Disclaimer- I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the characters, although Rhona is the character I made up, as my anime counterpart, lol!

Okay, well, I don't have any more Exams until this Thursday, gawd help me when Thursday comes, Graph Comm. exams all morning then after Lunch I have my Computing Exams, gawd, I'm going to die, I just know it…

Thanks to all who have reviewed by the way- Especially kalimoto- You made me so happy with your review, lol!

Anyways, I thought I might as well update this while I have the time, so well, here ya go basically, lol, please read and review thank you!

"Hey, the bell's about to ring, Lunch's over," Tea called, "You guys better come down now!"

For the past hour, Yugi, Tea and Bakura had been taking in the sun's raise, resting peacefully before their following lessons started, Jou and Tristan had been sitting up the tree, challenging each other to do death-defying stunts, including jumping from the top branch and grabbing the one a metre down without killing yourself in the process, while Marik and Rhona had their first proper conversation, the pair had always either been too busy or too shy to chat before.

Suddenly, two blurred figures pounced down at light speed, thudding against the ground loudly, yet surprisingly the pair had both landed in graceful positions.

"Wow, that was real impressive Jou, Tristan. How'd you guys learn to do that?" Rhona questioned in disbelief, after watching the pair leap nimbly, in complete awe of their skills.

"Well, let's just say it takes practice," Jou winked, as he gave a side grin to his life-long friend who was standing beside him, nodding in agreement.

Just at that moment, as Tea had predicted would happen, the bell rang out loudly, Lunch was over, and class was beginning.

"Time for French I guess…" Joey groaned, obviously French was definitely not one of his favourite subjects, "Well at least I can chat to ya Marik, right?"

"Sure thing," Marik smiled kindly as he nodded in gentle agreement.

"Come on Yugi, History time!" Tea grabbed the tri-colour haired boy by the hand, leading him towards the History Department within the main school building, Yugi hadn't been given a chance to reply as he was too busy blushing.

"I guess I've got no choice… It's Chemistry time…" Rhona sighed heavily, "I failed my Standard Grade Chemistry, yet I still must suffer another two bloody years of hell…"

Bakura chuckled lightly, "I hope it's not truly that bad, is it?"

Rhona sweat dropped, "I won't dignify that wit a response…" she groaned, "Later!" she waved as she walked off in the opposite direction of the remaining pair.

"Well I guess it's just us then," Bakura said with his strong English accent, an accent that could charm even a King!

Tristan nodded and grinned, "Yup! Let's go, man."

VV-French Class-VV

Joey and Marik slowly entered the classroom, both a little bummed at the idea of having to actually do work in this class, but then again, the Teacher was actually quite nice, as she saw it, if you did the work you could talk as much as you want!

The two handsome blondes took their usual seats up near the back of the classroom, Marik beside the window, Jou beside him.

Marik sighed heavily as he slumped down on his seat, "I wish lunchtime was longer…"

Jou rapidly broke into a wide grin, as he glanced at the tanned boy beside him, "So ya could spend longer talkin' ta Rhona, eh?"

Marik widened his eyes in surprise and slight shock, as his cheeks glowed crimson, "No! I don't know what you're talking about…" he nervously glanced out the window.

"Uh-huh…" Jou rolled his eyes, "So anyway, what did you guys talk about anyway?"

Marik paused, waiting until he was sure his face had returned to his natural colour before he turned back around to face the other boy, "Oh, just stuff, I was most interested in seeing why she's such good friends with a man like Kaiba."

Jou's ears instantly perked up at the word 'Kaiba', "Oh, what'd she say?"

"Well, she was telling me how she knew there was a little goodness in him, and that all he needed was someone to open it up for him, and release it, she believes that he truly is a kind, and nice guy, but I'm not so sure…." Marik slowly shook his head, not really agreeing with the idea that Seto Kaiba, King of Mean and Nastiness, was actually a genuine guy.

Jou knew what Rhona had said was right, Kaiba may have seemed mean and cruel on the outside, but he did truly love his little brother, and he would help someone when he knew it was the right thing to do, He's alright… I don't know why so many people hate him, I know he's really annoying, arrogant, full of himself, rude – Well anyway, he's not that bad, I think people should leave Seto- Oh wait, I'm calling him Seto now? What the hell are you thinking? Ya blonde idiot!

"Um… Well, I tink everyone deserves a second chance," Jou replied, pulling himself away from his disastrous thoughts, "I mean you started out bad, your Yami tried ta kill all my friends! And he even sent Mai to the shadow realm! But we all understood it wasn't you doing any of dat, so we gave you a second chance, do ya see?"

"I know, and I'm thankful for that, but I still don't think it's the same, Kaiba doesn't have a evil counterpart trying to steal his body away from him and rule the world, he just has himself, it's all him, nobody else is making him act the way he does, it's all him…" Marik concluded, folding his arms across her chest after gracefully brushing his hand through his lovely platinum blonde hair.

"Hmmm…." Was all Jou responded with, not really wanting to get into an argument over the matter, he knew Kaiba couldn't have been so horrible all his life, there must have been a reason to why he grew so cold and distant, he just needed to find out why or who did it.

"Class, I hope that you'll have all completed Pages 24, 25, 26 and 27 by the end of the period!" the Teacher commented, eyeing each student suspiciously before sitting down and typing away on her personal laptop.

"Uh… Dis is a total waste of ma time!" Jou groaned angrily, not bothered about doing the assigned work, "I could be trainin' wit my cards! Coming up wit new strategies! Learning new stuff! But no! I'm here learning a language I'll probably neva use!"

"Well, if you hate school that much, why don't you just skive off?" Marik suggested in an innocent tone, blinking curiously.

Suddenly, images of home flashed in Jou's head, his father, the alcohol… the pain…

He inwardly winced at the distressing images which were currently troubling him, he had no choice in the matter, he had to go to school, he needed to get grades, grades that would help him get a job, a job which would pay him enough money to move away, far away from his father and remain safe and happy for the rest of his life.

Also, school was a sort of refuge for the broken boy, at school his father couldn't get him; at school he was actually safe…

Marik frowned in concern when Jou gave no reply for a while, he saw the boy's hesitation in his eyes, he even saw a hint of sadness and pain too, he then realised he shouldn't have said what he had just said, "…Jou, I-"

"Um, well ya see, I couldn't skive off school, 'cause um, ma dad would go mental, yeah, ya know how parents hate it when ya skive, eh?" Jou skilfully lied, as he flashed one of his typical Jou-grins of his, and although Marik gave in and bought Jou's lie, he could still sense an aura of anger and sadness around the other boy.

"Yeah, Ishizu forces me to go to school, even though I don't need too, I never went to school ever before, but now she thinks it's a good way for me to 'socialise' with the others at school," Marik twisted his finger in a 'o' shape as if rolling the suggestion away.

"Well, it is Marik," Jou nodded softly as he smiled lightly, "Ya neva got the chance ta go to school when ya were younger 'cause of your duty as Tomb keeper, but now you're gettin' a chance in life, aren't cha?" he paused, "Since bein' at school you've made loadsa friends, including some quite close friends like Rhona and Bakura."

Marik blinked his cute lavender eyes in surprise, realising that Jou was actually quite right in his assessment; he nodded gradually smiling in defeat, "Yeah… You're right I guess…"

"Marik! Jounouchi! I don't see a single WORD on either of your jotters! If you don't get started on your work right NOW! I'll give you detention for a week!" the Teacher suddenly screamed, surprisingly the two chattering boy.

When the Teacher was quite done, she stalked back off down to her desk, glancing over her shoulder angrily at the sweat dropping blondes.

"Yeah, and I'll send you to the shadow realm witch," Marik mumbled, causing Jou to chuckle in amusement before the pair started on their work for the day.