Chapter 2

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Serenity brushed back her navy blue and silver bedspread, and stretched. Her second day of school was going to start in about 45 minutes. She rubbed her hair, waking her brain up, and gathered her school clothes, bringing them into the bathroom. After the shower she dressed and dried her hair.

Peeking out of the bathroom first, to make sure she didn't wake her father, she quietly stepped down the hall. She had about twenty minutes left before she had to leave for school, so she made a quick breakfast for two and left her fathers portion in the toaster oven to keep it warm. She tossed on a coat and grabbed her book bag and was off.

Calculus was the same nightmare it was the day before, but nothing more. The teacher droned on about how he had to get everyone situated because their teachers were incompetent, and complained a bit about the chemistry teachers. He'd bother a student or two here and there, but he used a good half of the class time to prepare a course syllabus, while he gave out a packet of problems to further understand what his students did and did not know.

Kaiba sat in the back of the classroom setting up his laptop while others finished their packet. When Mr. Hunt, looked up at the noise of a laptop powering up, Kaiba shook his packet, showing the teacher that he had already finished. Mr. Hunt raised an eyebrow in disapproval, but didn't stop him. He began logging into his personal settings and opened a web browser.

Serenity who had already finished her packet, and had allowed boredom to overcome her, peeked onto the screen. She only noticed the web page and a few other words but it shocked her none the less.

"Mokuba's in the hospital?" She whispered, not noticing that she was speaking until after it was said. She remembered the cute little boy from the year before when she accompanied Joey in Battle City. He was sweet, and adorable, and innocent. She just loved the kid from the moment they met.

Kaiba stopped typing immediately, and turned to face her.

"I . . .I'm sorry . . . I didn't mean to . . . Is he ok?" Serenity couldn't help asking. She kept it quiet, so no one really noticed, that and they were all trying to finish the packet quickly.

Kaiba sighed. If she had asked about him with the same look of compassion and worry, he would have scoffed and made some snide comment, but this was his little brother, and he remembered that she had met him and had gotten along with him a year or so back.

"He's fine, now, he just fell while skateboarding and broke his ankle." Serenity muffled a gasp.

"He broke it? Oh, poor Mokuba." Serenity said, trying to think of what to say. Before Kaiba could reply, an instant message appeared on the screen. Serenity decided not to peek again.

"It's Mokuba. He's at home, in bed." Kaiba said, for no real reason.

"How is he?" She asked, not eavesdropping and giving him a chance to tell her what he wants to.

"He's fine. He's playing video games." Kaiba said disapprovingly. Serenity and Kaiba chatted a bit more until the class ended. She then bid him farewell and headed for Business Management.

'Why did I even waste time on her?' Kaiba thought to himself, making his way to his history class. 'I'm losing it. Sure, Serenity was nice to Mokuba . . . and everyone else on the ship, but . . . she, was also nice . . . at first.' Kaiba shook his head. "They all were . . ." he said absently.

"Where's Joey today? He cant have skipped school on the second day!" Serenity said. She had missed him this morning on the walk to school, because she wanted to show up early.

"You don't know his tradition." Tea laughed, putting an arm around her.

"Joey skips the second day of classes every year . . .or at least the ones he doesn't like. You should see him in the guitar class." Yugi said, laughing with Tea. Serenity smiled at the thought. It was like Joey to start such a tradition. He wasn't the most dedicated student, but this was not the way to start off the year. Joey wasn't stupid. He wasn't particularly book smart, but he wasn't stupid. Joey had the kind of knowledge you cant learn from reading a book, or sitting through a lecture. He was street smart. He had a good idea of the world around him. Wisdom. The knowledge that came from experience. That's what joey had.

Serenity decided to explore the outside lunch area, seeing as it was a beautiful fall day. She excused herself and headed out. The courtyard was spacious and filled with trees, gardens and concrete benches. She passed kids who were studying, drawing and socializing. All of whom were in their own respective groups. The goths were gathered under the archways that led to the front of the building, and another outdoor eating area. The art nuts were sitting under trees talking and sketching. There were a few cheerleaders sitting on some benches talking to jocks, and there were a group of punks in the center of the courtyard playing hackey-sack with a beanbag.

Serenity ventured through the archway, avoiding eye contact with the goths whom all looked homicidal or suicidal, which, she couldn't tell. She followed the cobblestone pathway until it lead to a large field to the side of the building where there were more people enjoying lunchtime. Trees lined the field on opposite sides, carving a natural boarder to the eating area. The school itself formed another end, and the school parking lot formed the final side to the square. The lawn was kept short and green, and there were a few Sakura trees scattered about. Serenity sighed thinking about how beautiful they would be in the spring when the flowers began to bloom and the tree would turn light pink instead of a new green.

Serenity, lost in thought headed to the closest Sakura tree. She made it about halfway there before someone stopped her.

"I see where you're headed, and I'm just going to tell you now to turn around." A girl with light brown hair said, standing in the way.

"Um, are we not allowed to sit under the trees?" Serenity said checking the other trees to see if kids were under them. There were a few kids sitting alone, or with their friends under some of the trees.

"Well, in a sense, we're not allowed under that tree." She said rolling her eyes at Serenity.

"Why not?" The girl sneered at her, looking her up and down like she just said a dirty word. The girl looked around, smiling not-so-sweetly, then faces Serenity again.

"That's why not." She said in a mocking tone. Serenity's gaze followed the girls outstretched arm to a figure approaching the very tree she hoped to get to. It was Seto Kaiba. 'What's with all these girls and their obsession with Kaiba?' Serenity thought. Sure he's rich, and young, and some would even call him attractive, but he was sooo stand-off-ish and she had heard stories from Joey about how cruel he was. Not that she had ever seen a display of such cruelty.

Serenity, gathering her guts, brushed the girl aside, and moved towards Kaiba. All of the girls stared at her in shock.

"Dont worry," one of them whispered, "He'll just brush her off as well" That put a smile on the rest of them.

"Hey, Kaiba. Are you still talking to Mokuba?" Serenity said, brightly. Seto looked up, and nodded. He had his notebook computer on his briefcase laying on his lap, and his lunch-tray on the grass beside him. "Is he behaving?" She asked. Kaiba moved over allowing her to sit and look on with him. She took her seat while he informed Mokuba that Serenity was looking on and asking about him.

'BabydragonM(12:33): does that mean we have to stop talking about your secret plans on kaiba corp?' Kaiba glared at the screen.

'Not funny Moki.' Kaiba wrote as a reply. Serenity giggled. She could feel something . . . looking at her. She looked up and realized that it was the cheerleader brigade, a.k.a. All the girls who thought they were the only ones good enough to be near Kaiba.

"Ignore them, I do." He said, grabbing her attention back to the screen.

'BabydragonM(12:37): How come she hasn't visited me since battle city?' Kaiba looked her for a response.

"I used to live kinda far from here, and it's not really easy to get your number." She grinned when his lips sort of, almost, twitched upward. She almost made him smile. So he wasn't a robot. Seto typed her response.

'BabydragonM(12:39):Aw, Seto, give her our number! I wanna see her sometime!" Mokuba wrote. Serenity smiled. She wanted to see him too. The bell rang alerting the end of the lunch period. Serenity helped Kaiba pack up, and they walked back towards the school together. As they passed the cheerleaders who were taking their time packing up, Kaiba purposfully spoke a bit louder than he normally would have.

"My numbers in here, don't call after 9, and of course, not during school hours."Kaiba handed her a slip of paper. Serenity fought the urge to look at the girls who obviously overheard them. She almost laughed out loud when Kaiba gave her a look that said, 'Please play along, they never leave me alone.' Serenity just took the paper, held it to her heart and gave a dramatic sigh, which made Kaiba himself want to laugh.

Sure enough, Joey was in the guitar and piano class. His hair was ruffled and he had an 'I just got out of bed' look about him. Serenity giggled and gave her big brother a hug. Mark then came in and upon seeing Joey, smiled. "Aren't you supposed to be skipping today? I'm supposed to report you to the office if I see you." He said, with a twinkle in his eye. Joey smiled.

"Then mark me absent . . .Mark." Joey giggled at his own little joke, while Serenity uttered a sympathy laugh for him, and Mark just smiled. Kaiba brushed in looking pissed as all hell, which was weird because Serenity was with him five minutes ago and he seemed fine. Two seconds later the reason was clear.

"But Kaiba, If a little nobody could get your number," she said glancing meanly at Serenity, "Then surely I could-"

"That's enough!" He said, stopping suddenly and facing her. "If you continue this incessant interrogation, I will have the police arrest you for harassment." He then turned to Mark, "I'm not sharing with her today. Nor any other day." He said, angrily. Mark just looked at her, then Serenity.

"Looks like you'll be sharing with Mr. Kaiba then." He said, trying to solve the dilemma.

"What? No! Mark, you cant do that to Serenity! What did she do wrong?" Joey said, unknowingly provoking a few laughs from the class. Joey on the other hand was dead serious. Kaiba just glared at him.

"Joey, your sister is a big girl. I'm sure, if she's got half the guts you do, that she'll be fine." At that Joey was torn between worry, and pride.

"I'll be fine, Joey. Don't worry." She said, trying to calm him down. He gave her a last sympathetic look, glared at Kaiba, then nodded at Mark.

Serenity headed towards her new seat next to Kaiba, bringing one of the chairs up with her. He moved to the left hand side of the piano and started with his Hannon routines, which made Serenity already feel a bit in-superior. His Hannons were so complex that she wanted to skip her simple ones to save herself from feeling bad.

"I've been playing for almost ten years. Don't worry about what you can and cant do." He said quietly. She smiled. It helped, but only a little bit. She sighed and started her Hannons, as quietly as she could.

"It's got a lot of MC Escher inspiration, right?" Mrs. Hamond said. Looking at Yugi's (Yami's) pastel/chalk drawings. They were actually based after the maze of stairs and rooms in his mind, keeping him locked from all of him memories, but the teacher just wouldn't understand that. "But . . . It's got something personal. The color choice is all warm colors, but it feels cold, and endless . . ." the teacher said lost in the drawing. Serenity smiled and looked over to Yami. He wasn't smiling.

"You ok?" She nudged him.

"Yes, but . . ." he looked hollow.

"I get it." she said, patting him on the back. He faked a smile, for her sake, and glanced back at the image he had created.

"Ah, Now here's an opposite!" The teacher said, moving to the next piece. It was a field with scattered Sakura trees, and large mountains in the background. It was a watercolor similar to ancient Japanese landscapes. "You can see a lot of blues and greens, cool colors, but the atmosphere is warm." She smiled and faced Serenity. "Very nice." She moved on and complimented the different styles and themes of the art, waiting until the end to give her constructive criticism.

"Hey, Serenity? What's that?" Yami asked, pointing out a dark blue-ish mark on her upper arm, slightly concealed by her clothing. It looked a similar color as the mountains in her painting, and if it was paint, it might be on her clothes. Serenity looked down, and lifted her sleeve.

"Oh, it hurts. I guess I did bruise it this morning." She said, mostly to herself.

"How?" Yami said, smiling at her ignorance.

"Well . . .my room is set up with my dresser right next to my bed, I dont have a night stand, and I keep rolling into it. My arm always hits the edge of it, and this morning I actually fell into it. It wasn't bruised so I didn't mind, but I guess I should have taken better care of it." She laughed, poking it a bit. She didn't notice Yami's expression of concern. For some reason, the story just didn't sit well with him. When she did glance up from the bruise, he gave a shallow smile, and patted her on the back.

"Maybe you should move it."

"Yeah. I should have moved it when I first started rolling into it." She giggled.

"Yeah . . ."

Sooooo . . . read, review . .. .. . like it? hate it? tell me what you think.