Jaden and I sat down at the desks in the School's Administration Office.

"I can't believe this Zane guy, I mean no wonder Syrus has zero confidence. If my big bro told me that I wasn't good enough to use some card, I'd be insecure too. Well, that's all about to change!" Jaden said, clicking his pen and starting to write.

"How did I get caught up in this mess?" I asked myself. For some strange reason, it was me and only me, who got tied up in strange situations such as these.
There I was sitting next to one of my best friends organising a duel against my own boyfriend, in order to help fix the confidence issues of my other friend whom also happened to be my boyfriend's brother.
"God and I thought girls were complicated." I sighed, resting my head on one hand.

"Is Zane spelt with two N's" Jaden questioned. He was filling out a duel request form and he wanted to make sure that he had all the correct information.

"Just one," I answered, watching Jaden rapidly scribble text on the piece of paper.

"These duel request forms are such a drag!" Jaden grumbled, finally writing his signature on the bottom line.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr Crowler walk past. That could only mean one thing... trouble!

"Duel request form?" Crowler repeated with a confused look on his face. Reaching down he snatched the form right out of Jaden's hands.

"HEY!" we both yelled in unison.

"Planning a duel are we?" he mocked. "Against whom?" Crowler's eyes widened in astonishment. "You must be joking!"

"No, actually I'm not," Jaden replied, reaching for the form. "I'm taking Zane on to help Syrus get over his confidence problem, so he'll be ready for our upcoming tag team match."

"Ah yes, of course, the big tag team match," he said. "The one where if you lose you'll both be expelled from the Academy am I right?"

I frowned seeing his chirpy attitude at the thought of Jaden and Syrus being expelled.

"You say dueling Zane will help you prepare?" he questioned. "Well that's a shame" he jeered, waving the paper in front of your faces. "Because there will be no duel!"
He laughed manically as he tore the paper to shreds in front of your very eyes and walked off.

Jaden and I gasped. What else did we expect from that jerk?

Later that day...

"I have an idea Jaden, what about a pickup duel?" I suggested. "I mean filling out some stupid duel request form isn't the only way to have a duel."

"Bec you're right," Jaden said, a smile spreading across his face. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

Suddenly he began to sprint off at full speed.

"Jaden!" I called after him. "Where are you going?"

"To the Obelisk Blue dorms," he yelled, not stopping.

I sighed and began to run after him. I knew that the students there were ruthless and cruel and it would be best if we had strength in numbers.

At the Obelisk blue dorms.

Two snobby Obelisk guys stood at the entrance of the dorm.

"Well well, what do we have here?" one of them smirked. "Some Slifers?"

"Get your eyes checked!" I scowled, pointing to my yellow blazer.

"Oh well what do you know?" the other one joined in "Yellow is the new red." they both began to laugh uncontrollably.

I could see the anger building up in Jaden. He didn't like when people put down his friends. Loyalty was something that Jaden was best known for.
"That's it!" he said, angrily storming up to them.

"Jaden no!" I yelled, but it was too late.

In a matter of seconds, Jaden was roughly shoved to the ground. I gasped as I saw he had taken a pretty hard fall.

"What's your problem!?" Jaden exclaimed.

"I ain't got no problem, but you sure will if you don't beat. it" the first guy sneered.

"Yeah, Zane wouldn't waste his time with you. You're still probably wet behind the ears from pre-duel school." the second guy continued.

"I am not!" Jaden argued, gritting his teeth.

All at once I heard a splash. To my horror, I glanced over to see a soaking wet Jaden standing next to me. "You jerks!" I yelled.

"Now you are." they teased walking off.

"We're gonna duel," Jaden muttered to himself.

Out of the blue, a strange idea popped into my head.
"I got it!" I exclaimed, running off into the distance, just as Jaden had done before.

"Bec what are you doing?" he called out behind me.

"You'll thank me later," I yelled back, nearly out of breath.

It wasn't far to the spot, but finally, I reached it. The outside of Zane's dorm room. I took a deep breath as I began to climb up the nearby tree onto the balcony. When I was finally at the top, I carefully unhooked the clasp on the glass door, it opened.

There he was angelic as ever, with his face down in immense concentration. He was seated at his desk, three or four of his textbooks opened in front of him. By the looks of things, he was studying. No doubt he would be getting yet another perfect score on his upcoming test.
He heard my footsteps and his head shot up immediately.

"Rebecca, what are you doing here?" he questioned gently, slightly furrowing his brow.

"I came here to see you," I said smiling.

The tension in his face suddenly lifted as he returned my smile with one of his own. He walked up to me slowly and gave me a small peck on the lips.

"I'm so happy to see you," he said, his blue eyes sparkling. Unexpectedly he pulled me into a warm hug, also starting to gently stroke my hair.

"Me too," I replied, gazing up at him.

He then walked over to his bed and sat down. He patted the spot next to him urging me to take a seat.

"I've been meaning to talk to you." he said, now more seriously.

"Oh no!" I thought. "I hope everything's ok between us?" I asked him.

"Sure everything's fine." he said, taking my hand and bringing it up to kiss it.

"It's about Atticus. He's gone missing" he said.

"Since when?" I asked shocked. Hearing this news really upset me, as even though I despised Alexis he was a very good friend of mine. He wasn't some stupid snobby elitist like all the other Obelisks.

"Since the day, he helped you move into the Ra dorms. He told me he was going for a walk with some other students that night and never returned" he answered. "I know you and Alexis don't exactly see eye to eye." he continued. "But I want you to take into consideration, that she's going through a rough time with her brother missing and all."

I nodded. "I understand Zane. Anyway speaking of brothers, I've noticed that yours is feeling a little down lately."

"Oh is he now?" Zane replied coldly.

"Yeah." I continued. "Jaden asked him why and your name came up and not in a good way."

"The big bad brother," he smirked. "What, did you come here to scold me?" Zane questioned, his eyes narrowing.

"No Zane, I came here to tell you Jaden wants to duel you," I answered, slightly defensive.

Zane snorted in response.

Suddenly my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. Glancing at it, I saw that Jaden was calling.
I answered the call. "Hello"

"BECYOUGOTTACOMETOTHESLIFERDORMSTHERESABIGEMERGENCY" he rambled.

"Wait Jaden slow down, I can't understand a word you are saying," I said.

I then heard the phone was grabbed off Jaden.

"Hi Rebecca, it's Chumley." A calm collected voice spoke through the receiver. "We need you to come over to the Slifer dorms, it's an emergency."

"That's better." I thought, as now I were able to understand what was going on. "I'll be there soon," I replied hanging up.

I glanced back up at Zane. He had been watching me the whole time.

"Trouble in paradise?" Zane questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"You don't know the half of it," I said sighing. "I'm sorry, I gotta go," I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. I then rushed out the door and began to climb down the tree.

Fast forward 10 minutes.

I burst into Jaden's dorm room panting. "Guys what's up?" I asked, quite out of breath.

"See for yourself," Chumley said, handing me a small piece of scrunched up paper. Unfolding it I saw that it was a note written from Syrus.

The note read as follows -

Dear Jaden,
I'm leaving Duel Academy. Don't try and stop me, it's for the best.
I would only be holding you back if I stayed.
Syrus.

"Sy's not going anywhere," Jaden said crossly.

"We've gotta stop him," I added.

"Yeah after dinner," Chumley said.

"No now!" Jaden and I frowned at him.

"Alright now." Chumley agreed, rushing over to the door.

All of us rushed out the door, following Jaden's lead. "Hurry!" he yelled.

We need to find him soon, I thought. Before it's too late.