What's Really In The Dark Of Night

 

Jess’ A/N: Hello there! This is just a story we began to write just for the sheer craziness of it. I hope you enjoy and be warned: we will not be responsible for any brain damage as a result of your reading our story. I think Nuri-chan covered the rest of the legal stuff about us not owning anything, so why be redundant? Enjoy! >^.^<

 

Chapter 2: Heero POV

 

Being popular is vastly overrated. I should know, I happen to be the most sought after person in the Highland Academy for Gifted Youngsters, not that I’m trying to brag. The fact of the matter is, being this popular is really a hassle. Everyone is looking up to me and at the same time, judging me.

 

My biggest annoyance though, is my fan club. Yes, I do indeed have one, believe it or not. It’s composed of almost every girl in the school and is headed by the most annoying of them all, Relena Peacecraft. She constantly dogs me to get exclusive interviews for their weekly news letter (for members only, of course) but I’ve managed to snag a copy of one for myself.

 

The so called news letter was nothing more than an elaborate gossip column, featuring mostly myself. It’s scary, if you think about it. It turns out, most of these girls have very stalker-like tendencies, which is the scary part.

 

Unfortunately for my friends, they sometimes also get included into the PINK “newsletter,” which sometimes doesn’t show them in a very positive light. I’ve heard that when “news” is slow (or when I refuse to give any comment to their “reporters” they turn to bashing some innocent bystander. In the issue I managed to get a hold of, it just happened to be on the school lunatic, Duo Maxwell...and apparently, it wasn’t the first time he’d been featured. No wonder the guy was so unpopular.

 

You might be wondering what he has to do with anything, but truthfully speaking, I think he’s the one who’s really worth paying attention to.

 

I had been waiting in front of the weight room for Quatre and Wufei to come so we could walk together to our first class. My locker was in front of the gym, where we met every morning. That morning, as I was waiting, I heard a voice coming from what should have been an empty gym. Curious, I walked up to the little window on one of the double doors and peered through.

 

Working out in the middle of the room was none other than Duo Maxwell, resident loon. Next to him was another boy, one I hadn’t really seen before. I studied the pair but found that I could only hear Duo’s voice though the glass. That was odd. It was as if the other boy didn’t exist.

 

“Heero!” Quatre called. He too was in the popular crowd. “Sorry we’re late, we have a new student with us today and I’ve been asked to show him around. Heero Yuy, meet Trowa Barton,” he said, motioning towards the taller boy behind him. “Trowa, this is Heero.”

 

I shook hands with Trowa, smiling slightly. “Good to meet you. I hope you enjoy your time at Highland,” I said.

 

“Thank you, I will.”

 

“Shall we continue with the tour?” Quatre asked. I nodded and he continued with his little tour of the school. “And this,” he said, opening the doors to this section of the gym, “is the weight room.”

 

I pretty much stopped listening right about then and focused my attention on the two boys in front of me. At first I found it strange that Quatre would be so rude as to completely ignore the second boy in the room even if he was standing just behind Maxwell. I was just about to ask about that when I noticed the other boy’s feet weren’t exactly touching the floor. That explained it.

 

Perhaps I should take the time now to clarify a few things. I am not a normal teenager, who needs normalcy anyway? For as long as I could remember, I could see things others could not. That’s not to say I saw dead people everywhere, well, maybe I did, but a lot of the time, I didn’t know they were ghosts to begin with.

 

It didn’t bother me too much any more, sometimes I could hear them, but that wasn’t often. Usually, I could feel them when I couldn’t see them, and other times, I could only see them in my peripheral vision if at all.

 

From my experience, the images of the living impaired ranged from non-existent to completely solid to the point where I thought they were living people. This particular entity was one of the latter.

 

While I was studying both boys in front of me, I saw the ghost mouth something out, causing the Maxwell kid to grin. He looked like he wanted to bust out laughing, but held himself in control. As a matter of fact, I wanted to laugh too with the expressions the ghost was making.

 

Soon enough, we all walked out of the gym, leaving Duo and his ghost to their own devices.

 

“That Maxwell always makes me nervous,” Wufei said. “It’s like he knows something we don’t! Did you all see him laughing at us in there? The boy is completely psycho!”

 

“Calm down, Wufei,” Quatre told him in his most cultured and patient voice, “we all know that Duo’s a little eccentric. Leave him be.”

 

“The guy is a nut case and should be committed,” Wufei snapped back.

 

“I don’t mind him,” Trowa spoke up quietly, “He seemed nice enough, if not a little distracted.”

 

“Yes, that’s Duo for you,” Quat commented, “He always seems like he’s only listening to you with half an ear.”

 

“More like half a brain cell,” Wufei muttered.

 

I sighed getting fed up with the Duo bashing, “Leave the guy alone. He doesn’t bother anyone as long as he’s left alone. The least we could do is be civil and not talk about him behind his back like the girls do in their stupid pink newsletter.”

 

“Pink newsletter?” Trowa asked.

 

Quatre giggled, “Yes, Heero has his own fan club… the ‘I love Heero Yuy Fan Club,’ if I’m not mistaken.” I nodded while Trowa raised an eyebrow.

 

“Is that so?” he asked.

 

Quatre nodded  and continued, “Every week, Relena Peacecraft, President and Chief Editor, releases a newsletter printed on pink paper-”

 

“Which is an environmental hazard!” Wufei interrupted. “Do you know what they put in that stuff to make it that color? It’s not even biodegradable!”

 

“Anyway,” Quatre said, ignoring Wufei’s rant, “when they don’t have enough juice on Heero for the week, they find someone in school to pick on. Duo is apparently the number one person to bash because he’s so eccentric. They criticize every aspect of that person then compare him or her to the perfection that is Heero.” I did not appreciate that last bit. He said it so teasingly that I wanted to smack him in the back of the head, which I did, but not hard enough to actually hurt.

 

“I see…” Trowa said. “I hope they don’t write anything bad about me…”

 

“Well, seeing as you’re the new guy in school, they probably will write about you. Just be careful about anything you say to a girl, they’re all in on the conspiracy,” Wufei said, putting in his two cent’s worth.

 

 

We separated as we got to our respective classes and didn’t meet up again until art class, which is the only class we all had together. Unfortunately for Wufei, Duo was also in this class, which didn’t make him a very pleasant person.

 

When I arrived in the class, Duo was already there in his little corner of the room. He had pulled one of the artist’s desks that we have to the corner of the room and an easel, making himself a little cubicle with a stool for him to sit on.

 

He’d always come in first and he’d be whispering to a lady that always wore a black skirt, sandals, and what could be called a lab coat, except that it was buttoned almost to the top and splattered with paint. Her hair was frizzy and her eyes were always hidden by glasses that seemed to be made out of the bottoms of glass bottles.

 

She’d be my subject for today since I had already drawn all of my friends. I’d have to ask who she was one of these days, she was always in the art room, but she never said a word to me or anyone other than Duo, and since she always used her hands so expressively when she talked to him, I assumed she was deaf.

 

I found myself a spot to sit and pulled out my large drawing pad. First I’d have to sketch her, then I’d be able to paint her down to her charcoal stained hands. It’s easy to spot an artist. Just look for the person with ink, charcoal, mud and/or paint perpetually caked onto their fingers. 

 

Just as I settled down to begin my project, Duo came out of his little alcove and came up to me.

 

“Umm… Heero?” he said, rather timidly.

 

“Yes?” I said as I pulled out my graphite and adjusted my easel.

 

“Umm… what was so funny in the gym this morning?” he asked, pulling his braid forward and toying with the end of it.

 

I looked up at him steadily, making him take a tiny step back, “ I’ll tell you that when you tell me who you were talking to and what he said to make you want to burst out laughing.”

 

He blinked at me, obviously at a loss for words.

 

“Go annoy someone else, braid boy,” Wufei said as he entered the room.

 

“Is that an invitation to annoy you, oh mighty one?” Duo asked with a smirk.

 

Wufei glared at him and Duo walked at him, turning sharply just as he passed Wufei and hitting him hard in the face with his swinging braid before making his way back to his little art sanctuary. Wufei sputtered, looking indignant and was about to threaten him when out teacher came in, announcing that we were to have a new student in our class.

 

Quatre came in followed shortly by Trowa just as the bell rang and we all got to work on out current projects.

 

All through class, I couldn’t help but feel Duo’s eyes on me as I sketched the woman that kept walking behind my other classmates, studying each piece briefly before moving on. She was so quiet, in fact, that no one even noticed her looking over their shoulders, except for Duo, who looked pleased when she gave him a thumbs up. The strangest part about their little conversations was that Duo never really looked at the woman’s face, but then again, I couldn’t see her expressions when she talked to him because her back was to me, so I didn’t bother to wonder too much about it.