A Lullaby For You

Chapter One ‘Tests and entry fees’

“Shiki, over here!”

Shiki turned around with lunch tray in hand. There was Beat, Eri, and Neku sitting on the grass by the lunch area. This was usually there choice since the lunch tabled filled up quickly.

At first it surprised Shiki that they had all gone to the same school, except for Rhyme, who was three years younger, but later she thought of how before the game she probably would’ve never met any of them except for when you accidentally bump in to someone on the street and you say sorry and move on. Whenever she thought about it that way it sounded mean, but it was true. She was so happy when they all made it back to the real ground, even if it did take longer than expected, that when thinking about still almost made her cry. However, before she could begin reminiscing in her mind, she was snapped back to reality by how there conversation started.

“Ugh, I hate how we have to have all these stupid tests at the end of the year, can’t they just look at our grades and say we pass?”

Before meeting Shiki and playing the reaper’s game, Neku used to skip school almost every other day, and still hadn’t gotten used to the system again.

“Pff, if they based it on grades, I’d be stuck here forever”

This comment came from Beat, who, even though he was trying a little harder now, didn’t have exactly honor roll grades.

“Could we please change the subject? Talking about them adds to the stress of passing.”

Eri, who usually was as cherry as the sun itself, but always cracked under important test pressure, said that, showing that she wasn’t the ‘super-cheery-perfect-girl’ everyone thought she was.

And that was how their lunch periods usually went. Some one would start a topic, and somewhere along the lines the subject would change, leading to several different discussions, And when the subject was ‘Parents: Just plain stupid or not’ (started by Beat) Neku and Shiki’s eyes met for a split second and his voice said just as clear as a bell in her head, ‘They made you my entry fee’. Shiki looked away before a blush slowly creped up to her cheeks.

That was the way the reaper’s game worked, at the beginning before the game started, you gave up what was most important to you as an entry fee. First Neku’s had been his memory, but in the second week he played, it had been Shiki. She thought about this often. Was she really that important to him? It Sort of felt like the feeling you get when someone tells you the like you, but your not sure how you feel.

Now the question was, what was she going to do now? Also, was she going to pass the math final?