Hi everyone, here is the next chapter.

I hope you're all doing well, hopefully also enjoying the story still. I know I'm enjoying writing it which is good.

Your comments are great, and I really appreciate the feedback!

Thank you to everyone who has been here from the beginning, you're awesome.

Right, it's time to mend a roof.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Writey x

Jaden's POV

I still couldn't wrap my head around what had happened at the duel the other day, Zane had actually lost.

Like, I knew he'd lost a few times on the professional circuit already but to actually see him lose was a complete shock and something that I was not expecting to see.

I'd spoken to him yesterday about it on the phone (I'd given him and Syrus my phone number whilst we were at the duel, I didn't like that my dad knew more about my friends than I did) and when I spoke to him I realised that he really wasn't that bothered about the loss.

I found it so peculiar.

I'd even managed to have a joke with him that he'd better get used to losing once my brother mastered his deck.

I'd woken up early this morning because I had a busy day ahead of me.

You see, I'd promised Solomon at the card shop that I'd fixed his roof and I still hadn't gotten around to doing that yet, so I'd thought I'd swing by and help him out today.

I'd gathered all the tools I would need the night before.

Dad had taken me to purchase a couple of things from the hardware store that might have come in handy like a hammer, some nails and a drill.

I'd helped my dad build pat of the duel arena out in the garden during my time off at Duel Academy, but dad had basically refused to let me take his tools because I was 'very forgetful' apparently.

I wasn't actually going to see Solomon till late morning as I offered to take my bother to school, so my mum could set up for the charity bake sale she was having in the front garden.

My mum did it every year alongside Mr Maloney.

It was to raise money for people who had the same illness his wife had when she was sick.

I always helped where I could, usually me and Cameron would bake a load of cookie and cakes down at the bakery after work but because this year I wasn't working I decided to help set everything up instead.

"Hey Jaden, can I try one of these," DK said, grabbing for one of the cakes that were already out on show.

Clearly my magical friend still hadn't worked out he was a floating spirit as his hand went straight through the chocolate velvet cupcake.

Yubel and I laughed as he tried everything to grab the cake until he just ended up magically summoning one for himself.

I finished putting up the last of the table and went to check if there was anything else that needed doing.

"No, I think that's just about it Jaden," Mr Maloney said, carrying out the final batch of cookies.

My mum followed with Tessa in her arms, who munching down on one of the cookies.

"Not fair," DK said floating off in a strop past my sister.

I think he thought about going to knock it out of her hands but knew he'd have no success.

"Jaden, you better get going to the card shop, you'll be there all day otherwise," my mum said patting me on the head.

"Yeah, you're probably right, I've got to pack for the weekend when I get home as well," I said remembering I still hadn't done it.

I made my way inside, telling Yubel to go and find DK whilst I got my stuff together.

Mum had laid out some old clothes of my dad that would fit me, she didn't want me getting any of my stuff ruined. She'd also made me a packed lunch to take with me, almost as if I was at school again.

I threw on the clothes and picked up my tools before heading outside to start my walk to the shop.

Mr Maloney stood on the driveway, twirling the keys to his Toyota Corolla, "come on kiddo, I'll take you to the card shop, it's the least I can do with all the help you've given me this morning."

I nodded at Mr Maloney.

In all honesty I didn't want to carry everything with me to the card shop anyway, it would have been one hell of a walk.

I put everything in the trunk of his car and got into the passenger seat.

Mum came over to the window and I rolled it down, yes Mr Maloney's car had roll down windows still.

"Your dad will pick you up at six today," mum said.

Thankfully that meant I wouldn't have to carry everything back with me either.

I said goodbye to my mum and sister before Mr Maloney pulled away and headed towards the card shop.

The journey wasn't too long, we talked about the bakle sale and my weekend away at Duel Academy coming up.

Mr Maloney basically pulled up outside the shop, so I got out, thanked him, grabbed all my gear from the boot and waved goodbye.

I turned, carrying the rather large set of equipment, and made my way up the narrow pathway that led to the shop.

I put down all my stuff down just to the side of the front door and stepped in.

Nothing had changed since I was last there, even the strange aura was still there.

"Ahh, home sweet home," DK said appearing next to me. He floated around the room for a while, looking in some of the glass cabinets and saying hello and pointing at different cards.

"I think he might have lost the plot," Yubel said behind me, "I can still sense the aura from the other day Jaden, except it isn't as powerful as it was last time."

I looked at Yubel.

She was right the aura had somewhat weakened since the last time we were here.

"Hmm strange," I said, moving closer to the glass cabinet where my brother and I had first spoken to Solomon.

It didn't seem as though anyone was about.

I rang the bell and I heard shuffling in the back, "one second just coming… WHOOPS."

There was a loud bang coming from the room behind the desk and I ran back there to see where the noise had come from.

I turned the corner and saw a face I hadn't seen in a while, staring up at me covered in books and old papers, "Mr Wise?"

The old man turned around to see who I was, "you know you shouldn… oh Jaden, what are you doing here," Mr Wise said smiling at me.

I'd completely forgotten that the man I'd once bought my first deck from had moved across to join Solomon in his shop.

"Mr Wise, it's so great to see you, are you okay," I said bending down to help him up.

"I'll be quite fine, thank you Jaden, I just need to get these books packed away before Solomon gets back," he said standing up and brushing all the dust off himself, "and what have I told you before, you will call me Montgomery."

Montgomery, as her preferred to be known, hated people using his second name, he always preferred Monty or Montgomery.

"I apologise Monty," I said picking up the books he was struggling to carry.

I brought them out to the front of the shop and set them on the side.

"So, Jaden, how can I help," the old man said following me out.

"Well actually Monty, I'm here to help Solomon, I agreed to fix his roof a week or so ago and I thought I'd come today whilst I had a bit of spare time."

"Oh well that's very kind of you, Solomon's not here at the moment though he went out to pick some things up, I can help you whilst you get started though, until he comes back," he said taking me outside.

He pointed at some of the areas of the roof that he thought might needed fixing, he pretty much told me everything Solomon had told him was bad with the roof and headed back inside.

Monty turned around as he was about to go in the door, "oh and also, I'll keep DK entertained for a while, I know how excited he can get sometimes."

Montgomery laughed as he headed back inside, and I was pretty sure he was laughing at my face.

"Jaden, you'll swallow some flies if you don't close your mouth," Yubel said smirking at me as I tried to recover from the fact that Monty could see the spirits as well.

I quickly set about making my way round the building, grabbing all the thing I needed to help fix the roof before clambering my way up a rusty old ladder.

The shop was two floored, so there was two roofs to fix.

I set about working on the first floors roof, there was quite a lot of damage and I wasn't sure how long this first bit was going to take.

The roof realistically needed completely replacing so I got to work trying to mend what was already there, taking it away piece by piece.

After the first hour or so, I'd gotten considerably more done than I had expected, in fact, the lower roof was almost completely finished.

I was bending down, drilling in some nails when someone behind me spoke, giving me a right scare, "what you doing," said the female voice.

I jumped back, almost drilling a whole in the roof.

"You scared the life out of me," I said turning around.

Behind me was a short, ginger – haired girl who had to be roughly the same age as me wearing an outfit similar to the one Monty was wearing earlier.

In fact, the girl looked like a younger, female version of Monty.

She smiled at me, "you didn't answer my question," she said with a cheeky look, "what are you doing."

I smiled back at her, "umm looking for seagulls," I said in response, matching her sarcasm.

"Ugh," she gave me a look that said shut up before turning to leave.

"Wait, wait," I said laughing, "I'm up here fixing the roof for Solomon, he gave me and my brother some cards free of charge last week and I wanted to repay him by fixing the roof," I said.

She turned back around and gave me a questioning look before smiling, "oh I know who you are Jaden, I was just messing," she said poking her tongue out.

She laughed and started to make her way down the ladder.

"Wait," I said slightly confused, "how do you know that."

"Well, I mean, you're the one he gave away the special cards too, I know because I was in the back when he did, just wanted to mess around and see if you could take a joke," she said heading down the stairs, "names Amalie in case you were wondering."

I peered over the edge and smiled as Amalie brushed herself off and made her way back inside the shop.

I'd decided that Amalie's introduction had given me a chance to take a well-earned break.

I took the sandwich mum had made me this morning out of my bag and had a look at my phone.

I had a couple of notifications and a text from Syrus.

Huh, wonder what that could be I thought opening the text from Syrus.

Hey J,

Hope you're doing okay.

I'm not sure how you're getting to DA tomorrow, but you can come with me, Zane and Bastion.

We'll get a little private plane to take us to the port then we'll meet some of the others there and go on the boat with them.

I've already told your mum about it, me and Zane went and saw her at the bake sail.

We turned up just while Josh and his friends had come back, you should have seen the look on his friends faces, it was priceless.

Anyway, let me know if you want to and I'll save you a seat,

Syrus

There was also a second smaller message just underneath.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, everyone is allowed to bring a plus one, me and Zane aren't bringing anyone, but you can, there's enough space on the plane for them as well. We already ticked your reply card, so try and think of someone who you would want to come ;)

I looked at the text, damn you Syrus, I haven't got anyone to take I said to myself putting the phone back in my pocket.

My family weren't around this weekend, they were off visiting family somewhere and I didn't really have anyone else to take.

I quickly replied saying I would go with them and that I wasn't happy about the whole plus one thing considering I only had a day to find someone.

Just as I'd finished replying, my second scare of the day happened as DK shot through the roof followed closely by Yubel.

"Sorry Jaden, I got distracted looking at pinecones," he said looking around for me, "wait, where are you?"

He spotted me and flew over, "there you are, right, I'm ready to fix a roof, let me just get my hat on."

With a flick of his wrist, a yellow builders hat appeared instead of his magic hat as he'd already clearly changed into a builder's uniform.

"Honestly, he is such a goon," Yubel said shaking her head behind him.

"Oh, he's harmless," I said laughing, "plus, if he thinks he can help, he might stay distracted for a while instead of disrupting me."

I gave DK some instructions, even though he wouldn't be able to do them, and he went off to try to complete his task.

"That should keep him busy," I said, smiling as he attempted to pick up the hammer I had left by the workspace.

As I watched DK try everything to pick up the hammer, a car door went behind me and a familiar voice spoke.

"Jaden," Solomon said approaching the ladder, "I wasn't expecting you."

I quickly climbed down the ladder, so the old man didn't have to join me up on the roof and greeted him.

"Hi Solomon, I just thought I'd surprise you by coming to fix your roof today," I said shaking the man's hand.

"Well, I must say that is very kind, you know you didn't have to," he said greeting me back, "ahh, and I see you've met the famous DK then."

DK heard Solomon say his name and appeared almost instantly by my side.

"Wait," I said, "you've been able to do that the whole time."

Solomon smiled and DK looked at me, "I certainly have, I just prefer floating, I can feel the wind against flow against my robes."

I was going to question my magical friend because he couldn't feel the wind as a spirit but thought better of it.

"DK, how are you, have you been behaving yourself," Solomon said, looking at DK as if he was a child.

DK went a little shy and replied, "it's been great thanks, we've done loads, in fact I must get back to fixing the roof."

"Oh no, you come inside with me and we can catch up out back," he said knowingly nodding at me.

"Oh okay," he said excitedly, changing back into his normal clothes and shooting off back inside.

"I'll go with him to make sure he behaves," Yubel said following on behind the magician.

"I know he can get a little much, you see in magician terms he's still quite young, so I'll keep an eye on him whilst you work," Solomon said, fully well knowing what DK was like.

"I'll head inside and get to work, if there is anything you need just let me know and I can get it for you," Solomon said.

I smiled and thanked the man as he headed inside.

I worked for the next few hours until I finished mending the roof.

The second roof wasn't that bad, and it seemed to need just a little bit of care here and there.

Whilst, I'd been working, I'd noticed the aura around the shop had been dipping in and out every so often.

It was strange, it was as if it was trying to get out of something, it was waiting for something to happen to be released but it felt as though something was missing, a piece of it was missing.

I couldn't work it out, so I just tried to ignore it.

Once I'd managed to finish everything off, I started tidying away before Amalie came back outside.

"Oh, have you finished," she said as I was packing away the ladder.

"Hmm, let's see, I've brought everything down and put the ladder away, no Amalie, I don't think I've finished," I said, still trying to get back for her sarcasm earlier.

She poked out her tongue and turned to storm away, "I came out here to tell you'd I'd made us snacks as we are all on break but I'm now uninviting you," she said running inside.

I put down all my stuff and ran inside after her.

Once I'd caught up with her, she started laughing, trying to block me from getting past.

We made it into the back room, laughing and out of breath, where Solomon and Monty gave us a very strange look.

"Hi…. Grandad…." Amalie said between laughing, "I, ugh, I just told Jaden about the food and he attacked me," she said going to tickle me.

I saw it coming and tackled her to the floor, both of us laughing, lying next to each other.

It was funny, I hadn't laughed like this since Duel Academy, not properly like this.

Amalie was fun, I liked fun.

I stood up and looked at Solomon and Monty, who were both smiling at us, "what," I said, very confused.

"Nothing," Monty said smiling at Amalie, "I see you've made a friend of my granddaughter."

Then everything clicked, of course this girl was his granddaughter, I'd seen her in his shop a few times with what must have been her mum and dad.

Amalie Wise.

She'd been in my year at school, but we'd never really spoken.

That's how she knew who I was.

I looked at her and smiled, "you knew me all along, didn't you."

"Duh Yuki, I was just waiting for you to work out who I was doofus," she said smiling back at me.

"Well," Solomon said, "I'm glad we're all acquainted, why don't you both sit and join us."

We sat chatted for a little while about everything before I started talking about Duel Academy.

"Yeah, I'm actually heading back to Duel Academy tomorrow for a reunion, I just need to find someone to come with me," I said still racking my brain as to who I could bring, "my friend Syrus put that I would have a plus one but I haven't worked out who could go with me," I said in a huff.

"I'll go," Amalie said smiling at me, "it'll be fun, we can go as friends and I can see Duel Academy before I start in the fall and you don't have to be a loner Yuki."

"Wait, you're going to DA?"

I was very confused at this because she was way too old to go to DA.

"Yeah, Chancellor Sheppard and my grandad go way back, I never went after school, but Sheppard said that I could start as a mature student and just do the one year to graduate,"

she said.

I looked slightly shocked at her, "and you're sure you want to come with me over the weekend, not just go another time to check it out."

"Yeah, it'll be fun," she said picking up another biscuit and putting it in her mouth.

"Well, that's settled," Monty said clapping his hands, grabbing another sandwich from the plate.

We sat and talked for a little while; I gave Amalie all the information about the weekend and we exchanged numbers so I could contact her tomorrow before Solomon and Monty left to tidy up the shop.

I looked down at the table where all the food was and saw a letter with the words FOR SALE at the top of the paper.

At this point, I wish I hadn't have looked.

I knew I shouldn't have but I picked it up.

"The shop is for sale," Amalie said before I even had a chance of reading the letter, she didn't even look up from the magazine she was reading, "Solomon has been at the bank all day confirming the whole thing, that's why he wasn't here when you arrived."

I couldn't believe it; Solomon was selling the shop.

This place had sort of become my new favourite place during the two days I had visited it and it was going to be sold.

I went out to the front to find him and talk about it, I had to try and persuade him not to sell.

He can't sell the shop I thought to myself, wondering around trying to find the old man.

When I found him, he was just taking down some of the signs in the front window of the shop.

"Solomon," I said hurrying over to the old man, "why are you putting the shop up for sale?"

The old man turned around looking rather sad.

"Money Jaden, I can't afford to keep the shop running, just like Monty couldn't keep his shop afloat," the old man said moving past me to put the signs on the counter.

I'm not going to lie, I was rather distraught, I'd really started to like being here, if it was only for those two days.

"Surely, there's something we can do," I said, making it out as if I'd been here forever.

"I don't think so Jaden, I just don't have the money, the place won't be mine in a week or two," he said going back to his task.

I could see the pain etched on his face and I didn't like the way I felt when I saw it.

Surely there is something I can do I thought to myself.

"Solomon, I'll volunteer here whilst the shop is still yours, that way I can at least help you sort the place completely," I said.

Maybe, if I worked here, I could come up with some solution to help Solomon save his shop.

Solomon nodded, "okay Jaden, if you're sure, it is nice to have the company around."

I smiled at him and helped him to start to put everything away, this process was going to need every pair of hands possible for it to succeed and I was willing to help him.

My dad arrived not long after I'd started to help and I knew it was time to go.

Dad helped me put all my stuff I had brought with me into the back of his car.

"I can see you did a job," he said smiling and looking up at the old building.

"Yeah," I said flatly back.

I was still down about the fact that the card shop was being sold, I just didn't feel right and I was determined to find a way to save it before it was sold.

But right now I had to get home.

I had to get home because I need to get ready for the tomorrow.

It was time to go back to Duel Academy.

So, there you go, Jaden is going to help work at the card shop whilst he finds a way to save it.

I've also introduced you to Amalie, what did you think? She's going to the reunion with Jaden, ahh!

Let me know what you think might happen at the reunion and in the next few chapters.

For updates, follow and favourite the story, I always love a review as well so don't forget to leave one.

Be sure to look after yourselves and you'll here from me soon.

Writey x