Beep, beep, beep.

Ryou turned over in his bed, pulling up the covers over his face.

"What… what is that..." the white-haired boy mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows. That sound was very annoying.

Beep, beep, beep.

His eyes blinked open. The alarm clock! Oh no, what time was it? He was going to be late for his first day of school! Ryou jumped out of bed, hitting the 'snooze' button and racing over to his wardrobe. He flew through all of his different outfits. Nothing looked good enough.

Finally he walked out of his bedroom with just a plain green t-shirt under a white hounds tooth sweater with skinny jeans. It wasn't Lady Gaga, but it was enough for a Monday.

Ryou glanced up from his toast to look at the clock.

7:38.

Uh oh.

Darn weekend. All those nights staying up late, and then sleeping half the day away. Pure bliss for a 16 year old. He had gotten too used to it.

Ryou abandoned his semi-eaten toast and ran to organize the contents in his backpack. Toothbrush, don't need. Papers for an English test, need. New Moon in hard back- wait, what? Marik had probably put that in there. Darn you Marik, you and your girly side. Ryou threw the book onto his bed and zipped up his pack after stuffing some other things in there. Ready to go and it was only 7:53. Crap.

After driving to school at the speed of light, the albino still made it into the classroom moments before the bell rang. Girls giggled and waved at him as he sat down at his desk and he waved back. Why were they doing that? Girls are so weird. He spotted someone looking at him- Bakura. Bakura was like the head guy at this high school; all the popular kids hung out with him, people respected him. Even the teachers since he got really good grades on everything. He was like a king. He didn't look so much different from Ryou; in fact, he also had long, jagged white hair down his back. Sometimes people mistook them for brothers. But he was much taller and had an air of authority about him. So why in the name of Jigglypuffs was this guy staring at him?

As soon as he saw Ryou looking, Bakura turned away. He usually had this tough frown on his face and he had it on full blast this morning. Probably grumpy, Ryou thought, and I sure don't want a grumpy king glaring down at me.

"Alright class, listen up," the elderly, gray-haired teacher smiled kindly at her homeroom. Ryou liked old people. I guess he just respected them since when he gets to be old; he wanted kids to respect him. Bakura, on the other hand, just snorted and turned up the volume on his iPod. He had these weird purple headphones that Ryou had never seen before. Hm. Purple.

"Bakura and Ryou, since the both of you weren't paying attention, would you like to demonstrate what you're supposed to do?" the teacher sighed. Bakura snorted again and didn't move. Ryou groaned inwardly. I was so wrapped up in Bakura he didn't hear anything the teacher said, he thought. Darn.

"U-um… I'm really sorry, but I don't think we h-heard what you said." The boy shifted awkwardly.

"Obviously. Ryou, Ryou. I can expect this type of behavior from Bakura, but you? You both have two more chances. Bakura, take those headphones out of your ears." The taller boy rolled his eyes and dropped them into his open backpack. "We were discussing our home living project." The teacher continued. "This term's topic is teenage pregnancy and the cons involving it. The idea is two students will be sent to live together for one week in one of the students' houses and take care of a fragile object. The object is meant to be the baby, and if it breaks, gets lost or you cannot hand in the object by the end of the week, you'll fail the class. You two… Ryou and Bakura, since everyone has already chosen partners, you'll be paired up."

"Um, excuse me?" Bakura looked up from carving a picture on his desk with a pin. "We're both guys."

The teacher smirked. "Well… I guess that's just too bad."

Bakura glared at her. Ryou just sat in his seat, his head spinning. Was this like some weird punishment for not paying attention? But no, this wasn't just a punishment. The teacher may have well just sent him off to the gallows to be hung. Ryou, spending a whole week in the same house as Bakura? He would kill him. Kill him dead.

"Class, here are your 'babies'." The teacher called out, holding up a box. She started to walk around the class, starting at Yugi's desk. Yugi was this tiny little kid; he only came up to Ryou's chest. He had been paired up with a red-faced Anzu, who sat right next to him and a little too close to Yugi than really necessary. They got a small white egg. "Oh man, this will be hard to take care of," Anzu shook her head.

Joey and Miho got a glass ballerina, Honda and Shizuka got a clay figure of a turtle… maybe. It could have been a dog or a fish for all Ryou knew. Ryuji Otogi and one of his 'fangirls' also just got an egg. Then it was Ryou and Bakura's turn. The teacher's hand went into the brown box, and… pulled out a china cup. It was very beautiful, with little dragons and people delicately hand painted all over the outside of it.

"Now you two, I'm intrusting you with this cup. It is very breakable, so be very careful." The teacher spoke seriously.

"Yep," Bakura nodded.

The teacher just scowled and stalked off. Ryou held the cup close to his face.

"Hey, Ryou." Bakura said to him. Whoa. He knew his name? "Are we staying at your house or mine for the week?"

"Um…"

"Okay. My house." The taller one got up and walked off, as the bell had just rang moments before.

"Uh… Hey, wait! Bakura!" Ryou ran after him.

"What is it…?" Bakura turned around casually. "How should I get to your house? I don't know where it is." Ryou said awkwardly. Bakura only smirked at him. "Get your stuff and take the bus with me."

Ryou nodded and turned around, back into the classroom to grab his backpack.

Oh boy… This was going to be one hectic week.