An Unspoken Presence

I removed the envelope from the cupboard. A neatly folded sheet of paper was inside. I looked at the contents of the letter, a single sentence.

"I'm waiting for you."

What was this esoteric message? This was not what I was expecting. Nothing else was found on the letter, no name, no reference to anything related to the sender

Was I missing something? This feeling was eerily familiar.

I took the kettle off the stand and poured water into my cup of instant noodles. The steam brushed my face, warming me up in an instant.

*

It was Saturday, during which, students could do basically anything they wanted as there were no scheduled classes. I was not someone who overly enjoyed usual recreation activities. As I watched the rising sun through the window, I pondered what I was going to do.

There seemed to be someone knocking on the door.

"Ollie,"

It was a voice I did not enjoy the sound of very much.

"Come on, let's go to the arcade!"

I ignored her requests as I was not in the mood to interact with her. Why had she suddenly decided to speak to me?

I stretched my arms, attempting to clear my mind.

"Stop ignoring me I know you're in there!"

She acted very differently from her usual self.

"Come out! This is an order from the vice-captain!"

I was pretty sure that the student council didn't have powers like that.

It wasn't that I disliked the idea of hanging out with people, it was only that Maia seemed to be uncomfortably close to me.

"At least come and hear what I have to say."

It wasn't like I had anything else planned with other people, I had just wanted to go to the convenience store to get some things.

Reluctantly, I walked towards the door and opened it.

Maia was wearing a comfy oversized shirt with shorts so small you could hardly see them. She had her hair in a messy bun with a tiny red hair clip.

"Aren't you a little too casual?"

"Aw, is that your way of complimenting me?"

I don't understand how that could be possibly thought of as a compliment.

"So, are we going to go to the arcade together?"

"No, I'm going to the convenience store and then straight back."

"Wow, you're just like an old man."

"At least old men have things to care for."

"What?"

I walked past Maia towards the elevator. I looked around at the rooms as I made my way down the well-kept hallway. The floor was a nice soft carpet and there were always housekeepers cleaning the rooms when the students were away. It was basically built like a hotel.

"Aren't you going to wait for me?"

"No."

"You're so mean…"

I pressed the button to signal the elevator, Maia sauntered towards me like a little puppy. The elevator door opened.

The two of us entered the elevator and it gradually began its descent.

"What did you want to talk to me about." I asked

I had been wondering why Maia had been acting like this.

"I want you to be my assistant."

"Why would you want me? I'm just a dumb class C student."

She laughed under her breath.

"We're like family, right?"

I felt a shiver down my spine.

She began talking again.

"If you're Sonya's little brother, then you would at least be pretty capable."

I didn't know much about my older sister, I had no idea this assumption could be made.

The information I had about my sister was little to none. I had no thoughts or feelings towards her, I never saw her, so, I had no idea what she was like apart from what was written in the letter.

"But even so, why me? I'm sure you could find other more capable people."

"Honestly, whilst I could probably find a higher-ranked person, you're one of the only people in the entire school who I can at least kind of trust."

"Where is this coming from?"

"Oh, come on Ollie, we have history,"

Just then, the elevator door opened

"Also, you're the only other person who will understand what I'm going to do."

"What do you mean?"

We made our way out of the elevator through the reception and down the path.

"I want to overthrow Caleb."

Her face suddenly soured.

"It's not like Caleb has done anything wrong, it's just that I want to access..."

Caleb was the top-ranking student in all of the year tens. This guaranteed the position as the student body captain for the year, regardless of anything else. Normally, it would be impossible to change the order of the student council (not including the assistants as they could be changed at any time). However, under extreme circumstances, it is possible to change the order.

The conditions were either.

- A member is expelled

- A member is unable to fulfil his duties due to outstanding physical illness or distress.

It seemed Maia was planning some extreme measures.

"What exactly do you want access to?"

She took a deep breath.

"I'm pretty sure there's information on Theo on the database which only Caleb can access," she replied.

I was somewhat puzzled.

"I thought you were pretty close to your brother, what information could you possibly want?"

"He was the student body vice-captain for two years straight, yet in the third year, he only managed to get a position in the council as your sister's assistant."

While it wasn't impossible, it didn't really make sense for someone to suddenly fall out of the student council considering it was very unlikely for their grades to suddenly drop that far.

Not that I really cared for any of this.

"Haven't you tried asking Caleb directly?"

"I did, and he did a little search but didn't give me much information. I feel he might be hiding information from me."

Eventually, after all the talking, we made it to the convenience store. The doors of the convenience store slid open automatically. Whilst it was technically not as large as a supermarket, it was where basically every student went to get basic goods.