Chapter Four
Life Lessons

Anzu and Shizuka entered their room—number 414—together.

"Are you nervous about starting high school?" asked Anzu as she pulled out her pink-flowered bedding.

Shizuka shrugged. "Well, it is high school, so I guess I'm a little nervous. But I'm also excited to make new friends."

"I hope you have as good of luck as my group has! We're all really close, and I don't think that we'll ever lose contact, even when I go to New York!"

"New York?" the younger girl questioned.

Anzu beamed at her. "I've been saving up my money for several years now so I can go to New York to study dance! It's been my dream ever since I was little."

"That's great." Shizuka pulled her sheets out of her bag and began fixing her bed.

"What are your plans for the future?"

That was a really good question. She hadn't really found her purpose in life just yet, and was hoping that this year would offer some sort of answer as to what she wanted to do once she graduated. Her brother Katsuya wasn't much help in the matter; he hadn't decided what he was going to do either. Whenever she would ask him about it, he would tell her, "I'm just gonna follow my instincts, and wherever they lead me I'll go. Unless they try leading me to bumming and alcohol. I will never be like Dad." Shizuka looked up at her roommate. "I want to have a family someday, but so far that's all I know."

"That's okay," Anzu replied with an encouraging smile. "There's no need to rush. You've still got plenty of time to decide."

Shizuka nodded and returned the gesture. "You're right." She pulled at the collar of her uniform. "It's getting hot in here."

The older girl nodded to the window. "Go ahead and open it."

"Thanks." Shizuka pulled up the blinds and slid the window up; a slight breeze entered the room. She followed an impulse and leaned out a little. The wind on her face felt nice after the uncomfortably stagnant air of the room. She looked down at all the people in the courtyard. The boys were roughhousing and the girls were huddled together and giggling. The separation seemed odd to her. "Anzu?" she asked.

Anzu looked up at her. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you ever hang out with other girls?"

"Huh…that's a good question. Let me think about it." Anzu smiled as Shizuka leaned out the window. She leaned back against the wall beside her bed and closed her eyes. Why do I spend so much time around the guys? One answer came quickly: Muto Yami. They had met when she was five and he was six, when his little brother Yugi invited her to their house for his fifth birthday party. Back then she had simply admired him because he was so kind to her best friend, but as the years went by, her admiration had matured, evolved. By junior high, Anzu had accepted that she was in love with Muto Yami. That was the first reason. The second was Muto Yugi. They had been friends since they began school, and had miraculously gone to the same schools as they grew up, making their bond even tighter. As she'd said before, Anzu didn't believe that anything could break that, not even hundreds of thousands of miles separating them. That was reason number two. Her third reason was that most of the girls she had met over the course of her lifetime were catty and acted dumb just to impress the boys. Because she grew up with Yugi as her best friend, Anzu never felt the need to be a backstabber, and certainly no need to impress the boys. If she had learned one thing from the guys that would help her in love, it was that there was never a reason to put on an act to get a boy's attention. If he was worth getting the attention of, he would like her for who she was. The guys had taught her countless other valuable life lessons that Anzu was certain couldn't be gained from hanging out with other girls. She finally spoke. "I guess it's because I grew up with Yugi-kun as my best friend. I learned the ways of the boys, and I've found them to be more helpful than the ways of the girls. Or at least the girls that I've observed."

Shizuka nodded. "I've learned a lot from my brother, even though Mom and Dad got a divorce when we were little. Katsuya taught me to believe in myself no matter what people say. He's the only one who's always been there for me. I think that boys make better friends, too." She flashed back to all the times her brother had come to her rescue: as small as getting a scraped knee, as big as coping with their parents' divorce. Just before junior high, when she had found out that she would be going to a different school than all her elementary school friends, every one of the girls ignored her because she would no longer be a part of their group. Katsuya had saved her then, when he'd come to the Kawai household seeking refuge from their drunken father. He had told her that those girls were just jealous because she was getting a fresh chance to define herself and meet new people, better people. "My big brother is my best friend."

"He's one of mine too," replied Anzu. "I'm so glad that Jonouchi-kun and Yugi-kun became friends. Otherwise, I never would have gotten to know him, since he used to be caught up in all the gangs and fights. He's really straightened out since then." Anzu admired Jonouchi the way she had once admired Yami. He was strong and determined, but he always put the people he loved before himself. Even though he could be stubborn and hotheaded at times, Anzu still considered Jonouchi a veritable role model.

With a hand raised to block the sun, Shizuka's eyes met the building directly across the courtyard. "That's the boys' dormitories, right?" she asked Anzu.

"Hmm?" Anzu stood and went over beside her younger roommate. "Yeah. Let's see if any of the guys are there!"

"Isn't that kind of like stalking?"

"Nah! I remember they all said they were on the fifth floor, so let's look at those windows!" None of the boys seemed to have their windows opened, but most had pulled back their curtains, and the sun was behind the building, so there was no glare. Anzu cycled through the windows one by one, searching for any of her friends. She finally found two of them at the eighth window. Anzu raised an arm and pointed it out to Shizuka. "There's Honda and Otogi."

Shizuka looked up to the boys and met their eyes. She smiled and waved, wondering if they could even see her. She blinked a few times when their curtain was promptly closed. "I wonder why they did that."

With a sly smirk, Anzu said, "Because you caught them staring at you."

A few more blinks followed the comment. "What?"

Anzu decided not to pursue the matter. All of her friends knew of the rivalry between Honda and Otogi over Shizuka, but Shizuka herself had remained blissfully ignorant…or so they all assumed, as she never seemed to take their most blatant advances as anything more than friendly gestures. It sort of reminded Anzu of how Yami had always acted around her. Not that she had ever out-and-out flirted, but she had thought that maybe he would notice at some point. And yet, over ten years later, he had still yet to acknowledge that Anzu liked him. She wondered if he was purposely ignoring the fact in order to maintain their friendship, or if he—like Shizuka—simply didn't know. Anzu returned to her bed and lay down. "I'm going to take a nap, Shizuka. Could you please wake me up at lunchtime?"

"Sure!"

"Thanks."

And so Anzu slipped into her dream world, while Shizuka remained at the window, pondering what could possibly come of the year ahead of her.


Meh. Also not my absolute favorite characters, so the chapter's not really awesome... Next, however, I finally get to another favorite! I am happy to write the chapter for him, but not really for his roommate, who I must also get used to.

Anyway, I don't have any pop culture references in this chapter. Last chapter's reference was Tsukioka Sho from Battle Royale. Yes, to anyone who is familiar with him, I know that he was gay in the book.

Please review, everyone. And if you haven't noticed—and it seems like many people haven't—there's a new chapter of Evil Angel!