Both of us turned to our side to see a boy approaching. He was tall, handsome with sharp features, and looked undeniably exhausted despite his perfectly tailored three-piece suit. His hair, dark with an almost bluish tint, was slicked back with enough gel to stop a bullet. His cobalt eyes were surrounded by eyebags, giving him the illusion of wearing eyeliner.

Insanely overdressed for a regular school day, but hey? I respect it.

Eli nodded  in recognition. "Fujiwara."

My eyes widened as I leaned into her and whispered, "Fujiwara? As in the student council Vice President?"

"Mm-hmm." Eli grunted.

Fujiwara approached at a deliberate pace, his gaze fixed entirely on the resident love doctor, not even sparing little old me so much as a glance. "Miss Hartley, you are a very hard woman to find," he said flatly.

Guess she was right about the invisibility.

"I even checked the class you were supposed to be in," he went on. "And still had to resort to the cameras to locate you... on the abandoned fourth floor." 

The fourth floor was abandoned? I guess the eerie atmosphere should've tipped me off.

Eli shoved her hands into her coat pocket. "Then perhaps you should've scheduled a meeting."

"I'm not here for that," Fujiwara cut in, tone still as dry as my hair in the summer.

"Oh?" Eli's mood shifted, eyebrow raised as she pulled her hands out of their cages.

He cleared his throat. "The president has requested your presence. I've been sent to escort you personally."

Eli blinked in genuine surprise. "Really now? I thought she hated me."

"So did I, I can't even imagine what she would want from you." Fujiwara muttered, adjusting his tie. "But it isn't my place to question her decisions... and why are you still here?" He turned to me suddenly, pointing like a prosecutor in one of those lawyer video games.

So maybe not that invisible.

I instinctively raised both hands in surrender, only for Eli to grab my wrists and drag them back down.

"He's my new assistant," she declared proudly.

Fujiwara gave me a once-over, eye and lip twitching slightly as he fidgeted with his suit buttons. "Be that as it may, the president explicitly requested a private meeting."

"That's quite unfortunate," Eli shot back with a cool note. "Cause i'm not going anywhere without him."

Excuse me?

Fujiwara's eyes darted between the two of us. After a tense pause, he sighed and abruptly whirled around. "Very well. Follow me," he said, already walking ahead of us.

Eli moved to follow, but I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, grounding her in place. "What the hell, I didn't agree to this," I hissed. "I gotta get home, I have a curfew."

She turned toward me, placing a hand on top of mine on her shoulder. "You're my assistant now, Bill. And besides," she continued with a mischievous smirk, "aren't you the least bit curious about the president?"

I opened my mouth to argue but couldn't come up with anything. I quickly swallowed my tongue and took my hand off her shoulder. With unexpectedly less reluctance then I would have liked, I fell into step beside her, trailing after Fujiwara.

Is that my problem? I'm just too dang curious?

We decended down from the fourth floor in silence. It was almost too quiet, the empty hallways being filled with only the echoes of our footsteps. Eli who was clearly growing bored with silence, nudged me with her elbow. "You going to ask Fujiwara anything?"

"And you can't do that yourself because...?"

She smiled. "You've done quite a good job with questions all day. Trust me, Bill. You've got good instincts."

If needing to ask questions because i'm clueless counts as good instincts then sure, i'm a genius.

I let out a groan and scratched the back of my head rather painfully. "Okay... say I did talk to him. What would I even ask?"

"You got this." Eli gave me a reassuring pat on the back, and then suddenly shoved me forward with the same hand.

I stumbled around, nearly causing a collision with Fujiwara, who flinched and looked over at me like i'd just committed a felony.

I quickly straightened up and muttered, "So...the president, huh..."

His eyes narrowed at me. "Are you going to go anywhere with this?"

Quick! Think of something! Anything at all! Uhhhh Rumors! Rumors are always good, right?

I gave him an innocent smile and raised my hands in a sign of peace. "Yeah, I just... heard some things about last year's student council elections..."

He just stared at me, with even narrower eyes if you can believe it.

Is this a sour topic?

To save myself the embarrassment, I quickly added. " You don't have to answer if it's a rough subject or anything. Sorry."

He blinked a few times, then adjusted his collar, clearing his throat with a stiff cough before speaking. "It's fine. As a student council member it's our duty to address these subjects and be open with the student body."

That seemed very rehearsed, and also very prideful.

I glanced behind me a little bit, seeing Eli with an amused look and a big thumbs up subtly pointed to me.

Turning back to Fujiwara, I kept my question going, "I heard last year's presidential election was canceled. And that..."

Oh crud. What was her name again?

"Coleene," Eli's voice came in as support from behind.

"That Coleene was sworn in automatically. What happened there?

Fujiwara nodded. "Her opponent was, or at least supposed to be, James Tally."

My eyes rose up. "Tally as in... related to the headmaster?"

"His son, yes. It was a foregone conclusion that he'd win in a landslide."

"So why didn't he?"

Fujiwara let out a deep, unsteady breath. "He didn't show up. Not to the debates. Not to his classes. Neither to school at all. He's been gone ever since."

Are we sure he's not dead?

"No he's not dead."

Oh

"So does anyone know what he's up to now or...?"

Fujiwara didn't answer, instead holding out his arm in front of me, stopping both of us in our tracks. "We're here," he said, turning to his right to face a polished wooden door. A plaque beside it reading: Student Council Office