Author's note: 11/7: first fanfic ever being reworked. Mostly editing and deleting of things I will never get back to, namely shared memories and other things. This project didn't take as long as I anticipated, and I will hopefully have reworked all nineteen chapters by next week.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters or places. I do, however, think that I own Takara.
She stepped into the hallway. The newest student of Domino High swept down the hall, long black hair hanging down her back, bright blue eyes searching the crowd of students she'd never seen before. As she passed, many of these students turned and whispered excitedly to each other about the New Girl. Seto Kaiba watched her pass, his own cold blue eyes narrowed out of disgust. There were already too many kids running around.
- - -
Sitting in her first class of the day, she could feel the eyes on her. She could hear the kids whispering, she could tell what they thought of her. Grinning at nothing in particular, she absentmindedly stared at the kid in front of her. He was short, with spiked hair, that was colored black and yellow with a hint of violet. All of a sudden she felt a cold presence pass by her. She looked up, to look into the cold blue eyes of the famous Seto Kaiba. As soon as the moment had come, it passed. Kaiba looked away and sat down at the desk two rows behind her and to the right. The teacher called attention, and introduced the new student. After she sat down, the kid in front of her turned around and introduced himself as Yugi Motou.
"Yugi Motou?" she inquired, now interested.
He nodded.
"The one who beat Pegasus!?"
He nodded again.
She cracked into a grin.
"I'm Takara Isoda. I went to Duelist Kingdom too."
"Nice name."
"Thanks."
Takara started fiddling with her pencil, as the math teacher explained the work. The class was busy writing notes, and the only other person NOT taking notes was Seto Kaiba. "Takara Isoda." She looked up at the math teacher. She could tell that all the other kids were looking at her too. "Is there a problem?"
"Is there a reason why you aren't doing the work?" The teacher walked slowly and purposefully over. If anyone wasn't looking at her before, they were now.
"Yes Ma'am." The teacher raised a questioning eyebrow. "The answer is the square root of thirteen." Silence.
"Why is this a reason to not do the work?"
"I see no need to do the work when the answer is perfectly clear," Takara answered. Utter silence.
"Let's see if you're really that smart," the teacher said, writing a complex problem on the chalk board. Most of the students started doing the work on their paper, while others watched to see what Takara would do. Her hand was raised, along with Seto Kaiba's. "Isoda."
"Negative 23."
"Correct." The teacher wrote another complex problem on the board. Less people were writing this time. Both Takara and Kaiba's hands were raised. "Kaiba."
"Sixty-nine times the square root of fifteen."
"Correct." The teacher wrote another problem on the board. No one bothered to write it down. "Isoda?"
"Negative one. No! Positive one-twenty-nine."
"Correct," the teacher said. "Do you know what you did wrong the first time?"
"Yes." Takara wrinkled her nose. "I thought the sixty-eight was a negative."
"Very good," the teacher said, walking back to her desk.
There was a laugh, quiet, but audible in the silence of the room. Every one looked at Kaiba.
"Only an idiot would make such a simple mistake," he told the class.
The teacher continued with the lesson.
- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - -- - - -- - - - -- - -
After class, Kaiba brushed by Takara without a word. Takara felt like biting his head off.
"Wow," Yugi said. "What was that all about? It looked like you and Kaiba already know each other. The way you were making a contest in front of the class."
Takara's eyes narrowed. Could it be. . .? No, it wasn't. She'd just have to keep looking.
"Kaiba's a brat." Her nose wrinkled. She already hated the boy's guts.
"What class do you have next?" Takara looked.
"English. . . with Yamiko."
"Me too! I can show you the way." Takara nodded.
"I don't get why they're making us learn English, though. Perfectly useless."
"You mean perfectly use FULL," Duke Devlin said, coming up behind them. "English is the international language of the day, just like Latin was way back then."
"Why do you care so much about Latin?"
"Because it's a cool language."
Suddenly Duke looked at her as if he had just noticed her. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." He held out his hand. "Duke Devlin, at your service."
"Takara Isoda." She clasped his hand, but as she did, he fluidly turned it and brought the back of her hand to his mouth.
"May I say you look absolutely stunning?" He let go of her hand. Takara leaned against a locker and started to giggle, which turned into laughter. "What?" Duke asked.
"You obviously don't know how many boys use that line, but you pull it off better than anyone I've met so far." Takara lapsed into thoughts of her old life before moving out there, until she realized that the boys she'd been talking to had walked on without her.