Wow! This is a long one. And it was fun to write. I think I'll take a break from writing tomorrow, so don't expect an update then. Maybe the day after... It's all guesses. Thank you for the reviews! I'm happy to read those and it really helps me think of what to put in the next chapters. Don't stop doing them! They're always good to read. Only annoying thing is I don't know how to respond. If someone knows, please tell me!

CHAPTER SIX

"Grade school!?", Shinichi reacted to Agasa's new stunt.

He could hear Marie giggle behind him.

"Not funny!", he snapped at the girl who only grinned back.

Agasa told him smiling that even though their minds were older and wiser their appearance was that of a grade schoolers. Hakase had already done all the forms and stuff so he couldn't even back off. Still, he had a feeling this would be an embarrassing and mind numbing experience.

"And why is Grace coming too?", he asked the professor knowing fully well she was in the same room.

"Thanks for appreciating my decision to go through that with you!", a sarcastic tone could be clearly heard, "Be glad you have another shrunken teenager there so your mind doesn't just blow up from the boredom"

That might be true, but Shinichi chose to ignore her comment. Even then, it was a little annoying to know they accepted her even though she's five because of 'unusual intelligence'. Okay, well, there was another reason as 'not used to being alone in a different country' or 'uneasy without her brother', but still.

"Oh yeah! Look what I made! One of those criminal-catching gadgets you wanted", Agasa got his attention while digging a cardboard box.

Grace stepped beside him looking curious. Then the professor took out a pair of shoes. At first he thought it was strange, but then Agasa-hakase explained how they worked and it did sound quite useful. His 'sister' stepped forward to look at them more closely.

"Wow! I'd like to try too. Imagine how many flips I could do with those!", she said admiring them.

Shinichi thought for a moment. When they had gone to play soccer, Marie had decided to save one of his shots by making backflips and catching it in the air. Yeah, he could easily picture the girl jumping as high as she could with the shoes to make a long series of flips.

"You would only play with them", he stared at the girl who gave him a glare.

"Not 'only'. I want to help you, you know! It's easier if I have some kind of gadgets too. Could you make some, Hakase?"

The boy sighed knowing she wouldn't back off. It's surprising how many things they had learned about each other in such a short amount of time. Agasa-hakase seemed to have already thought of something for her.

"Just don't get in the way"

"When have I?", the girl grinned at him, "Also, we hear that enough from Kogoro-ojiisan"

He blinked. That was actually true. She hadn't gotten in the way, ever. Not in the past week at least. She had actually proved helpful at the case scenes covering for him and stuff. It was strange, but he could almost think of her as a real sister. It was easy to act like 'Conan' around her.

"Hello! Earth to Shinichi!", said sister stood in front of him looking a little annoyed.

"What?"

The girl smiled and pulled her hands from behind her back revealing the powered shoes and dumping them to him.

"Put them on! We should get going. I'm actually pretty excited for the first day", Grace gave him a big grin and stepped towards the door.

Shinichi let out a good natured huff and then smiled. Really, of all people he could have been shrunk with she was probably the best option. From what she had told him she had apparently been passing through the park with her luggage, had come looking for a toilet, heard a loud thump and gone around the corner to see him on the ground and the two Men in Black poisoning him and upon seeing her had done the same. Yesterday she had gone looking for her luggage, or so said the professor whose house she was supposed to be at. She had found nothing, which was a shame. Nothing awfully important wasn't in there though, so he guessed that was a plus.

"Hey, you coming or what?", Marie was at the door waiting for him.

"Coming", he sighed and walked after her.

They said goodbye to Hakase and started making their way to the school.

"You know, I would be careful with those shoes", Marie broke the silence, "I wasn't too impressed with the explosion I saw the first time I met him"

Conan chuckled. He remembered that too well. Grace had just stared at the professor trying to figure out if he was a mad genius or just an idiot.

"Good point. I wouldn't be surprised if they blow up"

Marie shuddered at the thought.

"Be very careful, please? I don't want to startle the children"

"What? Not worried about my feet?"

"Nope"

XXXX

Marie stood close to Conan as he introduced both of them. They had decided that at the gate, because she was supposed to be shy with new people. Even though she had prepared for laughter it still made her blush. It was just like children to say what's in their mind and it didn't help that his brother's name really was strange. Marie was a little better, but must sound a little odd to Japanese people. It felt funny to stand in front of many six year olds with a mind of a fifteen year old but in a body that was younger than them. Never mind trying to act like that. After saying they didn't need a detour, they found their seats right next to each other. That was a plus. Maybe they could find a way to communicate in class.

Marie glanced at Conan, who looked very bored even before the class even started. Yup, she had to find a way to communicate. Something not gathering too much attention, but noticeable to Conan. Did she know any codes? There was the sign language she made with her dad, but could he figure it out? It was quite complicated. (They had done it in about five years of time, so it was like another language to her… Too bad she was the only one in the whole world to understand it) Maybe she could teach it. It would be more interesting than classes. But if Conan didn't understand it… She could probably try morse code. That one he was bound to understand. (Yeah, her parents were teaching her all kinds of freaky stuff. It was some kind of a hobby to them)

XXXX

It was boring. The classes were too easy. It felt like all they teached was how to count one plus one over and over again. Conan was tempted to slam his head on his desk. Boring was an understatement. The classes were mind numbing. Marie had been right about his brain blowing up from the boredom. Then he heard someone tapping a desk with a pencil quietly.

Tap, pause, tap, tap, tap, long pause, tap, pause, tap, pause… morse code?

Conan snapped his head to the girl beside him. She knew morse code!? Why!? Wait, this was Marie they were talking about. Somehow Conan wasn't surprised anymore. He only concentrated on the tapping. There was a particularly long pause meaning for it to start again.

Dash, dot, dot, dot. B.

Dash, dash, dash. O.

Dot, dash, dot. R.

Dot. E.

Dash, dot, dot. D.

Bored. Yes, he was bored. Conan nodded facing the teacher explaining about easy math (plus and minus). Another series of taps followed.

'I know a sign code', said the next one.

Conan raised an eyebrow and tapped back, 'Ur point'.

'Do u wanna learn it'

The boy blinked and turned to look at his sister. She made some slow movements with her hands under her desk that clearly were from some kind of a code, but it didn't look like a common one. He was positive he had never seen it before. Was it something she had come up with? At this point he really wasn't surprised. The girl was really strange even for a fifteen year old. But… this was challenging. And would actually be quite useful, now that he thought about it. He smirked. Maybe the classes wouldn't be so bad?

XXXX

Tobayashi Daichi didn't like the new transfer students. The girl was too quiet and younger than him so she deserved no right for being better at math than him. She got praise from their teacher for answering a difficult question right. It annoyed him to no end. The boy had a funny name but was still making him look bad in front of the girls by doing stupid tricks with a soccer ball. He too had no right for being better than him at soccer.

"Ooh! That is so cool!"

There! He did it again! It was Daichi's place to make the girls cheer. Not Conan's. He turned around anger flashing on his face, but then he noticed it wasn't Conan they cheered for. It was Marie. She had catched the ball that his teammate had kicked towards the goal and threw it to her teammates. She was younger than him and a girl. Girl's are not good with sports and she had no right to be better at soccer or math. Since she had no right but still was, she was his enemy, Daichi decided.

XXXX

Oh, great, he's testing his shoes.Marie sighed at the goal watching as Conan kicked the ball with too much strength and it went through the net. This time it didn't break the tree. Only rolled against it for a while before falling and leaving a strange mark to it. That would end the soccer game for sure.

Just great. What is the teacher going to think about us now?

Suddenly she felt it again. Someone staring at her. She blinked and turned her head to know who was looking. It appeared to be a boy at the field. He looked angry. Marie blinked again and tilted her head in confusion. Was something wrong with her? Did she look strange? She looked down at her clothes not noticing anything too strange.

Why is he angry?

After frowning at the boy Marie shrugged and turned her gaze at the teacher who said they wouldn't be playing soccer anymore. When the teacher announced a break and let them go and do anything they wanted, the kids cheered and went their ways spreading to the school grounds. Marie smiled and looked around trying to decide what to do.

"Hey, you!", she heard a voice from her right.

Turning her head she found the boy from before pointing at her. She blinked.

"Your eyes are strange, you cow!", he shouted still pointing at her.

Oh! Is he trying to bully me? This is bad…

Marie gulped and took a step back.

"Really? Let me see, let me see! Yeah! They're so light! You're strange", another boy came.

This is bad… This is really, really bad… …How does a five year old act in these situations?

She looked as another boy from her class came and started shouting 'mean' comments at her. (It wasn't really mean, because they just called her a cow, a pig, a girlie and whatever else came to mind. In reality, she just wanted to laugh at them)

Should I run for it?

After pondering it a little she decided it would be a good thing to do. So she ran. Acting a little scared of the boys that were 'older' than him, she ran for it and tried to find Conan. They hadn't talked about how to act if bullying occurred, so this was going to be interesting. The boys wouldn't stand a chance against her at runnging, so she had plenty of time to look around for his supposed brother. (Actually, she was starting to think of him as a real brother)

There!

She found him! He was at the tree looking at the mark left from the soccer ball. Marie ran towards him not making much noise at first but then calling his name.

"Conan!", her voice was a bit pancked.

The boy turned around and seemed surprised at the situation before Marie was behind him and hid there looking over his shoulder. Three boys stopped in front of them looking ready to fight.

"I don't know how a five year old acts if someone older is bullying them", the girl whispered with a low voice behind his back hands on both of his shoulders.

Conan almost snickered.

"Hey, don't blow it! I could do it when they called me a cow and a girlie"

This time it was almost impossible not to burst out laughing.

"Come on! Do something! Protect your little sister!", Marie whispered more intensely, but Conan could tell she was smiling and there was a twinkle of amusement in her voice.

"Coward!", the boy who had stared at her in the soccer game insulted.

Conan stepped into his role deciding to laugh later. He glanced at his sister behind him and then gave the boys a glare.

"You are the cowards here! It's three on one and the bullied one is a girl younger than you are"

The boys halted at his words. The one in the middle stuttered.

"B- But she's a weirdo! You're weirdos!"

It was clear the word was new for the boy. The others admired his choise of words and gave agreeing noises.

"We're weirdos? You're the ones who are ganging up on a girl smaller than you. You do know this all will be told to the teacher, right?", Conan's voice was calm and collected.

Marie was glad she ran to him. It looked like a natural thing to do and Conan could deal with it better than her. The bullies hesitated and one started retreating. After that the other and lastly the first one to shout at her still shooting a little glare at them. Conan had clearly won the battle. Marie sighed and stepped out of her hiding place to look how they ran away.

"Did they really call you a cow?", Conan asked, amused.

Marie snickered and nodded.

"And a pig. They got more creative as time went on. Someone called my hair a mud pie"

Conan gave a chuckle, "They didn't seem so tough after the teacher was mentioned"

The two stared at the school grounds for a while before turning to look at each other. Their smiles widened before bursting into laughter.

"That felt so weird! I've never been bullied by a bunch of six year olds before!", Marie laughed holding her stomach.

"Their insult ideas were hilarious!"

"So true. How am I a cow? It's too funny!"

After the laughter died down the two just stood there in silence.

"Should we tell the teacher?", Conan asked.

"No way! I want to know what they try next. It's too good to pass on!", Marie grinned at him, "We have to have some kind of fun after those mind breaking classes"

Conan paused to think.

"Huh? That's actually true. And...", he lifted his gaze wearing his smug 'I figured it out' -smirk, "'Black and White'"

Marie gave him a smirk with a twinkle in her eyes. Then she grinned and clapped her hands dropping three more signs for the detective to figure out. It said 'You are right', but he didn't need to know that yet. It would be for the next class.

XXXX

Am I making Marie too good? Somehow it feels like it... And there's more to come... Ah, well. I haven't yet thought of what to do in the next chapter, but I'll sort it out the day after tomorrow. Ideas are welcome! See ya next time! Hope you're enjoying the story!