A/N: hi! hopefully this doesn't turn you off from the story but this is my first (published) fanfic. though i doubt ill be getting attention from this single upload alone while also having it published through an account that hasn't had an inch of recognition, i hope it isn't too much to ask for you to leave a review because i'd really love hearing people's thoughts on my writing. anyway, i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i enjoy writing it!


"Miss Langtree?"

Silence.

"...Miss Langtree?"

More silence.

"Psst," a black-haired boy hissed from his desk, hitting the arm of a girl whose head was just resting on. The action swiftly woke her up from her slumber. A groan escaped the girl's lips, her eyelids slowly rising from their prior state.

Slightly cranky from being woken from her sleep she'd needed for days, her squinted eyes quickly widened when her irises met those of her angered history teacher's.

"Oh, hey."


The car ride had been short, as it always was between her house and school, but the stale mood that settled among Lucy and her parents had made it seem as if they were there for hours on end. She held back a sigh, as any noise from her would signal her dad to start scolding her again, but unfortunately, it was in vain as she saw from the corner of her eye how he'd opened his loud mouth yet again without any provocation.

"God, it's the fourth time this has happened, Lucy. In a row. And now you've pushed your limit. I thought you'd learned by now to not fall asleep in class. What do you even do at night to make you that sleepy? 'Cause I sure as hell know it's not sleeping."

Her expression didn't change. Her head was up against the headrest, eyes staring at the roof of the car as if it were her stupid history teacher's face when she had told her that she was writing up a referral for being a distraction and falling asleep in class. Of course, she knew Mrs. McBride wasn't entirely lying about her behavior in class, but Lucy had just enough of her own evidence and witnesses to testify against some of the false accusations she noticed had been written down, such as her being a distraction. Now, that was something she couldn't understand why her teacher had seen fit to be included. After all, she barely spoke in that class since she herself had trouble keeping up with it and didn't need to be dragging her grade down even further. Though, maybe it was because McBride had to walk over to her desk and wake her up several times, disrupting the flow of the lessons...

Lucy snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her dad's voice break through. "Look, do you want to talk about something with us, or, what? We've been busy with work, so we haven't been able to see you much, which is our fault, I'll admit it. But that doesn't excuse you from acting like an ass when we're gone, you understand me?"

"Yeah... I know," Lucy spoke weakly from the backseat.

There was that small hint of dissatisfaction in the air; the kind Lucy always felt when she knew she'd feel her suppressed anger nearly boiling over. "What was that again?"

It took nearly everything in her not to lash out.

"Yes, dad. I understand."

There it was. Four words spoken with seeming ease, with an obedient tone honed to be exactly how her parents—mostly her dad—would want it to sound. She wasn't exactly good at anything other than being a fluctuating C to B average student at school, but this was the one thing she considered herself proficient at; lying. At least, with her parents. She didn't feel the need to lie to anyone else.

Truthfully, Lucy didn't know if it was simple natural talent or her parents' actions that allowed her to hold such an asset, but however she obtained it didn't matter. She noticed how people other than her would usually lie, or attempt at it. They always had some sort of tell, whether it was a reoccurring one, such as holding their chin or scratching behind their ear, or an obvious one like overt stuttering or blushing, tending to occur more in the inexperienced. Contrasting against herself, well, she proudly had slim to none. However, that wasn't all that went into artifice. Perhaps, to sum it up, Lucy'd consider herself to be a stellar actress. She almost giggled at the thought of her up on the silver screen, but remembered her current situation.

Right. Don't make noise and she wouldn't get scolded.

It's not like she hated her dad, hell, some kids would probably prefer him to their own since he thankfully wouldn't do anything physical against her (but it still didn't excuse the fact his verbal attacks on her hurt any less, since after all, words do hurt.) It's just... slightly dysfunctional. The decision on whether she'd want to explore that concept more had come to a close; she would not be divulging herself more into her family's issues since all it would do is stress her out. After all, she had issues of her own to deal with... namely Mrs. McBride. Hopefully there would be a way around everything before she'd be forced to go to the parent-teacher-principal conference tomorrow as scheduled by the referral.


Lucy stuck her tongue out at the grinning black-haired boy who had just been messing with her from behind the computer screen. Hale, who had been her only friend since junior year, pouted in response.

"You're literally the worst," he started, his tone teasing ever since they started video chatting, "you actually fell asleep in the same class for four days straight all because you were binging some anime?"

"Not just the anime, though, I've already finished it. I'm reading the manga now."

"Alright, but I still haven't heard a 'thanks!' from you for waking you up."

Lucy squinted her eyes. "That wouldn't have mattered, she already saw me sleeping anyway. If anything, you should've woken me up earlier."

"Geez, at least I made an effort. It's the thought that counts, right?"

"Sure, whatever." She let out a big sigh and let herself sink into her chair, eyes again pointed to the ceiling, away from Hale's face.

Lucy just wanted this to be over with. She knew it had been her fault that she'd been falling asleep in class, but it wasn't her fault Death Note had to be so good (not really a valid excuse when she thinks about it, but still an excuse.) After all, it was probably now her favorite anime of all time.

Other than that, her luck just had to be on the opposing side. Somehow she had managed to fall asleep a handful amount of times in the same class with the same uptight, nasal teacher who thought sleeping was a crime. Maybe it was, Lucy hadn't researched much on sleeping in class being a possible case of truancy, but in that moment she had done nothing to deserve the punishment she'd received.

She jerked her head back to its original position facing the screen. Hale's face was still there, thankfully. He hadn't ended the call even when she seemed to space out. Patience was a quality of his Lucy liked.

"Hey, maybe I can try and convince her to revoke my referral, if that's a thing," she offered.

He let out a short laugh. "Why not just go to the meeting? I'm sure it won't be that bad. It's not like you're falling asleep on purpose." Hale hesitated a bit before continuing his sentence, cracking a smile. "And maybe don't mention it's all because you're a weeb."

Lucy stared at him. He was clearly holding back a large amount of laughter with his teeth biting into his bottom lip, just waiting to get a reaction out of her which would be the breaking point in his attempt at covering up the sheer pride in his own terrible joke. A maybe insignificant attribute that came along with his patience was that he could manage to hold back his laughter until the timing was appropriate. Not entirely useful knowledge, but Lucy knew it about him nonetheless. In the end, though, she gave him the reaction he wanted.

"Alright.. I'm ending the call."

Hale finally burst out in laughter, his smile nearly splitting his face in two. "Okay, okay, I didn't mean it," he attempted, his speech being cut off by his own laughter. Despite the fact he was making fun of her, Lucy couldn't help but giggle along with him. "If something can get you that hooked that you're risking feeling the wrath of Mrs. McSnide, then it might actually be good." He finally stopped laughing and she felt he was genuinely interested, widening the grin on her face. "What is it?"

"Ah, well. If you really want me to tell you..."

Time flew by. As Lucy finally ended her retelling with Light's death, she noticed Hale's jaw had dropped a significant amount. "That is so messed up."

"Isn't it?"

Hale simply nodded, irises most likely glancing at the corner of his computer screen. "Oh, whoa, it's pretty late now, isn't it."

Lucy did the same, checking the time on her computer. 11:09 PM. "Yeah, I didn't expect it to take that long, sorry."

"No, I'm glad you did. No wonder you've been binging it, you just made me want to binge it myself! Though, maybe not on weekdays."

"Good idea," she chuckled. "Well, see you tomorrow."

He waved his hand goodbye with a big, dumb grin on his face. "See you!"

BEEP. The call finally ended, and Lucy was alone in her room once again. She laughed remembering the sight of his goodbye. Despite the eighteen year old being a year older than her, he still managed to act like a child, even in his jokes towards her.

After getting ready to sleep, she let herself ungracefully fall face-first onto her bed, hurting her nose upon impact.

"Ow." Groaning to herself, she flipped over on her back and stared at the nothingness above.

Ah, there it is again, she thought, catching herself staring at the ceiling. It was only recently she found herself doing this, but she never understood why. Bad habit? No, it's not necessarily bad to stare at nothing. Weird habit was more fitting. She presumed it was just her way of thinking, then. Rolling over to her side to avoid indulging in the weird habit of hers, she set her eyes on the backs of her eyelids, hoping sleep would come easy.

However, something told her it wouldn't. Something felt... off. She mentally shrugged it off though, and continued trying to fall asleep.

It still wasn't coming though, which annoyed her. She really wanted to sleep well for once, partly because she figured it'd be best if she didn't fall asleep a fifth time and partly because she wanted to be active and aware in the meeting where they may or may not be discussing her grades and school life and such. Maybe I should count sheep... One, two, three, four... five, six... seven...

"Eight... nine..."

Ten, eleven...

Wait.

"Twelve..."

Who...

Lucy opened her eyes, similar to the way she lifted them when her teacher had been waiting for her to wake.

What stood in front of her was definitely not Mrs. McBride... or any human for that matter.

"Hey-lo, Lucy-o."