*** Author's Note ***

So Hey~! It's been forev's since I updated. I was kinda stuck on a plot piece.
I fixed that though! And last time I updated I did something I haven't done in
forever! I forgot my Thank You's! Can you believe that?
So anyway! Thank you to: LightNote16, Lupin de Sadigo Uno, apocalypses, Kasumi Uchiha,
Nichole Schlapkohl, & togatoga23!
Thanks for all my reviews too! Anyway, brother-in-law is rushing me so I
can cook dinner!

Write a review and it's like texting me! It will make me love you more!

If I get at least 5 reviews for this chapter, I will upload the pics I have of Nina, Anne, and Light as a shinigami!
Its not much but there it is! Enjoy!

~Gebrelle

** End Note ***

Chapter 19

"Sorry I sent that text so early this morning. I really wasn't thinking about the time when I wrote it. See, I didn't get any sleep at all last night…" Anne smiled a big smile as she spoke looking for the world like she had received all the beauty sleep a person needed to be perky, not a hair out of place on her best friend. "And guess what else I did this morning?" she asked, and without giving her a chance to reply she continued, "I ordered your Halloween costume~!"

She was practically bouncing in her seat and Nina sighed, shaking her head, "What is it this time?"

"Well, you know this year's dance is a Masquerade right?" She hadn't known so she raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue, "All I'm going to tell you is that it will be perfect for the dance and you will love it. And it won't kill you to not know something for… what? Two and a half weeks? Because I'm not letting you have it until the dance." She stuck out her tongue at Nina as if it sealed the point; her satisfied smile telling her she would like it. Anne knew just what she liked, and if her best friend was that sure she would like it, then she knew she would so she tried not to let it bother her. Even though she hated not knowing things.

Nina's mind started wandering when Anne pulled out her smart phone, navigating surprisingly easily with her long nails. Something she herself could never keep up. It's not that she chewed them off… Just that she couldn't stand to let them get that long since it made her fingers slip off the keys and hit other ones while she was hacking.

"Your lover boy eats breakfast with me in the morning," she poked, hating how boring the bus ride normally was.

"What? Really? Tell me more you little hussy~!" just as she had expected, Anne fell into step, accusing her of trying to steal her man, and they picked at each other all in jest until her friend looked like she just remembered something.

"Listen, listen, listen! Mom wants me to learn another instrument besides piano, so I have to find a tutor," Nina blinked, not knowing why this was such big news, "There's a boy that goes to our school that's been labeled a musical genius and he gives lessons. He's super cute and is going to teach us."

Nina chuckled and shook her head before the last word hit her. "Us? Anne I told you…"

Anne continued as if she hadn't spoken, "He's super cute and super smart. He also drives to school. It's not a sports car but a completely restored antique…" She continued rambling.

"Anne. Anne. Anne. Anne…" She tried to get a word in edge wise, "Anne! I can't. And for the same reason I'm not fencing this year. I have to keep up my grades. You want us to go to the same college don't you? That means I'll need as many scholarships as I can get. And with a GPA like mine…"

"Which is what? 3.85?"

"3.82… but that's not the point…"

"Look. Go with me tomorrow. If you never go again, at least go tomorrow. I told the guy both of us would show up… And plus. You used to play flute… A violin shouldn't be a problem for you… Please~?"

For her to have brought up Nina's flute it meant she really wanted her to go. It had been her mother that had wanted her to learn. Even as young as she had been. And she had kept with it growing up. Learning on her own at a very slow pace, but she could play beautifully on it, even if she never used it for anything but to annoy her father…

Anne knew it was a sensitive subject and to have mentioned it meant she was desperate to get her to go.

"Fine. One day. If I think it's going to affect my grades I'm dropping it like it bit me okay?"

"Yay~!" She was suddenly hugged tightly around her head and she struggled to get away after it was clear she couldn't breathe.

When she finally escaped her best friend's hold she straightened her clothes, talking the rest of the time to her about Nathen, violins, and Halloween masquerades.

After they arrived Anne ran off, promising over her shoulder to start eating breakfast with her beginning tomorrow, it's not like it mattered, she had only just started eating breakfast there herself.

Nina found herself sitting in front of Nathen and Scott once again, trying to keep the conversation away from anything they had discussed the day before.

"So where are you two from before you transferred here?" Nina asked, just trying idle chitchat, knowing whatever they told her was probably a lie.

Nathen mumbled something about having moved around a lot but Scott wasn't going to cooperate, "Tell us about your life instead." Not a question. A statement… One that said 'I already know. I just want to hear you tell it.'

"Well… I live with my dad… I have a cat… I ride the bus to school… um… I don't know. There's nothing really interesting about me…" What was he getting at?

Nathen looked up from some kind of magnetic sticks he was connecting, "Where's your mother?" Scott looked at him curiously but looked back to her, expecting her to answer.

"She's dead. It was a long time ago."

That should have been the end of it but Scott's gaze never faltered, "How?"

She had to resist the urge to grit her teeth, her eyes narrowing on the obviously cold bastard in front of her. She knew he had done a background check on her. That's just the kind of person he was. "She was murdered when I was little, and they never caught her killer. That's all there is to it."

"If you knew who killed her, would you kill him?"

"What kind of question is that!" she snapped back, refusing to let him trick her into admitting that she'd be willing to take anyone's life, "That would make me just as bad as him wouldn't it?"

He gave her an odd look that made her feel he was trying not to smirk, "I'd kill the person that murdered my parents," he stated simply and she could only gape at him, unsure of whether she should accept the challenge he laid out there.

"I want to see him put to justice. The punishment for his crimes is the death sentence. I would sleep easier knowing he was dead. That doesn't mean I wish to do the deed myself." She was lying but she hoped he couldn't tell. There was nothing she wanted more than to kill the man that shredded her family. She wanted him to be beaten within an inch of his life and as he begged for mercy, she wanted to slit his throat and hear him drown in his blood.

It was then she noticed her expression mirrored his; he hadn't been lying when he said he was an orphan, and he was obviously living through the many tortures he wished to slay his parents' killer with as well.

Nina's eyes flickered to the quiet white haired boy sitting by his much more menacing looking counterpart. He hadn't missed the connection but he didn't comment, only looking at her with his big dark eyes.

Scott was thinking just what Nina probably thought he was. He wasn't really even paying attention to the cafeteria around him as he let his eyes lose focus on the colorful cereal in front of him.

He honestly didn't remember much about his parents' death but he did remember their murderer.

He was tall and had a long black pony tail pulled back to the base of his neck. The man had also worn a mask that covered the lower part of his face. It was a biker's mask and was probably supposed to be patriotic, because it was a red and blue pattern.

He had found an exact copy of it in a local bike shop when he had tried research himself. It had been a dead end but he kept it with him, knowing that there were hundreds of others out there that had one, but one of them was the man that killed his parents. That's all he needed. He would find him someday and kill him. He'd make him suffer through tortures that would make even Near cringe.

Honestly, he wanted to know more about Nina's mother's killer for one reason.

The mask that Nina remembered was the exact description of the one that haunted his childhood memories as well…

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