On a particular Monday afternoon, Sei walked into her house followed by Yazoo and Kadaj. They all stopped for a few seconds to notice that a huge stop sign was settled in the middle of the living room for all who came in to see. Sei sighed and didn't give the sign much importance; she thought Jake had probably stolen it from somewhere and was now trying to get a reward from it. It wasn't rare when that happened; Jake was constantly looking for ways to trip out the system. She was actually beginning to wonder how come it had taken him so long to steal the next traffic sign. To her surprise, as soon as she walked passed it, Jake appeared out of nowhere blowing a whistle madly into her face, startling her and the other two right out of their skins.

"What's your problem?" demanded Sei.

"What's yours?" Jake returned. "Can't you respect Stop Signs?"

"Was I supposed to bow, say hello and introduce myself?"

"Yeah, very funny Sei."

"Jake, answer me this question. What the hell is a Stopsign doing in the middle of the living room this time of the year?"

"I'm planning on helping you study for your driving test today," said Jake.

"Well, you can take the sign back from wherever you took it, because I can ace that test by myself."

"Sei, when I tested you yesterday, you almost ran over an old lady in a wheelchair."

She should've known that one was coming. "I didn't mean to!" she rolled her eyes. "And she came out of nowhere! She must've had escaped from a crazy asylum to have been pushing that wheelchair so fast!"

"Excuses, excuses! You exaggerate like always my dear sister."

Sei gave Jake a challenging look and opened her mouth; just then Jake lifted his arm, whistle in hand and said "No more arguing; here, bring two chairs and a hula hoop and we'll pretend we're in a car."

"Why can't we do it in a real car? Your car."

"And risk you crashing it?"

"But I'm going to be using it later today, why not get used to it a little bit?" pressed Sei.

"No way." Jake used that tone of his that Sei knew all too well; it meant that there was nothing in existence that would make him change his mind at the moment.

Sei rolled her eyes again and went to the kitchen to get two chairs while Yazoo went to the garage to look for the hula hoop.

Meanwhile, Jake was telling Kadaj to help. "What am I supposed to do?" asked the remnant.

"Jump out of nowhere and if Sei doesn't pretend to stop, you'll pretend to have been runned over and you'll be in pretended pain, okay?"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Fine," said Jake, pulling out his wallet. "I'll pay you $20."

Kadaj looked at the money Jake was handing out to him and backed away one step saying; "That's not fair; I mean I'm not even supposed to be here, I have some homework to do and besides, I'm not good at pretending and—"

"Ok, make it $22." Said Jake pulling on a smile.

Kadaj took the money and with a greedy smile said, "You got yourself a deal, sir."

At the moment the remnant was pocketing the money, Yazoo walked in with Sei who came back with the two large, seat cushioned, wooden chairs and settled them side by side; Jake sat on one and Sei on the other and then she took the hoop Yazoo was handing her.

"What's the hoop for?" she asked.

"Think of it as the steering wheel," said Jake.

There was silence as she held the "steering wheel" in front of her for a few moments. "Are Yazoo and Kadaj doing this too?" she finally asked.

"No, Yazoo already knows how to drive and I trust Kadaj has driving skills. You, on the other hand… I don't think the world is ready for you."

Sei rolled her eyes at the comment and started to drive. "What are you doing?" asked Jake.

"Playing your game."

"You can't drive a car if it's not on."

"You know what? I don't give a—"

Jake looked at her with a stern look, and with a raised eyebrow. Sei sighed. She pretended to turn on the car, and Jake was beside her doing all the car noises. She was about to start driving again, when her brother stopped her once more. "You can't drive a car if the car's gear shift is on park."

Sei tightened her grip on the hoop and licked her lips as she pretended she shifted the gear to drive. "Look out your three mirrors before leaving, Sei."

…Okay, so he had good intentions in mind, but they were triggering Sei's sense of murder every time he corrected something. Nonetheless, ignoring that need to strangulate him, she did what her brother asked her to; she looked out the three imaginary mirrors, looked back to make sure no imaginary car was coming, and then slightly eased on the imaginary gas pedal to go forward into the imaginary street ahead of them.

Several times she was reminded to move the wheel a little to assimilate an actual steering wheel. They went on with the game for a while and Sei was beginning to lose the whole point of the activity. But then, just as he was instructed, Kadaj jumped in front of her and stomped heavily twice; Sei, instead of stepping on the imaginary brake, screamed and pushed backward sending herself the chair and the hula along with her. As she did this, her legs flew up in the air as reflex to try and compensate and regain balance; however, she only succeeded in kicking Kadaj away.

"I thought the pain was supposed to be pretend…" said Kadaj from the ground rubbing his chin and moving his jaw making sure it didn't lock in place.

"Nice one, Sei. You ran over Kadaj."

"Can I run over him now?" asked Yazoo from the couch as he leaned his head to the side with amusement like he usually did. Kadaj looked angrily at him.

"Sei, you need more practice, you had the same reaction as a person that was hypnotized by the street—"

"You know what? This isn't working. I can't do this." Sei stood up and straightened the chair. "Jake, don't forget I have to take your car to the driving test today."

"I'm sort of thinking about it, but Im not sure for how much damage I can pay for," said Jake. Then he added, "What's wrong with you? Are you blind?" when Sei ignored the Stop sign a second time.

"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" He accused. He stood up and helped Kadaj stand then took the chairs back to the kitchen. He decided he had tried to help but heaven help them if Sei was going to go around town driving… all he could do was get on his knees and beg for someone from the above—perhaps the people in Lifestream— to help his sister pass the damned driving test without sending someone to the hospital. "Hey, I'm taking a shower!" announced Jake. "I'm keeping the keys since I am going with you all later."

Minutes later, when Jake came out of the shower, Loz was reading the newspaper in the living room. Without bothering to look up from the news, he wiggled a finger towards the stop sign; "What's with the, ah…"

"It's a long story," sighed Jake. He noticed the house was awfully quiet. "Where's Kadaj?"

"He's with Sei and Yazoo waiting for you in the car," Loz answered simply. "He said he wanted to see how the whole deal worked, before he got his own license tomorrow." He licked the tip of this finger and then changed the page as he added "I suggest you take a few chains, since I saw him eating a chocolate bar before he went outside."

The color drained from Jakes face as his body tensed. No wonder the oldest remnant was acting so calm; he didn't want to go with them and was leaving Jake and them to fend for themselves as they confronted Kadaj's insanity later when the sugar kicked in. Loz finally lowered the paper and looked up at Jake when he didn't reply. "Don't worry," he said when he saw Jake standing across from Loz with a worried expression. "I'm sure Yazoo and Sei can help you handle him." Loz lifted the paper again. It was clear he was going to stay home.

"Yeah…"Jake kept his body tense as he added, "I hope so."

There were two parts to the test; the obstacle part and the real street driving part. So far, Sei had not done very well and had had to repeat the course several times with a bit of bribery to the school from her brother. In the obstacle part, the school had bright obstacles that the student had to react to in an acceptable manner; orange cones, fake animals and humans to dodge; stop signs, street lights, speed bumps to respect; sharp curves to slow down, etc. So far, Sei had run over a couple of people, ignored street lights and stop signs and speed over a couple speed bumps. She wasn't using Jake's car yet—much to the likes of him—, but she was using a car the school had lend her.

It was already six in the afternoon and Yazoo had already acquired his license approximately an hour prior. There was a huge gray building a few yards from the area of the parking lot, and the remnant was standing under the shade of said building along with Kadaj and Jake, watching from the sidelines how Sei struggled with the obstacles out in the parking lot. They had small conversation earlier, but having had run out of topics to chat, now the three men stood silently, each of them hoping Sei would get the test over with soon. Finally, Yazoo turned away from Sei and towards Jake.

"You know, judging by the arguments earlier today between you and your sister," he said as he leaned his back against the waist-high handrail, "I thought she would be a lot better at this task."

Jake kept looking ahead as he leaned against the building and decided to let that comment pass as he sighed. Yazoo's hopes for a new chat, or even an argument, had disappeared so he simply sighed as well and looked down at his boots; surely they had something more interesting to offer than anything else out there at the moment. Since they didn't, he grabbed a section of his hair and scanned it closely in search for split ends.

Kadaj, who had been standing like a statue despite the sugar in his system, came up beside Yazoo and leaned his elbows on the rail as he watched Sei decapitate a fake deer with the front fender of the car. He was silent for a while longer until… "You know, I read somewhere that—"

"Do not even think about finishing that sentence." Interrupted Yazoo quietly, not bothering to look up from the piece of hair in his hands. "I will not believe you anyway."

"Why not?" Kadaj looked back at his brother; he looked hurt.

Yazoo finally let go of his hair and looked down at his younger brother with the same cold expression he always had and simply stated, "Because you never read." Jake cracked a smile and bit his lip hoping to successfully repress a laugh.

"That's a lie!" said Kadaj, his expression turning from hurt to annoyed. "I do read! I just… well, you… and then… Oh, shut up."

Yazoo smirked slyly and then looked down at his hands as he poked at his fingernail. For a moment, there was a comfortable silence between the brothers; the kind of silence that would come across every now and then in the older days when they were both much younger and much more isolated from the world. Jake didn't say anything either; he seemed to be enjoying the silence as much as the other two were. Just then, Yazoo remembered Sei's brother was with them and suddenly he felt a little uncomfortable to be sharing such intimacy with him. The remnant sighed as he shook all those feelings of nostalgia away by flipping his hair behind his back and crossing his arms. "You already got your license, Yaz," said Kadaj, who had been watching him carefully. "Why don't we leave?"

"Because they have the car." Yazoo nodded over to Jake as he uncrossed his arms and sat on the rail behind him. "And the way things are going, I believe we will not be leaving anytime soon. Besides," he added as he looked at his brother with a sly smile, "I feel too lazy to walk home."

Suddenly Sei's car stopped hard, making the car brakes sound loud as the wheels slid over the pavement. With alert filling their bodies and making them tense, the remnants and Jake snapped their heads and bodies back towards the vehicle. "Maybe the test is over," suggested Kadaj. All three men exchanged a "not likely" look before they jumped over the rail and jogged over to the car.

Sei and the teacher were having a deep conversation when they got there. "Is it over?" asked Jake.

Sei looked out the window into her friends faces. "No guys. I have to do it again," she said avoiding Jake's eyes.

"Aw, I'm tired of waiting out there," complained Kadaj.

Yazoo opened the car's back door and pushed Kadaj in as he said "Waiting out there is frustrating. Get in."

"What the— ah, who cares as long as you stay quiet," said the teacher. "Come on Sei. Turn the engine on and let's do this again."

Sei sat in silence at the driver's seat, apparently spaced out. "What's wrong?" asked Kadaj.

"It's because… I forgot how to turn it on."

"Again?" said the teacher.

"What do you mean again?" asked Jake frowning as he closed the car door behind him.

"I mean, she's forgotten her lesson 3 times!" explained the instructor, his face beginning to turn red. "I've been teaching driving school for 50 years and it's the first time I get such a beast-like student." He reached over and pointed with a fat finger. "There. Turn it… The other way… Good, now put it on drive and let us continue."

They felt the car moving a little bit when they all jerked forward as Sei stepped on the brake. "What happened?" demanded Kadaj.

"Its cuz, I messed up and I accidentally set it on reverse!" Sei sounded nervous as she fumbled with the gear shift.

"It's not easy being a driving teacher."

"But you're doing a fine job showing what you're made of and hanging on," assured Sei.

"Let us continue." The teacher looked down on his clipboard.

Sei did as told. But she had only moved a bit when she braked suddenly again. "If you keep doing that, you're gonna give us all whiplash," said Jake.

"I'm sorry. But I can't do this." She said. She shifted the gear to park, sighed exasperated and covered her face with her hands adding, "I'm no good. I guess I'll have to come back tomorrow."

"Yeah, that sounds good – wait, WHAAAT?" shrieked the teacher. From the way his eyes were bulging it was obvious he wasn't looking forward to it. But either Sei ignored it, or didn't catch his fear.

"I'm beginning a journey without turning back." Her hands dropped to her lap as she looked ahead. "I look into my future… Into my Drivers License… and I see I won't get it anytime today."

There was silence in the car, everybody thinking about what she had just said. Only the car engine could be heard; it was so strange how the situation had turned so dramatic. All of a sudden all hell broke loose when Yazoo took the driving instruction booklet from Jake's hands abruptly and leafed through it noisily and quickly. He was thinking the exact same words Jake had said a couple of months earlier; "Desperate situations call for desperate measures." When he found what he was looking for, he leaned forward onto the back of the front seat and shoved the book right in front of Sei's face.

"Here, read these pages, it will help you if you memorize them."

"But I don't have that much memory!" Sei looked back at Yazoo's calm face frantically. "I can close my eyes and forget what clothes I'm wearing!"

"Well then rip them out and look at them when you're having doubts; tape then on the windshield if you have to, as long as you pass this test," suggested the silver haired remnant.

"What if the director of the school comes?"

"Then we'll say, 'oh excuse us while we vandalize school property and cheat on this test, please go check on other students until we're done. Thank you!'" said Kadaj as he reached in and ripped the pages out and handed them to her. "Look," he said as he leaned forward, "you don't even need tape to put these on the window; we can use gum, does anyone have gum? Or look, we don't even need that, a bit of spit will do the trick— "

"Hey that's cheating!" said the instructor. He dropped the clipboard and got a hold of the pages Kadaj was getting ready to lick.

"Oh, no, it is beyond that. And soon you will learn why; keep silence." Yazoo reached in and also grabbed a hold of the pages. "Sei, needs them since she is too forgetful to remember what to do."

"If she takes them, she will fail the test!"

"Yazoo, let Sei try—"

"Jake shut the hell up he's trying—"

"Don't fucking tell me—"

"People, let's all calm down—"

"I will not allow my students to—"

"Just give me the pages."

"She doesn't need them!"

"Yes she does!"

"I know her more than any of you morons—"

"Don't call us morons—"

Sei was the only one out of the debate; through the rear-view mirror, she saw Jake had chimed in to participate in the tug-war for the instruction pages; now everybody was yelling in Sei's ear, the car was rocking back and forth, and to her annoyance, she couldn't even tell whose voice belonged to whom.

In her desperate attempt to reestablish peace in the car, she switched the gear shift to drive, grabbed on to the steering wheel hard, and stepped on the gas sending everyone stumbling backward and into the air as she sped up over another speed bump—"Whoa!"— immediately stepping on the brake after a few seconds thus jerking everyone forward again.

"What the hell, Sei?" demanded Jake, as he and Yazoo attempted to untangle.

"My head!" said Kadaj, rubbing his forehead and laughing at the same time.

Sei sighed and loosened her grip on the wheel as she smiled. Apparently her tactic had worked. Unfortunately, the whole commotion had sent the papers flying all over the car; by the time she noticed, everyone had gone back to arguing about whether or not she should take a look at the papers. Not bothering to wait for an agreement, Kadaj and Yazoo were throwing all the papers in the back seat towards the front seat while Jake and the instructor threw the ones on the front seat onto the back seat. With her temper about to snap, she turned around, filled her lungs with air and— "ENOUGH!"

Immediately, as if someone had pushed a pause button, everyone in the car stopped doing what they were doing and turned to look at her, shocked. She was frowning at all of them sternly, her eyes scanning each and every face in the car, before her expression relaxed to a more tired one. She took the pages one by one and began throwing them to the back seat saying "I don't need these. I can do this myself."

All the males in the car looked at each other as if barely noticing the rest were there too. "So sit back, put your seat belts on and relax, or get out of the car," Sei added. Everyone in the back seat did as told; the instructor grabbed the clipboard again and faced the front.

"Alright, let's do this."

The test began again. Everyone in the car was calm, and spoke softly once in a while. It was amazing how after so much chaos and after so many tries, Sei was able to turn the car smoothly, how she was able to respect street signs and slow down for speed bumps. It was simply magical; almost as if the males in the back seat had had an effect on the girl's psychological behavior and bodily language. Almost too soon, the test was over, and Sei was ready for the second part of the test. When they all got out of the car to wait for further instructions, Yazoo turned and as he walked away, he smiled.

Yes, reversed psychology was usually the best trick in the book.

Kadaj sighed exasperated. It was the 15th time he read the comic and he still didn't get what he was reading.

When the instructor had given orders to Sei and her friends to wait for the second instructor to arrive in about ten minutes, Kadaj had gone inside the building into the waiting room, snatched a news paper and searched for the comic section. As soon as he had found it, he stepped back outside near the front entrance where his brother and Jake hung out at a bench and sat next to Yazoo, opening the newspaper noisily and dramatically, looking over at the other remnant with a raised eyebrow.

It was obvious he was trying to imply the fact that Yazoo had been wrong about him not reading and wanted his brother to take back his words. But the plan wasn't going so smoothly; the first comic he had read was the first one he had stuck on and worse yet, Yazoo kept looking over at him as if speculating whether or not he was really reading. Kadaj was so determined to try and figure it out, he forgot about faking a smile that indicated he understood what he was reading every time Yazoo looked over. And no matter how many times he read it or what ways he rotated the paper, or how close his eyes got to it or how many times he cleared his throat or how many times he blinked his eyes, he just didn't get it.

There was the final square of the comic, the one containing the punch line, that caught Kadaj's attention; it was a crazy looking bird, with its eyes bulging and looking at the reader, batting its wings furiously thus spreading feathers all over the place and with a whole bunch of question marks everywhere.

He looked at Yazoo from the corner of his eye; Jake was sitting on the other side of Yazoo and both were looking up at the sky, heaven knew at what. Kadaj could tell his brother had already lost interest in him and the paper. Sei was somewhere in the building, apparently she had had to go use the toilet. Finally giving up, Kadaj sighed again and got closer to his brother.

"I still don't understand this comic for kids," he admitted, shoving the paper in front of his brother's face. "What's happening to the chicken?"

Yazoo's blank expression twisted into confusion and then annoyance as the happening rapidly dawned on him. For a second he stared at the chicken that looked out at him and huffed. "I am sure it is wondering the same about you." The silver haired brother replied looking downward as he flipped his cell phone open. "It has been 20 minutes…"

"Oh, Sei's here." Jake said standing up. "You're Late!"

"I am? Is he here yet?"

Kadaj slammed the paper beside him as he stood up and shook his head. "You're lucky, since the teacher's late too," mumbled Kadaj.

"And I apologize for that, honey." All four turned to face a slender young man with a patch over one eye. "Sorry, I went to Yoga Class and I had my head between my legs further than I ever thought possible. Oh, hi, I am Mr. Nik," He added as he bowed lightly, smiling.

Kadaj started laughing like a lunatic while the other three wondered about the absence of some of the dental pieces in Mr. Nik's mouth. Signaling to Yazoo and Sei, the guy asked, "Which one of you is Sei?"

Everyone looked confused until Yazoo finally asked, "What do you mean 'which one?'."

"Oh, darling, you are so handsome I almost mistook you for a girl." Yazoo emitted a sound that sounded much like a shocked gasp as Kadaj bent over and laughed even harder.

Mr. Nik already finished with the smiling and the shaking of hands with everyone, finally motioned for Jake to follow him until they were out of ear reach of the others. In the distance, Sei could see how both males discussed something, and they were both pointing at the clip board Mr. Nik was carrying. The fact that Kadaj began to choke on his own spit because he was laughing so hard made Sei snap back to her actual whereabouts and then noticed how Yazoo has looking disgustedly between his brother and himself.

Clearly agitated, Yazoo took a deep breath as he bit his thumbnail and said "I think I should cut my hair." He avoided looking down at his chest where some of his silver hair rested, and he avoided looking at Sei and the others as well, but his eyes were heavily set on Kadaj, who was still laughing like his life depended on it.

"Aw, no, don't do that." said Sei. "At least not because of something some weirdo said." She added, holding the ends of a few silver hairs. Her touch sent a warm, electrifying sensation down his spine; a new feeling to him.

Leaving the speculation of the phenomenon for later, he looked over at Jake and Nik. "Just out of curiosity, Sei," Yazoo began. He paused for a second, and Sei wondered if he was going to continue his question. A moment later, he turned back to her and set those cat-like green eyes on her. "What do you think happened to his mouth?" The silver haired remnant nodded slightly over to the pair in the distance.

Sei looked over just in time to see how Nik smiled at Jake with great respect and affection; Nik had a female tendency of waving his arms all over the place, sometimes putting one hand on his waist in a perfect Super Model imitation and blinking with flirty intentions.

Was he hitting on Jake? "I don't know," she said instead. "But it reminds me of the aftermath of when cartoon characters get exploding grenades in their mouths." That earned a small smile from Yazoo.

"All right everyone!" Mr. Nik came over walking in a Super Model way and clapping his hands a few times, excitedly. "Let's do this! Mrs. Sei? Will you be taking your brothers car?"

Sei looked over at Jake who was walking into the driving school building. "Ah… yeah, I think. Let me go get the keys from—" Before she could continue, the instructor gave her the keys to Jake's car.

"Uh, excuse me, can my friends come with me to the test?"

"Oh, sure thing Missus!"

Sei led the way to where the vehicle was. When she unlocked both doors of the sports car and climbed onto the driver's seat, Kadaj turned to his brother and said "May I open the door for you, ma'am?" and then laughed at his own joke.

Yazoo gave Kadaj a penetrating look and calmly asked, "Kadaj, remember what happened when you were ten?"

"Did I confuse you for my sister?" Kadaj laughed at his joke again. Yazoo rolled his eyes, neared his younger brother's ear and whispered something that made Kadaj widen his eyes in shock and he stop laughing instantly.

"You wouldn't say that aloud!"

"Honestly, I find myself still debating whether I should or not." The silver haired one gave the other an evil sly smile.

"Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Yes I am." Yazoo's smile grew a little bit as he asked, "Is it working?" Already knowing the answer, he pushed his brother as he opened the car door and he climbed into the back of Jake's car and settled himself behind the driver's seat.

Before Kadaj could follow after him, Mr. Nik also pushed Kadaj out of the way and immediately climbed onto the back next to Yazoo, put his seatbelt on and started scribbling stuff down.

"Aren't you coming on the front passenger seat?" Sei asked confused.

Nik looked up for a moment then turned back to his clipboard. "No, it's better if you forget I'm here. I'll get to score you on attitude as well."

With uncertainty, the younger remnant climbed in the front passenger's seat and closed the door. "Wait; hang on, what about Jake?"

"Oh," Nik said without looking up from his clipboard scribbles. "He said he had to go in the building to take care of some things, so he said he won't be coming with us."

Sei nodded confused, and started the car. She instructed for everyone to put their seatbelt on. They all sat there in silence waiting for further instructions from Nik. Without taking his eyes from the clipboard, Nik took out a mirror and a lip balm stick. He placed the mirror in front of his face, but it seemed it was force of habit since he wasn't looking at himself still even as he applied the lip balm. Watching him, Yazoo finally asked, "Did you know that lip balm is bad for you?"

Kadaj turned to look at his brother with confusion at the same time that Sei looked at Yazoo from the rear view mirror. Nik stopped applying lip balm and looked up at the remnant. "Why?"

"According to the news last night," started Yazoo, calm as always, "it makes your lips fall off."

Kadaj and Sei emitted a snorting sound, like if they were trying hard not to laugh out loud as Nik's expression turned from questioning to horrified. "Huh?"

"I suggest you stop wearing it; otherwise you will have no teeth and no lips." At Yazoo's words, Nik threw the stick to the front of the vehicle using the same reaction of a person who feared spiders and found one on their hand; with no more willpower to suppress their laughter, Sei and Kadaj opened their mouths and laughed hard.

"Sheesh, look at that face!" announced Kadaj, turning back to look at Nik, who after Kadaj's comment, took on an offended expression.

"Why did you get offended?" asked Yazoo. "After all, he did not say 'look at that mouth'."

As if it were the last straw, Nik looked at Sei furiously. "What kind of friends do you have, miss?" he demanded.

Before she could reply, Yazoo stepped in again and said, "Oh, smart remarks already." He pointed at the patch the guy had over his eye. "Nice patch by the way; it should have covered your toothless mouth too."

After much laughter from the three friends and much offended expressions from Nik, they all settled down and Yazoo told Nik that it was simply payback for mistaking him for a female and he assured Nik that now they were both even now. Being a good sport, Nik started laughing with the rest and admitted it had been fair play. Then, he remembered Sei was supposed to be driving, so he told her to back up and begin driving. Destination; to the other side of town and back… safely, of course.

She backed up slowly, looking back and at all her mirrors, making sure there was nobody in sight to accidentally run over. As soon as the car was in the streets, all four people in the vehicle were wrapped up in a tale being told by Nik; from his story, both remnants and the driving girl learned that the instructor had actually decided to become homosexual a few years ago.

By the way he talked about another guy named Yukiru, Nik had been deeply involved with him, for Nik described Yukiru as a godly figure; a figure with the most beautiful "Herculean muscles", "towering figure" with "deep and enchanting honey colored eyes", "moon sliver smile" and "golden halo of a hair". The way he described Yukiru made it seem like he was unusually handsome, and anyone who set their eyes on him would instantly become drawn to him and fall in love with him, women and men alike; it didn't matter if their sexual orientation were straight or not.

But despite his physical godly appearance, he was still a human, for Nik admitted he was disappointed in him; the reason was, Yukiru was violent and dangerously aggressive when he drank alcohol, and he drank heavily and very often. As a result of his inability to control his aggression, Yukiru had taken it out on Nik's family and on Nik himself, running away shortly after doing psychological damage on all of Nik's family and breaking the relationship with the instructor via mail. And Yukiru never apologized. The instructor embarrassingly admitted that he was still waiting for him to call and say something, anything that might allow Nik to follow his path in this life in peace.

When the story was over, the other three were silent. They didn't know what to say, what could they say? Kadaj turned around in his seat and looked back at the driving instructor. "Is the missing of your teeth Yukiru's doing?"

Nik looked up. "What, this?" he pointed to his mouth then shook his head. "No, I went to the dentist and the bastard messed with my smile."

"So, if he calls what are you going to tell him?" asked Kadaj.

"That he doesn't want anything to do with him anymore," suggested Sei.

"No, I would ask where has he been and why did it take him so long," said the instructor.

"He isn't going to call, you know," said Yazoo after a moment of silence. Everyone peeked back at him as he continued, "People like that do not release their anger, take off and then call back to apologize. But even if he did call, you should not forgive him. Forgiveness is something that has to be earned." He crossed his arms, conveniently forgetting the chaos he and his brothers had provoked in the city, and that despite what he was saying, he and his brothers had been granted forgiveness from Sei and Jake without much effort. But those facts were far beyond the real point here; he was being realistic based on Nik's story.

Nik didn't know what was going through Yazoo's mind, thus he immediately regarded the remnant's words as pearls of wisdom.

"Well, whaddaya know, we are back in school." Informed Sei. The three passengers looked out their respective windows; how had time gone by so fast? The test had finished.

"Alright, cool and guess what? You passed this infernal test!" Nik clapped excitedly as Sei and Kadaj got out of the car. When they were all out and congratulating Sei, Nik grabbed her arm and said, "All you have to do now is go in there with me so they can take your picture and hand you your license."

"We took the pictures as soon as we got here, right before the first test."

Nik looked taken aback at this; then just as Sei was about to explain, something dawned in the guys mind and then he nodded, smiling. "Alright then, follow me."

All four went into the building and then upstairs heading for the license picture department and they were all about to go into the room, Nik stiffened his body as he murmured "Oh, no."

The other three turned to see what he was looking at; there was only one person in the hallway with them and it was lady carrying a child about four or five years old in her arms.

"What's wrong? Who is she?"

Nik's eyes got wary as he answered, "I baby sit for the kid, but he's a demon. He has inspired me to hate kids."

"What's so bad about kids?" Sei wanted to know.

"The kid. Is a demon."

"Why don't you tell her about it?" asked Kadaj.

"You can't keep letting people step on you all the time, you know." Sei nudged Nik.

"Oh, I couldn't." Nik's disgusted face was forced into a welcoming grin as the lady practically dumped the kid over to him, and without even asking about the weather or greeting him, she began giving him instructions about what the kid needed to do that day. Nik decided for once to start following someone else's advice for a change. "Miss," interrupted the instructor. "I'm sorry, but today I have plans; I can't take care of the child."

The lady looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Well then cancel them, because I can't cancel my plans."

Nik's smile got awkward as he suggested, "Then find another baby sitter."

"You know, it's hard to find someone so confident and yet is missing several teeth." The lady laughed scornfully.

Nik's smile vanished and his expression turned angry. "That's it! I'm officially quitting the presidential post in Bratland!"

The lady stopped laughing and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, GO TO HELL!"—The lady was certainly surprised by this reaction—"AND TAKE HIM WITH YOU!" After brusquely handing the child back to his mother, Nik turned, smiled at Sei and her friends, and stormed down the stairs and out of the building.

The lady held the crying child in her arms, unable to say a word. After looking around as if wishing no one had seen that, she took careful steps towards the stairs, her arms shaking either with anger and shock or with the purpose of calming the kid.

The three friends looked at one another. "Wow, she seems speech less." Said Kadaj.

"I hope somebody pushes her down the stairs," said Yazoo. All three of them laughed quietly.

"Who's gonna get pushed down the stairs, or what?" all three of them turned to see Jake standing right there, near them, as if he had been there all along.

"Oh, where were you?" said Sei dropping the subject. "You missed it! I got my license!"

"Yeah, I know."

"How?"

"I got it right here, sis." He reached into his pocket and took out an envelope. Sei took it, opened it and in it was a letter of Congratulations and…

"My license!" without being able to hold herself back, she flung her arms around her brother and hugged him tightly.

Jake was taken aback, but he quickly recovered from the shock and embraced his sister warmly. The remnants saw that for once in all the four months that they had known Jake, he had never let his guard down like this. He smiled down at Sei, and for a split second, he looked younger, relaxed and much friendlier; he was literally glowing with pride. Finally, both siblings remembered that the remnants were there too, and let go of each other, clearing their throats slightly.

"Yeah, uh, I hope Loz doesn't have a heart attack." Jake said, looking over at Yazoo and Kadaj.

"Oh, oh! Let me call him and tell him we're on our way!" Sei took out her cell phone and dialed.

OH, WOW! HI THERE MY DEAR READERS! I AM SO SORRY TO HAVE TAKEN SO LONG TO UPDATE THE STORY, BUT I HAVE BEEN AWFULLY BUSY! DO NOT THINK THAT I HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS, NOOO! I WOULD NEVER!

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS WERE THE ONLY DAYS I WAS ACTUALLY ABLE TO WORK ON THIS… BELIEVE ME, I MISSED PLAYING AROUND WITH THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR LIVES… AND I ALSO MISSED HAVING YOU ALL READ THIS AND BE ENTERTAINED, AT LEAST FOR A FEW MINUTES, PENDING YOU DEVOUR THE WHOLE CHAPTER!

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED AND THAT THE WAIT WAS WORTH IT! PLEASE REVIEW, THANK YOU!

~DA36~