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Millie disappeared leaving Zac alone in the quiet of the barn for a few minutes. Besides the sounds of nature outside the door, the room was placid and quiet- not unlike the bookshop without customers- and now surrounded by old books, some probably considered antiques, the comparison was not a poor one.

The box of yearbooks in front of Zac were stacked neatly, with the newest on top. Each yearbook had fliers and booklets from various public events that Millie had gone to, or been given, over the course of the years. Everything from art shows to homecoming football games, fundraising bake sales and even clippings of senior pranks form the newspaper.

It seems there was plenty for Zac to browse through.

Zac pulled out a yearbook, not unlike all the rest, bound in brown and gold with 'Ashdown Central High School - 2006' scrawled and embossed on the cover.

2006 - the year of Sexyback, The Black Parade, and James Blunt crooning 'Beautiful' from every speaker.
It was the year of Snakes on a Plane.

Photos of smiling teens collage the opening pages in color before everything changed over to the same old black and white grain that pervaded every yearbook since the beginning of time. There were a few fliers from events shoved into different relevant sections of the book.

The senior prank had been stealing the rivals mascot more than 5 times over the course of the year and it looked like they did indeed win the homecoming game. A graduation tassle was used as a bookmark on the faculty pages and the teachers' portrait photos looked just as staged and uncomfortable as the students.

Somewhere around the prom photos there was a pressed tulip, yellow, long since dry but still in good condition.

Zac then came upon a flier for the TeenArts festival, a yearly art festival for all grades, stuck into a another double page grainy collage of the artists and art at the event itself.

Just as Zac seemed to find a promising lead Millie appeared again with two sealed travel cups with cartoon beavers on the side and straws balanced on top of the pastry box. It was easier to transport this way but the lemonade looked to be cold and fresh, with slivers of lemon inside.

"Find anything good yet?" Her entrance and talking broke the stillness that had settled in around Zac.

Millie laughed softly, patting a shoulder as she handed Zac a lemonade, "Did I spook ya?"

She found a sealed box to set the pastries on top of and plucked at the string to open them so she could munch on one. She'd snuck them out so Jesus wouldn't monitor her like a hawk.

"Oh? 2006 hmm? Anything good happen that year?" Hopefully no major catastophes. Millie ate her pastry quickly and was already moving to pull an empty unfolded box out from being tucked against a wall. She constructed it, snapping all the flaps into place, and began relocated what looked like old china, glassware, and some other misc decor items to the box that were nothing but in storage and not sentimental at all.

"Anything like what you're looking for?"

Millie held her lemonade and nursed the straw with pinched lips as she peered over Zac's shoulder at the book. She made a small noise of agreement that this look promising before releasing her drink with a small 'Ah!'

The older woman hunched over the yearbook a moment, the grainy collage of sculptures and paintings and illustrations. More smiling teens, some working, were mashed together at haphazard angles in an effort to make sure every kid got a spot.

"I remember this one," She smiled at a particularly nice nude statue with a blonde next to it.

Below that was a small angled picture with a man, somewhat familiar, being painted by a student. The painting style was possibly close to what Zac was looking for but with the quality of the yearbook printing it may take more than a passing glance to tell.

There were no captions.

"I think at the school," Millie blinked and set her glass aside. She hadn't stopped packing up a box for things for the rummage sale, even as she looked.

"Hang the art in the halls, open the studios. They do it every year," She nodded. The older woman leaned and squinted again. "That man she's painting looks familiar."

The painter did seem, upon closer inspection, to have the build of a young woman- at least from what you could see of the back of their head and shoulders. The man sitting for the painting was dark skinned and did have a familiar countenance even for the lack of resolution.

Millie straightened, hand going to her lower back with a small old-lady groan. "Maybe you can look through the student portraits? But I doubt they were a senior. They usually get color features." As the few dotted color images showed teens that were clearly a couple years older.

Unfortunately the student photos in the yearbook only extended to the seniors, lines of smiling faces with inspirational or humorous quotes and where they were going to college. Several signatures were beside pictures and a graduation pamphlet was stuffed inside the back cover.

Millie had gone back to packing her rummage box, which she was already planning on making Zac carry for her when he was finished because if you had young people around to carry things they should be utilized.

"Perhaps in a later year? If they stayed in the school." Obviously a younger student would have graduated later.

Unfortunately should Zac seek 2007, 2008, or 2009 yearbooks - they seemed to be missing from Millie's collection but considering yearbooks were reserved for those who graduated, it wasn't too much of a surprise that she didn't have them.