i am occasionally here

“Do you have something nice to tell Light about his drawing?” Miss Tanaka asked.

“No,” said L.

She smiled at him while Light stared at her in disbelief — it was his turn to talk and not only was L taking up all of it, a teacher was actually encouraging him to do it. No one was looking at Light anymore. They were all looking at L or at somewhere unrelated. “Well, then why don’t you tell me in private,” she said.

“Okay.” L climbed to his feet, and looked directly at her. “That’s not a dinosaur,” he said. “That’s a pterosaur. Dinosaurs are only the ones that walk on land with erect back legs and birds.”

Light felt as if the world was slipping out from under him. It suddenly felt very close and far away at once. “That’s not true,” he said, then tried to keep going. “It’s a flying dinosaur from the Jurassic period and it eats —“

“It’s not a dinosaur.”

“AND it eats smaller dinosaurs and invertebrates. I saw one at the museum with my dad. It was in the dinosaur exhibit, in the Jurassic room.”

“It’s not. It’s a pterosaur. And I went to the museum too with my uncle and the one they have isn’t even a pterodactyl. It’s a caulkicephalus and it’s from the genus ornithocheiridae and it’s not from Germany, it’s from England, and it’s not from the Jurassic period, it’s from the Cretacious period. If you paid attention there’s a plaque on the wall that says they put it in the wrong room and they’re going to move it. Also it doesn’t eat other dinosaurs. It eats fish. You forgot the crest, too.”