Quick info: The story starts (and is set) on September 2001. Matt, Mello, and Near are eleven and ten years old respectively. Since the story is told in Matt's point of view I will be using his real name, Mail Jeevas, to narrate the story. There is a slight possibility that the title of the story will be changed. Any sort of feedback is greatly appreciated.

Theme Song: "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer

Mello-Matt-Merry

Three people in the room, and only one of them sat awake. Sleeping is not allowed, read the black board in front of them. Of course, what was the point of detention if people were just going to sleep through it? Mrs. Qazi, the usual detention supervisor, was out dealing with a pair of children that got in a fight earlier today, so she couldn't yell at occupants of the room for breaking her "precious" rules.

Mail Jeevas shifted on his seat, annoyed at his inability to do anything else besides staring at his desk. Anyone would think that the red head was already used to this retched detention, for as of late he's been spending his afternoons in Mrs. Qazi's room. But he had certain issues when dealing with boredom; in fact, he'd never learned how, for he always found himself entertained with the latest piece of gaming technology.

"Come on…" he whispered and glared at the clock. The god forsaken clock, how he would call it, feeling anything but fondness towards the gadget that would supervise the time he spent sitting in his desk.

His attention snapped to the door, and Mrs. Qazi angrily marched into the room. The red head silently smirked to himself as the angry woman gave the other two boys in the room a hearty smack. "You are not to sleep in detention! Thirty more minutes for the both of you. Sleep again and you shall be all afternoon here!" The woman practically barked. Mail noticed how she indulged on the frightened gazes she received from the children. "Pardon my absence; I had to deal with other things," She explained, not that any of them cared, anyways. "Mail Jeevas," Mrs. Qazi called for him as she looked at her roster, "you may go."

Mail gave her a fake smile, and rushed out of the room, stopping midway to sign out from the attendance sheet. Once outside he took a deep breath, as if he'd been suffocating all this time. And with his hands in his pockets proceeded to his dorm, to get his Game Boy Advance, and to meet with his self-proclaimed brother, Mello. On his way to said dorm Mail amused himself by pondering just how much he hated detention. What was the point of it? It's not like students learned their lessons. He smirked and admitted this was a one-sided argument, for he was the one that never learned from his mistakes; playing with his Game Boy Advance during class hours was too sweet of a temptation for him to resist.

The boy turned a corner and finally reached his destination. He entered the room, eyeing Near; his odd roommate, who had developed an uncanny obsession with puzzles. The albino boy lay on the floor coloring a complicated set of patterns. Mail stepped around said boy and made his way to Mello, who was busily glaring at the window, or rather, at the people in the front gardens. "Sup." Mail greeted his friend, curious of what he was doing.

"The Benet children, heirs to Dulces Benet in Spain-makers of the best caramel-coated truffles in all the Mediterranean." Mello explained nonchalantly, motioning to the four children that walked to the main doors. They were accompanied by Roger and another man clad in an equally expensive suit.

"Why are they here?" Mail plastered his face against the window pane in a mocking manner.

Mello glared back at him, "do I look like God to you? How am I supposed to know?" He asked in an impatient tone. "Come on." The boy ordered, and strolled out of the room, kicking Near's color pencils as he walked past the younger boy. Mail sneered and pushed Near's papers aside, in the same condescending manner.

They walked side by side, to Roger's office, where they believed the new visitors were. The red haired boy reached for the door knob but Mello quickly stopped him. "Don't. Let's wait for the kids to come out." And, as expected, the children did walk out of the room, accompanied by Roger and the other tall man.

"Mello, Matt. What a surprise, did you want something?" Roger asked politely, but his eyes weren't on them, he was watching the second man who, without a second glance, made his way to the main hallway and towards the entrance of the orphanage; he was leaving. The old man let out a disappointed sigh and finally faced the boys. "These are Andre, Carmelo, Marco, and Valentina Benet." Roger motioned to the four children who smiled nervously at Mail and Mello. "Your things have been carried down to each of your dormitories, why don't you join Mello and Matt for supper?" The headmaster made it sound like a suggestion, but in reality it was an order. And with that said, he sealed himself back in his office.

The hallway settled to an uncomfortable silence. Mail, after taking a deep, annoyed breath, asked "so who's who?" Which was a sensible enough question, for two of them were twins; he figured the eldest was the tall, overweight boy; and that Valentina was, obviously, the girl.

"I'm Marco! And this is Carmelo-" one of the twins started to explain, but was interrupted by the other.

"We're twins."

"We can figure that much," Mello responded with anything but kindness.

"I'm Andre," said the eldest boy with a heavy Spanish accent. "That's Valentina, but you don't need half a forehead to figure that out. Did the old man say something about supper?"

Mail had to refrain himself from sneering, the fatty craves for food. "It's not even time for dinner yet, I wanna play some Tetris," he pushed his auburn hair out of his eyes and turned his back on them, more interested in entertaining himself than on dealing with these snobby kids; how he mentally decided to call them.

"No, no, no, wait," Mello grabbed his arm.

Carmelo cut him off, and asked his twin in Spanish, "quieres explorar?"

"Claro!" The other twin answered and together they ran past Mello and Mail and disappeared to the nearest hallway.

Andre glared at the remainders of the hall and weighted his options, and, as if decided on doing something else, he retreated as well-glaring at Mello all the while, as if daring the blond to stop him.

A bored Mail, an exasperated Mello, and a nervous Valentina were left in silence, once again.

"Don't you dare walk away from us," Mello warned the black haired girl.

She looked from Mail to Mello, and slowly answered with a simple "OK."

Somehow, Mello felt surprised, for he expected some sort of resistance. "Oh… well, tell me about Dulces Benet."

"Oh please." Mail sighed in disbelief and stomped his foot. Was this all Mello cared about from the beginning? "Can we talk about candy in the dorm?" The red head didn't even wait for approval; he just turned around and walked out and into another hallway. He stopped every once in a while to make sure that Mello and Valentina were catching up behind him.

On their walk to the dorm Mello would ask questions like: "How does it feel like to own all that candy? Was that why Andre got so fat? How did she learn English? What were they doing in Wammy's House? Were the orphans going to get free candy now?" And such. And although she felt rather baffled, Valentina chatted her answers, but in a different order: "Our uncle lived in Liverpool, so we visited him every summer, and naturally, we had to learn English. We don't own Dulces Benet, not until Andre is 18, at least, and he's always been chubby like that!" She giggled as she said this, but continued: "We are gonna live here because no one wants to take care of us. And nope, we don't have free candy."

Mail, now interested in their conversation, asked amused "your parents don't want to take care of you?" Even Near, who made sure to set aside his colors when the older children came in to the room, looked up and was half bemused by the conversation.

Valentina sat next to Mail in the bed and with a lopsided smile replied, "My parents died a year ago. Andre's godfather was taking care of us," she shrugged "but I think his new wife doesn't like us; I think she suggested sending us away."

"That sucks!" Mello exclaimed as he searched with a certain piece of candy in his "candy drawer."

"Wammy's House isn't a bad place to live, but it is an orphanage, and you have a family." Near explained in his usual irritatingly calm manner, though he was ignored.

"Oh! I don't know your names," the girl giggled in realization, but felt silenced by the looks she received.

Mail, once again, rescued them from the silence; "I'm Matt, that's Mello-" he pointed at Mello, who finally found the candy he was looking for and was nibbling on it. "And that one over there is Near," he finished with a condescending huff.

"Matt, Mello, Near," she repeated. "Matt, Mello, Near… you three have funny names."

"Those aren't our real names," again, Near explained.

"Oh? Then what are your real names!"

"None of your business," Mail quickly answered, although his eyes were focused on Tetris level 8... A few seconds until level 9; this was too easy.

For a while it seemed like there wasn't anything else to be said, or done, for the four children remained quiet. Mello chewing on his candy bar; Mail smashing his thumbs against his Game Boy Advance; Near using an orange color pencil to color over the last section of his patterns; and Valentina sitting on Mail's bed, looking at her feet, obviously lost in thought. They were silent for a while, although the silence didn't last for long as Mello's outburst startled them. As if he'd gotten a brilliant realization, Mello stood up, ravishing on the attention he got from the other occupants of the room. "Valentina."

"Hm?"

"You should be part of our group."

This, in return, made Mail snap away from his game and made him stand up as well. Now, facing Mello, Mail growled, "Say what?" The prospect of adding a female to their duo, thus making it a trio, did not sound welcoming to the red head.

Mello shrugged, but the reality was that he didn't want to disclose his reasons. He figured Near suspected what he had on mind, for the younger boy didn't even acknowledge the "surprising" change of events. "Why not?" He finally asked.

"Yea Matt, why not?" Valentina also stood up and tried to look intimidating in some degree, but seeing as she was much shorter than the other two boys it didn't seem to work at all.

"Because you're a girl." Mail relished on his words. "Girls have smaller brains than boys, that's why."

"Do not!" She was taken aback by his childish response.

"Do too!"

"Do not!" She stomped her foot, and looked at Mello for some sort of back up. She, apparently, felt closer to him, as if they supported the same cause.

"In reality, physically, a female's brain is smaller than a male's brain." They all turned their attention to Near, who finally spoke, after a while of silence.

For the first time today Mail didn't feel so apathetic towards the younger boy. The red head smirked, proud that he had a valid point. Hopefully Mello would take this in consideration and would toss his idea aside.

They all turned to Mello, he smirked haughtily, enjoying the attention. "I don't care who's brain is bigger. It's decided," he sat on his bed, and motioned Valentina to come sit next to him. "You need a nickname." He pointed out.

"Why? I like my name." Valentina sat next to him, eyeing Mail all the while, curious of his reactions.

Mello took his chocolate out of his mouth and broke it in half. He then turned his attention on the girl, "everyone here has one, trust me, it's better if you do."

They all nodded in agreement, and began thinking of all possible names for the Spanish girl. After several minutes of useless suggestions, Mail—considering himself more brilliant than the other two boys in these sorts of things—declared that the name Merry would work very well on her. "You mean I'm merry?" She would ask, thinking that the name had something to do with her personality. Mail just, rather rudely, told her to shut up. Mello agreed on it, as well, and, since she had taken a liking of him, she complied.

So now it was Mello, Matt, and Merry. Although Merry sometimes complained that going in the Matt-Merry-Mello order sounded better, she claimed that it rhymed. But, for obvious reasons, Mello wouldn't allow it; his name had to be first. They never considered Near part of their "group," for he was reserved and lacked several social skills. To them, he was just an outcast (who also happened to be Mello's and Matt's roommate). And even though Mail usually treated Merry with dislike, they managed to get along and, successfully, completed Mello's elaborately designed "pranks."

Death Note, and it's characters, do not belong to me. This was made for leisure and nonprofit purposes only.