Hope it's not too short. I can't seem to make them longer... That's what I get for not writing during the summer.

- Chapter 12 -

"Guess what!" Joey walked into the room to see Seto sitting at one of the desks in the far corner.

"There are many phrases that I hate and 'guess what' happens to be one of them. How am I supposed to guess what?" Seto replied.

"C'mon, just this once - Guess!" Joey replied happily, not deferred by Seto's comment.

"No." Seto said stubbornly, but truth be told he was slightly interested in what was making Joey this excited.

"Fine then..." Joey grabbed a rolled up piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to Seto. He bit his lip and stared at Seto, waiting for his reaction.

Seto looked at Joey oddly, but then he gave his attention to the paper. He unrolled it and much to his surprise it was an English test – Joey's English test to be exact. Now why in the world would Joey show off his test?

In bright red ink, in the top right-hand corner of the page was the test score.

That's why.

"71 percent?" Seto raised his eyebrows, wondering how a C- could make this boy so happy.

"Well, sorry if I'm not a genius like you," Joey said sourly, all his happiness suddenly washed away."But that happens to be a step up from my usual grades thank you very much." And with that he grabbed the paper from Seto's hands and crossed his arms angrily. He walked over to the window and glared at it. Seto sighed.

"That's not what I meant." He started.

"Yes it was." Joey growled back at him.

"And you know what?" Joey asked Seto. Seto didn't say anything, pretty sure saying that 'and you know what' was another phrase he hated wasn't going to put Joey in a better mood.

"I hate people like you! Even when I do better that I ever have before you always say it isn't good enough or that I could do better when – have you ever thought – perhaps I can't!" Joey yelled at him before stomping out of the room.

Seto let his head fall into his hands. "Damn it." He didn't mean to upset Joey. He just...maybe Joey was right. He was being an idiot. Perhaps to him a C- didn't mean much but to Joey it might have meant everything. He got up and walked out of the classroom. He was pretty sure he knew where Joey was.

And, alas, he was right. Joey was sitting under a tree in the schoolyard drawing what looked like graffiti all over his English binder. Seto sat down next to Joey and took his English binder from him.

"You do realize that all this..." Seto looked at the binder. "Beautiful art isn't going to do a thing?" He questioned. Joey snickered at what Seto called his graffiti.

"What does it matter?" He took his binder back but stopped drawing. They sat in silence for a moment, until:

"I'm sorry." Seto said quietly.

"For what?" Joey asked nonchalantly. Yup, he was in denial. This, may I add, is not only a river in Egypt. (And no you may not kill me for my horrible humor.)

"You're right. There are always people who are going to think little of your efforts." Seto said seriously.

"Like you?" Joey said dejectedly. Seto grimaced at the accusation but, regrettably, it was true.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Seto started.

"It doesn't matter." Joey said, not looking Seto in the eye.

"Yes it does." Seto said causing Joey to look up at him, raising his eyebrows in question.

"No one is going to understand that for you to get the same grades you would have to work doubly hard. No one is going to realize how significant the little things are to you because they don't understand how difficult it is for you. They can't comprehend that perhaps a spelling test is as hard to you as memorizing twenty lines from Shakespeare is to them." Seto paused to take a breath.

"I know I don't understand, but I'd like to think I have at least a clue to what it's like for you." Seto stared at his hands, waiting for Joey to say something.

"I guess we're even then." Joey said. Seto looked at him wondering what he was talking about.

"You know, you don't understand Dyslexia and well, I don't really understand OCD."

"Yeah, we're even." Seto said smiling.

"How are you?" Joey asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"The same..." Seto started. "No, actually it's not - not the same." Joey's eyes gleamed with worry.

"What?"

"I mean, I just noticed it now, when I came looking for you I..." He smiled confusedly. "I didn't touch the windows, I just didn't have to. And it's been a while since I, well, counted ceiling tiles." He laughed nervously.

"See, something as simple as not touching windows can make you happy which is why I was so happy over a stupid C-." Joey said, obviously still upset over it. Joey sighed and leaned his head on Seto's shoulder, dejected.

Seto absentmindedly wrapped one arm around Joey's shoulder. "You know, I forgot something." Joey looked up into Seto's eyes and stared at him wondering what the hell he was going on about.

"I forgot to congratulate you on your fabulous test score. I mean, how many hours did you study? How much work did you have to put into it?" Seto said, acting as if Joey's grade was absolutely amazing, which – to some – it was. Joey giggled, smiling at Seto's act.

"It was nothing, nothing at all." Joey said, playing along. Seto got serious though.

"No, it wasn't. It wasn't nothing."

"I know." Joey whispered. Then he smiled.

"And I want to congratulate you also." He said putting on the same aura of superiority that Seto had talked with. "You have been strong and been able to stop touching windows." At the last part they both burst out laughing at how odd it sounded.

Of course it was true. True that they were both strong and worked at lot to do what they did. Many people could face the same problems and not be able to fight them – in fact many people have and still haven't been able to fight back.

So perhaps that's why they felt so proud at such 'simple' accomplishments.

They sat there for a few minutes - Joey with his head on Seto's shoulder and Seto's arm around Joey. They sat there happily not wanting to leave and go back to the real world where everything might not be as happy and carefree. But then Joey looked at his watch.

"It's late. I've got to get home." Joey said, getting up reluctantly.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Joey nodded.

"Bye." And with that he walked off. Seto sat there watching, in no hurry to go home. He was sad that Joey had to leave so soon. He liked talking with Joey, he liked just hanging out with Joey, and he liked having Joey in his arms...

- End of Chapter -

Liked the ending? Hehe.

Thanks for reading.