Domino High School

Class 4-C

Homeroom Period

7:24 A.M.

"I-I-I-I-I-I---" Aglaia sounded like a generic salsa dancer letting out a mating call.

She scrambled frantically on the floor for her glasses, placing them on her face, and stuttering to the point of near mouth foaming.

"Sorry!" she shouted, pulling the attention of the class to her. "I--"

"You think you're going to ruin my skirt and eye shadow, then just say 'sorry', then everything will be okay?!" The silky-haired girl was seething.

"Who are you, anyway?" A girl with wavy black hair and crossed arms stared down at Aglaia, still on the floor.

"I--" Aglaia stood up shakily but stepped back when the other girls approached. "I'm sorry. . ."

"And?" the girl pardoned.

"And. . . I'll try to pay you back," Aglaia mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I said. . . I'll try to pay you back."

"You'll try?"

"Well--"

"You'll do it."

"Oh--okay."

"And you'll pay me back for my skirt, too, right?"

"Ye--Yes. . ."

"Hmph." The girl looked Aglaia up and down. "Good. What's your name?"

"A-- Aglaia. . ."

"I'm Reina. Remember that name, it'll be what you write on the check."

Followed by the girls surrounding her, the honey-haired belle migrated to another part of the class.

Face as red as a track runner, Aglaia scurried to the back of the room (limping as minimally as she could) as the surrounding classmates whispered.

Tea took a long look at the strange new girl; she felt the oddest aura of familiarity.

Picking up her book bag and notebook, Tea moved towards Aglaia in back of the classroom by the window.

The curly-haired girl took her face out of her crossed arms on the desk and stared wide-eyed at the girl who approached with a friendly smile, that unfamiliar smile.

"Hi there."

A moment of silence passed.

"Uh--"

"Oh, hi." The girl blushed a deep shade of red. "Sorry. . ."

"Oh," the brunette giggled. "It's okay. But hey, have I seen you before?"

"Uh--" Aglaia didn't seem to think, but instead to stumble over her thought. "No."

"Oh." Tea's eyebrows furrowed and unfurrowed. "Well, my name is Tea. What's your name?"

"Uh--" Was she really trying to remember her name? "Aglaia."

Chuckling(as though she were familiar with personalities such as these), Tea added, "Nice to meet you, Aglaia."

Tea thought how convenient it would be for Joey, Tristan, and Yugi to enter at that moment, but no such luck.

"So. . . where are you coming from, Aglaia?"

"I-- moved from Tokyo." Aglaia's anthropophobia was dissolving.

"That's so cool! What is Tokyo like?" And Tea pondered to the irony of having been to Egypt but not having been to her own country's capital.

"Oh-- It's okay." A moment of silence passed and far off at the North Pole, an ice glacier seemed to break. "I-- never really lived in the city part. But-- Shibuya has the best fashion."

"Oh! Have you ever been to the 109 Building? I've always wanted to see it."

"No, but me too. They-- They have a lot of-- of cute boutiques."

"I bet your wardrobe is full of cute clothes. I'm so jealous."

"No--"

"Hey Tea, who's the new kid?" A boy with thick blonde hair plopped a book bag down on the seat in front of Aglaia.

"This is Aglaia," she gleefully introduced with a hand out for presentation.

"N-nice to meet you." Aglaia adjusted her glasses nervously.

"Joey Wheeler. Pleased to meet ya!" He held out a rough hand and Aglaia hesitantly took it. He shook her limb that her elbow popped; obviously an exuberant character.

"And this fool right here is Tristan," he said, holding out his hand towards said "fool".

"What was that, lamebrain?" A boy with brunette hair sat down beside him in front of Tea.

"Nothing you didn't already know."

"And this little guy over here is Yugi!"

Aglaia looked to see a short boy with freakish starburst hair and innocent violet eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Aglaia." He smiled something incredibly bright.

Aglaia had a seeping revelation, realizing now that these people were unduly accepting. They were the type of people she didn't believe existed.

Yugi sat down in front of Joey and they immediately each drew out decks of cards.

"You just wait, Yug, this time I'll beat you."

"You just might, Joey."

"My money's on Yugi."

"Eh, shuddup, ya moron."

The boys launched themselves into a game of cards and Tea's eyes glazed over. She had long since grown weary of shuffled decks and shuffling cards. Without the electronic enhancement it wasn't quite the same.

Aglaia suddenly felt the deepest urge to begin a conversation but she couldn't find her self able to for the life of her.

Instead, she pulled out a black notebook and looked for a blank page. Tea immediately set her eyes on it, wondering what is was.

"What's that?"

Aglaia subtly jumped out of her own skin.

"Um-- it's-- um--" Aglaia's face reddened and she looked down on the notebook as though she herself were contemplating what it was.

"Uh-- it's okay if you don't want to show me."

The girl's face muscles relaxed. "Thank you."

"What do you want, money-bags?"

The two girls turned to see the boys glaring up at a tall, icicle-like person making the school uniform look specifically more blue.

"Nothing to do with you, Wheeler." The boy's eyes shifted to Aglaia and she found herself frozen, as well.

"You," he established. "Is this yours?" He held out the brass ring.

Aglaia checked her finger and had a mini-episode before she turned to the boy, stuttering, with a "yes".

Scoffing, he said, "Take it."

He held it out and their hands touched.

? ? ?

The room around Aphrodite disappeared in a flash and was replaced with darkness, a darkness with jolts of the oddest blue electricity routed through it.

"What is this?" the goddess shouted to the ever echoing space. "Se-- Seth?"

As though upon her call, the blue jolts conjoined and formed-- what was that?-- an apparition.

It tried to take a shape and nearly succeeded.

It formed a two legs, a cape, upwards-- then a face. It was--

"Seth!" Aphrodite reached out in front of her, but her hands passed through the ghost. "Wha-- What is going on?"

"I-- I don't have much time--" As though speaking through a rainstorm, his voice was hard to hear.

"What is it, Seth? What is happening?"

"Listen to me-- we have been reborn."

"Is-- is that what that girl was? Seth, but how--"

"Only-- only when our incarnations are in union can we--"

"Seth? Seth!!"

This time the darkness consumed Aphrodite, as well.

Back in the Classroom

Gently lifting the ring, Aglaia held it in her palm.

"I-- thank you. . ."

The boy sneered and left.

"What was that all about?" Tristan and Joey exchanged a look.

"W--Well. . . he. . helped me to school, and I guess I left my ring. . ."

"Woah, Kaiba helped somebody? Never thought I would have seen the day."

"Oh come on, Joey. Kaiba's not that bad," Tea quipped.

"K-- Kaiba?" Aglaia stuttered characteristically

"Have you never heard of him?" Tea asked.

"I know Kaiba. Was that boy-- was he a Kaiba?"

"That's the Kaiba," Tristan answered. "He runs the Kaiba Corporation and makes more money than all of our parents combined. If the law didn't keep him from dropping out than he wouldn't even be here. He skips most days, anyway. I'm surprised he's here."

"K-- Kaiba. . ." Aglaia mumbled thoughtfully.

It occurred to her that that man was the one that crushed her father's dreams and tore her from her home.

So? How was it? Are you ready for the plot to thicken even further?

Well? Don't you love me? Aren't you going to review?