Author: Hello my lovelies, here is Chapter 3!
Just letting everyone know that the rating of this story may go up in future chapters, so be prepared for that. In addition, I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far.
Chapter 3 - Meeting the gang
Entering the main school building Rebecca pulled out her timetable. She hadn't anticipated that her school would be this big, considering Domino was a relatively small city. Truthfully, she was slightly daunted by its size and the sight of never-ending corridors present in her view. Maybe she had underestimated things a little, fine maybe a lot!
Taking a wild guess, she continued down the corridor on her right-hand side. Peeping around the corner she saw what seemed to be the school's youngest students. No luck! Retracing her steps, she walked back to the center of the building and tried the corridor to the left. This time, she furtively looked into a small window near her. Rebecca pulled a face when she caught sight of many professors gathered around a table, sipping their piping hot coffees and correcting what seemed to be homework.
'Nope, this is definitely not the place.'
She grumbled in exasperation, having the slightest urge to tear up her whole timetable and go home. At this rate, she would never be able to get to class on time.
"Why is life so hard!?" she moaned loudly.
"You're lost aren't you?"
She turned around to see a short boy with spiky tri-colored hair and amethyst eyes. A lustrous triangular object hung loosely around his neck. Being gold in color, it shone brightly upon contact with the sunlight.
"You guessed right," Rebecca replied smiling sheepishly. Her cheeks flushed bright pink in embarrassment, considering that he must've heard her talking to herself.
"I'm Yugi Muto," he said, extending his hand out for a shake. He had quite a warm smile and appeared quite friendly, unlike someone else she had just met.
"I'm Rebecca Carter," she replied mirroring his movements with her opposite hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"You're new here?" he questioned, hearing that her accent was different.
"Yep, my family and I moved to Japan last week." She explained to him. "I'm actually from Palm Springs in the US."
"I've heard it's nice there! It's where they have that Coachella music festival right? Oh, and what homeroom are you in?" Yugi asked, realizing that school was starting soon.
"B12 I think," she replied handing him her timetable.
"Great, that's the same as me," Yugi exclaimed, his eyes sparkling excitedly. "This way!" he gestured, leading her down a corridor. "So Rebecca, have you ever heard of Duel Monsters?"
"Yeah," Rebecca nodded. "My friends and I used to play back home. It was something that I was relatively good at, one day I hope to be the best. Being the world's top duelist would be pretty awesome." she explained, grinning widely. "Don't you think?"
Yugi softly chuckled at her sense of overwhelming confidence, in a way she did remind him of Joey. "I agree that would be pretty awesome, but remember there are lots of great duelists here in Japan to compete with. There's Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor, and even the World Champion Seto Kaiba."
'Hold on, what did he just say?'
"Seto who?" she reiterated, her eyes widening in disbelief. He couldn't be talking about the same jerk that ran her over, could he?
"Kaiba," Yugi repeated. "He's the international Duel Monsters champion and he actually goes to this school. He's pretty wealthy and owns a company that produces some of the coolest technology around. You ever heard of KaibaCorp?"
Rebecca could swear that she had heard of Kaibacorp before. She had recalled seeing the company's name on some letters in the mail at home and sometimes in her father's emails. Was it the same thing or was she imagining things? "I don't think I have" she replied hesitantly shaking her head.
"Well, I bet you've at least seen it. KaibaCorp is practically the biggest building in the whole of Domino City. You know, the one with the round roof and the two dragon statues either side? It's kind of hard to miss."
Immediately the vision of the unique skyscraper with the dragon statues flashed through her mind. '
No way!' she told herself. 'That really can't be owned by him!'
"Anyway, as I was saying," Yugi continued. "He's only seventeen like us, which is mind blowing right? I would introduce you to him, but well... you see... he's not very nice. I can subtly point him out to you if you like?"
"No need," Rebecca said quickly, remembering her vow to steer clear of the arrogant yet so handsome, blue-eyed brunette.
Finally, Yugi stopped outside a classroom. "We're here," Yugi stated enthusiastically, pressing down the handle of the door. The door opened and Rebecca saw there were so many students her age, dressed in uniforms like her. She felt comforted at the sight of the other girls wearing pink. So she wasn't the only one who had to go about in this peculiar uniform.
The classroom was lively and full of laughter, reminding her of her school back home. Yugi ambled towards a table at the far end of the classroom and beckoned Rebecca to follow him. At the table, four boys and one girl were seated, given that he had led her to them Rebecca assumed that they were his friends. Yugi face palmed himself upon the realization of the cringe-worthy conversation his friends were engaged in.
"What do you mean you don't think rich boys a virgin?" a boisterous blonde-haired boy yelled.
Rebecca let out a small giggle when she heard he had a Brooklyn accent. It made her happy to know she wasn't the only American here. Given his animated personality, she was sure there would never be a dull moment with him around.
"He may be a real jerk." a brunette with pointed hair joined in. " I bet that doesn't stop thousands of girls from falling at his feet. Just face it, Kaiba can probably get any girl he wants."
"Yeah, I bet Kaiba's a real Romeo charming all the girls." the blonde continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Maybe he pays to get laid?" suggested a boy with black hair and vibrant green eyes. He was casually tossing a die up and down.
"I beg to differ!" the blonde retorted stubbornly, crossing his arms. "I mean have you seen the guy?"
"Joey, you can't determine whether or not someone's been shagged just by looking at them." a boy with a British accent rationalized.
"Why not Bakura?"
A girl with short brown hair shook angrily in her seat, she was losing her patience. It was well beyond her understanding, why her friends even wasted time on such trivial conversations as these. Without a doubt, she adored the boys and considered them some of her closest friends. It was just at times, the immature things that they would say or do would easily get on her nerves.
"I NEED SOME FEMALE FRIENDS!" she roared at the top of her lungs, nearly making everyone jump out of their skin. Glancing up she saw Rebecca, thankfully her prayers had been answered.
Yugi cleared his throat in order to get everyone's attention. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Rebecca. She's just moved here from the States."
"Hi, I'm Téa." the girl said, waving and smiling broadly. "So you're from the US? How cool! One day I hope to go there and study ballet in New York... "
"Hey, Bec!" the blonde cut in. "Joey Wheelers the name." He eagerly stood up and placed both his hands on hers.
She was insensible to the fact that guys in Japan were so forward. A strong sense of confidence was normal among guys back in America, but heck she wasn't expecting it here. He had even gone the extra mile and given her a nickname. Yugi and his other friends let out a nervous laugh, seeing that Joey's overly friendly behavior was making Rebecca feel slightly uncomfortable.
He had warm muddy brown eyes and appeared genuinely happy to meet her. His eyes scanned her up and down. "Wow, you're like really pretty," he added awkwardly.
Yugi who was on looking the whole thing, buried his head in his hands, feeling quite embarrassed. Not wanting him to humiliate himself further, Téa roughly grabbed him by the ear making him yelp and curse under his breath.
Then the guy with black hair and green eyes stepped forward and he extended his hand out for a shake. "Duke Devlin," he stated, effortlessly sweeping a loose bang of hair away from his face. "Creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Maybe you can stop by my Gameshop sometime?"
He was then shoved backward by a brunette with pointed hair. "I'm Tristan and this is Bakura," he said, pointing at the British boy with long white hair. Bakura was too timid to say anything, instead, he smiled shyly and gave her a nod of acknowledgment.
"It's lovely to meet you all!" Rebecca replied, beaming happily at all of them. "Class is starting soon so where is the Professor?"
"Oh don't worry Mr. Yamamoto is always late," Joey reassured.
The door handle moved slightly. "That's probably him now," Tristan exclaimed.
When the door opened everyone gave an irritated grunt, it wasn't the professor. It was Seto Kaiba.
"Here comes Mr. Personality!" Joey announced mimicking the voice of a talk show host.
From her past experience with Kaiba, Rebecca knew without a doubt that sarcasm was implied. She hastily turned her head away, hoping to avoid his icy gaze. Maybe if she was lucky he would fail to recognize her. She prayed he wouldn't. This way she hoped to avoid any further unpleasant altercations with the teen billionaire. Unfortunately for her, he happened to be the one and only Seto Kaiba and nothing escaped his notice. Unbeknownst to her, she stuck out like a sore thumb and he spotted her almost immediately.
A large smirk played on his lips as he began to advance towards her, he even let out a small chuckle upon observing who she was associating with. Rebecca turned back to face him and quickly surveyed the facial expressions of her new friends. From her close observation, it seemed that feelings were mutual and everyone despised him as much as he despised them. They matched each other glare for glare, frown for frown.
They mirrored his hostility towards them with ease. All except for Yugi, who still appeared wide-eyed and innocent as a young child. Perhaps Yugi didn't loathe him like the others. Joey and Tristan gritted their teeth angrily, they were like fierce dogs about to snap their chain. To everyone's surprise, Kaiba walked straight past Joey without uttering a word. He had a new target now. Why would he waste his time with Wheeler when toying with the feisty American would be much more fun?
"Trust you to make friends with the Nerd Herd," he jeered, staring at Rebecca.
"How'd you like to make friends with my fist?" Joey warned threateningly as he lunged towards Kaiba. Fortunately, Tristan and Duke were there to hold him back. He simply scoffed, he was not concerned one bit by Joey's empty threats.
Rebecca lifted up her head and met his steely gaze. She wasn't going to let this asshole push her around anymore.
"I'll see you around?" Kaiba asked mockingly, attempting to imitate what she had said before. He then threw his head back and laughed before walking off towards his seat.
"What was all that about?" Yugi questioned furrowing his eyebrow confusedly.
"I don't know," Rebecca replied slowly.
"Forget Kaiba," Joey said, putting one of his arms around her shoulder. "Just stick with us and you'll be fine!"
Rebecca successfully avoided Kaiba for the rest of the day. She knew that every school had a bully and she was sure that he was this school's one. Much to her relief classes were over, but she reminded herself that it was merely day one and she had a long way to go. The day had been so eventful and even though it didn't have the best start to it, some good things did come out of it. She smiled to herself, she was grateful to have made some great friends.
Her smile quickly disappeared as she felt a sharp pain in her foot.
"Ouch!"
She had managed to drop her heaviest textbook on it. Damn these Japanese lockers, they were so small. Well, much smaller than her school locker in America. At least there she could easily fit all her belongings without them tumbling down on her. "Stupid lockers, stupid Kaiba." She muttered crossly to herself. As she roughly slammed her locker shut she nearly got a heart attack. Someone had been standing there the whole time.
"Hello!" a voice greeted cheerfully.
Rebecca screamed in surprise, leaping backward. Looking up she saw that the voice belonged to the white-haired British boy that she had met earlier. "Bakura? You gave me a fright!"
"I'm sorry." Bakura apologized politely.
"No, I'm sorry," she countered. "It's just that I've been on edge lately. So what's up?"
"I hardly got to talk to you in class today. So I was wondering if you were interested in getting coffee or something after school? It will give us the chance to get to know each other better."
"Look I would've loved to, but I promised the gang that I would meet them later at Yugi's Game shop," Rebecca said trying her best to let him down gently.
"Didn't you hear?" Bakura questioned innocently. "Joey and Tristan got held up in detention and Yugi and Téa decided to go to the library and finish their homework."
"Why didn't they tell me before?" Rebecca asked frowning. This was definitely not what she had discussed with the others earlier. She wondered why they didn't tell her about this change of plans. Did they really not want her to hang out with them?
"They wanted me to tell you I guess," he replied, shrugging slightly. "So are you up for it?"
Rebecca felt relieved hearing his reply, she felt bad for doubting her new friends in the first place. "Yeah sure, let's go!" she smiled.
The two made their way out of the school gates and continued down the street. According to Bakura all of Domino's best cafés were in the center of the city so that's where they were headed. Once they reached the nearest one they entered, Bakura ordered their coffee and they sat down and discussed various topics from her life in America to the ruins of ancient Egypt.
"This is cool," Rebecca said, referring to the gold circular necklace he wore.
"Yeah, it's called the Millennium Ring " he explained. "My father bought it from a merchant in Egypt. Apparently, it has something to do with Duel Monsters, but I didn't really understand because this is really old and the game is quite new."
"Ah, I see. It's sort of similar to the one Yugi has," she observed.
"It is I suppose." he agreed. "I think Yugi's Millennium Puzzle is from Egypt as well."
"Anyway thanks for the coffee Bakura," Rebecca said, standing up and giving him a small bow. "It's time I started heading home."
"Wait, I'll walk you home," he offered kindly. "I know a shortcut."
"Alright if you say so." she obliged, waiting for him to take the lead.
As they walked out of the café, Rebecca noticed that Bakura was acting quite strangely. Something didn't feel right, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. It was as if he was leading her the wrong way, she didn't recall walking down any of these streets in the morning. This so-called "shortcut" seemed to be in the complete opposite direction.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Rebecca questioned feeling uneasy with all the unfamiliar twists and turns that they were taking.
"Yes, not long now," he replied promisingly as he led her into an ally way.
When they were halfway through, Bakura came to a halt and stopped walking completely.
"Bakura, is everything alright?" she questioned nervously.
Suddenly he began to laugh darkly. "Bakura?" he stated harshly. "Bakura is no longer here." He turned around and Rebecca gasped loudly as she was now no longer looking at Bakura, but an impostor.
"W-who are you?" she stammered. "What do you want?"
"At last Rebekah," he said, his white teeth flashing dangerously. "I've finally found you!"