A Retrieved Reformation
Chapter Three: How Long Can Truth Be Hidden?
Author: Celestial Night
Date: May 27, 2004
Once again people, I don't own "A Retrieved Reformation!" O. Henry created it, and I'm just making a parody out of it!
Also, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! So don't sue me; you wouldn't get much money anyway....
And to those of you that reviewed, THANKS!!!
Sara: I wouldn't say that my story is all that good because it did receive only 12 reviews for two chapters...And anything that I write couldn't be really hard to come up with.... LOL Thanks for reviewing!
Luthien-Anwaman: Thank you! Joey/Mai can never hurt at all--That is SO true! Thanks for liking this fic and actually reviewing!
pisces071: You're forgiven, just make sure that you NEVER insult me and call me by Calista Bolidaman's name EVER again. :Points finger to Bolidaman: NOBODY wants to be confused with her........Thanks for reviewing!
DayDreamerz: You honestly don't want me to delete this fic?! Awwww....Thanks! LOL .
moocow33: Awwww....Thanks! Your review was really sweet! LOL :)
Five reviews? Well, that's not so bad.......
--::--
"Well, you really can't get much more divorced than that." Calista Bolidaman smirked as she stalked circles around the little tree stump that Serenity Wheeler was busy sobbing on.
"They're not divorced," Serenity muffled voice managed to speak back as she covered her reddish face with her tear-steamed hands.
"They're not?" Bolidaman asked with amusement in her voice. "Well then, correct me if I'm wrong, but your father, according to you, took your brother with a couple of black bags, and he took off in a mysterious carriage. Then, also according to you, your father did not return home last night and neither did Joey. And from what I heard directly from you....You saw neither your father nor your brother this morning.........And just a moment ago you were sobbing over the fact that you thought they were gone forever."
Serenity had to admit: If women were allowed roles in Law, Calista Bolidaman would make a lovely prosecutor...
Serenity took away the sweaty palms from her face. Although she hated to admit it, every little word that Calista spoke was of the same truth that came from her own mouth. But it was just the way that Calista made it sound so....awful that had Serenity feeling goosebumps form around her body. Oh how they trickled with pain and caressed Serenity with such misery and woe.....
"That doesn't mean they're divorced." Serenity tried to reassure herself more than she tried to comeback at Bolidaman.
"I'll believe it when I see him waltz back into town," Bolidaman explained as she saw Serenity's teardrops ebb away from Serenity's chin.
"He is coming back; nobody ever said otherwise."
"Yes, well, when Joey Wheeler comes back to town, green pigs with emerald sweater vests on will be flying around in the sky."
If that's what Calista predicted, then would she be surprised as she saw what the weather in approximately ten years would be......
--::--
"And when the monster gets destroyed and is in Attack Mode, the life points get taken away from the players whose monster was destroyed," the young Yugi explained to his friends.
Just yesterday, Yugi was taken to his grandfather's new shop which specialized in the creation of a new card game, Duel Monsters.
Yugi, at first, had not the slightest interest in the game. But when his grandfather started to teach him this new wonder, Yugi started growing heavily fascinated with it. So, like a good grandfather would do, Yugi's grandfather gave Yugi a deck that he had painstakingly put together himself. And now, Yugi was out to teach his friends how to use the cards.
"Hmmmmm........I like the game; it sounds challenging, but-," Téa Gardner scowled as she saw these rather vicious-looking monsters. "They look--I mean the monsters--very mean."
Yugi looked at the monster, The Curse of Dragon, that he was holding, and he couldn't help but be proud of his deck. But then, Yugi started shuffling through his deck, and showed Téa the result of his search.
"It's called the Mystical Elf," Yugi explained.
"It's an improvement," Téa squinted her eyes a she mumbled this, "It's long hair kind of reminds me of Serenity---but just a little."
"Is the game hard to play?" Duke asked as he looked at all the words that were specially added to every card.
"Well, when my Grandpa was explaining it, it kinda seemed pretty complicated to understand." Yugi laughed sheepishly as he said this, "But I'm sure that we'll all become experts at this game."
Téa rolled her eyes. She was not the least bit interested in learning about this new game. (What she didn't want to tell Yugi was that she saw Seto Kaiba playing with the same type of cards last week, so she didn't wanna tell Yugi also that his "new" fad was really not that new at all.)
"The basic idea looks cool," Devlin mumbled a little too loudly, "But I think it looks boring." The future creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters couldn't help but miss the challenge in this game. (He was going to "enhance" the game in a few years anyway....)
"If it's complicated, then I'll bet that Joey will have a hard time understanding it!" Tristan laughed stupidly at his own joke, which was also said very stupidly. (What Tristan didn't know was that Joey's IQ was way higher than Tristan's!)
"Where is Joey, anyway?" Téa asked as she stared around, expecting an insult from the absent Joey.
Yugi shrugged. "I haven't seen him all day. He must be sick."
"Do you think he caught that virus that everybody else has been getting? You know....The one with the stomach flu?" Tristan supposed. "Hey! Do you think Serenity caught it too?"
"Maybe he is sick," Téa said as she stared around the boys' playground to get a good look at all the boys. "But still, maybe we should ask Serenity and make sure that he's ok."
So Téa walked barely a few feet to get a view of the young girls' playing court. It wasn't that big: It only had a small craft table and a little cherry tree by a puddle. Serenity shouldn't have been too hard to see.....
But unfortunately, Téa never got a good view of Serenity for all the young girls were huddled up in front of a tree stump. Either one of them could've been Serenity!
"Great!" Téa hissed as she put a hand up to her forehead. "All those girls are glued around one thing! How am I ever supposed-----"
Téa cut herself short. She had just realized something: True that Téa could not get a good individual view of Serenity from her position, but how hard could it be to find Serenity when all the girls wear huddled all together in one place?
So Téa was off again in a search for Serenity. All she had to do was walk like twenty feet or something because the court wasn't too far away...at all.
--::-- Meanwhile --::--
Mai Valentine was never too far away from the girls' court. She often stood beneath the shade of the playing ground's only cherry tree, and it was also often that she happened to hear everything that was going on.
But, she was extremely confused as to why a crowd of girls was forming in front of her very eyes. She wasn't too far from the crowd, but it was growing so big and so loud that she could barely decipher the words that any of the girls were saying.
--::--
Téa was running without any real worried thoughts in her mind toward the crowd of girls. But that unsuspicious mind didn't last long.....
"What THE---," Téa gasped as she saw what figure was standing on top of the tree stump and was hovering over the heads of all the girls.
--::--
"Now everybody, don't feel too sympathetic towards the girl. Her father was a drunkard, and her brother no doubt was gonna come out the same way, too," Calista Bolidaman explained on behalf of Serenity as she looked over the tops of the girls' heads. "Now, I recommend that we teach this girl some proper etiquette to help her succeed in life, for we don't know how well her mother can raise---"
"Calista, may I ask whom you are talking about? And whoever you are talking about, I don't think that they appreciated the wording that you chose, and that's only if you are telling the truth."
Mai Valentine was standing outside of the crowd, for she really couldn't get through the impenetrable barrier of girls. She was standing rather tall, and she looked very confident in what she was saying. What really worried Mai was that Calista was talking about a girl's brother, and she desperately hoped that that girl was not Serenity.
Now, Calista had never been really talked to by a girl a few levels ahead of her, and she could never dream of being spoken to by probably the richest girl in the town, so all Calista could do was anxiously smile and mutter, "Umm...ummm....well the girl is...Ummm...."
"Honestly Calista Bolidaman! I've seen you use that motor mouth of yours much more enthusiastically before, so why are you acting so differently now?" Téa appeared right behind Mai, and she had a curious smirk upon her face. Téa was no stranger to Calista Bolidaman, for she was often there when Calista and Serenity were in a fight over a toy or something and Joey had to break it up. (And let's just say that Téa was no fan of this girl....)
Bolidaman scowled. It was one thing for a girl of stature like Mai Valentine to talk to her, but Téa Gardner was nothing more than a commoner to the Mighty Calista Bolidaman, and she did not like being talked to in such a disrespectable voice by a commoner.
"Well, if you must know," Calista snapped as her eyes went fiercely to Téa Gardner, "I don't think that you would honestly care about Serenity's-"
"SERENITY?!" Téa's and Mai's face went white for a second as they recalled what Bolidaman had said, and Téa was almost immediately reminded that Joey was not in school today.
"MOVE!" Mai ordered the girls as she forced her path through the thicket of the girls. The girls, being obedient and knowing when to respect their :rich: elders, immediately parted.
Mai's eyes widened as she saw the young girl sulking on the stoop in front of her. Poor Serenity was a wreck! She was sobbing uncontrollably while her hands, which were glued to her face, caught all the tears that were receding from her gentle, hazel eyes.
"Oh, Serenity!" Téa cried as she came up behind Mai. "What happened? Are you okay?" What Téa didn't realize was that Mai had a purpose in not asking those questions to Serenity for she knew that Serenity would start crying even more.
And like Mai had predicted, the instant Téa finished speaking the last syllable of "okay", Serenity started to frantically squirm her shoulders as she vibrated with the hysterical sobbing.
"There, there, Serenity. It will all be alright soon," Mai soothed as she came next to Serenity. "I don't know what's bothering you, but can I try to make you feel better?" Mai practically pushed Calista of the tree stump to make room for her to sit.
"Try all you want, but you can't make her feel better---unless, of course, you bring her brother back. But I think we all know that that's not gonna happen anytime soon," Calista mumbled as she gave a dirty little scowl to Mai for forcing her to leave her position on the stump.
"Calista," Téa snapped as her eyes rose forcefully to Bolidaman, "I think that it'd be best if you leaved right now."
--::--
"No fair! That coward decided not to come to school today? A Wheeler's a Wheeler......." Seto Kaiba trailed off. He was happily looking about the boys' playground earlier, but his ready-to-hurt spirits were crushed when he noticed that that stupid New York accent was nowhere in earshot, and that Joey Wheeler's body was not capable of being seen anywhere. Too bad....Kaiba really wanted to hurt Joey today......
Once again he scanned the grounds of any sign of Wheeler. It wasn't fair that Joey had decided to play hooky the very day that Kaiba had planned to beat his face in. Oh well! There was always a tomorrow in Seto Kaiba's mind, but boy was he wrong......
".....Yeah she was crying terribly!"
"I know....I think their parents got a divorce..."
"Is that why her brother's not in school today?"
"I don't know. Who's her brother?"
"I don't know; I thought you would know who her brother was."
"Her name's Serenity, that's all I know. And about her brother....."
"Serenity? Serenity what?"
"I don't know...It started with a V or a W or something--"
"Do we know her?"
"I don't think so. She's pretty young and her brother's a level below us."
Two girls happened to be talking and gossiping as they passed by Kaiba on his little hunt. Now this news changed Kaiba's perspective about the whole Joey playing hooky thing.....He wasn't one to eavesdrop, but those gossiping gits were talking so loudly they made it impossible for the whole school not to hear.
The only Serenity that Kaiba knew was Joey's sister....
And her last name began with a W....And W was a letter that one of the girls has guessed began the girl's last name....
And those girls looked just about a grade or two ahead of Joey.......
Ooooooooo....Did someone get a divorce? Kaiba just had to find this out for himself....
--::--
Kaiba arrived at the scene of the huddled girls just in time to see Téa Gardner, not too far away from whatever commotion was taking place by the tree trunk, explain everything that was happening to Yugi, Tristan, and Duke.
Eavesdropping and sneaky ways being his specialty, that sly Seto Kaiba found his way around the crowd of girls, and almost used the huddled girls as a cover for a vantage point so that he could spy on the Nerd Squad.
"And...and....and...." Téa wiped a tear away from her left cheek, "According to Calista, they got a divorce and Joey went with his father!"
"Well, where did his father go?" Tristan asked in an appalled voice.
"You idiot!" Yugi exclaimed as his eyes went big with pain for losing his best friend, "If they knew that----" It was really no use: Yugi felt the loss of best friend too massive to even scold Tristan. "Téa," Yugi pleaded, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah! Are you sure that that witty little Bolidaman isn't just fooling us?" Devlin asked.
"But...guys," Téa sighed as more tears formed a film in her eyes, "Serenity was seriously crying, and Joey's not in school today......And...and...I wish Joey were here!" It was no use, Téa started to cry. Though her waterworks were nowhere near as heavy as the tears that Serenity was releasing, they glistened her face with sticky and salty liquid.
"JOEY!......." Yugi moaned as he thought about never seeing his best friend ever again. He looked up to the sky and thought about Joey being away from all of them.
"I'm gonna miss him," Devlin and Tristan said in unison as they bowed their heads to the ground.
Now any fool, in Kaiba's mind, could've easily solved the puzzle of what was going on. Those muffled noises coming from the heart of the crowd must've been the sobs of Serenity losing her brother. And Joey must not have come because he was taken away with his father, which was usually done in divorces during the Victorian Era.
As much as he tried to concentrate and get rid of the anger bulging up inside of him for Wheeler leaving without his due beating, he could not ignore Serenity's crying. First of all, it was way too loud. And also, her crying kept triggering thoughts in Kaiba's mind about losing his own little brother. And although ten years from now he'll deny it with every figment of his being, he actually felt sorry for her, and he actually compared his feelings to hers for a second....
--::--
"But Mai! He might never come back!!!" Serenity cried as her shoulders shivered in pain and chills.
"No, no, Serenity! Now you're starting to talk like Calista. I'm sure that he's gonna come back sooner or later. I mean, how long can he stand to be apart from such a wonderful sister as you? Hmmmmm? You gotta keep your optimism up!" Mai put a soothing arm around Serenity's shoulders as Mai tried herself to keep her hopes up......
"You really think that, Mai?" Serenity's muffled voice asked Yugi, Téa, Tristan, Duke, and Bolidaman appeared on all sides of the tree stump.
"No......" Bolidaman coughed as she once again started walking circles around the stump.
"Of course I do," Mai said in the best cheerful voice that she could pull off in the state of sadness that she was in.
"Joey will be back!" Téa exclaimed, "I'd bet my life on it."
"Yeah, it's not like Joey to stay away for too long. Before you know it, he'll be walking back into town with that same old smile on his face," Yugi said as softly patted Serenity's shoulders.
Tristan and Duke nodded their heads to show Serenity that they had no doubt that Joey Wheeler's arrival back into the city of Domino wouldn't take long.
"Of course he'll be back!" Yugi and co. turned their heads to see the wealthiest kid in the city standing a good two meters away, nodding his head with that sly little smirk on his face. "I have no doubt, unless he's a coward and is gonna run away and never come back because he's afraid that I'm still gonna beat his face in."
"Oh, look Calista: Seto believes that Joey's gonna come back too! Now, what were you saying about the likelihood about Joey coming back to town?" Téa asked, making Calista feel stupid that she had ever coughed "No".
Calista blushed deeply as she mentally cursed out Téa. "It's possible that he'll come back one day......" She mumbled in a hertz close to the negatives.
"And when Joey comes back, we'll see that lovely smile of yours again, Serenity," Mai said as she pulled off the best smile that she could while holding Serenity's shoulders. 'Joey come back! Your sister needs you here! Your friends need you! Kaiba needs to beat you up! I need you here! You can't possibly run away from all these things, can you? You were never one to run away......'
--::--
--::--
--::--
T
E
N
Y
E
A
R
S
L
A
T
E
R
--::--TEN YEARS LATER--::--
TEN YEARS LATER......
Dear Sheriff Seto Kaiba:
Nearly a month ago, the famous vault-opener Jounounchi was seen fleeing the city of Little Rock. The night guardsmen saw him skipping rooftops over the city's bank/financial zone. According to the guardsmen, he crossed city limits and was able to slip from our sights completely. To our knowledge, the bandit ran east, but, unfortunately, we miscalculated.
I am writing you this letter to inform you that three of the cities west of Little Rock have been pilfered for their most prominent bank's vaults have been found opened with not a trace of what used to be originally in them. The cities' banks that have been pilfered are all aligned in a sort of vertical line, and, if my hypothesis is correct, then your city of Domino is soon to be attacked by this bandit.
Because this thief has only committed crimes at night, policemen and other local and federal authorities have only been able to get this description: Blonde hair, and a height of six feet and two inches (6' 2'').
Keep your city on alert, and I trust that you shall not be bothered by this criminal. Make your that you bank is almost always watched from all sides of teh perimeter, including the rooftop.
I know that you will succeed in protecting your fair city.
Sincerely,
Maximillion Pegasus,
Chief of Police of Little Rock
--::--
Meanwhile, a handsome blonde-haired man stood outside of the gate that read:
City of Domino
He looked at the sign with some respectability in his eyes, like he was remembering something that was emotionally significant. Flashbacks spun like an old film in his mind when he glanced at the copper-plated, emerald green city sign.
He raised the brim of his hat from over his face so that the sun gave a sparkle to his rich brown eyes.
"It's been ten years," he breathed with a gracious smile, "But Joey Wheeler's back in town!"
--::----::----::----::----::----::----::----::-- --::--
I hope you liked that chapter! You'll see why I made Kaiba the sheriff soon.
It's still not too late for me to delete this fic! Should I?
Tootles,
Celestial Night