To Survive without the Guardians

Chapter 3: The Search

When Haven got home that evening, she went up to her room and browsed her bookshelf until she found the previous year's yearbook, then sat down on her purple bean bag chair in the corner and opened it up. She could only hope that Matthew wasn't currently a freshman. He didn't look like one, nor did he have that youthful spark in his eye most had at the beginning of the year before they got tired of everything, so she could assume he wasn't.

She began looking through the pictures, searching for his face. His last name was what she needed to find out. After that, it would be easy.

"Haven, what are you doing?" Micah asked, standing in the doorway to her room. Haven smiled and motioned her forward.

"Come here," she said in a whisper, and Micah obeyed, closing the door behind her. "I'm looking for a boy I saw earlier today."

Micah's face lit up. "A boy? Is he cute?" Haven laughed and shrugged. "What does he look like?"

"Well, I didn't get a very long look at him, but he has an olive skin tone, thick black hair, and dark brown eyes," Haven said. Micah gave her a "go on" look. She was expecting a more detailed description than that. "He's kind of tall and has thin fingers. He doesn't seem to be too friendly, though. Or maybe he was just having a bad day."

Micah nodded in approval. "Hm... Do you know his name?"

Haven shrugged: kind of. "His first name is Matthew, but I don't know his last. That's what I'm looking for. Then, I can hopefully find him on social media. I'll have to check them all. I don't know which ones, or one, he's on."

"Can I help?" Micah asked. Haven walked over to her bookshelf and handed her the high school yearbook from two years ago.

"Look in the freshman and sophomore years," Haven told her sister, and the tallish young girl grinned.

"Okay!" She plopped down on the floor and opened the yearbook.

Only five minutes had passed when Micah cried out in joy.

"I found him!"

Haven went over to her and peered at the picture she was pointing to.

"I think that's it! Good job, Micah." Her sister beamed. There by Micah's finger was a picture of a younger-looking freshman Matthew with a few spots of acne on his face, looking like he was only half-trying to appear happy. "Sloan, Matthew," one of the names at the end of his row read. Haven pulled out her phone and began searching for him on the various social media websites she had an account on, Micah breathing down her neck like a vulture and trying her best to watch.

"What are you gonna do once you find him?" she asked. "Ask him out?"

"No!" Haven laughed, then stopped abruptly, listening for sound. She heard her mom hanging up clothes in Micah's room. Oh shoot. She couldn't tell her sister what had happened earlier. "I want to be his friend." It wasn't a lie.

"Oh," Micah said, a little joy gone from her eyes.

"But that isn't to say I'll never date him later on," Haven added, and Micah's face brightened again.

Unfortunately, however, Matthew proved to be a difficult person to find. He wasn't on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else Haven checked. Maybe he wasn't a social media person.

Haven turned toward her sister. "I can't find him. I'll have to look at school. Maybe one of my friends has a class or two with him, and I could meet him there. I'll ask them." She sent the question to the group chat that included not only her friends, but her friends' friends as well. This meant she had a better chance of locating him.