Chapter 3 – Children's Trading Card Games

I was happily asleep when a sharp beeping noise cut into my dreams forcing me to get up. I groaned and looked around for the source of the noise to see one of my roommates, George, turn off an alarm clock set at the foot of the bunk. I could not believe that he brought an alarm clock to wake everyone up. As a force of habit I abruptly got up only to hit the bottom of Wally's bunk which was right above me. I had not expected it there since I was used to my own bed back at home where there wasn't another bed just a few feet above me. I rolled off my bed groaning in pain as Wally woke up in the same sleepy demeanor I was in. "What the heck man! It's so early!" I complained as I stood up rubbing my injured head.

"Oh you'll live, and classes start in about half an hour." George simply replied heading out with his toiletries.

Thanks to just waking up and my recent head injury, it took me a little while to realize that there were only 4 showers for an entire dorm of about 35 males. I quickly grabbed my toiletries and sprinted downstairs to the bottom floor to get to a shower before they get all taken and I arrive in my first class smelling like God knows what. Fortunately for me I got in a shower but to my dismay they were quite small not to mention very dirty. It was a cramped stall with the tiles stained with suspicious substances and the showerhead was leaking. I soon learned that there were only two temperatures available: sub-zero or scalding. I took a very awkward and uncomfortable shower and headed out towards my first day of Duel Academy. The bright sun made my still damp hair glisten a bit as I went back into my room to change into my red uniform. George and Wally walked with me as we headed into the first classroom to be greeted by Professor Allen, our dorm advisor. "Welcome to the first year of Dueling Theory. I'll be teaching you the basics of Duel Monsters and what to do in certain situations. Let us begin by reviewing all the different types of cards…" the professor said as I began to slowly shut my brain off.

I let out a bored sigh knowing I had an entire year ahead of me but I only looked forward to pick-up duels and probably Duel Application, one of the few classes where I could actually duel instead of sit around and do nothing. I was on the verge of sleeping when a heavy object hit the back of my head, it felt like a notebook, and judging from the strength of it, it probably was swung by a guy like Wally. I looked around only to see Wally sleeping to the right of me so I checked the left of me and sitting there was Lauren, one of the twins I met before. "Focus!" she hissed at me as she continued to take notes.

I rubbed the back of my head, which was still a bit sensitive from my morning injury, wondering where her strength came from and her reasons for caring about my grade. I then turned around to see Laura who was there also taking notes but obviously trying to hide her laughter. I let out a frustrated sigh and began taking notes also, occasionally glancing over at Lauren's super neat notes since I was behind in them already. They had stuck all the Slifers and some Ras together since they assumed we were not smart enough to know what card types were and what they did. Monster, trap, spell, then on to specific types of each. It was quite boring because I already knew everything that the professor was talking and so much more. In fact everyone should know or they wouldn't be able to duel, I guess the fundamentals are that important. The only reason I was put in Slifer was my inability to think of good strategies when I would duel. Unlike dueling puzzles where I had plenty of time to think, dueling for real really messed with my head. I began to reminiscence on all the times I had lost a duel because I made a simple mistake. Those thoughts were quickly broken as I realized I got distracted from class again. I furiously began taking notes again to catch up to the class hoping this dreadful hour would end soon.

I let out a sigh of relief as the bell rang and the class ended and I headed towards my next class, Duel Application. We all entered the classroom and to a big surprise, it was almost all full of Slifer Red students because of our implied dueling level. I let out a frustrated sigh and sat down and waited for the professor to come in. It was a short wait as the professor walked in, 'at least I could entertain myself in this class' I thought to myself. I noticed he was a Ra Yellow dorm advisor and some Ra students entered the class late, naturally no reprimands for them. "Welcome to Dueling Application My name is Dr. Turner. I am your teacher for this course. To start things off, we'll all duel each other by picking out numbers out of this box. Those with the same name will duel each other. Any questions?" the professor asked as I just noticed his PhD hanging off the wall.

We all got up to draw a number and I looked at mine which read 17. It began to look around for the other 17 holder which happened to be Laura. I gave her a friendly smile as we separated from everyone to duel each other. She didn't smile back at me and stared me down, which kind of scared me. But before we could start, I heard a loud and obnoxious voice. "There's no way I'm dueling a Slifer slacker! I would learn nothing from this! She's pathetic!" A Ra student yelled.

I saw Lauren there looked stunned, almost on the verge of crying too, at the idiotic Ra student who just looked disdainfully away from her. I sighed and walked over and stepped in front of Lauren, I did not take bullying easily. "Hey moron, that's no way to treat a lady." I said casually but I was really on the verge of beating his guy down to the ground, literally.

"Shut it Slifer slacker. I can beat you with my hands tied behind my back." The student taunted.

"How about I'll show you what this Slifer can do to you.," I retorted "Dr. Turner, you don't mind if I switch my partner right? It'll be for a more 'educational experience' as this guy wants it to be."

The professor just nodded as I put my deck into my Duel Disk. My opponent looked infuriated as he inserted in his own deck and drew his five cards. "I'll beat you without breaking a sweat!" he said as he drew the first card of the game [4000/4000].

I had barely drawn my five cards when he made his move, not that him going faster made anything more difficult for me. "First I activate, Reinforcement of the Army which lets me get a level 4 star or lower Warrior-type Monster from my Deck into my hand and I choose Marauding Captain!" my opponent said as I groaned knowing I was facing a stupid Warrior deck, "Ready for this? I summon my Marauding Captain(1200/400) in attack mode! Now for his special effect which allows me to special summon another level 4 star or lower Monster in my hand and I choose my second Marauding Captain!"

"Oh no the easiest and oldest lock down strategy in the book, what shall I do?" I said sarcastically knowing I could win very easily.

"Shut it! Then I activate two of my Fusion Sword Murasame Blade which gives both my Marauding Captains (2000/400) 800 more attack! Now go if you dare."

"Booring." I taunted as I drew, "You know you're kind of stupid for not setting any cards. I just won this duel. First I activate Polymerization to fuse Elemental Hero Ocean and Elemental Prisma to bring out Elemental Hero Absolute Zero (2500/2000). Then I summon Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000) in attack mode. Then-"

"Stupid Slifer slacker! You can't attack me. You're forgetting about my Captains' abilities. You can't target other Warrior-types but since two are on field, you can't touch me!" The Ra student said looking quite proud of himself, like I had said, this guy was a complete idiot.

"Do you really think I only carry one Polymerization in my deck?" I said revealing the card I had drawn in the beginning of the duel. I was surprised at how lucky I had gotten but I guess Lady Luck decided to help me in defending my friend.

"So what? No matter how strong your next Monster is, you still can't beat me idiot."

"I don't know how you're in Ra but I'll explain it to you because I'm a nice person. Once Absolute Zero is removed from the field, which is what he is on right now, then all your monsters are destroyed."

"How?" he asked looking stunned.

"Because you're stupid and should learn how to treat girls better. Go Woodsman and Absolute Zero! Combine to form Elemental Hero Gaia!" I said as Absolute Zero cleared the field since the Equip cards were destroyed as well. Then came Elemental Hero Gaia (2200/2600), unfortunately with no monsters on field, Gaia couldn't activate its effect.

"Ha! That's still not enough to kill me. Stupid Slifer slacker." The Ra student said, this kid really did not know when to shut up nor did he have any intelligence.

"For being stuck in an entire class full of us, you should be nicer to Slifers now that you lost to one. AND before you saying anything stupid again, here's a card even idiots like you should know. Monster Reborn!" I said I activate card and smiled at my opponent, "Come back Absolute Zero! Now Gaia and Absolute Zero, attack him directly! [4000/0]"

The student fell to his knees as everyone in the class began clapping, even Dr. Turner, but the other Ra students looked at me with disdain. I was glad to teach him a lesson though and a quick one too. I got a thumbs up from the professor as I took a seat and laid back to watch everyone else duel. I knew I had a long time before class ended but there were so many duels being played that I knew would not get bored. I decided to check out the twins out first because I was curious to see how they would respond to each other not to mention what kind of decks they used.

Laura was going first and the first monster she summoned was Flamvell Firedog (1900/200), a hot headed girl using Flamvells, how appropriate. She then set two cards before ending her turn. When Lauren's turn came I was surprised to see her use Instant Fusion to special summon Flower Wolf (1800/400). There were many things wrong with that because it was weaker than Firedog, which Laura pointed out loudly, and it couldn't even attack. I smiled and realized what she was going to do. Lauren, like I had guessed, summoned a tuner, Naturia Cherry. Then she Synchro summoned Naturia Barkion (2500/1800). After throwing down 2 face down cards she attacked only to encounter a Mirror Force. I laughed at Laura's mistake because all Lauren had to do was remove from play two cards in her graveyard and negate it due to Barkion's effect, which she did much to Laura's surprise. I shook my head and turned my focus to another game. It was between Rachel and George and it was battle between Batterymen and Fairies judging from the monsters on field. George was losing pretty badly already until he used Battery Charge to special summon Batteryman AA even though it only brought Life Points to 100. Then he used Inferno Reckless Summon to bring his other 2 Batteryman AA out on the field giving each 3000 attack. However Rachel's Splendid Venus kept all of George's monsters at 2500 attack meaning all that did nothing save him. Then he played Short Circuit which cleared Rachel's field resulting in George's win. I sat there amazed at the technique as Rachel mumbled to herself, probably about mistakes she made. However I did feel something strange when I looked at the Splendid Venus hologram, it was if the monster tried to stand its ground to protect Rachel. Maybe that was just me going a bit crazy from focusing on too many games at once.

"Nice move George!" I called out giving him a thumbs up for his spectacular finish.

He just shrugged and walked away as if my thumbs didn't mean anything to him. I turned my focus back to twins whose game had taken a change in favors. Laura had Ancient Flamvell Diety(2500/200) and Lauren with Naturia Bamboo Shoot(2000/2000). The Synchro Monster quickly got rid of Lauren's monster leaving her with only 1000 Life Points left. Laura's turn endedI figured her twin lost until Lauren played Miracle Synchro Fusion which allowed her to Fusion Summon Naturia Extrio (2800/2400) by removing from play Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion from her Graveyard. Lauren smiled as she dealt the final blow to her sister and I applauded for the duel not knowing how good they played since I was distracted by other people. Other duels began ending right after and to my surprise the bell rang. Time sure flew by when you were focused on card games.