Jem sat in her usual place at lunch next to Seto, who was typing away as usual. About a month ago he had done a fabulous job presenting their project, albeit with a few snide remarks about how it was better than anything anyone else could accomplish.

She was reading or trying to anyway. Usually, it acted as a good distraction, but today it wasn't good enough. Jem hadn't heard anything from her brother for the past three days despite calling him and leaving messages. Messages that clearly expressed her worry and urgently requested him to call her back. He had yet to, and it worried her knowing the kind of activities he enjoyed.

Jem looked up from her book, thinking. She couldn't call Jude's friends, only just now getting a phone. The same applied for her sister; even if she could, she didn't think her sister would help her.

Still in thought, she glanced over at Seto.

"Hey Seto," she began, forming half an idea. His typing ceased and only his eyes flashed up to her. This was a first.

"What is it?" he asked annoyed.

Her eyes didn't focus on him, trying to form her thoughts into something coherent. "Sometimes when I see your screen you have code up. Are you... much of a hacker?" she tried. "Especially with phones. Would you be able to pinpoint a location on one? Or retrieve contact information?"

Kaiba just stared at her. "Why would you ask me that?" he asked just as condescendingly as before.

"I've been trying to contact my twin unsuccessfully for the past few days. It's not like him and I'm getting worried."

Kaiba resumed typing, the conversation becoming suddenly disinteresting. "Just ask your family where he is," he dismissed dully.

"I'd rather not. I don't really talk to them," she replied. "I'm not even really sure how to contact them."

Kaiba's typing slowed for a moment as he glanced at her, just slightly more intrigued again. He had assumed she was like any other normal person at this school. Now that he bothered to think beyond his world, he realized it was very odd for her to be here but not her brother. He gave her nothing more, though, continuing with his project as he forced himself to ignore her. That's who he was, and he was determined to stick to it even if she made it come less naturally.

"You know what, I hear how stupid that is now that I said it aloud. I'll just go try calling again. I'm really sorry for bothering you, Seto," she apologized, grabbing her bag to go make her call outside.

Meanwhile, Téa picked at her lunch, a bit lost in her thoughts. Today she couldn't fully engage in the duel talk, again wishing she had female friends to talk about girl things with. Recently she heard that they were considering inverting the colors of the girls' uniform to a blue jacket and pink bows. It was supposed to be an effort to make the student body more unified as a whole. Téa wasn't sure how she felt about this yet. To test it she had been imagining it on other girls. Jemmea walked by, and Téa again tested it out on her, and then she knew.

Téa suddenly shot up in her chair, her fork clattering against the tray as her arm lashed out to grip the person next to her. This jostled all the boys, and they looked at her. "Téa, that kind of hurts. What is it?" asked Tristan, the victim of her realization.

"I think I know why she looks so familiar," she said.

The boys looked around, a bit confused. They didn't spot Jem, who had already stepped out. Téa wasn't completely sure, however. The boys at the table had seen as much as she had and what she was thinking seemed like a huge stretch. But there was another person who might know.

Duke, you have to come to the cafeteria NOW, she texted fiercely.

Just outside the cafeteria, Jem called again. Again, it went to voicemail.

"Hey! It's Jude. If you're my sister, I'm probably with a pretty girl right now... Sorry if you just heard that and you're a different pretty girl. If you're anyone else, fuck you. Beep."

"Jude I'm getting really tired of listening to that message," she fussed. "Call me. I'm worried about you."

Jem hung up. She clenched the phone, bringing the top up to her lips as she thought. She couldn't wait; she was too uneasy. If something happened to him and she hadn't even tried in spite of herself, she could never live with herself. She had been avoiding this because she knew what it meant, but she needed to know. There was no other choice.

Duke arrived in the cafeteria, walking right past Jem without noticing as he was a bit concerned. He spotted Téa and went straight over. Before he could ask, she was already interrogating him. "Duke," she began. "You know a lot about Pegasus, right?"

Now all of the boys were thoroughly interested and confused.

"Yeah, I've studied everything about the man..."

"Does he have relatives? What about his wife's relatives, in particular?" she demanded.

He responded slowly, hesitating. "Yeah..." He kept talking, but that was all she needed, immediately standing up and going around to him. As he continued, "If you dig enough, you know they had kids-" she spun him around, pointing at Jemmea just outside of the door. Téa had been staring at her ever since. Duke interrupted himself, "Holy shit." Duke just stared at her a minute, trying to be sure.

"She said her name is Jemmea Lee," Téa informed.

All uncertainty left his face. "Yup," he confirmed. "There's no mistaking that name. And I'm pretty sure Lee was his wife's maiden name." He shook his head again, then with another disbelieving, "Holy shit," he went straight to her.

Jem was still stressing and totally unprepared for what came next.

"Excuse me," called Duke. He was close enough that it was all that made sense out of the cafeteria roar. She opened her eyes to see him coming straight at her and she felt her body tense.

"Hi," he greeted, somewhat enthusiastically as he reached her. "I'm Duke Devlin. I'm a big fan of your father's." With this Jem completely froze, desperately hoping that he had her confused with someone else. "I'm a game entrepreneur myself. Has Pegasus ever mentioned me to you?"

All of her hope sunk, forming a huge knot in her stomach. She thought fast. If he was a fan, she especially couldn't trust him with her secret. She had to make him believe they were on the same side. She did her best to calm her voice and sound interested. "Just the name," she replied. "I didn't know what you looked like or anything, so sorry I hadn't noticed you before."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm in a different lunch usually." It seemed he was buying every word. "So what are you doing here?"

"My father and I agreed that I should probably go to school here since there are so many duelists and everything here." Jem wasn't sure if this was true, she was just going on hunches.

She was slightly relieved when he nodded. "That makes sense," he replied. His eyes scanned her. "You're even prettier than I could have expected."

Jem almost answered reflexively but refrained from her comment on how creepy that was. She didn't need him calling to talk to her father, feeling like he had offended her. At the same time, she realized she also couldn't accept the compliment. Charm school had taught her that boys (or "nice" boys, as they referred to them) would ask a girl's father for permission to date her. That was just as bad. Instead, she ignored it entirely.

She leaned in towards Duke, lowering her voice. She didn't love it when he mirrored her but continued. "Hey, um, does anyone else know?" she asked.

"Just my friends," he noted, pivoting to point at the table full of eyes on them.

"Can they keep a secret?" she asked.

He turned back to her, not expecting this. "Yeah."

"Great. My father and I are trying to keep me being here quiet. He doesn't want to stir anything up, you know?" She didn't know but wasn't sure what else to say.

He nodded. This either meant that it made sense to him, or he was pretending it did. "Yeah, I hear you. I'll let them know."

Then she used the number one rule from charm school. She smiled and hoped desperately that it was coming off as sincere. "Thank you. I have to go now, but it was lovely to meet you."

She cautiously turned away, watching him for a moment. He did the same, but in the opposite order. When she fully turned away, her smile immediately dropped. Once he disappeared she hurried, not knowing if she could come back here, but knowing that she needed to leave.


Next Chapter: Exposed

"Oh hello, Kaiba-boy," came the overly dramatic, only too familiar voice