Wow, it's been a long time since I've typed the first chapter. I've been lazy, I know and I'm sorry. I just didn't feel the need to write. Thanks to those who reviewed and alerted. I feel like Yusuke is out of character a little bit, so I'll try and fix that. Onward ho!

Thoughts

"Spoken Word"

Flashback


It had been a full year since that evening that Madelyn first spoke to Yusuke Urameshi. It was weird at first; to learn that he was one of the top delinquents in town, but that didn't stop her from being nice to him. She remembered that evening that they first spoke to each other.

I can't believe he asked he if had to buy me something. Do all girls in this town want money from boys? She thought to herself

They had hanged out after that night; before school and after, when he felt the need to attend. On the weekends they hung out with Kazuma Kuwabara, who was very loud and obnoxious, but she learned to love him for the little stuff. His love for cats was what Madelyn loved the most. He had the cutest one that would mew and purr like no tomorrow. She had also met Shizuru Kuwabara, the oldest one in the family and an avid smoker. Madelyn didn't mind it. Her father had been a smoker before he passed. The smell brought back some good memories. They all hung out and played video games at Kuwabara's house and watched movies at Yusuke's. They had yet to hang out over her house because she hadn't introduced her friends to her mother yet.

Madelyn knew her mother wouldn't care for her friends because of their measly background…and hobbies…

It wasn't Yusuke's fault if he fought in the streets…and in parks...and places of business…and food shops.

Okay, so it might have been his fault. Those thugs shouldn't have picked fights with him in the first place if they didn't want to lose their teeth and go crying home to their mothers.

Then she had learned about Yusuke's school attendance. Every other week, he would attend school for a couple of days and then for the next week he would relax at home or skip classes when he felt he didn't need to be there. This annoyed Madelyn slightly

"Do you want to fail?" she yelled at him

"Why would I do that?" he answered back calmly, putting a fresh candy into his mouth

"If you keep skipping school you're going to end up repeating the same year, stupid!" she smacked him on the back of the head and the candy fell out of his mouth

"Hey, that was my last piece!" he looked down at the candy that fell onto the ground and then looked at her glaring.

She glared right back at him.

"You know how much that candy cost?" Yusuke placed his hands on her shoulders shaking her.

"I'll buy you all the candy you want if you go to school and pass the test that's coming up."

"That test isn't for the next couple of months." Yusuke said, digging his hands into his pockets. He wasn't sure if he needed to shake her again, but if he did, she might actually hit him back.

"Well I guess you'll just have to attend school for those months to pass, now won't you Yu-Chan" she smiled at him. She dangled a piece of candy in front of his face and held it out of reach so he couldn't quickly snatch it away. She was famous for doing that to him when she wanted to tease him with something.

"What makes you think I'll attend school just for some candy?" he looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

"It's free; you're getting it from me, and the chance to say that you beat me at something." She took his hand and placed the candy inside. "Besides, a little school didn't hurt anyone, did it?"

"I hate this stupid class." She mumbled to herself. Madelyn was getting a headache from looking at the numbers on the board so long. It all seemed jumbled up to her now with all the signs and equations.

"Have anything to share with the class Ms. Brookhaven?" asked the teacher

"No Sensei." She said turning a little red. She didn't know she was talking out loud to herself. She looked over to the desk next to her. Yusuke hadn't shown up to school today and earlier she heard on the loud speaker that Mr. Takenaka had been looking for him. I wonder what he did this time.

"Well maybe you could come up and show the class how to do solve this problem then." The teacher said holding out a piece of chalk to her.

"No problem sensei." She said standing with a smile. Damn it, I hate trigonometry. I have no idea how to do this; I guess I'll have to wing it. She started to put random number into the equation to try and solve the side for the triangle. Oh wow, that's right.

"Now explain to the class how you got that answer Ms. Brookhaven."

"Guess and check." She replied shrugging.

"What?" The teacher looked at her with his eyebrow raised.

"I guess the numbers to put in there and then I did the check in my head." She said turning to the class.

"Well, that's not the way we do it in Japan Ms. Brookhaven. Maybe a little detention can help you learn how to do this correctly." The teacher walked to the podium and pulled out a pink paper and started writing on it, probably her name and then the time of the detention. The he handed it to her. "I'll see you after school."

She took it grudgingly and walked back to her desk. They give you detentions for the stupidest things here. The bell rang for the next period and the teacher wrote the homework for that night quickly on the board before the next teacher came in. "I expect this to be done without 'guess and check'"

The students groaned at the amount, but wrote the page numbers down.

Detention

Madelyn hadn't seen Yusuke all day and it had worried her the entire day. Even when he was skipping school, he would sneak in during lunch and they would sit on top of the roof and share a bento together.

He's a tough hardened delinquent. He should be fine. It's not like he's doing something crazy, like playing in traffic or something. Stop worrying yourself girlie!

She sighed and continued to do the work she "cheated on" and waited for the detention to be over

"This'll teach you to cheat and use shortcuts on work. You should work hard like the rest of the students here. All that American trash you learned should have left your head by now Ms. Brookhaven." Said the teacher smirking

She tightened her grip on her pencil. "Yes Sensei." She gritted her teeth. Every teacher in the damn school was crooked. No wonder why Yusuke didn't attend school everyday. He probably couldn't stand teachers.

The teacher turned to look at the clock and noticed how late it was getting. "Well, I guess we're done for today Ms. Brookhaven, lets not cheat again, okay?" The teacher smiled

"Yes Sensei." Madelyn bowed not looking and turned to walk out the door.

"I hope Yusuke isn't mad at me for not meeting him," She said "I'll just stop by his house to see where he was. We should probably hang this weekend too, like we do every weekend, maybe the beach this time though, I haven't been near one since I first got here." She made a note mentally about the beach. She wasn't sure if Yusuke or Kuwabara liked the beach, but she was a swimmer and she couldn't stay away from the water to too long. When she was smaller her mother used to tell her she should have been born a mermaid for all the swimming that she did.

Madelyn turned around to walk to towards Yusuke's apartment that he shared with his mother. She had met Atsuko once and she seemed like a nice lady. When she was drunk, that is. When she wasn't drunk, she was a completely different person. She seemed wise in fact and had her head on her shoulders. It was a nice change from seeing her drunk all the time. She could get a little crazy when she was drunk. Last time Madelyn was in Atsuko's presence when she was drunk, Atsuko tried to conduct a wedding ceremony between Madelyn and a potted plant.

Madelyn finally arrived at the Urameshi residence and knocked on the door. She didn't get an answer. She bent down and reached underneath the rotting stone on the step and found the spare key that Yusuke had shown her once. Unlocking the door, she went in, took off her shoes and peered around to see if anyone was home.

"Atsuko-san?" she called. No answer. Of course she wouldn't be here; it was only 5 o'clock in the evening. She was bound to be out all night at a bar with buddies.

"Yusuke?" she called again. Complete silence.

This was starting to worry her. Usually when she visited one of them was home and the other was out somewhere. Both of them were out and it worried her. She looked around for any sight of robbery or kidnapping. Not that she knew what to look for. She had never witnessed either of them. A jingle made her start and she looked down toward her bag where her cell phone was ringing.

Goddamn phone

"Hello?" she answered

"Madelyn…" it was Atsuko

"Atsuko, where are you? Do I need come and pick you up? I'm at the apartment and-"

"Yusuke…"Atsuko wailed.

"What's wrong with Yusuke? " Madelyn panicked

"Yusuke, oh god, Yusuke!" Atsuko wailed once more

"Atsuko-san, please! Tell me what's going on!"

"Yusuke….he's…" there was more crying "Yusuke is dead!"

"He's what?" Madelyn stood there in the middle of the apartment dumbfounded. Had she heard Atsuko wrong? And if this was a joke, it wasn't funny at all. This was her best friend they were talking about.

"He's dead." Atsuko, by this time, was just sobbing words into the phone

"How did this happen?" Madelyn was tearing up. She dropped her phone onto the floor after she heard Atsuko utter those words. He's too stupid to die. What was his problem? How dare he leave her alone with Kazuma? He was the one person she had in this entire country that she could actually share her ramblings with. He didn't understand them most of the time, but he tried too at least. Maybe he just listened so that he had something to chuckle about later. That didn't matter to her though. So long as she was in his presence….

"Why is this happening to me?" Madelyn slowly sunk down to the floor onto her knees. "Why are people I care about dying?" she looked up towards the ceiling tears falling down her cheeks creating a path for the next ones. "Yusuke, you idiot, if you showed up to school today, your stupid ass wouldn't be dead."

"You never listen!" Madelyn screamed, her voice breaking because of the tears. She pounded the floor with her fists sobbing. She could hear Atsuko from her phone sobbing also.

She grabbed her phone and tried to calm her self. Her voice was steady but her tears kept coming "I have to go home now Atsuko-san, but I'll be back tomorrow and then everyday after that. Is that okay with you?"

Atsuko couldn't form words it seemed so Madelyn could wait until she was okay to speak with her.

"I'll come over tomorrow and we can talk then, okay?" She clenched the phone in her hand to stop the sob that was forming in her throat. Then she closed her phone with a snap and then threw it across the room where it fell to the floor and the battery popped out.

Madelyn felt sick suddenly. She ran to the bathroom and threw up her lunch. She was too tired to move now and she felt dizzy. It would be best if she laid down now.

She walked into the room that was the closest and fell down on the bed. It smelt like her friend. Yusuke.

Her sobs were renewed as soon as she knew whose bed she lay in. She clenched the pillow he had put his head on to sleep and fell asleep.

Eyes opened and some ones sight looked onto the horizon of the setting sun

"What the hell?" he looked around and saw that he was above the city.

Above the city?

"What is going on here…?"

"Oh dear." A female voice came from behind him

"What's going on here?" he asked looking around him

"Well, it seems there's been a mistake." The woman he was looking at was looking through a black book and she was riding a…oar?

"You weren't supposed to die today."

"WHAT?"

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