CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
When Xeno came into work the next morning, something felt off.
As he pulled his car into the astronomy car park, he noticed furtive glances being cast his way from not only the palaeontology members but also people from all sorts of departments.
Brushing it off as simple paranoia, he went through the astronomy doors.
It felt satisfying to unlock them; When Dr. Carmazan was still the head of Astronomy, and she'd had a day off, the entrance was locked all day, and they all had to go through the museum doors, a detour that often took five to ten minutes.
Coming into his office, he was surprised to see Jess and Aruda already in there, both of them looking anxious.
He realised that they'd probably had to walk all the way around the front of the museum to come in and felt bad for not being there sooner to unlock the door- but what could he do?
He was five minutes early to the museum every day.
The pair of them looked up. He met Aruda's eyes first, and she had a look of dire seriousness on his face. "What's going on?" asked Xeno, anxious.
"What did you do last night?" Aruda asked. Though she tried to keep her voice steady, worry seeped in through the cracks, causing her concerned tone to shake slightly.
"My overtime?" He asked. He didn't want to admit that he'd spent almost the entire last two hours of it playing games on his desktop. Surely they wouldn't care about that?
"No, Xeno, we're serious." Jess added. "Promise me you didn't do anything stupid yesterday."
"All right, you caught me. I was playing games on my computer. What's the fuss about? I don't complain when you bring your sketchbook everywhere." Xeno said, his worry turning slightly into annoyance.
Jess turned to Aruda. "It really wasn't him. I mean, I knew.. we both knew that it couldn't be. But we had to make sure."
"Make sure of what?" Xeno was getting agitated. "Guys, what's going on?"
"Something happened late last night.." Aruda began. "People are saying it's you, because you were the last person in the museum. Or so they think, anyway."
"What happened?" asked Xeno, terrified.
"Come with us." Jess said. "It'd be better for you to see for yourself." The three of them walked briskly through the astronomy wing. Luckily, his new office was closer to the entrance than his old one, so the journey only took them about a minute and a half.
When they got to the main hall, he saw what they'd meant.
Papier maché was strewn all over the floor in the main hall, creating a trail that led into the palaeontology department doors.
Hues of green and blue and purple laid on the ground, some shaped into a wing, some into a head.
A lone googly-eye stared at the ceiling a little way away from the carnage, still close enough to be recognisably part of it.
This was Steve. Or what remained of him, anyway.
Upon seeing Xeno, Mr. Crossley stormed up to him.
"There you are. Are you happy now? All our desks, our displays, everything's covered.
" He stared aggressively. For a moment, Xeno was sure the man would lunge at him.
"Did you honestly think that you could get away with this?
Why would you do it, anyway? Is this because of the argument you had with Haiden?
Wanted to get back at him, did you?" He snarled. Xeno recoiled instinctively.
"Henry, stop." Stated a familiar voice.
He looked away from Mr. Crossley to see Haiden.
he was wearing the same dinosaur jumper that he'd been wearing for the first party, his golden, curly hair was messier than usual, and the stubble around his chin and jawline was thicker than usual, it looked like he'd foregone shaving for a couple of days.
It wasn't a bad look for him, Xeno thought, before realising this was absolutely not the time.
"Haiden, why are you defending him? I know how much that ruddy thing meant to you; we all did.
He's gone and ruined a bunch of our displays too.
And don't try to tell me it wasn't him; who else could it have been? "
"I'm not defending him." He turned to look at Xeno; his misty blue eyes met his with a mixture of hurt, suspicion and worry.
"I'm just saying that you don't have to treat him so unkindly.
We'll see whether he's guilty later." They remained at an impasse as Mr. Crossley tried to think of an adequate response.
His expression shifted between accusatory and sympathetic, as if unsure which to choose.
As if on cue, Xeno heard the tinny museum PA system blare.
"Xeno Baxterson needs to report to my office effective immediately.
" It was Ms. Pepper's voice. She sounded upset, but not angry.
Perhaps Xeno could try to reason with her?
He practically ran to the stairs, desperate to be away from the staring eyes and accusatory faces.
As he was going, he was conscious that Jess and Dr. Aruda weren't too far behind him, but he couldn't face them now. He just wanted this all to be over.
He knocked once on Ms. Pepper's office door before it opened. It was clear that she'd been waiting behind it for him. "Please come in, Mr. Baxterson." She said, gesturing to a chair in front of her desk.
Ms. Pepper's office was exactly like Xeno had imagined.
The walls were a light purple, lavendery colour, with a plethora of cats patterned on the wallpaper.
Her desk, which sat in the middle of four pink filing cabinets that stretched almost to the ceiling, was a light wooden colour.
It was perfectly organised, methodical and inviting at the same time.
He couldn't help walking in and sitting down without making a fuss.
The room exuded a calm that immediately caused him to lower his voice subconsciously.
However, despite the serenity of the room, he began before she could say another word.
"You must know it wasn't me. I mean, you walked through the main hall an hour before; did you notice anything suspicious?" He burst out.
"No, I didn't." Her lips were pursed; she looked like she was about to cry.
"Couldn't you check the cameras?" If they looked, they could probably find who did it. It's not like another person would have the foresight and capability to stop the footage.
"I'm afraid they don't have night vision. Xeno, do you realise why I called you in here?"
He looked up at her. He watched her open her computer, possibly just to avoid his gaze; it was clear she didn't like confrontation.
Surprisingly, it wasn't password protected - he could see her open it with a single click in the reflection of her oversized glasses.
In fact, he could even make out that her desktop home screen was a picture of three cats.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand." He cocked his head.
"There have been reports that the paper's gotten everywhere.
In the offices, in the palaeontology hallways, even on the exhibits.
This'll take a long, long time for the palaeontology department to clear up, and you might have caused irreparable damage to some of the artifacts.
" She looked away with tears in her eyes.
"Xeno, I'm afraid we're.. letting you go. "
"I'm fired?" He breathed, frozen into his seat.