I opened my eyes slowly, praying that last night had not been a dream, but also half hoping it was. Yesterday I was sent from the orphanage to a place called Wammy's. It's another orphanage, but apparently, for gifted children. I got to take my first ever trip on an airplane, flew from America to England. When I arrived in the airport terminal in England I saw an old man waiting for me. I knew it was for me because he had my name written on a big piece of cardboard. It was not an easy trip, I wasn't allowed to play my game on the plane. I was hoping there was enough time getting from the airport to Wammy's that I could play a level or two. Currently Pokémon Yellow was in my game boy, but I could switch it over to Kirby's Dreamland. That way I'd get more game in. The old man greated me politely and we were on our way. At first, I thought we would be taking a Taxi or a bus. That's how I got to the airport in America. To my surprise he led me to a stretch limo. My eyes must have been bugging out of my skull. Luckily, if they threatened to pop out too far, my goggles would catch them.

When we got to Wammy's I was worried it would be a total nightmare. Smart kids running all over, crowded hallways, another grungy old building. Instead I was presented with huge black iron double gates. A long winding road, and a gorgeous stretch of green grass. Off to the side I could see a play area, as we came around he tree's and hedges, a looming but beautiful building came into view. I was glad I was too engulfed by the scenery on the way here to turn on my game. I mentally counted the windows. Four stories high. The limo pulled up at the bottom of the small set of steps leading into the building. All I could do was stand there and gape. The old man cleared his throat and led the way through a set of heavy double doors. The first thing I saw, was what seemed to be a marble tiled floor. I looked down at myself next, the warden...err...head of the other orphanage, had insisted on me wearing "nice" clothes. I was in an old hand-me-down black t-shirt, and a pair of not ripped to shreds pair of jogging pants. My shoes were at least eight years old, having gone from white to black over time. I felt so out of place amongst all the vast clean area in front of me. I felt like throwing up.

I was led to the old mans office. I got a map of the orphanage and school areas, a timetable, a new bag and laptop, some school books, and was promised new clothes would be bought for me. He talked about how each floor was a little different, but easy to navigate. The fist floor had all the offices, and other staff stuff. The next floor up had all the class rooms, computer rooms, the lunchroom, teacher lounge, etcetera. The third and fourth floors had the bedrooms for the children/students. He said each room held two students, so I would have to bunk with someone. I was more than okay with that, at the old orphanage we had about six to eight people per room. Which sucked. It was cramped, I couldn't play my games, nothing. I was excited. Apparently my room mate was not so easy to get along with but I figured that would be ok. I didn't care to talk much anyway. Tonight was all about getting comfy here and getting all my stuff put away. Tomorrow, some kid the old guy called "Near" would be giving me the grand tour. So we got out of classes that day. I was getting ready to leave when he spoke up.

"Oh, Mail. Before you go, you need this." He handed me a thick folder. I opened it and the first thing my eyes hit was a picture of myself. The name beside it was Matt. "Here at Wammy's everyone has an alias. No one is to know anyone else's real name. We are all striving to become the next L. I am sure your class mates will explain in time. Everything you need is in there. Every student has one. None have their former names or information anymore." I simply nodded. After that he led me to the room I would be staying in. The bed closest to the door covered in plain white sheets with a black blanket overtop. Beside it was a dark nightstand. The desk against the wall next to it had school books, a laptop, and a lamp on either side. On the other side of the door was the dresser and a small closet. The other side of the room was set up in a similar fashion, reflecting the other. The bed had white sheets, but a blue blanket, the desk was bare except for a lamp, the nightstand had a lamp on it, and the dresser and closet were likewise bare. I moved my school things and laptop to the desk, basically just dumping it all over the top. I dropped my two main bags on the floor in front of the empty bed, and took the small bag off my shoulders, carefully laying the game filled vessel on the nightstand.

The door closed behind me. I walked back to the desk, moving my laptop closer to the wall and grabbing the map of the building. I spread the map out, making sure I memorized it. The last thing I needed was to get lost in unfamiliar territory. Once I was finished inspecting the floors I booted up the laptop. The thing was top rate and had a three terabyte memory drive. Quad core, brand new. I was in heaven. The thing had quite a bit of the latest and greatest. It had word, excel, PowerPoint, everything. This would be one of my new best friends. The first thing I did before they started monitoring what I did, was set up a proxy of my own creation. I wanted to do what I wanted when I wanted, without them blocking me. Of course they knew they had a computer literate kid, but did they know how far that went? As I finished up the proxy and saved it in a password protected file rather than my favorites, the door to the room opened. It had a lock so that meant it must be my room mate. I had my key and the teachers didn't come to this floor.

I turned to check out who came in. My mouth must have hit the floor, it dropped so low. They bunked me with a girl. Was that even legal? I took in the shoulder length blond hair, the black clothes, the black laptop, the school books, and then, the eyes. She had gorgeous blue eyes. She stopped, stared at me for a minute, then turned and put her stuff away neatly. I was still staring when she walked over to the nightstand beside her bed, opened it and pulled out a...was that a chocolate bar? She tore the foil off the top half and snapped a piece off with her teeth. God that must have hurt, but she seemed unfazed. She sat down in the chair in front of her desk and looked at me again. Her pretty blue stare turned lethal, deadly, cold. "What!?" she snapped. Her voice was awfully low for a girl. All I could do was stare for a moment before I realized she was talking to me.

"A-are they even allowed to bunk girls with guys?" The moment the words left my mouth I felt stupid. Her glare intensified until it felt like she was tearing me apart piece by piece with a knife. I heard her mutter a curse under her breath. The next words she spoke changed everything. "I am not a fucking girl." Promptly she yanked her shirt off tossing it to the floor, and shred her pants the same way to reveal...oh my god. He had no boxers on. He continued to stare at me, nibbling his chocolate. I realized he was waiting for something. "I... uh... I'm sorry, your hair, I thought..." He cut me off with a wave of his hand and the simple word "whatever". My face must have been as red as my hair at that point. He turned, sitting back down and starting reading one of the textbooks in front of him. Well so much for a good first impression. I must have killed it. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about talking now. I faced my computer screen and quickly pulled up a torrent so I could download a game to add to my collection. I plugged the laptop into the wall and waited while it did its thing.

While I waited I put the few clothes I had in the drawers of the dresser, put my gaming stuff into the nightstand. I turned the lamp on and flicked my game boy on. Plenty of battery power, probably because I haven't turned the thing on since I left America. I had Pokémon Yellow in there still so I turned it off and dug out a different game. I passed over Tetris. I wasn't in the mood for that right now. I skipped over Pokémon Blue and Red, and pulled out Kirby's Dreamland. I needed the distraction of my games and definitely wanted something to get my mind off things. It was just easy enough I could think of other things while I played, but fun enough to keep me busy for a little while. I was in the middle of hitting a tree with its own apples when my room mate spoke up. "What are you doing?" His voice was almost monotone, but very demanding. I shrugged and told him which game I was playing. I hadn't realized he had been staring at me for the last half hour. His eyes were still colder than ice, and his voice was so serious I wondered what was wrong with him. Then again, he was probably pissed that I had thought he was a girl. I saved my game and put it down. Giving him my full attention. This would not happen often so I might as well do it now incase it was important.

He didn't say much else. He looked like a hunter as he stared at me, probably thinking of how to get rid of me. I kept quiet. I didn't want to say anything unless I was answering a question. I already seemed to be on his bad side. And judging by his attitude, clothes, and stare. I figured that's a bad thing, I need to get into his good books. Fast. We sat still like that for what seemed like hours. There was a bell like sound then and he got up. When I didn't follow suit he turned and snapped at me like I was stupid. "It's dinner time. Follow me if your hungry. Don't fall behind, I will leave you there." With that he left the room. I scrambled to my feet, nearly falling face fist into the carpet I didn't notice before on the floor. I bolted out of the room to fine he was standing right beside the door. "Lock up." I quickly dug the key out of my pocket and did so. I barely caught up with him as he turned the corner at the head of a set of stairs. Dinner sucked. A lot of people were asking me questions, pushing for info. I wished I could disappear. My room mate didn't speak to anyone. The one person who tried to get an answer out of him, got growled at. Literally.

When hell was over and we were back in the bedroom, I was so relieved. Now I could play my games and just get away from everything. "What. Am I not good enough to talk to or something?" I turned away from my bed, my game boy just inches away from my hand. "Well?" I hadn't realized he was expecting an actual answer. Oooops. The smart remark that comes out of my mouth? "Since when did you change your mind?" That earned me another round of glares. So much for a good side. I tried hard to keep a poker face. "My name is Ma-" I didn't get to finish. he cute me off. "I don't care. go to sleep." With that he stopped what he was doing and crawled under the blankets of his bed. With a sigh I give in and do the same. I probably needed the sleep anyway. It took me a while to fall asleep. After a while of silence I rolled over to see my room mate hovering over me. I didn't jump. Didn't blink. Just stared at him. "What?" He seemed surprised at my lack of response to him. He shrugged, said nothing and walked back to his bed. It was then that I realized something wasn't right. That look in his eyes, wasn't right. I rolled over, hoping for the best.

So here I am, the morning of my second day. My room mate slams his hand down on an alarm clock to shut it up. He groans and stretches. Well, last night wasn't a dream. I sigh with both relief and fear. What was he doing last night. A light tap on the door warns us of another person. My room mate snarls at the door. "Go back to bed! It's early." The person on he other side is unfazed. His voice is calm, steady and quiet. "I'm here to give a tour, not to spar verbally with the likes of you." Add bland to that mix. I didn't have a good impression of Near at this point, but as my room mate turned his glare on me, I shot out of bed, dressed in record time and bolted out the door. Anything was better than another minute in there.

As the door slammed shut behind me I began to second guess which was better. The kid in front of me was small. He must be like five years old. All he had on was a long sleeved white shirt and a pair of white workout pants that were two sizes too big. His hair was the same as his clothes. White, kind straight with some curl action at the ends. Near screamed boredom no matter how you looked at him. His eyes were a muted black, cold, but calculating. That's when I realized he was waiting for me to say something. "My name is Matt." Near just nodded, twirling a strand of his hair around his fingers. He didn't even say hello. Instead Near just held his hand out in front of him waiting for me to start walking. I noticed a toy stuck in his pants pocket. Interesting.

It took Near three hours to show me everything. The only place we didn't go was the girls floors. Which was fine by me. I didn't want cooties after all. The last place he took me was in the main hall that was surrounded by class rooms. The bullet board there was covered in organized sheets of white paper. I wonder if he was the one who thought this up. I looked up at the first page on the far left. I noticed the numbers first. In place number one was Near's name. In second was a kid called Mello. For every number there was a name. Rankings. This had to be the rankings. I looked at Near. All he did was nod. Seems like he knew what I was thinking. His voice rang beside me. "These are posted every two weeks. Every Friday morning the rankings and score are placed here in order. For students that want to see the daily or weekly ranks, Wammy's has set up an online data base which each student can view on their own laptops. Only the top twelve are shown on there however."

I nodded my head. I really couldn't think of anything to say at that point. Near gave me a once over with those eyes of his. He must think I'm stupid. I haven't said a single word this whole trip around. And I've had a pretty blank look on my face to boot. All I wanted to do was go play my games for a bit and let it all sink in. My hands moved to the band of my goggles of their own accord. Adjusting them. Near's eyes narrowed. "Why do you hide behind those." Not a question. I shrugged. I didn't consider it hiding, my goggles just make it easier to play games in a dimly lit room. Especially because I didn't have a game boy light. I wore my goggles outside because they made the sun easier to bear. I wore them inside because the golden lenses were made for seeing better in dark areas. I didn't need a bright light on my game boy to play it. I guess I did wear them all the time, so in a way they could be used to hide behind. I shook my head and looked around. Which way was back to the room?

Near seemed to realize what I was thinking, because he started walking down the hallway and turned left. I followed him because I really didn't know what else to do. Hopefully my room mate would be in class by now. As we got back to the room Near kept walking, didn't say goodbye, didn't wish me luck. Wow, he really was boring. I pulled the room key out of my pocket, thought about it, and decided to knock first just in case. If my room mate was still in there, I'd run in, grab my map and laptop, and head for the library. There was no answer. Unlocking the door I pushed it open a crack. Lights were off. That was good. I shoved the door open the rest of the way and stepped in. Still no sign of him. Excellent. I moved over to my desk and fired up my laptop. First order of business was to change the background, add a password, check my proxy, and play a game to calm down. Thank god I spent all that time last night downloading a game for it. I beat the first three levels in less than a half hour.

Thirty minutes of gaming and calming down out of the way, time to get some real work done. I logged onto my proxy and got busy doing some research. Hacking into the schools mainframe I dragged up as much info as I could about Near. I didn't get much. Even the school records had the bare minimum. I stared at my screen in disbelief. There was no way this was it. I fired up my own information and got nothing different. whoever these folks were, they were careful. I dug a little deeper and opened up anything that had been deleted from the computers in the last few months. Nothing. I hacked myself past a few more firewalls trying to get anything on Near or the other students. I only got the basics.

I didn't realize the time that had gone by, I was so absorbed in my work that I didn't even hear the door open. The thing that snapped me away from my computer was my room mates voice. "What the fuck are you doing in the dark?" I spun my chair around so fast when I stood up it clattered to the floor. He stalked over to me. His blonde hair and white skin only accented how deadly he looked in all that black he was wearing. If his hair had been black, he would be just like Near. All one colour. His eyes were full of evil intent. I couldn't help but shiver. It was all I could do. I was frozen, like a deer in the headlights. I was frozen. I was powerless to stop him as he moved in front of me and looked at my laptop screen. Great, my second day, and I was gonna get in serious trouble.

"How did you get into their personal systems." My room mates voice was muted. I couldn't tell if he was angry or not so I answered honestly. I figured lies would just make this worse for me. "I-I hacked into them." My voice sounded so weak. His eyes flashed over to mine and some of the menace was gone. He seemed more curious than anything now. "How." I swallowed the lump in my throat and thought about the work, not the scary person asking about it. My voice came steady and strong considering. "I made my own proxy and built my own firewall as soon as I got some time alone. I knew I would have a limited time before they got their hardware set up to track what I was doing. I don't like being messed with so I created me own personal hide away on there. Simple, clean, un-traceable." My room mates eyes narrowed on me, I knew by the set of his jaw that he was trying to figure out whether or not I was lying. His voice was hard. "What did you find." Again I offered him a shrug. "You're looking at it."

He pulled up some of the minimized pages and shifted through them. He didn't look happy. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to do a backround check on me yet." I bit my lip. I had tried to, don't get me wrong. It's just had to check out a person when you don't know their name. He turned his eyes back to me, waiting for an answer. "Well…I-I did try." I managed to get out. He straightened then and glared at me. "Tried?" Was all he said, he placed his hands on his hips and waited for me to explain. I whispered for fear of his anger. 'Y-yes. See…it's hard to do a search on someone when you don't have their name." There was complete silence for several moments, so long that I had to look up to make sure he was still there. He was, and he looked confused. "They didn't tell you who you were bunking with?" I shook my head. "That explains why you haven't begged to leave yet." I thought of him standing by my bed the other night watching me. Perhaps he had killed his last room mate? Or maybe it was because he scared the guy away? Why would anyone beg to be away from him after just one day? The confusion must have shown on my face., because he seemed to be getting annoyed. "Haven't you heard the rumors yet?" I shook my head. "Didn't Near tell you about me?" Again I answered no. This just seemed to frustrate him even more. "Of course not. That show off wouldn't want anyone to know I'm going to beat him. He's just jealous that I have better colour."

He rolled his shoulders then, and pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket. He tore open the paper and made quick work of the first row, biting into it like it was soft as jell-o. I was surprised his teeth weren't black and laced with visible cavities. He always seemed to have a sweet treat in his mouth. After he calmed down a little, he seemed more human. I decided to risk a question of my own. I asked him who he was. He laughed a little, and with a smile said. "I'm Mello."