Like Night Routines it's kind of hard to believe this is a year old.


Seto liked the rhythmic drumming of rain on the metal roof and he liked the girl sitting beside him although she had only said two words to him. She was hiding her face behind a wet mop of white-blonde hair. Seto hadn't shifted back into drive yet; he was just staring, waiting for her to say something other than "thank you".

"I'm Seto."

"I know." She ran some fingers through her wet hair. "We go to the same school."

"What are you this year?"

"Sophomore."

"I could have sworn you were younger."

"I skipped a grade." She tried to stop the conversation there, but Seto pressed on.

"You look cold, do you want my jacket?" Before she could protest, he was wrapping it around her shoulders. "Tell me about yourself. Do you like school?" Seto asked.

"I like school well enough. I guess I'm good at it too." The girl played with the hem of her skirt. "Everybody thinks I'm weird."

"Why?"

"I don't know." Seto could tell she was lying. "They just think I'm different."

"Well, sure you're different, but everybody is different." He glanced over, and she was still staring out the window. "Besides, it's only the first week of school. I'm sure you'll find somebody."

"Turn here." She pointed a thin white finger toward a dark path on the left. The trees formed a sort of tunnel over the dirt road, blocking the car from rain. Eventually, they pulled to a halt in a clearing. "Thank you for the ride," she said beginning to get out of the car, but Seto stopped her.

"It's still raining. Wait a few minutes."

"Okay." Rain pounded the roof, and Seto watched it trickle down the windshield. The girl kept her face turned toward the passenger side window. He all of a sudden realized that he hadn't seen her face.

"You look nervous," Seto said.

"I am, a little bit."

"Why? I wouldn't hurt a fly."

"It's not that. Most of the girls I sit with at lunch think you and your brother are cute, and they'll never believe me if I tell them you drove me home." Both of them laughed.

Slowly, the rain stopped and Seto helped the girl out of the car so he could walk her to the door.

"Don't wake your parents up."

"You don't have to worry about that." She kept her eyes locked on the ground.

"Why not?"

"I live alone." She turned her head upward to look at him for the first time.

"Y-your eyes!" Seto cried.

"Oh no!" She buried her face in her hands. "I didn't mean to scare you!"

"No! They're fine. I like them." Seto lowered his voice and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Do you really mean that?" She uncovered her eyes to look up at him.

"Of course I do."

"Thank you." She began to enter her home, but Seto stopped her before she crossed the threshold.

"What was your name again?" Seto felt his voice shake a little.

"Mary." She disappeared behind a closed door, and Seto had forgotten to ask for his jacket.


That night he thought almost exclusively about her eyes. He wondered if she was like them, and if it was safe to tell her about his family. Would she only be afraid? Of course, Seto had heard about albino people with red eyes like hers. Maybe she was one of them.

But I wasn't lying, was I? He thought. Those eyes really do suit her.


"I can't believe you didn't wear your jacket," Kano sighed, leaning up against the locker next to Seto's.

"I told you, it's still hot. If I change my mind I'll run out to the car and put it on, deal?"

"Sure. Where's Kido?"

"In the back, probably," Seto said. Recently, she had taken up smoking. He wasn't sure what to think of it, but if it made her happy, then he was okay with it.

"I didn't think about that." Kano picked at a fingernail. "Do you think my eye looks any better?"

"A little bit. You really shouldn't get into fights like that."

"So? I like to fight. A little mano a mano is fine, Seto."

"At least have the decency to, you know," Seto waved a hand around his eye "get rid of it."

"I think it makes me look tough. A leather jacket and a black eye can do wonders for you."

"Sure it does." Seto shut his locker. "I'm going to catch up with Kido." He turned around and headed out for the parking lot. Kido wasn't by the dumpster like he thought, so he sat on top of the car with his feet on the trunk and waited for her to show up.

She liked hiding from them, not like when they were kids, she hid to cry back then, now it was just to spite her brothers. Seto watched as a throng of people stood at the front doors to the school, showing off their new skirts or talking about what they did last night as they laughed. Seto liked hearing their laughter from far away.

"I thought you smoked." The voice startled him.

"Oh, hey Mary. Why did you think I smoke?" She was looking up at him with squinted eyes, holding his jacket over one arm.

"Your jacket smells like cigarettes."

"Everything smells like cigarettes." She let out a small smile. "Come sit with me for a few minutes." Mary climbed on top of the green car, and laid the jacket across her lap. "I meant what I said last night."

"You already told me that." She kept facing forward, so Seto could only make out her profile.

"I didn't know if you believed me."

"Why would you lie to somebody you just met?" She turned to face him. "I have to go. Need to ask one of my teachers about something." Mary climbed down the back of the car, leaving Seto's jacket in her place. He pulled it on, pleased to find it smelled like perfume.


"So you got your jacket out of the car," Kano said at lunch "I'm touched."

"I felt a little bare without it." Seto scanned the cafeteria.

"We could skip and go get burgers," Kido suggested.

"You guys can go ahead, but I think I'm going to stay here. I have some studying to do."

"What? You're the one with the car," Kano said. He folded his arms over his chest. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm just not in the mood." Seto waved his hand dismissively. He craned his neck searching for Mary. She was in the back of the cafeteria, sitting with a group of sophomores he sort of recognized. "You two go get something to eat. I'll be there in a minute." Kido and Kano turned around and headed for the line. Seto dug in his notebook for a piece of paper, and he tore one from the spirals, scrawling something on the lines. He pulled a piece of tape from its roll and attached it to the top of the paper, leaving a small amount at the top ready to stick to something.

Seto casually walked by Mary's table; glad to see that her hair was parted in half, hanging over either shoulder. He stuck the paper to her shirt, and when he reached the back wall, he saw that she had pulled it off her back and had read it. She licked her lips and looked around, then folded it carefully and stuffed it in her bag.


"You could have told me you wanted to meet me here," Mary said when she saw him in the parking lot after school.

"No I couldn't because those girls like me and Kano. They would hate you."

"Okay, you have me there but you could have at least signed it with your name."

"Sorry." Seto ran a hand through his hair.

"I should really be studying right now. What did you need?"

"Ah, studying. Mary, if you spend all of your time studying, when will you have time for fun?" Seto leaned against the car door. "Besides, it's the first week of school."

"I have a test on Friday in my Latin class."

"Ouch. He's really piling tests on now, isn't he? Either way, I'm in my third year, so I can help out. Get in the car."

"Mmm." Mary walked around to the passenger side door "But only because you've been in Latin before. You have to quiz me."


After they had sat down at the diner's bar and ordered their milkshakes, Seto took out a piece of paper and a pen.

"So you're in your first year of Latin?" Seto asked.

"Yeah," Mary replied.

"What declensions and cases has he taught you?"

"First and second declension, nominative, accusative, and dative. This is mostly about verbs, though."

"Oh. Well verb endings are easy." Seto drew a chart on the paper. "We're going to use the verb for punch because it was the first one I came up with." Above the two columns, he wrote 'singular' and 'plural' and beside the three rows he wrote '1st', '2nd' and '3rd'. "So the columns stand for number, and the rows stand for person. First person is I, second person is you, and third person is he, she, it in the singular. In plural it's we, you, and they. Does that make sense right now?"

"Yes."

"Dictionary entries are broken up into four principal parts, but we only care about the first part pulso, pulsare. That's the first person present tense indicative and the infinitive 'to punch.' Sorry if this doesn't make much sense."

"No, it's okay. Keep going," she said.

"Okay, so when you want to say 'I punch' you use the verb pulso." He wrote pulso in the first box. "Note how that is the first principal part. For the others, you use the infinitive. All you do is take the letters R-E off the end and add the next endings, in our case –s and –t, and –mus and –tis and –nt. When you say 'you punch' in the singular, you use pulsas." Pulsas went in the second box. "In the third person singular, he, she, it, punches, you say pulsat. Do you get it?"

"A little. Latin is hard, but you seem to know it."

"It's only because I've been in it longer. I needed an extra elective and I was put in Latin. It would be kind of dumb to leave now."

"What do you do when it's plural again?"

"You're eager to learn. 'We punch' is pulsamus." He wrote that in its box. "Plural 'you punch' is pulsatis." That went in its box. "Last but not least, 'they punch' is pulsant." Seto wrote that in its box.

"What about other words? Like, there's more than one conjugation, Magister said. This is first conjugation, right? What about second and third and all those?"

"All of the endings are the same for present tense indicative no matter what conjugation you're in."

"That clears things up. Here I was thinking all of the words had different endings," Mary laughed. "It made sense at the time."

The waitress brought them their shakes. "Aren't you two cute," she said. Mary's cheeks turned as pink as her strawberry milkshake. "You kids enjoy, okay?"

Mary sipped leisurely as she drew flowers around the chart Seto made. Her doodles were small but intricate, looping carefully around the written notes. She shaded them with a light hand, each petal receiving the same amount of care.

"Do you garden?"

"Yes. It used to be my mother's, but I took over. It can be a little tough, but it's really rewarding."

"I bet. Your drawings are really nice."

"Thank you."

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but what happened to your parents?"

"I don't really remember my dad, because he died when I was two, and my mother also died when I was young. It was just an accident."

"Sorry about your parents."

"It was a long time ago. There's nothing to be sorry about." She kept doodling.

Seto tried to keep the conversation going. "Is your milkshake good?"

"You're going to an awful lot of trouble to make small talk."

"Sorry. I can stop, if you'd like."

"No, I just didn't think somebody like you would be that polite."

"Somebody like me?" Seto held a hand over his heart in mock surprise.

"A leather jacket wearing, fancy car driving boy. I didn't think boys like you take Latin or have any interest in flowers," Mary said matter-of-factly.

"Well, Kano doesn't. I do."

"Your brother? What's he like?" Mary leaned on the table with her arms folded in front of her.

"He fights a lot, and he acts like What Happened to Nee-Chan doesn't bother him, but I know it does." Seto slumped over a little, putting his chin in his hands "It bothers Kido, and I guess it bothers me, because I'm here and I'm not with them. Not like Kano's ever home, and not like Kido does anything besides taunt boys, including me and Kano.

"You seem upset."

"Sorry." Seto sat up straight again.

"If something bothers you, you should really just let it out."

"No, no. I don't want to burden you with it. Besides, it's almost seven. You probably have more homework." Seto left enough money to cover their shakes on the bar counter.


The sun was just going down when Seto pulled into the grassy patch in front of Mary's house. He could see it much better and liked the way green vines crawled up one side and how the chimney peeked out from the roof.

"Thank you for the milkshakes, Seto." Mary pulled her bag over one shoulder.

"It was no problem. It's better to go out sometimes."

"Goodnight."

"You too." He waited for her to get inside before he backed out.


When Seto got back, only Kano was home, laying down on his bed studying.

"You're home early," Kano looked up from his textbook. "Did you run out of gas or something?"

"No, I just did everything I needed to do. Is Kido out?"

"She left after dinner. We saved you something if you haven't eaten." Kano pointed his finger out the bedroom door past Seto.

"I'm not hungry." Seto sat on the edge of Kano's bed.

"What's eating at you?" Kano said as he slammed the book shut.

"Nothing. I've been thinking a lot the past few days."

"That's new," Kano laughed.

"Shut up." Seto punched his brother's arm lightly. "Are you going out?"

"Maybe if Kido comes back. I didn't make plans." Kano scribbled his name on the top of his paper.

"Stay in tonight. I'm going to go work on my homework."

Seto rounded the corner into his room and shut the door behind him. He flopped on the bed with a squeak. He had gotten the largest bed, but unfortunately he got one that was squeaky and uncomfortable. I can't tell what she does. Seto thought. Maybe it's like mine and you can't tell she's using it. I hope her power isn't like mine. He put a hand over his eyes. I hope she didn't have to suffer like me. I would hate to see her hurt like that. You know, I really do care about her. I really do.

"I'm back!" Kido closed the door behind her loudly. "Is Seto home yet?"

"I'm in my room!" Seto called.

Kido pushed the door open. "We saved you something to eat." She leaned against the doorframe.

"I already ate," a half truth.

"By yourself?" Kido kept blocking the exit.

"Yeah," he lied. Seto usually hated lying. "It was something quick, so it doesn't really count." He sat up. "Don't worry."

"Mmm. I'm tired."

"Okay, goodnight, Kido."

"Yeah." She turned around, disappearing into her own bedroom.