"Forgive yourself for your faults. Forgive others for their faults. Upon forgiving, see with a cleansed eye what you and the the world really are." - Anonymous

Seventy-two hours. It had been seventy-two hours since the fifth of June, and all the events that had occurred during it, had passed. Seventy-two hours is plenty of time to get your thoughts straightened out.

More or less.

"I've been working on the railroad all the live-long day. I've been working on the railroad, just to pass the time away. Can't you hear the whistle blowing way up early in the morn? Can't you hear the captain shouting, 'Dinah blow your horn,'?" Linda sang to herself as she skipped back to the art room, where she knew she would find Near obediently playing with a Rubik's cube, waiting for her to come and begin painting his portrait.

Except she wouldn't be painting his portrait. She would frustratingly be sketching and erasing his portrait. For the fourth day in a row. It was really becoming rather irritating. She had never before doubted her skills, especially not when it came to drawing Near, but for some reason, she could never get it to be just right. No matter what she said to herself, she wouldn't begin painting until she was sure that her sketch was perfect. This was the girl, after all, who insisted that painting realistically was far superior to any other style.

"Someone's in the kitchen, I kno-o-ow. Someone's in the kitchen with Din-ah... strumming the ole banjo. Singing, 'fee, fie, fiddly-eye-oh, fee, fie, fiddly-eye-oh-oh-oh, fee, fie, fiddly-eye-oh.' Strumming the ole banjo," she finished, just as she came to the art room. Seeing Near sitting there in front of her rather plain canvas made her feel worn-out already. This was supposed to have been a fun assignment. It was supposed to be one she enjoyed because she would get to spend so much time around Near. It was supposed to be, but, unfortunately, it just wasn't.

Near hasn't even said anything about my kissing him, Linda thought, worried that this was a bad sign. "So... Near..." she said, not even wanting to look at her unfinished work. Instead, she turned her attention to the boy in front of her.

"Yes? Hello, Linda," he said.

"Um..." she wasn't sure if she should say what she wanted to, but it was killing her; seventy-two hours was much too long to dwell in anticipation, "when I, you know, when I kissed you the other day, what were you thinking?"

Near looked up at her. Interesting... So she's finally bringing it up. "I was thinking it was spur of the moment, that you hadn't been planning on doing that, but that you had been wanting to for a long time. However, I cannot say that drew this final conclusion purely from your action, as I have known how you feel for a long time now."

"Oh... really?" Linda asked, not sure whether she should be embarrassed or not yet.

"Yes," Near said bluntly.

Linda felt her cheeks get hot and put her head down, trying to hide the odd smile she had on her face. "So," she said after a while, "how do you feel? About me."

"I cannot say I return your feelings," replied Near.

Linda sighed sadly. And I can't say I didn't see this coming.

"Although I do know that Matt feels that way about you," Near said.

"Yeah, I know. He told me," she said softly.

"Oh."

Several minutes went by. Near was numbly playing with his Rubik's cube, while Linda stood there, taking in what Near had said. Finally, she broke the silence: "Near, how long have you known..."

"About your feelings? A couple years," he replied.

"Oh. Wow, I thought you were number one. It took you that long to figure it out?" Her laughter was shaky.

"I drew this conclusion after careful observation of your actions towards me over the years. I discarded many theories, and eventually settled on this one. Which I now know to be true," he calmly explained, his eyes still fixed on the Rubik's cube.

"I see." My, what an analytical kid he is.

Several minutes passed in silence. In truth, the minutes were no longer than sixty seconds each, the average number of seconds in any minute, but Linda dragged the minutes on, so that by the time said minutes had run their course, she felt she was old enough for a smoke.

But no. She was still a thirteen-year-old girl standing in an art room in front of the boy she liked, who was undoubtedly scrutinizing her and taking in her every action at that very moment. Linda let out a sigh. "Um, Near, this isn't working."

"Actually," the boy said, "you are not working. For four days, you have not been working. I have been playing my part perfectly."

Linda took no offense. She didn't really care what he was saying right now. After all, wasn't he just relaying facts, the same as always?

"I know," said she. "But, hey, since I'm having trouble working with you, how about I try working with someone else?"

"That's fine," Near replied.

"Thanks."

x.X.x

8th of June, '04

Journal-

It has been established that I like Near. It has been established in Near's head. Well, I guess that's okay. He doesn't like me back, but at least I know, huh? I think I should be crying my eyes out right now, but I'm not really like that. I didn't really cry when my parents were killed. I think I still like Near, anyway, so it'd make no sense to cry about him. The very thought of him makes me happy, so it'd really be something for me to cry over him.

Still, sometimes Near does things that just make me kind of angry. Like, he says things so bluntly. And he never shows his emotions. And I fell for him. I fell for him, and I'm still falling. Oh, well. I guess I can forgive him. And myself.

It got really weird really quickly working with him. For me, anyway. I told him I don't want to work with him, and he's cool with it. I asked Matt for help finding someone else to paint. I asked him if I could paint his portrait, but I think he's still embarrassed and doesn't want to spend a lot of time alone with me in a room, and he said no. He said he would look for someone for me, though, so that's nice.

Well, I guess that's it.

Linda

x.X.x

-Four Days Later-

The students were lucky they were in an art class and could get away with such things without the teacher snapping on them, because the gifted children had been chatting their heads off since the class had started twelve minutes ago.

"It's so fun!" one girl with purple pigtails commented on their current assignment of paint-by-numbers. "I, like, have to be all careful while doing the numbers so that they don't screw up."

"I know what you mean," another boy said, "I put a 19 where a 22 was supposed to go and didn't notice. Now I have to redo the whole thing 'cause it don't look right."

"Hm, well, I'm not even on the numbers yet. I'm still working on the portrait," one girl said.

"Yeah, I've seen you working in your room. Being careful not to get too creative, are we?" said another, causing the first girl to blush.

"How 'bout you, Linda? How far you got?"

"Um," Linda began, "I've got my model."

This caused a mix of reactions. A few giggles, a few gasps, a few eye rolls.

"Wow."

"Dang, you're slow."

"Why'd it take ya that long? I thought you knew who you were gonna ask."

"It figures."

"So, who's your model, then?"

"Yeah, if it took this long to get 'em, hopefully you got Fabio or something."

"No, I got," Linda paused, wondering if she should tell the truth, but then decided that the truth was the only thing that would be believable, "Mello."

"What? Mello? But he lives here! It took you nine days to get Mello? Damn." Most of the other replies were spin-offs of this.

"Hey! I was working with Near, but then it wasn't really working out," Linda said, trying to keep the mockery to a minimum.

"Yeah, right. He probably said that it wasn't going to work out if you kept fawning all over him," said one girl.

"What?" was Linda's ingenious comeback.

This was met with laughter from the other children. And nothing more.

-Four Hours Later-

It was time for "I've Been Working on the Railroad: Reprise," and Linda sang it loudly as she skipped down the hall towards Mello's room. She didn't get to sing about how she knew about Dinah and who was in the kitchen with him, though, because she reached the door, and it was time to pound on it, demanding entry.

"What?" called a voice from in the room.

"It's time to come sit around for an hour so that I can paint you!" Linda replied.

"No, it's not!" denied the voice.

"What? Yeah, it is. I told you I was gonna be painting in the art room and to meet me there in ten minutes. I told you half an hour ago!"

"No, you didn't!" the voice insisted.

"Quit being an idiot! Come on, I'm super behind!"

"I think you have the wrong person. Come back later."

Linda groaned. Why did he have to be so difficult? She opened the door and... Oh. Hm, so she did have the wrong person. "Oh, sorry. 'Scuse me, Matt."

"Yes, you are excused," he said, motioning for her to leave. He was engrossed in his GameBoy, but that was no surprise.

"You know where Mello is?" she asked.

"Elsewhere." Matt said dismissively.

"You know when he'll be back?"

"Eventually."

"Hey, look, you got him for me, you asked him to be my model. Now, why aren't being any more helpful?" she demanded.

"I've got my hands full," was Matt's weak excuse. He held up the hands that were holding his GameBoy for emphasis.

Linda sighed for the umpteenth time that day. "Is this about you and your confessions of love?"

"Hey, it was a confession. It's singular, not plural. And, no, this would not be about my confession of love or anything related to it."

"Well, then, can't you at –" Linda's words were suspended by the fact that someone had just shoved her.

"Perdonnez-moi," Mello said, as he walked through the now-empty doorway. He flopped down on his bed and began to reach for a pair of headphones.

"Hey, you're late!" Linda accused once she realized who had just shoved her and flopped into bed.

"No, you're late," explained Mello, "because while you were in here doing God-knows-what with Matt, I was sitting, bored as hell, in the art room."

Linda wanted to say something about that comment regarding herself and Matt doing God-knows-what, but instead looked past it and said, "Okay, then, let's go to the art room."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." With a groan, Mello hopped up from his bed, dropping the headphones on the nightstand.

Linda's canvas now was the same one she had been using while working with Near. She had Mello sit in the same position because of this; Near's shaped, erased though it may be, was still visible on the canvas. Waste not, want not.

Linda brought her pencil down on the canvas. Thirty minutes later, she was painting, amazed with herself at this task.

"You know," she said, "you're much easier to draw than Near." Mello smirked.

"Is that so?" he asked tauntingly.

"Mm-hm."

Mello chuckled. Linda looked up from her painting at him, perplexed by his behavior.

"So how you feel about Matt?" he suddenly asked.

Great, I bet Matt put him up to this, though Linda. "He's cool. I like him as a friend. Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. Pretty cool friend."

"I see... He's pretty cool," Mello said thoughtfully, digesting the information. "And how do you feel about Near?"

Linda looked at him again, her eyebrows raised. "Oh, I think you know how I feel about him."

"Yes. Yes, I do."

"He's... interesting," Linda explained. "Fascinating. I couldn't help myself."

"Hm? How so? How is he fascinating?" Yes, it seemed now that there was no doubt: Matt had definitely put him up to this.

"Everything he does. The way he's always got this blank look on his face, but you know that, really, despite outward appearances, he's a happy guy. And he likes to be happy. He just doesn't like to show it." After a pause, Linda said, "I think that not showing it makes him happy, too."

"Oh. So what do you think about me?" Mello asked.

Linda laughed. "You're you. You're Mello. That's what I think."

"That's boring," he complained.

Linda laughed again.

A/N: So terribly sorry for the late update! I'll try to make up for it with a quicker update next time, okay? Okay.

Yay! Penultimate chapter!