A/N: So, I think I had some ideas for this chapter when I initially thought about it. But as I procrastinated about writing it down, the ideas decided to leave me… so… I'll have to try and figure out what I wanted for this again. Jeez, I hate when this happens.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the characters.

Chapter 8: Maybe You're Not Even As Smart As Matt

I paused for a moment at the sound that had come from the door. Without hesitation, I turned my gaze to look upon who was my new roommate.

My look instantly changed to confusion.

The redhead was leaning against the doorframe in the same striped attire that he seemed to wear every day after this point, goggles over his eyes, and a portable game system in his hands that was holding all of his attention.

I remember wondering to myself if he had some weird psychic ability that let him know I was there without having to look up.

"Yeah," I said while still looking him over.

He stepped into the room and closed the door before going over to the unmade bed. "That's cool. My name's Matt, by the way. We should be friends." A small grin grew across his face as he spoke.

I moved from the floor, glad that he hadn't asked what I was doing there, and to my new bed. "Matt…" I said, as if testing the name out on my tongue. "Is that your real name?" I couldn't quite understand why I had been given such an unorthodox alias while this gamer's seemed to be so normal.

"No," he said, suddenly detached.

The annoying beeps and other sounds from the game held in his hands were beginning to get on my nerves since I hadn't learned to simply ignore it yet. I had developed a hatred for people that ignored me or didn't give me the time of day, and at the time, before I understood how Matt worked, he seemed to fit right into that category.

I considered ripping the game from him and throwing it against the wall.

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you," he said.

"Why not?"

"It's a rule here."

My eyes narrowed on him. I wasn't determined enough to try and get it out of him nor did I feel in the mood to beat him up for it; so with a huff, I finally let it go.

At the time, I was ignorantly oblivious and didn't understand the magnitude of the place that I had been brought to. Despite everything that Watari had said to me it still seemed like any other orphanage I had lived in.

This was just another place for me to take over, and I was determined to do just that. The contest that they had here would bring me closer to being the best… better than everyone else.

This kid, Matt, was my first target to take over, and I would use his desire for friendship against him.

"So… Matt," I started, "you want to be friends with me?"

He looked up from his game at me for the first time, then nodded.

"Okay. Go get me some chocolate."

He paused for a long moment, probably waiting to see if I was kidding or not. But I wasn't. The first step to dominating a place such as this, I had found, was to control a select number of people in it so that I could use them for my dirty work.

This roommate seemed to be the best candidate for that.

Thankfully, though, he had enough sense to decline from my demands; I think if he had consented to everything I said right off the bat, I would have taken advantage of his loyalty instead of developing an actual friendship with him later.

Matt was always a good guy. He didn't have the motivation to really work towards his full abilities the majority of the time but for some reason we stuck. Though, even I'll admit that it took some time for that.

After what'd happened with my family, I'd lost a lot of my ability to ever fully trust people. To this day I only ever completely trusted two people.

But I'm getting off topic now.

"How about I just show you where they keep that stuff? And I'll show you around the rest of the building too," Matt said, getting up again and already heading for the door.

I stood up and followed him out into the hallway while pushing my hands down into my pockets.

"Hey, you know you never told me your name," Matt said with his gaze were locked on the screen of his game again.

I watched him maneuver his way down the hall towards the stairs without looking up; his ability to walk within reality yet let his mind reside within the game screen interested me. I knew I could never do that -I had too much focus on my goals to ever get distracted with such a petty thing.

"Mello," I finally said.

He grinned. "That's cool. I wish I had a cool name like that."

I grinned back and considered asking to switch names with him. They were only aliases, after all, and in the scheme of things they really had no really purpose other than to protect who we really were. What would it matter if we traded them around a bit?

"Whatever," I finally said. Idealizing was always a good tool to use when trying to overtake someone, or groups of people. "So I'm assuming you know about this competition thing that's here, right?" I asked, looking over at him again.

"Of course I do. That's what the majority of the kids here are here for: to try and be the next successor of L." I listened to his words like they were gold, trying to get a feel for the rest of the people here while also trying to hear whether or not he'd tell me anything I didn't already know.

"And you?" I finally asked when he remained quiet.

"I'm the first in line to succeed L should he die."

My eyes narrowed on Matt instantly; I eyed him up and down while feeling a sudden wave of hatred for this goggle-wearing boy fill me. He was the one standing between me and the position I now wanted so badly. (In the back of my mind I wondered why I wanted it so badly. I didn't even know this L guy.)

"Hm," I huffed. "Well let me tell you right now, Matt, I'm going to take that spot from you. I'm going to be number one." I tried to be as convincing and forceful as I could. At the time I didn't know what true hatred was, so I was trying to show an emotion that I only had a vague understanding of.

"Okay," he said.

My eyes shot over to him as we descended down the stairs. "Okay?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, okay. I don't really care. Honestly, I have no desire to be the next L. I'm just smart so in a way I made it to that spot against my will. Go ahead and take it if you want."

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. This guy was letting down his top position over everyone just like that? So simply? It didn't seem right; I desperately tried to rack my brain for any possible explanations for why he could say such a thing.

"Okay so," he went on as we reached the bottom of the steps and to the entry way. His words broke me out of the thoughts that'd consumed my mind. "Over here is the common room, where some kids go to play." The redhead stated in front of a large open room where various other kids were sitting and playing.

"Back here," I followed Matt onwards down a long hallway, "is where the majority of the classrooms are, as well as the infirmary, and the library, which is open all the time."

I memorized the small signs that were above the two doors at the end; one said 'Infirmary' while the other said 'Library'. I instantly decided that I would be spending a lot of time in the library, where I could read as many books as I wanted.

Matt then backtracked to the entry way and to the opposite side of the building, which opened up into another large room; a dining room this time, with multiple tables positioned throughout it. "As you can tell, this is the dining room; if you're smart, you'll go to meals when they tell you to. Otherwise Roger and the other officials come and meddle in your business."

I only nodded in response. Through my entire stay at Wammy's I was always astonished by the place, though I'd never let any of that show to anyone. I'd spent half a year traveling from one hell-hole of an orphanage, where they didn't care whether you lived or died, to the next, where a simple pillow to rest your head on was a rare commodity.

After something like that, I'd gotten the impression that all places were like that, which only furthered my negative view of the world around me.

But Wammy's was different. Everything was always new and fancy in ways I'd never seen before. As Matt showed me around the building, I was plagued by two thoughts: 'What had I done to deserve going to a place like this?' and, 'Are they really just giving this to us?'

It all seemed too good to be true. Like something out of one of the story books I read.

"Then finally," Matt said, "the kitchen." This was a large room too, filled with a lot of silver from the many appliances used to make the dishes to be served. I looked around the room, memorizing the number of cabinets, the way everything was placed perfectly around the room, and also the odd way that the room had no one in it.

"Where is everyone?" I asked as Matt turned off his game and began climbing up on one of the counters.

He stopped and looked around, perhaps for once taking notice to the absence of people around us. "Probably doing other things since it's not really time to cook yet," he answered.

I leaned against the counter he was on and watched him open one of the cabinet doors and reach inside. I relished in the fact that I didn't have to tell him to get it, should the chocolate be in there, that he just did it.

A moment later, as he lowered his hand, holding it back to the counter to climb down, he held three rectangular chocolate bars in hand; my eyes filled with delight upon seeing them and I could already taste the sweet treat on my tongue as it melted and slid down my throat.

He got down and handed two to me. I looked down at the bars held in my hand then up at Matt, who was already tearing into the candy.

Without thinking about it, my hand shot out and took the chocolate from him, sending a death glare his way.

"Hey!" he said, annoyed.

My glare continued on him as I ripped away at the paper and bit into the candy. It tasted just as good as it had before, back at that agent's office, but this time a bit better because I knew I was in a better place than there.

"You have your games and I have chocolate. Leave it alone and we won't have a problem, got it?" I said forcefully and began to walk away, back out to the dining room; I just barely took notice to his light, defeated nod.

"So this makes us friends now?" Matt asked, finally catching up to me.

I looked over at him for a brief minute, considering it all. Then finally I shrugged, "I guess." It'd take more than that to obtain a true friendship, but I suppose at that moment I just wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear.

We had just entered back into the entry way and were heading back towards the stairs when all of a sudden the room filled with the shrilled voice of the one girl I came to despise in that whole place.

"Oh, there's a new kid here!" she said, stopping both Matt and I in our places. I would have been more than happy to continue onwards; I hated having the attention that I was new brought to me. I'd much rather bring the attention to me a different way, like by getting in trouble, or scoring the highest. Something to those effects was better than this. But I stopped anyway, wondering who exactly could have such an ear-splitting voice.

Matt sighed as the girl who had spoken appeared. She looked to be our age, but I couldn't be positive. "Mello, this is Linda," Matt said, obvious irritation in his voice as he flicked his game on again.

"Mello," she said, looking me up and down; her brown hair that was held back in pig-tails moved along with every other movement she made. "Interesting." Her voice trailed off but her hand didn't follow. Ever so slowly, but lacking a sense of hesitance, her fingers rose towards my blonde locks that hung by my face.

My eyes hardened and I instantly slapped her hand away. "Don't touch me." I shot her a heated glare.

"Ow! You didn't have to hit me!" She glared back at me and at that moment I knew the two of us weren't going to get along. I didn't realize till later that she was an artist and feeling texture was just one way she was able to make it more realistic.

"Linda, Mello's going to take my number one spot." Matt seemed so disconnected from our silent hatred for one another and didn't take notice to the glares we were throwing at each other.

Linda turned her attention to him though. After he finished speaking, she sighed. "Matt, I shouldn't be surprised. You're so lazy when it comes to your academics, it amazes me that you even made it to that spot."

She then looked at me. "What makes you think you're going to take it though? Maybe you're not even as smart as Matt."

I couldn't quite tell if she was purposefully trying to infuriate me or if it was something else.

I shot another glare at her. "I can beat anybody, even Matt." I was so sure of myself at the time… I wonder now where exactly all that confidence came from, or if, perhaps, it was just a façade to hide my failure behind it.

Maybe I didn't want to be seen for the failure and the mistake I was, so instead I tried to conceal it with all the small victories I could get over people.

Linda turned but looked back at me over her shoulder. "Whatever you say, Mello. You never know; maybe Matt or someone will show you you're not as great as you think." She began walking away. "Nice meeting you!"

I watched her go while ignoring all the words Matt was saying beside me. That girl didn't have a clue what she was talking about. I didn't do what I did because I thought I was great, it was more of a need than anything.

I was slowly coming to realize that.

But I pushed it back. I would be the best here and there was no one, not even Matt, or that stupid Linda, who could stop me.

A/N: Meh… that ending kind of annoys me. I debated about adding that Linda part or just leaving it at when they left from the kitchen, but I guess I ultimately thought that it would be best to have that bit in there so that in the next couple of chapters it would be more of an impact. Hopefully that makes sense.

Please review!

-Forbiddensoul562