ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Five

Night Games

The next day went smoothly. Steven sat through first period in silence; taking notes and listening to Mr. Page teach them. They were out of the colonial days of American History and were now learning about the Constitution and all of the articles and sections that were written in it. Funny thing was that Steven was learning almost the exact same thing in his government class the very next period.

When the bell rang, Steven packed up and went outside only to go next door to the portable room that belonged to Ms. Shaunesty. As always, he was the first one there. At least, that's what he thought. But a shadow moved out of the corner of his eye and he saw a boy named Garret sitting up from behind the teacher's desk.

"Hey, Steve!" Garret called with a friendly grin.

"Sup, Garret." Steven smirked, setting his backpack down on his table in the third row of seats. "Kill any people on Halo 3 lately?"

"Yeah." Garret's face seemed to lighten up. "I went online for the first time last night. It was hella bomb, dude!"

"I bet." Steven sighed and looked at the teacher's desk. "What were you doing back there, anyway?"

"Just looking for my notebook. I think I left it in here yesterday." Garret said, scratching the back of his head with a lame smile.

"Ah…" Steven turned and went back outside. Every morning in that class especially he had a tendency to stand out on the balcony of the portables and just absorb the fresh air. It would be the only time where he'd truly be able to think and not worry about anything else for the rest of the day.

As he leaned forward on the wooden railing outside and stared into the clear blue sky, people walked past him and entered his class. Something about this spot made him feel at peace. And he couldn't explain it…

"Alright class, quiet and do the warm ups." Ms. Shaunesty snapped as the bell rang. As usual, she had her fake sweet smile on her old, ugly face. Steven knew, like most others, that she was secretly a cruel hag who definitely had control issues growing up but they were all wise enough to not cross her path. All but one.

Kyle Hilmes. The red haired boy who sat next to him. Steven truthfully didn't care much for him because his voice was annoying and having to hear it in his ear every morning wasn't exactly pleasant. But what was pleasant was watching him get in spats with the teacher and be forced to leave the classroom because he was too stubborn to shut up.

And so Steven began his work, writing down the questions on the overhead…

Sean Church, a kid who sat two rows away from him, suddenly jolted up from his seat. Everyone in the room turned and looked at him in confusion. Ms. Shaunesty glared and said "Sean, sit down!"

But Sean wasn't listening. "I hate my life!!!" He roared, taking a knife from out of his pocket and abruptly slashing away at his throat with it.

Half the people in the class screamed as blood sprayed across his desk and down his torso. Sean gagged and fell backward onto the floor, flailing like a fish until his eyes rolled into the back of his head. People were up all around him trying to help but there was nothing that could be done. There were girls crying in the front of the classroom and Ms. Shaunesty was in a panic.

Steven was standing amongst the crowd with a shocked expression on his face but inside he was laughing with joy and unknown to the rest of the students in the room, Zando the Shinigami was standing directly behind him watching the scene with a curious expression.

"Now that was quite gruesome." Zando muttered with a grin.

So you could control what a person does before they die. This was what Steven realized after seeing the situation unfold before him. Last night, he'd written in the Death Note "Sean Church dies tomorrow during second period by bringing a knife to school secretly until announcing "I hate my life!" to the entire class and slitting his throat."

By the end of the day, he'd have to wait and see the rest of his experiments so that he would be able to compare them and see which worked and which didn't. But why kill Sean Church? He seemed to have an 'okay' attitude. To a normal person's eyes he didn't appear to be someone that deserved to die so brutally. But Steven had always had a secret grudge against him. And his death wouldn't matter greatly. He knew that much. In his eyes, he was just an unimportant, arrogant jerk and with the death note it was how they looked in his eyes that was important.

"Somebody call the ambulance! Get the principle down here, now!" Ms. Shaunesty barked and Steven saw that she truly looked mad. One of the boys in the circle around Sean's body rushed to the phone and began dialing…

It was lunch time and Steven was standing outside with the rest of his group in the courtyard where the buses usually dropped them off. They'd all eaten here during their lunches throughout the school years at Hazen and it was a nice place to just mess around with your buds. Plus they were hardly ever disturbed.

Zito and Jacob were there along with Jacob's sister, Kirsten and some of her friends. And then there was Katlynn Howser, a sophomore who hung out with them every lunch and had been sort of friends with them for over a year.

"Sean Church died, what!?" Zito asked with a raised eyebrow and a disbelieving expression.

"Yeah! Dude, I was right there! I saw it happen!" Steven said, looking between them all but avoiding Zito's eyes.

"What? Dude, whatever." Zito laughed.

"I'm serious!" Steven insisted.

"Who the fuck is Sean Church?" Jacob asked.

"Is he that singer guy?" Kirsten asked.

"Kirsten, shut the fuck up you fucking piece of shit!" Jacob scolded playfully. Kirsten and Katlynn both laughed but Steven continued to stand there looking shocked that they simply did not believe him.

Unknown to them, Zando was lying on the ground and staring hungrily at the banana in Zito's lunch tray. Steven noticed this and hoped that the Death God wouldn't try anything unwise and try to eat it in front of them. They would surely notice a floating banana being eaten in midair.

Steven sighed. "Fine, don't believe me…bastards." and he continued to eat his banana. However, as the lunch ended and they all went into fourth period, Steven had a wicked smirk on his face as he walked to Science with Zando following behind him in his wake.

"Why were you trying so hard to convince them that that kid died?" Zando asked curiously.

Steven sighed and decided it would be risky enough to say something. Nobody around him would really notice or care. "You'll see soon."

Zando blinked, confused by this statement but decided to believe him and entered Mr. McCarron's class by his side.

Halfway through fourth period, Ms. Beeson's voice came on over the intercom and the class fell silent.

"As some of you may know by this point, there was a recent tragedy that has struck the student body today during second period." She began. "A Senior committed suicide in front of his class and because of this; we will be having you all leave school early. This is not a privilege, but a time to respect the feelings for those who knew the boy and the family members who will deeply miss him. Students, you are dismissed from school."

"What!? Who died!?" a kid in the front row demanded abruptly, standing in his seat. "How come she didn't say who died!?"

"Shut the fuck up, you idiot!" Snapped the girl with blonde hair and a mean looking face behind him. The idiot boy fell silent and sat back down.

Mr. McCarron, flustered by this news, dismissed the class and Steven got up and left. He joined the rest of the crowds making their ways down the hallways. He caught bits and pieces of their conversations about who had died. Some people were already starting stupid rumors that it was a conspiracy or something.

"Dude, you were right!" Zito said, a shocked expression on his face.

"See, I fucking told you, dude!" Steven said.

"Wow, I thought you were just lying or something." Zito said, a look that said he was completely dumbfounded.

They were on the bus riding back to his house. Zando was sitting in a chair next to one of the students in front while Steven and Zito talked a few seats behind him.

Steven's plan had worked. During lunch he'd purposely done a lying face in front of Zito to make him think that he was lying about Sean's suicide but with confirmation that it wasn't a lie, Zito's faith in thinking that he could tell Steven's lying face was surely broken, or at least cracked in such a way that he would be confused about it and question whether or not he could truly tell if Steven was a good liar or not. And if Zito were to ever figure something like that out, then all he had to do was deny it and Zito would never be able to prove anything. It would just end up confusing him and he'd pretend like he didn't care while in truth he was laughing inside.

It should make things interesting someday in the future if I am ever forced to really lie to Zito… He thought as they made their way off the bus and toward Luke's house.

The whole way there, Zando followed in silence. He'd taken the hint that Steven would never be able to talk to him in public and since he was always in public it meant that it would be on those nights where he was alone in his room doing homework that he would really be able to talk to him. But that was fine by him. For a Shinigami, there was no such thing as boredom in the human realm. He rarely got to go there anyway. It was much more exciting than his world anyway.

And then there was Steven himself. Out of all the people who'd had his death note before, none of them had lasted longer than a couple of weeks. But this kid seemed to think ahead and work out things. And what he pulled at school today proved that. He'd duped his best friend and caused someone to die right in front of them. Zando wondered if Steven realized how risky it was to have done something like that though he was sure that later that night he would explain everything to him. Until then, Zando would simply remain lost in what was going on and simply go with the flow of things.

"Steve!" Luke greeted as they arrived at Luke's house. Both Steven and Zito walked inside, sighing loudly after the walk there. It wasn't too long of a walk but Steven had always enjoyed the feeling of the carpet between his toes so, just for kicks, he took of his socks and shoes and walked across the carpeted living room barefooted.

"What are you doing?" Zito asked, laughing.

"Enjoying the carpet after a hard-days work of schoolness." Steven sighed and sat down in the comfortable brown armchair.

"What are you guys doing here so early?" Luke demanded, beating his fists together in confusion.

Steven and Zito both looked at each other and they were forcefully reminded of what Ms. Beeson had announced to them. When Steven decided to explain it, Luke stood there in shock for a few moments before narrowing his eyes.

"Are you lying?" He asked, staring at Steve suspiciously.

"No." Steven frowned, feeling an irk of annoyance but being careful not to show it on his face. Of course something like this would be hard to believe. As it was Sean Church, a kid they'd both known for a long time.

"He's serious, dude!" Zito said, raising his eyebrows and nodding with a kind of shocked expression on his face as if he couldn't believe it himself.

"I saw it happen…" Steven muttered, eyeing the floor with a frown. "It was just…kind of random. He shouted and slit his throat…and…"

"Whoa…" Luke ran his hand through his hair and wandered into the kitchen. Zando, who remained invisible to both of the friends, was looking down at Steven with a smirk.

"Nice performance." He said.

Steven ignored him and looked up to observe Luke's actions.

"So, Sean killed himself?" Luke asked after returning with a cup of water.

Steven nodded, glaring back down at the floor.

"And you saw it happen, Steve?" Luke asked.

"Yeah." Steve sighed.

"That's…really fucked up." Luke said simply and walked into the kitchen once again.

The rest of the day they avoided talking about the incident. Steven was sure Luke had formulated his own opinion on the matter but in reality what happened had happened and there was nothing that could be done or said to change it. And so Steven had fun watching youtube videos on the computer while his friends played Gauntlet on Luke's PS2.

However, even as they had fun, Steven had secretly gone on the internet to look at news articles while keeping the music that Luke liked turned on so that he wouldn't look up to see why he'd turned it off. If they looked and caught him, he'd simply tell them that he was looking for stories on his response logs in his government class. Zando saw this and began to lean over Steven's shoulder.

"What are you doing, huh?" The Death God asked.

Of course, Steven didn't answer. Instead he scrolled down until he reached something and a smile spread across his face. The article said:

Criminal, Edward Mayan, who was in court for molesting twins last Saturday died in his cell block last night from a heart attack. His brother, Jonathan Mayan, was also found dead except with the words "Death is my master" written upon the walls of his cell block next to his body.

Zando read the article in confusion, not understanding why Steven was taking such an interest in this. He watched as Steven searched through more articles with similar situations of deaths, all belonging to criminals or people suspected of a crime somewhere in the world. Steven exited the site and stood from his seat. "Gotta take a piss." He muttered like he usually did and left the room. Zando followed him out as Steven went to the bathroom. When he was in the hallway, Zando was taken aback because Steven was now beckoning for the Shinigami to join him in the bathroom.

"You want me to watch you piss?" He asked dumbly.

Steven closed the door and sat down on the lid to the toilet. "I'm not really going to the bathroom, idiot." He whispered. "I came in here for something else…"

He shuffled in his pocket and revealed a crumpled up piece of notebook paper. He unfolded it and on it was a list of names. At the top was Sean Church's, whose name had a check next to it. And Zando also recognized the names of all the criminals who'd died in their cell blocks.

"Hey, those are…" Zando started.

"I know." Steven whispered, making sure to keep his voice down. "I wrote down all the names of the people I did experiments on last night on a normal sheet of notebook paper to find out what I could and could not do with the death note." Steven pulled out a pencil and crossed out Edward Mayan's name however he placed a check next to Jonathan Mayan's name similar to how he'd put a check next to Sean's name.

"I'm confused, what do the crosses and checks mean?" Zando asked.

"Last night I wrote in the Death Note that Sean would die. The experiment was whether or not I could control what he says and if it was possible for him to hide a concealed weapon." Steven began. "So I put a check next to his name because both tests proved possible."

"And then there was Edward, who I wrote in the Death Note that he would escape from jail and run 5,000 miles in 40 seconds before dying of a heart attack. I knew it was obvious that such a feat was impossible but I wanted to see if the Death Note would make such a thing possible. But in the news article it said he died from a heart attack in his cell. So the experiment failed but now I know that I can't make my victims do something that isn't possible for them to do."

"But Ed's brother, Jonathan I wrote that he would write "Death is my Master" in quotation marks in the Death Note before taking his life. This experiment was a success according to the article which means I can control the victim's actions. Just from these three experiments alone I've concluded that as long as it is possible for them, I can control someone's actions before their death. And that alone could come in handy someday."

"What about all the other victims?" Zando asked.

"Well, one criminal's name I wrote on a ripped out piece of paper from the Death Note and he died of a heart attack which means ripping out paper from the Death Note won't take away the Death Note's powers." Steven continued. "This also means I can keep small pieces of it in my pocket when I go to school. I know it's risky because if anyone touches it then they'd see you but if I keep it hidden enough nobody should have a reason to find it in the first place."

"Then I tried making a criminal in jail try to kill his cell mate before taking his own life but it didn't work because according to one of the articles he just died of a heart attack. So while I can control someone's actions with the Death Note, I can't make them kill anyone."

"What happened to the victim of the person you tried to control?" Zando asked.

"He died of a heart attack as well since I wrote his name in the Death Note too." Steven said simply.

"Where did you manage to find all the faces for these criminals, anyway?" Zando smirked, curious to know this as it had been bugging him since the beginning of Steven's explanation.

"Online of course." Steven shrugged. "Usually on news sites they show a picture of the criminal so that if the public were to see them they could keep a watch out for him. It's nothing special. And I made sure that all the criminals who died lived in different areas of America so that someone wouldn't become too suspicious of simultaneous Heart Attacks in the same area. I don't want to cause a whole lot of attention right away."

"Any other experiments?" Zando asked.

"A couple but none worth noting." Steven sighed. "I've been here long enough. Prepare for another long silent treatment." He flushed the toilet and washed his hands even though he hadn't even really gone to the bathroom. Zando moaned with boredom and complained about how there weren't any bananas to eat anywhere for some reason. Steven joined his friends back in the living room and found that they were talking about the Sean incident once again.

Great… He thought. They must be sharing their opinions on the matter…

"What was he thinking!?" Zito exclaimed as they played their game.

"Hmm. Obviously that kid had some kind emotional issue he never worked out." Luke muttered.

"Yeah, but, what kind of problems could he have?" Zito asked.

"Zito, we didn't know him very well." Steven said. "We don't know what kind of issues he could've had at home."

"Still, suicide?" and then Zito gave a kind of shutter as if the thought of it weirded him out.

"Did he act strange at all the day before?" Luke asked, turning to Steve.

"No, not really…Well, he did seem quieter and not as…how should I say…outspoken?" Steven answered.

"Jeez." Luke sighed and turned back to the game.

"There was nothing that we could've done. None of us could've predicted that Sean Church would kill himself right in the middle of class like that." Steven went on.

"Well, obviously." Luke muttered.

And so they did not talk about Sean after that. Luke and Zito continued to play their video game while Steven pretended to continue his research on news articles before getting off the computer and watching the game. He decided that after an hour of being kind of quiet while they played he could start to lighten up a bit and join in on their talk about the game.

"You guys want to stay for night games tonight?" Luke asked as the time wore on.

"Night games?" Steven repeated in shock.

"Yeah, Jesse decided to organize another one before he went off to Korea." Luke said.

Jesse was Luke's older brother. A Mormon at heart, but he was usually helpful when it came to planning night games, which were games that they played at night in Luke's backyard. It was the perfect place for night games, which usually had a lot of people joining in on the fun, as they ran around playing games like Bloody Bones and Sardines.

"Alright, I'll play." Steven said.

"Yeah, me too." Zito said. "Who's all coming?"

"I'm going to see if I can get Dez to come." Luke said. Dez was his girlfriend who lived in Kent. Lately she wasn't able to see very much of Luke because she was on phone restriction from her parents but if Luke called and asked them if Dez would be able to come over they'd probably still let her.

"There's a catch, though, if you guys come." Luke went on.

"What is it?" Steven asked.

"Justin is going to be there."

A loud groan came from both Steven and Zito. Justin Thatcher. The most annoying, and literally retarded kid he'd ever known. He hadn't seen much of Justin lately but at night games he would be even more moronic than usual.

"Why is he coming?" Zito moaned.

"Well let's just say Jesse wasn't alone in planning the night games." Luke muttered.

"Who's Justin?" Zando asked Steven curiously but quickly remembered that Steven wouldn't be able to respond because he was around his friends. The Shinigami sighed sadly and kept quiet once again.

It was not long before Luke's parents came home along with his siblings, Jesse, Shayne, and Marie. Soon the whole house was buzzing with talk about the upcoming Night Games. Steven wondered if the news of Sean's suicide would reach the ears of Luke's family. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know how close they all were to Sean. Probably not too incredibly close.

"Is Nathan Bunch coming?" Steven asked as the sun began to set and some of Jesse's friends started to arrive.

"I don't know." Luke said matter-of-factly.

"He was friends with Sean so probably not." Steven sighed.

"Luke!" came the calling voice of Luke's dad from outside.

"Yeah!?" Luke tore himself away from Gauntlet and wandered into the kitchen.

"Have you called Dez to see if she can come over for night games yet?" Steven heard Luke's dad ask. "Because I can pick her up if she needs to when I go to get the pizza."

"She's got a car." Luke told him. "If they won't let her drive here on her own then they won't let her come at all."

"Alright, just making sure."

Luke came walking back into view except instead of coming into the living room he grabbed the phone and dialed Dez's number. Steven grabbed Luke's controller and started playing the video game for him with Zito while Luke waited for Dez to answer.

"Who you calling?" Zito asked.

"Dez." Luke muttered.

"Ten bucks says her parents are going to make her do a bunch of chores and then decide that they don't want her coming for some stupid reason." Steven muttered making Zito scoff.

It was true that Dez's parents seemed to have a strange tendency to pull things like that. While Luke thought it was just pure evil, Steven himself tried hard not to take sides on the matter because when they confronted Dez about this issue they found that she was opposed to the thought of her parents being evil. Steven had never really gotten to know Dez's parents personally nor did he really want to…

"This game is boring." Zando complained. Obviously the Shinigami did not enjoy staying still for to long and watching a bunch of teenagers do nothing but sit around playing games and talking.

Steven smirked. Don't worry, Zando, he thought, I promise that you won't be bored when the night games start…

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