Wordslinger's note- Just wanted to clarify; this is some magical world where it present-day, L is alive and single; BB never went to Los Angeles and murdered people; Matt and Mello are alive; and I am the coolest person around. Just think of it as an alternate universe- kind of like Higurashi : P
Disclaimer- I don't own anything that was brand-named in here.
Fran's Perspective of her first day.
"Now honey, you go and walk around while I go and talk to Roger. Don't worry though, you'll definitely get in, so until then just go and look around," my mom said to me as she rushed off. I still can't believe she chose an orphanage for me to go to college. I don't belong here! These people don't have parents, I have a living breathing biological mother who was just too cheap to send me to a real college! I started walking down a random hallway, just looking around. Sure, the place looked better than any college I could get into, but it still wasn't a college.
"Hi," I called to two passing younger children; they looked up at me as if I was some kind of secret shame on them. Feeling embarrassed, I continued down the hallway, almost swearing I could hear someone laughing at me. As I kept passing doors that appeared to be classrooms, I looked to see if there was anybody that was my age. Nobody seemed to be older than eleven; they all looked like little disturbed cherubs. I hung my head in shame, and quickly turned around a corner hoping that I could possibly hide in some sort of closet.
"Hey! Watch it," somebody said as I crashed into two strange figures. One of them was very cute and very Asian with red-brown hair, the other I couldn't tell if it was a girl or a boy. He/she/It had medium length yellow-ish-orange-ish hair and was wearing a leather get up. They were both about my age but somehow I knew I was not going to fit in.
"Sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going," I cried at them. The cute Asian one didn't even look up from a PSP, He/She/It studied me carefully. I started to make my way past them when He/She/It nudged the cute Asian one.
"Hey, you new here?" He/She/It asked in a gruff voice, confirming my suspicions that it was of the male species. I nodded shyly, and nearly dashed away from them, but before I could get more than two steps away, someone grabbed my wrist stopping me. I spun around to look to see who was apprehending me, the cute Asian had a firm hold on my wrist, but was still playing his PSP.
"What's your name?" he asked without looking at me, for a moment I couldn't speak. But somehow I managed to squeeze out;
"I'm Fran, I really need to go now, so please?" He released his iron grasp, and almost instantly my phone rang. As "The Great Escape" started playing, I took that as my cue to run down the hallway before I answered.
"Fran? You made it in! Come down to the office," my mother's voice came from the phone. I let out a fake cheer for her benefit, than peered down the hallway to see if the two guys were still there. To my luck, they were both gone so I made my way down hallway and start navigating to the office where my mother and her old friend were.
I stepped into the office to see my mom and a small frazzled looking man, he gave me a fake smile and handshake as my mother introduced us. This guy was her friend? Why does this surprise me? She's already the weirdest person I know, but I don't think that he ever had any friends. It's amazing he's even qualified to be here, I thought to myself as he brought me to my new room.
My new room was much bigger than most of the rooms in my house, and it was neatly furnished with three decent sized couches, beds and a TV. It looked easily homey, so when the two adults left me in there, I just sat down on the bed in the middle.
In a few short moments, a girl with long brown hair in a ponytail came running into the room out of breath. She was roughly a little older than me, and she didn't look surprised to see me at all. She quickly sat down on the bed next to me, facing my direction and quietly whispered;
"We were here talking the whole time, got it?" I nodded my head, unsure of what to say. Almost instantly, a shaggy-haired adult trudged into the room.
"The whole orphanage would appreciate it if you wouldn't spy on the visitors through the airducts, Joan. All the particles that come loose off of you fly through them and eventually contaminate the other rooms," the man said, he looked about the same age as Joan, and had messy black hair and terrible posture. In addition, he was one of the paler people she had ever seen, and had dark circles under his eyes. Is this what I will become if as I stay here? They all look like a bunch of circus freaks! And what did he mean by 'spying on the visitors?' Was she watching us?
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't make false accusations, I was here talking the whole time with my new roommate Fran, ask her yourself if you don't believe me. Besides, everyone knows that you'd have to be freakishly tiny to fit into the airducts. If anyone was sneaking around in the airducts, I'd bet my letter 'E' position that it was Near. He looks so suspicious with his… his… suspiciousness." Joan's voiced trailed off.
"Is this true?" the man asked me. I just shook my head, hoping that he would believe me so my roommate wouldn't hate me. "I shall consult Near and see what he has to say, until then, do not leave this country."
Joan rolled her eyes, and the man left. She then grinned at me and I sat back slightly afraid that she might eat me.
"Well, looks like I got away with that one, doesn't it? So Fran, my name is Joan Welsh, I trust that you won't be telling L that you and I just met, right?" she said still smiling.
"How do you know my name? Does that mean that you were really spying on me? Why was he asking you if you were sneaking in the airducts, were you?"
"Slow down there, Franny," I winced at that nickname, it was what my grandma called me. "I guess I do owe you an explanation. Yes, I was in the airducts, but I wasn't spying on you. I was trying to get into Roger's files, and then your mother and this other lady came into his office, so I had to stay there until they all left. So yes, I did overhear the conversation between your mother and Roger, and this other lady whose daughter will be coming in at any minute. I glanced at her school records, she's smart and all that but she's been suspended for smoking, petty theft, fights, vandalism, you name it. It's amazing that Watari even let her in," she suddenly started speaking louder. "So that's why I'm sure that you'll love it here," she said as two more people entered the room.
The first person was Roger, looking more bedraggled than usual. The second was a girl dressed in strange dark clothes, she had what appeared to be dyed black hair and dark eyes. It was a little scary, but I was sure she was only putting on a show. Roger slightly shoved the girl into our room, she snarled at him, and he left. That guy needs a vacation, and maybe a new life.
"So," Joan began, "what's your name?" The girl didn't say anything, she just scoffed at us and jumped onto the unoccupied bed. Taking out what appeared to be a Swiss army knife, she stabbed the knife into the wooden headboard of the bed, and started carving something into it. It made an awful noise, but when she finished I casually peered over to look at what she had carved. It read 'Lena,' this made me smile slightly, but Lena's head whipped around to give me the evil eye.
"What's so funny?" she asked in a dangerous manner. My smile vanished, and shivers went down my back.
"Nothing!" I cried, sitting up. She stood up from the bed.
"Don't fuck with me, what's so funny about my name? I saw you smiling, princess." I looked up at her frightening eyes, then back at Joan, who had mysteriously left the room.
"I- I just thought it was funny that your name was Lena, in Italian it translates to 'temptress.' Not that it means anything, I think it's a pretty name!" Lena pulled me up from the bed and pinned me to the wall, even though she was small, she had an incredible strength.
"So your saying that I'm a slut, huh? Well at least I'm not a poser, your mother is alive and yet here you are at an orphanage,' she hissed in my face. I glanced at the doorway to see the shaggy-haired person walking by.
"Wait!" I called to him, "aren't you going to help me?" He stopped, looked over at me, and looked above my head at something and said,
"She's not going to kill you." I was shocked, not only because he left, but also because I realized that he was not the same person who had come and talked to me and Joan earlier. Scared, I looked up at Lena who was staring holes through my skull.
"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said anything, please don't hurt me!" I pleaded, and she released her grip on me.
"Don't ever talk to me, or I will kill you, despite what fanboy said," she threatened me. I nodded, and ran out of the room. Just as I was running down the corridor, someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me into another hallway. Flinching, I didn't dare look at who had me.
"Oh, she didn't hurt you after all, that's good," came a familiar voice. I opened eyes to see Joan looking at me.
"Where were you? I can't believe you left me alone in that room with her! She nearly killed me!" I cried at her.
"But she didn't, and now it'll be our turn to have revenge! And I had to leave so I could come up with our plan, now how good are you at sneaking around?" I stared at her in disbelief.
"Are you high? If I get revenge on her, then she is definitely going to kill me!"
"Oh, Fran! There you are," I heard my mom call. I turned to see her coming with all my luggage, along with a stern-looking woman who carried a single suitcase. "Oh, it looks like you already have a friend, you want to introduce me?" Joan turned and smiled at my mother and the other woman, shaking both of their hands.
"My name is Joan Welsh, I'm their new roommate, we were just on our way to see if you needed any help with the luggage," Joan explained in a happy voice.
"Oh, well thank you! But I grabbed all of Fran's luggage, but maybe Lena has some more?" My mother stated looking at the other woman. The woman shook her head, and said;
"If Lena wants anymore of her clothes, then she will have to go and get them herself. I was just on my way to tell her that," she said stiffly, then continued down the hallway. I shrugged at my mother and Joan, and we followed after her. After dumping my suitcases on my bed, my mother hugged me, told me to write, and started to cry as she left. This is SO embarrassing, if Lena doesn't make fun of me for this, then Joan definitely. Eventually she left, and Lena returned with her suitcases as I was putting away all my clothes. She sneered at me as she passed, I just gave her a small smile, then looked at Joan. Joan seemed to be getting more and more aggravated with her.
After I finished putting away my clothes, Joan offered to give me a tour of the orphanage, I reluctantly agreed. She took me down the hallways pointing out fellow students that were walking down the hall. They all looked at me with shame, making me feel severely guilty. Then she brought me into a very large cafeteria, it looked almost exactly like the one I had at my high school, but this one seemed fancier. There were a few people sitting at one of the tables. I recognized two of them, the cute Asian, and the girly-looking guy, with them was a small boy all dressed in white, and the other was the person I had mistook for L. I nudged Joan,
"Who are they?" Joan looked at me strangely.
"Oh them? Well, they are pretty much all of the people ahead of me; Matt is the one playing the video game, Mello is his little male counterpart-he's the one in the leather clothes, Near is the albino-looking one, and BB is the L look-alike. He doesn't talk much, so if you get a word out of him, he's probably going to kill you," I swallowed my fear. "You know, this has given me an idea," she said as she pulled me along to the table of guys. They looked up at me expectantly, except for Matt, who was still playing his PSP.
"Hey guys, this is Fran, she is new here. Say hello," she instructed them.
"We've already met," Mello said in a gruff voice, Matt nodded. Joan smiled widely,
"Perfect, now we need your help. See there is this other new girl who needs a proper welcome into this institution. I was thinking; a hair job. Fran and I would really appreciate it if you guys would help out. Now what do you say?" Mello grinned widely and nudged Matt, BB and Near remained emotionless.
"As long as it pisses someone off, we're in," Mello said. His voice seemed much more easy-going and alot more teenagerish.
"Great, because you play a very important part in my scheme," Joan explained. "Now Mello, I am going on a wild leap and saying that you at the very least have some sort of hair-dye, right?" Mello looked quite appalled at the very notion of this.
"No! Of course not, I'm not some sort of preppy girl," he scowled at her. Glancing at my hair, which he probably thought was fake.
"C'mon, no one will think of you as any less a man if you owned a bottle of hair-dye. Besides, we can't dye her hair into a different color if we don't bleach it first, and if we can't do anything to that wretched color, than the prank will have less of an impact. Pleeeeease?"
"I said, I don't have any, and I don't know of any self-respecting guy who-"
"I have a bottle of hair-dye that will bleach her hair," BB came out of nowhere. There was a strange silence. "I haven't used it, it's there in the event that I must take up a disguise."
"Alright BB," Joan cheered. "Now Matt, you take Fran to BB's room and she'll pick up the hair dye while we will be gathering the rest of the supplies." I opened my mouth to protest, but Matt did that for me.
"Why do I have to bring her to BB's room? Why can't BB do it?" he complained.
"Because, frankly BB, I don't trust you alone with her, and I want Fran to make a new friend that will be in her classes. Surprisingly, you seem to be the most befriending person next to me, and we don't want Fran thinking that this academy is full of freaks, now do we?" Joan winked at me, I was pretty sure she had an ulterior motive for sending me with Matt, one that was less innocent. But instead of protesting any further, I just went along with it, hoping that it would let the others accept me. Matt got up and started heading for the door when Joan called for him.
"Matt, leave the PSP here, I want you to talk to HER not the 2-D character in the game," she teased him. Matt let out a moan in complaint, but eventually put down the gaming device. I blushed slightly, but diligently followed behind him as he exited the room.
We made our way down a bunch of hallways, not saying a thing to one another. As the tension was building, I finally asked what had been on my mind for a while.
"What exactly are they planning on doing to Lena?"
"Unless I am wrong, which I am not, they are going to drug her and when she goes to sleep, they will most likely dye her hair a different color, like green or pink perhaps." I groaned a little too loudly. "What's your problem, it's not like it's YOU getting the bad hair job?"
"That girl is going to kill me. Not more than an hour and a half ago, she had me pinned against a wall," I explained.
"That sounds really kinky, care to go into further detail?" I laughed at his remark, it was probably the most normal thing anyone had said all day.
"Well, she carved her name into the headboard, and when I saw that it was Lena I kind of smiled at it. Because in Italian, Lena means 'Temptress,' she seemed to be less humored about it than I was. I truly hope you get to meet her, I'll bet deep down inside, she's a wonderful person."
"Well, if she's in any of our classes, Mello probably wont leave her alone."
"Really?" I feigned my astonishment. "He seems like such a polite person!"
"Oh he is, we have little tea parties every now and then. You should stop by, we have crumpets," he joked. I laughed along with him, deciding that he was alright for a weirdo.
"Well, you know how I dig a good cup of tea. Alright, so earlier Joan said that BB doesn't talk too much, and if he did, he is probably going to kill me. Should I start sleeping with a Beretta under my pillow?"
"I wouldn't worry too much about BB, he's much to obsessed with L to even bother with anyone else. If anyone should start sleeping with a weapon, it should be L- he's not only got enemies to worry about, but also fanboys like BB, and not to mention Joan. But I would put away the Beretta just yet, especially with your psycho- roommate."
"Somehow I don't think a mere pistol can stop that monster, but what do you mean about L having to watch out for Joan? She's a little out there, but she's not like homicidal, right? Don't hold out me now, I'm sleeping in the same room as her, you know!"
"It's not anything like that, you have nothing to worry about, just L. I can't tell you, you're a girl. Girls gossip too much," he said stiffly. This made me a little sad, things were going so smoothly, I thought that I was actually making a friend. "But," he began, "she did say you were her friend, and since I don't like keeping secrets, I guess I could tell you. In my professional opinion, I think Joan is crazy about L, and not in a BB sort of way. On a few accounts of me, Mello, and Joan getting drunk, she's told me about how she likes L, and all the things she does so she can get in trouble and have long discussions with L. Apparently, only 2 out of 5 times when she is sent to L, does she actually get lectured." I smiled at this newfound information.
"They are about the same age, aren't they?" I asked.
"Yah, she's only a year younger than him. This is BB's room, there is no way I am going in there so you'll have to dig through his stuff on your own. If I had to guess, I'd say the hair-dye would be in his bathroom, so good luck making it out of there alive."
"Um, thanks," I said as I pushed open the door, not knowing what might lay ahead. I entered the room, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The room was filled with many books, each having little pieces of paper sticking out, marking a page. I quickly glanced at the titles, they all seemed to be about murders where the killer was never caught. I half-expected to see O.J. Simpson's book If I did It, but to my delight, no such book was found. I ducked into the bathroom, which was surprisingly neat, I opened up the cabinet hoping the hair-dye would be there just waiting for me. There were many bottles, the type that prescribed medicine comes in, but all were empty. This ghastly sight sent chills down my back, so I slammed the cabinet shut and looked around the bathroom.
"Hey Fran, you still alive?" I heard Matt call.
"Yes, I strategically avoided the jaws of the Venus Fly Trap," I called back. I heard him chuckling, and at that moment, I found the hair dye in the small container underneath the sink. Grabbing, I rushed out of the bathroom, only to knock down a stack of books that were hidden behind bathroom door. When I stooped down to pick them up, the title of the heavy one on the bottom surprised me. It read Gods of Death and Their interactions with the Human Kind. I gasped slightly, loud enough for Matt to stick his head in and looked at me puzzled.
"What's that, his porn collection?" He asked curiously.
"No, it's nothing, I'm sure," I said quickly. Then I waggled the hair-dye, "look, I got the goods now let's roll."
"Alright, we should hurry, if we get back quick enough then maybe we can convince them to only put a healthy dose of Ambien in your friend's drink." My face twisted in horror, it was only my first day here and I was already involved in illegal activity. I ran out of BB's room, and closed the door, gestured for Matt to lead the way and we started our walk back to the cafeteria.
"So be honest with me, on a daily basis, how many laws do you people break?" I asked with my witty tone.
"On a good day, about 4- and that's rounding down. Listen," he stopped walking and faced me. It was at this moment that I noticed an odd-shaped bulge underneath his shirt. "Despite what people may say outside of these walls, the Wammy Orphanage is a really strict and serious place. What we do here everyday changes the future of tomorrows criminal activity. You may not have caught on to the Wammy secret, and that may be a good thing, but we aren't fun and games at all," his voice lightened up and became less serious. "So be glad you're chillin' with us, okay?" he smiled and I nodded. The whole conversation gave me mixed feelings, I didn't know what to think- whether to run away or stay, whether to take him seriously or be a little goofy. It was all confusing.
We continued on our way, remaining silent for the most of the part, at least until curiosity got the better of me.
"Wait," he stopped. "What's that hanging around your neck?" I asked him. He turned to me and pulled out a pair of yellow goggles, I looked at him with a blank expression. "And you have those…why?"
"Because I can," he simply stated. "Don't you think they're fashionable?" I admitted to him that they were very cool-looking, and that he pulled off the look. Eventually we made it back into the cafeteria, it appeared to empty but Matt gestured to the kitchen doors. I followed him into the kitchen to see everyone gathered around the island, they were all arguing.
"Alright everyone, we have the bleach, the new dye, and the spiked drink. Let's put this plan into action, alright?" Joan announced as we joined the group. "Alright, assuming that nobody has any objections about the dosage of Ambien, or the color of the hair?" nobody said anything, so I had to step in.
"The amount you put in, it's not going to kill her or put her in a coma, right?"
"Of course not! We're geniuses, remember?" Joan reassured me. "Now, before we carry out the plan, we need a distraction to switch her drink with the potent one. Any volunteers?" again, nobody said anything. In a burst of insanity, I raised my hand. Everyone stared at me in disbelief.
"It'll make me less suspicious if I spilled my drink on her on accident and she gave me a good pounding, besides, I can take it," I explained. There was silence among the group, and then out of nowhere, Mello started clapping very slowly. It got faster as everyone else joined in, and I started to blush and tell them they were crazy. In a matter of a few half-hours the plan was set into motion.