A/N: Rebuilding may be a slow, painful process…but I promise you, the people of New Orleans, Biloxi, and other cities and small towns in the Gulf Coast will rebuild. I'm sure that you've heard enough about Hurricane Katrina to make you puke, so I'll switch gears. I tried to see if anyone could guess my favorite Yu-gi-oh character, and no one was able to get it right. This may surprise you, but my favorite character is (insert drumroll) Joey Wheeler. I'll explain myself after the chapter, as most of you have probably fallen out of your chairs in shock. Enjoy peeps.
Angry People
Chapter 12
"Class...I know with the big soccer final matchtomorrow, not to mention prom coming up it will be difficult to focus on this exam, but it's crucial. It will be about 20 percent of your final grade for this quarter..."
Joey listened as his teacher droned on about their next geography test. Yugi, who sat in the seat in front of him, just drew on his notebook listlessly as the teacher droned on. Seeing an opportunity, the blonde quickly slipped his friend a note. Yugi picked up the small note and read it as the teacher started into his lesson for the day.
Hey Yug, everything's cool?
Yugi scribbled something down on the paper and sliped it back to his best friend. Joey, just happy to see that he wrote something down, hurriedly opened the note.
No.
Joey frowned as he quicky scribbled something as a reply.
What's wrong? C'mon! SPILL IT ALREADY!
Joey watched as his friend turned his note into a ball of trash and put it underneath his book. It didn't appear that he wanted to talk about it at the moment.
"I wasn't expecting you to show up here, Kaiba."
"I wasn't expecting to come here, Ishizu."
Kaiba and Ishizu glared at one another for a while in a tense silence. "Well, why are you here?"
Kaiba strolled over to her side of the room and sat down in a nearby chair. "I heard about what happened to you."
"Well, considering it was plastered all in the papers and on television, I'm not surprised."
"Ishizu...I warned you that staying in that neighborhood would not be good for you. You and your brother have a lot of enemies there."
"Don't come in and attempt to lecture me, Seto Kaiba. What do you want?" Ishizu was up out of her bed now, her body covered in a standard-issue hospital nightgown.
"I'm making one last offer to buy out your museum and your place of residence." Kaiba continued to sit, his eyes focused on the slighty older woman. "Well?"
"Kaiba...no. I'm going to stay here. My brother and I left Egypt to come here for a fresh start. We've found it, and this has become our home. Nothing, not you, your money, or some drunken thugs are going to change that."
Kaiba snickered. "You should stop being so selfish.You're staying here because of your own stubborn ways. You say that Marik wants to stay here, but I promise you that if you ask, he'll leave this city in a heartbeat for next to nothing." The small smirk that was on his face evaporated. "One million dollars...that's my final offer."
"Kaiba...we're staying. If we leave now, we'll do exactly what those fools and others wanted us to do from the start: give up. They would have won..."
Kaiba slammed his fist onto a nearby coffee table. "GODDAMN IT, WOMAN! Not everything is about winning and losing. Even someone as competetive and driven asme knows that!Do you know how many people in this town are behind you? How many that actually do care about the well-being of you and your brother? How do you think they felt after they heard about you being attacked? Do you think they are worried that someone will come after you or your brother and do the same thing...or worse?"
Ishizu barely spoke above a whisper most of the time, but Kaiba's outburst sent her roaring. "ARE YOU ONE OF THESE SO-CALLED FRIENDS OF OURS? IF NOT WHY DO YOU CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO ME? IT SEEMS LIKE YOU WANT ME GONE ANYWAY!"
"Whatever..." Kaiba stood up as Ishizu glared at him, her anger simmering.
Kaiba strolled for the door, turning around as soon as he made his way outside. "Ishizu...I'm not one of your 'friends', but I still have some resemblance of a heart. Think my offer over."
Ishizu watched him as he strolled to leave.
Tea and Marik were sitting together eating their lunch, as they had planned the day before. They had just been talking about an exam they had just finished before Tea saw a familiar face running up to her table.
"Hey, Tea...you seen Yug around here?" Joey said as he caught his breath.
"No...I haven't. I haven't seen him all day, as a matter of fact. Is something wrong?"
"Yeah...I think so. He wouldn't talk ta me the entire way to school dis mornin'...I even did my Godfather impersonation!"
Tea covered her ears as she knew what he was going to say in the most pathetic impersonation of Marlon Brando she had ever heard. "Now Tea...what will you do for me if I give you this favor...maybe the answer is in your purse."
Marik laughed as Tea and Joey struggled for the girl's purse. Tea managed to reclaim her purse when she tried to kick him in the shin. Unfortunately for Joey, her aim was a bit high...
"Geesh...all you had to do was say 'pretty please'." Joey said as he stood up gingerly.
"Well you got what you deserved, you silly boy!"
Marik noticed that two slips of paper had fallen out of the purse and reached for them. "Um, Tea..these fell out of your purse I believe."
Marik read the bold print on the slips of paper.
Domino City High
Junior/Senior Prom
Admit One
Tea took the papers back from Marik ackwardly. She couldn't follow through with her plans right now...not with the biggest gossip in the gang (arguably the school) lurking only an arm's length away.
Said gossip (one Joey Wheeler) looked over Marik's shoulder and read the same print that the Egyptian had just read.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH...now I get it! Yugi's upset cause you haven't given him his prom ticket! You naughty girl, why are ya makin' Yug sweat like that?"
"Um...Marik...can I get a word with Joey privately please?"
Marik shrugged his shoulders and walked over toward the gym. "Suit yourself. I'll see you later, OK?"
As the boy walked off, Tea turned Joey around to face her. "Joey...I think we need to talk about this..."
Well...what the hell was Kaiba's deal when he visited Ishizu? Is he trying to be a friend or trying to add more property to his estate? And when Tea tells Joey what's really going on, will the blonde be able to keep his mouth shut? Find out next time...
For those of you who have been wondering why Joey of all people is my favorite character here's why in a nutshell: he doesn't own a company, he doesn't have a spirit of an ancient ruler in a puzzle, hell, he can't dance either. But he gives everything he has at anything he sets his mind to, and more times than not he manages (by luck or the grace of the Almighty) to get the job done. Let me get off of the soap box and make one more quick announcement for any Teen Titans, Naruto, and Inuyasha fans in the hiz-ouse: I'll be starting on brand-new fics for Naruto and Inuyasha really, really soon. And I plan on bringing my old Teen Titans fic back along with another brainstorm or two, so be on the lookout. Fear not, all of my Yu-gi-oh fics will carry on to the finish. If you're still reading this waste of cyberspace: thank you and I'll see you soon.
Forever LSU (and at least for a while, Tulane)
BDB...out