Author's Note: So, I pretty much just wrote this because I felt like I haven't been doing enough to stimulate my mind this summer. I wanted to do something productive before going to bed. And, like Matt, I will do ANYTHING to avoid doing what I NEED to do...like sleep. Procrastinators unite! ...tomorrow. Heh. Anyway, here's a little something to keep you guys entertained until I finish transcribing the last conversation for the latest update of Game Over. (Yes, the new chapter is almost finished. For realz.) As for this story, it's cute and much tamer than my usual stuff. Enjoy! Onward!
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. If I did, Matt would get his own spinoff series. Probably called "The Misadventures of Matt."
Warning: Mild cursing.
The echoing halls of Wammy's House called to him, but Matt was stuck in his room.
Specifically, he was grounded. No video games, no television, no computer, no playing outside. Four days of missed homework sat in a pile on his desk as a sour reminder of his punishment. He sat in the window of his room, staring outside into the midday scene below. Happy children frolicked in a field, kicking balls, throwing sticks, and building replicas of the world's greatest architectural structures. It was a typical spring day.
But the poor redhead was banned from participating due to his slacking schoolwork.
He didn't even like going outside that much. But anywhere was better than a room without video games. His fingers ached for the buttons of his Game Boy. He swore he could still see the imprint of the A Button in his thumb. He longed for the tinny electronic music that blared from small speakers at all hours of the day and night. It was a soothing lullaby to his brilliant mind, and without its consistency, he was going stir-crazy.
He hadn't meant to miss four days of homework. He just didn't feel like doing it. He kept finding excuses to skip out on it. First, he had to finish the latest Gym leader. Once he managed that, he had to eat dinner. After dinner, he really did need to clean the battery pack. And one more Gym leader couldn't hurt. But by that time, it was so late that he couldn't possibly concentrate to do any homework. Then again, you didn't need to concentrate very hard to beat just one more Gym leader...
And the pattern continued to repeat itself until he was on the verge of the Elite Four, and his teachers were very unhappy.
He sighed, pushing his goggles onto his forehead and rubbing his eyes. It had been three hours, twenty-nine minutes, sixteen seconds since he had his Game Boy confiscated. Three hours, twenty-three minutes, forty-one seconds since his door was locked for the afternoon. Two hours, twelve minutes, nineteen seconds until someone would come to let him out for dinner.
It was going to be a long afternoon.
His fingers ached for something to do.
He glanced briefly at the homework. The top page was an entire page of practice with the quadratic formula. It wasn't hard work; just boring, mundane, no challenge at all. He wanted strategy. Monotony was not Matt's forte.
First problem. X-squared, minus four X, plus five, equal to zero. He didn't even have to think the full way through. Matt learned the quadratic formula before he had lost all his baby teeth. The problems were so mind-numbingly dull that he could not concentrate on them for more than a minute. Writing out the entire process of solving each equation was agonizingly boring.
He wanted something more interesting to do with his time. He would have greatly preferred a sheet of differential equations. While also mind-numbingly simple, they at least spoke in a language he used often. With his extensive knowledge in computer science, an equation like that would be welcome. It could open up the windows to a breakthrough in a program.
His fingers itched for a keyboard. They gripped the chewed wooden pencil on his desk instead.
He wrote down the answers to the quadratic formula problems. He skipped the steps to reach each answer. In the margins of his paper, he began to scrawl in computer script. By the time he had finished, his homework held the key to a program that randomized the seating assignment in the classroom every other Tuesday.
He set the paper aside and reached for his next page of homework. English Grammar. Shit.
He slapped the stack of papers to the ground, frustrated at his misfortune. He felt like he was caged in a technologically-deprived prison. The most high-tech piece of equipment in the room was a basic solar-powered calculator that had no settings other than "On" and "Off." He snatched up the English sheet and folded it into a paper airplane, scrawling a message on the wing.
"Need salvation. Stuck in C-5. Homework Hell. - M"
He opened his window and flung it as hard as he could, watching it sail across the field until the wind caught it and pushed it past Matt's view. He groaned and slumped down against the wall, prepared to wait another painfully mundane hour for the glorious bells of dinner to signal his thirty-minute release before being put back in his digitally-deprived dungeon.
A knock at the door made him jump, slamming his head against the wall accidentally. He growled softly, rubbing his head and cursing under his breath. A piece of crumpled paper was pushed under his door.
He crossed the room and picked it up, bursting into laughter when his mind registered what he was seeing. It was the English homework that he had thrown out the window. Under his message, someone had written, "Got you covered. You owe me. Work your ass off. - M."
On the front, the person had drawn a replica of a Pokémon Gym. The English fill-in-the-blanks were drawn into traps or trainers, and the end of the page showed an evil looking Boss with several bird-like Pokémon at his feet.
Matt grinned, sitting down against the door. He could hear the other person sitting down in the hallway on the other side of the door.
"So," Matt asked loudly enough for the other person to hear, "Think you can come up with a few more of these? I'm four days behind and totally grounded until they're finished."
"Depends," replied the voice, "Got any chocolate?"