Chapter 3

"Fiore, aren't you going to say hi?" I glanced up at Papa Ray for a while until I decided to look at the three other kids standing before me, two boys and a girl. The girl had black hair and brown eyes, looking shyly at me. One of the boys had a big grin on his face, and I thought it was odd that he had blue hair and brown eyes. I never thought I'd meet someone with that complexion. The other boy had blue eyes and black hair and didn't have a happy expression on his face. Did he want to be here at all?

"Hello," I said softly to them. I didn't want to seem rude, but the only one that looked friendly was the blue-haired boy.

"Hi!" the blue-haired boy exclaimed. "I'm William. What's your name?"

"Will, we already know her name," the girl said. She turned to me and asked,

"Is Fiore your name?" I nodded. "That's a nice name. My name is Melody."

"Nice to meet you," I said with a smile. "You have a nice name too."

"Thank you!" Melody nudged the other boy and said, "Go on and say your name too." I looked at the boy as he stuttered,

"M-My name is Oliver." From what I heard, he seemed like he was...what word did Papa Ray use again? Was it nervous? I guessed that he was nervous to see me, so I smiled and said,

"Oliver's a nice name too. So...where's your families?"

"They dropped us off here," William explained. "I don't know why."

"Your parents have things that they have to do here in this sector," Ray explained. "Until then, you're staying here in our home. Right, Fi?"

"Yeah!" I cheered happily. "Come in, everyone." I immediately went inside the house. I was happy to have some company since Naty was gone for the day, but I didn't expect them to not be from the area. Papa Ray said that they weren't from Sector 7 at all but their parents need to be here. I didn't know why, and I didn't bother to see because I wanted people to play games with me.

"What do you guys want to play?" I asked curiously when everyone else came into the house. "We can play pretty much anything!"

"Anything?" the other kids said in awe.

"Yeah! My friends and I would play pretend a lot, and we play with cards too."

"What kinds of cards?" William asked excitedly. I pulled out my favorite card and showed it to them.

"Like these cards!" I replied. "It's really cool."

"What does it say?" Melody questioned, looking at the card closely. "I can't read it too well."

"It says Divine Grace Northwemko! But that's all I can read from it. There are more words on the card though."

"Cool," Oliver said softly, staring at the card. "You must love that card."

"I sure do!" I exclaimed. "It's my favorite card!"

"Do you know how to play the game?" William asked. "You know, there's a game that goes with the card."

"A game?" I've never heard of another game that has my card being played. My group of friends uses the cards to play pretend with, or have all of our cards in one pile so that each person can draw one out. If the card number is higher than another card number drawn out, then the person with the higher number wins. But that was all the games we knew of.

"Yeah, it's called Duel Monsters. It has monsters, spells, and traps in the game, and you can play against friends. That's what one of my friends told me."

"Spell?" I repeated, very confused. "Trap? Monster? I don't know what that is."

"The card you have is a monster card, kiddo," Ray explained. "Although Northwemko doesn't look like a monster." I became angry at that comment. Why would Northy be a monster? She looked nothing like a monster! I was sure that Papa Ray noticed my anger because he asked, "Are you okay, Fiore?"

"Northy's not a monster!" I exclaimed. "She looks like me."

"I know she does, but in that game, she is considered a monster card. Monster cards aren't just what we see as monsters. They can include other humans too."

"Really, Papa?"

"Sure! Here, I'll show you one." Ray reached into his pocket and pulled out a card that didn't look like mine, his card being brown and my card was blue. He knelt down beside me and said, "This one is an old pal of mine. I've had this card ever since the game was introduced to Yuina."

"What's its name?" Oliver asked, looking at the card with us.

"This is Skilled White Magician. He's part of the game too, just like Northwemko. Does he look like a monster?"

I shook my head.

"He looks like a guy in white," William said plainly.

"That's right!" Ray said. "Whether they look like a monster or not, they're all monster cards that are for the same game, waiting for their chance to help the player win the duel."

"You sure know a lot about the game, Papa Ray," I noted in awe. "Have you played it before?"

"I sure have, and still play to this day with some of my buddies," Ray smiled. "Whenever we're not busy with working, of course." I gasped happily, thinking that I wanted to play too. It also sounded interesting not to try.

"Can you teach me how to play the game?" I asked. "I wanna play too."

"Of course, kiddo," Ray replied. "I think you'll be ready to play in a year or so."

"Okay!" I didn't question why he said that I'd be ready in a year. It was probably because he was still searching for a family for me, a better one than just him and a few other kids. He was always finding families to place kids like me, kids that didn't have real families.

"What should we play then?" Melody asked, looking around the little living room. "I don't see that many games here."

"We only have a few board games here," I said. "Some of the pieces are missing too. But we have fun playing pretend too. That's what I play when I'm with my friends."

"You three want to play that?" Ray asked, Melody, William, and Oliver. The three kids looked at each other and nodded at the man. "All right Fiore, stay in the house when you're playing with these guys. Their parents promised me that they'd be back before dinnertime."

"Okay, Papa Ray. Now let's play, let's play! I wanna be a knight fighting a dragon."

"Girls can't be knights!" William said.

"Yes, they can!" Melody protested. "Girls can be just as good at being knights as boys."

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked.

"Yes!" Melody and I exclaimed in unison. Then I ran up the stairs, hoping to show William and Oliver what we girls can do.

Another day, another memory. This time it was Papa Ray, three other kids, and myself talking and about to play a game. William, Melody, and Oliver...at least I can remember their names from memory. I can remember two of them distinctly, but I can't remember too much of Oliver. Perhaps I will have another "memory dream" that can be just on him. I don't know how these memory dreams are going to play out each day, but I guess I'll just go with it and see what happens.

Anyway, it seems like these three were some of my first friends that weren't from Sector 7, at least to my knowledge...I think I remember at least two of them now. William and Melody became my closest friends, and we grew up together. We spent lots of time playing and having fun, and I got to know them well, now that I think about it maybe I know them too well. I'm sure that Oliver was a close friend also. I just wish I remembered him more like I do with Melody and William.

So, what should I do? It's early in the morning, and I feel wide awake. My memory was a bit long, but I think I've written down what I needed to. I'm sure that my doctor or nurse won't check up on me until breakfast.

Lizzy put down her pencil and looked out the window of her hospital room. It was a gray day with clouds looming above the island. She knew that Yuina was an island, but the building wasn't high enough to see the ocean from her room. The doctors had explained it to her: Yuina was an enormous island that was split into seven sections. It didn't have any neighboring islands to go to, it was stuck in what people say "the middle of the ocean." The girl took a deep breath and said aloud, "It's probably going to rain today." She picked up her notebook and put it on the movable table, wondering what to do next. But an unexpected knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in!" Lizzy exclaimed, questioning who it could be. The door opened quickly and in came two teenagers, a boy, and a girl, with school uniforms on. Lizzy tilted her head curiously, trying to come up with an idea of who they were to her.

"Good morning!" the girl announced. "This may be a bit early for you, but we wanted to visit before school started."

"When we heard you were awake, we wanted to come sooner," the boy explained, putting a few bags on the floor. "But we heard from your doctor that you got a bit of amnesia and that he didn't want you to have too many visitors in a single amount of time." The girl nodded in agreement but frowned when he mentioned the amnesia.

"Do you...do you remember us?" she asked Lizzy.

"Um..." Lizzy carefully examined her two visitors. They have the same school uniforms but look distinct from each other, even though they are different genders. The girl had black hair that was tied into a high ponytail with bright brown eyes. She wore her school uniform proudly: a white collared t-shirt with a dark blue jacket, a matching blue skirt, high-knee black socks, and black shoes. The boy had the same uniform but wore pants instead of a skirt and had blue hair with dark brown eyes. "You do look familiar," Lizzy noted, thinking for a little bit.

"I-It's okay," the girl stuttered with a slight gulp. "Take your time." The amnesiac nodded and looked up at the ceiling, thinking carefully.

"Who are they?" Lizzy thought. "Were they a part of my dream already?" She began to think of her previous memory dreams until she came upon the one that she had that day. "Melody and William...did they look like them?" she pondered. "Let's see, they kind of look like those kids." Lizzy looked at them and bit her lip, hoping that it was them and not wanting to guess incorrectly.

"How long do you think it's gonna take?" the boy whispered to his companion.

"Shut up, William!" the girl said quietly, slapping his shoulder. Lizzy laughed out of instinct and exclaimed,

"Mel has become violent in my stead! I have accomplished great things!"

"Don't encourage her!" William protested with a pout. "How did I deserve this?"

"It's two against one~" Melody sang with a cheeky grin.

"How could this have happened to me?!" Melody and Lizzy laughed, much to William's dismay. The boy just shook his head. Suddenly, Melody and William gasped and exclaimed,

"You remember us?!"

"I-I kind of did," Lizzy said nervously. "You see, I had a memory dream before you guys came and you were in it. It was when I first met you with Papa Ray."

"Oh yeah!" William exclaimed. "I was so convinced that girls couldn't be knights and that they had to be the damsels in distress."

"So, you remember us fully?" Melody asked.

"I think it'll take me a few minutes to remember everything that we did, but I'll get there," Lizzy smiled. "How long are you here?"

"Until school starts for the day."

"Sweet! But what time is that at?" Lizzy's two friends chuckled at her comment and stayed with her in the hospital room until they left, talking of past memories.