THIS IS NOT FUNNY! NOT FUNNY AT ALL!!

***

*Max's consciousness*

***

"Please pass me the ball!" Mylan whined as he tried to unsuccesfully grab the ball Max was holding.

"You see, I'd like too, but if your too slow, then I guess–" a younger version of Max spoke before he was interrupted.

"MEANIE! Mane! Max won't give me the ball!" Mylan complained to the older brother that he just now noticed was coming out from the house, then stuck his tongue out at Max.

"Why you little.... Mane! My dear older brother whom I love and cherish, what can I do for ya?" Max asked with a hint of fear in his voice as a large shadow appeared right in front of him.

"Nice try, twerp. Give it here," Mane ordered as he held Max by the the shoulder with his right hand and stretched out the other.

"I was only trying to increase his speed. No need to get all serious, tall monster," Max grumbled as he reluctantly handed the ball over to Mane.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought,"

Mane threw the ball to Mylan, then held his hands out to show he was in the game. Max saw this as a good opportunity to prank Mane but before he could do so, all three heard a voice.

"Boys, lunch's ready!"

"Coming mum!" all three boys answered in unison.

***

*Back to present time*

***

"Max, are you awake?" some weak voice asked.

"Mmm....no "

"Not this again! I swear, you're a mix of koala and wolf!" the same weak voice mocked. I could never forget that annoying voice that made it its goal to wake me from my sweet dreams.

"Arnold, for Beast's sake, leave me be!" I struggled to speak as I buried my head even deeper in the pillow provided. Then my mind seemed to recapture what had happened up until this point.

"Hold on, Arnold?"

At that moment, I raised my head slightly to the right only to meet him in the bed close to mine with a goofy smile on his face.

"Took you long enough,"

"You're alive? MY GODS YOU ARE ALIVE!!"

"Can you not, with the screaming,"

"Oh jeez, listen. I'm sorry about what-"

"I don't wanna hear it. If it's about what happened, forget about it, Ok?"

"B...but, your legs-"

"-are as good as new. Don't you worry. We have excellent healers after all," he said, wiggling his toes from under the sheets to prove a point.

I nooded my head in acknowledgement, "So this is what happens when I make new friends, Typical,"

"Must be your luck"

"Hey, aren't you both forgetting about somebody else?" another voice to the left of me said.

"Wha-Bareth?! You sly hound! How are ya?" I asked him in excitment, good to see that he too was still with us.

The smile on his face faded before a frown was formed, "The first time you see me on my sick bed and that's your greeting? You really are more of my enemy than friend."

"I'm here too," a voice to the other side of Bareth called out.

"Nobody cares!" both Arnold and Bareth said in unison. We all laughed together as Blade began hurtling insults at us. But it was good to see that the fight hadn't destroyed their spirits and smiles from their faces. Soon, the door opened and another familiar face met us with the doctor following right behind.

"Hello, boys?" Kira greeted as she very naturally sat on my bed.

"Wow, hey? Ever heard of personal space?" I asked her as she made it her point to hog the good part of the bed.

"Maybe, but you owe me. Consider this your first payment,"

"First?"

The doctor Kira had just come with went around checking on us, then immediately left to go somewhere else, no doubt having a very busy day what with all the injured students and possibly teachers too.

"Aww! Max got himself a girlfriend. Hey Maxy, why don't you introduce us to her? Or are you too scared we'd mock you," Blade said with a smile, probably feeling as if this was his chance to get back at me. Did he already forget she was one of our classmates? Oh, I've got an idea.

"Gladly. To my right would be my roommate, Aka, Arnold White," I began.

"Charmed," Arnold greeted.

"And to my left is Elvis Bareth, a classmate of ours,"

Bareth nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"And finally...ah....actually, I'm done," I said with a smirk.

"Hey! Not cool, Max. Ok girl, I go by many names, one is Ra, the almighty. Second would be light to the world, and finally third is–"

"Loser with a capital L" Bareth finished and once more the trend began with all of us laughing at him and Blade with his usual insults.

"Alright, enough of that. Arnold, Elvis and Los-I mean Blade, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kira, and besides what the public might say, I am not Max's girlfriend. Anyways, I'm here on more serious matters. Please, all of you, don't freak out or anything, ok?"

"Why would we freak out? Is one of us going to die?!" Blade asked, fear in his voice.

"Nope. Thankfully, it's not about you guys. Or, maybe it is. But before that, I feel like I should inform you that all four of you have been out for about a week,"

"WHAT?!" we all exclaimed in shock.

"You heard me. And because you guys have been out for a while, a couple of major changes were made, hence the warning 'don't freak out'," Kira continued.

"Oh, wow. One full week. That's...AWESOME!" Blade suddenly said, catching us all in suprise. 

Bareth was the first to speak out, "What part about that is awesome?"

"For a bookworm like you, I'm sure that you are the one who's suffered the most from out of this, Bareth. I'm excited because I missed an entire week of class!" Blade excitedly answered.

"Hmm? Max, I can see why he's your friend. You two both have the same number of brain cells. None," Kira stated.

"Now that was uncalled for! And where is this something we're not supposed to freak over, huh?" I asked her. That seemed to shut her up. She nodded her head slowly, then turned to the door she just came from in the room.

"I think it's the right time for you to show yourself," Kira called to the person hovering behind the hospital door. The door slowly opened, only to reveal the last person I would ever think nor wish to walk into our room.

"Uh.... hi" Emily greeted us with a nervous smile, in her hands a tray filled with things I couldn't see from where I was, the school's uniform shining on her like she deserved to wear them.

It was only a normal greeting, but non of us in the beds even heard it. Bareth was the first one to react as he bared his teeth at her, while Arnold, Blade and I shot out of our beds all jumped into an attcking position, even with our injuries.

"You've got some nerve showing your face over here after all you did to us!" Arnold began, his fist tightening in anger.

"I guess you came her to finish the job, right? Be assured, we ain't gonna make it easy for you!" Blade said as he began glowing brighter. I just glared at her in anger which made her unconsciously take a step back.

She dropped the tray she was holding in fear and almost made a run for it, were it not for Flintheart who stood behind her and held her in a firm grip preventing her from escaping.

"Oh real original Flinty! Siding with the damsel in distress I see," I finally spoke, staring daggers at him.

"Easy there lil' Maxy. Shouldn't we first of all hear what she has to say then judge her later?" he defended her for some reason.

"What has she got to say that I would ever want to hear?!"

"How about, why she did all this?" Flintheart answered.

I stared him up and down and realized that he was actually serious. I eventually relented after a certain amount of time, cause it looked like he was not going to back down anytime soon and frankly, I was still tired from the previous battle.

"This had better be good," I murmured as I returned to my bed with Arnold and Blade following suit. Once Emily had finally calmed down, she began her story.

"I guess you already know about how demons came to hate the Beast Empire," she began, carefully observing us more so me.

"Well, father sent me on this quest as vengeance to kill all students the same age as me. I refused at first, but then he threated my little brothers life. I was still reluctant to adhere to his order when he took my sword and put a powerful spell on it that forced me into submission. When Max co-"

"Never call me that. Only my friends get that privilege, ok," I stopped her. She flinched when I spoke, but was able to continue with her story.

"Alright. When you converted my sword to that black one, the spell wore off. I tried explaining to you what really happened but, you didn't listen, or more accurately, didn't want to listen. So-" she wanted to continue but stopped and quickly jumped behind Flintheart's back, away from the pillow I had just thrown at her.

"You buying this?" I asked, turning to Arnold who looked fully invested in the story. But then he turned at me and when he saw my face, it seemed like his switched from concentration to worry.

"I don't know, Max. But she seems genuine enough. Before though, I wanted to ask you because I noticed it when I was awake, but why were there tears dripping from your eyes when you were a sleep?" 

"I knew you'd agree with–wait, what?! That really shouldn't be the matter right now,"

He still looked worried, so I had to try and ease his mind, "Look, if you must know, I was tearing up because...… because.... " I trailed off as I tried to scrap my brain for the information. Something seemed to stop me from doing so.

"I'm sorry. I can't remember anything," I finally said, embarrassed.

"I can help," Emily spoke up. I almost forgot that she was around.

"You're still here?"

"Just hear me out, ok. What if I helped you regain your last memories as a way to atone for my sins?"

"Let's get one thing clear: I don't trust you with my memories. Matter of fact, I don't trust you with anything. So you can just-"

"Then let me earn your trust!" she said with such conviction and passion, that made me raise an eyebrow in question.

"How?"

"I have and idea," Flintheart said, who had been unusually quiet all this time, "Let her join our class and allow her for one year to prove her worth to you. After all, our class is for misfits. If she fails to gain your trust, we can just do what you want to do with her, Max. But if she does prove herself, then you get your memories back. Both are a win win situation for you,"

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"I second that, Max. When you were crying, you seemed to be sad becasue of something. I could feel your pain and sorrow without even trying. If she has a way for you to regain your memories, I'm willing to take that bet," Arnold said. Bareth and Blade both reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well then, I guess that's settled. Now, why don't we all go back to class, hmm? Max, stay behind. I have a few questions for you to answer.

What a bunch of idiots! They are going to regret this later when it comes to bite them. Allowing a demon into our school let alone our class!

Though I'm guessing this must have come from the higherups too, my memories just a source of convinience, seeing that she already had a uniform and everything. But something else is bothering me...

***

[What could Flintheart possibly want?]

<You're guess is as good mine> 

[Well then, let's find out]