Map Seekers: The Brotherhood

Chapter 4

Maricella Sullivan stood in the youth room at Pathway Church, waiting to see Hunter. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she had a huge crush on him. They were part of a group of friends from school that included Sheldon, Jacob and Alexis.

Whenever Maricella arrived to church before Hunter, which was always, she would wait as nonchalantly as she could for Hunter to arrive before she would take a seat.

Neither Hunter nor Maricella were the most popular in youth group, mostly because they didn't fit in with the pop-culture cliques that most kids their age seemed to form. They weren't Beliebers or interested in who was or wasn't still part of One Direction, and neither of them cared about staying in fashion.

Theirs was a fellowship of familiarity since they already knew each other from school, but Maricella hoped that one day her and Hunter's relationship would evolve into something more.

There were times she thought that Hunter felt the same way, but then things always became awkward between them; he'd started acting weird and, in the end, it just left her feeling confused.

Maricella had long, straight, perfect black hair. The type of hair seen in shampoo commercials. She took pride in her hair and cared for it like she was a million-dollar runway model, though at five foot five she knew she was not called to that life, which was just fine with her. After having traveled with her parents on a few missionary trips, Maricella knew that part of her calling was to the missionary field.

Even though she was short, she certainly had the looks to be a model if she wanted to be. Her mother was Columbian and Maricella had inherited her beautiful Latin American look, a trait she never accentuated with makeup but one that all the boys certainly noticed.

As Hunter entered the youth room, he noticed Maricella and walked over to where she was standing.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

"Not much. I was wondering if you were going to make it."

"Here I am."

Maricella enjoyed youth group. Her father had been a missionary to Latin America where he met her mother, and her parents raised her to have a deep faith in God. She was also excited about how God was moving in the church.

"You don't sound too excited to be here," Maricella said.

"Sometimes I'm not in the mood." Hunter found a seat and slumped down in it.

Maricella sat down next to him, "I didn't know you had to be in the mood for God?"

"That's not what I meant. It's just..." Hunter looked around the room to see if anyone was listening. "It's just, I got a package from my granddad that was really cool."

"What was it?"

"I can't tell you, or then I'd have to kill you," Hunter said with a smile.

"Yeah. Okay. Whatever."

"No really, my granddad told me not to tell anyone. But... I kind of already told Sheldon and I'm dying to tell you." Hunter looked around again, as if someone actually cared enough to listen to their pedestrian conversations. "We do need to talk. I know you can help us."

"Help you with what?"

"Solve a great mystery."

Maricella smiled. "Like the mystery of the giants of Genesis?"

"My granddad honestly thought he had found a bone fragment..." Hunter grimaced. He knew there was no point in continuing the argument about the summer his grandfather led him, and consequently Maricella, on a wild goose chase trying to track down evidence of the giants referred to in Genesis chapter six verse four. That had definitely been a case of Grandfather getting ahead of himself, and Maricella never tired of giving Hunter some good-natured ribbing about all the time and energy they spent researching the subject.