You get really short parts in this fic. I mean really short.
These parts all take place AFTER the end of the series, from here on out. And it'll be less disjointed now. I promise. XP
I'm going to try to get part 4 out before I leave for college (August 16th). It's halfway written, so let's hope.
[i'm sorry for using a mostly american school system but i just don't know enough aboot the japanese systems so i'm not going to pretend that i do.]
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Welcome to the Dollhouse:
A Series of Vignettes
Three:
Know Your Rights
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Ryoh's teachers had accepted long ago that he wasn't going to pass 11th grade. He'd started out a promising student, but had quickly ceased turning in homework assignments, and his high test scores had fallen rapidly. The teachers speculated -- perhaps it was drugs, or family troubles -- but in the end they wrote him off as a failure and went on to grading the other students' papers. It simply wasn't their problem if he wasn't going to put any effort into his education. The only one who hadn't accepted that he was going to be held back a year was Ryoh himself.During the year, the fact that he was uncontrollable and dangerous had taken priority over schoolwork. It was more important to keep both himself and his friends alive than to make sure he finished a research paper, or even started working on it. Quite frankly, he hadn't given his studies much of a second thought. Now that the spirit was gone, however, the fact that he was failing -- failing an entire grade, when he was accustomed to being an Honour Roll student -- was apparent, and inconceivable. Even Yuugi and the others were going to pass, which only added to his inability to accept the facts. Truth be told, it made him mad with jealousy. It hadn't been his fault that he'd been a danger to himself and others, and now he got to suffer for it even after the problem was removed. The lack of fairness was infuriating.
However, if nobody had made much of a deal of it, Ryoh would have adapted and moved on. He was generally apathetic after the first few hours of agonizing over things, and it wasn't as though he had anything to look forward to after high school. With a lack of ambition and direction, an extra year before college wasn't much of a problem, and even had the advantage of giving him more time to figure out where he wanted to go in life. No, Ryoh would have calmed down and accepted his failure, if only his father hadn't made such a big fuss.
The man had yelled more than he had any right to, in Ryoh's opinion. It would have been easier if he'd been on the phone; Ryoh could have simply toned him out and made Ramen for dinner. But, no, the elder Bakura had personally come down to Ryoh's apartment to let his son know just how disappointed in him he was.
It had been one thing to face Yami Bakura's anger, which Ryoh knew he deserved. The spirit was never angry with his landlord without cause, and that had been one small thing which Ryoh had liked in the thief. For his father, who was never there when Ryoh needed him, to be so upset over part of Ryoh's life, which the man had effectively walked out of years ago, upset Ryoh as well. So he'd argued back.
It had been a new experience, to say the least, and when their shouting match had ended, not due to either of them backing down or compromising but rather a neighbor banging on their door and demanding that they 'shut the Hell up,' Ryoh had been left with a good deal of anger constricting his chest. His father had stormed out, perhaps in an even worse mood than when he arrived, and Ryoh had gone to his room to sit, dazed, on the bed.
To be perfectly truthful, Ryoh was not used to being actually angry with somebody. He'd been mad at Yami Bakura -- had hated the spirit -- but since he'd acquired the Ring, the spirit had been the cause of everything negative in his life. The thief had been the only thing he'd felt anger toward in years. To feel that same emotion against another human being, his own father, even, was shocking. To realize that it extended to jealousy and irritation toward Yuugi and the others who wouldn't have to deal with unfairly irritated parents was unbelievable. Yuugi hadn't yelled at him like his father had; why would he be upset with Yuugi?
Ryoh couldn't remember the last time anger and hatred had been his emotions. They were Yami Bakura's.
