Ash Ketchum Attends Duel Academy

Magna Chum Laude

At the Slifer Dorm, Syrus and Jaden were dueling, but on duel disks or tabletop... it was on their duel pilots.

"Aw, I'm never gonna pass the promotion exam! I have test anxiety!" Jaden complained.

Syrus grinned at Jaden's attitude, moving his stylus pen across his portable dueling terminal. "Watch this! I'm taking out your Clayman with Drillroid! You're wide open!"

"Wait a second!" Jaden panicked and ran his stylus pen across his own terminal.

"And with this card... I win!" Syrus cheered and threw the hand with his pen in the air.

Jaden moaned and lowered his head in defeat. "I lost. I gotta learn how to stay calm during these tests."

"You should chill out, like Chumley." Syrus looked up at the bed, where the koala duelist was sleeping, his back turned to them.

"Uh, Sy, isn't he, uh... like a bit too chill?" Jaden asked, giving their sleeping friend a curious look.

"He's fine, just tired. he was up all night long, poor guy."

"A whole night? That sounds like a lot of studying, especially for Chumley."

"Jaden!"

"What?"

Syrus leaned in. "Chumley's already failed his exams twice. If he doesn't pass them this year, he's out of here forever!"

While the two of them were talking, they were unaware that Chumley was in fact NOT sleeping at all. He was just lying on his bed, understandably worried about his predicament. 'And with my dueling skills, that's exactly what's gonna happen.'

Later that day, it was time for art class, and the students spent their using watercolors to draw and paint their own, original ideas for Duel Monster cards. Or, some of them did. Other few students drew their favorite cards.

"Jaden, look at this." Syrus help up his sketchpad, showing his friend a painted picture of a figure that (sort of) looked like Dark Magician Girl. "What do you think? Is it good?"

"Not bad, but check out my card design..."

Syrus leaned in and stared at Jaden's crudely drawn monster. "Uh..."

"It's a work of art. It's pure genius. It's Sparkman! See?"

"Uh, if you say so..."

Jaden looked up to his bigger roommate. "So, what do you do, Chumsters?"

"Hm? Uh..." Chumley put down his paintbrush and allowed his friends to look at his drawing. It was a gorgeous picture with a huge canyon rock, surrounded by grasslands at the bottom while a blue beautiful sky rested above it.

"Cool!" Jaden stared in awe. But... "So, what is it?"

That question caused Chumley to face fault. Syrus cried out in shock before turning to him. "What is it?! You've never seen Ayer's Rock?"

"I, uh... no?" Jaden answered dumbly.

Chumley smiled and stood up, holding his sketchpad. "You see, a long time ago, I went camping with my dad in Australia and saw it."

Eventually, other students noticed Chumley's painting. They couldn't help but getting impressed by his fantastic work of art.

"Great brushstrokes." A Ra Yellow commented.

"Cool texture." A fellow Slifer praised.

"Duh, I know." Chumley replied, feeling happy to be the center of attention. "I'm gonna use it for my..."