Disclaimer: I still don't own Yugioh or the slightly altered Yugioh Wikia quote I used.

Author's note: Well, sorry for the slight delay in updating. I have a few key things I want to happen in the story, but I've been trying to figure out when I want these things to take place, or even if I want them in the story. What I'm thinking about doing, is at the end of the story is have a "special features" chapter to two, kind of like on DVDs with "deleted scenes" on it, if I happen to take stuff out. So stay tuned for that. Also, I am not trying to make this story as a songfic…I hate songfics…but as you will find out later one, songs are kind of a big thing in the story…probably just gave away something, but WHATEVER! It's funny, as I'm thinking about this story, how the character Akila changes so much from the character I made up in high school. I do love writing her though.

OK enough with my ranting, onto the next chapter!!!!!!!

Chapter 2

Starstrukk

The warning bell rang in the hallways that made Domino some what like a maze to someone who wasn't familiar with its layout. Akila had already talked to her teacher, who had her stand in the corner of the room until the start of class when she would introduce her to everyone.

'Wonderful, I thought they only did this in movies….' She thought to herself as she clutched her binder and books to her chest. She grumbled to herself as she leaned against the two walls that made up the point of the corner, watching as student after student filled into the classroom and sitting in their assigned seats. After a while, a few slightly familiar faces made their way into the class room. The group of students that she had seen walking on the other side of the street from her earlier that morning was in the class. She hadn't formally introduced herself, and they didn't know her at all, but for some reason she felt a little comforted by the fact that she "knew" someone in the room. She continued to stand there, trying her best to make herself phase into the wall before anyone noticed she was there.

"Hey…" A calming monotone voice made Akila jump out of her panic and made her looking into two piercing crimson eyes. She took a sharp inhale at the intensity of those eyes. "Do I know you?" The voice asked, and made Akila remember that there was a person trying to talk to her. Akila took a better look and noticed it was the boy that had looked at her one the way to school. She licked her lips and shook her head. She was too startled and nervous to really say anything to him.

"N..no. I...I just…" She was interrupted by the same brunette girl that had stolen his attention earlier. This girl was a bit taller then the boy, and she made her school uniform look like it was made for her. She was pretty for sure, and Akila wouldn't be surprised if the two were a couple. He was a handsome guy, who made himself look taller then he was by his confidence and his posture.

"Atem, we should probably be taking our seats." It was then the brunette looked at Akila, sizing her up. It was clear on her face that she had already made up her mind if Akila was worth her time or not, and Akila wasn't someone on her radar. It was then that Akila realized that they had gained the attention of the other members of their apparent group. The shorter, shy looking boy, that looked familiar to her, and two guys that looked like they thought they were tough, but were probably all talk. This wasn't really how she wanted to start her day, being the center of attention. At the moment she felt like she was on display at the zoo. Everyone trying to get as close as they could to see the new piece of meat.

Finally, Akila learned the meaning of the phrase 'saved by the bell' meant. The final bell that signaled the start of class rang, and the teacher that told her to wait in the corner walked back into the class room with a coffee thermos in her one hand and a stack of papers jammed under her other arm.

"Okay class, before we start today, I want you to meet a new student." The teacher looked around the room, as if she forgot where she had Akila stand before class. Taking her cue, Akila shuffled her way to the teacher's side with a sigh. Looking around at the other students in the class, her gaze once again found the crimson eyes that seemed to have been searching her once again. He seemed confused, probably contemplating the question he asked before the bell rang. That right there confused her too. Why would he think they had met before? It wasn't too long that she felt the tug of someone else staring at her, making it too hard for her not to look away. On the other side of the class room, the brunette was glaring at her, apparently she noticed the attention she was giving her boyfriend, or the attention her boyfriend was giving her.

"This is…" The teacher trailed off as she looked at her paper. Akila smiled and shook her head, knowing what the problem was.

"Akila Mubarak." She smiled at the teacher, and then looked at the students clearly uninterested faces. "It's Egyptian…." She said, not noticing two of the people in the classroom perk up slightly. Akila chuckled, self consciously, finding a spot on the floor that she suddenly found interesting. The teacher looked at her with a look that told Akila that she didn't really care for the help in pronunciation, but appreciated it for later. She then started scanning the room.

"Ah, well, Ms. Mu..barak? Go ahead and have a seat next to Mr. Motou over there." Akila's head popped up there and locked eyes with a pair of amethyst ones.

"Yugi…Motou?" She muttered, now noticing the stares of her classmates and the now slightly confused, and terrified Yugi. With a blush and a few giggles from the other students, she found her way back to her desk, slinking in low in her chair, groaning that her mental gasp of surprise was heard by her class.

In the desk next to Yugi sat Atem, who leaned over to see past his partner at the girl that had suddenly sparked interest in himself but also Yugi.

//Do you know her, Aibou?// Atem chimed over, ignoring what the teacher was talking about. Yugi shook his head, partially forgetting they were talking through their mind link and if anyone had noticed would have thought he was odd.

//Never seen her before…but she seems to know me…// Yugi looked over at the girl who was oddly close to her notebook. Yugi was surprised to see someone who wanted to shrink into the shadows like he used to before he gained friends. He thought about it, it had to be rough to be in a new place. It was obvious she wasn't from around here. As he watched her, he started to notice frustration written on her face. He glanced at her note pad and noticed something that made him chuckle to himself, quietly enough that he wouldn't get her attention. //She is having trouble writing in Japanese…I think shes writing in Arabic.//

Atem was slight confused by the sudden observation by Yugi

//copying now?// Yugi resisted the urge to chuckle and shake his head.

//Of course not, no. I was just noticing she was having trouble with her Japanese is all. Obviously she just moved to Japan not long ago.// Atem looked more confused. What did that have to do with anything? //as apposed to moving from a different part of Japan. Unless you saw her in Cairo last year, then you haven't met her before, and even if that is the case, it would have just been in passing. That's all. We're too paranoid.// Yugi said, shaking off the feeling that something was going to happen. It must have been a feeling that was coming off Atem because as he brushed off his worry, he still felt something coming from him. //If you're worried about something, talk to her during lunch.// He suggested, trying to get Atem's distracting thoughts and confusion out of his mind so he could concentrate on what the teacher was saying.

//Right, sorry Aibou.// Atem said noticing Yugi's urgency when it came to getting back to the lesson.

When the bell rang signaling for lunch, Akila waited for the teacher to dismiss them. She remembered getting yelled at so many times in New York by teachers. 'The bell doesn't dismiss you, I do!' She remembered with a chuckling to herself wondering how her friends were doing. She would have called them, but considering the time difference it would be tough to. She would have to remember to send them an email when she got home. When she noticed that the class room was clearing out, she figured it was safe to get up and walked out to her locker to grab her lunch, and a book she was reading during her spare time. She walked into the lunch room and sighed at the loud noise of the other students in a room that looked like it was built to echo. It was crowded in there, no empty tables to sit at alone and she didn't feel like going through the awkwardness of inviting herself to a table full of people. She had enough awkwardness for today. She would tackle that at a later date. She walked outside where there were more table set up, all that were full as well. At one table, she noticed the group of friends that were in her class, the one with Yugi Motou in it. She bit her lip and blushed when the two look a likes looked towards her. Accepting the fact that she was too chicken to say anything she walked over to a near by tree and sat down, opening her book up and eating a sandwich her mom had made her. As she was focusing on her book, forgetting every now and then about her lunch, a pair of black books appeared in her view over the top of her book. She looked up to find that strange boy from earlier staring at her once again. She went back to reading her book, trying to ignore him. She didn't really like being stared at, feeling like a freak. Though, he didn't take the hint, and continued to stand there.

"You know it's rude to stare…" She said, irritated, but trying to keep her mind on her book.

"How do you know Yugi?" he said bluntly, making Akila blush.

"Hi, my names Akila, what's yours?" She said sarcastically, again commenting on his rudeness. She closed her book and looked up at him, knowing she wasn't going to be reading any more any time soon. She looked up at Atem while taking a bite of her sandwich, waiting for an answer before she would even consider answering him.

"Excuse me, my name is Atem. Now how do you know Yugi?" Akila sighed, and started to dig in her backpack for a moment, after eating the last bit of sandwich. After a few grumbled fill seconds of rummaging through her bag she grabbed a magazine and stood up face to face with Atem.

"…Yugi manages to summon both Slifer and Obelisk to attempt to win, but Marik manages to complete his Immortality strategy, locking down Yugi's attacks by combining Egyptian God Slim with Jam Defender before reviving Monster Reborn and using it to summon his Winged Dragon of Ra. The Duel ultimately culminates and concludes with the destruction of Ra, and Marik forfeits the Duel to Yugi..."

She smiled and looked at Atem before he handed him the magazine. He looked at the picture of 'Yugi' by the article and realized that he could see himself in the image as well.

"So you play duel monsters…" Atem assumed handing her back the magazine. Akila smiled and giggled lightly.

"Between choir and band practices I had no time to play Duel monsters. No, I'm just a fan. Ever since I heard about his win again the infamous Seto Kaiba, I had to follow him." She stopped suddenly and realized what she said could sound a bit strange. "Followed up on his dueling of course." She said, laughing at herself in hopes to disguise her embarrassment. "Any, I never imagine that I would ever meet Yugi, let alone be in the same class room as him. That was just a star struck moment." She said biting her lip lightly before getting a glimpse at Yugi at the table behind Atem. She was sure he constantly got fans running up to him all the time, and she didn't want to seem like some crazed fan.

"Would you want to meet him?" Atem asked kind of confused with her reaction. He knew she saw Yugi this morning during the walk. It is kind of hard to miss Yugi, with his hair and all. But he just brushed it off as her not thinking she would ever see Yugi in person.

Akila looked at Atem shocked. She really did want to meet Yugi, but she was kind of shy. Her mind was running a mile a minute trying to think of something to say to him that didn't make her seem like another blubbering fool.

"No, I couldn't…" She said instantly kicking herself, as she looked back over at the table and then back at Atem, sucking in her breath from anticipation. "Could I?" She finally saying, standing on her tippy toes since her stomach felt like it was trying to jump out of her from excitement. Atem nodded and Akila let out a small squeal before she grabbed all her books.

As she walked with Atem over to the table of laughing teenagers, focusing more on the dueling idol then on the brunette who was glaring at her. Akila figured she was one of those over protective, jealous kind of girl. If she didn't know you or like you, you better not be anywhere close to her man, or anyone she knows for that matter. On one hand it was slightly annoying considering this girl didn't know her and if she did she would know she wasn't a threat of any kind. However, on the flip side, Akila knew she was just being protective of her friends. It must be nice that her friends could count on her.

"Yugi, there is someone that would like to meet you." Atem said, bring Akila out of her thoughts as she gripped her magazine in her arms tight. Yugi looked at her curiously. Someone wanted to meet him? He wasn't too used to this concept, since it wasn't long ago that he was everyone punching bag and no one in his class even knew he existed or cared. He looked at Akila and smiled before looking at Atem. He could sense that the other was really curious about the girl, and figured Yugi would be a good way to get to know the girl.

//You're insane, aren't you?// Yugi asked, kind of feeling like a pawn in the Pharaoh's game. Atem could feel the irritation from Yugi, and smiled some what guilty.

//I am curious, but she's a fan of yours. I'm just trying to be nice.// Yugi sighed and looked at Akila with a smile.

"You play duel monsters?" Yugi asked, determined to talk to Atem more later on. He hated being put on the spot like this?

Akila shook her head and relaxed slightly knowing that Yugi was a nice guy.

"No, no. I never really had enough time to get good at the game. I used to be in choir and band at my old school, and it took a lot of my time." She said, still managing to smile even though a pang of nostalgia ran through her. "My friend actually got me into following tournaments. He was a fan of Seto Kaiba and he couldn't shut up about how 'some no named shrimp' beat him…" She looked up at Yugi and paniked. "He was a big fan..." She said trying to cover up what was said. "Any way, then I heard you were going to duelist kingdom, and I figured if you could beat Seto Kaiba, then it might be interesting to see how you did, and then after that its just history…"

"You like to sing?" The brunette chimed in, calming down slightly. Akila smiled a bit, feeling like the tense atmosphere was slowly fading,

"Yea, I've been singing most of my life. I do a little bit of dancing to, but mainly to the extent of crazy embarrassing dancing in my bedroom alone and DDR at the arcade." Atem and Yugi looked at the brunette and smiled, before remembering something.

"Oh you haven't been introduced to everyone yet." Akila smiled lightly. "Well, the darker look alike behind you is Atem, I'm sure he's introduced himself already. He's my cousin who just moved over from Egypt…" Akila's eyes widened slightly and looked back at the crimson eyed boy who just nodded at him. "And this is Joey and Tristan." Yugi said signaling to the blonde and brunette tough guys still stuffing their faces with their lunch

"And I'm Tea!" Tea blurted out suddenly. Akila could already tell that the girl had a slight control issue, but really what girl didn't?

"I'm Akila, nice to meet you all." Akila said before he felt Atem nudge her forward a little

"Why don't you join us?" He offered and Tea and Yugi slid over a bit to give Akila some room to sit. She smiled, and gladly joined. She put her book and magazine back in her backpack and pulled out her lunch once again, ready to finish up what was left of her lunch which consisted of an apple and a bag of cookies. The same kind of bagged lunch she was packed since she was a kid.

"So, you said you play DDR. Are you doing anything tonight? I have to play against you." Tea said, with an almost scary smirk and twinkle of determination in her eyes, it was almost frightening.

"Tea is a dancer." Atem quickly explained from across the table. Akila mouthed 'ooh' in understanding before she sighed.

"I actually am helping my father at the Domino Museum today." Everyone looked up, kind of shocked and confused. Akila was a bit taken aback by this. "Um, my dad just got a job there, that's why we moved here. He got the okay from his boss to let me kind of shadow him a bit on his latest project. You see I want to be an archeologist when I get older." She said, still feeling the awkward tension from the earlier statement that she was going to the museum.

"Who's your father's boss?" Atem asked

"A woman named Ishizu Ishtar, she is the person behind the Ancient Egypt exhibit." She said, still wondering what was so shocking here, but she really didn't want to ask. "But anyway, if you aren't doing anything this weekend, we could have our DDR match then?" She suggested. Tea looked at her and smile.

"You're on!" She said before she pulled out her cell phone. "What's your number?" Akila pulled out her phone as well and collected Tea's number before the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

"Well, I guess I should be getting back to class, later guys!" Akila said before she grabbed all her things and rushed into the building, leaving the three teenagers, who weren't more worried about stuffing their faces, looking at each other.

"Okay, now I know something's going on." Yugi said, Tea giving him a confused look. Atem sighed and nodded.

"You've been talking to each other with your mind link again, haven't you?" Tea asked confused.

"I saw her on our way to school. I don't know why she got my attention, but I felt something oddly familiar about her. Like someone I knew long ago." Tea looked at Atem and Yugi a little irritated.

"With your history, you thought to leave something like this out?" She said, sounding like a concerned mother, but Atem and Yugi knew that she was right. With their past for attracting trouble, if there was something fishy about anything, there was probably a reason for it.

"What should we do about it?" Yugi asked, looking at Atem worried. "I mean, shouldn't you remember her if you did know her in the past? We got your memories back when we visited Egypt." Atem sighed and shook his head.

"I don't think so, there is a gap missing in my memory. I figured it would just come back over time, but I'm not sure anymore." Yugi and Tea looked at each other worried. Every time something concerned Atem's past, trouble wasn't far behind. "Maybe this time is different, perhaps there isn't some great evil coming for us. After all the items are gone, there isn't anything to take, the magic should be gone." Atem was slightly disappointed. If this was a sign of another evil coming back then perhaps his choice to stay in the mortal realm was a mistake. He couldn't bear the guilt of causing his friends anymore hardship.

"Well, what ever this is, we will be there for you Atem, you know that, and there isn't anything you can say that will stop us." Tea said with Yugi next to her smiling, reassuring him.

"Well, whatever this is, I have a feeling that Ishizu knows something about it. I highly doubt that Akila's father just happening to work for her, Ishizu allowing a teenager work with ancient artifacts, and this apparent feeling that we knew each other at one time all a coincidence."

"Well we can't barge in there when Akila's there and start asking questions. If she doesn't know anything at all it could cause some issues, bring up unnecessary questions, like how a five thousand year old Pharaoh is living in our time." Yugi said, Tea's expression obviously meant that she agreed with him. "And if she did know something…well it could just end badly. We should just take our time. Keep an eye on her."

Tea nodded, she looked as if she just got struck with an idea, and looked at Yugi with a devilish smirk. Yugi didn't like that look, it usually ended with him doing something he didn't want to do. "Hey Yugi, why don't you take her to homecoming; after all, she is your fan and all." Yugi just let out a blush that ran down his nose, through his cheeks, surrounded his lips and ran down his neck. The idea of asking a girl to anything was a terrifying thought.

"Why can't Atem ask her, he's the one that's interested in her?" Yugi said, something that irritated Tea a bit, the idea of another girl going to homecoming with Atem. She had to admit this plan was partially a plot to get Atem to go with her.

"Well, we don't know if she'd accept going with him. We know she'll say yes to you, Mr. Celebrity. I'll be Atem's date, at least that way we can keep a bit of controlled distance between them in case she is after something." Tea said in a smug like tone, knowing she had a brilliant plan.

"She's right Aibou. We should do it. What do you say?" Atem said, hating himself for this. He knew how Yugi felt about Tea, and he knew that Tea's feeling for him were hurting Yugi, but she had a good point.

//Yugi, I hate doing this to you, but she is right.// Yugi nodded his answer and let out a sigh.

"Alright, I'll do it."

Author: And there we go, the longest chapter I've written. I hope my sudden flip in Tea's behavior wasn't too confusing. I am kinda hoping it isn't as bad as I think. I'm not a Tea basher. Her behavior is purely a mama bear type deal…with a slight hidden agenda when it comes to Atem of course. Any way, please keep the replies coming! I wanna know how I'm doing. I'm kind of excited about this one.