Attara: Hi! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. School kills time.
Aria: NOOOOO!!! People need a daily dose of me!
Attara: Yes, those who are going through drug withdawal…
Aria: Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!
Attara: You'll figure it out sooner or later. Well, let's start the fic!
"I thought vacation was boring, but I'd much rather have that than school!" Aria complained when she followed Devi into a class.
"Most people do, but I'm not one of them." She answered.
Devi slipped through several people just to wait for Aria to catch up.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Aria rolled her eyes.
She shrugged her red schoolbag into a more comfortable position as she trailed after Devi. Let's see… Room C-143, C-145, C-147…a-ha, C-149! Devi grabbed Aria's arm and dragged her into the class.
"Well, at least Yami is in the same homeroom as us." She pointed out the boy that was practically the exact duplicate of Yu-Gi, except for the height, hairstyle, and eyes. "Don't go lovey-dovey on him in school, got that? There's some rule about no underage dating."
"All right, all right." Aria rushed to Yami's desk.
Devi sat down in a seat not far from them and retrieved a book from her backpack. Several boys walked by her desk…which wouldn't be strange if there was any particular reason, but there was none. A large sophomore approached it as well and lowered his head so his eyes could meet her covered eyes. She was wearing completely black sunglasses indoors.
"How about I take you somewhere after school, eh?" He grinned.
"No, thank you." Devi replied. "There's a rule about no underage dating." She stared at him through the lenses.
"Rules are made to be broken." The sophomore winked. "See you later, Liana."
"Whatever…"
Devi looked at herself. Ugh, every single one of them is a pervert. She thought when she realized that all the girls had been issued shorter skirts due to the warmer weather. Devi once again became absorbed in the book during the announcements, since none of them pertained to her, anyway.
The bell rung to signal the time of the start of first period, English for Devi and Aria. Ever since the beginning of Aria's high school career, there was a constant rivalry between her and Nasawa. Today, they were just assigned twenty vocabulary words to memorize. Of course, Nasawa had done it ahead of time just to impress the multi-millionaire who didn't pay attention, Seto Kaiba.
"So, Nasawa, would you care to define the word 'abstruse'?" The teacher called on the fidgeting teenager.
"Um…" She thought over the words, hoping to somehow use a prefix or suffix to help with the definition.
She couldn't discover any.
"I'm sorry, teacher, I do not remember." Nasawa frowned.
"Does anyone know? Aria?" The teacher looked up.
Devi looked expectantly at her. She then directed a thought at her aibou when she realized that Aria had no idea what the definition was. Abstruse means not clear, abstract. You should know that.
Aria's hand immediately shot up.
"Yes, Aria?" The teacher had already been awaiting her answer.
"It means 'unclear, abstract'." She smiled at Nasawa's scowl.
"That's correct, Aria. You will be given on extra credit point for studying ahead of time."
Yeah, more like a couple hundred years ahead of time, and yet you still had to hear it from me. Devi sent another thought into Aria's mind.
The queen slumped into her chair and tuned out the rest of her class while staring out the window. She watched the exquisite morning that school had detained the students from enjoying.
The bell rang again to summon the three to gym.
"Yami!" Aria cried out to a boy standing with their other friends.
Devi sighed and sat herself on the bench, next to Kaiba. She brushed her skirt with her hands to make sure nothing was revealed unconsciously.
"So, why don't you participate?" She poked him.
"Have you inherited Aria's trait of being an annoyance?" He growled.
"No, I obtained it all by myself!" Devi grinned. "I hear that Nasawa and her friends all like you."
He narrowed his eyes. "They are childish fools."
"Oh, so anybody who likes you is a 'childish fool'?"
Something about that statement…sent chills down his spine. It hinted of something…emotional. Kaiba decided not to answer and returned to his open book.
"So, you're going to ignore me now?" Devi pretended to pout.
He continued to fix his eyes to the book that he gripped tightly in his sweating hands.
"Hm…the boys have started to look under the girls' skirts again. Looks like the beginning of spring has rekindled their perversion." Devi remarked. "As long as they don't look under—HEY! Get away from Aria!"
A boy around fifteen or sixteen years old had invited Aria to play basketball. His intentions were so obvious that his thoughts had come rushing to Devi as if it screamed for attention.
"You will get away from my sister, now!" Devi jumped off of the bench, her eyes blazing with anger.
"Hey, hey, Dev-um, I mean, Liana." Aria glanced at Devi. "Calm down, you don't want to attract any attention." She whispered. "Take a deep breath, and relax. He didn't hurt me, okay? I have this under control now."
Devi looked at Aria's calm face and nodded, "I'd hate to set anything on fire in public…" She whispered.
She walked back to the bench and sat at the same seat, next to Seto, as she watched Aria wander back to Yami.
"Hey Liana, are we still on for tonight?" A familiar voice pierced the air.
It was the sophomore that had asked her out earlier.
"No, we're not." Devi shook her head. "Remember that simple, yet important rule that I refuse to break? Well, it's still to be executed."
"Come on, what's stopping you?" He sat down and moved closer to her than a comfortable distance.
She instinctively tried to move away, but she bumped into Kaiba on the other side. Move, now. Devi demanded through telepathy. He ignored her. All right, if you want to play that way… She gave an astute smile.
"No, I already have a boyfriend." She jerked her thumb at Seto.
His eyes widened. "What?!"
The bully sneered. "If he is, then prove it."
Devi hesitated a moment. What can I do?
"Kiss him." The stranger whispered. "If you don't, then we have a date at three o'clock, today."
She leaned over and pecked Seto on the right side of his face. As if on cue, he shoved Devi into the other boy next to her.
"There." She quickly regained her composure, pretending that she had done that herself.
"Huh! That's not enough. Where's the passion, the feeling?"
Oh how I would like you to have a taste of my passion and feeling. Devi's fingers started to heat up at an extremely high temperature. She sniffed the air. Smoke? A small cloud of smoke was coming from her fingertips. Devi was burning the wooden bench.
"Huh? What's that?" The unknown sophomore glanced at her fingers.
Uh-oh, think quick. How can I divert his attention? She panicked. Quickly, Devi tapped his shoulder and grabbed Seto to kiss him fully on the mouth before he could even realize what was happening. After a moment, Kaiba pushed her away, breathless and…mad. She muffled his mouth with her hand to prevent the stranger from realizing the truth.
"Now, what do you think?"
"Hm…I guess he is your boyfriend." The sophomore totally forgot about the smoke as he turned away.
Kaiba glared at Devi, still struggling to catch his breath.
Devi licked her lips, "Not bad…not bad at all."
"Do that again, and I'll kill you." Seto growled.
"Don't worry, I won't," she smirked and got up the moment the bell rang. "I'll see you later." She headed to lunch.
As always, the gang would eat outside for their midday meal. Usually, Yu-Gi and Joey would duel on a bench or near the bushes, and today was no exception. The two were attracting crowds of spectators when they were playing their favorite past time, Duel Monsters. Joey had just played Celtic Guardian, but Yu-Gi managed to draw the faithful Dark Magician, depleting the opponent's life points down to zero. Joey grinned and complimented Yu-Gi's dueling skills, the good sportsman he was. Allowing her eyes to travel past the crowd, Devi spotted Yami and Aria talking quietly in a corner, the girl laughing every once in a while, and the boy smiling every time.
Interesting… they can talk all day long and still have something to say. Devi noted.
"So, Yami, do you remember when I beat you in the Shadow Game?" Aria asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Yami grinned, "Yes, Aria, I do."
She seems so happy with her victory, he thought, knowing very well that he had let her win.
About five thousand years earlier, Aria quickly de-spelled the Living Arrow, so Yami's Mammoth Graveyard stayed separate from her Supreme Dark Dragon. She then destroyed the Mammoth Graveyard. He collapsed to the ground, pretending to be unconscious as the darkness around them dissipated while they exited the Shadow Realm.
In reality, Yami had realized her intent of defeating him, but she had seemed to be so…determined that Yami realized it would have broken her heart if she would have lost. Yami had peeked through his eyelids and watched her movements. That was when he knew, that's when he knew that he loved her. Finally, when the sun had started to descend in the sky, Yami feigned a headache as if he was truly unconscious. The former queen of Egypt did say that he was known to be quite deceptive at times.
Aria looked around, checking for any people who were watching them. Then, she leaned over and kissed Yami quickly.
"I love you." She whispered and ran to her geometry class after the bell rang.
Devi sat at her desk. As always, she had chosen the seat in the front row.
"Memorize the distance formula." The teacher droned as she scrawled the equation onto the board. "Distance equals the square root of x sub two plus x sub one quantity squared plus y sub two plus y sub one quantity squared."
Various students jotted it down as she spoke.
"Now, do the odd-numbered problems for classwork, and if you finish early, you may start on your homework, which is the rest of the worksheet." She sat at her desk and started to grade some papers.
Devi looked down at the paper sitting in front of her. Okay, this seems simple enough She opened her notebook to a blank page and started to do each of the problems mechanically. Any and all conflicts of the real world had disappeared the moment she calculated the distances and magnitudes of vectors and segments. Geometry required a full concentration until one was…Finished. Devi sat back, relieved that both her homework and classwork were completed.
She found her thoughts drift off to what had only happened less than an hour ago. I had to distract the bully. Devi defended her actions. Then why didn't you kiss him instead? She asked herself. Because then it would lead up to other things while kissing Kaiba is just a one-time thing, she excused herself. That's not the only reason? Devi looked down at her desk. But he's mean. She pushed the thought out of her mind. Besides, I have a realm to run, right? Remember all of those arguments you made with Aria? Remember them! Devi thought of each of the reasons why she hated emotion. They just don't seem to matter anymore. She stared at the direth in her pendant. It had become the color of gray. No, I will not tolerate this. No puny mortal is worth the suffering of an entire realm. If you want to satisfy your wants, then you must resign from being queen. She shook her head. No, I will never abandon the Mornedraians!
The bell rang.
"Time for biology." Devi waited for Aria.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Aria groaned.
"That was an easy period, now wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was."
"Did you finish your homework?"
"I, uh, dozed off."
"Aria!"
"Hey, I had a busy day!"
"Oh, so flirting with Yami takes up a lot of energy, huh?"
"Hey, at least I have someone to flirt with!"
"Yeah, that's something to cherish."
Aria looked up at Devi's face. Okay, was that supposed to be sarcastic? She asked herself. It seemed as if Devi had an expression that hinted of sadness, but one couldn't be certain now, right?
The two girls walked into the lab room just in time to see Nasawa walking around Kaiba's desk. She was talking with her friends, but evidently trying to show off for the CEO.
"Circling her prey, huh?" Devi smirked.
"Go stand up to her!" Aria pushed Devi into their direction.
"Hey!" Devi scowled, "Why should I stand up to her when she has done nothing to upset me?"
"Nasawa's after Seto, duh!"
"And your point is?"
"That you shouldn't allow him to commit adultery!"
Devi stared at the two. Something jolted in her mind.
She shook her head and ignored the thought, "No, it's his free will."
Devi deliberately turned away from their direction and sat at her desk. Maybe if Nasawa wins his heart, then I'll be able to live with the fact that I could have never been with Kaiba, and be grateful that I didn't make a fool of myself by informing him of my pathetic infatuation.
"Liana!" This time, Aria had made sure to call her "sister" by her alias, "What kind of a wife are you?!"
Devi widened her eyes. "The kind that doesn't want to be known, now stop arguing with me!"
"Fine then." Aria sighed as she sat down. "You're just letting him sin…"
Devi scoffed. "Oh, yes, you don't see much of that being done nowadays, anyway."
The teacher entered the room. It was greeted by a complete silence. He was known to be the strictest teacher in the whole school district, but he seemed to favor Devi above them all. Would that mean that he would allow her to skip homework or change her grades? No, of course not. "A teacher who wants his students to excel in life would never give them time to loosen up during their first years of learning. The brain is a muscle that should be exercised vigorously everyday of one's life," he would say.
"So, Liana, how was your day?" He smiled at Devi.
"Fine." She mumbled and touched the rim of her sunglasses.
The moment Liana was enrolled into Domino High School, the young biology teacher had changed everybody's seats, the new girl being in the front of the class, where he could keep an eye on her for the whole entire period. Creepy, you say? The way he looked at her was beyond creepy. No, he wasn't that much older than the rest of the students in school. In fact, most of them might even be older. The seventeen year-old college graduate was considered to be a genius. Maybe his obsession had something to do with money, or Liana's uncle's wealthy company. Whatever it was, Devi's and Aria's arrival did not help dampen the flames. Devi's hypnotic eyes, although she had often tried to avoid eye contact and even resorted to wearing her sunglasses for that special reason, seemed to penetrate his very soul. "It's an eye problem." She showed a note to every one of her classes to prevent suspicion.
"That's good to hear." Mr. Hideaki gave a broader smile. "Today, class, we will study protists. They are to be divided into three categories: fungus-like, plantlike, and animal-like." He started to draw a large chart onto the board. "Slime molds, water molds, and sporozoans are all fungus-like protists. Multicellular algae and unicellular algae are plantlike protists. The multicellular algae is divided into rodophyta, red algae, and phaeophyta, green algae. Lastly, the ciliates and kinetoplastids are animal-like protists. Any questions?" He turned from the board and checked for any raised hands. "No?" He started to scribble down more words onto the board, "Okay, then we will continue: the diatoms of the plantlike protists have shells that are made of silicon. The dinoflagellates are bioluminescent, and chlorophyta is said to be the "precursor" of land plants. It has both chlorophyll a and b and it stores glucose as a starch, got that?" He faced the class just to find no hands raised. "Thought so. This information is pretty straightforward, and very easy for a class of gifted students to comprehend."
Devi squirmed in her chair when his gaze rested in her direction.
"Liana, can you give me an example of how protists effect our lives?" He asked.
"Well, they created the White Cliffs of Dover, African Sleeping Sickness, are in marshmallows, ice cream, and many other household products in the form of carageenan and alginate." Devi replied without hesitation.
She had always been called on in this class to "keep her senses sharp", so she had been quite ready for his question.
"Very informational, Liana, thank you." The teacher nodded, obviously impressed.
He stared at her a second longer than was appropriate, but he quickly snapped out of his reverie.
"Um, does anyone else want to add to that list?" His voice cracked.
Nasawa raised her hand, "I think shaving cream and hot chocolate mix has carageenan in it."
"That is correct, Nasawa." He nodded, "Anything else?"
Tell him that red tide is formed by dinoflagellates. Devi told Aria.
Her hand shot up, "Red tide is formed by dinoflagellates."
"Yes, very good, Aria." He smiled. "Well, seeing that we only have two minutes before the bell rings, for homework, I would like all of you to write a report of any of the items mentioned. You know the format."
He uttered the last sentence the moment the bell rung. The students bolted out of the room, crowding the tiny doorway. Devi patiently waited in her seat until the mob subsided. Mr. Hideaki looked at her from the corner of his eye, examining her delicate features. He frowned. This is called sexual harassment. He told himself and averted his eyes to the papers that were expected to be graded the next day. He glanced at Devi's desk. She had gone the second he had forced his eyes away from her. There's always tomorrow. The teacher continued with the paperwork.
"The teacher likes you!" Aria teased Devi the moment she got through the door.
"He doesn't!" She reddened.
"Oh really? Then why does he pick you all the time?"
"Because…he knows I can answer the question."
"No teacher calls on the smartest student in the class. Besides, didn't you see him look at you? Everybody noticed it."
"It's rude not to look at a student when you talk to him or her."
"But he looked at you longer than necessary!"
"All right then, he likes me, happy now?" Devi blushed furiously. "Why do you think I wear these?" She tapped her sunglasses.
"They're stylish!" Téa commented from behind.
"Do you know where Yami is?" Aria asked her before the crimson-faced girl could thank her for the compliment.
At once, Devi noticed how the color drained from Téa's cheeks. That's interesting...
She attempted to smile in order to cover it, "Well, he should be in study hall right now in room D-207."
"Good! That's my next class!" Aria squeezed through the swarm of impatient teenagers waiting to get to their classes before their teachers would mark them late.
Both Devi and Téa were left behind since the moment Aria had managed to get through a small opening, it closed just seconds later.
"What's wrong?" Devi's face expressed concern.
"What are you talking about?" Téa smiled, "I'm fine."
"No…you seem to have some sort of feeling towards Yami."
Téa looked down to the floor. "Who gave you permission to go through my mind?"
"There's no need to. It's completely obvious."
"It doesn't matter, anyway. He's Aria's husband."
"Don't worry about it, you have plenty of time to mate." Devi smirked. "The question is: do you have plenty of time to be innocent?"
Téa looked into Devi's solemn eyes and nodded. "I understand what you're saying."
"I can tell that you're still doubtful. Okay, then let me put it this way: there were not many single Egyptian women in ancient Egypt. I'm one-hundred percent positive that you fell in love, okay?"
Téa nodded, "We're here, anyway."
The girls entered the noisy room. Ten conversations were occurring all at once, and a jumble of words met Devi's ears. A note dropped at Devi's feet, and the words "Seto Kaiba" caught her eyes. She picked it up and read the message.
"Liana is Seto Kaiba's girlfriend."
Devi's hands trembled. Who wrote this?! Someone must have saw me kiss him!
The paper turned to ash and she released it onto the floor. Who wrote this?! She scanned the minds of everybody in the class, but none were thinking of the topic. She slid into her seat, staring into the abyss as the minutes passed by. Someone had seen us. She frowned. I shouldn't have done that! Devi laid her head down onto the cold surface. Someone knows? She removed her sunglasses.
"Devi! I can't believe you fell asleep in study hall!" Aria shook her awake. "The bell rang ten seconds ago. Come on!"
She dragged the girl out into the hall.
"I thought that you were always alert and ready to do anything!" Aria mumbled.
Devi continued to walk silently.
"What's wrong?" Aria asked when she realized the quiet.
I can't tell her, Devi told herself. I have to keep this to myself.
She shook her had. "Nope, nothing's wrong."
Aria sighed, "All right, come on, the limousine's here."
They stepped outside and were met with a shimmering black vehicle. Devi's face paled. He's in there. She sighed. This is going to be awkward. She deliberately waited for Aria to enter so she wouldn't have to sit next to him. What has gotten into me?
Attara: This has been, dare I say, one of the better chapters I have written. It's long and it's informational, don't you think so?
Aria: OO I didn't win that Shadow Game?!
Attara: PLEASE REVIEW!! That's the only thing that's keeping me going!