This is the story called Typical. I had written a chapter beforehand under the title of Change of Heart, about two years ago. Yes, I know, it's been awhile. However, I have decided that it wasn't exactly up to par. Here it is again, rewritten, reposted, and ready for your reviews. I hope it meets your standards, and if it does well enough with reviews, I will post a second chapter.
For just a little background information, Duelist Kingdom, Seto Kaiba's Tournament, God Cards, never happened. No Millenium items, no spirits, they are all their own individual person. No magic. None of it. I like every character and I want them in the story, and this is the only way to do it. And please, in your reviews, do not tell me to change it or anything. The site is called for a reason. This is how I want it to be.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy.
- - -
As Anzu looked outside of her bedroom window, she could hear the steady methodical drip of rain beating down on the pavement outside. The weather had been like this all day, but she realized that she really didn't mind it. In fact, the rain was sort of soothing in a way. Every time she listened to the rain, it seemed to soothe her tattered soul, replenish her weak mind, and heal her broken heart. It was a wonderful feeling, she had to admit.
With a slight yawn, she glanced over at her alarm clock, and it stared back at her, the numbers glaring back at her in angry red. 2:30. It was at this point that she remembered that she was supposed to be at the arcade in a half hour to meet the rest of her friends. They were going to be spending the day together, since they hadn't been able to in so long.
Anzu couldn't help but grimace at the word as it ran through her head. Friends. They weren't really the friends they claimed to be. If they had been, they would have noticed what was wrong with her. They would have realized by now that Anzu was anything but ok. They would have seen the pain in her eyes, the bruises on her skin, how her voice had gone from such a pleasant, melodious sound to a dull and listless tone. If they were her friends, they would have helped her by now, instead of worrying about the petty little things in life, like if they could get themselves a date for the movie next week or their two-page essay that was due in Biology that next week.
The somewhat forlorn girl slowly walked to her closet and gazed at it hopelessly. After a moment or so, she grabbed two different outfits and laid them on the bed, looking at them, studying each detail incredulously. One outfit was one that everyone could just see her wearing. A baby pink tee, no words on the front, and sleeveless. Blue jeans, plain, and somewhat form-fitting. A belt, no studs, no chains. A typical outfit for a typical girl.
But no one seemed to realize that she wasn't a typical girl. As she looked at the other one, a small, unrecognizable smile adorned her once lovely features. It was a simple black shirt, but just the fact that it was black made it almost a forbidden choice. If Anzu wasn't seen in the bright colors and pretty clothes, then it wasn't her, and everyone disapproved, it seemed. The lower half of the outfit was a black skirt. Not a mini, of course, because even Anzu wasn't that comfortable with herself. It was a long skirt, reaching her knees, and a bit flowy at the bottom. It too was black, and she favored it above all her other skirts.
She longed to wear it. It was a beautiful ensemble, even if it did seem dark. And it covered her complexion so well, that she wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing the marks on her battered body. She had bought it awhile ago for that sole purpose, but she knew she could never leave the house in this outfit. Her father would greatly frown upon it. As well, he would have backhanded her if he had even seen it in her wardrobe.
Anzu had lived here all her life, being born in the local hospital as a beautiful baby girl. Her mother had been an angel, to say the least. And when she was alive, her father had even gotten to become tolerable. He even seemed to love her at the point. But her mother fell with a deadly illness, and almost a year ago, she had fallen into death's grasp and been taken away from Anzu.
Her father, for some ungodly reason, blamed the poor girl on her mother's demise. He became extremely violent, his drinking binges becoming worse, and would often tell Anzu what a worthless person she was. He mentioned many times that he had regretted everything after she had been born, and the only reason he had been nice to her was that her mother was a good lay. What a thing to tell your daughter.
Although Anzu had always been the upbeat, happy child at school, things had been different at home for the first half of the year. She would argue with her father, yell at him, scream at him, and he would do it right back. The only bad thing about all of this was that he was a lot stronger than her, and easily put her to the ground when she got out of line. After months of this abuse, she had learned to let it go. Although he would still hit her, he wouldn't be as bad. In fact, since she had become more docile around him, every fist that made contact with her skin left less of a mark. It was a wonderful thing for her to see in the morning. Instead of a huge black and blue mark that would run down her arm, she would only have a faint yellowish one, maybe with a tinge of purple in it. So much easier to cover up, or even to leave alone, and pretend she fell down the stairs. But then again, you can only fall down the stairs so many times in a month.
With a heavy sigh and even heavier heart, she put the darker outfit away, hiding it in the back behind one of her mother's old dresses that she had stored away in her own closet. She liked to pull them out on days when she was really upset and play dress-up with them, pretending that she was a beautiful princess in a fairy tale world. Nothing could hurt her when she was alone in her fantasy land.
She quickly changed into the other outfit, taking a quick look in the mirror to see how she looked. Typical. What an evil word. That's what everyone seemed to think her life was. A high school girl, cheerleader, dreams of dance, perfect student. But if only they knew that this was all a façade, maybe they would understand that she wasn't what she appeared to be. For a moment, she had a vision of reaching through the mirror at her reflection and choking it, ending the typical lifestyle and replacing it with something more. But there was no way of doing that, so instead, she reverted to glaring at her reflection instead, as if trying to set it on fire with her eyes.
When that didn't work, she pulled on a pair of white socks, ignoring the mirror at this point. She quickly grabbed her jacket and slipped it on her shoulders, brushing her hair out from the collar. With one last glance at the cursed mirror, she headed out of her room to the end of the hallway.
As she began to descend down the stairs, she tried to be as quiet as she could. With every footstep that she took, she had to hold in her breath, hoping that her father couldn't hear the slight creaking of the staircase. Once she reached the bottom, she finally exhaled, as if she had just completed an impossible mission. With the gracefulness of a cat, she slinked her way to the door and slipped on her shoes. Her hand had just barely touched the doorknob when she heard a bellowing voice behind her.
"Anzu!"
The girl winced slightly at the tone of it, before turning around slowly on the spot to lay her eyes on the man who had been the cause of her sneaking ways around the house. She could see him at the top of the staircase, his eyes bearing down into her own with a hateful look in them. The hairs on the back of her neck seemed to stand on end in fear, as if he would come barreling down that instant and knock her to the ground.
"Anzu, where are you going?" he said to her slowly, his arms crossed in front of his chest to try and look even more intimidating to the poor girl. And as always, it worked like a charm. Forcing a smile to her face, she let out a nervous laugh before speaking in a meek voice. "I'm going to the arcade to meet up with everyone!" she said with that happy-go-lucky tone that her father now seemed to expect to hear each time they spoke.
Her father gave her one last look that made her blood run cold before turning away from her. "You better be home before six. If you're not, you better be ready to pay the consequences for your irresponsible actions. Is that clear?" he said in a threatening manner, making her shrink back towards the door even more. "Crystal," she said softly, before twisting the doorknob and pushing the door open so that she could run out of the self-acclaimed hellhole.
The moment she closed the door behind her, she immediately realized that she had forgotten something important. An umbrella. As the rain began to beat down on her skin, she actually smiled. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. She did like the rain after all, and only earlier had she been thinking about how good the rain felt. There was no problem with her walking in it.
She headed down the walkway that led to the actual sidewalk and took a right, only being a few blocks away from the arcade where she had planned on meeting everyone. The rain began to lighten up slightly, making it more of a light drizzle than anything. A mist had formed on the ground in front of her, and she could tell that the roads were a bit foggy at this point. It gave it that eerie yet serene quality to it, and she greatly enjoyed the scene.
As she continued to tread down the sidewalk, she began to think of the business trip that her father was supposed to have gone on. He would have been away for a month, and she would have been free from his grasp. But no, he had decided at the last minute that he needed to stay home. Apparently, he believed that if he was gone for so long, Anzu might get herself in trouble. She believed that to be utter bullshit, but what could she do? If she protested against him staying, it would confirm his idea that she was planning something when he was gone.
About ten minutes, she could feel herself turning into the arcade, where a different array of sounds and voices reached her ears. The lights were blinking in front of her, as if attempting to give the young girl a seizure. A smile appeared on her face at this thought, before she shook her head and walked forward. Ahead of her, she could see her whole group of friends huddled in the same general area of each other. A few of them had noticed her and waved her over, and she did so happily.
When she got close enough to the rest of them, she looked at each and every one of them, as new thoughts began to plague her already tired mind. She was very glad that she had friends like these, even if she felt as if they weren't as close as they thought. But in all actuality, their friendship was based on a false sense of loyalty. She had given them this fake girl, this fake Anzu, instead of the real her. And that's who they had come to hang around with. If she was really herself, would they turn their backs on her? She didn't know, and she didn't want to find out. She was a bit afraid of what could happen if she began to act the way she had at home.
Anzu began to wring out her hair a bit, watching as the water dripped down to the floor. It began to pool into a small puddle, but she didn't seem to care. She didn't have to clean it up later. After a moment or so, she looked up and took an ever better look around to see exactly what everyone was doing. Jounouchi, or Jou as everyone called him, was fighting over a pizza with Honda. They each were pushing and shoving each other away from the last slice, determined to have it for themselves. But to Anzu's amusement, their fight was cut short as little Yugi appeared in between them and grabbed it right from under their noses.
Both boys looked at the smaller one in dismay as he took a bite out of it and walked away. They just watched him for a second before turning on one another and yelling that it was their fault he had taken it. All she could do was roll her eyes at the maturity level those two seemed to posses. Turning her attention away from the two, she spotted Mai and Shizuka, gossiping about something or another. From what she could gather, it seemed as if they were discussing guys in general. She distinctly heard the names of Jou and Honda in the mix, and knew which one they were each speaking about.
A small laugh escaped her before she glanced over at Yugi, who had joined Yami and Ryou with his slice of pizza. They seemed to be talking about duel monsters, which caused a low sigh to pass by her lips. That's all those boys ever seemed to talk about. It was a little strange for Anzu when they did that, since she wasn't the best duelist in the world. She would hate to be left behind because of this small fact. Finally, she looked at the last group of males, Bakura, Malik, and Marik.
All three of them were only there because someone had made them go. Isis had been the one to force Malik and Marik to tag along. The first time they had come with them to the arcade, she had come with, telling Anzu in private that it was the only way to keep them out of her hair while she was working. And when it came to Bakura, he was only there because Ryou had dragged him there. As well, the three males had seemed to have an unspoken friendship with one another.
Although they had a bit of a wicked streak in them, Anzu was a bit envious. They could be themselves in front of one another, and no one seemed to care. That meant they were real friends. No lies. No tricks. Scratch that. They lied to one another loads of times, and many pranks were played on the other ones, but those were all in good fun. They weren't like the lies she had to live with each day.
After she finally tore her eyes away from them, she made her way over to Mai and Shizuka instead. When she was beside them, they each looked up and greeted her with smiles. It was quite obvious that they were happy about something or another, and so not to disappoint them, she returned their looks with a smile of her own, although it didn't have that same feeling behind it like theirs had.
It looked as if Mai was going to burst in the next second or so, and so, Anzu gave her the moment to speak up. She seemed as if she was holding life or death information, and if she didn't share, she would collapse from the knowledge. "Anzu! Glad you could make it, hun. Jounouchi finally realized how great I am and asked me out on a date next Saturday. It's going to be a blast!" she said enthusiastically, although she was able to maintain her calm demeanor over it. No matter what the situation, Mai had a reputation to uphold.
"Wow, Mai, that's great! I hope you two have fun," Anzu said with a bit of a wistful tone. She didn't want Mai or Shizuka to realize it, but she was quite envious of the girl. Although she had always remained a good friend to everyone, not one boy had ever asked her out on a date. She was never more than just a friend to each of these guys.
And it was at this point where she realized how self-pitying she had become. Since she had gotten here, she had either been envious, jealous, or downright depressed. She couldn't be that way right now. Not until she was away from them all. Right now, she had to be happy. That's what was expected from her.
After a moment or so, Anzu began to feel that little pressure in her abdomen that was telling her she needed to make a quick stop before she continued this conversation. "Hey, I have to use the restroom. I'll be back in a flash!" she said with a smile that would rival the Cheshire Cat. Shizuka and Mai just waved their hands as if to shoo her away, while the younger one spoke up. "Well, hurry up, we're going to order another pizza, considering that those two over there ate the first one," she said dejectedly, causing Anzu to laugh at this.
Turning away from them, she hurried herself into the ladies' room, pushing the door open enough for her to slip inside. About five minutes later, she exited once more, feeling refreshed and relieved. As she headed back to where everyone was, a figure stepped in front of her, blocking her path. She quickly recognized the person as Akira, one of the more popular girls in her school. Right from the beginning, they seemed to have a personality clash. But then again, it could also be because of Anzu's close friendship with some of the more desirable guys in their school. It wasn't a hidden fact that Akira had begun to crush on both Yami and Ryou, and since Anzu hung out with them so often, Akira had seemed to have a fiery hatred for the girl. Very uncalled for, but what can you do? The damn bitch was immature as hell.
"Hey Anzu, whatcha doing?" Akira said in a sly voice, making Anzu immediately suspicious of the girl in front of her. It was obvious she had something planned just by the way she had spoken. With a sidelong glance at the girl, Anzu passed her without saying anything, deciding that she wouldn't bite this time. But it seemed Akira wasn't happy with this approach, and out of nowhere, her hand shot forward and grabbed Anzu's shoulder to spin her around. At this point, everyone in Anzu's group had turned around to watch the confrontation. Some of the guys were looking as if they wanted nothing more but to jump in and save her. But with one look from Anzu, they stayed where they were, curious as to how she would handle this.
An angry smirk appeared on the girl's face as she pushed Anzu away from her. "I was talking to you. It's not nice to ignore your superiors," she said in a rude tone, causing a furious hell fire to appear in Anzu's eyes as she replied. "Well, when I see a superior, I'll remember that," she said heatedly, ready to turn away again before Akira made one more comment.
"What, afraid that you may break a nail or something, little princess?"
Anzu's hands curled into fists. She could feel her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She slowly turned on the spot, her eyes locking with the girl's in front of her. And that's when Akira realized she had gone too far. But it was a second too late. In a flash, Anzu had tackled the girl to the ground and was now straddling her. "Break this!" she snarled, as she lifted her hand and slapped her full force in the face.
A bright red handprint could be seen on Akira's skin, and she just laid there in shock as Anzu stood up and gazed at the girl in horror. What had she just done? She looked over at all of her friends, seeing their shocked expressions as they had just witnessed what seemed to be the breaking point for Anzu.
With a cry, she jumped up and turned on her heel, running out of the arcade as fast as she could. She could hear her friends calling her name, telling her to come back, but it was too late. She had already disappeared into the fog outside.
- - -
That was the first installment of the story. I hope you enjoyed it, and if I get enough reviews, I will be posting a second chapter. If there is something you would like to critique me on, I am more than happy to accept the review. But please, be a bit civil about it. No one appreciates flames, and I am one of those people.
Miyuki