Stuck with the Likes of You
By Liz
My creative genius has decided to write this beautiful piece of art. Lawl.
"And when you take the derivative of this equation, you get what we started with before we took the integral…"
Blah blah blah. Joey thought. Why I ended up in Calculus is a mystery to me. He was currently sitting in his "more-boring-than-watching-paint-dry" class, Calculus. In fact, he knew it was more boring than watching paint dry as he was currently enraptured by the nearby wall next to him.
A wall that had just recently been painted.
He stretched his lengthy arms, letting out a loud yawn. Leaning forward, he closed his eyes and tried to picture himself anywhere but there. But it wasn't working. The teacher's voice was just so painful he couldn't ignore it. All this talk of "derivative this" and "logarithm that" and "be grateful for this class because when I was your age they didn't teach us Calculus until college!" was driving him insane.
He vowed to at least pass this class, but he wasn't sure he was going to live up to that anymore.
He laid his head down on the desk trying to catch a few extra z's before Gym. Today he would be playing soccer, or more accurately, fútbol, as his teacher was from Spain and would not stand for this "American screw up". That teacher complained about everything American, but for some reason would not answer why he was in the country to begin with. Most likely for the money. He thought.
A few seconds later, Joey felt the need to use the restroom. He spent a few minutes debating whether or not to actually get up from his seat, he was quite comfortable, and make the journey to the nearest restroom. Soon he realized this need was slightly more important than sleep, so he excused himself from the room and headed to the restroom.
Ahh, that's better. He thought as he finished washing his hands. If only I didn't have to go back to class. He left the restroom slightly sulking at the thought of returning to said class. He walked slower, he wanted to stall just long enough to still be out when the bell rang. It was a tactic he used often with that class, and he was surprised that the teacher still hadn't picked up on it.
The hallways were quiet, only about one or two people besides Joey were wandering around. The sound of his footsteps bounced off the walls, and the bright fluorescent lights beamed down upon him. He wouldn't mind spending class out here. It was slightly peaceful, even if it was inside the school.
One student dressed in black walked across the hall in front of Joey. His head was hanging low, and he was holding something close to his body. Joey tilted his head, wondering just who the student was, and what was making him so upset. He ran over to him, slowing down to his pace as he came up beside him.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Joey asked.
The kid just kept looking down. He didn't do anything to even acknowledge Joey's presence.
Joey sighed. "Well, I hope you're day goes better." He watched as the kid sped up, almost ran, away from him. Weirdo. He turned and walked away.
He was about halfway to his classroom when the bell rang, sending the hallways into mass chaos. The crowd was noisy, rowdy, and congregated into a mass that began pushing Joey the other direction.
"Hey!" He yelled. "Watch where you're going!"
He was ignored, as he figured, so he began pushing himself through the mass of people, knocking back some of the smaller students. He made it to his classroom slightly out of breath and picked up his stuff.
Outside of the classroom the students began reducing in number as they found their respective rooms. Now there was room for Joey to walk freely, and quickly. He looked at a clock on the wall, eyes widening as he read the time. Ah! I'm going to be late!
He started to run, ignoring the message blaring on the loud speaker through the school. The gym was on the other side of campus, but he still made it on time. He got to the door and tried to open it, but found that it was locked.
"What the—" He said as he tried again. The door would not budge. "Lemme in!" He started banging on the door.
The bell rang signaling that he was late, and that the teacher wouldn't let him in anyway. He turned around and started to head to the library. He figured he could surf the internet while he waited for the school day to end—Gym was his last class of the day—and when he could go home.
When he got to the library, he noticed that those doors were locked as well. Weird. He thought. Maybe the librarians aren't here today.
The loudspeaker came on once more, and Joey stopped what he was doing and listened, hoping to find some answers.
"Attention students. We are in lock down mode."
"Lock down!?" Joey yelled. "What!?"
"I repeat, we are in lock down mode. This is not a drill."
"Not a drill!?" He realized he was yelling at a loudspeaker. And all the doors are locked! What the hell am I supposed to do!?
His panic receptors kicked in and he started running through the halls. Why would there be a lock down? Is there a guy stalking around campus? Did a convicted felon get in to the school grounds!? His mind began to come up with different scenarios. Different, bad, scenarios. All of which ended with him lying dead on the ground.
He stopped running. Oh no oh no oh no! Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands on his arm, and he was lifted up out of the spot where he was standing.
"Don't kill me!" Joey yelled, closing his eyes and waving his hands around. "I'll do anything! Just don't kill me!"
"Joey," A stern voice said. "I'm not going to kill you."
He opened his eyes, looking around to see that he was in a dark classroom. Maybe he wouldn't die after all! He looked at his savior, and his voice froze in his throat.
"K—k—" He managed to choke out. "Kaiba?"
"Yes," Seto said.
"You saved me?" Joey's voice now seemed to be working.
"Why were you roaming the halls during a lock down?" Seto said with a deep voice.
Joey's laughed. "Well, you see, I was just going to class. I tried the door and it was locked. That's when I heard the call for the lock down."
"Idiot," Seto responded. "Didn't you hear the first call for the lock down?"
Joey though. "There was more than one?"
"You know mutt, you're going to get yourself killed." Seto said. "And I won't be around to save your ass."
"What makes you think that I needed your saving?" Joey was becoming agitated. Of all people to be stuck with during a lock down, it had to be Kaiba! "And what are you doing in a classroom all by yourself, huh?"
"I was going to my next class, and this was the nearest unlocked classroom." Seto said, ignoring Joey's first statement. He walked over to a desk in the back room and pulled out his laptop.
Joey sat down in his place, leaning his back against the door. "It's so dark in here," He tried changing the subject.
"Well don't turn the lights on," Seto said. "and get away from the door. Don't you know anything about lock down rules?"
"Oh, so now you're all about following the rules!" Joey said. "I thought that the rules of the school were too childish for you?"
Seto glanced away from his laptop. "Look, Joey, I don't know about you, but if there's someone out there with a weapon, I wouldn't want to be near the door. Nor would I want him to know I was in here."
Joey's eyes widened. Kaiba was right. He stood up and sat in the desk next to Kaiba. "What are you doing?"
Seto looked at him from the corner of his eye. "Mutt, I brought you in here during lock down because even though I hate you, I didn't want you to die. Who else would I torment? But this doesn't mean that we can get all chummy, okay?"
Joey nodded. "Who would want to be friends with you?" He turned his back to the CEO, crossing his arms.
The two sat ignoring each other, the only sound in the room was the noise of fingers tapping the keys on the laptop. Joey glanced around, trying to figure out just which class he had gotten himself stuck in, making out a math poster in the corner from what little sunlight they had from a very tiny bar of a window. Great, just what I want. To be stuck in another Calculus class.
An hour had passed. Joey had resulted to sitting on the desk and swinging his feet back and forth. Seto was still working on his computer, but his face now adorned a pair of reading glasses. Joey mentally snickered at Seto, thinking about just how funny it was that he had to wear glasses.
Bored again, Joey stood up and walked over to the wall with the window. The window, however, was just a small horizontal panel pushed up to the ceiling. He grabbed a desk, pushing it up against the wall before standing on it. His head came just under the panel, so he raised his feet, getting his eyes to see outside.
Joey gasped. "Kaiba!"
Seto didn't even look at him. "What?"
"There are police cars outside!"
The typing stopped. "What!?" He walked over to where Joey was, stepping up to share the desk space with him. Seto didn't need to stand on the tips of his toes, his height was just sufficient enough not to. "Well, what do you know."
"Kaiba! This means that someone really dangerous is on campus!" Joey said, backing his head up when he realized that Seto was standing so close to him.
Seto rolled his eyes. "Why do you think we're in lock down? Idiot."
Joey glared at him. "I know that, but it's usually just some suspicious looking guy, and it gets solved by now!" He turned back to the scene outside, noticing that there were now many more police cars, and a few ambulances. "This is serious!"
They watched as a S.W.A.T car arrived unloading a dozen officers. Seto had it. He stepped off the desk, bumping Joey a bit as he did so, and stormed to his laptop.
"What?" Joey asked.
"I'm going to find out what's going on." He said, putting on his glasses once more. The sound of typing started up again, and Joey stepped off the desk, walking over to stand behind Seto.
"Look at this," Seto said, pointing at his screen. "There seems to be a student holding people hostage in the library."
Joey froze. An image of him stopping by the library ran through his head. "I could have been in there," He said quietly. "That's where I was. If that door hadn't been locked…"
Seto looked back at Joey. "What are you talking about?" He sighed. "Nevermind. Look, it says that there's only one guy. All they have to do is some negotiating and we'll be out of here."
Joey went back over to the desk he had once occupied. The fact that the guy was in the library really sent chills down his spine. That door…if only it hadn't been locked…
He sighed, putting his forehead on the surface of the desk. "I hope everyone's okay." He said.
Seto stopped typing. He hadn't really put two and two together on this one. "I'm sure everyone's okay." He said.But Seto knew better than that. Most likely not, however.
"I wonder who's stuck in there," Joey thought out loud. "I really hope it's not an entire class or anything. Actually, I hope the entire report was wrong. Maybe it's all just a misunderstanding."
"The S.W.A.T team doesn't show up for misunderstandings, Wheeler." Seto said, resuming his typing. "They wouldn't even have been called out unless it was something serious. The kid probably has a gun or something."
"Geez, you hear about this in other places but you never think it would happen at your own school." Joey ran a hand through his blonde heap of hair. "It's crazy; unreal, even."
Suddenly, loud repetitive gunshot noises went piercing through the air. The bullets ricocheted off the metal lockers outside the room, and the shells bounced on the linoleum floor. The two boys jumped out of their seats and huddled together on the floor.
"Oh no oh no!" Joey started yelling.
Seto covered his mouth with his hand. "Would you be quiet!" He whispered. "Don't let them know we're in here!"
Joey nodded, and Seto let go of his mouth. "That sounded like an automatic weapon. Where the hell did they get those?"
"Sh!" Seto said. "Keep it down."
Another nod. For a few minutes the room was quiet, and the activity outside seemed to slow down. The anticipation of horrible events to come was eating Joey up inside. He knew nothing good was going to come of this. Nothing good at all. He could picture the guy bursting inside the room, and the bullets ripping through his body. Almost out of instinct, he scooted closer to Seto, glad to know that someone else was there with him.
Seto noticed the blonde moving closer to him, but he didn't say anything. In fact, he was more at ease not being alone, but he would never voice that out loud. Oh no. He was the great Seto Kaiba. The tough, aggressive, independent, business man.
But still, the minutes passed easier with the presence of another.
To be continued…(insert dramatic music).