"Yusei?" Mom opened the door and looked around for Dad.
"Daddy?" I was holding my mother's hand.
My brother began looking around for Dad.
"It appears that Father hasn't come home yet, Roselyn," Yusei told his me.
I gave Yusei an evil look and turned to Mom.
"Yusei called me Roselyn again! Why won't he call me Rosie?"
"Rose, your brother feels comfortable calling you Roselyn."
"And why do you call our daddy Yusei?"
"Yusei is his real name. Now be good and help me clean up the house."
"Okay, Mommy!"
That was one of the nice scenarios from back then. Now Mommy's always too busy to do anything with me, even a quick duel.
My brother is so quiet, even though he gets straight A+ report cards from Duel Academy. I don't get it. Why do I have to go to Duel Academy? I suck at dueling. I'm better at art and music, and we don't have those subjects.
But I love my brother. He is pretty nice to me.
Well, most of the time anyway. I didn't know how much he cared for me until last week.
So we were walking to school, and I was having an awesome discussion with Yusei about a cool new videogame that just came out. I honestly wasn't paying attention and ended up bumping into the worst person I could bump into: Shack.
Shack is the worst bully in the school. He never bothers my brother, since he considers him cool, but he hates me more than anything.
I've despised him ever since I started Duel Academy here, and I still do. You wouldn't believe what he could do to me, since as I mentioned earlier, I suck at dueling.
Shack went up to me and pulled me up by my shirt collar. Yusei looked up, surprised.
"What are you doing to my sister?" Yusei gave Shack an angry look.
"Cool kids don't hang out with wimps like this. I guess you're not as cool as I thought."
I looked at Yusei with pleading eyes. I hoped he would help me get out of Shack's grip.
"Put Roselyn down now, Shack. I'm telling Ms. Cambridge."
"I don't care."
Luckily, the bell rang and Shack had to let go of me. He released me with a thud.
I must've hit my head or something, because I woke up with in the nurse's office.
"I'm glad you woke up. I was about to call your parents!"
"Oh…There was no need."
I hopped off the bed and prepared to exit the room. But the nurse stopped me.
"Before you leave...I want to give you a full examination. You had a hard fall."
I waited for the nurse to give me a quick check-up. I wondered how much time I'd missed of class. I didn't want to have too much make up work.
The nurse let me out a few minutes later and asked me if Shack had injured me.
"How did you know?"
"Many students come here everyday complaining about Shack-caused injuries."
I shuddered a bit at the information that the nurse had given me.
At lunch I was busy making up what I missed in the morning classes. I should've noticed what was happening a couple tables away.
Shack was beating up my brother.
I should've noticed it. I should've gone over to stop it, but I didn't.
I was too busy working on papers.
And it wasn't until after school that I noticed something was wrong with Yusei.
We were walking home, and Yusei kept lagging behind.
"Hurry up! Why don't I race you to the corner?"
"No…I'm too tired…"
And then…Yusei collapsed.
I turned around and gasped in horror at what I saw. At first I was too stunned to do anything, but I eventually pulled out my cell phone and dialed Mom's number.
"Rose, why are you calling? I've got loads of work!"
"Yusei…collapsed!"
That's all it took for Mom to get into her duel runner and rush over to us from work.
She swooped up Yusei in her arms immediately, checking for a pulse and breathing.
"Rosie, I'm going to take your brother to the hospital. Go on home. I'll call you later, okay?"
"O-okay..."
"I know this must be tough on you, sweetheart. Please, just be a good girl and have faith. Mommy'll take care of everything."
"I will." My voice was starting to tremble.
Mommy gave me a comforting hug and sped away on her duel runner almost as quickly as she had arrived.
And I was left alone.
By then, all the groups of kids walking home had gone already, and now I was alone.
Instead of walking home, I sank to the floor and started sobbing my heart out.
This was entirely my fault.
What if he died? What if he never forgave me?
I decided to shake off those thoughts and start on home.
...
Luckily, Yusei wasn't hurt too bad. He just fainted from exhaustion, and the worst Shack had done was given my brother a couple bad bruises.
My brother was lying in his bed, probably on the orders of our mom. He looked at me curiously.
"What're you doing here?"
"I wanted to tell you…I'm sorry that you got beat up."
"It was nothing, really. I did it for you."
"You didn't have to! I was worried sick! Why would you do that just for me?"
"Oh, so now you're mad at me for trying to be a good brother. Fine then, just leave."
Hurt and surprised, I left Yusei's room.
I walked into my room and looked at myself in the mirror.
Looking back at me was the ugliest, most despicable picture I'd ever seen.
Maybe that's why Shack hates me, I thought to myself.
...
The next morning on the way to school, Shack punched me and stole my duel disc.
Yusei just passed us by.
At lunch, Shack stole my lunchbox.
Yusei just watched.
On the way home, Yusei left first and didn't wait for me.
When I got home, Mom was talking on the phone. I overheard part of her conversation.
"Yusei, what do you say about giving Rosie some dueling practice in the mornings before school…?"
I couldn't believe my ears.
Mommy and Daddy were going to give me special training so I could beat Shack!
...
Finally, after weeks of early morning practices, the day came. Surprisingly, when I told my classmates about my plan the day before they refused to let me go through with it alone. Everyone had insisted on joining me, saying it was only fair that all Shack's former victims help bring him to justice. So I worked with them during lunch to plan a safe, yet aggressive dueling strategy.
That morning, the minute that Shack approached me, a group of my classmates stood in front of me as defense.
"You can't do that to us anymore," Yuko said.
"Yuko's right!" Shinji stepped in front of Yuko.
"What are you guys trying to do, huh?" Shack eyed us suspiciously.
"We challenge you to a duel!" Shinji replied.
"Ha, a duel against a couple of dweebs? Okay, let's see you try to beat me." Shack pulled out his duel disc.
We all pulled out our duel discs as well. With a united spirit of determination, we all shared a vow to beat the school bully once and for all.
...
The duel was long and hard, but somehow, miraculously, Shack lost.
Actually, I guess it wasn't that fair since it was him alone versus all of us, but hey, he was the one who agreed to it.
A short distance away, Yusei was watching. He came over to me.
"Roselyn, everyone, that was amazing!"
"Really? Thanks!"
He fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry if I seemed kinda far-off these past couple days...I was actually planning on taking down Shack myself."
I was speechless for a moment.
"All that time you were training with Mother and Father...I was training too, out and about in the city. I challenged the toughest street duelists and studied their techniques, hoping to find the best strategy to get humiliate Shack and get revenge," Yusei added. "But I see now that I should have worked with you all to take down Shack together."
"Aww, Yusei, it's okay. I'm just happy that you care about us so much!" I answered, a feeling of relief spilling over me. At least he wasn't angry at me like I thought he was.
"No, really. I shouldn't have acted like that."
"I told you, it's fine! Hey, we're going to be late for class! C'mon!"
My brother and I dashed into the school building right as the bell rang. I'm proud to say that Shack never bothered anyone again.
Yusei and I have forged a stronger bond, too.