A/N: Greetings loyal readers. Just two quick announcements, (1) I've got a job interview coming up, and if all is successful, my update schedule will change. Probably not drastically, but it will change, just thought I'd let y'all know. (2) I've got some more fics coming up, such as Test of Friendship and Yu-gi-oh! Does Texas Hold 'em, and I would appreciate it if you give 'em a read. Oh yeah, Angry People will FINALLY BE UPDATED, as a matter of fact it should be updated by the time I'm finished here. Well…now for the thank-yous:

The Broken Bow: Yup, Yugi shouldn't have been snooping around in Tea's apartment, but you know how some people become irrational when love is an issue….anyway, thanks for reading!

Anime Ruthless: I have recovered from LSU's embarrassing first-round exit in the NCAA tournament, so thanks there. I wonder how messed up everyone's bracket is… The women are looking primed for a run to the final four, maybe more. William & Mary is a pretty good D-I school, I think that their football team made it to the I-AA National Semifinal, if I'm not mistaken. In any event, thanks for reviewing. (Yo...Nova gave UNC all they could handle, without one of their best players, they have nothing to be ashamed of.)

Telecoi: Hmm….I'm still deciding what to do with Tea as far as her, Yugi, and Bakura go. This could take a while…..thanks for reviewing.

Rose Goddess 874: Love triangles…crazy messes, aren't they. One of them will be cleared up soon enough, I won't say which one, you'll have to wait and see! HAHAHA!…..er…thanks for reading.

Shy and LeighC: Thanks for the review…and good luck with your updates, take your time.

ML of the SS Merry Go: Thanks for the review, and don't worry, Pegasus will get his eventually!

Well, that's it for the mailbox…on with the chapter!

By the way, the next two chapters arededicated to Anime Ruthless and The Broken Bow. You two have been with me since the beginning, and I appreciate it more than you guys probably know. Thanks a bunch!

Chapter 17: A Day in the Life of Yugi Mutou, Part I

The Saints are in front of a rather smallish crowd of 2,000 tonight for their home opener here, and most of them have already left. They are ripping apart the Tribe of William and Mary, 76-53 with 10:44 left to play in the game and its been the Duke Devlin Show here in the Domino Dome. He has 20 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists…

Yugi hadn't been himself for nearly two weeks now. He hadn't eaten a full meal for almost a week, and his basketball game had dimished to almost nothing. Coach Colby noticed this, and pulled the sophomore out of the starting lineup.

"Ok...Justin, Timmy, Mako, Bakura, Yugi...all of you get ready. You're going in the next time-out." Tristan called out after Nathan gave him the signal to send them in.

Justin and Timmy, who hardly ever got any playing time, high-fived each other as they heard the news. Mako and Bakura seemed pleased enough, though not as excited as their teammates. Yugi...he just seemed...well, blank.

Duke Devlin, Seto Kaiba and the rest of the starters are leaving the game now, and Coach Colby has decided to put in most of his bench. This crowd is really letting this team know how much they have appreciated this effort. OK...William & Mary inbounds the ball...Bell inbounds the ball to Sapp, Sapp dribbing on the left wing, looking for Tolliver under the basket, Tolliver goes up and...is slammed to the floor! Yugi just grabbed him after he went up and slammed him down to the floor, and Sapp gets in his face. The officals are breaking this up, and its almost certain they'll give Yugi an intentional foul...maybe even a technical foul.I don't understand it. Yugi just grabs Tolliver and slams him to the floor! I've never seen him act this way, he's always been a model student-athlete, and this is just a damn shame.

Yugi sulked over to the bench just as quickly as he had left it, and the look on his face would have made Seto Kaiba look like a choir boy. Yami tried to talk to him, but was immediately stopped by Nathan, who by now had taken the seat next to Yugi.

"Somethin' you want to talk about, Yugi?"

Yugi did not reply, instead he gazed into the stands, as if he was looking for someone.

"Are you mentally OK? Is there something going on?"

Again, Yugi did not reply. He sat there and watched as the game entered the final minutes.

Bakura throws the ball to a wide open Mako Tsunami for a two-handed throwdown! I give a lotta credit to these crazy kids sitting in the student section, I think they're all still here! Anyway, Tolliver throws the ball the length of the court, an air ball, and that's the end of the game. Domino City handles William and Mary 89-76 for their second win of the season. Domino has upped its mark to 2-3, William and Mary falls to 1-5 on the season. We'll be back with the postgame show after this update...

As Nathan entered the team's locker room, he had a beaming smile on his face. His happiness was evident in the way he addressed his players.

"Great job! Every last one of you. Yami! Where is he? Nice ball handling today. You showed leadership today, son! Kaiba...good stuff out of you as always, great job man. And Duke? You keep playing like that, they'll name this gym after you!"

Duke mumbled something about a part of the student section already being named for him, which drew some laughs from everyone, save Yugi and Seto Kaiba.

"The backups, I'm proud of you all too. The trainer staff, Tristan, all y'all too. Now get the heck out of here, go celebrate this win, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday so we can get ready for Navy!"

After a quick meeting with some press that had come in after he had addressed the team, Nathan allowed everybody to leave, except for one tri-haired boy.

"Yugi...what is going on? You've been like this for two weeks now...I'm starting to get worried." The boy refused to speak, and looked up at his coach with a sad, pleading face.

"Yugi...with the way you've been acting, and what happened tonight...I've decided to suspend you, indefinitely. Clear out your locker, and don't come to practice until I say otherwise."

With that, Nathan left Yugi on his own.

As Yugi cleared out his locker, he saw a group of photographs that he had put up on the locker wall. Most of them were of himself, his brother Yami, and his friend Joey. One picture he did see caused tears to well up in his eyes. It was a picture of his girlfriend Tea, posing playfully on the beach.

She always had potential to be a model...

Yugi felt something inside of him, a fierce anger. Tearing the picture off the wall, he proceded to rip it to shreds, sobbing hysterically at the same time.

No one was there to comfort him.

Meanwhile...

Domino Student Union

Most of the basketball team sat at their own table, eating their team meal with a great deal of joy. Tristan and Nathan, along with some of the trainers, sat at a seperate table.

"Hey..anybody seen Yug?" Joey asked, looking for his best friend.

"Nope. Anybody else see him?" Malik put in, as confused as Joey.

Everyone down the row shook their heads, including Yami.

"Hey moneybags, you seen Yugi around?"

"The last time I saw the kid was in the locker room after the game." Kaiba returned his attention to the steak that he was eating, and everyone pondered on where little Yugi was.

At their table, Tristan and Nathan overheard this fuss as they ate.

"When are you going to tell them, Nathan?" Tristan looked into his boss's eyes, wanting the truth.

"Next practice. You take the night off...I'm going to look at some game film." Nathan excused himself from the table, leaving his players to continue their celebration.

Just a brief author's note, the next scene contains alcohol use, strong lanugage, and an extremely out-of-character Yugi! Readers beware...

Meanwhile

Yugi and Yami's appartment...

Yugi usually didn't drink alcohol. He never saw a reason for it. He was the straight-A student. Always quiet, always humble. A good little boy like himself should never get caught up in this sort of thing. Yugi knew what he was doing was wrong, but as he drank yet another shot of Jack Daniels, he felt a certain comfort.

It just seems like everyone has turned their damn back on me. Grandpa...Tea...Coach Colby...even that excuse of a friend Joey. No one saw what I was going through...nobody gave a fucking second thought. Especially Tea...thatungrateful slut.

Yugi drank another shot, and continued to ramble on about how everyone was betraying him. He knew he was lying to himself, but the lie was the only thing that could comfort him right now.

Meanwhile...

The Domino News...

Nathan walked into the sportswriter's office. He was just following a hunch, but he had to make sure. Even though, for all intents and purposes, he had kicked Yugi off of his team, he wanted to see whether or not something more was going on.

"Hello...is Tea Gardener here?"

Poor Yugi...what will become of him, and why exactly his he so depressed? Does Bakura have something to do with it...or is someone else tormenting the boy? Find out next time!

Before I go, here are MY Final Four pics...Illinois over Louisville, North Carolina over Mich. State, and I like the Illini to take the title. Original, no. Likely, yes. And another thing...If you like this fic, be sure to check out some of my other works. Who knows...you just might like what you read! I'm done...see ya!

BigLos...out.