When I woke up, all I heard was noise. Of course, it wasn't unusual, but something seemed to be happening. I groaned and rolled around, trying to fall back asleep. My eyes found familiar red hair as I saw Matt leaning against the wall of our shared room, playing one of his useless video games. He looked up and grinned, throwing his console on his bed before walking towards me. "Yo, Mello. You'll want to see this." He motioned to the window, where we had a clear view of the front entrance. I made a quiet whining noise as I walked out of bed, closing my eyes against the burning light of the sun. I opened them, only to see some kids running towards the entrance gates. I tilted my head, suddenly interested. After I blinked a couple of times, I saw a black car parked on the street, and a small kid with white hair walking out of it. "Who's he?" I asked Matt. He replied with a shrug before smiling under his coat collar. "Let's go see."
After I got dressed, Matt and I walked outside after stopping by the kitchen to steal some chocolate bars for me. As I bit one, I looked around, seeing children, either younger or older than me, running to meet the person. As Matt and I were walking, he suddenly stopped, remembering something. "Oh, yeah," he said, looking for something in his coat pocket before throwing a crumpled up piece of paper in my direction. "Roger came by this morning to give you this. But since you were still sleeping, he gave it to me so that I could pass it on to you. Congrats, genius." He grinned as I flattened it on the wall, reading it slowly. I had scored the best out of Wammy's House again. I didn't get 100% in every subject, I still needed to improve, but at least I was better than everyone else. I looked further down at the piece of paper, which was in fact a list. "Hey, Matt, you're second." I said, midly surprised. I knew Matt wasn't stupid, he was nearly as smart as me, but he slept in class, and never listened. Sometimes, I wondered how he could possibly be the second smartest, here. I shrugged, brushing off the thought from my mind, and high-fived him before finally reaching the door which would lead us outside.
As I pushed past some younger kids which were at the front of the crowd, I looked at the small boy I saw from my room. He looked about 7. I, myself, was only 10, but I still looked much taller than him. He was wearing a white shirt and white pants. 'Does this guy have an obsession with white or something?', I thought to myself, looking at his hair and outfit. He was looking at the ground, like a shy kid. It was either that, or he just didn't care about anyone else and didn't even acknowledge their presence. After a brief moment of chatter, Roger made us silent before speaking in a loud voice, so that the people at the back could still hear him. "I am pleased to introduced Near, who will be staying with us from now on." After all the usual cheesy comments as 'Please be nice with him', he then let Near speak. The boy opened his mouth as if wanting to say something before looking down at the ground again, silent. Roger smiled awkwardly and rapidly pointed to me. "Mello, why don't you show him around?", he asked. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Why me?!" I said, with a bit more of harshness in my voice than I intended. He laughed and shrugged. I sighed in defeat, waving to Matt as he walked away with the crowd. It was nearly time for class, and apparently, I had to miss it to show this weird, new kid around. Great.
I walked to the boy, who was apparently called Near. He obviously didn't care enough to look up at me, so I rolled my eyes and extended my hand. "Hi. I'm Mello." He slowly looked at it, and, instead of shaking it, he simply nodded. This kid was starting to annoy me. Did he think he was better than everyone else or something? I pointed to the main entrance, determined to show him around, only so that he could see who the boss was, here. I started walking towards it, but after 10 meters or so, I looked back and saw Near going to other way. I ran back to him. "Where the hell are you going?" I tried to sound friendly, but he already pissed me off. He pointed to a suitcase which was lying on the ground against the gate, and I sighed. "Oh…" I shrugged and let him get it before going back to walking, this time making sure that he was following me. The silence was awkward, and I didn't like it. "So…How old are you, anyways?" He looked at me before quietly answering. "I'm nine years old." I was surprised to hear that. He looked so childish, with his curly white hair and his clothes that resembled pyjamas. Also, his way of wording his answer made me wonder what kind of horrible school he went to, before. Probably a really strict one. I mean, come on. Wasn't "I'm nine" enough? I shrugged lightly. 'This guy is officially weird', I decided.
