A/N: One more chapter for tonight, then I must go to bed. But I only have one class in university tomorrow, so chapters might be early. (Don't count on it though, because my campus is HUGE and I have to walk a lot.)

As always, thank you for the many followers and favourites! You are all incredibly awesome, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

(Light P.O.V)

While waiting for my class to begin I leaned against the hallway wall in an angry fashion. That guy from yesterday made me never want to speak with him again! He had been rude, annoying, and absolutely childish! I couldn't believe there were actual people like him on this earth! It absolutely amazed me! And of course, the moment it was all over and I could go home, I locked myself in my room screamed into my pillow with pure anger and frustration. Thank god I'd never have to associate with him again.

Teri caught up to me with Misa and Takada in tow. Just what I needed, more stress!

She punched my arm. "So how'd it go yesterday with the new guy?"

Before I could answer, Misa grabbed my arm to nuzzle it. "Quit hitting him!" Her whiny voice echoed through the halls. "You don't want to hurt him, do you!?"

Takada just rolled her eyes. "Misa, he's a lot stronger than you give him credit for."

She nuzzled into my arm again. "I know."

Takada's eyes narrowed at her but before she said anything we were joined by Tamlen a Mikami. They'd rushed to get to class since they both had Phys. Ed. in the morning and were usually late.

They dropped to the floor thanking the gods that they weren't late again.

Tamlen held his chest. "Mr. Bard made us run laps… we were almost late again…"

Mikami then spoke. "I got us out of there… no problem though!"

Teri held her nose the moment she took a step towards her brother. "Jesus Tam! Did you two even shower!?"

"Nope! How do you think we got here on time?!"

We all took a step back from them at this point. Tamlen didn't seem to know why, but Mikami was more than embarrassed.

"I don't suppose any of you ladies carry perfume?" He asked. "Not even I can stand the smell at this point."

Takada giggled and tossed him a bottle of body mist. "It's all I've got, but it should cover the stench."

Mikami happily doused himself with the smell of pineapples and… something else I could decipher. Ginger maybe? Well, it was better than what he smelled like before.

He offered the bottle to Tamlen who took a pass.

"I like to smell like a man, thank you very much." He said as he raised his arms to flex his non-existent muscles.

We all got a whiff of him and stepped farther back from him, gagging at the smell. Of course, it didn't help that Tamlen never took a bath or shower. Once a week was apparently his limit. The only thing clean about him were his clothing, and that was only because Teri and her grandmother raided his bedroom to wash them.

Another thing about Teri and Tamlen was hat they were from the states. Their parents sent them to Japan to live with their grandmother so they could learn the value of hard work with her. The only thing was… they always came to school with more than outrageous stories about her… that turned out to be true. Like the skydiving trip they were planning for spring break that was coming up.

It was scary, but they had proof.

Teri sighed, then turned to me. "So anyway, how did it go with that guy you were supposed to give a tour to of the school? What was he like?"

I shuddered. "Let me put it to you this way, I NEVER want to see him again! End of story."

She giggled. "Wow, was it that bad?!"

"Worse! Can we please drop it now?!"

Tamlen then spoke up. "What, was he like creepy or something?"

"Yes! And rude, and childish, and completely infuriating! He deliberately tripped me! TRIPPED ME! For absolutely no reason!"

The girls chuckled at this but it was Takada who spoke. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you this upset before. This guy must be a real pain."

Tamlen laughed. "Or Light has a crush on him!"

I narrowed my eyes at him, flaring my nostrils. It was the cue for him to take it back and cower.

And he did, but also replied with, "You know, most people when they complain about other people have a crush on said person."

"Believe me, Tam." I growled. "The moment you meet him, you'll understand my frustration."

The bell rang out for classes to switch and the class before mine emptied out. Before long I had entered my class and found my seat. Within moments though I saw a familiar face walk into the science room and I immediately felt anger once again.

Sure enough, Ryuzaki was in my class. It was like fate or something!

I breathed heavily while lightly slamming my head against the table. "Why do the gods hate me so?"

"No way, is that him?!" Teri whispered to me. "He's so… well… weird-looking."

Misa nodded in agreement. "It looks like he hasn't showered in months!"

"He makes Tamlen look like a clean freak." Takada started up.

I simply ignored them. I knew all too well the assumptions on him. And I'm too sure that they were all true. But it was best to just act like he wasn't there. If he wasn't there, he couldn't bother me.

The class soon began.

"Hello class," our teacher began. "Today we have a new student with us. A Mr. Ryuzaki is it?"

The class turned to the freak sitting at his desk and more than a few giggles broke out. I was just plain stunned.

The guy was actually sitting on his chair, knees to his chest, as he bit his thumbnail. As if the clothing and hygiene wasn't enough, the guy had to sit weird to! I honestly began to believe that this guy wasn't a normal human being. Maybe he'd been tested on by the US government and was in hiding. I mean, 'Ryuzaki'? That sure seemed like a Japanese name, but he was as pale as snow! He was definitely Caucasian, but he spoke Japanese so fluently and perfectly he might as well be Japanese himself! He was just… freaky!

The freaky guy at the back of the class nodded. "Yes. Ryuzaki is my name."

The teacher semi-smiled at him. "Well, welcome to our classroom. You've come at a great time, because for the rest of the month we're going to be working on our own individual science projects and presenting them after spring break."

The rest of the class groaned but the teacher was still smiling. "I know it isn't fun, but this time… you get to work with partners!"

Many people in the class were happy with this. Many, but not me. Working with a partner only meant one thing with me; I did all the work. More times than not I got a female partner who would just sit beside me and stare at me. If I got a male partner, he was either too slow to catch up, or too lazy to do anything.

The teacher quieted us down before he announced, "But I'll be choosing the partners."

Groans spread across the room again. Well, at least it saved me from being bombarded by the other students.

My science teacher then read out the lists of partners.

"Alright, with Ryuzaki now joining us, we now have an odd number of people in our class, so there will be one group of three. Misa, Teri, and Takada, I will assign you three together."

I leaned in to Teri to whisper to her. "I owe you one, BIG time."

"You owe me TEN!" She whispered back, making me smile a bit.

The teacher then rattled off the other names until he got to the last few.

"…Tamlen and Mikami."

The two high fived each other. The two always worked together no matter what and it seemed even the teacher agreed with the two.

"Light you'll be partnered up with Ryuzaki…" he said, then spoke the next couple.

I fell into silence before turning to Teri. "Did he say…?"

She smiled evilly. "Nevermind. Looks like we're both going to suffer."

The teacher finished with the partners then ended by telling us to get into our seas beside our partners. "Until after spring break, your partners are your new neighbors. For the rest of this class, I want you all to take this opportunity to talk with your partners about possible projects.

"Begin!"

Everyone began moving to their respective seats but me and Ryuzaki. I don't know why he didn't move, but I didn't because I hadn't wanted to be his partner.

When I was about to call the teacher aside and ask for a new partner, Teri kicked me out of my seat.

"Listen, Yagami." She threatened. "If I have to work with two girls who are just going to fight over you, you're going to work with the guy you hate! Got it!"

I nodded hastily while grabbing my stuff, heading over to the strange guy sitting awkwardly at his desk. Although I despised this more than anything, I knew there was really no point in arguing with anyone about it. I just had to face the music.

I sat beside the man and tried my hardest not to growl. "Well, I guess we have to work together, whether we like it or not. So I say we just…"

"I apologize, Light Yagami."

I blinked at the guy. "Uh… excuse me?"

He dug into his pockets and pulled out a few sweets that looked wholly unfamiliar to me. The wrapping had English writing on it, but I couldn't pronounce it correctly in my mind.

He popped on of the candies in his mouth. "I realize how I acted yesterday was completely childish and uncalled for. I apologize and I hope we can look past our differences in order to get this project done." He then looked me in the eyes and I felt my heart stop. "Am I forgiven?"

There was something… unnatural in his eyes. They weren't empty, but full of… what? Something about them made my mind go fuzzy and my chest tighten a bit. It was definitely a new feeling for me… but I didn't hate it completely.

I nodded when I couldn't find any words to speak. "I… erm… yes. Sorry, I was just distracted."

"Oh? With what might I ask?" He began then looked down at the sweets on the table. He then rolled one to me. "If you would like to try one, all you have to do is ask."

I took the excuse. "Erm… it's not that. I just don't understand the writing." I began to unwrap the sweet to read it better. Of course, I didn't waste the treat, but right as I tried to read the writing I was taken by surprise at the flavour. It was incredibly sugary, sweet, and had the strong taste of strawberry. It was actually quite good.

"The writing says 'Strawberry'." He explained. "It just says the flavour. But the name of the brand is 'Emperor's Pick'. I highly doubt that you know this brand, but it's quite popular where I'm from."

Strawberry? That's all it said? It looked a lot longer than that, but I suppose he was correct. I'd taken some English reading courses, but I'd never heard anyone speak fluent English. Well, other than Teri and Tamlen a few times, but I only knew a few words of what they said.

"You don't know very many English words, do you?" Ryuzaki guessed. "No need to feel discouraged. I speak a many number of languages, so I know the difficulty of learning the correct letters, nouns, pronouns, and the like… but if you would like to learn more English, I'd be happy to teach you. It is my native tongue."

I hummed at this. "I suppose. But we should focus on the science project."

"I already have an idea." He said as he pointed to the window slightly, towards the sky. Looking out, though, I couldn't see anything in the sky but clouds.

"Uh… clouds?" I asked.

"Precisely. With enough time and research, we may be able to make our own cloud. A man-made cloud, if you will. It has been done in the past, so why not?"

"Ryuzaki, the people who did that had the resources and the money to do it. Unless you're talking about making one in a jar, we won't have the time or resources to…"

"Leave the resources to me, Mr. Yagami."

I sighed. "Just 'Light' is fine. And how would you able to pay for it?"

"I have my means. Besides, this is a project I've wanted to do since I was a child. The time seems perfect now, so let's try it. If worst comes to worst, we do a project on a potato clock or geodes. The teacher will be impressed either way."

I thought about this for a second. "I suppose… but would we have the time?"

"If we start tomorrow morning we will. It is the weekend, and we have now and lunch to figure out what it is we need to make this happen. If you give me your number I'll text you where our cloud will take shelter."

I once again hummed. "Alright. I suppose we could give it a try."

"Then let us make a list for the things we will need to make this happen."

And with that, a partnership was born. To be honest with myself, Ryuzaki wasn't actually all that bad. Maybe he just wasn't in a good state of mind yesterday and lost his control on his behaviour. But, all in all, he was really doing his part with this project. For once, I was going along someone else's idea instead of my own.

This might not be so bad.