Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.
Search For The Sun
Chapter 3
Day 4
Dakota had become very fond of both Dylan and Kendall.
She considered them to be good friends even though she had only known them a couple days.
They had a bet seeing who could make her fall in love them.
She found it quite funny, even though it should have upset her.
She didn't feel romantically about either of them, and always turned down their advances.
They were always playing video games, which Dakota had taken a liking to.
They usually played zombies games, which Dakota found she loved.
The only problem was Aden seemed to hate Dakota.
She tried to act civil toward him, but he would just glare at her or say a few quick words then make an excuse to leave.
She didn't remember doing anything to make him hate her, except for the bet.
Which she apologized repeatedly for, but he just said, "Yours was better than mine. You won."
It was quickly becoming a problem considering they share a room, and he won't talk to her except to ask or do something.
It was almost midnight and she was sneaking through the empty halls, she knew she would get in trouble if they caught her again.
Something about coming from a boys room at midnight, and how it was inappropriate.
It's not like she was doing anything bad, she had been in Dylan's room playing video games with him and Kendall.
They usually played the games in her and Aden's room, but Aden had complained he was getting a headache and needed silence.
She knew that he would only hate her more if she tried to change his mind, so she just went along with it.
Dakota stopped by the kitchen and searched through the medicine cabinet for Tylenol.
She decided to try to be useful and help him with his headache.
Once she found it she dumped a few into her hand before retrieving a glass of water.
She signed her name onto the list and wrote down the reason.
The workers got angry if there was missing medicine, even if it was just Tylenol.
She knocked softly on her door and opened it to find Aden lying on the floor reading a book with a maroon colored cover.
He didn't even look at her until she sat beside him on the floor.
"I brought you some Tylenol for your headache," She said setting the glass by his side.
"No thank you," He rudely pushed it away.
Dakota sighed and set the glass on his night stand, leaving the white pills beside it.
"If you want them later they're right here," She told him walking over to her backpack and pulling out a pair of pajama pants and a tang top, both black.
She changed shirts not really caring if Aden was in the same room.
With anybody else she would have cared, but Aden never even looked her way when she changed.
If she needed to change her undergarments she would change in the bathroom.
She changed her pants, before turning to see Aden staring at her with a light blush on his face.
"Must you change while I'm in the room?" He asked looking down at his book.
"Well, I didn't expect you to watch," She informed him.
Her face was bright red, partially from embarrassment, partially from anger.
"Well, you are an attractive woman and I was studying you," He defended, his cheeks still crimson.
"Studying me?" She growled, glaring viciously.
He looked slightly taken back, almost as though he didn't expect her to get mad.
"That's not what I meant. I meant that I uhh..." He was searching frantically through his head a socially correct answer.
"It's fine. I'll just change in the bathroom from now on," She mumbled climbing under her covers.
She tried to relax her body so she could sleep, but she felt Aden's eyes on her.
She turned to see his honey gold eyes watching her.
They just sat there staring at one another for at least five minutes.
Dakota realized that Aden was good looking, and if she remembered correctly he thought she was attractive as well.
"Yes?" She asked moving into a sitting position.
"I'm sorry," He apologized out of nowhere.
"For?" She asked blinking tiredly.
"For watching you change and being a jerk to you since you got here. It's wasn't fair of me to judge you before I got to know you," He stated looking at the ground.
Dakota was shocked she hadn't expected him to apologize.
"I'm not normal like the rest of you guys. I'm not social, and tend to get on people's nerves." He gave her a half smile.
"That's okay. The truth is Dylan and Kendall are my first friends. Before I came here I didn't talk to others. I had no friends," Dakota admitted staring at the ceiling as she laid back.
"Do you consider me a friend?" Aden asked, opening the window.
A light breeze blew through the room, ruffling the papers that were sitting on the desk in the corner.
"Only if you want me to," She told him turning on her side to look out the now open window.
It was pitch black out.
There were no clouds, so the stars were easily seen.
The only light was coming from the small lamp beside Aden's bed.
It didn't give much light, it just gave a soft glow to it's surroundings.
"I would like that," He quietly picked up his book again.
"You aren't really reading," Dakota observed smiling. Aden looked at her confused. "There's is no way you can see in this light."
"Figured me out did you?" Aden chuckled. "I was trying to find an excuse to still be awake."
"What do you mean?" Dakota questioned, laying on her stomach.
"I don't sleep and lying awake in the dark gives me headaches," He put the book back on the shelf beside him. Dakota stood and rummaged through her drawer. "What are doing?"
"Looking for something. I thought it was obvious," She grinned pulling out a couple candles. Aden rolled his eyes, still not sure what she was looking for. "There you are," She said pulling out a lighter.
She lit several of then and spread them throughout the room, before shutting off the lamp.
"There you won't be sitting in the dark, and I won't be up all night due to the lamp," She crawled back into bed.
"Thank you," Aden whispered laying in his bed.
Dakota smiled before falling asleep.
xxxxXXXXxxxx
"Dakota, get up," Aden said rather loudly shaking her shoulder.
She mumbled something and turned over.
He felt bad because she had just stopped whimpering, but he had to wake her up for her test.
He shook her again laughing when she opened her wide green eyes.
"Why?" She asked, rolling over.
He had to admit she looked really cute, with her blond hair all messy from sleep.
"You suppose to take the IQ test today," He reminded her, chuckling when she jumped out of bed tripping on her blanket and falling on her face.
"Ow," She complained rubbing her forehead. When she pulled her hand away the tips of her fingers were covered in blood. "Where am I bleeding?"
"You just have a small cut on your forehead," He frowned pressing a tissue to it. "All you need is a bandage."
"It hurts," She whined, clearly too tired to do anything about it.
He sighed and led her to their bathroom.
He pulled out the small medical kit and put a bandage on her cut.
"Thanks!" She chirped, smiling brightly at him.
"Anyway shouldn't you be taking your test?" He questioned smiling.
He noticed when she was tired she had less control over her emotions.
She would usually have taken care of the cut herself and silently left for her test, but she was smiling and acting like a normal teenage girl.
"Oh no I'm going to be late!" She exclaimed running from the room.
She didn't realize she was still in pajamas and barefoot until she was already in the office.
It was Marie who giving her the test, and she had asked why she wasn't dressed yet.
"I didn't realize I wasn't dressed yet," Dakota said, looking at her feet sheepishly.
"That's okay. You just need to take a test, it's not that important," Marie consoled her.
She set the eight page test down the test in front of her.
When Dakota was done with the test she rested her forehead, ignoring the slight pain from her cut, and closed her eyes.
She absently drew patterns on her hand with a pen.
She had found the test to be quite easy, having known most the answers.
"You finished really quick! I'll have this graded and then let you know," Marie proclaimed, putting the test in a file.
"Thanks Marie, I think I'll go take a nap," Dakota yawned covering her mouth with her right hand.
"See you soon!" Marie threw her arms around Dakota hugging her tightly.
Dakota froze, still not accustomed to hugging.
She stayed tense until the older woman let her go.
Dakota decided she wasn't tired anymore and wandered the halls.
She had noticed there weren't many teenagers at the orphanage.
Most of the children were between five and ten years old.
There was a total of 37 children here, which would have been considered a lot if it wasn't such a big building.
She was confused as to why she was still sharing a room with Aden, but didn't think much of it anymore since they were friends.
She had traveled to the backyard of the old building, before laying in the grass and watching the clouds roll by.
She found it was quite calming, but was still kind of nervous about her test.
She wasn't sure if she did good or not.
She had found the questions easy, but that didn't mean she got them right.
She tried to completely calm herself, but only half succeeded.
It didn't really matter, because even if she did bad she was still more intelligent than most her age, and any homework would be easy to complete.
She noticed a tree in the corner of the lot. She walked over to it and gripped one of the lower branches.
She pulled herself onto it like she used to when she was younger.
It was harder then she thought it would be considering she wasn't wearing shoes, but she managed.
She swung her legs over the edge and hummed softly to herself.
It was a song her mother used to sing to her when she was younger.
She pushed that thought away realizing she was just dwelling in the past.
She missed her Mother more than anything, but thinking about it continuously just made her heart hurt.
She took a couple deep breaths before humming a different tune.
It was a more upbeat calming song, though her mind was still thinking over the last song.
It was hard for her to keep her mind off it.
"Sissy!" A voice called from below.
She looked down to see Bell searching frantically for her.
Bell didn't even think to look in the tree.
Dakota gracefully jumped down beside Bell scaring the little girl slightly.
Bell smiled when she saw who it was and threw her arms around the older girl.
"Sissy!" Bell shouted, tightening her grip on Dakota.
"Hello Bell," Dakota said pulling away from the small girl. The little girl beamed at her before grabbing the older girl's hand and running down the hall. "Where are we going?"
"Mr. Hodgens wanted to speak with you!" Bell said, speeding up.
Dakota let the small girl drag her through the halls, even though they were going in the wrong direction.
She didn't have the heart to correct her self proclaimed sister.
"Hey Dakota!" A male voice addressed her.
Bell stopped, causing Dakota to run into her lightly.
She apologized and looked for the source, turning to see Dylan standing there with Aden.
"Hey," Dakota smiled, walking toward them. Bell gripped her hand tighter, Dakota looked down at her and was shocked to see she looked terrified. "What's wrong sweetie?"
"He's scary," Bell cried hiding behind her.
"Who?" Dakota inquired kneeling beside the small girl.
"Him," She pointed straight at Aden who had an indifferent look on his face.
"Nah, Aden isn't scary he's my friend," She told her picking Bell up and carrying her to him. He tried to smile at the small girl, but failed and only reinforced the ideal that he was scary. Bell buried her face in Dakota's shoulder. "How can I prove he's not scary?"
"Hold his hand!" Bell motioned toward the boy's arm, while looking up at her self proclaimed sister.
"Okay," Dakota reached out and gripped his hand.
She set Bell down, but didn't let go of Aden's hand.
Aden blushed slightly, but didn't pull away.
Her hand was tiny in comparison to his much larger one.
"Kota! Mr. Hodgens is looking for you!" Kendall stated, appearing out of nowhere.
"Oh yeah I forgot." She let go of Aden's hand. "I have to go, Dylan can you find a video game to play with Bell?"
"Sure babe," He said, grabbing Bell's tiny hand.
Bell smiled widely at him.
"No blood!" Dakota called shooting him a stern look.
Dylan pouted jokingly before leading Bell to her and Aden's room.
Dakota knocked on the door to Mr. Hodgens office.
She waited for a second before knocking a little louder.
"Come in!" Mr. Hodgens called.
Dakota entered shutting the door behind her.
She turned to see the older man holding a file with her name on it.
He pulled out a piece of paper before setting it down and smiling at the newest arrival.
"You called me," Dakota stated plopping down in the seat across from him.
"Your test results are back," Mr. Hodgens told her proudly.
"How did I do?" Dakota asked keeping her expression stoic.
"You have an IQ of over 200," Mr. Hodgens applauded, smiling widely.
He was practically glowing with pride he was so happy.
"I'm going to assume that's good?" Dakota half asked.
"Darling that's amazing!" He exclaimed, "You are a genius!"
"On paper," She corrected, "See this cut on my forehead?" He nodded, "I got it from tripping over my bed sheets. I may be book smart, but you need to know how to socialize to survive in the real world. I'm not going to be sheltered out there like I am here."
"Dear all of the children love you! That must say something!" He said, throwing his hands into the air.
"Because I'm polite, I never raise my voice, and I give the children candy," Dakota stood, her hands on her hips, "I may be smart, but I have a lot to learn before I'm considered a genius."
She turned and walked out without another word.
She had always known she was exceptionally smart, but she wasn't a genius.
She couldn't be, could she?