Ack! Bad, Audrey, bad! What on Earth have you been procrastinating for? Ridiculous, I am.
Right then. Here's the way overdue next chapter. I'm so, so sorry you guys. No really, I feel awful about the wait. It's completely and totally my fault, and it's because I'm a lazy, lazy, negligent girl. So again, sorry.
Well, enough of my babbling. Onwards!
"Alright class, settle down, settle down!" the voice of the Jap. Lit. teacher came through. The class promptly ignored her, and the meek white-haired boy behind her. And certainly, nobody seemed to notice the blond in the back of the classroom who seemed to be hidden in the shadows…
"I said, settle DOWN!" Everyone immediately snapped into place. "Thank you," the teacher said, smiling saccharine-sweetly at her class. "Now then, class, as some of you may know, we have a new student. Ryou, would you care to introduce yourself to the class?"
Ryou looked up at his teacher with wide eyes. What was she, nuts? Of course he didn't want to introduce himself. If anything, he'd like to avoid talking to his superiority-complexed classmates (save Yuugi, Seto, Rebecca, Isis, and Yami, of course) for the rest of the year.
"Sometime today please, Mr. Sasaki." Well, it didn't look like he had much of a choice in the matter.
"Er… my name is Ryou Sasaki… and, well, I'm… new here." Brilliance. Sheer brilliance-in-a-box. Ryou was certain that by the end of his first week, not a single person in Miyagi High would think his intelligence any more than that of a fruit fly. Fortunately for him, however, the teacher seemed satisfied with his answer, and gave a curt nod to indicate that it was the end of introductions.
"Very good. Now then, where to place you…" She scanned the room, her eyes landing on a familiar blue-eyed girl.
"Ah, it looks like there's a seat next to Mazaki. Anzu, since Ryou will be sitting near you for the remainder of the year. Would you care to step outside and explain to him what's going on?"
"Of course, Yukimura-sensei," she said, rising from her seat. "Ryou, right? Come with me." She stepped outside the room, Ryou right on her heels.
"Um, I'm sorry if this is interrupting your class-" Anzu snorted.
"Don't be. As if I really enjoy listening to that old hag anyways. Hell, you just gave me an excuse to get out of there." Ryou couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face. Something just drew him to Anzu; she seemed like the kind of person that people could become friends with easily.
"Yeah," he agreed. "I kind of gathered that impression."
Anzu outright laughed. Bakura had chosen well, he had. "I think I really like you Ryou," she said, giving him a friendly smile. "We'll be great friends, I'm sure of it. Now let's go back in before that woman sends out a search party for us. I think roll call is almost done."
"But what about-"
"Don't worry about anything," Anzu reassured him. "I got your back, no matter what, okay?" Ryou nodded. For some reason, he just trusted what Anzu said.
As they walked back in, Ryou discovered that Anzu had made an accurate guess, as it seemed attendance was just wrapping up.
"Kazuma Yokata?"
"Here."
"Okay, I think that's it. Anyone I miss?"
"I don't believe I heard my name," came a voice from the back. Several of the students gasped; Anzu's eyes narrowed dangerously. Ryou looked appropriately befuddled.
"Mr. Ramessu, is that you?"
"The one and only," the blond replied.
"Anzu," Ryou whispered, trying to discretely get the tense girl's attention. "Anzu, who is that?"
"Mariku."
"Mariku?"
"Yes, Mariku," she replied, her eyes never moving from the blond, nor flinching as he moved towards her and Ryou, with complete disregard for school and class rules.
"Hey, Mazaki," he said, a tanned hand landing on the girl's desk. "I haven't seen you in a while."
"Thank goodness for that," she spat back, her polite words holding nothing of a polite tone. Mariku's deranged grin only grew at her comment.
"Aw, don't be like that Mazaki. I thought we were friends," Mariku continued, completely ignoring the fact that the entire class, teacher and all, had grown silent, watching their transaction.
"Cut the crap, Ramessu. I'm in no mood."
"Fine," Mariku said, shrugging. "You got me. So, seriously now. Tell me, how is our darling Bakura doing?" Anzu hissed, as Ryou's eyes grew to the size of saucers.
"B-Bakura?" His quiet comment, which was more to himself than anyone else, went unnoticed by both Mariku and Anzu, who were both locked in a battle of wills.
"None of you business," Anzu hissed back at him, her long fingernails digging into her palm from the pressure of closed fists. Mariku cocked his head at her, analyzing, when small movements of white caught the corner of his eye.
Turning to face Ryou, who was having little less than a full-fledged panic attack, his eyes took on a gleam.
"Ah, I see. So this is the prize, huh?" he asked, not moving an inch from where he stood facing Ryou, except for the sly slant of his eyes towards Anzu.
She made no response.
The class made no response.
The teacher made no response.
Ryou thought he was going to have a heart attack.
What is wrong with this school!
Finally, the teacher got her butt in motion, about the same time the tension became thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Ahem. Well then, Mr. Ramessu, if you'd be so kind as to take your seat…?" Mariku cocked his head towards her, same sly, slightly manic, grin on his face.
"Of course. I wouldn't want to delay your announcement of our next project, now would I?" There was a collective groan from class at the statement. The literature project had all but been forgotten with the events t hat had occurred just moments ago. The teacher scowled at their sounds of protest.
"Deal with it, this is high school. You're expected to take more responsibility upon yourselves at this point in your life."
"Yes, sensei."
"Good. Now then, as you all know, we are doing a project of literature during the end of Feudal Japan. Take a famous piece of writing from the Kamakura, Tokugawa, or Meiji periods and write a three-page report about it and the effects it had on Japanese society during that time. This project will be done in pairs-"
Several heads perked up.
"-That I have already chosen for you."
And several heads hit the desks with a simultaneous slam.
"Get over it!" That was it for Ryou. This school was nuts. The people were weird, the teachers were mental, and everyone had more than they knew what to do with it.
And here he sat, by all means normal (well, as normal as a white-haired teenager could be), and completely lost in it all.
"Right then. Pairs will go as follows."
As the teacher rattled of names, it was all Ryou could do to sit there in his seat, wide-eyed, as Anzu went between smiling at him and glaring at Mariku, the said blond smirking at her and leering at Ryou, and the rest of the class ignoring everything that had happened in the last five minutes.
"…Anzu and Hanasaki…"
Miyagi High had officially entered the Twilight Zone.
"And, let's see. What?" The teacher removed her glasses and wiped at them, making sure they were clean, before replacing them on her face. Her perplexed expression remained.
"Well then. Last pair would be Sasaki and Ramessu. Yes, that looks right."
"Hey! Bakura!" The white-haired boy started from his position against the rail on the roof. He glared half-heartedly at the Egyptian heading towards him.
"You almost killed me there, Malik." The blond cocked his head curiously.
"I did? Really?"
"Yes," Bakura grit out in his annoyance. "Yes you did."
Malik grinned. "Awesome! I almost killed Fearless Leader!" Bakura made a mental note to himself to first find new friends, then kill Malik off in his sleep.
"You are seriously deranged."
"Yeah, and you love me for it!" Malik responded cheerfully, once again deciding what Bakura felt for him. Said boy gave a derisive snort, which Malik promptly ignored. "Anyways, Bakura, I was wondering if you wanted to go out to that burger joint today."
"Nah. I'm staying late after school today." Malik looked just a tad dubious.
"The hell? Your old man actually got you to do something? What's happening to you?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ishtar. That worthless man has nothing on me. I just… well, I have tryouts today."
"Tryouts? For what?"
"A play."
"You look glum."
Shizuka looked up from her usual position against the brick wall of the school at Mai as the older woman came into view. She smiled. Mai was always like an older sister to her.
"What are you talking about? I'm fine." Mai clucked disapprovingly.
"You shouldn't lie to your elders, Shizuka. Now you go and tell Mai-nee what seems to be the problem."
"It's that kid."
The was a pregnant pause.
"And…? I'm guessing you're talking about that new kid, seeing as he seems to be the cause of everything and anything that's been going on here." Shizuka nodded. "Right then. So tell me what he has to do with you?"
"Katsuya."
"Your brother? Oh that's right, he used to be friends with him, right?" Mai thought back on the previous conversation she had had with the younger girl. "I remember now."
"Mai… I…"
"Don't think you can keep doing it?" Shizuka raise her head. "Keeping up the charade I mean. You know, that you're a big bad, tough girl?"
"How did you know?" Mai sighed and sat down next to Shizuka.
"Shizuka, I'm not stupid. I knew from the start that you weren't of us. Me, Mariku… even Mokuba is better suited for this life than you." She leaned down until she was eye level with Shizuka. "You're a sweet girl, Kawai, you don't belong with people like us."
"Mai-senpai…"
"And!" Mai announced her stare hardening into a reprimanding look. "You most certainly don't hate your brother, no matter how hard you want to." Shizuka rested her head on her knees, and looked sadly at the black nail polish on her glove-covered hands.
"Maybe you're right."
Oh…my.. freaking…God. Sorry, sorry, sorry! Forgive me everyone! ((Dies at pointlessness of the chapter)) XP.
The plot thickens! The characters develop! The author rambles! All this and more (if you're lucky) in the next installment, whenever that will be!