Daisycutters: I am terribly sorry for taking this long, I have to admit, I am being pretty lazy. But I am having a block since I decided to change my intended female protagonist. ^.^ I don't get why this story attracted so many anti-Tea people, but I am sorry, I have made my mind, this is going to be a Seto/Tea story.

Oh and I revised some minor parts in chp. 1 to fit better to my new plot.

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Spring had come. It had come eventually.

To most life forms, it meant prosperity, it meant flourish; it brought blossom & it brought beauty; you could feel mirth, comfort & geniality; it is the incarnation of new lease of life. To sum it all up, spring linked its greenness to every wonderful thing that the world had to offer.

Not in the particular point of view of one teenager, though. Had she the time, she would have loved to go out into nature and enjoy the cool humid air on her skin while she inhales the fresh grassy scent emitting from around the place. Leaning against the windowsill she pictured herself waltzing into thick fog in the distance and feeling tiny water droplets tickle her as she swirls into a dancing frenzy. There, she was the center of attention, in the middle of a forest, clad in green attires like a fairy, mixing her maneuvers almost perfectly with her surroundings. Then she heard clapping here and there and slowly, they transformed into thunderous applauses. When she opened her eyes and looked up, she saw money, yes, thousands and tens of thousands of yens worth of paper notes were drifting down on her. On pure reflex, she reached both her hands out and tried to grab them, forgetting all about the grace & refinement that she had exhibited moments ago.

Snap.

Tea Gardner had just snapped out of her reverie a little fazed. It was embarrassing to have had such an imagination about money & glory. But she had to admit, she needed money, the graduation drawing near reminding her more so. The past year lapsed by so quickly, she would be going for the last year in high school when this spring holiday ends. That meant by then she should have saved up most of the money that she needed to provide herself with accommodation and food in New York, if she was given a scholarship for the study. The idea of that, however, seemed so far away to Tea.

But right now, she thought to herself observing her little apartment and all those splayed out contents, it is the right time for a huge spring cleaning!

So Tea set out to clean and tidy her room first, she bent down and reached under her bed. It was quite amusing how many varieties of items she could retrieve from under that big devouring mouth. She didn't think herself as a floppy person but every spring time when it came to cleaning, incredulous she did become. She pulled out a bunch of old wrinkly magazine first, and then out came crumples of worksheets, a few test papers with not-so pleasing marks on them. Tea chucked all of those into a waste basket and reached under for more. This time her fingers rested on something smooth and as she pulled it out, it revealed a laminated class photo.

At the bottom it read:

Class 2-A

Domino High School

So this is where it went, I totally forgot about its very existence... Tea thought as she wiped heavy dust away from the photo which was taken in the beginning of the year. Her eyes scanned through the photo looking for familiar faces.

Yugi... She looked at the small boy on the far left side in the front. Tea chuckled as she remembered that he had to sit in the front with the girls because of his height. In the picture he was smiling a little red faced. That boy is like no other, with a destiny bigger than life. He is so sure of where his life is heading, unlike me. They had talked about their futures before, he had told her that he was going to help Yami find our his past, to retrieve his memory, and after that he would help run the shop with his grandpa and hopefully when they have earned enough money they would refurbish & expand Turtle Game Shop. They had to compete with Duke Devlin's mall howsoever.

"What about you, Tea?" Yugi had said.

"Me? Well, I always wanted to study dance in New York, but... I need to earn money as well. But if I don't get accepted, then... don't really know what I would do..." Tea's voice faltered against her will despite her effort.

Joey side-glanced her and pointed his index finger upwards while trying to swallow his big doughnut like a python. He made a futile attempt to speak with his stuffed mouth but then gave up.

"Tea, you know what?" He said finally, "Don't sound so unsure, I'm sure you'll get-in! Even you if you don't you'll still go to uni, right?" He glanced at her reaction but did not wait for an answer, "You know my sister, Serenity? When we were little I promised her that I would take her to see all the beautiful places in Japan, and when I get the bucks, around the world." He paused there, "I am thinking about being a police along with Tristan, it had being a childhood dream of ours. I know that I won't get paid much but at least it's the first step, you know?"

"Yeah!" Tristan cut in, "We might even become generals one day and defend for our country!" He held his fist in front of him & looked up as he said that.

Yugi chucked and said, "That is after Yami saved you two from that big bully."

"It's not funny, Yug!" Joey protested. But he quickly forgot about it as he argued with Tristan on who could be a better police/general.

Yugi turned back to Tea who was sitting opposite him, "I would double-check the doors and windows if either Joey or Tristan ends up patrolling around my neighbourhood --- not much help at all."

Joey who was too engaged in the bickering with Tristan threw an "I heard that!' to Yugi and went back to whatever he was arguing.

Tea looked up from her drink and managed a weak smile towards Yugi.

The rest of the lunchtime went by with Joey & Tristan's bickering in background and silence from both Yugi & Tea.

*

Tea's eyes moved to people at the back rows in the photo. She stopped as her eyes focused on Seto Kaiba. A dominating coldness suddenly pulsated from the photo into her hands and up her arms made her shiver all over. "Hem, I wonder if he ever cares to buy a class photo." She said, acerbity evident in her voice. But it's not his fault to have become so cold hearted; you can't find another 16 year old person in Japan as a CEO of such a large company. Sometimes I don't know whether to envy or sympathize him.

Then she looked for herself. She was in the middle of the second row smiling brilliantly like there wasn't a thing to care about in the world. That was before the 'Burger World Incident' of course. She thought to herself sarcastically.

Not wanting to ruin the rest of the day, Tea decided to indulge herself with cleaning and push all those worries aside for the time being. So she turned on the radio loud and hummed with the tunes while she cleaned.

*

"Big Brother!" Mokuba yelled as he sprinted into Seto Kaiba's office turning on the TV there.

"What?" Seto mumbled.

"Watch!!! It says that there is going to be an earthquake next week!" Mokuba answered.

Seto Kaiba turned around in his swivel chair and stared at the screen. There, a lady dressed in tailored suit in her mid-thirties was speaking in the TV.

..."warning of an earthquake around seven days from now on. It is estimated that the earthquake might reach around three on the Richter Scale, so it is advisable to stay home and be ready to hide under stable shelters like tables, counters, or closets. If those are not found where you are, then stay under a stable door frame or corner of two conjoint walls, try to be as close as possible to the ground. Please do not panic during the earthquake, seek help & wait for rescue if in any difficult situation. There will be more update on the earthquake through the next few days."

"What should we do Seto? What if our mansion falls down?" Mokuba was getting really scared.

"It's okay, Mokuba, she said that the earthquake is only around three on the Richter Scale, it's not that big. Plus didn't I tell you that our mansion is built on a semi-sphere* foundation? No matter how violent the earthquake is, our mansion will only tilt but not fall because the semi-sphere distributes the seismic force evenly." Seto said calmly.

The atramentous haired boy was reassured of the upcoming disaster after listening to Seto's explanation, but more due to his brother's calmness. He decided to leave his brother alone to do his work so he turned off the TV and left for the lounge.

After Mokuba exited the room, Seto signed. The least I want to do is to make my brother feel safe in his own home.

*

She wiped beads of sweat off her forehead with her sleeve and breathed in long and hard. A whole day's cleaning had totally worn her out. Tea slacked into the couch and looked around the room, please with her achievement. The windows glistened as streaks of golden sunlight cascaded onto her freshly-vacuumed carpet. Just as quickly, the afternoon sun hid its face behind a fluffy cloud and then came out shining onto the world again. She watched as objects in her apartment happily responded to the rays of sunlight by reflecting them all, almost blinding her eyes. Everything is so full of vitality; I wish that I was one of them. Tea at that moment believed in animism.

Lazily, she reached out and picked up a book/memento display box. It was made with finely carved mahogany wood and it had a bevelled glass opener. Like always, Tea awed at how exquisite the box was. The bevels of the glass filtered sunlight and separated it into seven different colours the way it's like when petrol was dried on the ground. But what is more valuable and precious to Tea was what was inside. Tea slowly lifted up the glass and carefully took out an ancient yellowed book, or rather, diary, with tattered edges. It was her grandmother's diary, ever since she passed away in Tea's early childhood, Tea kept this diary close to her. It was the only thing left of her grandma because all other belongings were buried with her or sold or threw away. Tea had only a faint memory of her grandma, but what she was sure of was that she was the most lenient person she had ever known. Although as close as packed herrings Tea was to her grandma, but she had never read the diary. She felt that it was a violation of privacy, even a dead person deserved to be respected of their past belongings and privacy. That was why Tea loathed her parents for chucking and selling her grandma's things like that, like it was no big deal, like it was one small way to earn money. She had vowed to never act like her parents.

Not before, not now, not ever!

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Semi-sphere foundation: I think that I read somewhere that it is very good at withstanding earthquakes, but can't be sure. If anyone knows anything please tell me, thanks!

Daisycutters: Wow, I actually finished my second chapter, what do you think? Review please, give me some feedbacks. I really need to know if you liked it or not and whether I should continue.

ALL my reviewers: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU JUST FOR REVIEWING; SORRY I AM A BIT TOO LAZY TO NAME YOU ALL. ^.^' Bear with me please?

To lunar dragon, the first chapter is written in the view of the injured girl but not when she is old though, hint hint.

Raigeki-Star, I signed your guestbook did you see it? ^.^

Thank you again to all of you, whether you flamed, gave opinions or praised. I heard your voices and took it into account but as some of you have said, the decision is mine and I hope that you will respect it as much as I respected yours. ^.^