A/N: This is a sort of "Enter the Gang" chapter. Sorry it took so long to get to this point. Enjoy chapter 7.

~ThatOneAnimeNut


"I AM THE GREAT BLACK STAR!"

Whoa. I just sit down at a table and suddenly I'm being yelled at by something that I immediately register as a spiky blue monkey.

"Hi." I say. I feel my eyelids peel back from the sheer force of this guys presence. "I'm Maka."

"THAT"S A CUTE NAME FOR SOMEONE LITTLE LIKE YOU. BUT THEN AGAIN, NO ONE CAN HAVE AS AWESOME A NAME AS ME!"

"Stop yelling you freak, people are staring." Liz puts her almost empty tray down on the table.

"Your just jealous you can never be as big as I am skeleton girl!" Liz moves to hit him but Tsubaki intervenes.

"Black Star, please sit down. It's Macaroni and Cheese today." Tsubaki smiles, and Black Star wavers.

"All right, I'll sit down for you Tsubaki." Silence, thank goodness. "PRETTY BIG OF ME HUH?" He laughs. Holy crap he's loud.

"Oh, yes." More smiles. Does Tsubaki like this guy?

"Sis!" A blonde girl gives Liz what I can only call a glomp from behind. This must be Patti. She's shorter than Liz, with curves like Tsubaki. There's another kid with her, a boy with black hair, except for three white stripes on the side of his head. What the heck is up with boys and strange hair here?

"Hello Liz. Your symmetry is remarkable today." He says earnestly. Liz rolls her eyes, but smiles all the same. Kid looks at me. "Hi. Are you new? I like your pigtails."

"Yeah, I'm Maka." He seems really normal, except for maybe a little feminine. What's he here for?

He holds out his hand. "Nice to meet you Maka, I'm Death the Kid, but you can just call me Kid. Everyone does."

"Ok." We shake hands and both sit down. Kid's eye suddenly twitches.

"Patti... Where is Soul?"

"Gosh, I don't know Kid. What's up?"

"We are going to have to refigure arrangements for the table with Maka."

What? Am I being dissed?

"With seven of us... dammit, dammit, dammit." He starts muttering under his breath. "The table... Might be asymmetrical..."

"Oh no! What a nightmare!" Liz says sarcastically.

"But..." I start. "Kid, you're not even symmetrical, I mean, look at your hair."

"Uh oh." Patti giggles.

Kid slams his head on the table. "I know it! I'm scum! Asymmetrical garbage! I shouldn't even be alive! I should just die!"

...

"It's kind of a touchy subject." Liz explains. "Kid's OCD, not your fault, he's always like this." She gets up and sits down next to Kid. "Come on Kid, no one even notices your hair, besides Marie's always telling me it's the inside that counts." She keeps on talking to him like this until Kid sits up and grins at her. "Thank you Liz. Anyway, Maka, what are you here for?"

He got over that fast.

"Well... um..."

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want, but I have Anxiety." Tsubaki says.

"THEY JUST WANT TO MAKE ME SEEM SMALL!" Black Star yells.

"Shut up Black Star!" Everyone says.

"I'm OCD." Says Kid, unnecessarily.

"I already said that dumbass." Says Liz. "I'm anorexic." She shrugs like its no big deal but this is the first time I've seen her frown today.

"I'm crazy!" Patti laughs. "Hey Maka, do you like giraffes?"

"Yeah...?"

"Yay! Me too!"

"So, what do we do now?" I ask after I'd finished my lunch.

Liz makes some sort of wavy hands. "Arts and Crafts with Sid!" She must mean therapeutic activities or whatever it was Marie told me about. Before I leave the cafeteria a tall lady with dark skin and pale eyes walks up to me.

"Hello Maka? I'm Nygus. I'm going help you set up your room and give you your schedule." I nod quickly. I haven't said much all day, but I feel a lot more uncomfortable around the councilors than I did with the Liz and Tsubaki's friends.

Nygus and I walk back to my room. Now I can match most of the rooms to the faces. Patti and her giraffes, Black Star the star, Kid the symmetry freak, and so on. The door to my room is plain white and open.

Nygus starts to go through my bag. "I'm afraid I'm going to be taking away your electronics, you can enjoy those when you recover." She explains as she removes my iPod. I nod. I should've expected this, but it's still torture seeing her take away my music. She picks up one of my training bras. "Bras can be used for suicide attempts, so I'll be taking those too." I nod to that, but squirm uncomfortably when she asks me to change and to give her my bra. After that mortifying ordeal, she removes my razors. "You can shave in the bathrooms in the morning showers, where I can supervise you. You're a smart girl, do I need to explain this one?" I shake my head, but there is no way I'm showering in front of everyone with my scars, and the two bandages around my wrists.

"Alright. This looks good to me Maka. I hope you have an easy recovery with us." She smiles warmly at me. I nod. "What's wrong, don't you talk?"

"Yes, Ma'am." I say. My voice is raspy and quiet.

"Good. It's a lot harder to have respond to therapy when you don't talk. You stick with Tsubaki, OK? She's a good egg, and she'll help you if you ask."

"I will." I stumble for a minute, and then she turned to her cart I said: "Thanks."

She turns to me with her hands full of paints. "You're welcome, I haven't heard a thank you in years. These are for your door. Nothing explicit, and no misuse of paints or your door privileges will be revoked."

Again, I nod. I accept a paintbrush from her and get to work. Once in an art class I learned about this thing called 'point perspective' so I use what I know to draw an empty room in shades of light brown, the color of my living room. Then I draw a hearth casting a warm light over the rest of the room. Then I draw the shadow of a person stretching partway across the floor then up the wall. I give the shadow my signature pigtails and write my name in green across the shadows chest. My door isn't flashy or showy, but it's me. Marie was right, painting the door really does help.

I give the paints and brushes back to Nygus, who has been watching me carefully this whole time.

"Very expressive Maka." Nygus says. "Here is your schedule. You have a half hour left of Therapeutic Activities, then you have Group Therapy at 2. You can go to Therapeutic Activities, or I can excuse you until Group."

"What are Therapeutic Activities?"

"Arts mainly. Sometimes Sid lets you play music or brings his dog."

"If you would excuse me that would be great." I look at my feet, but I think Nygus nods.

"OK, but you do have to go to Group. I'll ask one of the kids to check on you and show you the way."

"Thanks Nygus." I pause before asking: "Is there a library?"

"Sort of, we have a book selection in the common room." She points and I walk down the hallway towards where Marie told me about the common room. Among the squashy couches and mountains of board games I find the bookshelf, and pick out a few fantasy and a realistic fiction. I carry them carefully back to my room, and leave the door slightly ajar. I study the schedule Nygus gave me for the first time, which reads:

8:00 a.m: Wake up

8:30 a.m: Optional Shower and Shaving Time

9:00 a.m: Breakfast

10:00 a.m: Study Hall (Gym on weekends)

11:00 a.m: Free Time

12:00 p.m: Lunch

1:00 p.m: Therapeutic Activities

2:00 p.m: Group Therapy:

3:00 p.m: Free Time

6:00 p.m: Dinner

7:00 p.m: Free Time (in Rooms only)

8:00 p.m: Free Time (Optional Shower (No Shaving))

10:00 p.m: Lights Out

10:30 p.m. Room Checks

*Maka Albarn: Daily Appointment with Marie Mjolnir at 5:00 p.m.

I lay my schedule out on my desk and start reading a book. Its a pretty good book for an author I've never heard of. It's the realistic fiction, and it's pretty funny.

I hear someone walking down the hallway, and look up. A boy with messy white hair is slouching down the hallway. I wonder what door he'll go into. I seriously doubt its Ox, because he doesn't look like the algebraic type. Maybe Harvar or Kilik. I freeze when the boy stops at my door. I think he's looking at my painting, probably analyzing me just like I did everyone else. I keep my head down to my book, but look out of the corner of my eye out the small window. The boy is grinning. His bangs cover his eyes, but he has pointy teeth. What the heck? He moves again and I revert my eyes back to my book, but I hear and door open and close as he disappears in the room across from me. The door labeled Soul Eater.