Chapter 2: Freshman Orientation

The Red Dining hall played host to a big dinner every year when the freshmen moved in. Foods were as varied as the cooks and were provided buffet-style for the new students' dining pleasure, mostly because the Red dining budget was the lowest and this was one of the few times a year the freshmen had so many options. Many students also worked in either the kitchen or the dining facility as a way to earn back some of the money they spend on tuition and housing.

First and foremost in terms of purpose, the dinner was a chance for the new students to meet the school's headmaster and the supervising faculty for the Red Dorm. Dr. Corbin West earned a master's in duel theory and a doctorate in cognitive psychology. Although a powerful duelist in his youth, Dr. West's favorite thing about dueling lay in studying the strategies employed by duelists in situations of varying stress and in how they determine such strategies. Kaiba Corp. offered him the position of headmaster because Dr. West authored more than five hundred articles on the cognitive dynamics of dueling and the neural effects of three-dimensional duel technology.

But he was far from an intimidating man to behold. Dr. West was sixty-two years old, a bit overweight, and had thinning gray hair. He was tall, on the other hand, but his intelligence was his most incredible feature. He was the kind of man who seems to be lost half the time, but his brain is really just seven steps ahead of his body. His office was a mess, but it was an organized mess; he never threw anything out, yet he knew where everything was located. He was sometimes difficult to hear lecture—or to talk to in general—which is why he always took an assistant, usually the top-ranked duelist in the Academy.

Roger Baker and Dr. Sasha Kerr were faculty advisors to the male and female first-years, respectively. Baker was recruited by Kaiba Corp. at the rank of sergeant to help train new campus police officers. After a short time, the administrators, drawing upon Baker's dueling record from his youth, offered him a teaching position. Soon enough, he was a tenured professor renowned for his powerful beat down deck and tendency to offer lots of extra credit in class. He was easy to pick out of a crowd because of his size and expression; he was a bulky guy, much of it still muscle, and always wore that kind of half-smile that makes him seem friendly without giving the mistaken impression that he's not watching everything the students do.

Dr. Kerr received her doctorate and master's in social psychology, and she always made an impressive showing when she participated in international dueling tournaments, making her a fairly easy selection for faculty. The students always preferred to talk to her when they had problems because she was friendly and caring, and she was that kind of person who seemed to have all the answers. She also enjoyed conducting research on the dueling students, but whereas Dr. West liked to study the way people make strategies, Dr. Kerr wanted to see how people react socially in varying situations against different kinds of opponents. Her schedule of working with the freshmen, preparing courses, and writing research articles when inspired kept her from dueling as often as the students. She had a rather mousey appearance last year, but this year she was a bit bigger. To the objective observer, she looked like she let herself go a little; to herself, she looked gigantic; and to those in the know, she looked like she was four months pregnant.

Few other faculty members attended the freshman orientation dinner. Those who did were usually the newest adjunct or associate professors. They tended to range widely from fresh graduates who took a job on an island because work is hard to come by and you take the job you get offered all the way to experienced professors who have been trying to years to land a teaching gig at Duel Academy.

Dr. West always started the ceremony with a short speech and a recitation of the basic rules of life at Duel Academy.

"There are rules here?" Bryan asked, feigning surprise.

Lucy smiled amusedly at him, but Cary just rolled her eyes. Cary had a reasonable sense of humor, but hers was a much drier wit, and she was not as big a fan of irony that centered on stupidity and ignorance—Bryan's specialty. It was sometimes a wonder that she could put up with him at all, but she didn't find him all that tough to tolerate during the times he wasn't making bad jokes… plus he's really hot.

And Cary was no rainy day on the basketball court herself. Matt always found it strange that a young lady with Cary's cute face, lush blond hair, and athletic body stayed single for so long. Bryan was pretty sure it had something to do with her "delightful" sense of humor. But regardless of her disliking his jokes, no one could argue Cary's skill in a duel. She traded in her red skirt for a blue one and moved into a room on the second floor of the Blue Mansion, not to mention she managed to complete her collection of rarer cards over her summer of regional tournament victories.

"You have to remember the rules, bro," Matt said. "No drugs or alcohol, be home by curfew, try not to offend people—that one's easier for some of us than for others… Oh! And your favorite: No co-ed sleepovers."

"Oh, yeah." Bryan started to think about what it would be like to live in a dorm again. Last year, he was a member of the Guardian Duelers, a highly selective group of students who used to guard the Egyptian God Cards and the Sacred Beasts before they disappeared from the campus following a series of bizarre events regarding the Shadow Realm. The Guardians, in order to keep the god cards safer—out of sight, out of mind—lived in a separate house a short distance away from the rest of campus. "It was easier when I lived in a house away from prying eyes."

"Don't try to do that here," suggested Kenny. "Trying to break the rules under Dr. Lankford's supervision is just stupid."

Bryan scoffed. "This from the guy wearing spurs on his sneakers."

Everyone looked under the table at Kenny's shoes. Kenneth Stewart was a big fan of westerns—such a big fan that he watched them all the time, wore clothing that made him look a little like a cowboy when he wasn't required to wear the school uniform, and built a deck around a Wild West theme. His favorite cowboy happened to bear his name—Jimmy Stewart—and his favorite movie was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, a film Bryan agreed was good, but not worth watching eight times per month. Kenny was about five feet, eight inches and weighed 170 pounds, and he had a lanky appearance that was exacerbated by attaching spurs to a tennis shoe. Every now and then, the rowels would rip into the cuffs of Kenny's pants legs, but he didn't care; he would always be ready to ride a horse.

"What? Matt's wearing two shirts."

"Yeah, that's the same," Matt replied sarcastically. It amazed just about everyone that Kenny was smart enough to get into the Blue Mansion as a junior, let alone stay for his senior year.

Dr. West's series of announcements ended, and so Baker got up to explain the rules regarding official duels. If you wish to schedule an official duel with any particular student, fill out a Duel Request form. You can find them at any arena by the ticket booth, or with any faculty member. After you fill it out, it will be sent to the requested. If he or she accepts, the duel will be placed on the calendar. As with all official duels, anyone is allowed to watch.

"You all received maps of the campus that indicate the locations of electronic duel tables. The use of electronic equipment is necessary to log the majority of duels. You are welcome to use your own Duel Disks if you happen to own one, but you must register them before duel information will be transmitted to the campus database. Any electronic duel will go on record. You are welcome, of course, to duel the old-fashioned way at any time and as often as you like, but you will not get official credit for those duels.

"What's the advantage to going on record, you ask? At the end of each semester, the duelists in each class with the highest winning percentage and the highest total of wins will be recognized and awarded prizes."

Matt looked to Cary and asked, "Didn't he give that exact same speech last year?"

"Pretty close," she agreed. "He's probably given it dozens of times. He seems really proud of that rhetorical question. It's a little sad."

Bake had one more announcement before releasing the students to fetch their food. "Lastly, all students are required to participate in the placement exams two weeks from now. You will begin classes on Monday and will have two weeks to learn as much as you can to improve before the placement exams."

The freshman placement exams were always an exciting time. For the freshmen, it was a time to strut their stuff and figure out who was already the best. For the upperclassmen, it was a time to see what kinds of strategies the freshmen employed, find out if any new students would make good additions to existing teams, and in general to determine who will make the strongest opponents.

"I can't wait for the freshman exams," Lucy commented, citing all the aforementioned reasons.

"Bryan can't wait to eat," Cary pointed out. Bryan had already left the table and raced a few freshmen to the bistro ahead of the other FROGs.

All the FROGs were blue students because they were considered the best influences on the fresh young minds—many times chronologically older than that of the FROG. Along with the four aforementioned FROGs—Matt wasn't one of them—three more opted to put the experience on their résumés. One such student was Fusayo Yamakawa, Matt's brand new, taller shadow. Fusayo was the next-in-command within the hierarchy of Team OTK, and he made sure he would keep that position by sucking up to Matt at every opportunity. His biggest fear, which he never gave voice to, was that Matt would recruit Bryan to Team OTK and immediately vault him over Fusayo.

"I need to join another team," Bryan commented toward the end of the meal. "I miss the Guardians. Put me on Team OTK."

As Fusayo gasped sharply and held his breath, Matt looked at Bryan crossways and asked, "Do you have a one-turn-kill strategy?"

Bryan realized, "Not so much a strategy as an outline." Fusayo sighed with relief when he realized Matt wouldn't recruit Bryan just because of nepotism. And so Bryan turned to Numbers Harper, the junior leader of Team Lockdown. She was not even five feet tall or a hundred pounds in weight. She was actually smaller than the small-size Duel Academy uniform, which prompted her to adjust the waist on her skirt, but she didn't hem the length; she let the skirt reach her kneecaps. She similarly wore the blue coat open in the front, revealing her sleeveless blouse, even though the coat was loose on her shoulders. Her dark hair curled up and out at the ends in a flip, and she had an Asian character tattooed on her ankle.

"What about recruiting me to Team Lockdown?"

Numbers was a more visually expressive person than the others. When she looked at Bryan, her eyebrows rose and the ends of her mouth curled in a combined amused-confused grin. "Can you even name a lockdown strategy?"

Bryan scoffed with feigned frustration. "Fine. Maybe I'll just start my own team. Heroes United, or the Theme Team, if I choose to go outside just the Elemental Hero theme."

"That sounds like a plan," Cary agreed. "You draw together the constitution and funding, then bring it to the administrators and they'll vote on the suitability of the team."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Bryan commented. "Maybe I'll settle for being the King of Games independently."

"Co-King of Games," Matt reminded. "When are all of you supposed to go meet up with your freshmen?"

"I've got the schedule for you," Fusayo said eagerly. He almost knocked over his drink forcefully handing Matt a sheet of paper before anyone else could answer for him. After Matt took the paper, Fusayo continued reaching so he could point to the part that took place after dinner, as if Matt didn't know what time it was without help. "See? We're supposed to hang out next to specific landmarks in the room so the freshmen can find us when they finish eating. I'm over by the deli."

Matt put on that smile people use when they want to keep a crazy person from getting crazier. "I see that. Thanks."

Bryan mocked Fusayo by telling Matt, "Maybe he'll carry over you over there if you ask."

Fusayo laughed, recognizing a joke, but not wanting to dismiss the idea in case Matt really did want it. "If only."

Numbers nodded slowly with her eyes wide open. "That's really creepy. I should get going."

Everyone else was of a similar mindset. Matt was supposed to go speak to Dr. West, but when he saw Dr. West talking to one of the adjunct faculty—likely talking about the rationality debate—he figured he had a few minutes. Why not go meet a few of the freshmen? Surely Lucy or Cary wouldn't mind him tagging along. But he definitely wasn't going with Fusayo; he didn't need the freshmen to think Fusayo was an idiot, even though he was whenever Matt was around. Then again, as Bryan waited by the far window, two really cute girls walked in his direction. They could be fun to meet.

"Don't you have other things to do?" Bryan asked his wayward brother.

"Like bring the information sheets you forgot?" He handed Bryan the five sheets of paper with the descriptions—and names—of the freshmen he was supposed to mentor for the evening.

"Oh, yeah. Good call. And I guess the cute girls joining my group had nothing to do with it."

"Of course not. I'm completely spoken for already, even if she does have the ability to break my legs with her thumb."

Bryan huffed. "Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't look at the dessert menu. And I call 'shotgun' on the one with the red highlights in her hair."

He was referring to a five-foot, three-inch and 110-pound girl with shoulder-length, dark hair that had short, red streaks through it. She wore the school uniform exactly as it was intended, albeit: a white jacket with red trim over a red skirt that stopped three inches above her knees. The end of the skirt revealed the strong legs of a runner, which was Matt's personal favorite feature in a woman.

"What? You can't call 'shotgun.'"

Bryan shrugged indignantly. "Why not? Standard shotgun rules: I'm in sight of the girl and I called it."

Matt shook his head. "No. You can't call shotgun on a person, bro."

Bryan narrowed his eyes and thought about this for a moment. "Dibs." Matt scoffed again, and so Bryan said, "I call dibs. See? Now she's mine."

"No, again," Matt argued. "I mean you can't call dibs. You are also spoken for by someone who, in words you used, makes you as happy as having trampoline floors."

"Yeah?" Bryan shrugged again. "I can still admire the artwork."

But in Bryan's case, it was never as simple as finding someone attractive. Yes, he had a history of flirting with every attractive woman he came across, but he always focused on one woman at a time. He didn't move on until he was shot down or dumped, and Lucy certainly hadn't dumped him. That meant…

"Oh, bro… Don't do it. I like Lucy. She's way too awesome."

"Get off my back!"

"This sounds like an intelligent conversation," commented the girl Bryan left for Matt to claim. She was even smaller the first—just lower than five feet and not quite a hundred pounds. She had clear, smooth skin and fairly sharp features. Her hair was almost perfectly straight and a solid shade of platinum blonde; it was cut to chin length in a bob style. Her hair really brought out her eyes—a blue-grey shade, like steel. She also wore the standard Red Dorm uniform, but her skirt was shorter than usual and unlike her cohort, she wore the red jacket with white trim instead of the inverted colors. "I didn't realize the Obelisk dorm let girls wear pants."

Bryan's eyes popped open in response. "Ooo. I like her, too. She's feisty." He noticed the tattoo on the back of her hand; it looked like a flower bud that spouted little hearts down her middle finger, ending with small dots around the fingernail. "Nice tattoo. You must be Princess Zelda." He was making a stupid joke on the fact that her sharp features made her look slightly elfin.

"Clever," she replied dryly, holding her tongue. "Lilian Von."

"Von what?" Bryan further prodded, even though he could see on the sheet that Von was her last name.

"How is that helping?" Matt interrupted. He pushed Bryan aside and extended his hand. "I apologize for him. I'm Matt Luther. It's nice to meet you, Lilian." She graciously shook his hand back and informed him that she preferred to be called Lili.

Lili's friend with the highlights also offered to shake Matt's hand. "Aurora Ruiter."

Matt's eyes lit up when he heard the name and he grinned just a tad. "Oh, yeah. We were jok—" He stopped abruptly and immediately restarted. "We were reading your name earlier."

Aurora rolled her eyes and said, "I'm sure they were funny." She also voiced a preferred nickname. "I like the name Rory. It's less susceptible to jokes."

"Rory Borealis is still on the table," Bryan pointed out.

Rory nodded. "That's why I said less susceptible—not immune."

Three guys joined the group about then. The first introduced himself as Nathan Zislaw. He was a tall guy, right between Bryan and Matt in height, and he had a medium build with a typical amount of muscle; despite his size, he and Matt actually weighed almost the same because of Matt's history on the high school football team. Nathan wore black pants—which was part of the male uniform—a blue T-shirt—which was less common than a black shirt but still not uncommon—and a red trench coat instead of a blazer.

"I thought I had the monopoly on trench coats," Matt commented.

Nathan yawned and shrugged. He looked in Matt's direction when he spoke, but he hardly made real eye contact. "I already had this coat. It was less troublesome to wear one I already own."

"Fair enough." Matt thought he was the only one who earned the trench coat, but in reality, the faculty members were fairly lenient on the dress code as long as the general theme was maintained.

The second student introduced himself as Clinton Ealey, prompting Bryan to suggest he didn't look much like an anguilliform. He did, however, look like a vampire from the Twilight series. His pallor almost made his skin reflect light, but he looked like he could have gone into modeling if he ever got a tan. He had short hair that he gelled up after he bleached it blond. He had a smirk pretty much plastered on his face, and he already expressed an interest in dueling against Bryan and Matt.

"If I beat an Obelisk student, that should pretty well vault me to the top of the ranks," Clinton said.

"Actually, we're top residents of the Blue Mansion," Matt corrected him. "We don't call it Obelisk Blue anymore."

"Why not?"

In lieu of a detailed horror story best saved for later when they had more time, Matt simply replied, "The campus had a rough history with the god cards, so we went back to primary colors."

"That sounds girly," Clinton commented.

Instead of getting offended, Lili replied, "He's right." Rory agreed.

The third male student introduced himself as Carter Jade. He was fairly nondescript except that he shaved his hair down to a buzz cut and was just a little heavier than the other guys. Without any extra hair, it was easy to see he was only five and a half feet tall. He wore a black T-shirt under his red jacket, but then he wore blue jeans instead of the academy's black pants. He had the steadiest voice of the group, he wore thin-framed glasses on his face, and his face was more expressive. He was holding onto a meal replacement bar he picked up at the salad bar.

Matt asked him, "You okay, Carter?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he replied, still looking over the bar. "I'm just trying to figure out why they wouldn't put nougat or anything into this meal bar. I think they used soy. That's like the anti-nougat."

"Ooookay…"

Carter continued, "If nougat and soy ever touched, the universe would explode."

"He could be right," Lili pointed out. "Do you mind if we get started learning about the campus now? I actually have a few questions about the classes I'm taking, like which classes I'll be able to blow off and who has a textbook I can borrow so I don't have to spend another five hundred dollars on top of tuition and meal plans."

Carter further asked, "Do all the chocolate bars here have soy in them?"

"Good focus," Bryan commented. "Let's start with my questions. What kinds of decks do you all use?"

Clint answered, "My deck's theme is ass-kicking. It's worked pretty well so far."

Lili agreed. "I run a deck of mind-your-own-business cards. Incidentally, I play very few of them face-up."

"You afraid I'll try to copy your strategy?" Matt asked. "Or maybe you heard that I have a very limited card vocabulary and by not telling me what cards you play, you hope that you'll always have the edge over me."

"What do you care?" Bryan commented. "Those Cyber Dragons can take down almost anything."

"You use Cyber Dragons?" Rory asked. Matt nodded and said he picked up a few during a tournament last year. Since then, he's decided to keep them. Rory just nodded, slightly impressed that Matt possessed such rare cards.

"What majors are you considering?" Bryan asked everyone. When asked for clarification, he said, "The basics are competitive dueling, duel theory, and duel education. Competitive dueling, which is the major Matt and I chose, is for people who just like to be better than other people. Most of the time, they earn money either by joining a team in the professional league or by winning tournament prize money. It's pretty much the only way to earn the title King of Games."

"I guess that's where I'm going," Clint decided.

Nathan asked, "Is dueling all that goes on here?"

Matt gave him a puzzled look. "It's called Duel Academy. Admittedly we spend a great deal of time weaving sweaters as a front for the fields of weed we grow and harvest behind the main duel arena, but we also practice using our cards from time to time." Rory giggled at the joke.

Nathan sighed. "Fine."

"Let's move on," Bryan suggested. "Duel theory is better for people who would rather watch other people duel. And for people who like to exercise their creativity. My girlfriend is a duel theory major; she wants to design and illustrate new cards."

"That's interesting," Rory commented. "What kinds of prospects are there for that?"

Bryan shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she'll apply for a job with Kaiba Corp. or Industrial Illusions or something."

"How's that pay?" Lili asked somewhat loudly and abruptly.

Matt and Bryan glanced at one another, already jumping to conclusions about the new student. "It depends," Matt answered. "If you are good at it and your cards get a lot of attention, I imagine you could make a pretty good amount. I suppose it improves your prospects if you can design and draw the cards."

"Education is probably the bottom of the list in terms of money," Bryan suggested. "Teachers and professors make enough to live on, but they definitely don't go purchasing mansions to live in. On the other hand, some people really like to know they're 'molding young minds' and appreciate that feeling of satisfaction more than money." Lili scoffed that idea away.

"It says on these sheets," Matt noted, "that you two," looking at Lili and Rory, "and you two," looking at Carter and Nathan, "are roommates. If they assign the same FROG to roommates, then why do we have five people here? Where's your roommate?"

Clint pointed across the room toward the entrance. "My roommate's over there with the pretty, fat girl." He pointed in Lucy's direction and drew his conclusion about her weight from the fact that she wore an oversized uniform.

Bryan put his hand over his eyes as if to block the sun from his view. "Oh, yeah. She does look pretty fat from here."

Matt groaned and laughed, "Shut up."

I wish I could put every new character in this chapter, but I'm afraid that's too much information at one time. Anyone not introduced (or reintroduced) this time will likely get introduced in the next chapter. I also hope to give each character some time to develop, whereas today, only Lili really showed more than one dimension. On that note, I still have room for more characters if someone wants to submit another one. (To Jaden2010; I never heard back from you, but Maxim and Knight submitted a character named Jason a while ago, so I took your character's surname as a first name and took a piece of your username as his surname. I hope you're okay with that.)

I'm going to shoot for Saturday updates, but any of you who have ever been outside of the house know that sometimes, things get busier than you expected. I almost missed today (and might have if I insisted on introducing everyone), and so I might have missed a few typos. I'm generally good about catching them as I type, but I'm far from perfect; I appreciate any mistakes you want to bring to my attention.

I'm pretty sure the next chapter will be the freshman placement exams (where all the freshmen duel one another for ranks).

Credits:
Darius....tiramisu19
Jason....Maxim and Knight
Nathan....Mavrik Zero
Hillary....Nodqfan144
Lili....Happy2BMe
Carter....Jaden2010
Everyone else so far....YamiRuss