Sorry it took so long. School and whatnot. Well this is the next chapter. After this is Ryou's private evaluation. Read and Review as always.
"Mai you shouldn't." Joey protested.
"No, no. I think Dr. Clarington wants to know exactly why Tea seems to dislike me so much, and keeping it all in and pretending it never happened, won't make it go away. Besides, I think there are a few things that should be made public to certain members of this group." Mai answered, squeezing the back of Joey's chair.
"Fine by me." Tea crossed her arms. "I think I'll go first. You don't mind do you Mai?"
"Of course not." Mai cast a dark look back at her.
"You see Dr. Clarington, ever since we first met I knew that Mai was trouble. She's the kind of girl that messes with guys heads and then sucks them dry emotionally and financially. She didn't give a flip about Joey when she first met him but tried to play the friendship card when it fit her best interests. But I can tell she's not really sincere about whatever feelings she claims to have for Joey because she double crossed him enough times. I don't even know why Mai bothered coming over here today.
"Her main priority is herself and she loves to try making me look dumb because I actually care about my friends."
"Come on Tea, you know that's not true. I know, Mai's had her issues; we all have, but that's going a little overboard." Joey said, trying to protect Mai.
"It's alright Joey. Tea's just saying that to hide why she really hates me, and I think it's time that everyone else knew why too." Mai walked around to the front of Joey's chair and sat down on the armrest. She took a second to look back at Dr. Clarington and smile before returning her gaze back at Tea.
"Mai don't, please." Joey pleaded.
"No, it's fine. What kind of friends are we if we keep secrets? The truth is Tea hates me because she's insanely jealous of Joey and me. You see not too many people knew but Tea and Joey used to have a thing for each other."
All around the room, eyes bugged out of their sockets. Tristan, who had known about it previously, looked around nervously while everyone else stared at the two, confused. Once again, Dr. Clarington scratched furiously in her notes but kept an open ear for whatever else might be said.
"Is that true?" Yugi asked Joey.
"What kind of 'thing'?" Serenity asked.
"The kind of thing that starts off as a crush, turns into flirting and finally escalates into a full blown relationship. That kind of thing." Mai answered. "The only problem was that they hooked up a bit too late. They'd only been together for two days before they were on a boat to Duelist Kingdom."
"And that's when he met you, wasn't it?" Dr. Clarington asked, remembering that Yugi had told her that they met Mai on their way to confront Pegasus.
"Exactly. I'll admit I didn't think much of Joey at first. To me, he was just another loud mouthed duelist who took one look at my breasts and started drooling. But he won me over eventually. It became hard not to. He told me about how he was fighting for his sister, so that she would be able to see again. I never had anyone care about me that way. I was a loner, but he took me in and made me his friend, whether I wanted to be or not.
"Tea was skeptical that anything that Joey and I felt was real because Joey had broken it off with her the minute they walked off the boat. She's just mad because Joey knows a real woman when he sees one."
"That's not true!" Tea stood up. "I'm just worried about my friend. So what if we were together. It only lasted two days! You've been in and out of Joey's life so often it's driving him insane. You stay just long enough for him to give his hopes up and then you're gone again because you have to be some mysterious loner. It's sick and friends don't do that to each other."
"Hey I have an excuse for my actions!" Mai said standing up as well. "You wouldn't believe the struggles I've gone through this past year and sometimes a girl needs to set aside some time to think. Joey knows how to contact me and that I'd never abandon him, but if wanting to get away from all of the pressure makes me a bad friend, then I guess that's that, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving his life now. I understand him, unlike you."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you being mad about loosing Joey to me and then going out with Bakura, when it was obvious that Yugi's had a crush on you since the very beginning." Mai blurted out quickly.
Yugi, Bakura, Joey's faces suddenly turned very pink. Tea turned and looked at Yugi shocked and embarrassed.
"Really Yugi?"
"Oh don't tell me you didn't notice. It's as obvious as the sun coming up at midnight." Everyone was surprised to hear Bakura, of all people, say.
"You knew?" Tea turned to Bakura with embarrassment.
"Who didn't? Joey knew when the two of you were going out for those brief two days, that's why he wasn't in a rush to tell everyone about it. I figured it was obvious enough. When you two never got together, I just thought that you were ignoring it because you didn't want to have to turn him down."
Tea stood there, looking at Yugi and then at everyone around the circle for a while before she was able to speak. "I don't know what to say. Everyone knew that you had a crush except me, Yugi?
"I didn't realize everyone knew either. The only people I thought were aware of it were…" Yugi looked around at his friends "well… funny enough, the only people I was sure knew about it were Joey and Bakura."
"I came up to Yugi after we got together and asked him if it was okay that we were going out now." Bakura admitted.
"And you gave him your blessings?" Dr. Clarington asked Yugi.
"What else could I do? I didn't think Tea would ever want to go out with me and I just wanted her to be happy." Yugi said, looking down at his hands.
"Are you sure about that?"
Tea sat back down at her spot next to Bakura and remained silent. Mai followed her lead and sat down on the armrest of Joey's chair. However, Joey took her hand and sat her down on his lap instead. They sat in silence for a while longer while Dr. Clarington jotted down a few more notes.
"Does anyone have anything to say now that this has been laid before us?" For a second, no one spoke.
"I'm really sorry I never told ya about me n' Tea. I knew ya liked 'er and I guess I was afraid you'd be upset." Joey apologized.
"I'm fine Joey."
"Me too Yugi. I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to your feelings. And Mai, I'm sorry for being so mean to you. I guess I was kind of jealous of you and Joey. I wanted to think that he was just being superficial by dumping me like that after he met you. It was wrong of me to label you.
"It's alright Tea. I understand, Joey's a really great guy. I'd be more than upset if I were you."
Despite these comforting words, they still looked wearily at each other. No one seemed to notice. That is of course, everyone with the exception of Dr. Clarington. Once again the silence resumed.
"Well I think that should be enough for now. Remember I want to see you, Ryou, once everyone is gone, so that we can speak privately. But before you all leave I just want to say that the problems you are going through are normal for kids your age. Friendships are challenged everyday, but like you did here, these challenges should be faced with courage and honesty.
"It's healthy to be on 'not-so good' terms with someone. What's important is that confrontations like today's aren't ignored by keeping secrets. Now that these secrets are out in the open, you can recover with a clean slate, and I know your friendship is strong enough to survive it, possibly even to flourish.
"Now that that's been all said and done, is there anyone else that I should talk to that wasn't here today?"
"I think that if there's anyone who should see you, it's Kaiba." Joey said. Suddenly all the solemn faces in the room became smiles, with the exception of Serenity who didn't know Kaiba well enough to form an opinion.
"You really think that I should talk to Seto Kaiba?" Dr. Clarington asked, surprised.
"Definitely." Yugi answered.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do. You guys can go now. Ryou you just make yourself comfortable."