The Student Council | Ray

Kindling

I really should put parental restrictions on our TV and her iPad. She's only eight! I made a mental note in my head so once we arrive back, I can turn it on.

"Oh, by the way, happy birthday Ray! Did you like the scarf my sister made? I forgot to tell her to give this to you," she said, reaching into her backpack. She gave him a handwritten card with an artistic representation of him.

"Thank you, Lily, I'll definitely treasure it," he said, blinking at it. I wonder what she wrote.

Emma then stood up and excused herself to go to the bathroom. I was about to go on my phone, wondering when we're planning to leave.

I looked at Ray and once he noticed me he made what? expression.

Ask Norman what we are doing, I said with my hands. I pointed directly at Norman.

You look like a dying jellyfish, he mouthed. I blinked and went on my phone.

"Ask Norman what are we doing when we arrive at the site," I told him over text. He texted back, "Got it."

"So Norman, what are we doing once we go to our location?" he asked nonchalantly.

He shrugged. "I haven't decided. I just rented the area, and I don't even know what it looks like, or even if it has a signal."

"Shouldn't we start the car now?" I asked. We've been sitting here for probably twenty minutes now, and I don't even know what we were waiting for.

But here's a background of what is going to happen. We arrive at whatever the GPS says we are. We create a plan from there, and in the meantime, we do whatever we want.

"We can start now," Norman answered. As if on cue, all of us stood up. I took Lily's hand and we all started going to the car.

Norman is an interesting person. Before I knew him personally, he always gave me this unsettling feeling. Like, he seemed too nice sometimes. Every teacher adored him. Girls love him, but for what?

But then I joined the council. Inside the room, he's an entirely different person. I don't even know if it's a good thing either. He seems naturally kind, he's just scary. Actually more distant than scary. As nice as he is to everyone, he's distant. Norman's like how people approach classmates they dislike: behind their smile they're planning a literal murder.

Lily once even called him a ghost when she saw him on an old yearbook page.

We all went into our designated seats. Emma called shotgun so she sat next to Norman in the front. (f/n) and Lily sat in the middle, and Ray and I sat in the back.

So far, the ride was probably two hours. I just looked out the window the majority of the time, went on my phone, and read. It felt a little strange because Ray was right next to me, and I was expecting him to be bothering me about how I look or something. But he wasn't.

He was busy reading a book. "What are you reading?" I asked.

He looked up. "What's it look like? A book."

I rolled my eyes. "I know it's a book, stupid. I'm just asking what is it."

"Why do you want to know?" he inquired.

"Because I'm bored and felt like talking to you," I answered honestly. "We've been on this road forever."

"Wow, never thought you actually wanted to engage in conversation with me," he muttered. "Fine, I'm reading about flowers."

"Flowers? Why?" I questioned curiously, looking at the pages. It was covered in drawings of plants that were labeled with Latin names.

"Well, I kinda do gardening in my spare time," he said quietly, looking at his hands. "And I learned that there are many types of flowers in the place we're going to."