A/N: Chapter Two, at last. Since many characters in this fic are actually Japanese and therefore speak it as a language (and since I 'm too lazy to find what exactly the translations would be anyway) all speeches and conversations with said character with be done with Italics.

Italics - Speaking Japanese

Disclaimer- I don't own Yu-GiOh. I only own my own characters

Chapter Two - Friendships in the Rain

"Morning," Izzy gleefully announced to the group standing in the corner by the bin as she made her way over to them. There was a collective mumble as the others grumbled a greeting.

Usually, the responses were cheerful and warm, but not today. Today it seemed everyone was in a foul mood for some reason. Monica was muttering dark curses under her breath while Jenny and Sam were scowling at something. Simon - only lad stood shaking his head. The drizzle not doing much to improve their moods.

"Hey," Izzy asked eventually, after studying her friends' facial expressions for a few moments, "What happen... Sam?"

Izzy had known Sam since that first day of secondary school. They both had been lost on the way to Music- hidden away in the most obscure corner of the school and a great friendship had been born that day. Sam shook her head, refusing to say anything, and allowed her long blond hair to fly out and smack Jenny in the face.

"Oww!" Jenny yelped, jumping out of the firing range. Jenny was another friend Izzy had met at school. She too adored animals- specially her dog Sally. "Watch it!"

"Simon," Izzy tried. She had been friends with Simon since they were about six. They had gone to the same primary school and had never really left each other since then. He had short, blond hair that looked almost fluffy and had green eyes.

He bit his lip before looking at Monica. Monica was the Goth- the scary one with jet-black hair. She hadn't liked Izzy to begin with- though she was too serious and stuck-up, but Izzy had won her around with a little help from Alyssa - speaking of whom should have been here by now.

Monica ground her teeth and spat with venom,

"Who do you think?"

Izzy sighed resignedly "Them."


Them needs a bit of description. Them were actually two girls by the names of Máirín and Ophelia. They were the worst type of girls imaginable. They thought everybody was beneath them and bullied pupils to get what they wanted. In short they were mean, snobbish and determined to make everyone else's lives a misery

Máirín was the more dominate of the two- the leader, the boss. Whatever she said, you did - end of story. You didn't argue with her, not matter how much you hated her.

Opehlia was the softer spoken of the two but still horrid in her own right. She was the one who would sneer at you behind your back and start rumours. She would offer help, then laugh at you.

Izzy had had a couple of run-ins with the both of them over the past three years. Mostly it was catcalling and whispering things behind her back. That was bad enough, it always made Izzy feel terrible when she knew people were talking about her, but with Máirín and Opehlia, it was worse. You never knew if one of them would stop the verbal abuse and lash out at you.

And unfortunately, Izzy had to share a form group with them


Form was slightly more interesting today. Theirs was technology classroom with the interesting gizmos and gadgets dotting around and the sawdust scattered on the floor, forgotten by the cleaners. On the window, sat the creations of past students, delightfully present to decorate this otherwise bare classroom.

The form tutor successfully completed the register without the usual candidates making idiots of themselves and gave out the daily messages - nothing of real importance which meant that the form had plenty of time to do things of more importance- talk.

Several lads began the morning ritual of lobbing things across the room much to the loud protests of the teacher while in the back corner sat Izzy and her friends.

"So it turns out the car could have exploded... with us in!" Alyssa said sarcastically shoving her glasses back up her nose. Apparently, there was some fuel leakage in the Trent family car and was it was now happily residing in garage. "The garage knew for months the car could explode... but do they tell us... Oh no! We can been blown to kingdom come for all they care."

Izzy shook her head. Alyssa was crazy. There was no other word to describe her. Everything about her was insane. Everything from her untamable hair to her eternal optimism. She was funny and was always there when someone needed her.

They had known each other since they were about five years old. They went to the same church, but had never really spoken to each other. Izzy was too quiet and Alyssa was too loud. You wouldn't have thought that those two girls who would today be the best of friends.

On the next table sat Máirín and Ophelia. They were giggling over a magazine - not unusual for them. They were always goggling over some celebrity. This time was different though, it was a computer magazine.

"Why are you two reading that... and who is that?" Alyssa said, leaning over and pointing at the picture over which the two were drooling. Ophelia and Máirín goggled at her.

"You don't know who that is," Máirín screeched at her, ramming her finger against the photo several times. "I guess the Freak Patrol would never of heard of him,"

"No," Alyssa replied flatly returning the insult, "Which is why I'm asking a couple of morons like you." They scowled at her.

"As if you would want to know, but that's Seto Kaiba. He's a genius. He's the youngest successful businessman in the world," Máirín said dreamily.

"Not to mention cute," Ophelia giggled. Behind her, Jenny and Sam snorted.

"He's rich." Máirín mumered, practically drooling on the picture.

"He's the perfect boyfriend." The pair concluded in unison.

Alyssa rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. Great." She said sarcastically," Fantastic! As if that's gonna help you with that French test today." Alyssa paused and turned to Izzy, "Which I would be willing to bet, from the look on your faces that you forgot. You two haven't revised for it, what do ya think Izz?"

Izzy shrugged her shoulders,

"Well," she said reasonably, fully aware that any word that she said to the pair of them, could return to bite her later. " I hate to say it, but I agree with Alyssa. Monsieur Chámillion gave us a week to prepare for the Exam. You should have revised for it. " They glowered at her as she turned her back to them and returned to her friends.

"Ahh!" Sam grumbled, as Izzy returned to the square table, "The French test. I forgot all about it. You had to remind me, didn't ya." She said pulling out her French textbook and skimming through it, while her friends watched in mild amusement. "I'm gonna fail..."

After much fretting and panicking, the bell echoed in the form room releasing the pupils to their various lessons and for some unfortunate students, the dreaded French test that awaited them.


French was located on the top floor of the school building- with only three tiny narrow staircase leading up to it. Reaching it was a challenge in itself, but when you have half the school forcing and shoving their way through in the opposite direction, the prospect of walking up those stairs was less than appealing.

"Ahh!" Alyssa grumbled to Izzy, as they, Sam and Jenny began the long and tedious climb to the Languages Department. She glanced up at her friend on the step above her as people began walked past them on the staircase. "Why do we study French anyway? I, mean..."

Someone collided with her, nearly sending the poor girl flying as the perpetrator - a rather big year seven pupil- became lost in the surge of students.

"You okay," Izzy said offering her hand to her friend. She took it, rolling her eyes.

"I swear they get bigger every year," Alyssa said, shaking her head. "As I was saying," she added, continuing with what she had been saying before the lad had collided with her, "Why can't we study something useful,"

"You mean like Japanese?" Izzy smirked as Alyssa's face broke into a wide grin.

Alyssa adored everything about Japan- the language, the culture and the history. She knew everything about the country - from the newly released games to an understanding of the complicated language that was spoken in the Land of The Rising Sun.

This fascination with Japan was probably due to the fact that Alyssa, herself, was part Japanese. Her grandfather had served in the British Army over in Japan during the Second World War and had met Arisu- Alyssa's grandmother while in service. It had been love at first sight and within a few months, they were married.

Alyssa was immensely proud of her heritage- learning the complicated language and even teaching it to her friends and as a result they all had a good grasp of the language.

"Yeah!" She chuckled, slipping in to Japanese tongue. "That would be vast improvement on French."

At last the four of them reached Language Floor and with a wide grin Izzy turned to her exhausted friends, "C'est le vie!"

"... Shut up."


"I knew I'd failed that," Sam grumbled, brandishing the recently completed French paper. Well one thing was for sure, Monsieur Chámillion didn't waste anytime marking it. They had all finished it within 30 minutes and had been returned to them by the end of the lesson.

"Well, we know someone who didn't do great in the test," Alyssa commented wryly as the group emerged from the classroom to find Máirín and Ophelia hovering over each other's results- two big red zero were clearly visible on both papers. Izzy rolled her eyes.

" Come on," she said at last, gesturing at the already packed stairway, "I hate to say this, but we're already late for Maths. We don't want to be any later."

Sighing and grumbling, her friends nodded in agreement and began to navigate the stairs to reach their second lesson of the day - Maths.

"It's funny how fast life can change," Alyssa commented as the pair of them studied the map of Europe before them "I mean think about it, Napoleon was the most successful person in his time- conquering much of Europe." She waved her arm over the map. "France, Italy, Prussia." Her fingers lingered briefly over Egypt, before adding that to her list. "All fell before his army."

"Nothing in his way," Izzy continued, "Until one small country says no. One army defies him - refusing to hand their country to him." She pointed at Belgium, "The Battle of Waterloo. The forces of Prussia and Britain- under the command of the Duke of Wellington - against the might army of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte." She grinned, "It's great to be British."

Alyssa nodded as she began scribbling down the notes. The two friends were in the school library attempting the history homework that had been set previous lesson. An essay on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte- the man who took it upon himself to become a Emperor

Suddenly she looked up.

"Izzy, do you think anything like that could possibly happen to us? With the way the world is changing around us, do you think anything that we could take for granted will change into something we that we can't explain, no matter how hard we try?" Alyssa shoved her glasses back up her nose, before continuing. "Do you think we follow a path already set for us? Are we really players or are he being played.

Izzy considered her for a moment before answering,

"No!" She said flatly, "Our world is normal; we're normal kids. I don't thing anything like that could ever happen to us."

Alyssa sighed.

If you say s..." A sudden pain surged through her chest. Pain that wouldn't stop. Pain that was tearing her apart. She was gasping for air, unable to catch her breath. The more Alyssa struggled, the harder it was to breathe.

Moving closer to her friend, Izzy grabbed her friend's arm.

As suddenly as the pain had begun, it vanished and Alyssa sat up again, blinking..

"Are you okay Alyssa?" Izzy asked, afraid of what had just happened to her friend.

"Nothing. It's nothing," Alyssa mumbled, removing her slipping glasses from her face.

"Are you sure?" Izzy said unconvinced by the lack of response from her friend.

"I SAID I'M FINE." She snapped. Izzy flinched, released her hand and took a step back. Alyssa never snapped at her or anyone for that matter. Izzy was the one with the temper, not Alyssa.

Replacing her glasses, Alyssa shook her head,

"Sorry," she said distractedly. "Don't know what came over me. Anyway, we best get on with this." She gestured at the map, "However much I want it, this essay isn't gonna write itself..."

"Yeah," Izzy said quietly as the pair continued with their notes, albeit much more quietly


As Izzy unlocked the front door, her mind was still wandering in her memory of Alyssa in the Library. It was unbelievable, really. Izzy was still shaken from her friend's edgy attitude. Alyssa was never like that, never had. It was like whole different person had controlled her best friend.

Closing the door behind her, Izzy shrugged her bag from her shoulders and turned around. She dropped it and it landed with a loud thump.

A hastily wrapped brown box was sitting on the hall table. A rectangular parcel with untidy scrawl on the side - an address. Her address and her full name - Isabella Helena Corbey.

Curiously, Izzy reached out to touch the package and as she did so, a feeling of warmth spread from the tips of her fingers, travelling up her arm to the rest of her body.

She smiled.

A/N: See! Not everyone from Yu-Gi-Oh has fallen up plot holes. Seto's around sorta. He'll turn up in a few more chapters... I think.

Any Reviews are welcome