Spirit Caller

Chapter Ten

10

Challenge

The dreams kept coming. They only got more intense. Perhaps it was because of the shock that lingered in Connar from seeing Chazz lose his duel with Jaden, but this time he appeared in one of them. They were on the beach. He stood before her and a Yellow light playfully hovered all around him.

"Princeton?" she would ask him,"What is that?" he'd never speak to her, he'd only stare off at her and slowly fade away into the orb of light that circled him.

"Wait, Princeton...come back!"

THWACK.

"OW!" she would whimper again rubbing her poor pink head.

How many bumps was that now? She had lost count.

Not to mention these dreams...

On the upside, she hasn't been forgetting her deck anymore. But she seemed to be distancing herself from it. Avoiding it for whatever reason. Her friends watched her in the class room. She seemed to remain out of sorts, lost in her own thoughts and not saying much of anything to anyone.

"Man Connie's been way off, hasn't she?" Jaden asked, sighing as he watched her. He seemed to be directing the question to Syrus, as the blue haired boy seemed to know the pinkette a little better than he did.

"Tell me about it..." Syrus sighed,"Honestly, I don;t know what's been going on."

"Me either." said Jaden,"But I'd like to know... Jaden sighed and leaned back in his chair,"I've been hearing her screaming at night..."

"Me too." said Syrus,"Maybe she's having nightmares?"

"Maybe..." Though Jaden seemed to doubt this was the real reason.

"If I may chime in?" Bastion cleared his throat to demand the attention of the gossiping friends,"She has seemed a bit off ever since watching Chazz lose in that duel with Jaden." he claimed,"Perhaps he is her idol or something?"

"That guy!? No way!" Syrus scoffed waving his doubts in Bastion's theory.

"Yeah! Who would like a jerk like Chazz?" Jaden laughed,"But then again, I have heard her call his name out a few times, so maybe..."

"Show's what you know!" a female voice broke between them,"Which isn't much of anything, I'm afraid."

"Oh, hey Alexis." said Jaden as the Obelisk girl joined their little pow-wow.

"What do you mean, Alexis?" Syrus asked seeming confused by her statement,"Are we missing something?"

"Well, for starters..." Alexis began,"Chazz and Connar aren't strangers to each other." she said,"They were in the same class in Duel Prep School."

"Wow, for real?" Jaden asked. This seemed to surprise him.

"Oh yeah, sometimes I forget she went to Duel Prep School." said Syrus.

"Really, Sy?" Jaden blinked,"But I thought you and Connie were like child hood best friends or something?"

"Well...not exactly." said Syrus,"Connie and I were only really friends because my brother would babysit her once in a while." he said,"We never went to the same school or anything like that..."

"Pfff...Zane babysitting." Jaden snickered,"Man, I have got to hear about that sometime!"

"I went to school with them too." said Alexis,"To be honest, I don't really remember Connar having any friends." she blinked,"I mean, she wasn't mean or anything, she's always been pretty friendly but she also tended to keep people at arm's length." she sighed and sat down next to Jaden,"She and Chazz would be seen together a lot but I don't know if you would really consider them friends or anything." she said," It's not like they would hang out together outside of school. It was more like they had a kind of common ground with each other." she blinked, "I remember they used to duel each other too from time to time."

"Really!?" Jaden beamed,"Who usually won!?" His brown eyes sparkled in excitement. It always took Alexis by surprise how excited Jaden would get over a duel. It made her giggle.

"Well, Chazz did, usually." she said,"But I think that's only because Connar seemed to be holding back a lot..."

"Really?" Jaden blinked and seemed to suddenly get serious,"Connar holding back huh? That's interesting...I wonder why..." He paused in thought for a moment.

Well, I intend to find out...and hopefully change that!

he blinked once and gave a slight smirk.

Connar heaved a heavy sigh as she finally made it back to her room Placing her deck in its original position face down on her night stand. She treated it as a friend who she was trying to avoid all contact with, and sighed once again.

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Hm?" Connar blinked and looked over toward the door. "Who is it?"

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Ahhhh! " She screamed as the sudden banging made her jump,"All right all right, I'm coming!" she huffed,"Is there a reason you can't just answer me!?" She swung the door open in a huff, only to be greeted by a grinning brunette.

"Heya Connar! How's it hanging?" Jaden beamed and invited himself inside, wandering around the room as though he were looking for something.

"Jaden?" she blinked,"What are you doing here?"

"It's come to my attention that something's been bothering you, Connie." Jaden said as he turned toward her with a smile.

"Ah...that is...that's." She blushed and tried to avoid his gaze. His personality was so inviting, she felt like she could trust him and tell him what was going on without judgement.

But...what if I'm wrong..."

She thought to herself.

What if I do tell him everything...and he just thinks I'm weird?

Like when My father did...?

"Could you do me a favor, and quit corrupting my child's mind with nonsense? I've heard just about enough of this hocus pocus..."

She shivered and shook her head frantically.

No, he was right!

It's 'Hocus Pocus'!

It's not real...it never was!

She could feel herself trembling and clenching her fists tightly, digging her nails deeply into her skin as she began to bite down on her lip. Suddenly, she felt a firm grip on her shoulders. It wasn't forceful, but rather, warm.

"it's okay, Connie, you don't have to tell me anything." Jaden said to her as he lowered his head down so that their eyes could be level on each other,"I have another way of figuring this out...without you having to say a word."

"Ah, really, Jaden?" Connar blinked, she felt relieved that she didn't have to be forced to spill everything going on her mind to him this moment, but she was curious as to what his other method of finding out was...

He nodded and gave her a warm smile, gently taking her hand in his and turning it palm up. He began pulling her fingers away slowly from her palm and placed her deck gently at the center of it.

"Listen to me Connie..." he said to her softly, and held his gaze on hers, "I want you to duel me." he stated,"Right now."

To Be Continued