"Kaiba, Seto."

"Here."

Serenity Wheeler stiffened, hearing Seto Kaiba's name being called for attendance. Briefly, she wondered if that annoying feeling lurking at the back of her mind was his glance, but shook it off. Why would Seto pay any attention to her? He was much, much too good-looking for that, and she was far from looks like his.

Carefully, trying not to attract any attention, she continued to dial numbers into her cell phone. She was sending a test to her best friend Tea Gardner, who was away on a school trip. Serenity couldn't help but think to herself how lucky Tea was to be away… or how unlucky it was that she was, for now she was stuck without a partner for the class.

Fortunately, Mai and Yugi were still here, and 3 out of 4 wasn't half bad. Even if Yugi sounded like his throat was made of sandpaper.

"Wheeler, Serenity."

Serenity jumped with a start, just as she pressed the send button. Fortunately, the teacher didn't seem to notice this fumble. "H-here," she stuttered, kicking her cell phone underneath the chair. She hoped no one had seen, but she was sure no one would tell if they had. Everyone knew Dramatic Arts was the best time to goof off, since most of the time the teacher never called them on that sort of behaviour.

Depositing the guilty object in her backpack and zipping it closed, Serenity looked up. Straight into the gaze of Seto Kaiba. For a few seconds, they glanced at each other. Then she looked away, face burning with a blush.

That was just the beginning. For the rest of the class, Serenity had that nagging feeling she was being watched. Gazing up out of the corner of her eye, she would catch Seto watching her. Other times, she would just barely miss it, or he'd realize she'd caught on and look away before she could catch him in the act.

Perhaps it was an illusion of the mind. Maybe her hair was messed up, or she had something stuck in her teeth. A quick glance in a mirror revealed nothing wrong, except maybe a miniscule pimple. She dismissed it quickly, surely that was not the reason Seto Kaiba kept looking at her. He couldn't have noticed something so small, not from that far away. She was her own worst critic, and was probably the only one who noticed.

'Maybe this is what it is like when someone likes you,' Serenity mused, staring down at her lap. Mai was attempting to get Yugi to choke down some cough medicine to no avail.

"Hey Mai, didn't Tea say somebody liked me?" Serenity asked quizzically, turning her head to face Mai so she wouldn't have to look at Seto.

"Uh, yeah, Mokuba Kaiba, I think it was." Mai said, her tongue sticking out between her teeth as she attempted to force Yugi to drink the medicine. Sighing, she gave up, tossing the sticky liquid onto the carpet (where it would most likely leave a permanent stain), and throwing the bottle back into her bag.

"Oh…" Serenity said aloud, staring back down at her shoes. His brother, of course… Now she remembered everything. Everything Tea said about Mokuba's practical obsession with her, yet they'd never spoken. Sometimes, it was like that in high school. The fact that he was a few grades below didn't much help things…

"Something the matter?" Mai asked, pulling a nail file out of her bag and proceeding to round the rough edges of her nails.

"It's nothing…" Serenity said, glancing up at the pair with a smile on her face. "Just a thought flickering through my mind."

The smile didn't quite reach her eyes, but neither Mai nor Yugi seemed to notice.

It was typical, of course. Luck never quite seemed to come her way, after all. Even if she hadn't imagined those looks, it wasn't meant to be. It couldn't. Seto would choose his brother over her, just like, if it came down to it, she would choose Joey over him. They weren't even in love. A few glances across a classroom did not a lover make.

Even so, she bitterly resented the fact that things had to be this way. She looked up. He was glancing at her again. This time, she managed to hold his gaze until he looked away. She smiled, this time it reached her eyes. Glances may not a lover make, but he was giving far too many for there to not be some sort of feeling behind it. And who was she to complain? Those feelings, whatever they were, made her happy. She wasn't cut out for fake smiles anyhow.