Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Also, I do not own strawberry milk or the game "Pass the Parcel", as hardcore as that is. I do not own "Friday" by Rebecca Black. I'd also like to apologize for the obscure GX dub joke reference I made in this chapter. And the unnecessary dialogue.
"I GOT IT! YAY THE PARCEL IS MINE!" Adrian's head jerked up to attention as he heard Jaden yelp out in joy from the Slifer Red dorm. Parcel? The redhead ran frantically to the dorm. Didn't Viper say that Jaden would be too simple-minded to find it? How did he manage to discover it within three days since Jesse's arrival?
Ramming down the door to the Slifer dorm, Adrian scrambled into the room. "Where's the parcel?" he practically yelled out.
"Um, there." Syrus awkwardly pointed to a parcel sitting in Jaden's lap.
"Gimme that," the redhead said as he snatched it from Jaden. He quickly examined it. Man, that is one ugly parcel. It was wrapped in newspaper and made squelchy noises when Adrian held it.
"What's wrong with you?" the Master of Love asked, staring at the redhead suspiciously. Jesse remained silent, but from the sultry look on his face, he probably wanted to ask the same question.
"Jaden found the Lone Parcel!" wailed Adrian. "I don't wanna disappear!"
His only responses were blank stares from Syrus, Hassleberry, Jaden and Atticus.
"Wait-saurus," Hassleberry began. "Why would ya disappear?"
"YOU FOOLS! YOU IGNORANT FOOLS!" screeched Adrian as he tore the newspaper off the parcel. "THE STUFF INSIDE THIS PARCEL CAN CONTROL MY DEMISE! I COULD DISAPPEAR ANY SEC-"
Adrian's rambling halted to a stop as he saw candy spill out from the parcel.
A scowl appeared on Jesse's now-annoyed face. "Candy can make you disappear?" His blue eyes gave Adrian an icy stare, cold and calculating.
"And this ain't the lone parcel!" Jaden said, interrupting the tense atmosphere. "Atticus brought plenty of extra parcels so we could play a few more rounds of Pass the Parcel! So no biggie, Adrian."
And that was when reality dawned on the redhead. It was a false alarm! Carelessly dropping the parcel to the ground, Adrian muttered a "gotta go" and stumbled out of the dorm.
Jesse shook his head. "Man, that was weird." There was hate injected in his usual sweet voice. Abruptly, the bluenette stood up. "Excuse me for a sec." He scuttled out of the dorm after Adrian.
"Don't take too long!" Jaden shouted out as he watched Jesse dash off.
"Lone parcel, huh." Atticus was already trying to paste the story together, but since he rarely ever used his mind to think, it wasn't whirring. "Come on, mind, work!" he whined in frustration while hitting his head with one of the newspaper parcels as the other three watched him in awe.
Jaden unwrapped one of the candies that fell out from the parcel. "I wonder what he meant by the parcel being the end of his demise. I mean," he paused to devour the candy. "How on earth could a parcel make him disappear?"
"But he ran in screaming the way babies screamed as if the world had ended," Syrus chipped in, "So I think he really was serious."
"Either that, or he's a really greet actor," concluded Hassleberry.
"Let's just continue playing Pass the Parcel," Atticus said somewhat wearily, after trying to kickstart his brain throughout the whole conversation but to no avail.
"Aww Atticus, do we still have to play? I stopped playing Pass the Parcel when I was five," Syrus sighed.
"Nonsense! This is great fun! You're never too old to play Pass the Parcel, dude!" Crunching a few pieces of confectionary, the taller brunette turned back to the CD player. "Which song should we play this time?"
Jesse slowly crept up to Adrian. He scowled. Stupid Adrian and his muscular arms and toned abs and nerdy glasses and flashy spiked hair! Always barging in when he and Jaden were having fun. After trashing the (rather lame) Pass the Parcel Party Atticus had held in the Slifer Red dorm, he was determined to confront Adrian.
"Eh?" The bluenette wondered aloud as he saw Adrian slip between two boulders. His eyes widened. That must be the cave Atticus was talking about this morning!
Jesse tactfully glued his ear to the wall. He heard muffled voices.
"What now, Gecko?" a deep, menacing voice. That must be Viper, deduced the bluenette.
"There was a false call today. I accidentally slipped out the fact that I was trying to locate The Lone Parcel." The bullheaded Adrian's voice.
SMACK! The bluenette couldn't help but wince out loud as he heard the sound of someone being slapped. Adrian's pained cry shot out from the cave.
Viper's calm voice rang out. "The next time you do something preposterous like this, I'll make sure you'll get exactly what you deserve."
A ghastly silence.
"And you don't want to know what you'll get, trust me."
More silence.
"Well!" Viper's voice was suddenly a semitone lighter. "At least they don't know that Jaden has to claim it for it to activate!" A more cheerful pause. Then, "Who wants cookies?"
That was all Jesse had to hear. Peeling himself off the cool wall, he trotted back to the Slifer dorm.
"JESSE! YOU'RE BACK!" Jaden screamed delightedly as he slammed the CD player off. Hassleberry and Syrus looked equally as joyful to see him. Jesse walked over to the brunette and ruffled his chestnut hair. "What did I miss?"
"A lot of fun," replied Jaden sarcastically. "We were playing the 31st round of Pass the Parcel."
"Jaden chose the song himself," added Atticus casually, ignoring the heated glares to shut up shot by Jaden, "He said the song was what he felt when you arrived at Duel Academy."
"It's his favorite song," Syrus piped up.
"Oh?" the bluenette turned to Jaden, whose face was becoming increasingly flushed, turning into a light shade of a lovely red. "May I ask what song it is?"
Syrus, Atticus and Hassleberry stifled the laughter coming out of their mouths.
"Nuh-uh." the shorter brunette turned a shade redder.
Smiling sentimentally, Jesse grasped the brunette's shoulders as he provocatively gazed into his hazel eyes.
"Aww! Not the BAMBI eyes!" whined Jaden. "I can't resist Bambi eyes! Alright, alright! I'll tell you!" Jesse loosened his grip and flashed the brunette another warm and charming smile. Jaden looked away, his fluffy brown fringe covering his eyes, and murmured, "Fried egg by ribbed beak a bag."
"Fried eggs?" the bluenette echoed, perplexed.
That did it. Atticus burst into peals of laughter, Syrus started chuckling and Hassleberry clutched his stomach as he failed to suppress his giggles.
"That's not the song name," Jaden said, somewhat embarrassed.
"Say it clearer then? Please?" Another captivating smile. The brunette felt himself swoon.
"Friday by Rebecca Black."
Jesse's lips twitched slightly at the answer. How cute, thought the bluenette, was that? He smiled a ravishing smile and looked into Jaden's eyes. And was lost in their majestic beauty.
"Yo Jes, so where did you go? You missed quite a lot of rounds of Pass the Parcel." Atticus's voice snapped Jesse back into reality.
"Oh, right!" the bluenette's eyes widen. "You have no idea what I overheard outside the cave today..."
Due to the Author's laziness, she had decided to distort time and space (how cool is that?) and zoom to narrate about the most exciting event that happened in the afternoon.
Yes, you guessed it. The Most Exciting Parcel-Hunting Expedition was in action, initiated by the Prince of Fun himself, Atticus Rhodes.
"Tch, tch, yoo-hoo! Where are you?" Atticus called out as he cupped a hand over his mouth.
"Where's what, Atticus?" Chazz walked out of the Duel Academy campus, arm-in-arm with Aster.
"He meant his mind, clearly he's lost it," muttered Jaden as he heaved three camping bags down the trail.
The silver-haired boy glanced at the sorry bunch. Sweat poured down Jaden's face. Jesse looked like he was about to collapse from the weight of the bag he was carrying. Syrus looked even more tired, with his glasses drooping lower than usual. Even Hassleberry seemed worn out. "What in the name of Diamond Dude are you five doing?"
"Finding the parcel Jaden has to claim!" replied Atticus, the only one in the group that still seemed to have energy brimming all over. "So I've organized a super special awesome expedition to search for it!"
The raven looked over the group. "I don't think you'd need camping tools to search for a mere parcel."
Aster gave a slight nod. "Exactly." Jesse tipped to one side and lost his balance. His bag split open and pots, walnuts and strawberry-flavored milk rolled out. The silver-haired boy winced. Ouch. That's gotta hurt.
Jaden stopped lugging his bags around and knelt down to help Jesse pick the dropped items. "Gimme that," Chazz muttered, snatching two cartons of strawberry milk. "Why is it even strawberry flavored?" he opened both; one for him, one for his Aster.
"I like strawberry-flavored milk more than just plain ol' milk!" the taller brunette protested pseudo-defensively, as he watched Aster and Chazz gulp down the whole carton in three shots. "Congratulations!" Atticus exclaimed, startling everyone, as he beamed jubilantly at Chazz and Aster. "You are now part of the expedition group!"
Aster's ocean blue eyes widened in shock, disbelief, irritation and (mostly!) disgust. He pursed his lips together, hoping to succeed in biting his tongue long enough to prevent himself from making a snide remark or protest. Chazz, on the other hand, wasn't too reserved.
"BUT WE DON'T WANNA JOIN YOUR LITTLE FUN CLUB!" he exploded. "WE WERE ABOUT TO GO ON OUR FIRST DATE AND YOU BARGE IN AND RUIN IT!"
The Master of Love's ears pricked up at the word "date". "Taking things nice and quick, aren't we?" The taller brunette handed Aster and Chazz each a bag. "You drank our only supply of strawberry milk so you're part of the team! Enjoy your first date in the mountain."
Maybe we could have our first date sitting under a tree, while taking turns to take bites from a fruit I picked, Chazz thought.
Aster crossed his arms. "Wild fruit can be poisonous, Chazz."
"Wha-? I didn't say nothin'." Hmm. That was weird. Scratch that thought then. Maybe we could sneak off and head to the beach. Mm, yeah. We could sit side by side, dig our feet in sand and watch the sunset. Chazz smiled.
Smirks came from the silver-haired boy. "I don't like my feet full of sand, Chazzy."
How does he know what I think? He can't read minds. Or can he? The raven thought frantically. Oh no, has he picked up his thought about them having s-
"No dirty thoughts yet," the edges of Aster's mouth were twitching. "Chill."
The raven's cheeks turned into the color of beetroots.
"Awright, let's separate here and meet up in the abandoned dorm tonight," Atticus declared as he halted to a stop at the fork in the road. "To help increase the pace of this wonderful expedition and to find the parcel faster," the taller brunette whipped out a piece of paper, "I've conveniently divided us into teams."
Jesse squinted to focus on Atticus's scrawled, cursive handwriting. "Jesse and Jaden, Chazz and Aster, and Atticus and the Two Kids?"
"Wait a sec," Syrus said, counting his fingers carefully. "Who's the two kids? Let's see, it's not Atticus, Chazz, Aster, Jesse or Jaden. That leaves... Hey, wait!"
"Why are we called the Two Kids?" Hassleberry roared.
The heartthrob brunette struck a pose and spun, his chestnut hair flying majestically. "Doesn't matter, does it?"
Jaden blushed. "You chose the teams on purpose, didn't you?" he leaned in closer and whispered in Atticus's ear. "Jesse and I are friends, nothing more," he hissed.
Flustered, Atticus began talking quickly in his own defense. "N-n-no! Dudes, I paired up Chazzyspazzy with Aster here 'c-c-cuz they'd have their own time to themselves... And I chose to be with the Two Kids because Hassleberry has most of the food for me to chow down on... And Syrus because... He's uh..." he thought carefully. "He's um, nice."
"Nice?" spat Syrus. "Couldn't you think of a better adjective to describe me with?"
"Nope." the heartthrob was frank. He turned back to an unconvinced Jaden. "So that leaves the two of you."
Chazz looked pleased enough with the pairings. "Okay, I got it!" He shoved the five to the right. "You guys go this way. Aster and I will, um, conduct some uh, specific research the other way." He yanked the poor silver-haired boy to the left and ran off at the speed of light. "Tally-ho!"
"Oh yeah, we better get going too, kids!" Atticus said as he beamed at Syrus and Hassleberry. "We've got a parcel to find!" he did a 180. "Follow me, boys!" He jubilantly trudged back in the direction they came from.
"Wait up!" Syrus panted as he and Hassleberry ran after Atticus.
That left Jesse and Jaden standing there. Jesse tilted his head. "Wasn't that the way they came from? They're heading back to Duel Academy."
"Who cares?" Jaden scoffed. YES, THIS IS MY LUCKY DAY! thought the brunette.
"Um, Jaden, you feeling okay?" Jaden snapped out of his trance as he saw huge turquoise poles boring into his eyes. Jesse sighed as he shook his head. "I'm not sure if I was hallucinating, but I swear I saw your eyes carry a crazed look just now."
"I'm just uh..." Jaden tried to come up with a convincing excuse. "Just excited. Yeah, excited, that's all."
"Excited? Why?" Damn.
"Is it wrong to be excited over nothing? I can be excited whenever I want, can I not? Besides, being excited is good! Excitement is exciting, don't cha think? Yeah! It's great stuff..." the brunette trailed off when he discovered he was warbling nonsense.
Jesse's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Sure, you can be excited over nothing, but I still think there's a reason."
"Oh... Oh yeah! I sure do! It's because... Hmm... Let's see... B-b-because Atticus promised us chocolate if we found the parcel! Yup, yup! A-a-and that he'd write a poem for the team that found it!" Jaden mentally slapped himself. Good job Jaden, he thought sarcastically.
Jesse was still, obviously, unconvinced. He crossed his arms. "Atticus has the intellectual capacity of a rock."
How could you forget that Atticus was academically slower than others? Jaden scolded himself. MENTAL SLAP. Stupid. MENTAL SLAP. Stupid. MENT-
"Uh, Jaden, what's wrong with your face?" Jaden's face was contorted in pain.
"N-n-no reason, Jess!" the brunette laughed nervously. "Just mentally sla- I mean, thinking about stuff!"
The bluenette rolled his eyes. "Still about the chocolate prize?"
"Y-y-yeah! Besides, Chazzyspazzy said he would give us more chocolate than Atticus if we died." The brunette was genuinely grinning. "Mm, more chocolate." His eyes were shining. "I wanna die now!"
Jesse groaned. "Don't trust him."
"If you say so." Smiling pleasantly at the bluenette, Jaden grabbed ahold of his camping bag. "Let's find the parcel."
"Okay." Jesse matched his pace to Jaden's, and the two walked off.
"Jaden?"
"Hm?"
"I'm a transfer student and all, so I was wondering, isn't the abandoned dorm a five minute walk from Duel Academy?"
"Yeah." the brunette paused. "Why ask?"
"Well, since we could technically eat and everything at Duel Academy then sneak out to the abandoned dorm..." Jesse gestured to the huge load they were carrying. "Why did we have to carry all these RA-DAMNING stuff with us?"
The two groaned in unison.
"ATTICUS!" they hissed.
