Stephan: SCHOOL IS OUT!! The Finals are over!! I did pretty well I think, 'cept for my World History Final (I was actually spazing out a bit :sweat drop:) I hope all of you that had finals did well!
Part 9: Departure
"Hey guys!" Tea yelled from across the street as she ran over to the group. Kariana and Mokuba looked up from their half eaten sandwiches curiously while Joey and Tristan continued to viciously attack the extra food Kariana had packed.
"Tea!" Kariana's face lit up as she started to stand, setting down her sandwich.
"Hold on a sec," Tea said as she reached them, "Sit down. I have really great news." Kariana sat back down, looking up at her friend oddly.
"What kind of news?" Kariana asked. Tea grinned widely.
"I'm going to New York!!" she exclaimed. Everyone froze for that moment; even Tristan and Joey looked up. "I got accepted to study dance in New York. I'm leaving tomorrow." The color in Joey and Tristan's face paled as they looked up with bits of crumbs on their mouths.
"WHAT?!" both boys exclaimed, suddenly scrambling to their feet and up to Tea.
"Are you kidding?!" Tristan exclaimed, causing Tea to lurch back a bit and a bit more when Joey added,
"Have you told Yugi? Ooh man, that's not good." Joey put his hand on his head. A bright pink flushed Tea's cheeks.
"Wh-what? Why does it matter?!" she stuttered, obviously embarrassed.
Kariana had lost her smile once Tea had said New York. She watched her three friends with a frozen stare. 'What?' she thought, 'But…Tea…' her eyebrows furrowed into a confused and sad expression. This caused Mokuba to take his attention away from the two loud mouthed boys and focus on Kariana.
"Kari? Are you alright?" he asked. "Kari?" he touched her on the shoulder this time. Tea looked over Joey's shoulder as he and Tristan continued to throw questions at her. Hearing Mokuba had gotten her attention. When she saw Kariana's look she pushed the two boys aside.
"Kari? What's up?" she asked, crouching down as best as she could while wearing a jean skirt.
"Huh?" Kariana snapped back to reality and wound up looking into Tea's blue eyes. "Oh, nothing, nothing!" she smiled, waving it off with her hand. "I just zoned out for a second is all!" Tea stared hard at her for a moment. By this time Joey and Tristan had realized what else was going on. Tea sighed, standing up and straightening her skirt.
"Kari-" Tea tried to speak.
"I'm fine, Tea, really. I'm happy for you!" Kariana stood up with a wide smile. "Honest!" she added as she embraced her friend.
"You better not be lying to me, Kari." Tea warned jokingly, "You know what I do when you lie to me." And embraced her back.
Kariana laughed, "I know, I know!" she pulled back from the hug, smiling ever so brightly. Mokuba looked at that smile and recognized it as one he had seen so many times before. It was how Seto used to smile, how he smiled for him. But things were different now…
"We should celebrate!" Joey grinned, throwing his arms over the two girls' shoulders.
"Yeah! And Joey will treat us to ice cream!" Tristan grinned, pushing Joey away and taking his place.
"Yea-Hey! Wait a second!" Joey glared, starting a bickering brawl. Tea sweat dropped as the two duked it out with words. Kariana stretched her arm out to Mokuba, pushing back some hair with her other hand first.
"Come on, let's go." She smiled. This time, her smile satisfied Mokuba. It was a smile he had always wanted someone to give him; a smile that a mother would give her child. He returned that smile in his own way and took her hand.
"Thank a lot guys!" Kariana said as she and Mokuba waved Joey and Tristan off. They waited until the car had turned the corner before going up the steps to the apartment building. It was darker now, being around eight o'clock. Mokuba followed silently through the lobby, up the elevators and to the apartment door. As Kariana unlocked the door he finally raised a comment.
"Thank you." He said.
"You're very welcome." Kariana smiled, opening the door and walking in. She took off her shoes before walking towards the kitchen. "You hungry?" she asked, as Mokuba closed the door and removed his sneakers.
"A little." He replied.
"Good, 'cause I had," she paused as something caught her eye in the trash can, "Something in mind." She finished, a small smile coming to her lips. It was a crumpled up brown paper sack of which she could faintly see the letters 'K' and 't'.
"Puppy Chow?" Mokuba asked as he plopped down on the couch. Kariana chuckled.
"Naw, not this time. But close; I was thinking something more along the lines of Trail Mix. That okay?"
"Of course!" Mokuba said as he flicked on the TV.
"I'll make sure to leave enough for you and your brother to snack on tomorrow." She said as she pulled bags of miscellaneous food down from the cabinets. Even though he knew Kariana couldn't see, Mokuba nodded in acknowledgement. While Beyblade played on the TV, a thought occurred to Kariana.
"When's Summer Break for you?" she asked. Mokuba stopped and thought about it for a moment.
"In about a month," he replied. Now Kariana was the one to nod out of sight. Her mind wandered on various things as she pulled out a large bowl and opened bags of M&Ms, peanuts, cereal, etc. She opened her mouth to ask another question but found herself silent. 'No. I'll find out on my own, that way it'll be a surprise.' She smiled inwardly. 'For both of them.'
Today was Sunday, the day of Tea's departure. Kariana had managed to snag a ride from Tristan to the airport to see Tea off…as well as Joey, Yugi, Bakura, and Mai. Basically, the ride over there was very cramped and very uncomfortable. Luckily for Kariana, she had called dibs on the front seat. Mai and Joey had protested at first but the situation was quickly fixed once Tristan explained. How could they not know about the International Law of Dibs?
"Yugi…you're kind of…" Bakura said from the back seat.
"Oh, sorry Bakura." Yugi apologized and shifted for him.
"Ow! Bakura you're on my foot!" Joey yelped.
"Sorry Joey." Bakura smiled sheepishly, moving his foot off of Joey's.
"Joey your hand better not be where I think it is!" Mai snapped and there was more shifting followed by a soft 'sorry'.
"We're here guys." Tristan said as he parked. Once the side doors opened they all tumbled out onto the ground. In an instant, Mai threw Joey off of her while barking "Move it!" Once they had all gathered themselves they went inside to wait for Tea. The airport was very large and had all the updated technology that Domino was famous for. As they stood waiting Kariana couldn't help but think of Kaiba.
'I wonder if anything here was his…' she thought and then mentally smacked herself, 'Of course not. Kaiba doesn't do airports…' at least she didn't know if he did. She sighed, 'Great, another thing to look up.' At that moment a surprised Tea entered the airport.
"Yugi? Joey, Tristan, Mai, Bakura, and Kari?" she said stunned, looking at each of them when she said their names. "What are you all doing here?"
"We wanted to see you off." Yugi said with a slightly deeper tone. Kariana looked over at him.
'He did it again!' she exclaimed mentally. Since she had met Yugi she had noticed something strange about him, besides his hair. There were times that he seemed more mature and a little taller, different from how he usually was. She shook it off though; she had enough to figure out right now.
"That's really nice guys. Thanks." Tea smiled.
"We're gonna miss ya Tea." Joey said in his cool way.
"Go show those Americans how to really dance." Tristan added.
"I will." Tea said with a little chuckle in her voice.
"Ya know hon," Mai said, standing next to Tea where only she could hear, "If you want a little alone time…" she said, nodding over to Yugi (Yami right now). Tea blushed, causing Mai to grin. "Alright guys! Let's say our goodbyes! We can't keep her forever." She said to the group.
"Bye guys." Tea said as they came in for a group hug.
"Won't be the same without ya Te." (that wasn't a typo btw) Joey said.
"It was nice meeting you." Bakura added as the group hug ended.
"We're going to miss you." Kariana said with her ever so slightly bright smile.
"I'm gonna miss you guys to." Tea said, "I'll keep in touch, promise." She winked, picking up one of her bags. Mai went over and nudged Yami; he had stayed outside of the group hug, and whispered to him.
"Help her carry her bags." She demanded more than suggested. Yami looked at her unsurely and before he could respond was shoved forward a bit.
"Um…" he stammered, having caught himself from falling to the ground, "May I…help you carry your bags?" he asked. Tea paused before smiling.
"Sure." She said and let him carry two of the three bags and they walked off together.
"Ahh, love." Mai sighed, arms crossed as she watched the two walk away.
"Love?" Joey quirked a brow. "What're talking about? What love?" he asked, pretending to scout the area. Mai rolled her eyes.
"Let's go Joey." She said, grabbing him by the ear and leading him, "We're gonna go wait for Tea's plane to take off."
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Joey yelped as he was dragged.
"But that's in like thirty minutes." Tristan complained but followed anyways, ignoring Joey's yelps. Bakura and Kariana held the same slightly amused but weary smile as they followed their friends. Kariana, however, looked back to see Tea and Yugi. Tea's head was down and Yugi had placed a hand on her shoulder. (It's still Yami; he's just Yugi to Kari)
'Is she crying?' Kariana thought just as Yugi took Kariana into a warm embrace. Kariana made a sort of squeak, turning her head around with a slight pink in her cheeks.
"Are you alright?" Bakura asked, looking at her. Kariana nodded.
"I'm fine, thank you." She replied. 'Since when…? I mean it's nice but I didn't know…' she thought. The concept of a romantic relationship had not been something Kariana was accustomed to. She never had romantic feelings for someone before so seeing two people, especially who were her close friends, hug like that was awkward to her. Affection was something that Kariana only knew of with family and even then it wasn't that strong.
In half an hour, like Tristan had said, Tea's plane took off and everyone waved even though the odds of Tea seeing them were slim to none. It was still nice to wave a friend off. Kariana would miss Tea terribly but somehow she felt a slight peace about her. Kariana sighed as the others turned and started to walk off.
'Be safe Tea.' She thought, her arms around her mid-section.
"Hey Kari! If ya don't hurry up yer gonna get left behind!" Joey shouted, jolting Kariana back to reality.
"Uh, I'm coming!" she shouted back, turning on her heels and running after them. When they reached Tristan's car Yugi, back to his normal self, was waiting. Not much was said at first but once everyone got in the car, squished and all, Yugi was hoarded with embarrassing questions from Joey and Tristan. Mai had called dibs this time and was very happy to have learned of such a rule; she was grateful to not be back there in the mess Yugi was in right now. Kariana sat next to the window by Joey and was somewhat on his lap due to the lack of space. But neither of them seemed to care; Joey was too interested in bugging Yugi and Kariana was busy zoning out.
"Thanks for the ride Tristan." Kariana said as she got out of the car.
"No problem." He replied with a wave.
"Sweet dreams, hon." Mai said, peeking in front of Tristan from the other side.
"Key, Kari, ya want me to walk ya up?" Joey asked, rolling down his window.
"No, that's alright." Kariana smiled.
"Alright." Joey paused, "Take it easy on yerself, okay?"
"I will." She waved and didn't wait for them to drive off before walking up the steps and into her apartment building.
"Hello Kariana." Mrs. Nakahara smiled from behind the front desk. "And how are you this evening?"
"I'm doing well." Kariana smiled, "How's your husband?"
"Same as always; fixated his eyes to the TV, his butt to the couch and his hand to a beer." She said in a mocking manner, not rude but in a poking fun kind of way. Kariana chuckled.
"I see. Well, make sure to get some rest." Kariana said, waving as she went up the stairs.
"Good night dear." Mrs. Nakahara waved back.
Once Kariana had gotten into her apartment, she went straight to the bathroom, kicking her shoes off as she walked. She didn't bother stopping at the door for such a trivial thing right now. She left the bathroom door open and stood in front of her mirror. She looked at her reflection and sighed.
'I wonder what will happen now…' she thought, 'Now that Tea's gone are they going to want to hang out with me? The only reason they ever did was because I was Tea's friend…' Kariana clutched the edge of the counter, hunching over a bit as her eyebrows crossed, 'Do I mean anything to them…?' she bit down on her lower lip, shutting her eyes tight. Her body shuddered as a few tears fell from her eyes into the sink. Slowly, they rolled down until they reached the drain and were soon accompanied by more. Kariana sobbed silently but her body continued to shake and the tears refused to stop. 'Tea…why?'
Stephan: Okay, I'm sorry for the filler, but I have to get through these. I want you all to be comfortable with the character and really get to know her. But don't worry, as you should've picked up, Kariana will start thinking about relationships pretty soon. So be patient with me! And don't forget to review! Reviews are very nice, they tell me I should keep going!
