Disclaimer: Do not and will not ever own YGO.
D/N: Ah, yes... another day, another chapter... quite. (Eriso: Hmm... chocolate chip cookies and orange juice mixed with vinegar, pickle juice, and a banana...) ... You're gonna eat that? (Eriso: No, I'm gonna feed it to Joey.) Yes... quite... ANYWAYS... moving along.
Oh, and for all my Diplomacy fans who are also weeping with me for the evil deletion of Diplomacy, I'll finish the rest of the chapters then e-mail em to ya, ok? Just leave your email addresses and know that I'm still gonna take forever to update! XD
Mandapandabug: Actually, to tell you the truth, I've never read Of Mice and Men. It's supposed to be pretty good, I hear. But it's got nothing to do with this story! Sorry it's not yaoi!
OooOOOooO"...Brrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggg!..."
Joey woke up and yawned, forcing himself to see through his blurred vision. After a quick realisation of what the noise was, he decisively slammed his fist down on his alarm clock's snooze button, rolled over and went back to sleep. It worked, until it started up again a few minutes later.
"Bbbrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggg!" The alarm wailed, in a far more, 'Get Up, Idiot! I'm Ringing Here!' tone. It was silenced far more permanently as the brilliant blond shut off the alarm.
'I took care of that.' Joey thought to himself happily, before dozing off once more. Yes, after an epic battle with an alarm clock of that calibre, it tended to make you a bit-
All at once he was leaping and collapsing out of his bed at the same time, clutching his bleeding foot while hollering, "Ow! Holy God!"
KaibaII cocked his head to the side and let his tongue roll out of his mouth, watching the 'Dance of the Blondes' ballet unfold.
Serenity ran in shortly after, her eyes sweeping over the owner of the room and landing on the 'vicious mongrel of doom'. "There you are! I was looking all over for you." She smiled at it, she picking up the puppy and patting its head.
"Yeah, and a 'good mornin'' to you too." Joey sighed, limping his way to the bathroom.
OooOOOooO"How's your foot, Joey?" Serenity asked her brother, watching him limp his way down the stairs in a dramatic fashion.
"It's been better." Joey grumbled. He gave KaibaII a quick glare before sitting down at the table, moving in on his breakfast with a hunger not seen since... a... long time. "I gotta get to school, ok?" He said between mouthfuls, small flecks of food finding their way out of his mouth. "You should get movin' too."
"Oh, I asked mom if I could stay home today to look after Kaiba." Serenity shrugged. "So, I'm not in a hurry."
"She's lettin' you stay home?" Joey repeated, pausing with his fork mid-air to his mouth.
"Yeah," Serenity nodded. "She doesn't want KaibaII alone on his first real day. I'm going to make sure he doesn't pee on everything."
"She always lets you stay home. Why not me?" Joey whined, grabbing his things and walking out of the door.
KaibaII barked out what seemed to be a goodbye.
OooOOOooO"Hey, Joey! You're on time for once!" Tristan greeted his friend, who was currently sprawled over his desk. He hopped into the seat next to him, Yugi sitting at the other side. Ryou wasn't in their first period class, and Tea was running a little late, so at the moment it was just the three of them. "What's the occasion?"
"Kaiba woke me up. I had no choice but to get out of bed." Joey muttered, his voice muffled due to the wonderful thing called the 'desk' his face was smashed up against.
The was a long silence before Yugi finally asked, "Kaiba... woke you up?"
Joey turned his head to look at the vertically-challenged teen, doing it with the most dreary of expressions. "Not Kaiba Kaiba." Joey explained. "I mean KaibaII. He's this stray dog that followed me home."
"You named your dog after Kaiba?" Tristan gasped out. "That takes guts, man! Can I date your sister when he kills you?"
"No."
"Meh. You won't be able to stop me."
"Wanna bet?" Joey mumbled. "Anyway, Kaiba won't find out, because I'm not going to tell him. Besides, even if he does, I'll make sure I'm with a large group of people when - if, which he won't because I'm too great - he murders me, so I've got witnesses. Most likely you guys."
"What!" Tristan cried, almost jumping out of his seat. "And have him kill us next? Yeah, right! Sorry, Joey, but if Kaiba comes after you with a knife, you're on your own."
"He won't need a knife." Yugi said, in a I'm-sorry-that-sounded-so-morbid way.
"Some friends you are." Joey grunted, plopping his face down on the desk again. "Ow." The rest of the class walked in at the sound of the bell, hurried along by their teacher, Mrs. Jarva. (I get new teachers all the time XD) Tea, rushing in, red-faced and out of breath, sat in the desk in front of Yugi.
"Settle down, class! Quiet! Everyone quiet!" Mrs. Jarva commanded. When the class was silent, she continued. "Yes, well, as you know, today is Friday, and the following Monday is a P.A Day, so you'll be having a long weekend." The class cheered. "This also means you'll be getting extra time to work on the team project I'm handing out to you now and will be expecting it completed on Tuesday!" The class booed. She looked at them in surprise. "I thought it'd be rather fun."
"Great... Now I have to waste my weekend on a project..." Tristan muttered. "I actually had a date tonight, and now I can't go!"
"Relax, Tristan." Joey assured him. "It's a team project, remember? Maybe you'll get some little loser with no life and a few spare evenin's. Just dump all the work on him and go to your... uhm... 'date.'"
"Yeah... but I don't think you'd do it." Tristan grinned, and was whacked in the head.
"I have taken the liberty of choosing the teams. Hopefully, I've paired you up with somebody you know very little about, for this project's purpose is to write about how you interact with that person for the weekend." Mrs. Jarva explained. "Perhaps one could sleep over at the other's house as well... Alright, here are the teams!"
"I hope I get someone good..." Tea prayed.
"Tea and Duke!"
"Dammit!" Tea pounded on her desk, blushing furiously as the class stared at her. "Uhm... I... uh... Hooray! Yeah..."
"Tristan and Stephanie!"
"Oh, yeah!" Tristan grinned. "She's only the hottest girl in school!"
"She's only a complete idiot." Joey pointed out.
"Yugi and Malik!" (Yes, he's here. Somewhere... )
Joey, Tea and Tristan fell silent and looked at Yugi, who merely sighed and instinctively clutched his Millennium Puzzle.
"Yeah, well," Tristan shrugged. "Maybe you'll get lucky and Marik won't come out to play."
"Yeah right!" Joey scowled. "Yugi, hide that thing the minute you get home! Malik's ok, but Marik's gonna come after it as soon as-"
"Joseph and Seto!"
"Whhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt?" Joey shrieked, jumping up out of his seat and nearly flipping the desk over. "This is an outrage! You can't do this, Mrs. Jarva! Me'n'Kaiba hate each other! We'll be killin' each other before this weekend's done! Can't you change or pair me up with someone else? Just switch it around real quick?"
"I'm sorry Joseph, but the teams are made. Now if you could kindly take your seat..."
"Oh, come on! There's gotta be somethin' you can do! I refuse to work with that guy!" Joey snapped.
"Joseph, if you don't sit down right now, I'll not only send you to the office, but I'll extend your project from a weekend to a week!" Mrs. Jarva glared.
Joey stiffened, but reluctantly plopped back into his chair, sulking furiously.
"Tough break, Joey." Tristan sympathised.
"Maybe it won't be so bad." Tea shrugged. "Maybe you two could become-"
"I swear to God, Tea, if you say 'friends', I'll kill you while you sleep." Joey glared viciously.
"Calm down, Joey!" Tea glared back. "I was only trying to help."
Joey laid his face back down on his desk. "Sayin' we'll be friends ain't very helpful."
"Well, what else do you want me to say?" Tea demanded.
"How about, 'Joey, if you're lucky, maybe you and Kaiba will live to see Monday.' That's more probable." Joey responded. "But then again... maybe I'll be the only one to live."
"Or you won't and Kaiba will." Tristan said. "I think that's more likely."
"Thanks for that boat of confidence." Joey rolled his eyes. "Pray for me, you guys."
"Joey, it won't be that bad." Yugi assured him. "I mean, really, what's the most trouble you guys can run into?"
OooOOOooO"Dog." Kaiba said, approaching Joey at lunch.
"Kaiba..." Joey growled, tearing his attention away from his sandwich. It was sloppy and oozing its content out, but from the way Joey was drooling over it moments before, one would think it was the most rare, delectable, gourmet meal. Gourmet, of course, in the same way les escargots are considered scrumptious.
"Let me speak." Kaiba snapped, as Joey opened his mouth to say more. "At first I figured that I should tell you to pull your weight on the project. I thought that you could at least do your part. Then I thought that maybe I should do the whole thing so I'd still have a perfect record of not failing anything. But I've decided against that. I have a company to run and I don't need the extra work. So we're back to the beginning. Do your part, Wheeler. I don't want to have to write two reports."
Joey snorted. "Gee, Kaiba. You seem so encouragin' of-"
"And we're using your house."
"Why mine?"
"Because I have items of actual value things in mine."
Joey narrowed his eyes, clamping his lips together. Kaiba carried on.
"So we're using yours, because I doubt you'd have anything over a thousand dollars." He paused slightly, before adding, "Or over ten."
"I'd really complain about this, but seein' as how it's only for a weekend, fine, whatever. Go away." Joey mumbled, and began eating again.
"I'll see you after school then." Kaiba told him, stalking away at a rate suggesting he couldn't get out of there fast enough to sterilise himself.
"After school?" Joey whined.
"He's probably thinking, 'the sooner we get the project done, the sooner I can get rid of you.' What a jerk." Tristan muttered once he left. "I'm so happy I got... Oh my god, it's her!" And sure enough, the hottest girl, in all her blonde, blue-eyed, inch thick layer of make-up glory was walking towards them. "Hey, Stephanie!" Tristan smiled sweetly as she approached.
"Look, loser," Stephanie said, far from her usual 'sunny' voice, "I've got a heavy date tonight, and Saturday, and Sunday, and Monday. I don't have time to work on this little 'project.' So you're doing it for me."
"Okay, Stephanie," Tristan droned, practically drooling. "Whatever you say."
"Oh, and another thing," Stephanie wagged a finger in his face. "Just because we're doing a project together doesn't mean you can talk to me. We were forced together. If it was my own choice, I'd never do it with you."
"You never know, Steph. It could be fate." Tristan 'flirted.'
"Ok, it's 'Stephanie.' Don't ever call me 'Steph' again." The cheerleader cast him one final, dark look before she walked away.
The group was silent for a moment.
"Oh, she wants me." Tristan grinned, leaning back in her chair. "She's just afraid I'll reject her, so she's hiding it."
"I'd be scared too," Joey smirked. "Havin' to deal with all of you at once."
Tristan was completely oblivious to the sarcastic tone in Joey's words. "Yeah... but don't worry... She'll absolutely fawn over me when she sees what a good job I did on the report!"
"Tristan, you shouldn't have let her talk to you like that." Tea scolded. "She practically told you to do the entire thing!"
Tristan shook his head. "The it's obvious, isn't it? She's obviously too shy to ask me to come over to her house to do the project, and she isn't sure she'd make a good impression if she came over to mine." Tristan sighed dreamily. "The signs of love."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Joey said. "Well, if that's the case, you should tell her that it'd be okay for her to come to your house, and that she'll have nothin' to worry 'bout."
"Yeah... I should..." Tristan thought to himself.
"Tristan..." Yugi began, "I don't think that's-"
"Yes, you should do it right now!" Ryou added. "Before she catches up to everyone. Get her while she's alone."
Tristan jumped up. "Alright! I'll do it!" And with that, he dashed over to speak with Stephanie.
"Oh, this should be good." Joey laughed, giving Ryou a high five. "Way to go, Ryou!"
"Ryou! This sort of behaviour I would expect from Joey, but from you?" Tea shook her head. "Tristan's your friend, and you know very well that friends don't treat friends like that!"
"That's right!" Yugi agreed.
Joey waved his hand, as if to shoo away the thought. "Relax, you guys. It's just a little joke."
"But Joey-" Yugi tried to say.
"But nothin'!" Joey interrupted. "Listen, Tristan's gonna come back totally crushed, we're gonna pat him on the back and comfort him, and then everything'll be well in the world once more."
"But for how long?" Ryou grinned, as Joey cracked up.
Tea put her hands on her hips. "I still think that was a rotten joke. Shame on you both! How could you treat poor Tristan like that? He's got his hopes all up, and now he's rushing off to make a total fool of himself and be completely humiliated!"
"Still... it may be pretty funny."
Tea's eyes widened. "Yugi! I'm completely shocked you'd say such a thing!"
"Welcome to the dark side, Yugi." Joey nodded approvingly.
"Ok, shhh! Tristan's coming back." Ryou whispered.
"She said yes! She said she'd come over to my house after all!" Tristan cried out happily. "I said that I wasn't going to do the project on my own and that if she wanted to, she could just come to my house! And she agreed!"
Joey blinked. "You get people to do what you want them to do? Can you get Kaiba to jump off a bridge?"
"Sorry," Tristan beamed, as he sat down happily. "I only use my amazing charm for personal gain."
OooOOOooO"Well, I guess your house isn't exactly the rat-trap I had in mind, but it's still pretty pathetic." Kaiba said, casting a critical eye at every aspect of the house.
"Oh, thank you, Kaiba." Joey replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm so glad I could please you."
"Don't you have anyone to clean up after you? Any maids or anything?" Kaiba asked.
"In case you ain't noticed yet, Moneybags," Joey said, hotly, "We're not all freakishly rich."
"Clearly," was the bored reply. "Let's get to work then. The project is supposed to be on how we interact with one another. So I suppose we just..."
"... Write down that the minute you walked in you started whinin' and insultin' everything you laid eyes on?" Joey plopped down on a chair. "Fine by me. Looks like we're already done."
"I was going to say 'talk' but I suppose a mind like yours wouldn't be able to create a conversation that would use words with more than 10 letters." Kaiba remarked.
Joey snorted. "Now who uses words with more than 10 letters?"
"Conversation has 11."
"Don't you feel special."
"I do."
"You're an idiot."
"You're one to talk, mutt."
And as if on cue, KaibaII strolled in happily, jumped up on Seto Kaiba's lap, and almost immediately began licking his face. Kaiba's face turned a strange shade of green, followed up quickly by red, though from anger or disgust it was never known.
"Kaiba, get off Kaiba." Joey said in a low voice. He picked up his dog and pushed him roughly to the side.
After Kaiba stopped sputtering, he spit out, "Great. A mutt for a mutt. What's this world coming to?"
"Kaiba," Joey simply replied, gesturing to the dog. "Meet Kaiba.
Kaiba stopped and blinked. Joey merely pet KaibaII on the head, finding the dog actually useful for once. The puppy gave out a happy little bark.
"You... named it... after me?" Kaiba's eyes began to widen.
"Yeah, I think it has a nice ring to it. Kaiba the Dog." Joey grinned fiendishly at the other. "Why? Somethin' the matter?"
Kaiba gripped the arms of the chair tightly. "Wheeler, just do the project."
"Hi, Joey!" Serenity said happily, coming down the stairs. "Sorry, I was looking for... There you are!" Serenity picked up KaibaII and cradled him. "Don't ever run away from me again, Kaiba!" She then looked up and saw the CEO sitting in the chair opposite her brother. She stood up, awkwardly smiling at him. "Uhm... hi. You are?"
"This, Serenity," Joey pointed towards Kaiba, "Is the original Seto Kaiba."
"Oh... hi. I... hope you're not... offended or anything." Serenity said, a faint blush coming to her cheeks. "I mean, I wanted to name my dog Zeus, but Joey insisted on naming it after you for some reason... Not that I'm pinning the blame on my brother or anything, I'm just saying that it wasn't my idea to-"
"Kid, we have an assignment to work on, so why don't you take... it upstairs so we can work." Kaiba responded through clenched teeth. Serenity just looked at Joey and left.
"Somethin' wrong, Kaiba?" Joey asked, innocently.
Kaiba looked up at him and glared viciously. "Wheeler... I swear..."
Joey almost laughed. "Oh, relax. It's just a name. But hey, now you can't exactly call me a dog now, because technically, you're one too!"
Kaiba rolled his eyes and sighed. "No, Wheeler, I am not a dog. A dog just happens to share the same name as me. You, on the other hand, still are and will remain a dog for probably the rest of your life." Kaiba glared at him. "Now get me something to eat, dog."
Joey glared right back.
Something told Joey that this was going to be a long weekend.
OooOOOooO
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D/N: Yes... quite... anyways, that's still technically an introductory chapter. The REAL fun will begin NEXT CHAPTER! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!