Now, What's Wrong With This Picture?
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I never did own Yu-Gi-Oh. I am not making any profit off of this story, therefore you cannot sue me. And if you do… well, I guess I'll just see you in court then.
D/N: Hmm… yes, I did take a while to update, didn't I? Well, that's only because my brother had to reformat my computer, and then the internet pretty much self-destructed. But I'm back, baby! And better than ever! Oh yeah! So, just read on and enjoy! Remember, if you guys have any questions, like, say… you have no idea what's going on, feel free to ask me to clarify or something in a review.
And The People Talk:
Precious Tears: :( I know. I shouldn't be tormenting Joey like this. But… I just want to for some reason :D
Cheesebot: :O How come?
Beast Wars: :D Thanks! Here's your update!
BoxerBitch: You and your boyfriend broke up? Sorry about that, but it was probably because he smelled like cheese or something. Ah, well. Boys take up too much time nowadays, anyway. And you can't steal Joey's boxers! I've taken them all and left none for you! BWUAHHAHAHAHAHAH! … And none for him either, as a result. So I'll buy him some more. … AND THEN STEAL THEM TOO! Let me know about the thing your friend said about Kaiba, and I'm sorry it's a bit confusing right now, but you might get the hang of it later. :D
Lady-Azura: Glad you like it so far, and I hope you like this one, too!
Sakurelle: :P I actually made myself laugh once or twice. And I'm glad you found it so funny. I hope it's because you understood what was going on so far. Enjoy the chappie!
Pairings: Joey/Mai, whoever else I think of in the sidelines.
P.O.V: Third Person
Summary: It's Valentine's Day, and Joey's got his eyes set on Mai. Unfortunately, she's completely out of his league, and Joey will never be able to convince that diva prom queen to consent to a last minute date. Besides, she's probably already got twenty other guys lined up. But Joey doesn't quit easily, and although he's only got one day, he's stuck trying over and over. And until he can figure out a way to get out of this strange time loop, he'll be trying till the end of eternity.
Legend:
OooOOOooO - section break/new scene
- - - - - The next/same day, depending on your P.O.V
blah de blah be blah - thinking/responses over the phone/radio, use your thinker to tell them apart
OooOOOooO"Shut up?" Kaiba gasped out, laughing loudly and calling the attention of the entire class to him. "That's all you can come up with? God, Wheeler! In the years I have known you, I have always realised that you were an imbecile with a very limited grasp of any language. But even for you, that has set a new level of idiocy! Congratulations, Wheeler. You have just proved to this entire school that you are, in fact, the most pathetic excuse for a person here. At least try and make your comebacks a full sentence. But that might be asking too much."
Joey heard the soft laughter around him, as he blinked at Kaiba. Finally, he turned around, facing Yugi and Tristan once more.
"Ouch." Tristan shook his head. "That must've really hurt."
"You see? This is why I keep trying to tell you to just ignore him!" Yugi said. "This wouldn't have happened if you just ignored him!"
"I don't get it…" Joey mumbled to himself. "He said it yesterday. I said exactly what I said before. What happened?"
"Joey, really, you gotta lay off of the whole 'the day repeated itself' thing." Tristan told him. "Or else you're going to keep getting burned like that for the rest of your life."
"That," Duke said, as he made his way over from the crowd of girls formerly surrounding him, "Or you'll get locked up in an asylum. You alright, Joey? You want me to beat him up for you?"
"No." Joey grumped. "Where's Mai? She didn't see that, did she?"
Yugi looked around the class. "No, she's not here yet."
"Yeah, but you can be sure her friends are going to tell her." Tristan informed him. "You thought she burned you yesterday? It's going to be even worse when she finds out your butt got mega-whooped by that prick."
"And of course, Kaiba's never going to let you live this down." Duke said. "At least, not for a while. You've got some serious problems to fix, Joey."
"Don't I know it…" Joey sighed, looking at the door just as it opened. "Alright guys, she's here. Tristan, go ask her if she's got a date or something for today yet."
"What?" Tristan blinked. "Why?"
"Because I said so!" Joey snapped. "Now do it!"
"You really think she doesn't have a date yet?" Duke asked, raising an eyebrow. "While I can guarantee you that it's technically not official, and that if you ask her right now she's going to say she doesn't have anything planned, might I remind you that she's going with Josh? Like she did last year and the year before that? Face it, Joey. You're spending another V-Day dateless and Mai-less."
"Tristan, go!" Joey urged, giving his friend a little push towards the young woman across the room.
"Yeah, yeah." Tristan grunted, getting up reluctantly. "You know, Duke was sitting right there."
As he went out of earshot, Joey hurriedly whispered to Duke and Yugi, "Okay, here's another thing of proof. Tristan's gonna wind up walking around in circles around Mai and her friends, okay? Then he's gonna come back and say that she said that if I wanted to know so much, that I should ask her myself. Just watch."
So the trio sat and stared like blank-faced monkeys at Tristan who had begun to talk to her.
"You know," Duke said, still looking at them, "She's gonna think we're freaks for staring at her like this."
"Yup." Yugi agreed.
"Just shut up and watch." Joey snapped. As they sat stock-still, Mai eventually turned to look at them. She laughed seemingly nervously, as she waved slightly. Joey then took this opportunity to slide under his desk, suddenly realising the significance behind Duke's words. He did not need to look like a freak in front of Mai - day repeating, or no day repeating. Major trashing by Kaiba or no major trashing by Kaiba.
"Smooth." Duke nodded. He waved at Mai. "At least now she knows you're spineless."
"Yeah. You shouldn't have much trouble getting a date with her now." Yugi added.
"Shut up, and just watch Tristan! He's going to start walking around them in circles soon!" Joey said from under his desk, irritated that he had chickened out. Hiding under his desk was a much better idea than sitting in his chair and looking away.
"I'm watching, I'm watching..." Duke replied. He looked under the desk at Joey. "Hey, is he supposed to start walking around them before or after he comes back?"
"What are you talking about?" Joey asked, getting out from under his desk enough to rest a shoulder on his chair. "He'll just start... walking... Tristan, did you walk around Mai and her friends before you got here?"
Tristan, who had just returned, blinked in surprise. "Walk around them? Why? What for?"
"I told you guys - The depression of Mai rejecting him has gone to his head." Duke said. "It's okay, Joey. It happens to everyone. I remember this really hot chick I liked saying 'no' to me when I first asked her out."
"Really?" Joey raised an eyebrow.
"Well, no. I mean, come on!" Duke grinned, flashing his 'pearly whites.' "Who can resist my charm?"
"Yeah, you're not helping." Joey growled, as he turned his attention to Tristan. "Well? What'd she say?"
"She said she wanted to know if you hurt yourself or something." Tristan briefed. "And I asked her if she was too mad with you to go out with you tonight-"
"What?" Joey cried. "What'd you ask her that for?"
Tristan shrugged. "I just did. But whatever. I asked her if she was mad at you, and she asked me why she would be. So I reminded her of the fight you guys had yesterday, and it turns out that you never asked her in the first place."
"Of course I asked her. But I asked her yesterday. And technically, yesterday is... well... today! Because the day repeated itself!" Joey tried to explain. "See, I asked her after school yesterday, and that's when we got into the fight. So, technically I haven't asked her yet. But I did. It just never happened because the day repeated itself."
"It sounds like your repeating yourself." Duke rolled his eyes. "And you keep repeating this lame story about how the day repeated itself. Joey, man, drop it. It was funny at first, but now it's getting tiresome."
"Yeah, Joey." Yugi slowly nodded. "Maybe you just had a... really vivid dream. So it's like the day repeated."
"A premonition." Tristan said.
Joey growled, finally getting off the floor and smacking his face on his desk yet again. "I didn't dream it. It happened. And..." He thought for a moment. "I can prove it."
"Here we go again..." Tristan sighed, sitting in his chair.
"I hope it has nothing to do with Kaiba this time." Duke yawned, stretching his arms. "I mean, once is bad enough, but to do it twice is just kind of confirming the stupidity he's always talking about."
"No, no, no!" Joey shook his head. "Listen! Mrs. Takria is planning on asking us riddles today. She'll give us each a question to answer in 15 seconds. My question's answer is gonna be 'c'. Okay? Will you believe me then?"
"I'll believe it when I see it." Tristan replied, sitting in his desk.
A few seconds later, and the bell rung. Mrs. Takria entered, as a maddening dash was created in everyone's scurry to get to their seats. "Good morning, everyone!" She called out, merrily. "Today we'll be learning about the wonderful world of logic and puzzles! In other words, I'm going to give you each a riddle, and you're going to have to solve it in 15 seconds. Understood?"
Tristan, Duke, and Yugi looked at Joey with wide eyes, as he shot them all an immature look of, 'I told you so, you idiots!'
"Good. I'll go around the class, starting with Janet..." Mrs. Takria said, for the second time.
Joey began to tune her out once more. He already knew the answer, so why bother paying attention to that old, windbag? Besides, he had to figure out what was going on.
First thing first - what happened yesterday that he didn't want to happen again? Well, there was a pop quiz near the end of the day, so he could probably study during lunch. He didn't have a clue what any of the answers were last time, so he wasn't going to be left unprepared today. He missed his chance to ask Mai out before because he had waited to long, and if he had just asked her in the morning, he could've been dating her at night. So then, right after class, he'd ask her out and ride off into the distance with the woman of his dreams...
Bonus, too. Since the day repeated itself, she wasn't mad at him. She'd finally be able to say 'yes.' Now, really, the question was where to take her? Most places wouldn't be able to give him a reservation if he called three minutes beforehand. That was bound to cause some difficulties. Plus, it's not like he was oozing money. He was on a limited budget, and he really didn't want to say, "Gorge, sweetie! Oh, wait, spit it back up. I can't pay for it all." He supposed ordering for her was a possibility... but then again, an independent chick like Mai wouldn't appreciate that at all. Not unless, of course, he took her to some kind of... French restaurant where the menu was French and everyone spoke French and he ordered in French. That would earn some brownie points. Probably. But there was just one little problem with that scheme...
He'd have to learn to speak French.
No biggie... He knew some words, right? Boon-jur... Mercy... Sal-up... Oh Rev-auir... Or something along those lines anyway.
"Mr. Wheeler, are you going to answer the riddle or am I going to have to repeat it for the third time while you continue to gawk at Miss. Valentine?" Mrs. Takria's voice cut in.
"Not again..." Joey muttered to himself. The class burst out laughing, and he really didn't want to look at Mai. "I actually wasn't 'gawking' at her. I was day-dreaming, and she just happened to be in the way of my eyeballs."
"Mr. Wheeler, are you trying to be funny?" Mrs. Takria snapped.
"No, sir."
"Excuse me?"
"Ma'am."
"Mr. Wheeler, I suggest you go to the principal's office now and get off with a light punishment instead of saying something to make it worse." Mrs. Takria said, gesturing towards the door. "You have a reputation for doing that."
Joey's eyes widened slightly. "Go to the office? For what? I didn't do anything!"
"Disrespect counts, Mr. Wheeler." Mrs. Takria began tapping her foot. "And now you're getting into defiance. What else are you going to get yourself into?"
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tristan, Duke and a part of Yugi, all with expressions that were silently willing him to keep his mouth shut and leave without a fuss. He never did do anything people told him too...
"I didn't do anything wrong." Joey stubbornly replied.
Mrs. Takria's eyes narrowed in anger, as she said in a low voice, "Joseph Wheeler, this is your final chance to go to the office before I give you a week's detention for disrespect and defiance of authority."
Joey glared at her, as he finally realised there wasn't much us he could do at the moment. Getting up angrily, he walked past her and muttered under his breath, "I'll give you defiance, you shrivelled up, old hag."
... Actually, his words were far worse than those, but due to the current rating I must refraining from typing them. The reaction, however...
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!"
OooOOOooO"Detention for a month, Yugi. Plus a suspension." Joey growled, lying on his bed. "I just got back about ten minutes ago. And, because of that, I missed my chance with Mai! Again!"
"Joey, you brought it on yourself. You should know by now how sharp her hearing is." Yugi replied on the phone. "What did your mom say?"
"Not back yet." Joey sighed. "And Serenity left right after school to go out with Tristan, but I'm pretty sure he'll tell her all about it."
"Well... Then... I guess that's that." Yugi said. "But what about this whole 'the day repeated itself' thing? Do you think it'll happen again?"
"I... don't know." Joey told him, after a moment's pause. "... I don't. Maybe. Or maybe it was just some kind of... weird... freaky... law of physics defying... fluke. That's the best I can come up with right now."
"I hope so. Yami said this was pretty serious. He never heard of anyone in the same situation like this, but he thinks that if you have the day repeat enough... You might snap." Yugi paused for a moment, and slowly added, "... Or worse."
Joey was quiet for a few minutes, thinking to himself. "Yeah... But I think it was a one-time thing."
"Alright, if you say - Oh, great!" Yugi suddenly said, with a frustrated tone.
"What? What happened?" Joey asked, sitting up.
"It's grandpa... He just threw up all over the stairs... I have to go, Joey." Yugi sighed. "But let me know what's happened tomorrow."
"Uh... Sure." Joey said. "Oh, and Yugi?"
"Yes?"
"I was right! Gramps did get sick after all!"
"... Joey, you're sounding a bit too happy about that."
"I didn't mean it like that." Joey rolled his eyes. "Alright, whatever. I'll see you tomorrow then, okay?"
"Yup. Bye!" And with a click, Yugi was gone, leaving Joey alone to his thoughts.
Joey stared up at his ceiling for a few minutes, before getting changed and crawling into bed. It's not like there was anything else to do, and he was dying to get the day over and done with.
OooOOOooO"Come on, Cue," A small, winged cherub said. "Don't you think he's freaked out enough?"
"Yes. But he still hasn't accomplished his task." Was the reply. "Besides, once more won't hurt."
- - - - -
OooOOOooO
OOOOO
OOOOO
D/N: Wow... how long did that take? Ehehehe... sorry. But here's the chapter, and I hope you enjoyed. The next one will be out... shortly. Right now, I'm gotta finish that O.D.a.M chapter! GAH! Damn you, writer's block!