Leona Saclat- Thanks for reviewing! Mokuba has a girlfriend because his girlfriend is based after somebody I know who wanted to have a small role in my fic. I'll try to read your stories soon. I'm going away to camp tomorrow, for three weeks. So, I'm pressed for time.

Tea could hardly believe her bad luck when the next day she arrived at the Kame Game Shop in the morning to find Grandpa Motou outside, sweeping. He looked at her and gave her a large, letcherous smile. Tea shuddered. The old man was positively beaming in her presence.

"I hate to disappoint you, Tea," he said, before she had even opened her mouth, "but Yami and Yugi have both caught the flu, and, coupling that with their jet lag, you could say that they're out like lights." Solomon brushed a coarse, gray bang out of his face. "So they're not coming to school today. Or tomorrow, probably. Yugi usually gets over the flu very quickly, but what with Yami being there also, and Yugi's mom being overprotective, she'll probably keep him here one more day to make sure he doesn't relapse." He grinned at her. "Would you like a glass of water?"

Oh sure, old man, I'd just LOVE to go into your house and spend some time idly chatting with you. No thanks.

Tea graced him with a fluttering smile, one that appeared and disappeared as fast as a butterfly could flap its wings. "No thank you, Mr. Motou. But thank you for offering." She gave him a small bow before walking off, making it a point not to say anything further. That stupid, no-good letcher. How on Earth could he be related to her best friend, Yugi?

…Ok, so there were so many similarities…

Tea sighed, placing the back of her hand against her cheek, as she reached the bus stop. All the students took the city bus to the high school. It was just starting to rain lightly.

"Stupid clouds tryin' to ruin my sunshine…"

The bus roared up, and slowed to a stop, its breaks squeaking atrociously. All of the congregators at the stop placed their hands over their ears.

"MY HEARING!" one girl yelled.

Another boy yelled, "MY SPLEEN!"

That boy's best friend sweat dropped at him. "Baka yo," he mocked, stepping onto the bus, who had opened its doors like an angel spreading its wings, offering a moving shelter for those who didn't want to be caught in the rain.

Tea stepped doggedly onto the bus, already tired. She had expectedly Yami at her side today. Already rumors were spreading that Yugi was still in love with her, yadda yadda yadda… Sigh. Rumors about Yugi spread super-fast. And the worst part was, people tended to believe them until Yugi was actually around dispelling them.

It sucked. -.-'

Today, however, some of the girls that usually gossiped starting to talk to her on the bus. One of them, Bethany, had this giant crush on Yami, so Tea deduced that they were talking to her to get some new dirt on Yamikins.

They were in the middle of a conversation when Tea's phone went off. "Oh, can you excuse me for a moment?" She smiled vacuously at them. They giggled, as per usual, and nodded their heads.

"Slut," one of them murmured loudly as soon as her back was turned. Tea shot her a look over her shoulder.

"Who?" she asked, smiling pleasantly… baring her teeth just a little bit.

"Oh, uh—nothing. We were joking. I was calling Bethany a slut," said Monica.

"Oh. Ok then."

Tea turned back around, and removed her phone from her fanny pack, which was slung around her waist, resting on her hip. After the ordeal in Oricalcos, she had decided that it was worth looking ridiculous and wearing one, since it was hard to hold onto a purse if she was rushing around watching duels all the time!

Flipping her phone open and pressing it against her ear, she said, "Hello?" …What was she supposed to say? Seven days? There was a giggle as one of the three girls swiped at her fanny back. Tea sidestepped her and gave her a suspicious looking glare.

I know that it's you, little bitch… Tea's thoughts surprised even herself. "Uhm, hello?"

"Valley girl," Monica giggled. Tea turned around and glared at her outright.

"Shut up!" Tea slapped her across the face. A small portion of the bus became silent as they turned to stare at her.

Monica faked crocodile tears. "You… You're going to pay for that, slut!"

Tea exploded in her face. "WHY AM I A SLUT!"

"Hello?" crackled a voice from the phone. Bethany's eyes enlarged. She swiped at Tea's phone.

"Give me back my phone!" Tea screamed. Bethany ignored her, bringing it to her ear.

"Ryou?" she giggled.

"-.-' Hello, Bethany," replied the Brit drily. "Can you give the phone back to Tea, now? My… sister has something that she wants sorely to say to her."

"Oh! Of course!" Just when one of the nicer guys around was about to force Bethany to return Tea's phone, she gave it back herself.

"…Ryou?" Tea said tentatively.

"Hi Tea."

"Ryou! Omigosh, what happened? Why are you calling me?" Tea's face just entirely dropped. It was devoid of anger, and was replaced with a calmed fear.

"Nothing's wrong, Tea. I just thought I'd let you be the first to know that I'm coming home soon, since you're the only person who's phone number I remember. Is Bakura around? Oh, and by the way, I told Bethany that Amane needed to talk to you, so just do whatever you would do if you were talking to her."

"…I've never met her…"

"Well don't let them know that!"

"How early is it there?"

There was a pause. Then a creaking noise. "Uh, it's pretty early…" Tea could sense Ryou sweat dropping over the phone. "Either that, or it's pretty late. Is Yugi there?"

Tea felt a small pang in her heart. Yugi was the person that Ryou always confided in; the two felt that, since they both owned Millennium Items that housed spirits inside of them, that they could relate to each other better than they could with others. When it came to being a confident, Tea felt left out; Serenity confided in Tristan or Joey; Tristan confided in Joey; Ryou and Joey confided in Yugi; and Yugi confided in Yami. Yugi did confide in him, too, but sometimes Tea got the feeling that whenever Yugi told her anything, he was only giving her the abridged version. Maybe, a couple of hundred pages abridged. Like a book that was cut and slashed and shortened and edited until it was of little value. Tea wondered if her friends appreciated her.

"Uhm, no… he's sick. So is Yami."

"Oh. Joey?"

"No."

"Tristan?"

"Nuh-uh." Tea could never figure out why Tristan and Ryou got along so well together; they had totally different lifestyles.

Tristan lived in an apartment with his mom and his dad. Sometimes his sister dropped in with her bouncing baby hustler, Johji, age 2 or so. Tea instinctively rubbed her shoulder, remembering how heavy that baby had been, and how letcherous he had been. Ugh.

Ryou, meanwhile, had lived alone until quite recently, when Bakura and Yami received their own bodies in a freak magic act. His sister was… well..

"Ryou, I thought your sister was…"

"She is. I'm just saying, pretend she's, well, you know, still living."

"Okay."

Ryou's mom, Tea didn't know about, and Ryou's father was always traveling and such, being an archaeologist much too in love with his work.

"So… is Duke there?"

Duke?

"Duke? Uhh…" Tea's looked around. There was Duke, talking to some guys, probably talking about how he had broken another heart. Tea rolled her eyes. She really didn't want to give the phone to him. She wanted to keep this conversation to herself, selfish as it sounded; she felt that, as a friend, she had neglected Ryou as a whole, and when he came home that was all going to change, she had promised herself.

"Uhm, no, Duke's not around."

"He's right there!"

"Shut up Monica! That's not him."

"Yes it is, Bethany!"

"Hmph."

"…" Tea started to walk to a different part of the bus. "Anyway, how's it going?"

"Pretty good…" More creaking noises. "Uh… geez, out of milk again. Mom never remembers…"

So his mom was alive. "How come you're coming back so early? I thought you weren't due to come back for a couple of weeks."

"Uh, well… I kinda got dumped."

Tea nearly dropped the phone right then. "Pardon?" she said, maybe a bit too eagerly sounding. The girls behind her exploded into fits of giddy, high-pitched laughter. Preps, she thought angrily. Spreading their hot air.

"Yeah… my girlfriend was kind of disturbed by my mom. Oh, that's the thing! I needed to tell Bakura that my mom is going to be living with me now for awhile. My family is officially moving to Japan. My mom's tired of England and all of that stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Uh, I dunno, it just sounded cool to say. Anyway, please don't say anything to Bakura. Do you mind if I call you later? He will be at school today, right? He hasn't been skipping? He called me the other day, but… eh… one of us dropped the phone. Forget which of us did, but, yeah… Pretty silly, huh?"

Tea was smiling. "Oh… That stinks. I hate it when I drop my phone. So, you're concerned about Bakura being around your mom, huh?"

"Well, he actually likes my family well enough… before Amane's accident, he was absolutely nuts about her. He kept raving about how she was a lot like this cousin he used to have or something, before she got sold to some wandering sheik for two emeralds."

Tea sweat dropped. "Wow… I didn't know Bakura had a family."

"Maybe he'll tell you about them one day," Ryou said cheerfully. "Amane's death hit Bakura almost half as much as it hit me."

"Were you close?"

"Huh… oh. Oh yeah!" Tea was wondering whether Ryou was doing that cute, space-out blinking thing, where he brought himself back down to Earth. "Sorry, Tea, I'm kind of spaced." Bingo. "I can barely hear you… are you on the bus?"

"It is that time of day, you know."

"…"

"…Ryou?"

"…Did you say time of day, or time of month? Because, you know," Ryou sounded slightly panicked, "if it was the latter than I'm really sorry for bugging you—"

"Time of DAY!" Tea snorted. It seemed somebody had struck fear into the heart of little Ryou. "So, I guess you're coming home is really important, huh? Bakura will be thrilled. He hasn't really said it, but everybody can tell that he really misses you. N act, he made this friend—"

"Bakura made a friend!" There was a loud thumping noise. Tea giggled, knowing that Ryou had run into something.

"Maybe you should get some sleep, Ryou?"

"Aw, it's only like… what… 2 in the morning? Uhm… Yeah. 2:14." Tea expected Ryou to ask her what time it was, but he didn't. He knew his time zones. "So, uh… I was wondering…"

"Yeah?"

"I was going to ask Yugi this, but do you think I should tell Bakura that my mom is moving in with us when I get there or over the phone?"

"How does he usually react when you tell him things that have a major effect on him?" Tea's professional-sounding response surprised herself.

"Uhm… Well, he's usually—hey, milk! Hold on." Tea heard Ryou set the phone down, her a fridge slam, and heard a loud pouring sound. "Okay. Back. He usually gets really mad. If somebody he hates is around, he makes an even bigger show of being mad to show off."

"Well, this new guy has him acting like a normal human being… a rebellious, juvenile delinquent, if-you-don't-stop-staring-at-me-then-I'll-slice-you-open glare of death bearing human being."

"…Pardon, could you repeat that?"

"When are you coming home?" Tea didn't bother repeating it, since it was too loud where she was standing. She was nearing Sozoji's area. That stupid upperclassmen always had his stereo pumping so loud that the only people that could stand to be around there were the deaf oldies who hopped from bus to bus, getting off to window-shop for an adorable sweater to give to their grandchildren for their bar mitzvah. O.o; Grandparents were weird.

"…Tomorrow."

Tea dropped her phone. She picked it up and quickly dialed back. "Hello?" she said breathlessly.

"Tea?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I dropped my phone. Did you say that you were coming back tomorrow? Are you sure you don't want to tell Bakura?"

" Nah, it'll be fun to spring it on him. I'm not bringing my mom home tomorrow, I'm just bringing some of my mom's stuff. I have to go back this Saturday and bring her back with me."

"Why not just let her fly herself?"

"She's… uhm… not really in fine fettle, Tea."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

There was silence for a bit.

"…So how have you been?" Ryou asked cheerfully. Tea had to cover the mouthpiece so he couldn't hear her giggle. His accent seemed to be giggle-inducing.

"I'm fine…"