Warnings: Some language. Soem implied drinking. But that's all, really.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX.

Year One: The Academic

" This is insane."

" It can't be that bad.

" Trust me, it's that bad."

" So he's in a bit of trouble, big deal. He'll get out of it. Remember the duel over the break?"

" This is different!"

" How so?"

" It just is, alright?!"

" Calm down."

" I am calm!"

" Try to calm down even more then."

" I'm fine. I'm just…a little anxious is all."

" You're hyperventilating."

" I am not!"

" You are, and you know I can tell."

" …Okay, okay, fine. Maybe I'm…on edge a bit."

" A bit?"

" Okay, a lot. But if you were here, you'd understand why!"

A beat of silence. A painful shrug. A guilty look.

" Don't you think I want to be there? I mean, Jaden is…our friend."

A lip worried between teeth. A glance to the side with sorry eyes.

" Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I know that. I…of course I know that. I just…I want you to be here. It would…It'd make this easier."

" Make what easier, exactly?"

A fearful glance at the arena. Narrowed eyes. A white knuckled hand.

" Jaden…Jaden's not doing so well."

" Not well?"

" He totally dominated the first bit of the duel. You shoulda seen him. He blasted Bastian's monsters away like they were flies. It was awesome!"

" Wish I coulda been there to see it.

" Yeah. Jaden was…well, he was Jaden. But then…"

Silence on the other end of the videophone.

" Then Bastian…did something."

"What?"

" He played this card called Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell. You know, the one that-"

" Basically renders a spell card useless for the entire duel? Yeah, I've heard of it."

" Well, Bastian used it to get rid of Jaden's polymerization."

" Don't tell me…"

" Jaden can't fuse any of his monsters."

" No Rampart Blaster?"

" And no Thunder Giant, no Tempest, no nothing!"

The green haired boy, eying the field where Jaden gritted his teeth far below, felt a well of despair rise within him.

" What's he gonna do?"

" How should I know?" The large man on the screen shrugged his massive shoulders. " I only know how to design games, not play them. You're the duelist."

" But I can't see any way for him to win this!"

" Brier." The man in yellow on the screen said in a gravelly voice. Brier looked down at him, biting the inside of his cheek.

" You have to have some faith in Jaden. If you believe he can win, then he can."

"But-"

" Remember when you dueled him?"

The lingering wind stirred up by Rampart Blaster's attack whipped the leaves of the bush he was hiding in across his face, slapping his cheeks and making him wince. On the other side of the large rock he had concealed himself behind, Beauregard let out a small exclamation of despair. The wind had kicked up a thin coating of dust in the air, and, even as it billowed around his larger friend in beige clouds, Brier could tell, by the sound of fabric hitting the ground with muted thumps and the way Beauregard had thrown up his arms, that their secret had just been uncovered.

When the Slifer boy had first yelled down the hall that he would be waiting by the Yellow Dorm for a duel that night, Brier had let loose a furious bout of defensive anger. Grabbing the large arm of Beauregard, he's dragged the other boy off, cursing and snarling until his anger had given way to tears. Still sniffling in the corner of an empty classroom, he'd asked Beauregard what he wanted to do. To his utter shock and mild disgust, the native Quebecois boy had had wanted to accept the challenge.

" Lia's says he's really good." He'd argued. But Brier, who had never gotten along with the sarcastic brunette, scoffed.

" Shanner wouldn't know a good duelist from a hole in her head."

" She's not the only person." Beauregard had insisted. " I've heard other people say that he's good."

" Why do want to duel him so bad, anyway?"

He'd never gotten a proper answer. Beauregard had simply insisted that dueling Jaden was what he wanted to do, and ignoring his best friend's wishes was never something Brier would let himself do. So, at midnight, Brier had been testing the headset, Beauregard had been straightening his costume, and the both of them could hear the sound of Jaden's voice talking enthusiastically to his friends.

A few second later, Jaden had entered the clearing with Lia and the small Trusedale boy in tow.

Brier flinched as startled gasps filled the air.

" It's Beauregard!" That was the other Slifer. Brier couldn't remember his name for the life of him. " But I thought he couldn't duel."

" He can't." That was Shanner, and she sounded mystified. Despite himself, and the way everything was going wrong, Brier had to smirk.

"But he's the Duel Giant! Explain that Lia!"

" I can't!"

" I can."

Jaden's voice cut through his friends' incredulous bickering.

" Beauregard's the Duel Giant alright." Jaden pointed to behind the rock, almost directly at where Brier was crouching, though he couldn't have known that. " But he's not the one playing."

" Oh, Mon Dieu, il est fou." Lia hissed.

" Jay, you're not making any sense."

" What I mean is, he's not the brains of this operation! So c'mon out here, Brier!"

A trickle of sweat slid down the small boy's back. There was no way…how could the Slifer have possibly known where he was hiding, let alone that he was there? They'd dueled dozens and dozens of Obelisks over the past few weeks, and not one of the blue-clothed duelists had managed to put the pieces together. None of them seemed to realize that what as going on was a team effort, not a one-man show. But then, Brier had always supposed, that was the eternal beauty of it. No one would suspect weak, scared little Brier of being able to take on a single Obelisk, let alone as many as the Duel Giant had conquered. And he was far too small to even be considered. And of course, if anyone suspected Beauregard, the accusation could be waved away by the fact that his hulking friend couldn't duel to save his life.

So who was this guy, this no-name, stupid little Slifer (a Slifer of all things. That was a humiliation he could hardly bare to swallow) to figure out their scheme.

He vaulted himself up onto the rock, still adjusting the headset as he went.

" How did you know?" His voice was calm, but he could feel that same defensive anger that tended to spark up whenever his plans were unraveling beginning to well up in his chest.

" Well, anyone with eyes could see how angry you were at those Blues who were teasing you earlier today. And then, when I saw that you had this big guy as your friend, I sorta…I dunno, put the pieces together."

" But I lost that duel!" Brier snarled, having the distinct feeling that Jaden was mocking him. From somewhere behind the Slifer, Lia scoffed at his tone.

" So? Losing one duel doesn't make you a failure." Jaden shrugged. " I think you're a kickass duelist who just needs a little confidence."

" You're making fun of me!" Brier screamed, the first traces of tears gathering in his over bright eyes. Jaden held his hands up defensively.

" No I'm not. I think you're a great duelist."

" You are making fun of me!" Tears of fury streamed down his face. " You're just like everybody else. You see this short little pipsqueak, and you decided to poke fun at me! You call me shrimp, and munchkin, and you tell me I'm a loser who'll never be able to win a match! You're all the same, every last one of you! You all just laugh at me! And you guys wonder why I get nervous in front of crowds?! All my life I've been laughed at for being the short one, the shrimpy one, the five-foot nothing loser! And then…and then I met Beauregard." He put a comforting hand on the other boy's arm. " And I found out that everyone picked on him too. Said he was too big, a giant. So…So that's when we had the idea!" He glared up at the three opposite him and his friend. " We decided we'd make them pay, all of them! We'd beat them all so bad that they'd never wanna play the game again! And we'd take away their most precious cards, so they would know what it felt like to have something ripped away from you, just like they ripped our dignity away from us!"

He stopped, his fist clenched, breathing hard from his passionate speech. Jaden stood very still on the other side of the field, looking at the two with something that might have been pity (God, he hated pity), but also have been admiration (that was something new). Syrus was opening and closing his mouth, trying desperately to find the words that could adequately express what he was thinking about. Out of the three people who'd come to find them that night, only Lia seemed to be unimpressed.

She closed the book she had been steadily plowing through while the duel had raged with a snap, and brushed aside the curl that always fell into her eyes.

" You're pathetic." She murmured, staring dispassionately up at the sky. Both of her companions whipped around.

" That isn't nice, Lia." Jaden said in a low voice.

" It wasn't meant to be." The girl shrugged. " He just whines and complains about the way he's treated, and instead of doing something practical about it, like, say, telling a teacher, or making a stand like I keep encouraging Beauregard to do, he goes the Revenge route. He hides behind a costume and a farce so that he can hurt the bullies, which in turn makes him a bully. If he could just grow a pair and stand up to those people, none of this would be necessary, but obviously, that's beyond him."

Brier wasn't sure when he had crossed the distance, but in what seemed like the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of Lia, breathing shallowly through his nose.

" Shut. Up." He hissed, but Lia just smirked at his face.

" Oh, the cowardly midget is getting mad, I'm so freaked."

The next second, she was lying on her back in the grass, her right cheek red and stinging.

" I said," Brier put his hand down, " shut up."

Lia sat up slowly, bringing one hand to her aching cheek, eyes wide. She rubbed it absentmindedly, staring up as Brier towered over her, not really seeing him. A dark curl of satisfaction coiled in his chest as he looked at the red that was bleeding onto the usually white skin. It might not have been the first time he'd ever stood up to the Ra girl, but it was the first time any fight between them had gotten physical.

He was still preening over his victory when Lia's arm shot out and he instinctively ducked to the side. The book she had been holding onto smacked into his shoulder. It hurt, he supposed, but it would've hurt more if it had hit its intended target of his face. As he turned to the right to regain his balance, a fist soared at him, and he fell backwards, clutching at his eye.

" Don't touch me." Lia snapped, pulling her fist back for another shot. Brier flinched, and covered his face.

" Oh-kay, that's enough of that." Jaden hauled Lia away by her wrist. The girl stared at him, completely befuddled. " Lia, I think you should go sit by Syrus, okay?"

" Why?" She asked, pulling her arm back.

" Because all that Chablis," His pronunciation, Brier noticed, made her shudder, " isn't helping you."

Grumbling, but acquiescing to his request nonetheless, Lia walked over to where the other Slifer (Syrus, that was his name) was waiting. The boy took Lia's hand and sat her down next to him, looking worriedly between her and Brier.

" So, back to the duel?" Jaden asked, rubbing the back of his head.

" I can actually feel my eye swelling up." Brier muttered.

" You wanna call it quits and get ice on it?"

" And let you win?" The green haired boy shook his head, darting back over to Beauregard, who smiled shakily down at him. " No way! I can take a little pain."

Lia seemed ready to open her mouth to retort, but Syrus rested his hand on her elbow, effectively silencing her.

" I summon Goblin King in attack mode!" Brier shouted, and the small green goblin, swathed in a crimson robe, appeared on his side of the field.

Jaden grinned, true to form, and reached to draw another card.

It hadn't been that Jaden had wanted to expose the Duel Giant, Brier had realized later. It wasn't about finding out who was under the jackets, or who was stealing the cards, or even who was beating the Blues. When it came down to it, in Jaden's mind, it hadn't even been about beating the Duel Giant. It had been about dueling him.

Because Jaden, Brier had come to realize, didn't go into a duel worrying about winning or losing. He had a strategy, and he liked winning as much as the next person, but it wasn't what drove him to duel. Glory, riches, and fame just weren't things that interested Jaden. When he said he wanted to be the next King of Games, he meant it. He just didn't want to be the King just so he could call himself the best duelist in the world. He wanted to be the next Game King so that he could show how much he loved the game.

Because that was Jaden's reason for dueling.

Brier looked into the stadium again, where Jaden was breathing deeply and trying to calm his worn nerves, while Bastian taunted him.

Jaden dueled because he loved the game. And that was what let him win.

' It won't fail him now.' Brier reassured himself. ' Beauregard thinks I should have faith in Jaden."

" You guys should come and hang out with us at the Slifer dorm. The view is amazing!"

" Well, it looks like we all underestimated Bastian." A cold voice said at Brier's left. The green haired Ra turned his head slightly, and gulped as he took in the form of Zane Trusedale, arms crossed and expression blank. " He's been playing phenomenally. With one card, he crippled Jaden's deck."

" Well, what did you expect Zane?" One of the boys who made up his following said snottily. " I mean, he's a Ra. And that other guy is nothing but a Slifer Slacker."

Brier bristled at the nickname.

" See, if you have played this here, I would have lost for sure!"

" You're just saying that."

" No way, bro! Your deck is awesome. And you know how to put it to great use. No wonder you two took down all those Blues! They never stood a chance!"

" He never stood a chance-"

" You're wrong!"

The words ripped themselves out of his mouth before he could stop them. All three Blues turned to look at him, expression of varying annoyance at his interruption and amusement at his outburst stretching across their faces. A few months ago, he might have backed down, and then run to Beauregard and planned for each of them to have an encounter with the Duel Giant. But Jaden had beaten him, and the Duel Giant was locked away in a chest in their dorm room, little more than a useless relic. As it was, he felt no urge to crawl away from to intimidating looks. He stuck his chin out, grit his teeth, and stared them all down, daring them to tell him he was wrong.

" You got somethin' to say, pipsqueak?" One of the boys asked, sneering at him.

" My name is Brier." He kept his voice steady. " Brier Tampkin. And you're wrong."

" Wrong?" The other boy snapped, bringing is fist up to punch against his palm. " I think the little shrimp needs to be taught a lesson."

" And I think you two should scram." Zane cut across coolly, not taking his eyes from the match below. The other two looked horror struck, and quickly darted off, throwing a glare over their shoulders at Brier who returned it.

" Wrong?' Zane asked after a moment of silence. Brier nodded.

" Jaden won't lose." He leaned on the railing.

"How can you be so sure?"

" I don't know. I just know he won't lose."

" Blind faith…" Zane murmured. " It's a foolish thing."

" 'Fools rush in where angels dare not tread.'" Brier quipped.

" There's a reason for that."

" Maybe." Brier agreed as Bastian ordered his Water Dragon to destroy Sparkman. " But no one ever said the angels weren't missing out on something."

**_**

As it was, Brier found himself feeling entirely justified when, several cards, several impressive moves, and several jaw dropping turns later, Jaden managed to get his Wildheart and his Cyclone Boomerang to destroy Bastian's spell card, and with it, the last of his life point.

" You should try following the fool sometime Zane." Brier said as he hopped over the railing and darted down the stairs to where the others where all sitting, stunned, in their seats. " You might like where he takes you."

And then he was cheering until his throat went hoarse, along with the rest of the school, for their representative in the upcoming School Duel.

In his hurry to get down to the arena, where everyone was congregating around Jaden, hugging him and cheering him on, Brier brushed past a black haired boy in a signature, dark blue Obelisk coat. No one, not even Brier, noticed as the boy threw one venom filled glance in Jaden's direction, before storming out of the stadium.

Ah, the return of The Wicked Bitch of Ra Yellow. Just as a bit of a reminder of hwo cruel Lia can be, given her cute, lost puppy attitude from last chapter. As a bit of a headsup, after this point, I will be starting to focus a littel more on the duels, and the dialogue between the duelists. i figured that I've given you all enough of a peek into how Lia perceives duels to last you a lifetime.

So, not many translation for this chapter. At elast, none taht I can really see. Um, Chablis is a type of wine, and it's kinda inplied taht Lia had a little to much before going on the stake out. Why? who knows.

Syrus putting his hand on Lia - It's to show exactly how much power Syrus does infact have over Lia. He can get her to be quiet, quite a feat in itself.

Tapmkin- Comes from 'tampum, which is Portegeuse for cover. Cover=patch. Brier Patch. Get it? ...I'm pathetic, I know.

And that's really about all I can think of...I'm gonna be using the 'following the fool' thing again in later Years, so look for it. Other than taht,

Hope you enjoyed it.

MoS

P.S.- Seriously, I NEED that folder back! That's it Jaden. Love triangel with Chumley and Crowler if I don't ahve it in my hands by the end of the next chapter!