Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Half Full or Half Empty? ❯ A New Arrival ( Chapter 1 )

Half full or half empty?

"A-ahem." My geography teacher cleared her throat and sat down behind her desk, shuffling a couple of sheets of paper. It's the fifth day of the beginning of a new school year on a wet, rainy February afternoon here in Domino, Japan. Geography is my best subject, but having it last period on a depressing day such as today makes it a drag. Luckily we only had five minutes to go.

"Did you do your homework, Jou?" Yugi asked, taking out his geography folder.

"We had homework?" he asked, slouching down on his desk. I just rolled my eyes. Jou forgets everything.

"Class, I would like to announce some important news. We have an exchange student planning on coming to Domino College, as soon as he finds a homestay family. Right now we haven't found one and we need you, to take it into consideration. Would anybody like to consider homestaying the student?"

"What about you, Shika?" Honda asked me, running a hand through his spiked brunette hair.

"Me? No way!"

"Why not? Nobody else is volunteering… besides you've got that spare room on the second floor of your house that Rai used to live in." he replied.

"You've got a point… I'm sure Mom wouldn't mind…" I flung my hand up in the air and practically every student in my class stared at me. But I didn't mind. The teacher came and handed me an information sheet.

"Please let the principal know if your parents agree to take the student in, Shika. I'm sure he will be thankful."

"What does it say Shika?" Anzu asked as she peered over my shoulder from her desk behind me. I read over the sheet carefully. The student's name is Ryou Renjiro Bakura; he's 16 years old, turning 17 on September the 2nd; he comes from a town in England called Manchester; his interests are reading, practical science, art or drawing, playing Duel Monsters and traveling; and the least things he likes doing are… homework, maths, sports and having to wake up early for school. He's paying $10,000 just to live here?! Woah!!

"He doesn't like sport?! How can somebody not like sport?!" Jou cried aloud.

Malik rolled his eyes. "Everybody has different interests, you moron."

The bell rang, time to go home. I gathered up my things and headed to my locker with my friends, Yugi, Anzu, Jou, Honda and Malik.

"Eh I'm heading to the sushi bar to grab a bite to eat, wanna come with?" Jou asked, slamming his locker door shut.

"I'm starved." Honda replied.

"I might as well go too. Flag cooking tonight." Malik agreed.

"You guys?" Jou asked, referring to Yugi, Anzu and myself.

"No thanks, Jou. I gotta get home and ask mom about this student from the U.K." I said, swiveling on my heel and heading for the exit.

"Wait up, Shika! I'll walk home with you." Anzu said, taking off after me.

"Yeah, me too Shika!" I heard Yugi coming up behind me.

"I wonder if he's cute." Anzu asked me after about five minutes of silence.

I shrugged. "Probably not, knowing my luck."

Anzu giggled at my remark. "Well, here's my street. I'll see you tomorrow at school, guys!"

"Bye, Anzu!" Yugi said.

"Later, Anzu."

After saying goodbye to Yugi at the game shop, I made my way to my own home and put my bag down in the kitchen. My mom was sitting at the table reading the newspaper and having a cup of coffee. To my surprise, my brother Rai was sitting with her. He must have come over for a visit.

"Hey Shika. How's my baby sis?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Fine. What are you doing here?"

"Just came over to pay our beautiful mom a visit." He said in his usual, cocky accent. He had been over to America for a year as a scholar and picked it up. It gave me shivers whenever he visited now. Rai hadn't been the same since, well, to me anyway.

"Mom, I need to talk to you about something." I said, sitting myself down next to my mother and fishing around in my pocket for the notice on Ryou.

"Yes, what is it, Shika?"

"Well, you see there's this transfer student coming to school soon, and he needs a homestay family. He's staying for a year, and paying the school three thousand dollars to educate him, and his homestay family seven thousand dollars to have him. Do you think we could have him stay in Rai's old room?"

My mother raised an eyebrow at me; one of those ones that said `you gotta be kidding, right?'

"Pleeeeeeeeeease? He'll have nowhere to go if we don't take him in! Think about it, Mom, seven thousand dollars?!"

"Well, I suppose we could do with the money… and one extra mouth to feed shouldn't be that impossible…"

I stared up at her with false tears in my eyes, sparkling with hope. The look gets her every time. "OH ALRIGHT!" she cried.

"YES!! I LOVE YOU MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!" I squealed and jumped up and hugged her. Almost straight away, I bolted up to the second floor and started arranging things for Ryou. I made Rai help me too; he brought up our old TV from the basement and plugged it in and he even helped me move the bed back into the corner. I dusted and cleaned the windows and emptied out the wardrobe which contained all my childhood soft-toys. Finally, mom helped me put clean sheets and blankets on the bed and fluff the pillows, and we were done.

The following day, I met up with Jou and dragged him along to the principal's office with me to confirm that I would be taking in Ryou as my homestay student.

"Excellent! I'll give him a call right away..." The principal picked up the phone and let it ring for a while until someone on the other end picked up. Jou and I tried our best not to be rude by listening to the conversation, but we couldn't help it. The principal finally hung up and a smile cast across his face, making his fat little red cheeks look like cherries that were about to explode.

"Ryou thanks you and your family kindly, Shika. He will be arriving at your place tomorrow evening at about six. You will report here on the following school day so he can choose his subjects." With that said, the principal shooed us out of his office and closed the door.

"So… he's coming tomorrow night, huh?" Honda asked at lunchtime.

"Sure is." I replied, finishing off the last of my chicken teriyaki dish.

"I can't wait to meet him! And you're going to be walking to school with him!" Anzu shrieked. "Lucky girl!"

"Anzu, he might be butt ugly." I replied.

There was silence. "But if he's hot then I got first dibs on him!" Anzu cried with her infamous giggle.

*anime fall*

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By five o'clock the next day, the nerves were finally kicking in. I couldn't stop glancing at the clock and wondering if what I had done was really right. I had nothing to do, since everything had been organized days in advance prior to Ryou's arrival from Britain.

What's this Ryou guy gonna look like? I wish he had sent a photo… I kept thinking. Just as I had finally found something to calm my nerves (deciding to help Mom in the kitchen with dinner), the doorbell rang. I nearly jumped out of my skin - Ryou was here - early!!

Scrambling over to the door, trying my hardest not to hyperventilate, I opened the door as calmly as humanly possible…

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Bad cliffy I know!!! ^_^ review for the next chappie!