Here's chapter 4! I hope you enjoy it! It's my birthday tomorrow on Thursday the 20th, so I'm sorry I've been a bit busy! Anyhoo, please read on!
Disclaimer: Don't own. Can't own. Won't own.
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Serenity's next days at Domino High were bleak to say the least. Her morning routine consisted of dragging her brother's limp carcass out of bed, making him breakfast, and her least favourite: walking behind the two lovebirds all the way to school.
School would go on and on; the usual mocking daily by the mean, clawed girls continued as usual. Her only relief came at lunchtime everyday. Although she was sad that she had no one to sit with, she was grateful that she had a moment to breath without the popular buzzards breathing down her neck.
She, surprisingly found out, as school went on, that she enjoyed coming to school early. There was just something calming about the empty halls at sunrise. She had given Joey an alarm clock, made his breakfasts the night before and left the door open for Mai everyday.
It was alone in those halls at six-thirty and seven a.m. when she could finally think. It was amazing, really, how calm the school was without all of the laughing and pointing. It wasn't as much the building that scared her anymore, but the people that made her miserable.
The lights were locked off until the janitor turned them on, precisely at seven o'clock, she found, but the gentle sunrise was enough to light her calm path. Normally, she didn't enter any classrooms until the first bell rang, but one particular morning she had a simple urge to sit at her geometry class desk and gaze out the window.
Shizuka walked down the stairs to the first floor of the building to her locker and got what she needed for her morning classes. The sound of her lock clicking rang throughout the empty sophomore hall and she quietly headed back up the stairs toward her classroom. Her shoes made a soft, fresh tapping noise on the tile floor that bounced off the far end of the hall back to her ears. Something new, though, added to the noise and she paused a few doors down from her homeroom class.
Tap-tap-tap, click-click-click-click, tap-tap…the noise went on and Shizuka's eyebrows furrowed. She usually didn't come along this hallway in the morning, but never before had she seen, much less heard, anyone other than the janitor at that early hour-- and the janitor was in his office, she had seen him but five minutes earlier.
With great curiosity, she made her toward her classroom and the noise became louder and more rapid. Being just a bit too short to see through the high window at the top of the door, she slowly took the door handle in her hand and turned it. She opened the door, just a crack, and peeked in.
A thin, brunette man sat at the far back desk near the window, typing rapidly on a thin black laptop. The orange and pink sunrise lay across his face, painting a pattern on his high cheekbones and his thin, long jaw. Shizuka felt herself blush as her eyes wandered across his lengthy body, his navy school uniform crisp and clean.
As Shizuka opened the door a bit more, his fingers paused, only for a moment, and then he returned to his work. She wasn't sure whether to interrupt the handsome man or to continue on with her morning walk, but decided to venture further into the unknown.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward,
"Kaiba-sama?"
The brunette man looked up, an amused look on his face,
"Yes?" He asked, his long fingers at a standstill.
Shizuka blushed under his strong gaze,
"I--I-- K-Kaiba-s-sama… m-may I co-come in…?" she stammered weakly.
The man watched her shaking form for a moment and then turned back to his work,
"You may if you so please." He said, his deep bass voice seemingly echoing off of the plaster walls.
With great timidity, Shizuka quietly slipped into the room and slid into her assigned seat beside the handsome man. She wondered, vaguely, if Kaiba came early every morning.
Shizuka watched as his long, thin, tan fingers moved rapidly over the keys. She couldn't see what he was typing, but it was most likely related to Kaiba Corp. She turned her attention to the window and contented herself with watching a bird groom itself on a tree outside in the cool morning air.
Seto watched her out of the corner of his eye. Never had he met such a-- a-- a peculiar girl. He chuckled to himself; it had been ages since someone had chosen to call him "Kaiba-sama." Most girls would disrespectfully give him cutesy pet names that resembled a Chihuahua more than anything.
He thought back to a few weeks before-- yes, she had been the girl crying outside during lunch. What had her name been…? Wheeler...? No, that was her brother; that dog. His fingers stopped while he thought. '…the redhead… Shizuka Kawaii… she's really nice.' His brothers words came back to him.
If she-- Kawaii-chan-- was related to Jouinichi Wheeler… could she be frightened of him? After all, she was technically part of the "Yuugi Cheerleaders" and he was, at one time, their great enemy. And he had given her brother some quite painful times, i.e. making him dress up in that ridiculous mutt costume. He also knew from experience that younger siblings usually shared feelings or opinions that the older siblings did (such as Mokuba adopted most of his opinions about his leading competitors)
It was a bit strange for a sophomore to be in such a high class. Especially if that sophomore was related to that dunce of a mutt. It crossed his mind that most girls, by this time, had already asked him had pledge to him their unrequited love. Those girls were far to full of themselves for their own good, he added.
He chuckled again to himself as he watched the girl-- she was barely breathing. He couldn't be that scary… could he? He tried to go back to his stock report but found himself retyping the previous order again and again. Finally, when he was fed up, he turned to her.
"You know," he said, his deep voice louder than he had thought, "You don't have to be so--"
BRRRRIIINNNGGG! As if on cue, the first morning bell rang and Sensei as well as the other students began to pile in.
Seto was left dumbfounded for once in a very long while. How long had he been thinking about her? Had she really captured his thoughts for almost an hour? He turned back to his laptop to power it down. He had never thought of someone at that length since-- since Mokuba was hurt…
He rubbed his temples and tried to focus on whatever the teacher was saying. But, for some reason, he began to think this was going to be a very long semester.
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Thank you so much for reading thus far! I REALLY hope you like it! Please review! Happy B-day to... me!
Mysteria Pearl