Here's the next chapter! It's a little late because I was competing in an Internet competition for a whole month. Hopefully it's good. R&R.

Disclaimer: Yeah…I still don't own Yu-gi-oh or its characters and I never will.

A Very Surprising Meeting

Joey sighed as he stopped his car for what felt like the millionth time. He was on his way to the grocery store, where he would be meeting Courtney and Jason for the first time since he arrived in California. However, he was going to be late, because as luck would have it, everyone seemed to need to go down that particular street. Joey had been waiting in that line for over forty-five minutes.

Joey honked his horn. "Hurry up already! I've got a meeting to go to and I'm already late!" he shouted out the window.

"No one gives a damn, asshole!" the person in front of him yelled back.

Joey rolled his eyes. He came to find that Americans were quite rude. He wasn't the type to stereotype, but his annoyance caused him to do so on several occasions, like the one he was in. He leaned back into the seat and sighed again. He thought about just walking the rest of the way there, but he didn't wanna leave the car parked in the middle of the street. He checked his watch impatiently and honked his horn again. Slowly, the line started to move up.

After another hour had passed, Joey finally pulled into the grocery store driveway. He quickly hopped out of the car and checked himself in the mirror. Confident that he looked decent, he headed inside the store and started looking for them. He was supposed to meet them down the cereal aisle, so he started checking the signs hanging above each aisle. When he found the cereal aisle, he turned into and stopped short. His breath caught in his chest.

"…Mai?" Joey said faintly.

"Joey? What the hell are you doing here?" Mai asked, dropping the box of cereal she was holding.

"I'm…I'm here for a meeting," Joey replied, his eyes wide. "Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for a certain cereal for my cousin," Mai said, her eyes traveling over him. "I…I never expected to see you here."

"Likewise," Joey said.

"…If I may ask, who are you meeting here?" Mai asked.

"Just some people that want to hire me to work for them," Joey replied. "I'm in construction now."

"Oh really? That's cool," Mai said quietly. She looked around awkwardly. "So, where are the people you're meeting?"

"I don't know," Joey replied, looking behind him. "They're not…oh wait. There they are."

He walked forward and shook hands with both Courtney and Jason. They were standing a couple of feet behind Mai. When Mai turned around, her eyes traveled over both of them. Her eyes widened and she stepped forward.

"What the hell is going on here?" Mai asked. Her question was not directed at Joey, but at Courtney.

Courtney averted her eyes. "Well, you see, we were…" she trailed off and looked at Jason, her eyes begging him to finish her sentence.

"We were meeting Joey to discuss something important," Jason said with a small smile. "It's business, of course."

"Oh really?" Mai asked, her eyebrows raised. "And did you tell Joey, before you came here of course, that neither of you know anything about construction?"

Jason gulped and Courtney's eyes were gazing intently at her shoes. Joey looked from one to the other, then to Mai.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"They're not actually in a construction business," Mai replied irritably. "Courtney's my cousin and Jason is her husband. They obviously did this as some sort of cruel, fucked up joke." She grabbed the cereal box that she had dropped and put it back on the shelf. "Now I'm leaving before they try any other bullshit, and I suggest you do the same." She turned around and left.

Joey looked at the Pursers. "Ok, now, why don't you two tell me what's going on?"

Courtney sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. We did lie to you about being in the construction business. But we had a good reason." She looked at Joey. "We know all about what happened between you and Mai. She told us everything when she first came here. And even though it's been a year, she still misses you. So Jason and I came up with a brilliant plan. We thought that if we could get the two of you together again, maybe you two would get back together or something."

"We did a lot of research before we started this up, of course," Jason said. "I found out your profession, and immediately thought of ways to get you to come down on business. Courtney started thinking of ways to get the two of you in the same room without either of you suspecting anything. In the end, we came up with the plan that we just carried out."

"But why did you want Mai and I to get back together?" Joey asked, confused.

"Because…" Jason looked at Courtney.

"Because…well…there's more going on than you know, and we don't like it," Courtney explained. "I can't tell you everything right now. You just need to trust us and believe that you need to get Mai back."

Joey looked at them both. "This is ridiculous. If Mai and I were going to get back together, it would've already happened. And it didn't. I'm over her and she's over me. I'm not going to pursue this. And I think I've wasted enough of my time here, so if you don't mind, I'm going to take the next plane back home."

Courtney grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. "Please don't go yet," she said. "We wouldn't have asked you here if we seriously didn't need your help. Just please come back to our house with us. You'll understand what's going on when we get there."

Joey leaned against the shelves and thought. He didn't know what the hell was going on, and he was irritated that he had been lied to. This had nothing to do with business, and he was missing weeks of work for nothing. And these people had set it up so he and Mai could meet again. Only she didn't want to see him again…but they said that they needed his help with something regarding her. Curiosity overriding irritation, he nodded silently and followed them out of the store.

Joey was silent the entire car ride over to Mai's new house. Courtney and Jason kept looking at each other, as if silently communicating what they planned on doing. Jason tried to make small conversation with Joey, but Joey glared at him and Jason gave up. Joey wasn't exactly sure why he was going with them. They had lied to him, and that was something Joey frowned upon. But he was incredibly curious about Mai's "problem", or whatever it was that they said was wrong.

"We're almost there," Jason said. He looked back at Joey. "I hope you're ready for this. I know it's been a while since you've last seen her, so what's going on now might come as quite a shock to you."

Joey sat up straight. "What exactly is it?" he asked.

"We can't tell you," Jason answered. "You'll have to see it for yourself."

Joey sighed. "Fine. But let's try to make this quick. I want to hop the first plane I can back home. My sister is going through a difficult time with her boyfriend and I'd rather be there helping her than sitting around here."

"But we need your help," Courtney said quickly. "Mai needs your help. You wouldn't want to leave her, would you?"

"Seem to me like Mai doesn't even know why I'm here," Joey replied. "So I don't think she needs my help all that much."

Courtney hesitated for a second. "Well…I don't think she knows that she needs your help, but I promise that she does."

Joey sighed. "Alright, I believe you. But if this takes too long, I'm outta here."

"It shouldn't take that long," Jason replied. "But, I wouldn't be making plans with anyone for a bit. Just in case," he added.

They pulled up into the driveway and got out of the car. Courtney searched her bag for her keys while Jason watched Joey out of the corner of his eye. Joey was checking out his surroundings, taking in everything about Mai's new house. He noticed that Mai's old duel disk was on the porch, cards in place. It made him wonder briefly if she still dueled, or if she was planning on getting rid of it. However, these thoughts were banished from his mind when he entered the house and stepped into the living room.

"Joey? What the hell are you doing here?" a voice asked.

Joey stood there in numb disbelief. "Duke?"

(End Chapter 7)

Review please! Yeah I know it's not brilliant, nor do I expect it to be. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I wrote this entire thing with cramps in both of my arms. I don't know why they hurt so much, but they just do. Now, I'm going to be losing Internet soon, so I won't be able to update that often. I'm sorry. I'll do my best to go to the local library on weekends that I'm not busy with band and other things. But until then, my story will be on a sort of pause. I'll try to get one more chapter in before I lose Internet, though. Don't forget to review! Chapter 8 coming soon!