Near and Mello never fought again in all their Wammy days, as it turned out. Near was assigned a new dorm with a boy from his Interview Techniques class, and the two made fast friends. In fact, without his dependence on Mello, Near managed to blossom and soon ended up with a following of friends and admirers who accompanied him to every meal. Still, there was something about Near that was never quite the same after the fight: he was nervous and distrustful. He wasn't really close to anybody at all on more than a superficial level, and his roommate often wondered if anything he said about his life was true.

There were also several girls who were after Near at this point. The most determined was a young blonde girl named Linda, who refused to go by code name much to the chagrin of her teachers. She was constantly trying to convince Near to play with her and her friends, and would refer to him as 'misunderstood.' His gentle, monotone "no thank you" did nothing to deter her.

Now that the two-week summer vacation was beginning, her efforts redoubled. One day at breakfast she approached Near's table and squished herself between a just-showered Near and his roommate, taking time to inhale the scent of his soap. "So, Near, your birthday's coming up soon, right?"

"Yes. August 24th."

"Are you having a party?"

"No. I don't like birthday parties. They're too loud and well… kind of pointless." Poor Near only wanted to eat his oatmeal in peace. Unfortunately, his friends seemed eager for him and Linda to get together, and made various heckling sounds when he said this.

Linda frowned. "That won't do. You need to have a birthday party, at least one! You've been here all summer and you haven't gone to one party. That's so boring. If you have a party… we can play spin the bottle." She added a wink for good measure.

The course of "ooooh" that came from around the table did nothing to sway Near. Instead he was gazing across the room at the table where Mello sat with Matt's old group of friends, laughing rowdily. In sharp contrast to Near, Mello had a girl draped across his lap and didn't seem to want to do anything about it.

"Jealous?"

Near jumped out of his skin and noticed Linda had her head resting on his shoulder. That one word was incredibly loaded with implication. "Jealous of...?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell. That girl's a little old for you. And everyone is pretty sure she's a little female for Mello, although his showdown with Matt makes it hard to tell. And don't be jealous about Mello, either, you've got new friends who are much nicer than him. Let's plan your party."

Near gave in and tore his gaze away from Mello, but not before Mello spotted him staring at whispered something to another person at the table, the same boy who had tripped Near on one of his first days at Wammy's. "Fine, if you insist, I can have a small gathering. But no spin the bottle."

"He looks so sad all by himself," Mello's new friend, Syvil, sniggered. Mello did his best to stay on his good side despite the fact that he was incredibly obnoxious. "Have you been keeping track of the number of times he looks over here?"

"Uh, yeah. What do you think they're talking about? Do you know who that girl he's talking to is?"

The girl in Mello's lap, who called herself Auburn (though Mello could never be sure whether that was her assigned name or she made it up herself) giggled. "Her name's Linda. She's a year younger than Near and totally hot for him. I can't understand why. He never talks to her or even glances her way unless she's practically drooling on him."

"Maybe she thinks he's playing hard to get. What do you think they're talking about."

"Well," Auburn said, "if you'll let me take your tray, I can walk by and find out." She didn't wait for a reply. Upon her return she appeared to be having trouble suppressing laughter. "Poor girl. She's trying to get him to plan a birthday party. Apparently he agreed but won't agree to play seven minutes in heaven. Still, they've got a fairly sizeable guest list. We ought to do something about it."

Syvil was nodding and it took Mello a few moments to realize she meant sabotage. "Really? The kid's birthday party? Don't we have better things to do than that?"

"Exactly," Syvil said, "we do have better things to do, and it just so happens we are doing them on August 24th. We should have our own party."

"Too obvious," Syvil argued. "We need to do something that will draw people away from a party entirely. We should organize a school prank."

"Great idea, except anybody who gets caught will get the bruising of their life. You've got a point, though. What about a movie night?"

"Christ, Auburn, they can watch a movie at the party if they want to. We need to think of something they hardly ever get to do. That way nobody will want to miss it."

"Guys," Mello said with a sort of exhausted finality, "though I don't agree this needs to be an episode of some high school drama show, I have an idea. Something everybody wants and hardly ever gets to do." His voice shook somewhat as he explained his idea, but he managed to pass it off as excitement. Wouldn't want them thinking I feel sorry for Near.

The day of his birthday, Near actually began to get a little excited. He pretended he wasn't interested, but it was nice to think he still had friends after his falling out with Mello, whom he'd assumed would vengefully try to make sure nobody ever spoke to him again. I guess I judged you wrong. Maybe someday we'll be friends again. Mello still ignored him in the hallways, but at least he wasn't throwing fists.

"Are you excited about the party?" Linda asked him, leaning her entire body against him during Interview Techniques to whisper, even though they were at the back of the room and hearing didn't seem to be their teacher's strong suit.

"Uh… yeah, I am, I think. It'll be fun. Who's showing up again?"

"I've got a guest list right here. I invited most of the grade and everyone from our group of friends. Tonight's going to be wild. I wish you would agree to seven minutes in heaven, though…"

Near shook his head. "No way am I about to get myself in a situation where I'm trapped with a strange girl in a closet. It's not for me. You guys can play it if you want, I guess, but I won't be joining in."

"Aww, please?"

"No!" He said this firmly, but they were both laughing. When the bell rang and the class started shuffling out of the doorway, Near was in a good mood for the first time in about a week. He spotted one of their friends and waved. "Hey, are you coming to my birthday party tonight?"

Oddly, the boy stopped moving and began shifting his eyes around. "Er.. is that tonight?"

"Yep, we're starting at seven, and it's a Friday so we can go as late as we want!"

"Um… I don't think I'm going to be able to make it, sorry."

Linda exploded. "Why the hell not? I called everyone on the guest list, including you, and you said you would be able to make it! You said you weren't doing anything all weekend!"

"It's just… something came up."

"What something?"

"Let it go, Linda," Near said without a hint of emotion. "He's not the only guest. Other people are going to be there. Right?"

"Yeah… right… anyway, gotta go, it was nice chatting!" The boy walked away at an unnaturally quick pace.

"What a jerk!" Linda yelled.

"It's not a big deal. He's busy. So what?"

The thought brightened Near and Linda for a moment, but as they asked more of their friends about the party more of them acted shifty and refused to come. Then they saw the source of the problem: Mello and his friend Auburn were drifting in and out of the crowd of their classmates, stopping each one to talk for a few minutes. Though Near tried to convince her otherwise, Linda marched straight up to the pair.

"Excuse me! What's going on here? Shouldn't you two have been where, y'know, your class is?"

"We've been given the day off to talk to people about a trip," Auburn said, a nasty smile dancing across her features. "We're just talking to your classmates about it now."

"A trip? What trip? Why haven't we been invited?"

"Maybe we thought you were too high and mighty to join us. Anyway, if you insist…" Auburn met Near's eyes while Mello avoided them, "we got permission from Roger to have a school trip for anybody interested. He said he'd be glad to have 'a bunch of stupid little brats' out of his hair for the weekend, so anybody can sign up and we're taking a bunch of buses to London for the weekend."

"Oooh!" Linda squealed with stars in her eyes. "When are you leaving!"

"Oh, five tonight," Auburn said with a casual air, though her eyes still gleamed.

"But Near's birthday party is tonight!" Linda blurted.

"Shame. It's too bad, it's the only weekend we could convince Roger to let us go. Our summer vacation is so short, you know. Don't worry, Near has a birthday every year. Anyway, I'm sure you have super good friends, and they'll be happy to stay home and celebrate with you, right?" Auburn tossed her hair over her shoulder and marched away, still smirking in an infuriating manner. "Come on, princess, we've got people to talk to."

"Still not my name," Mello said wearily. He looked at Near directly for the first time in a while, opened his mouth, seemed to think better of it, and trotted after Auburn.

"What an asshole! I can't believe he did that to you! He needs to get over you not wanting to be his friend anymore! I mean, jealous much? He really had to ruin your birthday party?" Linda was furious and apparently unable to see that Mello wasn't interested in being friends with him either.

"Don't worry about it. Maybe we should start planning our courses for next term instead, and see if we can get some classes together." Near hoped the offering of spending more time with him would appease her, but for once it did nothing.

"Hah! No, we'll have a party. We'll have a party if we have to sabotage Mello's trip to do it! I'm sure we can find something sharp lying around to slash a couple of tires with, right? We can't let them win!"

"Linda…" Near grabbed her arm, the only action which could distract her from her overzealous plans of revenge. "Stop. They'll be able to figure out who did it; do you really think we'll be allowed to have a party after that? Besides, if anything, it'll end up getting me expelled and that would make Mello's day more than anything. We've only asked about five people so far, and most of them weren't even good friends. You invited at least fifty kids, I'm sure a good number of them won't be interested in a trip Mello hasn't planned further than 'hey, we're going somewhere.' Don't do anything impulsive. Somebody will show up."

"Good point! Most people from our class like you, of course, a lot more than they like Mello. Although," her smile turned sly, "He is kinda cute."

"What?" Near said blankly.

Linda blushed. "Oh, never mind. So, do you want to go plan our classes?"

Near watched out his window as the buses containing his classmates pulled away. Three buses. That would hold a lot of students. Still, it was two hours until his party started. To pass the time, he pulled out a fingerprint identifying kit some mysterious benefactor had sent him for a birthday kit and began messing around with it.

Seven o'clock came.

Not a single classmate came with it.

Near put down the kit. He felt numb more than anything. This was exactly what he'd expected – anybody who spent most of their life holed up – essentially trapped – in a boarding school would rather go on a trip to London than some lame birthday party for a kid they'd known for less than a month.

After about ten minutes, Linda poked her head in the door. "Sorry I'm late, I-" She noticed the lack of guests. "Oh. I'm sorry, Near."

"Just go."

She didn't have to be told twice. When he was sure she was out of earshot, he lay face-down on his pillow, thinking about how much fun he used to have hanging out with Mello. How cheerful and entertaining he'd been before Near ruined it all for him. Today proved things were never going to be the same for them.

For the first time since his first day of school, Near cried.