____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Matt: *wears blonde wig and leather pants*

Mello: o.o

Me: WTF are you wearing, Matt?

Matt: It's called cosplay, and you should know, you goddamn Otaku-girl.

Me: Yeah, I know, but why Mello cosplay?

Matt: To do this! *scowls* Ughhh I hate you all, but Misseh owns nothing. Urg disclaimers suck!

Me: ^^

Mello: -_- Matt, you're retarded.

Matt: If I didn't do it, the real you wouldn't!

Me: ...Anyway, enough of boring author notes. Enjoy!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Act Four: First Day of Class

Mello was kept for his punishment until lights out, leaving you to escape with your life…for now.

The next morning you woke to the sound of rough banging on your door. You turned over lazily in your bed. "Who is it? What time is it?" you yelled groggily.

"Open the door," the voice said. Curiously, you quickly put on something decent and opened the door to find a familiar face standing there.

Let's just say Mello was not amused.

"H-hey Mello…" you stuttered nervously. A menacing aura radiated off of him. He smiled and had a look as though he were possessed.

"Why good morning Harmony. Did you get a good laugh from yesterday's stunt? 'Cuz it's the last thing you're gonna remember before I murder you!"

Mello lashed out at you, but you slammed the door in his face. "Open up!" he yelled. "No! If anything I'll try to prevent my own death, thank you very much!" You locked the door and turned your attention to your alarm clock, which read 7:50. Crap! Ten minutes to class! You thought frantically, and rummaged through your clothes to find something to throw on. After you dressed, you threw on your book bag and unlocked the door.

It flew open, and sent Mello crashing into the floor and landing with a loud thud.

"Good morning to you, too. Now, unless you want to be late, I suggest getting your ass up and going to class," you said after practically stepping on him and rushing into the hallways.

"Tch…damn girl…" he muttered as he watched you run off.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You practically ran into the classroom, attracting a lot of stares. "G-good morning…" you stuttered quietly and gathered your composure. The teacher greeted you and pointed out your seat. Matt sat across from you, two seats over, and you noticed Near, a ball of white in the colorful classroom, sat at the head of your row.

Mello arrived 5 minutes later, walking in as though he had all the time in the world to spare. "Late as usual, young Mello," the teacher said with disapproval. "It's a wonder you stay second."

Mello jutted his jaw forward, a sign of anger. "Yeah…whatever." He walked over slowly, and took the seat behind you. "Well, well, look who it is," he whispered in your ear, leaning across his desk. You shivered. "Don't bug me, Mello," you hushed.

Classes seemed to last for all eternity. You had no need to write notes because of your photographic memory, and so most of your time was spent observing your fellow classmates.

Near was always participating in class, but never took any pleasure in answers he got correct, which was all of them. Like you, he rarely took notes, and mostly would secretly play with tarot cards and small action figures hidden in his desk. He twirled his white hair out of a subconscious habit, and seemed to constantly wear an emotionless mask, making you question if so much information was stored in his head that his brain had forgotten how to feel.

Matt was a classic lazy student and class clown. He always played his games during the beginning of class until the teacher would yell at him. Even then he would say 'In a minute, just one more level', and would tell the teacher 'You may teach now, teach' when he was done, earning some laughs from the class. It may get him in trouble sometimes, but Matt made class more lively. Even you questioned his placement as third in the house, wondering just exactly how he does it.

Mello was an entirely different story on his own. He would work nonstop, writing notes furiously on every single detail. Much of his time was devoted to studying, and he would always earn the best of scores. However, Near would always do just a little bit better, even if it was just by a point. To Mello, no matter how good he was, he was nothing unless he beat Near, his true rival. If he learned to relax for once, you wondered if maybe he wouldn't be so angry and bitter all the time.

The ringing of the lunch bell woke you up from your daydreaming, and you filed out with the rest of the class. While walking in the hallway towards your room to drop off your books, you felt a tap on your shoulder.

You sighed. "Mello, I told you not to bug me. It was just a joke, get over it."

"Who said I was Mello?"

You flipped around, seeing a group of girls with demonic expressions on their faces.

"You know, we heard because of your photographic memory shit you were able to go from 405th to 18th in the rankings in just one week. Pretty amazing for a newbie," said the leader of the group. You recognized them as some of the low-ranking kids at Wammy's, probably somewhere in the three-hundreds.

The group stepped closer to you, to the point they encircled you, your back against the wall. "But you know, we don't appreciate some newbie surpassing us so quickly without even really doing anything," she smirked. "So we're gonna teach you a lesson so maybe you'll learn your place, got it?"

One of the other girls in the group grabbed your shoulders tightly, pressing them against the wall. The leader and the other of her followers took turns punching you in the stomach, sometimes scratching at your face. After 15 minutes of torture, they pushed you hard against the wall one last time, and then released their grip. You doubled over in pain, grasping your stomach and sliding down the wall to the floor.

The leader of the group smiled. "Remember today, newbie, so you'll learn from it." They walked down the hallway, laughing amongst them while you sat in a fetal position.

You began to cough up blood, and then the next thing you knew, you blacked out.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You woke up in the hospital area, a nurse writing something in your chart. You opened your eyes halfway, and she smiled. "Nice to see you've woken up. How are you feeling?" You closed your eyes again, exhausted. "In pain…tired….," you replied sleepily. You slowly lifted up the covers and looked under your gown to see an array of purplish-black bruises decorating your stomach and abdomen.

"As you can see, you have a lot of bruises. What exactly happened? How did you get hurt?" You put down the covers and shook your head. "Nothing….just….had a lot of stuff fall on me while opening my cluttered closet. Passed out, I think….," you lied. Being a tattletale would only get you more beat downs.

"Well…I suppose. Be more careful next time," said the nurse as she put down your chart and started walking away.

"Ah…wait, who brought me in?" you asked before she left the room.

"Oh, a young boy did. He's sitting over there," the nurse pointed out.

You turned your head, expecting to see Matt or maybe even Mello, but instead you saw a familiar albino, sitting with one knee held to his chest on the floor beside your bed, rolling around a car.

You rolled over on the bed to lie on your side, and spoke. "Near, what are you doing here?"

Near's eyes remained glued to his car. "Well, it's not like I'm going to just walk by when I see someone passed out on the floor," he said bluntly.

You rolled back over onto your back and stared at the ceiling. "I guess so, but why go through all of the trouble carrying me here, and then staying until I woke up? I think that's what I'm trying to say."

Near crawled over to your bed, using the folds and creases of the covers as road bumps for his car. "I stayed to explain to you why you got beaten up."

You turned your head towards him curiously. "What, did you send them to teach me a lesson? You the leader of some sort of Albino Mafia?" you said sarcastically.

He shook his head. "No. I'm just here because I understand what you're going through. The same thing happened when I became first. It seems the children here have a problem with accepting drastic change." He moved his car over two creases. "But they need to know that it's not always our choice to have something changed, and we can dictate how fast or slow change will occur. Even so, I believe changes aren't categorized universally to everyone as "drastic" or "small"; it's all dependant on the specific person's reaction."

You were amazed at how knowledgeable such a small person such as he could be. He looked up at you. "And another thing; don't let today's events be a misinterpretation of how everything is at Wammy's. It's only your first day, after all."

You nodded. "Yeah, I know that. You and Matt are some examples of the goodness here," you said with a smile.

Near's eyes flickered with something anyone who didn't know him could mistake for emotion, but you scoffed at the thought.

"Well," he said while getting up. "I hope you feel better. See you in class tomorrow."

Just before he left the room, he turned back slightly, and you smiled. "Thank you, Near."

He nodded, and he left you to your thoughts. You were beginning to think perhaps Near was human after all.