A Bowl of Cherries
by Black Cherry Bomb
Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh! Kazuki Takahashi does. I am writing this for fun, not for profit.
Warnings/Triggers: bullying.
Rating: T+ for language and hinted sexuality in later chapters (maybe ^^)

December 31st, 2011: A/N
This is a WIP puzzleshipping, Yugi-centric, high school AU with slight chances of side pairings and love triangles. But it mostly focuses on Yugi's friendships, family and coming of age in general. It starts happy-go-lucky but gets a little darker as we get to know the characters more. I'll do my best to update weekly, hope you enjoy, and am curious to know what you think! Reviews allow me to know what you like or don't like, and what confuses or surprises you. Happy reading! -Cherry

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Yugi hated trigonometry.

Not only he had to sit through an entire class of it, but he had to do so without his only guy friends Joey and Tristan, who were in 'slacker math', unlike him.

Sometimes Yugi hated being the best. He wasn't even the best in things that mattered. Math? Check. Duel Monsters? Check. Tying your shoelaces with your eyes closed? Check. Picking the biggest potato chips from the bag before anyone else? Check.

None of these weird useless skills would get him friends, and the few ones he did have, had nothing in common with him except dueling.

Yugi felt something on his nape. He picked up the spit wad off his skin, disgusted, and glanced around. He saw Seto Kaiba, immobile, behind his copy of the New York Times. Yugi flushed in embarrassment. He knew no one would come to his defense, because Kaiba had more lawyers than anyone else in Domino and well, even though he knew Kaiba wouldn't do anything mean to him, Yugi just didn't have the heart to stand up to him, or whoever else for that matter.

A pretty girl with cropped brown hair came in rushing and crashed in the chair next to his. It was Anzu, the only one in their group of friends to be in this class, and also his only girl friend.

Girl-friend, not girlfriend. Yugi loved her, but not that way. She would always sit next to him whenever she could, which was whenever she wanted, because Yugi had a geeky reputation and somehow, in this school, people thought geekiness was contagious or something. She'd fend off any nasty remarks that came his way, even from the jocks. But since she spent much of her time socializing with the other girls in the class, Yugi still ended up feeling alone at school. At least he was sitting by the window. He could look at the trees and let his mind wander in the skies anytime he wanted. His only escape.

He shook his hair one last time before class started, just in case more spit wads had found their way into it. Two small wet, white pebbles fell on the floor; Yugi had the decency to bend over and pick them up. He wasn't going to litter.

The new teacher, a young man in his thirties, cleared his throat.

"Class, I'd like to introduce you to the new student I've told you about yesterday," he said almost nonchalantly.

Yugi looked up right away. A transfer student? Really? He must not have been paying much attention yesterday because he totally missed that bit. Well, maybe doing his homework in advance and sorting out his deck in class didn't help, either. The boy, or rather, the teenager walked into the classroom.

"This is Yami Atem Aknamkanon."

Yugi's eyes widened. He was extremely good looking, tall and thin with spikey tri-coloured hair, deep black with crimson and golden highlights.

"Just call me Yami," he said casually. He stood confidently, hands in the pockets of his black leather pants. How did he get approval from the school board to wear 'this' instead of the boring uniform trousers everyone else was forced into? Even Joey docilely wore them, cursing every time, complaining how uncool they made him look. Yugi too disliked the dark blue thing, they were too big for him; not only they made him look childish, but also even shorter than his four feet eleven.

"Welcome to Domino High, Yami. Please sit next to Kaiba."

Yami coolly strolled past Yugi to the last row of desks. He was even slimmer than he looked. Anzu, just like every girl in the room, eyed him up as he walked by her. Not giving the fangirls attention, he sat down gracefully at the desk that Kaiba occupied fully with his laptop, iPad, a recording device and a stack of newspapers that had more articles than images in them. Kaiba didn't budge, now rifling through the Washington Post. Yami didn't look like he cared much about the lack of desk space.

Anzu cupped her hand near Yugi's ear. "He's hot," she whispered giddily.

Yugi smiled awkwardly. Anzu didn't seem to notice. Furtive glances and whispers continued even as the teacher wiped the chalk off the blackboard.

"Open your book page seventy-one. We're going to keep working on these exercises to get ready for tomorrow's test."

Yugi pretended to open his book at the right page, just for show. He had already done all the exercises. He was curious about Yami! Surely no one would notice if he risked giving a furtive glance, too, at the attractive stranger.

He had crossed his legs and was reading something that looked like a paperback. No trigonometry textbook in sight. With the small piercing on his left eyebrow and his dress code breaching pants, Yami sure didn't look like a bookworm, even less a nerd.

The jock sitting immediately behind Yugi had apparently noticed the ogling, for he gave him a mocking, leery look. 'See something you like?' he mouthed.

Yugi quickly averted his gaze. He didn't want to know what was next in the boy's series of slurs. Anzu hadn't noticed anything, and to be honest, Yugi was not unhappy about that. It was nice knowing someone had your back, but Anzu could get intimidating at times, and this whole protective act was more emasculating for Yugi than anything else. Anzu was completely oblivious, and at the moment, she was busy exchanging little notes written on pink post-its with that other brown haired girl whose name Yugi kept forgetting. The teacher kept talking, but Yugi processed none of his words. It was more like background noise to him.

"So I'm going to have to pick volunteers, again," said the teacher tiredly. "Yugi, please come to the blackboard to solve number seventeen."

Ugh. Yugi just hated trigonometry.