Title: Plural

Rating: G

Summary: A lesson in grammar takes place and Mello is found to be a sore loser.

A/N: This was inspired by an actual conversation I had with my mom.

-

"Alright, what's next?" Matt asked, sitting up in the bed.

"English," Mello said.

The two boys had just gotten over being sick a day ago, right in time for classes at the Wammy House to start back up again from it's usual Sunday break. Although they had both been well on Monday, Matt feigned sickness still so he could catch up on all his video gaming he'd missed out on during his ill period. Mello had gone back to class and showed up that evening to tutor Matt on what he had missed.

Mello sat on the floor, surrounded by his text books and pulled out the one marked Grammar.

"Can't we skip this one?" Matt moaned, frowning. "English isn't my best subject."

"That's exactly why you should want to go over it!" Mello insisted. "Now… Let's see, we went over plurals in the English language. For example… Dog would be dogs. But person would be-"

"People?"

"Right!"

"Haha. Hey, I'm good at this."

"Don't get cocky." Mello smirked, taking out a chocolate bar from inside the front of his pants and unwrapping it.

Matt shook his head. "Ever thought of keeping your snacks in your pocket?"

"Hmm?" Mello mumbled over the bite in his mouth. "How come?"

"Ugh, never mind."

"Okay then. About this, mouse would be?"

"Mice…?"

"Uh huh, and moose would be?"

"… Um." Matt scratched the hair underneath his goggles. "I'm… not sure."

"Come on, man, stay on top," Mello chided. "It's mooses."

"… Mooses?"

"Yeah."

"… Mello, that doesn't even sound right."

He sighed tiredly as if Matt was a retarded person he had to explain simple things to. "Maybe it doesn't sound so great if you say it like that. English is a weird language. But look, listen to it in a sentence: I saw a bunch of mooses go by. See?"

"That makes it sound worse."

"Well, Mr. Number Three, would you like to share with me your theory on the subject?"

Matt growled, "I told you I didn't know what it is but I can tell you mooses is not it!"

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it isn't!"

"Excuse me?"

Both Matt and Mello looked up and saw Near's ghostly form standing in the doorway. He had toys in his arms as per usual and a finger twirling around in a lock of his curls.

Mello groaned over his chocolate bar. "What do you want?"

"I heard a lot of noise just now. If you could lower your voices…? I'm trying to sleep."

"Aw, Near, go away! We're having an adult discussion!"

"Oh," Near said, thoughtfully. "About?"

"None-ya!"

Matt waved away his friends' argumentative comments. He turned to the smaller boy. "Help us out. Mello's trying to tell me that the plural for moose in English is mooses. What do you think?"

"Don't ask him!" Mello wailed.

Near looked at the both of them and then his cloudy eyes focused on Mello. "That's stupid. Moose is its own plural. There were a herd of moose in the field. Like the word fish, the singular is used to express multiple of that animal. There was a school of fish, for example. Even though fishes is a word, it's not proper. Mooses, however, is a made-up word."

Matt folded his arms over his chest, a triumphant smirk on his lips. "Thank you, Near. You're a doll."

Mello was glaring daggers.

"Yes, well." Near cleared his throat. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

He left just as quietly as he had come and Matt said lightly, "Ha. Ha."

-

A/N: XD When I was doing this argument, I was actually in Mello's corner.