A Retrieved Reformation

First of all, the original story "A Retrieved Reformation" is a work completely written by O. Henry. He wrote the beautiful story; I'm just making a parody about it.

Another thing, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Takahashi the genius created it, and he deserves all the credit. Don't sue me!

This fic is set in the Victorian Era.

So, I decided to try my luck at a Joey/Mai fic. I hope that this fic works out better than "Really And Truly,". My close friends know how much I adore this couple because they hear me constantly talk about it.

I hope you enjoy!

.::.

"Calista Bolidaman!" The young Serenity Wheeler shrieked as she ran up to the young, blonde-haired girl that was holding the remains of paper dolls in her hands. "I turn my back for two minutes, and you rip up my dolls?" The auburn-haired child asked in disbelief.

"What?" Calista Bolidaman asked as she looked at the shredded paper in her hands, "Are you talking about these.... dolls that I ripped? Personally," she gave a sharp look in Serenity's direction, "I think I did you a favor. These paper beings looked like conjoined twins." Calista held up the tiny pieces of paper in her hands in a level in front of Serenity's face. The young Serenity Wheeler outstretched her hands to grab the pieces, but quickly drew them back for she knew that any efforts to persuade Bolidaman would be futile.

Serenity Wheeler and Calista Bolidaman....Two very different eight-year-old girls. In fact, they very much dislike each other, but what could they do? Calista was more of a bully than a friend to Serenity, and because of her "bullyness," Calista had no friends. As for poor Serenity Wheeler, well, she was too shy to talk to anyone else, so she hung around with Calista who was the only one who even noticed her.

"Those were for my mother," Serenity mumbled as she lowered her head, "They were supposed to make her feel good."

"Where were you, anyway?" Calista asked Serenity as she stared at the broken papers in her hands.

"Doesn't matter," Serenity surprisingly snapped as her eyes went up to Bolidaman's face, "I left my dolls on the table, and you ripped them?"

"Stop changing the subject," Calista ordered, "Tell me where you were. You were gone for a while." Serenity's eyes squinted at Bolidaman.

Like a black-and-white film going rapidly in motion, the events of a few minutes ago started playing in the young Wheeler's mind. These were taunting and cruel memories, and she dare not repeat them to Bolidaman.

.::. Flashback.::.

Serenity Wheeler rushed through the crowds of the boys that were in the higher grades. She knew that she wasn't allowed to be in this part of the playground, but the noises she heard.... Well, let's just say that she had to confirm them.

She did not like the fact that she recognized the voice that was shouting all the way from the girls' playground. She was worried, to say the understatement of the century.

She pushed herself through the jeering of the boys that were enthusiastically watching this event that Serenity feared would be what she thought it was. If she could depict screams correctly, and if the noises that she heard were true, than she would have to pray for help.

"Go, Kaiba! Beat him up!" She heard one amused boy scream from the eye of the crowd. Serenity, using the very advanced knowledge of her eight-year-old brain thought for a moment. They were cheering Kaiba on!

"Dear lord," Serenity breathed to herself as she squeezed through the boys that were blocking her way. The boys instantly parted mostly because they were of the Victorian Era, and they had some respect for a woman. Another reason probably could've been that they wanted to see the look on her face when she saw exactly what was going on.

"Say it!" The ten-year-old boy names Seto Kaiba ordered the boy of his same age as he stepped onto his back harder.

"Neva'!" Joey Wheeler answered as he felt more dirt in his mouth. Joey Wheeler.... Once again trying to be the hero by standing up to the strongest boy in the school. Except for the fact that his pride wasn't lowered as much as Kaiba hoped, Joey wasn't in too good of a position right now. You see, at the moment, Seto Kaiba had Joey on the soil of the boys' playground with his mouth pressed against the dirt and Kaiba's foot pushed forcefully onto Joey's back.

"Say it, I'm only gonna ask you one more time nicely," Seto Kaiba tantalized as Joey felt the pressure on his back increase.

"I told you, Moneybags, dat I ain't sayin' nothin' because I am betta' than ya!" Joey valiantly mumbled with as much courage as he could muster up with a handful of dirt filling his mouth.

It took a while for Kaiba to understand what Joey had said due to the fact that it was rather difficult to understand someone who had dirt fully occupying their mouth, but he eventually did and started to reply strictly:

"Is that so? That's gotta be the lamest excu-"

"Joey!" Serenity screamed as she forced herself through the entertained group of boys that were happily cheering on the fight that was going on.

"Serenity?" Joey asked as he heard his sister's voice. Of course, he couldn't quite get a good look at her because his mobility was a bit limited due to the fact that his head was practically jammed into the earth like a stick. But, nevertheless, he was still even more anxious when he heard his sibling's voice, for he couldn't let Serenity see him like this.

The poor little Wheeler girl had her eyes glistening with signs of worry as she tried to go through the boys that were purposely blocking her way to her brother. [The boys knew that Serenity would cease the fight, and they would not let her end their fun.]

"This is awesome!" Kaiba exclaimed as he looked to the little Wheeler who was being barricaded from Joey by a wall of boys' arms. "I get to humiliate you in front of your sister!" The young Seto Kaiba had this beyond joyful expression on that told the whole world that this was sheer amusement for him.

"Please don't!" Serenity begged as she desperately squeezed through the wall of arms, but she did fail terribly. "How'd you like it if someone decided to hurt your own brother in front of you?" She asked as lines of prohibiting arms covered the view of Serenity's face.

Now, what Serenity had just asked triggered a few thoughts in Kaiba's mind. If anyone dared to pick on his little brother, Mokuba, then they made a grave mistake. No one was to mess with the Kaiba family, and Seto Kaiba was out to enforce that rule strictly.

Not that he cared about what Joey or any other pathetic Wheeler said to him, it's just that he'd be furious if someone decided to pick on Mokuba.

Like for a split-second, Kaiba actually cared about whether or not Serenity was hurt by the present scene, but he erased this care as instantly as it came. Wheelers were little dogs to him, and he wouldn't care about any of their troubles if his life depended on it: They just weren't worth it.

"You know, Wheeler," Kaiba snapped as he dug his foot harder into Joey's back, "I'm not gonna make you say 'it' today, but wait till tomorrow." He looked down at Joey, who was mumbling something angrily at Kaiba, but it was obviously incomprehensible for he did have his head rammed into the soil. "You see," Kaiba started explaining as he tapped Joey's fidgeting head with his foot, "there was almost no challenge today out of you. But rest assure: I want one tomorrow."

And then, the mighty Seto Kaiba actually did something that disappointed most of the enthusiastically waiting boys: He removed his pushed foot away from Joey's back, and slowly, as if not expecting a comeback from Joey for a long time, moved away. Smirking slightly as he did so.....

Before Joey could actually remove his face from the gooey, dirty mud, most of the viewers already left the scene for they were extremely depressed that they wouldn't be able to witness today the beating up of Joey Wheeler. So with rolled eyes and heavy sighs, the spectators left that section of the playground alone to the still-smirking Kaiba, the still-has-face-in-mud Joey, and the scared little Serenity who was finally able to get to her brother now that the barricade of boys' arms had released her.

"I expected better out of you, Joey," Kaiba explained as she observed the restless little boy who, with a loud POP! pulled his face out of the mud. "sigh But then again, I was probably expecting too much out of you to in the first place...." He cut himself off as he remembered that he had more important things to do than to taunt Joey Wheeler. {Even though it was sheer amusement for him}

"Joey!" Serenity cried, ignoring anything that Seto Kaiba had to say, as she ran up to the boy who had just pulled a mud-splotched face out of the ground. "I'm so glad you're all right!" She exclaimed as she covered his neck with her hug of arms.

"Of course I'm all right!" Said Joey as he winked at his happy little sibling. "An' ya didn't hafta worry in da first place eitha'." He shifted his direction to the interestingly-watching Seto Kaiba, "'Cause he really is scared that I can take him on any day of the week, any game, anywhere! An' I'll always win, too." He reassuringly smiled at his sister who didn't really care who won any fight as long as her brother was safe.

"Is that so?" Kaiba angrily asked as he looked at Joey who was still perched like an immobile infant on the dirt. "Make note of it, you Wheeler, that I am superior to you. I always was, and I always will be. Your place is to grovel at my feet, and the next time I expect a halfway decent from you is in about ten years, when you'll somewhat represent a man," Kaiba foreshadowed, "Then again, I do doubt your manhood-"

"Ignore him, Joey," Serenity sweetly said as she hugged her brother even harder. "I think you're better than he is, and who cares about what the rest of the world thinks?"

"You're right, Serenity," Joey agreed as he looked with a disgusted face in Kaiba's direction, "What kinda jerk is 'superior' when he has no friends?" Joey reminded Kaiba of exactly how much "respect" he really had because if friends were the representatives of that respect, then he apparently needed to redo his calculations.

"Whatever," Kaiba mumbled as he started to turn to leave, just imagining what kind of chaos he'd bring to Joey tomorrow just because he said that. Oh, and one more thing, he'd make sure that Serenity was there to witness the whole beating...

.::.End Flashback.::.

"Hello! Earth to Serenity!" Calista yelled as she frantically waved her hand in front of Serenity's remembrance-filled face.

Serenity's eyes seemed to return to reality, and she looked at Bolidaman with much pride in herself. "I came back here because I figured that you were going to do something to the paper dolls that I made for my mother," she explained like a master scolding a rude dog. Calista scowled.

"Like I give about what happened to the dolls! I wanna know why Seto stopped the fight!" She whined, surprising Serenity by giving away the information that she knew about the fight.

"How'd you know about the fight?" Serenity asked with a bit of shock and anger and humiliation trickling in her voice.

"The playground's like ten feet away from us," Calista explained as she pointed her finger towards the boys' playing field that was less than four yards away. "I would've found out eventually."

"Are you sure that you're allowed to call him 'Seto'?" Serenity asked, quickly changing the subject, "He doesn't allow anyone to call him that."

"Well, we're on a first-name basis," Calista bragged as she started to proudly rock back-and-forth on her spotless Mary Jane shoes.

"Since WHEN?" Serenity asked as she tried to comprehend how stupid Bolidaman was.

"Well, we're going to get married one day, and I thought that I should might as well start calling him 'Seto' from now," she beamed as she smiled with a falsely-risen ego.

"You think that you're gonna marry Seto Kaiba?" Serenity asked with a bit of amusement on her voice as she tried to cover the giggles that were tickling in her throat.

"Just because you don't have a shot at Seto Kaiba EVER, does not mean that you must try to depress me." Calista presaged as her scowl deepened into a pure look of hatred.

"Whatever you say..." Serenity responded as she stared around herself, trying to find a reason to blame her amusedly loud giggles on.

Calista and Serenity...Two very smart girls, but each in a different way.... But you'll more of that later in the story.

.::..::..::..::.

Joey Wheeler sat on a tree stump as he tried to clean the dried dirt off of his shoes. "I'm gonna kill Kaiba one day, then he'll see," he thought as he whistled a tune with an evil-connotation. "Everybody will look up to me: The guy that finally aught Kaiba a lesson!" He smiled evilly as he thought about dancing on Seto Kaiba's grave.

"Now, Joseph, that's a terrible thing to say about people, even Kaiba," came a feminine voice from behind Joey.

Joey's eyes raised a little, but they quickly relaxed and he smelled the aroma of freshly-picked lavenders surrounding him.

"Hi, Mai," Joey mumbled as he recognized the voice without even turning around to respectfully greet the girl.

In an instant, a girl with beautifully sparkling blonde hair and amethyst-radiating eyes appeared to the side of Joey with a small smile on her face. She smelled of the softest lavender, and her emanating purple dress gave Joey a pinch of the color purple through the color of his eye.

"I saw the fight," she whispered with a strange glow in her eyes.

"Congratulations," Joey sarcastically muttered as he nervously started fidgeting with a shoelace.

"I think that you performed quite well, and that you can take on and beat any other boy in this town," she explained as she smiled happily, her figure coming closer to Joey by slowly sitting next to him on the tree stump.

"Well," said Joey as he vigorously finished tying the two relentless shoelaces on his boot, "I don't care about any other boy, I care about beatin' Kaiba. An' incase ya didn't know, I can do that too.... I just let him off easy today," Joey clarified as he gave Mai a serious look, but realized that he couldn't keep that look for long when she was around him.

"I know you can." Once again, she smiled proudly at him, "And I'll be right there cheering you on when you do. You'll defeat him in any game, anytime, anywhere."

Mai could've sworn that she heard Joey mumbles a low "Thanks," or she might've just heard the wind rustle in a strange way with a New York accent.

"What're are ya anyway, my pep squad?" Joey asked as he looked to Mai with a desultory expression on.

"No...." Mai explained as she quickly jumped off the tree stump, startling Joey, "but they are." She pointed a finger to the marching quartet of Yugi Mouto, Téa Gardner, Tristan Taylor, and Duke Devlin came into view just about five yards away.

Joey looked behind him and he saw his best friends in the whole world probably coming to sheer him up right now, and they'd say that Kaiba was a real jerk and that Joey could defeat him anytime that he wanted to.

"Good-bye, Joseph!" Mai said as she quickly dashed off to the girls' courtyard only about ten feet's distance away.

Joey didn't really pay attention to the fact that Mai was leaving, he just wanted to hear the cheering-up comments that his friends would give him in a few seconds' time.

.:..:.

"Joey! That was awful! How could you let him pulverize you like that?!" The foursome exclaimed as they, after some time, reached Joey, causing Joey to roll his eyes in anger and displeasure.

.::.

Meanwhile, Mai watched as Joey scolded the group of four for being so inconsiderate.... And she was very amused by this.

Standing beneath the shade of a precious cherry blossom tree, Mai took in the cool breeze as fallen petal leaped around her.

She adored it when Joey's nose got scrunched up when he was furious and she simply cherished the passionate fire that ignited when he talked about his ambitious plans of winning victory over Kaiba.

She couldn't wait to talk to him tomorrow, or later today, or whenever was the next time she had the chance to start a conversation with him, but...

Little did Mai know that after today, she wouldn't see Joey for an excruciatingly very long time.............

.::..::..::.

Good? Beyond awful? Delete as soon as possible?

Honest opinions people, please!

R/R! I sincerely hope that it didn't undeniably suck!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$Tootles,

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Celestial Night