Sweeter than me

Chapter 5:

Over the next couple of days, (Sunday & Monday) everyone was actually getting used to not having Tea around. No one had to hear speeches; no one had an annoying girl tagging around... Sounds fun, huh?

And as much as Yugi hated the idea he even found it more fun without the cheerleader next to him.

Soon, Tuesday came and it was about an hour before the funeral. Kaiba was waiting outside the building for the rest of them to come.

About four cars pulled up in front of the building and everyone came out wearing blacks clothes.

"Hey Kaiba." Yugi said.

"Hey. Now if we could hurry up get this over with..." He led the way into the room that Tea's funeral was held.

It was totally empty.

"Gee, I don't know why were the only one's here. There was an advertisement in the paper." Yugi sat down.

"Maybe..." Ryou sat next to him, "We were her only friends."

Joey looked at her coffin up front, "So that's why she hung out with us so much."

"Ra, I'm glad she's dead." Marik and Malik were sitting in the back.

Bakura was sitting in the middle, "Why is it a closed coffin? What did she die of anyway?"

"The doctor said it could have been a heart-attack." Kaiba leaned back in his seat.

"It's a good thing that coffin is closed." Mai said shivering.

"Why?"

"I have a thing against dead people. I can not look at them, they freak me out."

"Oh please!" Tristan said. "There's nothing bad about dead people."

Mai looked at him funny, "Of course there something wrong with them...they're dead!"

"Ugh."

There was silence for about five minutes after that, not because they were grieving but they had run out of things to talk about.

"Okay this is ridiculous!" Marik stood up, "No one's coming. We might as well go home."

"But Marik." Ryou said. "Don't you think someone should say a few words?"

"I sure do..." Marik paused. "Let's leave."

"Ugh! Yugi why don't you?"

Yugi gave a weak smile and went up in front of the coffin. "Um, Tea Gardner was a very nice person. Whenever someone was in trouble, she was right there... doing what she did best. Uh, cheerleading. I always told her she should go out for the cheerleader squad at school...but she never did. And now she never will..."

Yugi sat back down with a little tear in his eye. "She was a good friend."

"Yeah, yeah. Can we go now?" Malik moaned.

"Well," Ryou took a second look at the coffin. "I guess we've done everything worth doing."

"All that and more."

They all started to get up and head for the door when Mr. Buttram came into the door. "Uh, hello all."

"Hey, Mr. Buttram. We were just leaving." Kaiba said.

"Yeah," Yugi sighed. "Tea is someone else's hands now."

"Well, for the moment. I'm afraid she's in mine." Mr. Buttram held out an urn. "There was a mix-up out back and she got cremated by mistake."

"..."

"I knew we shouldn't have hired a high school student."

"Oh my god." Yami starred at it, "You mean Tea's in there?"

"Yup."

"Oh well!" Kaiba left, "It's over now!"

"Yeah, I guess." Yami said.

They started to walk out again. "Uh gentlemen?" Mr. Buttram said. "You're forgetting something."

"What?" Bakura asked.

"Tea. We can't keep her." He put it in Bakura's hands and left.

Bakura gave it to Ryou and they left the building.

The next morning at Ryou and Bakura's house, Ryou was a little upset.

"Uh, Bakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Last night... did you hear any screaming? Er, ghostly sounds?"

"Ghost sounds? What?"

"I thought I heard yelling last night from that urn."

"Oh c'mon!"

"I'm serious Bakura. We gotta get rid of that thing."

Bakura shifted in his seat, "Where are we gonna put it? No one else would take it."

"We should throw it away."

"In the trash?"

"Well, no. You know my garden outside?"

"Yes."

"We can use her as fertilizer. I've been needing some anyway, for my buttercups."

"Fine."

In a couple of minutes, they were both out side... urn in hand. Ryou said a little prayer and dumped out all of the ashes in the dirt around his buttercups.

"Great. Now, I can visit her everyday."

"Good, are we finally done?"

"Yep."

Ryou went inside the house, but Bakura gave one final farewell to the dead cheerleader. "Rest in pieces."

THE END...