CHAPTER FIVE
"Please, Xeno? I'll really owe you one."
He rolled his eyes and smirked. How many "ones" did Dr. Aruda owe him already?
She was asking him to tour a primary school around the Palaeontology department in a couple of minutes, one of his least favourite tasks of museum work.
Giving a speech to people was no problem, it's just that touring around a group of six to ten year olds was more like herding sheep than an educational opportunity.
"I'm telling you, you have to start actually doing your own work." He stood his ground.
Aruda pretended to be offended. "Come on, Xeno, the latest episode of that soap opera came out today, I need to find out what happens to my favourite character.
" At his bemused expression, she realised she was fighting a losing battle.
"Fine. Have it your way. Oh, by the way, I think Jess is looking for you. "
His ears pricked up at the mention of his friend. He'd left so suddenly the other day, but with her leaving, he didn't know if he could face her. "On second thoughts," He began, "I wouldn't want to get in between you and that show. I'll do it."
A smile spread across Aruda's face. "Thank you so much, I'll really owe you." She paused for a moment. "Well, good luck. And be careful on those corners, I wouldn't want a repeat of the other week."
"What do you mean?"
"When you went and knocked over that poor blonde boy's trolley!"
“What?” He began, embarrassed that she'd noticed. "How do you know about that?"
"It was around the corner from my office, the clatter was so loud, I thought there was a break in.
I asked him if he wanted any help, but he picked up his things and pretty much ran away from me.
I hope no one's told him any rumours about me, maybe I should wear a sign that says I don't bite. " She laughed at her own joke.
"I'll be careful, I promise." He said, embarrassed. Just as he was about to leave, he turned around and retorted "And ,for the record, he crashed into me. not the other way around."
"Whatever you say, Xeno." Aruda said, playfully. She grinned at him. "Thanks again, bless you." She replied, walking away, waving over her shoulder.
"Just this once!" He called back, but it seemed that she was out of earshot.
Ashamed to have had one of his more embarrassing moments discovered, Xeno walked briskly to the outside of the museum.
It was a long walk, and during it he glanced at the itinerary that Aruda had handed him.
He was to be touring the children around the palaeontology department, leading them to a talk by someone called Mr. Crossley.
Xeno vaguely recognised the name in that he was the head of palaeontology, but he hadn't seen him before.
It was always odd to him whenever he was there, it felt like he was in enemy territory.
Then, he could leave them in Crossley's hands, and their teachers would funnel them back into their coach like shepherds and cattle.
Finally, he got to the front of the museum, where he came face to face with Mrs. Pepper. "Hiya, Xeno. Where's Dr. Aruda?"
His blood ran cold in his veins. "I'm covering for her right now.
" He realised that the reason for this impromptu "cover" wouldn't sound very good, so he followed up with "something important came up.
" Why was she there? This couldn't be good.
"I've got a tour group. I'm expecting them in. ." he checked his phone "five minutes."
"You wouldn't mind if I tagged along, would you?
" she asked. "It's fine if not, I'm sure not everyone would like to get followed around by their boss, I've just been looking into some of the departments recently and realised I haven't done any.
. personal assessments in a while. I meant to start with Kiara, but I'm sure I can skip forward to you. "
It was odd for him to hear Aruda's first name.
Very few people even knew it, let alone used it.
"Oh, alright, then. Yeah, I'd love for you to come along.
" He lied. It wasn't that he didn't like the woman, he just didn't want her opinion on him guided by how he herded children around- it wasn't one of his especially honed talents.
"Excellent!" she said with a grin.
Mrs. Pepper was a tall woman, about fifty years old.
She had glasses and dark blonde, slightly greying hair and was holding a clipboard.
She had long, light pink nails and was wearing a matching light pink jumper with "cat lover" emblazoned on the front.
By all means, she was a lovely, bubbly woman- it was just her status at the museum and the threat of a department cancellation that unnerved Xeno.
After what seemed like an eternity of Mrs. Pepper scribbling away on her clipboard with her novelty cat pen, the coach finally pulled up in the museum car park, and a flock of children started milling in an organized line towards the museum in pairs.
He was uncomfortable, to say the least, but had to appear nonchalant in front of both the children and his boss.
"They can smell fear." He reminded himself in his head.
He waited until all of the children were gathered in a line in front of him.
All in all, it looked to be around fifty kids and three teachers.
There was a loud hum of children's chatter that two of the teachers were unable to quell.
Unfazed, the third teacher, a short, stout old man stood on a bench to be seen above the sea of children.
"QUIET!!" he bellowed. Immediately, all of the chatter ceased, and all eyes were on the teacher, before slowly migrating over to Xeno and Mrs. Pepper.
Uncomfortable, He began his rehearsed speech about the museum rules.
Nervous as he was, he'd had to do something like this to get qualified to work at the museum.
The only difference was that instead of strict Mrs. Carmazan conducting his interview, it was Mrs. Pepper, who was harder to get a read on.
He hoped this wouldn't shape her opinion on which department to cut, what with him being completely out of his element.
When he was done, he asked if there were any questions.
One little boy put his hand up. "Yes? You, what's your question? " He asked, politely.
"Mister Museum man, what's your favourite colour?"
This statement elicited a quiet chuckle from his peers, but the intention seemed innocent enough, to Xeno anyway. "My favourite colour? I'd say red." The little boy seemed satisfied with his answer and looked at his friend with a smile.
"If there are no further questions, let's get on with the tour!" He announced.
And so, the children followed as he and Mrs. Pepper started walking into the museum.
The natural history section of the museum was pretty simple; it included the geology department, a little display of evolution and looped back around to enter the palaeontology department with their fossils and auditorium before also bringing the visitors back to the main hall, leading visitors in a circle so that they would end up back where they began.
As he guided everyone into the main hall, he took in how beautiful it was.
He usually came into the museum through the astronomy exclusive entrance, and so didn't have time to appreciate its grandeur.
It had a high, vaulted ceiling and was made up of two parts; the ground floor and a balcony-like viewing area upstairs, which was where the party was going to be held.
At the ceiling of the great hall, there was a mural for every department available for the museum; beautiful emerald leaves pointing in the direction of biology, white stars and planets facing astronomy et cetera.
Just above the balcony area, there was a ridiculously ugly-looking pterodactyl, indicating the natural history area, which included the palaeontology and geology departments.
The museum building itself was ancient, though trying to put an exact date on its construction was tricky.
All Xeno knew was that Ms. Pepper had inherited it from some family member some twenty years prior.
There were silly rumours that it was haunted, which Xeno disregarded as ridiculous work gossip.
That being said, he wouldn't like to be left alone there for an extended period of time.
Something about the architecture of the place was slightly unnerving after all of the visitors had gone home.
As he was leading them, the students looked around in awe, pointing at the large foam pterodactyl and giggling to themselves as they entered under the balcony, into the first section: geology.
"And so, as you can see," He said, pointing to the interactive display, "The Earth used to be one large supercontinent, called Pangaea.
" The class seemed bored, it was clear they were just looking forward to the dinosaur display.
Xeno couldn't blame them, he'd never been too interested in geology either.
It would have been a regular, if slightly boring excursion if not for Mrs. Pepper and her clipboard.
"What could she possibly be noting down?
" He thought to himself, as he led the sea of children further into the department.
The crystal section was usually a fan favourite, and this time was no exception.
He decided to give the kids a little free time in the exhibit while he could talk with Mrs. Pepper.
Good to get on her radar, right? So while the children were marvelling at the pretty rocks, he was lost in thought trying to think of what to talk to Ms. Pepper about.
As he racked his brain, all he could think of was the workplace gossip from Aruda, which he hardly thought she'd like to hear about.
Luckily for him, Ms. Pepper struck first.