"Was Micah lying when he said none of the fish ever gets eaten?" Ballqis mulled as she sat next to Iqbal at the back of the van.

They were ready to return to campus, all the stuff they brought had been packed back for the 30 minutes journey.

Sans one fish, though.

"That was cruel," Iqball enthused. He still could not get the 'video playback' of Mrs Jogh ripping T2's gills out of his head.

"She has been eating their scales. And, if Mirna's word is any good, other bits too. Why wouldn't she eat them ..." Ballqis too was trying to process her shock.

"What she did was just ..."

"Brutish," Ballqis supplied.

Iqball heaved a deep sigh.

"And T7 is refusing to talk," Ballqis whispered worriedly.

"We should get him to  ..."

"Shhh!" Ballqis quickly held his suggestion as she spied Mr Evans coming towards the van with Micah.

Once again, Iqball felt a gust of wind knocking his insides. His hand felt warm. Ballqis was holding the same hand she had held in the auditorium hours ago.

"Our celebrity professor is getting interviewed by TV people," announced Mr Evans.

"Ballqis, you did prep the solar kit for the battery chargers, right?" Micah quickly asked.

Both Ballqis and Iqball nodded. They usually do that whenever there is a chance to load up the batteries.

"The battery packs are being charged as we speak," announced Iqball.

Micah clapped his back in appreciation. The senior student tied the chargers on the roof of the van and propped the fans. Mr Evans closed the front doors and locked them manually. The old van did not have a centralised locking system.

"Take whatever you need from the van, we're getting dinner here," said Mr Evans.

The young pair grabbed their backpacks and stepped away from the vehicles.

"You're right about these two, Micah. They do tend to move like a pair of figure skaters. Always in sync. No wonder you call them 'Balls'," Mr Evans laughed. It sounded a little cynical, reminding them why he was called Mr Evil by many.

"Yep! Plus, that word is part of their names! Maybe their parents were friends when they had them. I bet there's a private joke somewhere," Micah said with a guffaw.

"Excuse me. I was named after my grandmother. They used two Ls so that I appear as a unique link on their digital family tree register," Ballqis huffed.

Mr Evans and Micah burst into laughter.

"What about you, Iqball?" Micah asked.

"My parents were freak fans of that stupid TV show called My Name Is Earl. The series had a guy by the same name. He kinda saved Earl because he pointed out that Earl was the one who had bought the winning scratch card. They claimed his character was so funny."

Even Ballqis was laughing after that. Iqball was still sore about T2, but seeing Ballqis laugh made him forget his own little sorrow.

***

"More grant from fish feed guy, Jogh?" asked Mr Evans on the way back.

"Affirmitive!" Mrs Jogh replied and proceeded to sing the chorus from Beatles' tune called She Loves You . 

Her four companions climbed into her beat up Volkswagen Kombi as she yelled out, "Yeah, yeah. yeah."

She's ruining my favourite song.

T7's voice thundered into Iqball and Ballqis' head at the same time as the van began to make its way out of Farmeca building three hours too late.

T7! How are you feeling?  Ballqis quickly attempted further communication. When she and Iqball were left alone to tend to the fish while Micah and Mr Evans joined Mrs Jogh for a tete-a-tete with the sponsors, they had tried getting the fish to talk, but it just would not budge.

As upset as one gets seeing a comrade dies.

Stupid question, I'm sorry, T7. Ballqis clamped her mouth in effort to silence her further thoughts. 

My Name Is Earl, T7's voice crept in once again.

Huh?  Iqball and Ballqis  were caught off-guard. On their shared seat, they exchanged perplexed looks.

Is that your name?  Iqball asked as Ballqis looked at him curiously.

No, I want to watch it. It seemed to make a lot of you laugh, it replied.

Ballqis almost choked as she swallowed  a burst of laughter that had bubbled up.

You're just doing this to ridicule me huh, Iqball snorted.

Ballqis did not have to be a mind-reader to know he was annoyed. She sent him an I-didn't-mean-to-laugh look.

The fish did not say anything else the rest of the way.

***

The duo let Micah assign them clean up duty in the lab while he took care of the spills on Mrs Jogh's vehicle. Mrs Jogh was a little too giddy earlier, her driving wasn't as careful as she should be. Mr Evans even asked to be dropped at his apartment as quickly as possible.

Between the rocky ride and the smell of the barely eaten grilled tilapia in Mrs Jogh's black bag, he nearly emptied the vegetarian Indian dinner he had with the students.

They settled their chores and Mrs Jogh handed them yet another handsome amount as a token.  Micah was already toying with the idea to visit his LDR love interest, the girl with the red spectacle at her campus across state.

"We have another talk lined up, three of you are in, I hope?" she queried.

Her three students nodded. She thanked and shooed them as soon as they agreed.

Micah was walking and talking on the phone as the left the building.

"Ballqis, shall we grab coffee?" Iqball asked.

The girl quickly nodded. She knew they have to discuss the My Name Is Earl request. T7's fate may end just as quickly as T2. She hoped if he can't be saved, the supernatural creature should at least be able to enjoy what's left of his days.

"Micah?" Iqball asked the senior, but he declined with a smile and a wave of a hand.

Ballqis and Iqball walked towards the 24-hour store nearest to their apartment block. There was only one and it offered terrible tasting udon, but also a large selection of instant coffee drinks.

Recalling Ballqis' money woes, Iqball quickly paid for her Cadbury-branded Chocolate mix. He even carried their hot drinks to the empty table outside the store, so Ballqis bought a couple of packs of Jack Link's beef jerky.

"Do you think we should let the fish watch TV?" Ballqis immediately got down to business as she handed a pack of the snack to Iqball.

Iqball's heart sank a little. Talk to me, just not personally. That's the vibe he's getting from the girl in front of him.

Won't Ballqis let her hair down once in a while and just talk to him about nothing? His heart was still bent on hoping.

"He is intelligent. There's no telling what kind of things he'd be learning from just a single episode of Earl," he too got down to business.

Ballqis nodded. She then stared at the beef jerky pack in his hand.

He's not even opening it. Who doesn't like Jack Link's? Does this mean he just wants to get T7 discussed, then quickly leave? No chance for any other topic in the conversation? She was more than just a little disappointed.

"So, we should not let him see it?" she asked again.

"Let's think about this for a couple of days. We have that much of time to consider this. Shall we meet on Monday to hash this out?"

"Sure."

They tried to drink but her chocolate was still piping hot and so was his mocha. They took in the aroma to fill the silence.

"How's Agamemnon?" he broke the lull.

"Better. But it's quite scary that he nearly walked into a speeding bike yesterday."

Iqball perked. "He did? How? Where?"

"We were doing laundry at the neighbouring apartment block, cause you know the one near ours is closed for renovation. He carried his basket and walked like an idiot. The pedestrian light was red but he didn't  stop at the crossing. I had to drop my washing to pull him back," Ballqis told him. 

She was a little too wordy as she was nervous, delighted that Iqball did not simply up and leave.

"Wow, isn't love a scary beast, huh," Iqball commented.

Little did he know that his comment broke Ballqis' dreams.

Looks like he's not interested in that sort of relationship, she sigh.  She immediately thought of her mother and how much she missed that non-existent figure in her life, and agreed. Love is a scary beast.