This morning was the first time I've ever actually tried to dress up. Bad idea on my part.

'Does this top go with these pants?'

'Why do I have a skirt? I don't wear skirts!'

'What about….No. That looks like it came from the 60's. And not even the good part of the 60's!'

After about 15 minutes of this I couldn't take it anymore!

"OH! MY! GOD!" was the only thing I could think to say!

"What? What's wrong?!" came Axle to the rescue.

"I…..don't…..know…..what to wear!"

"When have you cared about something like that?" he teased.

Without thinking I said, "Ever since I met D- WAIT! YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT!" my cheeks grew pink.

"Ooh! Lexi's got a crush! Lexi's got a crush!" he sang while skipping out of my room.

Even though he's ANNOYING, he's right. And coming from my background, that's something I don't know how to deal with! So I finally gave up and settled on a form-fitting black long-sleeved shirt with four white rectangles on the front (much like his jacket), grey skinny jeans, my same combat boots, and pulled my messy hair into a ponytail. I made sure to put it directly in the middle of my head because I heard him say something about symmetry. Finally, I found a shinigami-skull necklace to wear. I don't own any make-up, so I'll skip out on that department.

"Whoa! Is that a figure I see?" came Axle's snide remark.

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny…"

"No, I'm serious! This is the first time I've seen you without that blob of a jacket. You look good." After that awkwardness was over we left for our second day of school.

"YAHOO!"

"What was that?" wondered Axle.

"Do you think someone is in trouble?" I yelled as I sped ahead of my weapon. He's a lot slower because I'm usually carrying him when we need to run fast.

"THAT'LL TEACH YOU TO CHALLENGE THE MAN WHO WILL SURPASS GOD! NYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" came a familiar voice.

As I reached the top I saw Black*Star fling some poor, bald-headed boy with spiral eyes across the front entrance with only one hand.

"Whoa! What's this about?" I asked him.

"This twerp tried to show off more than me!"

"Come again?"

"He was talking to these girls over here about our last 'Spartoi' mission like he was the big hero! Everyone knows that I, the great Black*Star, is the biggest star of them all! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"We don't care about either of you losers, anyway!" snapped the pink haired girl who I learned is named 'Kim'.

"That's what this is about? Oh…I thought it was something important…"

"What are you saying?! Everything the great Black*Star does is important to everyone!"

"Yeah, well….I guess I'm not one of those 'everyone' you're talking about," I said as I turned back to the stairs to wait for Axle.

"Them's fightin' words!" I backed up a step, "Come on New-Girl, whaddya say?" I heard his partner, Tsubaki, ask him to leave me alone, and how he didn't need another fight. He completely ignored her and kept right on pestering me.

"I'd rather not. And my weapon's only half-way up-"

"What are you, Chicken?" These are the worst four words you can say to me. I have a bit of a 'Marty McFly' complex.

"What did you say to me?" I asked. He than proceeded to put his hands under his arms to make wings, and cluck.

"Nobody calls me chicken. Nobody!" I said as I dramatically struck a fighting stance and pointed at him.

"Well then, let's start this duel!"

I nervously glanced back and saw Axle crawling with 1/4th of the stairs left to go. 'Oh…what did I get myself into?! Wait a second….Is he….SLEEPING!?'

"GET UP HERE AXLE! YOU LAZY SON OF A BIT-"

"BLACK*STAR BIG WAVE!" he shouted as he did a sideways lunge towards me, arms outstretched. I quickly analyzed his stance and found his weak point. His back leg, where all his balance was being obtained. With lightning-quick reflexes, I dodged his hand, rolled over to his leg and yanked it out from under him. As expected, he fell flat on his face, trapped between the ground and me.

"ALEXA BIG WAVE!" I said mocking his earlier attack. I had a crazed look in my eye.

All morals were lost.

All I could think about was killing this brat!

Right before I burnt this kid to a crisp with my soul wavelength, I felt a sudden impact from my left side. I sent my soul impact flying into a random direction, not hitting anyone.

"ALEXA, No! This got us in trouble last time, remember?! Just take a chill-pill!"

"Axle? When'd you get up here?" I asked. The insanity from before was slowly seeping out of my system. I looked over to the 'assassin' who was starring with a mixture of fear and admiration in his eyes. I looked to my friend, who was pinning me down, he had a worried, yet stern expression on his face. He's the only one who can calm me down when I get like this.

"I-I'm sorry. SO sorry, Black*Star! I don't know what came over me!"

'Yes I do…'

"Hey!" came another familiar voice, "We heard all the commotion from the bottom of the stairs! What happened, exactly?" asked Maka, looking around. Let's give a hand to the perfect timing of Soul and Maka!

"Whoa Black*Star," said Soul, " your soul wavelength must be getting stronger. I've never seen it cause this much damage before!"

"It wasn't….." mumbled the last part inaudibly.

"What?"

"I said…..it wasn't….mine." he buried his face in his collar. 'I feel sooo bad about this!'

"Wasn't yours?" gasped Maka, "then whose was it?" I really didn't want people thinking I'm a freak, so I would hope Axle would keep his mouth shut.

"It's Alexa's. She's got a pretty strong soul wavelength!" enthused Axle. I gave him a death stare. 'I love this kid, but GOD is he dumb!' I don't enjoy talking to people in the first place. And my past is a sore spot. You can imagine that conversation going well. I glanced around the group and Maka had this weird blank stare on her face…And just to make this moment perfect, guess who came over! That's right! Death the Kid!

"What happened here?" he questioned.

"Alexa and Black-OOF!" I punched him in the gut.

"OH, I don't know! I sure do wonder, though!" I said obnoxiously loud trying to block out Axles' explanation. He gave me a 'why-are-you-so-loud?' look that I'm sure Black*Star gets all the time. I could practically taste the blush on my face!

"Well, whoever did this must have some astonishing power…" he said as he strolled away.

"Why didn't you tell him?" asked Soul, "I thought it was pretty cool."

"OH,NO WAY!" exclaimed Axle in sudden realization, "He's the one you have a crush on, isn't it?!"

"Shh! What are you saying? I don't have a crush! You must be crazy! CRAZY I SAY!" I didn't even realize that Liz and Patty came over with Kid. But unlike him, they stayed.

"Oh, you do like him!" enthused Liz, "Look how red your face is!" Which of coarse, only made my face even more red.

"Alexa and Kiddo, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" sang the ever-so-charming Patty.

Maka's P.O.V.

As we were waiting for Stein to start class I couldn't hold my question in any more!

"Hey Soul," I said, as calm as usual, "What do you think about Alexa and Axle?"

"Hmm? Well, that Axle guy is pretty cool. And Alexa seems kind of….weird. Why?"

"Oh, no reason…." I brushed it off.

"Maka," Soul started, " I've known you long enough to know when something is bothering you. You can trust me." I stared into his ruby eyes. I don't know why I didn't want to tell him I just….didn't. But, I'd want him to do the same for me.

"Okay. Well, you know how we saw her use that soul wavelength?" Soul nodded, "Well, I checked out her soul with my soul perception. And I don't know how to describe it but, her soul was made up of, like, a bunch of different souls put together."

I looked down, afraid Soul would laugh at me for overreacting. But he never did. I looked back up at my partner and I could tell he was confused too.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it looked like someone took the strongest parts of a bunch a different souls and melted them all down into one, big, super-soul. I could also see a very untrusting nature, like someone has betrayed her,"

At that moment Dr. Stein rolled into class and was flung off his chair by the metal stopper. Like always. 'This guy never learns…' As class slipped by (another creepy dissection.), I noticed Dr. Stein was starring in the same general direction the entire time. I followed his gaze to see what was so interesting. 'He's starring at Alexa? And she doesn't even notice… Oh, wait, she's staring at Kid…Something's defiantly up with this girl. If even Dr. Stein is interested…'

After class I gathered with Tsubaki, Black*Star, Kid, Liz, Patty and Soul in the hallway. I asked them all the same question that I did Soul:

"She seems…..troubled," came Tsubaki's soft voice.

"Humph! She thinks she's better than me! I'm the biggest star around here!" said Black*Star with ruffled dignity.

"She's a talented fighter. AND has perfect symmetry!" said a glossy-eyed Kid.

Liz and Patty only giggled and did little jumps, mumbling to themselves. Much to Kid's confusion. Poor, oblivious Kid….

I told them all about her 'Pot-Luck' soul. I also told them how even Dr. Stein was interested in her.(I left out the part about her creeping on Kid). They all gaped with concern.

"Oh dear," was the only thing Patty knew to say. What do you say in a time like this?

"Is she….stable?" asked Liz. I merely shrugged.

"Wait a second!" said Tsubaki, "Remember right before she was about to hit you with her soul wavelength?" She asked Black*Star, "She had an insane look. And Axle said 'This got us in trouble last time' what do you think 'last time' was?"

We all contemplated this and I noticed Kid's face was exceptionally flushed. 'Does he have a crush on her, too? But then again, he has a crush on anything symmetrical….'

"Well," said Soul, "the only way to find out is to get it straight from the horse's mouth."

"Meaning?" asked Black*Star, not quite with the rest of us.

"Meaning we ask Stein, you idiot!"

"Oh," said Black*Star, scratching the back of his neck, "I knew that!"

We all headed over to Stein's room to question him. As we were nearing the door, we saw Axle leaving the classroom. 'What is he doing?'

He turned to look at Stein, who was in the door way, "Thank you," was all he said. He turned and left, his brow furrowed in thought. I motioned for all of us to continue walking.

"Dr. Stein?" I called.

"Yes? What can I do for you guys today?"

"We have some questions. Questions about the new girl, Alexa." I said rather bluntly. I saw his glasses flash, showing his now serious eyes starring back down at my determined gaze. He looked at us all one by one of us.

"Okay, okay. I know you guys will keep pestering me about it anyway," he said as he gestured us to enter his room. He followed and closed the door, "Well, what would you like to know?"

"We want to know why her soul is so unusual," stated Kid, "How did she end up with a combination of many strong souls?"

"Well," began Stein, "a few years back, about 13 years I believe, there was an under-the-table group of some of the best minds from all around. They were determined to create the 'perfect soldier'. So one of them, a doctor, told some unfortunate couples their babies died soon after being born. After smuggling out a few test subjects, they took them to wherever they were working." smoke escaped his lips as he continued his story.

I could see Tsubaki tearing up at what we knew the end of this story is going to be. Black*Star and Soul kept looking down. Liz had her eyebrows knotted up in a combination of curiosity and concern. I could see Patty with a blank stare, hiding all emotion. I don't think she can really comprehend what he's saying. And Kid seemed to be taking this quite well. Personally, I didn't know what to think. So I just kept listening to our teacher.

"After much experimentation they were finally getting close. They knew how to combine the souls of some of the strongest meister abilities. What they didn't know was how to get the souls to flow naturally. It was like gears that didn't match up. They also didn't know that one of the souls they were using was susceptible to madness very easily. It's safe to say that Alexa was the baby they injected with their latest model of the 'perfect soldier' soul. All the others passed away due to 'soul malfunctions', if you will."

We all let this sink in before another question came to my mind, "How did she meet up with Axle? And why is he able to work with her so well?"

"I believe Axle was one of the few children we saved when we found out what was happening. He can connect with her due to their mutual pasts, though he wasn't experimented on yet. They drew up with only each other, doing whatever it took to stay alive, much like you two," He pointed his cigarette-free hand at the Thompson sisters.

"Well then, what was Axle just talking to you about?" asked Soul.

"I can't say too much on that because that's between me and him. But I will say that he's been having trouble connecting with her lately," Stein took his usual seat, "Is that all you wanted to know?"

There were still many questions we all wanted to ask, but this wasn't the time for that. We thanked Stein for the information. As we were leaving I'm pretty sure I heard him say:

"Oh, I so want to dissect that girl..."