Notes – Set just before the start of the WRGP in season two. Written because I now work as a waitress and thus have been sympathising with Stephanie more lately, so I wanted to write about her at least once.
There had been a time when every girl in Stephanie's class had fancied Jack Atlas.
She was among them, of course. Her room was plastered with posters of his face, she bought magazines just because he was on the cover and she had paid so much money just to get into the premiere of his movie. It was fortunate that she had a job to pay for it all.
But then Yuusei Fudo had defeated Jack in a duel. This nobody from the Satellite quickly became the underdog apple in everyone's eyes and Jack faded into obscurity. The girls at school didn't talk about Jack anymore because he was not 'cool' now.
At the back of Stephanie's mind she argued that Jack was still better looking than Yuusei, at least to her, but who was she to argue with the girls at school?
So time went on. Stephanie graduated from high school and moved entirely to her job as a waitress. She reasoned that it was just until she could save up to go to university, but each day went by and she was still a waitress.
It wasn't as if she forgot about Jack Atlas, but she had to focus on her work and get her head out of these fantasies.
That was right up until her fantasies were sat on a little table outside her café ordering a cup of Blue Eyes Mountain.
It took every ounce of self-taught waitress training not to drop the tray she was carrying.
Jack Atlas!
Jack Atlas was right there ordering tea!
What were the chances?
She knew that he lived in Neo Domino, so as much as he'd disappeared off the radar he had to logically be somewhere, but she never thought that somewhere would be right here.
He turned out to be cold and distant, just as he was on TV. And for whatever reason Stephanie found joy in bringing him tea just to be shunned by him. To the point that no one else in the café even thought about serving Jack tea – that was Stephanie's role and she would fiercely defend it.
The days went on and Stephanie found herself enjoying work more. She stopped thinking of it as a miserable dead end she'd reached to save money and started seeing it as her chance to watch Jack every day.
And he was there almost every day without fail. But eventually other people started to appear with him. There was the reporter who would tell him about what was going on in the media, the redheaded guy who would yell at him to get a job, and sometimes even Yuusei Fudo himself. Apparently even with their rivalry the two were close friends, not that Yuusei even said much while he was there.
They all seemed annoyed at Jack for buying the most expensive tea, but Stephanie was on his side – only the best should be served to Jack.
However, seeing them did put a dint in her fantasies.
When Jack turned up the old imagination came into play and Stephanie was picturing herself serving tea to Jack as his girlfriend instead of a waitress, as unlikely as that was. The old, faded posters of him on her walls suddenly caught her glance once more. But with all these other people sitting with Jack it was clear that he already had his own life and people to fill it.
She was too late.
Those traitorous thoughts in her head were what made serving tea to Jack less of a joy than it used to be. It was starting to become just a job again.
This might have been why she failed to notice the flyer he was holding as she put the cup down on his table one day.
"WRGP," Jack said to the world at large. He was the sort of person who expected an answer when he spoke.
She jumped at the sound of him saying something to her that didn't involve ordering beverages.
"WRGP?" she echoed, trying to remember where she'd heard that before.
"It's the name of the grand prix I've been training for, and it starts tomorrow," he confirmed.
"You're duelling again?" she asked, before she could stop herself.
"Jack Atlas never stopped duelling," he said, which was technically a lie, but this girl didn't need to know the details about what had happened after his defeat. "But yes, my team and I will be competing tomorrow."
"You will? Then I'll go see it," she squeaked. It didn't matter that she'd never heard of the WRGP before; she would spend whatever money she had just to watch Jack duel again.
Drinking from his cup of Blue Eyes White Mountain, Jack said, "You have provided me with good tea, which has been very important to my training. So it would only be fitting for you to watch me duel."
Ignoring what tea had to do with training, she could have died with happiness that Jack actually wanted her to watch him duel. She nodded meekly but he seemed to be absorbed with what he was doing and ignoring her once more, so she got back to her work.
Usually one of his friends would come to begrudgingly pay for him, but today Jack presumably put the money on the table when he left.
This was odd, but Stephanie didn't pay it any mind until she was cleaning up Jack's table to get it ready for another customer to use. That was when she saw it, sticking out on the tip tray. It certainly wasn't money.
A very flash piece of paper with 'WRGP' printed on it stared up at her, and upon closer inspection she found that it was a ticket to tomorrow's tournament.
Her cries of glee were enough to disturb the chef, who came out of the kitchen to give her a funny look.
"Jack Atlas gave me this!" she called, showing him.
"But did he pay his bill?" the man sighed.
It appeared that he had not. Again.
"Th-this is paying in his own way," she argued.
"Then you can have it," he said, "I really don't care for that sort of thing. But if you see Jack around tell him this is going on his tab."
She nodded, too ecstatic to say much.
Jack Atlas was going to make a triumphant return to the spotlight and she was going to see it.
Nothing could get in the way of her dreams now.
After all, how many other girls would Jack have invited to watch him duel?