Warning: spoilers of Mello and Near's real names.

November 16, 2008

Matt

Every school day, we had the same routine. Dad, after a night of little sleep, would begin rousing us kids. He fixed breakfast while we dressed and made sure we all ate a good balance. This included him, because he knew we wouldn't let him get away with it. He would have eaten nothing but cakes and candies if we let him. And we would have too, which is why no one did. If he wasn't letting us, we certainly weren't letting him.

After we had eaten, he would check that our homework was done and we brushed our teeth. Then we were marched out to the car. It was a good-looking car, and slightly expensive (it was a gift from Granpa), but if one truly investigated I'm sure it would be obvious that there were children using it. The interior was a bit of a mess, though it was under control. Dad was never one to completely disregard appearance. He made sure we looked presentable before school, and that the car was cleaned every few weeks, and the lawn was kept…as neat as it could be with three boys.

So anyway, we would get packed into the backseat, book bags on our laps, and Dad drove us to school. We could have walked, it was only six blocks away, but no neighborhood is one-hundred-percent safe, and Dad didn't like the chances of us getting hurt or kidnapped, even though they went down if we were all together because then the chances of all of us getting taken went up. And Dad was all about percentages. He had a point, though. Mihael was only eleven, and Nate was nine. I was ten, and was always glued to my games.

When we got to school, Dad would open the door, with his hand out. Nate would hand over whichever toy he had dragged along, I would save my game as quickly as possible and fork it over, and Mihael would take one last bite of the chocolate bar he had before placing it in Dad's hand. Then we went to class and Dad did whatever Dad did.