Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Love Conquers All ❯ Mai's past ( Chapter 3 )

LusciousDragon: Sorry I didn't work on this fic for like FOREVER, but, I have been busy with school and stuff…

Thanks to

hieisangel

me

JoeysGal

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-gi-oh, or…much else for that matter, but I do own this story, so don't steal it…

I think I got this fic sorted out, and while all the suggestions were great, I don't think they would work with were the stories going….feel free to use them in your own stories…..but if I do need help, I'll ask….

My title for this fic is awful…if you can come up with a better one…let me know….

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Mai's Past *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Yea, so I saw you and some younger guy at the disgusting little hamburger joint, I think it's called `Sam's' what were you doing there?"

Mai gasped in shock as one of her friends, Monica, said this.

`Oh no!' Mai thought frantically. `My friends can't figure out that I went on a date with Joey Wheeler; one of the boys they unanimously decided should never even come within 6 feet of a girl of their status. They'll never let me live it down! Thank goodness, she didn't see who it was…it was a one-time thing! If I just lie they'll never know, and we can go on with our lives, without disturbance from annoying mongrels like him.'

All of Mai's friends were rich girls, who had never worked a day in their lives, and whose lives revolved around boys, shopping, and gossip. Mai had decided long ago that the girl's were essentially harmless, unless of course they had some good scandalous gossip. Privately she thought that they were a bunch of airheads, always giggling and pointing at hot guys, but they were a decent lot, and never stooped so low as to demand repayment on loans they frequently made to Mai.

Mai never admitted it, and her friends never would have guessed but she her lifestyle growing up was much different from the one she now enjoyed. She had told them that her parents had died and left her a fortune, and that she had lived in a posh apartment in LA, but had wanted to see the world, so she had moved here. The truth was, her parents had been poor, and there was no posh apartment in LA, she had never even visited California. In fact, she had run away when she turned 16, realizing that this might be the only way for her to make a fresh start in the world. Mai had wanted to start her life over, and this time, no unfair burdens like being poor. It hadn't been exactly smooth sailing so to speak, and the subsequent few years had been especially tough, but she had made it through them relatively unscathed. No, that was not true, no longer was Mai a sweet wide-eyed innocent girl, she was now a self-reliant individual, and had become adept to hiding her emotions. In fact, the thing that had helped her through those arduous years was Duel Monsters. She remembered the first time she had picked up a pack of the cards…

*Flashback*

`WE sell Duel Monsters' a banner in the window of some Game Shop had proclaimed proudly.

"What is that?" Mai had asked. On a sudden, unexplainable whim, which to this day she could never explain, she had wandered into the store, and looked with skepticism at all the young boys crowded around the different displays. They were all talking enthusiastically about this Duel Monsters game.

She overheard snippets of their conversations, but didn't understand it.

One boy said, "I have an Earl of Demise, he has an Attack of 2000!"

"Yeah," another boy said, "well, I have a Summoned Skull, and he has an Attack of 2500!!"

An old man, with a white beard and trousers came up to her, the name of the shop blazoned upon his shirt. "Duel monsters are the newest, hottest game! They have taken the city by storm! Here," he said, tossing her a booster pack, "Open it, it's full of cards."

Mai protested, and tried to hand it back to him, but he had adamantly refused to take it, watching the girl with a knowing smile, one that only comes with age.

Sighing deeply, she said, "Oh well, guess I might as well open it, maybe some of the cards are valuable, and I can sell them."

She removed the foil from the pack, and looked down at the first card. It had a picture of a creature, with wings, and long red flaming hair.

"Harpie Lady," she read, and then read the print at the bottom, "This human-shaped animal with wings is beautiful to watch but deadly in battle."

Mai smirked; she and this card had a lot in common…except for the part about it being a human-shaped animal with wings. The card felt warm beneath her hand. She shuffled through the other cards, and then looked at the old man.

"How much do I owe you?" she asked, fumbling for her purse.

"Nothing. Think of it as an invitation into the world of Duel Monsters."

"Thanks," she had said, uncertainly, backing out of the store.

*End Flashback*

Mai looked down at the card in her hand, it was the same Harpie Lady, her first card, she knew it all to well, although she couldn't explain why it was different from any of the other Harpie Lady's in her deck. She stared at it thoughtfully, this card, the card she held, was the basis for her whole deck. She had built her deck with one purpose- to strengthen her Harpie Lady. Since Harpie's Lady was a bad card compared to many of the other cards in Duel Monsters, she had to power it up. Therefore, in her deck, Harpie Lady's pretty miserable stats were boosted by magic cards, like Cyber Shield, which was specifically made for Harpies, and Follow Wind, a card used on Winged Beast monsters. Stuck in her deck for good measure was a United We Stand, which boosted a certain monsters attack and defense points by 800 for every face up monster she had in on the field, along with a few Axe of Despair cards, which boosted a monsters attack points by 1000. Also, she used field magic cards, like Mountain, or her favorite, Rising Air Current. Her deck was filled with winged monsters, along with Cyber Harpie and Harpie Lady Sisters, and of course, Harpies Pet Dragon, which got a power boost for every Harpy Lady on the field. Of course, the point of all these cards was to…

"Hello? Earth to Mai? Are you there Mai?"

"What?" Mai asked, wrenching herself from her reveries.

Her friends giggled as she looked at them, bewildered.

Monica sighed, and said, "Mai, I asked you who you were with when I spotted you at that nasty little dinette."

"Oh…" Mai said, thinking fast. "Um…err…that was a distant cousin twice removed or something…yeah…he stopped in Domino on his way to Tokyo. He wanted to pay for dinner but didn't have enough money to go to a nice place so we went to Sam's….I didn't eat at all……He left this morning; his work takes him all over." Mai felt that was a good spur of the moment lie, at least she had saved herself from what could have been an awful situation.

"Oh? What does he do?" Tina asked.

"Uh…..he…he's a…TV repairman." Mai said, cursing herself for having been so stupid as to have said that.

"I didn't know that TV repairman traveled all over?" Missy said her brow wrinkled in thought.

"Missy, what you don't know could fill a book!" Monica retorted, slipping her arm through Mai's, and steering her toward another store. "Come on Mai; let's go check out this new store, I heard it's awesome!"

"OK," Mai said, absentmindedly, allowing herself to be dragged to yet another clothing store.

Suddenly Monica stopped, and frowning, said, "Hey! Isn't that Joey Wheeler?"

Mai snapped to attention, and stared at the figure that Monica was conspicuously pointing out. The guy had blond hair, like Joey. He was slightly tall, like Joey. Even from the distance, (he was a block away) she could see that he held himself in the same way as a certain blond; `he has terrible posture' Mai thought. As he drew closer, she could tell that the boy had shaggy hair, like Joey, there was no doubt, it was Joey.

`Oh no,' Mai thought, `If Joey sees me, he'll say that I'm the biggest slut ever! Or else he'll mention our date, and my friends will never let me live it down…'

Barely thinking, she grabbed Monica by the arm, and dragged her into the store.

"Owww…Mai, I didn't know you were so anxious to come here…"

"Oh, but I was," Mai protested, her mind far from the conversation. She saw, with horror, the group, Yugi, Tristan, Tea, Serenity, and Joey all stop in front of the store, Tea was saying something, then Joey interrupted, loud enough that Mai could hear, "No way am I goin' in dat store, I heard about dem stores, if you go in, you won't come out for hours…"

Yugi said something; probably trying to wheedle Joey into going in, Joey heaved a greatly exaggerated sigh, and gave in.

`Oh great! This is just peachy,' Mai thought wryly, `that Tea girl convinced them all to come in this store, not like she can afford anything here.'

Grabbing articles off the nearest rack, she grabbed Monica once again by the wrist, and dragged her to the changing room.

"Mai, darling, surely you aren't going to try on that wretched blouse, why it's a so gaudy and trashy, no one in their right mind would wear it!" Mai, looked down at the shirt she had ripped off the rack, and grimaced, Monica was right, it was the ugliest shirt she had ever seen, but she couldn't grab a nice shirt now, instead she took cover in the spacious changing room, slipping into one of the stalls.

She sighed, leaning against the door, and heard Tristan say, "That girl who ran into the changing room looked like Mai." Mai pricked her ears, waiting for Joey to say something.

But he didn't, Tea did, squealing, "Oh, Yugi, look at this outfit, I'm gonna go try it on right now, oh! And this one too! Yugi, would you be a dear and get me that outfit over there…..no….the black stripe….yeah….that one…"

Finally Joey spoke, saying, "But Tea, you don't have enough money to buy…"

She must have interrupted him because he stopped speaking.

Suddenly Monica pounded on the door, yelling, "Mai, are you done in there? It can't possibly have taken you this long to figure out that it is the ugliest shirt in the world!"

She heard Tea say something like, "Are you talking about Mai Valentine?"

"Yeah…..why….you know her?" Monica said, clearly disbelieving that Tea knew her friend Mai.

"Oh yeah," Tea said, "She's a close friend of mine, in fact, she's even closer friends with my friend-"

Mai quickly opened the door, almost hitting Tea in the head with the door, as she grabbed Monica's wrist and practically dragged her out of the store.

"What is with you today Mai? You're dragging me all over, and acting so weird!" Monica said, rubbing her wrist ruefully. Mai apologized profusely, but for the rest of the afternoon, her friends seemed rather distant.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mai flopped down on the couch of her apartment; all her friends had been vague about when they could get together again….she was not used to this, damnit. They should call her…she shouldn't beg for their time….this was below her. It was all Joey's fault....and that stupid Tea...they must have believed that Tea was her friend…Ugh… she should have told them that she thought that Tea was a stupid brunette, with ugly hair and awful fashion taste…who was dimwitted and ditzy…always preaching about friendship…

Just as she was about to go off and take a shower, the phone rang…she picked it up….she should really start thinking about getting Caller ID….so she could screen calls….but it was probably Monica, calling to apologize about that afternoon…

"Hello?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lusciousdragon: Wow….actually finished…..

ShadowDragon: That was it???????

Luscious: Yes…Why???? Were you interested????

Shadow: No….I just thought it was an awful ending…..