Mako's Message: So here we are. Another chapter. I drifted far, far away from my goal of updating daily but I'm getting at least one up a week. Compared to my last multi-chapter endeavors rate of one every …year, I call this an Epic Win.

Anyway, I have news. Since I've gotten such amazing feedback from all of you, I've decided to reward my faithful readers and reviews with a bonus chapter. Once I reach chapter twenty, everyone who has reviewed at least half of my chapters will be mailed the bonus chapter.

Hmm. I guess that's all there is to say for this chapter. Enjoy!


If I was a cat I'd be purring.

I've just felt so good these last few days that there's no other way to describe it. Dave came over to me during lunch the first day of class after Halloween, punched me in the shoulder, said "you're it" and we've been chasing each other over the playground every day since. He couldn't catch me to save his life, but his balance has gotten a lot better and he can at least follow me without slipping or getting caught on things. Some of the kids from my grade have started trying to free run with us and there are even some high school kids that watch us and look like they want to give it a try but are afraid to be seen "playing". It's kind of sad, really.

Angela came over and tried it once. She slipped trying to run up the arched ladder though. Luckily Dave was there to catch her or she would have broken her face open on one of the bars. We called it quits after that and I went with Angela while Dave went to go find Katie.

We sat down and started talking about teenage girl stuff. And by talking I mean she talked and I listened going, "Uh-huh," "Oh yeah?", and making snarky comments were I could. We've been doing this almost daily, and it's actually been pretty fun. Her friend Jessi, the one who agreed with me that Snooki was a whore has been hanging out with us most days too.

Speaking of Snooki they told me who she was a couple days later and I decided to look online for an episode of this show. Dear god. No wonder my classes are so easy for me. Years of handling guns, knives, martial arts training, hitting moving targets and not getting shot or stabbed yourself are obviously better for your brain than watching some douche-bags act like overgrown toddlers.

I really don't know anything about most of what they're taking about. I'm actually considering picking up a copy of Teen or something so I'll have some idea what they're talking about.

Today though Katie got her claws into Dave and took him off somewhere before we could hit our "obstacle course" and Angela is studying for a test so I don't really have anything to do during lunch today.

Oh, Dave is still getting better at gun cleaning. He can clean one in the time it takes me to clean two, which is a pretty nice improvement over his original one-to-five. We can actually clean all the guns at the safehouse in one trip now. We're still going weekly of course, we just take our time and bullshit with each other. It's a fun night out.

Last time though he talked about how he wanted to start looking for a job. It seems the money his mother had left for him was going to run out soon and he'd gotten used to having cash. If he needs cash though all he'd have to do is ask me. I've still got three million in a suitcase plus some more of Daddy's comics to sell if I ever need to.

If I'm careful with it, I should be set for life.

Marcus is ecstatic that I've got some "real" friends now. Though I'm kind of pissed off that he doesn't consider Dave a real friend. And what about Todd and Marty? Sure, I don't hang out with them like I do with Dave, but we do talk and joke around. Especially if Katie has Dave monopolized like she has a tendency to do.

Take the last time we were at Atomic Comics for example. I guess Katie wanted to try and…I don't know, BOND with me some more or some shit. So she came back from browsing the racks with Dave with a book for me.

Twilight: The Graphic Novel.*

It took everything I had to not laugh. Marty just looked at it with this horrified expression and Todd just looked confused.

I sort of poked at it as it while Katie talked about how much she enjoyed the books, and how much I like comics, so she thought if I read this we would have something to talk about together. Marty got up from our table and went looking through the store.

Todd leaned over and carefully opened it by the corner, looking like he was afraid it would bow up any second, "Is this for real?"

Katie got all in a huff and said, "Yes, it's real. Why wouldn't it be?"

Todd finally worked up the courage to open the thing, and it was all drawn in that super-pretty boy Japanese style were the only difference between the boys and the girls were the tits.

I shuddered and looked away.

Marty had stopped to say something to Dave that had him laughing silently before coming back and tossing another book on top of Twilight, saying, "Here, have a real vampire book."

30 Days of Night.

"Oh shit. This is a comic?"

"Hell yeah it's a comic!" Todd said, "This shit is AWESOME!"

Dave came back as Katie took the Twilight book back and started to get all sulky. "Don't worry about it hunny," he said, "It's just not her thing." He pulled her onto his lap, "I'll read it with you though if you want."

Katie started beaming to the point that you could practically see rainbows and flowers around her head before kissing and calling him the best boy friend ever.

I watched his expression slowly turn into one that looked like the face of a man who'd just gotten kicked in the nuts.

"How's the book?" I asked, smirking at him.

He looked up and said, "It's great!" in a pained voice.

Katie looked up at him and kissed him again before snuggling back into him and turning back to the book.

Poor, poor Dave, so sweet and brave. It always seems to get him in trouble.


Mako's Message Footnote: * THIS EXISTS! I made up NOTHING!