Author's Note: So, I hope no one hates me for the way I ended the last chapter. Bet you guys weren't expecting that ;P I did manage to warn some of you about a twist ha-ha, well that was it... well that was ONE of the twists :P

And Laurel, if you're still reading these... you know you're not interested in Death Note, go read an Ouran Fic ;P ;P
...Yes, my 'friend' Laurel managed to acquire secret documentation, regarding information, about my Fic... despite my best efforts to prevent that from happening. I feel I ought to do something about this whole situation, but I'm just not sure what to do ha-ha.

Also, my apologies for the late update, once again, LOL. First my computer died, and then my internet, and then I was getting ready for school. As it is, now I am at school. Had my first day back today (Sept 7, just in case I don't end up updating today ha-ha,) ...and what an adventure that was. My chemistry professor drove into class on his motorcycle. Yes he did. The student body applauded when he took his helmet off. It's my new favourite class to say the least ;P

As well, to those of you who review, who I cannot reply to for whatever reason (say for instance privacy settings or whatever,) thank you so much, and I appreciate it :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

Monday January 1, 2007

I felt my skin grow cold and clammy and my breath was coming in short, shallow bursts. I felt my blood start to boil and I honestly began to see red. My mouth contorted into a vicious snarl and I curled my hands into tight fists; my long nails digging into my skin. A high pitched static tone started in my ears and I tasted bile in my mouth. Worst of all, I felt hot, stinging tears behind my eyes; but I wouldn't dare give anyone the satisfaction of letting them fall. I tried to tell myself that this kind of reaction was just ridiculous. I tried to tell myself that I ought to be rational and sensible and use logic to dictate my life, not emotions. I tried to tell myself a lot of things, but none of them got through, there was too much adrenaline in my blood, and I was in the 'fight of flight' mode... I was leaning towards the 'fight' option as it was.

"I'm so sorry Jewel," Matt said coming up behind me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me around so that I would look at him.

"What... what happened?" I whined. It was so undignified but I couldn't help it.

"I don't know what to tell you kid. Catlin came to our room this morning, Mello got up to answer it, they talked quietly for a second, and then Mello got furious about something. But it could have been anything right, knowing him. Before I knew it they'd left together. I'm sorry Gem, I don't know what happened really." Matt pulled me into a pitying hug as I fought back my tears.

Last night had been so perfect. What could have possibly changed in the past nine hours that would cause Mello to blatantly stab me in the back... no, not in the back, in the HEART?

Suddenly Caitlin caught me staring at her and an evil smile played on the corners of her lips. She said something incomprehensible to Mello and he turned to face Matt and me as well. Matt still had his arms around me and I was sure I still held an expression of absolute betrayal and pain. Mello's expression went from unreadable to rage in half a second, and he stormed off in the opposite direction. Caitlin on the other hand, came walking over to us.

"I warned you didn't I? I told you to stay away from him, but you just didn't listen. I saw the two of you last night, in the detention room," she added as though I wouldn't have remembered. So it had been her who had opened the door. "You brought this on yourself you know," she snickered and turned to go after Mello.

Once she was out of sight I turned back to Matt. "I get that she's mad at me," I all but whimpered, "but, but why is he with her? Why would he do that to me?" When I received no answer from Matt I continued, "Does she have something on him? Like blackmail?"

"Maybe I just don't want to be with you? Did you ever think of that? And why would I want to be with you if you're going to be such a cry baby anyway?" Mello said appearing in the hallway behind us. He must have circled around the cafeteria and come out the other side.

I snarled but did my best to pretended his words hadn't hurt me, and straightened myself up. I backed away from Matt's comforting hug and pushed my glasses further up my nose to give my hands something to do. "Well then, if that's the way you feel," I walked away as calmly as I could fake. Once I was back in my room, I took my newly acquired scarf off of my desk where I had laid it with such care the night before, and stormed into the hallway. I took long, deliberate strides to Matt's and Mello's room and without knocking I let myself in; I knew neither of them was there anyway.

I scrunched up the scarf and threw it on Mello's bed with all the force I could muster. However, because the fabric of the scarf was so light and delicate, it caused my attempt to resemble trying throwing a sheet of paper. The scarf ended up twisting and turning, and eventually it came to rest on the floor. It didn't matter though, I had made my point.

I made my way back to my room and made sure to close and lock the door behind me. Then I sat on my bed and stared at the wall. I made a game of it to distract myself. For the next hour I spent my time focusing at different distances between the wall and myself. If I focused my eyes midrange, I could see the motes of dust which were illuminated by the light coming in through my window. If I focused closer to the wall I could see my desk and the few sparse papers I had left there that held no inherent importance.

A knock on my door brought me out of my self-indulgent game.

"Come hang out with me, you know you want to." I pursed my lips, angled my eyebrows and shook my head. I could hear the smile on Matt's face. That guy was absolutely resilient.

I got up off my very comfortable bed and decided that I probably should open the door. Big mistake.

"It's cold outside, you might need this," Matt held up the black scarf I had thrown into his double room.

I slammed my door in his face.

I, was not so resilient.

I figured that I really ought to get out of my room though. Sitting in there and feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to get anyone anywhere. I could still hear Matt outside my door so I decided to climb out my window. I was only on the second floor, and the way the building was engineered made it entirely possible. There were little footholds and handholds all over the walls. I made it to the ground in a snap.

Matt had been right; it was exceptionally chilly outside. Not to the degree that I needed a scarf however, no, it wasn't that cold. I realised I'd forgotten my coat too, so I decided to let myself back into the building.

The dark wooden walls and floors were brightly lit with all the afternoon sunlight coming in through all the windows. The school was in a total contrast to how it had been when I had first arrived. Everything had been so dark and gloomy, what with the rain that day; but the skies today were a brilliant aquamarine.

I realised sadly though, that even though the school was bright and cheery, I wasn't. I was in the same dismal mood I had been in when I first came to Wammy's. The first day it had been because of the lost of my parents, today it was because of the loss of someone else that I loved.

I sighed as I sulked down the hallways, past offices and classrooms. I kept walking until I happened past Roger's office and heard, "...but that's impossible. Are you sure it was Kira?"

I had heard the name 'Kira' before. I was sure the whole world had heard the name 'Kira' by now, assuming no one was living in caves, or had no access to civilization whatsoever.

"What does L think about that? Is he sure that Naomi Misora didn't just commit suicide?"

Telephone call. It was hard to figure out what was happening by only listening to one side of the conversation, but not impossible.

"Ah, well I suppose I have to agree with him there. That's why he's L after all." Another long pause, before Roger continued with, "He wants what! Well that's just absurd! She's not ready for something like that! I'm sure Mello would be more than happy to..." Now my attention was thoroughly engaged. "Well maybe even Near...?" Now they were talking about my brother? What was going on? Roger's tone had gone from casual to agitated in all of two sentences. "Even Linda... Why does he want one of them anyway?" I sure wish I knew what was going on. "Well alright I'll tell her. Why he picked her I'll never know, but it's not my call. When does he want her there?" Was someone leaving? I hoped it was Caitlin. "A month from today? Alright. Goodbye."

After I heard that I decided it was best to move along. The last thing I needed was to be caught eavesdropping. I skirted around the closest corner and disappeared just as I heard Roger's door open.

I went for an aimless walk through the halls for a while. I'd just finished my third lap around the science wing and decided I'd head out towards the gym, when my stomach started growling. The nausea I had suffered earlier in the morning was no longer plaguing me, so I felt that I might as well try and dig up some leftovers from breakfast in the cafeteria.

I walked straight in and up to the counter where the portly, hairnet wearing, server was stationed. She was an older lady, but probably not as old as she looked; she was aged prematurely with years of looking over rambunctious kids. Matt had said she had been here since Wammy's opened. The woman had wiry gray hair, and skin that would give elephants a run for their money when it came to wrinkles. She was peeling long carrots for what looked to be a salad for lunch. I asked her politely if I might have something to eat and she shot me a look of intense displeasure; probably because lunch would be served soon, probably because the students were supposed to eat at their preset times and probably because it would mean more work for her.

She did stop peeling carrots though and jerked her thumb towards the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the dining area. Through the door I could see a tray of toast from the morning. It was probably being left out so that they could turn it into croutons later. I'd seen the cooks do that before, almost nothing was wasted here.

I silently removed two pieces of toast from the tray and skirted out of the cafeteria. I'd barely made it out of the doors when I bumped into a ghost coloured figure... assuming ghosts were white like they appeared in books, and were not actually transparent.

"Near," I said surprised. I hadn't been expecting to bump into him. Granted I'd more or less forgotten about him altogether in light of the recent events in my life.

"Jewel," he replied stoically.

"What's up Near? What do you want?"

"Roger's looking for you."

Author's Note: And today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D

I'm debating my next set of FanFics... AGAIN, LOL. I already know that I'm going to do a Gaara canon, and a Beyond Birthday Fic for sure. L's going to get his own Canon as well. And as I mentioned before I'm down for a 'Chocolate and Bubblegum' Sequel. It seems to be a growing consensus that Mello and Matt didn't die, and they're alive out there for Jewel to run into again ;P ...but the other's I'm going to let you vote for :)

Fruits Basket: Kyo x Tohru.
I'm sure that I'm not the only one that finds Tohru a little annoying, but instead of replacing her completely with an OC (because I just can't make myself write a FanFic about a person with an OC when they already have a perfect match out there,) I'm want to make her character more personally agreeable. It probably would be a canon.

InuYasha: Sesshomaru x OC.
'Nuff said ha-ha. Probably wouldn't be a canon, but I'm going to keep it realistic as far as the series goes.

Naruto: Kakashi x OC.
Basically a story about Kakashi's life before he started leading squad 7. Non-canon for sure.

Pokémon Fic. Now, I really want to write a Pokémon FanFic. I've had the story all planned out since I was like 10 ha-ha. And I just love Pokémon. The only problem is, that I'd want to make it a love story as well, because that's what I write, but who would I have fall in love? It would be my OC for sure, but then what? I just don't feel an OC x Ash happening, or Brock for that matter. So who? 'Would I have to create another OC?' is the question... Ideas?

Avatar: The Last Air-Bender: Zuko x OC.
Canon.

Uh, I guess that's it for the choices. I probably would do all of them at some point, but if anybody has any preferences as to what they'd rather read first, let me know.