Friday, October 24th

Mail shuffled his feet as he sat outside of the headmaster's office. He directed his eyes back to the homework that he had been trying to finish before his parents and the headmaster were done disguising how much of a delinquent he was. If they thought that he was a delinquent now, he wondered what they would think if they found out about him hacking the school's internet. Hopefully that day would never come.

No one spoke to him when his parents exited the office. Deciding it would be better not to ask until his parents had cooled down, or at least until they weren't in a position where they could strangle him, Mail held his questions off until the car ride home.

"How much trouble am I in?" He bluntly asked.

His father kept his eyes on the road, not even glancing in Mail's direction, while his mother wore a veil of cold disappointment.

"We have decided to take away your cell phone and computer privileges," she curtly informed him.

"Okay," Mail had expected this. "For how long?"

"We haven't decided that yet."

Mail doubted that it would be longer than a month, but there was a chance that him saying the wrong thing could prolong his internet-less and game-less state.

"Do I have in school suspension?" he chanced asking.

"No," his mother pursed her lips. "But I don't doubt you will if you go on your phone again while your teacher is talking to you."

If they catch me, Mail thought to himself.

"I understand," he said out loud.

No on spoke for the rest of the car ride.

"Hey!" Mail heard a familiar voice call his name as he slid out his car door.

Linda waved at him from her front yard. He waved back at her, then directed his attention to his parents. His father had already walked into the house, probably still channeling waves of frustration in Mail's direction. Shrugging this off, Mail turned to his mother.

"Mom, can I hang out with Linda?" He hated that he had to ask his mother's permission to simply talk to his next door neighbor. "I finished my homework while we were waiting outside of the headmaster's office."

"Alright," she reluctantly agreed. Seeing friends in person did not fall under the category of things that his grounding deprived him off.

"Thanks."

"Give me your phone and computer first," she told him, and he repressed the urge to sigh.

"Here," he handed her his bag.

She gave him a tight smile and she slung the bag over her shoulder and walked into the house. Mail almost felt sorry for her. He knew that his personality was starting to be straining on both of his parents, and constantly getting in some form of trouble at school didn't ease the amount of stress that he brought to the table. For a moment he almost felt sorry for his father as well, then he realized what that meant and pushed the thought out of his head.

"Hey, Linda," he greeted his best friend.

"Wait!" She shouted, jumping from where she was siting and running to him.

"What?" Mail was used to these kinds of burst of energy from her.

"Stand right here," she grabbed him by the shoulders and moved him three inches. "Okay, don't move."

"Why?" He inquired as she darted back to where she had been sitting and picked up a sketch book.

"I'm drawing your house," she answered. "The picture has more life if you're in it too."

"Do I take that as a compliment?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If you want to," she shrugged.

Mail stood still for about two minutes as Linda vigorously sketched.

"Are you done yet?" His muscles yearned for him to sit down.

"Rome wasn't build in a day," she replied.

"How is that quote even relevant?" Mail exclaimed.

"I dunno," she giggled.

"I need friends my own age," he groaned.

"Because my use of irrelevant quotes has to do with me being a year younger than you," she smirked. "And…done! You can move now."

"Thank you," he muttered.

"You're welcome," she laughed.

"Does your house have food in it I'm starving?" He asked as he walked over to her and examined the sketch. "This is really good, by the way."

"Of course it is," she dismissed the compliment. "I drew it."

"We need to work on your arrogance," he informed her. "Is that a 'yes' to the food?"

"Only because I'm hungry too," she tucked her sketch book under her arm as they walked to her front door. "So what did you get in trouble for this time?"

"What makes you think I'm in trouble?"

"You're avoiding your house," she answered.

"Maybe I just want to spend time with you?" He pretended to be offended that she hadn't thought of this.

"No," she told him. "If you did you would tell me to come over. My parents still freak you out."

"They don't freak me out," he protested, then froze. "They're not home, are they?"

"No, they're both still at work," she laughed. "And you don't have a valid reason to be afraid of them, since your parents tried to set us up too."

"Who says I'm not afraid of my parents," he quipped.

"You're officially avoiding your house," she stated. "What did you do?"

"I don't know why you automatically assumed I'm in trouble," he huffed.

"Well what else could it be?"

"Maybe I came out again," he deadpanned. "They'd definitely want me out of the house if I brought up that subject."

"Very funny," she rolled her eyes. "Just give them time."

"I know, I know," he sighed. "So what are we eating?"

He followed Linda into her kitchen. Both of them decided that they didn't feel like cooking, so she tossed him a box of cereal and pulled two bowls out of her cupboard.

"No milk?" He asked when she handed him his bowl.

"We have but I think it's expired," she confessed. "Want to take your chances?"

"No thanks," he poured the dry cereal into his bowl. "Can a borrow your computer after this?"

"So you are grounded," she reasoned.

"Yeah," he finally told her. "I got caught playing a game on my phone during class."

"Of course it's video game related," she rolled her eyes. "If that's why you want my computer you can't have it."

"That's not why." Mail hesitated to tell her the reason, knowing that she would take his meaning out of proportion.

"Then why do you need it?"

"I told my friend I'd try to message him."

"And you can't wait until you see him next?" she crossed her arms, and he was tempted to make a smart remark on how she was was pouty fourteen-year-old.

"I don't exactly know him like that," Mail murmured.

"Oh my God!" A grin broke across her face. "You met a boy online!"

"Not like that!" Mail groaned, but Linda continued giggling. "We just meet up to play games and talk sometimes. I don't even know what he looks like or how old he is, so don't get excited."

"That's kind of shady," she told him. "How long have you been talking to him?"

"Two months," Mail couldn't stop himself from admitting. "And it's not shady. We don't give each other personal information."

"He could be some creeper," Linda pointed out.

"He isn't," Mail insisted. "If he's not in high school he's at least in uni."

"How do you know, I thought he didn't give you personal information?" She questioned.

"Last night he was studying for a test, and he only messages me after school or at lunch time," he explained. "And before you ask, sometimes we do talk about whatever we're doing, but never go into enough detail for it to be unsafe if one of us is a creeper."

Linda continued to giggle.

"What now?" Mail sighed.

"It's kind of romantic."

"No it isn't!" Mail exclaimed.

"You can use my computer to message or play games with your online boyfriend whenever you want," Linda teased.

"I'm holding you to that offer," he said pointedly.

"I don't care," she shrugged. "As long as I get updates on your digital love life."

"I don't have a love life."

"You do now!" She sang.

After they finished their milk-less cereal, Linda brought her laptop out from where she kept it in her room. It took Mail seconds to log into the gaming site and send Mello a message. Since it was her computer, he let Linda read over his shoulder.

Hi! Are you there?

With in seconds, Mello responded.

So you're not grounded, then?

"When did you have time to tell him you were grounded?" Linda asked.

"I was texting him at lunch," Mail multitasked typing and talking.

I am grounded. Using my friends computer. She says hi.

"Hey, I didn't say you could tell him I'm here!" Linda playfully swatted Mail's arm.

Tell her I say hi back. Mello replied.

"See, he's nice." Mail insisting this only send Linda into another fit of giggles.

She says she thinks your cool. Mail couldn't help typing in.

"Hey, I didn't say that!" She yelped and Mail chuckled.

Um… Okay…?

"Now he thinks I'm a ditz," Linda complained. "I wanted to make a good impression."

"Stop talking like he's someone I actually know."

It was late afternoon when Linda's parents came home from work and Mail retreated back to his own house. This ended up being prefect timing to eat dinner with his parents, and Mail found himself cursing the bad luck that day had given him. As the three of them sat in silence that was only broken by the soft clank of silverware against the pottery plates that Mail's mother had owned since before Mail was born, Mail began to wish that his grounding included him being forced to skip dinner. He didn't doubt that this was a punishment his father had pushed for, but his mother had never been a fan of anything that put Mail's health or physical comfort at risk (even if it was for only a few hours). All the same, Mail would have preferred a night of hunger pains to enduring half an hour of agonizing quiet.

When the meal was finished Mail retreated the the safety and boredom of his room. Usually he would spend this time messaging Mello or playing a video game, but both of these hobbies were currently off limits. Mail spent the rest of the night trying to read a manga Linda had lent him, and envying the freedom that most anime and manga characters were given.

Thank you to Corliss Kat, Carlottal, and brightnight003 for reviewing!