A/N: Hey, guys! Thank you very much for the feedback! Sorry for the lack of update last week - I kinda got caught up by college, my job and a fREAKING TRIP TO CARIBE BITCHES $$$$$ I hope you like it, though I personally didn't enjoy this chapter myself? I am sorry? Please don't leave it will get better promise I'll make it up to you
(Stupid class)
Mello was halfway through his first period, slovenly sitting in a desk on the left of the room, middle row, empty seat by his side - naturally - wondering what he was doing there and why he was taking that stupid algorithms class.
That because, as far as he was concerned, he should be taking Mathematics of Image and Data Analysis right now, but guess what - he remembered - Near took the last spot in that class.
And Roger forced him to choose another math related class to complete his schedule and it was either Design and Analysis of Algorithms or Linear Programming and Combinatorial Optimization, because he had already taken every other math related class available in this institution and his request to retake Theory of Probability and Statistics was instantly denied with no further consideration.
Stupid Near.
"Mello" Drake called from the back of the room. He was seated behind Mello, sharing his desk with Luke, a sixteen year old boy with craggy facial features that spent his whole life going up and down in the rank between the 15th and 20th position. Mello was not his biggest fan, but didn't dislike him - probably because he was never a threat - rankwise or otherwise.
Mello didn't hear his call - or pretended not to. "Hey, blondie!" Drake called once again, picking a yellow pencil with his left hand and poking Mello's scruff through his hair with the rubber point.
Mello turned his body to the right, leaning his head back and directing a very hostile look at Drake. "The fuck is this thing you just rubbed on my neck?" He demanded to know in a whispery tone, alternating his attention between the professor, his textbook and the boys sitting at the table behind him. "Easy, princess." Drake mocked and Luke hold back a giggle.
"Drake, we are not that friends." Mello declared in a serious tone.
"Pardon me, sir." Drake continued. "I just wanted to know what are the plans."
"Plans?" Mello inquired.
"Yeah. You know, for the new guy." Mello's eyes narrowed.
"I'm taking care of it personally." He snapped. And I am also about to get kicked out of this bloody place so I have to take it fucking easy, he wanted to add, but didn't.
"Do you really have to be so self absorbed?" Drake smirked. "Or is it that you fancy your new roommate?"
"Drake-" Mello turned his head back fully this time "-on a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like breathing through your nose?"
"Huh?"
"Because I am about to punch you in the face so hard chances are you are going to need surgery to get it to function again."
"Mello" the Professor called out "you are not going to punch anyone while in this class. You might as well use the time to pay attention, yes?" Mello nodded apologetically - as apologetically as he could get, of course. As he was turning back to the black-board, the doorknob begun to move and the door slowly opened to reveal a very late Matt, holding pink cheeks as if he had just ran a marathon.
"Yes?" The Professor asked.
"I was-" he stopped to catch his breath "-I didn't have my schedule and then I-" once again "-couldn't find the classroom and-" he ran his finger through his hair to get it out of his face "-I am sorry?" He completed in question tone.
"Oh" the Professor let out the smallest of the grins "I believe you are the new student?"
Drake and Luke proceeded to repeat new student in mockery, a few students laughed in the back of the room while most of the class was finding it difficult to care about the whole situation and Mello just rolled his eyes with a deep sigh. Matt nodded.
"Find a seat." The Professor allowed him. He quickly locked the door and headed for the first empty spot he caught sight in the room - which was, coincidentally enough, by Mello's side.
"Got tired of dossing around and decided to show up?" Mello asked.
"Thanks for telling me I had to be in class by 8 a.m." Matt snapped.
"I am a prodigy, not a fortune-teller." He hissed. "Didn't know your schedule, genius."
"Whatever."
"Cared enough to bring a piece of paper and a pen or are you just going to memorise everything?" Mello whispered.
"Shit." Matt said, instinctively touching his pockets. "Let me borrow one of yours."
"What? No way. Get your own."
"Come on." He tried to reach the black pen at the end of the desk, but Mello's hand was quicker.
"I said no."
"You don't need three of them." Matt whispered. "Let me have that one and a piece of paper for fuck's sake." The professor gave them an angry stare without interrupting his speech about asymptotic analysis.
"Fine. Just shut the fuck up." Mello declared, ripping a page out of his notebook and pushing it in front of Matt, along with a black pen bitten on one end.
"Do you chew on your pen?"
"What?" Mello seemed confused.
"I mean, you chew on your pen. Look." He pointed to the bitten side of the pen with his left hand, holding it with his right one.
"So?" Mello said uninterested.
"I was just pointing it out."
"Just pay attention to the bloody class, arsehole." Matt turned his face to the black-board and professor and begun taking notes.
Or at least trying to. He proceeded to write down the date and the name of the subject on the top of the page and, after that, stared blankly at the guy in the front of the room.
He was not quite sure they had him figured out with that initial test because this class was clearly not something he could handle. Out of three words the professor said, Matt was lucky to understand one of them which was probably a connective.
"Mello-" Matt called "-what did he just say?" Matt asked pointing the pen at the professor. Mello replied first with an unhappy gaze.
"Finding the median of n elements can be reduced to finding the median of n/5 elements and then finding the median of at most 7/10n elements." Mello repeated without difficulty.
"Huh" Matt muttered "ok." He said in embarrassment of asking once again. Mello rolled his eyes and reached for the piece of paper he had given to Matt a few minutes earlier.
T(n) ≤ T(1/5n) + T (7/10n) +O (n)
Mello wrote it down and turned back to his own notebook. Matt just stood there, staring at the equation written on the mostly blank page, trying to process the words that came out like a tsunami from the Professor's mouth - because he was surely feeling like he was drowning in this class.
"Pick a constant c such that T(n) ≤ T(1/5n) + T (7/10n) + cn for all sufficiently large n. Actually - for simplicity - let's assume the relation holds for all n. Then we can apply the Select to each of the terms T (1/5n) and T (7/10n)." The Professsor explained, picking up a white chalk to write the final result on the board.
"For simplicity." Matt muttered. Imagine if he wasn't trying to make it simple. Jesus Fucking Christ.
"So, considering this, could we say that select method achieves the best possible asymptotic running time for an algorithm that solves the median finding problem?" The man inquired. "Matt?"
"Huh?!" Matt jumped a little on his seat, dropping Mello's pen on the floor as he faced filled with the purest despair. "Ah, yes, let me just-" he felt tingly and dizzy. It felt like ice was running through his veins. He wanted to run away from his own body in that moment but all his movements allowed him to do was to drop his landed pen on the floor and knead the paper sheet that laid on his desk. He was at a total loss of words for he didn't know the right answer - he didn't even have a guess - he had literally nothing to say. Mello let out an audible sigh.
"Mello? Do you have something to say?" The Professor turned the question to him.
"It means that any correct algorithm which solves the median finding problem must be Ω(n), since such an algorithm must at least look at each of the n entries of A."
"That is correct." The man stated as Matt came back to breathing.
"Thank you." He whispered.
"For not being a dumb prat?" Mello snapped.
The bell finally rang. Matt let his body melt in his seat as the Professor dismissed the class and couldn't help but wonder what he was doing in this place.
Mello, on his turn, didn't wait for Matt's reply and a little after half the class had already left the room, he grabbed his backpack and started heading to the door.
Before he reached the exit, however, he turned back to Matt. "Hey, noobie" he called in a cold tone "better step up your game." He told the redhead, giving him a look that - for the first time - didn't say I want to kill you or something of the kind. Instead, it said exactly what he meant by his words - which left Matt close to terrified.
(Blowing things up)
"Listen up" Drake said placing his books on the bench and sitting by the table where Mello was eating his lunch in the dining hall "I just had the best idea ever." Luke followed him, as always, also finding himself a seat.
"Not interested." Mello replied.
"It's going to be the prank of the year." Drake ignored Mello's reply and continued.
"I said I don't want to hear you."
"Can I join you?" Said an intruding Linda, embracing Drake from the back.
"No." Mello snapped. Linda pretended not to hear.
"Just wait until you hear his idea!" Luke exclaimed.
"Just get the fuck out" Mello hissed as he led another spoonful of pasta into his mouth. "All of you."
"Will you at least give my idea a chance?" Drake asked. Mello rolled his eyes in a gesture Drake understood as an acceptance. "We could fill his clothes with-"
"Done that." Mello interrupted him.
"We could also-"
"Done that too." Mello snapped.
"You didn't even listen to the whole thing. How could you possibly know you have already done that?" Drake inquired in a very disappointed tone.
"Drake, I am afraid that after twelve years of pranking people around in this place, I have done everything one can do." Mello lied, still focused on his food.
"Bullshit." Drake accused him, pondering what else he could propose to the boy. "Have you noticed he carries a pack of cigarettes in his pocket? We could-"
"We are not blowing things up." Mello interrupted him. Drake frowned as Luke took over.
"He was also carrying a game console this morning." He noticed. "I suppose we could use that too and go for a less explosive idea." Drake and Luke bursted out in a laugh as they hands touched in the air.
"Who are we pranking?" Linda broke her silence.
"No one." Mello quickly answered.
"New guy." Drake and Luke overlapped.
"I like new guy." She said, causing Drake to raise an eyebrow.
"If you are wondering, he's probably free on Thursdays after class for a quick one. He's probably free on Wednesdays too, but you are already busy on Wednesdays, right?" Mello provoked. Linda held a very unhappy Drake by the shoulders, forcing him to stay in his seat.
"Anyway" Luke said, trying to switch the mood "Let's go with the game thing."
"I am in." Drake agreed, still not amused.
"Forget it." Mello said curtly. Drake was starting to get cross with Mello's resistance in doing what he did best.
"What's it with you these days?" He asked. "It's like you're a different person."
"Am not."
"You are too." Linda joined.
"Nothing is wrong with me." Mello tried to dodge.
"You have been acting very weird now that I recall." The girl begun. "I haven't even seen you picking on Near lately."
"That's because he was locked way in America all winter."
"He came back a week ago."
"Didn't have the opportunity."
"Liar."
"Tart."
"Hey!" Drake attempted to defend her, but gave up as Mello stared at him.
"Listen" Mello started as he finished his lunch "you come to me with a good idea, and I'll consider it" he pretended "but I'm not joining you in this stupid one." He picked up his tray and got up. "If you want to do it, do it without me."
"Whatever." Drake muttered as Mello left with no further ceremony.
(Creep)
After a full morning of classes, Matt decided to skip his lunch and go look for a relatively private spot outside to smoke a cigarette. He went out to the garden in the back of the House and a couple of minutes later he found himself leaning against a big tree near a tall fence, with a cigarette between his lips and his fingers pressing his gameboy nervously as he tried not to think about how much of misfit he was in this place.
Sure he couldn't understand ninety percent of what the Professors said but that was only the beginning of the stick that constantly poked his brains since the day started - thing was: he just couldn't blend in. So far, the only people who had directed the word to him were Andrew the driver; the headmaster; the algorithims Professor; a very suspicious teenager boy with chin-lenght straight blond hair and a girl that looked awkwardly similar to him - and probably four out of those only talked to him because they needed to - but it still counted, right? Not this time, he felt. Pretty much everyone else looked at him as if he had green skin and that was something he was not comfortable with - not one bit.
And that was something to worry about because Matt always managed to blend in. That is how life had always worked for him. There is something about blending in, he thought, that felt safe; something about never standing out in the crowd. Now, don't get it wrong - being different wasn't a bad thing for him. It was the ridicule that came along with not following the social conduct that was, and that was what he was scared of.
The more he tried to push this subject out of his mind, the more it bothered him. Luckily enough, his thoughts were interrupted by a tiny shadow that emerged from behind the tree without making any noises, causing him to drop his cigarette and gameboy in a pile of humid land as the game over screen came on. "Shit." He muttered as he leaned down to catch it after stepping over his cigarette a couple of times.
"You shouldn't be smoking in here - it is not allowed."
"Scaring people up like that should also be forbidden, you know." Matt talked back.
"I apologise." The boy said. "Have you seen a collectable lego robot sitting around?" He asked.
"Huh, no?" Matt replied in question tone. "I don't believe it grows in the nature."
"Me neither. I do believe someone could have hidden it outside, though." He claimed calmly, seemingly ignoring Matt's sarcasm.
"Right."
"Anyway" the bot proceeded in his monotone "it was a pleasure to finally meet you, Matt."
"I haven't introduced myself to you." He snapped, putting his gameboy inside his pocket.
"I am very sorry. Would you like to introduce yourself?" He inquired.
"Not really." Matt pondered. "Would you?"
"I am Near." He said curtly.
Matt just stood there in silence waiting for the smaller boy to add something to his introduction, but then he realised he was just expected to know who he was - but he didn't. "Ok." Matt said.
"We will see each other another time." Near declared. "Goodbye."
"Later." Matt replied shortly after the boy turned away and started making his way back to the house. "Creepy." He muttered under his breath, picking up another cigarette from his pack and resuming his game.
(Rank)
Every last day of each month Roger hang up by the side of his office's door the House rank. Every fifteen days in between the listing, a preliminary raking came out, allowing the students to check on their progress and better administrate their goals. And since it was January 4th, the preliminary ranking would be out in eleven days, which meant Mello had no time to lose and had better study his arse off to improve his scores. Not that scoring an average of 97% was a bad thing - far from that - but it wasn't good enough when the competition constantly scored 99%. That was exactly why he headed straight to the library after his last period to get ahead on his Experimental Psychology studies and only left when Mrs. Thompsom spotted him on her night stroll around the bookshelves and told him it was past curfew.
He was definitely working hard - dedicating to his studies and keeping out of trouble - and although it had only been two days since this whole situation started, it seemed like two months in Mello time.
Before heading to his now shared room, he remembered he had missed dinner, and decided to stop by the kitchen to steal something to eat - preferably something sweet.
He sneaked into the kitchen calmly after verifying there was no one around. He headed to the storeroom, quietly opened the door and, after assuming the smaller room was also empty, he stepped inside, carefully pushing the door near closing. He then proceeded to search for the spot they usually kept the chocolate bars - third shelf near the window, from bottom to the top - without the need of turning on the lights. When he stretched his arms to reach the candy, however, his hands did not found a hard rectangular surface, but rather the soft and almost warm touch of human skin.
"The fuck-" Mello begun to exclaim, but managed to hold it in.
"I am really sorry - oh my god - I never meant to get the chocolate" said a trembling girly voice "this is a misunderstanding!"
Mello stopped for a second. His natural reaction would be to yell the kid out of there, but that was old Mello - the new Mello - also known as five strikes Mello, could not afford to do so.
"You scared the shit out of me." He said approaching the shelf to see the person standing on the other side, who he quickly identified as being some of Linda's friends - a slightly tanned girl with nut-brown hair - he was almost sure was called Hanna. Anna. Lana. He was sticking with Anna. He stretched his arm once again and grabbed a chocolate bar. "You can have the other one, Anna." He allowed her. "Night."
The girl remained quiet and still as he left the storeroom and after recovering from the mostly unexpected meeting, picked up a candy bar and headed out with a subtle grin.
(Night night)
Matt walked leisurely out of the bathroom, steam filling the room as he cut the door open. In the exact same moment, Mello opened the dorm room and let himself in without ceremony.
"Hullo." Matt greeted. Mello gave him a stare - not a deadly one - but not a friendly one either. "Any simple greeting would suffice." The redhead added.
"Goodnight." Mello stated as he threw himself onto his bed after putting on his pyjamas pants - shamelessly - in front of Matt. Next thing, he grabbed the chocolate bar he had just stolen and begin to eat it with moderate speed.
Matt opted not to proceed with the conversation but realised, shortly after, he had no other choice. As his cheeks turned deep pink, he summoned all his cheekiness and begun again. "Hey, Mello" he choked a little "Could you, maybe, if you don't mind" his breathing got a bit shallow "lend me a pair of pyjama pants or something?"
"The bloody fuck?" Mello inquired with a very unamused look on his face.
"It is just that" Matt replied nervously "I didn't bring any clothes and stuff." He sought a bit more courage within himself to break the mood. "I could also lay around naked all night. Don't mind."
"I would love to find out if your hair is naturally this ridiculously ginger, but no, thank you." Mello snapped. "Third drawer on the left." Mello instructed him. "Pick up the blue one. I never wear it anyway." Matt did as he was told and headed back to the bathroom to dress up and hang the towel to dry. On the way to his bed, he grabbed the clothes he had previously thrown on the corner of the dorm - and found it a little odd that he couldn't feel his gameboy within the bundle of fabric - but didn't mind much, since he had probably just put it else where before showering. He had no time to think about it since he was exhausted and could only think of getting some sleep.
After all, thanks to his lovely roommate, the day had begun at five a.m. "Thanks."
"Whatever." Mello replied with his mouth full of chocolate as Matt was already tucked in and, never minding the lights on, quickly driving into sleep.
