It's been a long week!

I will admit, I struggled a little with this chapter. I had to lay down some crucial scenes so I can move the plot the way I want it to go, but I had a lot of trouble actually writing them. Hopefully you guys still like it!

Thanks to all of my reviewers once again, because you guys give me the courage everyday to sit my butt down and write!

Warning: A few curse words in this chapter. I don't think there's a lot, though.

I don't own Yu Gi Oh or any characters besides Erin.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Tea was grinning as she took the desk next to me in chemistry. "Hey, Erin."

I had never seen someone so chipper in the first hour of school, and most especially in a science class. "What's up?" I asked, watching her pull her books out one by one.

"Well," she began, finally sitting down and turning to face me, "are you doing anything Friday night?"

"I don't think so. Why?"

Her grin got bigger, if that was humanly possible. "Serenity and I were planning on catching a movie and then going over to my place for the night. You know, to catch up on much-needed girl time. We were wanting to know if you wanted to join us."

I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, I had made fast friends before, but I had only known these two for a day and a half, and they were already willing to invite me to hang out with them. It seemed my life at Domino High wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. "Sure."

"Great! It'll be so much fun. We'll all get to know each other better, and we'll get away from the boys for once."

I nodded. "That would be great! Thanks for inviting me."

She shrugged. "It's no biggie. Besides, what're friends for?"

"I guess that's exactly what they're for," I said, laughing at myself. At my old school, I didn't really have close friends that invited me to hang out with them a lot. When I did spend time with friends, it was usually because of an already predetermined event that brought us together, like school, sports, or parties. This was mostly my fault; I wasn't very proactive when it came to making plans with people, and my schedule was often extremely busy. Moving to Domino had given me a chance to wipe my slate clean of inconvenient events, and for that, I was extremely grateful. "When will we meet up?"

Tea brushed away my concerns with a wave of her hand. "We'll figure that out soon. We still have two days before Friday. That's plenty of time to make plans."

We were forced to end our conversation when our teacher began the lesson for the day, but that didn't stop the excited butterflies in my chest.

Friday was now my new motivation to not murder my teachers for their abuse to my brain.

Lunch was much more comfortable. I brought my lunch to avoid having to go through the long line again, so I got to the table before most of the group. The only person that had beaten me was Bakura, who gave me a shy smile when I approached the table.

"Hi," I said as I sat down in the same chair I had yesterday, which was across the table from him, "we really didn't get to talk much on Monday. How are you?"

Bakura seemed surprised that I was even speaking to him. His smile faltered. "Oh, I'm quite alright. How about you?"

"I'm okay. We're at school; that's the best I can do." I joked, pulling my bologna sandwich out of my lunch bag. Noticing that no one else from the group was nearby, I didn't want to sit in another awkward silence like I had on my first day. "Hey, did you hear about that haunted house that's opening on Saturday? Sounds like it's supposed to be pretty creepy." I was glad that I had actually been listening to commercials on the radio on the drive to school for once.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't." He said sheepishly, looking down at his salad. "I'm a bit squeamish about those things."

"Oh," I decided to change the subject for his sake, not wanting to go on about something he didn't like. "So, um, do you play Duel Monsters, too?"

Bakura glanced up at me again. "Yes, but not as much as I used to." He chuckled nervously. "I'm not exactly an expert duelist like Yugi or Atem."

"That makes two of us." I smiled at him before taking a bite of my sandwich.

Joey and Tristan chose then to pop up, and both took seats closer to Bakura than me. That made it weird, because Joey had sat next to me for the past two days. He and Tea made me feel more at ease around everyone else, since I was better acquainted with the two of them. Maybe he decided I knew everyone well enough to sit next to someone new, kind of like when your dad lets go of the seat of your bike without telling you when you first get your training wheels taken off.

Or maybe Joey was just a teenage boy and didn't think about those kinds of things, and an open seat was an open seat.

"Heya, Erin!" Joey greeted when he sat down, his lopsided grin forever on his face. "How's life treatin' ya?"

"Hey, guys. I'm just fine," I replied. "You?"

He shrugged. "I'm alright."

"Hey," Tristan interrupted, "have you guys heard about Death Dungeon?"

Joey and I perked up at the mention of the haunted house. "Yeah, actually, Bakura and I were just talking about it." I said, winking at Bakura. I don't know why I did that, but it felt right. Probably to show him that our pathetic attempt at small talk had not been forgotten.

"Doesn't that place open on Saturday?" Joey asked, shoveling a forkful of lasagna into his mouth.

"Yup." I replied before Tristan could.

Tristan opened his carton of milk. "We should go on opening day! It'll be so cool!"

"What'll be so cool?" Tea asked, seating herself next to me, Yugi on her other side.

"There's a haunted house opening on Saturday!" Joey explained, barely containing the eagerness in his voice. "It's supposed to be super freaky. Not just one of those stupid carnival trailers for little kids, but an actual underground tunnel unit decorated to look like a dungeon! The job of the people working there is to scare the absolute living crap out of you!"

Tea made a face. "Scary isn't really my thing."

"Yeah," Yugi added, "and I've seen enough freaky things to last a lifetime." He and Tea exchanged a knowing look.

"Oh, come on!" Tristan said, pulling out a flyer and throwing it across the table at Tea. "It's the place to go this year! We could go as a group!"

Tea picked up the flyer with about as much interest as she might pick up a dead spider in a napkin. She looked it over, holding it open so Yugi and I could read it, too. Pictures of a medieval-looking passageway full of people in costumes leering at the camera were scattered all over it. Bold text proclaimed Death Dungeon to be "the scariest place on earth!"

I didn't believe that statement. Those people had obviously never been in a parking garage in a bad part of town at midnight. That was the scariest place on earth in my opinion.

"Did it ever occur to you guys to read the fine print?" Tea asked, pointing to a paragraph at the bottom of the flyer, which was in much smaller text than the rest. "'Tickets must be purchased online. Must be 18 years or older to purchase tickets. Tickets are limited; first come, first served.' How much do you wanna bet that they're already sold out?"

"Well, aren't you just the party pooper of the century." Duke said, he and Serenity sitting down next to Tea and Yugi.

"I'm just telling you guys that it's probably a bust. Besides, none of us are even eighteen yet."

"Silly Tea," Joey said, "that's what parents are for!"

The chair next to me was pulled back, and I looked over to find Atem setting his tray down in front of it. "Hey," I said as he sat down.

He smiled at me. "Hi."

The debate was still going on, everyone else too focused on it to acknowledge Atem. "I know for a fact that my parents would never let me go to a place like that." Tea said, sliding the flyer back across the table at Tristan.

"Please, Tea?" Tristan begged. "Come on, Erin. Back me up here!"

I raised my eyebrows at being put on the spot. "I mean, it looks pretty fun. But if Tea and Yugi don't want to do it, then I think that's their choice."

"What are you guys arguing about?" Atem asked.

"Death Dungeon is opening on Saturday, but only three of us want to go!" Joey said, looking at the flyer in Tristan's hand forlornly.

"What's...Death Dungeon?" Atem said the words like they had very literal meaning, as if he didn't quite understand that it was just the name of a fake place.

Tea took the liberty of explaining it for the rest of us. "It's a haunted house that a company set up for Halloween." She turned back to the other boys. "And Yugi's right – we've all had enough scary to last us for the rest of our lives."

I took another bite of my sandwich and chewed contemplatively, letting the argument go on without me. What could this group of teenagers have possibly been through that scarred them enough for them to not even want to go to a haunted house? Was there something that I was missing?

"You just don't want to ask your parents to buy tickets." Duke said, messing with his hair. "If you guys want, I'll buy them for you, and you can pay me back later."

Tea rolled her eyes. "That is not the reason, and you know it, Duke."

Duke didn't answer. He was too busy typing something into his smartphone. "It says here that tickets cost thirty dollars per person."

"Thirty dollars?!" Tristan exclaimed. "That's, like, my entire savings!"

"That's just sad." Joey said, shaking his head. "Does it say anything about what dates haven't sold out yet?"

Duke scrolled down. "Uh...well, looks like opening day's out for you guys. And Halloween is, too. But there's always the day before Halloween, and this Friday. Oh, wait...no, the day before Halloween's sold out, too."

"Well, then we're definitely not going, because Erin, Serenity, and I were going to see a movie on Friday." Tea interjected.

"Ya couldn't reschedule for another night?" Joey asked incredulously. "It's a movie, not a concert!"

Tea's glare spoke for her. "Girl time." She said simply. Serenity nodded to show she was on Tea's side. I guessed I should be doing the same, but given the fact that I was a new member of the group and could be at risk of being kicked out, I was afraid of joining this argument. I turned my full attention to my lunch.

"Erin?" Joey asked across the table. I cringed inwardly, mentally cursing him for bringing me back into this. "Would ya rather go to a movie or to the best haunted house in town?"

I glanced up to find that again, everyone was staring at me. Tea was pleading with her eyes, but then again, so were Joey and Tristan. I took longer than necessary to chew my food. When I realized they weren't going to let my silence answer for me, I swallowed and shook my head. "Sorry, but Tea's right. I already agreed to go to the movies with her and Serenity. And we wouldn't be spending nearly as much money, anyway. Couldn't you guys find a cheaper haunted house that's open on Halloween?"

Tristan and Joey's shoulders sagged. "Maybe, but this is the chance of a lifetime!" Tristan said.

"Sorry," Tea shrugged and returned to her salad, "maybe next year." She gave me a thankful look, but I couldn't make myself return it. Barely three days into this group, and I was already expected to debate important hang-out issues with them? That wasn't fair to me. Plus, I may have just offended the two boys. I glared down at my sandwich, mad at myself for dangling the haunted house in front of their noses before Tea and Yugi sat down, then pulling the line in before they could grasp it.

These were the only people I had really hit it off with at Domino High. Hopefully Joey and Tristan would forgive me in the long run.

I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize it when the bell had rung.

"You know," Duke said, jerking me out of my thoughts, "I think you're supposed to eat the sandwich, not try to murder it with your eyes."

I looked around to find that everyone else except for Tea and Joey, who were still in their seats, waiting for me to respond, had stood. Duke was next to Serenity, his green eyes sparkling in amusement at my inattention.

My face grew red, and I quickly grabbed my sandwich and shoved it back into its container before pushing my chair back from the table. "Sorry. I zoned out."

"I'll bet you did." Duke snorted.

"Be one with the sandwich, Erin." Tristan said, wiggling his fingers at me as he, Duke, and Serenity began their trek back to class.

I shook my head, a sheepish smile on my face, and grabbed my lunch box. Atem and Yugi hadn't left yet, and were waiting with Joey and Tea. "Game Shop, right, Erin?" Yugi asked.

"Right." I said. "But only if Tea will help me with our chemistry homework. I seriously suck at science."

"You betcha." Tea replied.

"Great!" I nodded. "Then Game Shop it is. See you guys later, then?"

Atem and Yugi inclined their heads in affirmation. "Goodbye, Erin." Atem added before they turned and walked away.

"Bye." I said, doubting that he heard me.

"Well," Joey hooked his arm with mine, eliciting a surprised look on my face. It seemed he had gotten over the haunted house argument quicker than I thought he would. "It's time to learn about some more of them Crusades!"

Tea rolled her eyes as we exited the cafeteria. "Joey, we covered the Crusades last class. We're on the Magna Carta now."

"Oh, right. I knew that."

"Sure you did. I bet you were sleeping."

"Was not!" Joey interjected, then leaned closer to me so Tea wouldn't hear his next words. "Mind if I borrow your notes?"

I snorted. "Sure, Joey."

The rest of the day went by as normal, and after I took Miri home (with a promise that I would be back to make dinner this time if Mom wasn't), I found myself walking through the front door of Kame Games, the bell jingling over my head. I didn't even notice the customer standing at one of the glass shelves of cards until I walked right past him.

"How's it going, Erin?" My eyes widened at the cocky, honey-laced voice, but then narrowed in anger. I whirled around to find none other than Devon smirking at me.

"What are you doing here?" The stupidest question I could've possibly asked in a store slipped from my mouth before I could stop it.

His smirk grew wider, and he raised his eyebrows. "Grocery shopping."

I shook off his sarcastic remark. "I didn't pin you as the type of guy to play Duel Monsters."

The smirk turned into a sly smile. "And what type is that?"

"Conceited. Holier than thou. Jock. Take your pick." I meant for my words to bite at his ego, but they didn't seem to have an effect. He hardly looked fazed. "Or, you know, I could just drop the fancy lingo and call you an asshole."

"Is this how you flirt, Stephenson?" He asked, taking a step closer. "Pointless banter and hopeless insults?"

Footsteps came down the stairs. Yugi, Atem, and their grandfather appeared behind the counter. I guessed Mr. Muto had taken a bathroom break or something, giving Devon a convenient opening to taunt me again.

I lowered my voice. "No. It's how I tell people to get lost."

"Is there something wrong?" Mr. Muto asked, coming out from behind the counter, followed closely by his two grandsons. "Are you looking for something that's not on display?"

Devon broke our staring contest so he could smile charmingly at the old man. "No, I was just browsing. I'm a beginner."

Atem looked between Devon and me, trying to calculate the severity of our conversation. Probably going off my death glare, he seemed to decide it had been some kind of disagreement, and moved closer to hover protectively next to me. The only person who showed any signs of noticing this action was Devon, but he was unable to say anything, because Mr. Muto had begun to speak.

"Well, then. You're in the wrong section! Beginner packs are over here." He lead Devon over to a shelf across the store. Devon watched Atem and me over his shoulder, the satisfied smirk back on his face.

I glared back at him, hoping to channel all of my hate into my eyes so it would become two laser beams to burn the smirk off his lips. Unfortunately for me, no laser beams formed. Unfortunately for Devon, however, I noticed Atem giving him a sour look as well.

"Come on, Erin." Yugi said. "Let's go upstairs."

I nodded and followed the two boys up the steps at the back of the store, not bothering to check to see if Devon was still watching us.

"Was he trying to hurt you?" Atem asked in a hushed whisper as we ascended the stairs.

Surprised at his sudden concern for me, I glanced at him and shook my head. "No. He was just being a jerk." I tried to pretend like it was nothing for Atem's sake.

However, my subconscious thought otherwise. Something about the way Devon knew exactly how to push my buttons made my skin crawl. He had done that yesterday, too, during class. He'd said just the right words to rub me wrong and piss me off. How was he doing that?

Stop thinking so much, I told myself, he's just a stuck-up jerk. Nothing more.

I pursed my lips and continued up the stairs. Now was not the time to be getting hung up over a dirtbag teenage boy.

Thursday got off to a bumpy start when I had to face Devon again in first hour, but I was smarter this time, and managed to slip out of class before anyone else could to avoid a confrontation with him. My hope was that by giving him the cold shoulder, he'd finally get the memo and leave me alone.

Because that's how I solved my problems: by essentially avoiding them.

Atem and I exchanged a few pieces of conversation in second hour, but I was stumped for what exactly to talk about with him besides Duel Monsters, which seemed like a comfortable topic for both of us. He was kind and considerate when I didn't understand something, and there was never a long silence. Still, I felt like I needed to get to know everyone better so talking to them would be less difficult.

The conversation at lunch was much more sporadic and less passionate than the argument over Death Dungeon the day before. I mostly sat back and let the others do the talking, trying to get a feel for what they all liked to talk about so that the next time I was put in an awkward situation with any of them, I had an ice breaker. So far, I had deduced that Tea was into a TV show called All For One, Joey was a basketball fan, and Tristan had an intense dislike for the uncleanliness of public bathrooms. Yugi, as I had already noted, was big on Duel Monsters, but he also liked mystery books because he was a good puzzle solver. Atem was amazing at video games, according to the rest of the group.

I thought back to all of my experience battling my brother over Call of Duty and made a mental note to challenge him later, when we were better friends. For now, I was content just answering any questions they asked me and listening to their banter.

When the bell rang, Atem joined me to head to art. I was quickly becoming used to having him right next to me, since we had two classes and lunch together, and the seating at the lunch table appeared to have been rearranged so we were forced to sit by each other. I found that I didn't mind so much anymore now that I knew he didn't hate me. It felt almost natural for the two of us to be side by side.

We sat in the same place as we had on Tuesday. As soon as everyone was in their seats, Mr. Kayasaki immediately began going into detail about our scenery project, preventing Astrid from giving me a piece of her mind about my behavior last class. I silently thanked my art teacher for his oblivious diversion. Dealing with Astrid and Co. was not high on my list of priorities today. Or ever.

Once I had grabbed my paintbrush, paints, and a fresh sheet of paper, I sat down with a sigh.

"Tough day?" Atem asked jokingly as he watched me sketch the beginnings of my landscape.

I snorted and focused in on a line that I wasn't getting quite right. "Not really. Just a long one."

He dipped a paintbrush in paint and swiped it across his paper. I raised my eyebrows at his careless maneuver, but didn't comment. For all I knew, that could be his "process."

"You didn't talk much at lunch. Is there something wrong?" He continued with his random brush strokes, gradually covering his surface in inconsistent patches of green.

"No. I just wasn't in the mood to talk today." Those words were extremely foreign coming out of my mouth. Talking had never been an issue with me.

Atem glanced at me, too, as if picking up on my surprise at my statement. Like he knew that when I didn't talk, there was definitely something off. He hmm'd at my statement and continued to add splotches of paint wherever he saw white. Now, though not as spotty as it had been before, the streaks were all different transparencies because he hadn't been consistent with the layers.

I was pretty sure that if I didn't stop him soon, he would have an even bigger mess on his hands. "Uh, you know, it helps if you have a mental picture of what you're painting."

He gave me a questioning look. My eyes darted from him to the paper, and he realized what I was saying. He pointed to his monstrosity. "Oh. Right. Well, this was going to be grass, you see." He tried to take command of the situation by giving me a falsely confident undertone in his voice, but I saw right through it.

"Your entire painting was going to just be grass?" I bit back a smile, instead raising an eyebrow dubiously.

"Isn't that what the assignment is? To paint a landscape?"

I let my smile come onto my face in the form of a small smirk, trying not to offend him. "Yeah, but...it's grass."

He cocked his head. "So what's the big deal?"

"Grass is everywhere. We see it all the time. It's kind of an...well, it's not really...interesting...to put in a painting. It's too generic."

Amethyst eyes studied my expression, and then turned back to the picture he was painting, then back to me. I prayed I hadn't just offended him. My mouth tended to voice my thoughts out loud when I wasn't careful, and I had let it go too far this time.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't –"

"No, no. I get it. Grass is boring when you see it every day." His voice wasn't offended, nor did it carry any sarcastic lilt to it. "What could I do to make it interesting?"

I bit my lip. What I wanted to say was, "Throw the paper away and start over, first of all," but I knew that would be extremely rude and condescending. I settled with a much nicer, "Maybe add in some color, like flowers or animals or something in the grass. So there's more depth to it."

He nodded, but then laughed. "I think there's just one problem with that."

My eyebrows furrowed together. "What's that?"

"I can't paint to save my life."

It was my turn to laugh. "I kind of deduced that. Here," I took his paintbrush from him, cleaned it, and dipped it into the white paint on my pallet before placing it back in his hand, "I'll help you outline a dog."

He was about to ask what I meant by help when I placed my hand over his to guide his paintbrush over the paper like I would if he were Miri. I gasped as tingles began in my fingertips when my skin made contact with his. It took all of my willpower to keep myself from quickly retracting my arm. Mentally chiding myself for overreacting again, I chose to focus on drawing the silhouette of a canine laying down and not on the fireworks display going on in my hand.

Was I imagining things again, or was I really feeling this strange sensation, the likes of which I had never felt before?

"There." When I decided the outline was good enough, I let go of his hand much too brusquely in an attempt to stop the tingles. I could still feel them radiating through my veins, but they had dulled enough to not be distracting after I released him. I flexed my fingers once to make sure my circulation hadn't just been cut off or something. Somehow.

He watched me carefully. He might have been doing that since I had nonchalantly grabbed his hand and took charge of his painting, but I wasn't sure. Had he felt it, too?

I cleared my throat to alleviate the awkward silence. "Well, uh, there's your dog." Without another word, I picked up my pencil and began working on my landscape again, pretending like nothing had happened. I thanked my lucky stars that my blush was hidden beneath my skin tone. Dreaming about him was fine. Hearing him talk to me when he wasn't there was alright, albeit moderately insane. But feeling the stupid freaking tingling when I touched him? That was going too far. I felt like I had just been inserted into a really bad, clichéd teenage romance novel. And that was not okay.

It took him a few moments to finally shake himself out of his thoughts and turn his eyes back to his painting, but I could feel the tension and the questions hanging in the air. Luckily, he didn't press the matter, seeming to understand my sudden mood swing. I closed my eyes and prayed to anyone who would listen that he didn't think I was crazy or bipolar.

"Thank you." He said softly, glancing back at me.

I forced a smile when I looked back at him, trying my best to hide my thoughts. "No problem."

Except that I think I may have a crush on you.

Astrid's lip curled in disgust at the teenagers across the room. What right did that bitch have to just waltz in and steal the one boy that Astrid actually had to work to charm? She had been enjoying the challenge, but Erin made it about a million times harder.

She could see how smitten Atem was with Erin, not that the new girl seemed to notice. When she wasn't looking, his eyes were always on her. She was completely oblivious! That made Astrid's hate for her grow even stronger. Erin hadn't even had to try, but yet there she was, with Atem wrapped around her little finger. Astrid seethed with anger.

Why was it that every man that she actually loved ended up in someone else's arms? Was she just that pushy?

Astrid's hand balled into a fist around her paintbrush. No. She was tired of losing this stupid game. And Erin wasn't going to win this one, especially not after what she had said to her on Tuesday. The new girl was going down. She didn't deserve to be holding his hand and laughing with him.

As far as Astrid was concerned, Erin Stephenson was dead.

Uh oh. Astrid is not a happy camper right now. I didn't even plan to write her part of the scene, but I felt like you guys needed to see it. Weird instincts FTW!

I know this chapter seemed really slow, and I skipped around on the school days a lot, but sometimes, that's how it is. Classes just fly by when you're busy. But hey, I got in the scene with Erin and Atem! Did you guys think that was cute? And we also got to see Erin's inner bossy side come out. Could it be a blast from the past when she was once used to keeping up with one of the most stubborn and take-charge people ever? You decide!

How was the scene with Devon? Am I taking Erin's hatred for him a little too far?

And what does Death Dungeon have to do with any of this, you ask? Well, you'll find out in good time, my friends!

I: Haha yes, I grew up with Prince of Egypt! That's one of my favorite movies of all time. It was only a matter of time before some of it seeped into my writing...

And yes, Kaiba does know about the past, but the way I see it right now, I don't think Sagira played a big role in the battle against Zorc. She and Kaiba were always in different places at different times in Memory World, what with some inconvenient distractions for Sagira. It's part of the reason she even got herself into this mess in the first place. I promise it'll make more sense later on! And he will have some things to do with their past. That is a guarantee.

I agree with your last comment. I am definitely going to be more studious with my research now that I'll be going more in-depth with the culture and history as the story progresses. Thank you for the heads-up!

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Don't be shy – please tell me what you think in a review!

-creativelybored