The Rising

4. The Old Argument

And what happened next was school history. Alexis Rhodes and Jaden Yuki started going out. No one seemed to know exactly how it started, one day the pair had walked into class, holding hands, and the news spread like wildfire. At first, the Obelisk students weren't at all happy with their 'queens' decision. They gradually grew to accept the pair when they remembered that Jaden was the top duelist in school, even if his grades weren't. The school decided to 'watch and evaluate' for now.

The two people in question were down at the beach with Jesse, Jim, Syrus, and Hassleberry.

"So Jay," Syrus said, only his head visible seeing as Hassleberry had successfully buried him in the sand.

"Hmm?" Jaden answered. He was lying in the sand a few feet away with Alexis in his arms.

"What do you think about the senior trip to Nhime Village tomorrow?" Syrus asked. "It sounds like fun... but two days on the boat!? That's suicide."

Jaden laughed, "Sy, it'll be fun! Nhime Village's pretty... um... interesting." He sounded like he chose the last word very carefully. Alexis immediately picked that up.

"Have you been there?" she wondered, sitting up so that he had to squint in the sunlight to see her.

"Yeah, I've got two crazy cousins that live down there." He said this almost reluctantly. Once again, Alexis picked up his tone.

"Are they why it's so 'interesting'?" she smiled, knowing his answer.

Not in the least, Jaden thought. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I get near there now with Haou... He had been thinking very carefully about his predicament with the King's spirit. After Alexis had unknowingly saved him, Haou had found himself unable to control Jaden in the least, so long as he was still in love with her anyway. He could, however, haunt Jaden with nightmares of his actions when he was sleeping, but that was the worst. Or it would be until they reached Nhime. He frowned vaguely as he remembered his first, and what he had half-hoped would be his last, visit to Nhime...

"Serge?" Hassleberry echoed from the water. "Whatsamatter?"

Jaden surface from the unpleasant memory to find Alexis staring at him avidly. He hadn't answered her question. "Nothing!" he called out to the waves. "Just thinking!"

"Like that'll ever happen," came a rude remark as Chazz walked down to the beach, and sat next to them. "Jaden Yuki thinking? That's as likely as a hippo learning ballet."

"Shut-up Chazz," Alexis answered before Jaden could retort.

Chazz looked as if he had been slapped. "C'mon Alexis, we all know he's not the brightest."

"And we all know that I still ended up with Alexis instead of you," Jaden finished, starting to get annoyed by Chazz. This was the fiftieth time today that he had pestered them like this! "So would you accept that already?"

Jaden saw Jesse raise his eyebrows in surprise, but it got the desired effect. Chazz shut up.

"So, like I was saying..."

"Oh," Jaden said, preoccupied. He chose to lie through his teeth. "Yeah, the two of them always make things pretty hectic down there."

He chatted with her about his crazy cousins until she was satisfied with his answer. Most of the stories being about Melody because he wasn't ready to talk about Nick yet... Last time they had spoken they had nearly blown the village off the face of the Earth... if it hadn't been for Melody...

Flashback: (Jaden's POV)

Nick was inches away from my face, his eyes that violent shade of purple ... I was standing in the middle of Melody's backyard, only seven years old, Nick was eight, Melody was five. Sparks were emitting from Nick's body, he had given into the power long ago. The sky turned dark as storm clouds appeared out of nowhere. Lightning flashed, raining fire from the churning sky.