Clashing Obsessions

Chapter 3 - Kalix

Welcome to Monday morning. Time to go be bored, tired, and annoyed.

The weekend was uneventful, again, and I mostly just spent it reviewing every step of my dark web client process for any possible leaks. I found none. Now I'm back at school, waiting in the history classroom for my boring teacher to come start this boring class. And guess what? I'm bored. Already.

"Hey Kalix!" My best friend, Roxanna, walks into the classroom, perky as ever. "Why are you always so gloomy on Mondays?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Why aren't you? Mondays are like the world's worst math problem. Add the irritation, subtract the sleep, multiply the problems and divide the happiness."

"Maybe a little. But they're also a fresh start of a new week!"

Roxy pulls up a seat beside me, looking effortlessly happy with her bright smile and a toss of her voluminous red hair over her shoulder, catching the attention of some of the students walking by. She's wearing a comfy-looking grey pullover with an illustration of a crescent moon and flowers on the front, tucked into her distressed jean shorts, and red canvas sneakers. On her left wrist, along with her tracker, she wears several woven friendship bracelets and a red scrunchie that matches her hair. Her makeup is light, just a little eyeliner and her signature rose lip gloss. She's naturally beautiful, from her blue eyes to her dark caramel skin, and I'm sure people would be bitterly jealous about it if it weren't for her peppy and charming personality. Everyone loves Roxanna; it's impossible not to.

We talk for a few minutes before Sogato-san, the history teacher, walks in.

"Good morning, students," he says, walking to his desk and waving on a holo-projector. The hologram appears over the desk and he starts flipping through the virtual pages, trying to find where we last left off.

"Hey, Kal," Cayden whispers from the row behind me, and I turn around and wave. Like Roxy, Cayden is one of my best friends. The two of them, they're my people — they understand me, know almost everything about me, while most people know pretty much nothing.

Emphasis on the almost, of course. I haven't told either of them about the whole I'm-an-illegal-hacker thing. But that's my business, and honestly, bringing them into it would only put them in danger.

"For today's lesson, we'll be continuing our studies into the Information War," Sogato-san states, looking at a hologram page of the textbook. "Everyone, please get out your notebooks and textbook chips. Flip to page 72." He closes his own holo-book, detaches the d-chip from the holo-projector, and swaps it for one from his bag. A SlideIt presentation titled Lesson 3.2: Information Conflict (2016 - 2059), appears on the holo. A sea of whispers and background noise rises in the class as people set up their various devices and chat to each other in low voices.

"This is so boring, we already had a lesson on this last class!"

"Psst! Can I share your holo-book?"

"How's your project going for biology?"

I try to tune out the sounds, focusing on the (boring) history hologram textbook and virtual notebook plugged into the holo-projector lying on my desk. The whispering continues, and while I wait for Sogato-san to start the lecture, my hands instinctively start fidgeting with my necklace.

A flash of light crosses my desk, and I look down to see a hologram in the shape of a scrap of notepaper. In a handwriting-style typeface, it reads,

Hey Kal, what are you doing after school?

Cayden

Pulling up my virtual keyboard, I type out a response and flick the note across the space between our desks.