Kat: Yes, yes... You do deserve credit for that! In fact, I shall even add in a little A/N every time something you deserve credit for appears, ok?

Ginsing: lol. I know what you're talking about. I received an e-mail once about it. The WHOLE thing was done like that!

Charna: Yeah, I forgot about the lack of stars on But I did fix it! You realize we've gone through at least three entirely filled up e-mails?

Lisa: Ug, I wouldn't, but...

Lexzzz: Hm. Just out of curiosity, what does that name mean, if anything?? And it is updated!

Hungry Demon: Yes! GMTA!! And those lyrics are actually a first draft of something that will look suspiciously like "Real World" ...I don't own that song, btw.

Insaneoveranime: Oh, good to know! And obsessions are fun, aren't they? Heeheeheee. Awesome site!

Ellabel: GASP! A FAMOUS PERSON!!::loves:: Plus, you are a Thatchel fangirl!!::loves more:: THATCHEL!! YEAH!! (P.S. I'm glad you like Rath, and Alfeegi would make a scarily awesome principal!)

:n:

"Rune!" Thats burst through the door leading to the cellar, a broad grin on his face.

"Rune!"

The blonde boy below looked up from his seat on the cold cement ground, allowing himself of be momentarily distracted before turning back to the teenager before him, guitar strapped to him and playing a few strands of music.

"What is it, Thats?"

His smile widened with pride as the music he had recently stumbled across played yet again in his mind.

"I've got us a song," he stated simply, envisioning the look of utter surprise and amazement he would find on the faces of the other two.

"Oh. That's nice."

Thats blinked.

"Waitaminute. 'That's nice'? I got us a song! I," he empathized, "Got us a song! You know, me, the slacker, the guy who doesn't pull his weight! I've got a song! An entire one! It only took me," he glanced at his watch, "An hour!"

Seeing the blank and somewhat bemused looks on the faces of the two Juniors standing a few feet below him, he felt his face fall.

"Don't you at least want to hear it?" he pleaded.

"Well, see," Rune ran a hand down his arm, "We already have one."

"Rune came up with it," the black haired boy put in, "About ten minutes ago."

"...What?"

Rune trained his gaze to the ceiling, pointedly attempting to ignore the aghast look on his friend's face.

"It's just that... I finished the first draft of the lyrics, and wanted to work on something else. Besides," he looked back down with a new lightness in his voice as he hit on something, "This is actually a good thing! Now we have music for another song!"

"Yeah," Thats muttered as he slouched against the frame of the door, "But no lyrics."

Rath shrugged, briefly tracing his fingers down the taunt strings of his instrument, "Not for long. Rune'll probably come up with another one soon. Then we can use that."

"Actually, I think Thats should be the one to write the lyrics for his music," Rune said thoughtfully, oblivious of the dismayed look Thats was bearing.

"...What?!"

"It's a good idea!" Rune explained, "We'll all probably need solos anyway, so it's a good idea to start working on yours now. The song will be entirely your own. Your music, your lyrics."

"Geeze. I don't 'do' lyrics," he complained slouching over, then straightened considerably as something hit him.

"Wait. Solos? As in something we sing by ourselves? No one else?"

Rune nodded, cocking an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Yes... That is what the word 'solo' usually implies."

"Crap!" Thats swore, "No one told me I had to sing! I figured that I was bass! I wouldn't have to sing!"

"Didn't you read the flyer?" Rath asked, referring to the papers containing information on the contest that had been posted around town for the past few months, "It said that it was preferred if every member was able to offer their own individual song... One sung by them alone."

"Oh. Preferred."

Even in the dim lighting in the basement, it was easy to see the way the Junior relaxed.

"So it's not mandatory, right?"

Rune stood.

"Thats, they only say that. What it really means is that either your band can offer individual songs for every member, or you are content to put your talents to use as the people working lights and sound."

"Ah, that's ok. I'm in Tech anyway."

The teenager standing in the wide doorway gulped and took an involuntary step backwards into the lit room behind him as he saw the look of extreme irritation bordering on furious anger in his friend's clear eyes.

"...Or not."

:n:

The ringing of the phone attached to the kitchen wall jerked Kai-Stern out of his half-awake daze.

"'Lo?" he muttered sleepily into the object, blinking blearily at the text book spread out on the counter in front of him.

"No, he's not in right now. Can I take a message? Who's calling?" he asked, automatically going through the niceties as his mind wandered back to his studies.

"Uh-huh, ok, Cesia. How do you spell that?" he quickly jotted the name down on a leaf of messy notes concerning various political systems, and continued listening.

"All right, so this is for a Zoma. Z-o-m-a? Yeah, ok," he scrawled the second name down as well, along with a few more bulleted sentences and a phone number.

"Ok, I'll tell him to call you when he gets in!" Kai-Stern said with the brand of false cheer used by people when ushering salesmen or girl scouts to the door, "Um, he's normally available Friday and Wednesday, but I'll have to ask him. Ok, yes, I'll have him call you later!"

With that, he quickly hung up the phone, turning his attention back to memorizing a long list of facts and information for his class.

Kai-Stern was currently sharing a small dorm apartment with his old friend, as they both worked themselves through college. Although the other man had recently discovered a way to make an small added income in addition to the jobs they had both been able to get scheduled around their classes. His friend's extra job and the lack of any sort of love life insured that Kai-Stern spent much of his spare time at home, studying. It was working wonders on his grades, but killing his people skills.

He allowed a sigh to escape from his lips.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Maybe this weekend I can get together with some friends..."

"Sounds good."

Kai-Stern jumped, sending his pencil shooting through a sheet of loose leaf paper and cutting one section of particularly illegible notes in half.

"Tetheus!" he turned around, pouting at the other man, "You messed up my notes!"

Tetheus cast a casual glance at the paper, then shrugged.

"Looks like it was already messed up, if you ask me."

Kai-Stern pouted more, then gave in, standing and walking to the fridge.

"You hungry?"

"Famished. What's for dinner?"

"Um," there were some slight crashes as the blonde rooted in the refrigerator for edibles.

"Not much. You want leftover Chinese take-out?"

Tetheus dumped his armful of grade-school math text books on the counter next to the schoolbooks of his roommate and nodded in the affirmative.

"Right. Warmed up Orange Chicken and Mushroom Beef it is, then," Kai-Stern said, reemerging with two slightly soggy white boxes. He dropped to his knees, placing them both in the small microwave the kitchen housed, and then stood back up, searching through his pages of notes.

"You got a call a few minutes ago. Some girl; wanted to refer her brother. Name was Sheela or Cecilia or something like that."

He ignored the eyebrow raised in amusement by the other man, and lifted up a piece of folder paper triumphantly.

"Found it! Her name was," he squinted at his handwriting, "Cesia, and the kid's name is Zoma. He's a sophomore and needs help with his homework, so she wanted to know if you could tutor him."

He handed the paper over to the other for his inspection, then asked the question that had been forming in his mind since the call.

"Hey, is it even legal for her to hire a tutor for him? I don't think she's his legal guardian, and I'm pretty sure she isn't eighteen or whatever legal age, either."

Tetheus looked at his friend over the top of the paper.

"How would I know? You're the one studying law."

Kai-Stern sweatdropped.

"Ok. But are you going to take him?"

The other shrugged.

"If she'll pay, yeah."

"Isn't that unethical?"

Tetheus sent his friend the same look over the sheet of paper.

"Kai-Stern. You're the one studying politics."

"Oh," Kai-Stern sweatdropped again, "right."

:n:

Zoma laughed, brushing his dark bangs out of his face.

"Cheese popcorn?!"(1)

He placed a hand on the doorknob to the front door of his house.

"Ok, I'll see you at school tomorrow!"

Twin calls of goodbye were shouted at him as he walked into the building, shutting the door behid him.

It h ad already started to get dark, and he flipped on the lights as he wandered down the hallway to his room.

The door was closed, but he could see light soaking out from inside, and, as he drew nearer, could hear his sister's voice, and the voice of a stranger, a man.

Suspicions aroused, Zoma cautiously creaked the door open, sticking his head in, and taking a look around.

"Zoma!" his sister greeted him cheerily, beckoning for him to join them in his room, "Come on in!"

Giving her a cautious look, the younger boy entered, taking a seat on his bed next to his sister and the unknown man.

"Zoma, this is Tetheus," Cesia said, leaning back to allow the college student to hold out his hand to her brother.

"Um. Hi," he said, awkwardly taking the offered hand and giving it a quick shake, "Nice to meet you?"

Tetheus nodded his head solemnly, and Cesia spoke up once more.

"Tetheus has agreed to be your tutor!"(2)

The color quickly drained from the sophomore's face and he whipped his head around to stare at his sister.

"What?!"

"He's agreed to help you with your homework every Friday, from four until six-thirty," she continued, "Starting next week. He'll be coming over here for those two and a half hours every week, and if you need additional help, we have his cell number so that you can call him."

"But-- I-- I'm fine, really!" Zoma stuttered, completely caught off guard, "I don't need help! I'm ok!"

"Oh, really?" Cesia's dark eyes narrowed, "And what, exactly, was your last report card?"

As Zoma shifted uncomfortably under his elder sister's gaze, Tetheus cleared his throat.

"From what Cesia has told me, you appear to be a very intelligent young man," he smiled to himself as Zoma looked up, startled, "As far as we can tell, you just aren't pushing yourself or trying as hard as your could in your classes. It's not a big problem, but one that we still need to fix. Are you willing to commit yourself to this?"

The younger boy seemed frozen to the spot, and grasped desperately for an intelligent response.

"Uh, um, y-yeah, ok. Sure, that sounds good. Ok."

He tore his eyes away from the piercing stare of the older man.

"But, um," his gaze flicked up to meet his sister's.

"Could you, um, get out?"

Cesia blinked.

"Oh, that's right. Sorry about that, Zoma."

The two older people stood, exiting his room.

"So remember, next Friday."

He nodded, "Yeah, ok."

Cesia smiled at him in a motherly fashion, and quietly closed the door behind them.

Zoma was left, sitting on the mattress, a feeling of bewilderment growing within him, followed by a wave of quickly stifled resentment.

"What... The hell was that?!"

:n:

Pyore fumbled for the handle of her fridge, cradling a black cordless phone against her neck, and listening halfheartedly to the ranting on the other end.

"Sheesh, calm down, will you, Zoma? You're always overreacting."

She winced as his voice raised an octave into a nervous shriek, but shook it off, snatching up an already opened soda, and closing the door.

"Hey. Hey!" she shook her head, giggling to herself at her friend's antics, "Chill out, Zoma! It's not that bad, just tutoring."

As he made his response, something that somehow managed to use the words "social life" and "Dick Cheney" in the same sentence, she walked silently out of the kitchen, her feet making no sound as she strolled across the carpeted hallway leading to her bedroom.

"I said, chill! Relax! I've had to take private lessons before. ...Ok, so not on all my classes, but I've had a math tutor!"

Lighthearted laughter rung throughout the small house.

"No, no shit. I did! In seventh grade."

The Asian girl giggled again, "No, I'm serious! I was failing it, so my parents got me a tutor!"

Pyore was now running on automatic, not paying much attention to where she was going.

"Yeah," she smiled, "I didn't think about that, either," her hand grabbed the door knob at the end of the hall.

The cool metal felt icy slick under her fingers as she twisted, opening the door, and taking a few steps inside.

"What? Zoma! That's not what I--" her voice caught in her suddenly dry throat, brown eyes opened wide.

Her friend's voice could be heard through the mouthpiece in the sudden eerie silence.

"Pyore? Hey! Pyore! What's wrong..."

"Oh... No..." the girl backed out of the room, hr voice breathy in her own ears.

"God. Oh, God."

The frantic voice by her head snapped her back down to current life.

"Zoma?" She forced herself to sound calm, "I'm sorry. I have to go. Talk to you later?"

Without waiting for a response she hung up the phone, dropping it to the ground from her shaking hands.

Then she carefully, artificially, knelt down, placing her drink upright next to the wall, before spinning around, and racing for the comforting sanctuary of her own room.

Her door slammed behind her, but the other door, the one that had been opened by a regretted mistake stayed ajar.

Inside was nothing out of the ordinary. A neatly made bed; a desk, still holding text books; a closet of tidily hung up clothing.

And, placed on a small white bed stand, a family photo. One containing a father, a mother, and not one, but two young girls.

:n:

(1) Cheese popcorn. Popcorn made out of cheese. Ideal for those who have braces! This was one of the things that I need to give credit to Kat for...

(2) ...And this is another one. Tetheus tutors Zoma. Brilliant idea. Almost lead to some incest, but not quite(Long story. You don't want to know...)!

Man... I got so confused about pairings and family relationships and after school activities and electives and shit that I finally just made up a chart for everyone. I plan to turn it into individual schedules. You know, like the ones they give to you at school. That way I can tell who's in what class at what time! ::happy::

Review, please?