ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Nine

Seen

It was as cold as ever that morning. Steven stood by the bus stop shivering slightly in the freezing wind. The end of October was coming after-all and Halloween was almost there. But Steven was wondering how cold it would be on Halloween night when everyone would be out trick or treating. Steven imagined a girl dressed up in a skirt complaining because it was too cold. People like that were obviously too dumb to realize that it had been cold for the past two weeks and one night wouldn't make a difference in that. Steven himself wasn't going to dress up as anything that year and will probably just end up strolling through the hood with all of his buddies.

Steven watched as more of the kids came up and waited for the bus to arrive. The only thing that was different that morning, in which only Steven would know, was that Zando was no longer sitting on the gate muttering words under his breath like he usually did every morning, complaining mostly about the cold. Steven always thought this was interesting because he'd imagined the Shinigami realm to be very cold itself.

As the bus arrived, Steven's train of thought returned to what would be happening at school that day. He planned on finding out who exactly the other Death Note user was but doing something like that wasn't as easy as it appeared. First off he would have to do it without letting on that he knew about the Death Note because if this other Death Note user was smart then he or she would probably want to get rid of Steven as well once they found out whom he was. This also meant that this person would be planning on finding out who he was as well by acting under the radar or doing something they normally wouldn't do. Steven had plotted out what he thought the other person would do before deciding to make his own move. In his head, it was like a game of chess. The first to trap the other's king got check mate. And this was just like a Chess game. Both had an equal amount of pieces at their disposal and the School was their Chess Board. And luckily, Steven was pretty average at Chess. He smirked as he entered onto the bus.

He'd decided that this other Death Note user probably knew he had a Shinigami as well, especially since both of their Shinigami had already met in combat over the weekend. So this other person, depending on how smart they were, would be planning on having their Hunter come to school with them and keep an eye out for Zando so that they would know who he was following and that would trace them to Steven himself. But because Zando was not going to be following him today, it meant that by the end of the day they would come to two conclusions based on just that fact. That either he'd decided to keep Zando away from school, or that he decided not to come to school at all in case of being found out. And if the latter happened, then they would think that the other Death Note user was a coward.

But Steven had his own tricks up his sleeves to finding out who this other Death Note user could be. After-all, a chess match involved planning ahead and using their pieces accordingly. He was confident that he would win this "game" and once he was rid of this "Other" then he could focus his primary attention on the Hunter, which he already had a small idea for stored in the back of his mind on how to make it fall in love with a human. But it all depended on what happened. This was beginning of the game. And Steven had already made the first move…

"That movie was awesome, dude!" Zito said.

"What movie?" Jacob asked.

"Resident Evil 3." Zito said and went off about how the movie was much better than the second. Steven ignored him. He'd never been much of a fan for the Resident Evil movies, and thought that if a sequel sucked then there shouldn't be a third one to come out in order to redeem the series. A desperate Hollywood attempt like that wasn't worth his time. Instead, Steven was keeping an eye out. While he smiled at every joke and acted normally that morning around his friends, he was taking note of every expression, movement, and thing they did. There was a small chance it could be one of his friends. But the question was why would any of them have something against Heather Larson?

Zito didn't seem like the type who could handle a Death Note to kill people like Heather. He'd probably only use it rarely to kill off people he didn't like, such as gay people or terrorists. As far as Steven knew though, he wouldn't have any reason to kill Heather.

And then there was Jacob. Jacob wouldn't have the time to use a Death Note and Steven couldn't imagine him killing someone that he hardly even knew like Heather. The only times they'd ever met was the previous year when Heather would occasionally join their table.

Jacob's sister, Kirsten… She was probably the highest chance of being the one at the table with the Death Note. Lately she seemed to be getting more and more depressed, but that was probably just because of the losers that she hung out with and the rough family life at home. But Steven could see her getting in some kind of drama with Heather maybe, somehow, but the chances of that happening were extremely low.

Baker with a Death Note was probably the funniest thing Steven had imagined all that morning. She didn't hate anybody and whenever she had a problem she would worry about hurting someone. So unless for the past year it had all been an act to fool them and she was secretly a sadistic genius then the chances of her being the other Death Note user was slim to none.

In the end, Steven doubted any of the people sitting around him were of any threat. They were all just his friends and it was close to pointless to investigate them. Steven had planned that for the rest of the day he would analyze each and every person in all his classes and write down the people he suspected of possibly having the Death Note inside one of his normal notebooks. He also had another plan that he'd already set in motion but he would have to wait until after school to see the affects of that plan…

First period was normal. Steven sat there for a little while scribbling pictures in the very same notebook where he'd written all the previous names to criminals that he'd already sentenced to death. It was already getting tiresome. Because the only times he could get faces from the internet on the criminals was in the early morning before school or in the afternoon and each day he had to memorize the criminal's faces in order to kill them off in his Death Note. There were a few times where he was unable to remember a face but Steven somewhat had a photogenic memory and could see a face in his mind when he read a name, especially when most of the criminals in jail looked like a thug anyway and there was always some distinguishing characteristic such as a scar or the style of hair, or if they even had hair. But still, it'd be nice if he had something to look at when he wrote their names in while he hid in his room each night. Maybe he should get a job and buy himself a laptop or something.

Steven realized that he'd let his mind wander too far when the bell rang abruptly signaling the end of First period. Steven quickly piled his notebooks and papers into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and filed into the student line to go next door into Second Period.

And when he reached out to touch the door handle, he felt it turn under some unknown force and it opened, nearly hitting him in the head. He stepped backward into someone else accidentally and found himself face to face with Jennie standing inside of Mrs. Shaunesty's class.

"Oh, sorry." Steven muttered and she laughed.

"Did I hit you?"

"No."

She smiled. "Hey, I was wondering something."

Steven blinked. Wondering something? A million things shot through his mind at once and all thoughts about the stress using the Death Note was wiped from his mind. What could she possibly be wondering about. And it came to him before she could open her mouth again.

"If it's about the wooden thing, it's okay." Steven smiled. "I can get it fixed."

"I still feel bad, I'm such a klutz." Jennie hit her own head with a smile on her face and Steven found himself unable to look away, feeling the strange sensation in his chest again. Zando had been right, she was cute. How come he'd never noticed her before?

"Anyway." She went on. "I'm having a picnic with a few people and you should come."

"Alright." Steven said, without thinking. "When is it?"

"Wednesday." She said. "But you have to bring your own food."

"Um, okay?" He didn't see this as a problem at all.

"What are you bringing?" She suddenly looked serious and Steven felt slightly taken aback.

"Hmm, what do you want me to bring?" He asked, feeling a little happy that he didn't have to come up with something creative on the spot. He was not in a mood to think too hard about something as pointless as food. His mind was still wrapped around the fact that Jennie had actually asked him to a picnic just for running into him.

"Well, you can bring Salmon." Jennie nodded.

"Salmon?" Steven repeated.

"Yes."

"Why Salmon?"

"Why not?"

Damn her. Steven frowned. "Alright, Salmon and—"

"Steak." Jennie interrupted.

Steven blinked and he suddenly understood. Jennie's serious face broke into a smile. "I'm just kidding, bring whatever you want."

The bell rang and they both stepped back inside the class. Jennie went over to her seat while Steven took a seat on the opposite side of the room, resting his elbows up on the desk and looking down at his lap with narrowed eyes. Her attempt to be creative by telling him he could only bring food that started with the first letter of someone's name was humorous. It seemed she was trying to see how fast he would catch onto something. Steven smirked and decided that, just to be funny, he really would end up bringing steak and salmon just for the hell of it.

But despite the fact that their first conversation seemed a bit one sided, Steven couldn't help but have a rising desire to talk to her again. And throughout the hour he continued to cast glances over at her when he felt it was safe to risk it. He hadn't expected her to be so up front so quickly. In fact, in light of the recent events involving the other Death Note user he'd nearly forgotten about Jennie's existence up until that morning. Was Jennie always like that, so upfront with people she hardly knew?

Immediately Steven started divulging different theories and reasons as to why Jennie could be like this. Perhaps she was just raised that way, to be friendly and invite everyone to picnics. Whatever it was, at least she didn't do it in a way that annoyed him but rather intrigued him.

Zando would laugh if he knew what Steven was thinking about. Girls. How typical of a High School student. But Steven was smooth enough to focus on girls and the Death Note at once. In a way, thinking of Jennie relieved some of the pressure he was feeling about the Death Note. Indeed with the appearance of another Death Note user along with the mounting frustration of memorizing so many criminal's faces every day, Steven couldn't help but feel a little bit moody with his current situation. But maybe he could use Jennie to relieve that stress, even just by thinking about her. Whatever kind of feeling he got when he looked at her enlightened him, and it stayed there throughout the entire period even when he wasn't looking directly at her but just writing his notes about the Second Amendment.

Something about her touched him.

Steven stood from his seat and turned to exit the portable building with his backpack around his shoulder. But as he made his way to the door, Jennie approached him with the same smile she had on her face as before. "Hey!" She called.

"Huh?" Steven looked up. "Oh, hi."

"I just remembered that I forgot to tell you where the picnic was going to be." Jennie smacked her forehead. "Stupid me."

Steven had been expecting this actually. He himself had thought about this already and prepared for the possibility that Jennie would approach him after class. At least this confirmed that she hadn't been messing with him the entire time and was using the picnic idea just for a conversation. Something like that was an uncomfortable thought and he hoped Jennie wouldn't do something like that to play with his emotions. Perhaps she'd noticed the look in Steven's eyes when they first met and suspected that he liked her or something and would be playing a trick on him only to break him apart in the end. There was even a possibility that she was doing it right now. This was one of the things that Steven had considered when she'd first been so upfront with him in the beginning of class. But until he knew the complete truth he'd have to play along.

"Oh, so there is a picnic after-all." He said suddenly, deciding to go according to plan. Jennie blinked, looking dumbfounded. "Sorry, I thought you were just screwing with me before when you made the jokes about steak and salmon." Steven smiled, pulling off a lame expression.

"Well you can bring them if you want." Jennie smirked. "But I'm completely serious. Anyway, the picnic will be at Maplewood Park on Wednesday after school. Think you can make it?"

Steven was surprised by this answer. "I live right down the road from there."

Jennie smiled. "Oh! Well then you can come?"

"Of course." Steven grinned. "Oh, and just in case, would you mind if a friend or two came?" Luke or Zito might try to make plans with him on Wednesday and if he told them he was going on a picnic with some people they might want to come as well. Depending on what exactly he told them, of course. If he made it sound like he wanted to go alone so that he could have some major flirting with Jennie then they'd probably let him go but if he made it sound casual with a bunch of people and possibly bring up the fact that a girl he liked would be there then they might be up for coming. Steven didn't really think about it too much but he'd mite as well find out early just in case.

"Are they going to bring food?" Jennie asked.

"Hm, maybe." Steven shrugged as they both made their way out of the class and down the path outside, leading to the main building. "You might know one of them, Luke."

"Luke?" Jennie thought for a moment. "I think so."

"He's a mormon kid." Steven said.

"Oh, then I know him." Jennie nodded.

Steven found this information a bit curious. "You Mormon?"

"Yeah."

Great. Steven honestly didn't care too much but the fact that she was a Mormon did put a slight damper on him. For some reason he'd found himself attracted to Mormon chicks and now Jennie as well? In his eyes, there were two kinds of Mormons, the hardcore ones and the high on life ones. The hardcore Mormons were the ones that Steven tried to avoid when it came to flirting with because of their love for their religion, kind of like Luke's family. And then there were the High on life Mormons like Luke or Baker which were cool to flirt with and didn't follow by their religion in such a "hardcore" manner. Steven hoped Jennie was the latter.

"See you tomorrow, Steve." Jennie waved, walking off in a different direction and leaving Steven to walk toward the Lunch room alone.

Steven couldn't help but feel elated as he headed toward the table where his friends were all sitting around. It was break time and that meant fifteen minutes of hanging out with his friends. Jacob and Zito were already there sitting down and putting their backpacks up on the table. Zito looked tired and Jacob looked ready to punch something. Steven smirked and sat down next to them, putting his backpack on the floor by his feet.

"You look happy about something, Steve." Jacob said suddenly.

Steven smirked and closed his eyes. "Do I?"

"Did you get laid?" Zito murmured with a silly grin on his face despite his tired appearance.

"I wish." Steven laughed.

The topic of Steve's happiness went away as Sam and Cameron joined the table and sat down.

"Did you hear about what's happening?" Cameron said, looking up at them all with a worried expression on his face.

"No?" Zito raised an eyebrow.

"Six people have died in a month and a half here. That's a record, man." Cameron said. "They're supposed to announce something in third period about it. They might close down the school or something."

"What?" Zito looked shocked to this news.

"That's ridiculous." Steven grumbled.

"I know!" Cameron exclaimed. "Four Heart Attacks and Two Suicides isn't the school's fault."

"Why would they close down the school for something like that?" Jacob asked, drinking his milk.

"They might be trying to see if the deaths will stop if school closes." Steven said. "Any of you guys watch the news? This isn't just happening here."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I heard about that too." Cameron said, catching on to what Steven was saying. "Apparently there are heart attacks happening all over America. People think that the terrorists might be doing something like implanting things in our food to kill us off."

"Except it's only been happening to criminals in jail." Steven said. "Not actual citizens. So that theory doesn't make sense. Why would terrorists kill off our criminals? That's just helping us."

"Ugh, weird." Zito muttered. "Who cares, though?"

Steven couldn't help but feel a little happy to know that the news of his work was reaching, even the ears of Cameron Ball. Zito might not care, nor might Jacob, and maybe even Cameron, but Cameron was the only one in the group who would go around and tell people of his knowledge about something like this. Steven had already thought of something like this occurring a while ago. And it was interesting to see it in affect. And of course…

"Maybe the wrath of God is killing off all the evil people in the world or something." Cameron said.

Zito and Steven both laughed while Jacob scoffed into his arm.

"Wrath of God? Whatever." Zito muttered.

"I was kidding, Zito." Cameron said.

Steven sighed and looked at them all in silence. Cameron had no idea how close he was to being right. In a way, Steven was playing the part of God. Killing off the evil in the world. As they all sat there and forced their conversation away from the Criminal Killings, Steven couldn't help but wonder if he was doing a better job at doing away with evil than God himself. A common question in everyone's mind that questioned the very existence of God was "Why would a God allow bad things to happen to good people?" and there were many different responses to this involving words like "Satan's doing" or "God has a plan" but in the end Steven had formed his own conclusion. Nobody can control good or evil except for people, not God or Satan. It was up to humans to purge themselves of the evil in the world. And, as the bell rang and Steven rose from his seat, he was going to be the one to do it. He would finish God's work and wipe out evil in the world for good.

And just like how Cameron had said, as Steven settled down into his third period behind Jacob and in front of their newfound friend, Noah, the announcements came on and Ms. Beeson's voice introduced herself to the Student Body.

"Sorry for the interruption, this is Ms. Beeson." She began and Steven immediately focused his attention away from the students around him and listened to the intercom. "As many of you know, last Friday Heather Larson died of Heart failure. In the past few weeks there have been five other deaths in the student body, including the three students who died of heart failure on the first day of school as well."

"And we regret to inform you that, starting next week, the school board will be meeting to decide whether or not to close down the school for a little while and find out the reason behind all these deaths. If the Deaths stop, then the school will reopen and we will assume that it was just a passing disturbance and misfortune. We will then continue the amount of school days we lost over into the Summer, including you, Seniors. However, this is only if the School Board decides to act upon this. I will inform you of the decision next week on Monday. Goodbye."

The intercom went silent but already there was uproar throughout all the classes in the school building.

"Carry on into the summer! WHAT!?"

"It's just heart attacks and suicide! This isn't fair!"

"Close school!! Yah!"

"Shut up, idiot! This is serious!"

"Calm down, children." Mr. Mejelli said and for the first time he looked kind of serious. "Don't worry too much, alright. Let's just focus on safety in the shop and remember to wear goggles!"

Steven rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. It was a mistake to announce all of that on the intercom. Of course, they had no choice since they couldn't just do it later when the decision is already made. But to make the student body this on edge wasn't going to help. People would be blaming each other for the suicide of Sean Church probably and if Heather Larson was involved with as much drama as she claimed then there would probably be fights involving that situation as well. And then there was the fact that there was another Death Note user out there. If they decided to start killing off Hazen students just for the hell of it then that could be problematic and turn the school into a living hell. If anything, it would be preventing what Steven was trying to do.

Steven's fist tightened in his pockets. This Chess Game was already more interesting with that school announcement. It made him want to catch his opponent even more than before. And he was determined to do so. After all, he'd cast the first move and would be finding out the outcome of that first move by the end of the day. But to wait so long and continue his feeble studying of the students around him was boring. So far, nobody he'd met really issued off a feel of being capable to handle the Death Note. The school was full of people who were idiots and would use it too out of hand. And since this person used the Death Note to kill Heather and nobody else so far, then that must mean that they're either too afraid to keep going and ditched the Death Note somewhere, or is biding their time like Steven and is planning their own tactics for finding him.

When the bell sounded and Steven left third period with Jacob, they went straight to the lunch room and lined up for their food. On their way, Steven had kept an eye out in case he saw Jennie again like on Friday but there was no sign of her this time. Too bad. When they got their food and headed outside like they always did, Steven saw Zito sitting by himself on the stone platform that held the tree they all sat around every day.

"Yo!" He greeted them.

"No Katlynn today?" Steven pondered.

"Guess not." Zito shrugged.

Jacob immediately went into a conversation with them about something like they always did. Lunch without a lot of people seemed kind of boring and there wasn't much to talk about except for…

"I can't believe they're going to close down school." Zito muttered.

"They're not going to close it down." Steven spoke up suddenly, having been sitting quietly eating his hamburger the entire time. "They're only thinking about it. I don't think the school would do something that drastic yet."

"Hm. Maybe." Zito shrugged. "It's weird though."

"Man, who gives a shit." Jacob said, kicking the platform and eating a french-fry.

Steven frowned down at his backpack and opened his mouth to say something else but the doors to their left opened suddenly with a loud "Bang!"

They all looked up and saw two people come out. One was Katlynn, finally arriving arm in arm with a boy.

"Andrew!" Jacob said, standing up and looking at them.

Andrew? What was he doing there?

Andrew smirked and looked at them all with his arm around Katlynn's. He was a tall, skinny eighteen year old boy who had been friends with them for a while now and had been going out with Katlynn since last year. Zito didn't have too much of a problem with Andrew but Steven always felt a sense of despise toward the man.

Today, Andrew was wearing a black shirt and a green, striped tie along with a pair of baggy, purple pants that had a chain swinging from his waistline. He had a strange, almost gothic appearance most of the time which was funny because Andrew liked to consider himself the most mature in the group.

"What are you doing here?" Steven asked curiously.

"I'm skipping." Andrew shrugged, looking directly into Steven's eyes for a split second before turning away to smile down at Katlynn.

Andrew didn't have lunch with them normally because of his classes but today he was skipping? How odd. Steven sighed and looked down at his hamburger. He really didn't want Andrew there but he wouldn't say anything. One of the only reasons he continued to sit by and allow Andrew's presence was for the sake of his friendship with Katlynn. She absolutely "loved" him, or so she thought. And she would side with him on anything.

Andrew stayed outside with them for the rest of the lunch period, acting lovey dovey with Katlynn on the platform while Jacob performed some kicks and Zito made jokes. Steven remained silent and watched, for some reason not feeling in the mood to be social at the moment. It had nothing to do with Andrew being there, he just didn't have the mood set for him. Of course, they would think his mood would have to do with Andrew and he would have to deny that later just so they could stop thinking such ridiculous things as they always did.

Steven sighed as the bell rang and he stood up with his backpack slung over his shoulder. As he was leaving, he noticed Katlynn giving him an odd, wide eyed look of shock. He returned it with a raised eyebrow, but she looked away, realizing that she'd been caught. Steven frowned and continued to head toward the door.

"See you fifth period, Zito." He said, leaving the group first.

What was with that look Katlynn gave him? Steven wondered this for a few seconds but decided that it was probably nothing to be concerned about. With a sigh, he continued down the hallway toward his science class…

Sixth period was over. Finally, after a day of paying careful attention to all his surrounding class mates he'd come up with the conclusion that none of them were very plausible for being the other Death Note user. As he boarded the bus, he saw Jennie come walking out from the school heading toward her own bus. Steven felt the familiar jolt in his chest when he saw her. She looked happy about something as she boarded Route 1 and disappeared from view.

Better be careful, Steve…Don't want to look like a stalker. The little voice in his head muttered wickedly and Steven closed his eyes, turning away from the window. But he couldn't help it. It wasn't like he was searching for her or anything, they just happened to cross paths every now and then. And when he did see her, he wasn't able to look away for some reason. Why didn't he notice her before? Stupid Steven… He thought with a frown as the buses started up.

Steven looked back out the window as the buses turned to head out of the parking lot. He saw a bird like thing fly off from the roof of the building and he smiled.

The whole bus ride home Steven thought about Jennie. He would be going to a picnic at a park right next to his house in two days, after-all. And originally he'd planned on bringing salmon and steak just to be funny but now that he thought more about it, it didn't seem to be possible for him. He didn't even know how to cook steak OR salmon, especially for a bunch of people at a picnic. He'd probably just end up bringing some chips and soda or something.

But why had Jennie asked to him the picnic? Was this some kind of plan of hers or was she just trying to be nice. Maybe (an uncomfortable squirm entered his stomach at this thought) she felt sorry for him. Maybe she thought he was just some ugly, lonely geek who didn't talk much in Government class and wanted to make up for breaking his DVD holder…

Wow…I'm surprised I didn't think of that already… He thought and as he got off the bus he couldn't help but feel a bit moody and walked home faster than anyone else.

Once inside his house, he slammed his bedroom door and sat down on his bed to contemplate. The first thing he noticed was that Zando wasn't there. But he didn't care too much right now. His thoughts were still wrapped around the Jennie issue. What if she really did think of him as some kind of nerd and had only been joking with him this entire time? He imagined going to the park with the chips and soda in hand only to find nobody there…

"Something wrong, Steve?" said a voice behind him and Steven looked over his shoulder in surprise. Zando was standing next to his lamp with a wicked grin on his face.

"You're late." Steven said scornfully.

"You look angry about something." Zando tilted his head slightly. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Steven said shortly. "Now tell me, Zando…How did it go?"

Zando paused for a second with a twisted grin on his face. "Well…It went fairly well, I'd say."

"Did you see who it is, then?" Steven asked, turning around to face the Shinigami. Suddenly, all thoughts of whether or not Jennie liked him were flushed from his mind and his attention was focused on the Death God.

"Yes." Zando said. "And you're not going to believe who it is…"

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