Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun or anything associated with it. I also don't
own 'Ice Age's' famous phrase, "Doom on you'. Period. Okay, without further
ado, on with chapter three!
Hunting For The Elusive Mayfly Known As Love...Not
Chapter 3
Jailbreak
Meryl slowly slipped from her house and padded softly down the street. Shivering against the night's cold, she tugged harder on the collar of her jacket, bringing it up higher around her chin. Why...just...why was she the one who always had to help other people out? Nick's house was two blocks from her own and it usually took her ten minutes to complete the distance.
When Nick's driveway finally came into view, Meryl stopped as something was thrown from the window and went crashing into the street. Yup, there went Nick's electric guitar. Oh, here comes Nick's laptop.
CRUNCH!
Gee, hope that he didn't need that. Papers and randomly assorted objects had been tossed into the street, most of them being love poems that Nick had wrote about Milly. Nick was right. Heather and Bobby loved to destroy Nick's belongings.
Meryl looked up and watched as Bobby and Heather laughed and played and jumped up and down on Nick's bed. They would throw things out of the window from time to time and Meryl had to watch her head to make sure that a U.F.O. didn't make it onto her head.
"Heather! Bobby!" Meryl shouted to the open window. Bobby peeked his head out and waved to Meryl.
"HI MERYL!" He chirped.
"Um, hi. Listen, before you throw anymore of Nick's belongings into the street, can I have his priest book please?"
"Why?" Heather stuck her head out the window. "Are you gonna give it to him?"
"You can't give it to him, he's in the HOLE." Bobby snickered.
"Oh, no, of course not," Meryl lied with a straight face. "Actually, I wanted to read it."
"Meryl? Become a priest?" Bobby laughed. "Would you become a better priest than Nick?"
"Oh, absolutely. So, now, can you two be good little children and hand me that book?"
"Throw it down?"
"Actually, I would prefer it if I could come in."
"Mommy and daddy are sleeping. They don't want any disturbances." Bobby said as Meryl looked about the driveway. And THIS wasn't a disturbance?
"Listen, Bobby, then can you just TOSS down the book? Please?"
"I don't know...what's it worth? And why do you need it now?"
Ugh, why was this kid being so difficult?
"What's with the third degree kid!? Just TOSS me down the book and I'll...I'll...buy you an ice cream tomorrow."
"Oh and a yacht!?" Heather piped up.
"And a motorcycle!"
"And a new house!"
"And..."
Meryl looked at the two of them and sighed.
"LOOK! If you two DON'T toss down the book, I'll climb up there and take it from you!"
The two kids gasped and quickly shut the window, closing the curtains in the process. Then the sky thundered and it began to rain. Meryl threw her head back and screamed.
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!?"
Meryl trudged down the street, rain pounding on her head. Book in hand, she felt her teeth grind as she made way to Nick's prison. After the children had shut the window, Meryl quickly found a rock, tossed it through the window, shattering it, climbed up to Nick's room, and took the book from the bookshelf. Simple as that. WHY couldn't life be any simpler?
But Meryl's serenity didn't last for long as five large figures blocked the way. Looking up, Meryl sighed as she spotted the school's popular posse, or 'Mafia' as they preferred, 'The Fantastic Five." Legato stood in the middle with Sven, Midvalley, Rai-Dei (His real name was Mark), and the new kid from their school, George, who was just some random guy thrown into this story.
"So, you didn't include Knives into your party, Legato?" Meryl asked.
"Nope. This is our OWN secret club, where Knives can't boss us around." Legato sneered.
"Yeah! Yeah!" The rest of the posse rallied.
"Just what are you five doing in the rain at..." Meryl glanced at her watch. "11:00 at night?"
"Um...we don't know." George shrugged.
"Yes we do!" Legato elbowed George in the ribs. "It's time for our annual march up and down the streets!"
"11:00 in the rain?"
"...Shut up."
"What are you up to, Legato?" Meryl asked, miserably.
"Well..." Legato's back stiffened. "Meryl, no offense or anything, but you've arrived on a special night."
"Lucky me."
"We have to beat you up."
"WHAT!?"
"It's true. Every..." Legato began to count on his fingers. "Twelve days we have to beat someone up. It's a Mafia rule. Last time it was Zazie."
"Yeah, it was so cool! I think he's still on life support!" George laughed.
"Um, yeah, sounds glorious, can I go now?" Meryl sidestepped away from the gang.
"No..." Legato grinned and edged closer. The circle seemed to close in on Meryl and she was beginning to panic.
"Legato, we've known each other for ages!"
"I told you, Meryl, it's nothing personal."
"Gee, I'll bet you'll say that same exact thing at my funeral."
"Hey, who said anything about killing?" Midvalley laughed and Legato socked him in the ribs. "Oooff!"
"Like I said, and please let it be the last time, it's nothing personal. But it's our oath that we took as the Fantastic Five. It is a sacrifice to the Great One..."
"The Great One?" Meryl rose an eyebrow, inquiring.
Suddenly, Legato held up a magic eight ball. He shook it up and down, and asked it a question.
"Oh Great One, should we sacrifice Meryl to your great holiness?"
Legato held the magic eight ball out in front of him and watched as the ball in the middle slowly stopped on a "Yes".
"See!" Sven shouted holding up a green apple. "The Great One never lies!"
"Sorry Meryl," Legato cracked his knuckles and began to close in on the remaining space between Meryl and himself. Meryl then began to notice that his posse had begun to do the same.
"You can't be serious..." Meryl stepped backwards, closing her eyes tightly, and braced herself for the oncoming fists that were aimed in her direction. All of a sudden, the sound of beating fists against bare flesh arose to her ears. However, these were not the fists intended for her.
"Hey! Where did you-OW!" Midvalley wailed.
Another fist connected. "My face!" That was George.
Meryl finally gained the courage to open one eye and then the other. As she did so, she caught a slight glimpse of both Sven and Legato drop to the ground, unconscious. Standing in the middle of the circle was a tall silhouette, dressed in a black cloak, hiding his face from the world.
"You.....Were you the one who beat up Legato and his thugs?"
The figure did not answer. Instead, he advanced towards Meryl and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He spoke with a deep and raspy voice.
"Go, leave now and save your friend."
"But I don't know who you ar-"
"Go!" The voice commanded. Meryl had no choice but to assent to his demands. "We will meet again."
"But...thank you..." Meryl said as she sidestepped away. "Thank you for saving me back there."
"Tomorrow," The mysterious man said bluntly.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes, tomorrow. I shall see you tomorrow. At school."
"But...how will I even recognize..."
"No time for that, hurry now, before they wake up."
Meryl nodded and dashed down the street to Nick's holdup. Just wait until Nick heard about this.
"Can't you go any faster?" Nick whined as Meryl picked the lock off of the door to Nick's little outhouse looking thing.
"Just a minute!" Meryl sighed, frustrated. "This is a hard lock to pick."
"Well hurry up, it's raining and the wind is blowing it all into here." Nick stared out the bars and watched as Meryl kept her eyes peeled on the lock.
"I'm going as fast as I can, Nick!"
Silence. "Hey, what exactly did you see Heather and Bobby toss out of my room?"
"Everything but the bookshelf."
"Oh great! I forgot about my laptop!"
"I thought you said that nothing important was in your room."
"There wasn't, until I remembered that everything in my room is valuable!"
Meryl paused and looked at Nick, confused. "Why?" She asked the world. "Why is my life so horrible?"
Meryl grunted and continued to pick the lock.
"So, earlier you were talking about some cloaked Zorro saving you."
"Yeah from Legato."
"Oh no, you mean from the annual sacrifice?"
"That's the one."
"Don't worry about it, they beat me up back in the third grade with that same thing."
"Really? What happened to you?"
"I was on life support for three months."
"Gee, I think that they said the same thing about Zazie."
"Did they have that stupid magic eight ball with them?"
"You mean the Great One?"
"That's it."
"Yes."
"Oh man," Nick sighed. "Do you know how long Legato has had that lame thing?"
"How long, Nick?"
"Since kindergarten!"
"Oh my, and you mean to tell me that that thing still works?"
"Well, Legato found it in a toilet bowl once in his household and from then on, he always thought that he was lucky. You know about those mysterious powers he has." Nick pointed out.
"You mean where he can crunch peoples' bones together and make them eat their hearts out?"
"..."
"Yeah I know about those powers." Meryl continued to pick at the lock.
"I'm dropping out of school now."
"Oh come on, Legato wouldn't hurt you." Meryl reassured.
"Really? You'll have to tell that to my third grade self. I'm still traumatized over that."
"Nick, you're seventeen. GROW up." The lock suddenly snapped in two. "There."
Nick pranced out the door, grabbing the book from Meryl's hands and hugging it dearly.
"My book! I thought that I had lost you forever!"
"Nick, it's just a book. And look, now it's ruined cause you're holding it in the rain."
Nick looked down in horror, and saw that Meryl was right. His paperback cover had been completely melted away and the writing had smudged on every page.
"WHAT KIND OF RAIN IS THIS!? IT'S LIKE ACID RAIN! LOOK! IT'S CHEWING HOLES THROUGH MY BOOK!" Nick screamed and threw the book down and stomped on it, saying every curse word that he knew.
"Okay Nick, back to my house."
"Why do I have to sleep in the closet!?" Nick whined. "Look! You still have papers in here from the second grade! And there's probably mice and snakes and man-eating tarantulas..."
"NICK!"
"Yes'm!?"
"It was already hard enough climbing onto the roof and sliding down the chimney to the living room because I locked myself out of the house, but you do NOT need to add onto the stress, OKAY!?"
"Can I sleep somewhere else?"
"How about in the garage?"
"No, closet's good."
"Good. Now, go to bed."
Nick climbed into the closet and sprawled himself out on top of Meryl's shoes.
"Meryl, your shoes are uncomfortable." He called from inside the closet.
Meryl growled from her bed. "Nick, your prison is ALWAYS open!"
"You're right, the shoes are fine. They're very comfortable."
"Nick..." Meryl warned.
"Well we can't sleep before we send a prayer to His Holiness."
Meryl sighed. "Nick...GO TO SLEEP!"
Then Meryl heard him whisper barely above audibility. "She doesn't mean it, Lord, it's just that time of month for her."
The next morning, Meryl was awakened with a bucket of ice water to her face. Sputtering out the ice water, Meryl jumped up in bed, drenched and cold.
"NICK!" She screamed. "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING!?"
"Careful Meryl, you wouldn't want your parents to come in here, find a boy, and start thinking naughty thoughts, would you?"
Water dripped from the ends of Meryl's hair as she glanced at the time. "3:00!? WHY AM I UP AT 3:00!?"
"Oh," Nick smiled. "I always get up at 3:00. It gives me time to read the next few pages in my 'How To Become A Priest' book. Oh and then I exercise and practice Yoga. Wanna join me?"
"...No. I WANTED to go to bed. But I guess that that's a BIT IMPOSSIBLE now, DON'T YOU THINK!? Besides, didn't that book get ruined in the rain?"
"I found an Internet copy."
"Don't you have to pay for those?"
"Yeah."
"Where did you get the money?"
"I found your mom's credit card."
"...WHAT!?"
"Do you think that she'll mind?"
"Of COURSE she'll mind, Nick! How much was it!?"
"Well, I downloaded the special edition with 45 readable languages...so...a little around two-hundred and sixty."
"W-W-WHAT!?"
"It's not THAT much, Meryl..."
"Great...this is coming out of my allowance..." Meryl muttered as she dropped her head into her hands. "Well, aren't you going to read your priest book? I still don't see why you got me up. I'm not the one who wants to be a priest."
"Well, it's always nice to have company. And..." Nick pulled out a HUGE stack of papers from behind Meryl's computer desk. "I can tell you what I've learned."
"Nick...how many pages did you print out?"
"A little over 1400."
Meryl's faced paled and she nearly keeled over.
"F-F-FOURTEEN HUNDRED!? NICK! THAT WAS MY PAPER FOR SCHOOL! WHAT ABOUT MY INK CARTRIDGES!?"
"Well," He said, calmly, as though it was no big deal at all. "I found your stash of them and I used those."
Meryl pounded her face with a pillow. Was Nick's jail sentence up yet so that he could go home?
The bell rang. Second period had begun. Meryl was in Chemistry...with...Vash. Oh, but not JUST Vash. Vash's brother Knives was also in that class, as well as Knives' lackey, Legato.
"Yes Master," Legato said, pulling out the chair for Knives and watching as he sat in it. "Vash will suffer for all eternity..."
"No, no!" Knives scowled. "I told you to make sure to do that in the 10th grade! You failed me, Legato!"
"Oh, you are right, Great Master! I will punish myself by sitting in the back of the room."
"That's not necessary," Knives motioned his lackey back into the seat.
Meryl watched the two, her eyes narrowing, and sighed as she took her own seat across from them.
"Hey Meryl, guess what!" Vash came up from behind her and took a seat next to her.
"You're moving?" Meryl asked.
"No, even BETTER!" Meryl blinked. "I FINALLY got a girlfriend!"
A twinge of pain ran through Meryl's heart. She hadn't known why exactly. Didn't she hate Vash? Why would she care if he got a girlfriend or not? Sure, it surprised her, as Vash was always looking for a girlfriend, but always got rejected. So why would this matter?
"W-Who?" She managed to choke out.
"Melissa Hurch." He said proudly.
Oh, Meryl thought, her. Melissa was a popular girl, their age, but it was strange how she would consider going out with ...cringe...Vash...She was also in some of Meryl's classes.
"I'm happy for you," She said, returning her gaze back to her textbooks. "I never knew that you liked Melissa."
"Actually," Vash rubbed the back of his neck. "Rai-Dei's friend, Alen, kinda set it up."
Alen? Meryl's eyes darkened. She hated Alen. A few years ago, he had sprayed silly string all over her front lawn as an April Fool's prank.
"Really?" She asked, seething.
"Yeah! Well, he's going out with Melissa's best friend and they wanted to double-date last night at the club and Alen couldn't find anyone who was able to go with Melissa...so he asked me! Well, after we met, we kinda hit it off and so, we asked each other out today."
"You mean...she feels the same way?"
"Yeah. Ironic how that is, me always being the one to get rejected and all..."
"Yeah..." Meryl muttered. "Ironic."
"All right class!" Old Mrs. Finch wove her cane around as she wheeled around in her wheelchair. She had to be at least 230, Meryl thought. "Take your seats or I'll hand out referrals to you and HOPE THAT YOU GET EXPELLED!"
Yup, she was the perfect example of a demon.
"Now," THWAP! "Take out your textbooks and open them to page 125!"
Meryl pretended to ignore Vash and intended to for the rest of the period. She wasn't quite sure why she was so angry, but she was and that was enough. Maybe it was because Nick had woken her up or that she had to start her day off in Chemistry. Who knows?
"Oh, before I forget," Came Mrs. Finch's old and raspy voice. "We have a new student in our class today. Class, say hello to Mr. Demonte Kalabis. If you don't, REFERRALS TO YOU ALL!" She wove around her cane again.
A young man with raven hair that fell about his face (Somewhat like Legato's but just not all in the face, covering an eye) rose from his seat in the back and quietly made his way to the front of the class. He wore all black, black pants, boots, and turtleneck. But he was also handsome and quite muscular. His face held no expression and his mysterious violet eyes darted from each side of the room.
"I'm very happy to be at this school. I just moved here from down south with my Grandpa and I hope to get to know this school very quickly." His voice was low and emotionless.
"Very good Mr. Kalabis," Mrs. Finch smiled at Demonte, which was something that she NEVER did. She had obviously taken a liking to Demonte. "Please, take a seat to the right of Miss Stryfe." She pointed an old raggedy finger in Meryl's direction.
He obliged and settled down next to her. She looked in his direction, hoping that he would return the glance, but he did not, much to Meryl's dismay. He was pretty cute.
"All right children!" Mrs. Finch was waving her cane around again, and it knocked over her lunch of dried noodles and gravy. It splattered on the floor and Mrs. Finch looked at it. "Legato Bluesummers! Come here and clean up this mess!"
"But it's not my mess," He protested.
"COME HERE AND CLEAN UP THIS MESS AND THEN COME AND RECEIVE YOUR DETENTION!"
"Doom on you..." Legato muttered as he arose and reached for a paper towel to clean up the teacher's mess.
"Now children! Today we are going to perform a very DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT! IF THIS SCHOOL BLOWS UP, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She brought her cane down hard on her desk and her papers went flying from the desk. "Mr. Bluesummers! After you are done cleaning up that mess, you will retrieve my papers! Understood!?"
Legato said nothing as he wiped up the disgusting gravy.
"Now partner up," Mrs. Finch rolled her way to the front of the room, running over Legato's fingers with her wheelchair as she went. He screamed and she straightened her glasses. "Only TWO! Any more than that and I will give you all referrals and OCR!"
Meryl, feeling animosity towards Vash, turned towards the new boy and smiled.
"Excuse me, Demonte, would you like to be my partner?"
From next to her, Vash's mouth was left hanging open and his hand in mid- air. "But Meryl, who am I gonna partner up with?"
Demonte turned slightly towards her, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Certainly," He replied.
Vash looked in the back of the room and groaned. The only one left was Pooch, a nerdy kid with bronchitis. He sulked into the back of the room while Meryl secretly grinned and offered to get the materials.
About a half-hour later, the class was finishing up the lab and Meryl was about to add the final products to her project. Turning, she looked at Knives and Legato, who were adding way more chemicals into their beaker than they were instructed.
"Master, are you certain that this will be okay?" Legato blinked as Knives added in more Nitrogen Glycerin.
"Of COURSE it's not going to affect anything you moron!"
Knives reached for a whole bottle of Hydrogen Chloride and dumped it into the beaker.
BOOM!!!!!
The entire lab blew up and the room was enveloped with smoke. Everyone coughed as Legato and Knives blinked, their faces black with chemical burn.
"I told you it wouldn't work, Master..." Legato said.
"Shut up!" Knives growled.
Mrs. Finch coughed and cleared away the smoke with her cane. "MISTER SAVEREM AND MISTER BLUESUMMERS! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! DETENTION!"
Legato reached into his bag and withdrew his hand, holding the Great One.
"Oh Great One, should the old hag become another sacrifice to honor you?" He shook it up and down and watched as the words 'Absolutely slave' appeared. "Then it shall be done."
Legato stood up and began to use psychic brain waves. Mrs. Finch's bones began to twist and her body crunched inwards. She screamed as her head began to twist backwards and then her body blew apart, dark blood spilling across the floor.
"No!" Vash shouted as he jumped up. "Legato! How could you!"
Meryl shrunk deeper into her seat. Demonte seemed to be mimicking her movements and feelings as he quickly stood up and rushed from the lab.
Hunting For The Elusive Mayfly Known As Love...Not
Chapter 3
Jailbreak
Meryl slowly slipped from her house and padded softly down the street. Shivering against the night's cold, she tugged harder on the collar of her jacket, bringing it up higher around her chin. Why...just...why was she the one who always had to help other people out? Nick's house was two blocks from her own and it usually took her ten minutes to complete the distance.
When Nick's driveway finally came into view, Meryl stopped as something was thrown from the window and went crashing into the street. Yup, there went Nick's electric guitar. Oh, here comes Nick's laptop.
CRUNCH!
Gee, hope that he didn't need that. Papers and randomly assorted objects had been tossed into the street, most of them being love poems that Nick had wrote about Milly. Nick was right. Heather and Bobby loved to destroy Nick's belongings.
Meryl looked up and watched as Bobby and Heather laughed and played and jumped up and down on Nick's bed. They would throw things out of the window from time to time and Meryl had to watch her head to make sure that a U.F.O. didn't make it onto her head.
"Heather! Bobby!" Meryl shouted to the open window. Bobby peeked his head out and waved to Meryl.
"HI MERYL!" He chirped.
"Um, hi. Listen, before you throw anymore of Nick's belongings into the street, can I have his priest book please?"
"Why?" Heather stuck her head out the window. "Are you gonna give it to him?"
"You can't give it to him, he's in the HOLE." Bobby snickered.
"Oh, no, of course not," Meryl lied with a straight face. "Actually, I wanted to read it."
"Meryl? Become a priest?" Bobby laughed. "Would you become a better priest than Nick?"
"Oh, absolutely. So, now, can you two be good little children and hand me that book?"
"Throw it down?"
"Actually, I would prefer it if I could come in."
"Mommy and daddy are sleeping. They don't want any disturbances." Bobby said as Meryl looked about the driveway. And THIS wasn't a disturbance?
"Listen, Bobby, then can you just TOSS down the book? Please?"
"I don't know...what's it worth? And why do you need it now?"
Ugh, why was this kid being so difficult?
"What's with the third degree kid!? Just TOSS me down the book and I'll...I'll...buy you an ice cream tomorrow."
"Oh and a yacht!?" Heather piped up.
"And a motorcycle!"
"And a new house!"
"And..."
Meryl looked at the two of them and sighed.
"LOOK! If you two DON'T toss down the book, I'll climb up there and take it from you!"
The two kids gasped and quickly shut the window, closing the curtains in the process. Then the sky thundered and it began to rain. Meryl threw her head back and screamed.
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!?"
Meryl trudged down the street, rain pounding on her head. Book in hand, she felt her teeth grind as she made way to Nick's prison. After the children had shut the window, Meryl quickly found a rock, tossed it through the window, shattering it, climbed up to Nick's room, and took the book from the bookshelf. Simple as that. WHY couldn't life be any simpler?
But Meryl's serenity didn't last for long as five large figures blocked the way. Looking up, Meryl sighed as she spotted the school's popular posse, or 'Mafia' as they preferred, 'The Fantastic Five." Legato stood in the middle with Sven, Midvalley, Rai-Dei (His real name was Mark), and the new kid from their school, George, who was just some random guy thrown into this story.
"So, you didn't include Knives into your party, Legato?" Meryl asked.
"Nope. This is our OWN secret club, where Knives can't boss us around." Legato sneered.
"Yeah! Yeah!" The rest of the posse rallied.
"Just what are you five doing in the rain at..." Meryl glanced at her watch. "11:00 at night?"
"Um...we don't know." George shrugged.
"Yes we do!" Legato elbowed George in the ribs. "It's time for our annual march up and down the streets!"
"11:00 in the rain?"
"...Shut up."
"What are you up to, Legato?" Meryl asked, miserably.
"Well..." Legato's back stiffened. "Meryl, no offense or anything, but you've arrived on a special night."
"Lucky me."
"We have to beat you up."
"WHAT!?"
"It's true. Every..." Legato began to count on his fingers. "Twelve days we have to beat someone up. It's a Mafia rule. Last time it was Zazie."
"Yeah, it was so cool! I think he's still on life support!" George laughed.
"Um, yeah, sounds glorious, can I go now?" Meryl sidestepped away from the gang.
"No..." Legato grinned and edged closer. The circle seemed to close in on Meryl and she was beginning to panic.
"Legato, we've known each other for ages!"
"I told you, Meryl, it's nothing personal."
"Gee, I'll bet you'll say that same exact thing at my funeral."
"Hey, who said anything about killing?" Midvalley laughed and Legato socked him in the ribs. "Oooff!"
"Like I said, and please let it be the last time, it's nothing personal. But it's our oath that we took as the Fantastic Five. It is a sacrifice to the Great One..."
"The Great One?" Meryl rose an eyebrow, inquiring.
Suddenly, Legato held up a magic eight ball. He shook it up and down, and asked it a question.
"Oh Great One, should we sacrifice Meryl to your great holiness?"
Legato held the magic eight ball out in front of him and watched as the ball in the middle slowly stopped on a "Yes".
"See!" Sven shouted holding up a green apple. "The Great One never lies!"
"Sorry Meryl," Legato cracked his knuckles and began to close in on the remaining space between Meryl and himself. Meryl then began to notice that his posse had begun to do the same.
"You can't be serious..." Meryl stepped backwards, closing her eyes tightly, and braced herself for the oncoming fists that were aimed in her direction. All of a sudden, the sound of beating fists against bare flesh arose to her ears. However, these were not the fists intended for her.
"Hey! Where did you-OW!" Midvalley wailed.
Another fist connected. "My face!" That was George.
Meryl finally gained the courage to open one eye and then the other. As she did so, she caught a slight glimpse of both Sven and Legato drop to the ground, unconscious. Standing in the middle of the circle was a tall silhouette, dressed in a black cloak, hiding his face from the world.
"You.....Were you the one who beat up Legato and his thugs?"
The figure did not answer. Instead, he advanced towards Meryl and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He spoke with a deep and raspy voice.
"Go, leave now and save your friend."
"But I don't know who you ar-"
"Go!" The voice commanded. Meryl had no choice but to assent to his demands. "We will meet again."
"But...thank you..." Meryl said as she sidestepped away. "Thank you for saving me back there."
"Tomorrow," The mysterious man said bluntly.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes, tomorrow. I shall see you tomorrow. At school."
"But...how will I even recognize..."
"No time for that, hurry now, before they wake up."
Meryl nodded and dashed down the street to Nick's holdup. Just wait until Nick heard about this.
"Can't you go any faster?" Nick whined as Meryl picked the lock off of the door to Nick's little outhouse looking thing.
"Just a minute!" Meryl sighed, frustrated. "This is a hard lock to pick."
"Well hurry up, it's raining and the wind is blowing it all into here." Nick stared out the bars and watched as Meryl kept her eyes peeled on the lock.
"I'm going as fast as I can, Nick!"
Silence. "Hey, what exactly did you see Heather and Bobby toss out of my room?"
"Everything but the bookshelf."
"Oh great! I forgot about my laptop!"
"I thought you said that nothing important was in your room."
"There wasn't, until I remembered that everything in my room is valuable!"
Meryl paused and looked at Nick, confused. "Why?" She asked the world. "Why is my life so horrible?"
Meryl grunted and continued to pick the lock.
"So, earlier you were talking about some cloaked Zorro saving you."
"Yeah from Legato."
"Oh no, you mean from the annual sacrifice?"
"That's the one."
"Don't worry about it, they beat me up back in the third grade with that same thing."
"Really? What happened to you?"
"I was on life support for three months."
"Gee, I think that they said the same thing about Zazie."
"Did they have that stupid magic eight ball with them?"
"You mean the Great One?"
"That's it."
"Yes."
"Oh man," Nick sighed. "Do you know how long Legato has had that lame thing?"
"How long, Nick?"
"Since kindergarten!"
"Oh my, and you mean to tell me that that thing still works?"
"Well, Legato found it in a toilet bowl once in his household and from then on, he always thought that he was lucky. You know about those mysterious powers he has." Nick pointed out.
"You mean where he can crunch peoples' bones together and make them eat their hearts out?"
"..."
"Yeah I know about those powers." Meryl continued to pick at the lock.
"I'm dropping out of school now."
"Oh come on, Legato wouldn't hurt you." Meryl reassured.
"Really? You'll have to tell that to my third grade self. I'm still traumatized over that."
"Nick, you're seventeen. GROW up." The lock suddenly snapped in two. "There."
Nick pranced out the door, grabbing the book from Meryl's hands and hugging it dearly.
"My book! I thought that I had lost you forever!"
"Nick, it's just a book. And look, now it's ruined cause you're holding it in the rain."
Nick looked down in horror, and saw that Meryl was right. His paperback cover had been completely melted away and the writing had smudged on every page.
"WHAT KIND OF RAIN IS THIS!? IT'S LIKE ACID RAIN! LOOK! IT'S CHEWING HOLES THROUGH MY BOOK!" Nick screamed and threw the book down and stomped on it, saying every curse word that he knew.
"Okay Nick, back to my house."
"Why do I have to sleep in the closet!?" Nick whined. "Look! You still have papers in here from the second grade! And there's probably mice and snakes and man-eating tarantulas..."
"NICK!"
"Yes'm!?"
"It was already hard enough climbing onto the roof and sliding down the chimney to the living room because I locked myself out of the house, but you do NOT need to add onto the stress, OKAY!?"
"Can I sleep somewhere else?"
"How about in the garage?"
"No, closet's good."
"Good. Now, go to bed."
Nick climbed into the closet and sprawled himself out on top of Meryl's shoes.
"Meryl, your shoes are uncomfortable." He called from inside the closet.
Meryl growled from her bed. "Nick, your prison is ALWAYS open!"
"You're right, the shoes are fine. They're very comfortable."
"Nick..." Meryl warned.
"Well we can't sleep before we send a prayer to His Holiness."
Meryl sighed. "Nick...GO TO SLEEP!"
Then Meryl heard him whisper barely above audibility. "She doesn't mean it, Lord, it's just that time of month for her."
The next morning, Meryl was awakened with a bucket of ice water to her face. Sputtering out the ice water, Meryl jumped up in bed, drenched and cold.
"NICK!" She screamed. "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING!?"
"Careful Meryl, you wouldn't want your parents to come in here, find a boy, and start thinking naughty thoughts, would you?"
Water dripped from the ends of Meryl's hair as she glanced at the time. "3:00!? WHY AM I UP AT 3:00!?"
"Oh," Nick smiled. "I always get up at 3:00. It gives me time to read the next few pages in my 'How To Become A Priest' book. Oh and then I exercise and practice Yoga. Wanna join me?"
"...No. I WANTED to go to bed. But I guess that that's a BIT IMPOSSIBLE now, DON'T YOU THINK!? Besides, didn't that book get ruined in the rain?"
"I found an Internet copy."
"Don't you have to pay for those?"
"Yeah."
"Where did you get the money?"
"I found your mom's credit card."
"...WHAT!?"
"Do you think that she'll mind?"
"Of COURSE she'll mind, Nick! How much was it!?"
"Well, I downloaded the special edition with 45 readable languages...so...a little around two-hundred and sixty."
"W-W-WHAT!?"
"It's not THAT much, Meryl..."
"Great...this is coming out of my allowance..." Meryl muttered as she dropped her head into her hands. "Well, aren't you going to read your priest book? I still don't see why you got me up. I'm not the one who wants to be a priest."
"Well, it's always nice to have company. And..." Nick pulled out a HUGE stack of papers from behind Meryl's computer desk. "I can tell you what I've learned."
"Nick...how many pages did you print out?"
"A little over 1400."
Meryl's faced paled and she nearly keeled over.
"F-F-FOURTEEN HUNDRED!? NICK! THAT WAS MY PAPER FOR SCHOOL! WHAT ABOUT MY INK CARTRIDGES!?"
"Well," He said, calmly, as though it was no big deal at all. "I found your stash of them and I used those."
Meryl pounded her face with a pillow. Was Nick's jail sentence up yet so that he could go home?
The bell rang. Second period had begun. Meryl was in Chemistry...with...Vash. Oh, but not JUST Vash. Vash's brother Knives was also in that class, as well as Knives' lackey, Legato.
"Yes Master," Legato said, pulling out the chair for Knives and watching as he sat in it. "Vash will suffer for all eternity..."
"No, no!" Knives scowled. "I told you to make sure to do that in the 10th grade! You failed me, Legato!"
"Oh, you are right, Great Master! I will punish myself by sitting in the back of the room."
"That's not necessary," Knives motioned his lackey back into the seat.
Meryl watched the two, her eyes narrowing, and sighed as she took her own seat across from them.
"Hey Meryl, guess what!" Vash came up from behind her and took a seat next to her.
"You're moving?" Meryl asked.
"No, even BETTER!" Meryl blinked. "I FINALLY got a girlfriend!"
A twinge of pain ran through Meryl's heart. She hadn't known why exactly. Didn't she hate Vash? Why would she care if he got a girlfriend or not? Sure, it surprised her, as Vash was always looking for a girlfriend, but always got rejected. So why would this matter?
"W-Who?" She managed to choke out.
"Melissa Hurch." He said proudly.
Oh, Meryl thought, her. Melissa was a popular girl, their age, but it was strange how she would consider going out with ...cringe...Vash...She was also in some of Meryl's classes.
"I'm happy for you," She said, returning her gaze back to her textbooks. "I never knew that you liked Melissa."
"Actually," Vash rubbed the back of his neck. "Rai-Dei's friend, Alen, kinda set it up."
Alen? Meryl's eyes darkened. She hated Alen. A few years ago, he had sprayed silly string all over her front lawn as an April Fool's prank.
"Really?" She asked, seething.
"Yeah! Well, he's going out with Melissa's best friend and they wanted to double-date last night at the club and Alen couldn't find anyone who was able to go with Melissa...so he asked me! Well, after we met, we kinda hit it off and so, we asked each other out today."
"You mean...she feels the same way?"
"Yeah. Ironic how that is, me always being the one to get rejected and all..."
"Yeah..." Meryl muttered. "Ironic."
"All right class!" Old Mrs. Finch wove her cane around as she wheeled around in her wheelchair. She had to be at least 230, Meryl thought. "Take your seats or I'll hand out referrals to you and HOPE THAT YOU GET EXPELLED!"
Yup, she was the perfect example of a demon.
"Now," THWAP! "Take out your textbooks and open them to page 125!"
Meryl pretended to ignore Vash and intended to for the rest of the period. She wasn't quite sure why she was so angry, but she was and that was enough. Maybe it was because Nick had woken her up or that she had to start her day off in Chemistry. Who knows?
"Oh, before I forget," Came Mrs. Finch's old and raspy voice. "We have a new student in our class today. Class, say hello to Mr. Demonte Kalabis. If you don't, REFERRALS TO YOU ALL!" She wove around her cane again.
A young man with raven hair that fell about his face (Somewhat like Legato's but just not all in the face, covering an eye) rose from his seat in the back and quietly made his way to the front of the class. He wore all black, black pants, boots, and turtleneck. But he was also handsome and quite muscular. His face held no expression and his mysterious violet eyes darted from each side of the room.
"I'm very happy to be at this school. I just moved here from down south with my Grandpa and I hope to get to know this school very quickly." His voice was low and emotionless.
"Very good Mr. Kalabis," Mrs. Finch smiled at Demonte, which was something that she NEVER did. She had obviously taken a liking to Demonte. "Please, take a seat to the right of Miss Stryfe." She pointed an old raggedy finger in Meryl's direction.
He obliged and settled down next to her. She looked in his direction, hoping that he would return the glance, but he did not, much to Meryl's dismay. He was pretty cute.
"All right children!" Mrs. Finch was waving her cane around again, and it knocked over her lunch of dried noodles and gravy. It splattered on the floor and Mrs. Finch looked at it. "Legato Bluesummers! Come here and clean up this mess!"
"But it's not my mess," He protested.
"COME HERE AND CLEAN UP THIS MESS AND THEN COME AND RECEIVE YOUR DETENTION!"
"Doom on you..." Legato muttered as he arose and reached for a paper towel to clean up the teacher's mess.
"Now children! Today we are going to perform a very DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT! IF THIS SCHOOL BLOWS UP, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She brought her cane down hard on her desk and her papers went flying from the desk. "Mr. Bluesummers! After you are done cleaning up that mess, you will retrieve my papers! Understood!?"
Legato said nothing as he wiped up the disgusting gravy.
"Now partner up," Mrs. Finch rolled her way to the front of the room, running over Legato's fingers with her wheelchair as she went. He screamed and she straightened her glasses. "Only TWO! Any more than that and I will give you all referrals and OCR!"
Meryl, feeling animosity towards Vash, turned towards the new boy and smiled.
"Excuse me, Demonte, would you like to be my partner?"
From next to her, Vash's mouth was left hanging open and his hand in mid- air. "But Meryl, who am I gonna partner up with?"
Demonte turned slightly towards her, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Certainly," He replied.
Vash looked in the back of the room and groaned. The only one left was Pooch, a nerdy kid with bronchitis. He sulked into the back of the room while Meryl secretly grinned and offered to get the materials.
About a half-hour later, the class was finishing up the lab and Meryl was about to add the final products to her project. Turning, she looked at Knives and Legato, who were adding way more chemicals into their beaker than they were instructed.
"Master, are you certain that this will be okay?" Legato blinked as Knives added in more Nitrogen Glycerin.
"Of COURSE it's not going to affect anything you moron!"
Knives reached for a whole bottle of Hydrogen Chloride and dumped it into the beaker.
BOOM!!!!!
The entire lab blew up and the room was enveloped with smoke. Everyone coughed as Legato and Knives blinked, their faces black with chemical burn.
"I told you it wouldn't work, Master..." Legato said.
"Shut up!" Knives growled.
Mrs. Finch coughed and cleared away the smoke with her cane. "MISTER SAVEREM AND MISTER BLUESUMMERS! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! DETENTION!"
Legato reached into his bag and withdrew his hand, holding the Great One.
"Oh Great One, should the old hag become another sacrifice to honor you?" He shook it up and down and watched as the words 'Absolutely slave' appeared. "Then it shall be done."
Legato stood up and began to use psychic brain waves. Mrs. Finch's bones began to twist and her body crunched inwards. She screamed as her head began to twist backwards and then her body blew apart, dark blood spilling across the floor.
"No!" Vash shouted as he jumped up. "Legato! How could you!"
Meryl shrunk deeper into her seat. Demonte seemed to be mimicking her movements and feelings as he quickly stood up and rushed from the lab.