Finding Aster

Eilon - Planning a Crime

I'm sitting by myself as usual at lunch in the cafeteria, with my laptop for a companion, when Kitty Roseavelt walks up to me. "Uh, hi, Eilon, can I sit here?"

"Sure," I answer, puzzled, closing the lid of my laptop. Before Aster disappeared, someone like Kitty would never dream of talking to me. Now here she was, asking if she could sit next to me. The rest of the school noticed to, their heads turned in awe. I had always been ignored; a nothing. But with the death of Aster, the only person in Eastmore who was always in the spotlight, some of that light had been shared. I felt important. I felt wanted.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper. Still shocked Kitty wanted to sit with me, probably the most unpopular guy in the whole of Eastmore.

"I'm over sitting with those b****es" she says, loud enough the whole school can hear. "Lila can't wait till Aster's body's found. Bonnie doesn't care, etc." She looks me in the eyes, "RIght now I need a friend. Not a fake one. But a real one. What with Aster gone and everything..."

"What about Fox?" I ask, "Or even Midnight?" 

"They're in The East office, planning something to do with the case. Fox doesn't want me to know. Like that helps. Now I keep thinking they have found her body." she sighs, and picks at her lunch with a fork. "I'm always fragile little Kitty. Everyone hide the truth from her, or maybe she'll break. Just snap in half." She digs her fork into the lasagna, ripping it in two. "But I'm fine; really."

***

"Fox, I think you should tell her," Midnight says, looking up at him. We're gathered around the crime board. Fox passing a ball in between his hands, Midnight, posed hand on hip, Kitty sitting on a chair in a sad pile.

Fox sighs, "Yesterday at the police station, after you left, Detective Casterwyre told me the reason they presumed she was dead was because...they found blood in the woods. A lot of blood."

Kitty gasps. "Oh my God! This is it! She's dead isn't she?" She buries her face in her hands, he shoulders arched and knees slumped. 

"No," Fox continues, "They have no way to prove it's Aster's DNA. There's no records."

Kitty sits up. Her eyebrow furrows, "Hmm. Suspicious." She pauses than speaks up. "We need to break into the police station."

"WHAT?!" I say, confused, "Oh my God, Kitty. No way! Are you insane?" I'm so shocked and horrified, even she'd suggest such a thing.

Midnight smiles to herself; bemused,"I think that's a great idea. I've always wanted to do something like that."

"Fox?" I ask, "You can't agree with them, this is madness!" I am desperate to convince them. I can't participate in a crime! Especially not breaking into the God damned POLICE STATION.

He bows his head. "It's the only way. We need to find Aster. And what the police are hiding. This could be our only hope. We need to know if she's really alive, or if she is dead."

"And how do you suppose we get in?" I ask, my eyebrow raised, as though this is all a joke. I agree with Fox, but I'm not going to go to such extreme measures too get answers!

"My Dad used to work at the police station," Kitty pipes us. "We still have his admittance card." Her face lights up with hope. I actually makes me slightly hopeful. She's looked so dead inside this past week.

"And what?" I say, still trying to talk them out of this crazy idea. "He'll just let you used it?"

Kitty looks down at her shoes. "Actually, he, uh, passed away last year."

"Oh, Kitty, I had no idea." I say, "I'm so sorry." I feel awful. Great, Now I just shamed her into speaking about it.

"No. It's fine," she says; a warning not to dig any deeper. "If we swipe his card, we can get in. One night, we can go in undetected."

I roll my eyes, "No way. It's the most secure building in Eastmore! They're are probably guards or something!"

Midnight raises an eyebrow.

"Still, people work there at night. There's heavy duty security around the whole premise." I add, hoping to deter them.

Kitty looks down at her shoes again. Lost deep in thought. After about ten minutes, she pops up again. "Okay," she says, "I've just devised a master plan."

***

"So, Drew Casterwyre and Sally Lane know I had a meltdown over my Dad yesterday; meaning they'll be supportive, kind and understanding. They still haven't cleaned out Dad's office yet, it's kind of like a shrine. If I go in, saying I need a way to remember my Dad, and hang in his office, there's no way they'll question me being there. That way I can sneak in and check out the files."

"Oh my God, Kits, that's Genius!" says Fox, swinging her up in the air. Kitty giggles, "Midnight do you still have those earpieces and microphones?"

Midnight sighs, "Sadly not, Terry Frieman and his crew took them back to shoot their new film, 'Monsters of the Deep'. Sounds awful already." she looks deep into Kitty's eyes, and for the first time in four years, it feels like, Midnight Deluca smiles, "We don't need them anyway, we trust you Kitty."

"And you didn't trust me?" Fox raises an eyebrow.

Midnight laughs, "Definitely not."

So there we were. The popular princess, the jock, the outsider and I, the geek. It felt like we were friends, the four of us. Brought together by loss, grief and despair. But things build on foundations like that never last. Once this is over, we'll all go our separate ways. Kitty and Fox will forget about us. Midnight and I will return to being merely acquaintances. But it didn't feel like being used. It was being needed. And it felt nice to be needed. Even if it was only temporary. And you were forgettable.