DAY ZERO

"And that's when I punched him right in the face!" Joey triumphantly exclaimed. He was perched on his desk, adamantly telling Tristan about some squabble he had been in a while back.

"Do any of your stories NOT end with "and then I punched him"?" Tristan asked, looking rather skeptical.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Joey replied. "What's a story if it ain't got a whole lot of violence?"

"Quiet, mutt. Some of us are trying to concentrate," Kaiba's voice invaded Joey's story time.

"Concentrate on what? Whatcha reading? A romance novel?" Joey pointed at the book that Kaiba held in his hands.

"I sure would like to know when our study material suddenly became a romance novel," Kaiba replied, not looking up from his book.

"Ohhh, you think you're so smart," Joey slid partway off his desk, ready to clobber Kaiba should the need arise.

"Indeed," Kaiba replied.

Joey kept on. "Guess someone as boring as you doesn't have anything better to do."

Kaiba looked up from his book. "Not all of us can spend our spare time shooting our mouths off about our stray dogfights."

"You wanna try sayin' that again?" Joey gritted his teeth and slid all the way off his desk.

"No. I know when to keep my mouth shut, unlike certain people that are below me," Kaiba informed him.

Joey approached Kaiba and sat up on his desk, disturbing his papers and interrupting his reading. "Care to explain what you mean by that?"

Kaiba glared up at him. "Your mouth is constantly running, Wheeler. If your very existence wasn't a waste of my time, I might consider purchasing you a muzzle to stop your incessant jabbering."

Joey loomed over Kaiba best he could. "WHAT?!" he yelled at him.

"Down, mutt," Kaiba replied, no waiver in his expression. "Its impossible to get anything done with such a racket." He turned back to his book.

Joey hopped off Kaiba's desk, making sure to knock at least a few of his belongings onto the floor.

"You do talk a lot, Joey," Tea interjected into the conversation from a few desks away where she was playing duel monsters with Yugi.

"What?!" Joey yelled, infuriated. "You're takin' his side, Tea?"

Tea simply shrugged.

Tristan sat back down in his own desk. "You'd never be able to give anyone the silent treatment, that's for sure. Our first grade class used to get in trouble for being rowdy in the library, but really Joey was just being loud most of the time," Tristan pointed out.

Joey perched on his desk with a huff. "Thanks for all the support, you guys," he said sarcastically. "And I could keep quiet if I wanted to. But who would?"

"Don't fool yourself, Wheeler. You couldn't keep your mouth shut for an entire hour," Kaiba said.

Joey stuck his nose in the air. "Course I could. For a whole day if I had to."

Kaiba didn't look up from his book. "I highly doubt it," he replied.

Joey slammed his palms on Kaiba's desk, knocking off what was left of the boy's schoolwork. "I'll do it for a WEEK," he shouted.

Kaiba lowered his book. "Very funny, Wheeler. If you could conceivably stay silent for a week, I would permit you to be as loud as you wanted at any time." There was nothing on the planet that could keep Joey silent for an entire week. But oh, that would be the best week ever.

"AND you would pay me five hundred bucks, and let me have free reign on your house for a whole week," Joey demanded. A mansion for a week? How sweet would that be?

"Whatever you say, Wheeler." Kaiba replied, going back to his book. "You can begin Monday when school starts." Shoot, Kaiba probably would have agreed to any of Joey's terms, seeing as how in his mind, he didn't have a shred of confidence that Joey could stay silent for an entire week.