Chapter 1

A year after we first moved in, I started high school. Uncle Max provided everything I needed, including a small apartment for me to stay in during the school days. Poor Odysseus screamed his lungs out the entirety of the first day I was away from what Croquet told me, so Ody went with me, going to his daycare again. I looked at the golden bracelet that adorned my wrist, a present from Uncle Max before I had left for my first day of high school. "For good luck on your first day." His usual flair had come back as he presented it to me. It was thin looking, with an eye of Horus on it. It was the Egyptian symbol of protection if I had remembered right.

It seemed to glimmer in the morning sun, as if holding a secret I had yet to learn. It felt weird, especially with how Uncle Max had presented it to me, afraid of it reacting poorly to touching me or something, but nothing happened apart from that little glimmer of light that was happening now. As I walked through the gates of my new school, I looked up to observe it. Several students were in the school's attire, blue jacket and matching pants for the boys, pink blouse with a blue bow tie and a matching short skirt for the girls. I felt stupid in it, honestly and was thankful I had thought to bring a change of clothes with me for after school. I was able to find my classroom without incident, but I felt nervous. Don't fret, child, all will be well. I blinked at the voice. Where did it come from? I glanced at my bracelet, my fingers tracing the Eye of Horus. As I did so, it began to emit a soft golden glow. How… When I looked up, I locked eyes with a pair of round amethyst eyes. His hair was star-shaped, black at the base, a maroon color at the tips and golden bangs that framed his round face. Around his neck hung an upside down pyramid with the same Eye of Horus as my bracelet in the center. It emitted a glow as well, as if my bracelet and his pyramid sensed each other. I watched as he approached. "Hi." He greeted me.

"Hi." I replied.

"I'm Yugi." He introduced with a bow. I stood from my desk and bowed back.

"I'm Calliope, it's nice to meet you." I introduced myself as well.

"It's nice to meet you too." He smiled, causing me to smile back. We talked for a while, and I learned about the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi had received it from his grandfather at 8 years old, being dared to solve it. From what Yugi told me, he had managed to finish it just months prior to my arrival.

"It's supposed to be impossible to solve from what I've heard. That's pretty amazing." I gushed, unable to help myself. I watched in amusement as his cheeks turned red. He chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It was pretty difficult, but the trick was to never give up." Yugi replied. I smiled.

"You know, legend has it that the Millennium Puzzle grants a wish to the person who solves it." I brought up to him. He smiled back.

"I know, it kept me going when it seemed impossible." He told me. I smiled, waiting for him to tell me what his wish was. I guess he noticed, because he laughed a bit. "Hey, if I tell you, it won't come true." He told me. I shrugged.

"True enough." I responded. That was about when a trio of people came in and approached us. The first of them was blond, with hair Ody would describe as shaggy and his eyes were brown. He looked about 5 foot 10 if I had to wager a guess, slightly shorter than the second guy. The other guy had eyes colored closer to hazel, his brown hair in a Mohawk type style. Both boys were dressed in the school's male uniform, and the third was a girl. Her eyes were sapphire blue, and her brown hair was short, cut in a bob.

"'Ey, Yuge, who's dis?" The first boy spoke up, an accent slipping out as he addressed Yugi before looking at me.

"This is Calliope. Calliope, these are my friends: Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Téa Gardner." Yugi introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Calip." Joey stumbled over my name, causing me to hold back a sigh. I was half expecting this. As I mentioned before, not a lot of people pronounced my name correctly. Honestly, Yugi was one of the first people outside my family to pronounce it right.

"You can call me Callie if it's easier, and it's nice to meet you too." I smiled softly. Joey seemed to brighten at this. After a bit, the conversation drifted to Duel Monsters. Having grown up with its creator as my Uncle, I knew the rules of it, but hadn't been in a lot of tournaments. I had a deck, mostly made of cards from Greek Mythology, but I barely touched it most days. I watched as Joey lost to Yugi.

"I'm gonna be champ one day, you'll see! 'Ey, Callie, ya up for a duel?" Joey questioned. I blinked for a second.

"Sure." I responded, but honestly I felt like a deer in headlights. It had been a while since I had last touched my deck, the last time being the championship a week after Mom and Dad died. But, I never left home without my cards, so I pulled it out and sat across from Joey. We shuffled each other's cards before the duel began. It was a pretty short round, with me coming out on top. But, I noticed that during the duel, Joey didn't play a single trap or spell card. I thought it was weird, but maybe he had so few of them that those cards were at the bottom of the deck?

"Man, you stink at this game, Joey." Tristan commented.

"Don't listen to him, Joey, you did fine." I told him.

"Callie just has better cards. See, my grandpa owns this game shop, and I get all my best cards from him." Yugi added.

"Your own game shop?! What're we waitin' for, let's go!" Joey immediately jumped out of his seat.

"Okay, maybe my grandpa will show us this super secret rare card he's got." Yugi replied. "Callie, you wanna come with us?" He turned to me.

"Sure, I'd love to." I had to admit, I was curious about the rare card Yugi was talking about.

After school, I changed into black jeans, an Evanescence T-shirt hanging off my shoulder and sneakers before grabbing my little brother Ody from daycare. It felt good to be in regular clothes after that uniform, honestly. Téa was the first one to notice Ody when I met up with them. "Who's this little guy?" Téa asked.

"This is my little brother, Odysseus." I introduced him. Téa waved at him.

"Hi." She greeted him. Ody tucked his face into my shoulder. I giggled.

"Hey, what're you getting shy for, Ody?" I gently poked him in the back.

"He's cute." Téa beamed.

"He is." I agreed, rubbing his back as I walked with the others.

"Not to pry, Cal, but why ain't he with ya parents?" Joey asked, turning to me after a minute. I sighed, remembering everything.

"It's a long story." I told him, avoiding everyone's gazes.

"You don't have to talk about it." Yugi assured me.

"Just know we're here if you need us." Téa added.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." I replied. Before long, we reached the Game Shop. Yugi led the way inside, a little bell ringing as the door swung open.

"Grandpa? I'm home!" Yugi called out. Behind the counter of the shop, there was an elderly man, his grey hair peeking out of his orange bandanna. When he looked up from the newspaper he was reading, I saw the same round amethyst eyes as Yugi regarding each of us.

"And I see you've brought company." He smiled.

"Gramps, could you show my friends that awesome super rare card?" Yugi asked.

"Rare card? My special card?" He thought for a moment. Yugi clapped his hands together.

"Please, please."

"Pretty please?" Joey bowed. After a moment, Gramps laughed.

"How can I refuse? You kids are in for a treat, I don't take this card out too often." He said as he ducked under the counter for a minute. I shifted Ody around in my arms so he could see too. When he popped back up, he glanced around at us. "Ready? Here it is." He held up a card of a dragon. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon, so rare, so powerful, I never let it leave my hands."

"Whoa."

"Awesome." Téa, Joey and I expressed our wonder at the same time.

"Rawr." Ody commented, pointing at the card. I couldn't help but chuckle at my baby brother. Tristan took it from Gramps, looking it over.

"Doesn't look all that special to me…" He trailed off before Gramps snatched it back.

"This card is priceless, there are only four of them in all the world!" He told us.

"Speaking of priceless, I'm ready to trade!" Joey spoke up.

"Not for this card."

"Huh? Nah, I didn't mean dat card, I meant show me some other cool cards to get me started." Joey clarified. Just as Gramps relaxed, the bell above the door chimed, a signal that someone else was coming into the shop.

"Hello, can I help you?" Gramps greeted the person.

"If you can't, it certainly wouldn't surprise me." My eyes slowly closed shut. I knew that graveled voice anywhere.

"Seto Kaiba?"

"Kaiba?!" My new friends exclaimed, identifying him before I could turn around.

"Doesn't he have a big, fancy company to run?" Tristan asked as I turned to face Seto. The last I saw of the blue eyed rich boy had been the week after my parents had passed. He looked well, not that I cared about that with how things had ended between us.

"What're you doing down here, Kaiba?" I asked, doing nothing to hide the venom in my voice. That was about when he noticed me. Ody, much to my own heartbreak, reached for him. At one point in time, Odysseus and Seto were two peas in a pod, but not anymore. Seto didn't even acknowledge him as he addressed me.

"Calliope. Not that it's any of your business, but I came to see the card." Joey stepped forward as I shifted Ody in my arms again, turning him away from my ex and back towards me. He settled into me, laying down on my shoulder.

"Ey, are ya into Duel Monsters too? This is perfect, maybe we could all duel togetha sometime."

"Me? Duel you? I'd have more of a challenge playing Solitaire."

"What?"

"I am the number one ranked duelist in the country, and the favorite to win the Duel Monsters Championship." He scoffed. "You wouldn't last two minutes in a duel against me."

"Oooh, I'm shakin', why don't we settle this with fists insteada cards?" Joey put his fist up, looking aggravated.

"Whoa, take it easy, Joey." Yugi got between them.

"But, Yugi, Kaiba's askin' for it."

"You know full well you wouldn't last two rounds in a duel against me, you're not one to talk." I brought up, getting between Yugi and Seto.

"I guess we'll never know, seeing as someone dropped out of the tournament and ruined her chances of becoming the champion." Seto shot back. My eyes narrowed in response.

"I won't apologize for choosing my family over a title." I glared, holding my brother close.

"Does this place have any worthwhile cards or not?" Seto turned to Gramps, but that was when he caught sight of the Blue Eyes. He pushed past Joey, Tristan, Yugi and myself. I nearly fell over from the force of the push, but my new friends kept me steady. "Can it be?! The Blue Eyes White Dragon in a dump like this?!" Anger filled me, my bracelet glimmering in the light. I knew why he was looking for the Blue Eyes, and it pissed me off that he was disrespecting the shop of its owner. Gramps closed the box the card was in.

"Well, enough window shopping. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Gramps questioned. Seto slammed his briefcase on the counter before opening it and turning it to show Gramps the rare cards inside.

"Listen to me, old man, give me your Blue Eyes White Dragon card, and I'll trade you all of these." I rolled my eyes as my new friends gawked at the case of rare cards. I'd been shown them many times, but it still didn't impress me.

"Ah, nice… But, no thanks." Gramps replied. I smiled, while my friends gave confused sounds.

"Fine, if you won't trade, maybe you'll sell it. Name your price, I can pay anything you ask." Seto insisted.

"I'm sure you could, but this card is worth more to me than you could ever offer. Not because of its power, or because it's so rare, but because of what it means to me. This card was given to me by a dear friend, and so I treasure this card as I do that friend… So parting with it is completely out of the question." Gramps shot him down, sending Seto reeling back.

"No…" He growled, his hands balling into fists as he trembled with anger.

"You'd feel the same way even if it were a common card, right, Grandpa?" Yugi asked.

"Exactly. You see, this precious card has bonded with my heart." Seto slammed his case shut.

"Fine. I've heard enough of your nonsense." Seto took it off the counter. "Senile old fool." Seto shot at Gramps. My eyes followed him as he left and slammed the door behind him.

"Good riddance." I mumbled before my gaze softened, the glow from my bracelet dying down as I shifted to my friends. "I'm sorry I got so heated. Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine, Cal." Joey assured me.

"Are you okay?" Yugi turned the question on me.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I shrugged a bit. Gramps sold us a couple packs of cards and sent us upstairs to their home.

"Hey, so, what was that downstairs?" Tristan asked.

"What was what?" I countered, looking at him.

"Ya got tense as soon as Rich Boy walked through da door, ya looked like ya wanted ta punch him until after he left." Joey pointed out.

"To make a long story short, we dated, it didn't end well." I gave a short explanation, not wanting to get into the details. "But, I wasn't tense just because of seeing him again… He's been after that Blue Eyes card for years. He'd do anything to get it." I admitted. That being said, I knew about the drastic measures he had taken to get the other three he had in his deck, and I honestly was scared of the same thing happening to Yugi's grandpa.

"Now, don't you worry about me, Calliope." Gramps entered the room then. "I know how to duel better than you think." I gave a small smile at that.

"I wouldn't doubt that, Gramps. Yugi told me earlier that you taught him how to play the game."

"Sure did, taught my grandson everything he knows. But, I can't take all the credit, he's a good student, and smart as a whip." We talked until it got dark and I went home to my apartment. Once home, I texted Ruth and Sadie about everything that happened after putting Ody to bed. They immediately called me.

"Rich Boy showed up? What did he want?" Sadie asked. Sadie Pearson and I had met all the way in kindergarten, so if anyone knew me best, it was her. I could practically envision her green eyes wide in shock, her brown hair swaying as she moved.

"He found the Blue Eyes White Dragon card he'd been looking for. One of my friends, Yugi, his grandfather owns a game shop and he owns the Blue Eyes card."

"Oh my god…" Sadie trailed off.

"You can't let him get it, Callie." Ruth's voice sounded next. Ruth Valentine had known both of us for a shorter amount of time than Sadie and I knew each other, the older girl having met me during a tournament a few years before Ody was born, but it hardly mattered to us. Ruth's blond hair and hazel eyes shimmered in the sunlight anytime she was around, and she was oftentimes our voice of reason.

"You think I don't know that? But, knowing him, he'd try to take it while we're in school, he'd be expecting me to interfere otherwise." I sighed, plopping down on the couch.

"You know what he'll do if he gets that card…"

"Which is part of why I was so mad when he walked in."

"Well, yeah, that and the way he broke up with you was crappy. Giving you an ultimatum between him and your brother? What did he expect you to do?"

"I broke up with him because of that ultimatum, remember?" I pointed out.

"It was still crappy of him to make you choose… But, you'll have to introduce us to your new friends, they sound awesome." Sadie brought up, changing the subject she knew was hurting me.

"They really are. I'll introduce you guys tomorrow." I promised.

"You better, we need more friends, honestly." Sadie replied, Ruth humming in agreement.

"Yeah, I agree. Wanna walk to school like old times tomorrow?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Sadie sounded excited.

"Oh, and bring your deck to school with you. I have a feeling one of them might wanna duel you."

"They're duelists like us?" Even Ruth sounded excited as they exclaimed simultaneously.

"They sure are."

"Okay, this is awesome, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow, Cal! Later!" Sadie bid me good night and hung up.

"I better get my deck ready for tomorrow. I'll see you later."

"See you later, Ruthie." I responded before we both hung up the call. I took a deep breath before getting up and getting ready for bed.

I had an early start tomorrow…