Play Your Part, Yugi

Chapter 10

Seto's Scheme

By Monday morning Seto had devised the perfect plan to help Yami and Yugi get together. He was certain that in the process of helping his friend Katsuya would start warming up to him. All he had to do was be patient with the blond and not scare him off. Then, if all went according to plan, there would be two happy couples in the end instead of just one.

"So, Yami, what do you think about school festivals?" Seto questioned from the star-haired teen walking beside him. The two were once again going to school on foot, much to Seto's dismay, even though it did give him a good chance to plot some more.

"I've never participated in them before", Yami confessed. "Why do you ask?"

"The school autumn festival is coming up soon and there will probably be a class meeting someday this week to decide what we are going to do for it", Seto explained. "It would really help you fit in more if you participated."

"I guess", Yami muttered and it was clear from his tone of voice that he was not convinced. Seto decided that a more straightforward approach might have been needed for this and offered slyly: "You know, Yugi always participates in the school festivals, every single year and every single time." It was not exactly true but Yami did not need to know that. All that mattered was that Yugi would be participating this time around, for the single purpose of spending time with Yami.

"Really?" Yami questioned and sounded suddenly a lot more interested than a moment previously. "Then I guess I could… No, I definitely will."

Seto had to turn his face to the side in order to hide the victorious smirk that had appeared on his face without his consent.

&&&&&&&

"The autumn festival is coming soon", Anzu spoke out as soon as she joined the three boys on the walk to school. "As class president I will have to hold a meeting and also lead the preparations. I was wondering if-"

"You were wondering if we would help you out", Jou finished before the girl. "I don't have anything against it but it would be better if you gathered some other people to help out too."

"Of course I will!" Anzu insisted. "I was just thinking that it would be easier to get others to join in too if someone has already volunteered."

"I think that is a good idea, Anzu", Yugi offered, not wanting the girl to get upset. "But, I don't really work good in teams, you know that." To be truthful, Yugi always got shunned whenever he tried to help. People kept telling him that he was useless because of his small stature. In time Yugi had simply given up trying to take part in school festivals.

"I'll help out too", Honda offered then. It was really no surprise, since Honda did pretty much everything with Jou. But Yugi was still unsure. Three pairs of eyes turned to him.

"No one ever wants me in", Yugi mumbled quietly. The argument was quickly overruled when Jou commented cheerily: "No worries, Yugi. With Honda and me there with you, no one will dare say 'no'. Not if they want their faces to stay intact, that it."

"You will not threaten to beat anyone up!" Anzu yelled at the blond, trying to reach out to grab his ear. Jou touched the hand easily, however, and shot back: "I'm not really going to threaten anyone. They simply think that I would do that."

"You'd better not be lying", Anzu grumbled as she turned away from Jou to look at Yugi with a bright smile. "So what do you say, Yugi? We're friends so we will be supporting you."

"I'll think about it", Yugi said, just to get the three off his case. He was actually always embarrassed when he could not do the same stuff other guys did. He always felt so pathetic when compared to the more athletic students that were able to take care of all the heavy lifting for the girls. Yugi, on the other hand, was only good with puzzles. No, he would not take part in the culture festival, no way. During the walk to school Yugi had plenty of time to steel his resolve until he was certain that no amount of persuasion from Anzu could make him change his mind.

&&&&&&&

Katsuya was thoughtful. He did understand that Yugi's bad experiences with class projects but it was rather surprising that Yugi was letting that come in the way of helping his friends. Well, it was not that Anzu necessarily needed Yugi's help if they really could encourage the rest of the class to join in on the autumn festival. Not to mention Yugi had a good point, if the blond was completely honest. He had agreed to help Anzu even though he had no idea what they were going to do. There was nothing Katsuya could do about that now, though, so he might as well help a friend in need.

Noticing that Yugi was being exceptionally quiet that morning, Katsuya came to the conclusion that the small boy preferred to keep to himself, so that he could not be guilt-tripped into helping out after all. Since Yugi could not provide him with a partner for conversation the blond decided to find out more about what Anzu was expecting from him and Honda exactly.

"Hey, Anzu?" Katsuya questioned from the brunette girl, instantly gaining her attention again. "I was wondering, do you have an idea for the school festival yet?"

"No, not really", Anzu confessed and flushed slightly then. "That's what the meeting today will be for: to gather ideas and then decide what we will do."

"When is the festival anyway?" Honda asked then and Anzu replied in a scolding tone of voice: "It's in exactly seven weeks."

"Huh?" the brunet boy blinked in surprise. "Then why are we worrying about all this now? That's almost two months away."

"That time will fly by before you know it", Anzu shot back. "Putting everything together will take a lot of planning and work, which in turn needs a lot of time." The girl waved a finger at Honda. "Last year the whole festival was almost ruined on our class' part because we almost ran out of time."

"So you think we will manage things better if we have more time?" Katsuya questioned and nodded his head when he agreed with the girl's thoughts. "Sure thing. That means we won't have to work our skin off in order to get everything done, no matter what we decide to be our theme."

"I guess it is a decent idea", Honda also commented but Yugi stayed silent, like he was trying to not gain their attention. Yugi was clearly already starting to feel guilty about refusing to help, even though he was convinced that he could not do anything to help.

"Hey, Yugi", Katsuya muttered quietly enough so that their discussion would stay private as Anzu and Honda began to bicker after Honda's rude words to the girl.

Yugi looked up, finally meeting Katsuya's eyes, and the blond gave the smaller teen an encouraging smile and spoke: "It's okay, Yugi. No one is going to force you to take part if you don't want to. You have a right to stay out if you think you can't get along with everyone."

"Thank you, Jou", Yugi mumbled with a soft blush tinting his cheeks. "I'm really grateful of your support." The boy glanced away as his blush darkened. "I was worried that you guys might think less of me if I didn't help out. It's just that, I don't have many nice experiences with working together with my classmates, other than Anzu."

"I figured that much", Katsuya offered in an effort to be understanding. "You're not that hard to figure out sometimes." Those words were accompanied by some laughter, to which Yugi also giggled and then replied: "I didn't know you could be so perceptive, Jou."

"You're simply see-through whenever you're feeling down", Katsuya said. "You can be so melancholic over the simplest of things."

"That's not true", Yugi argued with an angry huff and a glare that made the small boy look cute rather than threatening. "I'm not see-through."

"Right, Yugi", Katsuya said with a playful wink. "You keep telling yourself that and maybe one day I will believe it too." As Yugi huffed again in mock-anger Katsuya snickered to himself. Mission 'make Yugi feel better' was a perfect success.

Katsuya's feeling of satisfaction was short-lived when the blond was snapped out of his thoughts by his cell phone's message ring tone. He instantly pulled out the item and pressed a few button to see who would text him early in the morning. The id revealed the perpetrator to him with a short name: 'Seto'. Katsuya opened the message to see what the brunet wanted.

'I convinced Yami that Yugi participates in the class festivals every year', the message read and Katsuya grimaced when he realized what the words meant. "Make sure I'm not a liar." A sigh escaped from the blond as he wondered how he should respond. Yugi hated class festivals. It would take a miracle to get Yugi to join up in the committee. The blond smirked suddenly when he thought of another course of action. Perhaps they did not need a miracle but simply some creative lying.

"Hey, Yugi", Katsuya spoke out as he turned to Yugi, who was looking at the blond's cell phone curiously. It was clear that the shorter teen was curious about the message but did not want to be as rude as to ask openly about it. Katsuya decided things were better that way and fired his question: "If there was one thing that would make you join the autumn festival committee, what would it be?"

"I have made up my mind and nothing will make me change it", Yugi spoke sternly and surely. A devious smile tugged on Katsuya's lips and the blond spoke mischievously: "Not even if Otomya was in the committee?"

"Well, maybe then", Yugi concluded after a moment's thought. The boy lifted a finger for emphasis as he continued: "But only then." The star-haired boy then shrugged dismissively. "Besides, I don't think these kinds of activities are really Yami's thing."

'Oh, but we can always change that…' Katsuya thought as he began typing a response to Seto's message as quickly as he could press the buttons on his cell.

'Yugi will agree if Yami does so first. Make it so.'

'There', Katsuya thought with satisfaction when he sent the message to the brunet. What goes around it comes around. Seto sent the problem to Katsuya to solve and the blond had just sent it back at him. But there was not need for worry; the brunet was smart enough to handle things. That was one of the features Katsuya admired about him.

&&&&&&&

The message Seto got from Katsuya seemed to sneer at him in a manner that told Seto that the brunet would have to work for his date. Well, it should never be said that Seto would back down from any challenge and so Seto dragged Yami into the class meeting before their first lesson. The two sat in the very back of the class and Seto kept his eyes focused on the doorway, so that he would not miss Katsuya's arrival.

It did not take a long time for the blond to come in with his whole lot of friends. All the while chatting happily the three boys of the group sat at the front of the class while the only girl went to stand at the front of the classroom, in front of the blackboard. The girl stood there waiting for the rest of the students to arrive.

"Why aren't you over there trying to woo Jounouchi?" Yami questioned from Seto curiously. The brunet decided to keep his answer vague as he replied: "I realized that I was using a flawed strategy."

"Oh?" came Yami's interested hum. The crimson-eyed teen lifted an eyebrow when he spoke: What clued you to that? Was it the fact that Jounouchi runs off at the mere sight of you or the fact that his mood turns bad whenever you talk to him or simply that he told you he was not going to go out with you more than ten times?"

"Very funny, Yami", Seto growled in a tone of voice that was not amused at all. "I know he feels something for it and I figured that he would confess if I pressed on intently enough. Unfortunately it seems that the harder I try the more he pulls away."

The amused smile Yami gave the brunet had Seto's left eye twitching as the other spoke: "You finally gave up with this useless charade then?"

"Nonsense", Seto snapped defensively. He was never wrong. "I merely decided that a change of tactics was in order."

Yami shrugged then, like Seto's reasons for backing down were meaningless to him, before questioning: "So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to give him his space", Seto answered. "I will make him grow used to me until he accepts me."

"Sounds a lot better than your previous plan", Yami offered. "I hope it works out."

The smirk Seto gave his seatmate was an extremely smug one as he spoke out: "That's not my complete plan. It's only the first step of my grand plot."

"Oh?" Yami leaned closer to Seto as he questioned further: "So I'm finally going to see what scheme you have been boasting about all this time? This I got to see."

"You will see it in due time", Seto assured the other, even though he had not intention of pointing out his scheme to Yami. If he did that it might not come to be, since it handled with emotions, those trickiest features of human nature.

Just then the classroom door slid shut and Mazaki started to speak: "Okay. This class meeting's main point will be for us to form an autumn festival committee and also make the base decision on what we will be doing for the festival." The girl really knew how to speak with authority, there was no extra chatter going on in the classroom as she spoke: "I thought that first will be taking suggestions for the theme, so that no one will shy away from joining the committee simply because they have no idea what we are doing. Raise your hands if you have an idea."

First there was no response but when the brunette simply continued to smile encouragingly one of the girls lifted a hand and suggested: "Maybe a fashion show of sorts? Everyone could choose a popular style to imitate and then dress accordingly."

The suggestion got a few groans from the boys but a couple of girls made excited sounds of agreement. Mazaki stayed completely unmoved to one side or another as she simply replied: "That's a good start", and the turned around and wrote on the chalkboard: 'Fashion Show'. Then she turned back towards the class. "Are there any other suggestions?"

This time a boy lifted a hand and spoke out: "How about a lottery? Everyone could bring something they don't need as a prize. The prizes could vary from really great ones, like mp-players to something simpler, like an eraser set. The prize of the tickets would be so that it would be extremely cheap if one gets a jackpot but then it would be a bit of a loss if they get the worst one."

That suggestion got some more agreeing sounds than the previous ones but another girl piped in: "But what if a guy wins something like a purse? They might complain." There were a few hushed agreements with the girl at that. It would not do for the festival guests to be unsatisfied with their input.

"It's only a suggestion", Mazaki spoke out and effectively silenced the murmurs. "We will think about that if the idea is chosen as our theme." Then the girl wrote down on the board again: 'Lottery', before continuing cheerfully: "Anything else?"

"We could do a play", mumbled a girl with bog round glasses on her face. "That way we could get everything we need from the drama club storage. And I'm sure the stage set could be put together in the art class."

"That sounds like the best idea yet", a boy sitting next to the girl commented. "Teachers love that stage arts stuff."

"Alright, so a play is our third option", Mazaki spoke and wrote it down on the board. "Will there be anything more or do we have them here?" When no one lifted an arm again Mazaki shot the glass a beaming smile. "Then we can start voting. Lift your hand to place a vote and remember, no voting twice." The girl walked to the left side of each of the suggestions, to apparently write the amount of votes next to the suggestion. "First off, who will vote for a fashion show?"

To be continued…

Ending Notes: A bit of a cliffhanger. Sorry about that. I also apologise for the boring chapter. Next time we will be seeing the results of the voting, though I think you all know what the ending result will be.

Also, I have an important message to give: I will be having my matriculation exams coming up and they're really important if I'm planning to get into university. Which I am. Unfortunately this means that updates will be coming slower, or maybe even comepletely stop for the next couple of months. I am dedicated to my stories, but my schooling is lightly more imporant, even if studying isn't as much fun as writing. So, I will update as frequently as I can, even if it isn't all that frequently anymore.