Danny sighed in defeat as Katie beat him for the fifth time the game of noughts and crosses currently being played on the back of Danny's English book. This was ridiculous, how is it possible for her to be this good at it? Upon seeing her smug face he promptly stuck his tongue out. She just rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded a lot like 'mature'

"Alright" Their teacher shouted as the volume in the room slowly increased. "Homework diaries out, as you should know it's international missing children's day next Friday, and that means you will have to research and then do a presentation on the case of a missing child. This will be due on the day itself, May 25th"

The missing children project had been an annual thing at the school for almost 40 years. A previous headmaster started it after a 15 year old girl who attended the school in the 80s vanished without a trace on her way home, and since then the school had made sure that she was never forgotten. They wanted to raise awareness amongst the student body of the cases of thousands of missing children around the world.

The teacher surveyed her class to make sure they were writing it all down in their homework planners.

"As you probably know by now the presentation must include their name, age, where they went missing from and any advancements in their cases you can find. The presentations should last two to four minutes"

The room was quiet as the students scribbled all the necessary information down.

"Ok pack up your books and get ready to be dismissed"

Two hours later Danny sat at his laptop with a downcast expression on his face as he looked at the pictures on the missing kids website. Hundreds of pictures of children were on the screen, so small it was hard to make out any features. But they all had innocent smiles on their faces. All of them, from the babies to the teenagers. He frowned as he lent back into his chair. How do this many people lose a child and them not turn up? He could see how you could lose a child for five minutes, maybe even an hour or two. And he knew that occasionally children go missing because some deranged psycho has got them. But he also knew that happened very rarely.

"What'cha thinking about?" Katie said from her place on Danny's bed. She was also flicking through the website as she tried to find a child to talk about for her presentation.

"How can this many children go missing?" Danny replied, running a hand through his messy brown hair. Katie looked up from the laptop and to his dejected face.

"It's sad isn't it? Mum lost me once in the supermarket when I was four, she said it was the scariest twenty minutes of her life. Can you imagine how all these parents feel?" Danny didn't reply to that, he hadn't even considered the parents. How many thousands of parents were out there, waiting for a child who might never come home?

"Have you picked someone yet?" Katie asked as she scribbled down some information in her jotter. "Look what I've got, Jessie Raynor, went out on her bike with her cousin one morning and never came home." She finished with a sigh and brushed a stray strand of hair out her face. "I hate doing this project, it's so depressing"

Danny mumbled an agreement and looked back to his screen. He clicked on the search bar in the top right corner and tapped in his name. Daniel. He wasn't really thinking about what he was doing, he was messing about- seeing how many missing Daniels there were out there. His jaw almost hit the floor when he got his answer. Three hundred and sixty four missing boys called Daniel. Without thinking about what he was doing he put in his year of birth and refreshed the page. Twenty seven profiles came up. He flicked through a couple of profiles before deciding to put the month he was born in. Five faces came up. Two 10 year olds, a baby and a boy who looked about six. But his eyes were drawn to the final profile.

Matthew Daniel Bing

Case type: abducted, injured, missing

Date of birth: 25th January 2009

Age now: 14

Birth place: Westchester County, New York., USA

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Blue

Distinguishable features: Small scar on right knee, scar on chin, large birthmark on chest

Last seen: 3rd September 2012 outside his home in Westchester County, New York.

He scrolled down slightly and saw a picture of the child. The boy looked about three years old. He was looking up at the camera with a huge smile on his chubby little face, his blue eyes sparkling. The boy's hair was all over the place, as if someone had just ruffled it. Danny minimised the window quickly, that boy looked like..but it couldn't be. He suddenly felt sick, this couldn't be him could it? No, he was being ridiculous. The birth date was a couple weeks out and Danny was British, not American. It wasn't possible. Was it? The question seeped through his brain and suddenly he felt completely lost.

"Mum!" He shouted, running out the room, completely oblivious to his best friend, who had jumped about a foot in the air before following him down the stairs. He sprinted into her study to see his mother sitting at her impeccably ordered desk, typing what he guessed was an email, not that he really cared. It always amazed Danny how his mother could keep everything so ordered. Pencils and pens were lined up on one side, equally spaced and perfectly parallel to each other. Lined paper on the other side. In the middle was her laptop. Unlike most people, she had no pictures or personal touches on the desk. It made the whole room feel cold, but he guessed that reflected his mother's personality quite well. Cold. His mother had short blond hair, thin lips and brown eyes. But unlike Katie's brown eyes, they held no warmth.

"Mum where are the photo albums?" His mother turned in her chair and looked over her thin spectacles at him with her calculating eyes.

"Why do you want to see those?" She asked, studying her son suspiciously

"Katie wanted to see a picture, it's for a school project we're doing" He made up, ignoring the bemused look he was receiving from Katie. She gave one more suspicious look at Danny before turning back to her work.

"Bottom shelf in the living room cabinet" With that he darted across the corridor and into the living room, pulling out the black, leather bound album.

"Are you gonna tell me what all of this is about Danny?" Katie enquired from her place in the doorway. Danny jumped, he had almost forgotten she was there.

"Come on" He said, racing past her and up the stairs into his room. He waited until Katie was inside before slamming his door shut.

"Dan what the hell is going on?" He ignored her and flipped through the album urgently, looking for the oldest photo of him.

"And why does your mum keep family photos in an album anyway? It's the 21st century" This was also ignored as he pulled out a picture of him on his mother's lap. His mother was smiling, something he doesn't really see her do anymore, not since his dad left. Danny looked about three or four in this photo. He was smiling, but still looked uneasy. On the back of the photo someone had written

Daniel and Penelope, December 2012.

Danny jumped up and opened the window on his laptop. The picture of Matthew Bing came up full screen. Katie gasped at it, seemingly keying into what was going on.

"You don't think…..That can't be….I mean….That's not you is it?" She asked almost inaudibly, shock taking over her features. Danny didn't say anything, but he just pulled out the old photo of him and placed side by side with the picture of Matthew Bing. He heard Katie inhale sharply next to him. They looked similar, that was undeniable. But Matthew was chubby, with a large, dimpled smile and bright eyes. Daniel however looked thinner. The happiness was gone from his eyes, replaced with apprehension. They studied the two faces for a moment.

"You don't think that's you? Do you?" Katie asked again, her eyes still glued to the laptop screen

"I….I don't know" Danny whispered.

Katie reached over and clicked on the link underneath the photo. "They have an age progressed photo"

Before Danny could even think about whether he wanted to see the photo or not the picture filled the screen. It was Danny, but at the same time it wasn't. Danny thought it looked more like what his brother would look like if he had one. The nose was too long and the face too round. But there were clear similarities. The shape and colour of the eyes were identical, as was the curve of the lips.

"Wow Dan" Katie breathed "That's uncanny" She closed the age progressed picture and scrolled up to the top of the page, reading the information there. Danny saw her eyes widen slightly.

"Don't you have a scar on your chin?" she asked, straightening up and looking at it.

"Yeah but loads of people do"

"And you've got one on your knee?"

"Yes" Danny agreed quietly

"And you've got a birthmark on your chest?"

"Yeah" Danny breathed.

Danny stared ahead while Katie continued to get more information on Matthew Bing. He could barely wrap his head around the whole thing. An hour ago he had no idea where he was originally from, and now he finds out that he could be the missing son of a couple in America. It was too much.

"Here" Katie said, staring at the laptop screen. "It's a newspaper article, dated a couple of weeks after Matthew Bing went missing. Matthew Daniel Bing, youngest child of Chandler and Monica Bing was born on the 25th of January 2009 and went missing from his home in Westchester County, New York on the 3rd of September 2012. He is just three and a half years old. The three year old was playing in the front garden when he was snatched and bundled into a black Ford Transit van by an unknown man. Neighbours' CCTV cameras captured the moment. The man who took him is bald, white, of medium build and approximately six foot four. His face was not visible in the footage so no composite sketch has yet been able to be made. The Van was found two days later on the Canadian Border in Vermont, but no trace of the child has been found." She paused and looked over at her best friend. He was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. She smiled sympathetically and sat down beside him.

"There's a number on the website, you could call" Danny just looked at her incredulously

"Yeah that would be a fun conversation, Hey random stranger, I think I might be your long lost son. How do I know? I found a profile online that looks like me"

Katie just rolled her eyes. "Don't you want to find out if that's really you?"

"I don't know….yeah I guess" He said, Katie tilted her head to the side, studying the pictures.

"Your mum might know something" She pointed out, Danny just shook his head and ran a hand through his hair

"I'm not asking her"

There was a beat of silence and Katie started fiddling with the hem of her skirt.

"Yeah… it's probably for the best anyway"

"What d'you mean?"

She looked hesitant. "I mean…how did it happen? Back when you were three? If that Matthew Bing boy is you, how did you get from New York in September, to here and adopted by Christmas?

Danny looked down at his feet. Trust Katie to start asking the practical questions. He was still trying to wrap his head around the possibility that he could be a completely different person.

"Think about it" she smiled weakly "Children don't just disappear for no reason, you..or Matthew…must've been taken deliberately"

Danny thought he knew what Katie was getting at, but asked anyway. "What's this got to do with mum?"

Katie sat in silence for a moment, looking uncomfortable. She sighed heavily. "I think…If Matthew Bing is you…I think we have to consider the possibility that your parents were somehow involved.

Ok wow, the response to this story is so much better than I could ever expect. Thank you all so so much x.

I think the next chapter will be up soon, definitely in the next week.

ChocoholiclikeLupin