Mail Jeevas, or as he was now called, Matt, sat on his bed, playing the game his mother had given him. He had already beaten it once since he'd recieved it, but it was still the only game he had. Besides, it felt like his mother was, in a way, still with him when he had his Gameboy out. Any reminder of his late parents was something Matt was grateful for, since he was now surrounded by hundreds of other orphaned children every day. He was now one of many children at Wammy's House, which was an orphanage and school for exceptionally intelligent children who were being trained as heirs to the world-famous detective known as L. He had been at Wammy's for about three weeks now, and had a room to himself. This made him happy, seeing as he was a rather reclusive child, and the last time he had shared a room was with his foster brother who had nothing to offer him but verbal (and occasionally physical) abuse. He was glad to have his own space.

That is, until the new kid came to Wammy's.

"So, you're Mihael Keehl," the head of the orphanage asked the young blonde boy.

"Yes."

"Good," he said. "I'm Watari, and I'm the founder and head of Wammy's House. This is my assistent, Roger. You'll probably be seeing more of him than me."

Mihael nodded. "O--okay..."

"You realize why we brought you here today?"

"Because I'm smart?" he asked, grinning proudly.

Watari chuckled. "Yes, but for more than that. You have the potential to become something great, Mello."

Mihael stared at him and cocked his head to the side slightly, confused. "What did you just call me? My name's Mihael."

"Yes, but now that you're part of Wammy's, you have an alias. It's for your safety. You are not to tell anyone your real name, and from now on you are to answer to Mello, okay?"

"Um...yes, sir," Mihael, or rather, Mello, said, biting into his chocolate bar. He had acquired quite a liking to the sweet food item since that day at the hospital. In fact, he rarely ate anything else. But that was mostly because his foster family didn't seem to care about feeding him. They provided chocolate, because his foster father worked for a candy store, but that was it. Because he'd been practically living on chocolate for almost four months now, Mihael was now...well, he wasn't by any means huge, but he had gotten a little bit pudgy since he'd been placed into the foster home. He didn't care all that much though...

"Roger will take you to your room now, okay Mello?" Watari asked.

"Okay..." Mello said, looking at the other elderly man. Roger sighed. He never did like kids that much...

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it here at Wammy's, Mello," Watari said cheerfully as Roger left the main office with him. Mello looked around in awe at the hallways. The building looked huge from the outside but from the inside it was even bigger. Soon, he ran into another child, who he figured was about his age, but looked a lot younger.

"So, you're the...new girl?" he asked. Roger let out an exasperated sigh.

"Near, this is Mello. He...will be rooming with Matt," he informed the child known as Near. He blinked, but did not seem to be embarrassed by his mistake. Instead, he simply nodded at Mello and headed the other way. Mello had a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him he probably wasn't going to get along very well with this "Near".

It wasn't much later that they finally stopped walking. Roger knocked on the door, recieved a small grunt from the other side, and opened the door.

"Matt, this is your new roommate, Mello," was all he said, urging Mello inside with his one suitcase.

"Roommate?" came a voice. Mello looked across the room and gasped. Matt...

Or as he knew him, Mail Jeevas. The boy he took the placement test with.

"Okay, so I guess you're set, Mello," Roger said. "I'm sure you'll get along great. Okay...I'm gonna leave now..."

When the door clicked shut, Matt looked over at Mello.

"So, I guess we are classmates..." he said. "And roommates..."

"I guess..." Mello said.

Matt turned his Gameboy off and set it on the table next to his bed. "What's wrong? You seem a little...um, I'm not sure. But you seem like something's wrong..."

"Well..." Mello said. "Some kid in the hallway thought I was a girl...I guess it just felt a little weird..."

"Did you catch his name?"

"Um, I think Roger said it was...Near?"

Matt sighed. "Oh yeah. Near. Don't mind him; he's kind of...socially awkward. Doesn't talk to many people, he's usually sitting around playing with puzzles or robots or something..."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised that he doesn't talk to many people. He kinda looks like a sheep, don't you think?"

This comment, for some reason, got Matt to laugh. He didn't laugh much. He never had a reason to. "Yeah, he does, now that you mention it..." he said.

Mello started to ask Matt if he thought he looked like a girl--his hair and eyelashes were a bit long for a boy's, and he had a softer-looking face--but he decided against it. All that mattered to him was that he'd made a friend. The first friend he'd ever made.