It took me a while to find Sandra. Although DeathPortals got you where you wanted to go, if you had to go to a building or something, well, there were a ton of rooms you had to look through.

Finally, after about 10 minutes, I was able to collapse next to Sandra in a bar. "What are you doing in a bar?" I asked. "You drink?"

She glanced at me. "So what? I'm of age, and it doesn't affect me like it does to humans. And shouldn't you be in school?"

I shrugged. "Yeah." When she raised an eyebrow at me, I quickly defended myself. "Hey, something seriously weird happened to me, and I wanted to know what you thought."

She sat straighter in her seat, but still gave me The Look. "Why? Did your sarcasm come out nicely today?" she asked, taking a sip of...whatever she was drinking.

I rolled my eyes. "No." I leaned in closer so others wouldn't be able to listen in. "I saw a guy today, and my heart started pounding faster than usual."

She spit her drink back into her cup. "What?" she screamed.

I leaned back, far away from her. "First of all, ew," I said pointing to the glass in her hand. "And second of all, keep your voice down; we're in public. With mortals."

She nodded. "Right. Public with humans. Quiet." Then she leaned in close to my face, whispering, "What the hell do you mean, your 'heart started pounding faster than usual'? That only happens on two occasions: when you've reached your endurance level and when you fall in love, and I have never seen you use up even half of your endurance level, and if there's a guy involved in all if this, then holy crap! You're a defect."

"What do you mean I'm a defect?" I shouted, pulling gazes towards me. I cleared my throat, lowering my gaze. God, I was very hypocritical.

However, before either one of us could resume our conversation, the bartender walked up to us, specifically me. "Yo, can I see your ID?" he asked.

I smirked, handing my school ID over. He glanced at it for a moment, before handing it back. "Why aren't you at school right now?"

I bit my lip, trying to think of an excuse. "Uh, so what happened was...I got pulled out of school because I thought I had a family emergency, but it turned out it was a false alarm, and I would've gone back to school if it wasn't a half day and it's 10 something right now but school's gonna end at 11 so I just decided to meet my friend here, and yeah," I finished lamely, hoping he would buy it. Thankfully, after another long glance, he walked away.

"Oh, thank goodness," Sandra said next to me. "Where did you come up with all of that?" she asked. "And why didn't you just say you could leave school when you had Lunch?"

I groaned, while trying to come up with an excuse. "Uh, I didn't think he would believe I would come to a bar to eat lunch?" Thankfully, she seemed to buy it. I hated being treated like an idiot. "And for your former question," I continued, "I just happen to be a very nice actress, storyteller, and improviser."

"Or maybe you just lie a lot," she added, pointing her glass in my direction. When I turned to glare at her, she shrugged. "What? Was what I said wrong?"

I smiled, shaking my head. "Nope. Now can we go somewhere private to talk? I feel like someone could listen in."

She nodded. "Yeah. And I don't think drinking is really for me, anyway. Let's go to my place."

At the DeathPortal, Sandra called for the transport. "You know, they should really upgrade their system," I told Sandra while waiting for the signal to jump. "I mean, we have to wait for the CDs to get everything ready - although they are very fast and efficient - and it took me forever to find you."

Sandra laughed. "You want it, you do it."

I shook my head. "Never mind then."

"Prepare to jump in 3 seconds."

                     * * * * * * * * *

At Sandra's house, I collapsed onto her sofa. "Ugh, I'm so tired."

"No you're not; that's impossible. Unless..." she leaned forward closely, arching her eyebrows in question.

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm not tired, yet. It's just...falling in love." The words felt weird as I finally admitted it - like I was pronouncing something in a foreign language.

"Yeah, that is really weird," Sandra said, leaning back in her seat, crossing her legs. "I don't think that's even a trait any of the Deaths have."

"Are you sure?" I asked, sitting straight up.

She looked surprised at my excitement. "Well, let's see."

She pointed at me. "The only traits you're supposed to have are: annoyance, impatience, and rudeness, right?"

I rolled my eyes as she smiled to herself. "Just get on with it," I grumbled, "and I don't think rudeness is a human emotion."

"It's an adjective, so it is," she said, before finally moving on.

"Let's see, I have the traits for sense of humor, and patience. And if I remember correctly, PDs have joy and sadness, and the CD traits are excitement and envy."

"I get excited a lot," I pointed out. "And are you sure that's it for the PDs? And that there isn't something else for IDs? And the CDs?"

"Okay, well first of all, I meant happy-excited, not gets-easily-worked-up-excited. And second, I'm not too sure about the PDs, and no for the last one as well."

I sighed, throwing myself back onto her couch. "So we have to go to the library?" I groaned. I usually liked reading, but that was for fiction books. Libraries in the Death World only had historical books.

Sandra shrugged. "Well, I know for a fact that we're not supposed to have any sympathy, empathy, remorse, regret, or fatigue of any sorts, at all for humans," she suggested.

I got back up slowly. "But does falling in love count as any of those?" I asked.

She paused. "Well, I suppose sometimes you empathize with someone if you're in love. Same for sympathy. And, isn't it possible you might feel guilt - which is kind of like remorse - if you kill someone you love?"

I sighed. "So, do you know what happens if a Death starts feeling any of these emotions?" I held my breath, half of me wishing she knew the answer, the other half wishing she didn't.

"No," she said after an abundant time of thinking. "But I think I remember reading about a Death that fell in love, and though I don't really remember the details, I'll be honest with you - I don't think it'll be good for you."

Well, schist.