Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh! That honor belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, TV Tokyo, 4Kids Entertainment, and possibly just a little bit because YGOTAS has invaded our brains, LittleKurboh. Oh, and for the one line reference: BBC owns itself and Dr. Who (no matter how much I love Nine. Sigh). Despite all of this not owning, I do own my OC, Chloe, and my lovely plot of doom.

Italics = Dialogue in Japanese. Unless otherwise specified, Chloe has no clue what's being said.

Bold = Word emphasis.

(#) = I decided to confuse you all by throwing in Japanese words. Translation at the bottom.

Chloe winced as she looked at herself in the mirror. When she had signed up for the foreign exchange program six months ago, they had told her about the school uniforms. She had seen pictures of them in the pictures that Anzu had sent her. She had even tried it on a few days before when she bought it. But it wasn't until now, when she was wearing it on the morning of her first day at Domino High School, that she realize how hideous it was. The white button-up shirt was fine. She didn't even really mind the baby blue skirt, despite the fact that she would never wear it otherwise. She might have even been able to put up with the bright pink blazer, despite how much it clashed even to her normally fashion-blind eyes. But the huge, shiny, blue bow tie tied under her chin really was the icing on the whole ugly cake.

She ran a hand through her newly sheared, dyed, and permed hair. No, her hair was the icing. It was in a perfectly straight little black bob, just like you saw in all the pictures of Japanese school girls. She missed her frizzy blonde hair that reached passed her shoulders (on the rare occasions she let it down) and took an hour to blow dry already.

Well, she certainly wouldn't stand out. Mrs. Mazaki had made sure of that. That is, until her frizzy blonde roots grew out. Or her classmates got a look at her from more than ten feet away, and saw that she had no Asian features whatsoever. Or when they realized that she could barely get by in the language. But other than that, she wouldtotallyfit in just fine.

At least she didn't expect to be too far behind academically. She was one of those (self proclaimed, mind you) nerds that actually took advantage of online courses to actually get ahead, not make up grades. If she had been there for the second semester of this year, her Junior year, she would have been graduating with the seniors. But when her high school was chosen for the foreign exchange program, there wasn't really any question in her councilor's mind who to choose. She had practically begged her to represent the school at the end of last year. Pressured by pretty much every adult in her life to take the opportunity, she reluctantly accepted.

A semester of language classes, a specially altered entrance exam, and a ridiculously long plane ride later, here she was. Standing in front of the mirror in some girl's room, staring at herself in a hideous uniform on her first day.

There was a knock at the door below. Chloe sighed, trying to straighten her clothes one last time in the mirror. That would be the student assigned to show her the way to school and be her translator for the day. Or at least one of them. Apparently, he was a friend of the girl that she had been exchanged with. Silently, she was grateful to have at least one person obligated to talk to her.

Mrs. Mazaki called to her from downstairs a moment later. "Chloe, Anzu's friend is here to take you to school."

"I will be right down, Mazaki san." She called back in broken Japanese, after taking a moment to think. Eighteen weeks was nowhere near enough time to learn a language you were about to be immersed in. It had taken her years to her rid of the small stutter when she spoke in English. It had returned, and multiplied a hundred-fold in the new language. She could just barely understand what people said if she payed close attention and they spoke slowly using grade one vocabulary. Her host mother was a godsend, always speaking slowly and clear enough for her to at least hear the words, and then translating if she got that 'I have no idea what the hell is going on' face in response.

Chloe grabbed her book bag from off of the bed, and padded down the stairs. Unfortunately, she still hadn't gotten use the the whole bare-feet-on-wood thing, slipping and stumbling on the last step. She cursed under her breath as she grabbed the wall to steady herself. She looked up, and saw a tall blonde boy standing by the door, trying not to grin at her.

She held back her glare, scrunching up her eyebrows and summoning, "Eh, um...S-sum-sumima...I give up. Nice to meet you. I'm Chloe." She stuttered. (1)

He grinned, choking back a laugh. "Jonouchi. Most of my friends call me Jou."

Jonouchi was a head and a half taller than her, with hazel eyes and a shock of blonde hair. Chloe froze for a second, and then looked accusingly at Mrs. Mazaki. She didn't know why it hadn't occurred to her before, having seen the pictures of Anzu's friends. "Mazaki-san, I thought you said that everyone at Domino High has black hair?"

Jou snorted. "If everyone is a minority. Wait until you see Yugi's hair, it's about as far from black as you can get. Why do you ask?"

Chloe just crossed her arms over her chest and waited for Mrs. Mazaki to explain. The accused put her hands up in surrender. "It was Anzu's suggestion. She said that she would fit in easier."

Jou was confused for a second, but then remembered the pictures that Anzu had showed him that Chloe sent her. "Dye job?"

"Yes, and worse. My hair is normally blonde, curly, and halfway down my back."

He whistled sympathetically, and then grinned."Well, I must say. You will now be rather unremarkable. That is, until your roots start showing."

She rolled her eyes, but a smile crept onto her lips. "Are you going to show me how to get to school, or not?"

"Oh, you're right. It's a good thing I arrived early."

"Maybe not being blonde is a good thing after all."

It was his turn to roll his eyes. But, he opted out of responding to the blonde joke, instead moving to open the door for her while she grabbed her shoes off the rack next to the door.

Mrs. Mazaki gave her a small smile. "I will see you later, Chloe. Jonouchi, take care of her, please."

Chloe blinked for a second, and then responded with what she thought was right. "Um, Ittekimasu, Mazaki-san?"(2) It was meant to be a statement, but she raised the end as a question, wondering if she was using the right words. Mrs. Mazaki gave her a small nod to confirm she had said the correct phrase before Jonouchi closed the door.

"We're going to be running into one of my- our classmates on the way to school. I hope you don't mind if he walks with us."

"Uh. Oh, no. Of course not." She said awkwardly. "Who is it? Anzu sent me a picture of you guys a few weeks ago."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that. It's Yugi. I believe her words were, 'The short one with multicolored hair.' I'd actually call that a fairly accurate description." He chuckled. "He's nice though. Too nice for his own good sometimes, but nice all the same."

Chloe nodded. She knew the type of nice he was talking about all too well. They fell into a silence that lasted about half a block. "So, why did Anzu want to exchange to the US? It's not as if we have the best education system in the world."

Jonouchi snorted. "Anzu is not interested in school. She's had a dream for a while to go to America to study dance. She's probably trying out for all sorts of clubs there."

Chloe blinked at him. "Clubs?"

"Uh, yes. You know, clubs. Like, chess club, math club. Dance club." Jonouchi looked at her like she was crazy. "Am I using the wrong word for it or something?"

Chloe quickly realized that she had let her mind fall into the gutter. "Oh. Um, no. You're using the right word. Uh, I just...I just misheard you."

"Oh." He looked away, still obviously thinking that she wasn't completely right in the head. At least, that's how Chloe interpreted it.

She kept talking, both out of nervous habit and trying to cover her mistake. "Anyway, That should be easy for her to do, considering they've only got about a month left until summer break."

A spark seemed to go off in his head. "Oh, that's right. Americans arrange the year differently. So pretty much, she's getting there at the end of the year and has a really long break until the next year starts?"

"Yeah, that's about right."

Jou shook his head. "It's almost as if she did it on purpose." Suddenly, he stopped in front of a building. Chloe just about ran into him. He opened the door, muttering to himself. "Yuuge was suppose to meet us outside." Chloe glanced at the sign up on the building. It simply read Kame Game. She absently wondered what Kame meant. She followed Jou in, assuming that this was the house of the friend he mentioned. Or at least hoping so.

An old man greeted them at the counter. "Good morning, Jonouchi. And who is this with you?"

"Good morning, Oji-san. This is Andrews Chloe, Anzu's exchange." He nodded between them. "Chloe, this is Mutou Sugoroku. He owns this game shop, and is Yugi's...uh..."

"I believe the word you are looking for is grandpa, Jonouchi." Mr. Mutou gave her a smile. "You can call me Oji-san. All of Yugi's friends do. Welcome to Domino, by the way." He then turned to Jou. "Yugi will be down in a minute. Make yourself at home."

Jou nodded, and immediately went over to a shelf with stacks of trading cards. Unsure of what else to do, she followed him, looking over his shoulder. It took her a second of squinting at the cards, but then she recognized what game they were from. "Duel Monsters?"

Jou nodded, still looking at the cards. "Do you play?"

Chloe shrugged nervously. "Uh, some of the kids at my school do. I don't know a thing about how to play."

Jou laughed. "Don't worry, between me and Yuuge, you'll be a master before you leave."

"Who's going to be a master at what now?" Chloe turned around to see a rather short boy with strange multicolored hair traipse down the stairs. Seeing the girl, he immediately went up the greet her. "Oh, you must be Anzu's exchange. Chloe, right?"

"Yes. Um." Chloe cleared her head. Damn stutter. "Chloe Andrews. Nice to meet you." She put out her hand to shake.

The boy smiled at her, returning the handshake. "Yugi Motou. Nice to meet you too."

"I was just offering Chloe here the opportunity to learn Duel Monsters from the best." Jou interjected.

"You don't know how to play Duel Monsters?" Yugi seemed surprised.

Chloe shrugged. "It's not really a big thing where I'm from. Well, I've heard about tournaments and stuff in my state, but there's not really that many people who play at my school. I mean, there's a couple of people who play that I know of, but not really anyone that's close enough to bother to teach me." She shut up. She was babbling.

Yugi gave her a smile. Actually, his smile never left his face, but I did grow bigger. "Jou's right. We'll have you dueling with the best of us in no time. We can get you set up with a starter deck after school, alright?"

She shrugged nervously. "Uh, maybe?"

Jou nudged her. "Hey, maybe you'll actually pick up some more Japanese from the cards."

"Shut up. Nobody asked you." She immediately shoved her hand over her mouth. "Sorry. I didn't mean that. Force of habit."

Jou burst out laughing. "Oh, so you are different around other people. You seemed like you were. It must just be my dashing good looks."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. You...you keep on believing that, Jonouchi."

Yuugi rolled his eyes. "I apologize in advance for anything Jou says." Jou narrowed his eyes at Yuugi, but grinned wider than ever.

Chloe interrupted his before he could make his next comeback. "Come on. It would be bad for me to be late on the first day."

"It would be bad for all of us to be late of the first day." Yugi agreed, and they left.

The walk to school was uneventful, and they just barely made it on time. They had an assembly first. The principal stood at the front, welcoming everybody back and reminding them of a few rules. At least, that's what she assumed he was talking about. Though, looking around, the other students seemed to be absorbing just about as little as her, albeit by just not listening on their part. She started spacing out as well. That is, until Yugi elbowed her in the ribs. Then, she realized that the principal was saying her name and every single person was looking at her. Had she done something wrong? Wait, no. the principal was smiling at her, motioning her to come up on stage.

She gritted her teeth. She had known this was coming, and she dreaded it. She quickly walked up on stage before her nerves could get to her. Luckily, the principal didn't ask her to speak, introducing her himself. Honestly not understanding a word he was saying, She smiled meekly and stood next to him, looking out at her peers. Yugi caught her eye, and gave her a thumbs up. One of the boys in her class with black messy hair and green eyes motioned a silent wolf whistle and gave a wink. Jou smacked him the back of the head when he was sure there were not teachers watching. Chloe let a small grin creep onto her face. She could already tell that Jou was going to be one of those guy friends. The ones that are so protective and friendly, they're practically a surrogate older brother. Yuugi seemed like a good friend too. From what she could tell so far, he seemed like a pretty darn nice guy.

Suddenly, the principal caught her attention to shake her hand, then dismissed the assembly. She quickly caught up with Jou and Yuugi. Even though there was a plethora of non-black hair, Jou and Yugi were still incredibly easy to find. Spiky, multicolored hair stuck out fairly well.

Chloe opened her mouth to thank Jonouchi, but Yugi beat her to it. "If you have any concern for the size of Jou's ego, you won't thank him. That was Otogi Ryuji. He's had a grudge against for quite some time. He's probably glad you gave him an excuse to hit him."

Jou narrowed his eyes at the shorter boy. "You know what Yugi? Nobody asked you."

Yuugi rolled his eyes, and looked at Chloe. "He also learns English like a parrot. Beware what you say around him."

"Get bent."

"You see? He picked that up from our friend Ryou." While they were bickering, Chloe dug through her bag to pull out the schedule that had been mailed to her the day before. She immediately regretted it, because it didn't help me in the slightest. Not only was it written in Japanese, but all but her name was written in Kanji. Luckily, Jou noticed it and snatched it out of her hand a moment later. After scanning it, he and Yuugi began talking very fast in Japanese. Chloe didn't even attempt to follow. "Hmm...same schedule as me...Except for fifth hour English and seventh and eighth hour intensive Japanese."

Yuugi nodded. "I have fifth hour English. With Mori-sensai?"

"Yes, that's the class."

"Alright...Isn't Ryou-kun still in Intensive Japanese?"

"I don't see why he wouldn't be. You can ask him in calculus second hour, though."

"That's true."

"Um, guys?" She decided that they had forgotten that she couldn't follow the conversation. She pointed to herself. "Barely four months of Japanese. Eigo, kudasai." (3)

Joey laughed. "Well, look who found her voice?"

Chloe ignored him. "My schedule, Jonouchi? I'm I with you, or am I hopelessly lost?"

Yuugi interrupted, knowing Jou would just make another stupid comment. "You're set until after lunch. First four hours you have everything with Jou, fifth hour you have English with me, and then you have sixth lunch with Jou. After that, you have double blocked Intensive Japanese, which was what we were discussing."

"Why is Jonouchi not in our English class?"

Yugi snorted a laugh. "He didn't make it into the top class this year."

Jou glared. Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Your English sounds fine to me. You don't even have an accent I can pick up, actually."

Yugi sniggered a bit "You're from New York, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's why you can't pick up his accent. Jou learned all his English from television and duel tournaments, and thus has a destictly New York accent. He can't read or write to save his life."

Chloe laughed. Jonouchi shifted his glare to her. "You have no right to talk, Miss Intensive-Japanese-For-Two-Hours-After-Lunch."

They walked into the classroom as the bell rang, and she quickly took the last word with a quiet, "Nobody asked you, Jonouchi."

After that, the entire morning a monotonous blur. She would find an open seat somewhere near Jonouchi and or Yugi. The teacher would mispronounce Chloe's name on roll. She would correct them. They would realize who she is and make her stand up at the front of the class and introduce her to everybody. The class would stare at her. She would go and take her seat. The teacher would start the lesson. She would stare off into space for an hour because she had no idea what the hell the teacher was saying. The bell would ring. Lather, rinse, repeat.

English, on the other hand was...quite interesting. The class was probably going to be her easiest all year. She could perfectly understand what the teacher was saying, and obviously every grammar lesson was going to be child's play for her. The vocabulary list were going to be a little more challenging, simply because she would have to learn them in reverse, studying what the Japanese word was.

Being the first day, the teacher gave them a review assignment to make sure that they hadn't done a mind dump over end of term break. They were allowed to work on it in groups. Chloe paired up with Yugi. She glanced over the paper, then quietly suggested, "I'll do the conjugations if you do the translations."

"Deal." With this method, they finished the worksheet in about five minutes. "So, how has your first day been so far."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "This is the first class that I've had any idea what's going on."

Yugi sniggered. "Well, congratulations. Most of the student body would say the exact opposite."

"Oh, hoorah." Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Chloe, Seto, can you both come up here please?" Mrs. Mori called.

Chloe blinked, and walked up to the front. She wondered what she wanted with her, and what to had to do the tall brunette boy who had walked up beside her. It obviously couldn't be too bad, because Mrs. Mori was smiling warmly at her. "Chloe, I'm going to have to be blunt when I ask you this, and I expect an honest answer. How many of your classes have you understood today?"

"Counting this class? One."

She nodded. "As I thought. I've talked to your Intensive Japanese teacher, and we believe that it would be best to set you up with a tutor until you get a better grasp on the language."

The boy interrupted her. "Excuse my rudeness, Mrs. Mori, but what does any of this have to do with me?"

Mrs. Mori turned her gaze to him. "Of all the students in your class, you have the best grades overall, Seto. You're also the most fluent in English. We've decided that you're the best person to be her tutor." He opened his mouth to refuse, but Mrs. Mori beat him to it, speaking in quick Japanese that Chloe couldn't catch a word of. "I've also talked to the guidance councilor, and it seems that you are missing the extracurricular volunteer hours required for most of the university applications. She's willing to count this for those missing hours."

Seto glanced at Chloe out of the corner of his eyes. She inched away slightly. "Fine. I'll do it."

Mrs. Mori clapped her hands together. "Excellent. You'll need about 10 hours a week. I'll expect a schedule by tomorrow."

The bell rang, and everyone filed out of class. Chloe quickly grabbed her schoolbag and walked with Yugi out of the room. "What was that about?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you later." She was just about as glad as Seto to be forced into this. She didn't need help. Especially not from a rude jackass like him. She already counted Yugi and Jonouchi as friends. She was sure that at least until she became more fluent in Japanese, they could help keep her up to speed. Why did she need a tutor?

"Alright then." He nodded at the door down the hall. "That's the lunch room. I'm sure Jou is already in there somewhere. Talk to you later, Chloe."

"Thanks Yugi. See you later." She walked towards the room, trying to clear her head. She reminded herself that this was not a personal attack on her, but just the teachers trying to help. Yes. She glanced around the cafeteria and quickly spotted Jou waving to her from across the room. She rolled her eyes. As if he thought he was difficult to find without the waving. She sat down across from him at the circular table, a smile plastered on her face.

"Hey, Clo. How did English go?"

"Fine." She lied, pulling her lunch box out of her schoolbag. Or rather, bento box. She shook her head slightly, re correcting herself. It was the same thing. She opened her lunch box, and stared at it for a second before picking up one of the rice balls. "You know, I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get use to having a lunch like this every day."

Jou eyebrows came together. "What do you mean?"

She laughed, taking a small bite. "A typical packed lunch for an American kid is a sandwich, a jello cup, and a water bottle. And the school lunches are typically...well...Let me put it this way. One of my friends swears she saw her green beans move once."

"That's disgusting. Although, I can't say the school lunches are much better here either. You're lucky to be staying with someone like Mazaki san."

She eyed his school bought lunch. It was made up of browning apple slices, a bag of sugar snap peas, and a rice ball that looked as though it had been left out in the sun too long. She then looked at her own bento box. Mrs. Mazaki was certainly one of the proud homemakers who showed off through their children's lunch. She had three triangle-shaped rice balls and an assortment of fresh fruits and pickled vegetables.

She picked up one of her rice balls and offered it to him. "Here, have one. I honestly can't eat all of this."

He gave her a grin. "Thanks." He took a bite of it, and his smile grew. "Mazaki san is an amazing cook. What's the stuffing in this? Chicken?"

She shrugged. "You would know better than I do."

Suddenly, he froze, looking at something behind her. "What do you want, Kaiba?"

Chloe turned. Seto was standing behind her, sneering at Jou. "None of your business, mutt."

She glared. "Don't insult my friends." Kaiba looked surprised. Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "I do know some Japanese, Seto. I took a class." Her inflection was all off, but she was pretty sure she had used the right wrongs.

Recovering, he sneered at her now. "Good. Then I won't have to go over the basics with you."

She glared. "Was there something you wanted? Besides insulting me and my friends?"

"Yes." He held out a scrap of paper. "Come to this address at 19:00 tonight. Or rather, since America is not on a twenty four hour clock-"

"Seven PM. I got it." She snatched it and stuffed the paper in her jacket pocket. "If that's all you got to say, leave. I was having a nice lunch until you showed up and started insulting us." He snorted and indignantly strutted off. Chloe rolled her eyes, turning back to Jou. "Sorry about that."

He waved it off. "It's Kaiba. I'm use to it." He took another bite of the rice ball. "So, what was that about?"

Chloe sighed. "My Intensive Japanese teacher decided it would be best for me to have a tutor until I can catch up language-wise. She got together with the guidance councilor to choose one, and guess who got the highest overall grades on his finals last year?"

He whistled. "How'd they get him to do it?"

"Volunteer hours." Someone behind her spoke. She turned to see a boy with the whitest hair she had ever seen sit down on her left side between her and Jou. "Being a big fancy CEO and all, he probably blew his off."

Jou looked up at the ceiling. "Of course. Tutoring counts as volunteering."

The boy nodded, and then turned to her, stick out a hand to shake. "Ryou Bakura. Pleasure to meet you."

She gripped his hand. "Chloe An...Erm...Andrews Chloe. Yeah." She decided she should at least try and assimilate.

The boy laughed. "English order is fine. It's the order I gave mine in, by the way." He quickly clarified. "You're Anzu's exchange, I assume?"

She blinked, correcting his name in her head. "You assume correctly."

He grinned. "Welcome to Domino."

"Ryou transferred here last year." Jou interjected.

"Oh really?" That would be why he was use to English names. Realizing she had heard it before, she considered his accent. "Um, this is going to sound really rude, but you wouldn't happen to be from London, would you?"

"Why yes, I am. How did you guess?"

She smiled. "Years of watching Dr. Who reruns."

He rolled his eyes but grinned. "Of course. What other accent would the great British Broadcasting Network possibly allow to grace its air time?"

"And where else would a yank such as myself come to know about British culture other than BBC?"

Ryou laughed, and started pulling things out of his lunch "Unfortunately, there isn't a television station to prepare you for culture and language over here."

"You're telling me."

He grinned. "How much language did they give you before you left?"

"A semester."

"Oi. I feel for you. I got a crash course and a 'Learn Japanese in Your Sleep' CD."

"The one with the annoying stereotypical super-chibi anime characters on the cover?"

"Oh, they gave you the same one?" He grinned. "Any success with that?"

"I haven't been able use it. Headphones fall out of my ears, and it keeps my brother up if I use a speaker."

He laughed. "You're not missing out on much. I haven't had a smidgeon of success with it." he sighed. "You've got double blocked JSL after this?"

"JSL?"

Ryou shook his head slightly. "Oh, excuse me. Japanese as a Second Language. You know, like ESL courses? It's what I like to call Intensive Japanese to make it seem less...well, intensive."

"Oh. According to Jou, I do." She nodded in the blonde's direction. She pulled it deeply creased piece of paper out of the front pocket of her bag. "The administration decided to be smart asses and print up my schedule in Kanji."

"Brilliant." He rolled his eyes, and glanced at it. "You do. I figured you did. There's only one Intensive class in the entire school, and that would be the our double blocked class of two this afternoon." He grinned.

"Oh good." She smiled back at him. She wasn't sure whether she was relieved to have someone else in the class or not. He had already been through this, but she wasn't exactly sure she wanted someone else in the class to hear her atrocious Japanese. But then again. He had already been through it...She decided to put it out of her mind, thinking of something else. "Speaking of smart asses how do you two know Seto?"

Jou snorted a laugh. Ryou rolled his eyes. Then they answered at the same time, "Duel tournaments."

She rolled her eyes and took a bite of an apple slice before asking her next question. "Is Duel Monsters really this big of the thing here, or did I just happen to get lucky with you people?"

Jou grinned. "You got lucky to have us, but it is that big of a thing."

Ryou shook his head. "To them it's that big of a thing. It's not nearly as popular as this lot will make it out to be. I personally don't enjoy the game that much."

He glanced around nervously and sat a fraction stiffer, as if he had said something wrong. He unconsciously started fidgeting with one of the dangly bits of the pendent around his neck. Jou was laughing too hard to notice, but Chloe gave him a look of concern. He just shook his head slightly, smiling a little bit to reassure her. They sat in awkward silence for a minute.

"So, Bakura. Did you bring your deck? Yugi and I were going to teach Chloe how to play after school, but since she has a date with Kaiba..."

"I find it sad that I know what you just said from one day of knowing you and understanding maybe six words."

"Yeah that's pretty much how you pick up the language." Ryou laughed. Then realizing his lunch was sitting unopened in front of him dug into whatever the noodle dish was that he had.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I couldn't come anyway. I have a job interview. And before you ask, I have the headmaster's written permission. I'm paying for my own tuition and uniform fees."

Ryou swallowed the noodles he had been chewing. "Where at?"

"Some big shot downtown put a want ad out for a secretary. I figured that as long as I learned some basic phrases it's really all just organization from there."

"Do you remember the name of the company?" Jou interjected.

"Not off the top of my head. I clipped the ad and left it on the desk in my room back at the Mazakis' house."

"Oh." Jou took another bite of the rice ball.

There was a pause, and then Ryou said, "Well, good luck regardless. The nature of the job might even help you with the language stuff."

"Eh, Jonouchi, Ryou! Long time no see! How was break?" Another boy joined the group, sitting in the only remaining seat, to her right. Chloe's eyes were immediately drawn to his hair, which was cut in classic Marine style and seemed to have been gelled to a point on the top. She wondered whether, like Duel Monsters, she had just gotten lucky, or whether Japanese teenage boys really did have hair like in anime. While she was wondering this though, she unconsciously scooted an inch or two away from him, towards Ryou. He leaned forward on his hands towards her, and she leaned an equal distance away from him. "And who is this lovely young lady?"

"Honda, put your eyeballs back in your skull, and get out of her personal space ." Jonouchi pulled his friend back by his collar, rolling his eyes. He gave Chloe an apologetic look. "Please excuse Honda. He has a problem."

"I do not have a problem. Certainly less of a problem than you. At least I'm not in love with Mai Kujaku." The boy sneered back at Jou. Then, ignoring Jou's fuming expression, he turned back to her, a wide grin on his face. "Hiroto Honda, at your service." He stuck his hand out to shake. "And judging from the fact that we're speaking in English, you must be Anzu's exchange, yes?"

She shook his hand. "C-Andrews Chloe." She was getting more use to saying her name in that order by the moment. "Uh, and yes. I'm staying with the Mazakis."

"That's a weird name." He said, not thinking. Chloe raised an eyebrow. Wasn't entirely sure whether he was referring to her name or he Mazakis' name. It was probably safe to assume he meant hers. But regardless, she thought to herself how he was one to talk. His name was a car.

Jou scoffed. "You sure know how to compliment the ladies, huh Honda? Well, at least I know with your flirting skills, your weird crush on my sister will never be reciprocated."

"Shut up Jonouchi." Honda glared. "Shizuka isn't that much younger than us."

"She's thirteen. She's not even in high school yet, you pedophile!"

Ryou raised an eyebrow, and looked at Chloe. "More importantly, did Jonouchi just use a word with more than three syllables? Twice?"

Chloe decided to play along. "I think one of them might have had five."

"It's absolutely astounding, it is."

"I concur."

Jou mock glared at her. "Nobody asked you. It's more than you could manage in Japanese, anyway."

Chloe pointed a chiding finger at him. "First off, nobody asked you about my Japanese skills." She paused, glancing down watching as he reached for one of her carrot sticks. She snatched the box away from him. "And secondly, no food for you if you're going to go around steal my catchphrases."

Jou was visibly shocked. Ryou and Honda cracked up. Honda clapped her shoulder lightly. "It's official. She makes an acceptable substitute for Anzu." She leaned away from him again, glancing from his hand to him and back. He seemed confused for a second, then withdrew his hand. "Oh, right. Personal space. Sorry."

"See, I told you he has a problem."

Chloe rolled her eyes, and spent the rest of lunch in silence. Honda wasn't a half bad guy, even if his hair unnerved her a bit. She couldn't exactly help that, though. She started rubbing her arm, before shaking her head and pulling herself out of those thoughts. She was a decade and half a world away. She didn't need to be thinking about her former step dad. She turned her attention back to the conversation.

The boys had lapsed back into Japanese for ease of conversation, and she honestly didn't know what was going on. Jou had tried to switch back to include her in the conversation, but she just waved him off and the boys prattled on. Not that she didn't appreciate his efforts. It was nice to sit at a table with people that talked to her. Actually, it was nice to sit at a table where people talked at all. It was certainly a change from her normal school life. She sighed internally at the thought. Last year, he mom had gotten remarried again, and she had transferred to a new high school. Her grades and credits had put her a year ahead, instantly labeling her into geekdom. She ended up sitting alone at lunch reading, mostly out of her own choice.

Within a few weeks of the school year, all of her fellow lunch-readers seemed to have migrated together to one table, as the more social kids needed the space. She honestly never learned their names, identifying them only by their features and the books that the read. There was the boy with brown hair and glasses who read science fiction. There was the tall redheaded girl who read romance novels. There was boy with long dirty blonde hair that read nonfiction books about science. There was the tiny brunette girl who looked like a pixie and read manga and occationally drew in a large sketchbook. Then there was herself, the gangly blonde who read all of the above plus the classics. Occasionally they would talk to trade books. Nonfiction Boy was in her math class, so sometimes she would ask him a question about the homework. But that was the extent of her social interaction all year.

She glanced at the three boys still chattering away. Yes. Having friends that talked was a very good thing.

(1) Sumimasen: I'm sorry; She failed at remembering the word. If you can't figure that out, she was trying to apologize for being a klutz.

(2) Ittekimasu: Goodbye (literally: I'm going out but I'll be back later.)

(3) Eigo, kudasai: English, please.

And yes, I gave Jou a Brooklyn accent. Shut up.

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