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Not far from the place where Anthony went to school was a park - a neat little park with a playground for children, a petting zoo with a small assortment of animals (deer, rabbits, ducks, a turtle), a picnic table area, a ball diamond, a flower garden, and - Tony's favourite - a skateboard park.

Every day after school he would stop there on his way home. It wasn't out of his way at all, and his foster mother knew where he was, and if there was something important going on then he always made sure that he would be home on time. He loved to practice going up the ramps, grinding (when he could manage it, he wasn't very good at it yet) or even just wheeling around aimlessly. With his baggy clothes and shaggy hair, he fit the stereotypical image of a grungy skateboarding loser - but he wasn't. He didn't mind that other people thought so, though. He would grow into his clothes. He had no doubt about that.

The only question was when.

On the days when there weren't any other people around, Tony would take a doll from his backpack and set it up on a bench as if the doll were watching him. He didn't have any friends at school - but then, he was rarely in a school long enough to make any friends anyways. He was used to being by himself. But since he had gotten that doll, he had never felt alone, even in the middle of the night when there was no one else around.

Of course, it was no ordinary doll. No, he would never be caught dead with a girl doll. This one was special. It was an Angel, and soon, when he had enough money saved up again, he would be able to buy it some proper clothes and use it in battle.

That was what he looked forward to.

Anthony was concentrating on his boarding, and not really paying attention to anything else around him. He was trying out a move he had seen that morning on his way to school, trying to make his board do a flip while he jumped, and landing back on it again. So far all he could do was make it flip upside down, and the closest he got to landing on it was tripping over the wheels and falling on his hands and knees.

"I'm going to get this right," he told himself firmly as he picked himself up for the umpteenth time and brushed off his knees. "I've got to!"

He righted his board again and adjusted his position, preparing to attempt the stunt again, when he spotted the girl walking into the skateboard park.

He froze. She was going to walk right past the bench where he had put his backpack ... and his angel was still sitting there, out in the open for her to see ...

"Aw, no," he groaned, and, abandoning his stunt, he jumped on his board and headed for the bench, trying to get there before the girl so that he could hide his angel from her sight.

Antony sped up a bit, groaning inwardly. He could see that the girl had already spotted Cesar ... great. Now how was he going to live it down? What kind of guy played with dolls, anyways? The kids at school already teased him about enough things, the last thing he needed was for them to know about his Angelic Layer obsession.

When he reached the bench, he skidded to a stop, jumping off his board and snatching up his angel protectively, hiding it behind his back as he faced the girl. His face felt very hot, and he knew he was blushing furiously.

"Um ... don't tell anybody, okay?" he mumbled, his eyes towards the ground so that he wouldn't have to make eye contact with her. He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know the girl, after all. And as he stood there, feeling very awkward, he put one foot on his board and moved it backward and forward slowly.

Anthony had to admit, the girl had a point. Still, it didn't matter. What if she knew someone who went to his school? He was certain that she didn't - he had only been there a few months, but he was pretty sure he knew everyone who did.

Not to mention, he had no idea how old she might be, especially in comparison to him.

"Well," he said finally, "I don't know. Just ... if the kids at school find out ... they already tease me enough as it is, I don't want them to bug me more."

He finally dared to look up at her, and he was a little surprised to see someone like her in the skateboard park. Usually there were only fellow skateboarders in there, not pretty girls who dressed like that.

Then he noticed the angel in her arms. He blinked, his eyes filling with curiosity, then looked up at the girl. "You ... you have one, too?" he asked, his tone hopeful.

Anthony blinked at the girl. "I've never seen another boy Deus," he admitted. "But ... I guess you're the first Deus I've met, so I've really never seen another girl Deus either," he added thoughtfully. "Except ... well, when I bought him, there were a lot of girls in the story."

He stopped himself. He was rambling. Why did he always ramble when he was nervous?

He held up his own angel to show the girl. "This is Cesar," he smiled shyly.

And then he realized something even more ludicrous ... he was introducing his angel, and the girl had introduced hers, but neither of them had given their own names yet!

"I'm Anthony," he told the girl, some of his shyness going away as he realized that he had found someone he could talk to without sounding silly. "What's your name?"

New? He was, in many ways, but he was certain that she wasn't asking about any of those other ways.

He nodded. "Yeah, I just got my angel a little while ago. I worked all last summer cutting grass and raking leaves in the fall and shoveling snow all winter so that I could earn money for one ... now I have to save up again for some clothes for him."

He looked down at his angel.

"It's mostly clothes for the girl angels," he shrugged, "so I'm probably gonna have to order something for him, and that's usually more expensive. Still, I'd like that more than having an angel I didn't like as much just because it's cheaper."

It was the reason he cared enough to work so hard for it, after all. If he didn't care so much, he wouldn't feel the drive to work as hard.

"What about you?" he asked. "You just new, too?"

Tony looked up at Lanying and smiled warmly.

"Your grandfather must be very kind," he said, almost enviously.

He wondered if she had wanted the angel very badly, or if it had been a complete surprise for her. After all, there were gifts of both sorts. He didn't really remember his grandparents ... he had never seen them, strictly speaking. At his parents' funeral he'd had bandages around his eyes because he had just come home from the hospital, so while he had heard his grandparents' voices, he had never seen their faces. That didn't mean that he didn't know anything about them - it simply meant that he didn't like to think about the things he did know about them.

He noticed then the woman that was coming up behind Lanying. She looked as though she were with the girl, but she didn't look anything like her.

"Who's that?" he asked Lanying, nodding at the woman behind her.

Anthony sighed and lowered his eyes.

"Don't worry about it," he murmured sadly, reaching for his backpack so that he could put his angel away. "I'm used to it. Everyone always says the same thing."

He reached down to pick up his skateboard, but paused and looked up at Lanying. "Do ... do you think ... if I had clothes that fit me instead of this stuff," he began hesitantly, "that ... people might not think I'm bad? Because Sandy - she's my foster mom - she keeps saying she wants to buy me new clothes, but ... but do you think it would help?"

He had never worried about what he wore before - to him, it matched, even if the other kids laughed at what they called his lack of colour coordination. He didn't want to tell them it was just lack of colour perception. The kids at his previous three schools had laughed even more at that.