Saturday, November 1, 2002

"AHHH! Turn the stupid alarm off, Caroline!" Lauren screamed as the alarm started to buzz annoyingly.

"Yes!" Caroline and I both jumped up in joy. The awaited moment had finally come. "We can go back to Anime world!"

"Catherine, Lauren, get dressed, NOW!" Caroline screamed. She was already in her T-shirt and jeans, of course, I was also.

"Fine," said Catherine, who had just gotten out of bed.

"No, none of that is real, I’m going back to sleep," Lauren said, still half asleep.

"Lauren," I said, annoyed. "Look at the door!"

"Hi Caro, Hemsut, Marguerite, and er, your friend," Yami greeted us cheerfully.

"Yami!" Catherine murmured, then she scurried under the bed, upsetting the pictures of Ryou and Bakura Caroline had lain down carefully.

"LAUREN, GET OUT OF BED! WAKE UP! NOW!" Caroline screamed. She was getting really annoyed. She wanted to go to Anime world and she wanted to go immediately, and if Lauren was the one who stopped her from going, well, I didn’t and still don’t want to think about that.

"What? I’m trying to go to sleep! Would you stop-" Lauren cut herself off when she saw who was at the door. "What the- who hell is he?"

"LAUREN, HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING FROM ANY OF THIS?" Caroline practically roared. "That is Yami, he is here to take all of us to Anime world. All of us means you. NOW GET DRESSED!"

"No, you can’t make me, I won’t go," Lauren protested.

"Wanna bet?" Caroline dared, walking over to the frightened Lauren and dragging her out of bed and across the room.

When we finally got to the back yard, Caroline dragging Lauren and Yami dragging Catherine, er, Marguerite (I was the one holding everyone’s luggage!), the portal opened.

"So that’s what a portal looks like," Lauren exclaimed.

"So," Caro started in a taunting voice, "you’ve never seen a portal before?"

"What?" Yami asked, puzzled when Caroline, Catherine, and I burst out giggling.

"Inside joke," Caroline explained. "Just forget it."

************

"Cool!"

"Um, Lauren, are you…" I paused, then, turned around.

Standing behind me, Ryou smiled down at us, all hyper and excited (well, Caro and me really, Lauren, I mean, Set was petrified and Catherine, I mean, Marguerite was so shocked that she couldn’t utter a word), "Welcome home."

************

"Okay, Caro, you get my father’s bed again, Hemsut, the guestroom, Marguerite, the couch, and Set," Ryou thought for a minute, "Set, you can sleep on the floor in Yugi’s sleeping bag, I don’t have anywhere else for you to sleep," he apologized. Set is Lauren’s character’s name in case you were wondering and Marguerite and Catherine's.

"Sure," Set muttered sarcastically.

************

I woke up at 7:00 and quickly got dressed. It was my turn to make breakfast with Marguerite, so I ran downstairs and shook Marguerite awake. "Wake up! We have to make breakfast," I told her.

She had fallen asleep along with Set when we were making plans for the week. I hated cooking, so I volunteered to go first so I could get it over with. "And if anyone gets poisoned, it wasn’t my fault that I had to work alone," I had made clear at the meeting and when everyone got sick the last time I cooked breakfast. Hey, it’s not my fault. I never learned how to cook. So Marguerite was my victim.

"Don’t forget, that you’re name’s Marguerite now, or everyone will think that I’m crazy," I reminded her, "And I’m Hemsut, remember that unless you want to have as bad a reputation that Caro gave herself on her first day. Then my eyes sparkled as I added when we got into the kitchen, "If we hurry up, we can go pay Yami a visit right after breakfast."

"V-visit Y-Yami?" Marguerite stuttered, "I’d like to meet little Yugi, but can we avoid Yami?"

"Sure, why not?" I answered a little puzzled. Catherine never shut up when it came to talking about Yami, but she was more of the kind of person who was more introverted and less hyper (Remember Caro’s reaction to Bakura and Ryou?).

"What should we make for breakfast?" Marguerite asked, "I know! I’ll make milkshakes!"

"Okay, thin I make the brownies!" I yelled, waking everyone else up.

Poking his head out their bedroom window, Ryou yelled at me, "Would you shut the fuckin hell up?!"

Oh wait, it was Bakura who said that, sorry.

"If you don’t shut up, I guess you wouldn’t mind if I put poison in the brownies!" I called cheerfully up. "What kind of milkshake do ya want?"

He didn’t get to answer. "No swearing Bakura!" Caro appeared at the window, "Bad tomb robber!" She grabbed Bakura by the ear and dragged him back into the room.

"Hey! Ryou yelled, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry Ryou, I was trying to punish Bakura, I mean, your Yami, I mean, Bakura, I mean… just forget it."

"You guys swear at each other?" Marguerite’s eyes were full of wonderment. After all, I guess normal people don’t start swearing at each other when they’ve known each other for only a few weeks.

Calmly, I took out a mixing bowl and spoon. "I don’t, but Bakura does. The only people in this entire house, besides you and Lauren, show swear are Caro and Bakura."

"Caroline swears?"

"Only when Miho is mentioned, and it’s Caro."

"Go tell Miho to screw someone else besides Ryou and Bakura!" Caro screamed.

"Oh my god! Will you guys ever shut up?!" Set yelled from the floor.

"Marguerite?" I had learned to ignore them from knowing them so long.

"Huh?"

"We’re out of brownie mix, can you go to the store with me? I remember the way to the store," I asked quietly. I was afraid my throat would get sore from too much yelling.

"Yeah sure," She ran up the narrow stairs to grab Ryou’s wallet.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I heard Ryou.

"Need some money to buy breakfast!" Marguerite ran back down again. "Anything to get outta here, for now. Let’s go."

Last thing I heard was Ryou yelling at Caro, "Would you let go of my ear now? I need to take a shower!"

************

"Fuck!"

"Catherine!" I called her by her non-anime name to make her react faster, "No swearing in public!"

"Public? I thought we’re on Ryou lawn," Marguerite pointed out.

"We are," I agreed, "but not outside!"

************

"Yugi! What’re you doing here?" I opened the door to find Yugi sitting at the dining room table, reading a book.

Looking up, Yugi answered, "I just wanted to chick on you. Are you marguerite?" he nodded at Marguerite.

"Yeah, how’d you know?"

"Yami told me," he said as if it was obvious. It really was actually.

"Hi Yugi!" Caro came downstairs all dressed with Set following grumpily behind.

At the sound of his name, Set lifted her head and looked at Yugi coldly. Then, without warning, she pushed Caro aside and leapt at Yugi. "Must kill!"

"Set!" Caro seized Set’s wrist, "Don’t kill Yugi!"

I turned to face Yugi. "I suggest that you stay back," I told him right before rushing to grab Set’s other arm.

It must’ve been funny, three girls holding back Set while Yugi stands in front of us being totally confused.

Much to everyone’s distress, Yami took over. With a shriek of surprise and fear, Marguerite let go of Set’s arm and dashed up the stairs and into Ryou and Bakura’s room, slamming the door and locking it. Not to mention the window.

We all stood stunned by Marguerite’s reaction to Yami for a moment.

"Oh no."

"Did I do something wrong, Hemsut?" Yami looked really confused and sorry.

"Catherine!" Caro yelled.

"Catherine?" Yami was really confused now.

Annoyed, Caro called again, "Marguerite!"

"I’m not coming down!"

Caro didn’t get to answer ‘cause then Set lunged forward, dragging me along. Holding both arms, Caro nodded to me and I lifted my head to yell at Marguerite, "If you don’t come down, Caro and I’ll tell him! Besides, I heard the shower stop, so you better get out or else Bakura and Ryou will be stuck outside with only a towel!"

"I don’t care if Bakura gets stuck outside, I’m not getting out!" Marguerite screamed. "But don’t tell, I want to do that."

"What the hell is going on?!" Bakura roared when he poked his head out the door.

Letting go of Set, I climbed up the stairs to try to get Marguerite out. "Get out of his room!" I pushed the door with every syllable when I said that.

"No!"

"MARGUERITE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Ryou slammed the bathroom door shut. My throat was killing me after that, so Caro took over in yelling at her.

"I’m gonna tell him! Well, anyway, she-" Caro started.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Marguerite screamed. "We’re out of milk. Somebody go buy some more."

"Caro, take Set," I called hoarsely before coughing hysterically.

The door creaked open, "Liz? Are you, okay?"

"Hemsut, not Liz," I gasped.

"Get outta my way!" Bakura shoved us as he dashed into his room.

I would have screamed at him, but I couldn’t. I felt an urge to hurt him, somehow. Hey, what would you have done? Bakura almost made me and Marguerite flip over the railing!

************

"Are you sure you’re okay? Here, drink another glass of water," offered Yami.

I was starting to get my voice back and Yami was offering me the 60th glass of water. "If you keep on giving me water, you wouldn’t be able to drink anything yourself," I scoffed grumpily.

"Hey, how’d it go?" Ryou asked when Caro opened the door. Ryou and Bakura had been smart enough to figure out that Marguerite and I were too pissed off at Bakura to really care about anything besides revenge when we were around him.

"Where’s Marguerite? Is she still avoiding Yami?" Caro asked. "Oh yeah, you might want to be careful, Set’s back."

************

"HEMSUT!" Caro screamed.

"What?"

"What did you put in the brownies?!"

"Ummm…" I was afraid of this, "Four eggs, maybe with some of the shells, umm… five cups of water and a teaspoon of oil. And the brownie mix. And baked for ten minutes."

Rounding on Marguerite, Yami choked, "You were supposed to watch her! Oh, by the way, nice milkshakes."

Marguerite blushed and replied, "I was busy making the milkshakes. I really don’t think that they were that good. And if you guys were smart enough, you wouldn’t have eaten Liz’s, I mean, Hemsut’s brownies."

Knocking her chair over, Set leapt up and ran into the bathroom and threw up the contents of my bad cooking.

************

Well, the rest of the week was pretty much the same, and the doctor said Caro could have her cast taken off in two weeks. It turned out that it was only a minor fracture in the bone.

If you were wondering what kind of oil I put in the brownies, you don’t want to know. And if you were wondering why I love Fridays too, it’s because they turn out to be the most interesting days. Here’s an example of the Friday of Marguerite’s first week.

One way or another, everyone started to hate Set. She was always sulking around and yelling at people, then dissing them. Even though she was there, Set refused to believe that any of that was real. We know this would eventually happen, that is why Caro had insisted on bringing her.

************

"Mr. Moto, you’re going to come to our world to pick us up in your car, right?" I was making sure that Caroline was not going to go to Anime world without me and Catherine. We knew that Mr. Fink and Ms. Koenig (Caroline’s parents, in case you couldn’t figure it out) wouldn’t let Caroline have us sleep over every week, so we were making plans.

"Yes," answered Mr. Moto, "but you’ll have to give me directions to Marguerite’s house, as well as yours."

"I’ll help you there," Caro offered.

"Thank you."

************

"I can’t take this anymore!" Bakura yelled when Set told him that he was a girl for the 50th time. (Well, he does look a little like one.) He ran to the kitchen and took out a knife.

"Bakura!" Caro yelled, "Don’t kill Set!" Then she added in a whisper, "Not yet."

"What do you mean ‘Not yet’?!" he roared, "I’m gonna kill her now!"

"No!" I screamed hysterically, breaking into sobs. "I hate blood! I just…can’t stand it!" It’s true, pain, I can bear to a point, but once blood is drawn, I wilt.

Marguerite sprang out from the couch and started patting my back when I started to hiccup. Set watched us while still curled up next to the chimney.

"Now look at what you’ve done!" Marguerite yelled, "Caro! Help me!"

"Shut your mouth and stop crying!" Bakura answered and Caro hesitated, "Why did I ever let Ryou invite you?" To my horror, Bakura made as if to stab me or Marguerite, I can’t tell, but I think it was more of Marguerite than me. "I’ll shut your shitty mouth!" he screamed.

I covered my eyes and squeezed Marguerite’s hand, causing both of us to scream. I braced myself for a sharp pain and blood dripping from the knife. It never came. I opened my eyes a crack, and through the tears, I saw Caro holding Bakura’s wrist, and stopping his other hand with her cast.

Marguerite looked at me, and I understood, so I let go. She got ready, aimed, then kicked Bakura hard.

The door burst open, and Joey, Yugi, and Tristen ran in (well, Joey and Yugi at least. Tristen was hopping more than running.) I think I’m forgetting someone. Uh, not Miho, so it must’ve been Tea! Yeah, it was Tea. Well, anyway, they all came in to see Caro holding Bakura, Marguerite kicking his shins, Set watching with amusement next to the fireplace, and me sobbing pitifully against the wall. I know, I know, I was pathetic, but like I said before, I wilt when it comes to bloodshed and sharp things. I can be the exact opposite at other times though.

"Bakura!" Yugi shouted right before Yami took over. He sprang on Bakura and seized the arm that Caro had been holding back with her cast, giving her arm some relief.

Joey tried to pry the knife from Bakura’s fingers and Tristen hopped to the back, seized a handful of hair, then pulled.

"AARRGGHH!" Bakura yelled letting go of the knife and letting it clatter on the floor at my and Tea’s feet.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ryou screamed collapsing underneath all the people on top of him. They were lucky he did, ‘cause then, Marguerite chucked a brick and I missed the pile of people and hit the wall right above Set. Of course, it fell down, knocking her out for a little while.

************

"Who the hell are you?" Bakura was in a bad mood and he wouldn’t let Ryou take over.

"I challenge you to a duel," the cloaked figure at the door said in a raspy voice.

Fear struck the hearts of Caro, Marguerite, and me like an arrow strikes a target. Every day after school, we had gone on the internet to see what would happen in the upcoming episodes and what was happening was seeming too much like the episode when Malik, or Marik, whatever his name is in English, proposed a non-yami battle and then tore Ryou’s body up into pieces.

"Don’t accept!" Caro yelled.

Marguerite nodded her head, adding, "Listen to her! I know that we upset you this morning, but would you rather have you revenge and then die because of it?"

"They’re right!" I agreed, "Is revenge really more important than a body? Malik is going to try to kill you, don’t be stupid!"

"I accept you challenge…Malik," Bakura yelled above all the protests that we were making.

"Actually, it’s Marik," Marik corrected us. I’m gonna call his yami Malik.

"You…you…" Caro stuttered unable to finish.

"You asshole!" Marguerite finished for her, "We tried to warn you, but if he kills you, just don’t come running and complaining to us! Oh wait, you won’t be able to!"

"Would you shut your (-beep) mouth?!" Bakura yelled before Ryou appeared and argued.

"This is my body too you know! We should listen to them! Revenge isn’t important and you shouldn’t have tried to kill Set anyway!"

"This is amusing," Set observed, smiling, "It’s fun, watching Yu-Gi-Oh characters killing each other."

Turning to Marik, Ryou said, "Sorry, but if you really are going to tear my body up, I’ll have to refuse your challenge."

"What?!" Bakura was back, "We accept and that’s FINAL! Don’t listen to my Hikari, just ignore him."

"Meet me at 3:00 outside the Kaiba mansion," Marik told us before turning and walking down the street.

"NOOO!" All three of us screamed.

"You just committed suicide!" I exclaimed, horrified.

"Shut up!"

************

"C’mon! Can you guys go any slower?" Caro screamed over her shoulder as Set, Marguerite and I panted behind her. "Bakura wasn’t at the Kaiba mansion, so we gotta find him!"

"That’s because you dragged us there at 2:00!" I thought angrily.

"Stop!" Marguerite panted, "I need a break!"

Rounding on Marguerite, Caro yelled, attracting a lot of stares, "We can’t stop! Keep on running!"

"If-gasp-if you ran-gasp-like this for-gasp-the mile run, -gasp-you would’ve broken the 7th grade record!" I pointed out, annoyed. As you can tell, I was tired of running around the city for an hour.

"I don’t know why I let you drag me into this," Set muttered. We ignored her remark.

"We’ve been running around this stupid city for an hour!" I whined, "Since we left, we forgot where Kaiba’s mansion is!"

"Go straight then turn left at the third traffic light," a girl with reddish brownish hair said, pointing down the street.

As we took off down the street, I yelled over my shoulder, "Thanks………Shizuka!"

************

"A non-yami battle it is then," Bakura agreed.

"Bakura! Don’t!" tears sprang into my eyes when we heard those fatal words. Too late, Ryou appeared and Marik released a bolt from his millennium rod.

"Ryou!" Caro screamed pushing him out of the way. The bolt singed her hair as she fell on top of him, striking Set instead.

The last thing I heard from Set was a blood-curling scream. When I opened my eyes, Set’s mangled body lay at Marik’s feet. Picking up the carcass, I heard him mutter, "At least I can practice on this. Hopefully, they won’t take her body back to their world, or else her life will be restored, at least in their world."

We’d figured out that whatever happened in either of the worlds, it didn’t affect what happened to us in the other world, except for memories. Such as Caro’s left arm was broken in Anime world, but it wasn’t in this one.

"Sorry Ryou," Caro apologized, "but can I talk to your yami?" she asked getting up and dusting herself off.

"Sure," Ryou replied, "And Caro…"

"What?" she snapped. I can understand. If you’ve known her as long as I have, you would too.

"Thanks," was the last thing he said before his ring glowed and Bakura took over.

"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?" he asked a glaring Caro.

"What were you thinking?" Caro screamed in his ear. Oh, did I mention that she grabbed it too? Well, she did.

"I was thinking about revenge!"

"What else?" I asked Marguerite. She snickered.

I guess you’re wondering why we weren’t upset about Set. Well, Caro and Marguerite seemed perfectly happy, but I was a little shaken. But anyway, back to the story. Where was I? Oh! Yeah, I remember.

Marguerite snickered in response to my question.

I can’t remember what Caro said because she was yelling so much and attracting a lot of unwanted attention. It was even more embarrassing when she shut up. Why was it embarrassing? Oh, it’s because Bakura hugged her, IN PUBLIC!

"Now, is this for real, or do you want me to shut up now?" Caro asked as Bakura threw his arms around her.

"Uh, half and half," he answered, startled by his own words and actions.

"We don’t know them!" Marguerite yelled, turning red, "We only know them from school!"

"Um, guys," I whispered to them, "Could you hug and make up at home?"

"Good idea," Bakura broke away from Caro, blushing like crazy.

"Look at the lovebirds," Seto Kaiba mocked. Obviously, he had come out of his mansion and had seen Bakura hugging Caro.

"You’re lucky, Caro’s in a good mood," I warned him.

"Shut up little girl," Seto snapped, looking down. Hey, it’s not my fault that I’m short! He’s tall too. Besides, he’s about three years older than me!

It happened really quickly. One second, Caro and Marguerite were behind me, the next, they were (here’s a long list) strangling, kicking, punching, slapping, biting, scratching, and…and…and……hitting Seto with a metal pole. Well, Caro was doing all the stuff except the metal pole. Marguerite seemed very close to the pole because she still has it.

"They’re both…defending you," Bakura observed.

"Yeah," I agreed, "They’re great. Caro was in a good mood, but she wasn’t in that good a mood," I was grinning but I knew that it’d be hard to explain to the police when I heard sirens.

************

I bent down to wipe a thin trail of blood from Marguerite’s lip. "You guys are the best, but you shouldn’t have attacked Kaiba."

"What do you think we would’ve done?" Caro asked as Ryou put an ice pack on her cheek, "He was dissing you! We weren’t gonna let him off that easy."

"I know, but still, it was hard trying to convince the police to let you go," I answered, smiling at the memory. "Wasn’t Bakura in the middle of thanking you?"

"Yeah!" Caro turned to Ryou who was sitting next to her, "And you never did thank me for saving your butt."

Ryou sighed, "Okay, here." He gently wrapped his arms around Caro and turned his face the other direction. He’s shy; I’m guessing you could’ve fried and egg on his face. Oh well, I guess I would do that too it I was in the same situation.

"I told you!" I cried out, "I told you that you liked Caro! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Who’s good?" I was, uh, excited.

Eventually, we convinced Bakura out and he squeezed Caro pretty hard. She was happy though.

************

"Caro, we gotta go."

"Give her a minute, can’t you see that she doesn’t wanna leave Ryou?" Marguerite pleaded.

"I know it’s harder this time, but if we don’t leave in a few seconds, we’ll never be able to go back!" I told her urgently. "Caro…"

She nodded at me and held out a ring. "Ryou wanted me to give this to you."

Marguerite slipped the ring on as we took hands, and giving a last sad look, we plunged in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sorry to Seto fans, but Catherine asked me to let her hit someone with a metal pole, and I couldn't have her hit Ryou or Bakura or else Caro would have killed her, and that wouldn't go very well in my story. And I really don't cook that badly, I just wanted to poison everyone to add a little comedy, but I don't think it's really very funny. Sorry if I got some descriptions wrong, but I wrote what I heard. Well, anyway, that's basically it, but there's one more chapter I have to check, and I'm pretty sure that Seto's taken now.