xxxxxxx

We arrived at the hotel as the staff was setting up the dinner buffet, proving that the Domino school administrators may have been foolish to take a wild herd of highschoolers on a weekend trip, but they sure as heck weren't stupid.

I heard Jounouchi-kun's war whoop as soon as I entered the hotel lobby, and I felt a momentary sympathy for the other hotel guests. They were really going to regret staying here with us.

"Now class," Tomo-sensei said. "Indoor voices, please." Tomo-sensei was under the impression we were third graders instead of third years, and the boys were all under the impression that though she had a nice rack, she had no authority whatsoever.

The pandemonium continued.

A loud whistle echoed through the lobby, startling everyone – even Kaiba-kun, who said "I'll call you back" into his cell phone and hung up – into silence.

"You will form two lines. And you will walk into the dining room with your partner," barked Coach.

We jostled into position. I saw Otogi-kun nudge Honda-kun a tad too hard with his elbow. Unfortunately, so did Coach.

"Otogi, drop and give me thirty," he said.

Saying that Coach was hardcore was an understatement. He taught P.E. and coached boys' basketball, and he must have had a real name, but I didn't know it. We all just called him Coach. Or sometimes, when he was particularly incensed, we called him "Coach, sir."

While we all watched Otogi-kun, a horrible thought struck me. "Umm…Kaiba-kun?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sharing a room with Coach?"

He looked as horrified as I felt. "No," he whispered, shaking his head so furiously that a lock of hair came un-gelled and fell in his eyes. "His daughter's getting married tomorrow. Or something. So he's going back tonight."

Presumably, Kaiba-kun had had some time to reconcile himself to the fact that Coach not only had spawned but that he now would have a son-in-law. I had not had such time, and I was temporarily struck dumb. I stared at Coach's thinning hair, his hairy forearms, and those knee socks he insisted on wearing everywhere.

Someone had married that. Ew.

Otogi-kun got up off the floor, and I saw the cheerleading team (loyal fans all) make as if to go to them. One look from Coach, however, and they stopped dead in their tracks.

After that, walking into the dining room and going through the buffet line was positively anticlimactic.

"So…how are you two, doing?" Tomo-sensei asked, plunking herself down next to me. "Broken that ice yet?" She sounded as if breaking the ice was the most exciting thing she had ever heard of.

I had been half-heartedly picking at my curry, and Kaiba-kun was staring at his blackberry, as if just by looking at it he could make it ring.

She didn't wait for us to answer. "I thought I'd join you two," she continued. "Since Anzu and I will be sharing a room, isn't that right, Anzu?"

"Umm…"

She gave me what – I'm sure – she thought was a conspiring wink. "Don't worry! It'll be fun. We can stay up late and talk about boys."

Kaiba-kun made a noise that very suspiciously sounded like a snort.

"Oh, but you mustn't think you'll be excluded, Kaiba-kun," Tomo-sensei said, turning her face towards him. "I'm just as eager to get to know you." And bless her, if she didn't sound sincere when she said it.

"So," she continued, oblivious to the fact we both thought her a few bats short of a belfry, "how long have you two been dating?"