Chapter 3:

I was glad I had my passport. Mum, Dad, Jake and I travelled overseas two years ago when he was the top duellist in Duel Academy. It was a reward for Jake for getting such great grades all year round. As I looked through my passport, I saw the stamps still there from two years ago.

I went through customs. I have no idea but it always gave me the shivers. On the return flight home two years ago, I got pulled up for having a metal belt buckle. It was attached to my jeans so I couldn't take it off. I had to sign stuff but we were allowed to leave. Ever since then, I've been nervous about metal detectors.

I put my bag on the conveyor belt so it could be scanned. I walked through the metal detector nervously. It made no noise. I sighed in relief. The customs officer looked at me. I just gave him a smile as I picked up my bag from the conveyor belt.

"Thank you!" I said politely.

The one part I liked in the airport – Duty Free! Everything had no tax and was cheaper than in stores. Domino airport's duty free was huge! It had clothing stores, gaming stores and a lot of cafes and places to eat.

"Hey, Erika," I heard a voice.

I looked around and spotted Alexis. She approached me, along with two other girls.

"Hi Alexis," I said smiling. "When did you get here?"

"About ten minutes ago," she replied. "I'll introduce you to my new friends."

"Hey, I'm Jasmine," a girl said, interrupting Alexis' introduction. She had light brown hair with a spiky fringe. The hair reached her shoulders and was also spiky. She had bright brown eyes.

"And I'm Mindy," the other girl said, introducing herself. Her hair was a dark shade of grey, which wasn't from age. She wore it in a low ponytail that flared out where it was tied up. Her fringe was to her right side and her eyes matched the colour of her hair.

"Hi Jasmine, hi Mindy," I replied. "I'm Erika."

"It's nice to meet you, Erika," Mindy said happily.

I smiled. "Likewise."

"We should all go shopping," Jasmine suggested. "It's boring waiting for the plane to get ready."

I looked over at Alexis who sighed. "Yeah, okay."

I smiled. "It sounds fun."

We looked amongst the stores. It actually amazed me that Domino airport actually had clothes in its duty free section. Most duty free airports don't sell clothing.

All of us got something. Mindy got some cute shoes, Jasmine bought make-up, and Alexis got a pretty skirt while I bought a nice top. After we got our little gifts to ourselves, we went to board the plane to Duel Academy.

I looked at my plane ticket I had received as I walked down the corridor that led towards the plane.

"What ticket number did you get?" Alexis asked.

"C-7," I replied.

"I got C-6," Alexis said happily. "I guess we're sitting together."

"Yay," I said happily. I'm glad I'm sitting with Alexis on the trip.

I looked around. It seemed that everyone else who had boarded the plane was on their way to Duel Academy. I was guessing this was a one-year return trip.

According to our tickets, I got a window seat while Alexis got the aisle seat. We both were happy – I got to look at the view and Alexis got to talk to Jasmine and Mindy, who were in seats C-5 and C-4 on the other side of the aisle we were in. Sure I talked to them too but I couldn't help but think of the amazing sunrise that would appear when we were in the sky.

In just over an hour, we arrived at Duel Academy. Once we got off the plane, we went through a smaller version of customs, got our bags and went to the auditorium. There we got told which dorm we were in. It was revealed that I was placed in Obelisk Blue.

"Yay," I said happily. "What dorm did you get into Alexis?"

"What do you think?" Alexis asked. "Obelisk Blue of course!"

"What about you two?" I asked Jasmine and Mindy.

"We got into Obelisk Blue too!" Mindy said happily.

Jasmine put her arms around Alexis and me. "We're all in the same dorm together!"

A boy looked at the teacher who announced the results. He was also placed in Obelisk Blue. "Who got the top scores?" He asked.

"Well it wasn't you," the teacher replied. His friends around him all laughed. "The person who scored the top marks won without the loss of any life points."

"I wonder what duel that was," Alexis said. "Did you watch it Erika?"

I nodded. "I saw the whole thing."

Alexis gasped. "Do you mean that you're...?"

I nodded and gave her a smile.

We were then divided into six groups: Obelisk Blue girls, Obelisk Blue boys, Ra Yellow girls, Ra Yellow boys, Slifer Red girls and Slifer Red boys.

A teacher in a blue PE uniform approached us. She had her hair tied up and had a bit flowing down from the top of her parting along the side of her face. It was brown and the bit was zigzag in shape. She wore a whistle around her neck.

"Hello girls," she said. "I'm Miss Fontaine. I'm in charge of the girl's dorm rooms. You'll also take your PE classes with me." She then waved her arm, showing us to follow her. "If you all could follow me and I'll show you where you'll be staying."

Miss Fontaine took us on a little walk around the area. We arrived at a large lake where I was amazed by how there weren't any sand flies trying to bite me – or how there were no sand flies at all! Overlooking the lake was a huge blue mansion.

"This is the Obelisk Blue dorm," she said with a smile.

I was in absolute awe. I couldn't believe I was staying in a place that extravagant! Sure my family is wealthy but we don't live in a big house; there are only four of us.

The inside of the Obelisk Blue dorm was more extravagant than its exterior! I felt like I was in a fairytale! Why didn't Jake tell me that the Obelisk Blue dorm was so flash?

"This is where you girls stay," Miss Fontaine told us.

I gazed around. The place is huge! The foyer looked like it could be used as a ballroom. The floors were nicely polished and the windows were so large and clean. A beautiful water feature was placed in the centre of the area and two staircases, with red carpet, wound up to the upper level.

Miss Fontaine took us upstairs and showed us our rooms. I felt so lucky to find out that I was sharing a room with Alexis. She seemed pleased at the thought too.

"Don't take too long girls," Miss Fontaine told us just before we went off to our rooms. "We're coming back here so just leave your suitcases in the room – we still have the dining room to go. We'll be going with the boys to be shown around the school."

I was sure that Jasmine's and Mindy's faces lit up when Miss Fontaine said that.

Once we had dumped our bags in our rooms, Miss Fontaine led us to the dining room. "This is where you girls will have your meals." She said as we entered the dining room.

"So we're having a separate dining area to the boys?" I asked.

"Yes," Miss Fontaine said. "Otherwise there wouldn't be enough room if you all were in the one room."

It made sense. I just thought that it would've been cool to have breakfast and dinner with my brother like we used to before he got accepted into Duel Academy.

We waited for the group of first year boys to meet up with us so we could tour around the school. It was ten minutes that we had been waiting when the group showed up.

Miss Fontaine introduced herself to the male students of Obelisk Blue. The teacher that led the boys approached us. He looked very.... weird. He had light blond hair that had a bowl cut style but had a long ponytail at the back. I found it very disturbing that a guy wore lipstick.

"Good morning ladies," he said. "I'm Dr. Crowler. I'm in charge of the boy's dorm rooms."

I think I remember Jake telling me about some Crowler teacher. He had said that if you want to get in his good books you must not make fun of his appearance, to always use the title 'Dr.' when addressing him and not call him female or a transvestite. He warned me that you will be heavily picked on throughout all three years you attend the school – he had seen it.

We went on a tour throughout the school. We saw the many duelling arenas and lecture theatres in the school. Miss Fontaine and Dr. Crowler also showed us the library, the lunch room and took us outside to show us the scenery that Duel Academy had. We also learned about how Duel Academy offers students the chance to study abroad and about the founder of the school. I couldn't believe that my favourite duellist founded the school I now attended.

We then joined up with the two other dorms, Slifer Red and Ra Yellow. I went and said hello to the group of Slifer Red students that watched my duel on tryout day. I found it weird that other Obelisk Blue students looked down on me just because I talked to students from another dorm.

"Look at that girl, hanging out with Slifer students!" I heard a boy say. I turned and saw it was the same boy who asked the teacher about the student who got the highest mark. "She probably just scraped in here! I'm surprised she isn't in Slifer herself!"

A roar of laughter erupted. All of his friends started laughing. I felt a rush of adrenaline through my veins. I knew my bubble was about to burst. I approached the boy.

"You're pathetic," I told him. "You shouldn't down a fellow Obelisk Blue just because of who they socialise with. I may be better at duelling than them but it doesn't mean that I should act like I have something shoved where the sun-don't-shine like you do."

"Oooooh!" The boy's friends all said in unison. They all then started laughing.

"That's big talk for someone who just scraped into Obelisk Blue," he smugly replied.

I couldn't help but laugh. "You do realise that you're talking to the duellist that defeated that teacher without losing a single life point."

"Don't kid yourself!"

I smiled. "If you're so confident about your duelling abilities, meet me here at 4pm sharp. We'll then see who has the bigger mouth that way."

"Don't go running to your Slifer friends once I beat you," he mocked.

"Just be there," I told him. "Bring all your friends if you want to – I'm sure they'd love to see you lose!"

"You're late," I told the boy when he finally arrived at four, followed by all his friends.

"Are you in a hurry to get beat?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "I just want this duel to start – just so I can see you lose!"

"Let's duel!" We both said in sync as we both got our duel disks ready.

"I'll start," he said, drawing his card. "I play Vorse Raider in attack mode. I'll then equip him with the spell cards United We Stand and Mage Power. This brings his attack up to 2700. It's impressive huh?"

I yawned. "Are you done?"

"Just go," he pouted.

I drew my card. I had the perfect plan to defeat him in one turn. "I activate Pot of Greed to draw two cards."

"That won't do you anything!" he told me. "There's nothing in your deck that can defeat this monster – your cards are too puny!"

I was angry now. He shouldn't insult me as a duellist! I guarantee that he'll regret that! "I'll show you real power! I activate the spell card Power Bond and fuse Cyber Dragon, Cyber Barrier Dragon, Cyber Laser Dragon, Proto-Cyber dragon and Cyber Phoenix together to summon Chimeratech Overdragon."

The boy gasped. I just laughed.

"Say hello to my machine! It has 4000 attack and defence points thanks to his ability plus it doubles because of the effect of Power Bond."

"NO WAY!" The boy shouted.

"Yeah, that's not all!" I told him. I wanted to make him feel humiliated. "I play the spell card Limiter Removal to double my monsters attack, making it 16,000!!!!"

He shrieked as Chimeratech Overdragon grew larger.

"Chimeratech Overdragon, attack his monster and deplete his life points!!!"

The monster evaporated Vorse Raider with a single attack. The boy dropped to his knees.

"You got knocked out in one turn!" I told him sweetly. "Just don't judge me again, okay?"

He nodded and didn't say a single word.