Chronoa

D. Gray-Man

Chapter Nine

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A/N: Okay guys, here's the next chapter! I decided to do the author's note at the top for now, see how I like it instead XD. Please, please please review, you guys! This chapter is kind of a filler, but it has a few key points that will definitely come to play in later chapters. Also, I want to know if you guys have anything that you'd like to see in this story? There is no definite path for it, so if you guys tell me I might be able to squeeze it in! And again, review please! I've been getting 12 reviews per chapter for the last couple, so I'd like to keep that going. Read on~

That Monday at school, everyone couldn't help but stare at the happy group. Well, minus Kanda of course. But then again, he was always in an angry mood. Christine was in-between Lavi and Allen, talking about what she had made for breakfast that morning, when Hailee Southside and Kaylie Brown came striding towards them. The blonde ducked her head, her hand gripping the sleeve of Allen's jacket impulsively.

"Is there something we can help you with?" Allen asked politely in that British accent of his, addressing the duo. Hailee smirked at him in what she must have thought was a sultry way, but only made her look like she was constipated. Or in labor.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask Christina here something," she said in a sweet voice. Christine looked up at her through her eyelashes.

"Her name is Christine," Lavi said, not liking where the conversation was heading. Seeing that she had the girl's attention, Hailee smirked.

"So, is it true that your mother is in jail now?" she asked in an unnecessarily loud voice, drawing the attention of the students nearby. Christine raised her head. She glared at Hailee and her smirking companion with defiant eyes.

"Yes, she is," she said unwaveringly.

"Oh, really," said Kaylie. "What did she do?" The pink-clothed brunette leaned closer like she was sharing a particularly juicy piece of gossip.

"It's none of your business," Kanda snapped. He was fed up with standing in the middle of the hall talking to the two girls that he really didn't like. Kaylie reeled back, looking as if she had been slapped in the face.

"Excuse me?" She asked, a smile stretching across her face.

"Did you misunderstand me?" said Kanda, his lips curled into a sneer. "I said it was none of your fucking business. Now, get out of our way so we can get to class."

Without waiting for a reply, he pushed through Hailee and Kaylie, the rest of the group following swiftly. Allen had grabbed Christine's hand, and still held it as they walked through the doorway to their first class. The teacher glanced down at their joined hands quickly, before turning back to his paperwork. The two swiftly released the other's hand and sat in their seats. The class passed by quickly.

Christine was running through the day as if on a high. With her mother now in jail, all of her normal worries were now gone. Because of that, a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Her teachers had noticed this, and least to say it confused them.

This girl had never smiled in a classroom before. Ever. So when Christine had walked into their classrooms smiling – not happily, but a small smile was on her face – and talking with the new students, her teachers immediately knew that something major had happened.

Then they heard the most popular rumor going around the school. Christine's mother had been arrested, and was now residing in a jail cell. This news shocked the school staff, but in a way it didn't. They had all, at one point in time, come into contact with the woman. Least to say, they were not impressed.

"So, um…is it o-okay if I stay with you guys for a while?" Christine asked after everyone had gotten their food and sat down at lunch. "I mean, just until I get a job and enough money to afford an apartment…" she trailed off.

"Of course! Didn't we already tell you that you could stay with us? I mean, if you want to get a job that's fine, but you don't need to move out. Right, guys?" Allen told her, smiling brightly. It made Christine wonder why Allen, who was the youngest of the group, seemingly controlled what went on in the house.

"Sure! I love having you around. Plus, we actually eat real food this way!" Lavi said, smiling through a mouthful of the salad he was eating. Christine looked to Kanda, who just gave his usual grunt of approval before going back to the noodles he had brought from home. The blonde haired girl smiled at the mutual agreement.

"Thanks so much, y-you guys," she murmured, pushing her food around on her plate. The British boy had come up with a routine in which he gave her half of his food every day, for some reason. Not that she was complaining, it's just that she didn't want to gain too much weight. Looking down at her stomach, she noticed that since she had a regular source of food, she had put on quite a few pounds. Frowning, she pushed her plate towards Allen, allowing him to devour the remaining food.

The remainder of their day passed by quickly. On the way back from the school, the group stopped at Christine's house so that she could get the remainder of her belongings. As she shoved her clothing into a duffel she had dug out from a closet in her mother's bed room, she noticed Lavi was looking around her room at the picture frames she had managed to salvage from her mother's wrath.

"Who is this, in the picture?" he asked her, handing her a picture frame that had her with one other person as children, smiling. The other person was a small girl with pinkish red hair and matching eyes that were slanted, hinting at her Oriental ancestry.

"Hmm? Oh, that was an exchange student from a while ago…I think her name was Fou. I don't remember much," she shrugged in way of apology.

Storing it away, Lavi went on to the next one while Christine worked on closing the zipper to the bag. "Umm, I think that that's everything," said the girl as she did one last sweep of her room, looking in the corners and under everything she could.

"Good! So are you ready, or do you want to walk around once more?" the red head asked her, leaning against her door frame. She smiled at him, her green eyes shining brightly.

"I'm ready to go. I don't want to see this place again!"

With that said, they quickly piled back into the black SUV, Allen's driving getting them quickly to the shared house where the boys watched as Christine went to her room.

"So, has Cross said when he'll be coming to check in on us?"