Duel Academy. It was one of the best schools for duelists and the new school year has just started. Yet while all of the other students were in class already, one student was just arriving to the island on a cruise ship. She was just transferring to Duel Academy as an Obelisk Blue student since she had just finished recovering from a medical issue she had been dealing with. Meanwhile in the main office, Chancellor Sheppard had just gotten off the phone with Seto Kaiba who had told him about the new student arriving. He then looked at the door when he heard a knock.

"You can enter." Sheppard said and was surprised when he saw a red haired female enter the office. "You must be the new student I just heard about from Mr. Kaiba."
"Yes sir. I'm Emily Taylor." Emily said as she bowed some. "I apologize for arriving so late after the school year has started."

"No need to apologize. Mr. Kaiba explained things to me about your situation." Sheppard said as he got up from his desk and walked over to Emily. "Come now. We must introduce you to the rest of the students. And I'm sure your older siblings would like to see you."
"Yes sir." Emily said.

Emily then followed Chancellor Sheppard out of his office after he made an announcement and towards a classroom where the students were going to be gathered. She was nervous about meeting new people but at the same time she was excited to see her brother Joe and sister Serena again. However she was grateful to have her duel monster spirit partner Kuriboh flying next to her since it calmed her down a little bit.

Meanwhile in the classroom where everyone had gathered, Joe and Serena were sitting with their friends and were listening to their friend Jaden talk about how much he wanted to duel someone.

"Calm down Jaden. You'll get to duel later today." Joe said from where he was sitting on the left side of the brunette.

"But I want to duel now!" Jaden whined as he put his head on the desk.

"You have to wait." Serena commented as she looked to the front of the room.

Everyone went quiet when Chancellor Sheppard walked onto the stage in front of the class. They were all wondering why he had called them there all of a sudden.

"Thank you all for coming." Sheppard said as he looked at all of the students. "We have a new student that will be joining us today."

"A new student?" One student asked.

"But the new school year has already started. Why are we getting a new student?" Another student asked.

"Settle down." Sheppard said and the students got quiet. "I understand that it is confusing for a new student to be joining us after the new school year has started. However due to a medical issue she has been unable to join us until now. So please welcome her into our school."

Sheppard motioned for Emily to come up on to the stage from where she was standing by some of the other teachers. All of the other students just looked at the redhead as she walked up onto the stage and over to Sheppard. They couldn't believe how pretty she was. However all of them kept their comments to themselves.

Emily didn't stop walking until she was next to Sheppard. She shifted on her feet nervously as she scanned the crowd of students for her brother and sister. She relaxed slightly when she saw them sitting in the area with the Slifer Red students.

"This is Emily Taylor and she will be the one joining us from now on." Sheppard announced.

"I..It's nice to meet you all." Emily said bowing some.

"She's so pretty and well mannered." One student said.

"No wonder she's so pretty. Her being a Taylor means she's related to Serena." Another student said.

"Your right! That does explain her beauty!" Another student exclaimed.

"Great. They're gonna scare her before she even gets to class." Serena said as she let out a sigh upon hearing everyone's comments about her sister.

"Is she really your sister?" Jaden asked, keeping his eyes on the redhead on the stage.

"Yeah. She's our younger sister." Joe answered as he watched his sister hide behind Sheppard.

"That is quite enough." Sheppard said and everyone went quiet. "You will not pester her. And to see that will not happen, I'm going to have Jaden Yuki accompany her while she is getting used to being here."

All of the students immediately started to protest against what Sheppard had just said. Meanwhile Jaden was speechless since he hadn't expected to accompany Emily while she was getting used to the school. However he did see Sheppard's reasoning behind it. So he wasn't going to argue against it.

Following the end of the gathering all of the students dispersed to go to their next classes. However Jaden, Joe, and Serena stayed behind and went down to where Emily was still standing behind Sheppard.

"It's okay sis. All the other students are gone now." Joe said, hoping to calm Emily down some.

"But he's still here." Emily said as she looked at Jaden.

"Kurii!" Kuriboh cried as it flew over to Jaden and around him. "Kurii!"

"Hi there. You must be her spirit partner." Jaden said as he smiled at Kuriboh.

"Y..You can see Kuriboh?" Emily asked as she moved out from behind Sheppard slightly.

"Yep." Jaden said.

"Well I should be heading back. Look after her, Jaden." Sheppard said as he turned and walked away from them.

The four of them watched Sheppard leave them. However after a few minutes Joe and Serena also left to head to class. Which left Emily and Jaden alone in the classroom.

"Guess we should get going as well." Jaden said as he held his hand out to Emily. "Come on."

"Okay." Emily said as she placed her hand in Jaden's .

Jaden grinned as he helped Emily down from the stage and began to lead her to class. The whole way there he kept himself between Emily and any of the male students that tried to approach her. Especially since he had seen what had happened when they were all calling her pretty back when Chancellor Sheppard introduced her to everyone.

Emily stayed close to Jaden as they walked through the halls of the school. She was grateful to have him there. Especially when the male students from every dorm were trying to talk to her. Every time they tried to approach her, she hid behind Jaden until they were gone.

"You're really shy aren't you Emily." Jaden said after some more male students finally left them alone.

"Yeah. I've never been surrounded by so many people before." Emily admitted. "Let alone so many guys."

"Then where'd you learn to duel? Or was it because of your ability to see duel monster spirits?" Jaden asked as he glanced over his shoulder at her.

"I did go to a duel prep school but everyone stayed away from me because of my ability. They thought I was weird." Emily answered.

"Never think your ability makes you weird. Your ability makes you unique." Jaden said with a smile.

"Thank you Jaden." Emily said, returning his smile.

Jaden kept his smile as they kept walking. He was glad that he had been able to cheer her up some. Even if it was only a little bit.

Emily was glad that Jaden had been able to cheer her up after what she said. Made her hopeful that she'd actually be able to make friends while at Duel Academy.

A few days had passed since Emily had started going to Duel Academy and she had slowly started to become friends with her older siblings and Jaden's friends. However most of the time she was by herself usually. With the only company coming from her duel monster spirits. On this day Emily was sitting by the lighthouse in the harbor with her knees up to her chest while Kuriboh was sitting on the ground next to her.

"Kurii, kurii?" Kuriboh cried as he flew in front of Emily.

"I'm alright Kuriboh. No need to worry alright." Emily answered as she smiled slightly at her partner.

"Kuriboh is gonna worry about you Emily. We all are." Dark Valkyria said as she appeared by Kuriboh. "Especially after what happened to you earlier this month."

"It was a freak accident. No one could have kept me from getting that sick." Emily said as she pulled her legs closer to her chest.

"Emily. You got sick because you pushed yourself too hard." Dark Valkyria stated. "When you push yourself really hard you forget to eat. That's what caused you to get sick."

"Okay. I said I was sorry after it happened. So please drop it Dark Valkyria." Emily said as she looked down.

"Very well." Dark Valkyria said as she disappeared.

Emily let out a sigh as she put her forehead against her knees. Only thing she could hear were the waves hitting the sides of the harbor walls. She couldn't even hear Kuriboh and figured that he must have left so she could be alone. Little did she know that he had gone to find Jaden.

Meanwhile Jaden was laying on the roof of the school looking at the sky. His attention wasn't brought from the sky until he heard Kuriboh as the spirit came towards him. Jaden sat up and looked at Kuriboh as he floated in front of him.

"What is it Kuriboh? Where's Emily at?" Jaden asked worried about his friend.

"Kurii!" Kuriboh cried pointing towards the harbor.

"She's at the harbor?" Jaden questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Kurii!" Kuriboh cried as an answer as he started flying back towards the harbor.

Jaden got up and followed Kuriboh to the harbor. He wondered why Emily was sitting at the harbor by herself and why it had caused Kuriboh to come and find him. It concerned him. Especially since everyone was starting to get along with her.

Back with Emily, she was still sitting with her back against the lighthouse. She didn't know that Kuriboh had gone to get Jaden and bring him to her. She was just exhausted and tired of still having to avoid a lot of the male students still. She got that they thought she was pretty but she didn't like their attempts to flirt with her. Especially due to how shy she was when it came to guys she wasn't friends with.

"Emily." Jaden said, hoping to get her attention.

"Huh?" Emily said as she looked up and over at Jaden. "Jaden. What are you doing here?"
"Kuriboh came and got me." Jaden answered as he sat down next to Emily.

"I see. So that's where he went." Emily said as she looked at the ocean.

The both of them went quiet after Emily said that. Emily was kind of glad that Jaden was now there to keep her company. Even if they didn't say anything to each other. While her duel monster spirits had been keeping her company she was happy to actually have someone there. The both of them remained quiet until Jaden decided to say something.

"So what are you doing out here? You aren't planning on leaving are you?" Jaden asked.

"I'm not planning on leaving Jaden. I just came here to think. It's hard for me to do so anywhere else due to the guys trying to flirt with me." Emily answered. "It's annoying. I'm not as pretty as they say and I know that."

"That's good." Jaden said as he leaned back against the lighthouse. "You could always come up to the roof to think. I'm usually the only one up there. Plus the view is nice."

"Thanks Jaden. I'll keep your offer in mind." Emily said with a gentle smile as her PDA went off.

Emily took her PDA out from the top of her boot and looked at the message that had been sent to her. She let out a sigh as she put her PDA back in her boot and then stood up. She then dusted off her skirt before speaking.

"I got to go Jaden. Sheppard wants to see me." Emily said as she started to walk away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya tomorrow Emily." Jaden said as he watched her leave.

Emily headed towards the main building of Duel Academy so she could talk to Chancellor Sheppard. Although she was wondering why Sheppard already wanted to see her. Especially since she hadn't done anything to get in trouble. Or at least she didn't think that she did. She kept walking to Sheppard's office while thinking about what he could want to say for her. When she got to Sheppard's office she knocked on the door.

"Chancellor Sheppard. It's Emily Taylor." Emily said after knocking.

"You may enter." Sheppard said.

Emily opened the door and went inside. When she walked inside she was surprised to see two people she knew sitting in two of the chairs.

"Mokuba. Rebecca. What are you guys doing here?" Emily asked as she looked between the older raven and blonde.

"Seto asked us to come here. He wants me to oversee an upcoming duel exhibition while Rebecca helps out Mrs. Fontaine." Mokuba answered as he looked at the redhead.

"Duel exhibition? I didn't think the school held those." Emily said surprised.

"We do once every year. It's called the Genex tournament. It's still a few months away but I wanted to inform you about it now Emily." Sheppard said.

"Thank you Chancellor Sheppard." Emily said bowing since she was thankful for being told about it ahead of time.

"Your welcome." Sheppard said with a smile. "Mokuba. Rebecca. May I ask that you accompany Emily back to her dorm?"

"Sure. It'll give us time to catch up." Rebecca answered.

Emily smiled as she looked up at Mokuba and Rebecca. She had been wanting to catch up with them since it had been awhile since the three of them have seen each other.

After a few minutes the three of them left Chancellor Sheppard's office and headed towards the Obelisk Blue female dorm. Emily stayed between Mokuba and Rebecca as they walked while still smiling.

"So how have you been adapting to being here Emily?" Rebecca asked. "You haven't had anymore health issues have you?"

"I'm adapting well Rebecca. And I haven't had any more issues lately." Emily answered.

"That's good. But if you have any issues come and tell me alright." Rebecca said.

"I will." Emily promised.

"So has anything interesting happened during your few days here?" Mokuba asked as he looked down at Emily.

"Well I met another duelist who can see and talk to duel monster spirits like I can." Emily answered.

"Let me guess Jaden Yuki right." Mokuba guessed and laughed some upon seeing Emily's confused expression. "Seto's interested in Jaden due to his talent for dueling."

"Why is Seto so interested in Jaden's talent for dueling?" Emily asked.

"Apparently Jaden is special due to not only him having the same ability as you but also because of how he has a natural talent for dueling." Mokuba explained.

"That makes sense." Emily said as they reached the gate to the girls dorm.

Emily and Rebecca said goodbye to Mokuba and headed to the girls dorn while Mokuba headed towards the boys dorms. Emily was glad that two people she knew and were close to were at Duel Academy. She was especially glad that Rebecca was there since it meant that she didn't have to explain to Fontaine what was wrong with her. Having someone there that knew what was wrong with her and how to treat her made it easier for her to relax.

Once they were inside the Obelisk Blue girls dorm, Emily and Rebecca split ways and headed to their own rooms. Emily went straight to her room to clean up and then work on some homework before getting to bed.