A/N Well I wasn't gonna write more of this fic, but then I read all of your reviews and it spurred me on to write! So now you know how important your input is to my writing, however the cliff hanger goes unresolved… for a while at least - enjoy.
It was fifteen minutes after the big meeting for the school, and fifteen minutes after the youngest Princeton had run off. However it was also fifteen minutes of complete bliss for a certain brunette, and shock for his best friend.
Jaden and Syrus were two of the last people to actually leave the duelling arena, mostly because Jaden had been so preoccupied with talking he couldn't move. Multi-tasking had never been one of Jaden's fortes however, when news like this hit him he could barely sustain his excitement and so it was either jump up and down screaming, or sitting perfectly still and talking gibberish. Which, incidentally, he'd been managing rather well for precisely fifteen minutes.
"Jay – please will you move?" Syrus tugged on the other Slifer's arm, "If we go back to our dorm we can talk and eat all the sweets Chumley brought with him…?"
Finally something that appealed to Jaden's senses, he looked up and grinned, "A chance to duel against a pro Sy… what are the chances of that? Huh?" He had finally begun speak a little slower and with one last tug on his arm from Syrus, Jaden stood up and the pair left the arena.
"Yeah – it's cool…" the blunette trailed off slightly in thought, these were the first words he'd got in edge ways, but now that he came to finally speak his feelings, he found he didn't like what he was thinking.
Jaden frowned down at the mousy looking teen next to him, "Totally sweet…" he uttered.
"But knowing me I probably won't even get past the first stage…" it was sad to see the fifteen year old already defeated by the thought of loosing.
"Nah! You just need a little self-confidence; I've duelled tons of people Sy and you're twice as good as most of 'em. Give yourself a chance."
"But what if I suck?" Syrus saw Jaden start to open his mouth to protest but stopped him, for once speaking over the noisy other boy, "No Jaden – what if I really, really, really suck! What if I embarrass myself in front of everyone?" Jaden winced, not from the words Syrus was speaking, but because of the fact Syrus' still falsetto voice was reaching pitches unknown to man, "I can't enter Jay. I'll just loose…"
"You're right. If you go into it with that attitude you'll be lucky if they don't laugh you off," a voice called down the corridor to the boys; a voice so contrasting to Syrus' panicky, shrill one you would never guess they were related, unless you knew of course.
"Yeah Lil'Zane – you're setting yourself up to fail," another, considerably less formal voice with a hint of a Californian accent, added, "You shouldn't do that; it's bad karma…"
"Zane? What're you doing here?" Syrus piped up; it was like an odd reunion episode of some kind of sitcom.
Zane looked to his little brother, with what people might have said was a hint of a smile, but what was really a bona fide Zane grin, "Actually Syrus I can't say – it's supposed to be-" his words were cut off by his slightly louder friend.
"He's gonna be Aster Pheonix's tag team partner," Atticus said, grinning wildly.
"Atticus – let me define 'secret'," Zane growled, he was ignored.
"And that is why, boys and girls, it's gonna be twice as super cool when me and my sis take him down."
Alexis raised an eyebrow, "Since when are we tag teaming?" she asked, not to amused.
"Since uh-" Atticus grinned sheepishly and pulled the largest pair of puppy dog eyes Syrus had ever seen, "You will won't you? C'mon sis, we're so the best duellists in the school, you wanna win don't cha?"
Rolling her eyes to herself Alexis sighed, "Fine… fine… it's not like I have anyone else to go with anyway…"
"Sweet! But we're not gonna loose cause you can't stop making eyes at Zaney across the arena are we?"
Alexis blushed and punched Atticus in the arm before whispering to him, "Shut up or I will use your ukulele for fire wood."
Atticus squeaked.
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"What're you doing here?" Chazz asked, he had tried to make his voice sound in control – unafraid, but there was a quiver to it that portrayed what he really felt. Obviously Slade and Jagger had heard the slight shake in his tone because they started smirking to each other, Chazz inwardly sighed, there wasn't any point to acting tough anymore, Slade and Jagger knew exactly what was what with him and they had done for a long time… there was no point to pretending to not care what they thought, only that it made Chazz feel a little more secure – as long as he was able to, he would hide behind his façade. "Why did you come back?"
"What? You thought we'd miss out on this?" Slade raised an eyebrow and folded his arms in a business like manner, "Miss out on our little brother duelling one of the pros?" there was no question in his voice; it was a statement and Chazz realised at once exactly why his brothers were there. He'd been a fool not to realise straight away; they were there to make sure he got through the competition and duelled Aster Pheonix and made the Princeton name mean something again. Chazz would have tried in the competition anyway, but with his brother's there loosing was not an option.
Chazz cleared his throat, "What… What if I can't do it?" he asked, he knew he was walking on very, very thin ice, but he had to know the answer, he just had to.
Jagger scowled and was in front of the smaller Princeton in a second, "We're giving you a chance, Chazz. We should be through with you, and hang you out to dry, but we're giving you another fucking chance. How many is that Chazz? Huh?"
Slade cut in, "Too many," he growled, "There's no 'can't' to it. You had better get through the duels and you had better win, because we don't give out chances to nobodies – and we don't like being let down. You got that?"
Whilst Slade had been speaking Jagger had moved around behind Chazz and shut the door.
Throat dry, Chazz nodded, however, clenching his fists as though to give himself strength he said quietly, "But I can't help it if I loose it's not my-"
Chazz's words were cut off by Slade unfolding his arms and backslapping the younger boy hard across the face. Chazz stumbled slightly into a cabinet and tried to steady himself; it wasn't that he was unusually weak for his stature, in fact he had done well to stay standing, the force of Slade's blow would probably have sent Chancellor Shepard sprawling.
"Don't answer back!"
A/N Sorry to leave it there, its kinda in the middle of something isn't it? Well I suck. Lol, it's taken me ages to write anything for this fic and I won't have time to write anything else (being Christmas and all) for a while. So here is a sucky update that I'm too tired to complete properly… RnR please :)