Chapter 1: Fresh Start

PLEASE READ THESE AUTHOR NOTES!

Important!

Right, I have a few things to clarify before you read further: this is NOT Self insert, Mary-Suefic: Theoriginal characters involved are nothing to do with me or anyone I know, and I have made it clear that they have no special powers, are not fantastically pretty or saught after by everyone. There are no eighth millenium items, no "used to beyourwife", no supermodel, uber-babe people and absolutely no "everyone is in love with the OC". There is a lot of romance and stuff, but nothing serious: the only reason it is there is for the sake of the plot. The romanca causes fighting, arguing, crying, near-suicide, some yaoi (actually, lots of it! Y'know, to make up for the Ocs), a huge web of lies, break-ups, and generally a huge mess. And it rquired someone who was new, that's all. It's told from an OC's point of veiw, as I always find first person stories more engaging. So, please don't turn away now just because of a couple of OCs, odd pairings and completely freakyish plots: give my story a try...

And enjoy it!

By the way, I do not own YU Gi Oh, or any of the things or charcetsr featured in this, except for the Ocs and the plot, which are MINE!

Have fun...

"Here goes!" I thought to myself as I opened the door. It creaked slightly, and then swung completely open.

I was greeted oh so cheerfully by about thirty bored looking faces, most of which were facing the opposite direction.

"Ah yes!" I was pulled inside of the room rather unexpectedly by an eccentric looking woman, who bared large resemblance to a grey chicken with terrible taste in earrings, "Class! Hush now! We have a new student joining us this term. Please give a big, warm welcome to…Oh…what is your name?" She whispered, still smiling warmly.

"Akiko." I said sheepishly, gaining sudden interest in my shoes.

"Ah yes! Akiko!" She said, as if she new already and had just forgotten. The teacher looked out at the class, who were obviously not at all interested. Many of them were rocking on their chairs, chewing gum or even drawing on the desks. I gulped. These were not the kind of people I liked to hang around with.

"Why don't you sit here, Akiko? I'm sure you don't mind, do you Joseph?" She asked a blonde haired boy leaning lazily on his chair.

"Look, my name ain't Joseph. It's Joey. And I don't care. She can sit there if she likes." He replied rather viciously. Oh dear…

I took my seat, took my bag off my shoulder and got out a badly chewed red biro and an A4 sized black notebook with a silver glittering heart on the front and a long piece of red fluffy stuff down the silver ringed binder (more simply known as my diary). I was about to write something in it when the Blonde next to me tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey," He whispered, "Name's Joey. Akiko, right?"

"Yes." I answered, raising an eyebrow, "Why do you ask?"

Ignoring my question, he continued.

"So, how come you've come to this school? Moved house? Or was the last one you went to that bad?"

"First one. We moved here from England." I replied, "What do you mean by that last statement?"

"You'll find out…" He said, smirking. I shivered.

"Cool. Anyways, what do you think so far?" He said looking around the room.

"Oh. I've only been here an hour…I don't go by first impressions." I lied.

This place looked awful: well, only on the inside. The outside was pristine, just enough to fool a passing parent considering this place to be their Child's new school into thinking it was great. Inside though, the place looked very sterile (even though it was extremely mucky) and somewhat boring; kind of like a hospital, with white plastic walls, cork board ceilings and scuffed white tiled floors.

"So? After the first few minutes I knew this place was bad." He chuckled, "Can't really complain though: this is the best place around here for a while…"

"What about…"

"The best free place. Domino City is crawling with private schools."

"Oh…"

Unexpectedly, there was a very loud tinny ring, and a scrape of chairs as the bell went marking the start of the first lesson.

"Well! Here goes. I'm off to math class. How 'bout you?" Said Joey, stretching as he rose from his chair.

"Drama."

I know it's really sad, but I had memorised my entire timetable.

"Aww man…Lucky!"

"Yeah. Anyways, see you later!"

"Yeah, bye!" He smiled at me, and then waved, as he walked out of the room.

Once I had finally found the drama studio, I discovered that I was ten minutes late. Of course, it was my first day, so I could get away with pretty much anything.

After about 15 minutes of talking from our extremely "enthusiastic" teacher, we were finally asked to get into pairs and create a short improvisation on whatever he had been going on about for ages.

I looked around the room only to see that everyone already had a pair, and they were all looking at me. I could hear whispers of "It's the new girl!" and "She's a loner!" all around the room, so I set off to find myself a partner. After what seemed like hours, (but was really only 30 seconds) I was still partner-less.

Over in the far corner, I noticed one girl who was sitting crossed legged, watching everyone. Suddenly, she looked directly at me and began to walk over.

"Hey. You new?" She asked me merrily.

"Yes." I replied shyly. She began to smile even wider than she already was.

"Same here, except it's been about a year for me. I know the feeling."

"Really? Where did you move from?"

"Oh, I didn't move," She giggled, "I transferred here from my previous school. It was so much worse than place…I had no friends at all over there," She sighed, "But here I've made loads of buddies! How about you? You made any friends yet?"

"No…not really…" I sighed.

"What, do I not count?" She laughed, folding her arms.

"Well…ummm…sure…" I stammered. Wow…I've actually made a friend: and on my first day too…in my first lesson.

"So, anyway, seeing as neither of us has partners, wanna be mine?"

My new found friend (I think…or rather, Hope…) and I spent most of the lesson just messing about, doing impressions of the teachers. She did a really good one of my form teacher, and showed it to the class. Even our teacher laughed. After her performance, I realised I didn't even know her name.

"Okatta. You're Akiko, right?"

"Yes," I said shocked, "How did you know?"

"Oh, one of my friends told me that you were taking this drama class."

That's a bit weird…I don't even know anyone but her yet. The only people I have talked to are the teachers (and she's not exactly going to be their friend) and…

"Was his name Joey by any chance?"

Equally shocked, she replied: "Yeah. You met him?"

"I sit next to him in registration. Wait a minute! If he's not in this class, how did he tell you?" I asked, a bemused look playing across my face.

"Oh…" Okatta looked around the room suspiciously, reached into her pocket and pulled out a small silver object.

"Is that a phone?" I gasped. Phones weren't allowed in school!

"Shhh! Not so loud! Of course it is. Joey and I text each other all the time and if the teachers leave the room sometimes we ring each oth-" Okatta was suddenly interrupted when her phone began to vibrate loudly, "Oh sh-"

"Excuse me," the teacher came up behind Okatta and snatched the phone from her hand, "I believe that it is against the rules to posses one of these," he said, obviously pleased with himself for catching her, "With you in classes, anyway. You can collect it from me in room 12 at the end of the day."

"Okay sir, sorry sir." She said, insincerely. The moment the teacher turned around, Okatta made a few rude hand gestures in his direction, and then began to laugh loudly.

"He'll hear you!" I said, giggling a little myself. Okatta stopped laughing, but continued to smile.

"You have a lot to learn. The teachers here don't care much about our attitude. Just our exam grades (it reflects their cruddy teaching). Besides! He won't be in room 12 at the end of school: He'll probably keep that phone. No matter, I'll get Tristan to steal it back later…"

"And Tristan is…?" I asked, despite knowing the answer.

"Oh, another one of my friends." She said, a little sheepishly. I bet she could sense my hurt: Maybe she thought I was jealous or something and didn't want to provoke me…Ah well, at least she was considerate enough to offer me what she did next:

"Hey! Maybe you could meet the rest of the gang after school."

"Sure! I'd love to meet them." I squealed, maybe a bit too enthusiastically, attracting a lot of confused attention from the rest of the class.

"Okay then. Meet me outside the west entrance."

"Yeah. I will!"

That is if I can find the west entrance…