"…I'll go to Domino, Mom, but I don't promise I'll like it," Yuka slowly formed the words, mouth stiff from disuse. Her eyes slowly crept upwards to find her mother's, unsure of what her reaction would be. Yuka was still angry, but rather hoped that her mother would worry less. It seemed the image of a helpless woman with dark-rimmed eyes weakly supporting a coffee cup was burned onto her memory, blinding her with guilt whenever she was about to add worries to her mother's generous load. Yuka was relieved to see the corners of her mother's mouth turn upwards slightly, sighing in relief. It was much more than her mother had ever hoped for.

A week later, Yuka found herself standing outside Domino High School in a tiny pink and blue uniform. She thought back to when the uniform had arrived, shocked at the size…or lack thereof… of it. She vaguely recalled throwing a sort of tantrum. Yuka hated the sound of the word and constantly denied it, but her behavior this far along in life had been rather…prude. Damn, she hated that word. Prude. It stuck to her tongue and she could never seen to pull it off when it was already spoken. It tasted bitter. But being seen in a skirt that was barely two inches long set her 'prude-ness' off, and she wildly protested. Nobody would force her into that hideous thing, no they would not. Sadly, they had. Actually, her mother had. Yuka moaned pathetically, realizing how ironic it was. She had refused to wear a short skirt, while her mother had practically forced her to wear this practically nonexistent outfit in public. Well, she supposed if she would be going to this school, it couldn't be helped. Unless she ordered a boy's uniform… oh, the possibilities. But no, that would be rather excessive.

Yuka stood still and watched as her classmates passed by, unknown faces like masks. She half expected them to throw off the masks and become her friends, as if it had all been a bad joke that had not been funny at all. And yet, they continued to pass by, masks firmly in place it seemed. She wondered vaguely why she had agreed to this in the first place. Surely it was better than staring out the window hour after hour, wrapped in a blanket and humming softly to herself. However, it couldn't be that much better. The rest of the day's activities would be fairly predictable, she thought bitterly. She would sit by herself during her classes, but lunch would be more exciting. Because at lunch, she would sit OUTSIDE by herself! So much more adventurous. Yuka sighed rather dramatically, before staking out the exact tree she would be sitting under. It seemed fairly nice, so smiling slightly to herself, she joined the throng of people making their way through the heavy double doors.

Her day was basically as predicted. Her first class was math, which was bad enough in itself without having to endure it alone. Bored quickly with the numbers that littered the overhead and whiteboard, Yuka began glancing around at her classmates. Surely they would be slightly more interesting to observe. She made rather a game of it. Trying to judge a person's personality by watching them when they weren't aware of it. She saw three people, a girl and two boys, in the back of the class holding a stack of red cards and whispering softly, smiling. One of them looked rather dopey, his laughter becoming all too audible and drawing the attention of the teacher.

"Mister Jonouchi!" the man leered," you seem to have found something very amusing to disrupt my class with. Would you like to share it with the rest of us?"

The boy had the grace to look sheepish. "Um… no, sorry sir."

"Actually," interrupted the other boy with him, who had brown hair which came together into a silly point," he was just saying he thinks the new girl is cute." He jerked his head toward Yuka, earning scattered laughter from the class and a fierce glare from the teacher.

"Honda!" the boy who was called Jonouchi bellowed, punching his friend in the shoulder.

"What? I was just saying… I mean that is what you were talking about!" the brunette defended himself.

Yuka stared at them both, blushing slightly and rather irritated. This was a perfect way to start at a new school. Being completely mocked and humiliated by someone she didn't even know. Wonderful.

"Well, Mr. Honda," Yuka said smoothly," you can tell Mr. Jonouchi that I don't find him to be 'cute' in the least." The brunette began to laugh then, tears pouring down his face in an effort to remain firmly in his seat. "Jou… I think you just got TOLD!"

None of them seemed to notice their teacher, whose face had slowly turned so red it could fry eggs. Yuka noticed however, but while she was nervously eying her teacher, she had failed to notice the approving nod she received from another brown-haired boy who was clacking away at a laptop a few seats away. He glanced up at their teacher, before once more returning his attention to his laptop, face illuminated slightly in the glow of the machine.

The teacher finally snapped. "OUT OF MY CLASS! YOU, HONDA, AND YOU, JONOUCHI! NOW!" he bellowed ferociously, as the boys exited the room, one holding onto the walls for support while he continued to laugh uproariously, the other shuffling along with his head down looking quite embarrassed. Well, that's the least he could do, Yuka thought to herself. She had rather lied, however. She didn't exactly think the blonde boy was NOT cute… she shook her head roughly. What on earth was she thinking? Once more feeling boredom tug at her, she looked around the class again, hoping this time things wouldn't turn out so disastrously. She noticed various people scratching at the corners of their desks and writing notes to their friends, some yawning, some falling asleep on their desks, and precious few blearily holding their heads up and their eyes open in a noble effort to learn the material. Except one person. How strange. He seemed absolutely focused on the material, but not on the same material as anybody else. This boy appeared to have opened a laptop on his desk and was quickly typing at it with a look of utmost concentration, absolutely undisturbed by the previous events in the class, it seemed. He seemed absolutely expressionless. Yuka felt an element of curiosity about this strange person, but she was never one to ask nosy questions, especially to someone she had never spoken to before. And so she remained silent, once more dragging her eyes to the front of the room as she had gotten rather bored with her little game. Agonizing and tedious minutes later, the bell had rang from somewhere in the depths of the school, announcing her freedom for a few precious minutes.

As expected, the rest of the classes dragged on without event. When lunch finally arrived Yuka was utterly exhausted. Boredom can do that to a person. She grabbed her lunch and made her way to the doors, relieved at the notion of getting some fresh air into her lungs. Yuka began slowly strolling across the fresh, green grass until she was nearly to her tree. Suddenly her vision of eating happily in solitude was shattered as she heard a rather familiar, obnoxious laugh coming from the near vicinity of her tree. Her tree! She walked cautiously around the circumference of it until her worst suspicions were confirmed. There sat the blonde and the brunette and their friend, along with a few others.

"Oh, no," Yuka groaned," not you two again." She didn't mean to be unfriendly, but these people seemed to be rather obnoxious. And that was definitely something she could do without at the moment.

The brunette seemed to notice her; the blonde one was too busy eating everything in sight to look up. Yuka cringed inwardly.

"Hey, look! It's new girl again," he observed, sending her a friendly smile. Yuka looked down again, thinking very carefully. They seemed harmless enough, and she was certainly in no position to pass up friends… but perhaps these weren't the people she wanted to make friends with. And then…'oh screw it' was the only thought on her mind, unintelligent though it may have seemed. Yuka knew she had no friends. Now was a good time to start.

"Yes, it's me. But my name isn't 'new girl,' it's Yuka. Nice to meet you…erm… both," she said as politely as possible, once more eying the blonde who appeared to have not eaten in weeks judging from the way he was consuming everyone else's lunch as well as his own.

"Jou!" the brunette rapped his friend on the head with his knuckles rather harder than necessary," will you stop eating long enough to introduce yourself!" he grinned sheepishly at Yuka.

The blonde looked up and swallowed hard, wiping his mouth on his wrist and smiling.

"Hi… I'm Katsuya Jonouchi but you can call me Jou," he said, sounding quite friendly and holding his hand out. Yuka reluctantly shook it and smiled, before being introduced to their other friends. A short boy named Yugi, the girl who was called Anzu, and a boy with peculiar white hair called Bakura. Well, perhaps the day hasn't turned out so badly after all, she thought carefully, but who knows what will happen tomorrow…