(Atticus and Bastion)
Atticus Rhodes energetically ran around the gymnasium, barking giddy orders at his constant stream of assistants. He settled down on a stage that a few students had pulled out earlier in the morning, (meaning that they would get a date with the pop-star dreamer, the lucky fan-girls) tapping on the lights and screen behind him. Bastion's head popped up behind a machine, slightly smeared with oil, and he sighed at the hyperactive guy. "Atticus, I told you, I'll have this done by the end of the duel and my progress will be much quicker without these interruptions. Besides, this is a ridiculous idea. No one knows if Jaden can sing in the first place."
"Of course he can sing!" the older teen hollered energetically.
"Oh? And how do you know that?" the brainy teen wondered, tweaking something in the giant karaoke machine.
"Simple! He doesn't sing in front of people all the time!"
Bastion gave him a weird look. "And what does that have to do with anything? Doesn't it make logical sense that if one couldn't sing they wouldn't do it in front of people?"
"Not at all!" Atticus chirped loudly, drawing the attention of Chazz, who was working (well let's face it, ordering around people to work in his place) with a bunch of students around the entrance, designing a 'haunted walkway'. He stood up from his lounging chair and added his own little information into the mix.
"Slacker can't sing. He was singing some stupid theme song to some dumb anime or something when we were heading out to that abandoned well back in first year," Chazz yawned, sitting next to the Master of Love.
Bastion looked smug before he disappeared back into the mechanics of the high-tech totally-unavailable-anywhere-else uber-party machine. Atticus didn't seem concerned, because he responded, "Things are different when you put someone on a stage with a spotlight. He'll be great! The Master of Love knows all!"
"Pfft," Chazz sneered, checking his watch. "What will his singing have to do with anything anyway? My dear Lexi-pie is not shallow; she won't be smitten by a good voice unless it is the Chazz's!"
"Exactly!" Atticus cheered happily. "That's why Bastion here is rigging the machine so that Jaden and Driana get paired up!"
Chazz did a double-take, staring at his mentor in utter confusion. "I thought you were still trying to get Alexis and Slacker together. Wait—are you saying that Slacker has feelings for Driana?"
Atticus laughed. "I am saying that Jaden is going through a very confusing time and I'm just pushing the love triangle forward! It's just more fun!"
"Isn't the point of this whole thing to get Jaden and Alexis to admit their supposed 'feelings' for one another?" Bastion asked from below them. Atticus smacked the machine happily.
"Yup! But now we can just sit back and watch the love unfold! It's been awhile since I've seen a full-blown love triangle like this! You bet I'm going to enjoy it!"
"Actually," a new voice entered. It was then that the trio noticed it had gone quiet in the gym, the men staring at the new arrival and the girls glaring jealously. The second they looked into her emerald eyes the boys fell under the spell too, confused out of their minds but not caring. Atticus struggled with himself, recognizing a fellow Master of Love immediately. Just looking at the girl gave him a sense of undeniable power and a heavy lust—he grinned, slipping right into campus-heartthrob mode.
"Hello," he said smoothly, taking her hand and brushing his lips against it in the way that made most girls swoon. When he looked up at her she was smirking, her eyes quizzical. "You must be Artemis, the transfer from Domino. Let me be the first to welcome you into Duel Academy."
She chuckled and his heart raced, exciting him. Her voice was amazing, crisp and smooth, but fast and dangerous... like... like... a bolt of lightning! Wait—that's a great pickup line! "Trust me, you're not the first," she answered levelly, taking her hand from his and looking him up and down.
Atticus' eyes widened. A challenge?
"Now like I was saying before—this love triangle business that you keep talking about," she continued, fluttering her eyelashes at them before sitting up next to them, not even fixing her mini skirt when it hitched up. He felt that lust hit him again, more powerful this time. It took all of his control to not just drop to his knees and spew out every pick-up line that he had ever imagined or heard, no matter how cliché. Chazz, however, was not quite as controlling, and he leaned forward so far trying to see past Atticus that he fell, indeed landing on his knees.
"Artemis, that's the Greek Goddess of the Hunt," he quoted, his voice containing the awe that he usually reserved for Alexis. Atticus frowned, wondering how this girl could completely turn around devotion that religious and make the black-clothed Slifer forget about his misplaced affections so quickly. "The Goddess was supposed to be a master of the bow and beautiful beyond any man's wit. You were named perfectly."
Shocked, Atticus looked between the painfully attractive girl and the usually snobby and compliment-deprived Chazz Princeton. What the hell? This wasn't natural.
"What you forgot," Artemis added, twirling a finger through Chazz's hair tantalizingly, "is that Artemis vowed to always be a maiden and thought men were weak and had no use in the hunt."
Chazz (who had been transfixed with the girl's smooth strokes) deflated considerably, his head hanging. Artemis smiled lightly, making the entire room seem completely smaller and darker, like her smile was the only light. Oh Ra, what the heck was going on here?
"But I do believe men have some uses," she continued, averting her eyes to the ceiling and smirking again. Atticus was glaring at her suspiciously now, the only guy with enough wits left in the room to do so. There was something about this attraction that he felt he recognized, and his own pride was more than enough to keep him from falling heel-over-head for this new girl.
"Who are you exactly?" he asked in the spiraling awed silence.
She laughed, the sound making every male in the room step forward eagerly. "I'm the old matchmaker at my school, voted campus hottie unanimously, and one of the top duelists. Artemis for short."
"A matchmaker?" he repeated, glad that his initial impression had been right. "Well let me introduce you to the Master of Love, me. By the way, may I say you look stunning?"
She remained silent, playing with a bracelet on her wrist.
"In most places you're supposed to return a compliment," Atticus whispered.
"If one doesn't have anything nice to say it's better to say nothing at all," she replied, looking up at him past her lashes, her emerald eyes flashing with mischief. He shuddered, feeling his spine go cold and tingle. "I was talking to a few students earlier and they said something about you getting their help to get a pair together, and I wanted to see some action. But now I hear it's a love triangle? It seems like more than that to me, but I guess not everyone really sees things so clearly."
Affronted into forgetting that she had just magically made Chazz Princeton fall to his knees in a matter of seconds, Atticus reclaimed his wits and dramatically cried, "Oh! How your words hurt my heart fair Goddess! Are you suggesting that I know nothing of love?"
"Quite frankly, yes," she said bluntly. Atticus' (and the girls' in the room) jaw dropped. "I can see after only a few minutes in this school that this lover-boy,"—she pointed to Chazz—"is hopelessly devoted to this 'Alexis' girl, which adds another branch on. And I've heard something about a certain 'wink' incident directed at the boy, Jaden. And from what I've heard right now he can't figure out if he's in love with Alexis or, another player, Driana. And you've got to have some interest in this if you're going this far to get one of them together, so that's another branch. And right now Chazz here seems to be smitten by me, so isn't that another branch is this tangled mess of love?"
Atticus blinked. Twice.
"Tell you what, I love a challenge," Artemis continued when the older Rhodes sibling remained silent. "I'll take that Alexis girl and you take Driana. That way, we can see who wins at the end of the day, which can make who fall in love."
"No wait, I'm Alexis' brother, so I'm going to be the one helping her," he answered, shaking his head. Artemis shrugged, her tank top strap falling down her arm. Ever so slowly, she reached down and pulled it back up, watching him as his eyes followed where that hand went. He couldn't help it! He didn't understand it! He had never felt anything like this before, what was going on?
"It's a deal," she said, snapping him out of his thoughts, holding out her gloved hand to shake with. He hesitated, wondering if he touched her if he could still control the crazy amounts of want that was pumping through his veins. Their fingers brushed together before he took her hand and he felt his heart race even faster, his adrenaline spike, and a small sweat to break out on his forehead. She smirked and leaned closer, kissing the side of his face.
He stiffened completely when she stayed there, completely in his personal space. "You're supposed to kiss my cheek," she whispered in his ear, her voice now smoldering and sparking, electrocuting his pride. Why was he having so much trouble with this girl?! Girls fell for him, not the other way around!
But his body was hypnotized, and his lips gently brushed against her cheek, sealing the deal. She stepped backwards quickly and took everything in with her sharp predator gaze. Then she smiled and twirled on the balls of her feet again, her skirt fanning out slightly, and swayed out of the room, leaving them all dazed and staring at the place she had just been.
Atticus was the first to recover, now realizing that he felt nothing for her at all, like she had never even been there in the first place. Utterly confused, he turned back to the struck males and the angry females and waved his hands around. "You heard the women! Tonight's the big night! Let's get everything perfect!"
That was strange. I've never seen, heard of, or even felt anything like that before. Whoever that girl really is, she's not normal.
Why do I get the feeling that I just made a deal with the devil?
(With Syrus, Hassleberry, Jaden, and Alexis)
"Hey Jay," Syrus started in the heavy quiet that filled the hospital room. I tore my gaze away from the silent Zane and looked over at him, my eyes apologetic. I think that emotion confused him briefly, but he continued on slowly and deliberately, "In your duel with Zane... well, we were all getting shocked, and the setting was high so it burned us..."
I nodded at him, letting him continue.
"But I was just looking at yours and them comparing them to Alexis' and mine and well..." he trailed off, putting his hand next to mine and pulling down my sleeve. I blinked, surprised at the difference. His were light, almost not there at all, just barely streaking away from where the collar had been, and mine were a deep and ragged red, venturing farther than his and coming up to my knuckles at one point.
"That's weird," Hassleberry commented, staring at the marks. "Private Trusedale here is fairer skinned than you Serge, so if anything, he should've gotten it worse. Same as Alexis here," he added, jerking his thumb over at her. I frowned and furrowed my brow, miffed.
"Maybe yours was on a higher setting," Alexis suggested, touching the burns. I flinched slightly and she pulled away. "Sorry."
"It's no problem Lexi," I shrugged, examining them myself.
"But that doesn't make sense either," she continued, her hand finding its way to her chin thoughtfully. "If anything ours should have been the ones that were set higher, because we all passed out before you. It wouldn't make sense that yours would be set so much higher and you'd still be able to finish the duel... it's just not humanly possible..."
I'm not sure if Haou is human though.
I shrugged, looking them over again, only slightly frowning. I had a plausible guess as to why that was, but it didn't explain why Zane would set it higher, he didn't know about Haou... and his own collars were only set onto the others' settings, and he wouldn't cheat, not even in his condition now...
"Jaden? Are you alright?"
I jumped, aware that the others had just noticed my sour expression and that I was the center of attention again. I grinned at them sheepishly, rubbing my wrist, and replied, "Yeah, I'm good. I just hate not knowing what's going on, ya know? Like what happened to those people that were with Zane?"
The topic shift worked rather well.
"That's a really good question," Syrus muttered, staring down at his brother curiously. "And Zane has always been a loner; I wouldn't have expected him to even have cronies to boss around! Something is definitely not right here... Do you think this is kinda like last year? Another weird cult organization thing taking over students, one at a time?"
"I hope not!" I replied brightly. "But then again when do we ever have a normal year at Duel Academy?"
"Never!" Hassleberry laughed, thumping me on the back. Hearing the loud noises, Ms. Fontaine ventured into the little room again, holding up a bunch of papers and X-Rays. Syrus immediately looked up at her, hopeful, and she smiled.
"I've got good new and bad news," she sighed, plopping them down on her desk before turning to us. I blinked, feeling anxious. Had she figured out whatever I had done to Zane after I gave into Haou? Would she connect me to it? "I know what happened to Zane. Jaden, you don't have to worry anymore, it's not your fault."
I blinked, surprised. Not my fault? But Haou...
"It seems as though during his underground dueling, his heart has been weakened by electrocuting himself everyday," she scowled. "Idiot. He just finally over-exerted himself in your duel Jaden, and he collapsed because of it. The electricity is also causing damage to his nervous system, so when you combine it, he's in a coma. I want to say that he'll eventually recover, but I don't want to jinx it. I'll just say that he's got a pretty good chance of it if he just stays strong."
It was like a weight was just lifted right off of my shoulders, stopping the forces around me from consuming me and crushing me to the ground. I didn't hurt Zane by giving in Haou; it was Zane's own shock collars that made him wind up here. There had never been any true danger to my friends, and there never would be. I could stay here and protect the ones I... love... as long as I needed to now. Everything was going to be fine now, even if Haou did show up again, I know now that's he's not dangerous if he didn't hurt my enemy/friend.
My newly returned smile must have been freaking my friends out, because Hassleberry poked me in the shoulder and discretely asked if I was alright. I nodded brightly and vigorously, almost laughing in giddy relief. No one was in danger! Things were finally going back to normal!
"Yeah! I'm great! I'm just happy that Zane will get better!" I replied quickly, turning my blinding smile on Syrus instead. He tackled me in a hug, surprising me enough to fall out of my stool, and was sobbing happily into my chest. "Err... Sy?"
"Jaden! You're back!" he cried, practically strangling me. Hey, so what if he's short, he's still got crushing hugs! "And Zane is gonna be fine!"
"Um... Where'd I go?" I asked, patting him awkwardly. My friends just laughed and stared at my face like it was the first time they had ever seen me smile. "Uh... Seriously guys, what I'd miss?"
(Jaden POV)
Jesse and I activated our duel disks one hour later, excited to finally get into the duel. "Jesse! Dueling a guy like you all of the sudden has got me really excited!"
"Me too! I've been looking forward to dueling you!" the bluenette answered easily.
"Let's go!" I shouted, making sure all of the students watching us could hear.
"Bring it!"
"Duel!"
"My turn! Draw!" Jesse announced, taking his sixth card from his hand and looking at it happily.
I heard Chazz's rough voice call from my group of friends up on the balcony, "Is that a Crystal beast?"
Sure enough, my opponent grinned like a maniac and called out, "Come out, Crystal Beast Emerald Turtle!"
"Whoa," I muttered, shielding my eyes briefly as a large glow of light appeared on the dueling arena, emitting from an emerald Crystal that had appeared. When the glow faded, a giant turtle was in the Crystals place, it's back made of glittering emerald that matched my opponent's eyes perfectly.
"A Crystal beast?" I heard the new guy—Adrian Gecko—(mental laugh) says to himself up on the balcony. The arena had fallen silent now, everyone waiting to see the powerful Crystal Beasts in action, myself included. But, for some unknown puberty reason probably, I felt like I had seen or at least heard of these Duel Monsters from somewhere before...
All of those thoughts were whipped out when the turtle spoke up. "I was sleeping Jesse! What is this place?"
Surprised, I just stared blankly at the monster before turning to Jesse to see his reaction to the fellow. He just smiled and said, "I was telling you about it before, Duel Academy!"
The turtle seemed to nod inside of its shell and its voice quavered slightly. "Oh, so this is it... there are a lot of people out there..."
Jesse grinned again at his friend and encouraged, "I'm counting on you, so show me your best! Besides, we can't underestimate our opponent today, or we'll lose!"
Then Emerald Turtle turned and looked directly at me (I think anyway, his head is still in his shell so it's kinda hard to tell). "I see... he looks very strong and has a good look in his eyes."
Well, I had enough of just standing by and letting this awesomeness go un-proclaimed! "Sweet! You can talk with your spirits!"
Jesse chuckled and explained, "That's because these guys are my friends, no, they're my family."
I smiled slightly at the thought, agreeing with him mentally. Duel monster spirits had always been more of a family to me than my never-at-home parents. Thinking about it... when did I really start to see spirits again? Hmm...
"Duel monsters are your family? You say some pretty interesting things!"
"What are they talking about?" Hassleberry asked my friends up in the stands, and I almost laughed, forgetting that they couldn't see what we saw on the dueling field. We probably looked insane! (Not that most of the school doesn't think I'm crazy anyway.)
"Just worthless socialization."
From Chazz, of course. I never got why he didn't really go crazy about seeing Duel Spirits, shouldn't he be happy that he got this special ability to see something hardly anyone else can? I thought that's what he wanted to do, stand out!
"Next I set one card face-down, that's all," Jesse announced, drawing my attention back to the game. I easily refocused my energy onto the duel, feeling the competitive currents running through the air between us already. I had almost forgotten how great it was to loosen up in a duel! I've definitely got to catch up on all of the duels I've been missing!
Grinning, I announced, "Here I go! My go, draw! I summon Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin!" I held the card out proud, and for a split second nothing happened, making me wonder what the heck my friend was doing, when suddenly a huge comet burst down from space and appeared on the dueling field in just as showy of a way Emerald Turtle had appeared.
Show-off, I mentally sent to him, laughing at his antics. He pretended not to hear and just smiled at Jesse and Emerald Turtle kindly.
"Whoa! So these are the heroes from space I've heard rumors about? The Neo-Spacians?" Jesse cooed, amazement lighting up those green eyes like fireworks. I felt something tugging at my heartstrings for the billionth time this year, but this time it didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable in any way. This feeling calmed and soothed me, almost making me relax into a content nap time. I shook it off, making a mental note to get more sleep in class, and got myself back into the game again, just trying to push all of these weird events to the back of my mind for now. I settled with listening to the new audience to hear their reactions.
"That's great!" the guy with the crocodile on his back shouted, looking optimistic and happy, his one showing eyes alive with excitement.
"Aliens vs. legendary beasts? That's quite a sight to see," Adrian commented with a slightly smirk on his face, leaning onto the railing as if to get a better look at us. Pumped up again and wanting to give the new students a good welcome into the school, I continued with my move.
"I discard one card from my hand and activate Aqua Dolphin's special effect, Echolocation! From your hand, I destroy the card with 300 ATK and inflict 500 points of damage to you!"
Jesse flinched as the waves attacked his hand and one of his cards appeared in solid form, Ruby Carbuncle, before vanishing into the Graveyard.
"You little...! You destroyed my Ruby!" Jesse announced, stating the obvious. I noticed his southern drawl got a little less noticeable when he said that, as if he was reverting to some other accent he had picked up from somewhere...
I shrugged it off, deciding I really didn't care. The duel was way too much fun to worry about accents! "Next I activate the card Over Soul! Now I can special summon an elemental hero from my graveyard!"
"So the card you discarded earlier..." Jesse mumbled, his gaze shifting to my Graveyard.
"So come out Neos!"
The tall alien appeared in the same fashion as Aqua Dolphin had, making the big space entrance as if trying to impress the Crystal Beasts in some Duel Monster type thing. It seemed to work on Jesse, because he was bouncing from foot to foot energetically, waving his hands around.
"So he's Elemental Hero Neos? Cool! Shit, if we weren't in the middle of a duel, I'd ask him for an autograph!" he trilled, thrilled with the presence of the monster. Then his face settled into a smirk and he continued, "But I've been waiting for you to summon a new monster."
"What?" I asked, bewildered.
"Trap, activate! Induced Summon! When a monster is special summoned onto the opponent's field, both players can special summon, from their hands, one level 4 or less monster."
"Ah, you scared me! For a second I thought you were going to destroy Neos," I admitted easily, my hand fluttering over my heart to emphasize my point.
Emerald Turtle chuckled loudly from his shell, startling me slightly. "Like Jesse is the kind of person who would do something like that!"
"In my deck, aside from counter cards, there aren't any cards that destroy my opponent's cards," Jesse said, continuing Emerald Turtle's train of thought. For my part, I didn't understand as usual.
"Huh?"
"It's easy to destroy a monster with an effect," Jesse explained, "But it's the same as sealing your opponent's potential before being able to see it. I always wanted to see my opponent's true power. That way, both sides can do their best. That's the kind of duel I aim for!"
I blinked heavily at that, my eyelids almost feeling like they were too heavy to be opened again. I was getting an overwhelming sense of Déjà vu from that little speech, and it, added with all of the tension that was just unloaded from my shoulders, was seriously making me want to take a nice long nap. I shook my head discreetly, still trying to get away from this fatigue. I mean, come on, Jesse's a really cool opponent to go up against and I'm practically falling asleep? Not cool, not cool at all.
"Wow, you really are an interesting guy!" I commented, trying to keep myself awake. My usual fire had died down in these last few minutes and I wondered absently if I should even be dueling after last night... Naw, dueling could never hurt me!
"Come on Jaden, summon a new monster!" Jesse laughed, apparently aware of my wandering mind.
"Right!" I blushed. "Come out, Neo-Spacian Ground-Mole!"
"I choose Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle!" Jesse countered.
"There are so many people here today!" the big eagle commented the second it was free from the confines of its Crystal.
"Don't get reckless Eagle," Emerald Turtle chided lightly. Then Crowler and the hopefully French guy talked about something, but I was so used to tuning them out now in detention and class that I didn't really catch what they said. This is probably a good thing I guess.
"Go, Neos! Attack! And next, Grand-Mole's attack! Aqua Dolphin! Direct attack!" I announced, punching the air like I usually did when I landed the hits. I smiled when his life-points dropped and my old dueling energy went lighting up inside me again, even better than coffee! (Not that I would know of course, everyone keeps me faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr away from coffee.)
"All right! Serge defeated the Crystal Beasts!" Hassleberry cheered for me as I squinted through the smoke. I felt like I was forgetting something important all of the sudden, but I couldn't place what it was until Chazz said:
"No."
Sure enough, the smoke cleared and my instincts were right again. The Cobalt and Emerald still remained on the field, crystallized in the magic and trap zone. "Huh? What's that? I thought we defeated the Crystal Beasts," I asked, the question pointed at anyone willing to answer.
"Sorry, but that's the special ability of the Crystal Beasts. That is, when destroyed, they crystallize and remain in my trap and magic zone!" He didn't really sound all that sorry, just really happy.
"What?!" I half-shouted, amazed at the power and bond that Jesse shared with his family.
"So if the crystals aren't destroyed, then the Crystal Beasts can't be defeated?" Alexis mumbled from her seat. I could feel her hazel eyes boring into me, trying to read what I would do to fix this duel.
"Wonderful!" Jim's voice shouted, breaking the heat of Alexis' stare.
"I've never seen something like this before!" Adrian commented. The quiet guy called Axel just stared down blankly along with the muscle-guy named Drake. Their gazes unnerved me slightly, especially Drake's for some reason...
Darn it! I'm doing it again! Focus Jaden!
"Awesome! Awesome! Your monsters are really great!" I complimented.
"That's the power of the Crystal Beasts! The power, along with my own determination, to never give up in a duel!" he told me, grinning infectiously.
I smiled as brightly as I could at that, overjoyed to hear that someone else shared the same views as me and could see Duel Spirits and talked to them like normal even if he was surrounded by people. It was like having a brother or something, and I already just trusted him so much...
(Later)
"You see? During this turn, if you did this, wouldn't it have been better to do this?" Jaden advised his blue-haired twin energetically in the setting sun, moving his cards around easily, as if he had been doing it his entire life.
Jesse nodded in agreement, but moved the card back and showed Jaden something else. "I really should have done that, but I was trying to do this here..."
"I see..." Jaden responded, his face content and dreamy in the splashes of warm light.
"Aside from that thought, during this turn, you..." Jesse trailed off, showing the other boy what he meant instead by picking up Jaden's card and arranging them around.
"Jay?" Syrus asked quietly from afar, standing with his rival and the two rich teens, Aster and Chazz. He stared at his best friend in confusion, wondering if it was meeting this boy that had brought the old Jaden back to life so quickly. Betrayal flashed briefly across his face before he pushed it down, willing it to be nothing—that he was still best friends with Jaden.
"Err, isn't it peaceful?" Hassleberry whispered, trying to break the silent tension hanging in the confused air around them. Chazz just batted away the feeble attempt with a swipe of his hand, or it could have been duel spirits for all they knew, and asked the question that they were all dying to know.
"What's up with them?"
Aster rolled his blue eyes at the sight, obvious bored or maybe even amused by the sight of another Jaden. "Looks like we have another dueling moron. I'm heading back to the Pro Leagues."
Alright, bored.
"That's it! That's it!" Jesse announced loudly, smiling brightly as their duel spirits surrounded them, all smiling and getting along just as well as the two duelists.
"Ah! I see!" Jaden replied, and he felt like he really was starting to see. Spending time with Jesse was like he was fitting two pieces of the puzzle together, like they belonged together, like family. Just feeling the easy trust flowing between them and not even caring that they really knew nothing about one another, it was just like it was meant to be. And he was tired of trying to figure everything out; he had never been good at doing it in the long run. Short little things like the Dueling Giant were easy for him because they were others peoples' emotions, but when it came to his own emotions, he was lost. So he was just going to let his feelings play out and see what happened, hoping for the best. After all, he was the hero, and no matter what happened, good always beat evil in the end, right?
"Jaden!" Syrus called out to me. I looked up from our cards and Jesse to see him standing off in the distance, and to my surprise, I saw that the sun had set already! I didn't even notice with all of the lights on out here. For some reason my little bluenette friend shot Jesse a searching look and then turned to me, all smiles. "We've got to go get ready for the party Jay!"
Jesse cocked his head to the side curiously, wondering what was going on, while I thanked Sy for coming and finding me. He practically glowed under my praise and looked as though he was trying not to be snobby for some reason, which got me completely confused. He was acting really strangely around Jesse and me, which has to be really weird when I noticed it.
"What's going on now?" Jesse finally asked, helping me pick up our cards and sorting through them easily. Every time our hands would brush I'd feel that tingle go through my being, making my spine feel like gelatin. But I couldn't help but keep 'accidently' doing it. The feeling definitely wasn't bad or anything, not that I did pick up any I'm-an-evil-guy vibes from him at all, it felt warm and comforting, once again, like we had been friends since the day we were born or something. I liked it, a lot.
But that confused me too, just adding another bulletin onto my gynormous list. Well at least this is a positive one, right?
"There's a party for you guys tonight with the entire school," I answered easily, although I hardly knew anything about it at all. "I think it's to help you guys blend into the school or something, meet new people, ya know?"
"But I'm doing that already!" Jesse laughed, standing up with me as we turned our attention as one over to Syrus, who now looked slightly freaked out. We both cocked our heads to the side.
"What's up Sy?" I asked, not even surprised when Jesse asked the exact same thing. For some reason that seemed to creep out the bluenette even more, because his mouth hung open for a few minutes.
"You guys are twins or something, I swear!" Syrus finally managed to shout, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically.
"Huh? No we're not."
His right eye twitched before he grabbed me around my wrist and started pulling me back to the dorm, making curt 'follow us' motions to Jesse like some overprotective mother or something, making me laugh a bit. "Whoa Sy! Slow down buddy, where are ya taking us?"
"The others are waiting at the Slifer Dorms for us, we're just going to make sure we all go in together so we don't lose each other in the crowd," Syrus answered, his voice quavering slightly at the possibility of being all alone in one giant mob of students. "Oh! Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go after all..." Syrus muttered, his grip loosening.
"Come on Sy," I chirped happily, giddy with relief and energy that I hadn't had before my duel with Jesse. "You've got to come to the party! We'll all be there to back you up anyway buddy! Plus, it's just a party, nothing to be scared about at all!"
"Famous last words Jaden?" Bastion said, coming into view. I grinned toothily at him and counted off my friends absently making sure that all of us were here. My eyes rested on Driana, who had a frozen look on her face, and then Jesse, who she was staring at. Suddenly apprehension washed over us all as we watched the two of them stares at each other as if the other had died, and then suddenly Driana flung herself into Jesse's arms, sobbing with earnest.
Something ugly flared up in my chest, making my heart slow and constrict instead of do its usual quick-and-long routine. I did not like the two of them so close together, so intimate, him wrapping his arms around her and holding her... I hated it.
I blinked, coming back to myself as if I had just run head-first into a brick wall again. What the heck? I thought I just trusted Jesse and Driana and thought they were really close friends, but now why do I have an almost uncontrollable urge to beat them over the head with my duel disk?
"I'm so glad you're alright Jesse!" Driana cried, keeping her face buried into his chest as if she knew how angry this display was making me and was just toying with me. My fists clenched tightly and then I forced myself to breath and relax. She didn't know, she was just attached to him for some reason and he wasn't doing much to push her off...
Calm down Jaden!! She loves you, remember!
But for some reason knowing that just didn't seem like enough anymore.
She pulled away, wiping at her eyes, and I noticed that her make-up didn't even run like it had in Chemistry when I accidently set off the sprinklers and half of the girls in the class had long black streaks running down their cheeks from their eyes. It was only a small explosion, and it's not like anyone really liked that corner of the classroom anyway.
Jesse took her by the shoulders, his eyes stunned, looking at her as if he would never see her again. My anger flared up again, but it went unnoticed due to this scene.
"Of course I'm alright!" he assured her gently, wiping his thumb against her cheeks even though there were no tears left. I almost growled at him. "I told you, nothing can keep me down for long! 'Specially not with keeping you worried!"
"You didn't even write me!" she chided him weakly, but the overjoyed expression that she wore tore away and discipline in her words. "I told you to as soon as you got better, but do you listen, noooooo."
"You didn't exactly write either," he laughed, patting her shoulders and hugging her tightly before letting go. Finally.
"How was I supposed to know you were out of the hospital, huh Anderson?" she demanded, sounding for all the world like Chazz, and then I realized that she was imitating Chazz because he started to foam at the mouth in anger.
"You could have called," he teased her lightly.
I had finally had enough. "Hospital?" I asked, keeping my voice light as could be. "What're you guys talking about?"
"Oh!" Driana said, looking towards me in embarrassment and them smiling brightly. She looked at Alexis, who I just noticed had been watching me completely, and continued, "Remember how I told you I transferred over to North Academy in second year to get away from the Society of Light nonsense?"
Alexis nodded tightly, her mouth thin and slanted at the mentioning of it.
"Well I met Jesse over there and we became really tight friends," she continued, weaving her arm through his and smiling up at him, her eyelashes fluttering. I grit my teeth together and clenched my fists even tighter, not caring who was watching me. I couldn't explain this feeling, and it was just when I thought things were going to go back to normal around here. This was definitely like the 'love' that Atticus says I feel for Driana, except it hurts more, and I didn't think that was possible.
Maybe I should just stop thinking and listen.
"Everything was cool up until the end of the year..." she trailed off, looking up at him as if asking for his permission to continue. He smiled down at her like he did to everyone and picked up the story where she left off.
"We were hanging out around the edges of the school, watching the sun set over the ice—"
"Which is very beautiful by the way," Driana added in, making me want to just go up there and melt all of that ice to make her stop thinking about what a beautiful time she had with Jesse. And why was she asking all weird around him? She'd never thrown herself into anyone's arms before, and she's acting all clingy, and—
"And then I..." Jesse faltered, touching his heart. My own was fluttering madly now, hammering against my chest unpleasantly, kindling the angry feeling throughout my entire being.
(Flashback Jesse-POV)
"Dri!" I laughed, slipping and sliding over the ice on the outskirts of the school property, trying to catch up with the bouncy girl. She turned around with tongue sticking out, taking off the ice-skates she had managed to conjure up out of nowhere this morning and putting them to the side, sitting on an ice-boulder.
"You're too slow Jesse!" she chirped as I finally caught up with her, huffing and puffing. My heart was racing wildly, and I wondered if I had been out running around for too long in this cold weather after all. But then she smiled and I forgot about my uncomfortable feelings fluttering around in my chest, settling down in the snow next to her and resolving myself for a wet butt.
"There goes the sun," I said, stating the obvious like normal. She didn't comment, after all, this had become a routine for us, watching the sun set as if we were the only two people left on the planet. I personally loved the way the colors reflected off the ice, it made it seem like we were bathed in a rainbow light, like that of my family. She must have been cold because she shifted closer to me, shivering slightly, her breath coming out in little crystal gasps.
My heart started to beat faster, wilder, and when she looked at me I felt like something was about to snap in me, breaking. "It's so beautiful Jesse," she said. "I like it out here, just the two of us."
It was starting to get painful now, the beating. It was picking up, hammering against my rib cage as if it were desperately seeking passage out of my body, drilling away. My breaths came out shorter, but I thought it was nothing, just over-exerting myself from all of the running we had been doing today.
I looked back up at her, into her sapphire eyes, and smiled, hiding the uncomfortable pain. "Yeah, beautiful, like always."
Her cheeks were flushed pink with cold and the tip of her nose was red, but her eyes were smoldering like fire in the sunlight, and the fire seemed to be picking up in my heart, mixing everything together in fuzzy shades of blue, black, and gold. I was dimly aware of my hand slipping and my torso falling, collapsing into the snow, and I didn't know what was wrong anymore. The numbness had finally claimed me. Driana's voice was echoing around me in a sweet symphony of angelic concern, but I just smiled, told her that she was beautiful again, and then my world went white.
(End Jesse's flashback moment)
"I had a heart attack."
"What?" I blustered out, all of my thoughts crashing into each other in one helpless train-wreck.
"I don't know how or why," Jesse continued, shaking his head at me to answer my question, "cuz I've never had heart problems before or anythin'. I was just lookin' at Driana here, and the next thing I know my heart feels like it's gonna explode it starts beatin' so fast. I woke up in a hospital with this little lady next to me, worried out of her mind."
"Then I had to leave the next day to catch the end of second year so it would still count as a Duel Academy course, so I didn't hear from him until now," Driana finished, staring up at Jesse again as if she was certain that he was going to vanish into the air again. But then I noticed that she was really tensed up when she looked at him, like she was afraid.
I felt all of the anger and annoyance melt away; evaporating off of me like the hot air it was and allowed the sinking feeling to settle in the pit of my stomach. I was just being stupid again, there was nothing going on between Jesse and Driana, she had just been worried about him. I would probably tackle him too if I had been there with them...
"So what Jesse, were the two of you together or something?" Atticus asked suddenly over the others, his gaze darting to me and smirking before turning back to Jesse. Driana made a funny little noise somewhere between and snort and a squeal and Jesse just looked confused.
"Why would you think that?" he asked and I breathed in relief, earning a rather heated gaze from Alexis. Oh Ra what was going wrong with the world?
"Just ignore my brother," Alexis answered rather loudly, thwacking him over the head for good measure. "He tends to think that friendship between boys and girls are bound to turn into boyfriends and girlfriends. Right Jay?"
Her gaze was practically scorching my skin off. "Right Lexi!" I answered brightly to hide my surprise. She was getting the anger that I got when I was watching Driana and Jesse? Or was she glaring at me cuz I said her brother wouldn't bother her (roughly) and yet here he was in our group? Yeah, that's probably it. She said it herself; she doesn't have feelings for me at all. It'd be ridiculous for us to go out.
My own sourness surprised me. Puberty sucks.
"So you guys ready to go or what?" I asked in the awkward silence, effectively leading my friends away from the dangerous topic of the pain known as love. We walked on, talking about pointless things for the remainder of the trip, Syrus and I goofing off with Hassleberry, Chazz showering an annoyed Alexis in compliments, and Alexis glaring at me like she hated my guts. What had I done?
(Alexis POV)
"My dear Lexi-pie, you look so beautiful in the moonlight tonight!" Chazz cooed in worship for the thousandth time in five minutes, so I shot another slathering glance at the Slifer Slacker who had made all of this happen.
(Flashback)
I turned a page of my book with interest, wondering how it was going to end, and then Chazz burst into the Girl's Dorm, blatantly ignoring the "No-Boys" rule. But then again it was alright for them to be here in the daytime in full view of everyone else, but we tended to keep that a secret to stop the crazy stalkers from getting us.
"My dearest!" Chazz announced, falling to one knee dramatically. I rolled my eyes and went back to reading my book, hoping that I could just ignore him and he would go away. "I have great news!"
I sighed, knowing that reading wasn't going to be enough to drown him out and that it would be more painless for me to just get it over with before he embarrassed me in front of the entire Girl's Dorm. "What is it Chazz?"
"Your brother has finally stopped trying to get you and Slacker together, and now we can finally fall in love and be at peace for all eternity!"
I almost threw up. "Chazz, how many times do I have to tell you, I don't love you. Can't we just be friends or something? You'd honestly have a better chance if you just got to know me first you know."
"You're giving me a chance?" he asked, his eyes shining with puppy-love. Oh Ra.
"NO!" I shouted, hiding my face in my book so I couldn't see him sulk and pout or strike his 'The Chazz' pose. "Did my brother finally figure out that Jaden and I are just friends?"
Chazz made a noise that suggested he thought I was lying but I ignored it, finishing a page and starting to turn it to the next one. "No, he just found out that Driana is head-over-heels in love with Slacker."
RRRRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPP!!!
The new page was half-hanging out of the book, my face frozen. I peered dangerously over the edge of my book at Chazz, willing him to give me more information for reasons that I didn't quite understand. "What? How did he figure that out? Love? Jaden? What?"
He smiled when he saw I wasn't about to beat his unsuspecting hide with my heavy book and went down to his knees with the story, his voice carrying across the room for all to hear. Thankfully Driana was nowhere to be seen.
"Atticus and I were digging around and we figured out that Slacker had to know something because of the way he reacted when we asked him what happened after you all passed out. So we cornered him up on the roof and got him to confess."
"No way, if Jaden knew anything about Zane he would tell us. He wouldn't put us in danger," I answered, smoothing the page back into place sadly. I hated to ruin such a good book.
"That's what we thought, but it wasn't about the duel after all. Driana had told Slacker that she loved him. Don't know why anyone would fall for such a dork like him instead of 'The Chazz', but she did and she freaked out Slacker real bad."
"So what does that have to do with you being here?" I asked, making sure that the fact my teeth were jammed so hard together that they might crack at any given moment in time was concealed beneath my novel.
"Simple!" Chazz announced loudly to the very much eavesdropping Girl's Dorm. "Slacker has a stupid crush on her, that much is obvious, nothing like the power of my love for you sweet Alexis, so now he is out of our way and you can admit your undying love for me now that you won't hurt the reject's feelings!"
She flicked him across the forehead as hard as she could, still had enough of a sense of reality to not smack him across the face. Her muscles tensed just as much as her teeth and a white-hot searing pain erupted from her heart, accompanied by some sense of unknown longing for Jaden's presence. She wanted him to be right there telling her this, not Chazz.
She wouldn't believe it until he told it to her himself. But the thought that he would fall in love with the girl unsettled her somehow, made her heart beat painfully slow and then fast, left her with a bad taste in her mouth. "Really?" she managed to say.
"Really," Chazz squeaked back in response, rubbing his forehead. "Atticus is talking to Slacker about it right now actually, the idiot has absolutely no idea what love is at all, unlike 'The Chazz'! And I will prove it to you my dear!"
And he tried to. Over and over again. All day. Because Jaden had a crush on some other girl.
(End flashback)
I didn't want to use the word love because I don't think that Jaden is capable of understanding it any farther than family. Plus, I don't think that teenagers can ever really fall in love with all of the raging hormones distracting us, and Chazz himself is one of my prime examples.
Jaden's hormones must just be finally waking up, about time. He's probably just crushing on every other girl that he sees—so nothing to worry about, other than what Jaden's reaction will be himself. No wonder he seemed so freaked out lately, he must not understand why he gets the 'fuzzy feeling' when he looks at girls around the island. Really, it must be horrible for him.
Especially since Seto Kaiba is prejudice towards females and sticks us all in Obelisk Blue with short skirts and skin-tight uniforms. Yeah, this is a great place for poor Jaden to start to get puberty. And my brother is explaining it to him. Great.
But, disregarding everything that I just thought, his hormones did bring on the Chazz Plague, and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it through the night with him hanging on my every little word.
So I was mad and annoyed, and I was tired of taking it out of Chazz. Unfortunately for Jaden he was on the receiving end of this one, even though I'm not sure why I felt so justified in glaring at him every time he looked at Driana and Jesse with jealousy in his chocolate brown eyes. Maybe it was because Chazz would compliment me every time he noticed it happening. Whatever, all that mattered was that I could try and talk to Jaden about his little 'problem' and help him more than anything my brother could possibly do.
But judging about how he kept looking at me in confusion to my glares I was going to have a lot of explaining to do first.
Tonight was going to be so much fun.
(Jaden POV)
Tonight was just going to be fun!
Alexis stopped glaring at me finally so I think I managed to fix whatever it was that I did wrong and Driana is walking right next to, really close, so close that I can feel her body heat between my thin Slifer Jacket, and Jesse is laughing with me and my friends on my other side.
Yes, all was finally content in Jaden-land.
I really didn't know what caused Alexis to stop sending those I'm-mad-at-you vibes so suddenly, but she was just suddenly talking to me and laughing along with everyone else, and I didn't even notice that Atticus and Chazz had slipped off until Bastion pointed it out. We just kept going, figuring they must've had some "Super-Secrete-Love-Master-Detective-The-Chazz-Thing" to do.
I was looking forward to the music and dancing around even though I'd never really danced in my life, but I wasn't really worried about making a fool of myself. That's what friends were supposed to do at these kinds of things anyway right?
I think that's why I was so surprised when we walked up to the gym doors. We all came to a jarring halt just inside and the door closed behind us, submerging us in darkness, washing out our faces from each other. We had expected to see a brightly lit gymnasium and crowds of excited students, but instead found that they we had stumbled into a barely lit corridor filled up to the ceiling with fake cobwebs, spiders, and creepy music. We all exchanged glances with each other and Syrus clung to me as closely as humanly possible, terrified.
The only lights came from very dim candle-like things hanging from the ceiling and the sounds came from recorded 'tap-tap-taps' and 'thumps'. When my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness I could just barely make out Driana slightly ahead of me, bent over and trying to read a sign on the ground.
She snorted suddenly and returned to my side. "It says Tunnel of Love," she announced, taking my hand and leading me forward. "Come on guys; let's just get this over with."
I was still stunned by her sudden boldness of taking my hand. But admittedly I liked it, and my heart fluttered excitedly in my chest when the cold of her touch cooled off my mind.
"Wait Jaden!" Syrus suddenly squeaked, causing me to turn back and drop the girl's hand. He was cowering where I had been two seconds ago, having let go when I moved forward, obviously wanting to be let out. I laughed and walked over to him, dragging Driana along with me. "This wasn't part of the plan! You said it wouldn't be scary Jay!"
I shook my head and boldly took a step forward. After all, what I thought I have been up against had to be worse than anything Atticus Rhodes could come up with in one day. "Cone on, we've got to bet through to go to the sweet party Sy!"
"Jay!" the bluenette whined, stumbling as I pulled him forward.
"Come on Sy, Atticus built this! There's no way this thing is really scary!" I assured him with a few small chuckles, ignoring the moaning playing in the background and the sound of footsteps. He squeaked again and hovered really close to me, clinging onto me like a six-year-old. Weird how he can go from being mother-hen to scared kid, huh?
I heard the others start to progress through the haunted hallways thing just behind us, and I settled for listening to the tap-tap of Alexis' heeled boots against the gym floor while my eyes wandered over all of the shadows. I found that it was rather easy to see into them if I squinted, and I was so absorbed in looking into a corner at a rather bad imitation of a chainsaw that I was scared out of my mind when the first student jumped out from behind something and screamed, charging at us like a madman.
Syrus, Driana, and I screamed the loudest, being the group up front, and the two smaller teens jumped into my arms, toppling me to the ground while cowering. The student covered in flour then ran off, dried ice mist floating into the room from the door he/she opened and then slammed shut, cackling insanely.
"I don't wanna die!" Syrus yelled, and I laughed, my heart beating wildly from the good scare and from how close Driana was with me again.
"Guys, a little help here?" I whispered, not wanting to ruin the scary effect. Driana laughed and got off of me, yanking the blubbering Syrus off of me.
"Don't open that door Jay, don't open it. They'll come out and we'll get scared to death! I'm allergic to cobwebs! Oh someone please help me!"
"Sy," I sighed, and then made shushing noises conspiringly. "They'll hear you if you keep shouting Sy."
He stopped talking really quickly and made sure I was between him and the door at the end of the 'corridor'. I swept my eyes around the room and didn't see any more students, but then again I had missed the last one, so anyone could be waiting up ahead.
Adrenaline pumped through my system at that thought, making the hairs on the back of my neck raise up more that they did naturally. I took a step forward in the darkness, slowed down slightly by Syrus, and moved closer to the dusty-looking door stationed ahead of us. My eyes went down to the crack where I saw objects darting back and forth in the dim light. Keeping my vision glued firmly on those figures—three, maybe four—I cautiously pushed back cobwebs with my free hand.
Five feet away.
I could feel warm breath against my neck, breathing in short wet bursts. I tensed, about to scream, and then I felt a slight nudge from a warm hand and I knew it was just Alexis. Taking a breath myself, I continued forward, aware of her breath and the moving shapes.
Four feet.
Something was scratching against one of the walls now, it was a dull constant sound, annoyingly just on the edge of animal-like claws. Then all was unnaturally silent.
Three feet.
A scream pierced through the damp air and we all jumped, stunned at the shrill and tortured sound, rooted to the spot. It would have been comical had we all not been scared out of our minds.
I moved forward.
Two feet.
The shapes had stopped now, and someone cackled from behind us. We whirled around and saw only shadows to guide us, the darkness taunting us, threatening to swallow us in its silence.
One foot.
I reached out slowly with my hand, carefully placing each and every one of my fingers on the handle and listening to the nothing as if I could hear what was behind the door. We all huddled together in our little group, staring at the black-painted door with splotches of what was supposed to be blood across it.
The door.
Finally Alexis couldn't take it anymore and jabbed me hard and quick between the shoulder blades. When I turned the knob, the door made loud tell-tale creaks, initiating us all to jump again. I started slowly, building the tension just in case there was nothing there at all and we could all laugh about it later. But Alexis had different plans. She punched open the door so that it slammed against the wall opposite to us, assertive as ever. And behind the door...
Golden eyes stared.
Disclaimer: I don't own GX.
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