AN: Here we go! How Joey and the others became friends. FYI, I'm updating this at an obscene our of the morning (a little after midnight, to be more exact) because I won't be able to post it tomorrow (today?) after I go to sleep (mostly because I'd have to do it within the hour I woke up and there's no way my brain's that organized), so I figured I'd just stay up and make it easier on myself. And I was awake anyway, so why not?

Almost two years earlier

Quiet usually wasn't a word used to describe Joey Wheeler. Loud, rambunctious, mean, condescending, and occasionally pensively silent, yes. Never quiet.

That's why it was so strange when Tristan moved away, not that anyone at her school knew that's what had happened or even that she had any friends to begin with.

She just didn't know what to do. Tristan had been the only person who ever really liked her, other than Serenity, who she wasn't allowed to even talk to. That included herself. She didn't like herself, and when no one was around anymore to tell her she was a good kid and that she needed to live up to her potential… well, what was the point? Tristan had moved, and he was the only true friend she ever had. He had been the one to get her out of the gang, he tried to get her back in school, he even dealt with her constant bad attitude. It had been improving, too.

And then she had been told about Serenity's blindness getting worse.

During her week of silence (for which the students and teachers alike were grateful) a couple Hikaris almost approached her, but always chickened out and avoided her afterwards. After she got over her shock, however, with no Tristan to hold it back, her anger returned tenfold and she started terrorizing the students even worse than before.

One of her main targets was a kid named Yugi Moto. For some reason, she had never liked Yugi. She supposed it had something to do with how Yugi never put up a fight, only occasionally yelling. She was tiny too. All Joey was trying to do was improve these stupid Hikaris; they needed to be able to stand up for themselves. They needed to stop being such wimps. They made her sick. All they had to do was hit her, not even very hard, and she would leave them alone.

Not even one of them had done it.

Stupid.

This was her train of thought as she walked out of school a couple of weeks later, banishing any thoughts about how Tristan would feel about her doing this. She didn't even notice the Yamis standing at the front gate, but they noticed her. It wasn't easy to miss her; she stood about a head taller than almost all the others, and no one was walking within ten feet of her. The Yamis didn't have to say anything as they headed towards her; their sleeves were rolled up as to reveal their tattoos and the Hikaris parted without a fuss. Joey only noticed them when they stood almost directly in front of her, and looked at them in utmost contempt.

Hirutani, Kahn, and Richard were the only ones there, but they were also the ones closest to her level, with Hirutani surpassing it. As soon as the other Hikaris saw the four staring off, they abandoned all pretenses and ran, leaving the schoolyard completely empty in seconds.

No one was going to risk their neck for Josephine Wheeler.

Joey scowled after them in contempt. If there was one thing she hated most, it was the very idea of Hikari. Cowards, all of them. They gave her a bad name.

But the three took advantage of her distraction to get the jump on her. She put up quite the fight, and had it been any other three people she might have won. But it wasn't anyone else, and soon she was propped up against the school building half-conscious. The others were panting heavily and bleeding in a couple places, but they had still won.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, someone stepped in between her and her three tormentors, holding out their arms as if to shield Joey.

And what was Joey Wheeler, bully, strategist, all-around jerk thinking at this moment? She wasn't creating a clever escape plan. She wasn't wishing she could get up and beat Hirutani to a pulp. She wasn't thanking the person in between her and the gang members. She was wondering about what she had for breakfast.

The thought process went something like this:

Tristan? No, not Tristan. It wasn't Serenity either. Well no one else would stand in between her and certain destruction. Maybe the person thought she was someone else, or maybe they just had a bone to pick with Hirutani.

That was when whoever it was yelled "No, I can't let you do that to my friend!"

The voice sounded familiar, but her brain was cloudy.

The small girl in front of Joey looked back at her in worry, showing Joey her face.

Yugi freaking Moto. But not in her school uniform, which had been the only thing Joey had ever seen her in up to this point. She was wearing black pants and a blue blazer, which was strange. There was no way Yugi would do this. She hated Joey, and if she didn't, she was even more idiotic than Joey previously thought. She was hallucinating, that must be it. Yugi wasn't actually here, Hirutani and the others would walk right though her in a second before continuing the beating. But why hallucinate Yugi? Why not Tristan or Serenity?

But if she was hallucinating Yugi, how did Hirutani punch her?

There was only one explanation: she was going insane. Yep. Not only was she imagining Yugi, she was imagining Hirutani, Kahn, and Richard as well as them beating her up. That's great. Maybe she shouldn't have eaten that burrito this morning; it was pretty big for being 25 cents, something must have been wrong with it, but it's not like she could afford anything else anyway.

"That should teach her." Hirutani's grating voice was the last thing that Joey heard before everything went black, her last thought being maybe it'll make sense when I wake up.

It didn't.

She was still lying there, surprisingly less injured than she would have thought, and Yugi was just a little ways away. She was still wearing the un-hikari-esque clothes. She was also wearing a leather dog collar that Joey hadn't noticed before, but now that she did Yugi was starting to scare her a bit. Joey stared.

Friend?

As much as she hated it, Joey couldn't bring herself to think Yugi stupid for calling her that, even though it was. Undeniably stupid, that is. No one with any common sense would call their tormentor (though she rationalized it, she knew that's how others saw her) a friend.

Crawling her way over to the smaller girl, Joey ruffled though the jacket until she extracted Yugi's wallet.

Please don't wake up please don't wake up please don't wake up

She needed to know where Yugi lived; she wasn't about to let her freeze and her family worry.

It read: If found, please return to the Kame game shop.

A game shop. Joey had never been one for games, but she knew where this particular game shop was located. She scooped the smaller girl up and started the trek to Yugi's house.

Yugi awoke feeling sore and awkwardly positioned.

Trying to turn, to get her neck in a less bent-backwards position, she froze when whatever she was lying on shifted to make her more comfortable as well.

"Hold still, we're almost dere," a voice grunted from above her.

If Yugi wasn't already frozen, she would have been then. There was no doubt that voice belonged to Joey Wheeler who, while being a lot nicer than her other bullies, still wasn't someone who Yugi expected to carry her home.

Suddenly Joey stopped, drawing a squeak from Yugi who was jerked.

"Eh, da shop's right dere. You can walk from here right?" Joey asked, refusing to look directly at the smaller girl. As soon as Yugi nodded, albeit hesitantly, Joey practically dropped her (though made sure she was on her feet) and then ran for the hills. After standing in confused silence for a few moments, Yugi slowly made her way back to her house.

After that, instead of bullying people in her spare time Joey started hanging out with Yugi and, by default, Ryo and Malik. They were weary of her at first, understandably, but eventually came to an understanding that allowed all to rest easy.

Interesting fact #36: I think having past Joey think of Hikaris as collectively giving her a bad name rather than her giving them a bad name is amusing.