I Dare You
Chapter 8: Assumptions of the Mutt
Disclaimer: I own a blue fluffy bunny, a bunch of t-shirts, and some ugly drawings but no Yuugiou.
I have to admit it…I earned more than what I bargained for…Seriously, I thought I would never reach shoulder-length of 40, but you guys come here and prove me wrong… You guys are the best! I mean it… I'm totally grateful I have such great readers… If it weren't for you, I would've lost heart in continuing this… Well pushing dramatic moments here, I give you the 8th chapter! But don't expect something great because knowing myself; I never come up with anything good… Writer's block is completely chewing my brain off…
…
Joey's tongue seemed to be cut off at the sight of Tea coming out of the limousine. Kaiba's limo. As in Seto Kaiba equals to arrogant jerk with an enormously bloated ego the size of Jupiter. Yes, that Kaiba.
After Tea's departure, lo and behold, said jerk came after her.
Joey's mouth remained agape.
"You know, Wheeler. Flies might enter your mouth if you keep it like that."
With Seto's remark, Joey finally regained consciousness and closed his hanging mouth and glared at the said CEO. "I know that. I don't need any lame advice from you."
"Yeah, like I believed that." Seto shrugged unceremoniously and headed to the main school door.
When he was out of earshot, Joey rolled his eyes, "Yeah, like I believed that." He mimicked in annoyance. Then he turned his gaze to the brunette beside him.
"Joey, Yugi, Tristan—what are you doing here?" Tea stuttered.
"Err…Waiting for you." Joey thought of an excuse and mumbled it quickly, kicking the can that slipped from his hand awhile ago out of Tea's notice.
"Really—but what is that?" She pointed to the can of spray paint Tristan was still holding.
"Oh, this? This is nothing!" Tristan swiftly hid the can behind his back. Yugi sighed softly.
"If that's so, then let's go! We wouldn't like to be late, would we?" Tea declared as she started to skip towards the door.
But a hand grabbed her wrist from behind. "Wait a minute."
"Yes?" She looked back to see Joey, still having a tight grip on her wrist.
"I want you to answer a few questions." He said, his facial expression more serious than usual.
"Uhh…sure." Tea answered unworried.
"What are you doing in Kaiba's limo?" Joey asked sternly, as he released her wrist.
"Uhh…Kaiba picked me up at my house…as a…uhh…form of thanks…Right! He picked me up at my house so he could repay me for helping him escape the media yesterday!" Tea replied nervously.
"Since when does Kaiba pick you up?" Tristan asked with a quizzical expression on his face.
"Ehh…He just picked me up this morning." Tea said in response, hoping they would stop questioning her once and for all.
"Oh, really?" Joey's eyebrow arched up in amusement.
Well, she was wrong.
"Let's just drop the whole subject, shall we?" Yugi tried to convince both of his friends, noticing Tea's anxiety over riding-Seto's-limo-issue.
"Fine. Yugi's right. This would just turn up nothing, wouldn't it?" Joey smirked, averting his glance to Tea's tensed form. "Why, did I say something wrong?"
"No, nothing."
"Anyway, we saw the whole making-out in the janitor's closet issue broadcasted on the news last night." Joey began.
Tea felt a lump in her throat.
"But don't worry, Tea. I don't believe what those stupid reporters say. We know you would never do something like that." Joey continued as he patted her back reassuringly. Tea breathed a sigh of relief. Then Joey snickered. "Frankly speaking, that janitor's closet incident is insanely twaddle. But I would actually believe you were making out with Kaiba if I knew you were staying at his mansion last night."
Tea gulped.
"So were you?" He asked excitedly.
"Ahh…Ehh…Of course not! Why would I?" Tea countered shakily.
"Thought so. But the guys and I tried to call you last night at your house but there was no answer." Joey pressed the topic further.
"I told you I was sick."
"Yeah, I knew that. But isn't the phone just beside your bed?" Joey questioned suspiciously.
"Well, I was really sick and I couldn't even lift a finger. So answering the phone was a really difficult task." Tea reasoned, wishing she could keep up.
"Then why are you here?" Tristan asked. "You should still be in bed!" He warned her.
"Ahh…no. I'm feeling fine now. Don't worry about me." Tea smiled.
"That fast?" Joey asked in a hesitant tone. Somehow, he didn't believe any of Tea's excuses. There was no way he was buying her alibis. The way she answered his questions weren't convincing enough. And the things he heard last night at Tea's house—they were solid evidence. She was definitely hiding something.
Then the school bell rang.
"We better get going!" Tea scrambled to the hallways, apparently eager to escape Joey's interrogation.
"Is it me or is Tea acting a little bit strange today?" Yugi blinked.
'Oh, Yugi. It's not just you…It's not just you…' Joey thought with a flash of doubt in his eyes.
It certainly wasn't in Joey Wheeler's typical nature to be observing things carefully. But at the present moment, this was the right time to master those skills. During class, he had been monitoring both Seto and Tea's actions as keenly as possible. For now, he was watching the teenage multi-millionaire as he slouched on his seat, inattentive to the teacher's lecture since he practically knew it already, anyway. He seemed to be jotting down some notes, which basically had nothing to do with the subject matter since their teacher didn't require them to take down bits of his irrelevant sermon.
So far, Tea was chatting in whispers with Yugi, Tristan and—
"Joey! Are you even listening to me?" Tea whispered harshly.
"Ahh…Shut up! I'm hearing today's lesson!" He whispered back.
"How odd of you." Tea sighed and turned back to the other two.
Well, Tea seemed to be acting pretty normal as always. But no, he knew there was something going on between his female friend and that conceited bastard. And he was going to figure it out no matter what it took him.
It was recess time. Yes, Joey's third favorite subject next to lunch and dismissal. How heavenly.
However, instead of spending his time on bets whether he could finish ten cups of rice in five minutes, he continued on studying both Tea and Seto.
Speaking of those two, where are they? Oh, yes. There they are. Seto was sitting quietly on the table farthest from civilization, typing on his trusted laptop. Tea, on the other hand, was still stuck in line, grumbling about the school cafeteria's queue system and how it sucked.
Joey sighed to himself. Well nothing was happening yet.
Eventually, Tea got what she ordered and made her way towards the table. As she was approaching however, she accidentally bumped onto someone.
"Ahh! Sorry!" She sputtered, not looking to the one she bumped.
"Grrr…" The person muttered under his breath, which made Tea turn her head up and see the victim of her carelessness. It was a he with a very tall structure that towered over her meek form. Tea suddenly felt a rise in temperature as a visible blush ran up her cheeks.
"Hmph. Watch where you're going, Gardner." Seto recklessly dusted off his uniform.
"Kaiba, I'm so sorry!" Tea apologized.
From the distance, a certain blonde was watching with utter fascination. Things were getting interesting. Now he was absolutely sure that something mysterious had occurred last night. If not, then why did Tea act awkwardly when she came in contact with Kaiba? It wasn't like her hobby was blushing madly whenever she saw him, right?
Joey smirked to himself. The perfect title of this would be, 'I Know What You Did Last Summer…err…Night'.
Tea finally arrived to their table with a bothered look painted on her face.
"Are you alright? That darn bastard should be the one held responsible for you losing your food!" Tristan proclaimed.
"Ehh…I'm okay. Nothing serious."
"Do you want anything to eat? I could give you my snacks. I haven't touched them yet." Yugi offered her a bag of chips.
"Thanks." Tea replied as Yugi handed his snack to her.
"We are going to have a new seating arrangement. I am going to assign you your respective seats and I don't want to hear any complaints. Is that clear?" The mid-40's teacher lifted her eyeglasses that kept on slipping down her nose.
"Yes, Ms. Kawasaki."
"Good. Now I'm going to separate the four of you as I have observed that you are not paying attention during my class." She pointed to Yugi's gang.
"I guess this is goodbye…" Tristan whispered wistfully.
"Oh come on, it's only for this class…" Tea answered.
"Silence!" The teacher screeched.
"Now, Ms. Gardner, I want you to take the empty seat behind Mr. Kaiba."
Tea stiffened. Seto looked up with an expression of protest.
"B-But Ms. Kawasaki, I think Kaiba wouldn't like me to sit behind him." Tea reasoned.
"I do not need your opinion!" She growled menacingly. "And since when did you care of what Mr. Kaiba would think?" She raised an eyebrow and then gasped almost immediately. "Oh, I almost forgot." She put her hand over her mouth in pretend shock. "I have watched that news last night. It's about the—what was that again? Oh, that's right! About you and Mr. Kaiba doing underage things in the janitor's closet!" She declared with her finger pointed at the two in allegation.
And this was the time Seto stood up. "Ms. Kawasaki, I think it is very inappropriate of you to be discussing such extraneous things inside the classroom. For goodness sake, you should not be teaching teenagers all sorts of lies and gossips that you have picked up on the street! Moreover, you have no right to mingle in other people's personal lives—or perhaps I think you are just in distraught insecurity that you are still unmarried due to your unattractiveness."
"Why, you brat!" She screamed at him.
Seto grinned in his calm manner and looked at the whole class. "Well, isn't it true?"
For the first time in his life, Joey just had to agree with him. The witch had to be taught a lesson—and there was a no better teacher than Seto Kaiba. The entire class nodded and jeered at the teacher who had no other option but to storm out of the classroom in defeat. After the teacher left, the class cheered for their victory.
Tea blinked, surprised. "Thank you."
"No need to thank me. She got what she deserved." Seto answered, not looking back.
It was now lunch time. Their teacher who had furiously stomped out of their classroom awhile ago was actually the one who held the last period before lunch break. Since she had walked out, another teacher entered their room and announced that Ms. Kawasaki had written her resignation paper—which was good news—and dismissed them for lunch quite early.
Tea chose to get her books earlier than usual than risk her punctual record with her being drowned in the ocean of students rampaging the hall for their books later.
She fumbled for her keys and gradually obtained them. She was about to unlock the bolt when she saw a small piece of paper slipped neatly on her locker door. She took it gently and unfolded it, revealing a short message.
Gardner,
I want you to meet me at the school gym after dismissal time at exactly 4:30 pm sharp.
Kaiba
Her heart leapt to her throat. She stared at the name at the bottom of the letter. She only knew of one Kaiba that existed in the school campus. And it was Seto Kaiba.
A sweat rolled down from her forehead. She bit her lip. What could he possibly want with her? What did she do now? All these questions floated in her thoroughly confused mind.
She clutched the paper strongly until it wrinkled. No one should ever know about this. Not even her friends. Her friends—what would they think of her? She could already imagine…
Imagination:
"Tea, how could you?" Yugi asked in a sorrowful tone as he sobbed while kneeling down in front of her, burying his head in her lap as tears continued to flow from his glimmering amethyst eyes.
"B-But it's not what you think it is!" Tea stammered in a persuasive pitch, explaining to her defense as she stroked his back tenderly.
"No." Yugi swatted her hand away. "You don't need to elucidate. I've heard enough." He slowly stood up from his hunched position and looked down at Tea disappointedly as she sat on the floor, with eyes pleading that he hear her side of the story.
Then another voice joined in the conversation taking place.
"I'm saddened with you. It's not you at all. I mean, Seto Kaiba? Have you no shame with your dignity? How could you stoop as low as that? Selling your soul to the devil?" Joey looked down at her disapprovingly.
"I did-didn't do anything wr-wrong!" Tea faltered. "Please let me explain!" She begged with watery eyes, tears threatening to fall as she tugged on Joey's shirt. But he frowned as anger surged through his taupe eyes at the person below him. He kicked Tea away who still yanked at his shirt with all her might.
"Let go of me!" Joey hollered as he removed Tea's fingers as it dug deeply through his shirt.
"He said let go, so get off of him!" Another familiar voice stated.
"Tristan! Please tell them! I didn't do anything!" Tea beseeched.
"Hah! Do you think I'll defend someone who humiliated her own pride? Someone who never even trusted her friends?" Tristan questioned strikingly.
"You know I'm innocent!" She screamed. He only raised an eyebrow in mockery.
"Yeah, right." The three of them looked down at her in abhorrence. "How could we trust you if you don't even trust us?" Their voices said in unison. Then they gave her one last look of antipathy and repugnance before walking away, leaving her sitting on the ground helpless, with eyes sore from crying.
End of Imagination
All of a sudden, her friends just popped out of nowhere and almost scared her out of her wits. She screamed as she hung onto her locker in fear.
"Tea!" Yugi called out to the terrified girl.
"Ahh…Yeah, Yugi!" Tea burbled out.
"You kinda look spaced out. Is there anything wrong?" Yugi asked worriedly.
"No…I'm perfectly fine." Tea held out her hands. "Really."
"Hey, Tea, what is that you're holding?" Joey pointed to the note she was clasping, with a curious expression on his face.
"This? This is just some random doodle I did awhile ago…" Tea quickly put the note in her pocket.
"Err…Okay. If you say so…"
She paced around back and forth in the deserted corridor as she frantically bit her fingernails. Her heart raced in loud thumps signaling the panic that slowly built up inside of her. She hastily wiped the sweat that accumulated her forehead. She took a glance on her watch. It was 4:27. It was almost time.
She strolled cautiously to the quiet gymnasium, taking small and wary steps as she held her breath. She slid the double doors open, anticipating for her guest to show up. No one was there. She walked vigilantly into the isolated gym, the cemented floor echoing with every step. It was dark, and the only light the brightened the desolate place was the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the minute windows.
"Hello? Anybody there?" She shouted as her voice ricocheted in the colossal structure.
Her heart skipped a beat as a loud, booming sound vibrated from behind her. She quickly spun around to see that the gym's double doors were shut. She dashed to it and pounded her fists on the closed door. She tried prying the doors open but they wouldn't budge—she kicked them, punched them using all her strength but not even a diminutive dent was formed with all the force she exerted. She was trapped with no way to escape.
"Kaiba! I know you're there!" Tea screamed with her voice shivering. "It's not funny! This isn't funny anymore!" She shrieked as a cold breeze of the wind crawled up her spine, sending tingling waves down her body.
"Hm."
"Who was that?" Tea's eyes searched the dim-lit gym, desperate to finish this already. She turned her back and saw a dark silhouette leaning against the doorframe with a smirk coated on its unidentified features.
"I knew you would come here."
Tea's eyes widened as she slowly recognized who owned its voice. It wasn't whom she expected.
"I've been expecting you."
…
Cliffhanger! LOL. Well not much of a story, here. And it's not funny, either. Heh. I noticed I gave Joey a little bit of a role here…Hehehe…I'm also a devotionshipper but don't get me wrong, I'm still an azureshipper! And I promise this will be Seto and Anzu through and through!
Anyway, thanks for everyone who reviewed and added this fic to their faves. You know who you are! –gives away Seto plushies-
Please review!