Pie

It was hard to get up for school; my body felt weak. It's as if a truck hit me. But I used all of my energy to get ready. I opened my phone to see the next riddle.

Riddle 3
Difficulty: medium. 

You want riddle number Four, then here you go. 
My favorite dessert is pi, and you better try.
To solve my problems and I am hard to eye.
If you don't want me to die, make sure I don't fly.

This riddle felt different than the others. There was nothing that can be the meaning of a name. I looked at the difficulty; it was medium. How will I solve this? From the last sentence, I knew what the cause of death would be. "Make sure I don't fly." It probably means the person's cause of death is falling from a high place. But fall from where? I'll have to make sure the person isn't anywhere near a high place. When looking at the riddle again, I noticed something odd. Why is Pie spelled wrong? Was it a mistake?

I went downstairs to eat breakfast before heading to school. 
"Good morning, sweetie."
"Good morning, mom."
"If you want me to make you breakfast make it quick; I have to head to work." 
"I'm good, mom. I'll eat cereal instead."
"Okay! Have a nice day, sweetie." My mom left while in a rush. 
"Mom! I'd like some pancakes-. Wait, where is mom?" Lena asked when she got to the bottom of the stairs. 
"She left for work." I answered. 
"Seriously! she is going to work earlier, the more the days pass! Why is her boss making her have so much work!"  
I shrugged my shoulders. "No idea. Anyways, I have to head to school." 
I had bags under my eyes as if I haven't slept for weeks. My whole body felt numb. It was even hard for me to make a cup of coffee. "A-are you okay? you look like a dead fish." Lena said.
"I'm fine. I have to go." I said as I took the cup of coffee with me. 

I wasn't feeling well today. I felt like I could fall at any moment while I was walking. The riddles keep me up at night that I can't sleep well, so it's been days since I had a good night's sleep. When I got to my classroom, I couldn't take it anymore. I slammed my head on my desk and took a nap. 

"Hey, sleepyhead. Hey!"
I woke up frightened, "AHH! WHAT?" The students started laughing. 
"Since you were paying attention in class, I want you to solve what's one the bored." 
THIS FREAKING ENGLISH TEACHER! Why does he always try to humiliate me in class?!
"S-sure." I got up from my seat and headed to the board. I picked up the chalk and started writing. "H-here, I'm done." 
The English teacher's eyes opened wide. "H-How?!" 
Based on his reaction, I knew I answered right. The entire class was shocked.  
"How did you answer it?" 
"Luck?" I replied 
The English teacher smiled then clapped his hands together. "Good job. But before you go. Do you still remember what my name is?" 
I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT HIS NAME! THIS TEACHER WON'T LET ME GO UNTIL HE HUMILIATES ME IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS!! I put on a fake smile, "Of course! Teacher L-" I noticed Kai giving me hand gestures. What is he doing? Is he spelling out the teacher's name? What is that?  L...E...O  "Teacher Leo!" 
"You are full of surprises today, Katie. You may take your seat." 
I gave Kai a thumbs up and headed to my seat while mouthing the word "thank you" to him.  

It was finally recess, I got out my phone and a piece of paper to solve the riddle. Nevertheless, Kai presented himself in front of me. 
"Can we go to the rooftop; to talk?" 
"S-sure." 
It made me a little nervous that he wanted to talk. What does he want to talk about?
When we made it there, we sat on the bench.
"Katie, you are hiding something from me. Aren't you?" 
"Kai, this again! There is nothing that I'm hiding." 
"These past few days, you were stressed about something." 
"I'm not stressed about anything!" 
"Then why aren't you sleeping?" 
"I've just been... working..." 
"Is this the work you're talking about?" Kai reached his pocket and took out a piece of paper. It was the paper that I lost that had Rio's riddle on it. "What is this?" He asked. 
I gazed at the floor, "It's nothing important..." 
"Why does it have Rio's name on it?" 
This is bad; if he ever finds out about the riddles, he'll never talk to me again!  "I told you it's nothing important!" I grabbed the paper from Kai's hand and shredded it into pieces. "It's not important!"
"I knew something was wrong! Katie, why wouldn't you tell me what's going on?" 
I could feel my tears coming out. "I CAN'T!" 
"WHY CAN'T YOU?!"
My tears started flowing, "I can't! If I told you, you would hate me." 
Kai leaned in closer and put his arms around me, "I will never hate you. I want to know because I care about you. You look like you are suffering." 
My tears wouldn't stop no matter how hard I tried. And after I had a long good cry, I told him everything.

"So you're saying the reason why Sushi and Julie died was because of a stupid riddle?" 
I nodded. 
"So whoever made these riddles is the one who killed Sushi and Julie?" 
"Y-yes." 
"Okay! We better find out who is doing this! I'll show that person what I'm made of!" 
"Y-Your not mad at me?" 
"Mad at you? Why would I be?" 
"Because Sushi's death was my fault." 
"It wasn't your fault! It was the stupid person who made the riddles fault! And besides, you didn't know that the riddles would kill people."
My eyes opened wide, and I gave him a genuine smile.
"I'm also glad to know that the reason you were with Rio, was because of this."Kai mumbled.  
"What did you say?" 
"Ah! It was nothing!"

"Show me the next riddle." Kai requested.
I passed him my phone. 
"This sure is difficult to solve! But no worries! Two heads are better than one, so I'll help you solve this riddle!"
"Thank you!" I said.
"And if you ever get more in the future, let me help!" 
"Kai, I can't thank you enough." 

Me and Kai took all of our break time trying to solve the riddle. 
"God! this is too hard!" Kai said in frustration.
"We have to solve it by tomorrow before it's too late!" I cried. "All we know is the cause of death. If we don't figure out who is the victim, we are screwed." 
"Are you free today?" Kai asked while staring into my eyes. 
"Y-yea, why?"
"Then I'll come over to help you solve the riddle! We don't have much time; classes will starting soon." 
"Okay!" I said enthusiastically.

The day went by as normal, and when the classes were over. Kai and I went walking home together.
"Kai, How did you know that I was worried about something?" I asked as I kicked small rocks that were in my way.
"It was easy to tell." 
"How?" I asked, confused.
"I noticed whenever you are anxious or stressed about something. You tap your finger on your desk rapidly." 
"I do that?" 
"Yes!" He laughed.
"I didn't know that. It's creepy that you were watching me!"
"Hey! I only did what your mom told me to do!"
I paused, "WHAT?"
Kai realized what he said. "I-it's a-ah." Kai itched his chin, "She told me to take care of you and to make sure you are okay. Because you are going through a lot." He turned red. 
"So that's what mom told you." I let out a sigh of relief. I don't know why but it made me feel  
reassured.
"I bet you knew about it before mom told you anything." I teased.
"N-NO!" He blushed. 

"Mom, I'm back. Kai will come in to help me do some work!" I yelled, so my mom can hear me while she is in the kitchen. 
"Sure thing, sweetie!" 
"You can come in, Kai. My room is upstairs." 
"Your r-room?"

Kai was sitting awkwardly far away from me. 
"Kai! come in closer so you can see the riddle."
Kai moved his chair slowly towards me.
"A little more. More." 
He was moving way too slow. 
"Let me do it." I dragged his chair beside mine. There was barely any room for the chairs since my table was too small, so we had to make our chairs stick to each other. 
I was suggesting some answers for the riddle, but it looked like Kai wasn't listening.
"KAI! Are you paying attention?"
"OH! Sorry!" he said as he blushed.
"Sheesh! I'm losing all my energy for nothing! Have you figured anything out yet?"
"Well, there is something that's bugging me." 
"Hmm?" 
"Look!" He pointed at the sentence, "My favorite dessert is pi."
"What about it?" 
"The word pie, doesn't it bug you?" 
"Because it's spelled wrong?" I questioned. 
He nodded his head. "Don't you think it's on purpose?" 
"On purpose?" I froze for a moment. "Is it?!" I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote something down. "Is it this?" I handed the paper to Kai, where I wrote π.
"We could be on the right track! Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter! And it equals approximately 3.14 ."  Kia blabbered. 
"And what's that supposed to mean in the riddle?" 
We thought about it for a while, but we didn't figure it out.
"Let's move on to the next point," Kai suggested. " You better try to solve my problems, and I am hard to eye. What do you think that means?"
"I have no clue!" I was stressing out.
"Let's look at the end of that sentence. "I am hard to eye." Is there a specific person who is hard to face?" 
I furrowed my eyebrows, "No!" Then my eyes opened wide. "Actually, yes! The math teacher! She was the supervisor who tried to save Julie, so it was hard for me to see her and attend her classes!" 
Kai smiled, "Well, that explains the π! Because she is the math teacher!"
"That works out perfectly! Kai, we have to save her tomorrow!"
"Okay!" he smiled. 

-End of Chapter-