Search For The Truth (On Hold)

Reunited

Scott

Matthew, what is taking you so long?! It's been two days since you last spoke to me and I have some serious news!

My brother, a.k.a. Matthew Wiles, or whatever his real name was, was beginning to worry me. Forty-eight hours has passed by since Mom and Dad had told me everything I knew. I'd contacted Matt right after I'd received all the information I knew, but the person at the other end of the conversation hadn't even been on since his suggestion to check out our birth certificates.

Caleb occasionally inserted his own random comments, but most of the time I just ignored him. Matthew was my main concern right now.

Where was my brother?

*

Four days later. Still no reply.

It was time to do what I was best at. That's right. I was going to hack into his email and find out where whatever device he used to email me was located.

Logging into his email, I clicked on his username and found the code for his email. I then scrolled down and added several lines, which immediately popped up a new window. A blue arrow blinked insistently at me, only thirty minutes north of me at a school called Maplewood High.

Today was Friday. It was two hours before school. Not enough time to make it to Matthew's school and still be on time for my first period class.

I made my decision. Right now, school was not as important as my family. It wasn't as important as diving into this problem and finding out exactly what was going on. What did this mean regarding my decision? I was going to Matthew's school.

*

His school was huge. Larger than most average schools. Seriously. It was like, the comparison of a rat to an elephant. It was that huge.

My iPhone was set on tracking Matthew's. It appeared that Matthew's phone was in the school's lunch room- which made since, considering it was nearly lunch time. I'd decided to find Matthew during a more convenient time, which was why I'd waited several hours before leaving, so I could catch him during lunch- if he was here. It was possible he wasn't because of his lack of replies.

Stepping into the lunch room made me acutely uncomfortable. All attention was drawn toward me, thousands of pairs of eyes analyzing me as I awkwardly stepped into the huge cafeteria. I realized just how out of place I was here.

I pushed all those thoughts out of my head. I was here for one reason, and one reason alone.

My sky blue eyes scanned the area until they settled on an older teenager, with the same dirty blond hair I had, the same, slightly lighter, eyes I had. He hadn't even noticed me.

Matthew.

Ignoring all stares directed my way, I strode purposefully toward my brother until I stood in front of him. The two boys seated next to him gazed at me with curious, wide eyes. Matthew just sat there, doing nothing. Which only served to make me even more worried about him.

"Since when did you start ignoring such major problems?" I finally spoke, and Matthew jerked his head up so quickly I thought he was going to give himself a case of whiplash.

Blue eyes widened and a chair crashed to the ground as Matthew leaped to his feet, his fingers gripping my shoulder intensely. "Scott?"

Beside me, the two boys who had been staring at me gasped in surprise. Apparently I hadn't been the only one confiding in friends about everything going on.

"Actually, it's Teddy," I mumbled. My voice was quiet, and yet, somehow, in that moment, it seemed extremely loud.

Matthew's dark blue eyes searched mine, and I saw the truth and questions lying deep inside them. "And I'm not Matthew. I'm Bailey."

"Hansen?" I blurted before he had the chance to say more. He nodded in bewilderment, and in that moment, we knew. We really were brothers.

So there, in the middle of my brother's cafeteria, we grasped each other in a tight embrace. We stood that way for quite some time, arms locked around each other, refusing to break contact or answer the questions bouncing around the cafeteria.

But unfortunately, we had to pull away.

"How did you find me?" came Bailey's first question. Ooooh, boy, this was going to be a fun one to answer.

For a moment, I contemplated what to tell him. Then I came to the conclusion that the truth couldn't hurt. "Weeeelll, I might or might not have hacked into your email to track your phone here."

That seemed to stun Bailey. "What...? Do you know how insane that is, especially for someone your age?"

I shrugged. "Eh, yeah. But hey, at least it gives me something to do, right?"

"Illegal, nonetheless," Bailey laughed. He seemed genuinely happy to be here, chatting with me. His numb stupor had worn off.

"Which is why I do it now, before I can be imprisoned for the rest of my life."

"You cheeky boy!" Bailey's grin grew wider, and he poked me in the side. "You watch yourself, man, before you get into some real trouble."

"Already am," I couldn't help muttering, and Bailey's smile immediately disappeared. "Bailey, why haven't you been answering my emails? I was scared that you'd been kidnapped again or something."

He contemplated me. "I take it then that you know the truth."

"What, that we were kidnapped, separated, and given new families until we found each other?" I snorted. "Yeah, tell me about it. When I find the SIA, I'm seriously going to give them my wicked opinion about all this."

"Same," Bailey grunted. "They'd better have a good explanation for all of this, else they're going to pay a lot of money for the sue I'm going to ask for."

I tilted my head to the side. "Are you old enough to do that?"

"Three months," Bailey smiled wryly. "I'll be eighteen then."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." We lapsed into silence. "You still didn't tell me why you never answered my emails."

Bailey rubbed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, well, I was kind of busy trying to stop my Mom and Dad... or guardians, sorry... from shouting at me about snooping into their room and finding my birth certificate and blah blah. Basically, they banished me, and phones aren't allowed to be in use at school. So I haven't been able to get on for quite some time."

"Obviously your parents, of guardians, or whoever, aren't like mine," I commented dryly. "Mine were just as angry and confused as I was and tried to help me in any way possible. They actually wanted me to keep in touch with you."

"Isn't that jolly." Another silence. "Listen, lunch is almost over, so I don't know what you want to do. You can ask Principal Hartman if you can hang out with me and my friends for the rest of the day, or we can make plans to meet sometime else."

A smile laced it's way onto my lips, and from Bailey's expression, I could tell he had discerned that I already had a plan. "Spill it," he said.

"I was thinking," I began, "that I could meet you outside your school on the front lawn beneath that big dogwood tree, and we could talk then. I've already looked up William and April Hansen on the internet, and it says their current address is less than fifteen minutes from here. Perhaps, if you'd like, we could find them and ask them some questions."

Bailey's eyebrows crept higher as I went along. "It seems that the SIA, or whoever kidnapped and separated us, didn't wish for us to be too far apart."

"True, true."

"I'm game for it. Maybe seeing our real Mom and Dad would trigger some memories. Then we could go on from there."

"All right!" We high-fived, then hugged once again. "See you outside!"