Subtitles +Two+

Track One: All That I've Got</u>

“I’ll be damned if there’s no hot water left,” The Oh-so Great Mello sneered at me as he walked into the bathroom. I was just buttoning my pants, don’t mind me. I’d hate for you to give me privacy….

“Oh really?” I asked, going out of the room, grabbing my gloves off the counter and pulling them on. I pulled my goggles up off my neck and set them in their place on my eyes, not even wincing as they hit my face with a small smack. I sat down on the floor and began to pull my boots on.

I already figured that today would be… nothing less than interesting.

To my –not so, maybe bad- luck, Mello and I had our classes together. All of them. Together. Do you get my problem here? Although I suppose it was to be expected. It was pretty rare that they put roommates in separate classes.

So I get to spend the entire day with Mello. Um, yay me?

I rolled my eyes at the thought as I sat on the floor and finished lacing up my boots. It’s not that I really hated Mello. I’ve just concluded that he has…. issues. After dinner yesterday, Sunday, he and I went back to the room and unpacked his things. Or rather, I unpacked them as he ‘supervised’ me. He then demanded that we set shower times… yeah. Every morning, we would switch ho got the first shower. This morning, obviously, I had the privilege. Now, granted, it was pretty nice, civilized way to settle that dilemma. But the catch was that he had to take a shower at six each morning. Meaning I had to get up at five forty this morning.

Just great.

The bathroom door opened loudly. Mello was already dressed. His hair, however, was still slightly damp and tangled. He sent me a short fused glare as he went to his dresser and got out a thick bristled black and white brush. I almost snicker out loud as the mental image of Mello brushing and styling his hair came to mind. But believe me, my insides were dying of hyperventilation.

Biting my bottom lip, I watched the blond retreat back to the bathroom. as soon as he was gone, I let out a small chuckle and looked to the clock on my nightstand. It was six thirty; classes stared in an hour. Of course. I crawled over to my TV and plugged up my Wii. Perfect way to wake up in the morning: Guitar Hero.

Not three songs later, Mello came back out, hair dry and a very small ghost of a smirk on his face. He sat down next to me on the ground, crossing my legs. He watched me play through the beginning of the song before asking, “You’re not hungry?”

“I don’t eat breakfast,” I said, my eyes flickering to him for a short second, then back to the screen. I never ate breakfast, instead choosing to usually sleep in until seven.

“Oh,” he said, “okay.”

“What about you?” I retort. He shakes his head, and the subject is dropped. We stayed like so for a good while, until seven-twelve. Then we proceeded to turn everything off, grab our bags and leave.

The hallway was already crowded. Some people were rushing to get to first class, while others were taking their time. Very few of them were like me; couldn’t care less about class. Or maybe it was just me. Oh well.

“Matt, where the hell are you going?!” Mello’s voice snapped me out of my daze. I blinked at him once, and then realized what he was talking about. Mello had stopped walking two feet away from me. He had a thumb sticking out, pointing to a door behind him; the Languages classroom door. Where our first class took place.

I did a mental facepalm.

Had we really already walked up the stairs and everything? Wow…. Gosh, sometimes I can be a complete ditz. It’s worse when Mello points it out, though. Don’t ask; I don’t know why.

I let out a chuckle and walked over to the doorway, stepping inside silently. Once I entered, I went straight to my seat in the back of the room. I was almost surprised when Mello came back to sit in the desk next to mine, unwrapping a bar of chocolate. But I shrugged it off. It would most likely be better, and a hell of a lot safer, not to say anything about it.

Class passed by in a moderately quick hour and a half. Mello caught on fast, I soon concluded. Although he would have to go back and study the first here chapters of the Greek book. Which I bet he could do in a few weeks, if not less. Lucky….

I still don’t get it all.

The blond and I gathered our things and left together. Next, we were off to Geography. I yawned audibly as we trudged up another flight of stairs. Geography, of course, had to be on the third floor of Wammy’s House. I stared at the floor, narrowly dodging two people as I dragged my feet forward. I heard Mello’s low chuckle as I re-joined him. “Matt, are you always this oblivious to everything?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I told the blond. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his curt nod.

Geography and Mathematics came and went. Both with an equal amount of boredom and sleep. And soon it was time for lunch. Totally the highlight of the day. Everyone in Wammy’s ate lunch at the same time, which always made it fun.

We put our bags in our fourth-class classroom, since it was conveniently located on the way to the cafeteria. Mello hadn’t said much all day, I realized then. It made me wonder why he was still hanging around with me.

I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, though. It’s not like I have any friends here. Of all the years I’ve been here, no one has really associated with me. Maybe I should be relieved or happy. But it just feels weird to me.

We went slowly to the cafeteria and got in line instantly. It didn’t take too long to get our trays of pizza and a side salad. I skipped the whole ‘healthy’ thing. But the salad was required. Mello got us both a thing of chocolate milk, sitting mine on my tray beside my plate. We then sought out to find seats. And of course, all the tables were taken. Just my luck, right?

“Over there,” Mello said, pointing to a table across the room. A single boy sat there, wearing his usual loose white pajamas that matched the color of his pale hair. I knew who he was; everyone did. Near, the genius of all of us. Yeah. He was pretty smart. Although I had a bad vibe about going to sit with him.

“Uh, okay,” I mumbled, following the blond to the table. I sat down across from Near, while Mello sat beside him. I began to eat quietly as they exchanged looks.

“Hello,” Near said aloud, “Matt, yes? And you must be Mello, the newest one?” I looked up to him and nodded. Mello did the same, taking a bite of his salad. My attention went back to my cheese pizza soon. I didn’t partake in much rest of the conversation. “I’m Near.”

Silence.

“So, have you taken the tests yet?”

“What tests?”

“I suppose not, then. They must be letting you do it with everyone else. That’s how they were with me as well.”

Silence.

“Okay.”

…My elbow was itchy.

“Well, I’ll see you two around,” Near said, standing up and picking up his tray. Mello and I looked at each other as the white figure retreated. Mello scooted over a seat, so that he was in front of me now.

“He’s weird.” Great example for bluntness. “I don’t know about him. Do you know him?”

“Not really,” I answered, taking in a mouthful of pizza and chewing wholeheartedly. I like pizza. My thoughts began to drift again as the blond before me fell silent. He finished off his salad quickly and his chocolate milk. Sitting back, he unwrapped another chocolate bar.

What the hell…?

I paused from my pizza-eating, and gave him a puzzling look. He gave no sign of a response, though. He merely stared right back into my eyes. I swallowed the morsel of food and took another bite. Mello did the same with his chocolate. Then he coughed, pushing his tray in my direction and mumbling, “Want it?”

I blinked at the food. Once. Twice. And I nodded.

Who am I to pass up free food?

--

“So what is it?”

“Huh?” I asked dumbly, sitting down in my desk. Mello sat beside me again, as per usual. I mean, like right beside me. Since it was a science class, and we had to share a table together. Yeah. I almost felt my face heat up just barely. Almost, mind you.

Why? Well, I guess the fact that his hand was currently brushing my leg has something to do with it.

Perv….

“The test Near was talking about,” Mello empathized. He took a pencil and notebook out of his bag and began to write something down in the upper right corner. His name, the date, and the class. Wow. Are you kidding me? “What is it?”

“Oh, yeah. Uh, nothing, really,” I told him taking my DS out and turning it on. “It’s just some stupid test we take about twice a year. They’ve got to know what we’re doing, what we’re learning best, what we’re failing most. And it determines the rankings, I believe…”

“Rankings?” Mello asked, as if he’d never heard the word before.

“Yeah, like, who’s at the top and stuff. the next one’s coming up in about two weeks.”

Mello made a low noise in the back of his throat and turned to a new page on his notebook. I didn’t look to see what he had written down, my attention was on my game at the moment. And in all honesty, I’m not too sure I want to know.

The teacher was late getting to class, which made for a rather amusing start, because his speech of his tardiness was all made up of lies. And the flabbergasted look on his face when someone pointed it out was the best part. Then three students were late for class, leaving even more time to not learn, yay for not learning!, and goof off.

However, for the last forty-five minutes of class, all we did was take notes. Exciting.

Mello didn’t seem too peeved about it though. I really wanted to scream at him, “teacher’s pet!” but I wouldn’t. Because I like my face how it is… and not ripped off or bruised.

Yeah.

Classes came and went and blah blah blah. Fifth-class, though, of course had to drag out and be the longest class in the history of basically everything. I hate Mondays. More-so, I hate the last class on Mondays. Even worse; it had to be PE.

“Oh god, my legs are so sore,” I complained as Mello and I went back to the locker rooms. Yeah, running in a circle for fifteen minutes is not to my liking. Definitely not something I would like to get used to, either.

But of course, seeing as tests were coming up. And we had to do more than usual. Normally, all we would do in PE was play dodge ball or something, which I could always just sit out on. But, no…. Not today. Not for the whole week or next week.

Running was not good for my lungs.

Seriously, I could die right now of hyperventilation or something…. And then wouldn’t you be sad.

Yeah, shut up.

“Matt, stop your complaining,” Mello sneered at me. We made it over to an excluded area, where our lockers were located, and sat on the benches. We began to change again; I hated the feeling of the assigned gym clothes. They were itchy and disgusting. Ew. “Maybe if you didn’t stay locked up in the room all day and actually move around some, you wouldn’t have such a hard time with it.”

“Wrong,” I informed him bluntly. “You’re tired, too.”

“Yeah, but I’m not bitching to my fr-er... roommate about it!”

Oh. My. Gosh.

You heard it, too, right? He almost said friend. He did, he did. He almost said it...! Ahahahaha!

“No I didn’t, Matt. You’re an idiot. And you really need to stop doing inner monologue out loud. It’s not healthy.”