AN: Thanks for taking the time to read. Please be patient with character development of the OCs as there will be much more interaction with canon characters soon. Please also note that when I write about the Red Cross, I'm referring to the International Federation of Red Cross. The academies I reference to are also real academies and top in their ranks. If any readers have information on them, I'd love to hear it.

Please leave a review! Happy reading!

JJJJJ

Chapter Seven

Blessedly, the summer was finally over.

Jessica packed her bags days before in anticipation to be out of Whammy's and back home, to her parents and friends and even the private academy she attended. The final weeks were easier than when she first arrived at the house, but still she did not belong there, she decided.

The other children seemed just as ready for the season to end. Krista and Zachary were preparing their leave for university. Krista was accepted to the Royal Academy of Dance, as expected, and she was scheduled to leave at the end of the week for London. Mr. Ruvie scheduled time with her to find an appropriate apartment and have her assigned a mentor to help guide her through the messiness of the first year away from home, as it were. The attentiveness of the elder to the Ugandan was sweet in the little time Jessica saw the pair together. Mr. Ruvie would explain everything in his usual gruff manner, yet he also reassured her that for how overwhelming it must be now, everything would sort itself out. Krista was not one to be nervous, but even her ever-upbeat personality faltered briefly whenever the impending move was mentioned. How could it be any other way? After all, she was only seventeen.

Catelin was not scheduled to leave Whammy's House for another year. Still, she was beyond the pleasantries and continued on her coursework as though nothing unusual was transpiring around her. She even quipped testily to Krista on several occasions that only failures have a reason to be nervous. What a callous thing to say, Jessica thought. Krista was going to attend two universities simultaneously, for goodness sake! There was nothing else to be asked of her.

Zachary was less concerned than the others. He spent more time with Andrew as of late, quietly chatting with the youngster about nothing in the sitting room after lunch. The American boy always managed to bring the recluse out of his shell, asking about his project and receiving honest, if not cryptic answers.

"I'm nowhere close to solving it," A mumbled, a small amount of defeat in his tone.

Jessica sat across from them on the opposite couch, observing their brotherly connection as Zach nudged the boy fondly and said, "There is no point in stressing about it. You'll solve the equation one day, I'm sure."

"And what if I don't?" A's eyes peered up through his blond bangs, chewing his bottom lip.

"Then that's fine too," Zach shrugged, "No one can know everything."

They were sort of like a family, Jessica mused. The sisters fought over girly things like who took the straightener or which outfit was unjustly stolen from the other's closet. The boys, particularly L and BB, frequently roughhoused in the playroom when no one was watching. Zach, the oldest, mentored the younger children, mostly focusing on A, but he even gave L a cautionary word or two when he had the chance. Jessica noticed that a smirk graced the older boy's slim face whenever he managed to place rebuke on placid child. There seemed to be an unspoken challenge between them the girl could not understand.

"You'll be due to start soon in a year or so."

Jessica's attention was drawn again to Zachary as he redirected his attention to her with a warm smile that managed to make her blush. It was the third time he mentioned the assumption that she would eventually attend Whammy's Institute with all of the other boarding students returning in two weeks time.

He raised an eyebrow and broadened his smile, "Perhaps sooner."

She cleared her throat, "Mr. Ruvie said that you are to attend Oxford."

"Not right away, no," He corrected, "I will probably be there this spring or next year."

"Are you taking a gap year then?" The notion was unusual for some reason given the drive of the other girls.

Zach wobbled his head, and A grinned at Jessica, "Sort of. I'm taking course with the Red Cross in Africa."

"Why Africa?"

"A lot of wars ongoing at the moment," he mused, stretching a little. "The course is in field triage, but there will also be exposure to relief aid and policy, I suspect."

"You want to become an aid worker?" Jessica's voice echoed her astonishment.

Zach nodded, "It's a good opportunity to give back, I think. We have such a cozy existence here in the UK that it's easy to forget that most of world is still living back in the dark ages."

Jessica was no historian on the conflicts of Africa, but she could guess at the horrors considering the British news clips that often flashed across her parent's television in recent years. The Ethiopian hunger crisis, the Western Sahara War, and the Lord's Resistance were only the highlighted international crises of the moment. People were dying in the millions there, it seemed. Then again, Europe was no different only fifty years prior really.

"That is a very noble cause," Jessica said, settling that was the only appropriate response. "Will this be your first time travelling there?"

Again the boy nodded, and A chirped in his place, "The doctors gave him a load of shots. Made him ill for a couple of days."

"But I was well taken care of, wasn't I." Zach looked back affectionately to the younger child and winked. A smiled more fully and curled into his seat cushion.

JJJJJ

Jessica held to her promise to instruct Lawliet on etiquette for the remainder of the summer. After their first conversation of any real substance in the library, L had taken to positioning himself next to the girl at meal times, much to the dismay of BB. The other raven-haired boy did not like sitting on the end near Mr. Ruvie and made the only vocal response Jessica ever heard from him, beyond the whispers he would so often utter to himself, the first time it happened.

"You are supposed to be on my right!" The boy seethed, his dark, reddened eyes alight with what Jessica guessed were a mixture of anger and fear. Perhaps he was just uncomfortable with change of any kind.

It still caught the girl off guard at how much alike the pair looked in their identical outfits and messy hair. L turned to face him blankly and simply said, "I am exactly where I need to be."

Without warning, BB pushed L as hard as his little hands could, causing the table to collectively jump in surprise. Lawliet fell back against the chair and onto the floor with a soft thump, whilst BB was yanked back by Mr. Ruvie, his voice reprimanding, "That will be quite enough!"

BB stared at the floor wide-eyed and anxious, little black brows flexed down over his narrow bridge. His posture was rigid and his breathing labored. A frown was sullenly etched onto his triangular face, and Jessica wondered if the eight year old might actually throw a fit right then and there. After a moment of tense silence, it was Krista that spoke up over the table.

"B, would you like to come sit by me?" She sweetly smiled, a row of perfectly white teeth that could disarm anyone. The girl stood up and walked over to Mr. Ruvie, who unceremoniously released the child below him. Krista knelt down to look at him better. BB refused to look at her, only blinking to cast a glare at L where he fell onto the floor. As though she might expect this, the girl leaned into his line of sight, her broad smile now in his face. She said in whisper just for him, "Would you like a hug?"

Jessica assured herself there was no way that BB would allow Krista to touch him. He never allowed anyone to touch him without immediately squirming out of his or her grip. Then again, he never spoke up or shoved people at the dinner table either. It was at this moment Jessica realized just how small BB was compared to Krista, and it surprised her more when the child slowly nodded and acquiesced to not only being hugged, but picked up and carried away to where she sat too. Another chair magically appeared and BB was positioned on it without so much as a murmur.

And then everything went back to normal. Like nothing happened. L retrieved himself and sat, properly, on his chair. He idly looked at the place setting and then turned to Jessica and said, "What can you tell me about forks?"

Jessica would use stuffed animals, and occasionally A, as props for L. Roll playing was not a strong suit for the boy, who would rather use real examples rather than practice on inanimate objects. So eventually, she had to give up and take him down to Mr. Ruvie's office to practice introduction and proper hello's and goodbye's. Even then, Lawliet seemed bored and expectant since Mr. Ruvie was so familiar with his behavior that even the elder was unsure how to respond to the gracelessness of their interactions.

"I want to try this on Miss Roberts."

The assertion was sudden as the boy appeared in her bedroom doorway one morning after breakfast.

"You 'would like to try,' Lawliet," the girl amended, glancing up from her book. L returned a dull expression before she continued, "and this is not something that you 'try' on people. It is just something you do."

"All etiquette is form of manipulation, Jessica."

The way he said it was absolute and Jessica closed her book with a decisive snap, 'It is not."

"But it is." L leaned into the room without stepping over the threshold as he continued, "One only practices this kind of social requirement because it is expected. People enjoy feeling important, those with power more so. When a person feels important, some times he or she is more generous. Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that if one without power is polite to one with power, the one with power will be generous to the request of the one they might otherwise deem beneath him or her."

Jessica sat motionless on her coverlet and stared at the boy. She said, "And you would like to be polite to Miss Roberts because you believe she has some power?"

"She does," he replied solemnly, fixing the girl with his confident dark eyes, "Miss Roberts has power over the cake."

The sincerity of his words was lost on her as Jessica dissolved into a mass of giggles.

"If you help me, perhaps I could secure a piece for you as well."

Hiding her face beneath her palm, all she could do was fall over on her bed, her laughter breaking out into a cackle to fill the room. Of course this would be his logic. He was only eight.

"Alright then," Jessica conceded, tenderly wiping a tear from her cheek. "But it is just after breakfast. You might have better luck if we ask her after lunch."

The boy paused to consider her rebuttal, his silent agreement apparent only after Jessica looked up to see he was no longer in her doorway.

Later that day, the attempt to appeal to Miss Roberts was successful to no surprise from either of them. Miss Roberts was a laid back young woman despite the demands on her. Her only request was that there were no children in the kitchen whilst she cooked. It was shortly after lunch when L approached, Jessica just behind him. As they practiced, the girl mouthed his words thanking her 'for the very lovely lunch', and that he knew she was busy so he 'thought to bring in the plates for her'. The woman pursed her lips in amusement as the child, whom had never once said 'thank you' to anyone without coercion before this moment - Mr. Whammy included - placed his own and Jessica's plate and utensils in the sink for washing up later. Coyly, he turned back and made his request – may he 'please have a slice of that delicious cake' she made the night before.

A true smile split little Lawliet's face as he was rewarded with his prize. Miss Roberts even placed a strawberry on the slide for him with a wink. His round eyes sparkled as he met his teacher's then, and he turned back to the cook to request a second slice for Jessica.

Indeed, the cake was delicious.

For the final weeks of the summer, L was intent to 'practice' this technique on others. Who knew simply complimenting someone else for trivial nonsense could result in such rewards? Jessica chastised him for phrasing his behavior in that manner, but in a way, she could see his point. Her mother expected her to curtsey because it was 'polite,' when in reality she did not want her daughter embarrassing her in front of her socialite friends or people of important note. If they believed she was a good, obedient girl, her mother was praised for raising her well. Jessica could now see the one-way benefit and it made her determined never to curtsey ever again.

L still had the bad habit of crouching in his seat, but with careful nudging he would eventually plop down in the chair at the table. The irony evident in her glare over her plate, the notion of someone using a chair as a stool was a bit too much for her twelve-year-old self.

The pair rarely talked to one another outside of his endeavor to learned how to manipulate people with his newly acquired civil affectations. This notion alone should have angered Jessica, but somehow she understood that this was just his way of interacting. Little Lawliet was an awkward boy; not as awkward as BB, but still shy and blunt with his often-rambling thoughts about subjects that went over her head. He did not like being touched. He held things at a distance, even puzzles he was working on. The boy did not even like to touch writing instruments, preferring to memorize the things he saw instead. Jessica half wondered if he had an eidetic memory. She ready somewhere in a journal in her Grandfather's estate that some people could remember everything they see and recall it perfectly later. Perhaps that would explain some aspects of his personality.

She wondered what sort of things the orphanage taught children like Lawliet, BB and Andrew. The three children were so at odds with the young adults who were at first blush well balanced and set to start their lives. The youngsters were startlingly smart if her few interactions were anything to go by, but their inability to function with anyone outside of their tiny circle concerned her more than it should have.

"You really should apply," Zach told her toward the end of their conversation on the couch. The afternoon sun was shining into the room, casting the heavy curtains in a rosy hue.

A perked up with tooth grin and nodded excitedly, "That would be wonderful, wouldn't it! You could stay here and learn with us!"

Jessica bit her bottom lip and pressed herself into the cushions. The truth was she did not want to come back to Whammy House. Ever again. These children frightened her in a way. They were far too clever for their own good. And if she did not already feel inept by their attempts to remind her of her mere commonness, the silence in the home was absolutely gutting to her soul.

Zach managed to catch on to whatever expression was betraying her internal monologue and said encouragingly, "Most of the children who stay at the boarding school are very normal, I promise. What you see here is the zero point one percent of the populous. Too small a sample size to make any critical judgments."

"It's not really my choice," Jessica chose to say, and it was the truth. She was scheduled to attend the Wycombe Abbey School, a prestigious girls school near her home, in another year. The exams would be simple considering her current grades, but more than anything, she was looking forward to several friends who would also transfer on with her. They were already making plans to stay together in one of the senior houses. She adjusted herself demurely, "Besides, I don't think I could pass the exam you told me about anyway. You all are far beyond me in that respect."

"Not so," A piped up, earning a queer glance from the girl. He smiled again with the tiniest of blushes, "I think you could go quite far if you only applied yourself."

"That was not the nice thing to say, A." Zach elbowed the younger playfully before returning to Jessica, "I think he means that you would do better than you might think. You should give yourself more credit, lasting in this house for the summer as you have."

She shook her head, dismissing them, "What's this test really like, anyway? Maths questions or things on history."

"No, simpler than that," the older replied, "Analytical things, like shapes, patterns, logic. You can memorize anything about maths and history, but you can't teach a person to reason."

"The test isn't timed either," A explained proudly, sitting up on his palms, "It took me seven hours to finish mine."

"Seven hours!" Jessica exclaimed. "That's bloody ridiculous."

Zach chuckled, "No, what's bloody ridiculous was Lawliet. He took thirty-six hours on the exam over four days."

She froze, brows knit in confusion, "Who takes that long on an exam?"

"It's not a set exam, you see," A peeked over at Zach before continuing, "As long as you give the correct answer, the exam will continue."

"And when you get an answer wrong?"

"It ends." The boy chimed.

"And what if you get the first answer wrong?"

Both boys laughed at that like what she said was a joke. Jessica scowled.

Zach held up a placating hand, "The early questions are easy. Even a tot could figure them out. The more answers you get correct, the more difficult the questions become."

"Mr. Whammy designed it." A offered.

And Zach finished, "The American SAT exams are similar you know, but the exam doesn't end with one wrong answer, just questions become harder as you go along."

Jessica looked between the pair, both skinny blonds sitting on the couch across from her. What they were describing was a glorified IQ test of some sort, only that this exam would determine if they were fit for a prestigious boarding school. She had to wonder if this test had any real meaning outside the small orphanage attached to it. She asked, "How long does an average secondary applicant take on it?"

Zach mused casually, "Oh, about three hours, I would say."

"That's why we have tutors," A affirmed as though it was only natural for them to have tutors to fill the gaps with his classmates. As though he should be taking secondary courses at his age.

A long silence fell over the room, and Jessica felt it necessary to retort something for all of their discussion, "Well, as I said, I don't really have a choice, so…"

A quickly leaned forward on the edge of the couch, intent to ask, "But you would come back and visit us, right?"

His question was almost desperate is its innocence. The girl bit her lip again wishing very much not to lie to him. Andrew was kind and eloquent and genuine out of everyone she had come across in her stay. Perhaps he was starved for some real human contact, and to be fair, his only brotherly companion was leaving to start his own life. Jessica could understand why he might not want to be alone.

But she would not be coming back here. She knew it. To say anything else would be cruel, so Jessica smiled and said nothing.