Kai was much more invested in learning about the humans around Kyle the following day. Suddenly the boorish friendships he had robotically maintained had value.
He watched Kyle all throughout lunch, but learned surprisingly little. Despite the laughter and sharing of freshly baked memes, whatever that meant, he learned nothing of the substance underneath these friendships. As much as Kai wished he could, he was unable to use memes and 69ing jokes as leverage.
As lunch ended, Kai informed Kyle that he would be driving for the duration of the hour, and he surprisingly didn't protest. Actually, Kyle didn't do much of anything anymore. He just went about his day as he always had, filling the empty spaces with nothing but silence.
Maybe having his soul eaten was bad for him. Who'd've thunk?
It was totally worth it, though. The experience from the night before was something Kai would never forget.
The textures and flavors and smells and sights would always be something he craved.
With that thought, he entered the classroom with what felt like new eyes.
Unfortunately for his new eyes, these were teenagers deep in the throes of puberty.
The amount of touching he saw disturbed him. He sat there for a minute, staring at nothing, trying to process the scene.
However, once he had managed to set his initial disgust aside, Kai found the rampant hormones raging in the room to be quite amusing. Humans looked ridiculous when they tried to look physically attractive.
The most flirtatious girls were wearing skimpy clothes, skin covered with powders that were said to enhance their beauty. Kai supposed they achieved the intended effect, but found no reason to appreciate what were supposed to be flawless faces.
Actually, he appreciated none of the posturing at all.
Instead of gazing across the room at one specific human, he studied them all.
Despite his abhorrence of the high amount of skin-to-skin contact, Kai was able to appreciate how those moments got their emotions running high. The teens oozed the smells of jealousy, fear, and anxiety. But mostly, they just reeked of weed.
Smells aside, Kai wanted some of what they had. Their emotions. Unfortunately, before he felt comfortable imitating the teens, the bell rang and class began.
After the teacher sent the students on their respective ways to work on their projects, Kai's focus was entirely on Sophia.
Even if her emotions weren't running rampant, he couldn't help but marveling at her frozen beauty of a mind once again. Today her mind was different though. Even from the outside he could tell it was gusty inside, snow being lifted off the ground into miniature snowstorms.
Her mind was so different, so unique, that Kai couldn't help but wonder what made her tick. What about her made her so very special?
They sat in the hallway together as Sophia pulled up their powerpoint presentation. As the screen was loading, she rotated her head to face him with a glare.
"Stop staring at me like that. It's creepy."
"Sorry."
Kai blinked, the physical world coming back into focus around him. Perhaps getting to know this girl better would be the secret to understanding her mind.
Maybe this group project would be the key.
The slides finally began to load, and what appeared to be many hours of careful, thoughtful work appeared on the screen.
[The Lysosome - By Sophia and Kyle]
Not only was the presentation clean and concise, it also had notes on each slide to guide the presenter through the speaking portion.
Sophia handed the laptop over to Kai, who scrolled through each page with fascination.
Even though he lacked a truly physical form, the laws of this world were interesting enough to be worth learning.
As he reached the final slide, he looked up.
"How long did you even spend on this?"
Sophia looked over at him. "Why do you care?"
Kai looked over at her unamusedly and stared for a second before responding. "Didn't the instructions say we were supposed to do this assignment… together?"
He watched her pause, as if her thought process were stuttering slightly.
"Aren't you Kyle Whitaker, the football boy?"
"Yes. However, I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"You're telling me that mister football has the time to deign to do his homework?"
Kai tilted his head to the side, as if to ask a question, looking her dead in the eye. "Football has nothing to do with whether or not I do my homework."
The girl let out a grunt, returning her focus to the task at hand. "Alright, well, either way, let's start practicing so we don't mess this up. I need to pass this class."
Despite the girl's continued unfriendliness, Kai could tell he had earned an almost grudging respect.
Somehow, that brought him a sliver of joy.
~~~~
Becca was sitting at home, thinking of Kyle once again.
No, she wasn't just thinking of Kyle. She was thinking of freedom - the freedom from Kyle and therefore these awful feelings.
She tried to avoid the thoughts of murder, she really did, but at some point it became inevitable. Unbearable. The idea of wringing that bastard's neck, watching the very essence of his life fade away as his eyes grew dull…
These gruesome fantasies became her escape, her relief, her reprieve. Each moment she imagined him dead was a moment she felt the peace of mind she so desperately craved.
At this point, Becca knew what she had to do. All that was left now was to figure out how.