Meet the Gang!

Yami perched on one arm of the couch beside Yuugi, while Ryou and Bakura sat next to each other at the other end. Malik kicked back in the recliner. Kaiba leaned against the wall, arms crossed. I went to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water.

Suddenly, someone began pounding on my door.

"Miri? Miriku! I know you're in there, woman! Open this door, or I will sic the all-mighty power of WAFFLES AND MAPLE SYRUP on you!"

I sweatdropped. "Gimme a sec, Mere!"

I opened the door, and Merekai Schulman (WAFFLES) bounded in.

Merekai is fifteen, and the oldest of our group of friends. She's a little shorter than me, making her the second shortest of the group. She has dirty blond hair and brown eyes. She's excitable by nature, and loves waffles (hence the AIM name) and togas. We had a toga party over at her house—but that comes in later.

I grinned at her weirded-out expression. "That's them."

Merekai waved. "Hi, peoples! My name's Merekai—and, weirdly, I already know who you are!"

Malik's stunned eyes traveled from Merekai to me. "I thought you said no insane fangirls!"

"Hey!" Merekai exclaimed, pouting. "I'm not a fangirl!"

I smirked. "No, but you are insane!"

Everyone laughed—except Kaiba, of course. Merekai ran and sat on the couch next to Bakura, who immediately traded seats with Ryou.

There came another knock on the door. "Oy! Lead! Open up, wouldja?"

I opened the door, revealing Dustil Morrison (MidgetOfDarkness).

Dustil is thirteen. He's not only the youngest of us, but the shortest—he only reaches chest-height on me. I always assumed he was part Scottish—his hair is dark red, and his eyes are bright green. He gets hyper easily, and always seems to be on active-mode.

"I am not your leader," I admonished, stepping back so he could enter. In response, Dustil gave me the Vulcan hand-signal thingy.

He entered the room—and his eyes widened. "Whoa," was all he said. His eyes moved from Yuugi and Yami—the former of whom was grinning at him—to Malik on the recliner, to Merekai and Ryou discussing how to take care of Siamese cats (no clue how the discussion got there, though…), to Bakura on the edge of the couch, to Kaiba standing alone against a wall.

"You weren't joking, were you?"

"Nope."

Dustil looked around again. "Whoa."

I grinned, pushing him forward a bit. "Go on, Dustil—find a seat."

Yuugi immediately waved him over. I couldn't help but giggle slightly—if you didn't count Yuugi's hair, the two boys were exactly the same height!

Next to appear was Terra Cooper (TeenTitanTerra) and John Benton (Obelisk318). They live across the street from each other, so that was no surprise. Terra knocked, and then pushed open the door.

Terra is fourteen. She's as tall as me. Her hair is blond, but she's planning on dying it black. Well, let me correct that—been planning. She's never really got around to doing it. Her eyes are hazel, and they always have a spark of mischief in them. She loves YuGiOh as much as I do—and that's saying something.

John is fourteen, as well. He's also as tall as me. He has very short blond hair—think a crew cut—and light brown eyes. He's also YuGiOh obsessed—kinda—and loves reading the fanfiction.

"Where are they?" the two of them demanded the second the door was open.

"Right this way," I replied, stepping back.

There was a short struggle, in which Terra and John tried to rush through the door at the same time. John finally resolved the problem by disentangling himself from the doorway and allowed Terra to enter. He followed her in, shutting the door behind him.

Because he wasn't watching, he crashed right into Terra, who had stopped dead in her tracks.

"Hey, what the—"

"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing. "Miriku wasn't lying! They're actually there!"

John was obviously excited, as well—but being his sarcastic self, he had to make some kind of sarcastic comment. He rolled his eyes. "I can see that," he said patiently. "Just don't start that hyper-active bounce thing you do. That is the very definition of catastrophic."

Bakura, who had been listening, sniggered. "You're good," he commented to John.

John shrugged, grinning. "You've gotta be, when your life's goal is to be a pain in the butt to everyone!"

Bakura laughed. "Don't I know it!"

"You two are insane," Terra muttered.

Grinning, they bowed. "Thank you—one can only try!" They looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

I rolled my eyes. John and Bakura—it figured. They were the perfect pair for pulling practical jokes, being sarcastic, and all around screwing things up for everyone else.

"All right," I said out loud to myself. "Who are we missing?"

Merekai looked around. "Dean's not here yet. Is he even coming?"

There was a loud knock on the door.

"I guess that answers that question," John commented, as I opened the door.

Dean Santorelli (DeanThomas) is fourteen. He's about an inch taller than me, making him the tallest of our group. Most people would refer to him as 'Black', though I find the term 'African American' much less offensive. His hair is in dreadlocks, and he has glittery blue eyes. He's the 'reasoning mind' of the group—which basically means he gets John, Terra, Dustil, Merekai, me, or any combination of us to actually think before we do something.

"Well?" he asked, arms crossed. "Are you going to let me in, or will I have to stand out here in the hall all day?"

Terra bounced up, breaking off from her discussion with Malik. "Welcome, O skeptic—your ascension to truth awaits."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Right. Just let me in already."

Grinning, we stepped back for him. I swear his jaw hit the floor when he saw the others.

He sputtered for a moment. "It's not possible!" he finally exclaimed. "It just isn't possible!"

John and Bakura sniggered. "Oh, yes it is!" They burst out laughing again.

Dean marched up to Kaiba and pointed 'the accusatory finger' at him. "I don't believe you're here."

Kaiba turned his cold gaze down at Dean. "If it makes you feel any better, neither do I."

Dean began to sputter again, while everyone else roared with laughter.

"I just don't believe this!" he finally exclaimed weakly.

Merekai shrugged, grinning smugly. "When you hang around with Miriku, this is par for the course!"

"Hey!"

"And that's payback for calling me insane!"

By now, even Dean had collapsed into laughter. Kaiba just turned away—like the cold-hearted I'm-not-even-gonna-say-it that he is.

I was one of the last ones to recover. "Anyway, I called you all here for a reason. The thing is—I have a major problem."

John nodded. "Let me guess—fangirls?"

"No, we took care of that already," Malik chimed in. "An illusion spell."

I nodded. "My only problem is that there's no more room in this place for anyone to sleep. I can only take two people, and then I'm all out."

Terra nodded. "I get your point. You need some of us to take some of them home?"

"Basically, yeah."

Dustil began to bounce in his seat. "That would be so cool!" His face turned apologetic. "But…I don't have any room at my place!" He pouted. "No fair! I wanted Malik!"

Everyone laughed. Malik tousled his hair. "No worries, short stuff. I can always crash on the couch—or in a sleeping bag, if you've got any."

I nodded. "True." I then turned to the others. "Who else wants who? Remember, I can only take two of 'em."

Terra raised her hand. "I'll take Kaiba."

I raised my eyebrows. "Kaiba? Are you sure about that?"

Terra shrugged, grinning. "Hey, someone's gotta beat some sense into the guy!"

That brought another round of laughter. Kaiba snorted, and I distinctly heard him mutter, "As if."

John nodded. "Suppose I'll take Bakura, then. Want to tag along, Ryou?"

Ryou shook his head. "I think I'll go with somebody else."

Merekai raised her hand. "I'll take you!"

Ryou thought a moment, and nodded. "Sure."

I looked around. Everyone had a character. Well, everyone except Dean.

"Dean?"

Dean held up his hands. "I'll pass, thanks."

I grinned at Yami and Yuugi. "Guess that leaves you two with me. I hope you like spaghetti, because that's really the only thing I cook well!"

Suddenly, the phone rang. I darted over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hiya, sissie!"

I let out an exasperated sigh. It was my ten-year-old little brother, Stuart. "What do you want now, Stuart?"

"I just wanted to talk to you!"

"Look, I'm in the middle of something right now!"

"No! No bein' in the middle of stuff when I wanna talk!"

"But Stuart, I—"

Suddenly, Bakura jerked the phone out of my hand. "Get lost, brat!" he snarled, and dropped it back onto the receiver.

He clapped his hands together, an evil grin on his face. "There—piece of cake!"

I groaned. "Don't ever do that again, Bakura."

Bakura shrugged, the evil grin still covering his face. "I can't make any promises on that."

I sighed. "Well, before we do anything else, I'd better put the illusion spell back on." I held out one hand. "Dissimulo!"

The flickering light flashed again, and the characters were back in their illusionary form. Yuugi's hair/eye color scheme drew a collective wince—we quickly figured out that if we didn't turn our heads too fast, it wouldn't hurt.

Dustil glanced at his watch. "Ohmigod—I gotta go!" He jumped to his feet and darted out the door, Malik tagging along behind him. "See ya, lead!"

I rolled my eyes. "Not your leader!" I yelled to his retreating form.

Yami looked curiously at me. "Why does he call you lead?"

Terra grinned. "Because a lot of times, it seems like Miriku is the leader of our group."

I shook my head. "Look, I've said this to you guys a million times—I'm not the leader of anything."

"You sound like Jake from the Animorphs," Dean commented. "Natural leader, but didn't think of himself as one. He didn't like it when Ax would call him Prince Jake, remember?"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you do, just don't start calling me 'Princess Miriku' or some weird crap like that." I looked at my watch. "Well, you guys had better go, too—it'll probably take most of the day to get settled."

Merekai nodded. "I have piano lessons soon, anyway." She sighed. "I wish my piano teacher would be attacked by a pack of rabid mutant waffles…then I wouldn't have to go to piano lessons."

Bakura grinned evilly. "I can arrange that."

"No!" everyone shouted.

Bakura held up his arms. "Fine, fine!"

Merekai bounced out the door, singing her 'I Love Waffles' song. Ryou followed without comment, though he did give Bakura an exasperated sort of look.

Bakura turned to John. "Let's go—I'd like to start causing chaos at your house."

John only grinned. The two of them walked out arm-in-arm—future partners in crime.

"This is really not gonna end well," Terra commented. She looked at Kaiba. "C'mon, let's go. I need to have a talk with John."

Kaiba snorted, but followed Terra without any other comment.

Dean left last. I heard him muttering things like "Insane!" and "Impossible!" as he exited the apartment.

Yuugi collapsed back onto the couch. "Why am I suddenly so exhausted?"

I grinned. "Maybe because you and Dustil were talking everyone else's ears off?"

Yuugi went as red as his hair, while Yami collapsed into laughter.

I grinned. "Well, now all you have to do is figure out which of you is sleeping where."

"Yami can take the guest room," Yuugi said immediately. "I don't think he'd fit very well on the couch."

I nodded. "You guys do that. I'll be in my room, if you need me."

I ran to my room, shut the door, and jumped onto my bed. I couldn't believe that this was actually happening! Yuugi and Yami were guests in my apartment!

This was going to be the best summer vacation of my entire life!