Reader's Note: G'day ya'll, please remember to R/R, authors really appreciate it. I'll have a index of sorts on top of the next chapter so you know just what the Maatkara and such really are. Until then, enjoy!!

Chapter Two: Kaede Ehime

The noise could be a signal of natural disasters, impending nuclear war, or... an alarm clock buzzing.

Khepri sat up in bed, groaned, and pressed the silence button firmly. The persistent buzz lingered in her ears. Slowly, she slid out of the comfortable bed, shivering when her feet hit the cold stone floor.

Already it was her first day of school, even though she had arrived just last night. Awan had made the necessary arrangements, enrolled her and taken care of everything. Khepri showered quickly, dried her hair. She padded across the room to the nearly empty closet: inside was her school uniform, consisting of an atrociously pink jacket and blue skirt, with a blue bow at her neck and white knee socks to complete the ensemble.

Khepri pulled it on, tugging here and there at the fabric. The pink wasn't quite so bad against her skin and pale hair. The bow also brought out the blue in her eyes, she grudgingly admitted. She wore no makeup, mostly because she didn't need it. Khepri was self-assured enough to know that she was lovely enough without it.

She twirled suddenly before the mirror, her long golden hair twirling out about her, admiring her reflection. Her blue eyes sparkled, her cheeks were flushed, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a confident smile.

Awan knocked upon the door just then, and Khepri blushed as he peeked his head around the door, catching her in her moment of self-admiration.

"Kaede, you're going to be late," he admonished, smiling wryly at her.

"I'm ready.. I was just, checking myself," she replied, following him into the sitting room. He handed her a messenger bag; it was so heavy, she nearly dropped it.

"What in this blasted thing?" Khepri asked indignantly, heaving it onto her shoulder. "Bricks?"

"Books," Awan said with a chuckle before turning serious. "Which we need to talk about while we're on our way."

Awan drove the inconspicuous dark blue sedan, Khepri rode in the passenger seat. There was a pregnant pause while Awan navigated the side streets, before Khepri asked tentatively,

"So, has it been hidden?"

"Yes," Awan replied, never taking his eyes from the road. "It's in a safe beneath your futon, hidden under the floorboards. It will only open to your fingerprint or mine."

Khepri breathed a sigh of relief. "And there's no suspicions that it's been moved from Egypt?"

Awan shook his head. "None that we know of. Kaiba Corp was back at your father's office this morning, demanding the book, offering to pay any price he asked, but he refused."

"Persistent, aren't they?" Khepri remarked. "Why does Kaiba Corp want the book anyway?"

"Their CEO wants to use it as a basis for a duel monster," Awan scoffed. "Ludicrous. The idea of Apophis being used as a game card... As if they had an inkling of the real power that book holds." He snorted in contempt.

Khepri merely nodded. Apep, the legendary snake monster, was no fairy tale. Long ago, Priest Seth had sealed it away in a stone tablet, just like all the other legendary monsters. But the effort had sent him to his deathbed. Her Greek and Egyptian ancestors had feared that evil forces might one day try to release Apep from his stone tablet, and so had copied the instructions for releasing and recapturing the beast into a small book, and then dedicated their lives and the lives of their descendants to keeping the book safe.

"Awfully generous of them," Khepri thought sourly. "Instead of a parents that tell you the boogeyman is just a shadow, I get a whole family that knows it's real."

"Here we are," Awan announced, cutting into her thoughts. Khepri looked out the window apprehensively. The building resembled a prison more than a high school, in Khepri's eyes. Her stomach began knotting itself up ferociously.

"Awan," she began nervously. "I've, well, I've never been to a real school before."

He smiled kindly at her, but ignored the comment. "The office is just inside the main door. Your phone and breakfast, as well as lunch money are in your bag, front pocket. They'll tell you everything you need to know inside."

Khepri looked at him one last time, and opened the door reluctantly, stepping out onto the pavement.
"Oh, and Khepri?" She turned her head around quickly. "Good luck." Khepri smiled back at Awan and shut the door.

"First day of high school, here I come," she muttered, and marched bravely toward the door.

Khepri realized she was late the moment she walked in the door: a hushed silence greeted her, not totally quiet, but a gentle ruffling that reminded her of shuffling paper and scratching pencils. As Awan had directed her, the main office was on her left as soon as she entered the doors.

A secretary looked up as soon as she opened the door. "Good morning!" she trilled with the enthusiasm of one fueled by copious amounts of coffee. "Not decaf either," Khepri muttered, pasting what she hoped was an enthusiastic smile on her face and approached the secretary's desk.

"Hello," she began, her nerves lending a tremor to her voice, "I'm Kh- Kaede, Kaede Ehime. I'm the new girl."

"Oh, Kaede! It's so lovely that you're joining us! That lovely uncle of yours registered you and everything," the secretary bubbled. "We've got your test scores and such, and we're truly thrilled that we have such a brilliant student joining our ranks!" Khepri remembered with a grimace the tests she had taken last week, sitting in her room at home. In Egypt. She had figured she would be lucky the accepted her at all, with the abysmal scores she figured she had gotten.

"Now," the secretary chattered on, handing Khepri a sheet of paper, "here is your schedule... If you have any problems with it, come back and we'll try to rearrange it for you. Class has already begun, but they won't mind you walking in. Advanced Biochemistry is your first lesson, room 308. Let's see. Where is that?" Khepri watched, feeling bewildered, as the secretary attempted a map that appeared more like a M C Escher sketch than a map.

"I could take her."

Khepri turned around to see the new speaker. The speaker was a tall boy of about her age, pale skinned with thick russet colored hair and blue eyes that seemed to be chips of ice. They regarded her coldly, and Khepri pulled her bag closer to her instinctively. Despite his cold eyes, he was still one of the most handsome boys she'd ever seen.

"Oh, Mr. Kaiba!" The secretary nearly jumped out of her seat, suddenly blushing like a schoolgirl. "How's the company going?"

Kaiba? Company? Khepri's eyes widened, and her jaw literally dropped for a second.

"Kaiba? As in Kaiba Corp Kaiba?" she asked bluntly. She couldn't be standing here face to face with the man who wanted her family's most guarded secret. It just wasn't possible.

"Who wants to know?" he asked, glaring at her.

"Oh, Mr. Kaiba, this is Miss Kaede Ehime. She's just moved here from... Oh, where are you from again, dear?"

"Um," Khepri stuttered before blurting out, "The States. I'm from, er, California."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow at her hesitation, before replying, "Great. Another dumb American, just what we need."

The secretary's jaw dropped with Khepri's this time. "Pardon me?" Khepri asked, suddenly breathless with anger.

"Whatever. I'm going back to class." He threw a folder on the secretary's desk and started toward the door.

Khepri looked from his back to the secretary who has seized the folder and was rifling through the contents. Sighing, she pushed the heavy bag back and rushed toward the door, trying to catch up with Kaiba.

"Wait for me," she called. "Please," she added sarcastically.