Duo couldn't help that he now had this unhealthy obsession... At least that's what Quatre called it when the soda left over in the can began to become solid. It had branched out from years of living alone and out of contact with all of his friends from middle school, and now that he had been put into this private school; it was even worse.

In middle school he had been best friends with Wufei, Quatre, Trowa, and especially Heero, but once they it came time to go to high school the started to drift apart. Duo's father had been picky when it came to who he could be friends with, but for some reason he had had a special resentment towards Heero. It had even grown to a point when Duo's father hated Heero to such an extent that he had gone up to the school and demanded that any classes they had together, that one of them was to change their schedule.

Their relationship went downhill from there until they were hardly even friends anymore. Heero was quiet and mysterious which attracted attention to him with all the girls in school and even guys who thought it was cool. Duo was also somewhat popular, but it could never compare to Heero except for the fact that girls always loved his braid.

----

The braided boy sighed and rested his cheek on the palm of his hand as he stared out the window that was almost three desks over. The sky was a flawless lapis lazuli blue and there were only a few wisps of clouds that dared to drift lazily into the boy's view. His amethyst eyes were listless until he felt the girl behind him quietly whisper his name to drag his attention from the heavens that lied in wait outside of the prison called school.

The girl giggled lightly as Duo took the note from her hand, and picked up his book some to hide it from the wandering teacher's eyes. He didn't recognize the handwriting that said his name on one of the folded flaps of the paper, but opened it anyway knowing there was nothing better to do anyway. The note was scribbled as if in a hurry, but Duo couldn't see any reason for anyone acting so rushed when their teacher probably wouldn't have noticed since he was beginning to bore himself to death with his own lecture.

All it was a couple of lines that Duo guessed was from one kid who had just transferred to their school yesterday. It read: Are you really the guy who murdered your own mother?

The young American was suddenly filled with a powerful loathing for the new boy, and responded with a brief but self-explanatory comment about whether he felt like answering the question or not. In response, all Duo wrote was: Fuck off.

He passed it back and under the desk so that nobody even noticed that they were doing anything at all. He heard the crumpling of paper and a low growl that showed the kid thought he was real tough shit. Unfortunately, that was about the time that their teacher finally paid some attention to what his class was really doing instead of paying attention to what he was teaching.

"Would you like to read that note to the class, Duo?"

With the same indifferent attitude that he had began to use often, he snatched the wrinkled note from the boy's hands and read it, "Are you really the guy who murdered your own mother? Fuck off."

He then crumpled the note once again and sat down while all the kids stared at him in shock or disbelief that he wasn't in the least bit humiliated by what he had said. Even their teacher was at a loss for words for a few moments, but he recovered before anyone else in class did.

"Duo, please refrain from using that sort of language in my class and-" He was cut off as the bell rang, signaling them to hurry on to their next class and either be put to sleep by some more lectures, or maybe relax in study hall, or maybe go to their electives.

Nobody said a word to Duo as he left the room, and all the people who had heard him stayed far away from him even in the crowded hallway. Instead of heading to study hall like he was supposed to, he went outside the school and to the back where nobody ever seemed to go while school was in progress. The brunette leaned against the wall and pulled out a cigarette and lighter.

Recently smoking had been the only thing that kept him from getting too anxious, but he knew that his parents would kill him if only they knew. Every once in a while there were some other kids that came out for a smoke, or would beg him for a cigarette which he would gladly have them pay about five dollars just for three cigarettes. At other times, he was just alone like today, but it didn't bother him one bit; in fact it gave him more time to think things over while he tried to sort out more of his issues.

He was actually passing most of his classes in school except for two, which was English and history since he found the two subjects boring but he could always raise his grade and pass for the semester when it came close to midterms and such. His father had been pressuring him a lot lately to raise his grades since it was still only his freshman year, and he was hoping that Duo would start drawing attention of colleges for scholarships.

"Hey Maxwell, got a free smoke you can just lend me?" Who would've guessed that one of the most popular girls in school would always come to him for a smoke? After all, it seemed like such an impossible scenario for most to imagine Hilde doing.

"'Course, why wouldn't I give you one?" He snagged one from the pack in his pocket, and she used his lighter to light it before taking a long drag. Duo watched her in an uninterested manner, but had nothing better to stare at, "I thought you only came on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays? What's with the sudden change in your routine?"

"Haven't you heard? They're transferring all the new kids over here from that old school they had to tear down since there's something constantly wrong with their foundation." Hilde watched as Duo tried to remember when anyone had mentioned that happening, but kept drawing up a blank, "They warned us yesterday that they were coming tomorrow."

The braided boy didn't seem to take much heed to what she was saying, and just gazed out into the distance at the buildings and maze of alleys behind the school. After he finished his cigarette, he stamped it out with his foot and scooted it closer to the building where nobody would really notice it. Just as his study hall ended, he entered the school again went to his next class which was just as boring as the last but he figured someone would notice if he skipped two classes.

----

When the final bell rang to dismiss all of the students so they could finally go home, Duo was one of the first to hurry up and leave. He quickly headed into the network of alleys and made his way home in less that ten minutes, since he was such an expert on the whole alley system in the city. Most of his summers were spent exploring the city while his father was either at work or on business trips, and it was all unbeknownst to his father. He arrived home and first thing he did was pet the two stray cats that he had sort of adopted and that now took refuge in his garage.

He could see his father's car through the garage window, and found himself surprised that he wouldn't be home alone for the whole afternoon. It was unusual that his father got home any earlier than six but this had set the record. When Duo walked in, the first thing he saw was his father arguing with someone on the phone but stopped when he saw his son. He mumbled a quick apology and asked for the person to call him back later, and hung up.

"How're you today, son?" His voice was trying to fake sweetness, but it didn't work and only made his father sound even more pissed, "I have some bad news about your school..."

"What's that?" Duo asked, not really caring what his father was going to tell him, "Are they going to try to expel me again?"

"No it's not that, but I've heard about all those kids coming to your school... And I also heard that one of them was that wretched Heero boy who used to hang around you..." Duo thought he felt his heart stop when he heard the name Heero.

For the past year, neither of them had spoken to each other because of the different high schools, but that also meant that Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei would be there as well since the four of them had gone to the same school. It was such a shock, that Duo was actually rendered speechless and went straight to his room so he could just think the whole thing over.

Duo closed his door, and locked it before he started wading his way through all the junk that had come to be his room. It took him a minute before he could lay down on his bed and actually start to be able to think of Heero actually going to his school. After a whole year of not having contact with any of his friends, he knew they'd probably be different and might not really be too accepting of him suddenly wanting to be friends again, but he had the feeling Heero wouldn't feel that way at all.

"I can't tell whether I want this moment to last forever... or for it to hurry up and be tomorrow..." Duo laughed at what he said, it was the first time he'd actually laughed in months. This was going to be the year that got Duo's life back on track, and he couldn't wait for him to come out of the depression that he had fallen so deeply into.

His amethyst eyes once again danced as he started to reminisce about middle school and all the fun times the five of them used to have together. This seemed like a dream come true to Duo, or a fairy tale that was finally about to reach the happily-ever-after part of the book. As he began to imagine what the next day would be like, his cell phone suddenly started to ring loudly and made him snap out of his trance.

At that moment, he felt like just throwing the damn thing out the window but he went ahead and answered it without bothering to really see who was calling him. As he rudely answered, there was an cold voice that began to talk to him.

"So you think your life will become happy again?" The voice laughed at him and Duo could only stand there before he realized who it was, "I guess it's time I bring you back to reality about why you were torn apart from your friends and then what happened to your poor mother..."

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Without realizing it, Duo really had thrown his cell phone but luckily it wasn't out the window but just across the room.

He was panting and he glared at the phone as it lay open on his floor. It was the same voice that had been haunting him for years, ever since his mother had been killed that man had called him trying to make his life a living hell, and had succeeded with ease; especially after Duo had been left by his friends. That same man didn't have a name, and Duo still didn't have any idea who he was but the man hadn't called for three months and the braided boy had forgotten all about him.

Now, he was back.

----

Hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and I promise that by tomorrow I will update with the second chapter. Anyway, I hope it was believable and decent!

Please R & R!

Shari Maxwell