Wordslinger's Note- I'm so sorry! I've been preoccupied with this stupid project that I had to do over, TWICE! please dont hate meeee! I dont like it when people I don't know hate me!

In the weeks that followed-through Joan's eyes.

Somehow over the course of the next couple days, Lena became a part of our group. Along with a lot of evil glances and snide comments from Mello, she pretty much just started hanging out with us. She mainly stuck with Near and BB, but when we had little 'girls-only' meetings, she came along also. It was nice to have a group at peace once again. Even more amazingly, she somehow became a decently nice person, my theory is that Matt's words got to her and scared the crap out of her.

For some reason she kept the green hair, I didn't see how anyone could like it, but she did. And as for an even bigger shocker; she was pretty girly. She squealed like a pig when we captured a vole to put in Roger's cabinet. It got so annoying, I had Mello take her outside so that we could carry out or the plan would be ruined. It was one of our lesser-effective schemes.

The new arrivals should be coming in sometime this week, but only I and L know about it. We always keep secrets between the two of us; I like to think that it lets him see how trustworthy I am. Anyways, I have already decided that we would allow the sixteen-year old to join our group, she could be Near's eye candy or something. The younger one would be thrust into the little kids group, and hopefully she would survive. The little kids were the most horrifying thing about Wammy's, no one knows how many actually exist; their numbers grow and shrink every day. I could swear that I saw this little toddler eat a baby, that's how crazy they are. I'd like to think that they do those things because they want to move up in rank, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that they do it for ritualistic purposes. I'm talking the-bad-guys-from-Indiana-Jones rituals, with the heart eating stuff.

Right now we are celebrating Mello's birthday at the local bar. Even though half of the group is underage, we are still allowed in. Hell, they even serve us beer without protest, I think that good 'ol Wams pays them a good amount each month. That way we can get away with practically anything, as long as we don't put anybody in danger. I'm giving you over to Fran now, mainly because I'm tired of narrating and because I want you out of my head for the while.

You heard the girl!

As the others were whooping it up, I looked around at the other villagers that were at the bar. Even though we were making a lot of noise, they didn't seem to mind. This is almost a little freaky, it's like they don't even have their own minds! My line of thought was interrupted when somebody pushed a very small shot glass in front of me. I looked at it suspiciously, the others wanted me to drink it, but I really didn't want a hangover the next morning.

"Oh you little Miss Perfect, of course we don't expect you to drink alcohol," Joan teased me. "What's in front of you is nothing more than a very stale and old cherry juice. We're hoping that it somehow fermented itself, but we need you to test drink it."

"What? Why me? Why can't someone else do it? Someone else who's willing to risk food poisoning?" I pleaded with them.

"Because it's my birthday, and I get to choose who's drinking that crap, and I CHOOSE YOU! Zinerva Francesca-Rosalba O' Hearney!" Mello cried.

"Calm down birthday boy, I am NOT your Pokémon," I told him as I sniffed the possibly fatal goo that I was supposed to drink. Deciding that it smelled slightly better than bleach, I quickly swallowed it down while holding my breath. The liquid tasted sour and immediately gave me a headache, as soon as it was securely down the hatch I could feel tear drops forming in my eyes. "OhMyGawd, OhMyGawd, OhMyGawd, that tasted like shit. There is liquid shit in my stomach now!" I cursed to them as I grabbed the nearest drink to me. Without thinking, I drank Joan's beer in a single gulp, it didn't taste bad but it certainly didn't hide the taste. I rushed to the bar and ordered a coke; the bartender filled a glass quicker than I had ever seen a man fill a drink. After my second coke, I was finally able to stop drinking. I dazedly made my way back to the table where they were staring at me awe-struck. "Hey," I wheezed out.

There was silence as I laid my head on the table and tried to get my head to stop throbbing.

"Hey Mr. Wilkins," I heard Mello call. "Six more rounds of the stale liquid shit, please." I groaned for their benefit, soon after I heard six little thuds onto the table. "Okay guys, on three, if you don't finish the whole thing then you are officially labeled a pansy. One…Two..." I heard someone curse under their breath. "THREE!" I heard the lot of them start drinking the little shots. Almost instantly somebody spewed their drink all over the table, most of it landing on me.

I shrieked and sat up immediately, other noises of disgust came from the other juice drinkers. They were all different colors of sick, but Mello looked especially terrible. His eyes were wide and his face was green, and he had his hand over his mouth. What was the most shocking was that his small shot glass was still half-full of the dark red goo.

"Mello," I let out weakly as I pointed to his glass. "You're a pansy." He turned even redder; he was starting to look like an oompa-loompa when he finally found some words to speak.

"Well you are covered in a mixture of stale liquid shit and my saliva!" I could tell the headache was hitting him hard because his ears were getting redder and redder.

"You know, it can only start to taste better with your saliva!" I laughed at my own joke. Everyone paused from their sick groans and looked at me. I started to turn red as I realized the very stupid thing I had just said. Before I could say anything to redeem myself, something was yelled by BB.

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" The whole lot of us laughed at his unusual outburst, almost forgetting the very stupid thing I had said, almost. After everyone had recovered from the red goo, we went about our celebrating. It seemed that the expired cherry juice did something to everybody else's attitudes; Mello was being quiet, Matt put down his game and started talking about quadratic expressions, his PSP was picked up by Lena, BB was cracking jokes, and Near was acting as if he was going to pick a fight. I became dazed as I started to make the connection between all of us, then turned to see what Joan was doing. She and I seemed to be the only ones who were being ourselves.

"What's going on with them?" I asked. The juice may not have affected my personality, but it still gave me a throbbing headache. I felt like I was going to pass out, but I still fought to contain my consciousness.

"I think they are having hallucinations, I can't be certain. This isn't very good, but it's not serious either, so disrupting the party would be unnecessary," she sounded entirely smart and educated, it was unlike her. My shock must have been evident because she asked me what was wrong.

"You sound so… normal and smart, it's frightening," I confessed to her. She laughed, even her laugh sounded smart and normal.

"I think you're getting a few hallucinations yourself, I'm not under any influence because I faked the entire drink, and right now it's sitting in the planter. I hope Mr. Wilkins won't mind. Now, there is the problem on whether or not I can allow everyone to continue spending the night here. What time do you think we should herd them back?"

"Right now would be a good time; I might not be able to hold out though. You might have to pay for a taxi or something, I think… I think…" I was getting dizzier and dizzier; I was trying to finish my sentence. "I think… I'm going to pass out," upon saying this, the headache I had been trying so hard to suppress finally broke loose and completely knocked me out.

Back to Joan

Fran collapsed onto the table, that's great.

"Well that wasn't dramatic at all," BB quipped. This evening was surely going to change my viewpoint of him forever.

"Well, not to be a party-shitter, but we have to get her back to school. Any volunteers?" Nobody spoke a word. "Don't make me force you," I warned, but nobody would offer. "Ok, I am going to randomly choose the person who will help me carry Fran back to the Orphanage." I closed my eyes and 'randomly' pointed to Matt. He didn't want to, but I made sure he came. I'm evil and totally amazing like that.

"I don't see why I have to be the one who always has to take care of her. Whatever Mello has said to you is totally wrong," Matt complained as Fran was piggy-backed on him. I turned around and skipped backwards to face him.

"Because you are smart, she is smart, you are hot, and she is hot; you both have a lot in common," I winked at him. He grunted and threw his head back in frustration, only to hit the unconscious Fran's head.

"That was incredibly adorable, in a painful kind of way," I laughed at him.

"You're stupid," Matt spat back. "And really stupid for thinking that I'm interested in Fran."

"Oh and why are you not interested in Fran?" I asked slyly, I was really starting to love my job.

"I'm about to drop Fran right now, if you keep asking stupid questions like that," he threatened, but I could see him blushing.

"Fine, I'll stop for now. Hey, I think you might have worn off the effects of the juice!" I exclaimed happily.

"What are you talking about? You make it sound like I got high off of the juice, and why are you calling it 'the juice?' Now it really sounds illegal"

"You should really lay off 'the juice' man, I think you've got a problem," I teased him. "I'm going to test your sobriety," I said as I pulled out his PSP I swiped while Lena was busy talking to BB. I turned it on and the luminous screen appeared through then night.

"What are you doing with my PSP?" he demanded. I waved it in front of his face.

"Come on boy, come and get your PSP!" skipped ahead of him as he tried to keep up.

"I hate you, and if you drop that I will drop Fran. When she breaks a bone or fractures her skull, I'll blame you," Matt threatened again.

"But there would be no witnesses, and who do you think the judge is going to believe; her best friend, or her wannabe boyfriend?"

"I am NOT her wannabe boyfriend! And you are not her best friend!"

"Ah, but that's what it looks like from the outside! And that's what it looks like to your peers, so HAH! Hey, if you want to prove that you harbor no emotional feelings to Fran, I want you to kiss her, RIGHT NOW!"

"What the hell? No way! And how the hell is that supposed to prove that I don't like her?"

"Oh come on, she won't know, and I won't tell anyone! Besides, I could do the same thing with L!" I pointed out.

"That is pure bullshit, I know that you're in love with L," Matt said a little too loud. "Now you come over here so I can dump Fran onto you."

"No! Not until I see you kiss her!" I pouted to him. He kept on walking towards me, trying to run without brain damaging Fran.

"Ahhh, if you can't beat me then you have to do it" I walked very fast in front of him; we were almost at the Orphanage. He seemed outraged at me, but I kept on walking. He stopped suddenly, gently put Fran down onto the sidewalk, and started running in my direction at full speed. I whooped and started running to the Orphanage. I had a head start, but he was almost passing me. I tried to keep ahead, but when I knew that I was going to lose I took a sharp turn into the bushes. I was bounding towards the wall of the fence when I heard Matt come crashing through the bushes behind me. He knew my plan, but he was too late, I was going to win this.

Reaching the wall I started climbing its iron spokes at the amazing rate of a monkey. I heard Matt curse, undoubtedly because he knew I won. I made it to the top almost instantly, I was about to jump down, but then I decided to rub salt on his wounds. I sat at the top of the wall and called down to his shadow.

"Hey Matt," I quietly yelled. "Guess what? You are an idiot! Now, I'm going to jump down and come around to the gate so we can go back and collect Fran. Hopefully a rapist hasn't come along and found her unconscious on the sidewalk. In the event of that happening, I'M blaming YOU, and once again, I will win." I stuck my tongue out to the darkness and jumped down onto the school grounds.

I snuck by Roger's window; he was busy drinking and looking at someone's personal files. For a moment I longed to throw an egg at his window, but the temptation of Matt kissing Fran won over. I dashed across the courtyard and out of the gate, Matt was walking slowly back towards where we left Fran. I caught up to him and started walking with him, a gigantic grin was set across my face and I didn't even try to hide it. Even though I wanted to say something, I couldn't think of anything to say.

Eventually we got to the area where we left her, but we stopped even before we got there. Fran was missing.

"Shit," Matt cursed.

"Let's not panic; Watari wouldn't let anyone who could be a rapist live in this village, so she probably woke up and walked off somewhere," I reassured him.

"Well obviously, but where do you think she went?"

"I don't know, but you should probably go and get the others from the bar, I'm going to look around for her," I commanded. Reluctantly, Matt agreed and started running off towards the direction of the bar. I surveyed the surroundings, hoping that she might have left physical evidence of where she might have wondered off to. There was no such luck, so I started walking down a random street.

She probably set off to where she thinks the Orphanage is, I thought as I started running down the street. There wasn't a soul in sight, just the empty street with the light posts giving off pools of light. I kept on going down this street until I decided that she was not there, so I took a turn onto yet another empty street. There wasn't even any sound but of my own hurried footsteps. It was creepy.

I kept on with my system of turning onto different streets until I ran into somebody. I recognized her as Lena when I caught sight of the bright green hair.

"Hey Lena!" I called as I ran towards her. She greeted me when I caught up to her; she was shivering from the cold.

"How's your search going?" she asked politely.

"I've searched a butt-load streets but I still haven't found her," I whined.

"How far can an intoxicated teenager go in a few minutes?" Lena complained. I laughed at her; it was probably the nicest moment we've shared together.

"I don't know, maybe she went primitive on us and climbed a tree or something," we both laughed at my lame joke, no doubt imagining Fran in a tree. After I caught my breath, I suddenly felt a little brave. "Why did you act like such a bitch when you got here? I mean, I know its hard losing your parents and all that, and I'm sure you were mad that Fran still has her mother, but don't you think you were overdoing it a little too much?" Lena didn't say anything, when we were walking underneath the streetlight; I actually noticed that she was kind of pretty.

"You'll have to get me a lot more drunk if you ever hope to get that answer," she said comically, somehow I believed her. Knowing I wouldn't get anything else out of her, I tried to change the subject.

"So guess what Matt has to do?" I started to get really excited. I think my 'girlyness' was really coming out. I didn't give her any time to answer. "Since I beat him at a race, he's got to kiss Fran! Am I a genius or what?'

"We are NOT having this conversation," she said abruptly.

"Oh come one, why does nobody want to discuss girly things with me? I mean, not even Fran likes talking about stuff like this," I started rambling on about my grievances until Lena interrupted me.

"Please shut up, I can't even hear myself think. If I can't hear myself think, then how are we going to find Fran?" I quieted down, slightly ashamed. "Sorry, if you really want to keep talking about this, then go ahead. Just… keep it down," Lena apologized to me. I cheered quietly, and told her all about how I dared Matt and how I won. I was going into detail about sitting on top of the wall when she shushed me and pointed to a shape in the nearby park.

"Is that Fran?" I whispered. I squinted my eyes to try and make out whatever was laying on the park bench.

"I don't know it could be a hobo" she stated. We quietly got closer and closer, but no matter how close we got, I couldn't even tell if it was human. I got up as far as a few inches from her face when the figure started screaming at me. With me myself screaming, I grabbed Lena and we started sprinting out of the park as fast as we could. I had never been so afraid, I almost pissed my pants. I had just been inches away from a screaming hobo.

We ran all the way back to where we had first left Fran, we didn't stop even once. It was as if the hobo was chasing after us with an AK 47. When we reached where we had left Fran, we simply collapsed on the sidewalk. Mello, who had been standing nearby, walked over to us and stood above, as if judging us.

"You know, I really need some new friends," he said simply. Then he seemed to be staring at Lena, who was lying on the ground with me. I wondered if she knew that he was looking at her. "What were you guys doing?"

"There was a crazy hobo man chasing after us!" I yelled. He shook his head in disappointment.

"You could have come up with a better lie than that, I know that you guys were just dying to see me," he strutted before us. When his back was turned to me, I kicked his butt and he stumbled slightly. Lena, who had finally caught her breath, giggled at the befuddled Mello. He didn't like that.

"So has there been any news about Fran? Anyone found her?" I asked when we were all calmed down.

"No, if Matt had found her, he would've called me," Mello explained. "Though, I can't say the same thing about BB or Near, so they might have found her. All I know is that I am tired, I have a splitting headache, and it's cold outside."

"Babe, it's England," I explained to him. "It's always cold here."

"Yah, well you know what they say about cold weather," Mello's voice trailed off.

"No, what are they saying?" I was intrigued.

"That it leads to shrinking!" Lena cried. I burst out in laughter, in fact, we all started laughing. Mello laughed a little less hard than us. We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

"I find it disturbing that you know that," Near's voice came. We turned to look at him, he didn't have Fran, and so we invited him to sit down with us. We were all chatting and having fun when Matt came along, he couldn't find Fran either. At this point, we started getting really worried about finding her.

"What if BB can't find her?" I started asking nervously.

"Oh he'll find her, he's obsessed," Mello said carelessly. "I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier; we didn't have to go off and find her, we could have just sent BB. He's like a dog!" The others laughed at his stupid joke, and I only got more nervous.

Soon after, I thought I heard footsteps, so looking around I saw BB coming towards us, Fran was trailing behind.

"Look who decided to join us," Matt called. We all got up and greeted and congratulated BB and Fran, she was really out of it.

Deciding that we had done enough in one night, we all headed home. Nobody even asked BB where he had found Fran. I was so caught up in telling Fran about all that she missed, with the hobo and whatnot that I almost forgot about Matt's part of the deal. Almost. When the wonderful idea crossed my mind, I immediately ran over to Matt and nudged him a couple of times with my elbow until he finally gave in.

"I hate you Joan, I really do. Tomorrow morning you're going to be the worst enemy of every person in the orphanage," Matt growled at me.

"Oh shut up and do your thing," I pushed him toward Fran. Fran was still pretty drugged out, so she probably didn't know what was happening. Matt came over, quickly said something to her, and swooped down and gave her a quick kiss. I started applauding and the others joined in brainlessly. Matt cursed us to hell, and Fran looked as lost as ever.

I love my job. Right now I would hand you over to Fran, but it would be like being in the mind of a six year old who just smoked a joint.