Malik noticed her expression from the other side of the room. He'd have to make sure she was okay later. Yuugi's voice broke his thoughts. "So what was Bakura talking about?"

Malik shrugged, trying to seem indifferent. "It was nothing. He's just trying to make life a little harder for me."

Yuugi smiled. "Yeah. His Yami seems to enjoy doing that. I kind of feel sorry for Ryou."

"Hn."

They worked in silence for a while, drawing up an outline and planning on what visuals to use. "Hey, what do you think of Asenath?" Yuugi asked suddenly.

Malik jumped. "Huh?"

"The new girl. What do you think of her?"

Malik felt his face grow hot. "She's…she's okay, I guess."

Yuugi's eyes had a faraway look. "Yeah…there's something about her…" He shook his head. "I mean, I'm already going out with Anzu and all, but…" his eyes wandered to Asenath again "I feel like I've known her from somewhere else…some time before…" He broke off and then laughed. "Weird, huh?"

"Yeah…" agreed Malik half-heartedly. "Weird." He turned back to the project.

Somewhere towards the front of the room, there was a clatter of pencils. Seto stooped to help Asenath collect them all, and he noticed her hands were shaking. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded quickly, not meeting his eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He sighed inwardly. Great, she's probably some paranoid schizophrenic or something. As if this school doesn't have enough of them already. Sitting down and starting to sketch on the paper, he decided to make conversation. "So…where're you from?"

"Egypt," she said, joining him, but keeping a fair distance between them.

Kaiba continued doodling out a design on the paper. "Hn…hey, Egypt…" He looked thoughtful. "Isn't there someone else who transferred in from there a while ago…?" He scanned the room. "Ishtar did, didn't he?"

Asenath suddenly found the scissors very interesting. "Umm…"

"Yeah, last year. I remember now. He's a duelist too, ne?"

"Yeah…"

Kaiba studied her face. "There's no chance you two would know each other, is there?"

She rolled her eyes, trying to keep her composure and conceal how her heart fluttered nervously inside of her. "We're in the same class."

"But from before."

"Ano…"

"Never mind. Let's get some work done."

Asenath ate lunch with Malik and Yuugi and the others that day. About halfway through, Yuugi suddenly brought up a new subject. "Um…did you guys hear? There's a dance in two weeks."

Joey nodded. "I heard. I'm only going if you can bring people who don't go to this school."

"Mai," smirked Honda.

Joey blushed. "Well, you're gonna ask Miho."

Honda shrugged. "Of course."

Yuugi looked at Asenath. A feeling of almost-remembered emotion nudged his heart. "Are you going with anyone? I figured I could go alone and just hang out since Anzu's busy, but if you don't have anyone…"

Asenath smiled slightly and shook her head. "Sorry, I've already been asked."

Everyone stared at her in surprise. Malik was inwardly shocked to find a twang of jealousy pricking at him. "Already??" asked Jounouchi. "Who?"

Asenath let one finger toy with the end of her earring. "Malik offered to take me. Quite a while ago, too."

"Malik??"

The boy was as shocked as everyone else. He couldn't help but notice how hot his face was quickly becoming. "I…I did?"

She smiled. "We made a deal. I'll give him some more time on something he owes me, and he said he'd take me to the dance."

Realization dawned, and Malik relaxed as relief flooded through him. No wedding to plan yet. He smiled back at her. "Oh yeah…I did."

Ryou quickly became Bakura, who stood up. "I knew it! Malik's got a girlfriend! Malik's got a girlfriend!"

Heads were turning again, and Bakura was looking smug. But for some reason, Malik didn't really care.

Owari

R&R

Well, that's it. No more for this one.