Project Nebula

To Report

 It's been a day since Helix and I found the corpse in the dumpster. I felt relieved after that. I could sleep without any disruptions and didn't have to wake up once because of some stupid nightmare. I even allowed Indigo stay over and sleep on the couch. He had parked his car in the driveway. Even the trees were happily basking in the calming moonlight. In the morning, I still couldn't stop myself from limping to the bathroom with barely serviceable vision. After washing my face and flushing my eyes out for the thousand time, I observed myself in the mirror. The bags under my eyes were nearly invisible. It looked like my hair fixed itself.

I smelled burning batter spreading across the house. I threw on my robe and entered the kitchen. Indigo was in a long black robe without his glasses, shaking a pan of batter over top a burning burner on the stove. He set the pan down and smiled at me.

"Morning, Castor!" he cheered, pointing to me with his spatula.

I leaned against the edge of the kitchen sink. By then, I just noticed he was wearing some green face mask and slippers from my closet. He wasn't wasting any time embracing my cluttered lifestyle. For a moment, he reminded me of a fluffy theme park mascot. Like I could give him random hugs and tell him the most outlandish things, and he wouldn't even remember me speaking to him.

"Who are you trying impress?" I sneered.

"I've always worn this mask," Indigo's voice drained of its original glee. He still had a grin, but proceeded to look down at the pan with less shimmering eyes.

I'm guessing it was pancake batter he was cooking. It became hardened and looked like coal. He didn't react to the smoke emitting from it. I left the kitchen to get dressed. Instead of the student council uniform, I went back to the basics: a black shirt and pants. Nothing actually fit me because I haven't worn the good clothes in a few years, so they fit me more than they should, I guess.

Indigo drove the two of us to school in his new car, but it took a bit longer. He even put his tote bag in the back seat. Rain poured from the sky and made a small flood throughout the city. It was murky, bitter, and worsened when the heavy raindrops seeped through my clothes. My flat shoes squeaked on the tile floor inside the school and created massive water puddles. Though I was suspended temporarily from my role, I followed Indigo into the teacher's lounge, anyway. I found it interesting how gorgeous Indigo looked after walking through heavy rain and how polluted I became. It didn't make up for the lack of his uplifting smile.

The somber weather made the school's interior appear joyous and playful. The teacher's lounge: not so much. Every light in there was off, with the only light being the cloaked sun casting a silver tint on everything in the room. Harper, Xander, and Chance all sat around the conference table. Xander scribbled in a five subject notebook with a pen. Harper mashed her fingers into the buttons of her calculator. Chance, however, kept his head down.

"President, club members arrive before anyone else does in order to move forward according to schedule," Xander lectured me, "Take a seat."

Seeing him there confused me. Last time I saw him was in the copy room. Last time I heard his name was from the police officers who walked in. As I walked to the coffee machine and got myself a paper cup, I felt his eyes following me from afar. When they weren't, I squinted to see the contents of his notebook. Nothing. The pen was still capped. He knew what he was doing. He wanted to see my perplexed face, I assume.

I sat down at the end of the table, where Xander's seat was closest to. Indigo sat directly across from me. I couldn't fill in the blanks for what happened after I left the copy room. The thought distorted my brain, generating all kinds of open-ended questions.

"Xander, you can call me by my name," I whispered to him.

"Not very proper for a member to refer to a president by their first name," he said.