Mello nibbled each cocoa puff slowly, tasting its choclatey- goodness and its sogginess from being soaked in the cold milk. He was sitting in the kitchen of Wammy's house, the kitchen he had learned to know and love. It was where he came in the morning, just after the sun set. He would roll himself off his bed, sometimes to his dismay, he even fell off. After doing this, he would walk past Matt, and head to the kitchen, where his favorite cereal awaited him.
Matt was the laziest guy Mello had ever met. Usually he woke up at around 11:30-12:00. Which meant, Mello had to spend at least 5-6 hours waiting for him to wake up.
Mello grabbed the cereal box and allowed himself to pour the cereal till no milk was visible. He was full, yet he ate.
After no milk nor cereal was left in his bowl, he picked it up, and placed it in the big sink behind the table. The milk had left a white layer on the clear bowl, as if symbolizing that somebody just ate cereal in it.
Everyone was asleep except for those few orphans who had either insomnia or had trouble sleeping. Lots of kids at Wammy's house had nightmares. Mello used to be one of them. He would always dream the same dream.
He was in the lake, swimming. He swam up and down, feeling great bursts of energy. The sun was hitting his back, providing the best comfort Mello had felt in a long time. But Mello sensed that something was wrong. Everything felt so perfect, yet it was wrong. Mello turned around facing the sun, but instead he saw thunder and gray dull clouds. Mello was frightened by the thought of getting zapped by thunder so he immediately swam towards the shore, snatched his clothes, and ran back to the house. He ran through the forest, but he never got past it. The trees were blowing south because of the wind. They looked as if they were trying to push Mello back and it was working. Panic started to overwhelm Mello and he tried to run as fast as he could. Beads of sticky sweat ran down from his lash to his lip. He could taste their saltiness. This, for some unknown reason, frightened Mello. He squinted his eyes. He couldn't bear seeing the trees or the plants anymore. He just ran and ran...."Mello" In her mind the voice sounded so angelic....He looked up. It was him.... Wearing exactly the same thing as always. His loose white shirt was neatly hanging covering the top-belt portion of his blue jeans. His pure black hair dangled to the side, yet spiking up straight to the sky. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to be so perfectly complete and still, Mello swore they were made out of a black marker. He stood there, beside a tree and stared at him. This was the part of the dream no, nightmare, that scared Mello the most. Why? because his stare was so unknown to Mello. He wasn't sure if it was a terrified stare, with fear gleaming in his eyes. Or was it a warning. Was he trying to tell Mello something. Something that only he can know and not Near? Or worst, was it a disappointed stare? This is what made Mello cry and wake up screaming all those nights.... was L disappointed in him. Was he never going to be L's successor? Was he never going to be good enough?
He dropped the spoon in the sink, which made a big thumping noise against the floor of the sink. This woke him up. He walked over to the table and pulled up a chair. He made a tent with his arms and hands and dug his face in it.
About 5 hours later......
Mello..... the voice was distant. Mello..... like hearing it from one end of a deep long tunnel. Mello..... the voice's echo rung in his ears. "Mello!"
Mello finally reacted to the sound. In a second he regained his counciousness.
"Wakey wakey sleepyhead."
Mello looked up, making sure he was not drooling. He saw the stripes...
"Hi Matt" Mello managed to mumble. He was never like this. He never overslept, especially after breakfast... I guess I'm just fuckin tired he thought.
"Heya" he said, and grabbed the cocoa puffs with a nice swift move. He dug his hands in the cereal and stuffed the chocolate balls in his mouth.
Mello looked up, his face obvious with curiosity.
When Matt saw him, he tried as best to say the words.
" Ahm to lazy to gret the milk"
Apparently, Mello hadn't noticed that Matt literally stuffed his mouth with the chocolate balls.
" Today's not the end of the world Matt, take your damn time." Mello said standing up to go get the milk.
"How do u know its not today?" he responded , making it clear that he had already munched down the first serving of the Cocoa Puffs.
Mello handed him the milk and laid his head back down, this time resting it on the hammock of my hands.
"So what you gonna do today?"
" I don't know, same old same old."
" Hey, I got an idea." Matt said, and at this Mello lifted his head. Matt always had the best ideas.
"Remember today's April Fool's"
I think I know where this is going. Mello thought to himself.
"Yep"
"Well....why don't we prank Near!"
Brilliant, Mello said to himself, though he didn't dare say this aloud.
"I don't know..." For some reason Mello made it seem like he really didn't want to.
"Oh c'mon. You know you want to." He grinned at Mello.
Apparently, he had already planned everything because he took out an assortment of things including some toilet paper tubes, toothpaste, shaving cream, confetti, some of those things that make noise when you throw them, the newest hi-tech wrist walkie-talkies, some stink bombs, smoke bombs, and other things unknown to Mello, all in a small black trash bag. Yep, he's that cheap. Mello thought to his amusement.
After about half an hour of discussing the plan, they were ready to take action.
Mello was standing by room 113. Near's room. He had been outside this room so many time, each time holding so many memories....
Beep. Beep.
Mello looked at the electronic that was strapped to his wrist. A red light blinked to the side of it, indicating that Matt was trying to communicate with him. He pressed the small blue button.
"Are you in position Pipil?" God, he sucked at assigning code names.
"Yep. Everything's ready Stripe." Oh yeah, i gave him the best codename.
Mello used Matt's gadget to open the door. He pushed it forward with the tips of his fingers. The doors at Wammi's house weren't loud when opened, so Mello wasn't worried. He stepped in, quietly closing the door behind him. He tiptoed across the carpet of Near's room, having to hold his loud raspy breath. To his right was a small desk, some papers were spread across it, the lamp emerging from them like a mountain. To his left was a set of bunk beds covered in blue linen. On the top was a boy named Kyrk. Mello didn't know his real name, everyone called him Kyrk. In the bottom bed was...empty.....
What! Mello thought so intense that he thought he accidentally said it aloud.
He pressed the blue button.
"Matt!"
"Matt!"
No answer. He walked a bit further. He was almost approaching the small window the room had, when he tripped on an object on the floor. His body fell forward and he landed on his chest.
Ughh...
Mello pushed herself off, a small grunt escaping from his mouth, and stood up straight. He turned around, and looked at the floor.
What the hell?
Before he can even guess what was going on, a big splash of water hit his head, drenching his face and different scattered parts of his body. Some water landed on his wrist, making Matt's walkie-talkie start beeping wildly while the small red light blinked out of control.
Ok, now I'm pissed.
A bright light started shining behind his back. Mello turned around, staring at the little white-haired midget.
"You?"
"Hello Mello."
He brushed a small bang of his white hair across his forehead. He was holding a purple flashlight, in the other hand, his inseparable robot.
"How?" Near had outsmarted him again. It just settled in. How the hell did he figure out?
"Mello, you didn't except me to fall for such a stupid trick did you? Just because I don't socialize doesn't mean I don't know that today's April Fool's."
You have to ruin everything don't you Near?
Behind Near came Matt, with a shocked look asking for an answer to what's going on?
"Wha" He tried saying.
Mello walked out, brushing his shoulder with Near's.
"Let's go Matt."
A huge grin spread across Matt's face. Mello grinned as well. They left the room, leaving before their planted stink bomb exploded.
See, the plan was, they both knew for sure that Near was going to have a counter-attack so they acted like they fell for it, but in reality it was all a distraction to plant Matt's stink bomb. It was basic, simple, and one of the best pranks ever.
"We did good." Matt said, tilting his head up. Mello knew he was just dying from laughter inside.
"We did very good." Mello added.
A few minutes later, they were both in their room, lounging around, finding something to do, when they heard a knock at their door.
Matt stood up, placing his game-boy on his nightstand, and walked to the door.
It was him.
Immediately both Matt and Mello started laughing hysterically. His white hair looked as if someone just mugged him and pulled at his hair. White bangs of different sizes swung left, right, up, and down.
His face was a look of dismay. His left hand was pinching his short nose.
"We got you!" Matt proclaimed.
Near didn't say anything, he just stood there, looking crappy.
"Yes, I guess you did, but how do you know I didn't let you guys get me, instead of counter-attacking again." "Mello, you know that I'm smarter than this don't you?"
Immediately the laughter died.
Matt turned around, looking at Mello for a response.
Crap.
After minutes of staring at each other in dismay, Matt broke the silence.
"Ok fine Near, you win." Matt said, closing the door with an abrupt shut.
He went back to his bed, picked up his game-boy and placed it back down again.
"Damn it, I thought we had him."
"So did I." and with that, they both sat in their beds, sulking their loss.
Outside of their room, walking down the hall, was Near, grinning. They fell for it, why was he not surprised?
Finished on 5-23-09. Written by Alex Figueroa.