Guess what I got? Found this in my mess of papers. Thank you for Fourth of July Family reunions. Gives you time to write in the corner when there's down time between all the kickball, dodgeball games, crazy conversations, eating and the fireworks.

"Are you sure that you should be walking around just yet? I mean you got hit pretty hard." Liz asked.

"I'm a Shinigami, Liz. I heal fast. Now quit worrying." I responded as I sipped at my coffee.

"Mr. Spots and I knew you'd be fine! Liz was crying and we-"

"I was not crying! I just… teared up a little."

"You were too crying! You were freaking out and talking about how if Arachne came back-"

"I was Not, Patty!"

"Were too!"

"Was Not!"

"Tooooo! You believe me, right, Kid?!"

"Sure, Patty. Sure." I smiled into the cup. It was nice to have some normalcy after all that. Today... was a good day.

"Seeee!"

Liz just frowned. Patty frowned back. Not because she was mad, but because she was, well, Patty. Patty does things for no reason at all. Most of the time she had a reason though, crazy as it may be it was a reason. A few seconds of watching the apparent glaring contest I looked to the clock. I shifted my gaze back to them. Neither of them had blinked yet from what I could tell. Geez. What was the point of this? Was Patty having the stuffed giraffe join in now? What's next? So suspenseful…

"Are you two quite done?" I asked before taking another sip.

I 'surprisingly' got no response. Ten seconds later and Patty blinked.

"HA! You blinked!" Liz blinked a few times.

"You lose!" Patty declared.

"What?! No! You blinked first!"

"Well Mr. Spots hasn't blinked yet! Mr. Spots is the winner!"

"What?"

"We Lose!" Patty cheered. "You're so good at this Mr. Spots."

"Oh for the love of-" Liz sighed.

Yep. Normal. Wonder what the others would think of that.

"So are you two done now?" I asked with some slight amusement in my tone.

"What's so funny?" Liz demanded.

"I didn't say anything was funny."

"You're smiling."

"Can I not smile?"

"It's not usual."

I gave no response to that. What exactly was normal anyway? What defined normal. Maybe we were normal and everyone else was weird. Maybe normal didn't even exist. I checked the clock again… We should be leaving soon.

"We should be going soon." I spoke up after a minute.

I received an 'ok' in response as I rose to place my cup into the sink. I rinsed it out quick to prevent staining. Less than a minute later and we were all heading out the door.

School had been like usual. Usual was nice. No Unsimilar surprises. BlackStar had been late as usual and made his 'big entrance' and talked about how he was the amazing BlackStar. Blah blah blah. Soul didn't pay much attention, the exact opposite of his partner, Maka, who was obviously into the was cheerful. Liz was indifferent. Patty was distracted. Same old same old. That was how things went until the third day. Maka, BlackStar, and partners were called to the Deathroom. As the names were called out I dreaded hearing my name and breathed a sigh of relief when I wasn't called. However I started to have my doubts and I was curious. Just what was going on? I watched the clock restlessly. I forced myself not to fidget. Did this have to do with Arachne or was the fours summons completely unrelated? Tick tick tick click. Ring. I stood and headed out the door with Liz and Patty soon at my heels. I expected for them to wonder what my supposed problem was but instead.

"What do you think that was about?" Liz spoke.

"No clue… But what do you say we find out?"

"Are we going undercover? "Patty seemed excited. "Do we get to wear disguises?"

"No, Patty."

"Why not?" She whined.

"Because it would be simpler to just find them and ask." Liz elaborated. "If not then we ask someone else. Easy."

"So when no ones around then do we get to wear disguises?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No."

"You're no fun." Patty complained.

And so the journey of searching for the others was on. After following multiple tips we had tracked down the four of them. They were all meeting at Maka and Soul's. So that was where we were going. We walked by 'coincidentally' while they were getting ready to leave for where ever.

"Hey guys." Liz called. "Where ya going?"

"Huh? Oh nowhere special." Maka smiled.

I caught that. I resisted the frown.

"Where are you going? I wanna know." Patty whined.

The one time that I was glad to have Patty around. Persistent and whiny. That could be used to our advantage.

"Like I said no where important."

"Then why can't you tell me? I'm boooored. Liz and Kid don't want to do anything fuuuuun! I wanna cooome!"

"You can't, Patt-"

"Why not?" Patty pouted.

"It's… complicated." Maka attempted.

"They coming too?" BlackStar voiced his presence as he approached.

"Going where?" Liz asked.

"No."

So they were hiding something.

"So it is important." Liz smirked deviously.

She could definitely be scary sometimes. Who knew what was going through her head sometimes?

"No. It's not. Really."

"What? But we're searching for Arachne, aren't we?" BlackStar spoke up.

"BlackStar-" Tsubaki started.

"Are you saying she isn't even in that area?! That what we're doing isn't important?!" BlackStar fumed.

"BlackStar, I'll try and explain later." Tsubaki spoke calmingly.

Arachne?

"This isn't something that you three need to worry about. This-"

I turned and started walking. So he didn't trust me not to screw up. Is that it?

"Kid?" Liz and Patty followed.

The other four didn't bother trying to say something. I gave the girls no answer. He didn't think I was strong enough since that one attack took me out, didn't he? Well I could have just as easily let it kill whoever, couldn't I? I could have dodged something like that easy if it was just me. I could have done nothing then. I could have… I was not weak. That much I would make clear. No point in talking to him, was there? He wouldn't change his mind and add me to whatever he had planned. That and I most definitely didn't want to see him. I did not want to talk to him. I wouldn't have come if he called me anyway. What would he do? Kill me if I didn't show? Ha! I'd show him. I could take care of whatever this was on my own. All I had to do was figure out what exactly the four were doing. Just finding and locating her? No. They had to be doing something else. They had to be doing something much more important and once I figured that much out-

"Kid."
"Hm?" I looked back when Liz shook me from my thoughts.

"We aren't just going to leave things, are we?" She seemed uneasy. She could probably tell that I was planning something. Just like always.

"No." I returned my gaze to the path ahead. "We're going to tail them."