Pastries and loaves and cakes couldn't leave notes on fridges, after all.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Coming into work the next day, Xeno's only objective was trying to keep his head down. Since the argument he'd had with Jess yesterday, he wasn't exactly in a talkative mood. It was like playing minesweeper; he thought. Why did it feel like everyone suddenly wanted to talk to him? As he walked through the main hall, he felt the air was.. tense. He couldn't put his finger on what, but something was amiss.
"Mr. Baxterson."
He jumped, and his head whipped around to lock eyes with Mrs. Pepper. She had been running through the main hall of the museum as he`d gone in. He was curious why he hadn't noticed her sooner.
"How are you?" She said, with all the sweetness she could muster in her clearly tired voice. It was clear that running the museum in its current state was immensely stressful, what with the wild accusations being thrown around.
"I'm.. Good, yeah. How are you?" he asked, noting her appearance. Her already wild, curly, greying-brown hair was even messier than usual. She held a mug full almost to the brim with coffee with, ironically, a cat on top of a tree with the words "hanging in there" painted on it. Her unusually chipped pink nail polish matched her jumper perfectly, though the combination seemed unplanned.
"Well, the museum's simply in chaos. I think the pterodactyl was the tipping point. The departments keep trying to sabotage one another, especially yours and Palaeontology." She exclaimed. "Imean, honestly, things are getting damaged, and some people just aren't getting any work done!"
"What do you mean, "sabotage?"" Xeno asked, worried.
"Earlier today, it was simply some ill-spirited practical jokes, but now, things are getting stolen and moved around, and I'm not entirely sure what to do." She paused, looking at Xeno solemnly. "But I've seen this kind of thing spiral out of control at this museum once before. Just promise me you won't get wrapped up in this."
"I promise, Mrs. Pepper." He said, earnestly.
"Good, I need someone I know is innocent. Somehow, we haven't been able to catch any perpetrators yet, even though the cameras are working again." She sighed. "Anyway, how was your meeting yesterday with Dr. Carmazan?"
In light of the news yesterday, Xeno had almost forgotten about it. "It went all right. It just got cut off by your announcement, is all. I'm sure we can schedule a new one."
"That's absolutely brill." She seemed to look past him, seeing something just over his shoulder. "Wait, is that-?"
Mrs. Pepper suddenly took to her heels and started running towards palaeontology, shouting, "I'm no expert, but a dinosaur egg should certainly not be THERE!"
He stood for a moment in utter bewilderment. If the two departments were really trying to sabotage each-other, at least he could take solace in the fact that they weren't doing a very good job, at least for now.
As he crossed the threshold into the planetarium, he realised Jess was giving a talk in there. Sometimes, he forgot that "his" planetarium could be used by other people. He gave most of theastronomy talks there- the other four people in his department mostly did tours and display work. He snuck past Jess and the secondary school children sat in the seats and went into his office.
Given that he had a little spare time, he organised his office. He filed all of the notes other members of staff had given to him, and he even organised his computer desktop, deleting any apps that were taking up too much room. When he was done, he expected about forty-five minutes had passed, and his office looked like he actually had things under control.
Suddenly, he heard a small knock on the door of his office. Briefly confused, he realised that Jess's presentation should be over by now, and it was completely fine that someone should be knocking. He expected it would be Aruda, ready either to complain about or to deliver the latest gossip on the departments sabotaging each-other. As he got up to open the door, he instinctively looked down, about where Aruda's head height would be. Therefore, he was surprised to come face to face with someone much taller.
"Haiden! Hey, what brings you here?"
"Hiya, Xeno! I was just wondering if I could have some help with something; everyone in my department's either working or dealing with something like this on their own."
"Dealing with their own what?"
"Someone's playing a trick on me.. well, a lot of us. I don't know who it was, but I suspect someone from astronomy." He paused, his eyes widening slightly. "No offense, by the way; I'm not accusing you or anything."
"What's the joke? What did they do?"
"Something's happened to my office, and I need someone to help me, or else I'll miss my tour soon. I didn't know whether I should ask you. I'm sure you're very busy, and-"
"Of course I'll help you!" Xeno exclaimed. "We are.. friends, aren't we?"
"Thank you so much!" beamed Haiden, before gesturing for him to follow. "Don't worry, it's nothing serious, I just need someone to help with the finer details. I've lost my pointer, and it's really important for my talk."
In his head, Xeno was celebrating. Haiden hadn't said no when he'd asked if they were friends, and that probably meant yes. He'd actually consciously made a friend, rather than it just.. happening to him by random chance. He followed him through the astronomy department displays and into the main hall.
"It's a shame what happened to Steve, by the way." He began, "I'm.. sorry for your loss?"
Haiden smiled and said, "It must seem ridiculous to anyone else, but he actually meant a lot to my department and I. I can't imagine anyone would want to get rid of him."
