*** Author's Note **

Sorry it took me so long to post a new chapter but Subway has been cruel to me.
So I had Monday and Tuesday off to write on this, though it really has been in the works
for about a month now. I don't think I can say I'm sorry enough. So we'll just pretend
I said it at least a thousand times… [INSERT 1000 APOLOGIES HERE] there…
So on another note, the walk in character is in this chapter! It will probably be really
obvious who it is. If not then you need you brain checked lol! Not sure I have much else
to add to this note other than I am honestly not sure when I will be able to update again.
I don't really think I have any new people to add to my list of fans except maybe
Chibirockfluff and I technically know her in real life. We met at the convention and
stayed in touch. *Shrugs* Anyway~ I will stop rambling and let you read the story now.
You know… I wonder how many people actually read my author's notes… Huh…

~Gebrelle

*** End Note ***

Nina's alarm clock beeped loudly in her ear and she rolled over to turn it off, effectively smushing poor Kira.

"I'm sorry, kitty," she murmured into his fur, finally finding the elusive snooze button.

She lay there in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking of what she was going to wear just to keep from falling back asleep. She rubbed her eyes and Kira climbed on top of her and started kneading her stomach with his nails like he was making biscuits with his butt in her face. She grinned and tugged his tail and he turned around to push his cold nose into her cheek, trying to rub his face on hers. After a few minutes of playing with him, her alarm sounded again, causing him to jump.

She turned it off again and headed to the bathroom to shower, noticing along the way that she didn't see Light anywhere. She was glad she didn't have to spend every minute of her day with him, she just thought he was supposed to stick around…

When she got out of the shower, she got dressed and packed her school bag, tucking the DeathNote back into the folder she kept it safe in, and placing it in there with others and her laptop. Today was trash day so she took the bags out and put them in the can and wheeled it to the edge of the road. She did a few other things that needed to be done, like load the dishwasher and change the air filter on the central air. When she was ready to leave, she scribbled her father a note that told him that there was leftover chicken from the night before in the fridge that he could eat when he got hungry, and started him a pot of coffee before walking down a block to catch the bus.

When she got on, Anne scooted over and let her sit by the window. They had this kind of mutual agreement that the spot by the window was hers. It was never said, just understood. Plus, Anne was a bit claustrophobic sometimes and probably didn't like that seat anyway.

Once again, Nina was forced to listen, the whole bus ride, about the new boy, Nathen. About how cute he was, about his hair, about his grades, about his shyness, about enough that if someone forced her to repeat everything she knew about this guy that they would probably stick her under the stalker category and she had never even met him.

When they got to school Nina and Anne parted ways and Nina headed to her homeroom when her stomach growled. She wasn't normally one for breakfast and typically waited until lunch to eat. But her unruly stomach was demanding otherwise. She sighed and headed to the cafeteria, all but dragging her feet there. She hated the lunch room. It was always full of noisy, loud, obnoxious teenagers with too much allotted time before class.

There were your students that only came in to talk to friends they wouldn't otherwise get to see, there were those that only came there to start trouble, whether it be to start a fight or to just bad mouth others, there were some that came in there to read, now why they were there was anyone's guess. Then, there were the ones like Nina that only wanted some food.

She shoved her way through the doorway that was clogged with a few too many students chatting, and walked along the back wall, keeping her head low and her eyes on the ground. Eye contact was the way you got attention. She did not want attention; she wanted food.

She got in the shortest line and quickly took in her surroundings. There was nothing that she really took note of except that a few of Anne's friends were occupying the table closest to the line and she figured she would sit with them to eat. Sitting by one's self was asking for trouble. She did notice, however, that there was a new face amongst them. The new guy didn't look interested at all in the conversations of his peers and his eyes wandered the room restlessly, finding her while she was still taking his measure. He was about her age and had a thin frame. The eyes that met hers were dark and had darker circles under them. His hair was almost white. She gave him a small smile, trying to appear friendly, because obviously this was Anne's newest interest. He seemed to not care about her after that gesture and his eyes continued their wandering. What had Anne said his name was anyway? She looked above his head: Nate River.

She tried to think back to Anne's ramblings. Nate sounded almost right. She'd have to ask Anne next time she saw her.

She had to turn away some overly bubbly freshmen that wanted to cut in front of her. She didn't want to be in the lunch room all day. When she got to where she could order her food, they were already out of muffins and she sighed to herself, settling on one of the few pieces of breakfast pizza that wasn't burnt.

When she got out of the line, she sat across from Nate and made like she was interested in the orange juice carton. He cast her a small glance and when he noticed she wasn't interested in him, though she really was, he gave her a more searching look. As if to decide how dangerous she was. She was about to wonder what was up with the look but didn't get a chance.

Someone's hands wrapped around her to cover her eyes. "Guess who!" a girl proclaimed in a voice that had a touch of a British accent.

"Hmm…" Nina said, pretending to think. "Is it Bob?" she chose a random name.

"No, silly!" she giggled, "I'm a girl~"

"Oh, well that narrows it down…" she said, as if she didn't know already. "Is it… Evie?"

The hands slid away and the girl sat in the seat beside her, Evie was grinning.

"So is this the new guy everyone is talking about?"

Nina thought about it for a second before she just shrugged and stuffed her mouth full of pizza so that she didn't incriminate herself, and she was extremely surprised by how good it was.

Evie leaned across the table some and Nina wondered if the girl knew that if she continued leaning forward that she would be exposing more of her legs than she thought the girl would be comfortable sharing with the rest of the cafeteria. Evie always wore cute clothes that were her own interpretation of the British school uniforms she used to wear when she lived there, complete with the button up under a little sweater. It really worked for her though and the added touch of her accent made it all so perfect.

"So, what is your name?" She asked him with a warm smile.

He looked at her and said his name. Nina didn't know if she hadn't heard it because he had said it quietly of if she was just too engrossed in her (very yummy) pizza to notice it.

"Sorry~ I did not hear you. It is loud in here," The girl adjusted her semi-geeky red glasses that really brought out her eyes, that were an interesting bluish grey, and she leaned a little closer. Nina grabbed the edge of her skirt, holding it down, her eyes never leaving her food. She was dying to know his spoken name but she had to keep her look of disinterest, and the pizza was doing a good job of it.

Evie jumped when Nina tugged her skirt tail and she stopped leaning forward. The poor boy obviously didn't like the attention the girl was giving him and he looked away from her.

"Nathen Roger," he said in his quiet voice. Nina chanced a glance at his name again. It defiantly said Nate River. What was up with all the fake names? Nate was using his before she used the DeathNote… And then there was Scott…

Evie grinned, "That's more like it," she said sitting down properly in her seat again, "My name in Evie Ward. We should become friends!" Nina raised an eye brow but didn't say anything until she had finished her pizza, letting the girl chat 'Nathen's ears off in the mean time. She could see why this girl was Anne's friend. They had a lot in common. But she wasn't Anne.

Nina looked at Evie and tugged on her caramel colored hair, knowing that trying to interject verbally would do her no good. This earned her a pause and she looked at Nina curiously. "Are you going to eat that?" Nina pointed to her pizza.

Evie laughed and held it above her head, "What will you give me for it?"

Nina shrugged, "What do you want for it?"

The girl grinned as if that's what she had been waiting on the entire time, "How about you let me borrow your history notes from last week?"

Nina grinned, "Deal. But I'll warn you, they aren't that great." The girl slid her pizza to her and Nina reached into her bag and passed her the blue history notebook. "Just ignore the random doodles…" she trailed off when she saw that Evie was captivated by one of the sketches.

"Where did you learn to draw like this?" she asked in a gush of air, "It is almost as good as Maria's works!"

Nina swallowed a smirk, "You think so?" she asked, trying to sound innocent.

Evie nodded vigorously and flipped through the notebook looking for more, when she found one, she would study it for a second, chewing on her non-existent finger nails before flipping to another one.

"Thank you for letting me borrow this!" she said cheerfully and hopped out of her seat, "I will give this to Anne to give to you before you get on the bus, 'kay?"

Nina nodded, her mouth full of the addicting pizza, and gave a small wave as Evie started to leave only to get dragged into at least three conversations on her way out of the cafeteria.

"You… um… You are a good artist…" She slid her eyes over to look at 'Nathen'

"Thank you. I guess." She said with a grin. Nina had not been expecting him to talk to her. Anne had said he was really shy. And it was obvious that he was not used to too much human interaction.

He just nodded and twirled a small piece of his hair looking back down the table. Apparently that's all he was going to say.

By the time she finished her second piece of pizza, she had gotten a few 'Look who joined us's and 'Hey Nina is Anne here?'s and when she was ready to go, she gave Nate a small nod and dumped her tray, heading to her homeroom with only a few minutes to spare. She was going to have to look into this 'Nathen'…

The day passed with nothing to mark it as out of the ordinary aside from breakfast. The history teacher went over Friday's test and gave out everyone's grade on it, so she didn't need her notebook to take notes. Apparently all her studying (or lack thereof) got her was a 92. Not too bad, but it really could have been better.

When she got on the bus, Nina grinned at Anne. "I saw your lover boy~" Anne's eyes got wide.

"You met Nathen?" she asked in a cheery voice. It almost made her cringe to know that she didn't know his real name.

"Yeah…" she said trailing off. "Want to get something to eat later?"

Anne looked up at her swiftly, "Sure where?" She asked, curious if Nina was using the code.

"How about the usual place?" Nina looked out the window.

Anne nodded, "Give me about an hour and a half after you get home. Okay?"

Nina nodded, she would meet her at 7 then.

"Oh and here's your notes that Evie borrowed." Anne passed Nina her blue notebook.

She flipped it open and instantly noticed the bubble like writing between and around last week's notes. There was spelling corrections and parts where she corrected some dates, extra notes that were probably important that she had forgotten to write. Nina grinned. Evie was smart, she had to give her credit for that. She closed it back and told herself that she would have to thank her for the changes later.