CHAPTER 3~

I rush out of the burning house. All of my clothing has been jammed into my small backpack. I couldn't let Mom and Daddy rot in that house, now could I? I run and run and run and run. I run until I feel my lungs are about to burst. After a while I decide to go to a close by motel. But it was only until after I step through the door did I realize I had no cash. I walk to the door and then feel a cool hand on my shoulder. I turn around and meet eyes with the motel caretaker. She smiles widely; she has long tawny colored hair and bright green eyes. She looks me up and down and then begins to look sad. "Hello," she says. "I'm Kami Albarn. Where are you off to?" I look up to her, she's quite tall. "Um, well…" I begin to say. She shakes her head and brings me to the back room. It is large and very pretty.

"Don't worry about payment." Kami says. "You can stay here with me." I stare, my mouth hangs open. "I-I'm sorry?" I say. "You remind me of my daughter." Kami said, seriously. She then drops the subject. She pulls me to one of the bathrooms in the room and puts me, fully clothed, in the tub. As the water pours out, I strip and Kami comes back with various soaps and shampoos. As she scrubs my hair I can't help but ask the big question: "Why are you helping me?" Kami stops scrubbing for a second then begins again. "You looked like a person in big trouble and I thought you reminded me of someone." Kami pours water over my head to rinse out the soap then puts in some conditioner. "When I saw you I couldn't help but think of my friend Marie." Kami continues. "She kind of looks like you. Marie is a teacher over at DWMA. Have you heard of it?" In fact I have heard of this Academy, apparently there are people like me that live and get taught there. I heard Lord Death himself is the Principle of the Academy and his own son Death the Kid is a student.

"I might have heard of it." I say. "It's a school right?"

"Not just any school!" Kami exclaims. "It's a school for talented young adults like you."

I drop my head. "You don't know anything about me." I say. I can feel Kami's eyes bore into the back of my head. "I do know you." Kami says quietly. "I know you're a weapon."

I turn my head towards her. Her face is etched in a happy smile. "How did you know?" I ask. "I was a student at DWMA, you know. I was and still am the best Scythe Meister out there!" She pumps a fist in the air and I smile. "What's a Meister?" I ask. I've heard about Meisters, but never actually knew one. Daddy would say his Meister died in an accident a long time ago whenever I brought up the question. "A Meister is sort of like a… Technician for their Weapons, which are people. The Meisters and Weapons go to DWMA to learn how to become stronger and control their Souls' Wavelength." Kami answers. "Y'know, I could pull some strings to get you in one of the classes there, if you're interested."

I could practically feel the happiness drip of me. "Yes, please!" I cry out. Kami giggles and leaves the room for a second, when she comes back she's holding my clothes. They're all clean and dry. "I took the liberty of washing and drying all your clothes." Kami smiles. I nod my thanks and she leaves again to give me some privacy. After she leaves I get out of the tub and pull on my clothes.

KAMI'S P.O.V

I watch the girl. She sleeps soundly on the bed I lent to her. I need to call Lord Death to tell him to enroll her in class. I walk over to the long mirror adjacent to the bed. "6-42-42 Knock On Death's Door and He'll Come to you." Lord Death pops up on the mirror. "Hiya, hiya! Ah, Kami," He says in his funny, nasally voice. "It's been a while since we last talked." I bow deeply at the Grim Reaper. "Yes, Lord Death it has." I say. "I need a large request of you."

"Eh? What is it Kami-San?" "I'd like to enroll a young girl into DWMA, into Marie-Sensei's class preferably." "Well, I guess that can be arranged. What's the young lady's name?"

"Cloud, Cloud Neine."

I walk through the alleyways of Death City. Kami gave me directions to the city and told me to go straight to DWMA to Lord Death. Since I'm not one to break rules, I decide to follow the directions to the school. It's hard to not stop and stare at the scenery, this city is humongous!

Kami gave me some of her old clothes; an overgrown green sweatshirt, that has a V-neck that shows a little more cleavage than I like; distressed jeans; and a black floppy hat, that I put most of my hair into, my bangs still stick out in front of my face. It doesn't take long before I find DWMA. The tall castle looking building is smack-dab in the middle of the city. I sigh in relief. Thank you.

"YAHOO!" Suddenly a boy with Blue spikey hair and a tattoo leaps down from one of the Red spikes that accompany the castle. I'm startled so naturally I fall hard on my butt. Looking up at the boy I see that he's quite muscular, is wearing a Ninja outfit, and his tattoo is in the shape of a star. "I'M THE ALMIGHTY BLACK*STAR!" The boy shouts. "Th-that's nice…" I mumble. I push myself off the ground and dust off my pants. Suddenly a girl with long Black hair and also wearing a Ninja outfit leaps off one of the Red Spikes. "Black*Star!" She cries. "Stop shouting, she's just a new student!" I look at her; she has Lilac colored eyes and has a Yellow star on her left breast. "Aw, come on Tsubaki," Black*Star says. "You gotta let loose. Plus this chick is all this school's talkin' about! They should be talking about me! So naturally I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about." I blush deeply hearing about this, I hope what he said isn't true. Tsubaki shakes her head and looks at me. "Well I guess we should introduce ourselves," she says. "I'm Tsubaki, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. And you've already met Black*Star." Black*Star perked his head up at hearing his name. "What's your name?" he demanded. I looked at him with a steely gaze. "My name is Cloud Neine." Black*Star falls to the ground, laughing. "R-really?" he says between guffaws "T-that's your n-name?" I nod slowly and he laughs even harder, his legs kicking the air. "Black*Star," Tsubaki scolds "that's not nice of you." When Black*Star ignores her, a small vein throbs on her forehead. Out of nowhere she pulls out a Ninja star and throws it at Black*Stars head. He faints and a small fountain of blood squirts from his forehead. I look, mortified, at Tsubaki. But, she just giggles and lifts Black*Star onto her shoulders like he weighs nothing. "Sorry about that." Tsubaki says, sighing. "He's not usually like this." I nod my head in understanding and follow her into the school.

The inside is as gorgeous as the outside. The gothic interior makes me want to jump up and down in excitement. "Lord Death's room is that way." Tsubaki points. "Thank you." I bow and we turn our separate ways.

In one hour I'm almost bawling. I have no idea where I'm going! I think I already passed that vase and that painting! I feel hot tears prick the sides of my eyes until I feel someone looking at me. I turn around and see three children, probably no older than me. One is a boy wearing a black suit. He has black, clean-cut hair with three white stripes on only one side of his head. The other two are both girls. One is ever so slightly taller than the other, but other than that they looked pretty much the same. The shorter one is wearing shorts and has choppy blonde hair. The other one is wearing a long pair of jeans and has longer, darker hair. All three of the kids are staring at me intently. Suddenly, the boy falls over sobbing. The short girl begins to laugh and the tall girl rolls her eyes. "Not again." She mutters. I walk over to see what's wrong and then realize what the boy is crying about. "Her eyes! Her eyes are so asymmetrical! I shouldn't be alive! I'm trash! Trash, trash, trash!" I stare at him and the tall girl gives me a look. "He has OCD." She says. I cock my head and then begin to rub his back. This seems to calm him down, because he stands up and straightens his clothing. "Terribly sorry." He says, avoiding my face, "Let me introduce myself, I am Death the Kid and this is Liz," he gestures to the tall girl "and Patty Thompson." He then points to the younger girl who is now standing up because she had nothing else to laugh at. "I'm Cloud Neine." I say. Kid then falls to the ground sobbing. Patty collapses again and laughs. "No, no, no!" Kid screams. "Please, I beg of you, change your last name to 'Eight.' Pleeeeeaaaassse!" I cock an eyebrow. "Um," I say "can you point me in the direction of Lord Death's room?" Liz points to a random hallway as she tries to calm down Kid. I follow her directions, or lack thereof.

I think I'm walking in the right direction. In fact I'm certain of it. I'm walking down a hallway that's wallpaper seems to be real clouds. The arches are made of guillotines and thousands of candles are everywhere. I keep walking until I hear voices arguing.

"Soul!" a female voice shouts "It's your fault we lost that last Kishin egg!"

"Whatever," a male voice then says. "Can you quit screamin'? It's so uncool to be arguin' with a flat chested chick like you."

"MAKA CHOP!" I then hear what sounds like a book being rammed into someone's head. "Don't you ever say that again or I'll Maka Chop you into the next century!"

I walk towards the voice and see a kind of funny predicament in front of me. An Albino boy with Shark-like teeth is lying on the floor. A girl with Tawny hair and Green eyes is standing over him with a hardcover book in her hands. In the far corner of the hallway a small Pink haired boy is rocking back and forth. I'm just going to walk past them, I think. Suddenly the girl looks over at me and grins. I shudder; I don't need any more attention. "Boys," she sighs "what are you gonna do?" I giggle at this; I didn't expect her to say that. "Hi," she says as she holds out her hand. "I'm Maka Albarn." I stare at her. Is this Kami's daughter? "I'm Cloud Neine." I say. I look over at the boys again. "Who are they?" I ask politely. Maka looks to where I'm staring. "This is Soul Evans." She says, nudging the Albino. "And that's Crona." She gestures to the Pink haired boy. "Crona, come over here."

Crona slowly gets up and walks over to where we are standing. "I don't know how to deal with different eyed girls." He mutters. Maka suddenly realizes this and looks at my eyes. "Hey!" she exclaims. "Your eyes are different colors." I nod and blush. Too much attention. "Are you the daughter of Kami Albarn?" I ask, changing the subject. Maka stands up even straighter. "Yep!" she says happily "The one and only! But, how do you know my mom?"

"She helped me come here." I answer. "In fact she enrolled me here just yesterday. That's why I'm in such a hurry."

"I can show you to Lord Death, if you'd like." Maka says. I feel my eyes bulge. "O-oh, no thank you." I stammer out. "I think I got it." Maka looks a little disappointed, but quickly gets her happy smile back on her face. "Okay." She chirps.