He had been staring at that screen for one hour straight by now, and he still didn't understand a thing about it.

He totally understood the 3D program, but FileMaker was just not making any sense to him. The heat of the summer didn't help either. Yugi had been wearing a white blouse under the blistering hot vest of his school uniform, but now he wished he had worn something lighter.

"Yugi," The teacher said, as he saw his student's troubled expression, " You need to apply the stuff we saw yesterday in class." He looked at Yugi who was eyeing the screen while searching, before looking at the teacher.

"We worked with calculations boy..." He sighed, got up and left again. Yugi had always been the backbone of the class, the one who needed more time to understand things,... He didn't do it on purpose though, see, he was diagnosed with the autism spectrum syndrome. This didn't mean he was stupid, he had a healthy IQ of 117, and Yugi knew better than anyone what it was like to be 'odd', but sometimes he couldn't help wondering what it was like to be 'normal'. To be accepted... and to be like one of the group. That wasn't the case at all here, instead most of the class looked down skeptically at him, quite literally for the poor boy was merely 5 foot/ 153 cm tall.

Though it was the only reason; see, the class thought the teachers had falsified his scores. Yugi, at first, wasn't aware of it.

But... then he noticed the whispering, and the constant staring. It wasn't long before he had caught on to the rumors then. You could never imagine how it felt for him to find out.

But... He had never done anything to them...

That was one of the main reasons he hadn't looked forward to go to school again.

There were the usual people from last year; Kaiba the A+ student, his ever staying so silent girlfriend Tea, the neutral Tristan, the slutty Mai, Florence Bakura, a guy who bullied Yugi last year, but didn't pass, so now he and Yugi were in the same class, and his one year younger brother, Ryou Bakura. Then there were the work-deprived twins, Malik and Marik, and Duke, the guy who played with women's feelings. Yugi really wanted to forget the two critters Rex and Weevil. Gods, they were annoying.

Then there were two new guys. Atem and Yami. Atem was Yami's first cousin once removed, from Egypt. As if his tan skin wouldn't say that... They had the same hairstyle like Yugi; black spikes with magenta tippings, blonde bangs but their bangs, in comparison to Yugi's forelock, shot up into their black hair. The only difference between the two's hair now was that Atem's upshooting bangs where straight and his black hair was wild, whereas Yami's look like lightning shocks, and his black spikes were smoothed out.

(ha ha ha I described tree guy's hair in one big mashup! XD)

It was not too strange to have crazy hairstyles like that, for there was an uprising rockstar with hair just like that. He was the one who started it, after all. His band was called 'The Pack of Anubis', and they were from Egypt, but their songs were in English and Japanese. They did special audio registrations and translated their own songs, so more people could enjoy it.

But back to Yami and Atem, they hung out with the 'cool kids', and Yugi could often hear the others tell the twosome about how he cheated his way into the last year. Yami and Atem then gave Yugi a look, while he just gave a fake smile back and tried to ignore their peering eyes.

Lately they have been trying to speak with Yugi more than he wanted, or more than he thought needed. He had consulted Joey about his problem, who, in turn, said he had to ignore them, or ask if they would leave him alone. Joey was his best friend, and even though he was a last year, almost 18 as the summer was nearing, Joey was in his fourth year, and he was 16. You think it would be weird for people who only saw each other in school to hang out, but Joey didn't feel like he was a part of his class group either. They always found a way to piss him off, and when Joey got pissed off, tables were turning and the school was trembling as if an earthquake hit it. Joey was dealing with his own problems, and even though he hadn't told Yugi what it was, the shorter could easily see that it had something to do with anger issues. But for some reason, when the two were talking to each other, nothing seemed wrong. It was as if Yugi's genuine innocence and calmness was sticking on to Joey.

Yugi began to pack before the bell rang, knowing he would have to face the two lookalikes if he wasted too much time. He somehow always ended up leaving the class as last.

"Yugi?" Someone's voice called. Atem's voice. He was a head taller than Yugi, and half a head taller than Yami. Yugi turned around trying to pull a fake, friendly smile, but ended up with a grimace on his face. He faced the two look-alikes, wondering why they would ever want to talk to him.

"Yes?" He had responded in reflex, against his own will.
"Do you want to eat with us today?" Atem licked his dry lips. He seemed nervous for some reason. Now that Yugi gave that thought more attention, he saw Atem's tense muscles under the black tank top. Yami who saw this too, gave the taller a nudge, signing him to calm down. Yugi didn't thrust this. Not at all. Not in the slightest.

"N-No thanks..." Yugi muttered as he turned back to gathering his belongings. He had heard a sigh from behind him and a tanned hand grabbed his shoulder.
"Yug-" He turned around in an instant, shoving the hand away rather forcefully. "Leave me alone!" He cried.* He took his bag and headed for the door. "Don't ever touch me again!" He added trying to pull of a glare, before he entered the stairwell.** It was deep, and if you went all the way down, you ended up in the basement.

"Yugi! Wait! Please!" Atem's voice died out when Yugi smashed the door shut right in his face and began to run down the dangerously small stairs. He 'tch'-ed when his shoelaces got loose, but continued descending nonetheless. The small boy hadn't noticed Yami and Atem had caught up by now and were hot on his heels. When he took a glance over his shoulder however, he was caught by surprise and tripped. He made an unfortunate fall, and the other two students rushed even faster over to him.

"Yugi! Are you okay? Can you hear me?!" It was Yami's voice. He had lifted Yugi's head by putting one of his arms under the smaller's neck and shoulders, while the other was wiping away some of Yugi's bangs. "..." Atem looked at Yugi with broken eyes. "Yu...gi..." He breathed. Said boy flinched at Atem's voice, and he tried to stand up, but Yami wouldn't let him. Yugi was facing up, and he saw a green head disappearing over the balustrade of the higher platforms. Right at that moment, a teacher came in.
"What happened?" He asked upon seeing the situation. "He fell, and he's not doing very well," Yami informed.
"Blaque'll bring him to the nursery," The teacher took up Yugi bridal-style, and looked at Atem and his cousin who only nodded. 'Weird teacher' Yami noted as he left. Atem was looking at the ground, looking like a dog that knew it had messed up. "..tem?"

"Atem!" Yami pushed his cousin's arm. The reaction was immediately.
"It's... It's my fault!" He said frantically. "No, it was an accident," Yami assured him.
"He's going to hate me! If I hadn't pursued him...!" Atem continued ranting.
"ATEM!" Yami took him by his shoulders, and he stopped ranting. "We're in this together, I won't leave you hanging cus'," Yami took his and and held it up.
"What are you saying?" Atem frowned.
"I'm just as guilty," He stated. "... Thanks," Atem sniffed.

Yugi's head hurt. Where was he? Oh, the nursery. If it wasn't the bed he was laying on said so, then it was the smell of medicine wavering through the air.
The nurse was hardly there though. Yugi straightened himself and put his hand on the cupboard next to him, searching for the usual glass of water. He was caught by surprise when he felt something else than the cool glass though. It was a paper. The young teen took it and unfolded it.

I/WE am/ARE sorry.
Atem AND YAMI

The 'I' and 'am' were scratched and 'WE' and 'ARE' were written above it with another pen. Yami obviously had added his name with that same pen on the paper as well.
Yugi sighed. He had yet again misinterpreted people's intentions. He wrapped his arms around his legs and put his head against his knees. Why couldn't he just be normal like everyone else?

The lesson was done for that day, but Atem said he had to go into detention because he felt responsible for what happened. He NEEDED it, he had said. Well, he got it, for someone had told the teachers he had pushed Yugi of the stairs. So now Yami was stuck with Atem in detention.
The other students in the room were Mai, who had said her reflection was way more interesting than school, Joey wheeler, a fourth year that ALWAYS sat in detention, and Bakura. Florence Bakura to be exact. He hated his first name and threatened to shove his foot up the ass of anyone who dared to call him that. He did that almost to a teacher today, so no wonder he was there too.

The whitette was playing with his knives, carving into the table he was occupying.
Mai was putting on her lipstick over and over, and Joey was grumbling something inaudible.
"So who do you think it was?" Atem asked Yami. He turned to his cousin and shrugged. He didn't know to be honest, though he had his suspicions.
"Do you think it was Yugi?" Atem said, looking sadly at his bench. It seemed Atem had the same suspicions.
"Could be; we were the only ones there when it happened," Yami shrugged. Atem nodded, "True."

Their conversation didn't went unheard as Joey turned around to face them both. He had a mad look on his face, making them flinch, while he was gritting his teeth.
"Yug' would neva' pull a cheap trick like that!" Joey growled. The cousins looked at each other before looking back at Joey who continued, "You just try to do as if you didn't push him off the stairs," He stood up and strolled over to Atem, "But I don't believe that," Once he stood in front of Atem, he took the other's scruff and heaved him up with two hands.
"Easy Wheeler!" Yami shot up from his seat, trying to calm him. Bakura was chuckling like a maniac and joked, "Hey, wanna use one of my knives to cut his throat?"
Mai was... fixing her cleavage...

Joey looked with angry eyes to Bakura and growled, "Keep out of this, FlorAnce," Before turning back to Atem. He had pronounced the name as if it were Frech, making it sound girlish. Bakura glared daggers at Joeys back.
"If you ever do anything to my friend again, I'm going to drag you to the roof and drop you down!" Joey threatened. He then reached with one hand behind him, stoping Bakura's arm that was about to stab him. He twisted it in an unnatural way, making the whitette drop the knife. Joey then also took Bakura by the scruff and heaved him up.
"Whut the fu- do you have super-strength or something?!" Bakura yelled as he was dangling in surprise. "No, you're just really small and light," The dirty blonde said annoyed.
"True," Atem agreed, "Now will you put me down please? I want to be able to apologize to Yugi properly if that's possible."

Joey dropped him forcefully in his chair and nearly threw Bakura over one of the desks. He then proceeded with seating himself back into his own chair.
"You okay?" Yami asked concerned. Atem nodded, not meeting his eyes.

* this does not mean he has tears in his eyes.

** a shaft in a building in which a staircase is built.

Hope you liked it! 2nd chapter coming up fast! (XD I'm just rofling at chapter 2 ... poor Atem XD)