TBH, didn't really like the way this chapter ended up, seemed boring without a duel. But Riley must explore the campus, and so... well... she did. Hope you enjoy! The next chapter should be good! I hope.
Riley awoke in a daze. Yawning, she glanced at her clock, the light flashing 12:00. She yawned, scratched her head, and thought:
Twelve? Why is noon so important?
She stretched when it hit her. The plane to Duel Academy arrives. In thirty minutes. She bolted out of her bed, hastily throwing on the first clothes she found: a black tee shirt, jeans, and Converse. She threw her hair up into the hairnet, failing horribly at pinning her wig down, but it looked enough like how it usually did that she didn't question it. She threw on the belt that contained her Deck Cakes, her bag with her duel disk hastily stuffed in it, and dashed out the door. KaibaCorp was twenty minutes away from her house, but it was already 12:15. And she knew she would have to check in before getting on the plane.
Her legs had never moved faster as she dashed to the building, her lungs burned, but it was great exercise. She took some shortcuts, and managed to make it to KaibaCorp at exactly 12:29. She checked in and raced to the helicopter, but unluckily for her, she ran into someone. Literally, ran into someone.
Her nose collided with Dr. Crowler's back, the rest of her body soon to follow. The man lurched forwards, spilling coffee all over his elaborate jacket. Infuriated, he turned around and began to march towards Riley to tell her off, but slipped on the coffee on the floor, falling backwards into a potted plant. And to make matters worse, as Riley tried to help him up, she slipped on the wet floor, letting go of the teacher, an honest accident. But to everyone else, it looked like she dropped him because she could.
Seeing the look on Crowler's face, Riley quickly walked away to board the helicopter. On her way, she saw Jaden, Bastion, and the little boy with the blue hair. Oddly enough, Jaden and the little boy were wearing matching red outfits, and Bastion was wearing a yellow variant. As Riley looked around, she saw everyone wearing either red, yellow, or blue and she realized her mistake. She had forgotten to put on her uniform. She had seen it, however, the glorious Obelisk Blue, and so she decided she would just go the school Chancellor and see about getting a new one.
As she boarded the plane, she received several snickers from people who had witnessed the Crowler incident. She tried to keep herself from blushing with embarrassment, but she was sure she failed in that. She saw Bastion, and moved to sit by him. In front of the yellow-clad lad, were Jaden and the boy with blue hair.
"Hey," Jaden said, turning around in his chair. "I saw the end of your duel. It was totally sweet!" He began grinning, and Riley chuckled at him.
"Thanks," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. Of course it was a good duel. Leon had taught her almost everything she knew.
"By the way, aren't you forgetting something?" Bastion asked her, and Riley cringed slightly.
"Yeah, don't remind me," she said, and the little blue haired boy turned around to look at her.
"I don't think I remember your name," he said. "What was it again?"
"Riley Calaenos. And yours?"
"Syrus Truesdale," he responded, his little voice seeming happy that she cared enough to ask.
"Nice to meet you," she said.
"Oh! And I'm Jaden! The next King of Games!" Jaden said, and Riley looked at him.
"Bastion already told me your name at the exams, and King of Games? That's some big talk. Think you can back it up?" Riley asked, and Jaden just laughed.
"Ha ha! Of course I can! Here's the deal, when we arrive, the first person I'm dueling is you, Riley! I'll show you I got what it takes!" Jaden said, holding out his hand to shake hers.
"It's a challenge," Riley said, firmly shaking his hand. Jaden grinned and turned back around, talking to Syrus for the rest of the ride.
"Well, you're fast friends with them," Bastion said, causing Riley to look at him.
"I think Jaden just has some weird ability to get people to like him," she responded, causing Bastion to chuckle.
"We'll see about that," he said, and the two chatted about random things the whole way to the Academy. Bastion was looking over one of her decks when the pilot made the announcement that they would soon be arriving at Duel Academy.
"Can you believe it Bastion? We're finally here!" Riley exclaimed as the helicopter began to land. As soon as the aircraft touched the ground, Riley was up and out of her seat. She snagged her bag and exited the plane, taking in the scenery. It was beautiful, a lush green forest, a red volcano (probably dangerous, but let's just trust Seto Kaiba…), pristine blue waters sparkling under the sun.
"Hey, guys, I guess the Chancellor's going to be giving a welcome speech," Syrus said, and the three walked up to the school, Riley, Jaden, and Syrus. Bastion had already gone, probably to get an academic feel for the school, but gone already nonetheless. As soon as they walked through the doors, Riley remembered to find the Chancellor and speak to him about her uniform.
"Hey, I'll see you after the speech," Riley said to Syrus and Jaden, and they waved her goodbye. Riley began walking in the general direction of the FACULTY sign, the perfect spot for a Chancellor's office. She finally found it, cleverly hidden beside a sign that read: Chancellor Sheppard. Who would've guessed? Raising her hand to knock on the door, she heard him speaking, his garbled words reverberating through the hallway. As soon as she heard him finish, she knocked on the door.
"Come in!" She heard a man say. And so she did.
"Hello, Chancellor. I seem to have forgotten my uniform, and-," Riley was cut off by the very dirty Dr. Crowler, entering the office with a black duffel bag, similar to the one she had received after the exams.
"Oh, don't worry Mr. Chancellor. I have his uniform right here. Now, now, not a good way to start the year, is it, Mr. Calaenos?" Riley shook her head in response to the coffee-stained man, and was ushered out of the room by the blonde.
Checking her bag, she saw red. Lots and lots of red. "Um, Dr. Crowler, shouldn't I be in Obelisk Blue? My original uniform was-," once again, she was cut off.
"No, that was a mistake in the grading scale. You deserve Slifer Red," the teacher said, fixing his dirty ruffles.
"But sir-," Riley began, and once again, was interrupted by the teacher.
"Let's see here, your dueling skills are sub-par, your written test was horrible, and frankly, Mr. Calaenos, I don't like your attitude. Just be lucky Duel Academy has even accepted you, and be on your way," Crowler said, getting in Riley's face before dismissing her.
Grumbling, Riley took her Academy-issued PDA out of her pocket to reveal that even her dorm assignment had been changed. Instead of the Obelisk dorm, even her PDA said she should be in the Slifer Dorm, room 218. She threw the bag over her shoulder, and skulked out of the school, trying to avoid Jaden and Syrus but failing horribly.
"Hey Riley," Jaden said, "What dorm are you in?"
"Red," she replied. "And I'd wager you both are too."
Syrus nodded. "And Bastion's in Yellow."
"Figured that too," she said, starting to head down to the dorm, stopping paces from the run-down thing.
"Aw man!" Syrus exclaimed. "It's like an outhouse- no, it's WORSE than an outhouse. I bet not even roaches want to live here!"
"Aw, it's not that bad," Jaden said, optimistically. "It's, what's the word? …quaint!"
Riley rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's quaint alright."
"This is the perfect dorm! I mean, look at the sweet view!" Jaden said, leaning over the balcony on the second floor.
Riley couldn't lie, it was a nice view. You could see over the tree tops to the sparkling ocean, white beaches barely visible beneath the greenery. "Hey," she said turning to Syrus. "What room are you guys in?"
"Room 217," Syrus said, and Riley beamed.
"You guys are right next to me! Room 218," She replied and Jaden nodded.
"Cool. Meet us in our dorm once you settle in," He said, and the boys headed into their room. Riley opened her door, and was met with a pitch black room. No one had settled in, and checking her PDA, Riley saw that she had no roommates. Lucky for her, as Slifer was an all girl's dorm. She changed into a white tee shirt and threw her blazer on over it. However, Riley just so happened to be a girl, and her tee shirt happened to be a little tight around her chest, so she zipped up her jacket. Not buttoning it at the top, she also changed into black jeans. She put her clothes neatly into the closet, putting her bags on the middle bunk of the three tier structure. She grabbed another of her decks, attached it to her Deck Belt, and covered it with her long jacket. Finally, she grabbed her duel disk, and went into Jaden and Syrus's room.
And, naturally, she felt awkward being in a boy's room, even though she was in a boy's dorm. But to these people, Riley Calaenos was a boy, for the time being. As she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard Syrus complaining about losing another duel, then Jaden telling him that "dueling's not about winning or losing: it's about having fun!"
"Words of wisdom, eh Jaden?" Riley said, entering the room.
"Oh, hey Riley!" Jaden said.
"Can't anyone get any sleep around here?" A voice asked from the top bunk of the beds. A boy arose, white jacket with red trim, a large pink nose, and two beady eyes. "Freshmen always have such big dreams."
"AAAAHHHH! A KOALA!" Jaden shouted, screaming at the boy, Syrus clinging to him in fear.
"I'm not a koala!" The boy said, aggravated, as if he's heard that many times before. "My name's Chumley. Chumley Huffington, and I'm your roommate. Congrats on making it into the Academy and all, but you might as well give up on your dreams now."
"Why's that?" Jaden asked, and Riley just stared at the upperclassman.
"We're Slifer Reds. The Academy is divided up into three colours: Obelisk Blue is at the top. Then, there's Ra Yellow, but they have students who did really well in the exams."
So basically me. Before Crowler changed my score. Riley grimaced a little at the thought.
"Finally, there's us: Slifer Red. The dueling duds," Chumley finished, causing Syrus to look distraught.
"Aw, come on. Red's a sweet colour!" Jaden exclaimed, "The year hasn't even started yet, how can we be the worst?" Jaden looked at Riley and Syrus, who nodded their agreement.
"Hey, I've got an idea," Riley said, "Let's get out of Chumley here's hair and go explore the island!"
"Fine by me," Chumley said, returning to sleep.
"Alright!" Jaden said, "It's decided then. Let's go!"
The trio quickly left the Red dorm and eventually found themselves at the Yellow dorm, where Bastion's room was.
"Hey! Look guys, it's Bastion," Syrus said, and sure enough, the Ra Englishman stood by the lake near the building. As if on cue, he turned around, and waved to the three Slifers before walking over to meet them.
"Oh, what a surprise," Bastion said in a sincere tone, "you're in Slifer as well, Riley?" She nodded.
"It's crazy right?" Syrus said, "Jaden and Riley are amazing duelists. Unlike me..." The boy said, and Riley ruffled his hair.
"Oh, I'm sure you're a good duelist, Syrus," She said.
"Have you even seen me duel?"
"Well, to be honest…" Riley stopped, then began a new thought. "Why don't you and I duel sometime?"
"Yeah, that's a great idea," Jaden said, "But only after you duel me, Riley."
"I made you a promise to duel you first, Jay," Riley said, "And I assure you, I don't break promises."
"Good! When we get back to our dorm, you better get your game on!"
"My, sounds like an interesting night," Bastion said. "I'll have to swing by later."
"Definitely!" Jaden said, running off towards the other side of the lake.
"Guessing there's going to be a lot of running involved," Riley said to Bastion.
"Sounds like a logical guess."
The brunette took off after the energetic boy, followed by the bluenette. They raced, Riley catching up with Jaden, Syrus still following close behind. They found themselves by the school again, far enough so that they couldn't see most of it, but they could see the coloured domes on the top. They came to a mansion-looking building, the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm, but were immediately shoed away by some kid.
They took a stroll back towards the Ra dorms, but found themselves by a lake-side castle, the only Girl's dorm on campus: the Obelisk Blue Girl's dorm. A girl with straight blonde hair came up to them.
"Hey," she said, "What are you guys doing here?" Riley took the time to notice her white vest with blue trim and her blue miniskirt. She silently thanked herself for pretending to be a dude: Skirts weren't really her thing.
"Nothing…" Jaden said, even though he could have just said: exploring the island.
"How suspicious. I should call the headmaster."
"Suspicious?" Jaden asked, "Who's suspicious?"
"We are Jaden," Riley said.
"Listen to your friend here, he's right." Jaden still looks like he has no idea what's going on. "HELLO. Obelisk Blue GIRL'S dorm!"
"Oh," Syrus said, stuttering, "Sorry! We didn't know!"
"Oh, freshmen," the girl said. "I guess I can forgive you. My name's Alexis Rhodes."
"Jaden Yuki, future King of Games. And this is Syrus and Riley."
"Oh, nice to meet you! But you might want to get back to your dorm, there's supposed to be a welcome dinner for all the freshmen. And I have to leave or I'll be late." Jaden begins to rush off, any chance he can get for food, he's there. Riley exchanged glances with Syrus and began to follow the brunette, waving goodbye to Alexis.
As she ran, Riley could have sworn she heard a subtle call out to her, as her necklace beat on her chest with every step.