It was raining on and on as far as the eye could see. Or at least, as far as I could see behind my tear streaked goggles. I loved my goggles. I had had them for as long as I remember. As for the tears, they were pouring down for a couple reasons. One: It was storming out. I am terrified of storms. The black pitiless sky, the loud and earth shaking thunder, lighting that always manages to hit the power box and shut off the electricity while I'm in the middle of beating the final boss on a video game before I have a chance to save. Shut up, storms are scary. Two: I have no idea where the heck I'm going or what's gonna happen to me. And trust me, that's scarier than you think. Three: I just watched my parents murdered before my eyes yesterday, on my birthday none the less. Yup. Congrats Mail, your five. Yay...not.
Anyway, the weird old dude in front driving the car (did I mention I'm in a car?) suddenly turned down an old gravel road and glanced back at me through the window and smiled. "We're almost there." he smiled, before looking back at the drenched and just plain unsafe looking road. I wanted to scream back at him "ALMOST WHERE? I WANT MY MOM! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?" but that would be stupid. I don't have a mom anymore, even if she wasn't much of a mom in the first place. But still, she was my mom.
I looked back outside the fogged up window and sighed. The usual orange tint of the world I had through my goggles didn't comfort me at all this time when another huge crack of lightning lit up the sky. The guy pulled through a giant black steel gate with the words "Wammy's House" carved out on top. In front of us was this huge old Victorian looking mansion thingy. An orphanage, big shocker there. The old guy, Watari I think his name was, stepped out and opened the car door for me. I honestly didn't want to get out. I wanted to sit in the corner here until I disappeared or woke up from this nightmare. Except it wasn't a nightmare, it was real, and there was no one left to comfort me even if I did wake up.
He offered his hand to me, and I weakly took it, allowing myself to be dragged out gently and lead inside the house. I only had one little sling bag holding two changes of clothes, and my video games. I didn't own anything else. But then again, I never needed anything else until now. I was beginning to wish that I could have been a freaking normal five year old and have a Teddy bear or something lame like that to hold on to. Something. Someone. Anything.
Eventually Watari took me to an old office and sat down behind it, gesturing for me to sit down in one of the chairs in front. I just kinda stared back at him, occasionally glancing out the huge window beside him at the evil black storm of doom, as I had decided to name it. The old guy smiled sadly before clearing his throat and saying gently "Mail, do you know why you were taken to this house instead of any other orphanage?"
Of course I knew. Not a lot of five year olds can read college level books and speak fluently in any language other than their own. Not a lot of five year olds could hack in to the FBI data base and access whatever information they wanted to, without even raising an alarm. Or get an ATM machine to give you unlimited amounts of cash without a card or a pin or anything. Or beat video games made for teenagers that are supposed to be unbeatable. The list goes on. But I sure as hell didn't want to answer him. I don't think my heart could handle it. Instead I nodded slightly and started nervously clenching the edge of my striped black and white shirt.
Watari must have been used to this or something cause he nodded like I had just explained all that to him before saying "Have you ever heard of the detective called L?" I nodded again, I mean, who didn't know who L was? He continued "Well at this school and house, you will have the chance to improve your talents and your knowledge so that one day you may become the next L. But of course, you can't keep your name, as I informed you in the car. You will become dedicated to this. You will never be known as Mail Jeevas again. Is that what you want? It is your choice."
Wow. He must be really used to telling kids this. I'm pretty sure he just crammed an entire speech in to like three sentences. But he wasn't talking to me like I was, well, a kid. He was talking to me like I was an adult. No one has ever done that before. I nodded, though cringing slightly at another crash of thunder. I think storms follow people around for a living so they can freak them out at the worst times.
"Then what is your new name going to be?" Well that's fairly easy to answer. I mean it's not like he hadn't asked me about that like fifty times on the plane ride and the drive. Oh no, that would be outrageous. "Matt." I had meant for my voice to sound firm, like I was cool with all this, like I wasn't phased at all. Instead it came out like the weak little kid I was. Or at least, that's what I thought it sounded like. Maybe I'm insane.
"Very well then Matt, you may come and I'll take you to the playroom, you can meet the other children there, while I get your schedule set up and figure out where you're going to room." I nodded, and he took my stuff. He didn't know I had already slipped out my DS and had hidden it in the back pocket of my ripped blue jeans, which were always a bit too tight no matter what size I got them in, even though I was actually way to skinny for my age. He lead me to this giant white painted room, filled with bean bag chairs, puzzles, desks, games, a giant T.V, and of course, like ten or twenty other kids. Yeah, I'm antisocial. Sue me. He smiled kindly at me one more time, before walking away. Crap. Now what?
I walked, or more so dragged myself over to a corner away from as many kids as I could, and started playing my game. It's okay Mai- Matt. It's okay Matt, just relax and play your worries away, shroud yourself in a nice virtual bubble and they might leave you alone- "hey new kid, what's with those goggles?" some kid sneered, walking in front of me. I think the universe just loves to prove me wrong and screw me over. Of course I was the ever smart and sensible one and ignored the kid.
"Hey dipshit I'm talking to you." he hissed, knocking my DS out of my hands and against a wall some ten feet away. I looked up at him through my goggles, which were luckily now tearless, thanks to the edge of my shirt. Black military looking hair, a bit to buff to be a normal kid, about double my size, great. Just what I need. I calmly got up and started walking over to my precious technology. Of course, this only managed to piss off whoever-the-heck-this-dude-is even more, 'cause he suddenly grabbed me by the front of my shirt, pulled me up a foot off the ground and shoved me against the wall before ripping off my even more precious goggles. He grinned creepily, and then, just for good measure and in case I wasn't traumatized enough, he dropped me, or should I say threw me back on the floor.
I stared with large pain filled green eyes back at him, literally feeling the tears well up and begin to pour out again. He smirked one last time before walking back to his friends and starting to toss around the goggles. I shrunk back in to the corner, pulled my knees up to my chest, and cried. Shut up, I'm five! I don't give a damn about what anybody thinks, anyway. My dad gave me those goggles. "Hey Mello, check it out, I stole these from that new kid, and look at him, ha, he's crying!" I heard the bastard laugh, though I didn't look up to see who this Mello guy was. That was until I felt someone put their hand under my chin and lift my face up. It hurt a bit, but the pain was drowned out completely by the angel I'm pretty sure I was seeing. Longish blonde hair, icy blue eyes, porcelain like skin...who cares if he was a dude.
The guy, who couldn't be anything over a year older than me, looked down in to my probably weak ass looking eyes. I was expecting him to laugh at me. Instead, his piercing eyes softened slightly and he turned back to the bastard (yeah that's him new name). "Ashtion, give me back the kids goggles." So that's the bastards name. Huh. "wha-? Mello, are you siding with that nerd? What the hell dude?" Mello. That was his name. Mello turned completely around, smoothing out his all black clothes which only suited him even more, and cracked his knuckles before charging. I ducked my head back down, fearing the next punch would be on me. But it never came.
Instead I felt a hand slip my goggles over my head and around my neck gently, and I dared to peak up. "Are you okay?" Mello asked, grinning. I nodded weakly. "I'm Mello." he smirked, holding out his hand. I took it happily, smiling ever so slightly, something I rarely did. "Matt." The blonde hellion helped me up, and lead me over to retrieve my DS, walking over the crumpled form of the bastard Ashtion just for the heck of it on the way. This only made me smile a bit more. I'd never had a friend before, never had someone stick up for me. Maybe life here wouldn't be so bad...
Watari came back a few minutes later, holding a schedule and a room key, and handing both to me. "Ah, good, you've already met Mello. That's great, as you'll be rooming with him for the pro-seeable future." I glanced back at the blonde, who grinned back and took my hand and lead me to our new dorm. After I had walked around it for a little while, and put away my sad amount of stuff, he looked over to me with a new look in his eyes. "So…wanna come help me steal some chocolate from the kitchen?"