September

In her defense, she was only ever half-listening to her brother.

So, when Blake (or more commonly known as Black*Star) asked her if she could create the graphic design for his "amazing new YouTube channel that will have like a million subscribers, Butterstick," she had answered 'no' without needing to think. She tended to say no to most Black*Star related things.

"Black*Star, I have too much to worry about this year to add editing your stupid website to the list. Leave me alone."

"Okay, I know you're afraid of creeps on the internet asking for nudes but don't—OW I'm just sayi—OW OKAY HEAR ME OU—OW SHIT MAKA THIS IS WHY—OW OKAY OKAY I GET IT."

With the final exclamation of pain, Black*Star ran out of the coffee shop, promising to convince her some other way. Maka had no idea how serious he was.

On Day 1 after her refusal, Black*Star made her lunch, confident he could win his sister over with his culinary expertise. He even sent it to her room in a nice package, complete with an inspirational quote scribbled on a post-it.

"Why was there a package full of hash brown with 'Black*Star' written in ketchup on your bed?" Her roommate Tsubaki asked.

"I'm pretty sure that's my annoying brother's attempts at a bribe." She answered as she threw the 'gift' in the garbage.

"What's the note say?"

"It's an attempt at advice, I think. 'I'm amazing, but you're pretty okay. You should help me out.'"

"Does he know that hash browns taste terrible when cold?"

"Doubtful, he's more adept at eating food than making it."

Day 4 started with bargaining and ended with a book to Black*Star's head.

"HEY PLEB! How would you like to get in on a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be internet famous?"

Maka was surprised he came in, 'Star usually stayed away from library after something she referred to as "The Chestnut Incident." The fact that he got over his aversion of books (and scary librarians) spoke volumes on just how much he wanted her help on this. Still, Maka had been in the back of enough squad cars (most of time her dad's) to know not to get involved with Black*Star's pranks.

"Pass." Maka answered, not looking up from the book she was reading. "Keep your voice down, people are studying."

"You see, that's your problem, Maks, you spend all your time in these nerd holes, that you never have any time to enjoy the finer things in life." Black*Star noted.

"You're literally asking me to spend my time in a dark room with a computer to edit your website, 'Star."

"Details, details" He waved off. "But if you help me, maybe you could finally find someone to get it on with when you're not too busy being a nerd. In fact Liz was telling me about this guy who—"

Whack.

On Day 9, Black*Star resorting to kidnapping.

"BLAKE!" Maka yelled, banging on the door to his dorm. "You better haul ass out here with Acorn unharmed or I swear the only god you'll be is ANUBIS."

She had returned to her dorm to find that her beloved stuffed ant, Acorn, was missing. It it's place was a blue post-it note that read "YOU'D BE NUTZ NOT TO HELP ME OUT." With every intention of murdering her brother, she ran to his dorm and proceeded to try to beat it down.

In the end, it was 'Star's confused roommate (who, Maka noticed, was shirtless) who opened the door. She ignored him and went straight for her brother's room.

"Hey! Maka! Just the person I wanted to see, I take it you got my note?"

Maka held the ransom note in her hand, which was basically a blue post-it note that said

"Blake." She threatened, eyes menacing. "Drop. The. Ant."

"Now, listen, I know you're mad about the stuffed animal kidnap but just hear me—"

WHACK!

At the rate this is going, Maka thought, she was going to need a new book.

On Day 13, Black*Star tried blackmail, holding a picture of Maka dressed as a light bulb for Halloween as he stood in the doorway.

"Unless you want everyone to know about the time you super-glued your dick to your hand by accident, I suggest you put that back in the album." Maka told him, not even bothering to turn around.

Black*Star let out a curse and went stomping back to his room. He obviously wasn't counting on Maka having her own ammo against him, which was dumb considering that for every stupidly embarrassing thing Maka did, Black*Star had ten. Obviously, Black*Star would give up now, Maka thought.

As usual, she was wrong when it came to predicting Black*Star.

"Maaaaakaaaaaaa pleeeeeaaase."

"No."

"Puuuhhhhhhllllllllllleeeeeeeeeasssssse?"

"No,"

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE."

"Blake Sheldon Albarn."

"PLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSE?"

"FINE!" Maka roared, ignoring everyone who was openly staring at them now. It was Day 22 and Maka had had enough. "I have an insanely busy schedule for the next two months, 'Star. If you can get 100,000 followers by then, I'll be your graphic designer."

"YES! I KNEW YOU'D COME AROUND TINY TI—"

"Finish that sentence and I'm bumping it up to a quarter million."

"Okay, bye, Maka! See you for dinner!"

Maka groaned and stared at the book on her lap, attempting to pick up where she left up. There's no way he'd ever get close to the minimum, she told herself. With her brother obviously taken care of at the moment, Maka went back to memorizing the order of the cranial nerves.

October

Maka was panicking.

"There's no way he can reach that number of subscribers, right Tsubaki?" She asked her seated roommate as she paced back and forth in their dorm.

It had been a month since she placed the bet, and she had been refusing to think about the texts her brother had sent, each with an update on the number of subscribers. As irrational as it was, Maka was worried at the possibility of Black*Star winning the bet. Tsubaki was doing her best to calm her down.

"I'm sure it's fine, Maka. Black*Star doesn't have enough patience to maintain a YouTube channel, anyways." She reminded her.

"You're right, you're right." Maka conceded. "It's probably just a phase; people will get bored of him by next week."

"How many followers does he have, anyways?"

Before she could respond, Maka felt her phone go off. She groaned when she saw the latest text. This one saying, "WE JUST HIT 50K."

"As of ten seconds of go," Maka read, "50,024."

"What is he even posting?"

"I don't know, I haven't had time to actually look at his videos."

This, of course, prompted them to search up Black*Star's channel, titled, THE SPARTOI STAR SQUAD. As it turned out, he was posting videos of his pranks, game-plays, and fighting matches with someone called "The Blonde Terror" at the boxing ring downtown. There was also a section labeled "GODLY STUNTS" which, to no one's surprise, was full of his parkour stunts. The latest video, which showed 'Star climbing up the Math building, had gotten half a million views in day.

Most videos credited someone called SharkStoner for editing, although he never showed up in any of the videos. Although she didn't know who SharkStoner or Kid (executive producer) were, Maka could recognized Kilik as the voice behind the camera. Of course 'Star had gotten his gaming buddy to help him out. Other than herself, Maka doubted there were many other people that could keep up with her rambunctious brother.

"It's fine, it's fine" She told herself. "He has another 50k to go and he has like a month left, there's no way he can pull it off."

"Right?" She asked, looking at Tsubaki, who merely shrugged.