Disclaimer: I will say this once and once only . . . and only because I have to . . . I . . .Dont . . .Own . . .Yu-Gi-Oh . . . *tear* are you happy now??

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"Ren, I still cant believe you're in my grade." Joey said, folding his arms behind his head as he walked. Serenity had been living with her father on the opposite side of town, while Joey had been living by himself. She had only recently moved because her father got a job nearby, but now she could go to school with Joey and his friends.

"Well technically I'm still a grade below you, I just take similar classes." Serenity said, trying to make her big brother feel better.

"Aren't most of your classes a grade higher than Joey's?" Tea laughed, watching Joey's face scrunch up.

"Hey!"

"Yea, but thats not Serenity's fault, it's Joey's" Tristan chimed in.

"Hey-hey-hey! That's enough!" Joey said, locking Tristan's head under his arm.

The trek to school went similarly, full of laughs, and friendly empty threats. The school itself was a bit bigger than Serenity thought it would be. Large glass windows lined most of the walls, so the classrooms got plenty of light. It seemed as if the school was trying to take on one of those big "modernized" business building looks. All in all, it was a bit intimidating. Serenity's old school was a lot smaller, and not as . . .clean and. . . well, BIG.

As more and more people poured in, Serenity realized that the school population probably nearly tripled that of her old high school. She almost missed it. Change is always a scary thing, but she was determined to do well, and this time, she was going to make friends and be a bit more wild. Or at least as wild as Serenity could be.

As they were crossing the final street separating them from their destination, a jet black limo cut them off, making Joey and Tea (who were in the front) leap back to the sidewalk, bumping all the others.


"Who the hell gave you a license?" Seto Kaiba snapped at his limo driver as he stopped quite abruptly. The driver muttered a quick apology and unlocked the doors so Kaiba could get out before firing him. Sure, Kaiba had noticed who was almost hit, and as much as he played little scenarios of that exact thing happening in his mind, the last thing he would want to do is really hurt someone.


"Hey watch it! Ya coulda killed us or somethin!" Joey screamed, adding in cuss words that Serenity didn't feel like hearing at seven in the morning. The limo had pulled over immediately, as if responding to the screams, and let out it's passenger.

"Like you would be a real loss to society." Kaiba stated monotonously. He didn't even turn to look at Joey, who was being held back from assaulting the rich, young, CEO by Tristan. He just started towards the school's main entrance and played like the little escapade never happened, or he just didn't care, which was more likely.

Joey on the other hand, wasn't ready to just give up and let him walk away so "smugly". "Say That to my face, you rat bastard!" Kaiba didn't stop or turn around. What he did do was raise one arm and wave that hand dismissively.

Tristan let go of Joey after Kaiba disappeared into the building. "That ass hole . . . Thinks he rules the world. I swear, he needs to be put in his place!" Joey barked.

"And who's going to do that? You? Now?" Tea said, putting her hand on Joey's shoulder.

"Yeah . . . Not now . . . but yeah." Joey said, straightening his jacket over his tee-shirt. He was learning to calm down more and more easily, now that his "baby" sis was with him a lot more. He was always more careful around Serenity. His language cleaned up, and he didn't shout half as much . . .well . . . as long as a certain CEO stayed away.

Serenity just giggled and patted her brother on the back, leading the reformed group across the street to their first day in their new grade.


"Welcome to Calculus AP, my name is Mr. Hunt. Now this is an AP class, which means I don't really care who you are, and what your life stories are. This is going to be the hardest class you will ever be in, no matter what your AP Chemistry teacher tells you. I guarantee that 90% of you will fail. I do not take excuses, I do not give "make-up" tests, and I do not accept late assignments. If you miss a test, you must bring in a note giving a valid reason for your absence signed by a doctor, lawyer, or whomever is in charge of the situation that is not simply your guardian. You will have one day to take the test, either before school, during lunch, or after school. If you miss a test during any condition, and do not attempt to take it, you will get an automatic zero. Now, if you don't mind, I'll start going over what your previous "teachers" saw fit to tell you . . ."

Mr. Hunt went on in quiz-fashioned question asking, testing the kinds on what they knew and scoffing when they couldn't answer. Serenity tapped her pencil on the desk nervously, waiting for her turn. This was the first AP class she had ever been in . . . 'Are they all going to be this hard?' she found she was asking herself.

"Miss Wheeler?" Mr. Hunt called out. Serenity barely found her voice in time.

"H-here . . ." She piped as he looked around to find her.

"Would you please Find Cos on the diagram on the board?" Serenity nodded and rushed down to the board where two other students were working on different problems. Serenity sighed seconds later, and headed back to her desk.

"Giving up are we Miss Wheeler?" Mr. Hunt said, watching her seat herself.

"If you would stop being a pompous ass and turn around, you might notice that she's finished the problem." All heads turned to the door, but everyone could already tell who it was from the sound of his voice. Seto Kaiba.

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba. Late on the very first day? Not starting out with a very good track record are we?" Mr. Hunt said, jotting something down in his rank book.

"Can it, I've got millions of more important things to do than to have to listen to you make yourself fell better by making cracks on your students and about how inferior you think the science wing is." Kaiba barked, leveling the man in his tracks. The teacher busied himself in trying to find a flaw with Serenity's work.

"Thanks." Serenity said, while the teacher continued on the blackboard. Kaiba nodded in return and focused on the teacher, in case he decided to turn around and make the mistake of looking at him again.


Lunchtime was Serenity's sweet escape from the first day jitters. She wasn't used to lunchtime being the same block for everyone. In her old school, there were three lunch-blocks and as confusing as it was, it helped the severely understaffed school keep watch over the students. Serenity quickly found Joey and the rest of them, but other than the expected, "How's your first day?" questions, she sat quietly and let their normal antics happen around her.

Her second class, Business Management, was no where near as bad as her AP Calculus class, but it wasn't the best experience either. After lunch there was Piano and Guitar, which she was excited about because Joey was in it, and then AP Art. Serenity was a little worried how the art class would end up, but she knew in the end that not even "evil" teachers could ruin art for her.

"Hey, Ren." Joey tapped on her shoulder waking her from her thoughts. Serenity snapped awake suddenly, and after a little laughter from around the table, Joey informed her that lunch was almost over. She picked up her leftovers and the trash, most of it Joey's, and proceeded towards the garbage can. Students flooded the exits to the lunchroom, so Serenity waited patiently until she could squeeze out.


"Welcome back Joey. Make sure this time, that this is not the only class you pass this year, ok?" The teacher said, as Joey plopped onto a chair and swung a guitar around his neck, and proceeded to tune it. "The piano and guitars are going to be severely out of tune, so if we have any time after trying to tune them all back up, we'll go over what you know, and what you need to know. By the way, my name is Mark Jennings. You can just call me Mark. Now, over the summer the roof unfortunately leaked onto one of the pianos, which is now no longer with us. " Mark removed his hat in a "moment of silence" type of showing, and smiled with the class at the small joke. "Now, I see we have one pianist who has returned, good evening Mr. Kaiba. Are there any other pianists?" Joey rolled his eyes at Kaiba, who was already seated behind the full black piano. Serenity raised her hand, along with one other girl.

"Well, for the time being, I only have the one full piano, and an electric keyboard. Someone is going to have to share. I know Mr. Kaiba doesn't like the keyboard, and it is small, so someone is going to have to share with him." Both Serenity and the girl faltered, looking at each other. "Just until we get a replacement piano for the one that was damaged." the teacher added.

"I'll share with him." The girl said, smirking when Serenity didn't offer. "You wont have to tune the keyboard this way." She said.

"Thank you." Serenity replied, seating herself behind the keyboard. Kaiba moved his seat over to accommodate room for another chair, seeing as he refused to share the piano bench, much to the girl's dislike.

After a brief attendance call, the room filled with twangs and plunks of instruments being prepared. Serenity sat behind the keyboard not knowing how to start. She averted her attention to the other pianists for direction, due to Mark being busy teaching guitarists how to tune. Kaiba had the top of the piano lifted as to make adjustments to the strings taught-ness, while the girl pressed a key or two under his supervision. Finally she gave up on just waiting and turned on the keyboard.

After fiddling with the volume, as not to make it too loud, she was ready to begin. Serenity wasn't a "too loud" type of girl. Joey, on the other hand had just finished with his guitar and was dancing about, strumming Spanish-type music and making a spectacle of himself. Some of the class laughed and chimed in with chords after finishing their guitars, and others just got frustrated when their guitars didn't want to cooperate.

Serenity giggled a bit then focused on the keyboard in front of her. After a few rounds of Hannon to stretch her hands and practice fingerings, she began trying songs she hadn't played for years. By the third or fourth song she was too engrossed in her music attempts to realize someone approaching her.

"So you know how to play huh?" It was the other girl pianist. Her hair was a honey blond with bright highlights and done up in an expensive French curl. She wore light jewelery, and pristine clothing, sporting only the newest lines. She had light eyeshadow and a pinkish glitter lip gloss. Her whole being screamed "I'm my rich Daddy's girl!" Serenity was a bit startled by the voice from nowhere, but she dismissively giggled at herself and answered with a mumbled "Sort of . . ."

"Do you want the keyboard tomorrow, so you don't have to share?" Serenity offered. It was the least she could offer, seeing as they didn't know when or if they were getting another piano. "We could switch off or something."

"Ha. Seriously, I'm doing Kaiba a favor by sharing with him, instead of letting you. You'd need a lot more talent than that to play next to him. I mean," she flipped her hair back, to emphasize her point, " Would you really want to throw him off with your mistake riddled, off beat noises you call music?" Serenity looked at her in shock. "I didn't think so. He needs a real artist next to him."

"Then why are ya all the way ova here then? Shouldn't ya be with your boyfriend?" Joey said behind her, getting defensive over his sister, as usual. Heads turned, but Kaiba seemed not to notice.

"I . . .I'm giving him some space. I don't know how to tune a piano, so I was little help to him." She stuttered at first, but once she found her story she added confidence to her voice.

"Actually she was annoying me and I asked her to leave." Kaiba said from the back of the room, not once averting his eyes from the piano in front of him. Giggles broke out from students listening in, but the students hushed up upon receiving a glare from the embarrassed girl, mostly out of compassion than fear. For once, Joey was grateful for something Kaiba said.

Serenity couldn't bring herself to laugh. She knew it was a long time since she had last played, and even longer since her last lesson, but was she really that bad? Seeing the look on his sister's face after laughing himself, Joey leaned in next to her.

"Ren, don't listen to her. She's just trying to make up some lame excuse ta sit nexta moneybags." Joey patted her on the back. "Hey, why don't you try that song you wrote? Remember? The one you used to play for me and mom?" Serenity smiled at the thought of her mother. She laid her fingers on the piano and closed her eyes. It was like the music came from her soul. Joey joined in with chords with the guitar after letting her play a bit. Soon enough plunking and twanging quieted.

"Laughing with you . . . Laughing with me . . .About all of the things that we used to be . . .You told me I could be anything . . .You told me I could do anything . . .And here I am." Serenity began to sing. Some of the guitarists followed Joey and played along.

"Missing you . . . Missing me . . . Missing all of the things that we could have been . . . Now I'm doing everything . . .now I am everything . . .and I hope your proud." Joey sang along. They continued and finished the song with the guitarists that joined along, and it sounded perfect. Most of the class clapped a bit (except for the girl pianist, who just scoffed) and laughed with the success of their harmony.

"Well well well, the very first day and we've preformed a concert. I think this year is going to go pretty well." Mark said, clapping along.


Serenity wandered the hallways looking for her art class. The school was so big. She found herself wishing that she had a map of some sort.

"Serenity?" She turned around and found her face to air with someone. Upon lowering her gaze, she found Yugi. "Hey, what are you doing down this section of hallway?" He asked, taking up position besides her as they walked.

"Well, I'm supposed to be going to my art class, but I can't find it." She said, looking at a copy of her schedule. Yugi peeked over the sheet and brightened.

"It's the same class as mine!" Yugi piped.

"You have an AP art class?" Serenity asked. She hadn't known that Yugi was an artist.

"Actually . . ." Yugi looked down the hallway and leaned into Serenity, cupping her ear and his mouth. "It's Yami's class. He wanted to do something this semester, so I let him take this class. He says that he was schooled not just as a pharaoh, but in the arts as well." He said quietly.

"Ah. Must be really cool to see old school Egyptian art." Serenity replied, thinking about how neat it is to get a firsthand show of ancient Egyptian art from her friend. She followed Yugi to the door of the classroom and took lookout while he allowed Yami to take over.

"Hello Serenity. So it seems we're in the same class together." He said in his newly deeper voice. She nodded happily and they went right in.


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