The Captive (Chapter 1)

The Freshman

1 year later
Matthew Baker pulled his Honda Accord into the student parking lot and climbed out of his car. He grabbed his bag from the passenger seat and tossed it over his shoulder. As he walked toward the science building his good friend Peter Nixon ran up and greeted him. “Hey man, how’s it going? You ready for another year?”
“You better believe it Pete,” Matthew responded sarcastically, “another year of teachers, classes and hours of studying.”
“Awww man! you make it sound so horrible. Why do you always have to dwell on the bad stuff? There’s plenty of good stuff that comes with college that has nothing to do with school.”
“Yeah! That astronomy club opens up this year.”
Peter looked defeated. “You' re hopeless man. Hopeless.”
Matthew put his arm around his friend as they continued on their way toward the science building. “Naw, I’m not hopeless I just don’t believe the same things that you do. I’d rather spend my time working on my grades then my social life.”
Peter shook his head and pulled away from his friends embrace. “And this is why you still don’t have a girl.”
“The right girl will come when it’s time. One day I’ll be all done with college and looking to settle down and just like magic the perfect girl will pop into my life.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
Peter shook his head again. “I do not understand you Matt.”
“Nope and you never will…not until you understand God.”
Peter rolled his eyes. They were to the science building now. A pretty red-head and a beautiful brunette were just entering the building. “See, how many great picks are out there Matt and almost any of them would go out with you if you just asked.”
Now it was Matthew’s turn to shake his head. “You talk about girls like their objects” Pete didn’t say anything but Matt knew that didn’t mean that his friend agreed with him it just meant that he was tired of the sermon and was hoping Matt would get off his soap box which he tended to climb up on quite frequently.
They were inside the building now and were on their way to astronomy. There was still about 15 minutes until any of the classes started since it was the first day and all the orientations and registration were still in process the day was having a bit of a later start than usual.

Linda Cuthbert entered the lecture hall about 15 minutes before the lecture was supposed to start. Her best friend Cindy Armon was close behind her. There were two other guys in the room but they were so were engrossed in their own conversation that they hadn’t even noticed them come in.
Cindy passed by Linda and started up the steps and stopped a couple rows behind the guys. Linda followed close behind her. Her pencil was beginning to slide off the edge of her stacks of books but she wasn’t able to grab it in time before it slid onto3. the floor. Something slammed into her and caused her to drop her books. She quickly bent down to gather her things the blonde boy who had bumped into her bent down to help her. “I’m sorry.” He said as he handed her books.
“Thank you” she said as she took them looking up into his face for the first time. The first thing she noticed was his eyes. They were a beautiful deep blue and the light reflecting off his eyes seemed to dance as he looked straight into her heart. She quickly looked away afraid that somehow if she allowed him to look too long he would learn everything about her and that she would not allow to happen. She scooped up the last of her books, brushed back her bangs and stood up. He stood up also and handed her the rest of the books. She shifted to her other foot uncomfortably and cleared her throat. “Thanks,”
“Your welcome” He cleared his throat as well and then stuck out his hand. “Matthew Baker.”
She took his hand and shook it. “Linda Cuthbert.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
She shifted back to her other foot and readjusted her books so her pencil wouldn’t fall again. She smiled and worked her way past him and headed toward Cindy.
“He was cute.” Cindy whispered to her as she came nearer “What’s his name?”
“Matthew.” Linda said as she put her stuff down and made herself comfortable. “But don’t get any ideas the whole boyfriend thing is stupid.”
Cindy rolled her eyes and started doodling on her paper. “Well fine then.” Cindy had learned a long time ago not to try pushing her friend into a relationship, after a couple setups and many lectures it just wasn’t worth it. “But maybe you could introduce us unlike you I actually care.” Linda didn’t answer as she looked back down at Matthew and his friend. It wasn’t that she didn’t care she just knew it could never work.

She was beautiful he couldn’t deny that. Even the scar that stretched across her right cheek couldn’t mess up her beauty. As he had handed her back her books and looked into her eyes he could feel himself falling faster and faster. God no! I don’t even know her help me to control my emotions.
Her eyes had held an incredible mystery but she had looked away before he could solve it. She had seemed nervous talking to him but as he watched her throughout the rest of the day he realized that she was one of the most secure people he had ever met.
After class Matthew was waiting outside the building for Peter when Linda came out she walked right past him he stepped in front of her. “Hi”
“Hi.” She smiled shyly and looked down at the ground. Just then her phone rang. She pulled out her cell phone and sighed as she answered. “What is it this time?... Again?...I swear she is going to drive me nuts if she doesn’t stop with this…listen give her 1000K and tell her to come back next week I should be there this weekend…We’ve discussed this Ali I can’t be there all the time. I would love to but I can’t not yet. You guys are doing great without me…I’ll see you this weekend…yep bye.” She hung up the phone with a sigh and looked back to were Matthew was still waiting. She smiled at him and started walking in the direction of the student parking lot.
“So…you like astronomy?” He asked following close behind her.
“Yes, it’s what I decided to major in.”
“So am I, I hope to one day discover a new planet or alien life. You know how famous I could be?”
“Yes, I’m sure you would be very famous.” She said halfheartedly looking down at the ground.
He looked toward her and frowned “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, it’s just that…” She looked up at him, “you could get in a lot of trouble if you aren’t careful; aliens aren’t something to mess with.”
“You sound as if you believe that they really exist.” He said a joking grin on his face.
“That’s not at all what I meant.” Declared Linda almost too defensively in his opinion. She took a deep breath as if to calm herself then continued softly “But there was this one girl at my school last year who said she saw an alien everyone thought she was crazy and she ended up having to be transferred because she was causing a stir.” Matthew got quite then asked.
“Why didn’t they believe her?”
Linda laughed a laugh that Matthew immediately fell in love with. “She had always been kind of loopy anyway and no one liked her very much. Besides that she said that one of the perfectly normal students was the alien and someone she loved to tease and it just happened that that girl had actually gotten her in trouble the day before.”
“That’s too bad.”
He got real quiet then and a frown creased his forehead and she sped up. He had to jog to keep up with her. She turned to the right and stopped at her car “Well I should probably get going.”
“Yeah.” He started to leave and then turned back “Hey Linda if you want I go to an astronomy club on Tuesday’s If you want to join me. They have a big telescope and a food stand along with a library of astronomy books. Me and my friend Peter usually go and hang and study but uh… he can’t make it this week so if you want we can go together and I can introduce you to some of my friends.” She smiled weakly and said
“That sounds great Matthew but…that kind of atmosphere doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe we can get lunch some time instead.”
“Ok.” He shrugged and walked away.

She watched for a minute a frown creasing her forehead “Matthew Baker.” She whispered the name to herself. “What’s so special about you anyway? Here you’re supposed to be the one to help me and as far as I can tell you’re just going to get in the way.” She sighed and climbed into her car and headed in the direction of the dorm that she and Cindy were staying in.
As she grabbed her things and headed toward the building her phone began to ring again. She groaned and decided to ignore it. It was probably just Ali again with another problem that needed solving and more complaints about how Linda wasn’t there helping them out. It wasn’t like Linda didn’t want to be there. More than anything she just wanted to dump this school and this entire planet and go to Imaginess to live for the rest of her life. But not until she found Christilone and her father had made it very clear that this Matthew Baker would be able to help her find him.
She was at the door to her room now she fished out her key and opened the door she dropped her books on her desk and fell unto the bed. Now she just had to figure out what the next step was now that she’d found Matthew.

“She’s amazing Pete.” Matthew was laying on his bed a math book laid out in front of him but he hadn’t been able to concentrate on what he was reading. It had been nearly a month since he had first talked to Linda and in that last month they had studied together more often than Matthew studied with Pete. They had hung out together at a couple other social functions and the two of them had become great friends. But that was all. Linda had refused dinner dates and still wouldn’t go to the astronomy club with him even though she insisted that she loved astronomy.
Pete leaned back in his chair and looked at his friend for a moment. “I really do not understand you Matt. You could have any girl at this school and you choose the one who wants nothing to do with you.”
Matthew sighed and rolled unto his back and tucked his hands behind his head. “I don’t care Pete. She’s the one I just know it and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to convince her of that if that’s what I have to do.”
“You’re crazy.” Pete turned back to the books on his desk leaving Matthew staring at the ceiling and praying that somehow his relationship with Linda would become more than a friendship.


“You guys seem to be getting close.” Cindy said as she held a teal shirt in front of her and looked into the mirror
“Yeah so?” Linda pulled a pair of Khaki pants out of her closet and frowned.
“Those are cute.” Cindy said looking at the pants. She pulled a green belt with beaded fringe out of her closet. “Here try this.” Linda took the belt and thanked her and slipped into the bathroom to change. “So how serious are you guys anyway?”
Linda laughed as she came out of the bathroom. “We’re just friends Cindy.”
“Yeah sure you are.”
“Seriously Cindy we are,” She pulled a green shirt out of her closet and held it in front of her. Cindy nodded and Linda laid it out on the bed and pulled out two more different shirts that also matched the belt “besides,” She looked up at Cindy who was in front of the mirror trying to figure out the best way to pull her hair back. “There’s no way I could even consider dating a-“she stopped
“A what?” Cindy stopped messing with her hair and stared at Linda though the mirror.
“Nothing.”
“Do you like someone else?” She let her hair fall around her shoulders and came over to sit by Linda who was now sitting on the bed a sequency, green shirt in her hands.
Linda looked up at Cindy and smiled “No absolutely not. I just don’t think a relationship with him would work.”
“Why?”
“He’s too obsessed with aliens, ok.”
“Oh, like Brenda.”
“Yes like Brenda.”
“I’m sorry Linda but if it’s any consolation, I think you guys would be great together.”
“Thanks Cindy I think so too. But there is more to it than that.”
“Ok I understand ‘Little Miss Secretive’” Cindy gave her friend a playful nudge and stood up. “If you don’t want to tell me fine.” Then her smile faded and she got serious again. “but if you ever want a chance with Matthew you might want to tell him otherwise forget it…By the way I’d go with that shirt” She said motioning to the one in Linda’s hands “It brings out your eyes.”
Linda smiled and looked down at the shirt in her hands but inside she was thinking. I wish I could Cindy I wish I could.