Chapter Two: Secret's Out

As Maka and Soul continued their journey back home, Soul couldn't help but wonder what Maka was keeping from him. He looked over to her just then, and she was focused on her shoes again. She carefully studied her shiny buckle boots without even noticing Soul's staring. Soul sighed, a little too loudly, and checked his watch. It was 15:35. Maka sighed, a little quietly, so it sounded like a small squeal, and kicked a rock. The rock bounced once, twice, and then rolled over to the side a bit. Maka continued to kick and manipulate the rock until she lost control and it rolled over to Soul's foot.

"I gotta tell you something," Maka blurted. A surprised Soul looked over to her again.

"Heather likes you," she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. She smiled, indicating that she didn't care. She imagined herself throwing a fit and then turning into a green hairy monster of jealousy. Was the monster hairy, or slimy? She couldn't remember.

Soul adjusted his manly headband and smirked, showing all of his spiky teeth.

"I also gotta tell you," she said, remembering Heather's rash and brainless letter, "I haaaate youuu."

Soul through back his head and laughed, "yeah…okay." Maka smiled at him, glad that her empty words and goofy way of saying 'I hate you' hadn't had a negative affect on him. She knew that Heather's letter was bogus, and she obviously too dimwitted to come up with anything that could possibly be potentially harming to her or Soul's ego.

But damn, was she sooo wrong.

When Soul and Maka got back to their apartment, they could both see that they had gotten a text.

Maka's text said:

From: unknown sender

Sent: 15:16

Maka: you did alright on your last task. Now I want you to do a new task. I've had enough with your loop holes and games. I want you to talk to Soul about his secret. Go. Now.

Maka rolled her eyes at what was OBVIOUSLY another terrible order. Why was she asking her to do such meaningless things? Maybe she was spying on them…who knows? Al Maka knew, was that she had to go talk to Soul about the secret.

Soul picked up his blinking phone and opened it. It said that the number was blocked…

From: unknown sender

Sent: 15:17

Soul: I need you to come to the school at exactly 6:00 tomorrow morning. If you don't show, I'll tell everyone about your secret.

Soul read and reread the text, then frowned.

"Maka, do you know about this?" he puzzled, showing her his phone. Maka frowned, and told him to just delete it. She had other things to tell him anyway…

Maka took Soul's hand, and dragged him into her room. Since her room didn't have windows, she figured nobody could hear or see her talking to him. But something in her mind told her she was being watched…

"Tell me about your secret, once more," Maka commanded him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Just do it," she ordered again.

"This isn't a Nike commercial," he said sarcastically.

"Soul," Maka said, restlessly.

"But you already know about it!" he shouted.

"SOUL!" she shouted.

"UGH. FIIIINE. If it's honestly THAT important (which it isn't), I'll tell you," he snapped back. Soul picked up an empty bottle of water, and cut it in half with scissors. He took some water and poured it into his newly-made cup. He then took his cup, and dumped the water into a potted plant.

"Okay," he began, "remember last year? When we didn't like each other? Remember how different I was back then?" Maka nodded, and Soul took a deep breath.

"Weeeell…last year, when I absolutely hated everyone, I had a tendency to…hurt people. And myself. I wanted to hurt people because I didn't have my head on straight. I was constantly wondering how I could win fights easier. I didn't have a miester back then, and I needed a way to kill better, fight better, and win better. So I started fighting dirty. Remember Heather's best friend who died? Remember her? Yeah. I killed her. I just wanted her to be gone. The way she did things, and made fun of you, and hurt you, and cheated, and lied, and played games…I just wanted her dead. Sooo I killed her. And I blamed it on Akiko. Who, actually, has been saying she wanted her dead, so I figured it was the perfect way out of trouble. And if anybody found out what I did, and told Lord Death, or even a teacher…I would probably be outta this school in two seconds flat. So don't tell anyone! 'Cause Lord Death can be fucking scary when he doesn't have his mask on."

Soul took a deep breath after that mouthful. Maka noticed something under the bed.

"Hey, what's this…?" she asked Soul, reaching under the bed to find a small dagger. A face flashed across the shiny smooth face of the dagger. A panicked face. A face that looked kind of like…

"AKIKO?!" Soul and Maka screamed in unison. Akiko stood, with her hands folded across her chest. Maka tried to read her facial expression. She looked…sad, almost. Like a pouty kind of sad. But she also looked defiant and strong. But, then again, she also looked angry. So Maka had no idea what she was really feeling. There was one thing for sure, though. Angry was plastered all over that girl's face.

"So," Akiko said, "It's your fault. You're the one who framed me. You're the reason I was kicked out of DWMA. Just wait 'til I tell EVERYONE at that school tomorrow. Then you'll be kicked out. And I can come back."

"Now hold on just a damn moment!" Soul shouted, using his arms for emphasizing all his words, "I'm different now, 'kay? I'm nothing like that anymore. I don't kill anymore." Akiko laughed this ugly, annoying laugh, and turned to walk out of the door.

"Heather told me something was up. Then she gave me directions to your house. Now I know everything, and I'm going to tell Lord Death. Try and stop me, Soul. Since you're "not like that" anymore, you can't. HAH," Akiko giggled throughout the whole time saying.

Then she was gone. She had walked out of Soul and Maka's apartment. Probably to go stock up on weed. Soul looked at Maka. She then noticed that he was crying. She hugged him and whispered, "it's okay, Soul. We're going to figure this out. We can stop her, I know can." But she didn't.

The next day, Soul and Maka woke up early so that they could go to the school at 6:00 instead of 7:00. While Maka was all ready to go and Soul was still working on getting his jacket on, Maka decided that she would bring anything that she might need, in case she had to fight. She reeeaally didn't want to. She already knew that Soul was hesitant to even got o school, but he had to. She watched him struggle to put on his shoes and head out the door.

As they walked (slowly) to school, Maka kicked a rock (slowly), and Soul watched birds (slowly). Maka sighed, and tried to see if she could see the school from there. Nope. They proceeded (slowly) and took as much time as they could. Soul looked at his watch.

"Aw, shit! It's already 6:05! Maka, let's go!" Soul shouted, and began to sprint. When they reached the school, he found that everyone was gathered there. As the two looked around to figure out what the HELL was going on, everyone else remained absolutely silent. At the front of crowd, standing on two metal boxes, stood Akiko and Heather. Akiko, with her short dirty blonde hair in a high ponytail. And Heather, with her blonde hair in a low bun. They both sneered and snickered and laughed and sneered again.

"What's going on?!" Soul shouted, pushing his way through the crowd to reach them. He pulled Maka behind him and she tried to keep up, but just ended up bumping into everyone.

"What are you doing?" Soul demanded.

"Just a little get-together with DWMA is all!" Heather giggled.

"Yeah," Akiko said, "we're about to reveal your secret and get you kicked out of school! Your little friends all received a message from the school telling them that school has been canceled due to snow! Daichi will be back with Sid, Death, and Stein in moments!" Soul and Maka gaped on horror at what those two evil bastards have done. They looked at each other, then the bitches. Each other, then the bitches. All of a sudden, Stein, Sid, and Lord Death crash through the doors anfd see all the assembled miesters and weapons looking like they're about to kill each other.

"Oh shit," Soul said, his eyes wide open.