Secret Admirer
Riddle One: Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That
.nachzes black-rider

Dedication: To Willowwind Adurois, who has been my best friend for six years. May you continue to bless my life with your presence for six years to come, and more.

It was undoubtable that outside Domino High School the sun was shining and the sky was clear and the perfect shade of blue, but inside the building students shifted restlessly in their hard plastic chairs, feet scuffing up against the floor and pencils tapping out steady rhythms on the desk surfaces as eyes focussed attentively, not on the teacher at the front of the room, but on the face of the clock which hung above the door. It was Valentine's Day, and everyone was eager to escape from the confines of the school and head off into the city, where they would meet at their respective rendezvous points with their respective companions and then continue with their respective plans.

Respectively.

In fact, it might be said that there was only one girl in the whole school who was not anticipating the end of the school day with every fibre of her being—Téa Gardener. Now, it wasn't that the cerulean-eyed brunette hadn't had offers from many of the boys at school; but, then again, offers were only to be expected. Téa was one of the most well known females in all of the United States, thanks to her friendship with "Game King" Yugi Moto. But the fact remained that Téa didn't have a special someone to share Valentine's Day with.

Of course, there would be the complementary exchange of gifts between friends, and Téa enjoyed hanging out with the gang, singing karaoke and pigging out on junk food, but it was Singles' Awareness Day to her, all the same.

"Téa, psst, Téa!" Joey poked her and held up a scrap of paper that read, in his usual unintelligible scrawl, Just ten seconds to go!

She smiled at him, and he grinned back, amber eyes flicking to the clock and then back to her as he picked up another piece of paper, this one decorated with a messy 9, flanked by several dozen exclamation marks. Joey smirked and held up another scrap, and then another, mouthing the words as he picked them up.

"Eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…ZERO!" the blond whooped, leaping up from his desk and leading the torrent of cheers and shouts as the students poured out of the classroom into the hallway.

Amused, Téa shook her head and followed at a more sedate pace to where her friends stood outside her locker, all grinning excitedly and clutching Valentines. "For me?" Téa asked, smiling back as she accepted them, and reached for her combination lock. "Thanks, guys; just let me open my locker for yours…." She gasped, a hand flying to her mouth, as a huge bouquet of roses fell out of the locker. "Oh, my Gosh," she murmured, reaching down to pick it up. "Who in the world…?"

"Wow, Téa! Who got you those!" Joey exclaimed, peering over her shoulder at the cellophane-wrapped flowers.

The brunette shook her head wordlessly, staring open-mouthed at the bouquet. Twenty-four blue roses of varying shades, ranging from pale, sky blue to deep, midnight blue, and a single pale peach rose in the centre, wrapped up in creamy cellophane decorated with sparkles, and tied together with a blue satin ribbon….

"Hey, look, there's a note," Yugi said, bending down to pick a card up off of the floor and handing it to Téa. She took it and peered at the elegant cursive, raising her eyebrow when she had finished reading it.

"Well, c'mon, what does it say, Téa?" Joey asked, jittering impatiently.

"It's a riddle," she said. "'I'm made from ash / Yet I'm not black / What am I?'"

"…No idea."

"Ditto."

"D'you think we should look it up?"

"Nah, that would be cheating."

"Wait—could it be…a diamond?"

"Huh?"

"You know, a diamond. Like the jewel."

"Wow, Yugi! How'd you do that?"

"He's da King of Games, remember?" Joey joked, slapping his best friend on the back and chortling. "Look, he's already got the crown!" the blond laughed, ruffling Yugi's multi-coloured spikes. Yugi flushed a delicate shade of pink, and grinned sheepishly, ducking his head slightly in embarrassed acknowledgement. Joey chuckled at his friend's endearing discomfiture, the rest of the gang joining in, too, Yugi blushing as even brighter shade of cherry. Grinning, Joey ruffled Yugi's hair again and said, "All right, Game King—where can we find a diamond?"

Yugi shrugged.

"…Well, a diamond store would be the obvious choice," Téa said. "Most pay phones have a phone book, and Domino High has a pay phone outside the office. If we browse through it, we can find and record all the addresses of the jewellery stores currently in existence in Domino, and then go searching."

"Awesome!" Joey crowed. "A treasure hunt! Let's go!" He whooped again and took off down the hall for the second time that day, the rest of the gang following, laughing at their friend's amiable over-enthusiasm.

xOxOx

An hour and several calls on Téa's cell phone later, they had successfully narrowed down the field to one of three jewellery stores in Domino that specialised in diamonds. "Great job, guys!" Téa exclaimed, smiling at the gang and gathering up the three scraps of paper on which she had written the names and addresses of the three shops. "Now we can go check these places out."

Joey snatched the papers, grinning, and peered at the addresses. "This one's only a couple blocks south of the school," he said, showing the scrap with the name of the store in question to Téa. "Let's try it first."

"Good idea, Joey!" Téa said. "We can start close, and then work our way outwards." She paused. "Are they all south of the school?" she asked, "Or just Diamantina's?"

"No," Joey responded. "Bijou is about seven block east, but Jewels 'n' Things is about twelve blocks south and a block west from Diamantina's."

"Well…" Téa said, "in that case, we should either split up into two groups, or go to Bijou first, then to Diamantina's, and then to Jewels 'n' Things."

"Do you think we should split up?" Tristan asked.

"We should probably stick together," Yugi said. "If the…whatever it is…is reserved for Téa, then she'll have to be there to collect it."

"Good point."

xOxOx

"I don't get it," Yugi huffed, plopping down on the curb and tugging frustrated at his hair. "We've been to all three diamond stores plus two more from the original list, and we haven't found a thing!" He paused. "Téa?" he asked, confused, watching her pace up and down the sidewalk. "Is there something wrong?"

"I'm made from ash, yet I'm not black. …Made from ash. Ash…what's made from ash?" the brunette muttered, turning on her heel and coming back. "Not diamonds…they're made from carbon. Ash is pure carbon, but diamonds aren't made from old ashes…. Wait, wait!" she cried, halting in mid step and squatting down between Yugi, Joey, and Tristan. "Didn't they used to make soap from lye and fat?"

The three boys just stared back at her blankly.

"They did! And you can get lye from soaking ashes in water and then straining them!" Téa slapped her hands on her thighs and stood up. "Time to re-think our theory, guys," she said, pointing across the street at the Body Shop. "There's where we need to go."

She ran up to the crosswalk, leaving a slightly stunned Tristan, Yugi, and Joey in her wake.

"Wait…" Joey said, "it's…not a treasure hunt?"

to be continued…