A/N: Here I am starting another story... damn it all... xD
PLEASE READ!: Anyway, so the deal with this is... In the foreground we have Jack and Carly's relationship, coming along nicely, and in the background we have Yusei and Aki's not-so-great relationship (she's dating Divine and he's irritating her all the time because he thinks Divine is ruling her life and he wants her to live for herself) so the story's going to be following these two couples with a bit of CrowxSaiga marrital spat and Evil Misty on the side just to liven things up xD
So now we know the menus for tonight, please read it and rate it, even if you hate it ;]
Part one.
"Morning." Misty smiled as she sat herself down at the table at break time, gesturing for a girl with big thick glasses to sit beside her. A chorus of 'morning's ran round the table and the girl hesitantly added her own.
"This is Carly," Misty continued, to which most of the table replied 'hello', "She's in my homeroom and our biology and gym class as well."
"I-It's nice to meet you!" Carly stuttered, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. When she had decided to join the Duel Academy she had been planning on simply improving her duelling skills, she'd had no idea there would be so many famous people here, or even such a varied curriculum. Her parents had of course been delighted, but now that Carly was here, she was feeling more and more like a sore thumb by the minute.
"Yusei Fudo pleased to meet you." The guy directly across from her said, sticking out his hand and smiling slightly, just enough to put her nerves on edge. She shook the proffered hand and gave a little smile in return, before looking up and down their table; no one else was bothering to introduce themselves so she might as well go first.
"Hi, I'm Carly." She said in what she hoped was a confident voice, offering her hand to the girl sitting next to Yusei. She had red, almost magenta coloured hair and harsh, garnet eyes and was reading a book 'Sleeping Beauty: Age old hatred' with an apple in her other hand. She shook the hand and mumbled something which Carly didn't catch, then turned her attention back to her book.
Next in the line was a tall blonde with violet eyes and a bored expression. She would have attempted introducing herself to him, but he wafted a hand in her direction, almost as if he was dismissing her. Raising an eyebrow at his rude behaviour, Carly turned and whispered to Misty, "Who's he?"
"Jack Atlas." Was the reply. Jack Atlas huh? Wait what! Jack Atlas, the famous Duelling Champion two years running? The King of the Duel Runner and straight duelling? Unbeaten in all the time he's been on the stage? Well no wonder he was wafting her away, Carly thought with a grim resignation, someone of her calibre was nothing in the light of the King...
They sat there through break, Yusei bothering the red-head until she turned and whacked him over the head with her book and Jack sitting in veritable silence, until the bell went and it was third period, which meant gym class for Carly and Misty. They walked side-by-side to their lockers and fetched their disks and cards, then headed over to the gym to start class.
Mr Himuro was a tough nut to crack, and even tougher in discipline it would have seemed. He wasn't all that impressed with Carly's duelling skills – or lack thereof – either and the first failed battle had her doing press-ups at the back of the room. Misty however seemed to be doing fine, battling her way through virtually the whole class before the bell went.
"That was awful!" Carly complained as they walked to biology, stopping off at their lockers to leave the duel disks and their decks. "How do you cope in that class? I was out in the first five minutes!"
"Practice makes perfect." Misty laughed, her eyes twinkling in amusement as she watched the forlorn girl trudging along beside her, "Besides, once you've been in that class long enough, you learn their decks and all their favourite combos and after that," she shrugged, "It's fairly easy to beat them then."
Biology was a breeze, having only just transferred to the Academy; Carly had already studied Osmosis so was well ahead of the class. Two seats in front of her, Yusei and the magenta haired girl – who it turned out was Akiza Izayoi, according to the register – were squabbling. Akiza still had her nose stuck in her book but was now holding up one half of a conversation, the other half being held by Yusei who seemed to be in the process of listing every single one of Akiza's boyfriends. Suffice to say he could count them all on one hand.
"You never manage to hold down a guy longer than a week..."
"I'm dating right now, FYI."
"Divine? He doesn't count."
"How so?"
"He's hardly human Aki."
"Don't call me that. And he's perfectly manly enough I'll have you know."
"Really? Thrill me."
"That'd be too explicit for a little boy."
"I rest my case."
"Hn."
"What're you reading?"
"Why do you care?"
"You're not paying me much attention."
"I repeat; why do you care?"
"I'm trying to have a conversation with you-"
"I wish you wouldn't."
"-The least you could do is put down that book and listen to me."
"I am listening. Much to my dismay I can't shut you out when you're practically shouting down my ear."
"I'm not shouting. What're you reading?"
"Sleeping Beauty: Age Old Hatred."
"You've read that at least twice."
"5 times."
"Why?"
"I like it."
"Izayoi! Fudo! No talking or reading in class! Detention!" The shrill voice of Mr Fish – yes... Mr Fish... – rang across the classroom, just as the bell went and Akiza gave Yusei a dirty look, slamming her book shut and grabbing her bag, stuffing all her things inside while Yusei just gave her an apologetic shrug.
Lunch was a very exciting affair, their merry group being minus Akiza and Yusei, but up one Crow and Saiga, who both appeared to be equally excited about meeting and greeting Carly, who soon found herself being dragged from the safety of Misty's company and into a very loud and very extravagant life story; courtesy of Crow.
They were about halfway through what would have been chapter 2, when Carly noticed she was being watched. By none other than Jack Atlas. The blonde was giving her a studious look, violet eyes raking her up and down, sending chills all through her even as she tried her level best to become invisible. It evidently wasn't working.
"Where did you last study Carly?"
The question caught the whole table off guard; none were really expecting any sort of interaction between the king and the newbie for at least another three weeks.
"Erm... Satellite?" She had no idea why it came out as a question, but Jack didn't say anything else, just got up and left, so it hardly mattered.
"Wow," Yusei said, just having passed Jack on his way to the table, "Who peed in his pancakes?"
"Carly's a Satellite gal!" Crow cried jovially, getting the girl in question in a headlock and giving her a noogie.
"Really?" Yusei grinned, plonking himself down in the seat Jack had just vacated and fishing out his lunch as Akiza sat down opposite him and retrieved her book from her bag, beginning to read. "So's he believe it or not. In fact so are Crow and I."
"Really?" Carly questioned, well that was new. And something very few other people knew, if anyone at all. "How many people know?"
"7."
Wow... Really wasn't a lot was it... Might be a good idea to keep her mouth shut about that then. "So where is everyone else from?"
"Aki-"
"Don't call me that."
"-Is from Tops, her dad's the senator of Neo Domino city. Saiga's from Neo Domino, same for Misty and the rest of the school."
"So," Carly leant in to listen, her interest spiked. "Why do you guys band together? I take it being from Satellite isn't a good thing, if only 7 people know about it?"
This time it was Akiza who answered, "We enjoy each other's company and have nowhere else to turn."
Just then the bell went and everyone started packing up, no one really noticing the look of surprise that crossed Yusei's face, or the way Akiza's lips curled slightly at the corners, her gaze lingering over Yusei before she turned and walked out.
What's that sound? It's my heartbeat...
A/N: Ok I know I shouldn't be starting another story... but this was just too good to pass up xD I've had the idea for quite a while now and wanted to write it up :) So here we have chapter one - I know it's not all that great, but honestly I was struggling with how to start it off... If you've read any of my other work you'll know that it tends to get better once I get into it xD That same will be true of this, I promise :)
So please leave a comment and tell me if I should carry on writing this, or not :)
-Okami