Joey's Secret
Chapter One
A Typical Day

It was a typical day at Domino High; the classes were generally boring, and Joey Wheeler was sleeping through his history class before being rudely awoken by the bell ringing, signaling the end of history and the beginning of lunch. Joey grabbed his backpack and exited the classroom, though waiting for Yugi, Duke, Tea, Serenity, Tristan, Marik, Ryou, Mai, and Kaiba at the door before they headed towards the lunch room together.

"That lesson was fascinating! Though Yami said the theories of the Egyptian Pyramids were wrong, as they only took a week to build, due to the Pharaoh's magic," Yugi stated enthusiastically.

"The lesson was about Ancient Egypt? Why didn't you say so? I would have actually listened this time!" Joey said, annoyed that he had missed his favorite topic in history.

Yugi started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Joey asked.

"The other me said that if you just paid attention in class you wouldn't miss the topics you actually like all the time!"

Joey growled. "Get 'im out here! I'm gonna get him for dat, so him out! I'm gonna hurt him! I'll slap him! I'llnot succeed at it, will I?" he said, looking hesitantly at Yugi, who had grown taller, his hair had grown wilder, and his eyes had turned red.

"No, you won't," he smirked before Yugi turned back to normal.Mai laughed. "Now what is it?" Joey snapped

."It's just so funny. You can't defend yourself with Yami, he's too strong, and you're so weak!"

Kaiba smirked. "Like a puppy, mutt."

"I'm not weak, and I am not a mutt!" Joey screamed.

"Sure you aren't, pup."

Joey growled, and the others laughed.

"Come on, Joey, you know none of us meant it!" Yugi pleaded, turning on his puppy dog eyes.

"All right, I guess I'll drop it," the blonde said reluctantly as the gang arrived at the lunchroom.

Tea opened the door, and they entered the commons.

"Normal table?" Tristan asked.

"You got it!" Duke replied.

The ten friends went and sat at the round table in their normal spot – the shadowed area in the back right hand corner, directly opposite of the door the had just entered at the front left. They began to cross the lunch room, but were forced to stop when Uchiro began to taunt Ryou.

"So, Ryou Bakura still too chicken to show your face without your friends?" Suddenly Ryou's eyes became hard, and Ryou gave an uncharacteristic smirk.

"No, I simply want the company. Being alone with no friends is boring, plus if you don't have them then you have no one to defend your honor when you're not around. But then you wouldn't know anything about that, as you don't have friends, which means I can make fun of you all I want when you aren't around, and no one will stop me. And you know what they say, if you say enough bad things about a person without anyone protesting, the Gods think its true, even if it isn't, and you're sent to hell." Finishing, Bakura gave control back to Ryou and the gang continued to walk to their table.

They sat down at the circular table, with Yugi sitting in the first chair, then Marik, Ryou, Kaiba, Joey, Tristan, Serenity, Mai, Tea, Duke, then back to Yugi.

"So, Ryou, why did Bakura come out and defend you? Before he'd make you do it, and yell at you if you didn't," Serenity asked.

"He said that I'll never learn to defend myself if I don't at least try, but now" Ryou winced.

"But what?" Duke aked.

But it's not anyone's business why he defends me sometimes, but doesn't at others."

"Bakura is one odd dude," Joey states.

"That's an understatement," Ryou said under his breath.

The gang laughed as everyone dug into their lunch boxes.

"Hey, Tristan, trade you Pringles for Cheetos!" Joey begged.

Tristan rolled his eyes and agreed.

Across the lunch room, a group of eleven teenagers walked through the main door and entered the office.

"Can I help you?" the secretary asked.

"Yes, we need to talk to a friend of ours who goes here," a boy with brown hair said.

"Grade?"

"Eleventh."

"They are at lunch at the moment, if you will sign in you can go to the commons and find them."

"Thank you, ma'am," a brown haired girl stated.

"Oh, it's no problem.

"After signing in, the group headed to the commons and looked around for their friend, who they hadn't seen in two years.

"There he is!" a girl with lavender hair called out, excitement singing in her voice.

Across the lunchroom, Joey looked up and saw the people he thought he would never get to see while attending Domino High. His eyes widened, and he jumped up from his seat, running across and out of the lunchroom.

"Joey!" Yugi called, "where are you going?"

"Leave him alone, Wheeler can do what he wants," Kaiba snapped as he took out his laptop.

"Wow, I didn't know you cared!" Duke teased, but didn't get a response as Kaiba ignored him.

"Joey Wheelerit looks like we know who to look for," a boy with red hair in the mysterious group said as the walked back to the main office.

"Oh, did you find your friend?" the secretary asked them.

"No, but can I get directions to Joey Wheeler's next class?"

"Sure. Let's see, according to his schedule, he's in English, room 315. Go down the left hallway and take the first left. It's the last classroom on the right," the secretary said as she searched the schools database.

"Thank you."

In room 315, class had just begun ten minutes before, and Joey was determined to stay awake for this class, at least.

There was a knock on the door, and the group of teens walked in.

"May I help you?" the teacher asked.

"Yes, we wanted to speak with Matt Ishida."

"I'm sorry, I don't" the teacher trailed off as Joey Wheeler stood up at his desk.

"What the hell is going on? You know you are not supposed to speak that name, let alone be here!"