-1A/N: Oh Merlin! Shoot me! You people have the right to e-mail, IM, or hunt me down, and pester me into writing. I don't have anyone off reading this so I don't have daily e-mails or phone calls from friends demanding that I write more. Okay, I'm writing now! I'll post this tonight crosses fingers hopefully. Today is 6-24-06, I've got an inner and outer ear ache and the meds I'm on keep me awake so I'll get this chapter finished in a few minutes go order pizza do my animals and then write the next chapter. If I don't get at least one chapter up a month I want you people to find me! I'm sooo ashamed of myself. Okay now on with it already! Love ya Sarah

Review Response: Marik: HEY glad you're still reading! I was afraid I'd lost everyone with the last chapter. We were driving down the road the other day and Mom's lenses fell out of her glasses, I didn't even realize how random it really is and I've been wearing glasses since I was 18 months old.

Just Waiting

Ryou would have hit his alarm had it not been Lilly. She'd already been up for hours he honestly wondered if she slept at all. However, according to Serena she had a load on her mind so he obediently slid out of his bunk and shook his yami awake. The two stumbled about for a few minutes getting shoes and socks on, brushing out their nearly unmanageable white locks, and brushing their teeth. When they finally got down stairs Lilly was sitting at the table rolling up her blue rubber ducky pajama bottoms and shoving her feet down in knee high rubber boots.

"Eat. I'm gonna go out and hay and break the ice. When Matt and Mandy finally decide to show up come get me.," she said shrugging on her carhart coat and leaving them.

"Ry, babe, do me a quickie?" Serena asked walking by with her toothbrush sticking out the corner of her mouth, her hair still up in curlers and hideous Cookie Monster slippers on her feet.

"Yea, what you need?" she slid the cordless phone out from between her ear and her shoulder and handed it to him.

"I'll be right back it's Suteki, she's talking about that guy, what's his name? You know the one she's in Spanish with." then she was gone. Bakura cocked his brow as he settled in over his toast a smirk spread across his face.

"Ry?" Suteki's voice greeted him and he grunted in the receiver and skirted around Bakura to the toaster. "It's horrible! He's going to skip classes today so he doesn't have to go to the dance Friday. But that's not the worse part! I heard from his sister's best friend's ex-boyfriend's cousin that he hit a dog!"

"The world's not going to end over one dog Ki-Ki." Justin yelled passing Ryou to rinse his cup in the sink.

"Give the phone to that boy." Ryou obliged and Justin took off to the living room with the phone.

"Hey Ryou." Bakura said looking up from his plate. "You're whipped."

"Shut up." He said shoving his 'brother's' chair into the table.

When Mandy and Matt arrived Bakura ran out baseball bat in hand, to deal with Sam should he decide to come around, to get Lilly. It wasn't twenty minutes before they were all loaded in their two cars and on their way. During homeroom, three girls were sent to the office to wait for their parents to bring something suitable for them to where. After that, classes slid on uninterrupted. In fact the following day, hippie costumes, went on without any real occurrence. Ryou was even beginning to think that they might be able to get through the week scot-free.
"I don't care Lillian Ann; our folks are never going to let you dress like that."

"I used to all the time. Or did you forget this is show clothes?" Lilly yelled back at her brother. Somehow her dad had gotten out to work already and her mom worked the previous night and therefore wasn't home yet.

"You were…. What ten? There's a difference a ten year old is cute, you….You are my baby sister." Justin was loud but wasn't yelling he somehow managed to keep his voice calm and level, though sitting down stairs around the kitchen table you could still hear the dangerous edge.

"I'm not a baby. I don't need you to dress me. So back off!" a door slam stomping then Queen's Fat Bottom Girls began to blare from Lilly's room.

"Matt, please?" Serena sighed letting her head slip between her hands and smack the table.

"Not my place Sis." he said ruffling her hair as he passed to let Gretz in.

"I'll go up, but I was with her when she got the thing I don't see what's so bad about it." Bakura offered.

"If she were you little sister you would." Matt called from the mudroom.

"FAT BOTTOM GIRLS YOU MAKE THE ROCKIN' WORLD GO 'ROUND!" Lilly's voice actually rang out over the music.

"Serena, come with me." Mandy said standing up and taking Serena by the wrist.

The two disappeared upstairs at the same moment Matt and Gretz came bounding in. The three boys set, by habit, to the dishes and by the time all the breakfast dishes were finished some sort of compromise had been made and the other four joined them. Ryou couldn't see where her outfit had changed any. She was still wearing tight hugging jeans with the black leather chaps, bright red cowboy boots, and a black button up shirt with a collar, on her head perched a black cowboy hat that she'd stuck a red bird's feather in. Justin looked like he'd lost a war dressed similarly to his sister. For the most part the group looked like they'd walked off the set of a western. Bakura seemed overly pleased with himself for having learned to walk on the slick floor with the cowboy boots. Somehow, he'd even managed to find a pair of spurs that clicked against the ground as he walked.

"We ready young'uns?" Lilly asked giving Bakura a pointed look. Ryou didn't know what it meant but his yami jumped to his feet, and in one fluid movement had slung his pack over his shoulder and started out the door. Lilly followed quickly behind him. After a few moments of calamity, gathering backpacks, shoving on boots, grabbing coats, and trading hats to better match their clothes the others join the pair in the cars.

"Whatever, long as I don't have to wear this." Bakura was saying as Ryou slid into the back seat next to Serena. Serena gave him a wicked little grin.

"Told you," she mouthed to him as she buckled up. Giving the engine one last reeve they peeled out of the drive.

English, Geometry, Spanish, and Social Studies were first up for Ryou and Lilly; they slid through them barely noticed which Lilly pointed out as soon as she joined him at the door at the end of every class. Then they had lunch, which was its usual, peppy girls sat not far off gossiping, Lilly and Bakura spoke in hushed tones about their weekend plans, which the whole group knew, but they didn't know they did, and Serena sat next to Suteki and him as the three talked about what they had planned for Christmas break. Half way through lunch though Ted, or as the foot ball teams fan club called him, the Bear walked up and squatted down next to Lilly the whole group strained to hear what he was saying.

"Look, it's not a big deal or nothing. Jus' my sister, ya know, wants you to come, and the 'rents will be outta town, so it's a party," he was saying. Lilly gave him a look, which to those who didn't know it looked like she was thinking on something, but if you knew her; you knew she was just humoring you.

"You know I'd love to baby sit your sister, but vandalizing your parents home while their out of town doesn't sound pleasant especially with your little sister in the house. So, I'll have to decline." she turned back to Bakura, "So, anyway, it's like this little mini village one weekend a year. Cute and cozy with for those 21 plus, tons of booze."

"I don't think you understand Halse," Ted interrupted, "this is a jock's party. You're never going to be invited to another one of these with the losers you hang with. I'm giving you an in here." Lilly cast him a bored glance.

"No, you don't understand Ted. I'm above you. I know what I want and how to get it. I know where I'm going, and have zero interest in breaking into Daddy's liquor and screw everything that moves. You want to eff the world go ahead and do it. But leave me out. I'm not going to your party and I don't want an in. Get it?" Ted looked stunned for half a second then standing up he took one last blow.

"I forgot you already did all that." and walked off. Lilly looked near tears when the bell rang. Ryou had heard bits and pieces of her life story but not enough to understand what Ted had meant and she wasn't waiting up on him. She slammed her tray into the garbage, and stomped off down the hall. He tried to keep up but lost her when she turned into the girls restrooms.

At home, that evening Lilly rushed through her chores and homework, and then disappeared in her room. For the rest of the evening sappy songs by some artist Serena and Suteki claimed to be Billy Gilman, seeped from under the door. Bakura and Matt made separate attempts to get her to come out but she didn't even acknowledge that they'd knocked. Bakura even went in the room and lay on her bed but she was immersed in some website and didn't give him the slightest glance. Mrs. Halse fixed dinner and Mr. Halse kept them all away from Lilly claiming all she needed was a little room.

Matt, Mandy, Suteki, and Chris all went home just before dinner leaving the house feeling empty. Ryou and Serena wasted time watching TV, the teachers weren't bothering assigning homework this week, beyond study for this test or that. They were all intent on finishing up and not starting another section. Ryou didn't usually like to watch this much TV but Serena said it was studying pop culture. Therefore, he sat through three hours of Fox before he finally gave up and went to find a book.

The following morning Lilly was sitting in the driver's seat in maroon scrubs, Serena next to her wearing a business suit. Bakura and Ryou didn't know what they wanted to be Bakura never having had to consider this before and Ryou having spent a lot of time involved in some plot to takeover the world, at his yami's hands of course, to have put much thought to the idea. The rest of the gang was dressed nicely but no major change from their daily clothing. Justin wanted to be a sports reporter, Matt wanted to be an elementary school teacher, Mandy claimed she was going to be a fashion designer; Serena wanted to be an attorney. Lilly made no sign that yesterday's upset had happened. She joked with them on the way to school and through classes managed to stay in a generally good mood. However, she had told Ryou and Chris she really wanted to just walk into her last class a little late so she wouldn't have to attend the dance the following day.

When Ted and her crossed paths there was this heated energy that popped up between them. Chris looked at him bobbing his eyebrows up and down trying for all he was worth to look suggestive but only managing to look like he belonged on Nick Jr. Some of the guys that followed Ted, worshiping the ground he walked on hissed and made inappropriate noises when they saw Lilly. If Lilly reacted at all to them, it was only to flip them the bird.

When the last class finished Friday, Lilly, Chris, and Ryou were ready to run. There had been some attempt to get dates for the dance, but most of them had been a flop and their group hadn't been approached nor had they approached anyone. Chris had resigned the night before to tell Ryou that lepers don't date. Mrs. Historyisfun hugged a few of the students and told them to be safe over break before letting them scatter out into the hall. It was as if a dam had broken! Girls rushed for lockers and then to bathrooms with bags, boys looked desperate for an exit. Some of the lucky kids who had been 'bad' went to gather in the computer lab. Lilly watched after then longingly as the trio waited for the rest of their group.

Just as Mandy, Matt, Bakura, and Justin came into view, Ted blocked them. He grabbed Lilly's arm and started tugging her away. She tried to stand still but Ted gave her a pleading look. Ryou knew before she said it. That she was going to go with him.

"If I'm not back in five minutes send out a search party," she whispered in his ear when she finally gave in. The two were quickly lost in the sea of students. Ryou had no idea what to say to the others. But was saved by Chris.

"She'll be back in just a second. Why don't you guys go in. I'll wait for her." Angelica, the newspaper's photographer came up her camera hanging from her neck.

"Chrissy, can I have the first dance?" Ryou watch the conflict in his eyes.

"You kids go have fun I'll wait on Lils." Bakura said thrusting them all down the hall.

A/N: yea I know its short but I have to go and want to at least give you something. Remember: hunt me down if there's no word from me in 1 month. Review!