The day was a long one for Sora. It was definitely not boring, but it was uneventful. Sora hadn't seen Pearl since she'd walked away from Maka in the classroom. She didn't show up at the cafeteria for lunch. Mae claimed that she always skipped.

"Hey- new guy," a voice said behind him.

Sora turned at the sound, and saw a boy leaning against one of the large skeleton teeth that marked the entrance/exit to DWMA. He was dressed in a drab, dusty overcoat and his unruly, longish brown hair almost completely obscured his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Don't be buddying up so much to Pearl."

Sora's eyes narrowed.

"Why? What's it to you?"

"Because she's already been spoken for," the young man replied without missing a beat.

"Already spoken for?" Sora asked, feeling slightly irritated. He wasn't really interested in her like that, in the first place, but he didn't feel like he was entitled to tell this punk that. "Who says?"

"I do," the young man replied, shaking his head so that he could get the hair out of his face. His eyes were a deep honey brown and might've once been kind, but were now a hard granite.

"And just who do you think you are, showing up out of nowhere and making a claim like that?" Sora asked. He crackled his knuckles methodically, then wrung out his hands. If this guy was going to make any funny moves he wanted to be ready for them.

"Don't get the wrong idea," the youth replied. "I don't want to fight you. If I did I wouldn't have wasted any time on words, I would've just punched your lights out." The young man made a fist momentarily, as if to show off, then released it.

"Jeremiah, stop bothering people."

Sora looked towards the direction of the voice. A pretty girl with lengthy, flowing brown hair walked out of the school, next to the pink-haired girl that Sora had sat with in class earlier. Behind them were many other students, who were exiting the school and heading to their respective apartments.

"Jacqueline, this isn't your problem," the teen, who was evidently named 'Jeremiah' replied.

"Sure it is," Jacqueline said with a good-natured smile. She then walked over and looped her arm with the brooding young man's. "You're my brother, so this is my problem."

She turned to Sora and said, apologetically, "I'm sorry about him. He can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes but not so much if you get to know him. You're Sora, right?"

Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I remember you, you were sitting next to Kim in class today," Jacqueline replied. "Kim said you took my seat."

"Oh, sorry," Sora replied quickly. So the pink-haired girl's name is Kim.

"It's no big deal," Jacqueline said. "Kim and I spend almost every waking moment with eachother so it's nice to get a break now and then. I was in a meeting with Lord Death for most of the day, anyway."

"He claims her soul wavelengths are all screwed up and inconsistent, but honestly, I never notice when wielding her," Kim said, finally speaking up. "We even eachother out."

Jacqueline nodded fiercely.

"Well anyway, we better be going now," Kim said as she glanced at the sun in the sky. It would be twilight soon. "Kim and I are getting sushi at that new place down the street." She looked with some distaste at her partner's brother.

"Oh yeah, it's going to be awesome!" Jacqueline exclaimed. "I hear that they do karaoke over there. It's going to be super fun!" Then she turned to Sora and said. "Nice meeting you."

Sora nodded.

"You too."

With that Kim and Jacqueline started to walk away, Jacqueline still arm-in-arm with her sulky brother. He heard snatches of their convesation as they trailed away.

"Hopefully we won't have to babysit -?"

"Don't worry about it, Kim! We're dropping him off at home."

"I don't need a babysitter."

"Like hell you don't..."

Sora sighed. He hoped that the social dynamics of this school weren't going to just totally wreck the experience for him. He wanted to at least try to take on a mission or something, even though he didn't have a Meister.

"Oh, you're out here."

Sora turned to the owner of the voice, and saw that it was Pearl. Her long bluish hair was held up in a ponytail, and she had a towel over her shoulders. Instead of her signature royal blue Victorian-style dress she wore gym pants and a cyan tank top. She was wearing a green backpack.

"Where've you been?" Sora asked.

Pearl undid the ponytail and gave her hair a shake, and it cascaded onto her shoulders once more. She had the flushed appearance of someone that had just been exerting themselves, but he almost thought she was even more beautiful in this more imperfect state.

"I've been working out," she said. "It's what I do everyday at lunchtime, or just whenever I'm feeling down or stressed."

"You even missed some of the classes, though," Sora said, knowing how much good grades meant to her.

"Weren't we just reviewing soul resonance and all that elementary basic stuff?" Pearl replied. "I could've- and probably would've- fallen asleep in such a totally unchallenging class like that."

Of course. He thought to himself, almost feeling abashed. She'd been here much longer than he had and was already at the top of her class- and he had tried to lecture her. He was almost surprised that she'd taken it so well.

"I really like Marie as a person," Pearl said, as she did some cooldown stretches. "But she's got to stop with all the babying and coddling. I liked our former teacher, Doctor Stein a lot more. Sure, sometimes it got really weird with all of the dissecting, but he also taught us about the human body and pressure points and how to avoid certain types of attacks that went for the vital areas of the body. And now, rumor has it that he goes to the woods with a special group of students to teach them about how to do Meister to Meister resonance. I would've killed to be able to join, but you have to have a Weapon to join in."

"Ah," Sora said, in understanding. "Wouldn't one of your former weapons maybe wanted to help you?"

Pearl's expression became angry.

"You think I hadn't thought about that?" she snapped. "Every time I ask someone they come up with a reason why they won't be my Weapon anymore, or they've already moved on to another Meister." She shook her head in frustration. "It doesn't matter how good I am in class or how strong I am; I'm useless to the world and to this school if if I don't somehow get a Weapon. But some people are so petty..."

Sora thought back to Jeremiah, the guy who had said that Pearl was 'spoken' for. He also thought back to the fight he and Pearl had had against Black Star. He felt helpless. P.J. seemed desperate, but would she really go for having a shield instead of a more offensive weapon like a sword? He didn't know who- or what- this Jeremiah guy was, but there had to be some history between them.

"We did this thing once," he began hesitantly. "Maybe we can do it again."

Pearl looked up at him, her face confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, we did okay, you and I, right?" he finally blurted out. "I know I'm not the best Weapon ever..."

"Please, don't belittle yourself!" Pearl exclaimed with a chagrined smile and raised up hands. "It's true that I'm not used to using a shield, and you're not really what I'm looking for, but I appreciate that you're at least willing to help."

"So you're going to turn down the guy who might be the only guy who might be willing to partner up with you?" Sora said in mock disbelief. Pearl laughed, and then the conversation turned serious. "Well, I might not be the only guy..."

"Hm, what was that?" Pearl asked.

"Well there's this guy I met today," Sora hesitated, wondering if it was really appropriate to tell the story. "He was kind of a weird-looking dude, he wore a dirty overcoat and all of that. And he said you were 'spoken for.'"

"Really?" Pearl laughed again. "If I am than that's the first I heard of it. Who was he, anyway? Maybe I'll play along for a bit, it would be funny."

"Er, I think his name was...Jeremiah?"

Pearl's face went white.

"Jeremiah?" her voice was barely audible. "H-how do you know Jeremiah?"

Then it suddenly occurred to Sora why that name had sounded so familiar. Jeremiah was the name of Pearl's Weapon during that mountain temple mission where so much had changed.

"He has some nerve," Pearl said darkly. "Telling complete strangers that I'm 'spoken' for." Then, inexplicably, she shivered. "No, I can't partner with him, not ever again. There's too much dark history there."

"Well if he's bothering you-"

"No!" Pearl snapped in a voice that was part anger and part pleading. "Don't go anywhere near him. He's not even a student here anymore, so technically him being on the property was tresspassing. But why he'd come back now..." Pearl shook her head, suddenly seeming very weary.

"Well, if you won't be my Meister, at least let me walk you home," Sora said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I can't bungle on that at least. I was raised in the slums."

Pearl smiled, and some of the color returned to her face.

"Thanks for the offer, but I actually live on campus," she explained.

"The offer stands just the same."

Pearl smiled again, a little tentatively this time, but acquiesced.

"Then let's go," Sora said, returning her smile.