Part 1
Brighter than Most
"If a man hasn't discovered something he would die for, he isn't fit to live." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Special thanks to Akio, It's Kat-chan meow and Aeris hiss, Naltes (aka:natbug), Living on Dreams, and especially to Rachel!! Much love! (In the great words of Beau Vidrine... lol.)
Chapter 2: Silly
"Do you think that Bakura likes me?" Miho Nosaka questioned me as we slowly walked home from school together on that fateful afternoon. The day that my genius struck. I sighed hopelessly. I would never understand girls. To me it was obvious that Bakura was about as interested in Nosaka as he was having a ton of bricks having dropped on her head. Although, taking into account Bakura's tentative tendancies to slit himself on random occasion, that was probably not a just comparison.
"I dunno, Miho," I told my classmate in my whiniest voice, hoping that she would get the hint that I was annoyed so she would leave me alone. I didn't know why she was walking home with me anyway. We didn't have any shared classes except for the last one, and in the past year she had really grown apart from the gang. But then suddenly she had decided that I, as a "fellow Millennium item holder", could understand Bakura better than anyone else. Boy, was she wrong. I barely even knew the guy. Besides, he kind of scared me. You never knew when he was going to go all psycho on you.
/But I can protect you, Yugi. And with the two of us working together, we can win./ My eyes widened as I realized that Yami was talking to me. He didn't usually do this when I was walking, mostly because when he did that before I scared the old ladies who stood outside wiping their porches with their decrepit brooms that couldn't counter the thinnest layer of dust because I was talking to myself, and ended up smashing into a traffic pole with a gaggle of giggling girls around. And then I would almost get run over. It happened at least three times. A lot of them thought it was "cute".
After that I realized that what Yami had said had sounded very, very cheesy.
"Jees, Yami, do you always have to sound so heroic?" I wondered aloud. Yami chuckled a little, and I laughed once and then turned to see Miho staring at me.
"...Yami? Is that your weird, new, nickname for me?" She asked. I sweat dropped, knowing I was caught.
"Uhhhh..."
"Hey Yugi!" I turned to face forward again and inwardly melted. It was Tea! Yay. Yami, also, was immediately interested. I blocked our mind link without him realizing.
"Hey Tea. What's up?" I asked nonchalantly, ceasing to walk. Miho stopped too, at first looking confused (the ditz), but then finally remembering her former best friend, Tea Gardner.
"Tea!" The blue-haired bimbo glomped the girl in front of me. Secretly I wished that Tea and I were both six years old, so that we could glomp each other and it wouldn't be wrong or suspicious. But, we're not, so I can't glomp... I mean, I may not glomp Tea. No, no, no, I may not. I have another good reason, too. Tea's dating Yami, and I wouldn't want to cause any strife between the two of them. After all, she's happy in that relationship, so there is absolutely no reason for me to interfere.
Tea looked kind of freaked, but tentatively returned the hug to her past galfriend that she used to dabble in life with.
"Uhh... hi."
"I haven't talked to you in forever!" Miho exclaimed. Bright eyes now looked even brighter with excitement. "Want to go shopping this weekend?"
Did I mention Miho's fall in popularity after she lost to Kaoruko in the Popular Contest? I didn't? Well, now I did. And somehow, without realizing it, we even ostricized her from our clique as well. She never gained any more friends except for the occasional new kid who took her on as a pity friend, and then dumped her because Kaoruko's lackey's had whispered "poser" in their ear one too many times for them to make their own decision about Miho's personality and outlook on life. Me? I didn't remember, and I really didn't care to find out. Unless, of course, Tea did.
"Oh, definately." Tea reached up to wipe away a sweat drop clinging to her head. "But, actually, I was just going to ask Ya - I mean Yugi if he wanted to go to IHOP tomorrow morning." She looked meaningfully at me. I blinked at her. Then Yami took over, an automatic response to the subliminal (glandular really) stimulus that was "Tea".
"Sure, Tea, but what is 'IHOP'?" he wondered in his deep voice. Miho answered in place of Tea, in a voice that was much too high, causing their voices to become the perfect antonym of congruency. Eyuck.
"It's the International House of Pancakes, Yugi!" Miho looked at me with a wavering smile. She knew something was up with me. I mean, come on, my voice suddenly got a lot deeper. It wasn't exactly inconspicuous.
Tea adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder. "...So, you wanna go?" She was obviously annoyed at Miho giggling next to her like some giddy schoolgirl-- wait a second --heck, Miho was a giddy schoolgirl! I just felt sorry for her just then. Obviously she had forgotten what civilization was like. But then, she screeched in my/Yami's ear, and my sympathy evanesced quicker than you could say, "Neo, you are THE ONE." (Which is probably easy because you have to say it slowly, and with dramatic emphasis. But still, she's pretty annoying. And I know it isn't like me to whine, but, sheez, I mean my hearing's decreased in quality just from the walk home... I want some earmuffs.)
Tea fiddled with her purse strap, a blush alighting on her face. "So uh... will you go?" the love of my life reiterated, looking up, shrugging, and gazing bashfully into eyes that were mine - without loving the me inside.
"Sure, Tea," Yami gave his answer immediately. And I felt jealousy flaring up within me, which I did very well to supress. My jealousy was just silly. After all, what was there to be jealous about? The next part was always the best.
"Alright then, I'll see you there at nine! Bye, Yugi!" The 5'5", 103.4 lbs ran off, happy inside because of someone that wasn't me. But, I did get to see her smile. And that is something that I'd die for in an instant.