Chapter 26: Pre-Dismissal Setbacks

I had packed everything up for the party; I walked through the dorms as I had done last year at this time. I walked over to Jaden, and TK's room. I knocked on the door. TK opened the door. "Hey Alexis, Jaden went out to prepare his deck for the graduation duel. He'll be back later, okay." I nodded and walked in his room.

"So how is the packing going TK?" I asked.

"Good but I'm not sure that Kari is exactly happy about going home; neither is Tai." TK answered.

"Why wouldn't they?" I asked.

"Kari and Tai's parents are not getting along well, they've been overworking themselves and constantly fighting and Kari and Tai are worried they might get divorced." I sighed, I couldn't really understand about parents because mine were almost never home.

"Well I hope that they come to the party regardless of their parents' situation." I said to them.

"Um Alexis, they're already gone. They left yesterday night." I gasped, they were already gone, and no wonder he seemed so sad.

"I feel so bad. Why didn't they tell me?" I asked him.

"I didn't know either, I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find a note from Kari somewhere. I got mine." He held a note in front of me which I took and read.

It read:

Dearest TK,

I'm sorry I had to leave on such short notice but sadly, mom and dad need Tai and I back immediately. It seems sadly your suspicious were right. I wanted you to be wrong about this. It seems that Tai and I have a choice to make, one or the other or neither. It's really sad, I know how you feel now but at least you get to see your family. I won't. I don't understand what's going on but enjoy Alexis' party and tell me how it is when you get back. Until the trial is over Tai and I aren't allowed to leave Japan; we're considered property of our parents until we're 18. We most likely won't be allowed back unless we ask our respective parent. I hope that the divorce isn't approved and they get along but I don't think it will so I hope you are doing good, good luck with the exams, I already took mine don't worry about them.

With Love,

Your Dearest Kari

"She's gone?" I asked sadly.

"Yeah, I didn't want to worry about her but I think she's going to miserable for a while, at least until she's 18." I don't think I could take that, I would ask to be excused from the family if I had to take that much damage.

"Anything else you want to share?"

"Yeah, if her dad gets her, then they'll move far away and he never liked me and we won't be able to be together." I gasped and stepped back. He was just sitting on his bed looking at the floor. "It's unlikely that he'd want her because he favors Tai but it could happen, or worst, her mom could end up with nether of them."

"Or both, it's possible that they both could end up with their mom, right?" I asked hopefully.

"You keep hoping that Alexis, because that's what I'm desperately hoping that and those they don't split up, I hope Kari and Tai can bring those two together. They don't even know why they're fighting. They just know they are." TK said sadly.

"I need you to tell me where Jaden went."

"You think if I knew I'd be waiting around for him to get back." TK answered.

"You're waiting for Jaden?" I asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to telling him I'm going home to. To help Kari in her emotional state, I'm sure she's crying now because of everything and I want to help." I nodded.

"I think I know where he is." I said running out of the dorm room, into the main building then up to the roof of the building. "There you are." I said watching Jaden think about his cards with Kate to his side watching him.

"Mommy!" Kate said happily. Jaden turned around and smiled.

"Morning Jaden, TK needs to talk to you when you done. You almost done?" I asked.

Jaden stacked the cards on top of one another in piles and set the deck in my hands and walked off. "Shuffle that for me, I'm going to talk to TK, okay?" He asked turning around and looking at me.

"Sure, come on Kate, we're going to our room to pack up." She smiled and after I had shuffled Jaden's deck I put it in an extra pouch in my belt next to mine and Kate's decks.

"Mommy, where do we go now?" She asked.

"Home, to my house."

"To your fancy house, yeah!" She said happily as if she was a young child, four or so but she had regained her innocence that I had thought she lost but she did win, that was good.

I finished packing up the rest of her things as she played with the remaining things I had left out for her to play with. "Mommy, look what I found." She said holding up a letter addressed to me and Jaden.

Dear Alexis and Jaden,

I'm sorry I had to run off last minute. My parents are having some problems with their relationship and are trying to get a divorce. This means that we are being recoiled and we can't leave Japan until the divorce is settled in court since we are our parents' 'property' until we're 18. I can't wait until we meet again which could possibly be in a few years, or a few weeks, whatever the court decided. Sorry I can't attend your party, Alexis. Jaden, take care of yourself and don't eat too much. Tell Kate, hi and I hope she's doing well and happy playing. I'll miss you guys and thanks for the good times.

Your Friend,

Kari Kamiya

"What does it say?" She asked.

"Oh sorry, in summary it says that Kari had to leave and can't go to the party she needs to be with her parents and so does her brother." I summarized for the small girl.

"Am I going to be able to read soon?" She asked.

"Pretty soon, we work on your alphabet a lot more and you'll have it down for sure I answered."

"I hope her parents get better." I smiled.

"I do too."

"We'll see her again, right?"

"Of course, don't worry; she'll be back. It just may take a while for her and her parents to recover."

"Kari's sick?" She asked confused.

"No, Kari's confused as to what's going to happen if she's separated from her parents."

"That's sad, I'm separated from my parents. I know it's sad." She answered. She may seen innocent but she definitely has major talent for being mature when you need her too. I see that as something good while others don't. No one is completely innocent.

(The Next Morning)

"Remember the party is in a week, I can't wait to see you again." I said as TK left early the next morning. I alone had gone to see him off. Kate was asleep and Jaden had a huge battle the next morning. He probably wouldn't mind waking up to say good-bye but he'd need his rest.

I went to bed and when the clock hit 10 I woke up and put all my bags onto the cart that Melissa would come pick up later and take everything onto the boat.

"Hey Alexis, ready?" Jaden said running down the hall and almost crashing into me.

"When am I not ready to watch you duel?" I asked. "It doesn't take much to watch a duel, just the duelists and myself and Kate." I answered him.

"I know but I'm making sure your ready for leaving today." Jaden said picking up Kate and hugging me with his open arm.

"I'm ready." Kate said to Jaden.

"That's good because so am I. Let's go." Jaden said running off with Kate. I calmly walked after them knowing exactly where they were going; Jaden's favorite place besides the dueling arena, the kitchen.

When I arrived in the kitchen Jaden was already scarfing down on a large part of his meal. It would take Kate and I equal time to finish our quite smaller meal as it would for him to finish his which was surprising. Kate began to eat with me and we watched Jaden finish us as we had just finished eating.

Jaden jumped up, "Time to duel!" He yelled and ran out of the room down the hall to the arena. I noticed that we had 2 hours before people would start arriving which meant that no one else would be here but I was wrong.

"Jaden, there's someone else here." I said to him. He looked around scouting the entire arena. I sighed and pointed forward to where Kate was running too. "Kate, come back." I yelled.

"She's fine Alexis; I just didn't know you had a daughter." I knew that voice but who was it. I knew I knew that voice. The person walked over to me and set her in my arms and Kate crawled up into my arms.

"Marcus?" I said taking a step back, as in fear.

I was frozen with fear and heart shaking fear. Jaden must have noticed. "Who are you?" He asked.

"Marcus as she said." He responded.

"Your history with Alexis?" Jaden asked.

"She and I, so to say were engaged for a few years." Jaden looked at me.

"No way, Alexis is way too scared of you to be engaged."

"Why don't you tell him Alexis, or are you too scared." Kate was worried about and so was Jaden but I couldn't respond, and I was sure that if I tired it wouldn't be helpful to this situation.

"Mommy?" Kate asked shaking me. "Mommy, are you alive?" I nodded a little. "Daddy, mommy is asleep." She answered.

"Alexis, come on, tell me." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"He's not lying." I said and he gasped.

"See, told you; you didn't believe me. After all these years I see you've changed a lot." I couldn't respond anymore, it hurt too much.

"Nah, Alexis has always been like this." Jaden answered.

"How long have you known her?" He asked curiously. Why was he haunting me? I thought to myself.

"Two years," Jaden answered.

"I thought as much, she was a completely different person when I met her 6 years ago." He told Jaden.

"How so?" Jaden asked.

"Alexis wasn't always the great duelist she is today, she studied extremely hard, never gave a moment to any of her friends. That's why she's getting behind in dueling because she hasn't put all her effort into dueling." He responded.

"That's where you're wrong; she's the top female duelist in the school. Every day she gets better and is advancing on forward and is a professional duelist." Jaden answered, defending me.

"So she is how many stars does she have?" He asked.

"We both have 6 stars." The boy smiled.

"Impressive, it seems that I was wrong about you Alexis. You've changed." He answered.

"I'm sure you know that she's changed in a lot of ways. You'd never guess." Jaden said happily, it made me smile to think of it.

"I just think she has in some ways. I mean she has a daughter, I have eyes." He stated. Jaden burst out into laughter.

"You thought Alexis gave birth to a child even after knowing her for all those years, that's hilarious." Jaden said laughing.

"What do you mean, she didn't?" He asked.

"Of course not, Alexis and I adopted Kate. She needed a better life and hope and Alexis thought we were the perfect ones to give it to her." Jaden smiled happily.

"I guess then it was all a huge mistake then, to think that you changed." Marcus said to me.

"In a lot of ways Alexis has changed, you just have to think hard to see them." Jaden answered him. "Are you coming to the duel?" Jaden asked Marcus.

"Of course I will, I didn't just come here to check up on my old school friend, Alexis. I too love dueling. I went to a dueling prep school after all."

"You duel?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah, I'm a pro duelist myself, 8 stars myself." He said showing the stars to Jaden that were pinned to the insert of his jacket.

"Cool, you mind if I duel you for one then?" Jaden asked.

"Could I?" I asked looking at him.

"That makes more sense, we'll both duel you for a star, okay?" Jaden asked.

"Sure," He said smirking. He had to be good if he had gone all the way to his 8th star or he had stolen them or something to that effect.

I started out my duel, I had to be careful not to use any of my old moves or he could take me down in the matter of moments. I knew he could remember every single card a person had, and remember it for extended periods of time to be sure.

"You ready Alexis?" He asked me.

I nodded turning on my duel disk and after he shuffled my deck and handed it to me. I took my starting hand and placed a monster facedown in the defense position and put 3 cards on my field.

"A weak start I see, I hate when people start weak, and they never work back to that mistake." He criticized my style of dueling.

He summoned a monster onto the field in attack mode and attacked my facedown monster and he lost 600 life points. "You happened to have made a mistake I said."

"It's just a little one, it won't happen again. But now I know what that monster is." I shook my head. "Yes I do,"

"His special ability is that no matter what you do as long as he's on the field, he's face down. You'll never get to see him, until he's destroyed that is." He was angry now, he couldn't learn anything about the monster if I could alter his abilities over and over again. It was his one weakness, facedown monsters. I eventually one after his stupid struggle to beat me, which he didn't and Jaden stepped up to duel.

"Where's your deck, Jaden?" Marcus asked.

"Uh?" Jaden thought about it. I sighed, I forgot to return Jaden's deck. I still had it.

"Jaden!" I yelled then tossed his deck in it's case to me.

"Thanks, Alexis." He thanked me. Then the shuffled the deck and returned to their places and they dueled. This one was more hard for both sides since Jaden was giving Marcus information on his monsters without him even having to think about it.

Then Jaden, as normal beat him and we got were given stars leaving him with 6 stars and we both had 7. "Thanks," I said smiling to him. I was being funny and he walked up to the back of the arena when he saw people come in.

(A/N: I'd like to tell you how the contest arrangement is for stars, once you have a star above that level, you can't gain a star from anyone less then you are only people higher; you can lose stars by weaker level duelists during a challenge but other than that you must challenge on equal levels. Unless the challenger chooses to skip levels.)

"Welcome to our Graduation Duel, Our Representative student for this Evening is Jaden Yuki and his selected challenger is Daniel Rivnoff. Come on stage boys," A Freshman teacher greeted. Jaden and Daniel stepped up on stage and Jaden waved to the crowd while Daniel just stood still.

"Let the duel begin," One of the freshman teachers began.

The duel took a few hours, I was sitting there patiently for a winner but it was even, life points, monsters and the way the dueled, everything was the same. Jaden and Daniel were struggling for sure.

Jaden and Daniel were beginning to grow tired of matching the other one hundred percent and Jaden jumped up throwing off everyone in the audience and slightly Daniel. "Okay, now I'm going do give it one hundred percent more then I have done." He said and drew his cards polymerizing and activating trap and spell cards left and right. Did he just get good cards and now was actually giving Daniel a chance to lose?

In moments, Jaden one, whatever had sparked him had set him on fire and he went out with a bang and it was over just like that with everyone on the edge of their seats after sleeping for the last few hours, it was tiring.

"Thanks for the cool duel, Daniel." Jaden said to him.

"Were you holding back?" He asked.

"Nah, I was having a extremely off dueling day, it's happened twice today already, I'll have to work on why today's off." Jaden looked at the clock searching for the date but couldn't find it, he gave up. He couldn't find one.

"I think you're just off because school's going out and you're going to miss dueling." I said.

"You're probably right, Alexis. I'll just have to find a lot of duels this summer, keep my mind off missing this place, right?" Jaden asked.

"I'm sure we'll have tons of dueling related things to do, you can always duel Kate, Melissa, Atticus, Me and anyone else who stops by or you can go over to Syrus's and duel him." I asked.

"You're right Alexis, there are so many people to duel, why should I be down?" He asked happily. "Ready Alexis, we've got to go right?" He asked.

"Yeah, come on Kate." I said picking up Kate.

"We're going on a boat?" She asked.

"Yes, we are." I said to her. She walked on the ship and happily ran around it. She was so happy to be going home; this school isn't a place for a young girl like her.