Having lunch with the hearts was like entering another world and this new world had a lot of rules.

"You can't wear tank tops two days in a row and you can only wear hats once a week…so I guess you picked today." Shachi said. But it wasn't my fault, how was I supposed to know? This was my favorite hat; I'd wear it every day if I could. "And we only wear basketball shorts and sweat pants on Fridays." He paused.

"Now, if you break any of these rules, you can't sit with us at lunch. I mean not just you, any of us!" He leaned in a little closer to me "…Okay, let's say I was wearing jeans today, I would be sitting over there with the art freaks." Shachi pointed his head towards Zoro and Sanji's table. Sanji was throwing grapes into Zoro's mouth and every time he would catch one, Zoro would clap like a seal. "Oh, and we always vote before we ask someone to eat lunch with us because you have to be considerate of the rest of the group. I mean, you wouldn't buy a shirt without asking your friends if it looks good on you."

"I wouldn't?" I asked confused.

"Right! It's the same with dating…you may think you like someone, but you could be wrong…" Shachi eyed Law next to him while saying this last sentence; he then began to look down at his food with slight disappointment.

Flashback

Sophomore year, Shachi and Law where in the restroom just barely coming out from gym. Shachi had decided that now was a great time to openly confess his feeling to his best friend, however things didn't go exactly as he planned.

"What do you think of Monkey D. Luffy?" Law asked, touching his under eye bags while looking in the mirror.

"He's such a weirdo" Shachi answered.

"I think he's cute"

"He's TOTALLY cute!" he quickly agreed.

Law took a couple steps back from the mirror to get a fuller look at himself. "I'm going to make him my boyfriend."

"Huh!?...Law…I.." he began to stammer.

"Spit it out, you're killing my mood."

"I love you!" Shachi shot back at him. He was looking directly at him through the mirror while his hands clenched tightly to the edges of the sink.

"No you don't" Law replied bluntly. He had yet to look at Shachi directly, even after his sudden confession.

Shachi quickly turned around to face Law. "I do! I've loved you since I first met you—"

"Shachi, you don't love me, you worship me. You want to be me, you're obviously confused."

"No, but—"

"Enough! You're wrong." Shachi stared at Law confused and hurt. "You. Are. Wrong."

"Yeah, you're right…so when are you going to talk to Luffy?" Shachi smiled back

End Flashback

I sat there trying my best to soak in every rule Shachi just threw at me. In all honesty, there were just too many damn rules to follow. Since when did rules like these apply to my social standards of fitting in? In Africa I fit in just fine with any click.

"So Ace, are you gay?" Penguin randomly asked. I was taken back by how straight forward he was, nevertheless in a place so public where even the walls had ears.

"I…uhh…" I hesitated

"He's gay. I caught him checking out Law's ass yesterday" Shachi smirks as I begin to blush furiously.

"…128 calories and 48 calories are from fat. What percentage is that?" Law asked

"48 into 120?" Shachi questioned

"I'm only eating food with less than 30 percent from fat—"

I grew irritated with their inaccurate equations, "Its 40 percent." They look at me as if I grew an extra head or something. "…well 48 over 120 equals x over 100 and then you cross multiply and get the value of x."

"Fuck it, I'm getting cheese fries." Law shrugged his shoulders in an uncaring way as he walked away from the table.

It was just me and the other two now and I just sat there expectedly waiting for more rules to be shoved down my throat. However, what Shachi said next was definitely not what I had prepared for.

"So, have you seen any cute guys yet?"

Though, I was more than happy to share with them seeing that they were my friends. And friends share things like this, so what did I have to lose.

"Well there is this guy in my calculus class—"

"Who is it!?" Penguin eagerly asked

"His names Luffy" I reply with a smile

"No!" Penguin and Shachi both cry "You can't like Luffy, that's Law's ex boyfriend. They went out for a year…Law was devastated when Luffy broke up with him last summer." Shachi explained.

"I thought Law dumped him for Eustass Kidd?" Penguin questioned

"Irregardless, ex-boyfriend are off limits to friends…don't worry, I'll never tell Law what you said. It'll be our little secret." Shachi promised as Penguin nodded in agreement.

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Even though I wasn't allowed to like Luffy, I could still look at him, and think about him, and talk to him...The bell rang, everyone was up from their seat and heading out the door. I picked up my books and followed Luffy from behind, trying to get closer to him so I could start a conversation.

"Hey Luf—" my chance was soon cut off though, by some blond guy with a pineapple like face.

"Hey, you're the African guy, right?" the Luffy blocking, blond guy asked.

"Yeah"

"I'm Marco, captain of the Grand Line mathletes. We participate in math challenges against other high schools in the state and we can get twice as much funding if we had more members…you should think about joining."

"Oh, you'd be perfect for it!" Mr. Shanks smiled

"Uh…yeah, okay" I agreed

I made my way outside towards the playing field. Luffy was there shooting some archery with the rest of the team. After his shot, he made his way back in line, but soon stopped when he noticed me not too far away. I waved to him and he waved back with his charming wide smile that stretched from ear to ear. I remained standing there as he slowly made his way to me; however I was broken from my daze when a loud honk was heard behind me. I turned quickly only to be met with Law and the rest of the hearts.

"Get in loser, were going shopping." Law shouted. Eagerly I jumped in the back seat with Penguin, leaving Luffy standing alone.

We arrived to the town mall. The place was ridiculously huge filled with so many stores, food courts and…people. I wanted to look around the entire place, but unfortunately I was stuck with the hearts instead, which really wasn't all that bad.

"So, how do you like Gran Line?" Penguin asked

"It's cool. I'm going to join the mathletes." I replied

"NO!" all three gasped at the same time

"No, no, you can't do that. That's social suicide…honestly, you're so lucky you have us to guide you." Law stated as we continued to make our way in the mall.

We stop by a fountain where people around our age were sitting and chatting with one another. It all appeared very familiar from back home. Being at the mall kind of reminded me of being home in Africa. By the watering hole. When the animals are in heat.

"Oh my god there's Killer" Shachi alerted in shock "and he's with Conis Skypiea"

"I heard they're going out" Penguin confirmed while Shachi appeared to look rather hurt.

"Wait. Killers not going out with Conis…no, he can't blow you off like that. He's such a vile little cockroach, hand me you phone, Shachi."

"You're not going to call Killer are you?" Shachi questioned slightly panicked. Law shooed him away as he held the phone to his ear.

"Hello, may I speak to Conis Skypiea please." We stared at him anxiously till he began to speak again. "This is Eric from planned parenthood. I have her test results, if you can have her give me a call as soon as she can. It's urgent. Thank you." He hung up the phone and handed it back to Shachi "She's not going out with anyone after her dad gets through with her"

Penguin and Shachi busted up laughing as they followed Law outside. I was about to follow when I noticed Conis stand up from where she was sitting with the phone pressed to her ear. She looked worried up until I saw her mouth the words 'dad' than I knew what was about to go down. Quickly I made my way back to the group to get the hell out of this jungle.

Law drove into this ridiculously huge gated mansion surrounded by trees. It had a Spanish type of vibe now that I actually thought about it. No way did Law live here? This place was made for a king, err..not that Law wasn't worthy of being one. Point was I've never seen anything like this before, all I wanted to do was run inside and scope out every inch of the place.

"Your house is really nice!"

"I know" Law agreed as he walked up the steps to his house.

"Make sure to check out his dad's pectoral implants, there hard as rocks" Shachi whispered into my ear. I nodded a bit disturbed.

Entering the Law residence was like a dream come true, unlike anything I've ever imagined. The entire place was overly decorated with fancy Spanish paintings, vases, brown wooden furniture with floral arrangements in orange, yellow, red, brown and green spread all around, and lets not forget the huge rug that hung over the living room as decoration. Oddly enough it suited the place very well.

Speaking of the living room, as we were passing the living room we were met with a little girl with green hair dancing in front of the TV screen to some music video that was clearly inappropriate for her age.

Once we reached the kitchen a large man came out from the other side, sporting a hideous pink feathered coat as he walked around to greet us.

"Hey hey hey. How are my best guy-pals!?"

"Hey Doflamingo, this is Ace" Shachi introduced

"Welcome to our home" he suddenly pulled me into a crushing hold all made thanks to his ridiculously pointed nipples. Fuck, those damn things could take an eye out if you weren't careful. "Just want you to know if you need anything, don't be shy, okay? There are no rules in this house. I'm not a regular dad; I'm a cool dad, right Law."

"Please stop talking" Law coldly command

We followed Law upstairs and into his bedroom. Once again I was left in complete shock; the room was ten times bigger than my entire kitchen itself. Law and the other two began making themselves comfortable by taking off their shoes; Law threw off his shirt, showing off his well toned body and tattoos…wait tattoos?

"Hey, put Pandora on." He commanded and soon after some guitar beat began to play loudly all across the room. I on the other hand kept myself busy by looking at some photos Law had tapped to his walls. One caught my attention immediately, a photo of Luffy stretching his arm out to take the picture with Law holding onto him as they both smiled. Guess it was true what Shachi said about them two dating once.

I heard Penguin gasp in disgust and I immediately turned around to see what the problem was. He was standing in front of a long mirror poking at his nose with a scrunched up face preaching about how long it was. Then soon after Law and Shachi joined him to the mirror of shame and began making criticism of their own imperfections. Shachi began complaining about his red hair being damaged and Law was complaining about his dark bags under his eyes, personally I thought they looked good on him.

They all turned towards me with an expectant look of self complaint but in all honesty, I had nothing I necessarily hated about myself. Coming up with the first thing that popped into my head, I confessed about my small hatred for my narcolepsy. They didn't say anything after, just stared at me like some kinda martian.

Just then the bedroom door flew open, welcoming in Law's tall disturbing father. "Hey you guys, happy hour if from 4-6!" he singsongs happily, carrying a tray with glasses and red liquid inside them.

I took mine and observed it cautiously. "Thanks…um…is there alcohol in this?"

"Oh god my boy, no. What kind of father do you think I am? Why do you want a bit? If so, I'd rather you do it in the house."

"Uh, no thank you"

"Alright then" he takes a seat on the couch. "So guys, what is the 411? What has everybody been up to? What is the hot gossip? Tell me everything. What are you guys listening to? What are the cool jams—"

"Dad! Could you shut up already and go fix your coat or something" Law spat back at him.

His father didn't seem at all taken back by his sons demand.

"Okay" he got back up "You guys keep me young, love you so much" and just like that he finally left the room. However, shortly after another gasp was made by Penguin who was standing next to Law's book shelf.

When we all turned to see what his deal was, he was already flipping open an odd looking book in his hands. "Oh my god guys, I remember this!"

"Oh wow, I haven't looked through that in ages" Law said as he made himself comfortable on his giant bed.

"Come check this out Ace, it's our burn book…see, we cut out guys pictures from the yearbook, then we would write comments below." Shachi began to explain while flipping through random pages until he stopped at one with some dude named Johnny.

"Johnny is a grotsky little bitch" Penguin murmured

"Still true" Law commented

"Iceburg is a fat virgin"

"Still half true" Shachi and Penguin began to chuckle.

I didn't understand what any of this meant, who the people where or what troubles they brought to the hearts. However, what I did manage to learn about this said Iceburg guy was that apparently during freshman year, he was ridiculously overweight and soon after got into sports and just dropped it all overnight or something. I guess losing all that weight still didn't help him get laid.

"Sanji Black, pathologically jealous curly freak" Suddenly I caught myself rereading that line over and over again, because jealous? Sanji? That almost seemed hard to believe, Sanji didn't seem the type to be so obsessed, nevertheless with someone.

"Wait, is that Zoro?" Penguin asked, bringing me back to reality. He was pointing at Zoro who was sitting behind Sanji in the same photo.

"Let me see" Shachi pulled the book closer to his face "Oh dang, you're right it is Zoro. Gross, whats he doing hanging around with that jealouse blond? He's definitely lowered his popularity big time"

"Guess he's almost too gay to function" I joked, not thinking anything of it.

"Hah! That's a good one, write that in their" Law commanded

Oh no, maybe that was only okay when Sanji said it. I began to bite nervously at my straw as I watched Shachi write down the what I just said about Zoro. God, this was bad, why did I have to open my big mouth. Well, there was no use worrying about it now, and it was not like anyone else from school would ever see this book. So really there was nothing to worry about.

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Two hours later I found myself leaning on a counter at the food court in the mall, sharing my productive day with the hearts to Sanji and Zoro. Sanji worked part time at one of the food stands; a small booth with an odd name 'Hot Dog on a Stick'. He said he was the assistant manager of the place, so me leaping over to the employee's side and talking about my day wasn't going to be a problem for him.

"And they have this burn book where they write mean things about all the guys in our grade."

"What does it say about me?" Sanji asked

Remembering what they wrote about Sanji, I came to the conclusion that it was better to keep my mouth shut about it. I was just looking out for a friend, what he didn't know won't hurt him.

"You're not in it." I lied

"Those bitches"

Zoro came out of nowhere and stood between us with a corn dog and a packet of relish in his hands. "You think this would taste good on my corndog?"

"No! Condiments take away the foods flavor…" Sanji yanked the relish away from him and threw it into the trash. "Ace, you gotta steal that book."

"What!? No way." I nearly shouted

"Oh come on, we could publish it and then everyone would see what an asshole Law really is."

"I don't steal" I huffed and turned my head to the side to avoid eye contact with Sanji. Zoro was now standing beside me with a can of sugar in his hands, ready to pour it onto his food. However, Sanji was already one step ahead of him and yanked the can away.

"That's for your drink, idiot moss head…Ace, there are two kinds of evil people. People who do evil stuff and people who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it."

"Does that mean I'm morally obligated to burn that guys outfit?" Sanji and I turned in the direction that Zoro was staring and sure enough a man walking by was wearing what we could all agree was the most outrageous piece of clothing ever. "Oh shit, that's Mr. Shanks!"

"God, I love seeing teacher outside of school. It's like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs." Sanji whispered next to Zoro.

Shanks was about to continue walking, when he soon noticed all three of us standing on the other side of the corn dog stand. He looked surprised to see us as he made his way over.

"Hey guys, what's up? I didn't know you worked here?"

"Yeah…corn dogs are my calling." Sanji said sarcastically.

"Shopping?" Zoro asked

"No, I'm here with my boyfriend" he said and pointed at some random old stranger with a long white beard and blue bandana sitting on a bench across from looked at Shanks shocked at his choice in men. "Joking…sometimes older people make jokes"

"My kendo teacher takes his wig off when he's drunk" Zoro said as he took a bite from his corndog, finally.

"Your kendo teacher and I have that in common…no actually, I'm just here because I bartend a couple night a week down at Shakkys Rip Off Bar" we all began to chuckle and act as if we were interested in his conversation. "…Ace, I hope you do join the mathletes, you know because we start in a couple weeks and I would love to have a normal guy on the team, so the team could look like their normal for once."

"I think I'm gonna do it." I said happily to Mr. Shanks

"Awesome! I'm very glad—"

Zoro cut in and pulled me towards him by my shoulders and began to shake me with an alerting tone in his voice "Ace, you can't join mathletes! Its social suicide!"

"Thanks Zoro" shaking his head and looking directly at Zoro with a scolding look. "Well, this had been sufficiently awkward and I'll see you guys tomorrow." Shanks looked towards me one last time with a kind smile before turning on his heels and walking away.

"Oh man that is bleak" adding emphasis on the 'k' "So, when are you going to see Law again?" Sanji asked

"I can't spy on him anymore, it's weird"

"Come on, he's never going to find out. It'll be like our little secret." He leaned forward with his head resting on his fist and one eyebrow perked up as he wore a charming smile. Damn, this was bad. How did I ever let myself get into this kind of mess?