Hello to all you readers, and welcome to my first ever fanfic. I'm LoneWolf and this is Djanil, my fellow wolf-partner.
Djanil: Hey.
LoneWolf: He keeps to himself most of the time, but he helps me with my work. Sometimes.
Djanil: Whatever.
LoneWolf: Anyway, this fic is about how the YuGiOh gang survives summer school Driver's Ed. This fic will not have insane yamis and whatnot; this will actually be somewhat serious at times. But then again, Driver's Ed class is meant to be humorous. ^^ Actually, I'm taking Driver's Ed myself at this time, so as I go through Driver's Ed, so will the YGO gang. ^^
Another thing: I know that YuGiOh is in Japan, but since I have no clue how their driving licensing system works, this will follow Illinois' Driver's Ed program. Besides, the anime currently airing in the US makes it seem like YGO is already in America, so . . Also, I'm assuming that the YGO gang is at least 16 and that the area around the fake-Domino-in-Illinois has suburbs, heavy traffic, hills, and all that stuff.
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh or the Driver's Ed curriculum.
A few notes:
Yugi Motou is "Yugi" while Yami Yugi is referred to as "Yami."
/…/ is Yugi talking to Yami via mind-link
//…// is Yami talking to Yugi via mind-link
italics are thoughts / dreams
Now, on to the fic!
The YGO Gang Takes Driver's Ed
Chapter 1: The Permit Test
Ahh, the joys of summer. Sun, clear skies, beaches, hanging out, and best of all, no school!
No regular school, that is.
It was the day after the last day of school. Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were all hanging around in the back of the game shop, talking about the upcoming summer school class they had enrolled in. Yami was in his usual semi-transparent form listening to their conversation. After all, back in his day, Egyptians didn't have Driver's Ed.
"Man, I hate school. Why do I have to take summer school?" Joey whined.
Yugi answered the question for the fiftieth time. "Joey, we couldn't fit it into our schedules in the regular school year so we had to take it later."
Tea snickered. "Yeah, because you guys all wanted to take foods." The guys had all been certain that the whole class was simply about eating foods - not cooking, serving, and learning about the culture of foods.
"But Yami needs to learn about modern food! Egyptian food 5000 years ago looked a lot different from today's! He might get confused! " Yugi responded.
//Yugi, I could always ask you. It's not like you're going to be separated from me when I eat.//
/But you need to learn what's good food! Some food is gross…/
//Like broccoli?//
/Yeah, that stuff is bad…/
//Yugi, vegetables are good for you.//
/Maybe for pharaohs they are, but not teenage boys./
Yami chuckled, and replied, //Well, if you won't eat them, I will.//
/Fine with me. Wait a sec…we share the same body…that means I'd be eating them too…HEY!/
//Remember, you said it was fine with you.//
Yugi grumbled, but there was no getting further on the vegetable issue. Yami, after being the King of Games, was also the King of Debate. Yugi focused back on the conversation.
"Anyway, you wanted to take dance class too, Tea." Joey pointed out.
"At least I knew what I was getting into. And I bet you don't have your permit yet either." Tea replied.
Joey yawned. "Whatever. I'll get it in Driver's Ed."
"No, you need it before class. They told us that after we enrolled for Driver's Ed. See?" Tea pulled out a sheet of paper and pointed to a big, bold line on the bottom that read,
"All students SHOULD have permits for the first day of class on Wednesday, June 18, 2003 and must report to class with the permit and their Rules of the Road book."
Joey grabbed the paper (and almost ripped it, by the way). "What?!? Hey Tristan, did you know about this?" Joey jabbed at the line.
"Uh, yeah man. I got mine already." Tristan sheepishly admitted. He is, after all, an honor student. "About a month ago. My dad made me do it."
Tea waved her permit around. "I have mine!"
"I don't. I've been studying, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready for the test." Yugi hung his head.
"You'll do fine." Tea assured Yugi.
Tristan popped in. "Yeah, it was really easy."
"So says the honor roll student." Joey replied. With that, Tristan and Joey began to bicker back and forth.
("At least I read the papers they gave us!" "So what? I read them too!" "Oh, you can read?" "Whaddya mean, I can read? I read stuff all the time!" "Define stuff." Etc., etc.)
Tea got them back on track. "Well, you guys had better hurry up and study now. Driver's Ed begins in three days."
This, of course, caused pandemonium in Grandpa's Game Shop. Joey was freaking out, since he hadn't even cracked open the Rules of the Road booklet. Tristan was taunting Joey's reading abilities, Yugi was expressing his doubts of ever passing anything, Yami was trying to tell Yugi that that wasn't true; he just needed to have more courage, and Tea was trying to get everyone to calm down. In the midst of the chaos, Grandpa yanked the door open.
"Could you keep it down? You're distracting the customers."
And so the argument ended and the gang dispersed. A normal day for the YGO gang.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Two days later, Joey and Yugi found themselves in the Secretary of States Testing Facility to get their permits. Grandpa was there as well, but Joey's father was absent - Joey had to carpool with Yugi. (Since Joey's father is a little too fond of alcohol, he was in no condition to do anything.)
Joey and Yugi nervously went up to the center desk, where there was a woman waiting with a fake smile. "May I please see your birth certificate, your school ID, your social security card and your form?
They forked over their stuff (Joey's being a bit more mangled than Yugi's) and after a few minutes the woman handed two pieces of paper to the young teenage boys. On the little card was a number: Joey's number was 231; Yugi's number was 232.
The woman explained the little scrap. "Here's your number. When the person at the other desk to your left calls out your number, your number will show up above their desk. Walk up to the desk to continue."
So then Joey and Yugi were left stranded in a little waiting area. They gingerly sat down in cheap blue chairs that looked strangely like the ones found in an airport.
And so they waited.
And waited.
Twiddled their thumbs…
And guess what? Yup, waited some more. For a good thirty minutes they waited. And still counting.
As we all know, patience is not a high virtue for a teenager. Joey was going nuts. There weren't even any magazines to look at hot girls or something, like he could do in a doctor's office. Yugi was attempting to study, but he wasn't exactly succeeding. He did try to get Yami to "help" him on his test, which Yami refused.
//That is cheating, Yugi.//
/Come on, it's just a driver's permit test!/
//Cheating in life is morally wrong. You would not cheat while dueling, correct?//
/Yeah, but I really need the help!/
//You can do it, Yugi. You have the courage within you - you just need to use it.//
Yugi sighed, and resumed staring at the Rules of the Road booklet.
Finally, number 232 was called. Yugi went up, along with Grandpa, and they faced an old man with more wrinkles than the Grand Canyon had ridges.
"Can I have your birth certificate, your school ID, your social security card and your form?" he barked out.
Yugi jumped, but handed over the materials. The senior then began to slowly type in things into the computer. Bit…by…bit. And then, the old guy slooowwwllly turned his twisty chair around and pulled out another form from what was probably the oldest printer still working in the United States. (You can always count on the state to use the oldest stuff when the central government uses the newest.) The paper was an exact copy of the form that Yugi had filled out before.
Meanwhile, Joey's number had also been called. He too, found himself face to face with another senior, this time a lady. One that probably never smiled once she had found this job. When Joey gave his stuff for the woman to look at, she sniffed, and then began to type in the information, occasionally peering closely at the form because of the bad handwriting.
Joey winced. Yeah, he needed to work on his writing, but his father's signature was practically illegible. He wasn't exactly very sober when he signed the form, and it showed. Getting behind the wheel practice time was going to be very interesting…
After receiving a second copy of a form they had previously filled out (for what reason, they had no clue, except for probably legibility), they had to pay $20 (money-grubbing gov. …j/k, ^^;;;) and then had to wait in yet another line for the visual screen test. Joey, by the way, was getting very antsy.
The visual screening test was not worth commenting on. All one did was stick your head in this little box and read a bunch of letters. Whoopee. Then you had to use your peripheral vision to see some blinking lights. Joey's trademark grin was fast disappearing to a face a disbelief - how could something so momentous as getting a permit be so BORING?!?
After the visual test, the man who administered the visual test handed over an oversized test sheet, and actually crossed off about half of the test.
"You do only one through fifteen." He pointed to a red bucket filled with red pens. "Take a pen and sit over there."
Yugi gingerly took a pen and stared at it. Didn't teachers HATE it when you used funky colored pens on a test? Especially red?
//Yugi, maybe you had better start on the test now.//
/Oh. Right./
Yugi headed towards the testing area, which was simply an open room with some really small desks. As for the test itself, it was also not exceptionally exciting. There were a few questions that were a bit tricky, but since it was multiple-choice (or multiple-guess, for those that didn't study *cough* Joey *cough*), it was fairly simple to guess the right answer. There was one question, however, that stumped Joey.
13. When passing, it is legal to pass on the shoulder of the road.
a. true
b. false
Joey thought about this for a long while. Okay, it doesn't make much sense to go on the shoulder, so it's probably false. Wait a sec, Dad does that all the time. So it could be true. But on the other hand, Dad's usually drunk, so Dad could have been doing the wrong thing. Joey bit his thumb. On the other hand, Dad still has his license, and no cop has taken it away or anything yet, so Dad probably should know better. On the other hand…aww forget it, I'm just going to mark true.
* * * * *
As for Yugi, the question that stumped him was on the signs section. Yugi had to figure out what each sign meant. Normally, that would be easy, because most signs have words on them telling you what to do. But nooooo, the test had to remove all of the helpful words, and Yugi had to remember the meanings via color and rote memorization. The sign that baffled Yugi looked, quite frankly, like a Dorito throwing up large chunks.
Yugi stared at the foreign sign. Nope, he was pretty sure he had never seen it in Rules of the Road. So it probably had a weird meaning… He looked at the remaining choices.
F. Road Narrows - Nope, doesn't look right.
N. Tourist Attraction - a tourist attraction for upchucking Doritos? Nuh-uh.
O. Steep hill - Doritos and hills? Not even close.
R. Falling Rocks - unless the Dorito was throwing up rocks, this didn't make much sense.
Yugi sighed. He had eliminated all of the choices, but one of them had to be right. If only Yami would help…
/Yami?/
No response.
/Yami?/
Silence. Yami had retreated to his soul room and evidently would not give Yugi pointers. Yugi reviewed the choices again.
Roads - doesn't look like a road anywhere.
Tourists - doesn't look amusing.
Hills - possibility, if Doritos were triangular hills…
Rocks - falling chunks, falling rocks…hmm…that might work…
* * * * *
The tests turned in, Yugi and Joey waited anxiously in line for a grade. Another old man was grading the papers. The first one that the old guy came to was Joey's.
The grading? X O X O X O O O X O O O X X O … The pattern went on. Joey barely squeaked by with a passing grade. (The question that he spent so much time on? Wrong! He he…)
Yugi's grading - O O O O O O O O O O … O.o… - Yugi, being the over-obsessed perfectionist (for Driver's Ed, anyway) got a perfect score. The old man beamed up … I mean, down… at Yugi.
//See, Yugi, I knew you could do it.//
/Yeah, I guess I did overdo-it./
The old guy was drawing something weird on Yugi's paper. He drew a circle at the top…then two small ones inside…and then a big curve…and a triangle…The old guy was drawing a smiley face. An OLDIES smiley face. Then the old guy, who had a big cheesy grin on his face, asked Yugi, "Do you want curly hair or straight hair?"
Was the guy mad? Maybe this was the only job left for the poor, Aliziemier's afflicted soul…
"Uh, straight." Yugi replied.
Promptly some straight hairs stuck up from the head.
"I'll stick on one curl, okay?" Another cheesy smile. And one big, fat curly hair sprung up on the center of the head.
Yugi stared at the happy, smiling face. "Uh, okay…"
"Now, you can just go over there to get your permit." The poor old guy pointed a shaking hand to the other end of the testing facility.
"Okay…"
Joey and Yugi quickly left the old guy so he could grade other papers. (And perhaps draw other faces as well.)
"Man, Yugi, was that guy nuts or what?"
"Huh? Oh, I guess he just likes to draw."
"Draw faces on test papers? That's for kindergartners!" Joey paused. "But ya know, that face did look like you a lot. Had the bangs and everything…"
"HEY!" Yugi jumped, and then quieted down. "That face isn't even close!"
"Well, your bangs do stick up when you duel…"
"That's because I'm bonded with Yami!"
And so more bickering, within a space of about twenty feet. They were still arguing when the lady at the desk called their names and handed a little piece of paper to them. In fact, they were STILL arguing until Grandpa came up to them and asked, "So, how'd it go?"
Both guys stopped arguing and looked at the paper that they had been holding for the past couple of minutes.
INSTRUCTION PERMIT
NOT VALID FOR IDENTIFICATION
("Hey! All that work for nothin'?" "That's meant for instruction permits, not driver license identification." "Oh. Thanks, Gramps.")
They stared at it. An instruction permit, the beginning of a free life…all on this measly white card?!?
Yup, that's it. Phase one is over. And phase two, driver's ed, is just beginning…
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LoneWolf: Yea! Someone read my fic all the way to the end!
Djanil: Reading it, mind you and not necessarily also enjoying it as well.
LoneWolf: Someone still thinks it is interesting enough to read it! ^^
Djanil: For all those readers out there, LoneWolf would really appreciate it if you review her fic.
LoneWolf: Yeah, reviews are realllly nice. Anyway, this ficcie, at least to me, wasn't particularly funny or serious or interesting…So if you don't like how this is turning out, review and tell me. I hope future chapters will be better, but if you don't think it'll be better, I'll discontinue this and simply call this "Getting an Instruction Permit." Then try reading my other fic, which I think is much better…But if you DO like how this is going, review and I'll write more!
Djanil: *turns to LoneWolf* And if they don't?
LoneWolf: *glares at Djanil* So pessimistic…anyway, PLEASE review!!!