HELLOOOOOOOO!! Again it seems it has taken me ages to update, but this time I update with a much longer chapter! XD I can actually be happy about updating this time!! YAY!!!
Thanks again for all your lovely reviews :) You guys are all so nice! I was actually waiting for someone to flame me since I put the first chapter of this fic up, but I haven't received a flame yet! Or so much as a slightly negative comment! I'm so lucky! (either that or I'm a good writer… frankly both options make me super happy XD)
This chapter actually has a part that inspired me to write this whole fic! (It's the bit where someone actually sings! As in I've written out the lyrics) I've actually gotten a little bored with the song I used, but seeing as it was in my original vision I decided to use it anyway.
Disclaimer: I do not own yada, yada, yada, (see other disclaimers in previous chapters.) or the songs I have used in this fic.
It was finally festival day.
Jaden sat up, he was a bit disappointed at not being able to see what would have happened next in his dream, but the mere thought of what today was filled him with excitement. He got out of bed and began to quickly get dressed with a big wide grin adorning his face that positively glowed. Once he was done he looked over at Syrus' bunk and noticed that not only was the beds occupant missing, but so were the sheets. Jaden smiled, sheet changing day already? Without a second thought Jaden stripped the sheets off his bed, and proceeded to the dorm laundry room.
He walked in to find Syrus just about to close the hatchet having already shoved his own sheets and some dirty clothes into the washing machine. Jaden ran up behind him and, after scaring the bejeezers out of the wee blue head, presented him with the brunette's sheets. Syrus looked at them, still hyperventilating, before stepping aside to allow Jaden to cram his laundry into the washing machine. The hatchet was closed, and the button reading 'Bizarre Wash' was pushed. Almost immediately the machine began to vibrate while the washing commenced. Jaden sat down and leaned against the machine to get his washing-day-morning-massage. Syrus laughed at his strange habit.
"So, when's the festival start?" asked Jaden grinning up at his friend.
"Uhh… I think in the evening, so we have time to get ready. I heard we don't even have to wear our uniforms!" said Syrus his large eyes glowing cutely with excitement.
"What's so great about not having to wear uniforms? Don't you like our uniforms?" asked Jaden puzzled.
"Well it's not that I don't… It's just that there aren't any girls in our dorm or in Ra yellow, so all the girls are in Obelisk blue. But they don't like to even look at anyone from Slifer red… So I was hoping I could get to know someone at the festival…" said Syrus blushing.
"Oh! So you're hoping for a girlfriend." said Jaden. Syrus blushed some more.
"Don't you want a girlfriend?" asked the bluenette.
Jaden went silent and thought for a bit, the washing machine still vibrating at his back.
"I don't know… I've never thought about it…" he said pensively.
"You mean you haven't even had a crush on anyone since we came here? Not even on one of the duel monster cards?" asked Syrus incredulous. Here they were in a school where girls were big breasted and wore short skirts for their uniforms, and Jaden didn't seem to even care. Obelisk blue was probably every guy's dream of paradise.
Jaden thought for a bit more.
"Nope, I guess I'm not interested in those sorts of things, at least not right now." said Jaden. "Anyways, breakfast!"
Syrus was just about to ask Jaden whether he even looked at the girls walking around campus, but had to stop himself as he was dragged off to the cafeteria. It wouldn't do to ask such questions of Jaden now, his whole brain was focused on food, and nothing else existed to him.
After breakfast Jaden and Syrus decided to go for a walk around campus and met up with Alexis, Bastion, and Atticus. Ten conversation topics, and 4 duels later, it was getting close to the time when the festival was supposed to start.
"Has anyone seen Chazz?" asked Jaden looking around for the 2,937th time. He'd been wondering where he was all day, but kept getting distracted by duels or a sudden interesting turn the conversation was taking, and hadn't been able to ask until now.
The rest of the group looked at him then at each other, finally noticing that Chazz was indeed missing and no-one had seen him since yesterday.
"No wonder I've been having such a relaxing time…" muttered Alexis.
"No wonder the conversation has been pleasant so far…" muttered Bastion.
"I thought he'd be getting ready for the festival." said Atticus looking like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Everyone raised an eyebrow at him. Atticus felt left out so he raised his as well. Everyone sighed.
"You think he'd have to take the whole day in order to get ready for the festival tonight?" asked Alexis with her hands on her hips, secretly wondering whether Atticus had been permanently brain damaged while he had been missing. "Not even the vainest female on campus would take that long."
"Although Chazz is kind of vain…" muttered Syrus.
Jaden felt his annoyance escalate, and he was a little worried. What if that whole thing yesterday… Okay, too much had happened for it to be one thing… what if yesterday had caused him to not want to see Jaden anymore, and he was hiding in his room? What if the raven haired teen wouldn't even want to go to the festival with the rest of them?
"You, know, I think I'm going to go look for him." said Jaden.
"Oh don't worry!" said Atticus trying to wave the others worries aside. "He'll probably show up at the festival. You should get ready."
"But I am ready." stated Jaden looking confused. "I've been ready all day."
"But you're just in you're everyday school uniform." said Bastion. "Aren't you going to change into something more festive?"
Jaden gave him a blank look. Everyone sweat dropped, except for Atticus.
"Well, if you aren't looking to impress anyone, and feel comfortable in those clothes then I suppose it doesn't matter." said Atticus sagely.
"Huh? Impress someone? If I wanted to impress someone I'd duel 'em." said Jaden.
"Hmm… that's actually a strategy I haven't even tried before." said Atticus looking seriously pensive.
"This conversation is making me miss Chazz…" muttered Syrus almost looking depressed at the two brunettes.
"I know what you mean…" admitted Alexis.
"I thought blondes were supposed to be the stupid ones… not brunettes…" muttered Bastion.
"Hey!" said Alexis looking affronted.
"Uh… hehe… No offence!" said Bastion smiling awkwardly while waving a hand in front of him in an effort to ward Alexis off.
"Well, I'm going! See ya guys at the festival!" said Jaden before running towards the Slifer red dorm.
"Wait for me!" yelled Syrus as he ran after the speedy brunette.
"Are you going to help me look for Chazz?" asked Jaden slowing down a little to allow the shorter of the two to catch up with him.
"I agree with the others, Chazz'll turn up at the festival. I just want to get ready, and you should too." said Syrus.
They came to their dorm and Syrus forced (as best he could) Jaden into their room where he proceeded to go through Jaden's clothes looking for suitable ones for the festival.
Jaden sat down moodily on the rickety chair next their desk, arms crossed, scowling at his lap. He looked over at Syrus' bed and noticed the little bluenette had already set out his own clothes for the night, a plain white dress-shirt and dark blue jeans.
"Um, Jaden? Are you mad?" asked the bluenette timidly, having noticed the unusually quiet brunette scowling at his bed.
Jaden snapped to look at Syrus, and sighed. "I don't see the point of dressing up, and I wanna go look for Chazz."
"Why are you so worried? It's not like he's left Duel Academy or anything." said Syrus turning to Jaden. "Did something happen yesterday that I don't know about?"
Jaden froze in terror.
'Oh HELL! He knows!!!' thought Jaden in panic as he tried to keep his face neutral. 'I should've known that he knows! Especially after yesterdays dare!! AAARRRRGH! Syrus I thought you were too innocent for these sorts of things!!!!!!!!!'
"U-um-m…. N-no! What ever made you think th-that? Hehe…"
Syrus looked at him in concern. Jaden seemed nervous about something, which often meant that he was either hiding something, or someone was mad and he was hiding from them.
"Are you hiding something?" asked Syrus.
"No! I just don't think its l-like Chazz to not show up to hang out with us, and just when we seemed to be getting along."
"You're nervous about something and that usually means you're hiding something."
"I'm not… I'm just…worried. Yes! Worried that the dare yesterday might have upset him!"
Syrus scrutinized Jaden with a piercing look for another moment before looking at the pile of Jaden's clothes on the floor. During the bluenette's time of inattentiveness, Jaden quickly dabbed at the sweat on his face with the sleeves of his school uniform, hoping that Syrus had somehow miraculously not noticed it.
"Hmm... maybe you're right. He's pretty good at being pompous, so he'll have no trouble acting that way to cover something up…" said Syrus pensively, his fingers rubbing at his chin in thought.
Jaden was tempted to tell the little bluenette to 'piss off'. However seeing as his friend was simply stating a fact, and that it wouldn't be a very friend like thing to do, he decided against it.
"How about you pick your clothes, and change really quickly, and then go look for him?" suggested Syrus.
"We probably should have done that from the beginning." muttered Jaden.
"Yeah… well get to picking and changing or you won't have much time left. Although I still think he'll show up at the festival." said Syrus sweat dropping.
"Alright, this red T-shirt, and these jean cargo pants." he said picking them out and putting them on.
"You like red don't you?"
"Yeah, bye!" Jaden was out the door.
"Guess it's my turn…" said Syrus as he closed the door Jaden had left open and cleaned up the mess he'd made with Jaden's clothes.
'Right, first place to check, and most likely place he'll be at seeing as we haven't seen him anywhere while walking around today.' Jaden stood in front of Chazz's 'room'. He opened the door and stepped inside, noticing how it was dark. The curtains were drawn, so it was a little hard to see, but thankfully the little light that leaked in was keeping the whole place from being pitch black. He walked over to the door next to the bathroom, thinking that it probably lead to Chazz's bedroom. Opening the door, he saw that he was right. Inside was a nicely furnished room, with a mahogany dresser, and a closet on the left wall. A mirror hung on the back wall, and a ways over was a nightstand next to a gorgeous four poster bed, draped in blue and black sheets. On the bed and under the sheets was a large obscure shape snoring peacefully.
Jaden blushed. This was the first time he'd seen Chazz's actual bedroom, and he knew that perhaps he should leave, seeing as he wasn't invited in, and Chazz would most likely not appreciate him in here spying on him. Though he was not spying on him, but simply worried because the raven haired teen hadn't been around today. He wondered if the black Slifer had slept all day, he looked so… cu---peaceful. Yeeeeeees... peaceful. Jaden slowly approached the bed. He'd have to wake up sleeping Chazzy anyway because it was going to be time for the festival to start soon, and if he had to change clothes, then so did Chazz.
He slowly pulled the covers away to reveal a black uniform clad body. Chazz looked so peaceful and comfortable that Jaden was tempted to just crawl in and snuggle up to him. However he knew the other wouldn't enjoy waking up with another guy in his bed. He knew he himself wouldn't want to wake up that way either… well maybe, depending---
Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway. Moving on. Jaden placed a hand on Chazz's warm shoulder before giving him a gentle shake. The raven haired teen muttered something in his sleep that sounded strangely like 'Shut the hell up or I'll feed you to Fluffy!'. Jaden snickered, before giving Chazz another, this time firmer, shake. The black Slifer groggily opened his eyes, and then blinked a couple times before closing them again.
"Chazz?" whispered Jaden.
Said teen shot up straight, and a fist would have hit Jaden straight in the face, very hard, had the brunette not already fallen over at the sudden movement.
Chazz leapt out of bed and was on him, pulling back a fist for another hit when his eyes focused on the brunette that was under him. Again.
"Uhh… Hi!" said Jaden raising a hand in greeting, not really sure what else to do.
"Sorry." was Chazz's awkward reply to Jaden's awkward greeting as he got off the brunette and sat on his bed. Jaden sat up and watched as Chazz picked up the alarm clock that sat on his nightstand. There was a moment of silence, in which Chazz put the alarm clock back on the nightstand, before he spoke.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in a neutral tone of voice.
"I was looking for you, I haven't seen you all day, and nobody else has either so I got wo—curious." said Jaden.
"wo—curious?" asked Chazz, eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, was wondering what you were up to. Besides the festival will start soon and I just wanted to make sure you're coming." said Jaden giving a little chuckle and a grin. "So how come you were asleep? Did you sleep all day, 'cause if you did you didn't eat and you should be hungry, and probably eat. Oh, and before I forget, why did you attack me?"
"I didn't sleep all day." said Chazz indignantly.
"Good, because I'd be wondering what you spent the night doing…" a few unbidden images came into his mind at that response and Jaden was suddenly thankful that it was dark so the other couldn't see him blush. Unless Chazz drove him to become even more embarrassed, in which case Jaden was sure that he'd start glowing like Rudolph the red-nose reindeer's nose.
Chazz decided to ignore the last comment as he was pretty sure the brunette had no idea what he was saying.
"To answer your questions, I attacked you out of reflex. I'm not used to waking up with someone looming over me, and seeing as my family is rich and influential, there's always been a risk that someone would try to attack or murder me, so I was taught self-defence."
"Wow!"
"Also, I got up early in the morning to help set up the festival carnival booths and put up decorations. I was so tired after that I decided to take a nap before the festival started."
"Well it's a good thing I came along and woke you up or you wouldn't have had time to change." said Jaden offhandedly, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Chazz's bed.
"Change? Who's going to change?" questioned Chazz looking down at him in mild confusion.
"You are! The others forced me to change. So since I had to change, you have to change!" said Jaden, nodding like what he just said actually made sense.
Chazz chuckled, "You're actually wearing something other then your uniform? Stand up and let me see."
Jaden stood, and had to blink the spots out of his eyes as the lights suddenly went on. Chazz raked his eyes up and down the brunette's clothed body.
"Hmm, did the smurf pick these out for you?"
"No, I picked them out myself, and don't call Syrus a smurf only his hair is blue, and it's the wrong blue too." said Jaden turning around to comply with Chazz's hand signal.
"Well I'll be, you can actually dress yourself." stated Chazz dryly, with a smile playing in his eyes.
"Thanks Chazz, I think I look good too." said Jaden with a grin.
The black Slifer gave a snort before heading for his closet.
"Alright, well I'll change now, so you can go away and get ready."
"But I am ready, have been all day. Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
"Well then you can go away and do something else."
"Can I go watch TV?"
"…Alright, as long as you don't destroy it or anything."
"Hooray!" cried Jaden jumping and pumping his fist into the air before quickly exiting the room. Several seconds later Chazz could hear his TV turn on along with an exclamation of 'Let the channel surfing commence!'
Chazz looked at the door that lead to the other room. 'I wonder if he even knows what the word 'commence' means.' The black Slifer gave a laugh before donning on black jeans and a black dress shirt.
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The two met up with the rest of the gang at the entrance to the festival grounds, which was being held at the Obelisk blue beaches. A stage sat right by the ocean, but out of the waters reach. There were four mike stands on stage, along with several stage amps further to the back. A small TV screen stood in the front corner of the stage facing the four mikes.
"There's going to be karaoke!" said Atticus pointing towards the stage.
"Cool!" exclaimed Syrus.
"I wonder who will be up there singing." said Bastion
"It won't be me, that's for sure." said Chazz giving the stage a look of dislike.
"Famous last words." muttered Bastion amusedly.
"What was that Ra creampuff?" snarled Chazz turning a glare toward Bastion.
"Nothing, noting at all…" said Bastion in a placating tone of voice while holding his hands up as a shield not really meeting the others eyes.
As the group walked around they saw that there were two rows of carnival booths, each with their own game for the students to play as well as a very interesting sign that said that the haunted house would be opened at midnight.
"A h-haunted h-house?" said Syrus looking at the sign in fear. "We don't have to go there do we?"
"If you're too scared to go, then you can wait outside." said Chazz dismissively.
"Aww Syrus you should come with us! It'll be so much fun!" said Jaden excitedly bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"B-but we have t-to go in at m-m-mid-n-night!" protested Syrus eyes looking pleadingly at Jaden.
"You might as well give it a whirl since I went through the trouble of setting it up." asserted Chazz pinning Syrus with a look that clearly said 'You. Are. Going'.
"Where is the haunted house?" asked Atticus looking at the sign with interest.
"It's at the abandoned dorm." answered Chazz
"T-the abandoned dorm?"
To everyone's surprise Atticus paled, and started to look slightly… uncomfortably toward the abandoned dorm.
"Atticus? Are you afraid of the abandoned dorm?" asked Alexis instantly by her older brother's side and looking up at him worriedly.
Atticus swallowed before answering "No, no, of course not Sisi! I just remembered that I have a date tonight, after midnight. Hehe…"
Chazz crossed his arms and gave Atticus a do-you-honestly-think-they-believe-you-? look.
"Wow a date that late? How come?" Jaden asked, looking baffled. Everyone sweat dropped. Only Jaden could be that stupid.
"You're not coming?" asked Chazz giving his best hurt look, which naturally fooled no-one, except for Atticus and Jaden, but that was only because everyone else knew Chazz too well. "I worked really hard on it."
Atticus looked guiltily at the ground.
"I'd understand if you were scared…" continued Chazz "But if you're going to ditch us to go on a date with some girl…"
"Oh all right! I admit it… I have no date." said Atticus throwing his hands up into the air dramatically while tears of shame spilled forth from his eyes like great waterfalls.
Alexis gave a cough.
"…right… And I… don't want to go to the abandoned dorm. Don't really like going near it since my whole disappearance thing…" said Atticus sheepishly.
Alexis gave Chazz a little smile as thanks for helping her get her brother to admit his fears. After all acceptance was the first step towards overcoming your fears.
Chazz, blushing slightly, gave her a small smile in return. Jaden instantly picked up on what was going on between the two of them and tried hard to squash the strange feelings of annoyance it caused to well up in the pit of his stomach. Atticus had no idea what was going on between his sister and Chazz, but it seemed to be going well for Chazz so he just decided to smile proudly at the raven haired teen.
Syrus and Bastion, whether they noticed all that transpired or not, gave no indication of having any idea what was going on or noticing that something was going on in the first place.
Atticus pulled Chazz aside as the rest of the gang continued walking around the carnival booths trying to decide what to do first.
"Hey, even if I don't go to the haunted house, you should totally go with Alexis! That way when she gets scared she'll cling to you!" said Atticus smiling suggestively at the raven haired teen.
Chazz blushed slightly, looking happy and hopeful at the thought of going to the haunted house with Alexis… just the two of them…
He was jerked out of those thoughts when Atticus began to drag him along with him as they caught up with the rest of the group of friends.
The two guys had just caught up, when Alexis was bowled over by her over excited friend Mindy, who was squealing about something no one understood. Jasmine stood over the two laughing at them while Alexis shouted at Mindy (A/N: You know what they look like, if not I suggest you watch the anime, or type an image search on google) for knocking her over and at Jasmine for not helping the situation. After a while of struggling the two got up.
"There are like, so many totally hot guys everywhere Alexis! You should so come with us on a triple date! You can even pick any guy here, their like, all looking for a goodtime!"
"Umm… no thanks Mindy, I think I'll just stick with these guys." said Alexis hoping that Mindy and Jasmine would give up and leave her be. She was already near the guy she wouldn't mind going out with, what on earth would she need to go guy hunting for?
"But Alexis…" whined Mindy.
"We haven't hung out together in forever." said Jasmine looking at Alexis in concern.
Alexis looked at her two best friends and almost cringed as she suddenly felt a wave of guilt clench at her heart. It was true, she had been spending less and less time with her friends. It was like she was putting distance between herself and them. It had been ages since they had come along with her to the Slifer dorms to hang out with her new group of friends and, it wasn't like she had ever gone out of her way to invite them to join her.
"I guess you're right… I'm sorry, but I do want to spend today with these guys, so how about you two just join us?" suggested Alexis hopefully.
Mindy and Jasmine looked at each other. Mindy pouted looking annoyed and put off. Jasmine on the other hand looked like she'd probably agree to Alexis' suggestion, and she did.
"But Jasmine there are so many guys out there!" whined Mindy.
"Well, if they're that important to you, then you can go, but I think I'll stick around here with Alexis and her harem of men."
"Wha- their not!" gasped Alexis outraged and disgusted at the same time.
"But…" muttered Mindy, still not completely convinced.
"Oh come on." whispered Jasmine "Atticus is here hanging with them, you might as well."
This prompted Mindy to agree immediately and soon she was stuck to Atticus' arm, smiling happily as they walked around.
The carnival booths were numerous and the group of teens was able to play many of the games, all of which were extremely entertaining.
Their first game was the funnest in Chazz's opinion. Dunk the Dummy. It consisted of a person sitting on a little platform just above a huge vat of water. There was a target connected to the platform. The aim of the game was to hit the target; this would trigger the platform to drop the dummy into the vat of water. In this case, the dummy sitting on the platform was none other then Dr. Crowler, who didn't seem all too pleased by it. However he was unable to keep his less then polite comments to himself every time someone threw a ball at the target, and so, everyone who tried kept at it until they had successfully dunked him.
The group took their time with Dunk the Dummy, and came back several times, although the only ones who actually managed to hit the target were Atticus, Jaden, Alexis, Jasmine, and Chazz. The black Slifer hadn't even tried the first time, and had been the first to dunk Dr. Crowler out of the group. He hadn't even been aware of the game until Crowler had fallen into the vat of water. His back had been to the booth, and Jaden had simply shoved a ball into his hand without giving him any sort of explanation. The idiot had simply grinned at him, so the raven haired teen had simply assumed that the brunette was bored and had handed him a ball for no reason. The Black Slifer then chucked the ball over his shoulder only to hear a splash and a curse come from behind him. Needless to say he was instantly surrounded by the rest of the group complementing him on his great shot and a job well done, while he contemplated why Crowler was sitting in a tub of water furiously shaking a fist at him.
They had moved onto other games before coming to a shoot-all-the-moving-targets-within-a-time-limit-and-you-win-a-prize. Jaden had taken to this one and proceeded to shoot every target with minutes to spear on the time limit. For his excellent shooting he received a huge pink ballerina doll as a prize. Jaden had stared at the monstrous thing for a second before handing it to Alexis. He certainly didn't want it, and Alexis had been eyeing it hopefully. She thanked him graciously for the gift, in the middle of which, Jaden had suddenly felt extremely cold. He subtly looked around and saw Chazz glaring at him icily. Swallowing uncomfortably he decided to start walking to the next game booth.
Unfortunately for Jaden there had been a huge swarm of people coming from the opposite direction headed toward 'Dunk the Dummy'. While he fought his way through the herd of students enthusiastically heading toward the booth they had left not too long ago, Jaden felt a hands grab hold of his arm. He turned to see Alexis clutching at him and thought nothing of it seeing as Syrus did it all the time when they were in these situations so he wouldn't get lost or trampled on. Not too long after that he felt an intense burning at the back of his head. The brunette didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. He knew who it was, he could feel it. If the raven haired teen had glared any harder Jaden could have sworn his head would have exploded.
After they had gotten through the crowd of people, Jaden made sure to free himself from Alexis before continuing on his way. The next game had been completely dominated by Chazz who won simply out of how much energy he had suddenly acquired through his jealousy. Although that may have had something to do with the fact that the game had been great for stress/anger relief, as 'Whack a Mole' always seemed to be. The black Slifer had ended up playing and winning so may times that he won a rare card out it, which put him into a good mood for the rest of their time at the carnival booths.
The last booth they visited before the karaoke part of the evening started had been the usual knocking-cans-over-with-a-ball booth. This one was dominated largely by Bastion, who used his mathematical skills to come up with the precise angle he needed to knock all the cans over in one go. The Ra yellow ended up winning prizes for all the girls…. and Syrus…
In the end the person running the booth paid Bastion to go away and never come back. Bastion was happy; he could now afford more paint to cover up all the equations written all over the walls of his dorm room.
Now the group stood in front of the stage, listening and dancing to the music that was being played. It wasn't long before volunteers for karaoke started to go on stage one by one, to sing a song chosen by the person in charge of the karaoke machine. Some sang well, while others…..didn't, to put it mildly. Atticus had been one of the volunteers, singing 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Dolls. While he was known all over DA for his music obsession, he still didn't sound too good singing. He was better then some, but definitely not really all that great (A/N: for the Atticus fans who think he would sing well, watch the dub version of the episode where SocietyOfLight!Chazz duels Alexis. shivers that was horrible!).
Chazz was having fun, he didn't even mind that some of the people who went up on stage sounded like tortured cats. Alexis was standing by him, and for once wasn't fawning over Jaden, and Atticus was giving him the thumbs-up while trying to keep everyone else away from going over and ruining Chazz's precious Alexis-time. The song ended and the person who had been singing got off stage. The crowd cheered as the guy in charge of the karaoke machine came to stand in the middle of the stage to most likely announce the next song.
"Hey everyone! Wasn't that fun? Well, that's the end of the volunteer karaoke, at least for now."
This was greeted with a great "Oooooh!" from the crowd.
"Oh don't worry folks! The karaoke will continue! We'll just be picking people at random now!"
The crowd cheered, though it was clear that some students looked apprehensive.
"Here's how it works, I'm going to put the karaoke machine on 'random select', that way we won't know what song is next. Then while we wait for the machine to select a song, my assistants, who are already mingling among you, will pick a person to come up on stage. Mind you not all the songs require just 1 person, so beware, 'cause some may require more and it just might be you!"
Almost everyone cheered at this, while some were too preoccupied looking for the 'assistants' who were prowling around in the sea of people.
"Alright then!" shouted the guy on stage. "Random select!"
The machine began to go through the long list of songs it had. Everyone waited to see what would happen next.
"Alright! The first song is—wha? How did that get in there? Who the hell entered this one? Umm… oh well… Right! Our first song is 'You are a Pirate' by LazyTown!"
You could distinctly hear a 'WHA-?' rise up from the crowd along with hysterical laughter.
"Our singer is?"
From the crowd a kid with blond spiky hair and green eyes had his hand raised by a poke dotted cloaked figure wearing neon pink sunglasses standing next to him.
"You! With the blond spiky hair, please come on up!" said the karaoke guy who looked like he was going to burst out laughing.
The song ended up being a duet, so a girl was chosen from the crowd, and both individuals ended up singing the song, despite their protests, as the crowd egged them on.
A few more songs were selected, among them 'Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous' by Good Charlotte, 'Perfect Day' by Hoku, 'Paid my Dues' by Anastacia, '18 till I die' by Bryan Adams, 'Bitch' by Meredith Brooks, as well as many more, and a few more people sang. Most actually sang quite well, which was a surprise, as Chazz had commented, although the music itself might have not always been to his liking.
"Alright! Our next song! 'I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You' from High School Musical! Another duet! (A/N: it is actually a quartet but seeing as I'm the author I decided to make it just a duet… less people so more focus on Chazz ;P) Now! Who are our next victims- I mean singers?"
To Chazz's horror his hand was suddenly seized by someone and raised. Looking back with a murderous glare, he was greeted by the sight of neon pink sunglasses. The black Slifer struggled to free his hand before anyone noticed it was up, but it was too late. Everyone noticed, and he could see that Mindy's hand was up as well. Oh fuck! He had to try and sing? And with Mindy of all people? Chazz suddenly realized that he was being dragged toward the stage by the assistant still firmly attached to his wrist, and his back was being pushed by… the whole freaking audience! With the exception of Mindy. He could hear Jaden laughing cheerily and telling him to 'go on' and 'don't be shy'. The little bastard! Why couldn't he have been picked? Why did 'the Chazz' have to sing a stupid song, up on stage, in front of a bunch of people??
He tried his best to struggle free, but with so many people pushing him up on stage there was no way he could escape. Soon he was dragged to stand in front of a mike, and told to look at the screen and only sing the stuff in red unless it was marked with 'both'.
"Oh come on Chazz this isn't so bad! If you, like, sound absolutely horrible then I'll just, like, sing over you." assured Mindy with a dim-witted smile.
Chazz gave her a look which clearly said 'Drop Dead', however the dumb female (who didn't even deserve to be in Obelisk blue as that dorm was supposed to be reserved for only the best on the whole island) didn't even notice as she began to look toward the screen as the music started.
Jaden watched the raven haired teen now standing on stage, glaring sourly at Mindy. Whatever it is she had said to him, it definitely hadn't worked; it looked like it had made him extremely angry. The music started, dashing his hopes that perhaps, for Chazz's sake, the song would have been hard rock or something like that so that there wouldn't have been as much singing involved as there was screaming. Oh well.
Jaden noticed Chazz staring into the crowd, and then catch sight of something of interest, as the song progressed to the actual bit where one of them would actually have to sing, his stance changed and he looked to the screen looking very determined. As if he was in a duel and he was going make damn sure he was going to win hands down. Jaden glanced in the direction Chazz had, and immediately saw what had caught his attention, Alexis. He had seen Alexis and somehow decided that he was going to try his best to impress her. After all, he knew the black Slifer liked the busty blonde, so it was only natural for the raven haired teen to want to do his best in order to hopefully impress her enough for her to fall for him. Somehow knowing and realizing all this made his heart clench painfully, so painfully that he almost wanted to cry out in pain. Jaden looked back at the stage, to see that Chazz had opened his mouth to start.
Chazz:
Ya never know what you're gonna feel, oh
Ya never see it comin' suddenly it's real
Mindy:
Oh, never even crossed my mind, no
That I would ever end up here tonight
Jaden stared, his jaw pretty much touching the ground. Even Mindy looked extremely surprised, Chazz wasn't just good, he was great! As soon as the first lyrics had left his mouth, it was like he was a completely different person. His eyes were half lidded, his voice was low, sultry and sexy, making shivers run up and down Jaden's spine and goose-bumps rise up on his skin. The black Slifer moved with the grace and ease of a cat, swaying to the music looking like a god. His magnificent ebony hair falling over his eyes while he tossed his head in time with the music, the lights all on him, making him shine like he belonged up in the night sky.
Both:
All things change
When you don't expect them to (yeah, oh)
Jaden stopped breathing. He had to forcefully remind himself to breath when his lungs started to burn fiercely in protest. Chazz just looked so, so– Good!
No one knows
What the future's gonna do
…Not that he didn't usually look good…
I never even noticed
That you've been there all along
I can't take my eyes off of you
I know you feel the same way too, yeah
I can't take my eyes off of you
All it took . . . Was one look
For a dream come true
Jaden's eyes widened at his own thoughts, but somehow, he wasn't all as surprised as he thought he should have been. The way Chazz moved and the look he had in his eyes was doing something to him, and then something suddenly clicked. He remembered the dreams he'd had about the black Slifer.
Chazz:
Yeah, we got a good thing goin' on
Mindy:
Oh, right here is right where we belong
He remembered how good it had felt to hug Chazz when he had been reassuring him of their friendship that day.
Both:
You never really know what you might find
Now all I see is you and I
He remembered how happy he was and how much fun he had when Chazz had been tutoring him, when it had been just the two of them.
You're everything I never knew
That I've been looking for
He remembered how much he hadn't wanted the tutoring to end, so that he could keep the raven haired teen all for himself at least for a day once a week.
Can't take my eyes off of you
Oh, oh, oh yeah (oh, oh, oh)
So let the music play
Can't take my eyes off of you
Yeah, the feeling's getting' stronger
And I never ever felt this way
He hated seeing Chazz sad, hated seeing him hurt, he wanted nothing more then to be there for him, always. But most of all, he wanted nothing more but to able to crawl into the others arms, and see him smile at him warmly.
Alright, I see everything
In your eyes. . . (Oh, yeah)
Alright, something's happening
Cause everyone's around but
You're the only one I see
It finally sunk in, he could finally see, why he was always feeling strange things for the black Slifer, and why said person had constantly been on his mind. He loved him. Well, Jaden wasn't exactly sure what love felt like, or whether he was truly in love with the black Slifer, but he did know that his feelings surpassed those you feel for even the closest of friends, and calling it a crush, or saying that he 'liked Chazz in that way' just seemed stupid. Like it was a serious understatement of his feelings. So, for a lack of a better word to use, he was in love with Chazz.
I can't take my eyes off of you
Feelings like I never knew (I never knew, never knew)
I can't take my eyes off of you
From the start. . . Got my heart
Yeah, you do
The song was coming to an end, and it was only then that Jaden noticed that Chazz had started staring at one spot in the crowd again. Jaden looked over, only to see that the black Slifer had been staring at Alexis again.
Can't take my eyes off of you!
Jaden's heart sank. In his revelation of finally seeing what he felt for Chazz, he had forgotten. The black Slifer was completely head over heels for Alexis. Jaden could feel his eyes tear up, as he desperately fought to suppress this sudden wave of despair, his heart shattering with the last fading note of the song.
Why did it hurt so much? Jaden had known the whole time how Chazz felt toward Alexis. He'd known the whole time! The only thing he'd felt before was jealousy (he recognized what the strange feeling of anger/annoyance was now), but now he felt like all he wanted to do was go back into his dorm room, possibly drown himself in his own tears, and then sleep the rest of his life away.
The crowd cheered wildly as Chazz and Mindy stepped down from the stage.
Jaden didn't feel like cheering. His enthusiasm had all drained away. The rest of the gang was too focused on complementing Chazz and Mindy to notice anything off with Jaden let alone the look of utter sadness and emptiness gracing his features. The heartbroken brunette was almost grateful for the way the duo distracted everyone else from him. He could have a few more moments away from the spotlight and everyone else, before having to forcefully pull himself together. Jaden may have just suddenly realized his feelings for the black Slifer and then had his heart crushed just as quickly, when he realized his affections were never going to be returned, but that didn't mean he had to blow his cover and tell everyone about it.
He looked over at the group to see Alexis standing in front of Chazz, complementing the black Slifer on his singing and seeing said Slifer positively glow from the attention. The brunette had to look away, a sharp stab of pain searing through his already shattered heart. He took a deep breath to steady himself. It wasn't going to be easy, but he knew that if he didn't want anyone to find out his secret, then he'd have to act like everything was great, and like he was having a great time. Another deep breath and he jumped in.
"Wow! That was awesome Chazz! I had no idea you could sing like that!!" yelled the brunette over all the noise.
"No-one did!!" shouted Mindy.
"That certainly was a spectacular show from someone who wasn't even planning to get up on stage and sing." yelled Bastion.
Chazz's eyes lingered a moment longer on the seemingly happy and excited brunette, before turning to throw Mindy a glare and say something smug to Bastion.
Trying his best to act normal, Jaden asked to see Syrus' watch (he himself didn't wear one, which would explain why he was always late for school). All he really wanted to do was see what time it was so that he could possibly leave with the excuse that he was tired, and a little hungry. However, to his misery, it was only midnight. Jaden took a moment to think why he had the feeling that midnight tonight held a special significance, when he remembered. The haunted house! They still had to go there… maybe after they went there he could leave, and stop having to act all happy like this. It was making him sick to the pit of his stomach, and if he had to keep this charade up for much longer he would either burst into tears in front of everyone, or hurl instead. Sure, he'd only been acting for about 5 minutes, but Jaden was not used to having to hide such strong emotions from everyone. He'd always had someone he could tell these sorts of things to.
"Hey guys!" shouted Jaden excitedly, a huge grin plastered on his face, "It's midnight! The haunted house is now open! Let's go!"
"But the karaoke!" exclaimed Atticus looking slightly shifty eyed.
"It's alright brother, you don't have to come. Syrus doesn't want to go either, so you two can wait for us here if you like." said Alexis kindly, with Syrus nodding in earnest beside her.
Atticus looked to Syrus. "You don't like the abandoned dorm either?"
"No, I don't like haunted houses…" said Syrus sheepishly.
"You have no appreciation for other people's hard work." quipped Chazz with a huff.
"I'm more afraid knowing how much work and effort you put into it… It's probably going to be mega-scary! And there's no way I'm going into something that scary, I don't want to die of a heart attack." mumbled Syrus looking at his feet.
Chazz blinked. "Whatever." he said with a shake of the head.
"Come on guys let's go!" called Jaden, who had already moved a small distance away from the group heading toward the haunted house, hoping to draw the others into following him. He tried hard to act like himself; he waved his arms, smiled real big, and jumped up and down in excitement. The brunette knew himself to be a very bad liar, but hopefully he was a decent actor.
The others laughed at his antics and followed, after deciding to meet back up with Syrus and Atticus at the Dunk the Dummy booth.