R Amythest: ehehe, *coughs* me late. Me bad girl.
Ryouji: *crosses arms and 'humphs.'*
R Amythest: and after this, I got to get typing 'It Came With the Rising Sun.' Geez, and my birthday's coming soon, when does an authoress get a break?! .!!!!
Yami Amythest: … calmit. ANDSHUDDUPABOUTTHESTUPIDBIRTHDAY!
Ryoujii: heh, someone's sure pissed right now.
R Amythest: ^^;; Um… read, leave a nice review, and enjoy this chapter, High School Hell!
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|KEY|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
*~*~* lapse of time or change of scene
'thoughts'
Yugi to Yami
Yami to Yugi
[Ryou to Bakura]
]Bakura to Ryou[
{Malik to Ishtar}
}Ishtar to Malik{
Bold shows emphasis during dream, flashback, phone calls, a voice in head, or read print
~Duel Monster speech through telepathy. Probably won't use it for a while, though.~
*~*~*
When you hear the word, 'finals,' what do you think of? A bell? A test with the letter 'F' written at the top in bold red ink? A pretty bishounen peeking glances at you through long bangs, without regard for his grade? Or, rather, as Tea thought miserably, the blank piece of paper she was supposed to write an essay on about the scientific breakthrough in holographic technology. She gave a sideways glance toward Kaiba. He was scribbling away confidently. Figures. He's the guy who made it. Again, she wrote a few sentences, crossed it out, grumbled, then threw it away. She was faced with another blue-lined college-width page of horror.
Finals. Bleh.
She wrote at the top in her bubbly handwriting, "The Science of Holographic Technology, by Tea Gardener." For a moment, she wished she'd studied, like Ryou, who sat beside her. Was it just her, or was he mocking her with the fluent scrape of his pencil? She pushed away the thought. I was only helping Ryouji, she told herself.
…but I didn't quite succeed.
And now, she wasn't going to succeed on this, either.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Crumble.
Sighing, she again wrote, "The Science of Holographic Technology, by Tea Gardener." Finally getting an idea, she scribbled, "Throughout the ages, humans have attempted to create something out of thin air, and desperately tried to use magic. However, these attempts have been futile."
I bet if Yugi were writing this, Yami would be ready to strangle him, she giggled mentally. "With new holographic systems that range from games, such as Duel Monsters and Dungeon Dice Monsters, to martial arts training,[1] it has made these ancient dreams somewhat awaken."
"Ten minutes!" the teacher called. Tea nearly jumped with surprise, since she was concentrating pretty hardly. She blanched as she saw how much more she had to complete…[2]
*~*~*
"I can't believe we've only STARTED our finals. I swear my hand's going to fall off," Yugi commented, massaging his hands. He was much taller than his Sophomore height; it appeared he finally got his growth spurt. Now he was just a tad shorter than Joey.
"Yeah, 'n' I can't believe I had ta write 'bout Kaiba's department!" Joey complained. His blonde hair was now a tad less bright, but definitely longer, and he now held it in a short ponytail. He hadn't bothered paying for a haircut. (The coach of the soccer team cursed it. Something about effeminate guys belonging to Home Ec.)
"And how did you do?" Tea asked, dragging out the last four words so they practically pelted Joey's pride. Ryou gave a small grin at this. His hair had also gotten longer, and he wore it in a rather long ponytail that he kept under his sweater. But a few thin strands always managed to get free of the rubber band, and they were similar to sideburns. (R Amythest: giving him the cute look many fangirls would faint for! ^^)
Joey sweatdropped. "Heh, not so hot." He noticed Kaiba Corp's helicopter flying above and fumed. "And now he's courtin' my sista! Can ya believe dat egotist's goin' for Serenity?!"
Tristen facefaulted. His hairstyle remained relatively unchanged, still in a spike. The only difference was that his hair was a tad darker. "Serenity and Kaiba? How could that ever happen?" he exclaimed. Tea gave him a death glare.
"Well, Ryouji and I got along didn't we?! And what about you and MIHO, EH?!" She feasted on the expression he offered. "NOW, ISN'T THAT AN ODDITY?!"
All four boys sweatdropped, and, grinning their 'don't hurt me, insane girl!' look, they inched away from the prideful Tea.
*~*~*
Ryouji stared aimlessly at the white marking on the board. Look, it got longer! It curves and crosses, expanding with symbols unknown, just like life itself… never ending… until your time runs out. This thought was confirmed as the small, stubby piece of chalk in the instructor's hand smudged into nothing. Carelessly, he grabbed another long piece of chalk to write more. Or you could have an accident and have an early death. The long piece of chalk snapped, and the instructor scowled and grabbed another piece of chalk, continuing his babble. And when your time runs out… your offspring take your place. But what if your own father prevented this from happening? What if… your packet of chalk runs out? Go to the store and buy another pack. He mentally rolled his eyes. Nah. I'm not going to adopt. I want a child that's like me and the one I love.[3]
*~*~*
"In order to repair the hard drive of a Windows 2003 computer…" droned on the instructor, pointing out various circuts. Seto, underneath his famous cloak, toyed with a small robot he was making. He had already repaired the computer. Many fangirls swore he ran the computer mechanics class, but he didn't… unfortunately. Suddenly, the robot sprung to life and started bleeping 'Beautiful Sleeper, Wake unto Me' in a digital voice. Seto fumbled with the power switch and managed to turn it off, but he had already attracted the attention of many around him.
"Gomen," he said monotonously. The instructor gave him an 'I-wish-I-could-fail-you-but-you-could-take-my-job' glare and continued the lesson. He was receiving strange looks, but he just smirked with a glare, and the other students quickly continued fiddling with their hard drives. Seto returned his attention to the little music box robot he was toying with and started to make a mold for the outside cover, a Happy Lover. It was for Serenity.
*~*~*
"Why won't you join them?" Ryou asked, his puppy eyes begging for an answer. Malik crossed his arms, leaning against the school, not paying attention to the applause for the soccer team; Joey was leading the ball down the court. Tristen was running by him, just in case he needed a quick save. Yugi and Tea were cheering them on with enthusiastic 'Go Joey!'s and 'Shoot, Tristen, shoot!'s.
"I told you already, I'm not a social person. And besides, who knows, with these, ehem, 'mood swings'[4] I get," he mumbled, not paying attention to the shrill sound of the whistle, signaling the scored goal.
"Malik-chan! I don't care!"
"They do," he said stubbornly, jerking a thumb towards Yugi and Tea, cheering Joey and Tristen on.
Ryou almost scowled. "C'mon, there's got to be a hidden meaning." Putting on an overly cheerful smile, he wagged his finger and accused, "Are you planning world domination again?!"
Malik rolled his eyes. "No." Inside the rod, Ishtar snickered. }I see you've got a nice little reputation all set up!{
{…thanks to you.}
*~*~*
The soccer game ended, 10-6, the Domino Akus[5] won. Joey and Tristen were receiving slaps on the back of gratitude and honor, and shouts of 'WE WON!' Yugi and Tea rushed to congratulate them.
"That's the fourth game we won in a row!" Yugi cheered, giving Joey a hi-five.
"Yeah, we're the team with the highest win percentage of all the soccer teams in our province!" Tea added. "We get to go to the province tournament!"
Joey grinned at Tristen. "Ya up for it?"
"You kidding?! Of course!! We're going t' make pot pie out of those other teams!"
*~*~*
When Tea left the field, she was slow to make her approach on home. Yugi had offered to walk with her, but she didn't want to bother too many people with her own personal problems, except if they wanted to help… and she knew Yugi had enough stress finding out about Yami's past. In fact, she hadn't planned on stressing Ryouji about it… but Ryouji had found out on his own.
Now she arrived at her house. Muffled shouts were rattling the windows. Carefully, she stuck her key in the hole and turned it, silently opening the door and sneaking up to her room. She flung her backpack onto her chair and flopped onto her bed, listening to the slams and cries from below. Sighing, she opened the said bag and grudgingly pulled out her wretched sheets of educational doom.
*~*~*
Ding, da ding ding ding ding dong,[6] ding, da ding ding ding ding dong, ding, da ding-
"Moshi moshi!" Tea piped cheerfully.
"Hi Tea," Ryouji greeted.
"Oh! Ryouji-chan! What's up?" Tea said, cupping her hands over the speaker so the crashing downstairs couldn't be heard.
"Not much... no improvement 'bout the will, either. Had Ryou remembered the slightest bit of information, I might be able to have a lead…" His voice trailed off.
"Wait, he did remember some things!" Tea recalled. "But I forgot most of them… something about a cave and hieroglyphics? I think that's it…"
Ryouji's voice considerably brightened. "Okay, that's a good lead…" The house shook lightly with another crash. "Was that… you-know-what?"
Tea grew grim. "Yeah…" I wish Ryouji were here with me, to protect me from the world…
*~*~*
[1] Yeah, I know, there's no mention of that fight thing. But what I was thinking was, you know how Noah was a hologram? Well, you know, sometime in the future, they're going to have to tell the difference between fake and real people, and I was thinking that might help. That, and you can virtually swordfight! ^^
[2] you really didn't think I'd bore you with another finals essay, right?
[3] no particular point in this note. It's just to note that Ryouji's starting to think too much… I've been reading Just Ego's fics for too long. She's rubbing off on me. . I DON'T WANNA BE INSANE!
[4] I found on a few sources that Malik is bipolar, also referred to as manic-depressant disorder. It basically means you get frequent mood swings- from being a hyper manic to a suicidal crybaby. There's medicine for it, but it doesn't seem Malik's aware of it, from being cooped up in a tomb and all…
[5] Aku is skipjack tuna! It sounded cool! ^^
[6] I know that sounds stupid, but that's seriously what Tea's cell phone sounded like to me!
*~*~*
R Amythest: yeah, strange ending.
Yami Amythest: that was pointless…
R Amythest: no it wasn't! This chapter is _VERY_ important!
Malik: Hello, goodbye! *bounces across the screen* Yay! ^^
R Amythest: …go calm him down for me, Ryou…
Ryou: ^*^
R Amythest: … can you calm me, down, too?
Ryou: no! *hugglez Malik*
R Amythest: …awwwwwww, darn it.
Another Note: REVIEW! ^^