Hi everyone, here is the next chapter!

I hope everyone is doing okay! There might be delayed posts after this one, but I'll try my best to get another upload out soon.

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It's time to make our way to Duel Academy.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Writey x

Jaden's POV

Excited.

That was the word I would have used to describe my mood as Friday morning rolled around.

I'd got up bright and early, earlier than I perhaps had too but, I was excited, it was the day I was going back to Duel Academy.

I'd managed to wake my dad up even before he needed to get up for work which was usually around 6:45, but I suppose that was payback for all the times he'd done the same thing to me whilst I was growing up.

Last night, once I'd gotten back from the card shop, I'd planned everything I would need for the days I was away. I'd packed mostly everything last night before I went to bed.

I'd also spoken to Amalie about everything she would need, it wasn't just a quick packing process for her.

She'd gone over every minor detail, every little thing she might need which meant our conversation had ended up taking just over two hours before she'd finally decided that she was ready to go.

I'd eventually got to bed about midnight, but I couldn't really sleep.

I kept replaying these two thoughts in my head over and over again.

One: everything would go brilliantly, and everyone would have an amazing time.

Two: no one would talk to me because of the way I left the last time they all saw me, and everything would be a total disaster.

They were the two scenarios that kept playing in my head again this morning as I sat eating my breakfast cereals.

I'd woken up extremely excited this morning and, don't get me wrong, I still was but there was something nagging in the back of my head and it wouldn't go away.

Yes, I'd made up with Syrus, Zane and Bastion.

But that wasn't everyone and there was one person in particular that I really needed to talk too but wasn't sure how it would go.

I was just worried that I wouldn't get the reception that I was hoping for. I didn't want to be disappointed.

I'd been so preoccupied in my thoughts that I hadn't realised my mum had sat down next to me.

Mum had been nagging me last night to make a list of everything I needed for the trip.

See, if I hadn't mentioned it already, my mum liked to be organised.

Whereas, me on the other hand, I wasn't at all organised.

However last night I had actually surprised my mum when I'd told her that I was already packed.

When she had rattled off the list she had made for me to check against, I think she was proud that I did actually have everything there already to go the night before.

"Jaden….. Jaden…" my mum said as I zoned out of my own thoughts.

I came out of my daze and looked at her, "yes, mum sorry, I was daydreaming."

"Did you hear what I said."

I hadn't heard what she had said, and she took my five second silence as justification for that fact.

"I said, are you sure you have everything, I don't want to have to cancel our plans this weekend in order to have to send something over to you."

I smiled, she would never change but she was my mum and I didn't want her too.

I finished up my breakfast and went upstairs to get ready.

The good thing was I was in absolutely no rush.

Everybody else except for mum had gone out as well so there wasn't the usual wait for the bathroom.

I made sure that I did everything thoroughly before heading to get dressed.

I had considered wearing my old uniform but I decided it probably wouldn't fit me and would be a bit cheesy, so I put on some casual clothes for the arrival, leaving all the smart stuff for the actual reunion itself.

It wasn't going to be long before Amalie arrived. She was going to drive us to the airport and her family had lent her the car for the weekend.

She'd told them that they could get it from the airport after we had gone and she would tell them where she was going to park it, but they insisted that she would need it when she got back from the trip on Sunday.

My mum helped me move all my stuff outside, well when I say everything, I was only really taking one bag with me so there wasn't a lot, but she insisted that she'd help.

Amalie arrived not long after and put my bag in the back of the car.

DK, who had apparently packed everything he owned into a bag as well, and Yubel went and sat in the back seat of the car whilst they waited for the two of us.

Mum came out and said hello to Amalie before my friend got into the driver's seat to give us some privacy.

"You know Jaden," my mum said with a serious expression on her face, "everything will be okay this weekend, I know you're worried about it, but you'll be fine."

That's the other thing, mum can always sense when I'm uneasy or worried, it was just this little connection we had with each other.

"Thank Muma," I said giving her a hug and getting into the car.

I climbed in next to Amalie and she smiled at me, "you know your mum is a gem."

I smiled at her, "you are correct," I said to my friend as we pulled away from the driveway.

I waved goodbye, told her to enjoy the weekend away with the family and we headed for New Domino Airport.

The journey wasn't taking us as long as I had anticipated. Amalie knew most of the back roads, so we managed to miss most of the traffic that was being reported on the radio.

"So…." Amalie said, clearly trying to make light conversation.

Other than our phone call and day at the card shop yesterday I realised that we didn't really know a lot about each other. I smiled as she twiddled her thumbs, she really hadn't thought of anything to say to me.

I laughed, "right, I've got a game," I said.

She glanced at me looking sceptical, "and what is that?"

"We have 21 questions to ask each other, that way we can kill some time and get to know each other."

She smiled at me and nodded.

For the next forty minutes or so minutes I found out that Amalie had two cats, had a brother called Quinton and her favourite movie was Mama Mia.

"It's a great movie okay, you can't tell me you don't love the songs, everybody has heard them," she said desperately.

Amalie had been trying to convince me to watch the movie for the remainder of the journey because I told her that I'd never seen Mama Mia.

We arrived at the parking for our terminal not long after I had promised Amalie I would watch the movie with her on the plane.

We found a parking spot and hauled our luggage out of the car.

Amalie had also decided that because I only had one bag, I could carry one of the two she had because it was the 'gentlemanly thing to do.'

Once we had found the correct entrance, we made our way over to the check – in area where Zane, Syrus, Bastion and a dark-haired girl I didn't recognise stood waiting for us.

"Wow," Syrus said smiling at me, "you're actually on time for a change, I was expecting to miss our flight."

"HA, HA, Syrus very funny," I said dropping Amalie's bag next to the counter.

"You must be a changed man Jaden," Bastion said smiling.

He had his arm around the dark-haired girl I didn't recognise and looked at her once I realised this, "Oh right, Jaden, I'd like to introduce you to Juniper, my girlfriend."

I must have been stood for a while because Zane and Syrus started laughing.

It wasn't that I was trying to be rude, I just wasn't expecting anyone to bring their partners.

I suddenly realised that Amalie must look like my girlfriend and I needed to explain who she was but before I could, she swept in and introduced herself.

"Hi," she said giving Juniper a hug, "I'm Amalie, unfortunately for him, I am not Jaden's girlfriend, but we do now work together, and we also went to school together, but he doesn't remember that."

"Well, it's good to know I won't be the only girl on our journey to Duel Academy," Juniper said laughing with Amalie as they headed off towards a queue

I must have gone bright red because all three of the boys started laughing at me when the two girls headed off to join the check – in queue.

"Honestly Jaden, I don't know what's better, the fact that you aren't late or the person you have brought with you might be even funnier than you," Zane said through his laughs.

Zane helped me grab Amalie's bags and we made our way over to join the girls at the check in line.

After we had checked in and Amalie had finished introducing herself, we made our way to get some food before we got on the plane. Zane had ensured us that we would have plenty of time before we needed to board.

Amalie explained to the guys about her decision to come on the trip and the fact that she was going to DA.

Juniper told us all about how her and Bastion had met, "yeah, so, basically, I met Mr Misawa here at our work," she said making a boop noise as she poked his nose.

It was nice to see the guys so happy; I was just hoping that everyone else would be happy to see me when I arrived.

We continued eating and having a few drinks until then Zane went to check our boarding time.

Now, it probably would have been smart for us to have checked our boarding time earlier but for whatever reason we didn't, and it almost made us late.

You see, Zane had coming rushing back, downed his drink and told us that we only had five minutes until our gate closed for boarding. I thought this was strange since it was a private plane but apparently, they weren't going to wait for us either way.

We only just about made it because Amalie fell over twice and then I had to stop because I was laughing at her so much.

However, once we had boarded the plane, we all got comfortable in the luxury seats we had been provided.

The flight wasn't very long, it was only going to take about an hour, so I put on the news and tried to fall asleep.

Suddenly a bit of news caught my attention and I called Zane, Syrus and Bastion over whilst the girls slept.

"What is it Jay," Syrus said, half asleep still from his nap.

I turned up the TV a bit louder so we could all hear exactly what was being said by the news broadcasters.

"We go live to our reporter Thomas Smith who is at the scene now, Thomas."

"Thank you, Beth, yes, I'm here at the Le'Duprah Hotel where the Russian number one ranked duellist Victor Stoichiev was staying when he apparently disappeared after his duel against Zane Truesdale on Tuesday night. One guest in the hotel room said that they heard screaming and then everything went quiet, but Mr Stoichiev has not yet been seen or heard from since the report."

They showed an image of the hotel before continuing on.

"It is not known where Stoichiev could be, but detectives believe that he was abducted. Questions are ongoing and some believe Zane Truesdale could have something to do with the incident after an altercation before there duel but nothing concrete has yet come through, I've been Tom Smith, back to the studio."

Everyone was shocked.

I looked at Zane, "Zane please tell me…."

I didn't want to even think he could do something bad, but I did see the confrontation with Stoichiev.

Zane looked pale, "no Jaden, I didn't have anything to do with this, as much as he might have got what he deserved I would never wish harm on my competitors."

I sighed with relief.

I knew Zane wouldn't do such a thing but now he was a suspect.

More to the point, who would do such a cruel thing.

Bastion, Zane and Syrus went back to their seats whilst I tried to work out if I remembered anything suspicious.

For the remainder of the plane journey, we explained to Amalie and Juniper what we had saw and then sat in silence until we reached our destination.

Once we landed, Amalie tried to lift spirits on our way to the ferry port.

She told everyone about our 21-question game and some of the funny things we told each other, which seemed to lift the mood.

I could tell Zane was still bothered by Stoichiev's disappearance, but he seemed to lighten up a little once Amalie made a joke about my sense of style.

Once we had gathered our belongings, we headed for the boat terminal which was actually connected to the airport itself.

On the walk over, the others walked side by side and I just kept to myself.

I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I was going to see everyone again, it felt kind of strange, just being invited without speaking to everyone, I felt like I was being let off for being a jerk.

Amalie casually slipped away from her conversation with Zane and fell in time with my walk.

"Yuki," she said in her usual assertive tone, "stop being so boring."

I smiled at her, "yeah, one second," I said hoping she would walk on.

Except she didn't, she just walked and stayed next to me.

"You know Jaden, Syrus filled me in earlier about everything that happened at the end of the Academy with you guys," she said almost checking to see if it was okay for her to continue.

I gave her a go-ahead kind of look and she smiled.

"People grow up Jaden. What you did, leaving without saying goodbye, it was wrong. I don't know why you just left, you don't have to tell me but these people, they obviously care about you, I can see it. You just have to let yourself see it as well."

I looked up at Amalie and she smiled at me.

For all the joking and messing around we had together, she really did know me and it was nice.

We haven't even known each other that long and I already feel like I could tell her anything, like she was one of my best friends.

We walked and talked for a little while, she explained that Syrus had shared some details about our time at DA which I didn't mind because it was as much his experience as it was mine.

I just filled her in on all the bits that Syrus had missed and to my surprise, she acted as if it was nothing.

"I tell you what, if my year at DA is anything like that then I'll struggle not going back for another year," she said in awe, "it sounded so action packed, except for the whole 'end of the world' bit."

It was good that it didn't scare her, in a way it made me feel like I might be able to tell my family what happened at DA at some point, that Josh would still be allowed to go even if I told my story to them.

I pondered on that thought for a little while as we walked a bit further and found our boat.

Unlike the plane we were actually early, so we boarded first and found the best seats we could.

I sat next to Amalie who had decided she would take the window seat without even letting me argue my case.

Once the boat set off, I felt myself start to drift off to sleep.

I mean with how early I had gotten up this morning, I knew that early morning rise would catch up with me eventually.

After what only felt like 20 minutes, I felt someone shaking me, trying to wake me up.

"Yuki… hey Jaden, wake up," said Amalie from beside me.

I stirred slowly, having a little stretch as I sat up, "what Amalie."

She didn't say anything. She was looking out the window at something.

My eyes followed her gaze and once I realised what it was, I suddenly felt incredibly nervous all over again.

The speaker on the ship made me jump as its jingle sounded and the ship's captain started speaking.

"Dear passengers, will shortly arrive at Duel Academy, please don't leave anything aboard the ship, take all luggage with you and I hope you have a lovely reunion tomorrow."

So, there it is, part 8.

You got to see a little bit more of Amalie and Jaden's relationship, what did you think?

Also, you heard about Stoichiev, what up with that huh?

Anyway, follow and favourite for updates.

Leave a review if you fancy, but until next time look after yourselves with everything going on!

Writey x