THANK YOU to all reviewers! I'm in a rush now but I'll thank you each personally(and subtly! Outwit them rules! OUTWIIIIIT! -cough- 'scuse that.) later. Love y'all!
It's all in the eyes
Chapter 3Kaiba watched the new girl slide into her seat from under his arm. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled a big, fake-looking smile at Tea. Kaiba rolled his eyes. Why was she pretending to like those… dweebs, for lack of a better word? She pulled her file out of her bag and opened it. Kaiba tried to resist looking at her long legs, but failed. They were so very long and tanned, muscular without being obvious. Kaiba yanked his eyes upwards and regretted it immediately. She leaned forward to get something and Kaiba closed his eyes firmly. What was WRONG with him? He'd never been this… entranced… by anyone's physical beauty this much. He shook his head and tried to focus on the word on his laptop screen. Something hit his foot. He looked down, then up at the girl standing over him. She was tall, taller than any of the other girls in the class. She pointed down.
"Pass my pen, will you?"
"Sure." Kaiba tossed the pen to her, and nodded slightly as she caught it. She was too perfect to be true… but of course, she could never live up to him in brainpower – and what was he thinking anyway. Kaiba berated himself inwardly. Stop acting like such a… teenager!
"Thanks." She turned away sharply. Kaiba found himself regretting being so rude to her earlier – but then, who was this little self-absorbed drama queen who demanded respect from him? He studiously ignored her for the rest of the day.
"Seto? Seto…"
"Huh?" Kaiba jerked from his reverie as Mokuba waved his hand in front of his face.
"You're going to be late! I'll see you after school, at Kaiba Corp.!" Mokuba smiled and skipped out of the room. Kaiba groaned and shoved his laptop into its case.
As he emerged from the house, he saw a lavender and black Rolls Royce drive past. He rolled his eyes. Flash-in-the-pan businessmen and their shallow wives. Sometimes Kaiba really wanted to promote survival of the fittest – and of course, that was him.
At school, Kaiba swept passed a group of giggling girls and saw the Rolls Royce pull up. Who? He narrowed his eyes as that new girl stepped out, and pulled a fur coat from the limo. She walked towards him, and he began, incredibly, to worry. The part of him that was still sane snapped at him to get to class, but the nervous teenager part of him had greater influence over his legs and he stayed where he was. As the girl approached, he saw her coat for what it was, faux fur. Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief. And then wondered why. Of course he disliked people who wore animal fur, but relief?
She walked swiftly past him, talking into a cell phone, her shoulder bag swinging in time to her steps. Kaiba saw and recognised the logo – Heran Corp., and a little bell in his head went off. Oh. Right. Sahara Heran. That's why she looked vaguely familiar; he must have seen her in the business section of the paper.
"Mr. Kaiba, would you please pay attention?"
"The answer is: x is 3 and y is 7."
"You're correct, as usual, but I asked you to open the top windows. You're the only one that can reach."
Kaiba got to his feet and pulled the windows open mechanically, mind racing. He'd never done that before, never lost track of a class. And yet… Ms. Heran intrigued him.
"In more ways than one," he thought guiltily, thinking about the end part of his daydream, and sitting back in his seat.
"Thank you, Mr. Kaiba. Ms. Heran, could you get me that book."
"Why?"
Kaiba bit back a grin. That had been his question, too.
"Because I am the teacher, and you are the student."
"And yet, I still earn so much more than you. Get someone else to do it, or buy some platform shoes."
Kaiba bit his tongue. He'd almost been suspended once, a few years back, for speaking to a teacher like that. Inside, he was rooting for Sahara, but on the outside, he was calm, cool, collected.
"Ms Heran, I don't care how much money you earn. The fact is, I am your teacher and you must respond to me in a respectful manner. Like Mr. Kaiba."
"Actually, I've just stopped caring." Kaiba raised an eyebrow at the teacher, who closed her eyes, her jaw tense.
"Okay, chill. Getting hysterical is way, way old. It's time to go buy a life." Sahara stood and handed the teacher what she needed. Seto was able to judge her height at just less than six foot.
"Perfect," he found himself thinking, and then derailed that train of thought immediately.
That whole week, Kaiba couldn't get Sahara off his mind. She proved her intelligence in class twice over, and Kaiba waged an inner war with his hormones, and his emotions.
And then, it happened. A major investor pulled out. A deal folded. A strike was organised. Kaiba began turning up at school with black rings under his eyes. Sahara began to flirt outrageously with Joey. Kaiba stopped coming to school altogether. Kaiba Corp. slowly but surely was sinking. And so was Kaiba. Sahara was assigned to bring Kaiba his work, and often showed up with Joey. Slipping, slipping, slipping…
It's all over the news – Kaiba Corp., the giant multi-billion dollar company, filed for bankruptcy. Seto Kaiba was unemployed – and unemployable. Such a fall in such a short space of time made other businesses wary of the former mogul. And then, the unthinkable happened.
Seto was declared an unfit guardian, and they came to take Mokuba away.
Seto's perfect marks slipped, from all A+s to the occasional A – still brilliant, but a big drop nonetheless. He retreated into himself, selling his mansion and firing all his staff, buying a small flat. He got a job for a small corporation and kept busy. His life had fallen to pieces, and that was all he had left.
-gasp- What will happen to our favourite CEO? Will he succumb to his fate - or will the gods intercede and stop the damage before it's too late? And what about Yami - when will he step in?
Okay. The point of that was to make you make you keep reading but I think I just gave away the plot. Ah, well. (",)