Chapter Two

I should've stayed the hell home.

Dante came to this conclusion shortly after entering his last class of the day. Brushing off the residue of what used was previously orange juice from a mishap-on somebody else's part- during lunch period. He decided that he would have to be more careful on whom he chose to sit with next time he got lunch detention, he had no doubt that this would be the last time. That ginger headed kid with the freckles had been the wrong choice obviously. He wasn't aware that if you swung your arm at just the wrong time, a random empty carton of chocolate milk would bounce off said arm, bounce off some random bystander's head, and ricocheted at a seemingly impossible angle that would eventually lead to knocking an innocent bottle of orange juice with enough moment to send that bottle across the lunch table and into an unsuspecting student.

Unfortunately, that unsuspecting student had been him, the orange juice that sat unattended and open across from him had been Ginger's. If he hadn't known any better, he would have suspected that that had been a set-up. Luckily, he had been quick enough to stop the flow of juice from spilling onto his jeans and sneakers. His red t-shirt, on the other hand, needed a wash ASAP.

Taking a seat by a brown-haired girl with her head tucked into her arms to the left of him, he cursed under his breath when he dug into a pocket of his book-bag only to find his only writing utensil missing. Turning, albeit reluctantly, to the seemingly asleep female next to him, he poked at her shoulder garnering a groan from her, "Hey," he said, poking her another time, "Hey, girl."

Picking her head up from the desk where she had previously been trying to catch up on some much needed shut eye before class started, she leveled the devil hunter with a glare, eyes the color of coffee without the cream narrowed at the boy that had rudely awakened her in irritation. Opening up full lips and baring small white teeth, she gave him the most serious expression he had ever come across in a long time and simply said, "Do I look like a girl to you?"

"Uh…" Dante blinked at her. Was that a trick question? He would have laughed, a rare thing for him, if he wasn't so sure his life hung in the balance of the next words to come out of his mouth. She sure looked like a female to him. No, as a matter of fact, he was pretty damn certain this was indeed a girl. Alto, but not the least bit manly voice aside, the set features of her face and smoothness of her golden –brown skin was enough to prove it, Dante was sure she was either too grumpy from a lack of sleep, wasn't sure of her own gender, or was simply messing with him.

As if to accommodate for the first and last fact, she blinked, as the boy next to her did before, and lifted a hand to scratch at the back of her head, smiling almost sheepishly. "Sorry about that," she apologized, bringing her arm down to rest against the desk in front of her, "Didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm just a bit grumpy." She gave him an apologetic smile.

"Late night?" Dante found himself asking. It surprised him a little; he usually opted to keeping to himself. Maybe he was just that desperate for human contact that he didn't notice it until he found someone willing enough to communicate back.

"Yeah," she grimaced, "I waited until the last minute to do my homework and had to stay up all night to finish it…" She trailed off, eyes taking in the features of his face and the hair on his head as if just seeing him for the first time.

Dante sighed for the umph-teenth time that day, he should've known it was too good to be true. His hair always put people off, labeling him as the trouble maker he sometimes was. Raking his hand through the pale strands subconsciously, he looked to the light wood of his desk. "It's real." He simply said, looking back up at her when she gave a small snort of laughter. That usually wasn't the reaction he got.

"I know," she waved off the similar pale colored brow he rose at her statement, "I doubt you would go so far as to bleach your eyelashes. I think your hair's cool by the way, you don't see that kind of thing every day. You should see my best friend's eyes for example, so unique. Anyways," she shook head her to get back on topic, "Did you need something?" she asked, head cocked to the side.

Dante shook himself out of his almost awe inspired stupor, "Yeah," he said, "A pencil or a pen…both, I would prefer."

She gave him a look that would have had him eating his request if not for the playful smile on her face. "Well, aren't you greedy?" she asked, digging into the black and purple checkered bag hanging from the back of her seat. "Here," she said, handing him a black pen with an eraser on its cap, "It's an erasable pen, best of both worlds." She snickered at her own joke, "I want that back."

"Aw, I can't keep it?" he inquired, a playful pout about his mouth.

She rose a black brow at his reaction, "You gonna pay me five dollars?"

"You'll get your pen back."

She laughed, giving him one last grin before dropping her head back on the desk with a resounding thud. Dante winced, that sounded like it hurt, but judging by her reaction, he guessed it had no effect.

"Ow."

Or not.

The devil hunter snorted, digging into his bag to get out his homework. Unlike the girl residing beside him, he didn't stay up late to finish it so his work had yet to be completed. It wouldn't take too much time at least, Algebra II was one of his best subjects.

The sound of the classroom door creaking open caught his attention, but he didn't look up opting to finish his work as soon as possible if that had been the teacher that had just walked in. Judging by the grumblings about 'schedule changes' and 'third one this week' his guess was correct and he only had a set amount of time left to complete his worksheet before class started and she set out to collect homework, which was fine with him since he was one the twenty-fourth of twenty-six problems.

Finishing off the twenty-fifth problem he gave a pause when he heard a familiar voice sound in with the protests the teacher was giving. Looking up, he caught sight of a pink and black blur from his peripheral before it disappeared. Chancing a glance behind him, he watched as the girl from earlier took a seat at the rear of the classroom, setting her things up before class got started.

Turning back to his sheet, he finished the last problem before putting his borrowed erasable pen down, thinking about his next action as he watched the teacher walk out of the classroom, still muttering things under her breath. Nodding in decision, he pushed back from his desk, chair scraping back against the room's linoleum floor before coming to a stand. With one last glance at the brown-haired girl making sure he didn't disturb her from the noise, he never did get her name, he turned, hands in pockets, and made his way to the back of the room where girl sat, doing the same worksheet he had just completed only seconds ago.

Geeze, did anyone do their homework last night?

Taking the empty seat beside the girl's he studied the chatting groups of students around them, accidentally catching a few eyes in the process. He turned back, stretching out a long leg to plant a black sneaker-clad foot in the metal-like basket under her chair in order to garner her attention. He offered her a casual nod when she looked up at him, surprise etched into her brown and blue eyes.

"Yo," he greeted.

She brushed a few long stray black strands over her shoulder, offering him a small smile. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon. They just transfer you into here too?"

"No," he responded, eyeing her paper, she got number four wrong…or maybe he did, he did rush through it after all. "I've been in here since day one." Day one being the day he started at this school a couple weeks ago, he wondered if they would start switching his classes around too, "Why'd they switch you?"

She gave him a shrug, eyeing the paper on top of the wooden desk, "They said I was too advanced for Algebra so they thought it would be more preferable to put me in Algebra II than in an advanced class." She shrugged again, rubbing at the bare skin of her forearm before turning her attention back on him, "I never did thank you for earlier, did I?" she asked, changing the current subject.

"You don't have to thank me," he reassured, baring a sharp canine when he gave a crooked smile before he continued, "You can, however, give me your name."

The black-haired teen rolled her bi-colored eyes. Was he seriously trying to flirt with her? Rubbing at her forearm again, she turned her gaze back to her desk. "It's Mary." She answered simply.

Dante's crooked smile faded into a deadpanned stare, "Mary, huh?" he questioned dully. He scoffed under his breath, eyes downcast as he rubbed the back of his neck, "If you didn't want to tell me your name, you could've just said so." He stood up, ignoring the girl's half-confused, half-angry shout of 'Excuse you?' as he made his way back to his desk. His timing couldn't be anymore perfect for right the second his rear end came in contact with the cold metal of his seat, the teacher came strutting back in, calling the class to order and pulling out the seventh period roster.

"Alright class, settle down," she began. Hopping up onto the desk behind her, she flipped a hazel lock of wavy hair behind her shoulder and crossed one slender leg over the other. "Class, I said settle down." She fiddled irately with her glasses as the class continued to chatter about themselves. "Hey…" With one last push at the lenses set at the bridge of her sharp nose, she snapped, "SHUT UP, I SAID! Sheesh, do you guys not speak English?"

With the class now quiet in shock silence, she cleared her throat and started calling off the names on the roster, "Now, when I call your name, you say 'here' and raise your hand so I can see you, you got that? I'm pretty sure you students are very bright, not at all dim-witted like the school board…" she trailed off muttering about the school board needing to get their act together, she gave one more clear of her throat before getting back on topic, "Danielle?"

The chocolate-haired girl to the left of him raised her arm, albeit sloppily-was she even awake?- grumbling out a muffled, "Aqui." that sent the class into fits of laughter, himself included, and had the teacher scowling in her direction. Something the girl-Danielle, he now knew her name was- didn't see since she was still face-down on the desk.

"Cute. Very cute." The teacher commented, scowl still firmly in place, "But this is Algebra II, we speak English here. Keep that up and you'll be staying for afterschool detention. Remember that for next time, ya here?"

"Si, Senorita."

"Knock it off already!" Shouting over the peals of laughter, now even harder than before, she scowled in Dante's direction for a moment, assuming he had somehow been involved, before calling the class to order once again. With another clear of her throat, she started again, "Mary?"

Dante froze. A small voice coming from the back of the class giving out a short "Here." had him grimacing in his seat. Listening as the teacher continued down the roster, he chanced a look at the girl that indeed bore the name of Mary only to find her not scowling at him in righteous indignation like he half-expected, but was instead curiously peering at the girl in the chair next to him, probably still fast asleep.

Burrowing into the uncomfortable metal chair, Dante gave a soft sigh. He sure had a lot of apologizing to do at the end of class. Giving an intelligible grunt as his false name was called, he earned another scowl from the older woman in the process. The teen almost jumped in his seat as his cell buzzed in his pocket-unheard with the sniggering of students as someone else gave a smart remark as their name was called- with a text, undoubtedly from Enzo.

Looked like he would be working tonight.

Smirking at the prospect of demon slaughter and the pizza he would undoubtedly be having for dinner tonight at his one bedroom apartment, he settled more comfortably in his seat, unable to wait for the next forty-three minutes when school would be letting out.

XxXxXxX

Surprisingly, those forty-three minutes went by in a blur. Dante could seriously only remember turning in his homework, rolling his steely colored orbs at the antics of his classmates, doing getting more work, doing more work, and the bell ringing that signaled the end of the school day.

"Now, now class," Mrs. Whillough began, the glass of her lenses reflecting off the sunlight streaming in from the windows in devilish intent, "Don't forget to do both front and back pages of page twelve. I'll be expecting them first thing tomorrow afternoon."

Cackling evilly over the moans and groans of protest of having to complete a total of fifty-six problems, all concerning polynomials, she continued with feigned sympathy, "Aww, my precious students, don't be like this! It's not much, it can be done within the hour. But," she grinned madly, "If you want to blame somebody for this tragedy, you can blame Miss. Adams," when the class gave her a blank look, she poked at Danielle's shoulder, much like he had earlier. "That's this one." She said, prodding at the girl more firmly to wake her up. Dante found it strange that she had had her head down the entire period, but yet, all her work was done, including the entire front and half the back page of the assigned homework.

Disregarding the half-scowls, most of them still held their earlier amusement, Danielle brought her arms up to stretch as she yawned, giving full-hearted remarks of "De nada." to every comment, negative or not, that was thrown at her. She was severely snapped out of her jovially mood when a rolled up worksheet came down on her head.

"Who the f-" she started, eyes flashing open to glare furiously at the perpetrator. Her scowl froze in place when she came upon the pink shirt wearing blackette standing before her in all her heterochromatic-eyed glory.

"Mae!" Immediately, the girl stood, chair pushed back with excessive force into the desk behind it and glomping the now surprised teen in all of three seconds. "I didn't know you were in here!" she said, squeezing the breath out of her as she hugged Mary harder, Dante could swear he saw her face turning purple. "Why didn't you say 'hi' to me when you came in?" She then pushed back, holding her friend at arm's length as the girl regained her breath.

"I…didn't know…it was you." She said, panting in between words. With another scowl, she whacked her friend again, earning her an adorable pout from the other girl. "You dyed your hair again." She stated.

Scratching at her artificially brown hair sheepishly, she took a hesitant step back, grabbing her bag from the back of the chair as she went. "Yeah…well…" she stalled, chancing a glance in Dante's direction before she made a break for the door, heading out into the crowded hallway.

"Get back here, Dee!" Mary was just about to give chase when a voice called out to her. Peering over her shoulder, curious as to who would be calling her, her expression became blank as she realized it to be the jerk from earlier. Turning her body to face him as he stood from his chair, bag hefted over his shoulder, she gave him a look. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" she asked impatiently. He had better make this snappy, Mary thought, she had a best friend to catch and beat up after all.

"I'm sorry about earlier," he started, rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably. When was the last time he ever apologized to anyone? He couldn't recall. "That was really asshole-ish of me and I know that. It's just," he glanced down at the space in between them before bringing his gaze back up to meet hers head-on, "You don't look like a 'Mary', that's such a innocent sounding name. You look more hardcore than that," He gestured to the rolled up paper cradled in her hand, "Whacking people in the head aside, you're pretty badass."

Mary gave a snort, studying his expression with half-lidded eyes, "You're short," she stated matter-of-factly, making his eyes widen, when she gestured a hand over her head that he was only about an inch or so taller than her 5'6 stature. "And you're mean," she continued, efficiently cutting him off before he could get a word in edgewise, "Which sucks because all the cute ones are always the douche bags."

With a satisfied smirk at his expression, she turned on her heel and proceeded to make her way out of the now almost empty classroom, halting when he called out to her again, refusing to face him this time. "What do you want now?"

Dante rubbed at his chin, giving a grin she couldn't see but still hear in the inquiry he then gave, "You really think I'm cute?"

She scoffed under her breath, of course out of everything she had just said, he would pick that out. She glanced at him one more time, studying his facial features, the white hair, and the grin pulling at his lips, baring perfect white teeth for the world to see. But since it was only him and her remaining inside the classroom, only she saw it. Rolling her eyes at him, she turned back around, hiding the smile now pulling at her own pink lips. "So-so." Was all she said before she stepped out of the room and out from his sight.

Grin, now wider, still pulling at his lips, Dante gave a low chuckle, the sound reverberating inside his chest. "So-so, huh?" he asked himself as he, too, stepped out into the hallway, he caught a glance of his new interest turning the corner before he lost sight of her again. He gave a chuckle, louder this time, raking a calloused hand over his white strands before he started in the direction of the school's entrance/exit to get to where he needed to be, which was, as he flipped open the silver device and read over Enzo's text, at an abandoned warehouse about half-an-hour from his school.

If it was possible, his grin became even wider, now crazed-like. Abandoned warehouses always made for hordes. Hordes meant big pay. Big pay, more pizza. He licked at the sharp end of his canine in anticipation. Today happened to be a pretty good day, he decided, he hadn't had one of those in a while.

A/N: Yes. I know. I should be ashamed of myself (refers to publish date and update). And for those that read chapter one before, go read it again. I changed the whole thing-deciding it would be better if I wrote instead in third person- so it's better now, I promise! Sorry this took so long for the readers that're following this story, and thanks for favorite-ing and reviewing what I previously found out to be a bunch of crap. Anyway, next chapter won't take another three years to update. See you soon!