The Twins

chapter 1: Gone

Part two: Blue

Amani hadn't spoken to Matthew for several days. This worried the teen but he assumed his friend was just busy. School was back in full swing and was getting more busy as teachers began giving out exams or projects to finish off units. The school year was almost over and Matthew's three months of work experience would begin.

Work experience started in grade 9 for students. Once the school year was over (only 4 months of the year) children would be allowed to take part time jobs. This was so that everyone could learn what they were interested in doing for a living and to get experience being in a work setting. One of the best improvements to the education system in Matthew's opinion.

The teen was back in the computer lab finishing up his English project. He checks the time. He had a whole hour before his class ended. Matthew sighs and hesitantly opens the chat with Amani. He scrolls through the messages he had sent the other teen, each one getting more worried and desperate. He debates with himself then goes to type out another message.

______________________

Matthew: hey Amani? Are you ok?

______________________

The screen suddenly glitches. The message doesn't send and the screen no longer responds.
"Shit." Matthew whispers trying to get the screen to restart.
An error message pops up

___________________

This chat no longer exists. Would you like to join a new chat?

__________________

Matthew stares at the screen not quite believing what he's seeing. Did Amani delete the chat? No That's hard to believe. The two hadn't fought and Amani seemed fine the last time they talked. So why is the chat suddenly gone?

Matthew leaned back in his chair. He still had 45 minutes left in class but he knew the waiting would be torture. He had the feeling something was very wrong. He couldn't explain how he knew this besides that Amani hadn't answered and the chat was suddenly gone. There were a million different possibilities as to why those things happened and very few of them involved Amani being hurt. After all, Edis was the safest place in the history of mankind.

Still he feeling persisted and kept getting stronger as time went on. The seconds felt like eternities as Matthew waited. Eventually he started playing a game on the computer, but the feeling only kept getting stronger and more urgent.

Finally the bell rang and Matthew bolted out of the room. He dashed home right away planning to go on the internet again to see if anyone going by the name Amani was mentioned in the news. If the teen had realky gotten hurt like Matthew thought they were then it would be all over both sides of the internet.

The moment he crossed the threshold of the house his dad stopped him,"whoa there Mr. Speedy Gonzalas. Where are you going in such a hurry?"

Matthew ground his teeth and lied,"A new game came out today that I've been waiting to play for weeks. I'm just really exited to download it."

Matthew's father raised an eyebrow and sighed,"well That's rough man but you promised to help me out with another art class today. Remember?"

Matthew froze. He hadn't remembered. He silently cursed himself for forgetting that detail,"it had to be today." He thought angerly.

Soon the father and son duo were in the art shop all set up for the class. Matthew almost felt like he was in physical pain. He just wanted to bolt upstairs to the computer and figure out if his hunch was right. The children all arrived and, just like last time, pandemonium ensued.

Matthew tried to drown his thoughts with cleaning up the messes the kids created. It didn't work and he found himself getting more and more frustrated. He almost snapped at one kid but was miraculously able to stop himself. The chaos mimicked the feeling inside of him.

Suddenly he felt a tug on his sleeve. Matthew turned to the child trying to get his attention. It was the girl from earlier who made the sunflowers. She looked sympathetic as if she understood what was going in for him

The child leaned closer as if telling matthew a secret. He leaned closer himself to listen. When he heard what the child had to say he froze

"you lost your friend didn't you?"