Chapter 5 – Confrontation

Early as usual, Tea walked up to her locker at school and put in the combination. She opened it up and placed her two books inside before taking out her book for this morning. All she could think about last night was the event that happened at the orphanage, and she was sure that it was to be an awkward day with Kaiba in most of her classes. "I never thought I would see the day…" she thought. Her image of the CEO was sure to never recover. "But why am I thinking so much about it? Because I may be working with him from now on? Because it was so out of character for him that I thought it could never happen? Argh, I need to just stop thinking about it! I have school today and work later on! Maybe I could ask Jade some questions about it…"

Shutting her locker door, she leaned up against it and closed her eyes before letting out a small sigh. "Jade and Seto…friends for five years…she really seemed honest about it all. Why would she lie to me like that? She wouldn't, that's just it, yet she wouldn't answer any questions about him either. She must really respect him for that; most people would probably tell the entire world if they learned anything about him. He's always so secretive, so mysterious…and for what? What does he have to hide?"

She felt a shudder at remembering Battle City, the whole ordeal with Noa's world, and eventually that Gozaburo creep coming out of nowhere. "Maybe there's reason to hide after all," she thought. "I mean, I wouldn't want anyone to know I had a psychotic man for a step-father." Shaking her head, she thought, "I need to stop thinking about this! It's not going to do me much good if it puts me behind in school!" Pushing herself off the locker, she turned and went to walk forward when something, or more like someone, blocked her path.

"Good morning, Gardner," a familiar voice stated. Tea looked up to see icy, intimidating, blue eyes staring down at her. "Might I talk to you for a brief moment or so about yesterday, or are you too busy at the moment look for the geek squad?"

She could feel the sarcasm dripping from his lips but chose to ignore it and frowned up at him. "No, Kaiba, I'm free for the moment. What do you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to know why you were there yesterday," he stated smugly. "It wouldn't have anything to do with that community service project, would it? You know, it's not really community service if you're being paid to do it."

"I didn't ask to be paid," Tea argued. "And yes, I'm doing it because of this project. But I found it in the newspaper and thought it would be good for me as well. Unlike you, Kaiba, I'm not selfish."

"Right, right. I'm the selfish one, but you're the one using an orphanage to get a project for school done."

"Excuse me?" She couldn't believe him! "At least I don't run people in the ground and talk down to people on a daily basis, Kaiba! You have a lot of nerve arguing with somebody over what is selfish and what isn't!"

"So is that really the reason why you're helping those kids, Gardner? Just to finish a project and maybe get extra points for creativity?" Chuckling, he said, "I heard your friends complaining about yard work. You must not have wanted to do something ordinary and thought an orphanage would be perfect. Am I correct in this?"

Her jaw dropped at his perceptiveness, but she quickly closed it and glared up at him. "If you're insinuating that I'm using the kids there, you're wrong. After the visit last night, I feel sorry for them and want to help them. Besides, you question me on my reasons for being there. What about you, Mr. CEO of KaibaCorp? What are you doing-"

She suddenly felt his hand on her mouth and her body be slammed into the locker. It didn't hurt, but it shocked the hell out of her. "Don't talk about that," he hissed, looking around suspiciously for anybody before returning his gaze back to her. "Nobody needs to know that I visit that place, alright? Nobody. Got it?"

Only when she nodded her head did he let go of her. She took in a big breath of air and smirked up at him. "Yeah, call me the selfish one. You won't even let anybody know you visit the place for fear of ruining your reputation."

She blinked in surprise as Kaiba's eyes slowly widened, as if he was in shock or hurt. Maybe a mixture of the two, now that she thought about it. "We all have our reasons for hiding things," he replied after a moment of silence passed between the two. "I have my reasoning, and I assure you it's not because of my company, or my reputation, or anything like that. I just…" Sighing, he shook his head and returned to glaring at her. "Don't think I'm doing this little part-time job because I need good publicity or anything like that. I don't care what others think of me. I just do it, and that's all."

Even though she was confused, she let out a sigh and simply nodded her head. "Fine, but don't just go insulting me and calling me selfish, because you have every right to secrets as I do."

"What's so secret about doing a community service project?" he countered, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Besides, the only reason I asked was because I wanted to make sure you weren't planning on doing anything strange. I know you have a good heart, which is why I told Jade you would be good, but I just wanted to make sure you weren't using those kids."

"Is the Seto Kaiba actually protecting children?" she questioned, smiling at this.

A frown immediately appeared on his face, and his eyes narrowed to mere slits. "Yeah, it's really funny that the CEO of KaibaCorp actually cares about somebody, isn't it? You know, I'll bet you were shocked to find out that Jade was my friend. It's so amazing that I actually do have a heart, isn't it? I just save it for people who actually deserve it, not selfish girls who use an orphanage to get a project done!"

She couldn't believe what Kaiba was saying. He was obviously hurt by her remark, but she didn't think he would react this way. But what was she supposed to say? "Maybe if you weren't cold towards the entire world, I would know you had friends and a heart!" she shouted back, glad that nobody was in the hallway. "It's also so amazing that anybody would want to be friends with you! Yesterday proved that you actually are nice and caring, but it's kind of hard to notice when all you do is mock and demean others! If you didn't want me to be surprised at that whole ordeal, maybe you should start trying a bit nicer at times!"

"You weren't even supposed to see yesterday," he hissed. "Besides, why would I befriend my rival's cheerleader?"

"I'm not telling you to befriend me, Kaiba! I don't even want you as a friend!" Now she couldn't believe what she was saying. It just…annoyed her, this Kaiba! "All you've ever done is put my group of friends down, and now you're yelling at me because it's hard for me to believe you have a heart! That's a little backward, isn't it? Tell me, if you want others to know you're actually a nice person, why treat people like shit, Kaiba?!" Did she just swear at him? Obviously she did, for he just stood there, stunned at her comments.

Tea watched as Kaiba, instead of giving a comment back, merely frowned at her before turning on his heel and began to walk away. But she wasn't letting him get away that easily. "Hey, don't walk away from your problems, Kaiba!" she exclaimed, jumping in front of him and holding her arms out to block his path.

"I'm not," he answered coldly. "I'm walking away from you."

"Why? Because I'm actually telling you the truth?"

"Because you're annoying me. Now if you'd be so kind as to move your arms, I could be off to class now."

Even though she wanted to talk to him more, she realized that it was indeed soon time for class as the morning bell began to ring. "Shoot, I've never been this late to class!" she thought as her arms fell limply by her sides. She watched as Kaiba walked around her but then heard his voice behind her.

"By the way, I treat people like shit because people are dangerous. Children aren't." Turning around, she saw Kaiba just glaring menacingly down at her before turning on his heel and walking off to class.

"Great…" she thought as she also began walking to class, which happened to be the same class as Kaiba. "Now I'm not only confused, but I've made a fool of myself. This orphanage job is just going to be pleasant, isn't it?" Sulking into class, she sat down at her desk and listened to the bell ring once more, ignoring her friends' odd stares and Joey and Tristan walking in late as usual.