Chapter 1: Near

I roamed through the halls of Wammy's House orphanage. It's 7:30 in the morning and I was already called down into our headmaster's office! I stopped in front of the large wooden double doors and waltzed right in without knocking.

"You wish to speak with me, Roger?" I asked. Roger, our graying headmaster, sat behind his desk.

"Yes, please have a seat Rose." he gestured toward the leather chair adjacent to the desk.

"What seems to be the problem, Sir?" I started to panic.

"There's no reason to be nervous, you're not in trouble." I sighed in relief," There's a new child who arrived just this morning. I sent him off not five minutes ago, and I forgot to give him his schedule. I was hoping you'd give it to him at breakfast and show him around a bit."

I nodded, "I'll find him easily." I took the envelope out of Roger's hand with a smile.

"Believe me, you'll know him when you see him. His dorm is the one next to yours." I quickly thanked him and jogged to the cafeteria. Entering the enormous lunch room, I noticed most of the orphanage huddled around a table near the back of the room. One voice in particular stood out: Mello. Mello is about two years younger than I am, with chin length blonde hair. His wardrobe consists of leather pants and black T-shirts. His favorite activity is bitching about being ranked second place, under me. With a sigh, I ran through the lunch line and grabbed random fruits.

"Mello!" I pushed my way to the table to see the the blonde holding a small albino boy by his shirt. "Mello, please put him down, we all remember our first day here. Cut him some slack. You don't know what it's been like for him." he dropped the boy and stalked to his own table. The crowd, however, wouldn't budge, "What you all looking at? Don't overwhelm the poor kid! Disperse!" They left immediately.

"I hope he didn't do too much damage before I got here, you all right?" I asked while taking a seat across from him. He simply nodded, white hair falling into his pale face. I held the envelope out to him, "This is for you. I'm willing to show you around if you want."

He opened the envelope and glanced at his schedule. I quickly noticed he was in one of my classes: swimming, his second class. Cool. I stuffed a piece of pineapple into my mouth. He locked his gray eyes with my violet ones and silently accepted my offer. "What's your name?" I asked softly.

"Near." his soft voice was barely above a whisper. I softly smiled at him. "My name is Briar Rose."

I sighed and checked the time. "Classes will start soon. I'll show you to your room, but we have to stop at mine quickly." He simply stood and dumped his tray. I took him to the boys' wing.

"I thought you said we were going to your room first." he stated, obviously confused.

"We are, my room is in the boys' wing. The orphanage became insanely full several years ago, so Roger moved me here. I'm one of the few children here that arrived when this place first became an orphanage. So, I was deemed responsible enough to move to the opposite genders' dorm." I explained.

"Rose?" A boy of around seven stepped from my dorm. I recognized him immediately, his black hair a complete rats nest.

"B?" I scooped the small boy into my arms and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Which one did you drink from?" He handed me a vial half filled with a blue liquid. I scolded the child. "Why did you get into my potions? Don't you remember what happened last time?"

With a sigh, I handed him the antidote to my youth potion. He downed the entire bottle and slowly grew to his normal size. I then grabbed my swim bag and Gibb's slapped him."How many times have I told you to stay out of my room?" I pushed both boys out and locked the door.

"I couldn't help myself, I wanted to know if you were working on something new."

"I am, but it's still being tested!"

"I helped you test it."

I pointed toward the the classrooms."Go. To. Class." He hastily left. I turned to Near, "You're awfully quiet."

"What just happened?" he asked after a pause.

"Oh, the potion thing?" he nodded. "My whole family was Wiccan. I was brought up with spells and stuff. When they died, I brought it here. L was alright with it, so Roger allowed it. It provides entertainment for the little ones in our free time."Near nodded in understanding.

We soon arrived at Near's first class; foreign language. "This is where I leave you. We share next period. I'll come back when class is over. Just wait here until I arrive, okay?" he nodded. I had to run to my class to just barely make the bell.