Project Nebula

The Index Card

    Snowflakes danced in the icy air. They dissolved in the frosted grass in front of the house. Helix pulled on his Reapers sweatshirt and leaned on the front door, eating a Dove chocolate bar. The silver sky glowed like a white, sandy beach in mid-summer. G and two others raided the kitchen for breakfast. Biter, who I already knew. The other was a lanky, raven badminton player named Collin, who was actually a girl. Only if it was summer, I wouldn’t be scavenging for my folders and due assignments. My carelessness made my bookbag looked like Hell ground in a garbage disposer. What I could find were my old, busted earbuds from late August.

I searched the futon mattress for my jacket, which I tossed somewhere I thought I couldn’t lose it before I fell asleep. Helix ate the last of his chocolate then sat at the edge of the mattress. He knocked over an empty bottle of black coffee.

    “We’re gonna start break soon,” Helix mentioned. “Does it even matter?”

    “Not really,” I said, “But I have to turn in a make-up test and I can’t find it.”

I took a deep sigh. The test didn’t really concern me too much because it was only the second marking period, but it could add up. I found my jacket pressed under the mattress and yanked it out. This is adding up, I thought. It was already 6:30 in the morning. Biter slammed the microwave shut after his leftover pizza reheated for five minutes. “When are you getting on the road?”

    “I dunno,” Helix answered. “We might not even go.”

My phone buzzed and nearly hit the floor. All texts from Indy. I didn’t read them, but I knew it had something to do with me going to see him. I threw my bookbag over my shoulder. “Let’s go, Helix. I’ll just get the test tomorrow.”

    “Fine, we'll go.” Helix pulled out his phone to check the time. “Come on, Starboy.”

My jacket was worn out from being pressed under the mattress, so it blew more in the Winter wind. This didn’t look like a usual Vicar Point day, nor a typical New York day. About twenty kids total were walking inside the building and about ten cars in the lot. And those people were the players. The sports addicts. The academic optimists. And the coffee drinkers like me. My pecan latte was still piping hot by the time I got out the car.

    “What’s happening today?” I squinted to make out even fewer students through the windows.

    “Maybe there’s a trip.” Helix shrugged.

The coffee drinkers were all wearing their uniforms today. The council uniform. I never noticed I hardly wore the uniform myself. Indy jumped up and waved me over, with his voice slicing through the air, “Castor! We need your help! Good morning, by the way!”

I ran over, Helix following behind. Xander patted me on the back and beamed as if God whispered to him that Spring was coming early. We went inside soon after in the heated building. We passed the rotunda with its lights that could replace a volcano to the dark hallway that led to the music department. A shadow realm, in other words. I looked at Xander, who grinned at his abundance of index cards stacked in his hands.

    “What’re those for, Xander?” I asked.

    “Introduction for the talent show,” he said. “It’s a week from now.”

    “I didn’t hear that on the announcements.”

Indy hugged me from behind, with his chin digging into my shoulder. “I forgot to announce it, but I might this afternoon.”

    “Here we are.”

We reached the auditorium. Ink black seats doused in tiny crystals that shimmered in the golden stage light. It dawned on the novice actors of the theater class. The seats curled towards the stage, making a semicircle. The stage was the color of rosewood. We followed Xander up the short flight of stairs onto the stage. Harper and Chance laid on their bellies and flipped through a packet stuck to a clipboard. I never thought I’d see Chance in the correct council uniform. A tote bag teetered over the edge of the stage, unzipped. I ran to the front of the stage to pull it back before it fell. Could’ve been Indy’s, but I didn’t want to risk invading anyone’s personal belongings. Indy skipped over to rummage through it.