I'm back, and I have new chapters for...ahem...most of my stories. So, college life is going pretty good so far, the other guys in my dorm are cool, and I have been writing a lot. So for this chapter, I have gotten up to Chapter 4, so double update. R&R, PM, and Enjoy!

Chapter 2

The family of five sat at the dining room table in silence, other than the clinking of silverware against their plates. The TV was on the news channel with the volume lowered, and the man was talking about a recent wildfire in the Sacramento area, about five miles south of Grand Veil City. Blake and his wife sat across from each other at the rectangular table, the two girls sitting on his right away from the TV and Jacob on his left. Jacob was the first to finish and he got up from the table, carrying his plate and silverware to the sink. He set them on the counter, next to the sink, and when he turned around he saw his dad behind him. He was a bit surprised because he didn't hear him get up, and walked past him. He heard him place his own dishes on the counter and he said, "Jacob, may I have a word with you?"

Jacob froze in his tracks and turned to face him. "You aren't in trouble," his father reassured him, "I just want to ask you something." Jacob was unsure of what he was suggesting, but nodded. "It's about your recent attitude."

Jacob groaned and made a face that said, "Do we have to talk about this now?", and his father continued, "I just want to know. Why do you seclude yourself in your room all day, playing Duel Monsters by yourself and not with the others?"

"Can you just drop it already? You've asked that question for two years, and I'm not about to crack now."

"I just want to know. Did something happen? Was it one of the students at your school?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I'm your father, and I need to know if something is wrong or not."

"Nothing's wrong."

"Then why the attitude?"

"Just because!"

"That's not an answer young man."

Jacob finally snapped and shouted, "Fine! You want to know what happened?!" He stormed away, going up the stairs. The stomping of his feet could be heard above, then a pause, then more stomping. Jacob came back down the stairs with something in his hand and threw it onto the living room couch. "That's what happened!" His father went over to the couch and looked at the object. It was one of the latest duel disks, or what was left of it. It was colored blue with scuff marks all over it, the field screen was broken, and half of the card slots were missing, as if they were broken off.

His father looked over it, and asked, "What happened to this?"

"It was two or three years ago, around the time of my twelfth birthday. You gave me the duel disk for my birthday early, and I was super excited. The next day, I went to school so I could show it to my friends and challenge them to a duel. But when I challenged them, they all said no. I asked why and they said they didn't feel like a duel. So every day since then I continued to bring it to school, hoping to challenge someone. Then, one day..."

-Flashback-
After the school day was done, all the students began walking home. A group of five were talking excitedly about an upcoming football game, when a twelve-year-old Jacob came running up to them. "Hey guys, my dad gave me some new cards, how about we duel so I can test them out?"

The group of five turned to him and the leader, a 14-year-old boy with dark brown hair and cold blue eyes by the name of John, said, "Jacob, for the last time, we don't want to duel you. Not now, not ever."

Jacob was taken aback by this and asked, "But why? We used to duel every day after school when we were younger, so why not now?"

A skinny 13-year-old with red hair, Marty, stepped forward and said, "Because Duel Monsters is gay*." Jacob was stunned at this, how could they think that?

"As a matter of fact," John said, stepping right in front of him, "this is how we think of Duel Monsters right now." Faster than Jacob could react, John snatched Jacob's duel disk and tossed it to the other four.

"Hey, give that back!" Jacob shouted, trying to get his duel disk back only to be stopped by John. Jacob watched helplessly as the four threw his duel disk down to the ground, breaking the field screen, then using their feet to rub it into the ground. Jacob continued to yell at them to stop, only making them damage it more.

Finally, one of them raised his foot and brought it down on one side of the card slots, breaking it. Jacob stopped struggling and John let him go. The five kids ran away, not wanting to be caught in the act, and left Jacob staring at his broken duel disk.
-End flashback-

"I took it home and hid it from you. I then decided that I would never duel with another person ever again, only dueling myself."

"Why didn't you tell me about this? I could have taken care of it for you and gotten you a new one."

Jacob crossed his arms, "Just because." He grabbed the broken duel disk and went back upstairs. He went into his room and sat on his bed, tossing the duel disk aside. He grabbed his deck box, took out his cards and began shuffling them. He continued shuffling, thinking that by doing this all the bad memories would somehow dissolve away. He heard his door open and heard someone walk over to him. He kept his head down, and felt the bed depress. He continued to shuffle the cards, and heard his father say.

"I'm sorry, Jacob. Really, I am." Jacob stopped shuffling and looked away from him, looking around his room. He noticed some dirty clothes on the floor nowhere close to the hamper, his laptop was on top of his desk, closed and on its charger, and several computer stuff under his desk. "Listen, why don't you open your gift," his father said, handing him the box, "maybe it'll make you feel better." Jacob put his cards in his pocket, took the box and looked at it. He noted the size and, still thinking that it was going to be a duel disk, set it aside. "Or you can open it later." Jacob felt the depression disappear, and heard the door close.

He looked at the box again, and thought, 'Definitely later.' He got up and quietly went to his window. He looked outside and saw several kids, looking between six and twelve, rushing down the street. The direction they were going led straight to the local Game and Card Shop, meaning the shop either had new cards or they were having a sale. Not wanting to alert his parents or sisters, he opened the window and climbed onto the roof. He had done this a few times before, mostly to sneak out when it was dark, and he knew how to do it without anyone noticing. He carefully sidestepped across the roof, making his way towards a vine fence on the wall. Once he reached it, he began climbing down, careful of the squeaky, wooden boards. Once he was a foot off the ground, he jumped down and quickly went to the garage. The side door was always stuck open, so getting in was easy. Once he grabbed his bike, it was getting out that was tricky. He brought it over to the door and brought the back wheel through. He carefully moved it between the garage and house walls, then turned the front wheel. He exhaled, and backed out his bike. Once he got it into the driveway, he turned it around and pedaled into the street. He made his way to the shop, which was at the very end of a business cul-de-sac, and saw it was packed just by looking through the window. He parked his bike outside and opened the door.

Shouts of disappointment instantly met his ears, and several kids began to file out of the store. Only a few were left, looking at shelf items or standing at the counter. He walked over to one of the shelves and began looking at all the booster packs for sale.

He overheard one of the kids at the counter say, "Come on, you have to have something better than a puffball."

"I'm sorry," the woman at the counter said, "but this is all that's left. We'll have more tomorrow, but until then these three are all I have."

The kid sighed, "I'll just come back tomorrow." Jacob saw the kid leave, and decided to see what she had left. He went over to the counter, and the woman smiled at him.

"Hello, there. If you're here for the shipment of new cards, I'm afraid we're sold out. Well, except these three but no one seems to want them." She placed three identical cards on the counter and Jacob looked at them. The cards were all Dark attribute, level one effect monsters with 300 ATK and 200 DEF. The monsters were just like the kid said: puffballs. They had two green hands and feet, dangling from its furry body. One of their eyes was closed in a wink, and their other eye was open, colored purple and yellow. They also wore yellow helmets with two small wings on them. "They are called Kurigoh, and what they lack in power, they make up for in their special ability."

Before Jacob could ask what it was, he heard someone outside cry for help. He turned to look and froze up. Outside, the kid from before was on the ground with a group of teenagers standing above him. One of them was holding a deck, a duel disk on his left arm. Jacob noticed there was already a deck in the card slot, so that meant he must have stolen the cards from the kid. He ran from the counter and rushed outside, but once again froze up. He knew these five, and almost backed up. The five noticed him, and the one with the duel disk smirked, his cold blue eyes giving him a piercing glare.

"Well, well, look who's back for more."

* This has happened to me plenty of times before. I would ask this one guy, who I could never really beat, over and over again to duel, but he wouldn't accept my challenge (or he did but never brought his deck). Eventually, when I brought my cards out, he would ask to see them, then flick them across the table like paper footballs. Eventually I just stopped and resorted to collecting the cards.

So, quite the cliffhanger. But, its a double update, so stay tuned for the next chapter.