Christie severely disliked the boredom that summers brought to her. She didn't like school much more than she did boredom, but it seemed that with her parents gone, the monotony was worse than ever. She didn't have family to spend time with anymore. She had been an only child. Her parents had also been the only children in their families. Her grandparents on both sides and their siblings were dead and gone. The only thing she had left to do was watch the world through her window.
Christie was twelve years old, and she had been at The Wammy's House for a week. Following the tragedy that had left her void of family, the orphanage had immediately learned of her talent in music and the arts from friends of her parents', and they had also found out her amazing ability to solve problems in short periods of time from teachers at her schools. She had never thought of herself as overly amazing, but apparently this place did. She never wanted to be the top of anything. She never studied with her school work, she was always too busy drawing something or playing guitar. She didn't form an interest in the arts just to be noticed. She simply just liked it. If anyone thought of her as "special," that was their opinion, not hers. She had always thought of herself as normal, and she liked being normal. She didn't feel strange to the world that way.
She was still very new to The Wammy's House, but it wasn't too bad. Not many really disliked her there, but Christie didn't have any friends, either. She had never had many friends when she still had family, either, so that wasn't much of a change. If anything was bad, it was the fact that she couldn't stay up all night playing guitar anymore. She could play as long as she didn't have it plugged in. If she didn't leave her amplifier unplugged, the obnoxious boy in the next room would hit the other side of the wall. There were times she wanted to beat Mello's face in. He had an inferiority complex that drove her mad and a smart mouth that rivaled her own sarcasm. She did have a complex over her sarcasm, she was perfectly willing to admit that… but with Mello, he was constantly in kill mode if he wasn't number one at everything. She wouldn't have put it past him to attempt learning guitar only to try to surpass her.
It seemed the only person who really disliked her was Mello. The famous detective L used to reside at that very orphanage, and so the children there were being trained to take over for him. Apparently, Mello had been a likely candidate and he felt threatened by another boy named Near, and now her as well. She had assured him hundreds of times in just that week that she had no intention of taking over for L if they asked her to, and he had accused her – every time – of only saying that they would pick her over him in the first place because she thought she was smarter. The situation confused her a little, as she didn't even know much about L to begin with. From what she had heard, he came to the orphanage occasionally but didn't show his face to anyone while working on cases.
It was the middle of the day and she was sure that the rest of the children were headed to lunch. As Mello hadn't walked past her door to go outside earlier, it was presumable that he would stop to bother her on his way downstairs. If he kept it up, she might really consider breaking his nose. She hadn't said a thing to him when he first started with her on the day she got there. It was entirely unfair that she had to endure his taunting every day when she was too afraid of being chucked out on the side of the road to do anything about it. While she knew she wouldn't be kicked out of the orphanage, the concept still scared her. She had never wanted to beat anyone up before, not seriously.
"You're going to die of starvation if you keep with this not eating thing," she heard Mello's voice say from the door.
She looked up from her guitar to see Mello and his friend Matt standing in her doorway. Mello had his arms crossed, while Matt was too busy playing his PSP to even notice that they had stopped.
"Aye, what's this I'm hearing?" she said. "Could it even possibly be some form of concern? I'm surprised. I thought dogs didn't experience such feelings."
"No, it's not concern," he snapped. "I'm sort of happy I'm second. Who'd want to be like you or Near?"
"You mean smarter than you?" she said, looking back down at her guitar.
"See! I knew you thought you were smarter than me!"
"Well obviously I am, if these are the methods you're choosing to prove it with."
"What's that supposed to mean??"
"If you can't figure it out, I'm not telling you."
He was seething mad now, glaring at her with absolute distain. "I'd punch you if you weren't a girl."
"It would only be a bad thing for you to hit me if you were a boy," she said. "And judging by that hair, I'd say not, Blondie."
His face turned reddish. He turned and walked off quickly. Matt looked up from his game at Mello.
"Shouldn't you train your pet?" she asked Matt before he started to walk after Mello.
"Give me a week or two, I've only just finished paper-training him. He's quite stubborn, you kno–"
"Matt!" she heard Mello's voice yell in anger.
"Wha– oi!"
She laughed as she saw Mello's hand reach out and grab onto the Matt's goggles' strap, then pull him away from the door by it. Matt rubbed the side of his head where the strap was as he walked behind Mello.
"What?" he said.
"Don't give her material!" Mello said hysterically. "She'll hold on to that for weeks and probably say something in front of everyone!"
"I know," he said, laughing. "That's why it's funny."
"Whose side are you on??"
"Yours," Matt said. "But even you said she's cute, remember?"
"Yeah, whatever, that's not important, she's still a bitch."
"You really think so?"
"Yes!"
"Alright," Matt said, smirking.
Still fuming, Mello locked his jaw shut for a moment. He looked over at Matt, who was still smirking as they headed out to the dining area. Mello made a frustrated noise.
"Stop that."
"What?"
"I don't know," Mello said, "but you're thinking something."
"Obviously," Matt agreed. "I'm not exactly brain dead, am I?"
"Well, you're thinking something perverted…"
Matt shrugged and went back to his video game. He and Mello sat at the table, where most of the other children already were. Mello noticed that Near was sitting off at the corner of the table and not talking to anyone, as was usual for freaks like him. Mello put his chin on his fist and glared at the wall across from him, until his view was mysteriously blocked by something… or someone.
"Damn, go and ruin the view of the wall I had, why don't you?" he said irritably to Christie.
"You're the one who suggested that I eat something," she shot at him. Matt looked up from his PSP, realizing that the argument would probably be a little more interesting than beating the same game for the hundredth time. She looked at Matt. "She's your girlfriend, do something about her."
"She gets like this at her time of the month," he said quietly.
"Oh, poor thing, PMS is a terrible thing," she said quietly.
"Stop that!" Mello said, looking from Matt to Christie lividly.
"It's alright, love, we'll get you some chocolate in a minute," he said, patting Mello on the head. Mello glared. Matt laughed.
"Why do you have to stick up for her?" Mello said. "She doesn't need help, she's bitchy enough as it is!"
"Not as bitchy as you," Christie said with a shrug. "You're the Queen Bitch, Mello. I bow to you're supreme bitchy ruling powers."
"You think you're clever, don't you?" Mello said.
"I don't even have to think to know something," she said. "You'll only be as smart as me once you get over that."
"You're not smarter than me!" he said, slamming his hand down on the table.
"I thought I was supposed to believe I was, according to your logic," she said. "Would you make up your mind already? I don't like not knowing who I am, it's rather confusing."
Mello only glared at her as he picked up his sandwich from the lunch tray in front of him. She couldn't possibly find anything else to say if he didn't give her any material to work with. Then again, she was good at it. So what if she was cute? He still hated her. She was also purposely stealing his best friend. He wasn't sure how or even why, but she was. He didn't see why she wouldn't just go make friends with Near, they were both equally appalling and dorky. She was definitely nicer to look at than Near, but that wasn't the point – the point was that he didn't like her in the least bit. Judging by the smirk on his face, Matt thought that he liked her, but he really didn't. Matt probably liked her, but Matt was a pervert, anyway.
"What're you looking at?" Christie said to Mello, holding her sandwich an inch from her mouth with a suspicious look on her face.
"Huh?" He hadn't realized he had been staring at her the entire time he was thinking.
"Stop looking at me," she said shiftily.
"I wasn't looking at you," he said. "Why would I look at you?"
"To make me paranoid," she said.
"No one has to do anything to make you paranoid."
"That's not an insult," she said. "I know full well I'm paranoid, thanks."
"Why do all the new kids always have to be so bitchy?" Mello said to Matt.
"To compete for the title of Queen," Christie said happily.
"I'll bet you were just dropped here because your family got tired of you. When can we send you back?"
Christie's expression changed drastically in a matter of seconds, from amusement to pure poison. Sensing danger, Matt immediately went back to his PSP. Mello crossed his arms and glared back. She dropped her sandwich on her plate and stood up. Mello's eyes widened a little – was she going to hit him? She was only a girl, but she was still rather scary. Obviously she wasn't going to hit him, as she turned and left the room unseen by anyone but Matt and Mello. They watched her walk up the stairs, most likely to go to her room. They then heard the quiet sound of a door slamming in the distance over the hubbub of the dining table. Matt looked at Mello. Mello looked back at him.
"What?" he said questioningly.
"I think you hit a rough patch there," Matt said.
"She was the one who started it!"
"Maybe," Matt said, "but think about where we are for a moment. You don't know what happened for her to have been put here."
"Yeah…" Mello said slowly, "but she shouldn't have called me a bitch, if she hadn't then I would have been able to keep my mouth shut and I wouldn't have said that!"
Matt shrugged. "She'll probably never talk to you again now."
"Good!" Mello said, picking his sandwich back up. "I don't want her to anyway."
"Whatever you say."
"What's that mean??"
"Nothing," Matt said, looking up from his game. "I think if she's paranoid like she says, then it must be contagious. You've been showing an awful lot of it lately."
"Have not!"
"And you've also been quite a bit more contradictive than usual."
"But she's the one who's –"
"And you've been coming up with excuses for it left and right. I'd say you like her if you didn't keep insisting you don't."
"I don't!"
"I know, I just said that. Well, as long as you don't, maybe I'll have a go at –"
"But she's a bitch!" Mello said. "Damn!" he said in pain under his breath, feeling a cane whack him in the leg.
"Language, Mello," he heard the caretaker of the orphanage, Roger, say from behind him.
"Sorry, Roger," he said irritably. "Won't happen again."
"I would hope not," Roger said, "but as you've said that so many times in the past, I must say I am not fully inclined to believe it."
"I'm not fully inclined to believe it," Mello mimicked when Roger got out of earshot. "Wish the old fucker would just mind his own bussiness…"
"Yeah," Matt said distantly, absorbing into his videogame again.
Mello sat staring huffily at the wall, taking an occasional bite of his sandwich. If that little bitch hadn't wanted him to say something like that, then she shouldn't have been calling him a queen or whatever it was. She might have been book smart, but she seemed to be lacking in the common sense area. Of course it was likely that she had lost her family in some kind of tragedy. He wouldn't have gone that far if she hadn't been making him out to be some homo transsexual… thing. And Matt was helping her! PMS? That was simply insane. He glared at Matt as he took another bite of his sandwich. Some nerve he had, insulting him just to impress that girl. How could anyone like someone like her? Matt made a frustrated noise and shut off his PSP.
"What?" Mello said defensively.
"I beat the damn game again…" he said with a sigh. "Now there's nothing to do…"
"You could go outside for a change."
Matt gave a laugh. "You're kidding, right? Maybe I'll go upstairs and –"
"I know what you're planning," Mello said snappily.
"– go find another game…" Matt finished. "You're not really PMSing, are you?"
"How could I… you're an idiot, Matt," he said with a sigh, standing up and ignoring Matt's laughing. "What game was that?"
"What's the point in starting that conversation again?" Matt said. "You'll just start asking what it's about and get confused."
"I don't get video games," he said.
"Then why ask?"
"I dunno."
They walked back upstairs. Matt slowed down by the room before theirs.
"Ooh," he said quietly, stopping and putting his ear to the door. "She wasn't just mad, then.
"What're you talking about?" Mello asked, stopping.
"You've made her cry."
"She… she's only faking, so I'll apologize," Mello said dismissively. "That's what girls do, you know? They pretend to cry to make you feel guilty. Not going to work on me."
"Actually," Matt said, shaking his head, "I think she really is crying. If she wanted you to apologize she'd have left the door open, right?"
"That's really doubtful, leaving the door shut makes it seem more genuine," he said, walking again.
Matt followed him. He had learned a long time ago that arguing with Mello was basically pointless. The only person that held a candle to him in that area was that Christie girl, who was now probably going to avoid ever looking at him again. That was most likely for the better. Their constant bickering would have started getting annoying after a while, especially with Mello getting on his back about giving her "material." He was good at acting like he wasn't concerned at all about it, but he most likely was. It was probable that he was trying to convince himself he didn't give a damn. Just because he looked girly didn't mean he was going to act like it. That was how he always was.
Her crying was even distinguishable through the walls between their two rooms. Mello, who was determined to probe that she was only faking, walked over to the wall between their rooms while Matt was looking through games. Matt looked over.
"What're you doing?" he said.
Mello knocked loudly on the wall. "Would you mind keeping it down over there?" he yelled.
"Sh-shut up!" she yelled back in a scratchy voice.
"Wow," he said with a laugh that sounded a little more nervous than amused. "Not even an insult. She's pretty good at acting, too. I suppose she'll be praised even more for that here."
"Yeah," Matt said, choosing not to disagree with Mello. "Probably."
"You don't really think she's…" Mello started. "No, never mind," he said crossing his arms. He sat down on the bed. "She's full of shit, she's just doing this to get to me."
"Z'it working?" Matt asked vaguely, pulling out a box from under the bottom bunk of the bed.
"No," Mello said defensively. "If it were working, then I'd apologize, which I'm not going to do. Because it's not working. And it's not going to any time in the future either either."
"Well, congrats to you," Matt said, sitting down on the floor in front of the box of games, "I'd be over there apologizing my ass off by now if I were in your situation."
"Yeah, well I know what I'm doing here," Mello said. "I know what she's doing and it isn't going to work because of the fact that I know."
"Whatever you say."
"If you're implying that I –"
"I'm not implying anything, I'm just looking for a game that I've beaten under ten times," he said, scratching his head. "And by the way," he said, "you're really being a drama queen."
"I am not being a drama queen, you ass – oh shit, I am…" he said. He shook his head and reached down under the bed. He pulled out a chocolate bar, which he unwrapped as he was sitting back up. "That's not good. I swear I think she's brainwashing me."
"Well, if you really look at it, she kind of is," Matt said, examining a game, then putting it in his PSP. "She's manipulating you into acting like this by calling you a bitch."
"Which I'm not," Mello said with a mouth full of chocolate. He swallowed. "She's the bitch here!"
"See?" Matt said, turning on his PSP. "That's exactly what's doing it. Bitch."
"I'm not a b – stop making me do that," Mello said. "I'm not a drama queen."
"Nope, you're just a queen in general."
"Shut up," he said. "She might be cute, but you don't have to stick up for her this much. It's not right."
"But is so funny, somehow."
Mello rolled his eyes. He balled up the empty chocolate wrapper and threw it on the floor, trying to tune out the crying in the next room with the noise from Matt's PSP. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working very well….
