Love at Duel Academy
Author's Note: Before K and I write this story; I (A) would like to make a little announcement. Anyone who read After the Academy probably thinks I'm taking a break from writing fanfiction. Well that is not true. Yes, I have been writing less than usual, but only because I'm working on other stories that sometimes take precedence. And I have a major case of writer's block. But I have not disappeared.
Now, for the real author's note:
This is the first of (hopefully) another long line of joint stories between K and me. It's appropriately titled: Love at Duel Academy. While this might be just a working title, it pretty much sums up the main idea.
The dominant pairing, as usual with our stories, is fianceshipping (Chazz is a big fat idiot and not deserving of Alexis' love!). (K's private note: sorry, but that is our opinion. I don't care what shipping you support, as long as you don't think that Cyrus and Alexis should get together. It makes no sense.)
Please R&R, no flaming, and all that usual junk. We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX (la duh!). (K's private note: la duh! is A's new catch phrase). Okay, we've said too much. Read!
Like most good stories, it started at a party.
The first people (besides the decorating committee, which included sad little me, Cyrus Trusedale) to come to the party were Jaden and Alexis. They said it was 'just as friends,' but everyone knew better than to believe them. Would Alexis have put on a new dress and high-heels without being told if they were 'just friends?' Would Jaden have ironed (well, asked me to iron) his jeans and borrow Bastion's cologne if they were 'just friends?'
Nope, didn't think so.
Everyone knew tonight would be the night they'd finally kiss (in public – who knows if they'd already in private?). After weeks of 'accidental' dates – 'study-buddy' picnic lunches, 'let's have a practice duel' walks in the forest – it was obvious to basically the whole campus that they were a couple.
Oops, got to go. Someone on the committee's calling me,
"Little squirt, do you think the punch is fruity enough?"
"I don't know, Harrington. Why don't you check it?"
"Don't you understand English? I want YOU to check on it!"
"Okay." I took a small sip of the punch. "It's plenty fruity to me."
Harrington took a sip. "Well it's not to me. It's TOO fruity. It needs some soda."
"Okay, I'll get the soda." I crossed the room to where we were storing the extra bottles of soda and brought one back to Harrington. As I walked back to him, I noticed him empty the contents of a few small clear bottles, but I assumed he was just cutting the fruitiness with water. I made a mental note to splash in some more juice when he was out of sight. The punch would be too watery and bland, and then no one would want to drink it. And then Crowler would get mad because we'd wasted the school's money for juice/soda punch, and we would all be in big trouble. And unlike Jaden, I can't handle getting in trouble with Crowler.
"I brought the soda!" I replied, lugging the two-liter bottle of Sprite. "But if you already found something to cut the fruitiness, then…"
"No, no, no! That was just a little bit of water. We need soda." He emptied about half the bottle into the punch, splashed in a bit more juice, and then emptied the contents of one last little bottle of water into the punch. Then he shoved a plastic bag of fruit into my hands. "Cut these up, then float them in the punch. That's the way we did it back home."
Not wanting to get Harrington mad, I did what I was told (even though the idea of having floating fruit in the punch sounded utterly ridiculous). As I finished slicing the last of the oranges, I saw Harrington filling a bunch of plastic champagne flutes with what looked like apple cider. "Is that apple cider, or ginger ale?"
"Uh… apple cider," he replied hurriedly. Then he shoved the bottle in my hand. "Here, squirt, you fill up the rest of these while I finish hanging streamers."
Harrington scares the crap out of me, so I obediently filled up the rest of the plastic glasses. "So, where do I put this bottle?" I asked.
Harrington quickly grabbed it. "I'll take care of that," he said, and tossed it in the nearest recycling bin.
When he got back, he surveyed the gym. "Okay, I think we're ready to open the doors. DJ, crank the music up."
Jaden and Alexis walked in first, hand in hand. Following them were Mindy and Jasmine, and after them came Chazz, who was practically drooling at the sight of Alexis, Mindy, and Jasmine in their nearly identical low-cut, high-hemmed dresses and perilously high heels.
Once the rest of the school filed in (including Crowler in an absolutely HIDEOUS suit and even more makeup than usual, which I really didn't think was possible), the party really got started. As much grueling work was it was to make the drinks, I had to admit it was worth it – everywhere I looked I saw people sipping punch from Harrington's cut-crystal glasses, gulping down cider from Harrington's champagne flutes, and chugging root beer from brown glass bottles Harrington had procured at the last minute for the boys that didn't wanted 'girly' fruit punch. All the drinks were having an effect on the partygoers – everyone was dancing and talking and laughing, and gobbling down all the food Harrington had brought in from some gourmet caterer. Forget pigs in a blanket, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeno pepper poppers – Harrington had paid for mini cheeseburgers with French fries, tiny four-cheese pizzas, and small cucumber-and-cream-cheese finger sandwiches.
My eyes shifted to Alicia Cummings, hands-down the most beautiful girl in the room (besides Alexis, but she was taken). She was, like always, in the center of attention, the one place I always tried desperately to get out of. Her dress was yet another one of her crafty, colorful creations – a silk tie-dyed wrap dress with splashes of different bright colors on a white background that covered her in a way that was just enough to let some of her porcelain skin peek out. Her blue-black hair was in its typical two silky pigtails, and she was having a hard time not stepping on it as she danced, drawing a huge crowd. As always, she wore her black leather combat boots, but the semi-clash of a feminine dress and work boots didn't seem to dissuade her many admirers.
Alicia was about three years younger than the rest of the class, but she was super smart, and a very good duelist, so she'd been accepted early. That meant she was one of the few people around my height. Even in her high-heeled boots, she was only a few inches taller than I was. Her height and age didn't have any effect on the guys that were constantly following her around. After Alexis, she was the second-most-drooled-over girl on campus. I had pretty much given up any hopes of ever getting to talk to her, let alone kiss her. So I settled for watching her from afar, dreaming about her and hoping one day she'd notice me.
Me. Who am I kidding? She'll never notice me.
Wanting to drown my sorrows, I headed towards the buffet table and downed the remaining champagne flute's contents (Harrington had bought enough for two per person – I was the only one who had yet to drink mine). Then I poured myself a small glass of punch and helped myself to a plate of food. I was just about to find a place to sit when I noticed Chazz sidle up to Alicia. He was wobbling slightly – maybe he bought a pair of shoes with heels so he could stand eye level with Alexis in her heels.
Something was a little off. Chazz had downed his flutes within the first second of walking in the door, drank two bottles of root beer, and then gulped down a couple cups of punch. And now he was wobbling? Odd. And now that I thought about it, the cider had tasted kinda funny, but I'd swallowed it anyway. I took a small sip of the punch in my hands and spat it out immediately. (Crowler then walked by and slipped on my spat-out punch, sprained his ankle, and spent the rest of the dance in the nurse's office; everyone cheered when he started yelping, and he would have yelled but was too engulfed by pain). I would have been laughing and cheering too, but I was too busy thinking.
Now I remembered what the cider had tasted like: champagne! I'd taken a little sip of my mom's one New Year's Eve, thinking it was ginger ale, and spat it out immediately. And there was vodka in the punch – that I was sure of. On my cousin's twenty-first birthday, my dad had left a glass of what I thought was water on the table, and, since I'd eaten lots of salty popcorn shrimp, I gulped it down. Two seconds later I was throwing up the shrimp and what I learned was vodka, not water.
Out of curiosity, I poured myself a little bit of the root beer and took a sip. Blech! It was actual beer, not root beer. My dad and all his friends always drank that at barbecues, and he offered me a sip once. Foolishly thinking it would taste like root beer, I took it. My mom was washing the smell of beer out of my dad's shirt for a week after that.
It all made sense now: Harrington wanted to make the party interesting, so he'd filled plastic champagne flutes with actual champagne, then passed it off as apple cider; spiked the fruit punch with vodka; and set out bottles of beer disguised as root beer. But why? What good would come out of getting everyone drunk?
An ear-piercing scream broke my thoughts, followed by the sound of someone slapping someone else on the face. "You pervert!" Alicia screamed at Chazz. Out of her 'magic purse', as we call it (tonight's one was made of braided straw painted in bright colors, with a beaded handle) came a roll of duct tape. With a few quick tears and snaps, Chazz was suddenly a duct tape mummy. Then she hit him on the head with the (very heavy) 'magic purse' and dragged him into the closet. The mummy returning to his coffin. Very appropriate. Score one for Alicia!
When she was finished, she gulped down the remainder of her glass of punch, and then headed to the table for more.
Uh-oh! With all this about Chazz being a duct-tape mummy, I totally forgot about the punch! Better warn Alicia!
Wait. She'll never believe me. Just like no one else will believe me. I bet Harrington orchestrated it that way so he and I would be the only ones who'd know! That way, he wouldn't tell, and no one would believe me if I told them, so everyone would keep drinking the stuff! That guy is good. Or is it bad? Whichever one is… well… to be honest, I'm not really sure of anything anymore, except for the fact that people need to stop drinking Harrington's punch. And 'cider.' And 'root beer.'
Jaden! He'd believe me. Now where was he? Oh yeah, in the corner with Alexis, toasting to Chazz's newfound status as a duct-tape mummy in the coffin with… Harrington's punch. Oh great! They're probably already drunk too! Well then, at least I can get them out of here before they get even drunker.
"Jaden, Alexis, it's time to go."
"But the dance isn't over yet!" a half-drunk Alexis slurred, gulping down the last of her punch.
"It is for you alright," I replied. "Jaden, you'll back me up on this, right?"
"Sorry Cy, but I'm having a good time. Would you mind getting me another boot reer?"
"I think you mean root beer, Jaden, and it's not even root beer – it's actual beer. And there's vodka in that punch Alexis's been pounding like the nectar of the gods." Although it was very funny that Jaden couldn't even say root beer properly, there were more important things at stake here than whether something was funny.
With some difficulty, I managed to drag them out the door (even though Alexis nearly tripped about a thousand times and Jaden was slurring weird things the entire way) and to Alexis's dorm, which was the closest. "You two go up to Alexis's room and sober up. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
From what I could see, they got up the stairs and into her room fine, although I have no idea what they did afterwards. I was too busy trying to warn people not to drink Harrington's toxic punch.
While I was gone, a few things had happened.
1) Mindy had drunk almost half the punch, gotten really hot (yeah… that's it… she got hot… that's what I keep telling myself), and taken her (strapless) dress off. And, as proved by the zillions of boys drooling at the mere sight of her, she'd been her usual ditzy self and forgotten to wear a bra, so she was half-naked (thank God the teachers had all disappeared by now).
2) Jasmine had also drunk more punch, and was currently in the process of embarrassing Bastion out of his skin (okay, so she was only kissing him, but she too had gotten really hot – that's what I'll keep telling myself, that she got hot… – from drinking the punch and was ever-constantly slipping off her top – yes, hers was a two-piece, thank God – for the ever-present horny boys watching).
Alicia, who was about the only girl not completely drunk and slipping off her clothes, was making her way over to me, a glass of punch in hand. "Hey Cyrus!" she chirped, gulping down the last dregs of punch in the glass. "Are you having a good time?"
"Well… uh… not really," I admitted.
"Well that's no fun!" she chirped again. "Let's see what I can do to make your night better."
Then, for no apparent reason (or at least none that I could see) she leaned in and kissed me.
The second she pulled back, her lipstick all smeared (and probably all over my face) and her hair tousled and messy, but still beautiful, I fainted.
When I woke up the next morning, the party was long over. A few passed-out, half-naked couples were sprawled across the gym floor, along with a half-naked Mindy and a topless Jasmine lying on top of a shirtless Bastion (WTF? That must have happened after I passed out).
Footsteps leading towards the gym scared the crap out of me, so I doused some water from a stray water bottle on the sleeping couples, then ran like the wind and didn't slow down until I made it back to my dorm room.
It was only then that I thought to check up on Jaden. After establishing that he hadn't come back to the room last night (a thought that scared the crap out of me), I ran like the wind again to Alexis's dorm room.
Figuring a few scrapes and bruises from climbing the tree outside Alexis's window were better than screams of "You pervert!" from all the girls who weren't passed out on the gym floor, I slowly climbed the tree and scaled Alexis's window. It came open without too much of a struggle (a thought that scared me – had Jaden snuck over using this entrance before?), and when it did; I nearly fell out of the tree in shock from what I saw.