Chapter four

A surprise or two

Zandria's POV

If anyone asked me how day was I would simply tell them this: THANK GOD IT'S OVER! I've had such a rough day and all I wanted to do was go home. This will explain why I'm standing in front of my locker taking out the books I needed for homework, curse every teacher under the sun, with a very angry look on my beautiful face.

As I was taking out my English Literature book, an envelope fell out and dropped elegantly to the floor. I shut my locker, picked it up and my eyes widened: my name was written in the most elegant handwriting there was and so neatly I thought I was dreaming.

Hesitantly I opened it and pulled out a letter.

Zandria Gardener,

You are hereby invited to the Kaiba Corp. Champion's Arena Duel Monsters Tournament that will be held in April during the school break. Inside this envelope you will find a rulebook and an entry card. Display this card at any Game shop to receive a new Duel disk.

The start of the tournament is the 2nd of April.

All duellists who have received this invitation are expected to participate unless given reason in writing to Mr Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corp.

Good luck.

Seto Kaiba

CEO of Kaiba Corp.

P.S – You must participate or I will reveal your secret.

The last line was written by hand and not typed like the rest of the invitation. As I read that last line, my brain started working overtime. What does he mean by that? What secret? He doesn't know anything about me. He must be bluffing. I only met him recently, so how can he know anything about me except my name? I don't know if he's bluffing or not, but I'm not going to participate. What makes him think I'm a good duellist anyway? He's never seen me duel before. Besides, I believe that I actually suck worse than 2-year-olds at Duel Monsters.

Releasing a sigh, I put the invite back and put the envelope into my bag. I'm really not a in the mood to contemplate over this, so I'll just worry about it when the time comes. Right now, I want to get home so I can get to work on my…project.

I walked past other students in conversations at the volume of an elephant trumpeting in a microphone before exiting the school building. I hate noise and this is much more than anyone's ears can handle. Once outside I couldn't find Yugi or Joey, so I decided to leave. I really want to get home and waiting forever for them to show up will just waste my time. All I wanted to do was say bye anyway and that isn't worth the wait if you have a skull-shattering headache.

Walking home in absolute silence does wonders for the soul, I'll tell you that. It gives one time to think things over. No one really cares about you or where you're going, so it works in my opinion. That is until…

"Hey, Zanny! Wait up!"

My hands grew into fists and I turned around, fury building up inside of me. No one, I repeat no one, calls me that wretched nickname and lives to tell the tale. But that's not exactly possible if the person who called me that is Yugi. He's just too cute to kill.

'Did it again, didn't I'? I thought to myself.

'You most certainly did.' Shania replied and I could feel her smiling.

'Shut it, Shania.'

"Hey, Yugi," I greeted with a smile once he caught up and I chose to ignore Shania. "What can I do for you?"

He held up one hand, telling me to wait, as he tried to catch his breath. Once he did that, he looked at me with a huge smile.

"I wanted to ask you something." He asked, but he did seem a bit nervous.

"I'm listening."

The minute the words left my mouth, a shiver ran up my spine and that feeling of being watched took over. Next to Yugi, I saw him again. He just appeared and I knew the source: Yugi's puzzle. I saw it glow slightly before this…spirit appeared. So many questions buzzed around in my mind: why was he here? Why is he staring at me like that? Why can I see him? Who the hell is this guy?

"C…could…could I…I…uhm…"

Yugi's face was getting redder and redder by the second, add that with his stuttering and capture it on video and I'll have over a million hits on YouTube in a matter of five minutes. The being next to him just kept staring at me, not moving or changing the way he stared. This guy is really starting to creep me out.

"Could you what?" I asked, gazing at Yugi curiously and ignoring the uneasy feeling.

"I…uhm…I ah…"

I giggled and Yugi hung his head in embarrassment. He just looked so adorable!

"You know what?" I said and he looked at me, raising his head slightly. "Here's my phone number."

I took out a notepad from my shirt pocket with a pen, scribbled it down and gave it to him. His thank you was an even redder face and more stuttering. I shook my head in amusement as I placed the notebook back.

"Give me call once you've summoned the courage. I promise I won't bite. See you tomorrow."

With that, I walked away leaving a shocked Yugi behind, but that feeling didn't leave until I was around the corner.

'That was terribly awkward. I wonder who the hell that spirit was? Was he Yugi's brother perhaps? Oh wait, Yugi doesn't have a brother. I wonder…' I began thinking thus adding to my headache but that was the least of my worries.

'Keep wondering like that and your brain will work overtime.' Shania voiced, her thoughts cutting into mine.

'Haven't heard anything from you in a while. What have you been up to?' I asked, quite curious as she's never been this quite.

'Rummaging through your mind and getting rid of useless pieces of memory.'

'Such as?'

'The time you and Alan pranked his brother; the day you and Alan went to the zoo; the day you two kissed, however, seemed too good to remove.'

'And what about those memories…Hey! That's private!' I yelled, furious that she would stick her nose into my private memories.

'It's not my fault you enjoyed it.'

'You're lying anyway! We never kissed!'

'You did.'

'Did not!' I argued back.

'You did.'

'We did not! And since when do you go through people's private business?'

'Since you started school this morning.'

'Must you always be so calm about everything?' That trait probably annoyed me more than anything else, so I just had to ask.

'Yes, yes I most certainly must.'

'…'

'Zandria?'

'…'

'Alright. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I went searching through your mind.'

'Apology accepted. Now can you please leave me alone for a few minutes? I just need some time on my own.'

'Sure.'

'Thanks, Shania.'

The walk home was quite peaceful but my mind was buzzing with questions, adding to my headache even more. I needed to know why he keeps appearing next to Yugi and why he keeps staring at me like that. What am I? A zombie?

Once I've reached my house, I opened the door, shut it quietly and headed to my room. I was so lost in thought that I never noticed that I was home alone. I simply threw down my bag and walked over to my desk.

My room wasn't anything special: a wood-coloured desk, a single bed covered in maroon, a brown bedside table, a brown dresser and a mirror against the wall. A note left by my stepmother on my desk already told me I'm in trouble for something I probably didn't do and I haven't even begun reading it, I simply recognised the curly handwriting.

'Would you kindly explain to me why I found a picture of Yugi on your desk? You know Tea doesn't like it when others look at her boyfriend, so remove it today or else. '

So it begins. She always does this to me. Anything involving Tea's emotions and beliefs becomes the most important thing in that entire house, so I probably should get rid of the picture before I get cursed for the rest of my life.

Of course, I already have an idea in my head on how to win Yugi's heart. I've had a deep crush on him ever since the day I… Wait, that's it! The person I saw that day! It was Kaiba!

'Which means he knows.' Shania said in my head.

'I know. That can only mean one thing.'

'I guess you better watch your back from now on.'

'Yeah.'

About my project, I've always had this idea in my head about writing letters to my lover in riddles and leaving out my name, so let's if this idea will work on Yugi. I sat for ten minutes, thinking about what I was going to say and then I began to write.

I read through it and once I've finished put it away. Tomorrow I will go place it in his locker.

'May the best girl win, Tea.'

Yugi's POV

I was lying on my bed thinking about today. I made such a fool of myself! Why couldn't I look her in the eye and just ask her? She seemed nice enough.

'It's because you like her.' Yami said as he appeared next to me.

My deep blush was enough of an answer to prove him right. I released a heavy sigh before looking at her number in my hand.

"Think I should phone her?" I asked, uncertainty clear in my voice.

"Why not? She herself said that she wouldn't bite. You might just be surprised."

I pondered on that. She did say that and she was so nice to me. She saved me from those kids in class, smiled whenever I saw her and even gave me her number without me having to ask for it. She really isn't like every other girl.

"Sometime today would work, Aibou." Yami said, snapping me back to reality.

"O…okay."

I went downstairs and walked to the table with our phone. I picked it up slowly and dialled the number, my courage keeping me from ending the call. She won't yell at me…I hope…

Seto's POV

It's been done. I saw her take it out today. I also know that she'll accept the invitation as her reputation is at stake. She won't easily refuse.

The phone's annoying ringing interrupted my thoughts and my secretary told me that Gerald wanted to see me. Of course, I could always turn him away but I can't do that to the only person who runs my company so well.

"Send him in."

My door opened and Gerald stepped in with arms filled with documents.

"My apologies for being two minutes late, sir, but someone decided to…"

"No apology needed. What are you holding?"

"All the research you requested about the next gaming arena, sir. I thoroughly checked everything and everything is in order. The bottom document is all the legal issues concerning the land you wish to buy, sir."

Gerald placed them on my desk where he always does and then stood waiting for my next order.

"Gerald, I would like you to do some research on someone."

"Who would that be, sir?"

"Zandria Gardener."

His eyes widened for a split second before he spoke and told me something I never even expected to hear.

"Zandria Gardener is my daughter, sir."

Sorry this is so late, I've just been very busy. Now to answer my reviews:

MalikOfDarkness – Thanks again for being so supportive in my rewriting over and over again… I promise it won't happen again!

KrisNdra – You know who you are. Thanks for the review and for getting me to sit down and actually do this…

m – I don't whether you're being sarcastic or giving me a compliment, but either way thanks for the feedback. And last time I checked, Zandria has only one hair colour and that's maroon. I think it's quite natural seeing as this is in anime and not real life… Thanks anyway, I loved reading people's opinions, whether good or bad.

Also, my apologies to my co-author. I just really wanted to get this up.

Lastly, could you please go vote on my poll? I only got 3 responses and they're for the exact same choice. I need way more than that…

Anyway, thanks for reading, please leave a review and see you all next time!