Chapter 4: Old friends reunited

" Hey guys, did you miss me?" A familiar voice asked. Yugi, Tea, Joey, and Tristan turned their heads. Mai was standing there, her small bag on one shoulder and her hand on her hip. Her creamy blond hair shone under the intense sunlight. Her ruby-red lips were frozen in a small grin.

Joey was the first to greet her. " Hey Mai! I didn't know you were in the tournament!"

She reached in her pocket and flashed four locator cards. Joey's face fell. " No fair! I still only have 3! How did you get four already?"

" It's called dueling, Joey. If you'd stop talking and wasting time, you'd probably have more locator cards by now." She simply replied and smiled.

Joey folded his arms across his chest and put on a pouting face, rolling his eyes. Tea laughed. " So Mai how's everything?" She asked.

" Fair, I suppose. These pathetic duelist wanna-be's are so easy to defeat. I didn't even have to use Harpy's Pet Dragon. Dueling you, Yugi, was much more challenging. Is there ANYONE worth challenging in this tournament?" Mai giggled and set her bag down on the ground.

Tristan put his elbow on Joey's shoulder and said," Well, a few minutes ago we did meet this one girl. She beat Rex Raptor in less than five moves."

" Oh really?"

" It's true. She's quite good actually." Yugi added.

Joey pushed Tristan's arm off him. " She challenged Kaiba, but he refused. Now she'll all mad at him. I don't blame the girl, he does tend to get on people's nerves."

Mai laughed.

Tea's smile widened as she saw Jenna walk out of the restaurant. " Oh! There she is now! Jenna, come here for a sec!" She called out and waved.

Jenna walked over to where they were standing. " Mai Valentine? I didn't think I'd see you here!" She exclaimed and hugged her.

" Same goes for you, Jen. How are you? Gosh, it's been ages since I last saw you! I love what you did to your hair!" Mai said happily as she ran her hands though Jenna's streaked hair.

" Do you two know each other?" Tea asked.

Jenna beamed. " I met Mai when she was at Dualist Kingdom. We've become good friends since then."

Everyone still had weird expressions. " I didn't know you could make friends so quickly, Mai." Joey joked and grinned.

" Oh can it, Joey Wheeler! Unlike you, I have a better chance of getting into the finals!" Mai fired back.

" Oh yeah? We'll see about that!"

Jenna looked back and forth between the two. Blinking a few times, she got all the facts straight in her head and smirked. " Mai? Is he the boy you were talking about at my father's island? I'd never imagined all the things you said would apply to him...does Joey know?"

Mai's face flushed visibly. She glanced back at Jenna and her red face deepened in color.

" Mai, what is she talking about?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jenna continued," Well, when I met her, she said that Joey Wheeler-" She was cut off by Mai's hand over her mouth, preventing anymore words to come out.

Everyone stared at her actions, more stunned than amazed. " Um, Mai?" Tristan said, giving her the ' I knew it ' look.

" Jenna, you weren't going to say anything. Now WERE YOU?" Mai said and glared at her. Jenna chuckled lightly and pried Mai's hand off her mouth.

" Fine, I wont say anything. He'll find out eventually...if not from me, then from someone else." Jenna stated. Just then she saw Kaiba walking on the sidewalk, deep in thought. He turned his head and for a moment their eyes locked together. As much as she tried, she couldn't jerk them away from him. ~ Stupid eyes! You're supposed to cooperate with me! ~ She screamed in her head, getting embarrassed by her own actions.

Kaiba's head quickly turned away. After a second, he walked over to her. " Just because you have three Blue-Eyes White Dragons, doesn't make you a better duelist than me. Keep that in mind, Jenna." He stated coldly.

" I never said I thought like that! You have no right making such accusations! It's not like you read minds....you said so yourself."

Kaiba smirked. " I just want to make sure you know that. And please don't start begging me for a duel. I'll just refuse."

Jenna's eyes widened in anger. " ....Why you..." She choked out. If she only had the ability, she would definitely burn holes in him. Or perhaps set his boots on fire....~ I'm letting him get to me! What a jerk! ~

Mai stepped between the two rivals. " Now wait a minute here, Kaiba. You cant just walk by and start insulting my best friend and pretend she has no feelings once so ever!"

" What are you going to do about it?" He challenged.

" Kaiba, why are you so icy to everyone? Some of us are trying to be your friends." Tea stated.

" That's my business, little girl. Now if you'd excuse me, I have some dueling to do, with professional duelists." Kaiba said.

Jenna was now shaking with fury. ~ First he insults me, then my friends...what a bastard! ~ She didn't notice her right hand lift up and slap him across the face with all its strength. He seemed stunned. For the longest time the two of them just stood there, staring into each other's eyes, both not sure what to do next. ~ Why did I just do that? ~ She thought. ~ No matter, he deserved every bit of it! ~

Jenna felt Mai's hands on her shoulders. She then dragged her away from the stunned Kaiba. " Come on, Jen, let's get out of here. I didn't know you had it in you."

Joey smirked evilly. " Great job! That sure shut his big mouth up!"

" .....Thanks...." Jenna muttered, still trying to pry her eyes off him. For some reason she felt like she was drowning in regret. It was as if she felt sorry she slapped him...yet her hand did that without her command. ~ Why am I getting all these feelings? ~ She asked herself. No answer came back.

Kaiba's hand lifted up and touched the red handprint on his left cheek. She slapped him? Has he really made her that mad? ~ She sure has a quick temper..~

" Seto Kaiba, you deserved that. And before you go off calling me an amateur and how you will never give me a chance to prove my dueling skills, think about yourself first. You are a conceited heartless jerk who only cares about himself and no one else. You may think that just because this is your stupid tournament you can go about and order or insult people, but you're wrong. Your life may be hard and difficult, but that doesn't give you the right to do that to others, you know. So for all I care, you can insult me as much as you wish, because you know what? I DON'T CARE!" Jenna practically yelled out.

She quickly took off her dueling disk and threw it at him. " Take that stupid thing.... I have just about had it with you and the tournament. I QUIT!!!" She yelled and stomped off.

Kaiba caught her disk just before it hit him in the face. Standing there, he watched her figure slowly disappear into the crown of people. As he was allowing everything he heard sink in, Mai turned towards him and snapped," Kaiba! Don't just stand here! Go after her! Jenna looked forward to this tournament and just look what you made her do! This means the world to her and you're just letting her walk away - BECAUSE OF YOU!" She showed him to the side. " Now go!"

[ A/N- Wow...

I wasn't planning for the chapter to end like this, but I kinda like it. Kaiba may be my favorite character from Yu-Gi-Oh, but he did deserve that slap. GO JENNA!

Please review. More reviews = more chapters.

~ Severyn ~