A Greasy Romance

Chapter 4

Perry's Point of View

"Hey, Kyle?"
"Yes, Perry?"
"Won't your mom want to know what that noise was when you get home?"
"Probably. But it'll be okay. Jake and Eric weren't there to hear it so I might be able to pass it off as something in the house."
I shifted around in my box. Normally light would stream though the small separations in the cardboard, but it was completely dark in Kyle's backpack.
"You need to not move around so much. Someone's gonna hear you in there," Kyle told me. I heard him hit the turn signal and felt the curve as he turned a corner.
"How am I supposed to do that? It's so cramped in here. I won't be able to stand it."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have asked to come," Kyle muttered, hitting a turn signal again. I felt the car stop as he parked and turned off the engine.
I fell silent for a few minutes and listened to Kyle tapping the steering wheel. I heard him open the console (presumably to take out a cloth to clean his glasses) and shut it again, and fiddle with his seat.
"Why aren't we going in?" I finally asked.
"There's still a while until the bell. I don't wanna go in yet."
"Where are Jake and Ethan?"
"Cross country meet. They left early this morning."
"What classes do you have?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
I fell silent again for a few moments before thinking of something.
"Do you think anyone else brought their talking pizza to school today?"
I heard a slight pause, and Kyle slowly
breathed in and back out. "No. I do not think anyone else brought their talking pizza to school today," he told me. I heard him turn away and a few seconds later heard thudding noises like he was banging his head on the window.
After enough awkward silence, it was Kyle's turn to ask questions. "So you're a pizza," he started.
"Yes. I am a pizza."
"You're a talking, gay pizza, to be exact."
"Also true."
"What happens when someone eats you?"
"We have... multiple lives, I guess you could say. Our spirit gets transferred to another pizza when we are eaten. As one pizza gets eaten, another is being cooked, and we are transferred to a new body. It's sort of like reincarnation."
"And you were cut into slices. What happened that made you a whole pizza again?"
"We grow back together after a long time of no one eating us."
"Well this just gets weirder and weirder, doesn't it?"
"I personally think this is a normal conversation."
     "Sarcasm is your strong suit, huh? I like that."
     I smiled. He liked me. I might have a chance.
     "So what are we gonna do during school?"
"Well, Perry, you are going to quietly sit in my backpack making no noise at all while I attempt to act like I'm not carrying around a talking pizza, and then during lunch, I'm gonna eat in my car so I can take you out of that box for a while so you're less tempted to shift around."
     "But I wanted to hear the lectures. I won't be able to hear a thing in here."
     "You're a talking pizza. What are you going to do with a high school diploma?"
     "Make my mother proud by getting into a great pizza college."
      Kyle didn't say anything else. He grabbed the backpack and got out of the car, and I felt the bag shaking up and down as he walked toward the building. Finally I heard a door open, and I could hear the sounds of hundreds of kids talking, laughing, yelling.
     "Welcome to Piketon High School, Perry."