Chap. 7


The following morning, Ivy was sound asleep in her room. Since the next day was thankfully Saturday, she could sleep in without worrying about missing class.

Around ten in the morning, a soft knock echoed at her door. The girl was still off in dreamland, far to gone to hear it.

The knob turned, and Near quietly stepped into her room. He stood next to her bed, twirling a lock of snow white hair. Gently shaking Ivy, he tried to wake her up.

"Muhfommm…mmm," she mumbled, half unconsciously pushing his hand away and rolling over.

"Ivy, Roger get's upset if someone sleeps really late here. We're all expected to be active."

"Screw the ol' geezer…" she mumbled again, dozing off once more.

Sighing, Near attempted to shake her awake once more, this time with a little more force.

Ivy's way of retaliating was to hit him squarely in the face with a pillow.

"Ow!" the boy exclaimed, covering his nose with a hand.

The cry had finally woken Ivy up enough to realize what she did.

"Oh man, I'm sorry," the drowsy girl apologized, wiping her eyes. "I didn't know what I was doin'."

Letting a breath out, Near shook his head. "No, it's fine. You don't have to be sorry."

She gave him a look. "I just beamed you in the face with a pillow. Don't try to be so nice."

Hopping out of the bed, Ivy saw that she hadn't bothered to change into her pajamas when she got back to her room last night.

Near noticed as well. "You slept in your normal clothes?"

Thinking of a quick excuse, Ivy laughed, "I was too tired to change. Haha, I guess you wiped me out with all that building yesterday,"

The white haired boy gave her a strange look.

"Out, out! I need to… take a shower now!" she said suddenly, almost pushing him out the door.

After Near had gone, Ivy went over to the bureau that had already been in the room, gazing at her hair in the mirror. She grinned, not just because of it, but because of what happened last night. Mello had actually done something nice, and she couldn't wait to tease him about it later.

"But first, the other one," she said aloud to herself after she had gotten out of the shower and dried off, "What's his face? … Matt! That's it! I still don't know him much…" Taking a towel and vigorously drying her hair, she flipped it back and forth, then looked in the mirror, her rainbow locks scattered like crazy and out of place.

"Let's fix that!" she declared, brushing the tangled mess out.

Upon locating Near once more, Ivy happily skipped to him, once again adoring the looks she was getting from the other kids.

"Hello my love!" she announced loudly, giving the already embarrassed boy a dramatic hug, causing him to, again, turn pink.

Ivy had always been like that. She said what she was feeling, and pretty much did what she wanted. True, the way she acted was a little weird, calling a guy she had known for a day her 'love', but she wasn't going to change. It was just her personality.

"Aww. Look how cute. Near's got himself a girlfriend!" a voice called from somewhere in the mess of kids gathered in the library.

The fun look instantly dropped from Ivy's face as she recognized who the voice belonged to.

Mello, followed by Matt, made his way out of the crowd, towards them.

"You," she said, scowling.

"Hello to you too," the blond answered, smiling with a deviance about him.

Matt mumbled a barely audible "Hey," to them, not even glancing away from the game he was so absorbed in.

Charizard has three chances left to use flamethrower to beat Jinx…As long as it doesn't use Confusion then I should be ok—

"Hey Matt! I noticed you're quite a gamer!" Ivy spoke up, now standing beside the red headed boy.

"Mmmhmm…" he said, trying to tune her out.

Eye twitching at his blatant disregard for her words, the rainbow haired girl snatched the DS away from him, then used Near as a shield.

Matt glared.

"Give it back you brat!"

"Nope. Not until you agree to something," Ivy answered smugly, going to turn off the power, then remembering that he had been playing something intensly, and saved the progress before doing so, to be nice.

He sighed. At least she did that much.

"Pokemon, huh? Wow, didn't figure you for a 'gotta catch um all' type of guy."

"Just give it back."

"Do you have any other game systems? PS2 perhaps?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"How about this, I'll play you for this," she tapped the DS gingerly, "If you win, you get it back."

Suddenly, a look of fire sparking almost took over Matt's eyes. Competition? Really?

"Fine. Name your game."