Riddles {a Death Note MelloXOC and NearXOC story}

Bonus Chapter: Epilogue - B is for Birdie

A/N: Felt like adding a picture of grown-up Birdie, coming in at 5'10" (at least one of us is tall). There would be some differences: no mole, sky blue eyes, straight hair, and I'd imagine her wearing something like a pink lipstick. And she'd still love wearing her favorite color, haha. (tinyurl . com/ 7dzu5w23).

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I'm sketching in my notebook, half of the picture of the creature I'm drawing now finished. A shinigami. The Shinigami. The one I had Piper describe to me a million times. She says I'm getting closer and closer. One day, I'll capture his very likeness. I've gotten a lot better at drawing over the years, since I spend so much time ignoring my teachers and doodling instead. As I start on the wings, the ink begins to fade, and I can't get any more out of the pen. I scribble on the side of my paper, hoping to get some ink out, but nothing. I search my bag and find another pen, but this one's blue. It won't match the black ink of the pen I'd first used, but I guess it's better than nothing. I take off the cap and put the tip of the pen onto my paper, starting in on the wings again.

"Birdie."

"Hmm?" I look up, a bored expression on my face, and my eyes meet those of my professor, who is standing in the front of the room. I am near the back, but he always has his eye on me. Shirking on the work or doing bad is one thing, but teachers hate it when you don't even bother pretending to be interested in whatever stupid thing they're teaching.

"Since you appear to be taking notes so avidly, perhaps you could give us the answer to this problem?"

I'm not even sure what problem we were doing, and there are a bunch of equations on the wall, some unsolved, some solved. Based on the way he's holding his red marker and the markings on the dry erase board, I can find the most recent equation he has written. Having located the equation, I easily solve it in my head. All this happens within seconds.

"The trace is negative forty-four plus ten plus thirty-seven equals three. The determinate is negative eight."

He frowns at me. "Very good."

I smile at him, pretending to be proud to have gotten the answer correct, but the two of us both know I'm just silently bragging that he has failed to catch me yet again. You'll need to do better than that to catch me off guard, old man. Thank god I'm a scholarship student; otherwise, I'd be wasting so much money.

Class gets out a few minutes later, and I head out the door, followed by my close friend, Mikaila. The two of us had met a while back, and we immediately hit it off despite our five year age gap. I'm actually kind of grateful she's here with me, to be honest. No way I'll ever tell her that, though.

"You know, Birdie, one of these days he's going to catch you," she says with a grin.

"So?" I say. "I'm still passing the class."

"Honestly, why did you even bother attending this school if you knew pretty much all of the material the moment you got here?"

"Right?" I say, having said this to the people at Wammy's so many times before. "Thank god I'm on a full scholarship. It would have been such a waste of money."

Mikaila just blinks. "Full scholar..." she trails off, unable to even finish the word. She shakes her head and refocuses her attention. "Don't avoid the question!"