Searching for Hailey Bradshaw

Chapter 1

Daniel O'Brien cradled his head in his hands as he sighed and rested his elbows on the desktop.

"No luck?"

"No," he answered.

No luck. Again. This was proving to be a lot harder than he ever thought it could possibly be. Trying to locate one freshman female shouldn't be this difficult.

Uggh. Freshmen were so annoying.

"Why are you looking for this gal again?"

Speaking of which...

Daniel twisted slightly in his chair to send a sour look over his shoulder toward his brother, Connell—who just happened to be a freshman as well as his roommate.

"It's my one of my journalism assignments to interview her for the Purdue News."

Returning his attention to his notepad, he underlined the word Bradshaw and then idly tapped the end of his pen against the name as he studied it.

"You know," Connell said thoughtfully. "Maybe she just doesn't want to be found."

Lifting his face, Daniel swiveled and stared across the room to give his younger brother another bitter glance. Connell didn't notice the evil eyes on him, however. He was too busy buttoning a plaid shirt. Fresh from the shower, he picked up a comb and started to pull it through his bright red hair.

"Why wouldn't she want to be found?"

Connell shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't want her name in the paper."

That comment caused Daniel to roll his eyes. "Whatever."

"I'm serious," Connell said. "Some people actually like their privacy. Being a reporter, you wouldn't know anything about that, so you'll have to just take my word for it."

Hating it when Connell went sarcastic on him, Daniel growled, "If that were the case then why would she even care? It's just a school paper. I'm not trying to put her on the cover of the National Enquirer or anything. Circulation on the Purdue News is so small it's hardly worth mentioning. Why would one tiny, insignificant, little article about her be so bothersome?"

"Then why do you care so much?" Connell countered as he slipped on a jacket over his shirt.

"Because... I'm the student editor," Daniel explained. "And if I want to keep that position, I have to go above and beyond the efforts of my fellow journalists. My grade's on the line too. Besides..." He shrugged, looking suddenly moody. "The article was assigned to me. I've always been able to turn in an assigned piece. And this frilly little human-interest story certainly isn't going to be my first failure."

The small dorm room was completely quiet for a moment after Daniel's impassioned monologue. Then his nineteen-year old brother started to clap.

"Boy, that was something else," Connell cheered, pausing to wipe a mock tear from his eye. "Simply poetic, Daniel. Why, you've actually inspired me to go forth and find her myself."

Daniel sent his brother a scowl. "Ha. Ha," he muttered.

Chuckling, Connell moved to his dresser and began foraging through the piles of junk on top. Candy wrappers and loose change fell off the side and onto the cluttered floor as he dug. "What's so important about this gal anyway? She famous or something?"

"Sort of," Daniel answered. He turned back to flip open the file of Hailey Bradshaw he'd gathered for his article. He stared at the Internet website page he'd printed. "She's a quint."

Connell paused in his burrowing and glanced across the small room. "She's a what?"

"A quintuplet," Daniel clarified.