Catch me if you can

== Part One ==
One day, Michael Hathaway logged onto his Facebook account and posted some pictures from the recent Christmas party. He gazed over the images, showcasing him and his friends in various settings; opening gifts, playing Cards Against Humanity, dancing, and having a great time. Within seconds, the photos began receiving an avalanche of likes and comments. Most of them came from the thousands of Facebook friends Michael had, most of whom he didn't know - he just accepted their buddy requests because they were friends of his friends. For some reason, this bothered Michael. He had come to realize he was associating himself with people he didn't know in real life, seeking their approval for some unknown reason. He decided at that point it would no longer be the case. He opened up all his social media accounts and began unfollowing everyone minus the people he actually knew. He no longer desired to share his personal life with people he didn't know nor care for.
Within days, people began to notice the rapid drop in communication and increasingly withdrawn personality Michael was exhibiting. His phone was blowing up with messages - all inquiring if he was okay. Of course, he lied that he was - he didn't really want to admit why he was doing this. After several days, he stopped replying altogether, let his phone die, and didn't recharge it. On his 18th birthday, he deleted every single post on his Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and replaced them all with one sentence:
"Catch me if you can!"
This left his friends and relatives very confused. What did he mean? Why did he say that? Why did he delete all of his posts? For Michael, the answer was simple and straightforward - it was all superficial. It didn't matter. He later decided to put the phrase to a literal use - and drove off. He didn't tell anyone where he was going, nor did he know where he was headed, in actuality. He decided he just needed time away. A lot of time. He cruised across the state, jumping from highway to highway and stopping every so often to rest up and eat, using only cash to pay. Within two days, he ended up at Penn State University's University Park campus and crashed a frat party happening just outside the main part of town. He used a fake identity when he introduced himself to people, and when they asked to follow him on social media, he pulled out a flip phone and pretended to be old-school. Little did he know that this decision was about to have dire consequences back home.
== Part Two ==
Since no one had any idea what Michael's "Catch me if you can" phrase meant, coupled with the fact that nobody knew his whereabouts, caused significant worry and anxiety amongst his friends, family, and neighbors in his hometown of Deerfield Township, New Jersey. Michael was known for being an "A" student who never liked to pull tricks, and was always out with friends. Essentially, EVERYONE knew what he was doing at a moment's notice. His teachers feared the worst, his friends repeatedly tried contacting him to no avail, and his family waited desperately for his return, angry and saddened that they could not decode his final message. A week after his departure, his family reported him missing and the news was reported across all of Cumberland County.
Unfortunately for Michael's family, he had really thought this one through. He had over $3,500 in cash stuffed under his mattress that no one knew about with him, and had rented a car from a dealer over 500 miles away, leaving his own behind. He had also left his phone and wallet behind, and used an old phone that he had secretly activated days before his trip. He had cashed all his paychecks at a bank his family didn't belong to, and that left him with an additional $2,000. To his family, Michael had disappeared without a trace. His parents were the center of every nightly news story, with no word on his whereabouts or why he did what he did. Every means of contacting him - texts, Skype, social media - proved useless. News quickly spread throughout the state, and governor Chris Christie ordered search parties to find the teen. Night after night came up empty, and no one knew what he was doing.
== Part Three ==
It was now about 1.5 weeks after Michael had left his home behind, and he couldn't have been happier with his decision. To say he felt liberated was an understatement. He felt like this was his destiny. At home, there was so much pressure for him to go to Yale and bring prosperity back to their small town. Life was constantly pressuring him to be something he didn't want to do, and he didn't know how else to make a change. Friends of his - both in person and online - spammed his email with 500 messages a day and they were never opened. And Michael was determined to distance himself as much as possible. By now, he was in Chicago and staying in a modest hotel with great accommodations for the price. He traversed the city day and night, meeting new people, trying out the various restaurants, and even going to a Cubs game. But he knew the fun wouldn't last for long. Word was spreading around fast, and most of the Mid-Atlantic was now at least slightly aware of his disappearance. The entire town of Deerfield was pressing for his safe return, but Michael kept pressing west.
== Part Four ==
In another three days, Michael had landed in Denver. Here he felt relatively isolated but refreshed, safe within the boundaries of the mountains, where nothing would be coming in - or out - for an extremely long time.
While Michael was out finding himself, word reached Deerfield that he had been spotted in Chicago. His parents' minds were made up - they were out on the next flight to Chicago before the sun even went down.
A few days after arriving in Denver, news reached Michael that one of his favorite bands - Paramore - would be playing at the Larimer Lounge the following Saturday. Relieved to find tickets were still available, he purchased one. The week slowly cranked by for him as he laid relatively low to avoid a potential spotting while patiently awaiting the concert date. Finally, the day arrived and he ventured to downtown to Denver. He was surprised to find that the band would be playing in what would be considered - regarding the band's level of fame - a rather confined space. However, he just sat at a table up front and forgot about it as the music enveloped him in a trace. He jammed up front with fellow parawhores and forgot about all his other worries.
Later in the show, lead singer Hayley Williams selected a fan from the audience to come up on stage using the spotlight selection. To Michael's very pleasant surprise, he was selected and helped up on stage. Williams asked him if he knew the lyrics to Misery Business, and he nodded; it was his all-time favorite song. Then, the intro to the song began and it seemed like the earth began to fall out from under Michael. The crowd roared, and Michael and Hayley sang together as the booming chorus to the song arrived. When the song finished, Michael felt like he had achieved the ultimate unknown item on his bucket list - he got to rock out with his idol, and he couldn't have been more excited and accomplished. He always knew he was missing out on life, and that this trip was finally beginning to fill that gap.
== Part Five ==
Michael awoke the next morning, feeling groggy but very content. However, those feelings did not last for long. He had slept in his car, and noticed something flapping on his windshield. It was a newspaper, but something didn't seem quite right about it. Upon closer inspection, his heart dropped. It was a picture of him along with Hayley Williams at last night's concert, with the headline:
"Lucky fan Jorden Collins rocks out with Paramore at exclusive concert!"
Michael's elation suddenly jumped out the window. In it's place rose intense feelings of worry, anger, and hopelessness. Pretty soon this would make national news, and it wouldn't take long for people to put two and two together when compared with the missing person reports. Michael had to act fast - get out of the city, create a new identity and persona, implement a disguise - the whole nine yards. And he had to do it in a hypothetical, yet literal, fraction of a second.
== Part Six ==
In Chicago, Michael's parents - Kristy and James - searched desperately to obtain any news on their missing child. However, just like in any case, the city proved way too big to reveal any secrets on their son. When James suggested the worse, a fire arose within Kristy that made her more powerful than ever before - at that moment, she felt she could take Adolf Hitler on - and win. Without thinking, she deserted her husband and boarded a plane to Boulder.
== Part Seven ==
Knowing the news was racing alongside him, trying to gun ahead and smack him in the face, Michael made a beeline for a place so big that it would be so easy to get lost in - Texas. By this point in time, he decided to continue the "game" that triggered the charade in the first place - that initial Twitter post. However, at this point, he borrowed a phone from a person he had befriended in a bakery in Dallas - and used Snapchat to post a picture he had taken in front of a brick café in Denver and posted it to his story with a time limit of twelve hours. This time, there was no caption - just the image. Within seconds, 11 people had viewed it and messages began to arrive by the dozen. Michael thanked the person for the use of their phone and went to the facility's all-inclusive restroom to implement the disguise.
While stopped in Enid, Oklahoma, Michael had gone into a botique ad purchased several dresses and some inexpensive fake jewelry for the next part of his plan. He had previously taken a wig from his father that he had used in his salon. Michael knew the female disguise would work because he looked extremely youthful, skinny and had an unusually high, soothing voice. Within minutes, out walked Jennifer Johnson - the new identity Michael was using. He later pulled out his own phone to check the time, and was amazed to see that nearly a month had passed since he had first made the trip. He had departed around July 24, and the current date was August 21, 2017. He continued southeast, and decided on Houston as his next place to stop.
== Part Eight ==
Kristy was now in Denver, slowly but surely being led by clues given by strangers and local news clippings. While staying at a historic hotel in downtown Denver, she lay in bed watching television, completely exhausted due to long days of extensive searching. As news stories rolled across the screen, something caught her attention. The story of her missing son had made it out west, and the station had verifiable proof that the person at the concert with Paramore was indeed the missing Michael Hathaway, going under the alias "Jorden Collins". Kristy sat in utter shock as the picture from the newspaper days before flashed on screen. She quickly called her husband and urged him to come to Denver with the family; that she was in the same vicinity as her son and they were close to bringing him home.
== Part Nine ==
James had given up on Chicago and boarded a flight back home. However, he was greeted by waves of his neighbors at the airport in Vineland, who were begging to show him that Michael was briefly active on Snapchat only hours prior to his landing. The high school principal showed James the picture of Michael, wearing sunglasses, a Gucci jacket, and Prada scarf. However, he had done well in obscuring the background behind him. Only seconds later, James' cell phone screamed and he answered, seeing it was his wife. She was in hysterics and unable to speak clearly, exclaiming that she had found Michael in Denver and he needed to get there right away.
== Part Ten ==
Michael began to feel at home in Houston. Back home he always felt like a celebrity and the pressure was on to be a role model to his community. Out in the Lone Star State, he was a nobody and felt good about it. He was free to do what he wanted, on his terms, and talked to people when he wanted to. Not to say he hated his life back home, but he always felt he could never do what he wanted and this was the only way to escape it without blatantly telling his parents. He felt this was the only way to get things to change. But going back was a very tough choice for Michael. He loved his new life, but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer. Maybe a few more weeks to another month, but that was it. Money was getting tighter, and he knew that sooner or later he would run out of time. No more places to hide. And, apparently some hurricane was threatening the Texas coastline just south of Houston. But Michael didn't have time to worry about some old stupid storm.
In Denver, Kristy met up with her husband at the airport and she dragged him out and babbled some plan on their way back to the hotel to get their son back. James was hardly listening; he was suffering extreme jet lag due to three flights - one across 2/3 of the country - within a matter of days and was feeling extremely woozy. And as he and his wife stood on the front steps to the hotel, he vomited on her back. Kristy screamed in disgust and stormed inside, not caring enough knowing that her son was lost on the streets of Denver.
On August 24, Michael journeyed to the Houston Zoo for a visit only to find it was closing. Upon pressing a staff member for more information, she replied something about a major storm coming that night with threats of significant flooding. Michael scoffed and instead ventured to the Museum of Fine Arts, only to find that was closed, as well - due to the weather. He was annoyed, finding all the major attractions in Houston were shut down due to a storm that wasn't even predicted to hit them, but decided to throw a "hurricane party" in his hotel room instead. That night, he watched from the windows of his room on the 24th floor and observed only minor rainfall, gusty winds, and distant lightning with no accompanying thunder. The next morning, the storm had moved on and he openly announced to the streets outside his hotel that everyone had been stupid over nothing. The hurricane didn't do the Katrina it was supposed to. What he didn't know, however, was that the storm had struck Rockport as a very powerful cyclone and was already causing significant flooding further inland as he spoke, slowly making its way northeast.
== Part Eleven ==
Several days had passed. Kristy was flustered and ready to tear at her hair. She had been all over Denver, flashing the newspaper at every person she saw, demanding her son's whereabouts. No one had seen him nor knew where he was. Inside, she was dying and falling apart. All she wanted was to see her son, and know he was okay. However, at that point in time, something hit her - she had heard about the hurricane that slammed Texas and caused extensive flooding, and wondered if Michael had journeyed to Houston. Her mind set, she already had one foot out the door.
Michael was amazed. He had been forced out of Houston and was now staying at a cheap motel for displaced residents and tourists about fifty miles north of the inundated city, in Huntsville. The accommodations were rough, but he had no room to complain considering it was free lodging and he really had nowhere else to go. Luckily, he still had his car and all his belongings - he was able to get out of the city before the flooding massacred it - but the area he was in operated like a military district under martial law, with mandatory curfews, soldiers patrolling the streets, and a strict rule that no one was to enter or leave the city under any circumstance. The area also observed significant rainfall - up to six inches - though it was nothing compared to the 50+ inches received in other areas of the state.
At home, Michael's friends and extended family anxiously watched for any sign of him. His 2-month disappearance with only a couple signs of life had become national news. It was the first time anyone in history was able to pull and get away with such a stunt. Newscasters and journalists listed motives ranging anywhere from publicity to a need for change. Friends of Michael had given up hope that he would respond to their text messages. They were desperate to see even a "Read" notice pop up on their iMessages, but it never happened. Pastors led services in which they commanded Michael come home. People - far and wide - sent gifts, pictures, and letters to Michael's father, just wanting to support him. However, he was not accepting of these offerings and trashed them, angry that both his wife and son were AWOL somewhere in the country.
== Part Twelve ==
Michael had been stuck in Huntsville for several days, and decided to trash his female disguise in favor of his old one. He didn't care if people recognized him, he had become friends with the people he was staying with, and they knew the truth and kept it secret. They all knew too well what it felt like to be a mini-celebrity. 
Kristy's flight to Houston did not end up in Houston. She, however, was not aware that her flight had been diverted to Dallas, due to her having noise-cancelling headphones on at the time the flight attendant made the announcement. When she saw the Dallas skyline beyond her window upon the time of landing, she wrestled a flight attendant to her face and demanded to know why they weren't in Houston. Only shortly after, Kristy sat in jail at a local precinct, held on a small bond. She was not released even when she confessed to being the mother of the missing Michael Hathaway. This, however, only added to more of the fire of the ongoing news story, which now stated Kristy was being held in a Dallas jail cell. 
That night it rained, so Michael, knowing he would not be doing anything, sat in his motel room and watched TV. After a brief commercial, the screen flashed with a breaking news alert that stated his MOTHER was arrested in Dallas and held in a small jail. Simultaneously, ferocious knocking began on his motel door. He shut the lights off and pretended to be asleep. Outside, he heard one his friends, Ella, calling. Seconds later, there was more yelling, much louder and stronger; a soldier's voice screaming at them to get bed due to curfew violations.
Category:Hypothetical Stories