Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-gi-Oh.
Just another school day. The students of Domino High School were busy attending their classes, dozing, studying, cramming and the many normal things that students do.
However, one crowd stood apart from the rest. That was Yugi Mutou's group, consisting of Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Tea Gardner, Serenity Wheeler, Duke Devlin and of course Yugi himself. Now this group, at present, was segregated and divided into "subgroups". One of these was Serenity and Tea's group.
Now this is where our chapter starts… the conversation of these two teenagers.
"So, Serenity… anything new?" Tea asked.
"Nothing much. But I do have something to tell you." Serenity took a deep breath. "I saw Seto Kaiba yesterday at the library."
Tea almost blurted out that she knew that piece of information already, but stopped because if she mentioned that, Serenity would ask how she had known, and everything will come out about the plans to match Serenity up with Kaiba.
So all she had to do was act surprised. "Really? What happened?"
"Well, I thought about what he was doing there, by himself. And I don't know, I just began to… stare at him for no particular reason. Then he caught me looking at him, and he looked away. But you know what, the whole time, he didn't give me the usual sinister smirk. He was really serious. And when he got up to leave the library… I kind of acknowledged him, and he greeted me, too! I was so spaced out… Plus, he APOLOGIZED to me. Then I asked him if he was okay, 'cause he was behaving kind of strangely, then he shrugged, saying that he knew that he was not like his usual self. And before I knew it, I was out of the library."
Tea kept her reaction to herself. For one thing, she was ecstatic that they were not mad at each other anymore. But why would Seto Kaiba act so sweet and apologetic? It didn't make sense. 'Maybe… just maybe, he has feelings for Serenity!' Tea thought, glad to come up with a brilliant deduction.
"Um, Tea, are you okay? You looked kind of spaced out too." Serenity commented, bringing her back to reality.
"Yeah! I'm alright." Tea exclaimed joyfully. 'Time to launch Operation Match-up Seto Kaiba and Serenity Wheeler.'
In Tea's classroom…
Tea was busy as she took a look at the colored Xerox copy of Serenity and Kaiba's picture at the library. She had borrowed it from Katrina and Xeroxed it immediately.
Suddenly a voice behind her said, "Hey, Tea, I want to talk to you." She looked behind her and found Duke Devlin giving her a small smile. Tea hastily hid the copy of the Polaroid from his view and motioned for him to sit down.
"So, um, Duke, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I want to know if Serenity… said anything to you about the dance."
"Um, not really. What do you mean, if she was coming to the dance with you?"
"Yeah."
"Well… no." she replied, feeling sorry for him.
Duke sighed. "I might as well have known. I don't know how to get her to like me… I've tried every possible way, but I don't know what she feels about me."
"Why don't you ask her? Or tell her how you feel?" Tea suggested pointedly.
"…" Duke thought about it for a while. Finally he said, "Okay, I'll try that. Thanks, Tea." He stood up, prepared to leave.
"By the way," he added. "What were you looking at when I came here?"
"Nothing… really." Tea said quickly. He was the last person she wanted to tell about her plans to match Kaiba up with Serenity.
One of Duke's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't say anything. "Okay, thanks again, Tea. I guess I better get going now."
And when he left, Tea breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he wasn't able to discover any of her plans.
Lunch.
"Hey, Serenity… can I sit with you?" Duke breathed, panting from all the running he had been doing lately.
"Um, sure." She replied. They were both at the small garden behind Domino High, an optional spot where they could eat during their breaks if they didn't like the cafeteria.
She was a sight to behold, as usual, in Duke's opinion. Her long brown hair was kept neat in a tight ponytail, and he couldn't help staring deeply into her beautiful eyes.
"I just talked to Tea a while ago during break." He said.
"Really? What did she tell you?" Serenity asked curiously.
"Um… she told me you haven't answered my invitation to the dance yet." He said awkwardly.
She hesitated. "Um, yeah, I haven't yet." She blushed furiously.
"So… can you answer me now? It's okay if you say no, I won't bite your head off." Duke said, although he hoped inwardly that she would say yes. His feelings for her were quite strong, and he could as well admit that he was in love with her. He hoped that she felt the same about him. But she wasn't giving him any hints to what she truly felt.
"Hey, listen, I think I want to go to the restroom. I'll come back." She excused herself hurriedly.
"Sure. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Don't worry about me. I'll be back…"
Serenity ran to the restroom, wanting to hide out in her stall forever so that she didn't have to face Duke. She knew she still had to answer his question, and how could she tell him that she couldn't accept because Tea was arranging a blind date for her?
And to make things worse, she didn't like Duke in that way. She had been telling herself that for a long time. That was just it, she wasn't attracted to him. She truly didn't like him more than a friend.
She straightened up in her stall, feeling so uncomfortable. And there was still Kaiba to think about. She was secretly hoping that Tea would get him to go with her to the dance. But Tea probably knew that Serenity yelled at Kaiba in the library the other day.
But she had impulsively been dropping hints to Tea, like how she told her this morning about her encounter with Seto Kaiba, and how he acted so strangely around her.
'What am I doing? I can't hide out in the restroom forever. I have to face Duke, sooner or later. It won't make it better if I don't face him now.' She reasoned logically. She stepped out of the stall, and washed her hands in the faucet. And she turned back to the garden to face Duke.
'There she is.' Seto Kaiba thought as he made his way through the small garden. He chose one wooden table a bit far from Duke and Serenity's table.
He caught sight of Serenity as she walked casually back to her table, striking up a conversation with Duke Devlin.
'I wonder why she's always hanging out with that Devlin guy. Why not her other friends, like Gardner or with her brother? Don't tell me Devlin and Serenity are a couple.' A rush of jealousy traveled through his body. This was such a new feeling to him. He had indeed felt jealousy before, but that was with other people, and they were not girls.
But this was different. 'Could I possibly be jealous of that Devlin because Serenity Wheeler is talking to him?' He asked himself quietly, confused as ever.
Then Serenity glanced at him and met his eyes for one second. He could feel the electricity between them. It was a wonderful sensation, and his pulse raced up. 'Stop it! You might get a heart attack just staring at her, you know!'
And it was then that he realized it. He had a huge crush on Serenity Wheeler, but was scared to admit it.
A/N: How was that? That's it for this chapter… Chapter 9 coming up ASAP. Okay, bye! Please review. Thanks!