"Dueling Hearts"
I am a total baka sometimes, I will admit it. This story desperately needed an exposition, which I quite naturally completely forgot to include. *insert sound of Pegasus whacking Maddy with his Toon World card.* Jada's character is borrowed from one of my other stories (well, actually several) which I wrote for the Queen fanfiction group I belong to. Quite awhile back, a couple of friends and I started speculating on what would have happened if Freddie Mercury had ever gotten married and had a family, and one of them challenged me to come up with a story about it, and, well, Jada was one of the results. I liked her character, but could never come up with a story where she really fit in - until I wrote her into a couple of my Yugi stories because I really didn't want to use Tea/Anzu. (Then I found out I'm not the only one who thinks she's annoying.) That's the story behind this story, so to speak. (BTW, most of my stories are the cute-but-pointless fluff variety. I'm not entirely confident of my ability to pull off action sequences. I've gotten mixed reviews from my beta readers, but I figure, hey, I'll expand my horizions and, if it isn't working, maybe someone can tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong......
Enough babbling, girl. On with the story.......
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"Wow, Jada, that sweater makes your boobs look really nice!"
Jada Mercury leaned on her locker, thinking thou shalt not kill -- at least not whilst thou is wearing white angora---- "What do you want, Monty?" She was petite - only about five feet tall and maybe 100 pounds, with a waist-length mass of glossy black waves and huge dark almond-shaped eyes.
"Monty, go away," Yugi Mutou said. "Please." He was only about four foot ten, with big spikey plumes of red-on-black hair that gave him another six inches. Several fluttery blond shocks fell around his face. His eyes were huge and a blue-violet color. He was shy, very sweet, too nice for his own good at times - and, in Jada's opinion, the cutest boy in school. They might not have technically been "going out," but they were pretty much inseparable.
Monty Markham, better known as Monty the Moron, stepped between them and leaned in closer to Jada. She stepped back. He wasn't particularly fat, or thin, or ugly - but he was, well, just there. "So. D'ya wanna go to the Valentine's dance with me? We could, ya know, get to - heh-heh - know each other better, if ya know what I mean?"
"No. I have a date already," she replied, although that was perhaps a bit presumptuous. Yugi technically hadn't asked her to the dance - yet.
"Like who? That Mutou runt? C'mon, get real. Doncha wanna go with a real man?" Monty inquired, apparently oblivious to the fact that Yugi was standing right there.
Jada turned on him. "Listen, moron. If you were the only other person on this planet I would not have anything to do with you. So go flush yourself down the toilet. Capeesh?"
"Ya know you're kinda sexy when ya get pissed off?" Monty said, grinning.
Joey Wheeler, who'd been standing nearby at his locker watching in case Jada needed help, decided to step in.
"Monty, she told you to get lost," he said. "What part of go flush yourself down the toilet don't you understand?" He stepped closer. "And if you bug Jada or call my buddy Yugi a runt one more time, you're going to be dealing with me." He glared at Monty until the other boy slunk off, to much nearby laughter.
"Markham, you're a loser!" someone added, holding his thumb and forefinger in a L-shape on his forehead for emphasis. "You can't open your mouth without shooting yourself in the foot!"
"You just wait! I'll show you! I'll show all of you!" Monty yelled, shaking his fist, then getting conked in the head with a well-aimed apple.
Jada looked at Joey as they walked off. "Is it just me, or does talking to him leave you feel like you just ran your face through a cobweb?" she said.
"I don't know about cobwebs, but he leaves me feeling like I just picked up something really slimy and disgusting," Joey said with a shudder. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
Two periods later, in the cafeteria:
"Tristian, it's getting cold---" Yugi sighed.
"Shut up, Yuge. You can't hurry art," Tristian Taylor replied absently, looking through the viewfinder and frowning.
"Art? It's my lunch---" Yugi leaned his chin on his hands with a sigh, watching as Tristian adjusted the top half of the hamburger bun ever so slightly. He had known they'd all rue the day Tristian signed up for Photography 1. He looked around and saw Jada. She was halfway across the cafeteria, talking to a blonde girl sitting at a table with a banner on it: STUDENT GOVERNMENT VALENTINE CARNATION SALE. It was a tradition at Domino High to send carnations to all your friends on Valentine's Day. White for just friends, pink for secret crush and red for true love.
Joey looked as well. "So did you order yours already?" he asked Yugi.
Yugi nodded. "I'll bet Jada gets about a hundred pink ones," he sighed. "I wonder who she'll pick?"
"Yuge, everyone knows who she likes," Joey said, giving his friend a friendly poke with an elbow. "Except maybe the lucky guy himself."
Yugi didn't reply, much less get the hint. He changed the subject instead. "Tristian, I'm going to drop dead of starvation if you don't let me have my lunch back---"
"Here." Dawn Phillips offered him a celery stick stuffed with peanut butter and strawberry jelly.
"Uh --- no thanks." Yugi said, giving it a slightly dubious look. None of them could figure out how on Earth Dawn ate those things. She was a friend of Jada and Tea's who liked hanging around with them even if she didn't like Duel Monsters.
Tristian finally got the picture he wanted and let Yugi have his tray. Dawn went back to the latest issue of Hot! as Jada came over with tray and backpack.
"Hey guys, I almost forgot. I got the latest issue of Duelist," she said,putting her bag down on the table to fish it out. "It's got a preview of some of the hot new cards coming out next month."
"Hey, y'all!" The speaker was a tall, skinny girl who still managed to look dumpy. She had long stringy dark brown hair and huge round glasses that would have looked good on Elton John but not on her. She was wearing far too much makeup and trailing clouds of perfume. She wore a black sweater that didn't quite cover her bellybutton and a plaid mini a bit like Jada's, but much shorter. In fact, it was considerably wider than it was long. "So what do y'all think? Is George like guaranteed to ask me out or what?!" she trilled in a suspect southern accent.
"Tiffani, where did you get that accent? You didn't have it this morning in P.E.," Jada said. She had one, too, but hers was the genuine article, courtesy of her mother.
"And more to the point, isn't George going out with Penelope Galligher?" Joey added, speaking with his mouth full. "Hey, Mai's on the cover!" Mai Valentine was one of the top-rated duelists.
"You guys met her?" Jada said. "What's she like?"
"Besides gorgeous?" Joey said with a mock swoon.
"She's really very nice. Much more so than you'd think," Yugi said, then wondered if he should have said it at all. Jada, however, didn't take offense.
Tiffani ignored them entirely. "Hot, huh? He won't be able to resist," she said to Dawn, who shrugged.
"I don't know," Jada replied, trying her best to be diplomatic. Tiffani, to be fair, tried hard - much, much too hard. "Hey Yugi, could you ask your Grandpa to hold an Amplifier card for me when they come in?" She pointed at one of the new ones.
"Amplifier?" Yugi leaned over to look and a spikey plume of his hair went across her face. She ducked it and pointed at the card.
"Just hope they have an Earplugs card, too," Tristian deadpanned.
"One more crack like that and you'd better hope they have a Body Cast card in there somewhere," Jada retorted with a smile.
"What do you guys see in that dumb game, anyway? It has got to be the most boring----" Dawn broke off with a little squeal. "Oh ----- my ----- GAAAAAAWD! It's Justin Timberlake WITHOUT his shirt! EEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Where?!" Tiffani ran to look. "OH ----- MY ------ GAAAAAAWD! EEEEEEEEE!!!!"
Jada groaned and slid down in the chair. "I do not know them, I do not know them, I do NOT know them----" She looked at the magazine. "Is that Weevil Underwood?"
Yugi nodded. "He got thrown out of the Battle City semifinals for cheating."
"That's the little scumbag who threw Yugi's Exodia cards over the side of that ship," Joey added. "Then Yugi went and beat him anyway."
"He wouldn't have lasted long enough to make the island if I'd been there," Jada observed, leaning over a bit to read the short article, putting one hand on the back of Yugi's chair as she did. Her hair brushed his cheek as she did and he couldn't keep from shivering a little. This close, she smelled like lavender. He suddenly found himself wondering what it would be like to kiss her. Not that he'd ever kissed anyone before.
Joey picked white fuzz from his green jacket. "Jada, I hate to be the one to point this out, but you're shedding."
"I'm wha---ow!" She had looked up at Joey at the same instant Yugi had turned to look at her and they'd bumped noses. "Sorry." Staring into his eyes at this distance was disconcerting to say the least. It would be easy, she thought, so very very easy to get hopelessly lost in those gorgeous violet eyes of his......
"AIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!! Win a date with JUSTIN!!!!!!!" Dawn screeched. "OH----MY-------GAAAAAAAAAAAAWD!!!!!!!!"
"Freakers----" Jada sighed, leaning back in the chair and rolling her eyes. "Leave me out of this-----"
"Ooooh, do they have AJ, too? Or JC?" Tiffani squealed, running over.
"More like STD," Jada said. "What are you freaking out about, anyway? A boy band or alphabet soup?"
"Oh come on, Jada! Don't you think he's like sooooooo hot and all? EEEEEEEEEE!!!" Tiffani held up the shirtless Justin pic.
"Two words: oh puh-leeeeze," Jada sighed.
"Isn't that three words?" Yugi said, looking at her with a smile. Jada pretended to garrote him with the cord of the Millennium Puzzle.
The next morning, Valentine's Day, found Jada and Yugi in the computer lab. She was looking around in bewilderment, trying to figure out which one of the five network printers her paper had just been queued to, while he logged on to check his email.
"Jada, what's your email address again?" he called over his shoulder.
"Which one?" she said, finally finding her printout. Today she had on a very fuzzy pink angora sweater, in keeping with the holiday.
"Your school one." He frowned as pink fuzz wafted by his nose. "Is that a new sweater?" He didn't seem to remember one that shed quite so extravagantly before.
"It's jbulsara@dominohigh.ed.uk," she replied. As she spoke, Heather came in bearing carnations.
"Hey guys!" she said. "First ones of the day. Let's see---Yugi, you've got -- one, two, three, four, five -- six white ones and hey, a red!"
Jada smiled, looking over and thinking, One red carnation: $1.00. The expression on Yugi's face when Heather gives it to him: priceless.
"And for you---" Heather came over. "Seven whites so far and a red one, too."
"A red?" Now she was the dumbfounded one. Yugi was smiling over at her. "Yugi, did you----?"
He nodded sheepishly. "I guess we were thinking the same thing."
"Why you little----" She went over and hugged him. "You're the best."
He returned the hug, but, before he could even think of kissing her, the bell rang.
"Oh man---" Jada gave him a quick peck on the cheek and grabbed her bag, scampering out of the room.
After she left, Yugi flinched and rubbed his arms. The only problem with Jada's angora fixation was that after she gave you a hug, you itched for the rest of the day.
Joey, who'd just come in with Tea as Jada was leaving, burst out laughing. "Yugi, you look like you just got mugged by Funny Bunny!"
"What? Oh man----" Yugi realized his dark blue jacket was covered in pink fluff. "Not again?"
"You need to start carrying around one of those tape roller things," Tea said, trying to help him brush off some of it, then realizing the futility of it and going to look for a roll of tape.
"Either that or find a girlfriend who isn't into angora," Joey added.
Yugi blushed as Tea came back with a roll of tape and started defuzzing him. "Maybe you should have bought her a sweater that doesn't shed for Valentine's Day," she suggested.
"Let me guess. Jada's on another hugging rampage?" Tristian said, coming in.
"You're just jealous," Yugi retorted with a smile, looking back at the computer. "After all---what the heck?"
"What is it?" Joey said.
"Look at this---" Yugi had gone quite pale. He was looking at a note from an odd ID - disastermaster@hotmail.com - that read simply:
YOU BETTER KISS YOUR GIRLFRIEND GOODBYE MUTOU. SHES HISTORY.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey said, frowning.
"My girlfriend?" Yugi looked at him, fear slowly dawning in his eyes. "Do you think they mean Jada?"
"I don't know----" Joey looked nervous as well.
"Did Jada get any weird notes?" Tea said.
"I don't know. She didn't log on," Yugi said, then quickly logged off and grabbed his bag. "I'm going to go make sure she got to English class all right!"
He didn't see the pair of narrowed eyes watching him from a nearby hall.
"So show me this note," Jada said, following Yugi into the computer lab. It was fourth period by then.
"Check yours first," Yugi said, finding a computer well away from a small group of younger kids assembled under the watchful eye of a teacher. Sometimes the elementary school borrowed the high school computer lab.
She logged on, with Yugi looking over her shoulder, but the only things in her inbox were the Domino High Upcoming Events Calendar, her horoscope from Yahoo! Astrology and the story Yugi had sent her about the upcoming Battle City Finals.
"Nothing," she said, sounding relieved despite herself as she logged out so Yugi could log in. "Right click on it and see if it'll let you view the header. That'll tell us where it was sent from."
He did. She frowned over his shoulder. "Hmmm. It was sent late last night, but see that "apparently from" there? There's a good chance the origin is spoofed."
He looked at her. "Meaning?"
"Meaning that it's like driving all the way out to Pokey Oaks to mail a letter so nobody will be able to figure out you're really in Domino City," she replied. "I wouldn't worry about it, Yugi. It's someone's idea of a very lame joke."
Across the room, the teacher suddenly said, "Okay class, now we're all going to type in www.whitehouse.com and look at what our President is doing today." She wrote it out on a nearby whiteboard.
Yugi and Jada looked at each other. "Isn't it www.whitehouse.gov?" he said over the sound of thirty pairs of eyeballs getting really, really big.
Neither of them noticed the thirty-first pair of eyeballs watching them from the coax closet.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. After school, Yugi and Joey walked into Burgerpalooza to find Jada, Tea and Dawn trying to console they hysterical Tiffani, who was sobbing at a table several away from the door.
"The heck--?" Joey said.
Jada came over. "She's upset because she only got whites. She wanted a red."
"From who?" Joey said.
"George Achenbach. For some reason she got it in her head that George was going to ask her out for Valentine's Day," Jada explained.
"Isn't George going out with Penelope Galligher?" Yugi said. George was one of the biggest stars of the football team - and one of the nicest guys at Domino High.
Jada nodded. "You should see the cute little koala he got her." Before Yugi could feel bad for not thinking of that himself, she added, "Not to mention the red carnation I got." She went to fetch some napkins as Joey nudged the now-blushing Yugi. "Way to go, Yuge."
"Guys, keep an eye on her to make sure nothing happens. I'll be right back, okay?" Yugi said, heading for the mens' room.
"That creepy note kind of freaked Yugi out, didn't it?" Dawn said as Jada returned.
"Yugi's sweet," Jada said, "He just worries is all. Here, Tiff, we'll help you find a guy." She wrote out the names of eight or nine boys they knew, not including Yugi's, on the napkins, which she then arranged in a circle. Then she took Dawn's vanilla Coke bottle and set it on its side in the center.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Tiffani snuffled dismally.
"Easy. You spin the bottle and the guy it ends up pointing at is your true love," Jada said.
"Jada, you go first. Let's see who your true love is!" Dawn said.
Jada smiled slyly. "Oh, you know that already, guys----"
"Ewwww, look what just came in---" Dawn groaned. "It's----
Before she could finish, there was a shattering crack that Jada at first thought was someone dropping a plate. Then everyone screamed and dove for cover and she realized it was something else altogether.
"He's got a gun!"
Before she could move, she was grabbed around the neck from behind and pulled to her feet. Something cold pressed against the side of her head.
"Okay, everyone, whaddya think? Shall Disaster Master shoot her now or wait 'till later?"
Monty? she thought. Monty the Moron?
"Jada!" It was Yugi's voice. "Monty, let her go!" He was half under a table and starting to get to his feet. He'd been on his way back when Monty had burst in and fired the warning shot.
"Yugi, no, stay back!" she yelled, then cried out when Monty hit her in the side of the head with the barrel of the gun.
"Shut up and look pretty for Disaster Master, you snotty little bitch," he said.
Oh no you don't, Yami Yugi thought.
Jada looked at Yugi again and saw, just in that instant, a glowing eye briefly appear in the middle of his forehead. In a quick flash of light, he scrambled out from under the table. "Markham, I said let her go! Now!" The steel in his voice startled Monty enough to make him loosen his hold on Jada slightly, who stomped on his foot as hard as she could. He let out a yell and she broke free and stumbled. Yami Yugi caught her. "It's okay."
"Yugi---?" She looked at him, bewildered, for a moment not quite certain it was him. She'd never seen that sort of look in his eyes before, that sort of fire. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but think that it was quite --- well, sexy. Which was, admittedly, one heck of a weird thing to be thinking at a time like this.
"It's okay," he said again, putting an arm around her waist, then giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, in the same spot she'd seen the eye appear on his. "I'll help you."
"She's mine, Mutou. Give her to me or else!" Monty pointed the gun at them.
Around them, everyone else had frozen in mid-stride, like a photograph. Jada looked at Yami Yugi again, realizing they were the only three who knew what was going on. It made no sense, but neither did the idea of Monty the Moron holding a gun to her head.
"She doesn't belong to anyone, Monty. She's a person with a mind and free will of her own," Yami Yugi replied. "However---" His gaze flickered to Jada, just for an instant, reassuringly. "If Jada here is willing, there's a game that will make her heart's choice perfectly clear."
"A game?!" Monty's response was an incredulous snort, Jada's sounded bewildered.
"Sit down and I'll explain." Yami Yugi sat down at Jada's table. She sat down with him and, after a moment's consideration, Monty did as well, sitting across from Jada.
"It's really very simple," Yami Yugi said. "I believe it's known as "Spin The Bottle." Jada, you take this bottle and give it a spin, like this---" He set her half-full Vanilla Coke bottle back on its side on the table, in the middle of the paper scraps, and gave it a quick spin. It wound up pointing at the far wall. "Whoever it ends up pointing to is the person who is truly in your heart. Monty, if it's not you, you lose and have to play a penalty game. If it is--"
"Yes?" Monty said, grinning.
"She is yours and I give you my life," Yami Yugi replied. Jada, who was already paper white, went slightly green. "However, you must also agree to accept who her heart chooses. It may well be neither of us. That is for her to decide."
"Deal. What are you waiting for, sweetie?" Monty pointed the gun at Jada. Yami Yugi gave him a look and he lowered it, but didn't put it down entirely.
Jada swallowed hard. "But Yugi---"
He looked at her. "In the Shadow Games, the truth within your heart decides your fate."
She looked into his beautiful, fierce violet eyes. "If that's the case, then----here goes." She took a deep breath - and gave the bottle a hard spin. She had no doubt about what was in her heart. None whatsoever. She knew exactly where the bottle was going to end up.
The bottle whirled, slowed, and finally came to rest exactly where she'd known it would - pointing straight at Yami Yugi. He looked at it for a moment, then at her with the same little smile that meant nothing but trouble when they dueled. She was looking at him and smiling a little herself.
"Wh -- Wh --- ?" Monty stammered.
Jada rolled her eyes, then glared at Monty. "I could have told you this before, you know, without all this rigmarole."
"NO!" Monty yelled.
"Yes," Jada said. "Yes, Monty. It's Yugi."
"You little bastard!" Monty lept to his feet and aimed the gun at Yami Yugi. "I'll kill you and take care of her later!"
"No!" Jada made a wild leap, throwing herself in front of Yugi. "Leave him out of this!" No way was Monty the Moron going to take a shot at Yugi. Not with her around.
"Jada!" Yami Yugi grabbed her wrist, pushing her behind him, then turned on Monty, the third eye glowing on his forehead again. "PENALTY GAME! You lose, Monty."
"Th--that eye---!" Monty exclaimed. "What the----?"
"That is only seen by those who trespass in my soul. Like those who threaten to harm my friends," Yami Yugi replied. "You can't force yourself upon the heart of another. If you try, all you'll do is shoot yourself in the foot."
"WHA---?!" Monty squeaked as his hand pointed the gun down on its own accord - and his finger pulled the trigger. As the gun went off, Yami Yugi dove under the table with Jada. People screamed. Monty let out a yowl of pain and fell over, dropping the gun and clutching his left leg.
"What the heck?" Jada said, looking out from under the table, then back at Yugi. "Yugi? What happened?" Something had, she knew, but it was all as hazy and jumbled as a dream. The only thing she knew for sure was that Yugi had just saved her life. She thought she remembered --- no. No. She didn't want to remember. Ever.
"I don't know." The fierce fire had faded from his eyes; he was just sweet little Yugi Mutou again. "I thought for a minute he was pointing the gun at you." He looked over at Monty, who was wailing "Did he-----"
"He freaking shot himself in the foot!" someone exclaimed.
"I shot the little bitch I shot her I shot her ran her through oh yes Disaster Master showed her who's the boss he did he did!" Monty was babbling.
"The heck---?" Jada looked at Yugi, bewildered. Had he---?
"I don't know," he said again, more firmly. "Come on, let's get out of here."
She let him pull her to her feet, then grabbed her bag and followed him out the back door.
"By the way, what were you guys doing when Monty showed up?" Yugi asked. It was later that same afternoon and they were in the back room of the game shop, sitting together on a box and talking.
"Trying to cheer Tiffani up with a version of Spin the Bottle," she admitted. "You write a bunch of names out on napkins and the one the bottle ends up pointing to is supposed to be your true love."
"Did you spin it?" He looked at her shyly.
"I didn't get a chance to," she replied. She had a half-full vanilla Coke bottle in her hand, not the one she'd had in Burgerpalooza. "But if I had---" she set the bottle down between them, on its side. "I know who it would have been pointing at."
"Who?" he said.
In reply, she gave the bottle a spin. It made several revolutions - and ended up pointing straight at him. Yugi looked at it for a moment, wide-eyed, then at her.
She was looking at him and smiling. "Told you so."
He looked down, blushing slightly, then turned the bottle so it was pointing back at her. "Does that count?"
"Why not?" she said. They looked at each other for a long moment - then he leaned over and kissed her softly on the mouth. She returned it.
"I wouldn't have gotten the onion rings if I'd known you were going to do that," she admitted when their lips parted.
"That's okay---" he said, smiling. "I think I love you anyway."
She pushed a blond shock of his hair back. "I love you, too." They ended up kissing again.
A moment later, Yugi's grandfather opened the door, started to ask Yugi if he'd seen the bar code reader - and decided it could wait a few minutes. With a smile, he let the door close and went back to the counter.