Chapter 10

Sitting in the lunch room near the back was the Trio of Slifer friends, Claudia's fever had gone by the next day thanks to Zane nursing her back to health and the medication Syrus had brought. Jaden had cheered her up with random jokes and even ran a practice duel with her, she had spent most of the night catching up with the mountain of school work which each teacher passed her on even though she wasn't there to listen to the lecture. Professor Crowler gritted his teeth as he gave her papers passing grades, even though he swore she had cheated.

He had seen both her and Zane together after school, her constantly giving him lifts back to the obelisk dorms, he had even spoken to Chancellor Sheppard to confiscate her vehicles, but since she had her drivers licence from America she was officially allowed to drive them. So he was still trying to form a plan to expel her from the school, but each attempt always ended in a failure, up until Monday evening as he was walking past the student counselling room and had eavesdropped on the conversation, he was quite shocked to find out some of her past but decided not to say anything to the teenager.

"Hey Claudia, when do we get to meet this Abigail? I know she's your….you know but she's also your friend right?" Jaden spoke, while trying to talk through a mouth full of food, she leaned back against the wall, foot up on the bench, "most likely when you both come crash at the B&B at Half term, your parents agreed right?" both of them nodded, "they said to me since there is adult supervision I can go, plus it would be good for me to hang out with friends, My mother says that since you've helped me out so much with my school work and got good passing grades that I can go as a reward." Jaden spoke, and they both looked to Syrus, but he was quite. It kind of got the red haired teenager worried, "Sy? What about you?"

His head shot up slightly as he was being spoken too, "oh what? Sorry Claudia what was the question?" Shaking her head, she leaned forward, placing a gloved hand on his shoulder, "Are you ok Syrus? You've been acting strange since you came back to the dorms last night, I know Zane was there but as soon as he left you just….shut yourself out." "it's just… we've been here for almost 6 weeks now and in that matter of time I've not won a single duel…. i… feel like I don't belong here you know"

That caused Claudia to drop her coffee on the floor, "Wait… what's this all of a sudden? You can't be serious Sy… your my best friend…." He turned to her and took her hands, "I know and your my best friend too Claudia, it's just I feel like I'm holding both you and Jaden back with my bad duelling. I'm not leaving you it's just that…" he was suddenly cut off when Jaden slapped him on the back, "You're not holding any of us back Bro, Maybe you should be the one taking therapy classes instead of Claudia."

Little did he know, that just as he spoke them words, Alexis had been walking past listening in, unknown to the whole table. The blondes eye's hardened, so she decided to sit at a table close to them.

"Therapy isn't something to joke about with Jaden, Claudia has them for a reason and you know that, my insecurities are nothing compared to ….. I'm sorry Claudia I shouldn't even be saying it. Enough about it though what times your session today?" she looked down at the digital watch on her wrist, "in 4 hours, Zane said since we've cancelled plans that we will do the training on Saturday and that he already had something else going on….. I'm not sure what though he wouldn't tell me…. Since I won't tell him about my sessions."

"Well like Syrus said, you have them for a reason and the fact that you asked both of us to keep them a secret from anyone, You just go to your session today and then come back to the dorms screaming at us for messing something up, I'm sure Sy will snap out of his depression by then." Claudia smiled and hugged both boys, "Thanks guys, After the conversation I had with Steve the other night in the rain, I need this session today…. I'm so pissed with him that I haven't even had the guts to call and apologise."

"No problem Claud, after all the dude promised you he would keep in touch, if I had to go on a secret mission, I would still find a way to contact my best friend. Like I said go do your thing and I'll handle this little guy."

They had another group hug, just as the bell rang, standing up and leaving the lunch room

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When the last bell rang of the school day, Claudia picked up her messenger bag and waved to both the boy's "Catch you later Dudes," Jaden gave a thumbs up, "Remember to introduce us next time! Come on Sy lets head out to the card shop and pick up some boosters, ok? My treat, we will even pick Claudia up the machine boosters." "Ok Jaden but I don't think it's going to help…."

While running to her therapy session, Claudia had to weave in between students so she could get there on time, she had promised the woman that she would stay an extra 15 minutes today due to leaving early on Monday, and since now Zane had cancelled her lessons on the Cyber dragon deck, she had plenty of time but she still didn't want to be late. Most of the student's respected her duelling but she always had a problem with one certain student, and that one was just about to cause problems,

Out of nowhere, Cyber Dragon's voice entered her mind, 'don't worry…. He is only trying to teach him…' Suddenly stopping in the middle of the school hallway, she looked around "Wait what?" not realising where she had stopped someone crashed right into her causing her to fall right on top of her bag, and a loud crack was heard, and heads smacking together.

"ow…." Rubbing her forehead, Claudia opened her eye's to see the dirty blonde haired student named Alexis Rhodes right in front of her, Rubbing her own forehead, "Ouch, oi freak… watch where you're going!" Instantly Claudia stood up "Hey that was not my fault! You ran into me Rhodes!"

"You stopped right in the middle of my path slut" "SLUT! What the Frack! I'm not the one who walks around this place thinking she's all that!" She was about to charge at Alexis when a door at the side of them opened up, "Claudia? What's going on out here?" Turning her head slightly looking to Abigail, "Sorry Abby," "Oh what's this? Your all chummy with the school councillor, well ain't that grand… just watch you're back slut" with that Alexis walked past barging shoulders with Claudia before completely leaving.

Shaking her head, Claudia just walked into the room with Abigail sitting down in the soft chair that the woman had in there. "Claudia? Is she like that to you all the time?"

The red haired teenager shrugged, "sometimes worse, she's friends with Zane so I just have to put up with her, I don't know why she hates me so much, I guess I can't be liked by everyone….." The tech genius opened her bag, and Abigail saw the girls eye's widen then throw the bag across the room, "Craptastic! Little bitch smashed my laptop!"

Abigail walked close to the teenagers bag, and picked it up taking out the broken laptop, "Claudia you need to tell a teacher about her, she's bullying you.." "Abigail…please can we just get on with this session? I need to call Artie later and see if he can send me a new laptop" the woman sat down in front of her and nodded, "alright, continuing from last session… "

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Down at the docks, Zane was stood out facing the vast ocean like most nights, only tonight he didn't have the gothic red haired teenager next to him, he had the blonde girl complaining, "She just stopped right in front of me and I didn't have time to slow down…. she didn't even apologise Zane! I swear that girl is psychotic!"

"Alexis! Will you stop complaining about Claudia, I've noticed she has some insecurities but she isn't Psychotic, and at this moment in time I have something else I need to deal with instead of hearing you bad mouth one of my friends." His eye's narrowed looking to the girl who was nursing her back. Sure she had a slight bump on the head but he was more concerned on what she had said to the girl he had come to like, he knew how much Alexis hated Claudia until he heard a voice behind him, "Zane! I'm here…" turning around he saw Syrus standing there but also Jaden standing behind him.

"So you actually decided to show? Time for you to know your place Syrus…"

Jaden stood in front of his friend, "Not so fast Zane, it's because of you Syrus has been feeling like he doesn't belong here and I intend to show you that he does! I'm not having you push him around any longer…. What would Claudia say to this when she finds out?"

Zane walked forward to Jaden "She isn't going to find out about this because this is none of Claudia's business, this is a family matter Jaden Yuki and it's time to teach my little brother a lesson."

Jaden snapped his duel disk onto his left arm, sliding his deck into it and took stance, "Not until you duel me first"

Zane crossed his arms, while his own duel disk activated, "Fine, You better be watching this Syrus"

And with that the duel between Zane and Jaden began.

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Back in the school counselling office, Claudia was just finishing telling Abigail about her conversation with Steve the other night, they was already an hour into the session and Claudia had begun to feel slightly better, her anger was calming down from the conflict she had with Alexis.

"And now I'm pretty sure Steve hates me, but I haven't had the guts to call him back and apologise, I was angry and upset that I just took out all my emotions on him," "I'm sure he doesn't hate you, and is most likely expecting your call sweetie."

Claudia closed her eyes, "I don't know if I can, when I fought with him the other night, it felt like I was fighting with one of my foster fathers, just minus the smack, his voice raised more and I got frightened, I think that's why Zane took the Farnsworth off me and ended the call, he still doesn't know but he's becoming suspicious" Abigail nodded, "I think he will understand if you just tell him your reasons sweetie, now-" Abigail was cut off by heavy metal music coming from Claudia's pocket.

Her eye's narrowed as the girl quickly took out the phone and groaned, "Sorry I better answer this…." She pressed the green button on her blackberry "Sy! You know I'm in a-"

She was cut off by his frantic voice on the other side, "Claudia! I'm so sorry! But it's Jaden… he's…. he's duelling against Zane!" Suddenly standing up from her seat she walked over to the window, "WHAT! Why? I know I've been hanging out with him lately but…" "It nothing to do with you Claudia but … Jaden no!" suddenly the line went dead, Claudia looked over to Abigail with a panicked look on her face.

"Let's go sweetie." Abigail picked up Claudia's bag and her own purse, she had to head down to the docks anyway to get back to South Dakota, but just as Claudia was about to touch the door handle she suddenly stepped back as she heard a voice enter her mind again.

'don't worry, the young one needs to learn…. He's only trying to teach him something valuable..'

Shaking off slightly, "Cyber Dragon, I don't have time for this, come Abigail." With that both women left the school and jumped into Claudia's silver Prius, she had a good idea where they would be duelling, Zane wouldn't duel anywhere else outside the school.

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It took 10 minutes in Claudia's car to get to the docks, and as she arrived she saw Jaden with his fusion monster she helped him place into his deck, and Zane on the other side with Cyber twin dragon out on the field. Quickly she ran up in between Syrus and Alexis, "ZANE WHAT THE HELL! WHY ARE YOU GOING AFTER MY FRIENDS?"

Zane turned his head, his eye's narrowed to her and then to Syrus, "You're not supposed to be here Claudia, don't interfear…this is something Syrus needs to watch…" His eye's landed back to Jaden, and suddenly he smiled and drew a card from his deck, just as Abigail stood next to Claudia, "So this is what a duel looks like, those monsters really do look real. I'm guessing it's from the 3D imagining produced by the Duel disk?"

"Zane! No you stop this duel right now!" 'let him duel, he is showing the young one the right way…'

"ZANE!" but the teenager completely ignored her, she was so pissed off at him it was unbelievable. He betrayed her by going after her friends, yeah they wasn't as smart as her, Jaden was cocky and Syrus was shy, but they was like siblings.

"I wouldn't bother freak, Zane's had this duel planned for weeks, something to do with proving something to Syrus here, but Jaden wouldn't stand for it and took his place…. So just shut your trap and watch." Just as Claudia was about to tell Alexis to be quite, Zane smirked, "Now that two turns are up, both my different dimension capsules are ready and the cards I placed in them are added to my hand Jaden, you've played well, you know how to play your card, like I've always said It's not only being able to use your cards but it's also knowing how to play them that counts."

He took the two cards that appeared from the tombs that raised from the ground "I play the spell card De-fusion to make my Cyber twins back into Cyber dragons, then I play polymerization to fuse them and the 3rd Cyber dragon in my hand to create Cyber End Dragon!"

"Whoa Sweet monster there bro" Zane's eye's narrowed to the boy in front of him then "If you liked that then you'll love this Jaden, I activate the magic card, POWER BOND!, This doubles the attack points of my Cyber end dragon, placing him on 8000, destroy Absolute Zero and take out the rest of Jaden's life points!"

With that command, Cyber end Dragon charged all three mouths the beam coming from them destroyed Jaden's monster and took his lifepoints down to 0.

Standing on the side lines, Claudia just shook her head as a smile landed on her face, "So that's what you was trying to prove Zane, you sly sneaky sexy bastard…"

Syrus on the other hand, "So that's what Zane was trying to show me all them years ago…. Not only to use the cards but also knowing on how to play them…. I get it now… wait Claudia what the hell?"

He looked up to the girl who looked away whistling slightly, but the woman behind her just laughed slightly, "oh Claudia…"

Hearing a grunt on the field all three heads looked over to see Jaden land on his knees, Syrus began to run over to him but Jaden just looked up laughing at the sky, "Oh man! That was a really sweet duel bro! you really do deserve the top spot in the academy.."

"You duelled well yourself Jaden, I just hope you and Claudia continue to stay friends with Syrus, with you two to guide him I have a feeling that he is going to do just fine here." With that Zane turned around and began walking off, Alexis rushed off to walk next to Zane causing a slight anger inside the red haired girl to bubble.

After all the excitement Jaden walked up to his friends and Abigail, "Well now that's over, Syrus do you feel much better?" the small guy nodded then turned to the woman, "Um sorry I don't mean to be rude but who are you?"

The woman looked to both boys and smiled holding her hand out, "I'm Abigail, the ink keeper at Leena's B&B and Claudia's therapist, I'm guessing your Sy and Jay?"

Jaden nodded shaking the woman's hand, "We sure are, thanks for looking out for our sis here and it's super great to finally meet you! I just want to thank you beforehand about us coming over at half-term, one sweet week off school chilling at Claudia's crib! Yeah!"

All 4 of them laughed, "It will be a pleasure, and Claudia I'll speak with Artie to make sure he sends you that new laptop, now it's after hours shouldn't you three be back at the dorms?"

All three teenagers eye's widened as they suddenly remembered, "Shit! If Crowler catches us out here now then we're sure to get expelled! Catch you on Monday Abby!" With that the three teenagers left the woman at the docks just as her boat was coming up to the island, "it's great to know that you've found some wonderful friends Claudia, please take care of her boys because I'm sure she's going to need you."

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Well how's that for a chapter?

Now why would Claudia say that about Zane?

What's Alexis got planned for Claudia?

And is there going to be any Warehouse missions for Claudia?

Curedream90 and Articdragonslayer over and out!