Precursor || Death Note [ON HOLD]

Chapter Thirteen: Flashback

Author's Note:
Forgive me if the French is incorrect. I used my knowledge (and Google Translate), and both aren't the most reliable sources alive. If something's wrong, tell me.
Anyways, remember that 70% off coupon? Well, you better, cuz you're about to see it again.
Read on, readers! You have my love (and my word that I won't write your name in my Death Note :D)!
End Author's Note
***
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: {Flashback}
"Qu'est-ce que vous regardez?"
L's words cut through a six year-old Kay's thoughts. "What I'm looking at?" she asked absentmindedly.
"En français," L reminded.
"Ah...Oui." Kay paused. "Rien, rien."
"What's that word? I haven't learned that one yet," Mello butted in, looking confused.
"Oh, it's nothing."
"No, I wanna know!" Mello protested.
Kay sighed, then grinned at her best friend. "You dummy, 'rien' means nothing!"
"Oh." Mello seemed satisfied. "Okay."
"French over there, please!" Wammy called to the children.
"Oui, Monsieur Wammy!" Kay cried back to him, grinning.
The so-called "Monsieur Wammy" looked at his watch, then back up.
"Actually, I'm afraid we'll have to stop the French for today. I have a special task for some of you, okay?"
The children nodded obediently.
"If I say your name, please stand up and come with me," Wammy instructed. He glanced down at his sheet of paper. "All right. Here we go. L."
L promptly stood up and walked over to Wammy.
"Beyond."
Beyond Birthday, an eleven year-old boy who looked kind of like L, stood up.
"A."
A was another boy around L's age; he was a year younger than eleven year-old L and seemed to be quite smart, just not as smart as L. He also was a bit of a scaredy-cat who wasn't too good under pressure.
Wammy called another few names, then called two last names.
"And finally, Kay and Matt," he finished. "You lot go into the room to the right at the end of the hall. The rest of you can practice your Spanish or French while I work with these individuals."
A couple people whose names weren't called, Mello included, grumbled and groaned because they wanted to be picked.
"Oh, hush," Wammy chided. "You'll get to go next time. Now come along, children-whose-names-I-called."
Kay bounced out the door, right next to L and Matt.
"I wonder what we're gonna do!" she said excitedly. "Whatever it is, I bet it'll be lots of fun!"
L smiled at her. "Sure." Those smiles of his had practically never been seen by anyone; Mello, Matt, Near, and Wammy rarely saw them either. But that had all changed for the better when Kay had come.
Matt looked slightly upward at Kay, who somehow was taller than him despite being younger.
"Hey," he said to her. "How d'you know that it's fun? Cuz you don't know what it is."
"I'm with Matt-kun and L-san. That's how I know," Kay replied, grinning. "Wheee! It'd be funner with Mello-kun-no, just plain Mello."
"More fun, not funner," L corrected while Matt snickered and muttered, "Just plain Mello. Ha!"
Wammy stopped in front of a locked door. He grabbed a key ring from his pocket. "In here, children," he said once he had successfully unlocked the door. He opened it and flicked on the light switch.
Kay, Matt, L, and the rest of the selected children poured in. They looked around in amazement.
The room was filled with technological gadgets, mostly computers. There were a few other things, like printers and small tablet-like things and such, too. Wires were all over the room.
"This is our computer lab," Wammy said to the children. "It used to be that children weren't brought in here until they were at least seven, but we lowered it to six this year. Some of you have been here before, I know."
"But what do we do in here?" Kay asked curiously.
"We, my dear, hack."
Kay looked confused.
"Or in this case, you'll be learning to," Wammy hastily added.
Matt voiced Kay's question. "But what's 'hack'?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh, dear." Wammy sighed. "I'll introduce the concept as I go over how to do it. Everyone pick a computer, please, and turn it on."
Kay rushed to get three computers. "I wanna sit in the middle!" she crowed. Then, once in the seat (that was so big it made her seem tiny), she turned to L. "How d'you turn it on? I've never used one before."
"Never?" Matt asked incredulously.
"Ever."
L leaned over and quickly showed Kay how to turn it on, accidentally bumping her nose with his elbow as he did so.
Kay flinched slightly, but then giggled in response.
"Okay," Wammy said once it looked like everyone's computers were on. "Shall we get started?"
---
About thirty minutes later the children had finished a crash course in hacking, and were working on their very first assignment.
Matt, surprisingly, had finished before everyone, which was odd since he was also the second youngest (with Kay at the absolute youngest). He lazily reclined in his chair and played some sort of game on the computer.
Kay raised her hand timidly. "Uncle? I think...I think I'm done."
Wammy hurried over and hovered behind her chair. "Really?"
"Yeah..."
"What did you hack?"
There were specifically designated websites that the children were allowed to hack onto. They were created by Wammy and Roger specifically for this purpose. (There would've been problems if the children had hacked into other sites at such a beginning level.)
"Um, well...I hacked...There was a problem," Kay admitted sheepishly.
"Oh, no." The founder of the Wammy House started to grow worried. "What did you do?"
"I hacked the wrong website," Kay said, looking down.
"You what?!"
"Instead of the one you made, I typed the address wrong and hacked the bookstore. But I...I didn't know until too late! I'm really sorry!"
Kay bent her head in apology, as was customary in Japan. She closed her eyes as if waiting for Wammy to start yelling.
Quillish Wammy sighed. "Well, let's see what you did."
He peered at the computer screen, and his eyes grew wide.
"Seventy percent off?!" he exclaimed. "Kay, really ?!"
Half of the children snickered; the other half watched with bated breath.
Kay cringed. "I'm really, really sorry! I didn't know till too late!" she cried.
Wammy struggled to firmly grasp his temper.
"I'm really sorry, Uncle," Kay said more quietly.
"Okay, can you undo it?" Wammy asked more gently, having gotten ahold of his temper.
Kay shook her head. "I dunno. I can't remember all of what I did."
Wammy sighed again.
"Looks like we all need a crash course in undoing our hacking jobs," he said wearily as more and more kids started to laugh.
---
It turned out that Wammy and Kay were unable to restore the site to its original state, so an apology was necessary.
"I'm very sorry, sir!"
Kay bowed to the bookstore manager, eyes shut tightly.
"I-it's alright," said the slightly overwhelmed shopkeeper, looking confused.
Wammy leaned in to murmur something to the guy.
"I'm dreadfully sorry. She was reading a book where the main character could do things like that, and wanted to try herself," he whispered. "Do forgive her."
"Just...just don't let it happen again, okay?" the manager said, scratching his head in confusion. This six year-old girl could read?
Puzzled, he bid the aging man and young child good day, and they left the store to return to the Wammy House.
On the walk back to the Wammy House, Kay was endlessly scolded by Quillish Wammy.
As the pair approached the driveway entrance, Wammy summed up his lecture. "So remember, don't-"
"-don't do it again, yeah," Kay said, stopping at the opening to stare up at the grandness of the Wammy House.
The house was huge, at three stories. It had luscious gardens and a brilliant yard where some older boys were playing, L not included (as usual).
Towards the left side of the tall, iron-wrought fence there was a smaller door that led outside the fence to woods and a small pond with a bridge and an island in the middle.
The right flank was pretty much nothing but bushes, and the back had several stone walkways, a swing set, and a garden that few people were ever seen tending.
And the house...The Wammy House's architecture was beautiful. It was a Victorian style house, and was a manor of a sort left over from another time period. Quillish Wammy had seen it and immediately pronounced it the perfect place for the "orphanage."
Wammy walked up the drive, then paused and turned to look at Kay. "Well? Are you coming, Kay?"
"Oh!" Kay gave a start. "Oh, yeah." She hurried up to the house.
As she approached the playing boys, she beamed. "Hello!" she shouted cheerily to them.
Immediately the game stopped, and every single boy went in to pat Kay on the back or on the head or high-five her.
"Congrats!" A said, grinning at her.
"Good job," came a comment from Beyond.
Kay got an entire barrage of compliments and congratulatory comments, and eventually left the mob to walk up the steps to the house. Her hair partially stuck up, and her eyes were even wider than usual (if that was possible).
"What," the six year-old gasped, "was that?!"
Wammy sighed. "Boys will be boys, and children will be children," he muttered to himself. To Kay, though, he said, "They think that your little hacking job is something to be laughed at."
"Oh." Kay looked down. "Is it?"
Wammy opened the door. "No."
Inside Kay was greeted by a chorus of cheers.
"There she is!" Matt said excitedly. He pointed to Kay and tried to get Near to wave, but failed and shrugged sheepishly.
Mello ran over to Kay. "Is what they said true?" he cried.
"Yes," Kay answered uncertainly.
"Cool!" Mello grinned at Wammy. "I wanna learn how to do that, too!"
"I dread when that day comes," Roger said, coming up to Wammy. "The kids have gone on and on about this all day."
"So has he," Kay grumbled, remembering the lectures with a shudder.
"Hey."
While Roger and Wammy's conversation delved into boring adult topics, Kay turned to see who had spoken to her.
As she'd thought, it was L.
"Salut, L!" Kay smiled up at him. She hesitated, then asked him a question. "What did you think of my hacking?"
L smiled down at Kay and patted her on the head. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but good job. That skill should be useful someday."
"Okay!" Kay was like a bright day of sunshine as she smiled at L. She waved at him, then flounced over to Near to play with him and teach him to say different words.
So the sun does shine here in Winchester, L thought with a small smile.