Chapter 14

Tension was rising high inside the school duelling arena, both girls was stood opposite each other, and it was obvious at that moment in time no one was going to stop this duel from happening, plus it was the only way for them both to not be expelled by the school Chancellor.

Having her back arched slightly, and her eye's narrowed to the blonde teenager stood across from her, trying not to just tackle her back to the ground and beat the living day lights out of her, Claudia picked a card from her hand "Alright you spoilt little brat, I start with Gogogo Giant in attack mode and end my turn." Her right hand was clenching and un clenching slightly, She'd had just about enough of Alexis and her childish acting towards her. Sure she roomed with Jaden and Syrus but that didn't mean she was sleeping around.

Alexis drew her first card, and she had placed on a set of purple sleeveless gloves, and slammed a monster on the field, "I summon Cyber Valkrie in attack mode, and then I place two cards face down on the field Donovan, then I end my turn… go on Donovan I thought you was going to bring it? Or is that what you just do in bed when you mess about with men?"

Gritting her teeth, Claudia was getting more and more riled up, standing to the sides of the stadium was Zane, Syrus, Professor Crowler and Abigail. The therapist had tried to talk Claudia out of the duel and to finish her session to try and get rid of the anger she held inside but Claudia refused saying that no one speaks about Artie the way Alexis did and gets away with it.

Zane had tried to make Claudia go to the nurses office but she had shook him off, he hadn't even seen that much anger in the girl when Pete teased them about being together on Saturday. Claudia drew her next card, "I summon Gagaga Magician and then overlay both my monsters to bring out Utopia! I told you that I was going to teach you a lesson Rhodes! And this is how I do it! Utopia attack!" At that moment Alexis held a smirk on her face, "What's wrong Donovan? Forget I placed cards face down? I activate Blizzard wall! It changes the battle position of my monster to defence mode and once it's destroyed Utopia will have 1 Ice counter on it's head." In a quick movement, Cyber Valkire was destroyed and a small ice counter appeared above Utopia's head. Biting her lip not caring that blood was trickling down her chin from the previous fight they had in the hallway, Claudia threw down a face down card, "I place one card face down and end my turn."

Alexis Drew just as fast as Claudia had ended her turn, "I activate the field spell Absolute Zero Barrier, this allows monsters with Ice counters to lose 500 Attack points and! It can no longer attack, I then summon Frost tiger in attack mode and place one card face down and end my turn."

Claudia just stood up straight, wincing slightly from her ribs, "Awe, is someone in pain? Good you deserve it bitch…" but she ignored the blondes taunting words and drew her next card, "I summon Gogogo Golem in attack mode, Golem destroy Valkyrie!"

"Not so fast you blind slut! I activate Doble Passe!, yes I take 1800 points of damage but my monster still stay's on the field." Grunting, Claudia ends her turn, her right hand holding her rib cage as she slouched over slightly.

From the side Lines, Zane's trained eye's knew the girl was in pain, but she refused to admit it, he also knew she needed have this duel otherwise things may turn even uglier the next time both girls ran into each other, While watching the duel his ears picked up the sound of footsteps running into the stadium and a familiar voice to his ears shout, "Claudia! What the hell are you playing at!"

Everyone turned around to see two men there, one muscular build and slightly shaved head, and the other older, small framed glasses and rather chubby on the waist line, "Shut up Jinksy!" "No I will not! End this stupid duel now and get yourself a medic!"

"ENOUGH! THIS DUEL WILL NOT END UNTIL I SAY IT DOES!" Shouted the blonde who drew her next card, "I activate the spell card pot of greed not once but twice! Allowing me to draw 4 more cards! Then I activate Cost down to tribute Valkyrie to summon to the field Ice master!"

"Now since your dumb brain only knows nerd programs and not my deck, I'll explain slowly so you can understand, Ice masters effect allows me to send 1 Absolute zero barrier from the field to the grave to destroy all monsters on your side of the field that hold Ice counters on it to the graveyard Donovan! So your Utopia is destroyed, but I'm not done there yet, like I smashed your face I'm having my master smash golems! Destroy her monster!"

Claudia growled as she watched but instantly smiled, "I activate my mirror force, looks like all blondes are dumb." The blonde shook her head, "My my, not this one, maybe that's just you stupid cow, I activate Instant freeze! It negates the activation of your trap card and flips it face down again, now you can't use it for 3 whole turns! Meaning your down to only 1200 life points, before I end my turn I'll place these little babies face down."

Artie had turned to Abigail while Claudia was still duelling trying to get out of her why Claudia was fighting in the first place, but it wasn't Abigail who told him it was Zane, "It's because Alexis disrespected her old man, so Claudia was trying to defend him and it ended up in this duel… she refused to head to the nurses office before hand."

Artie looked the boy who spoke, Mrs F had mentioned to the old agent about Zane Trusdale, on his potential and that he was to become a warehouse agent, "I see… but I'm still not happy about this…. She shouldn't be fighting at all! I know teenagers rebel at some point but I thought Claudia was past that by now.." he sighed pushing his glasses up but Steve spoke, "she may still hold some anger towards me Artie, but still I'd be proud of her to be defending you."

Claudia drew her new card, "I activate Monster reborn! To bring Utopia back to the field and then activate Rank-up Barians force to summon Ray V to the field, now I know you've seen the effects of Ray V before Bitch!" but Alexis held up an index finger wagging it from side to side, "That I have whore bag, that's why I activate The Ice-Bound God trap card! When two or more water monsters are on the field, it negates the activation of a monsters effect rendering your Ray V useless."

Throwing her hand forward Claudia gritted her teeth, "Then just pound her stupid little monster!" but again Alexis negated Claudia's effect by activating her second face down card, "Negate attack!"

The red haired teenager ended her turn, making Alexis draw once more, "I activate the equip spell card Master with crown of command, and equip it to my Ice Master, now attack her Ray V!" and with that Claudia was wide open with no monsters left on the field, "Now attack for game tiger!"

It was then Claudia felt more rage as the blonde's tiger scratched at her taking away the last of her life points and winning the duel, "Pathetic… and you were meant to be some big shot rising up the ranks?" She saw the red head launch forward again but the random male that shouted earlier grabbed the girl around the waist, "Claud…. calm down Claud! enough! Breath ok? Deep breaths…" "Let me go Jinksy! Let me at her!"

"ENOUGH! Both of you to the nurses office! I will turn a blind eye to this one fight, but next time it's to the Chancellors office with both of you!" With that professor Crowler left the duelling arena.

WH WH WH WH WH

Sitting there with her arms crossed, Claudia looked up to the school Nurse "I am not taking it off!" the nurse side rubbing her temples, "Miss Donovan, I need to do a full examination and since you told me that you feel pains on your upper body I need to check out the damage, you could have cracked ribs for all I know!"

Chocolate brown eye's narrowed passed the nurse to see Alexis Rhodes sitting on the bed opposite her, she already had her top off which just showed several bruising in the stomach and one on her back you just couldn't stick to hitting me in the face could you Rhodes?"

"Oh shut up and just take that ugly t-shirt off, what's wrong scared we will call you fat or chunky?" bit the blonde, it was just them three girls inside the nurses office, the males had to wait outside while the check up was being done since it required the girls to basically strip.

Claudia looked down at the floor nervously before taking off her waist coat and t-shirt, to just sitting there in a black lacy bra, two sudden gasps was heard, and no it wasn't because of the severe brusing on Claudia's chest or rib cage, it was because of something else, the nurse gave the young girl a sympathy look before she began to press down in area's around the bruises, Claudia winced on one of her ribs, "Hmmm it just seems to be slight bruising and swelling but apart from that your good, I've placed small stitch on your lip Miss Donovan and that black eye will go in a few days, but since you wear dark make up anyway no one will know the difference."

Claudia groaned as she laid back on the bed, "Ugh …. Craptastic… hey dude, you can stop staring at me now" she waved her hand in front of the blonde, but it didn't faze her, "wait… did you think I was lying about stuff Rhodes?"

Alexis soon snapped out of it when she heard her name being called by the gothic girl in front of her, "Sorry… it's just…. " "You've never seen someone with deep scaring on their ribs and stomach? Sorry dude but as I say to people the foster care system was screwed up, each scar you see here, is from a different foster parent."

She traced her finger going from the left side of her rib cage down to her stomach on the right side, stopping at a deep stab wound that had healed. "I've had it all, beaten, whips, knifes, cigarette buds, but that's all in the past now" she grabbed her t-shirt and threw it back on making Alexis look up to Claudia in her chocolate brown eyes.

"I just assumed that Seto Kaiba had raised you and enrolled you into the school, I never expected that you had been in foster care." Claudia shook her head, "That's why you should never judge a book by their covers blondie, look dude I know you have a secret thing for my bro Jay, and I'm cool with that but instead of being jealous you should have just tried to make friends with me. So yeah I have baggage, I'm not special I'm just another teenager trying to find her place in this big old world."

Alexis stood up, walking over to Claudia just stopping at arms length, she held her hand out, "I want to apologise Donovan, can … we make a fresh start?" Looking down to the hand and then back up to the blonde, "So long as you don't split my lip again then it's cool." Both girls shared a smile before the door slammed open.

"CLAUDIA ROSE DONOVAN! YOU ARE SO LUCKY I'M NOT GROUNDING YOU TILL YOUR 50!" shouted the rather large man in a brown trench coat making his way over to Claudia, he looked over her face. "Ow old man chill…. Easy on the volume my heads still ringing from being head butted."

"Good cause maybe you will actually sit there and listen because someone wants to talk to you." He turned his head as Steve was stood behind him, Claudia sighed looking away from the man she thought was her best friend. He walked over to her kneeling down, "Claud?"

Claudia sighed and looked up to Artie, "Hey old man? Could you and Alexis give me and Steve a moment please?" both nodded and Alexis linked arms with Artie dragging him out, "Come Mr Donovan I don't think you've had a tour of the school yet…" without another word Arthur Nelson was being dragged out of the room by a young hot blonde teenager.

Once hearing the door click shut, Claudia's face turned to Steve, he could see her eye's glistening over but she refused to let a tear fall, "Claud… I'm so sorry… i.." "I was scared Steve… I was terrified, not because of coming here, but I was scared because I thought I lost you again… almost a month went by and no one could get hold of you… it was like Walter Sykes had come back and …" placing both hands on her face, he made the teenager look at him.

"Trust me Claud I am never going to do that to you again, I can't tell you exactly where I was but what I can tell you is that it was amazing and I wish you had been there with me. I swear down to you that you will not find me like that ever again," she grabbed his hands with her own, "I thought I lost you… with you destroying the metronome I can't bring you back again if I lost you… Your my BFFEYLION ((A/N Still don't know what that fully means)) I can't go through with all that again."

He took her hand and placed it on his chest, "You won't Claud because you feel that? My hearts still beating, I'm right here… This academy right here isn't going to keep us separated ok? I'm sorry…. And I don't expect you to forgi- okay I take it as I'm forgiven?"

She had slid off the bed and brought him into a tight hug, arms wrapped around his neck as she felt the tears fall, "Of course you are Poopy Pants! I'm so sorry too…. I was just so angry that I was blinded that you actually took the time to call me. So much has happened here and you are the person I wanted to tell first…"

He was about to speak when a knock came on the door and it opened to see Zane Trusdale standing there, his eye's narrowed in on Steve who was holding Claudia, "Well Wonder girl, you're coming home on Friday right? How about we go to the dub and catch up before you are stolen from me by Claire" She laughed and stood up wiping her eye's, "Sounds good, Zane? That reminds me…. Jay and Sy are crashing in south Dakota for the week… and i…"

"I'll come Claudia not that I'm happy that you both have made up but, to finish our conversation before that excitement earlier…. Claudia Donovan? Will you go out with me?" Zane saw Claudia look to Steve, who gave a slight nod before running up and hugging him tightly, "I would love to Zane!"

Steve smiled crossing his arms, "And she's not lying about that either…"

The last thing Zane heard from the girl in his arms was, "Stupid human lie detector"

WH WH WH WH WH WH WH

So Claudia and Alexis are friends now?

Zane finally asked Claudia

And Steve now knows too….. well she couldn't really hide it from him…. He is a human Lie Detector,

Now what's going down next? It's half term holiday for the kids at Duel Academy so that means FUN!, TROUBLE! AND A PARTY?

OH and will Claudia finish her Cyber Dragon deck?

Curedream90 and ArticDragonSlayer! Over and out!