Mello was reading by flashlight in his dorm room at Whammy’s House. It was about twelve thirty at night. He hardly slept these days. Reading was his favorite thing in the world. It was just nice to sit up when nobody was around and let the books keep you company. Near and Lake were fast asleep in the bunk on the other side of the room. Nobody slept on the bottom bunk of Mello’s bed. No one really seemed to like him either. He didn’t mind. He liked being by himself.
The door across from Mello opened with a soft creak. Mello redirected the beam of light from his book to the figure in the doorway. The person in the doorway shielded his eyes. The boy was tall and very skinny. He had reddish brown hair and wore glasses.
“May I help you?” As he said this Mello felt his voice crack. Like most boys his age, his voice was changing. “Yes.” The Boy looked around. He seemed to be lost. “Is this the twelve through fifteen year old boys’ dorm?” Mello’s eye twitched. “Yeah, yeah it is.” “Oh…”He looked sincerely confused now. “But… if this is the boys’ dorm… Why are you here?” Mello’s eyes bulged and twitched as he bit his lip. “HELLO! I’M A GUY!” Mello tried to keep his voice down. The boy tripped over his bags and hit the door. “Oh. I’m really, really sorry! It just looked like you- I mean to say…” Mello stuck his red face back into his book. Great, another “geniuses” new kid. The boy pointed at the bottom bunk. His face seemed to glow pink in the dark. “Is this bed taken?” Mello grunted and put the novel down. “Obviously not. You’re new here right?” It was a rhetorical question but the red head answered anyway. “Yeah I just flew in from the United States.” ‘I don’t care.’ Mello thought as he picked up his book once more. “Nice.” ‘Why are you still talking to him? You don’t like people. Remember?’ Mello thought. He licked his finger and turned a page. “So I guess we’re roommates. What’s your name?” Mello swung his head over the side of his bunk. This kid was getting annoying. “When asking for a name you give yours first.” The new boy stared at Mello with large green eyes. “My name is Mail. Mello gulped. “I’m Mello… but that’s not my real name. My name is Mihael.” Matt smirked. “So Mihael is a girl’s name? I didn’t know that.”  Mello felt himself flush and bit his lip. “Stop it with the friggin girl cracks! It isn’t funny!” Mail ignored him. “Do you usually stay up this late?” “Just go to sleep!” Mello snapped. There was a long silence then Mail spoke again. “I can’t…” Mello rolled his eyes. “Let me guess. Your family was murdered or something like that.” Mail nodded. “That’s right.” He muttered. Mello was slightly surprised. It was a wild guess. “Mine too. I was six at the time. I couldn’t get proper sleep for years afterwards. I kept having nightmares about it.”  Mello wondered why he was telling a complete stranger all of this. He plowed on. “So then I was sent here because I apparently have an IQ of like 200 or something.”  Mail stared at him. “Are the nightmares why you’re up right now?”  Mail looked curios. “No.  They stopped years ago.” Naturally, he was lying. Mello set his head on the pillow and a checked his watch. It was two AM. “I’m going to sleep now.” He whispered. Mail said nothing. Mello wasn’t sure about how he felt about this new kid. He heard the sounds of a game DS being turned on before he drifted off to sleep.