Title: Of Pain and Tears
Rating: T
Genre: Angst/Drama
Summary: When Ryou runs into a mysterious girl, is she all she seems to be or is there more than meets the eye?
Well, here we are in the fifth chapter of my first ever fanfic. Ah, the memories. The terrible summary, the lack of knowledge, and of course, my crappy writing skills. Well, it's pretty good considering that my life is nothing short of a living hell. I have been out of school for 6 weeks because I've been sick for 6 months and I have tried two different schools already. I have finally found one but now I have to come up with the money for the tuition. All the while I've been getting yelled at by my parents. Did I mention that when I saw the tuition amount I almost fell over? ((o))((o) Oh, what a wonderful life I have. Not. But anyway, you didn't want to hear about my life you wanted to read my new chapter, so here it is. (Also, I am skipping right past Sunday because I am too impatient to tell the story day to day. Please don't hurt me!)(A/N: We are going to assume that Bakura and Liz went back to his apartment for the night.)
Bakura: Black.Thorns.and.White.Tears doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters. She only owns the broken heart diary she writes in.
Ryou: I think we should cheer her up.
Liz: The only thing that would cheer her up is more people reading her story. So READ PEOPLE, READ::gives death glares:
Ryou: What she meant to say was enjoy the story and thank you to all the nice people who reviewed it so far!
Liz: No I di-
Ryou::cuts Liz off: Of course you did. Now let's start the story.
/hikari to yami/
\yami to hikari\
thoughts, sound effects or writing
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#flashback#
Yugi-tachi- yugi and friends
Chapter 5: First Day of School
5:00 AM
Ryou slowly opened up his eyes and saw two big brown eyes staring into his. It startled him a bit and he sat up in bed. Kina was standing next to his bed, fully dressed in her school uniform, with all her books, holding out a tray with waffles topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream. "I made you breakfast!" she told him. As if it wasn't totally obvious to him already. "Um, thanks." he said with a yawn. "You do know that we don't have to leave for 2 and a half hours, right?" he asked her. "Yeah, I just don't want to be late for my first day. I've already read my textbooks twice, and practiced most of chapters one, two and three in Algebra I. I also made your breakfast and lunch, and I finished cleaning up the rest of the house." she said with an enthusiastic smile on her face. She looked just like a child who had opened up their presents on Christmas morning. Ryou liked to see her happy, but she seemed tired at the same time.
"Wow, you really take school seriously. And thank you for making me breakfast and lunch and for cleaning up. But you didn't have to. I would prefer you having enough sleep. When did you get up anyway?" he asked her, as he finished his waffles. "Oh I was up long before the sun came up. Two-ish I think. I was tired of staring at the ceiling." Kina replied. "I don't mean to be rude, but I think you should start sleeping in a little bit later. You will be too tired in school." "I understand." she said as she took the plate back into the kitchen, and put it in the dishwasher.
Well, I might as well get up. She is teaching me good habits; I'm usually running out the door at the last minute. But she really should try to sleep more. It's probably because she sleeps on the floor. That can't possibly be comfortable. No wonder she couldn't sleep. He got out of bed and started making it. He saw his uniform hanging on the closet doorknob and went over to get it. Ryou took a shower, changed into his school clothes, and went into the living room. He got some of his books out of his schoolbag. Oh No! I forgot to make my ethnic food dish for home-economics class! I'm going to fail the course!
Ryou ran to the kitchen and saw a dish sitting on the counter. "What is this?" he asked to nobody in particular, looking at it with great curiosity. "Oh, that." Kina said, coming around the corner. "I saw your report when one of the books slid out of your schoolbag. It said you had to make the dish and bring it in today. I saw you hadn't made your tacos from Mexico, so I made them for you. I used a meat substitute instead of beef because you are a vegetarian." "Thank you so much! You totally saved my project! What can I do for you?" he asked, astounded she had done this for him. "Well, you can answer my question." she said.
Ryou looked at her curiously. "What is it?" he asked her. "Well, do you think your teacher would mind if I brought something in too?" "Um, I don't think so. Why? Did you make something?" "Yeah." Kina said, turning towards the refrigerator. She opened it and pulled out a tray covered with foil. She took the cover off and it revealed at least 100 assorted pieces of sushi. She set it on the counter and looked at Ryou's shocked expression. "I made cucumber rolls, carrot rolls, avocado rolls, California rolls, and dragon rolls. I also put some wasabi and ginger on the side. I made 20 of each so there is enough for everybody. I even did a short report on it and how it plays a roll in the culture of Japan." Kina explained, speaking with a slight accent.
"Where did you get the ingredients?" Ryou asked, still shocked that she had managed to pull this off. "Oh, I went to the grocery store early." She looked really excited about her first school project. "I'll put everything back in the refrigerator, so it will be ready to go when we leave." she said. "Ok then, I'm going to go get ready for school." Ryou said as he walked out of the kitchen. He put his books back into his schoolbag and set it on the chair. Then he went into the bathroom and washed his face, dried his hair and brushed his teeth before heading back to the living room.
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7:30 AM
Kina and Ryou walked down the sidewalk towards the school carrying their books and their food for class. They approached the school building and sat down by the big oak tree out in front of the school, waiting for the bell to ring. A couple of minutes passed and then Yugi-tachi walked up to them. "Hey you guys!" Ryou called out to them. "Hey Ryou!" Yugi called back. The rest of the gang (Yugi, Yami, Tea, Tristan, Joey, Malik, and Duke) stood next to them and starting chatting.
"Hey Ryou, who is your friend?" Joey asked him. "Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me. This is my friend Kina. She is a new student here. This is her first day. Kina, these are my friends Yugi, Yami, Tea, Tristan, Joey, Malik, and Duke." he said as he introduced them. "Hi, nice to met you." Kina greeted them. "Nice to meet you too Kina." Yugi said. Joey looked over at her and asked, "So you're new here huh? What school did you come from?"
She lowered her eyes to the ground at the question. "Umm..." Ryou noticed she wasn't sure how to answer the question, and stepped in. "Hey guys, could I talk to you alone for a second?" he asked. "Sure" they answered. When they were far enough out of earshot Joey was the first one to start asking questions. "Hey, why won't she tell us where she's from? Is she hiding something?" "No Joey. She's probably just worried about what you'll think of her." Ryou answered.
"Why would she be worried about what we'll think of her?" Tea asked. "She's just getting used to living here, in a house no less. She didn't have a home before this weekend. I ran into her Friday coming home from the library. She needed somewhere to stay so I'm letting her stay at my place." Ryou said. "What about her parents?" Tristan questioned.
"She hasn't seen them for a long time. She said she used to live with her dad when she was little but I guess she hasn't seen him for a long time. She didn't mention anything about her mom. Since she is staying with me, I decided to enroll her in school. She hasn't really been to school to before. She was pretty excited about going this morning. She was up at 2 AM reading her textbooks, then she made both of our home-economics projects. She is going to wear herself out if she doesn't start getting enough sleep." Ryou explained.
Everyone looked shocked hearing this, especially Duke. He looked over at Kina. She was sitting by the tree, reading one of her books. No way. It can't be... "I am very curious as to where she came from, since when she was talking to me this morning, she had a slight accent. Sometimes she mixes up her words. I don't think she speaks English very well." he continued. RIIIIIIINNNGGGGGGG!
"There's the bell, we'd better get to class." Ryou walked over to Kina and they gathered up their stuff and headed to their first class, Home Economics. They walked into the room and took their seats. "I hope everyone remembered their projects." the teacher said. "Um, hi. I'm a new student and I also brought a project for today. I hope you don't mind." Kina said. "New student huh? Oh here we are! Kina? Well let's see what you have."
Kina set her project down and uncovered it. "Oh my! Did you make this yourself?" the teacher asked. Kina nodded her head yes. "I have a report on it too." She held it out for the teacher to see. "Ok then Kina. Set your project on the table in the back next to the others, and take a seat next to Ryou. My name is Mrs. Berlin if you have any questions." Kina walked to the back and put her project on the table next to Ryou's, and took her seat.
Home economics went by fast as the students got to sample different foods from other cultures. Many people comments on how different they were from each other. They hurried out the door when the bell rang. Ryou and Kina met up in the hallway and he took a look at her schedule. "Hmm, let's see. We both have Gym next. I'll show you where you are supposed to go." They walked down the hall towards the lockers rooms and Ryou saw Tea going the same way.
"Tea!" "Oh, hey. What's up? "she asked. "I was wondering if you could help Kina out with Gym class since we have separate locker rooms." he asked her. "Sure no problem. Come on Kina, we'll go meet the gym teacher and get changed." With that the girls walked down the stairs to the women's locker room as Ryou headed off in the opposite direction to meet up with Yugi, Yami, Joey and Tristan.(Malik and Duke had other classes)
Tea lead Kina down to the locker room where the gym teacher, Mrs. Sandry was standing. "Mrs. Sandry, this is our new student Kina." "Oh, hello there. Tea you run along and get changed, I'll take care of this. Hello Kina, welcome to gym class. Here is your gym uniform." She handed Kina a pair of navy blue sweat pants and a white T-shirt. "Get changed and go out that door over there to the gym." Kina took the clothes and went over to a cubicle to change. When she was done she went out to the gym.
She went over to Ryou and asked what they were going to do in gym class. "Well right now we are focusing on team sports." he said. "Ok everyone make two teams, we are going to play volleyball today." Mrs. Sandry called out. Naturally, Kina and Ryou were on the same team. I wonder what volleyball is... she thought to herself as she followed Ryou onto the court.
She watched the first person hit the ball and stared at it as it went back and forth across the net. A person on the other team hit it towards her, she watched as it came towards her and at the very last moment, she ducked and covered her head with her hands. The ball bounced off of her and rolled over to the corner. Ryou went over to get the volley ball then went over to Kina.
"It's ok, it's just a volleyball, it doesn't hurt." he said to her as she stood up. "So what am I supposed to do with it?" she asked him. She was totally clueless as to why people would want to hit this 'volleyball'. "Well, the object of the game is to hit it to the other side of the net. A person from the other team tries to hit it back. If they miss we get a point. If they hit it over the net, we have to hit it back, if we miss, they get a point." he explained. He used hand motions to show her how to hit the ball. "Oh, I get it now, I think." she said.
Ryou took his place in the corner and served the ball to the other team. One of the players on the other side hit it back over the net and Kina took a turn a hitting it. She hit it successfully back over the net to the other team. They missed and her team got a point. "Good job." Ryou told her. The game went pretty well after that. Kina and Ryou's team ended up winning by one point. (A/N:Sorry if the volleyball thing wasn't accurate. I'm really not that great of a player myself. The first time I played, I had huge bruises on my arms from hitting the ball. I lost too.TT)
Both teams went back into the locker rooms and changed, then came out into the hallway to go to 3rd period. Ryou and Kina met up and went to Algebra together. They shared this class with Yami, Tristan, Joey, Malik and Duke. She introduced herself to the teacher, Mr. Rome. (A/N: Don't mind the freakish names I give the teachers. I just made them up.) He told her to take the seat in the back, and try to keep up. He was aware she hadn't done any schoolwork previously and was worried she wouldn't be able to handle this.
"Okay people. I usually give out a work sheet to do but today I am only going to give you one problem." the teacher began. Sounds of happiness and cheers were heard throughout the room. Especially from Joey. He wasn't the biggest fan of math. "But this problem is very, very difficult. I usually give it to the seniors and most of them have yet to figure it out. If anyone gets it right, there will be no homework for the rest of the week." he explained. "Bring it on teach! I'll figure it out!" Joey shouted.
The teacher walked over to the board and pulled up the overhead projector screen. (A/N: You know one of those thingys that the teacher pulls down for the overhead projector. It's right above the board usually.) It uncovered a problem like no other. It covered almost half the board and it had symbols that the class had never even seen before. "Hey, that's no fair! This is hard!" Joey yelled. "Well, I wasn't going to make it so easy you could do it, Mr. Wheeler." the teacher told him, sitting back on his desk, twirling the chalk between his fingers.
Joey just sat back in his seat, mumbling to himself about how the teacher was evil. Meanwhile, Ryou's eyes went to Kina. He just had to pull the hardest problem of the year on us the day Kina came here. Wait a minute- He looked over at her and it almost looked like she was scanning the problem with her eyes. After a minute or so, she raised her hand.
"What is it Kina?" the teacher asked, almost seeming bored. "The answer is 6." she stated. All the students stared at her and Mr. Rome dropped his chalk. "What?" he asked. "I said the answer is 6." she stated again, shrinking back into her seat as the students continued staring at her. "Did I get it wrong?" she asked him. "No, that's right. But how did you figure it out? Did you have help?" he questioned her. Not believing that someone who has never been to school before could figure out something this complex. "Um, no." she answered. "Prove it." he told her.
"What?" She was confused as to what he wanted her to do. "Come up to the board and write out how you did it to prove you weren't cheating." he told her matter-of-factly. "Ok." She walked up to him, took the chalk from his hand, and began writing on the free half of the board. She had almost covered the entire thing when she stopped suddenly. "Did you get stuck?" the teacher asked, smirking at her.
"No, I ran out of chalk." she said. The smirk fell off his face and he absentmindedly handed her another piece from the box on his desk. She turned back to the board and finished up the last part of the problem and then walked back to her seat. Just as she got there, the bell rang. "Uh, no homework for the week." the teacher mumbled as the students walked past him. He was still shocked that Kina was able to figure it out.
Everyone went back to their lockers and got out their lunches. Yugi-tachi met Ryou at his locker and started asking him questions. "Hey Ryou, I thought you said she had never been to school before." Joey asked him. "She hasn't." he replied, not lifting his head out of his locker. "Then what was that stunt she pulled in math?" he asked. "Well, I guess she's really smart." Ryou said. "Yeah she is. I couldn't have figured that out." Joey continued. "Yeah we all knew you couldn't figure it out." Tristan said.
"Hey! Watch it!" Joey yelled. Yugi was staring at Kina as she came over to Ryou. "Hey Kina." he said to her. "Oh, hey Yugi." she replied. "We were going to have lunch outside; do you guys want to join us?" Ryou asked them. "Sure." they replied. They all walked outside and Kina and Ryou sat down under the tree. Joey, Tristan, Yugi and Tea sat at the table, Malik and Yami sat against the wall of the school and Duke sat on the front lawn.
They all opened their lunchboxes and started eating. Most of them just had a sandwich, a snack, and something to drink. Ryou opened his lunchbox and found a small container that contained a vegetable stir-fry, rice, and some noodles. (A/N: Think those little containers they have for lunch in Japan that have the rice and the little foods in them.) He also found a pair of chopsticks, a chocolate chip cookie and some hot green tea. He looked over at Kina and she was sitting there, eating nothing but a carrot. (A/N: Like those ones under the sprayer thingy at the grocery store. They have the green leafy thingys still attached.) She made me this wonderful lunch and she's sitting there eating a carrot. A carrot? She has to have more than that.
Everyone stopped eating and stared at Ryou's lunch. "What?" he asked them as he noticed them staring. "What's with packing the fancy lunch Ryou? You usually just have PB&J." Malik asked him. "Oh, I didn't make this. Kina did." he replied. Everyone turned their stares towards her. She saw them staring and gave them a 'why are you looking at me for? Did I do something wrong?' look.
"Wow. You're a great cook Kina." Yami commented. "Thanks" she replied and then went back to eating her carrot. Ryou walked over to her and sat down next to her. "Do you want part of my lunch?" he asked her. "No thanks." she replied as she began to eat the leaves. He gave her a quizzical look. "So, you're just going to sit there and eat a carrot while I eat the lunch you obviously worked hard to make me?" he asked. She nodded her head yes, not bothering to look up as she finished her carrot. "I hope you like it." she said as she walked off towards Duke.
Ryou just stared after her, and then continued eating his lunch. Kina walked over to Duke and sat down next to him. "Hi" she said. He looked up from his lunch and saw her sitting there. "Hey Kina. You finished your lunch already?" he asked. "Yeah. I had a carrot" she replied. "You should have more than that you know." he told her. "I'm fine." she assured him.
"How have you been?" he asked her. "Well, um, ok I guess." she said. "What about you?" she asked. "I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about." he replied. "Don't worry, I'm fine. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to make Ryou lunch." she said. They both turned their heads towards Ryou who was having trouble figuring out how to use chopsticks. She laughed a little bit at his attempt to try and hold them. Duke looked at her and warned her. "You need to be careful; he's going to figure it out."
"Don't worry about it. He won't figure it out." she said to him. "You can't just shake like this off like it's nothing. Besides, he noticed your accent this morning." he told her. "Ok, ok, I'll be careful, I promise." she told him. Over at the table, the others were discussing Kina and Duke.
"Of all the people to become friends with I never would have guessed she would pick Duke." Joey said. "Yeah, he's always sitting by himself." Tristan commented. "Well, she maybe she relates to him because she is usually alone." Yugi guessed. "Well, it sure it looks to me like they are more than just friends." Joey said.
"Come on, Joey. They've barely know each other for a day." Malik said. "You always think two people are together if they sit by each other or hang out." "Yeah but remember I was right." Joey retorted. "Once." Tristan said. "Hey don't start that again!" Joey yelled. They started arguing while Kina came back over to where they were sitting.
"I'm going to back to my locker to get my books since it's almost time to go in." she said. "I'll come too." Ryou said. They walked back into the school, followed by the others. They got their books and headed off for Biology.
Biology was pretty boring for most of them, since all they did was take notes on the structure of DNA. After Bio, they headed off to their next class. Kina was separated from them and had English next. "Just go all the way down that hallway and you'll run right into the English room. I'll meet you by the tree out front after school" he told her as he headed off to history.
The English teacher introduced herself as Mrs. Winry and told Kina to sit down in an empty seat. They read about different forms of poetry and they had a homework assignment. They had to write a "Poetry Is…" poem for tomorrow. The bell rang and Kina went to her locker.
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"Hey you guys, have you seen Kina?" Ryou asked them as they came out of the building. "No, why?" Yugi asked. "I told her to meet me under the tree after school, but she wasn't there." Ryou said. "Maybe she's just at her locker." Tristan offered. "No, I checked there too. I can't find her anywhere." he said. "Well, let's look for her. Everybody split up." Yugi said.
They all went off in separate directions looking for her. Duke walked around the back of the school and turned the corner. He saw two of the school's known bullies tossing her schoolbag back and forth so she couldn't get it. When she finally did catch it, they tore it out of her hands and pushed her up against the wall. They started to hit her and hold her down so she couldn't get away.
Duke walked over and tapped one of the guys on the shoulder. When he turned around, Duke punched him hard in the face, sending him to the ground. He looked over at the other guy who had released his grip on Kina, and gave him a you'd-better-run-if-you-don't-want-to-die look. The other guy got scared and ran off.
Duke walked over to Kina and sat down beside her. "Are you ok?" he asked. "Y-yeah I'm fine." she replied. He reached out and tried to help her up but she ended up falling. He looked down and saw that her knee had a large cut and was badly bruised. "Here, I have an idea." he went over and got her school bag and handed it to her. "Hold this." he told her. "Wha-" He leaned down and picked her up into his arms. "What are you doing?" she asked him, as he stood up. "I'm making sure you don't get hurt." he replied.
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Meanwhile, the rest of the gang had gathered in the front of the school. Obviously none of them had seen Kina, and Ryou was getting worried. "Where could she be?" he thought out loud. Just then, they spotted Duke coming around the corner with Kina in his arms. They rushed over to see what had happened.
"Whoa, what happened to you guys?" Joey asked. "I caught two of the bullies messing around with her. They twisted her knee up pretty badly. I don't think she can walk on it. At least not for now." Duke explained. "It's getting pretty late; we should all be getting home soon." Yugi said. "Yeah" they agreed with him.
Everyone went their separate ways, saying they would see each other at school tomorrow. Ryou and Duke went back to Ryou's house together. Duke insisted upon carrying Kina the entire way no matter how much she protested and said she was fine. Anyone could see she wasn't. They went into the house and he set her down on the couch.
Surprisingly, the first thing she did was get her homework out and start working on it. "Would you like something to drink?" Ryou asked Duke as they walked into the kitchen. "No thanks. I'm fine." Duke answered. "That was really nice of you to bring Kina home. Thanks." Ryou said. "I just want to make sure she is ok. She is really going to need some help for a while."
They walked back into the living room and saw Kina, fast asleep on the couch, her homework lying on the floor. "I told her she needed more sleep." Ryou said with a laugh. Duke picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. He set her down on the bed and she started to wake up.
"I'm sorry, didn't mean to wake you." he said. "It's ok." she said as she sat up on the bed.
"Well, since you're up…" he said as he went into the bathroom. He came out with a first-aid kit and sat down on the bed beside her. "You really don't have to do this you know." she said.
"Well, I want to make sure you are ok." He cleaned up the cut on her knee and put some gauze around it. Then he took an ACE bandage and wrapped around the gauze. "Here, lay down." She laid down on the bed and Duke took an ice pack from the kit and placed it on her knee. "This will help keep the swelling down but I really think you should have it looked at."
"Thank you so much. You're a big help." Kina said. "No problem. Hey, do you want anything to eat? You really didn't have much of a lunch." he offered, hoping to get her to eat something. "No thanks. I'm not really all that hungry." "Well, I'm going to bring you some water anyway. Please try and get some rest." he told her. "Ok, ok. I'll try." she said.
"Is she ok?" Ryou asked as soon as Duke walked into the kitchen. "Yeah, she'll be fine. She just might need to stay off of her knee for a couple of days. I can't tell whether it's broken of not, but I think she should really have it X-rayed. It looks pretty bad." he explained. "What a way to spend her first day at school." Ryou said with a sigh.
Duke brought her a glass of water, and she soon fell asleep. "I know you found her but what exactly happened?" Ryou asked him. "I came around the corner and saw those guys playing "keep away" with her books. She did manage to get them back, but not for long, they started to hit her and hold her down, that's about when I stepped in. I don't think they will be messing with her again anytime soon." he explained. "Hey Duke?" "Hm?" "Thanks again for what you did. I mean she could have been hurt a lot worse if you didn't help her." Ryou said. "No problem. Just trying to help out." he said.
He left a little bit after 5 PM. I hope she is going to be alright… he thought to himself as he walked home.
TBC
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So why do Duke and Kina know each other? Are they more than just friends? And what is the secret they are hiding? (insert dramatic/suspenseful music here)
Well, another chapter done. :sigh: It was a lot longer than I intended and there were probably more twists than you expected, ne? But who minds a little extra reading? People are always commenting to make the chapters longer so here I am. Anyway, please review this chapter. If I get good reviews, I will update soon. Thank you.
Ryou: If you give nice reviews it will make Thorns.and.Tears-san happy!
Bakura: And I should care why?
Ryou: Because she is being nice and including you.
Bakura: But she didn't put me in this chapter.
Ryou: Well, it was centered around school and you don't go to school.
Bakura: So?
Ryou: Ugh. You're giving me a headache. Please review, nice people!