Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters so don't sue me:)
First Impressions
"How were you able to stand this stupid uniform?" complained Mokuba as he feverishly scratched the back of his neck "It makes my neck itch like crazy!".
It was also the first day of class at Domino High School, and for Mokuba it was also his very first day of high school. Mokuba was less than pleased with the blue uniform when realized just how uncomfortable it actually was. "Stop scratching yourself like that!" said Seto as he suddenly pulled Mokuba's arm away from his neck "I know it's not comfortable but you're old enough to deal with it". "Geez...what side of the bed did you wake up on?" said Mokuba as he glanced over at his brother "You've been pretty cranky for the past few days". Seto didn't respond at all and simply opened up his briefcase and began to organize some things in a portfolio. "Fine ignore me" said Mokuba with a disgruntled sigh as he headed into the living room "If you need me I'll be watching tv until the limo comes around, okay?".
Seto looked up, closed his briefcase, and just stared in the direction of the living room. He had indeed been acting strangely for the past few days, but Mokuba never would have suspected why. "I can't believe how quickly Mokuba is growing up.." thought Seto to himself "He's not a child anymore...". At that point Mokuba was fourteen years old and he was already almost as tall as Seto, but he was still the same cheerful person he had always been. Seto was having an extremely difficult time accepting that Mokuba was no longer a child, and the fact that Mokuba was already starting high school only served as another reminder. "Before I know it he'll be starting his first day of college" thought Seto to himself "And then...I'll be all alone"
"Ugh...tv at this time in the morning is so boring!" groaned Mokuba who had spent the last few minutes flipping through all the channels "Even with a satellite it's no use since there's nothing but crap on!".
Indeed there was absolutely nothing but ridiculous morning shows, game shows, talk shows, and a few news shows. After endless searching, Mokuba finally gave up and just left the tv on one of the news channels. "And in today's local news today" said the female reporter on tv " Azure Inc will hold a very large and very important fa-". Suddenly the tv turned off and as soon as Mokuba spun around he saw Seto standing there with the remote control in one hand and his silver briefcase in the other. "Hey!" cried Mokuba when he realized that Seto had turned off the tv "I was watching that!". "There's no time for that" said Seto with a serious look on his face "The limo's out front waiting for you..so you'd better hurry".
Suddenly Mokuba's face turned a bit pale and he spoke in a very soft voice. "Seto...do you think I'll make a good impression today?" said Mokuba whose eyes revealed how nervous he actually was at that moment "Do you think people will like me?". Seto suddenly tossed the remote control on the couch and put his hand on Mokuba's shoulder. Mokuba was a very social person but it was obvious that even he needed reassurance every once in awhile."I know you will" said Seto whose eyes had softened a bit at that moment "Now go get 'em kiddo". Mokuba then gave a smile, hugged his older brother, and ran out the door towards the waiting limo. "You're not a kid anymore.." thought Seto as he began to walk out towards the limo as well "But that doesn't matter since I know you're going to make me proud"
"Abigail Augustus?"
"Here!"
"Melina Adams?"
"Here!"
The entire classroom, which was in reality a dance studio of some sort, was filled with many girls of all shapes and sizes. Many of the girls were very nervous since it was their first day of college for and they could only wonder what was next. Other girls were relaxed and alot more laid back since they were already upperclassmen, so they knew the first day of school was no big deal. The teacher, who was a small black haired woman clad in a black leotard, continued calling roll and judging by the size of the class it would take awhile. In one case though, this was was a very VERY good thing.
"I've already been all over this stupid school and I still can't find my classr!" growled Tea as she stared down at the schedule of classes in her hand "Would it kill them to put a map up or something?"
After nearly being run over by Amelda, Tea continued running like crazy and made it to the university in time...but there was one little problem: She had no idea where her first class. Tea ran up and down several floors and searched in at least three of the buildings, but still no luck. "Great...this is just great!" thought Tea to herself as she ran down a hallway "First I nearly get run over and now this! What else could possibly happen?". Tea was so caught up in her thoughts that she completely failed to notice a young man carrying a large stack of books. "I can't believe I can't find my class" said the young man as he struggled to look at this class schedule while carrying the books "They should put a map on-". Before he could finish his thought though, he found himself flat on his back and his books scattered all over the ground after Tea walked into him.
"Oh my God I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention!" exclaimed Tea with a look of shock on her face when she realized what she had done "Are you alright?". The young man pulled himself up, ran a hand through his messy red hair, and looked right at Tea with his steel grey eyes. "Nah I should have been paying more attention to where I was going" said the young man with an embarassed laugh "You wouldn't believe how many people I've run into this morning". They both laughed for a moment and then the young man suddenly said "Hey do you by any chance know where the science building is? It's my first day and I'm a little lost". "We're in the same boat since it's my first day and I can't find the fine arts building" said Tea as she felt her cheeks burn red with embarassment "But I just came from the science building". "Hey it looks we ran into each other for a reason!" said the young man with a big smile on his face "I just came from the fine arts building!". They quickly pointed each other in the right direction before running off at full speed.
"I can't believe this" said Raphael with an exasperated sigh as he spoke to someone on the phone "How did my father's company go from being a pharmaceutical company to this? I don't understand it"
Raphael was about to attend a very important meeting that morning, but after reading through the agenda he was shocked to discover what his father's company had become. Azure Inc was one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world and it was also a company known for it's many advances in medicine. Unfortunately Raphael discovered that after his father had died, the interim CEO had sold out most of Azure Inc to another rival pharmaceutical company. "Obsidian Inc made an extremely generous offer, an offer that the greedy fool just couldn't resist" said the senior corporate lawyer nervously on the other end as he wiped the sweat off his brow "We had to save what was left of the company and this was the only way, but at least now we have you to ensure it never happens again". Raphael listened as the lawyer tried his best to explain why he and his colleagues had been forced to take such drastic measures, but he still wasn't convinced.
Suddenly some shouts from outside momentarily got Raphael's attention and he immediately realized who it was. "Look I'm going through with this because I gave my word" said Raphael "But we'll have to continue this conversation another time". No sooner had Raphael hung up the phone, the door to his massive office flew open and in ran Varon and shouted "We're here!".
"You're late again" said Raphael in a stern tone of voice "A few more minutes and you'd have broken your old record". "And all because Varon overslept as usual" muttered Amelda as he slowly walked in after Varon "If it was up to me I'd leave him at home"."Sorry mate" said Varon as he sat on Raphael's desk and gave a huge grin "Besides it's not like anything important is happenin' today right?". In all honesty Raphael was happy to have his two closest companions there, so it didn't really matter to him what they did. "Actually Raphael has to attend a meeting in five minutes" said Amelda as he looked down at his watch "Or did you forget?". Amelda and Varon could never seem to get along, and Raphael could only imagine the fights that went on at home now that they were roommates. "Um...no" said Varon who was obviously lying "I didn't forget about the meetin'...lets go!"
The three quickly exited the office which was located on the top level of the Azure Inc building, and got on the elevator which would take them down to the meeting. Varon began to hum mindlessly while jingling some change in his pocket. Amelda just tried his best to ignore him and looked at all the numbers on the elevator buttons. "I can imagine the look on their faces when they see what the "meeting" is all about" thought Raphael to himself as he looked at his reflection in the elevator doors "I never would have imagined any of this a few months ago". Raphael honestly didn't recognize himself at that point since he was now dressed up in a dark grey suit with a dark blue tie. He knew that in a few minutes he'd have to face a whole new group of people who he never thought he'd have to associate with in a million years. "Varon stop doing that already!" suddenly shouted Amelda "We still have floors left and I can't take it anymore!".Varon just grinned and defiantly began to jingle the change even louder. "Well at least I won't be alone" thought Raphael as he looked at the two young men also being reflected in the elevator door "So...on with the show".
"Thorin Faulkner?"
"Here!"
"Tea Gardner?"
"Is Tea Gardner here?" said the teacher as she looked down at her roll sheet "Alright...I guess I'll just have to cross her off the list". "Wait! I'm Tea Gardner!" cried Tea as she quickly opened the door and stumbled into the class "I just had a little trouble finding the class". Tea was a complete mess at that point she since she was out of breath, sweating like crazy, and she could hardly even stand up. "Miss Gardner I hope this isn't a habit" said the teacher in an extremely stern tone of voice "I greatly frown on tardiness and I expect my students to be on time...no exceptions". A few of the girls began to snicker and whisper amongst themselves, but one girl didn't bother to hide her opinion. "Talk about making a good first impression" sneered a very beautiful blonde haired girl with blue-green eyes as she looked straight at Tea "Ooh maybe we should all be late from now on".
Tea frowned and tried her best to ingore the snickers and whispers incited by the smart alecky blonde's comments while the teacher finished calling roll. "Who the hell does she think she is?" thought Tea angrily to herself as she glanced over at the blonde who had a smug grin plastered across her beautiful face "What a bitch...". "Alright class I'd like to welcome you to Modern Dance 101" said the teacher as she extended her arms "My name is Miss Esmeralda and I'm sure it'll be a pleasure working with all of you ladies".
"Raph...are we on the right floor?" said Varon as he observed their final destination as they stepped out of the elevator "This place looks more like the stage for a beauty pageant or something"
Indeed there was a long stage/runway with an enormous dark blue curtain surrounding part of it and it had the word "Azure" printed on it in sky blue letters. There were many people seated all around the stage, including many photographers and a few members of the local media. Raphael kept very quiet and at that moment a woman clad in an outlandish looking hot pink dress suit and a fuzzy hat ran over to him and exclaimed "We've been expecting you sir! Please let me show you to your seats!". The past few weeks had been strange for Raphael since people were now trying to do everything humanly possible to please him. Unfortunately they didn't realize that Raphael hated this and preferred to be treated like an ordinary person, and not some rich tyrant. Amelda silently followed Raphael and the "pink" lady, but Varon just kept saying "So this is the right place? What kind of a meetin' is this?"
"Here we are!"said the "pink" lady as she led them to the last three seats available in the very front row "I'll let them know we can start now!". "Thank you" muttered Raphael as he quickly sat down and his two companions did likewise. She quickly made her way up to the stage, picked up a microphone, and said "Ladies and gentlemen it is now my pleasure to welcome you to Azure Inc's Fall fashion show!". All of the people present clapped wildly and the curtain was finally opened to reveal the rest of the stage. "WTF?" said Varon as he looked all around "This is a fashion show? What happened to the meetin'?". Amelda didn't say anything but he seemed just as confused, so Raphael knew it was time to clear things up. "I just found out that Azure Inc isn't a pharmaceutical company anymore since it was almost completely bought out..." said Raphael in a calm yet noticeably unhappy tone as he looked straight ahead at the stage"Now it's home to some fashion designers...and this is why we're at this fashion show". Much to Raphael's surprise neither one laughed or said anything since they honestly didn't know what to say. The situation was very strange yet very serious and now was not the right time to talk about it.
Although... they both secretly had the same though: Raphael having to attend a ladies fashion show was kind of funny.
Several Hours Later
"Okay I've already been to dance and sociology" said Tea as she glanced down at her schedule "So it looks like history is my last class for today"
Despite the embarassment suffered in her first class, the rest of Tea's day was actually pretty good. The only unusual thing though was that she seemed to keep running into the same redhead she bumped into earlier that day. "It's probably just a coincidence" said Tea as she opened the door to the classroom "What? I can't believe this!". Surely enough there sat the same redhead in one of the desks and he seemed just as surprised to see her. "I guess they stick all us freshmen in the same classes huh?" said the redhead with an amused look on his face as she walked in. He was also wondering why he kept running into Tea as well..but mostly because he was still pretty embarassed. "Well I guess I'd might as well introduce myself now" said the young man as she took a seat near him"My name's Alex". "I'm Tea" said Tea who still felt felt bad about running into him "Well..at least we both found our way to this class. Alex just laughed and was about say something when he was interrupted.
"Alex? Alex DeWinters?" suddenly squealed an all too familiar and annoying voice "Ahh it is you! I just had to come in and say hi!". At that moment the same blonde girl from Tea's class, ran up and suddenly hugged Alex. She squeezed him as hard as she could and it was obvious that he didn't exactly like this. "Oh..uh it's nice to see you too Arielle" said Alex as he quickly pushed her away "Well class is about to start so catch you later". Alex obviously didn't want to talk to her and Arielle didn't understand why...until she saw Alex direct his attention to Tea. "You've just made a big mistake Late Girl" thought Arielle to herself as she gritted her teeth and stormed out the door "I've had my eye on Alex for years and he will be mine!"
"Phew..." said Alex with a big sigh of relief as he quickly looked in the direction of the door "I thought she'd never leave!". "You're not the only one" thought Tea to herself as she casually crossed her legs "I don't know what the Hell her problem is and frankly I don't care"
"And this stunning creation is the centerpiece of the fall collection!" said the "pink" lady a model walked out onto the runway "It's by the always incredible designer: Constantina!".
The outfit in question was a very hideous dress that looked like a black trashbag, wrapped over a christmas tree, and then topped off with copper wire. So far almost all of the outfits they had seen in the past hours were equally hideous, but luckily the show was almost over. The audience oohed and aahed at the dress, but not everyone was convinced. "What the Hell is that thing?" shouted Varon as he looked up at the stage "It looks like a pile of garbage!". A few people whispered and gave him some mean looks, but he didn't care. Raphael said absolutely nothing since he was trying his best not to laugh out loud at the comment. Varon's ability to always say what was on his mind never ceased to amaze Raphael. "For once I agree with Varon since that does look like a pile of garbage" thought Raphael to himself "I can't believe anyone would actually wear such a stupid thing". Amelda looked very annoyed and only wished he could switch seats with Raphael in order to punch Varon and shut him up.
"Stupid Varon..." muttered Amelda under his breath "Of course that thing is hideous! I think everyone here realizes that"
"It has a certain charm to it...but not everyone would see the work of art it truly is".
"Huh?" said Amelda as he looked up and realized that the woman sitting next to him had spoken "What did you say?". The woman had shoulder length black hair and was clad in a black dress suit, black heels, and she wore some black rimmed glasses which accentuated her brown eyes. The only exception to her all black attire was red lipstick and red nail polish "Do you think she likes black?" thought Amelda to himself "Then again everyone at this damn fashion show seems to be a weirdo".
"That outfit is very unique" said the woman as she suddenly pulled out and lit a cigarette "It takes a certain eye to appreciate the entire concept". "That thing is the ugliest thing I've ever seen" said Amelda who didn't like the fact that this woman was talking to him "And anyone who actually buys it is an idiot". Suddenly the woman knocked the ashes off of her cigarette...right onto Amelda's lap. Amelda just gritted his teeth is anger since he wasn't about to continue arguing with this obviously crazy woman. "Oops so sorry about that dahling!" said the woman not even bothering to look at Amelda "It was an accident". Amelda tried his best to ingore her, but then she took a long drag of her cigarette and exhaled the smoke...right in Amelda's face.
"THAT'S IT!" shouted Amelda as he jumped out of his seat and caused everyone around to look at him "I'VE HAD IT! IF ANYONE NEEDS ME I'LL BE ANYWHERE BUT HERE!".
He immediately began to make his way through the murmuring crowd and and out towards one of the many exits. "Talk about a drama queen!" snickered Varon as he looked at Amelda walking off "I guess it's that time of the month". Raphael looked over at the woman in black and frowned since he had seen the entire incident. "What? He couldn't take a little joke?" said the woman in black as she glanced over at Raphael "That's quite a little temper your friend has Raphael dahling".
"I expect to see you in my office tomorrow at 9am sharp" said Raphael as he narrowed his eyes andcrossed his arms"And Constantina...I wouldn't be late if I was you"
"Bye Alex!" said Tea as she and her new friend walked out of the college and onto the nearby street "See you tomorrow!"
Alex waved goodbye to her and walked off in the opposite direction. Tea was so happy that the first day was over and now she couldn't wait to just get home. "I wonder how Joey and Tristan's first day was?" thought Tea "I just hope they didn't sleep through it or get dropped out of class". Judging by the time Yugi was probably already on his way to his first class, so she'd have to speak to him later on.
Suddenly a car honked and Tea quickly spun around and saw a limo there on the street. "Hey Tea!" said Mokuba as he rolled down the window and poked his head out "Guess what? I just survived my first day at Domino High". "Domino High...nope doesn't ring a bell" said Tea with a sudden smile and a laugh "So what did you think?". "Well it was pretty good up til the end..." said Mokuba with a slight grin "That's when Captain Bringdown...I mean Seto called me and told me to get home right away and start studying". "Mokuba, Mr. Kaiba said he expects you home within the next five minutes" suddenly the chauffeur "Sorry about that...". Mokuba then rolled his eyes and then waved goodbye to Tea and was quickly on his way back to the Kaiba Mansion.
"Stupid crazy woman.." muttered Amelda as he walked down a street a few blocks away from the Azure Inc headquarters "Now everyone probably thinks that I'm just as crazy as she is!"
Amelda was in the worst possible mood at that moment and he was just wandering aimlessly since he didn't feel like going back. He was usually quite good at controlling his temper...well except when Varon was around.Unfortunately today wasn't one of those days and he felt like a complete idiot. He was pretty deep in his thoughts so he was completely unaware of what was going on. At that moment he turned a corner andsomeone suddenly bumped right into him. "Oh I'm so sorry about that" said Tea who couldn't believe that she had plowed into yet another redhead "Are you alright?". "I'm fine..." muttered Amelda as he glanced down at the girl who had bumped into him. Stupid girl...
When Tea got a good look at him, her eyes opened wide and she said "You...you were part of the Doom Organization weren't you?"
Suddenly Amelda's cold grey eyes narrowed and he hissed "How do you know that? Who are you?". "My name is Tea" said Tea as she looked up at him "I'm one of Yugi Moto's friends". Indeed he slowly began to remember the girl, but he hated the fact that she had just brought up the Doom Organization since it was something he wanted to forget. "I remember that it was Raphael, Varon, and you" said Tea as continued looking up at him "Although I'm not really sure what your name is". "And that's none of your damn business" suddenly snapped Amelda in his harshest tone of voice "And whatever else you may know...you'd better keep it to yourself". Suddenly he stormed off since he honestly didn't want to deal with this stupid girl since his day was bad enough already.
"What was his problem?" said Tea as she frowned and looked at him go off into the distance "And I thought Kaiba was the biggest jerk around...well looks like he's got competition"
To be continued...
Author's note: Thank you so much for all of the reviews. Wahh I'm so sorry that this chapter was so sucky, but it does lead up to something! The other characters should be in by the next chapter so keep an eye out! Hugs and kisses:)