Written for The Diversity Writing Challenge on the For Death Note Writer's forum.
"I hate English class," Sayu muttered to herself, as she walked through the mahogany colored door to her house. "I'm home!" She greeted automatically, her voice reverberating all around the house despite the fact that she wasn't speaking in a very loud voice.
"I don't hear a response…" Sayu murmured, as she slipped off her shoes. Using what little common sense she had, Sayu deduced that Father, as per usual, toiled away at work and wouldn't be home until late in the night. Sayu, however, couldn't even begin to take a guess as to where Mother was; since Mother worked part time, her schedule was flexible and somewhat sporadic, causing a lacking of predictability as to when she'd be home.
Sayu shrugged. "Guess it's time for me to grab a snack…" She rummaged through the refrigerator. She found eggs, cold cuts, fruits and vegetables, plenty of flavors of juice, condiments, and various other random items that couldn't be made into something edible after a few minutes.
All of a sudden, she heard scuffling and squeaking. Those sounds could only belong to a pair of shoes.
"Who's there?" Sayu asked, having slunk away like a scared dog with a tail between its legs after closing the refrigerator door.
"Oh dear, when did you get home?" Mother said. Her voice startled Sayu. She gasped visibly. Mother chuckled, but said nothing more. Sayu scoffed, in an attempt to make up for her earlier jumpiness.
"Welcome home! I wish I'd heard you come in." Mother said, sheepish; Sayu let herself smile a little.
"It's fine," Sayu said, placating her mother who didn't want to hear about the gritty gossip of everyday life, as she would find it stressful and confusing, "I tip-toed in anyway."
"How was your day?" Mother asked without a beat. Mother liked simple greetings like this. They were light and easy ways to garner a response. Sayu found greetings like this boring, because she engaged in all too much small talk during the school day. Her tone of voice sweet and maternal. She was clearly in a good mood. Sayu wanted to know why.
"Eh," Sayu said with a shrug of her shoulders, "it wasn't that bad, but it could've been much better."
"Tell me all about it," Mother said. She pulled up a chair with the intention of listening to every last mundane detail about Sayu's day. Sayu raised a befuddled eyebrow.
"Why're you looking at me like that, Sayu?" It was a question, and the importance was emphasized by the furrowing of
"You're rarely this cheery when I come home from school." Sayu noticed.
"There's nothing wrong with a unexpected good mood." Mother explained. The lighthearted made Sayu relax.
"No seriously, Mother! What gives?" Sayu said, trying to make a joke. It wasn't funny to anyone but her.
"Fine, fine, I'll leave you alone. You clearly don't want to talk with me!" Mother said, feigning hurt and gesturing to further drive her point home.
"Fine, Mother. I'll let you in on the details." Sayu rolled her eyes but she couldn't suppress the laugh that bubbled from her throat.
"I'm so glad. You rarely let me in your life. You're too much like your brother Light lately, he's been so secretive." Mother noted. Sayu couldn't believe that Mother uttered such a backhanded compliment that sounded like an insult in this house. It was unlike Mother to say such things. No matter what, Sayu related to missing Light. He was at school for long hours, doing who knew what. When he came home, he went straight to his room without so much as an explanation.
"You know Light, and how he gets about studying..." This was Sayu's way of trying to relate to her mother, but it turned out to be awkward and silence loomed over the Mother and daughter duo. Sayu wrung her hands, and fidgeted in her spot; Mother smacked her hands to make sure Sayu stopped.
"Oh!" Sayu exclaimed, as she thought of her homework. Her backpack sat heavily on her shoulders.
"Oh?" Mother clearly wanted to continue the conversation. Sayu, however, bravely refrained from mocking the lack of momentum in the conversation anyway; it was the mature thing to do, she supposed. Light wouldn't have mocked Mother openly, because Light was perfect and he never made the mistake of even thinking about mocking anyone out loud. Even though he was essentially a hermit and isolated himself, he was still beloved.
I wonder what it's like to be golden, Sayu asked herself, letting the bitter resentment pulse through her thoughts for a few seconds. She was imperfect, and she was flawed; she would never sit atop the pedestal Light did. Sayu shook herself of her self loathing long enough to rummage through her
"I have homework I need to do," a beat of silence existed between mother and daughter for what felt like an eternity, which broken by the grudging question of "would you like to try and help me?" Mother's face lit up.
"You never ask me to help you with homework," Mother beamed. Sayu couldn't help but appreciate Mother's happiness at the simple things.
"I think you'd appreciate this. I have to write a sonnet, cause we're studying American Literature."
"I've never heard of a sonnet before, Sayu. What is it?" Sayu took a seat in a chair by the
"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked you," Mother looked hurt for a brief second, and Sayu added a hasty, "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Go ask Light, when he comes home, dear," As if on cue, Light walked through the door.
"I'm home," he declared, his voice simple and declarative.
"Welcome home, Light! I need your help," Sayu said, her words stumbling out of her lips a little too fast.
"Slow down, you're slurring your words," Light commented, as he slipped his backpack off of his shoulders. It made a dull thump on the floor next to the living room table.
"What do you have in your backpack? Rocks? A million dictionaries?" Sayu said, trying to make her brother feel a little better. Light sighed, and slumped onto a chair.
"What do you need, Sayu? Make it quick, I have lots of...homework to do," Light never hesitated when he talked about homework, and Sayu wasn't sure why he wavered now. He must've been tired after so much studying, Sayu supposed. It explained the bags under his eyes.
"I have to write a sonnet for the American Literature unit on Shakespeare for English class, and I don't get it" Sayu explained, making sure to enunciate so Light wouldn't chastise her anymore for any imperfections in her voice. He could make her feel so insecure in such a short amount of time.
"What don't you understand? It's a straightforward concept, Sayu." More chastisement. Great…
"Well, it's easy for you to say, cause you're brilliant." She sounded like a petulant, selfish child. But Sayu couldn't help it. She felt like an imbecile next to Light, who could probably get passing mark with ease and without even putting any effort into his work. Light looked unfazed by this comment.
"Sayu, no need to be so bitter. Some subjects are more difficult than others." Light said, and Sayu felt reassured.
"That's surprisingly kind of you." Light snatched the paper of the requirements out of Sayu's hands; she made sure not to comment about the snatching in fear of pushing Light's buttons too hard, and making him not wanna help Sayu.
"What you need to do is understand that sonnets have a specific rhythm. That specific rhythm is called iambic pentameter. Do you know what iambic pentameter is, Sayu?"
"No, I don't. It's got something to do with the word choice and the syllables of words or something, right?" Sayu hoped she was on the right track.
"You are almost there. Iambic pentameter is when a word the first syllable of the word is unstressed, and when the second syllable of a word is stressed," Light wracked his mind to think of an example, and he looked almost serene doing so. In this moment, his entire face seemed softer, almost as if he was happy to explain concepts that were simplistic to him to his idiot sister.
"Well, I can't think of an example now, Sayu, but I'll give you one later."
"I can't believe you can't think of an example off the top of your head," Sayu marveled, her face entirely unserious; Light's face looked strange, as if he couldn't decipher her comment.
"Go on, there's more to a sonnet and I wanna write this as soon as possible," Sayu said, hoping to finish faster than the speed of light.
"Secondly, in order to write a sonnet, it needs to be exactly fourteen lines." Sayu squirmed in her seat.
"I hate the number fourteen…" She whined.
"Too bad. That's the rule." She jokingly slapped his arm, as if Light was the one who created this rule; he didn't make any effort to laugh or make any sense of acknowledgement of Sayu in this moment.
"What's the next rule?" She asked, hating the intense vibes Light was giving off now; the lack of humor in his stony posture and blank face made Sayu inexplicably nervous.
"You must use the ABABA rhyme scheme-" Light started.
"I know the letters in the alphabet, Light. Be serious now."
"...Sayu, I am being serious." Her face fell and she felt even more stupid than before. She rubbed her hands against her skirt to calm herself down. Light stared at her with those intense eyes of his, as if stated the most simple sentence in the history of the universe.
"Care to explain what that means?" Sayu hated that she didn't understand as much as Light did; her probably could write a million and seven sonnets in his sleep, whereas it would likely take Sayu most of the night to finish this simple sonnet.
"It means that every other first line rhymes, and every other second line rhymes," Light explained, as if Sayu was much younger. She felt like he was talking down to her.
"Why didn't you say that before? That's a much simpler explanation!" Light completely ignored her, and Sayu felt a little crestfallen; this entire interaction felt hollow, as if it was missing something important.
"Do you understand what makes a sonnet now?" Light asked, his voice tired and with the intonation of a robot.
"I suppose I do," Sayu said, attempting some sort of cheer.
"Then my job here is done. Good luck," Light stood up, strode to his room and locked the door. A part of Sayu felt snubbed. She couldn't take it personally, because this was what Light was like: he treated everything as if it was a business transaction. The undercurrent of unexplained paranoia crept through, as if he would get caught doing something wrong, made Sayu anxious.
"I can't think about this too long," Sayu said, trying not to feel too hurt, "I have a sonnet to write…" With that, she went to work. She made a mental note to tell Light what grade she got after she received her sonnet back, even if it seemed he wouldn't ever care.
Explanation of the sonnet came from the site SonnetWriters dot com, if you're curious! Happy almost New Year; hope your 2015 is full of joy and happiness and success.