Okay, new story time. Honestly, this one just popped into my head. But, a few announcements: two stories that I, myself, think are stupid and will be getting rid of: first off, 'A Curse of a Choice'. What was I thinking?! Well, I'll just tell you how it ends: Atem realizes the mistake he made and begs for Yugi to come back to him, but Yugi remains with Alana. Second, 'The Ol' Switcheroo' If you wanna know how that one turns out, watch the movie and make it father/son in your minds like I did. I don't mean to sound harsh and rude, it's just that the more I think about those two, the more I think that they were just too stupid. But anyway, as for this one: of course, Alana will be in it (as she always is when it comes to Yugi). I wanted to go back to my semi-reality-teenage-conflict stories that I used to write. So, this story may be a little different and a little too ... "wordy" for lack of a better term, but I really do think that this will be good to replace those other two stories ... at least that's what I think right now ...

---

It was a day that started out just like any normal day. Yugi Moto awoke to his alarm clock blaring at him and he groaned as he slammed his hand on the button to make the blaring stop. Slowly, he picked himself out of his bed and stretched. To most people, he was a very good looking kid. Sure, he was short and had an adorable baby face, but he was quite toned out; perhaps not as much as he should have been, because he was so thin, but he was by no means a young child. However, he did not see it like that. He was sixteen and still had a lot of toning out to do. He thought he could never look as good as his roommate and former spirit protector, Atem. Atem had once been a Pharaoh, and then a spirit that dwelled within a mystical puzzle. However, after getting his memories back and then winning the final dual, his ancient, mummified body, was restored and the spirit was able to re-enter it. So, now Atem looked like his original twenty-two-year-old self and lived with Yugi and his grandfather, turning the guest bedroom into his own. Anyway, Yugi knew he would never look as good as Atem; because of Atem's Egyptian heritage, he had the dark features of the Egyptians and exotic blood ruby eyes. The two were almost identical in the hair department, but Atem had a few more golden streaks then Yugi did. Atem was also very lean and very tone. His muscles could be seen through the tight shirts that he wore. Atem knew that he was good looking, whenever he came to pick Yugi and his friends up from school, all the girls would flaunt over him. Plus, he also spent hours in the bathroom, gazing at himself in the mirror. Yugi wished he could look like Atem, but knew he would never be able to get rid of the extra baby fat that kept that childish aura around him.

Anyway, Yugi slowly made his way over to the bathroom in order to take a shower, but found that the door was locked. The youngest of the household banged on the door.

"Come on, 'Tem, hurry up! I gotta go to school today!"

"Just a few more minutes!" Yugi slapped his own face with his hand and groaned in frustration. He knew it would be a long time before Atem pulled himself away from the mirror so that Yugi could take a shower. It was like living with the older brother he never wanted. Atem always had the bathroom in the morning, and it drove Yugi nuts! He was always late for school because he could not wash himself and then eat breakfast fast enough, and those rare days that he could, Atem would be looking at himself in the rear-view mirror of the car, that he would not see the green lights at the stop lights. Yugi began to tap his foot with his arms folded.

"Hurry up already!" He heard and annoyed sigh and finally the door opened.

"Alright, already; it's yours. Hurry up, though because I'm leaving in twenty minutes whether you're ready or not." Yugi's jaw dropped.

"That's not fair! You always do that!" Atem shrugged.

"I'm trying to teach you to manage your time better." Yugi could feel his blood boiling in his veins. Normally, he was not easily angered, but as of late, Atem had really been pushing his luck.

"You're the reason I'm always late! If you would just stop staring at yourself in the mirror for so long, I'd be able to take a shower earlier!"

"Do not blame me because you are the one that is disorganized; I'll go make you some breakfast and then we'll go; I promised the guys that I would give them a ride to school today too." And with that, he was gone. Yugi slammed the door shut and then made himself a warm shower. It was a good thing that he used a two-in-one shampoo; that cut the time of the shower about two minutes. After the shower, he went back to his room and dressed for the day. Normally, Yugi would wear the black tank-top that he always wore, but apparently, Atem had decided to raid his closet, after he specifically told the older not to, and took that shirt. Oh well, that was nothing to get upset over. Yugi did not want to dress like Atem anyway. So, he took out a nice blue t-shirt and got his coat. Atem was home all day, and became bored very easily. Grandpa forced him to help out in the shop, but he did everything so fast, that he finished way too early. Grandpa also considered it a favor for Atem to drop Yugi off at school in the mornings so that he could get things ready for another day of game sales.

As he made his way down to the kitchen, he saw Grandpa at the table, drinking his morning coffee and reading the newspaper.

"Morning, Gramps."

"Good morning, Yugi. All set for school?" Yugi nodded as Atem placed a piece of toast in his hand

"This is it? This is the breakfast that you made for me?" Atem grabbed the keys.

"It's something simple that you can eat in the car, now let's go!" Yugi sighed and told his grandfather that he would see him later.

---

As Yugi walked towards the car and sat in the front seat, he began to think to himself about how much Atem was getting on his nerves as of late. Was this what Pharaoh Atem was like? Or was it just something he had picked up not too long ago? But it was not just Atem that was getting to him; Joey, Tristan and Tea were getting a little too needy as well. It was not that they were ignoring him, but they did prefer to do more things with Atem rather then himself. So when Atem was resurrected, Yugi began to withdraw into himself. He would wake up, go to school, and come home; that was usually his day. He sighed to himself. Things have really gone down hill since Atem's resurrection. He reached into his bag and began to read a book called Raven's Gate. (Greatest book in the world)

As like every morning, Atem began to drive Yugi to school. He wondered what was going on in his light's life. He seemed to become very quiet over the past few months.

"So, Yugi … how are you?" Yugi did not even look up from his book.

"Fine." Atem tried again. "How are you doing in school?"

"Fine."

"Mind if I turn on the radio?"

"Fine." This was getting them nowhere. There was a thick awkward silence as they continued to drive to Tea's house. Joey and Tristan agreed to meet there because her house was the closest to Yugi's. The sixteen-year-old and the resurrected Pharaoh pulled up. Atem honked the horn to get their attention. Still, Yugi did not look up from his book. The three of them were all speaking at once, trying to talk over the other. It was a good thing that Yugi had learned to block out sounds.

"Hey, Yugi!" Joey said.

"Hey." Yugi responded, still lost in his book. Atem glared softly at Yugi for his rudeness, but decided to let it go.

"So, are we still going to a movie tonight?" He asked.

"Totally, I'm dyin' ta see The Invisible." Joey replied. Tristan agreed with him.

"Yeah, I hear it's a real thriller!" Tea nodded.

"Okay, then The Invisible it is!" She looked over at Yugi and tapped him on the shoulder. She knew she had his attention, even if he still did not look away from the book. "Yugi, are you coming with us?"

"Can't I have to work."

"I thought they gave you the weekend off." Atem said. Yugi shrugged.

"Someone called in sick so I said I'd cover their shift." Atem sighed and started the car.

The car pulled up in at the school. Yugi kept to himself the entire time. He did not talk to them at all, even though they tried to start conversations with him.

"See you guys later, I'll give you guys a ride home if you want."

"Sounds cool!" Joey said. Yugi did not reply, he quickly left the car and went into the building while the others stayed to talk to Atem until the bell rang.

000

The school was the one place where he could get some peace and quiet, even if it was for only fifteen minutes. And it was a good thing that they made it there quickly too; he felt that if he spent another minute in that car, he was going to explode. It was not the fact that they were all talking to each other as loud as they could, it was that they were always there. If one were to spend too much time with someone, eventually, that someone would get on one's nerves. And that was exactly what they were doing. Yugi may have been the youngest of that group, but he was the only one with a job. He worked at Banana Republic in the local mall. He loved working there, and he loved the clothes he was able to buy with his discount. Unfortunately for him, Atem always used up his fifty percent discount for each month before he could. He was not even supposed to allow Atem to touch that discount, and he could not understand why he could not cut the narcissistic Pharaoh off. He was just glad that he could get a small break from---

RIIIIIING!!!!!!!

---too late … His fellow students began to pile in. Yugi sighed. 'Well, I guess the only salvation I'll get today is when I go to work …' For the rest of the day, Yugi tried to avoid the gang, even when they began to follow him to the library at lunch. Finally, sixth period came around. Yugi loved his sixth hour; he was an office aide for the secretary of the school counselor's office, which was located by the library. He loved this hour because it was just him and the secretary, Mrs. Davis. He loved Mrs. Davis; she was the mother he never had, the mother that never abandoned him.

"Yugi, could you please deliver this to Mr. Simpson for me?" Yugi smiled.

"Sure, Mrs. Davis." Mrs. Davis smiled and returned to her computer. Yugi took the manila envelope and walked down the hall to one of the art rooms. It was nice to get at least some exercise during the day. On the way, Yugi caught sight of Joey sitting, or more like sleeping, in a freshmen algebra class. He was the only junior there. Yugi could not help but chuckle softly at that fact. Anyway, with his air-run finished, Yugi began to pack up his things to head off to his last class, which, to his dismay, had the whole gang in it; it was study hall. The bell rang, and Yugi went on his way to study hall.

"And then they chase us outta the theata b'cuz Tristan's phone rang and he was talkin' too loud on it." Tristan rolled his eyes.

"I had to talk loud so that Serenity could hear me!" Yugi, who was totally engrossed in his book, mumbled something under his breath.

"Much like how you're being now …?"

"What was that, Yugi?"

"Oh, nothing …" Yugi kept to himself for the rest of the hour.

---

After the last hour was over, Atem came and gave Yugi and the gang a ride back to their house. Since the others were going to the mall to see a movie, Yugi had to go with them in order to get to work. He just tuned them out by playing his iPod until he got to the store.

Banana Republic was a very nice store; of course it would be, seeing as how they were owned by Gap ®. They had very nice clothes for women and men. Yugi usually wore a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt with tan cargo pants. He was lucky Atem had saved enough of his discount last month so that he could buy himself a new outfit.

"Okay, I'm here."

"Oh good, we're saved!" The store manager and Yugi's favorite boss, John, said. John was the main boss of Banana Republic and always gave Yugi a hard time because Yugi was the best cashier and clothing locater that they had. The sixteen-year-old took a walkie-talkie, placed a headset on it, and grabbed a lanyard to prove that he was a Banana Republic employee.

"Okay, what do you want me to do today, John?"

"I need you to help me train one of our new employees."

"Sure, no problem; on what?"

"She needs to learn how to use the cash register. This is her first time working in retail, so I need someone who knows that system inside and out." Yugi nodded and agreed.

"Yeah, sure; I could do that."

"Great!" John took the mouthpiece of his headset and began to speak into it. "Alana, will you please come to the front for me?"

"Sure, John." The voice over the headset had a foreign accent to it. Yugi gasped at the girl he saw walking up to them. She was absolutely beautiful. She had long, wavy black hair that fell in front of her face, dark brown eyes, and very tan skin; almost the same color as Atem's own skin, but not as much of a bronze color, which made it a little difficult to figure out where she was from. Judging by her accent, Yugi could tell that she was not originally from Domino. The girl smiled as she stood between Yugi and John.

"Hi …" He absentmindedly said.

"Yugi, this is Alana. This is her first time working in retail. Can you take time out of you schedule to show her the ropes?" Yugi was in a daze, looking at the new girl. He was almost drooling over her because she was so beautiful in his eyes. He had to snap himself out of the spell that this seductress was putting him under. Shaking his head a bit, he was able to respond to his boss's question.

"Yeah, sure." John smiled and went to go help a customer. Alana continued to smile at Yugi, showing off her perfectly white teeth. "Uh … hi …" Yugi's cheeks rose in color. Alana spotted his blush and giggled.

"Yeah, you said that." Yugi's blush grew, causing Alana to laugh at him.

"So uh … tell me what you've learned so far …" Had Yugi been paying attention to where he was going instead of how he looked to this new, pretty girl, he would have seen the cart of denim shirts and would not have tripped over it, totally flipping it over on his way to the other side of it. 'Oh God … how pathetic of me! She probably thinks I'm so stupid now …' However, he looked up to see Alana offering him a hand to help him up.

"Here, let me help you up." Yugi hesitated before taking her hand.

"Th-thanks."

"You know, you're really cute when you blush." This caused another blush. He stood up and brushed himself off, acting like the incident never happened.

"Okay, so … let's try that again. Tell me what you know so far."

---

The rest of the evening passed a little too quickly in Yugi's eyes. Before he knew it, it was already ten-thirty and time to lock up. Yugi stood on a stool and was putting folded shirts on a shelf while Alana was sizing hanging shirts.

"Thanks for teaching me the proper way to fold a blouse, Yugi."

"No problem," He stepped down from the stool, "I had fun." When he came down from the stool, he stood face to face with Alana. She was a few inches shorter then he was, and since he was only 5'2, which had to make her either 4'11 or 5'0. They stood there, smiling at each other. "Hey, I know this is gonna sound really stupid after I totally made an idiot out of myself." Alana smiled even more, "But … do you wanna go get some coffee?" Alana smiled.

"It's pretty late …" Yugi looked at his watch;

"Yeah, it's almost eleven … forget I said anything." Yugi was about to turn away when a soft touch caught his arm.

"Well, what I mean is that I'd love to, but I'm very tired right now." Yugi let out a nervous chuckle and blushed.

"Well … I-I saw th-that tomorrow … neither of us have to w-work, s-so … maybe we c-could …" Alana could see where this was going and reached up to give Yugi a peck on the cheek, which caused his blush to grow.

"Tomorrow at four o'clock." She took out a piece of paper and wrote down her address." Yugi took it, still feeling a little dazed.

"Okay … tomorrow … four o'clock … see ya then!"

"Good night, Yugi!" Yugi watched as Alana took off in the opposite direction of the mall, her purse bobbing on her side.

"… I think I'm in love …" Yugi slowly walked toward the exit he always took, his hand never leaving his cheek. When he was outside, his pleasant daze was interrupted by Atem honking the car horn at him. Yugi groaned loudly. "Chill, you drama queen, I'm coming!" Yugi stormed his way into the car and slammed the door shut. Neither he, nor Atem, was very pleasant when they were tired.

"What took you so long?" Yugi shrugged.

"It's work; sometimes I don't get off on time." Atem groaned; he was really starting to have a problem with Yugi's attitude.

---

The next day followed quite the same as the last. In the morning, Yugi had told his grandfather about his date and asked if he could take them to Starbuck's ® that afternoon. Even though Yugi was sixteen, Domino City had a law about not letting kids behind the wheel until they were seventeen. Solomon asked Yugi why he did not want Atem to take him and Yugi's answer shocked the old man,

"Because I don't want them to meet her; they'll scare her away!" Solomon was awestruck. He could tell that Yugi was in need of a break from Atem, Tea, Joey and Tristan but he did not think that the boy was starting to think negatively about them. So the old man agreed.

Solomon drove Yugi to the address that the girl had given his grandson the night before. Yugi, being the gentleman that he was, escorted his date to the car and opened her door for her. Yugi introduced Alana to his grandfather.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." Alana smiled that smile that made Yugi's legs turn to jelly.

"It's nice to meet you too." Solomon smiled and turned to around so that he could drive the two sophomores to the coffee shop.

Once they were there, Yugi opened Alana's door for her and whispered something to his grandfather.

"Grandpa, please don't tell Atem and the others about this. I don't want them involved in this part of my life." Solomon nodded.

"Have no fear, m'boy; I promise that I won't tell them about your new girlfriend until you're ready." Yugi blushed.

"Grandpa!" He slammed the driver's door shut as Solomon laughed and drove away. Yugi loved going to Starbuck's; even though it was quite expensive. He did not drink the coffee, he loved their frapachinnos. His favorite was the Duce De Leche, which was just a coffee drink with a lot of milk, whipped cream, and caramel. Alana ordered the same thing. The two talked the entire time, both quite enjoying the other's company.

"So anyway, I'm glad my father finally decided to settle down long enough for me to make a friend." Alana said.

"Wow, that's so cool. Being a military brat must have been exciting; seeing all those bases and traveling around the world." Alana giggled a bit.

"It was for a while, but then it got lonely. I don't really have a lot of friends." Yugi looked at her with a look that suggested that he did not believe her.

"Really, why not?" Alana sighed, stirring her straw in her frapachinno.

"I guess it's because I've traveled so much, I've never really have the time to make a friend … and now that I've been here for a year, I guess I'm a little too shy to make any new friends …"

"You've been here for a year? How is it that I've never seen you? What school do you go to?"

"I go to Domino North." Yugi smiled.

"Ah, so you're the enemy; I go to just plain ol' Domino High." Alana giggled again. (That's how my high school was. There was the one that I went to, McCluer North, and our biggest rivals, McCluer.)

"Yup, I guess we are enemies." The two laughed at that small expense.

"But anyway, I can't believe you're too shy about making friends … I mean, here you are sitting here with me, and you don't seem shy." This time, it was Alana's turn to blush.

"Well, I guess it's because I don't go to school with you. I mean, it's mostly just people I go to school with." Yugi scoffed in agreement.

"I hear you; I didn't have any friends until just last year."

"Really?" The boy nodded.

"Yeah, so I know how you're feeling." Alana smiled.

"Well, listen to me going on about myself, how about you talk about yourself for a while." Yugi sighed.

"Nah, you don't wanna hear about me …"

"Sure I do! If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked." It was hard to argue with that logic. What was he going to say, 'I'm an outcast that solved an ancient relic then became possessed for a while; oh, and my roommate's the one that used to possess me.' Nah that may have been a little too much for her to take in on only one time with him. No, Yugi just needed to stay away from anything that had to do with either magic or his friends.

"Well, let's see … I live with my grandfather above our family game shop, I have a cat, her name is Ezzy, I'm sixteen, I go to Domino High, my favorite subject is English, in my spare time, I like to read as many books as I can, I consider myself a bit of a nerd, um … oh, and my favorite color is celestial blue." Alana giggled. She knew that Yugi was trying to avoid talking about something.

"Oh, come on, I told you my life story; now tell me yours!"

"I just did."

"No, I mean what about your parents? You haven't mentioned them at all." Yugi frowned and looked away from those sparkling dark brown eyes.

"Some parents aren't worth the breath …" He mumbled. Alana's face had a look of worry on it.

"Why do you say that?" Yugi sighed. There was no way she was going to let him change the subject.

"My father abandoned my mother while she was pregnant with me." Alana gasped.

"Oh no …"

"And my mother … well, let's just say that she's a very bad person …"

"Oh, Yugi … I'm so sorry …" Yugi shrugged.

"Don't be. I'm happy with my grandfather. He takes really good care of me. He took me away from my mother, if you could call her that, when she was about to … 'punish' me …" Alana could see the pain in Yugi's eyes. It looked as if a tear were about to drop from those sparkling gems but he refused to let it fall. Suddenly, his face did a one-eighty as he smiled. "Hey, let's go see where else we can go." Alana agreed.

For the next three hours or so, Yugi and Alana went to all different kinds of stores; not really buying anything, just looking around. Slowly, they were making their way home.

"So this guy who looks like you, but isn't related to you, lives with you and your grandfather?" Alana said, trying to sum up everything Yugi had told her in the last few minutes as they walked down the street that she lived on.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"How can you tell that he's not related to you?"

"Uh … we did a genetics test and it came back negative."

"Wow, that's just weird."

"Tell me about it." Soon, they arrived at the girl's front door.

"Well, thank you for the coffee, Yugi." Yugi smiled.

"Sure, no problem. Good night." He was about to walk away.

"Yugi …" Said boy turned around when his name was called.

"Yeah?" Alana fiddled with her keys in her fingers as she walked down the two cement steps at her front door and stood in front of Yugi.

"Um … your school … already had its homecoming, right?" Yugi shrugged.

"I didn't go, but yeah."

"Well … my school's homecoming is this weekend … and I … don't really have a date yet … and I was wondering … if you would like to be my date …?" It was more of a question then a statement, one that Alana spoke so softly, that Yugi had to strain his ears in order to hear her. When he did, he was taken aback.

"Can you do that?" Alana shrugged.

"Well … if I pay extra to get you in, then yeah …" Yugi smiled and bowed.

"Alana, I would be honored to take you to your homecoming." The Hispanic girl silently cheered.

"Really?"

"Sure, we'll have a good time!" She jumped up and hugged Yugi tightly, who groaned at the sudden impact.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Yugi!"

"Sure … now, can I get some air?" Alana immediately let him go.

"Well, thank you so much, Yugi!"

"Sure. Well, I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow." Alana smiled and nodded as Yugi began to walk away.

---

On his way home, Yugi could not help but think about the date he had on Saturday night. He could not wait until then. For the most part, he had had the worst day … until he met Alana Martinez. The game shop came into view. He could see that one of the lights was still on, which was weird. Sure, his grandfather and Atem did not go to bed until ten o'clock, but they usually turned out the lights around eight so that all they had to do was turn off the TV and go to bed. As soon as Yugi opened the door and set his coat on the coat rack, the third degree began.

"Where were you?" Atem's booming voice asked, scaring Yugi a bit. The resurrected Pharaoh was sitting on the couch, watching TV with his arms folded, and a cross-word puzzle book on the coffee table, which explained why the light was on. Atem's eyes that usually held a lot of age and wisdom, but were very young looking held a look of tiredness and worry in them, making those blood red eyes look even older then usual. "Yugi, I asked you a question." Yugi sighed.

"None of your business, I told Grandpa that I'd be out for a while." He went into the kitchen, hoping his roommate would not follow him, but was shot down.

"But you did not tell me. Yugi, you always tell me where you're going!" Yugi reached into the refrigerator and took out a plate that was covered in plastic wrap and put it in the microwave.

"Yeah, well guess what: you're not my guardian anymore, so I don't have to check in with you."

"Of course I'm still you're guardian! Having a physical form doesn't change that!" The microwave announced that Yugi's dinner was warmed up and he took it out.

"Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I do have a life; one that you don't need to be a part of, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go up to my room and eat my dinner. I'll see you in the morning." Purposely bumping into Atem as he exited the kitchen, he made his way up the stairs and into his room, loving the gapping look he left the once mighty Pharaoh with. Yugi liked having a life that was just his and not one that he had to share with his friends. He wondered how long he could keep this going.

---

End of Chapter