Kei

  “The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.”

  --Leonardo da Vinci

  “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

  --William Blake

  School passes by in a blur, but not an unpleasant one.

  A day passes, then a week, then the better part of a month.

  And for almost a month, I’m a normal girl. Well, a special girl at a special school doing special things, but by my standards, as dull as dishwater and dryer than dust.

  I love every minute of it. Even the boring parts. Especially the boring parts.

  I find the classes interesting, even vaguely challenging, though I feel a pressure behind my eyes that tells me I’ll be eating the regular coursework alive at the slightest excuse. Mentally, I tell that force – or whatever it is – to stand down and let me be a girl for a day. Or a week, or a month.

  Surprisingly, it listens. Or at least loses interest.

  I’ll take the win.

  I share classes with Haley, Emily and Tam, though not all of them at once, and I get introduced to their friends as the days wear on.

  Sometimes I wonder if they’re setting me up with potential BFFs, or straight-up boyfriends. I’d tell them I’ve never had a relationship outside of chess club, but I’m not even sure what I mean by that, so I skip it.

  Still, it’s usually nice to meet their friends.

  Other times…

  “This is Tim, Kei,” Tam says, waving at a slim, nervous looking boy next to her locker as I walk by them. “Pay no attention to anything he says.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Oh… Kay,” I answer slowly, raising an eyebrow at both her and Haley walking up behind me. “Nice to meet you, Tim,” I tell him.

  “Nice to—” he begins.

  Tam elbows him, though she barely brushes him when she does. “He was just promising not to bother you, weren’t you, Tim?”

  He sighs, and nods. “I wasn’t going to ask much. Cool video, though.”

  Tam rolls her eyes at him. They begin a fierce, silent exchange of expressions which somehow conveys more than full sentences could – a kind of shorthand done in microexpressions. Finally Tim blinks hard, nods again at Tam, and steps back. A second later, he’s disappeared into the crowd, carried away in the tide of moving high schoolers.

  “Sorry about that,” Tam says. “He’s gotten a little worked up, lately, and I wanted to lay down the law before he upset you or embarrassed himself.”

  “Oh,” Haley remarks from her locker. “That stuff, again?”

  Tam sighs. “He’ll get over it.”

  Haley gives her a look, her expressionless face somehow saying everything.

  “Well, okay then,” I respond politely. “I’ll catch up,” I tell Haley, who’s in my last classes. With Tim no longer planted directly in front of my locker, I can now swap out my books.

  The crowd in the hall in thinning out as I slam my locker closed and click the lock into place. It’s then that I notice a notebook on the floor. Not one of mine, I think, but I pick it up and check it anyway.

  Someone else’s writing fills the front page, but no name, of course.

  With a sigh, I scurry to my next class, and plant myself in my seat by Haley well before the first bell.

  I flip open the notebook again. “This isn’t Tam’s, is it?” I ask, wondering if it’s something she’ll need for her next class. I automatically take in the contents of the first page. I remember I can speedread, though I don’t always do so.

  But this isn’t so much speedreading as taking in the contents of the page and understanding them in an eyeblink.

  And this… doesn’t look like a class notebook. Or a private journal either, exactly. More like notes from an investigation.

  “Do we have a school newspaper?” I ask Haley. The professor isn’t paying attention, and our last class is study hall, anyway. And I’ve just found something a lot more interesting to study than schoolwork.

  I flip through, page-by-page, increasingly quick, as I wait for her answer. Finally I glance up, seeing her staring at me and the notebook.

  “Are you actually reading that fast?” Haley inquires. She seems… not disbelieving, but almost as though she’s reassessing me, somehow.

  “Not deeply.” I shrug. It’s hard to describe. I’m getting everything in these pages, but either someone at this school is a raving conspiracy theorist or the pressure building up behind my eyes now is more about my brain refusing to acknowledge everything I’ve just read. And understand all too clearly.

  ‘Not deeply’ is my way of saying ‘I’m refusing to think about this, why do you ask?’

  I glance back down, flip through the last few pages and finally see the name on the back cover. I sigh, and close it with a snap.

  I hand it to Haley. “Could you check this for a name?” I ask. “I’d really like to return it.”

  Okay. I’m not being entirely honest, but she’ll see what I’m up to in a minute, I’m sure. And right now, I’m starting to feel a little dizzy.

  Time to share the wealth.

  Haley pages through it with a frown and, as far as I can tell, she has at least a little bit of my speedreading gift herself. At least, her eyes are getting increasingly wide – and wild – as the notebook rants on in front of her. Finally she hits the back cover, sees the name on it, and gives me some serious side eye as she slams it shut in turn.

  Tim Heron. Tam’s friend and maybe, sort-of boyfriend.

  Who now has a lot of explaining to do.

  We begin a whispered conference, and before the final bell, we have a strategy.

  Time to find Tim. And to get some answers.

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