Osiris Red Dorm, Duel Academy

August 26, 2027

6:09 PM

"This is our fancy welcome dinner?"

"Forget that. Where's our headmaster? There's no one here!"

"I'm dropping."

Jaden ignored the moans and groans of his fellow Osiris Reds, shoveling food into himself as fast as he could. "Mm, this stuff's good!" he said through a mouthful of rice.

"Please don't talk with your mouth full," Syrus muttered, his head in his hands. He was beginning to get a headache from hunger, but was reluctant to eat without the headmaster there, feeling that it would be rude.

Jaden, embarrassingly, didn't seem to share this mentality and continued to chow down.

At long last, there were footsteps outside, and then the door swung open to reveal a man in a leather jacket and motorcycle helmet, his face hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, carrying some six-packs in his arms. The room immediately fell silent— well, except for the sound of Jaden's chewing— as all of the Osiris Reds stared slack-jawed at the new arrival.

The man put down his cargo before reaching up and removing his helmet, letting a wave of thick black hair fall over his forehead, and grinned at their surprised faces. Syrus couldn't help feeling that he'd seen the man before, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out where. "Sorry I'm late, kids— motorbike decided to go on the fritz halfway back. I wanted to get some soda for us to… drink…" the man's voice trailed off as he caught sight of Jaden, still eating with gusto.

Syrus frantically kicked his best friend under the table. "He's walking over here Jaden! I mean it, he's right—"

"Well, looks like I could've saved myself the trip, since the food seems to go down so well without the soda." The man smirked, towering over the two boys. "Oh well. Guess we'll just have to drink it anyway." He spun around and walked back to the front of the room, yanking off leather his gloves as he did so. Syrus sighed in relief.

"I am Professor Wade Dean. Some of you might recognize me from the dueling exams yesterday—" That's where I've seen him! He was the proctor who dueled Bastion! "—but now that the school year has started, I am simply the headmaster of the Osiris Red dorm." He unzipped his leather jacket, revealing a red professor's uniform underneath, and began to unpack the soda. Strangely, Syrus noticed, he'd left his sunglasses on.

"We've got orange, grape, and cherry. Have at it."

"Ugh, I'm stuffed," Yuki said a little while later after he and Syrus had returned to their room. "I'll tell ya, Professor Dean sure can cook. Wow!" Yuki had asked where the food came from after his third helping, and that was when they'd found out their headmaster had prepared and served their meal himself, right before leaving on his ill-fated soda run.

"Yeah, and he seems like a pretty nice guy, too," Syrus agreed, picking up the two mugs of tea he'd prepared.

"With you there," Yuki accepted the mug Syrus offered him. "He's good people. Thanks."

"I think the sunglasses are a bit weird, though," Syrus said, frowning. "I mean who wears sunglasses at night, and then keeps them on indoors?"

"Maybe he's blind," Yuki suggested. Syrus gave him a disbelieving look.

"If he's blind, how is he able to ride a motorcycle?" Yuki thought about it for a moment.

"Maybe he has one of those white canes, and he holds onto it while he drives, letting it drag along the ground to tell him if he's still on the road or not."

"I'm pretty sure that's now how it works."

The two of them drank their tea and then got ready for bed, Yuki taking the bottom bunk and Syrus the middle one. As per his routine, Yuki said goodnight to all the monsters in his deck, from the Elemental HEROs to the newest addition of Winged Kuriboh, before yawning, rolling over, and beginning to snore.

Syrus remained awake a bit longer, twisting the unfamiliar sheets in his hands. Yuki's long list of "good nights" had reminded him that he'd never said a word to any of his own monsters. He really didn't want them to feel left out or… inadequate somehow, because Syrus knew what that felt like, and he wouldn't wish it on anybody.

For as long as Syrus could remember, Yuki had been able to see and hear his monsters. Everyone in their friend group knew about it, and it had never struck Syrus as strange— after all, Yuki wasn't the only person he knew who could talk to the spirits of his cards. Uncle Yugi and Uncle Seto could both do it (though they hadn't been born with the ability like Yuki had), and so could Syrus's parents and Aunt Téa and Aunt Serenity, at least with the monster spirit that they shared a special bond with. Honestly, for a time Syrus had thought he and Zane were the strange ones for not being able to do it.

Of course, just because he couldn't see or hear his cards didn't mean they couldn't see or hear him, or so Yuki said.

His mind made up, Syrus rolled over and reached for his deck. He flipped over the top card, took a deep breath in preparation, and began, "Goodnight, Cycroid A. Goodnight, Cycroid B. Goodnight, Ambulanceroid. Goodnight, Decoyroid. Goodnight, Drillroid. Goodnight, Expressroid. Goodnight, Gyroid…."

Thirteen more "goodnight's" later, and Syrus's mouth was beginning to feel more than a little dry. He put away his deck and went to get a drink of water before climbing back into bed.

Well, I have no idea if they heard me, or even cared if they did, but at least I tried.

Satisfied, Syrus rolled over and buried himself further into his blankets, much more relaxed, and fell into a deep sleep.

Main Building, Duel Academy

August 29, 2027

10:11 AM

Syrus's first day at Duel Academy went pretty much as he expected. Oh, sure, he'd gotten in and he was rooming with his best friend, but those fortunate events were probably only due to chance. Even managing to not make a horrible first impression on Professor Dean was due to sitting next to Yuki at the time, not his own merits.

In first period, he managed to screw up a simple question about field spells— once more having to rely on Yuki to save him— and then he almost humiliated himself again in second period while trying to thank his friend.

"Syrus?"

"Uh, y—yeah?" Syrus stammered, jumping up to face Professor Dean.

"Why don't you come up here and help me with this demonstration?"

"Demonstration?"

"Yep. Come right on up here and stand next to me for a bit." Syrus walked to the front on legs made of Jell-O, his heart pounding. Having regained everyone's attention, Professor Dean continued, "as I was saying, I specialize in the mechanics of dueling. Part of that includes the mechanics of the duel disk itself. Ever since its invention by Seto Kaiba in 1999, the duel disk has undergone many upgrades and improvements, but it is still just a machine and therefore prone to breaking on occasion." He pointed to the duel disk sitting on his desk. "Syrus, I want you to put this on, just like you would your own."

"Um, okay," Uncertainly, Syrus picked up the disk and strapped it to his arm.

"Good. Now, I want you to try and summon a monster. Just pick one out of the deck already in there and slap it down."

Syrus did as he was told, but to the class's surprise, nothing happened. For a moment, Syrus's face bloomed red, sure that he'd somehow managed to fail even this simple task—

"As you can see, there's a problem with one of this duel disk's card sensors," Professor Dean said, lifting up Syrus's arm so the class could see better. "Each card slot has its own unique sensor that transmits the card data to the disk's main system, allowing it to generate the holograms. When a sensor gets worn down, it stops working and has to be replaced.

"This sensor, however, is not worn down. Many duelists have made the mistake of replacing a sensor that doesn't actually need to be because they don't know about what else can cause it to stop working." He lowered Syrus's arm. "Thank you, Syrus, you can take the duel disk off and sit down now."

Shaking with relief, Syrus did as he asked, unable to believe the bullet he'd just dodged. I can't believe it. Nothing happened. I panicked for nothing. Maybe things really won't be so bad…

Gym Area, Main Building

August 30, 2027

10:03 AM

Twenty-four hours later, as Syrus sprinted down the hall to the boy's locker room, he bemoaned having ever felt optimistic about his Duel Academy career. He should have known his streak of good fortune wouldn't last; they never did.

"Lousy girls' gym! They should make the sign bigger!" He muttered, hopping the last few feet to his locker as he wrestled with his right sneaker. He yanked open the door and tossed the show inside, narrowly missing the envelope that was balanced precariously on top of another pair of sneakers. "Huh?" He picked the envelope up and stared at the large red kiss stamped over the closed flap. What…? Was that lipstick? Heart pounding, Syrus pulled out the note and began to read,

You probably don't know who I am, because we just met yesterday in first period, but since the moment I first saw you, I've been very much in love with you.

Meet me tonight behind the girls' dorm.

Syrus stopped, frowning. First of all, as he'd just been lamenting, his luck was never this good. Second of all, he was pretty sure the girls' dorm was off-limits to all boys at all hours. He glanced down at the signature and— yeah, that pretty much confirmed that the letter was bogus.

Endearingly, Alexis Rhodes.

Syrus had known Alexis all his life, and the one thing she most definitely was not was the type of girl who wrote love letters to boys she'd just met. Her brother doing it to girls, Syrus could believe. But not Alexis. Plus, since they'd known each other all their lives, she wouldn't have started out with "you probably don't know who I am."

Not to mention the fact that they were cousins and any love letter she wrote would not have been to him.

"Just great," Syrus groaned. "Not only do I now permanently have the reputation of 'that kid who walked into the girls' locker room by mistake', but I've also been labeled as the guy that it's funny to give prank love letters to." He turned back to his locker, crumpling the letter in his fist, and finally noticed the extra pair of shoes resting on the bottom shelf. He blinked owlishly at them for a moment before peering round the locker door to check its number.

894. This is Yuki's locker. It's right next to mine; I must have opened it by mistake. But, wait… that means…

Syrus uncrumpled the note and scanned it once again, this time noticing the very first line— Dear Jaden.

So, he wasn't the target of the prank love letter after all. His best friend was. But why would anybody want to prank Yuki? Everybody likes him! Well, except maybe Chazz, but Chazz knows that Yuki and Alexis already know each other.

Syrus gripped the note tighter. Whoever it was didn't matter; what did matter was that for once in his life, Syrus Wheeler— er, Truesdale— had the chance to not be the pathetic wimp who always needed saving! For once, it was Yuki who was being targeted, and Syrus had a chance to step in and save the day! Not only that, but he'd be able to make up for probably already messing up Jaden's going-incognito plan before they'd even gotten to the island, which he still hadn't worked up the nerve to tell him about.

"Well, if your friend's as good as he says he is, he might still find a way."

"W— wow, did we really seem like friends?"

Bastion turned around in his seat and gave Syrus an odd look. "Yes, was I mistaken? After all, I referred to him as your friend before and you didn't correct me. Although, you don't seem to know much about his deck for being his friend. Is he using a new one?"

"Uh…" Syrus cursed himself for forgetting to act as if he'd never met Yuki while still feigning ignorance about his deck.

That confession wouldn't even matter once Yuki found out what Syrus had managed to save him from. He imagined what it would be like when Yuki realized the great embarrassment and possible expulsion he'd been spared by the quick thinking of his formerly useless pipsqueak of a best friend.

You were awesome, Sy! Just think what would have happened if you hadn't caught on! Come on everybody, three cheers for Syrus! Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray!

It was a nice fantasy, but how to go about making it a reality…

Well, the person who'd left the note would want to see the result of their prank, right? Syrus scanned the note again— Meet me tonight behind the girls' dorm. Alexis certainly wouldn't be waiting there for Yuki, but someone would. Only they wouldn't get the drop on Yuki— Syrus would get the drop on them.

Hastily Syrus folded up the letter and stuck it back in its lipstick-stained envelope, hiding it in the bottom of his shoe— which he made sure to put into his own locker this time. His mind racing, he scrambled to get into his gym uniform— he'd already missed practically half of class, and it wasn't going to be fun trying to explain to the teacher.

But after tonight, it'll be worth it.

Girls' Dorm, Duel Academy

August 30, 2027

9:04 PM

It wasn't worth it. Sneaking over to the girls' dorm turned out to be a lot easier in theory than in practice, since it was located on its own private island in the middle of a lake, and the only way to access it was by rowboat. Syrus wondered if that had been a personal decision of his uncle's, or if the architect had come up with it and his uncle just approved the idea. Either way, Syrus was going to have to row across a lake— something he was not at all prepared for. Of course, he could have swum across… but he knew even less about swimming than he knew about boats. Rowing it was.

Of course, first he had to get the boat from the dock into the water, an almost impossible task with his small size (those things were heavier than they looked!) then he had to find some oars (why didn't they store them closer to the boats?) and when he'd finally accomplished that, he was worried he'd missed the prankster entirely and so got in and started rowing (or attempting to row, anyway) without even looking for the life jackets (and he really would have preferred to have one).

If I fall in and drown, I'm going to come back and haunt Yuki till the end of his days for getting me into this mess!

Alexis Kaiba, being the daughter of Duel Academy's proprietor, could have, had she wanted to, demanded any number of luxuries while living at the school— private meals, exemptions from gym class, a hand-picked schedule— but she had decided, like her brother, that she wanted to be just another student, not bogged down by her father's reputation. People tended to treat you differently if they knew you had money and power.

Of course, there were some disadvantages— like not having a private pool and having to share with everyone else— that she was discovering to be more irritating than she'd anticipated. One of her floormates had suggested going for an evening dip, and she had agreed because it sounded like fun.

She would have reconsidered, however, if she'd known what— or rather, who— was going to be the topic of conversation.

"Can you believe what that Jaden kid said to Dr. Crowler in class today?"

"He's got some nerve to talk to a teacher like that!"

"Completely disrespectful! Don't you think so, Alexis?"

What I think was disrespectful was Crowler deliberately trying to humiliate Syrus. As an educator he should really be more understanding. Out loud she said, "Actually, I thought it was kind of cool."

"What? Him? Cool?"

"Well, remember, he did beat Professor Crowler— he has the talent to back up that talk of his."

"I guess he could be cool, in a bad-boy, slumming it kind of way."

"Are you saying you'd go out with him?"

"Every girl needs that one thrill before settling down, right?"

Aaaannd that was the end of Alexis's tolerance for this conversation. "I'll see you later, girls. I'm beginning to prune." And if I stick around, one of you is going to end up with a broken nose.

Osiris Red Dorm, Duel Academy

August 30, 2027

9:36 PM

Yuki emerged from the bathroom, toweling his hair, and announced, "Hey Sy, the bathroom's all yours if you want it."

"Your friend departed some time ago." Yuki dropped the towel and looked up to see Necroshade sitting by the window, enjoying the moonlit view.

"What d'you mean, 'departed'?" Yuki asked.

"Short human gone," Clayman rumbled. "Left. Through there." He pointed one of his large fingers at the door.

"He seems to have forgotten that even when you are not present, we still are," Burstinatrix said, shimmering into view. "The small fry going out on his own does not inspire great confidence. Perhaps we should go after him?"

Yuki considered it. "Nah," he decided finally, reaching for a dry uniform he'd left lying out. "Maybe Syrus is finally feeling confident enough to branch out on his own. If I follow him around all the time, it'll look like I don't think he can handle himself."

"He can't handle himself," Burstinatrix muttered.

Yuki shrugged. "We don't know that for sure. Let's wait and see if he asks for help before going chasing after him, okay? Besides, I want to see if I can manage the three hundred move combo on my game!"

Burstinatrix and Necroshade shared a glance over Yuki's head, both thinking the same thing: I hope he doesn't regret this in the morning.

Girls' Dorm, Duel Academy

August 30, 2027

9:48 PM

Syrus's goal to not get wet was ruined when he tried to jump onto shore and misjudged the distance. True, the water was shallow, but it wasn't going to be much fun to conduct a stakeout in soggy shoes and wet pants. I can't do anything right! I must be the most pathetic sidekick ever!

Struggling, he managed to pull the rowboat halfway onto the island (he didn't dare try and dock at the pier— the whole point of this was to be inconspicuous) and tie it to a tree before squishing his way through the woods to one of the gated entrances of the girls' dorm. Crouching down behind a bush, he scanned the area. He didn't see anyone, but the gate was definitely open, the chain and lock lying on the ground nearby. Syrus sighed. If the prankster had been after anybody else, he might've thought them stupid, but clearly, they knew who they were dealing with. Yuki was just oblivious enough to ignore an obviously cut chain on the ground next to a gate that was supposed to be closed.

Now the only question was, how close should he try to get? Clearly the prankster expected Yuki to walk through the gate, meaning they were probably hiding beyond it. On the other hand, Syrus would have to step out into the open to get beyond the gate himself, which was risky.

But the whole point of this is to find out who's trying to prank Yuki, he reminded himself. That means you have to do whatever it takes to expose them; no going back empty-handed. Taking a deep breath, Syrus stepped out from behind his bush and crept toward the gate. He actually made it pretty far before the commotion started.

"Who's there?"

"It's a boy!"

"Intruder!"

"There he is!"

"Grab him!"

"Let go, please?" Syrus looked up at the girls surrounding him and tried to appear as harmless as possible. How had they even known he was here? He had been so careful…

"Not until you tell us why you're here, and it'd better be good!"

Syrus's parents had always instilled in him the benefits of honesty, so after he'd been dragged into the girls' dorm (which was way nicer than Osiris Red) and been tied to a chair, he attempted to explain to the girls the reason why he'd snuck onto their turf— attempted being the key word.

"A love letter from Alexis? You've got to be kidding."

"I'm not, really! I have it right here—" Syrus went to get the letter out of his pocket and was forcibly reminded that he didn't have use of his arms. "Uh, could you—"

"Um, hello, like, Alexis is really tall, and you're really short. She's really good at dueling and you're really not. She's really hot, and you're—"

"Excuse me!" Syrus snapped, annoyed at being so thoroughly insulted, "the letter is in my left pocket. If you just get it out, you'll see that I'm not lying." The girls still looked skeptical, but one of them reached forward and ruffled around in Syrus's jacket until she found the crumpled-up note, showing it to her friends.

"Well, it's obviously bogus. Her name's not even spelled right."

"Someone's obviously yanking your chain, pipsqueak."

"This note isn't even made out to you— it says Dear Jaden at the top!"

Syrus sighed heavily. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. It's a prank note. I came to find out who left it."

One of the girls huffed in disbelief. "A likely story."

"Yeah, I don't buy it. He could have written the note himself just to have an excuse to come here."

"I didn't. I promise; that's not even my handwriting! I—"

"What's going on here, girls?" A familiar figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

Syrus sagged in relief. "Alexis."

Alexis, being a Kaiba, had been trained to deal with crises from a young age. Having been homeschooled through junior high, she also had very little experience with the kind of hysteria that a group of teenage girls could work up. Therefore, she felt more than a little annoyed when it turned out she'd come sprinting into the hall in her slippers to deal with the underwhelming threat of Syrus.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, probably harsher than necessary, but blast it all, she'd heard someone scream intruder, and she was a Kaiba.

"We caught this Osiris sneaking around the girl's dorm. He wrote out a fake love letter so that he could get away with spying on us. And he claims it's from you, can you believe it?"

"Yeah, as if!"

The the other girls' reactions to the situation were so utterly clueless that Alexis was sorely tempted to start yelling at them, but before she could, the familiar voice of Dr. Fontaine called out, "Girls, just what on earth is going on down there?" Alexis whirled around to block their house mother's view of the lobby, while two of her fellow students proceeded to sit on Syrus to hide him from view. Dr. Fontaine just raised an eyebrow. "Alright, what's up?"

"You guys are heavy," Syrus complained from down below. Alexis willed him to shut up. Did he want to get caught?

"Beg your pardon?"

"Maybe you're just brittle!"

Well, apparently they all wanted to get caught. Either that or none of them had any brains— which wasn't all that hard to believe. "Sorry, Dr. Fontaine," Alexis said smoothly, "one of the girls found a dead bird outside that had smashed into the window, and we were just deciding what to do with it. We'll try to be quieter."

Dr. Fontaine looked at her skeptically for a long moment, before huffing and tossing her hair over her bathrobe-clad shoulder. "Well, I should hope so! It's nearly midnight, and I have an early Pilates class in the morning." Alexis blinked. She'd bought that? She was going to need to talk to her father about the quality of his staff.

As soon as Dr. Fontaine had disappeared back down the hall, Alexis turned and marched down the stairs, determined to get to the bottom of her cousin's impromptu visit. "Let me see this 'love letter'." The girl holding the note held it out to Alexis as the blonde reached the bottom of the stairs, which also prompted Syrus to begin talking again,

"I was trying to explain, Lex; it's a fake love letter. Somebody left it for Yuk— Jaden but I knew it was fake so I came to find out—"

"Stop lying!" One of the girls surrounding him snapped, prodding his ankle with her toe.

"Enough!" Alexis ordered. "Obviously this was some sort of prank, with me and Jaden at the center of it, and Syrus just wanted to inform me. Even if that isn't what happened, we have no proof to back it up, so there's no point in speculating. Let him go."

The girls hesitated briefly, but Alexis was used to being obeyed, and the glare she leveled at them was enough to convince them to cooperate. Syrus sagged with relief as his bonds were loosened and he got to his feet, rubbing his wrists.

"Just to be sure, I'll escort him out. The rest of you can go back to bed." Seeing that the excitement was over, the female students dispersed, leaving Alexis alone with her cousin. She grabbed him by the collar of his Osiris jacket and steered him toward the exit, walking briskly. The sooner he was gone, the better.

They were halfway back to where he'd left the rowboat before Syrus felt safe enough to speak. "Thanks Alexis; I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't been there and—"

"Syrus!" His cousin cut him off with a hiss, glancing around to make sure no one was watching them. "What did you think you were doing, coming here? You know the girls' dorm is off limits! You could've gotten in serious trouble!"

"That's why I had to come! If Yu—Jaden had found the note like he was supposed to, he would have come and then he would have gotten in trouble. I couldn't let that happen!"

"Then why didn't you just throw the note away?"

"Because I thought… I thought the person who left it there might want to see the results of their prank and that they would… be here." Syrus's voice quailed as he realized exactly how much logic his reasoning was lacking. If the real goal had been to get Yuki in trouble, the prankster wouldn't have needed to hang around to see what had happened. He would have heard all about it after Yuki was expelled. "I'm sorry," he offered dismally.

Alexis sighed. "It's alright, Syrus. You were trying to protect Yuki, that's not a bad thing. It just means you're a good and loyal friend. He's lucky to have you."

"For all the good it does him," Syrus muttered.

Alexis stopped walking and grabbed him by the shoulders, spinning him around to face her. "Syrus, no. Don't ever sell yourself short like that. Friendship is about being willing to stick by each other, no matter what. That's what you did tonight. You risked expulsion to help Yuki, and that's valuable, no matter if you succeeded in your objective or not."

Syrus rubbed his toe in the dirt. "You really think so?"

"I know so." She began pulling him along again, albeit more gently this time. "How'd you get here? You're not soaking wet, so I'm guessing you took a rowboat?"

"Yeah. It's this way," Syrus swerved a bit to lead her towards his pilfered transport.

The two cousins were quiet for a while, before Alexis asked, "Are you and Zane… okay?" Syrus froze, almost causing Alexis to trip over him.

"What?"

"You and Zane. I spoke to him on the first day of school. He was watching you, from a private box. I could tell he was worried about you, but he didn't seem to want to go and talk to you, so… I wondered."

"Zane was worried about me?" Syrus gave a bitter laugh, starting to walk again, this time at a much faster pace. "More likely he was worried I might embarrass him."

"What?" Alexis was practically jogging to keep up with him.

"Zane and I… we don't talk anymore. I don't know why, but he's made it pretty clear he doesn't want anything to do with me, so I just stay out of his way."

"Syrus, that's not true! I know that's not true. Zane cares about you, I can tell from how he talks about you. Whatever happened between you two, you can still make it right. You're brothers, you shouldn't be afraid to—"

"Don't you think I've tried?" Syrus snapped. "I've begged him to tell me what I did to make him so angry at me, but he won't tell. There's no point in trying to make up with him when I don't even know how!" Alexis pulled up short, startled by the anger in Syrus's tone. He had finally come to a stop and was breathing hard, from both physical and emotional exertion. "I'm sorry, Alexis," he said, avoiding her gaze.

"Syrus…"

"I don't want to talk about Zane anymore. Besides, we're here." He pushed aside some reeds to reveal one of the school rowboats, half pulled up onto the land and half floating in the water. Syrus pushed it all the way in and proceeded to climb aboard, clutching the rope tying it to a tree for balance. "Could you untie that and toss it to me, please?" He asked, holding out his hand.

Alexis was about to reach for the knot when she noticed something unusual— a reed, sticking straight up out of the water as it floated merrily along. "What on earth…?"

"What?" Syrus turned to see what she was looking at and was promptly sprayed in the face as a head popped up from beneath the surface.

"You try to expel one kid, and the entire world turns against you!" Syrus rubbed the water out of his eyes and gaped. It couldn't be…

"Dr. Crowler?" Alexis sounded just as dubious as Syrus felt.

The blonde man whirled around, creating a bunch of little waves as he did so, and stared at the two students in equal shock. For a moment, the three of them simply looked at each other. Dr. Crowler was the first to find his voice.

"Well, well, well. A boy trespassing at the girls' dorm. Whatever shall we do with you?" He asked smugly.

"You'll do nothing," Alexis said coolly, a few details sliding into place in her mind, "or I'll tell Chancellor Sheppard that you were plotting to expel Jaden Yuki." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the love note. "I bet he'll be able to confirm that this is your handwriting."

Dr. Crowler sputtered at her. "I am a faculty member! You can't threaten me!"

"I can when you're trespassing at the girls' dorm," Alexis pointed out. "I have half a mind to go get Dr. Fontaine right now, so you can explain why you're hanging out here…in a wet suit." She wrinkled her nose. Syrus glanced back the Anubis headmaster and saw that he did, indeed, appear to be wearing a wet suit.

Dr. Crowler scowled at the both of them. "Lucky brats. Jaden may have escaped this time, but I assure you I'll still find a way to expel him… after I find a way home." He looked pleadingly at Syrus. "I… don't suppose you'd be willing to give me a lift?"

"Er…sure," Syrus said cautiously, wary of the professor's unpredictable mood swings.

With Dr. Crowler safely seated in the rowboat, Alexis untied it from the tree and tossed the rope to Syrus, still clutching the fake love letter in her hand. "I'll hang onto this, just in case you change your mind," she said, waving it towards the Vice Chancellor.

"Impertinence," the man muttered.

Jaden remarks that "Professor Banner sure can cook", but since the students were already sitting down to eat without having laid eyes on Banner, that means he cooked the meal, served it, and then snuck back into the kitchen to watch while all the students came in and sat down. What was he doing back there? Was it like an I'll-observe-them-when-they-think-I'm-not-around schtick? Why? What did he think they'd be up to?

In the original episode, Dr. Crowler opens up a bunch of lockers and identifies Jaden's shoes, which makes no sense since they're part of the school uniform and so literally every Osiris Red has an identical pair (I guess they could all have their names on them, but the episode doesn't show us that). Also, since clearly, no one bothers to lock their lockers, there'd be no reason for Jaden to borrow Syrus's, so I had Syrus (who was actually in a hurried frenzy) open Jaden's by mistake.

Mindy and Jasmine are useless characters— they do very little that actually matters, and they fade to the background very quickly. If something they do or say does end up being important, it'll be said/done by somebody else or by "the other girls in the dorm"/"Alexis's floormates"/"the female students", etc.