Author's Note: Meant to update yesterday. Settled for today.
This is the chapter you've all been waiting for! (Or, at least I've been waiting for.) This is Bakura's first day of school! :D Oh, and poor little Bakura, I'm not going to make things easy for him… *evil smirk*
Well, here I go!
Chapter 8: First Day
Ryou had tried everything to wake up his sleeping yami. But, Bakura just wouldn't wake. Ryou was running out of options and time.
As a last resort, the slightly smaller albino went in the kitchen, filled a skillet with ice cold water, and poured it onto the sleeping thief.
"Ryou!" Bakura cried, his eyes snapping open, ready to kill, "You son of a bitch!"
"Ah, ah, ah," Ryou chastised, waging his finger, "We're posing as brothers from now on. That means we have the same mother."
Bakura growled.
"Besides, you need to get ready for the day," Ryou grasped both of the spirit's wrists and pulled on him until he was upright. He said quickly, "Upsidaisy! We've got to be at school by seven thirty!"
"That better be in the afternoon…"
"No, the morning, silly!"
"Damn it!"
The hakari ran into the bathroom to finish getting ready, not wanting to around when Bakura finally mustered the energy to take out his anger on the thing nearest to him.
Bakura groggily got dressed and rinsed out his mouth with Coca-Cola, too lazily to wait for when Ryou was finished.
The thief sat down to a hasty bowl of Captain Crunch as Ryou stepped out, all fresh and prim for the first day of school.
"Aren't you going to take a shower, 'Kura?" Ryou wondered aloud.
Bakura shrugged at this and replied, "I think the cold water you drenched me with this morning is shower enough."
"Okay," Ryou agreed, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. He examined his 'twin' for a moment before pointed out, "Wait a minute. We're wearing the same outfit…"
"So?" Bakura inquired, stuffing more cereal into his mouth.
"So, people are going to get confused," Ryou explained, "We really do look alike."
"And?"
"And, I don't want to confuse people."
"I do."
Ryou glared.
"What?"
The marginally smaller boy sighed and tried, "Can you please go change clothes?
"If it's bothering you so much, why don't you?"
"But, I spent weeks picking out my first day outfit!" Ryou whined, pouting.
"No."
"'Kura…"
"No."
"Kitty-"
"Fine! I give, I give, just shut the hell up!" Bakura snapped, going into his bag for new clothes.
"Thanks, 'Kura, you're the best," Ryou sugar-coated.
"Yeah, whatever," Bakura huffed.
He didn't change clothes but ended up throwing a long, black coat over his current attire, contradicting Ryou's pastel blue jacket.
"'Kay, let's go," Bakura mumbled, already depressed. But, he quickly thought of a way to cheer himself up and snatched the new Mustang key off the kitchen counter, yelling behind him as he raced out, "I call driving!"
Ryou threw on his and Bakura's backpack, calling after the yami, "Wait up!" The 'twins' made it outside, and Ryou told his other through gasps, trying to catch his breath after having to chase Bakura, "We don't… have to… drive, 'Kura… It's just down… the street…"
"Nonsense!" Bakura exclaimed, jumping over the car door and into the driver's seat. He reasoned, "Why walk when we have a fancy, blood-red convertible to drive in?" It was in the form of a question but left no room for rebuttal.
Ryou sighed and opened the passenger door instead of jumping over it and said in a defeated tone, "All right. Let's go before we're late."
"Fine by me," Bakura answered, his mood sufficiently lightened from being allowed to drive.
He backed the Mustang out of its parking spot and drove the half a mile to the school.
Ryou was right, Bakura thought as he parked outside the large building, This school is damn close. We should have walked to prolong the time before I have to be trapped at school…
"Are you ready, Bakura?" Ryou asked the thief, already knowing the answer.
"No."
"That's the spirit!"
The two boys exited the car, [Ryou] grabbing their backpacks. The entered the school and navigated to homeroom, all the girls giving the hot 'twins' lustful stares. They finally found their first class and walked in, finding a surprisingly large class conversing, the teacher nowhere to be seen.
"Ryou!" Bakura heard someone call out. The two almost identical boys cocked their heads to the side. Bakura spied the Pharaoh's host's group; consisting of Yugi, Tea, Joey, Tristan, Duke, and a few others whose names hadn't been forced upon him. Hmm, this is going to be interesting…
"Hi, guys!" Ryou greeted cheerfully, taking Bakura's hand and dragging him over to his circle of friends.
Instead of the group becoming deathly still like Bakura had imagined would happen, the friends didn't even seem to acknowledge the thief's existence. In fact, they talked louder, as if trying to cover up the awkwardness. That was fine to Bakura. He preferred being invisible.
But, the peace didn't last.
"'Sup, Bakura?"
Bakura reached new levels of pale.
"Ph-Pharaoh?" he forced out with the venom of a swear word, "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
Now, the group fell into deathly silence.
It was a stand-off. Bakura vs. Atem… or Yami… or whatever the hell he wanted to be called.
"Fancy meeting you here," Bakura said, his face deceiving none of his thoughts or emotions.
The Pharaoh smiled confidently, returning, "Likewise." He continued to say, "I see you escaped death in the ancient times."
"That's right," Bakura retorted, "And, I take it that the afterlife wasn't to your taste either?"
It was so quiet, one could hear Ryou's unsteady breathing. Even the kids whom were oblivious to the real identities of the spirit were at a tense quiet, witnessing the exchange.
"Yes, sir," the Pharaoh resumed smiling assuredly, "These guys couldn't get rid of me that easily."
"Hmm," Bakura hummed and quipped, "That's a shame."
The Pharaoh made a step forward to lunge at the thief, but Yugi held him back, whispering, "Stop, Atem."
Atem shrugged Yugi off but apologized, "I'm sorry, Yugi." He collected himself and offered a hand to Bakura, suggesting, "Why don't we just start over?"
Bakura ping-ponged this offer in his mind and eventually replied, "No thanks."
Atem's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he responded, "Fine, have it your way."
"I will," Bakura smirked sinisterly, sitting down at a desk next to Ryou and on the outskirts of the Pharaoh's group.
But, the damn Pharaoh sat right down next to Bakura, greeting casually, "Hi, again."
"What do you want, 'Atem'?" Bakura questioned, putting air-quotes on the Pharaoh's name which he had adopted.
Atem crossed his arms and stated, "Well, I've made up my mind to try to be your friend." Bakura chocked on his own breath in surprise. Atem continued, "Plus, I get to annoy the hell out of you in the process. I'm killing two birds with one stone as they say."
"How conservative of you," Bakura said with mock sincerity.
Ryou rapidly changed the subject, saying, "Here's your backpack, 'Kura." He dropped the bag on his yami's desk.
"Hey, careful!" Bakura exclaimed, surprising those around to hear. He explained with urgency, "There's special cargo in here!"
"Well," Ryou rubbed his shoulder, "Whatever 'special cargo' you have in there is giving me a hunch."
Yugi spoke up from next to Atem, inquiring, "What's in your bag, Bakura?"
The spirit grinned and replied, "I'll show you." He unzipped his backpack, and a little, white kitten walked out.
"You brought Kitty?" Ryou exclaimed.
Against their will, the majority of the Pharaoh's group burst into laughter.
Bakura argued with Ryou, "Well, I couldn't just leave him at home where he could get into trouble." He smiled sickeningly sweetly as he added, "I learned that from you, Ry-Ry."
Ryou's face flushed. The rest of the students continued to giggle and laugh, Atem being the most hysterical.
Bakura paid no attention to this, placing Kitty on his lap and stroking him like an evil villain.
Finally controlling his laughter, Atem asked, "Could I hold your kitty, Bakura?"
Bakura was going to snap a quick 'no', but then he got a better idea. "Sure," he answered with a deceiving smile, placing Kitty on the Pharaoh's desk.
"Aww," Atem petted the cat, commenting mischievously, "Kitty looks just like you, 'Kura."
"Uh-huh," Bakura responded faintly, folding his arms.
Suddenly, Atem articulated a yelp. He pushed the cat back onto Bakura's desk, informing the group, "The cat bit me."
Bakura cackled and placed Kitty back on his lap, praising softly, "Good Kitty, good."
Atem glared.
"Good morning, students," a female teacher greeted as she entered the classroom, "Sorry that I'm late. You wouldn't believe the traffic and don't get me started on the-" She stopped in mid-sentence. She glanced down at the attendance sheet on her desk and back up at the class, questioning, "… Bakura, is it?"
Bakura nodded.
"… Why is there a feline on your desk?"
The students stifled their giggles.
"None of your concern," Bakura responded and set Kitty in his backpack, saying, "Kitty won't be a disturbance. Please go back to whatever the hell you were saying before."
The teacher looked surprised at this retort, shocked even. But, like many before her, she realized Bakura wasn't a person to mess with and let it go. She got herself back on topic, saying, "Now, I know break just ended, but it's time to get back to work. Everyone, take out Algebra books and try to refresher problems on page five…"
Bakura groaned to himself, setting his white head on his desk.
Atem took advantage of this and leaned down to the thief's ear, whispering, "I know this is probably a bad time, but I should tell you to pay attention. This is going to be on our next test… and the midterm after that… and the final after that… and-"
Bakura kicked the Pharaoh's shin, hissing, "Shut up. You got to live through it, too."
"Yeah, but I was actually paying attention during school when I was with my hakari. Whereas you, on the other hand, have a lot of catching up to do. And, if you don't, you'll be held back and will have to stay here…" Atem added for emphasis, "… Forever."
Bakura banged his forehead against the desk.
Atem grinned smugly, informing, "You know, you're not going to get your knowledge from banging your head on your desk."
"And, you're not going to like it when I cut out your tongue and feed it to my cat in a seafood medley."
Atem clenched his jaw shut, the threat enough to keep him quiet the remainder of the period.
-transition-
The remainder of the classes went about the same as the first, minus one or two people who went or came to different classes. But, the last class (art) only had Bakura and Atem. No other people in the group were there to keep them apart. Not even the hakaris. Well, there went Ryou's theory that art would relax Bakura…
"What are you painting, Bakura?" Atem inquired the thief, leaning to the side to catch a glimpse at Bakura's painting.
"What does it look like, Pharaoh?" he questioned back, not taking his eyes off his work.
"Well," Atem described, "It looks like… a bunch of multi-colored parallel lines."
"Ding, ding, ding," Bakura alerted with no enthusiasm.
Atem folded his arms and admitted, "Actually, I think your painting is nice."
"Sure," Bakura responded, not believing the past pharaoh.
"No, really," Atem insisted, "You're good."
Bakura began ranting angrily, "I don't need your op- Wait, did you say it was good?"
Atem nodded.
Bakura huffed, "Whatever."
Atem smiled, though Bakura was too busy to notice. He was going to prove to the thief that they could be friends. Even if it took countless hours, the majority of Atem's patience, and brought about the end of the world, Atem was going to prove it. He had made his mind up to do so, just like he said. And, when Pharaoh Atem chose to do something, he never gave up, no matter how hard the fight.
Author's Note: And, the fight will be hard… *evil laugh*
Did you enjoy that? I hope so.
Side Note: I debated for the longest time whether to call Atem "Atem" or just "Yami". Finally, I picked Atem (though I think Yami is awesomer) because I often refer to Bakura as "the yami" or "his yami" and it was just getting confusing.
Enough of my rambling. Review?