Maka's POV

That was a really intense, disclosure. And by Black Star none the less. Then again everything he does is intense in one way or another. Everyone is quiet but not in awkward or shocked silence. It's an understanding and almost compassionate silence. I look over at Sue and she actually has tears in her eyes. I smile faintly. I turn to Soul, his mind is elsewhere, his face thoughtful. I turn to Kid and he breaks the silence. "It's…. like me, you know, with my OCD, and my grades, and my dad for that matter…when I step outside myself kinda, and I look at myself...and I see me, I don't like what I see, I really don't." Kid's tone is solemn. "What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Patti asks her own tone serious for the first time.

"'Because... I know people loathe me. I play it off as if I don't care, or I ignore everyone and seem like I'm better than them. But in actuality, I can't stand myself. I know people hate me because of my OCD because I seem pretentious, because of my dad. Everyone thinks I'm some spoiled rich kid who has it easy. But that's untrue. You see, I always felt that my dad had always been the kind of man who silently looked down on me if I did something with even a slight imperfection. He would never say or do anything it was just this feeling I would get from him. In fact, sometimes he'd even say something constructive when I would mess up but I would take it as disapproval. When I was younger my dad had this falling out with my brother Ash. They would always disagree on every little thing. I always thought there was something mentally unstable with Ash. Eventually, he ran away from home and I know it left my father devastated. I could see it in his eyes. I didn't want to be a failure like my brother was. I felt I had to be the perfect son…"

"So you developed OCD and your need to be a perfectionist all because you had issues with your own self." Liz concludes. Kid nods, "Pretty much." "Hey your life is like Soul's but in reverse." Black Star comments in effort to lighten the mood. Soul chuckles faintly. "I think your old man and my old man should go bowling." Kid sighs. "That would be, something else." He smiles faintly.

Black Star turns to Patti and Liz. "Hey, what's' your guy's story?" They both turn to him confused. "Oh yeah you haven't shared anything about yourselves." Sue adds. "You haven't either Sue." Liz points out. "I'll go after you girls." Liz and Patti look at each other. Liz turns to us and starts. "Well I'll make this short and to the point. Our parents were drug addicts and they neglected us so I guess I've been the one raising us both. We were legally emancipated from them when I was 14 and Patti was 11. I'd been working before then too. We had a friend who moved out here for a fresh start so when we finally had enough for an apartment we moved from Brooklyn to here, Death City. Name aside, we figured it'd be a peaceful place to settle in, away from the crime filled streets of New York. The government helped us out by paying for me and Patti to come here. We've been fending for ourselves ever since." "Yup, that's our story." Patti giggles.

We're all in awe at how easy it came out of her. Makes sense she's seen as a tough chick, she had to be considering the life she's lived. As for Patti, well I'm guessing Liz tried to provide Patti with as much normalcy as possible so she encouraged her to be a kid and act like a kid so she didn't have to grow up as fast as Liz did. I have a new sense of admiration for these girls.

"That's amazing." Kid praises. "Thank you, Kiddo." Patti giggles and Liz smiles. Liz turns to Sue. "Your turn." Sue exhales. "Right... well I'll make mine short too... I was born and raised in Japan until I was 15 when my dad's job was transferred three ago and relocated here. My mother worked from home and she looked after me and my older brother, Mason. Massy was really troubled growing up so he almost always had the attention of both my parents. I didn't care though. I loved him a lot, I was closer to him than anyone else." She pauses and looks down at her hands smiling faintly. "When we were younger I would even get in trouble for him when he did something bad."

Her voice weakens. "A year before we moved here though, Massy died in an accident, he was 19. My parents never mourned his death in front of me. Not even at his funeral. It was as if they felt they were better off, without a troublemaker for a son to ruin the family's name. That's why I can't stand my parents. They never knew how to deal with us. They tried hard to straighten out my brother and they tried very little to deal with me. Besides providing me with the things I need, they've never been good parents. When I started school here I was welcomed by so many people I'd never felt that way before. I wasn't use to people asking me how my day was or my opinion on something. I was so new to everything going on around me that even though I adapted quickly and fell in with the 'popular crowd' I still felt... strange."

Everyone's face is thoughtful, but Soul for some reason has a scowl on his. I turn to Sue, "I'm really sorry about your brother Sue." I say sorrowfully. She gives a small smile. "It's okay. He told me that if anything were to happen to him, he'd still look after me from wherever he was." "Wow that's weird, you , Kid and Soul all have brother issues…I mean well for you it's different because you know…" "Black Star!" Liz shoots him a, you–better-shut-up-now face and he shrugs. That's Black Star for you, being insensitive as usual. Sue chuckles. "No, it's okay, really." There's another understanding/thoughtful silence.

"I can write with my toes! I can also eat, and brush my teeth…" Patti announces randomly, moving on from the seriousness of the conversation. "With your feet?" I ask curiously. "Yeah! I can also play on the piano!" Liz rolls her eyes. "Patti quite lying." I chuckle. "I'm not sissy." "Yes you are!" "No I'm not!" "Yeah you are!" "I-I can make spaghetti."Crona mumbles softly. Of course we turn all our attention to him but he doesn't say anything else. I sigh. "What can you do Black Star?" I ask. He laughs, "I can uhh...duct tape all your asses together!" We all laugh.

"What about you Sue?" She turns to me and furrows her eyebrows. "I can't do anything." "Now, everybody can do something…" Soul probes. She bites her inner cheek and thinks. "Well..there's one thing I can do… ugh no forget it…its really embarrassing." She represses a laugh. "Aw come on Sue..." Black Star encourages. She sighs. "Okay fine…but you gotta swear you guys won't laugh..." She reaches in the pocket of her jacket and pulls out a tube of lipstick. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this..." We stare at his curiously as she opens it and places it between her breast and ducks her head into her shirt. I hear Black Star stifle a snicker.

When she lifts her head, her lipstick is perfect, no smudges, nothing. I gasp impressed and everyone claps. Soul however claps slow and sarcastically. She rolls her eyes in his direction. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Liz asks grinning. She pulls it out of her shirt and caps it. "Camp." "That was great Sue, my image of you is totally blown." Soul mocks. I turn to him irritated. "Don't be an asshole! Don't do that to her, you swore you wouldn't laugh." "Am I laughing?" "You're a fucking prick." Kid mutters. Soul turns to Kid and scowls. "What do you care what I think anyway? I don't count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference… I might as well not even exist at this school, remember?" he turns to me. "And you don't even like me anyway!" His face is red with anger. Kid frowns.

"You know I, along with everyone else in here, has just as much feelings as you do, and it hurts just as much when somebody steps all over them!" Sue shouts, her own face reddening out of frustration. Soul turns to her. "You're so pathetic! And don't you ever compare yourself to me! Okay? You got everything.. and I got shit! Fuckin' Rapunzel, right? School would probably fucking shut down if you didn't show up! "Queenie isn't here!" I like those earrings Sue." "Shut up…" Sue mutters. "Are those real diamonds, Sue?" "Shut up!" "Quite it Soul!" I shout. He ignores me. "I bet they are..did you work for those earrings, Sue?" "Shut..your mouth!" "Or did your daddy buy those." "Shut up!" "Stop!" Liz yells. Sue starts crying. "I bet he bought those for you! I bet those were a Christmas present! Right? You said so yourself your parents give you everything you need. You know what I got for Christmas this year? Shit I got jack shit! Okay, so go home and cry to your daddy, don't cry here. And stop pretending like you actually give a damn about anybody in here." I gasp. "That's enough!" Soul leans his head back against the wall he's sitting behind.

What the hell is the matter with him?! Is he bipolar?! He's going through these bouts of normalcy and then he goes back to his ass face self. Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? I sigh and realize subconsciously, I know the answer. Maybe we're the ones with the problem. I mean who we are trying to fool. We've got a couple of minutes left before we all go on with our lives forgetting this ever happened. I look at everyone and their faces look exhausted from all this mental and emotional disarray. "My god, are we gonna be like our parents?" Kid asks no one.

"I-It's unavoidable, it just happens." We all turn to Crona who's looking up at us. "What happens?" I ask gently. "When you grow up, y-your heart dies." He bites his lips, his eyes watery. Soul sighs. "Who cares." "I-I care…" "You never told us your stor-" Crona cuts Sue off hastily. "I don't wanna talk about it." "Why not? we've all opened up here..except for you… it's only fair" Black Star points out. "Talk to us Cro-" "No." He looks down his eyes brimming with tears. I direct the attention away from him.

"Umm, I was just thinking... I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering, what's gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all at school again? I mean I consider you guys… friends...I'm not wrong am I?" I finally ask the question we've all been wondering and already know the answer to. "No.." Kid says vaguely. "So, on Monday..what's gonna happen?" "Are we still friends, you mean? If we are friends now, that is?" I nod. "Do you want the truth?" Sue asks her voice cracking. "Yes." She looks down. "I don't think so…" "With all of us or just, Soul?" asks Kid. "With all of you…"

"That's a real nice attitude, Sue!" Black Star exclaims. "Oh, be honest!… Black Star if Kid came walking up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this, you're there with your friends…I know exactly what you would do, you'd say hi to him and when he left you'd bag on him so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him!" "No way!" Black Star denies. " 'Kay what if I came up to you Sue?" Liz asks. She sniffles, "The exact same thing…" "You are a bitch!" Soul shouts. "Why? 'Cause I'm being realistic, that makes me a bitch?" "No! 'Cause you know how shitty that is to do to someone! And you don't have the balls to stand up to your friends and tell 'em that you're gonna like who you wanna like!"

Sue stifles tears angrily. "Okay, what about you, you hypocrite! Why don't you take Crona to one of your hardcore punk mosh-pit shows, huh? Or take Patti and Liz out to the parking lot at lunch to get high? What about Maka and Kid for that matter, what about me? What would your friends say if we were walking down the hall together? They'd laugh their asses off and you'd probably tell them you were doing it with me so they'd forgive you for being seen with me!" "Don't you ever assume what I would and wouldn't do! You don't fucking know me! You think four hours being stuck in here together gives you the liberty to assume things about me?! You certainly have no room to opinionate in this matter anyways! Your life is gonna go back to its peachy damn self while the rest of us, get shit from the assholes you call your friends!" "I hate you!" "Yeah? Good!" it gets quiet.