"Scream for mercy, he laughs as he's watching you bleed,
Killer behind you, his blood lust defies all his needs."

Mak closed his eyes, humming along to the song. He'd heard of this band before and was interested in getting a CD since Obi and Holly were going to get him some things in his room. Mak had actually recently moved out of his house and away from his abusive parents. Unfortunately, the only way to tell was by his neck - if one would ever get him to wear something other that a turtle neck, then they'd see. They'd all see that he was right and not lying. The black haired kid shook his head, shuddering at the memory, before concentrating back on the music. He decided that he liked this band and picked up the CD from the shelf, titled "Killers." Mak fished into the pockets of his black jeans that were rather poorly fitting, and pulled out a 20 before handing it to the cashier to pay for the CD. He quickly collected his change and walked out, not feeling comfortable in such a public place. He clenched the handles of the bag so tightly his knuckles were turning white and looked down at the ground, wishing he was invisible (a wish that he would wish very often).

The raven haired boy wasn't really paying any attention to what was in front of him, preferring to use his wind abilities to warn him of anyone approaching. He looked up when he sensed Obi and Holly, and he then flashed them a fake looking smile. Obi rolled his eyes, and grinned, slightly annoyed. "Do you ever smile normally?" He asked, laughing a bit. Mak shook his head and response. He then handed Obi the CD - the result of his purchase. "Ah... I've never heard of them, actually, but I think your tastes are far different from mine." Obi said, smiling sheepishly. Mak shrugged, being silent as usual, and started walking towards the bedroom store.

He was looking down at the ground again, and suddenly, he bumped into someone. "How strange," he thought. "My powers didn't alert me to this person at all." He looked up and at the person as he started to mumble an apology, but quickly stopped. It was a teenage girl, about his age, but also a little bit shorter, which was unusual since Mak was pretty short himself. "Who is she? Why can she make me stop speaking?" He wondered to himself. Mak noted that she was rather pretty, but quickly shook the thought from his mind. Dang, she smelled good... No, wait, why was he thinking like this? This wasn't like him at all! "I'm sorry!" said the girl, looking up at Mak. Her grey eyes were almost the exact same shade that his were, strangely enough. Her short brown hair went about as far down as her shoulders, with a very slight curl at the end. The girl noted with some amusement that Mak was merely two inches taller than her. "I should've watched where I was going. See ya." She walked off quickly, concealing a smile.

The girl, who was known as Jupitol, thought a bit about Mak, and how nervous he seemed. She then remembered that there was a bit of a bruise poking up under Mak's turtleneck sweater. She turned around to ask him about it, but he was already gone. Shrugging, Jupitol walked off, but curiosity as to how this stranger got his bruise continued to haunt her mind for the rest of the day, and for longer.

Obi and Holly were watching from a distance, with Holly giggling furiously. "How out of character...” Obi commented, laughing his head off. "I can't believe Mak actually got embarrassed like that because of a girl!" Mak, overhearing this, glared daggers at Obi. Despite Mak standing a rather short 5' 6", he still managed to make Obi feel like he was no more than three feet tall. Seeing that startling change in Obi's expression merely made Holly laugh harder.

"So who was that?" Holly asked, teasingly. "She looked cute."

Mak blushed furiously at this. "She was not... And I have no idea who she was... You two don't know either?" Holly shook her head, but Obi nodded, seeming to know. Mak pulled the top of his sweater high on his neck, feeling particularly self-conscious of the bruises that were hidden within it. He suddenly realized that with how close she had been, she had probably seen the remaining evidence of his parents' torture. He gulped nervously and looked to Obi for an answer.

Obi thought for a moment, vaguely remembering Jupitol. "I think she's home schooled or something... We went to school with her one year, remember, Holly? Then her parents, devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, took her out to keep her from getting "tainted."  If I remember correctly, her name was Jupitol or something like that. So why do you seem so startled by her? Does wittle Makky have a cwush?" Obi asked teasingly. Mak glared at him again, but this time, the target was prepared and didn't feel small that time. "Seriously though, why did you seem shocked?"

Mak shrugged, looking confused. "My powers didn't alert me to her like they do everyone else..." He mumbled. "That's never happened before. Plus it was... strange. I'd never felt quite like that before. I felt my heart pound..." His voice trailed off when he noticed Obi laughing again, and Holly giggling quietly. "Forget it... I should've known that no one could take it seriously..." He said this quietly, and seemed genuinely frustrated and angry with the two of them.

Holly sighed and stopped giggling. "I'm sorry Mak...” She said, smiling at him and ruffling his hair a bit. "That's our job - we're supposed to tease you about stuff like that. You are my little brother after all." She said, putting particular emphasis on the word 'little.' Mak glared at her, and she raised her hands up defensively. "Okay, seriously, I'm done now. In all honesty, what did it feel like? Like you just couldn't speak a word? Like if you spoke, it'd probably be something really stupid?" She asked, causing Mak to nod slowly. "I bet you really do have a crush, in all seriousness." Holly said, nodding with a grin. "Maybe we'll run into her later. Come on, let's go get some food." She said this merrily and walked towards the food court, secretly very happy that Mak's heart had begun to open up so quickly. Secretly, she was afraid that he wouldn't be able to be friends with people outside of the group, or to form crushes like he had for Jupitol.

Mak walked to the food court silently, trying to not think about Jupitol, which was proving to be a rather fruitless endeavor. He just couldn't get the image out of his mind, and it was driving him crazy! He growled quietly and laid his head down upon the table that they had chosen, rewarding him with a slight headache. He mumbled something incoherent and looked up. His already vampire like skin became even paler as he realized that Jupitol was in line directly behind Obi. Unfortunately for Mak, Obi had chosen that exact moment to look behind him and smiled as he saw Jupitol.

"Hi." Obi said cheerfully. "Remember me? I'm Obi - we went to elementary school together for one year." he said, happy to see an old friend, as well as Mak's new crush. "I'm friends with that boy that ran into you, by the way."

Jupitol nodded faintly, trying to be polite for once. "Right, I remember you...” She said, although she truthfully didn't. "Oh really? Is he okay?" She then whispered to Obi. "I saw bruises on his neck... Did someone try to choke him?" She asked, surprised with herself. She shouldn't be worried about some kid she didn't know. Obi nodded sadly, but also seemed a little nervous.

"I can't really go into details, I'm afraid... Mak promised me not to tell... You know, you're welcome to come and sit with us. There's plenty of room for one more!" Obi said, grinning. He knew that Mak wouldn't like it, probably, but if it got Jupitol into their circle, then it would be worth it. "Yeah, your name is Jupitol, right?"

Jupitol nodded, frowning. "I bet he ticked someone off." She said in blissful ignorance of the truth. "Anyway, sure, I'll come sit with you all, but I can't stay long. My parents don't like when I'm here. They're afraid of me becoming 'corrupted.'" She said, rolling her eyes, annoyed with her parents. She loved them a lot, but often found them just plain silly in regards to the way they tried to shield her. The fact that she wasn't a Jehovah’s Witness like them certainly didn't help matters. Not that she had told her parents, of course. They thought that she was still a firm believer, and that worked out unsurprisingly well in her favor. It certainly wasn't immoral to her that she lied to her parents about something like that. Like a song lyric said, we do what we must because we can, or something like that. Well, she could, and felt that she must.

After Obi finished ordering food for the three of them, he waited for Jupitol to finish ordering before leading her over to the table. He sat down next to Holly as always, and hid a smile when Jupitol sat next to the silently panicking Mak. He took his food silently, and started eating, his vampire white skin paler than before, if that was possible. Mak didn’t dare to say a word, sure that he would only say something stupid or embarrassing. He then realized that he needed someone to pass him the salt. He opened his mouth and tried to ask someone to ‘pass the salt,’ but the only phrase that came out was “I like spoons…” He mentally slapped himself as Jupitol stared, already finding him strange. Holly laughed in her head, but was actually feeling sorry for the rather incoherent Mak, who had just embarrassed himself. He’d have a lot of learning to do in order to not embarrass himself further.

Jupitol laughed quietly. “Spoons huh? I prefer sporks – more versatile. Plus they’re just plain awesome.” She said this to try and help Mak calm down a bit, and to start a conversation. Obi laughed mentally at her response, but for Mak’s sake, didn’t dare to say a word. “Truth be told though, they are rather worthless. Can’t hold any liquid inside them worth crap, and the sharp pointy end is too short to skewer anything, am I right?” She asked, earning a nod from everyone at the table.

Mak laughed quietly, remembering his fourth grade project – he had to invent a new game. It was basically rock, paper, scissors, but with spoons, forks, and knives instead. “I made a game of rock, paper, scissors about spoons and the like once. Spoon beats knife, knife beats fork, and fork beats spoon. No real logic behind it, but it got me an A.” It was at that moment he noticed the strange look he was getting from Obi and Jupitol. “What?!” He asked defensively. “It was the fourth grade, of course it wasn’t going to make any sense!”

Jupitol nodded, agreeing with his reasoning. “Good point… I had to do bible study for fourth grade… My parents don’t even know I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness.” She rolled her eyes at that. “It lets me get by without arguing with them, though, if they think that I am in fact one.” She shrugged and continued to eat her salad, needing to get home soon. “I’m Jupitol by the way. Obi told me your name was Mak, is that right?” She asked.

Mak nodded, but didn’t say a word. “What a nice name…” He thought to himself, probably being the only person in the world that actually liked the name other than Jupitol’s parents. “So ah…” he began. “Do you play any music?” He asked, picking a random topic.

The conversation between the two of them lasted for at least an hour, the two of them eventually forgetting that Obi and Holly were even there. Neither of them stopped talking to the other until Jupitol’s phone went off. She looked at the time, and all of the color drained from her face. “Aw shit, I’m so late…” She said, quickly picking up her bag. “My parents are going to kill me… Anyway, here’s my number. Keep in touch, alright? Since I won’t see you at public school, I mean.” She quickly scribbled her number down and handed it to Mak, not even considering that Obi and Holly might want a copy.

Mak simply nodded and watched her leave. He then stared at Jupitol’s number, astounded that a girl would even GIVE him her number, let alone actually want to keep in touch. He only looked at Obi and Holly when Holly sneezed loudly. “Well, it looked like you two really enjoyed your time together, huh?” Holly asked teasingly. Mak crossed his arms after slipping the piece of paper into his pocket.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” he began warningly. “You can’t even consider us friends yet, we just talked for a little while. Nothing more.” Mak said, a slight growl entering his voice. That particular growl was one that people automatically associated with Mak, and ass kicking. The rumors regarding what happened when he growled certainly weren’t helped by the fact that he was proficient in aikido. In fact, the first day that he had attended school, he broke the arm of the school bully quite easily, and nearly broke his friend’s, Danny’s, arm, but they weren’t friends at the time. Thankfully, Danny had proved to be a wonderful and loyal friend, and Mak felt privileged to know him.

“Of course you are.” Obi teased, finishing his food before standing up. “Jupitol has the right idea though, it’s getting late and we need to get home. I think we’ve gotten everything we need to, don’t you, Holly?”

Holly nodded, agreeing with Obi. Mak nodded, rather disappointed. He’d never been to a mall before them, and the place excited him a lot. The trio walked outside, only to see Jupitol standing in front of a car, looking frustrated. “Damn thing!” She said, kicking the bumper in frustration. Holly and Obi walked over there, forcing Mak to come along in spite of his protests.

“What’s wrong with your car?” Obi asked, noting how frustrated she was. “Anything we can do?”

Trying to start the car, Jupitol shook her head. “I don’t think so…” She said before Mak opened the hood and started looking around. About five minutes later, he lifted his head.

`“Try it now…” Mak said quietly. Jupitol nodded, and the engine roared to life. She seemed shocked and amazed at what Mak had managed to do. She didn’t consider herself much of a car girl, but she did know how to fix basic problem. Strangely enough, Mak had managed to fix it in a matter of minutes! “Glad to see it worked…” He mumbled before walking away.

A rather stunned Obi simply stared. “I’m surprised… I figured that he’d be around longer.” He then looked at Jupitol, noticing she looked almost hurt. “Don’t worry…” He said, comfortingly touching her shoulder. “Mak does that with everyone. You’ll get used to it. He does it less so though, with close friends. Hopefully you’ll be in our inner circle.” said Obi before he walked off with Holly.

Holly herself was rather frustrated with the fact that Mak had walked away rudely like that. She stormed to the car, Obi actually being rather afraid. Not much could make Holly angry or frustrated, but the few who did were never the same, generally. She knocked on Mak’s window – the right backseat window. Mak calmly stepped out, looking perfectly normal.

“What is it?” He asked, curious as to why Holly was so angry or frustrated. He couldn’t tell which. “I take it Jupitol’s car is running better now.” Mak said in ignorance, almost making Holly more frustrated.

“You shouldn’t have left like that.” She said quietly. “You should’ve stayed, offer to drive her home or something. It’s obvious that you like her, so you should do something about it!” Holly said, trying to convince him to not be quite so shy, especially around girls his age (15). Mak seemed embarrassed, since Holly was the last person he expected to have received dating advice to.

“I don’t need girl advice.” Mak mumbled before stepping back into the car and shutting the door. Holly groaned in frustration, but sat down in the passenger seat since Obi liked to be the one to drive. Speaking of the devil, Obi had just sat down in his seat, and was ready to go. “Let’s go home…”

Obi nodded and started the engine with a roar. It was an old GM so it was a lot louder, unfortunately. Obi expertly and quickly backed the car out of the parking spot and drove onto the main street to take them all home.

A little bit later, Jupitol stepped into her house again and looked around. “Hello? I’m home!” She called, looking for her parents. She then looked over and saw her mother sleeping on the couch. “She must’ve been really worried...” she mumbled. “My parents are really not going to be happy about this one.” She quietly stepped up towards her room that had pale blue carpeting, an old bunk bed, and a computer on a table. Right as she was about to step into her room, the hall light came on to reveal her father, dressed in a robe. “I’m dead…” She muttered.

Jupitol’s father nodded. “Where were you? You are one and a half hours late, young lady.” he asked firmly. “Your mother is asleep on that couch because she was waiting up for you. So what do you have to say for yourself?”

Unfortunately for Jupitol, her father had the uncanny ability to make anyone feel like they’re two inches high, and Jupitol was no exception. She braced herself, ready to be squashed by her father, metaphorically speaking. “I was… um… talking to a friend that I made there.” She mumbled.

Her father narrowed his eyes, concealing his anger. “Male?” He presumed, fully expecting you to say yes. “Remember that god doesn’t want you to have relations with a man unless you intend to wed him.” He said, thinking of scripture. Jupitol nodded sadly, feeling already punished. “You’re not to go back to the mall for two weeks, and I’m taking your cell phone so that your boyfriend doesn’t call you.” He said, grabbing the phone.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Jupitol explained, feeling her face flush at the thought. “He’s not my type anyway.” She didn’t react outwardly to the loss of cell phone and the grounding, but inside, she was imagining killing her father with a giant spork. “I know the scriptures very well, dad. Don’t worry, I have no feelings for this guy.” She commented, lying again.

“At any rate, off to bed with you.” Her father said, pointing to Jupitol’s room. She nodded sadly and walked in there, changing quickly into her pajamas. She brushed her teeth in her bathroom, and sat down on the bed after rinsing.

“Why do I feel this way for a guy I’ve only just met? Attraction doesn’t happen at first sight, it builds up over time, right?” Jupitol asked herself, unable to keep her mind away from the events that transpired that day. She eventually lay down and pulled a single blanket over her, not at all feeling cold. With the mall, her phone, and Mak all on her mind, she drifted off into a dreamful sleep.

At the same time, all of the others were getting ready for bed too. It was safe for Obi, Danny, and Runite to return to their home, so the house was oddly quiet at Holly’s house. Inside one particular room, was Mak, staring at a poster that he’d gotten, which was a blown up version of “Killers’” album art. “I’ll go back to the mall tomorrow to try and see her..” He decided. Mak pulled the piece of paper with Jupitol’s number out, the numbers faded slightly from being in his pocket for so long. He sat down on the bed after placing the number on his bed side table, and pulled the covers over him. The blankets had never felt so good to Mak. It was a good time to reflect on what had happened that day.

He looked over at one of Holly’s German Shepherds, her hearing ear dogs. They were blissfully asleep on the couch, and Mak almost envied them. They didn’t have to deal with emotions such as liking someone. There was nothing complicated to it, it was all instinctual. Unfortunately for Mak, all his instincts did was make him look stupid around Jupitol. He shuddered, suddenly remembering when he made a fool out of himself by randomly blurting out “I like spoons.” That was definitely not the highlight of Mak’s day. He lay his head down on his pillow and closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t seem like any sleep would be forthcoming. Instead, he kept his mind occupied so that he wouldn’t be so bored. He believed that eventually, he’d fall asleep. Finally at 3:14 AM, Mak drifted off into a dreamless sleep, his new family on his mind – Holly, their friends, and her parents. He’d even made a new friend. To Mak,

Life couldn’t have been better.