Story No. 5! Ok, so I just really want to say thanx to all my reviewers, you've all been really good 2 me, especially since I'm a brand new author and everything. I'm just glad you like the stories I'm coming out with. Plz keep reviewing like you are!


Chapter One

Extremely unpredictable. That was the only way she could have described the people of the Inner Walls. The men were all rich, powerful, snobbish, arrogant, lazy, cold-hearted, uncaring, irritating bastards. The women either had a snake-like beauty or were extremely ugly. They were also bitchy, conniving, conceited, manipulative gold diggers. The Outsiders hated everyone of them. And why shouldn't they?

Outsiders had been banished from the Inner Walls, or had been born out here, brought up to hate anything to do with the Insiders. The wind blew her auburn hair off her shoulders as she sat cross-legged on a warehouse roof, the sunset behind the tall buildings of the Inner Walls reflected in her dark green eyes. She did this every evening. It helped her clear her mind of all her troubles.

She sighed. School started up again in two days time. Her best friend Joey Wheeler said it was a prison, not a school. Domino High contained a mixture of kids from the Inner Walls and Outer Circle. You'd think this wasn't a very good idea, considering the upbringings of a few. But the Outsider's children were treated like animals at a zoo. The two races didn't have the same classes, and the grounds of the school were separated by a metal fence. The Outsiders were on the inside of the fence, and the Insiders ogled them like jewellry in a shop window. Dueling was all the Outsider's had left. Besides music. And the thing is, the four top-ranked duelists in the world attended her school. They were Yugi Muto (No. 1) Seto Kaiba (No. 2) Ryou Bakura (No. 3) and Marik Ishtar (No. 4).

Judging by what she'd heard, if you knew them, you were considered a somebody. If you were friends with them, you were one of the most popular kids in the school. Her gaze narrowed. She'd never be friends with such jerks. Rumour had it that Yugi Muto was quite the gentleman, but she'd never met the guy, so she couldn't be sure. She'd made a firm promise to herself that she'd never be friends with such elitist snobs. She'd never met them, but still. They were Insiders. They were bound to be like the rest of their kind. She swore that Insiders weren't human. They lacked any human decency.

She once remembered asking the woman who had raised her, and instilled in her a love of music, Mama Peters, why all the nice people ended up outside the big walls. She remembered the answer she got.

"I don't know, baby. But it's all part of God's plan for us, and for you."

Mama Peters had taught her, like she'd taught everybody in the Outer Circle, the magic of music. The Outsiders had music and dueling. Music cheered them. Dueling entertained them.

Her eyes narrowed as she wondered for the hundreth time, "What makes us any different from the Insiders? We may look different, but we all bleed red blood." Her eyes closed as she sighed again. "And more importantly, why are we out here in the first place? What did we do wrong?"

She was an orphan, she knew that much. Mama Peters had found her on the doorstep of the theatre fifteen years ago, when she was a year old, wrapped in an old sackcloth. Apart from that, all she owned was the dog tag around her neck, with her full name engraved on it. That was all she knew about herself. Her name. Addison Louisa Bailey. Addie to her friends. She lent back on her hands, staring up at the flame-coloured sky.

She should be leaving soon. If you had any sense, you didn't stay out here at night. The people weren't what you had to worry about. It was the cold, and the rumour of a monster fiercer than anything you could ever imagine lurking in the shadows. It was, in her opinion, a load of bull, but Mama worried about her if she wasn't in by nightfall, so she did what she was told for the most part.

But it was extremely tempting to stay out, and try to spot this so called monster. The rumours described it as a huge dark shadow, as tall as a skyscraper, with massive hands and sharp claws that could rip through steel like a hot knife through butter. She frowned. Then why didn't this local legend leave any trace of itself behind? There was definitely something suspicious about it. Very suspicious.

She looked up at the Inner Walls again. Outsiders were only allowed in one day of the year, and even then it was only so the Insiders could try and show off their musical talent. Mama Peters warm and always cheerful New Orleans accent filled her head.

"They think their so talented. But, as I've said many a time before, child, music isn't music if it ain't got no soul to it."

She absent-mindedly drew the top card of her deck, and a small smile spread across her face. Blue Eyes Toon Dragon. She'd found it, as a small child, on one of the stalls on the Black Bizaar. The old man running the stall had given it to her as a gift, a keepsake to remind her of the light he had said shone from her.

Nowadays, she knew everybody in the Outer Circle. She knew, that if she needed it, she could go to anybody out here if she needed help. Sure, her childhood hadn't been easy, but then nobody had it easy out here. When you were small, the first thing you learned was when the going get's tough, you have to be tougher. Blue Eyes spirit appeared beside her, and sat on her shoulder, growling contentedly under it's breath. She smiled at him, and turned back to watching the sun sink lower behind the buildings on the horizon.

"Well," Addi thought, "at least the sunset will never change."

She got to her feet, and watched as the final rays of the sun disappeared and darkness began to fall. She looked back at the Inner Walls.

"One day," she thought, "one day I'll make my dreams come true. I promise myself that much."


Something in my mind is screaming, "This story is different!" I don't know why it just is... Does that sound weird 2 you? Tell me if you get that feeling 2, so I don't feel like a loner. Anyway, review and subscribe! All flames'll be turned into marshmallows! ;-)

TTFN,

Vezza Angel