As summer gets closer, I swear the weeks get longer.

I'll keep this short and sweet, LIKE THE POWER PUFF GIRLS (aside from Buttercup anyway), so you can mosey on down to reading.

Thanks to my kind and wondrously plentiful reviewers whom I care for greatly:

Torixx3, Jaci's Spice ( HAPPY FRIDAY! ), WeinerBeiner (it's okay, I had bullies in kindergarten), I Am Pandora, WolfishMoon, Silver Levi

Now, for mi favorita, THE MTR:

Well, they made a new review button! You should test it out. Take it for a test drive. Drive it around the lot. See how it feels on your skin. SMELL THAT NEW BUTTON SMELL.

Enjoy :)

Pulchritudinous

"Cassettes"

When Jinx woke up the next morning she knew exactly where Effie was. Effie was in the piano room again. It would have been a hard fact to miss because Jinx had fallen asleep in the vents, waiting for Effie to leave. Now Effie was up, and Jinx had been rudely awakened by her pounding away on the piano keys. Jinx sighed as she stared down at Effie, watching her empty her rage out on the keys. Jinx promptly covered her ears, but even just those first few angry notes made her think about things she didn't want to. These things mainly had to do with L.

Over the past few days, while Jinx had been working out a plan to get what she needed out of Linda, Effie had been spending at least six hours in the piano room a day. Of course, not all of it was playing. Very little of her time here was actually spent playing anymore. Mostly she threw things around, cried, and threw tantrums.

Jinx sighed. She'd never seen Effie like this, not even in the few years she had been hanging out in the vents while she played. She'd always been so placid, calming tapping the keys, releasing complex emotions through even more intricate piano rhythms. Jinx wondered if that is what Watari, or maybe even L, had seen in Effie. She had an extraordinary ability to communicate in a language that didn't even seem human. But Jinx just couldn't figure out how L could have seen that in Effie. She didn't understand how Linda had even figured it out. Effie's piano playing was one of her biggest, most intimate secrets, and if Effie wanted to keep something secret, Jinx knew that it would always be a secret.

When the music stopped Jinx looked up to see Effie looking around the room for something to break. It would be a challenge for her to find something new, because over the course of the past few days Effie had destroyed everything in the room. There was nothing new for her to destroy.

Just as Effie had locked onto a cymbal that was still in a decent condition (it was only dented in four to five places), Jinx jumped down from the vent. She was finally ready to prove to Effie that she had held true on her promise. She was just starting to reach for the tape, to show Effie, when Effie interrupted her.

"Been enjoying the show, have you?" Jinx looked up to see Effie gripping the cymbal tightly, glaring at her.

"I just came to do what I promised, Effie." Jinx said simply, tucking the tape back into her pocket. She slowly raised her hands to show Effie that she meant no threat. "I surrender." She said with a small smile.

"I figured you'd forgotten," Effie said, dropping the cymbal. "It doesn't matter if you did though. I'm thoroughly screwed." Effie finished resentfully, turning around to kick a drum set. "Thoroughly screwed!" She exclaimed again with a sense of insanity as she continued to kick the drum set.

"Effie," Jinx whispered calmly, "I'm no screwdriver, but you can consider yourself officially unscrewed." Jinx smiled, trying to reassure Effie, even though she was pretty certain that Effie was broken in a way that wasn't fixable. However, what she said seemed to reach Effie.

"What do you mean?" Effie asked, a little bit of sanity returning to her tone. "What did you do?" Effie asked again. The insanity from earlier had completely left her voice. Now all Effie seemed to feel was afraid.

Jinx reached slowly into her back pocket. "You remember what I promised, right?" She asked, pulling the tape out of her pocket and holding it in the air. "I got what I needed."

"What did you get?" Effie asked, reaching for the tape, trying to snatch it out of Jinx's hand. Jinx was too quick for her though and managed to hide it behind her back.

"I got evidence," Jinx said slyly, "for that thing you were in danger of." Jinx finished, trying to decide if Effie thought Jinx knew something she didn't.

"What for?" Effie was panicking again, reaching desperately for the tape Jinx had hidden behind her back.

"What do you know, Effie?" Jinx asked quietly.

"What's on that tape, Jinx?" Effie asked in return, except much more sternly.

"It's Linda's confession that she attempted to hurt Matt and Mello." Jinx admitted finally. "Now tell me what you know," she demanded from Effie.

"You can't show that to anybody." Effie threatened, pointing to the tape.

"Why can't I? Mello's in awful condition, and both he and Matt nearly died!" Jinx reminded her, wondering what kind of crazy had afflicted her. "Also, she's trying to frame you for the entire thing!"

"Just be happy it wasn't you!" Effie shouted, grabbing for the tape again.

"What do you mean 'wasn't me?'" Jinx was shocked.

"I promised…" Effie paused, staring at the floor. "I promised that I would take the fall for her if she didn't try to kill you. So she settled for your friends instead."

"Effie don't you understand?" Jinx couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That's exactly what you gave her! You are my friend. You didn't just let her take Matt and Mello, but you too! Can't you see that I could have handled her?" Jinx grabbed Effie by the shoulders and shook her violently. "You aren't supposed to protect me, you crazy! I'm supposed to protect you."

Effie broke out of Jinx's grip and stepped away. "You've always been so silly, Jinx." She giggled. "Why do you ever even think I became friends with her?"

"Because you had no other choice?" Jinx questioned. She had never even had the faintest idea that Effie might be trying to protect her. It would have had to have been incredibly difficult because she was always provoking Linda in one way or another.

"I did it to keep her away from you, smart one." Effie scoffed, reaching for the tape again. "Don't report that to Roger."

"You want me to just let her go?" Jinx screamed, "I can't just let that psycho go! She tried to kill my friends. All of my friends! Everything! All over something as stupid and trivial as a few insults when we were younger!"

"It wasn't about the petty insults, Jinx. It never was." Effie shook her head. "How could you think it would be that simple?"

Jinx was dumbfounded. She couldn't comprehend the words she was hearing. Her entire life she had assumed that Linda had wanted her gone because she used to make fun of her. Jinx had felt slightly remorseful her entire life over something so trivial. She'd thought Linda's anger was just a little vendetta. She had underestimated Linda's ability to hate.

"If it's not that, what is it? Am I too fiercely awesome?" Jinx asked with a small smile, only half joking. Effie didn't speak for a long time.

"It's… It's control, Jinx. She needs it. She feeds on it. Without it, she… she's not right in the head." Effie explained, looking incredibly worn.

"That's why we need to turn in this tape; she needs that control taken away from her!" Jinx explained, flashing around the tape. "She needs to know that what she did is not okay." Jinx finished softly, talking more to herself than Effie.

"But it will never get through to her head!" Effie shouted. "She's as stubborn as…" Effie stopped, searching for an analogy. Jinx giggled, Effie was never able to complete an analogy successfully.

"A mule?" Jinx offered, smiling.

"This isn't a time to be laughing, Jinx!" Effie cried. "I don't think you understand that Linda… Linda… Linda, well, she's a… a…" Effie stuttered, searching for an adjective that fit Linda.

"A self-righteous, annoying, conceited brat?" Jinx offered.

"No," Effie disagreed, "Those aren't enough. She's deranged - crazy. She's murderous, Jinx." Effie pushed her point by throwing her arms above her head. "Her aim is to crush you, Jinx, nobody else matters. It's always been about you."

"About me?" Jinx asked, confused. "How could it have been about me? She tries not to associate with me."

"Haven't you connected the dots?" Effie asked, astonished at Jinx's ignorance.

"What is with everyone and these questions? I am quite obviously ranked last! My dot-connecting abilities are severely underdeveloped!" Jinx yelled finally, her annoyance with people questioning her intelligence was peaking.

"Look at everything, Jinx." Effie commanded. "That day in the playground, she went after me so you would be left alone. Everything has been about you. Matt? Remember how she purposely went after the new kid? She can't let the new ones slip through her fingers."

"Ha!" Jinx shouted, pointing at her. "See how that worked out? I had friends for awhile!"

"But then Mello came in, Jinx. You remember how Mello's roommate requested that Mello be moved? That was with Linda's persuasion."

"Are you telling me…?" Jinx was having trouble breathing. The walls of her world were starting to close in.

"Yes, and when Mello became Matt's roommate, Linda knew that he would be proud of Matt. She knew that he would be proud of Matt because Matt was smart, but not as smart as him. That's how they got to be friends." Effie explained further. "That's when she made the recommendation."

"What recommendation?" Jinx asked, grasping at straws, searching for any idea that might make sense in her head.

"You didn't know about the recommendation?" Effie's expression turned to one of disbelieving. "To work on outside cases… Linda recommended that Matt try it out to Roger. She had some really concrete reasons. Roger told L and L asked Mello about it, and Linda knew Mello would agree." Effie finished. Jinx didn't need any help to connect the last dots.

"So she created a case where she had control. Because that's what it's about. It's about me and control and nothing else. She created a case where she could kill my friends and I couldn't do anything about it. She is in control of my life, isn't she?"Jinx asked, leaning against the wall for support.

"No." Effie said firmly. "If there's one thing Linda overestimates, it's her control. That's how you and Matt got to be friends in the first place. She never intended for that to happen." Jinx was quiet for a moment, digesting everything she had just heard.

"So, we're really not just pawns in a game that Linda controls?" Jinx asked, standing up again.

"As long as she overestimates herself, we've got a chance." Effie confirmed.

"Then this tape," Jinx held it out again, "is the answer, Effie. I can't keep it hidden. I've got to show it to Roger." Effie was about to reply when heavy footfalls came from down the hallway. The two girls froze, unsure of what it was on the other side of the door, but they were hoping that it wasn't Linda.

"Effie, get out here right now!" The footsteps belonged to Linda.

"Go!" Effie commanded Jinx loudly. "Get out of here! Get out! Out!" She screamed at Jinx, and Jinx didn't hesitate at all. She flew through the opposite door, away from the footfalls. She was halfway down the hallway when she heard the door slam open. For a second, she considered going back for Effie.

"Keep going!" She heard Effie shout. "Just keep moving and don't stop! Keep the tape safe!" Jinx didn't need any more reassurance than that, and bolted into the Orchestra Room.

She looked around the room for something that could help her. There were loud voices coming from the piano room, but Jinx tuned them out. Effie was right, for now she needed to keep the tape safe. Quickly, she stuffed the tape into her pocket and ran around the stage.

There were a lot of items, but none that would be immediately useful. There were a few music stands, some microphones, chairs, and even a few broken instruments. Jinx looked around desperately. She couldn't exit directly into the orphanage, if what Effie had said about Linda was right, Linda would expect that. She needed an idea that wasn't out of her normal bag of tricks. She needed something different.

Jinx looked around the ceiling of the room when she spotted the window that Matt had fallen out of when he and Mello had come to find her. Jinx examined it for a moment and smiled to herself as an idea popped into her head.

Jinx grabbed a stand and a microphone, cord and all. She ran over to the wall and was ecstatic to find the window still cracked, although she wondered how in the world the groundskeepers could have missed it.

Jinx frowned and took the bottom, x-shaped part of the music stand off. She used the long pole that used to connect the bottom to the top to push the window open. Jinx, checking over her shoulder, then tied the cord from the microphone around the bottom of the stand and threw it out of the window, letting the stand catch on the side window. She gave it a tentative tug, and began to climb up the cord. Just as she was nearing the window she heard Linda shout from behind her.

Jinx scrambled through the window, pulled up her cord, and shut the window without a glance back. When she looked behind her she caught a glimpse of Linda as she was running back to the piano room. Jinx sighed and knew that she would have to leave soon, Linda was coming.

"Good luck, Effie." She said quietly under her breath, exhaling softly. But, her peace didn't last long.

"That was some serious Indiana-Jones stuff right there," a voice called out to her from across the courtyard. "You're a pro and stuff like that, aren't you?" Jinx looked up to see that Matt was the source of the voice.

Jinx looked at him and something was different. She couldn't quite pinpoint it, but she didn't want to. Ever since the day she had stolen the boombox, he'd been back to the person he was before she'd met him. Snobby and conceited, he was the old Matt. To her, he wasn't even really Matt anymore. She sighed and lifted herself from the ground.

"I can't stay here for long." Jinx said, trying to maintain a straightforward attitude.

"Well why don't we go somewhere different?" Jinx looked up to see a smile on his face that looked so familiar. She reminded herself again that he wasn't the same Matt. She held her ground and didn't move.

"C'mon," Matt urged, turning around, walking toward the door to the orphanage. "Come with me to Wonderland, Alice." Jinx raised an eyebrow. She had said nearly the same thing to him what felt like so long ago, but she decided she wouldn't question it.

"Sounds like something that a rapist would say." Jinx said cautiously. "I think, as a woman, I should say no." She said, but walked toward him anyway. This time Matt didn't reply, but simply chuckled, holding the door open for her now.

"You coming?" He asked finally.

"Are you crazy?" Jinx asked, feeling like their roles were entirely reversed.

"No! I'm not crazy!" Matt made a big commotion, acting like he was completely offended. After a moment he smiled and whispered, "Maybe you're the crazy one." Something about him was so familiar.

Jinx wasn't sure what she was doing anymore, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out the cassette tape, holding it at her side. Maybe it was the look in his eyes, or the words he was saying, or simply how he held himself, but Jinx felt like right then and there Matt was Matt again. The world was right again. The Earth was spinning comfortably east again, just like it always had. Everything was finally the same, and for a small moment she trusted him. So she loosened her grip on the tape and held it towards him.

"I have something to show you."

"Have heart, my dear, we're bound to be afraid, even if it's just for a few days, making up for all this mess,"- Run, Snow Patrol

Ah yes, Matt is my favorite.

Is Matt your favorite DN character? Did you love him right away, or did you learn to?

Because I loved him from the first two-second clip he was seen in the anime.

:)

Stars out.