in your future."

Stephen's eyes widened; how could it be 2012? That was over fifteen years in the future... or his time was fifteen years in the past. It was hard to take in, but it did explain the technology that seemed so abundant. He held his tongue, hoping there was something more she had to explain things.

>> "Does the name Nate Holloway ring a bell to you?..."

Stephen ran through the list of people he had met in life, from orphans to teachers to possible parents. "No... I don't think I've ever met someone named that... It's a cool name though." He was being honest; he liked the way the name sounded when he said it. "Nate Holloway," he murmured.

He could not think of any ties he had to someone with the name, so there was an obvious follow-up question. "Who is Nate Holloway?"

>>"I'll stay calm. I trust you, Miss Gemma."

Gemma nodded and smiled. The kid sounded like he could hold it together, and not freak out. Her aura took care of the rest, in case his powers would act out.

The boy took the news quite well, or they just did not sink in yet. He shook his head at the name though.

>>"No... I don't think I've ever met someone named that... It's a cool name though. Nate Holloway. Who is Nate Holloway?"

"Well..." Gemma considered this for a moment "He is a mutant who teaches here. This is his phone, and he has the same powers as you. I think... I think he might be you. In the future."

Because that did not sound confusing at all...

>> "Well... He is a mutant who teaches here. This is his phone, and he has the same powers as you. I think... I think he might be you. In the future."

There was a lot of blinking and silence as Stephen processed what he was just told. The idea was a lot to take in; did Miss Gemma mean to tell him he was in the future? That would make sense of some of what happened, but it was so farfetched! And if it was the future where he was supposed to be an adult, why was he Nate Holloway?

The boy took a deep breath, finally ready to speak. "Um... okay... so I'm supposed to be Nate Holloway and I'm supposed to be a teacher and an adult, but for some reason I'm me as a kid... and not Nate." He looked down at his lap. "My head is starting to hurt..."

There was clearly a lot to figure out, and Miss Gemma knew a little about Nate, but there was probably someone who knew him better. "Why don't you call the lady with the heart next to her name? Maybe she'll be able to help... or at least be able to take me home." The mansion was nice, but for the first time in his life, there was the chance that Stephen had a home, and he wanted to know more about it.

>> "Um... okay... so I'm supposed to be Nate Holloway and I'm supposed to be a teacher and an adult, but for some reason I'm me as a kid... and not Nate. My head is starting to hurt..."

He wasn't alone with that. Gemma felt sorry for the kid and all the maybes and weird things he had to come to terms with. But she had seen a lot of weird things in her career and she knew there had to be an answer somewhere.

"Names change" she noted, even though she was curious why Nate would change his "Powers, however, are very rare any unique."

>>"Why don't you call the lady with the heart next to her name? Maybe she'll be able to help... or at least be able to take me home."

She looked at the phone again, trying to guess who the lady with the heart was. If she had a strong connection to Nate, maybe she could help... on the other hand, she was not sure just yet how many people she wanted to know about this.

"You are in my aura" she said, thinking out loud "That means if someone was actively keeping you... in this form, that would wear off when you are close to me. You are either thrown here form the past... or this is a lasting effect of something that happened to you. I think the best way to go about this would be to look for the... older you, and figure out where he is... or has been last. And go from there." she turned back to the computer "Let me check his schedule."

Apparently Miss Gemma wanted to wait before calling the woman named Quin, and all Stephen wanted to do was follow her lead. She knew more about what was going on than he did, so he watched as she looked up Nate's schedule.

While he waited, he looked at the messages on the phone and tried to think about his awakening. "Well, I woke up on his desk... maybe he had a night class?"

Looking through the messages from Nate and Quin felt weird, like spying on a couple, but apparently he might be in the couple, so it was a moral grey area. There was one message that seemed particularly relevant: "Probably staying at the Mansion to work. Miss you, be safe." There was something work-related that kept him in the classroom apparently. Maybe it was something artsy?

>> "Well, I woke up on his desk... maybe he had a night class?"

"He didn't" Gemma sighed, looking at the chedule "Our students are not that dedicated..."

Of course, the boy would not know that. She turned back to him and took the cellphone. The boy managed to look up the messages. Smart.

"Probably staying at the Mansion to work. Miss you, be safe."

That explained a lot. So the lady with the heart was really the lady with the heart. Gemma looked at the phone for a moment then sighed.

"All right, let's see who she is. If she really is your... um, Nate's friend, she might want to hear this."

Pressing the call button, she lfited the phone to her ear. Ring, ring.

Miss Gemma made the call, and Stephen spoke to Quin, who apparently knew more about what was happening. She told him she would come to pick him up and the call ended.

Stephen hit the red button to end the call and looked up at Miss Gemma. "She is coming to pick me up. I guess this is happening to a lot of people in the city..." That put a whole new spin on the problem.

"Well, I should go wait for Quin." Stephen got out of his seat and gave Miss Gemma a big hug; she was, after all, one of the only reasons he was even close to being calm. "Thank you for everything, Miss Gemma."