A/N: Hi ya everyone!!! Yes I started another story, please don’t hate me!!! Ahem, anyways, basically this story is about a half-demon girl who decides to go to an actual school in Japan and makes friends with Yugi and his group (to whoever couldn’t have seen that one coming: you are either stupid or just plane dense). And this is about her struggles with trying to keep her secret, of course that’s kinda hard when there’s an organization of bad guys (demons) and good guys (called Slayers) out to kill her. It seems as though her world and the Duel Monsters world is very segregated, but it turns out there are quite a few connections between the two.

Laithe seemed ordinary enough, she was thin, fairly tall, had beautiful shoulder-length black hair, the cutest smile, and ruby-red eyes. Her skin, which use to be very pale, was tan, she wore a pale blue spaghetti strap with a lavender strip around the chest, some blue jeans that showed of her lithe legs, and a lavender burette on her head. Her hair was styled in such a way that her ears were covered, yet long thin strings of gold peeked from under the hair to show her earrings. She looked like an ordinary kid on to her first day of school, a backpack slung over her shoulders, and a nervous look on her face.

Alright, it’s just the first day of school, no worries, just the first day…of a school…I have never been to school…but that’s okay! It can’t be all bad, I mean, I’ve listened to lectures and stuff at home. Besides, Elsbeth says I’m great at academics. Yeah, I can make it through this, yeah… She told herself, walking up straighter. And then she walked up to the school building. I’m DOOMED!

For a few minutes she stared at it, walking about slowly as she was pretty early and there were a lot of students out in the school yard. Laithe pressed her palms together in a prayer-like manner, God, I know you hate me and all, but would you please…

"Hey watch it!" Snapped a very rude voice that bumped her non-too-gently out of the way in his hast.

I guess that’s a no. Laithe sighed inwardly as something clanked onto the ground. "Huh? Hey wait! You forgot your…gold, Egyptian, stick…" Laithe said, picking the thing up. Who in their right minds would bring something so obviously valuable and antique to school? She asked herself. Maybe he wanted to impress his friends, I’ll have to find him and get it back to him. She thought stuffing the gold stick into her backpack. Thought there was a problem, all she saw of him was some lengthy pale hair with a slight spike to it. Well, at least that helped somewhat, how many guys had white hair?

Suddenly someone else decided to bump into her, only this time he seemed to have been shoved. "O-oh, I’m so sorry." He stuttered as they both gathered himself.

Laithe wanted to start hitting her head on something really hard, HE HAD WHITE HAIR!!! You really do hate me don’t you? She asked silently. "Uh, miss, are you okay?" The British accent asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry, I had a bit of a blank moment there." She answered. "Are you okay? Looked like someone pushed you." She asked him.

"Yeah, I have a small bruise, but it’s nothing big." He smiled. "My name’s Ryou Bakura, but people just call me Ryou." He said, extending his hand to her.

"I’m Laithe." She answered.

"No last name?" He asked innocently.

Laithe blushed a bit, "Er…well I guess its Erzsebet." She said.

"Sorry, I can hardly pronounce that." He said apologetically.

"That’s okay, it’s Hebrew so I’m not surprised. Just call me Laithe." She told him.

"That’s a pretty name, okay, Laithe, let’s go to the office and pick up our schedules before we become late." He said walking towards the school. Laithe followed him, confidant that he knew where he was going.

Within a few moments they were in the secretary office. "Hi, my name’s Erzsebet Laithe, I’m new." She told the secretary.

"You’re new? No wonder you looked so nervous." Ryou laughed cheerfully.

"Heheh, yeah…" Laithe said as the secretary pulled up her schedule.

"Here you go sweetie. And what’s you’re name?" She said, turning to Ryou.

"Ryou Bakura." He answered.

"Uh huh," She said, browsing through the files. "Here you go." She said, handing him his schedule. "You two have your locker numbers and codes on those sheets, so don’t loose them." She said.

"Alright, bye." Laithe said looking at her schedule. It didn’t seem too bad, most of today’s subjects she was good at, especially art. "What’s your locker number?" She asked.

"235, yours?" He asked.

"259, not too far apart." She answered.

"The 200’s lockers are this way." Ryou told her. Laithe followed him down the halls, into one of the locker hallways, and started looking for her number. Ryou found his first and she was able to get to hers by looking at his number. She looked at the combination, memorized it, and then used it on the locker. It opened up and she started putting her books and stuff up.

"What’s your first class?" Laithe asked.

"Journalism." He answered.

"Oh good, that’s my first class too." She sighed happily. She looked at the room numbers, "I guess these directions aren’t to hard to figure out, I mean, find one number and you should be able to count up right? Good thing they let you know what rooms are upstairs and downstairs." She said.

"Yeah, otherwise I’m sure someone new would get lost, it is a big building after all." He responded.

"Not that big, I’ve seen schools with a lot more floor space than this, and it had three stories too. Of course, it wasn’t just used for a school, it was a public library too, but that’s beside the point." Laithe said.

"Did you use to go to that school?" he asked, interested.

"No, I just went to the library. I was home schooled before I came here." She said as they walked towards the stairs.

"Wow, really? Why’d you decide to come to regular school?" He asked.

"Two reasons, one: I decided it was about time to join the human race, two: Elsbeth, my teacher and guardian, got a job that sorta requires more hours than she has to grade my work and such. Use to she could get away with giving me assignments and grading them because I’ve learned how to teach myself and such." She explained.

"That’s rather brilliant, you shouldn’t have any problems in regular school then." He said smiling.

"It’s not the academics I’m worried about. It’s all I’ve heard about peer pressure, social stress, the selective groups, the ongoing wish for popularity, and the ever-suppressing expectations of both my social class and my teachers. And then I have the fact that I have to conform my time schedule to meet both these expectations and figure someway of finding time to be myself so that I don’t explode." She answered, gaining the desired reaction of laughter from Ryou.

"Well, you could always ignore the social stuff and be yourself all the time." He told her.

"Ah, but what if my real self is completely dorky and this is only a mask I am wearing to keep you from knowing that?" Laithe asked, eyeing him.

"Well, if you really didn’t want me to know that, you wouldn’t have mentioned it." He answered.

"Ooooo, you’re smart. You must be an exception because Aaron keeps saying the average high-school student is rather stupid." She said, making him laugh once again.

"I’ll have to agree with him on that, it may seem mean, but I have seen some fairly unintelligent people around." He said as they walked into their classroom.

"So what is school if it isn’t making anyone any smarter?" Laithe asked.

"I’ll tell you what it is, it’s hell on earth!" Exclaimed a Brooklyn accent. Laithe looked up to see a guy with thick blond hair that shaded his eyes. He was grinning broadly at her and she decided to be friendly and smile back.

"Oh well if that’s the case I’m surprised you don’t look like the living dead yet." She said.

"It’s only the beginning, wait until we get into the school year." He said, "Hey Ryou, wanna introduce me to your cute new friend?" he asked with a grin that had a bit of an evil tone to it.

Ryou blushed a bit, "Um, this is…Laithe, Laithe this is Katsuya Jounouchi, but we just call him Jou." Ryou introduced.

"Laithe? Are you two already on a first-name basis?" Jou asked smiling.

"No, that’s not it. My last name’s hard to pronounce, it’s Erzsebet, Hebrew." She answered.

"Whoa, well in that case we can be on a first-name basis as well. What’s it mean?" He asked.

"‘Devoted to God’." She answered smiling.

"Whoa, deep." Jou had a rather dumbfounded look on his face. "Well, you can sit right here since we’re here early, and Ryou will probably want to take the seat beside you." He said, flashing Ryou another ‘special’ grin, which made the albino go red. Yet he sat down next to Laithe anyways.

"So, why are you in Journalism, Jou?" Ryou asked.

"My mom put me in here, why else?" Jou asked, slumping onto his desk.

"Aw, you don’t wanna be a writer? I do." Laithe asked.

"Nah, I can’t write worth zip, Ryou on the other hand, has a real knack for writ’n poetry’n stuff like that." He said.

"Really? You like to write poetry? Me too!!!" Laithe exclaimed.

"Er, yeah…" Ryou blushed again.

Why does he keep turning red? Is he really that shy? Or is he hot? Maybe I’m being a bit bold? Laithe asked inwardly, but she still smiled.

"Anyone ever tell you you’re really cute when you smile?" Jou asked flirtatiously.

"Well, whenever I want something Aaron can never seem to say no when I smile like this." She said, she made her eyes large and pleading and gave Jou her sweetest smile making her look absolutely adorable.

Jou’s eyes widened, "I don’t think even Kaiba could refuse a face like that!" He exclaimed.

"Kaiba? Kaiba Seto? I didn’t know he went to this school." Laithe said just as the classroom started to fill in with students.

"Yeah, and he’s a real snob too, only cares about three things, his company, his money, and his little brother." Jou grumbled as Laithe pulled out her spiral notebook and a mechanical pencil.

"His little brother? Well that actually sounds pretty sweet." Laithe commented.

"It might sound sweet but his other overly charming characteristics sorta overshadow it." He said just as the class was about to start.

Laithe actually made it through the class fairly well, it was mostly introduction to the field and they’re only homework was to write a single paragraph about themselves. The next class was Math, which Jou and Ryou were also in, but so were a few of their friends as well.

"Hey guys, this is Laithe, her last name is hard to pronounce so we’re all gonna be one big happy family." Jou introduced.

"Hi." Laithe said smiling to them.

"I’m Mazaki Anzu,"

"Hiroto Honda,"

"Mutou Yugi." They introduced.

"And the grumpy one in front of you is Ishtar Malik." Jou said.

Laithe looked up and saw a head of thick pale hair with slight blond highlights. The owner turned to give Jou a glare, giving Laithe the chance to see his dark skin, violet eyes, and Egyptian markings on his cheeks just below his eyes. "Hey," She said, "Aren’t you that guy who pushed me out of the way earlier?" She asked.

Malik turned and gave her a cool stare, "Maybe, what’s it to you?" He asked, his voice calm and daring.

"Oh well I was going to say that if you were you dropped something, but apparently it was someone else, though I don’t know who else would be carrying around an Egyptian relic, since you are so obviously Egyptian." She told him.

Malik’s eyes widened, "So you’re the one who took it! You’re going to pay for that girly." He hissed, clenching his fist at her.

"Hey, back off Malik, she said you dropped it." Jou defended.

"Yeah! Besides, if I had taken it from you I wouldn’t have brought it up. It’s in my locker and I’ll get it to you at lunch if I can find you. If not, wait for me by the front door after school." She told him, getting out her math book and another notebook.

Malik grumbled something under his breath and turned around. "You’re right, he is grumpy." Laithe whispered to Jou.

"I heard that!" Malik snapped back around. Laithe merely gave him an innocent smile, causing him to turn right back around, a little too quickly. Laithe could have sworn she saw a tinge of red on his face and blinked in confusion just as the teacher walked in.

The other classes before lunch went just as well, Laithe already knew the material, and what she didn’t know she memorized, a small, innate skill that was one of the lesser aspects of her that made her a bit abnormal. By the time lunch arrived she didn’t have too much homework to do. She went to her locker, exchanged books for her other classes, and stuffed the golden stick back into her backpack in case she found Malik. She then went outside where the school had benches for eating and started searching for Ryou and his friends.

She found them, thankfully Malik was with them and she handed the stick back to him. He muttered a ‘thank you’ under his breath and put the thing back in his belt.

"You know, that’s not a very safe place to put that. What if someone comes along and takes it?" She pointed out.

"Well then they’ll be in for a nasty surprise." Malik answered with a certain grin on his face.

"Er, should I be worried?" Laithe asked Ryou.

"Um, yeah, it would be a good idea to be on full alert around him." Ryou whispered.

"I heard that. You’re lucky you’re yami’s—mmph!" Malik was suddenly tackled by Jou and Honda, who looked very much like they were stopping him from saying something.

Laithe tilted her head slightly in confusion and raised an eyebrow at the two goofily grinning goons. "Okayyyy, so! Anyone but me think the classes were a bit too easy for high school?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Easy? Easy?!" Jou exclaimed after dodging Malik’s attempt at hurting him. Honda wasn’t so lucky and would probably have a black eye the next morning. "That wasn’t easy!!! That was downright brutal!!! I don’t know what you’re talking about, easy." He huffed.

Laithe gave him a confused look, Oh that’s right, I age twice as slow as humans do so of course I’d be around collage level. She thought. "Oh, well I guess it wasn’t that easy, just my guardian likes bearing down and cramming things into my head a lot, so my education level is probably higher than my grade." She told them, taking a bite of her lunch.

"Ugh, if that seemed easy to you, you have my utmost pity." Honda said, rubbing his eye.

"So you were home schooled?" Yugi asked. Laithe nodded.

"Yeah, Elsbeth schooled me mostly, but now she has a job that takes up more time than she really has to give in grading my work, and to help me with any problems I have." She explained, "And Aaron totally sucks at schooling, so there’s no way Elsbeth’s letting him do it. Besides, he has a job too."

"I see, so, I guess it feels like they’re letting you relax, in classes anyways." Anzu commented.

"Sorta, but now I have to worry about social status and reputation, having no experience in ignoring those things that’s exactly what I’ll do despite what I might wish." She told them.

"Don’t worry, you don’t have to fake anything around us." Jou told her.

"The only reason our little group is even a little popular is because we have so many cute guys." Anzu said.

Laithe burst out into a fit of giggles and she turned to grin at Ryou, "You do don’t you?" She said. Ryou blushed deep crimson and shrank in his seat to avoid the grins of Jou and Honda. "I’m sorry, Ryou, but I couldn’t help it." Laithe said patting his shoulder.

"I’m surrounded by bakas." Malik grumbled, propping himself up with one hand and looking like he was being exposed to a new kind of torture.

"I’m sure we love you too, Malik." Laithe said, mimicking his position. She then giggled at the ‘you’re kidding right?’ expression he was giving her.

"So anyways, did you hear about that lightshow in England? It was all over the news, even here in Japan." Jou asked.

"Of course I did! And what’s worse was I was in London at the time. We just moved here from there after all." Laithe said.

"Really? Where you close to it?!" Anzu exclaimed, everyone now focused on her.

"No, not really, it was located quite a ways out of the city line, I think it was in some old mansion, but it was scary. The T.V. kept raving about radiation and stuff, no one really knew what happened." She answered.

"Did you see it?" Yugi asked.

"No, I was asleep at the time, but I saw video clips of it playing over and over from different angles on the news. If there had been any better time for us to move, it would have been before it happened." Laithe explained, she shuddered. "Did they figure out what caused it?" She asked the others.

"Nope, it’s weird. On the news they said there was no trace that anything but some big explosion happened, but, you saw it on the news, that was no mere explosion." Honda answered.

"Oh my gosh, that must have been horrible, actually being there." Anzu said.

Laithe nodded, "One of the main reasons we moved too, well, we were planning to move here anyways. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan. Elsbeth actually saw the lightshow when it happened, so she was thoroughly freaked. She had us all tested for radiation and everything after we arrived." She explained.

"That’s good. Man, I can completely see why you’d want to move." Jou told her sympathetically.

"You think ghosts could have done it?" Honda asked with a weird freaky face.

"Augh! Stop!!! It’s bad enough it actually happened!!!" Laithe exclaimed.

"Sorry, didn’t mean to freak you out, I mean it’s a possibility if nothing else could have done it." He said.

"So, you’re from England?" Malik asked, changing the subject.

"Not, from England, we just moved there for a while. We do a lot of moving around because Aaron use to have this job that required a lot of travel." She explained. "We’ve been lots of places, so we’re not really from anywhere." She answered.

"Uh huh, how many languages can you speak then?" He asked.

"Quite a few, I grew up listening to a lot of different languages so I’m pretty good and learning new ones and such. I can speak English, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Chinese, and a couple of others I can’t remember the names to at the moment. Oh yeah, German’s one." She answered.

"What about Egyptian?" he asked.

"Um…Sorta. I took a few classes and I have the basic grammar and the most-used words down, but I’m not fluent." She answered.

"Wow, you have a lot of skills don’t you?" Ryou asked.

"Thanks to Elsbeth and Aaron, they who love to cram things into my poor brain." She joked.

"Now you have even more pity than before." Jou said, looking overwhelmed by just the thought of having that much homework.

Well, it’s not that bad when you’re able to memorize things in a snap and age two times slower than a regular human. Laithe thought, but she shrugged it off. "I don’t know any different, I haven’t had many friends, moving and being home schooled and all, so I can’t say what’s harsh and what’s not, TV isn’t any help. If anything I thought it’d be worse." She explained.

"Ah, well, now you have a whole circle of friends! Ant dat’ right?" Jou exclaimed. Laithe gave him a sweet smile. "AAAH!!! I’m being blinded by cuteness!!!" Jou yelled, covering his eyes as if they were hurting. Something apparently pulled his foot from under the table while he was leaning because he fell back and landed on the grass. "Malik!!! That was you wasn’t it?!" Jou demanded, scrambling back up.

Malik had a smirk on his face, "So what if it was?"

"Geez, you guys are almost as weird as my guardians." Laithe snickered. "Wanna come over to my house after school? We can have a study group or something." She asked.

"Sounds great! Your folks wouldn’t mind?" Yugi asked.

"Come on, they’ve been worried about my social status, they couldn’t be more happy than to see me bring home a whopping number of 6 friends! Though watch out, Elsbeth’s out of coffee and can get pretty snappy when that happens. Don’t get her irritated, whatever you do. And Aaron, well, he’s just plane weird. And sometimes Mary will come to our house just to chat and stuff, she can be pretty weird at times so if she’s there when we come home be warned and try not to make eye-contact." She explained.

"‘6’?" Malik asked, looking a little confused.

"You didn’t think you weren’t invited now did you?" Laithe asked smiling.

"Well normally, I’m not." He answered matter-of-factly.

"Uh huh, and why is that?" She asked.

Malik smirked to himself, "I have a bad habit of making holes in the walls when one of a certain duo ticks me off." He said, sparing a look at Jou and Honda, who turned away from him and started trying to look innocent.

"Wouldn’t tell Elsbeth that if I were you, she’ll find it reason enough to chain you to your chair." Laithe laughed in a ‘you’re not getting away that easily’ way.

The rest of school went okay, Laithe met the others in several of her classes, and it seemed Ryou was interested in the same sort of stuff she was because he had a lot of the same classes. Soon school was over for the day, and Laithe actually felt quite accomplished. She’d gotten through all classes without a problem, and she had a total of 6 friends walking home with her, after calling their parents on her cell and telling them where they’d be first. Malik’s conversation with his sister was especially interesting.

"Isis? It’s Malik, I’m going over to the new girl’s house with Yugi and the others. Yes we’ll be doing homework….yes it’s a girl, why? Isis stop laughing!!! We’ll be doing homework!!! Grrr, bye!!!" He yelled, he then slammed the phone shut and shoved it back into Laithe’s hand. Very few could keep the smiles off their faces, Laithe included. But Malik either didn’t notice or ignored them.

Laithe’s new home was actually a mansion that was positioned in an off-to-the-side sort of way and was surrounded by trees. It use to be old and worn, but they’d fixed it all up with help from friends and made it fit for anyone to live in. It needed to be big because they often times had some gests staying over. Though most of the rooms were shut off unless needed. Behind the house, though you couldn’t see it, was a huge backyard with an obstacle course and swimming pool.

When they got there Jou and Honda looked dumbfounded. "Whoa." Was all they could say.

"That’s a, really nice house." Ryou commented.

"Almost as big as mine." Malik said.

"Really? You mean yours is bigger? Well that’s a relief, I’d hate to have the biggest one. I would have liked a smaller house, but noooo, we had to get something extravagant." Laithe said, sticking her tongue out at the house as she opened the front gate. They crossed the front yard, which was decorated with many trees, flowers, hedges, lawn furniture, and even some fountains.

Laithe opened the door and called out, "Elsbeth! Aaron! I’m home!!! And I have some friends can they stay for a while?"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Came the response. Laithe’s eyes widened into lollypops as the sound of glass breaking reached everyone’s ears.

Laithe flinched, "That sounded suspiciously like Aaron," She mumbled just as the latter ran across the foyer from the dining room. Elsbeth came in after him, frying pan in hand, and stopped in front of them for a minute.

"Of course you can sweetie, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go beat the crap out of your other guardian." She said in a rather disturbingly sweet voice.

"*Whimper*" Came Aaron from the living room as Elsbeth made her way towards him.

"Maybe we should go to my room, and stay there." Laithe suggested, walking briskly down the hall.

"Good idea!" Jou exclaimed.

Laithe lead them through the kitchen, into a second living room where a set of stairs stood. They were stairs that started out in a curve, leading you towards the wall and then to the left where they continued. They were and about as wide as a car, positioned against a wall and were supported by a wall all the way until they reached the second story, the said wall then stopped as if it were an indent in the room’s space. But instead of going up the stairs, Laithe went around the stairs to the back of the wall that held them up and opened a door no one would have noticed before hand. She smiled at them, "I’m spoiled, I get the basement all to myself." She said walking down a second set of stairs, which were about half as wide as the first. She flipped on the light switch, revealing an entire living room, with its own TV, VCR, DVD player, sound system, and several gaming stations. Along the far wall was a large desk that held two computers and a laptop. Beside the stairs was yet another desk, only it had other stuff on it. There was a couch and coffee table in front of the TV, a door on the right wall next to the stairs, and two doors on the left wall. She had a few bean-bag chairs and her own recliner.

"Whoooooooa." Said both Jou and Honda. Everyone, even Malik, looked on in amazement.

"Well, make yourselves at home." Laithe said, opening up the door next to the stairs. It lead into another room, though not quite as large. It had a complete kitchen counter set, sink, cupboard, drawers, oven, stove, refrigerator, and pantry. On the wall to her left were two doors, one lead to her own bathroom, the other to her bedroom. On the far wall was another door that lead into more rooms, but they weren’t being used so the door was locked. In the center of the room was a table that had a few chairs around it.

"Sweet!" Jou exclaimed, plopping down one a beanbag.

"Bathroom’s in here guys, and I’ve got a whole stash of drinks and snacks in here." She told them.

"Really?! Let me see!!!" Honda exclaimed zipping passed her and into the room. "My gosh! How many rooms are there in this basement?!" He exclaimed.

"About 13, though not all of those have been carpeted and fixed up like these. That’s my bedroom, the one with the ‘do not enter’ sign on it in 10 different languages, that’s the bathroom, and that door leads into some other rooms I’m not using, don’t bother finding out what’s behind it because it’s locked." She told him. The next thing she knew she looked over and Jou was in her fridge.

"Whoa! You’re loaded!!!" He exclaimed, looking at all her snacks and stuff with a druel.

"There’s some ice cream in the freezer, and the bowls are in the cupboard next to the wall. Silverware is in here." She said, opening one of the top drawers.

"Wow, you’ve got a whole house down here!!!" Jou exclaimed.

"That’s insane." Malik said, still shocked at the fact that this was all hers.

"Maybe I shouldn’t mention the guest bedrooms I have here then. Elsbeth was hoping that since I had friends there’d be an occasion to use them." She told them smiling.

"You are spoiled. I’m surprised you don’t have your nose in the air and aren’t looking at us like we’re losers." Anzu laughed.

"Well, as Aaron likes to tell me, I can be spoiled without getting spoiled, so you have nothing to fear." Laithe said giving them a victory sign. "Help yourselves to the snacks you guys." She said walking back into her living room.

"Hey thanks!" Jou exclaimed.

"All this is yours?" Ryou asked, peeking into one of the other rooms. He found himself in a laundry room, only there wasn’t much laundry in it.

"Yep." She answered, picking up the remote. She flipped on her CD player, the stereo system then started playing Evanescence.

"Can I use one of your computers?" Yugi asked, looking excited.

"Sure, here you can use this one, but you’ve got to give it a bit of a push to boot up, I haven’t been able to get the stuff to fix it yet so the boot button doesn’t work." She said dipping under the desk to get to the computer. She started messing with a few wires in the back and then switched it on. The screen blinked on and went through its usual booting procedures.

"What’s wrong with this one?" Malik asked, motioning to the other computer.

"It’s missing a motherboard, I took it out to mess with, unfortunately after I made the upgraded version for that computer, I’d completely mutilated it so that it doesn’t work anymore." She answered. "If you need to use a computer the laptop’s in full working order, I’ll have to connect to the net for you, but yeah." She said.

"You’re into computers as well?" Ryou asked, walking over to them.

"Who isn’t? That other room over there is my little lab, I wouldn’t walk into it though if I were you, it’s messy and stepping on the wrong wires could have a few shocking effects." She told him.

"Do you make computers, Laithe?" Anzu asked.

"Well, yeah. It’s not that hard when you have the right materials, and they have so much of it pre-made too." Laithe said.

"Wow, you are a genius." Anzu said in awe.

"Oh, anyone could learn how to do it, all you have to do is pick up a few books and get some hands-on experience." Laithe said just as Jou and Honda walked in, loaded up on snacks.

"My grandpa’s computer has been giving him some problems, you think you could come over and help him out a bit?" Yugi asked.

"I could try, I don’t do much troubleshooting unless it’s with my own computers, because then I know them backwards and forwards so I know exactly where to look for problems." She said.

"Huh? You into computers?" Honda asked.

Laithe snickered, "Yep, and may I say they look very interesting without their covers." She answered.

"Covers?" Jou blinked.

"Never mind them. Can you hack into other computers as well?" Anzu asked.

Laithe gave her an evil look, "Would you like to know a few government secrets?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Anzu answered.

"So would I. Which is why I’ll be learning how next summer." She said grinning broadly, making her laugh.

"Sweet!!!" Jou exclaimed. "You can hack into the school system and make all the screen savers say ‘WASSSUUUUUP’!!!" Everyone laughed.

The door upstairs opened up and in came Aaron, who had donned an icepack on his head but was still smiling pleasantly. Behind him came Elsbeth, who looked like she’d just drank some coffee.

"Well, now that Elsbeth has, first blown of steam, and second remembered her secret stash of coffee, I’d like to meet your new friends." Aaron said.

"Mazaki Anzu," "Katsuya Jounouchi," "Mutou Yugi," "Hiroto Honda," "Ishtar Malik," "Ryou Bakura," They all answered.

"Mehetabel Aaron, and this is Seraphim Elsbeth." Aaron introduced.

"Dude, what’s with all the unpronounceable last names?!" Jou exclaimed, pulling on his hair. "Not that your first name is really easy to pronounce." He said to Elsbeth.

"Just call me Els then, and you can just call him Aaron." She told them.

"They’re Hebrew names. Like mine." Laithe said.

"So I noticed." Malik mumbled under his breath. Laithe ignored him.

"So, are we just standing around eating snacks or are you guys eventually going to get to your homework?" Aaron asked.

"We will, don’t worry. My friends are still getting use to the fact that I’m spoiled rotten." She said.

"Aaron, I just realized something." Elsbeth said.

"What?"

"That coffee was decaf." She answered. Aaron’s eyes widened while his pupils became small.

"Alrighty then! How about I treat you to a nice, large cup of coffee at Starbucks?" Aaron asked hastily.

"Aaron, we’re in Japan, they don’t have Starbucks." Elsbeth said.

"What?! How can they not have Starbucks?!" Aaron demanded, he then looked over to the other guys, "Um directions to the nearest coffee house? Quickly?" He pleaded as Elsbeth looked like she was gradually getting a short fuse again.

"Down the road that way till you reach the school, make a left onto the main road, there should be one off to the right after a ways." Yugi said.

"Thank you!!! Come on, Elsbeth, we’ll get you some nice, very caffeinated coffee!" Aaron said, hurriedly ushering her on back up the stairs.

"You’re right, you’re folks are weird." Jou said.

"Bye!!! See you tomorrow!!!" Laithe waved as her friends left the front gate they waved to her and turned to walk towards their own houses. Laithe shut the door and walked into the living room where Elsbeth was enjoying a nice large cup of coffee and Aaron was watching the group as they left.

Laithe sighed and sunk into the recliner. She finally took of her burette, there, on her head, protruded two horns. They were shaped like bull horns, only they were more stout and hugged her crown, their tips curved up slightly, and they looked like they were made of the same stuff a unicorn’s horn would be made from. They were pure white, and looked like milky marble cut by a master craftsman. They weren’t large, they actually looked rather premature.

Two pointy ears finally peeked out from beneath her shoulder-length hair, they looked folded down, more cattish than elfin. The whole effect made the previously normal-looking cute teenager an even more cute and unearthly being. Though, the horns and ears did give her a rather devilish look, they didn’t seem at all foreboding with the expression she wore.

"My hat almost came off, Jou’s gonna continue to be pestering me about why I keep it on all the time. Are you sure we can’t take them off already?!" She finally demanded.

"Laithe, just be patient. After this pare they’ll only sprout when you go on a power high, and then they’ll go back when you’re off it." Aaron told her.

"But when can we take them off?!" She exclaimed, looking desperate.

"Laithe, they’re still premature, be lucky they grow faster than a normal demon’s horns do. But if we took them off now you’d not only get a splitting headache, but we’d have to put a lot of bandages around your head with human blood to make them heal faster. Would you rather be asked why you have two bruises that mirrored each other which were soaking your bandages with blood?" Elsbeth asked.

"No…" Laithe mumbled, rubbing one of her horns. It was very smooth, but still she didn’t like the feeling of them. They were a lot more noticeable than the pointy ear factor. That she could cover up with her hair and a little trick that kept them from peeking out like they were now. Nothing but pure and complex magic could hide the horns without her hat. "So, is Mary coming sometime?" She asked, changing the subject.

"No, but Lancy might. She called and told us to expect her." Aaron said.

"Lancy?! Argh! What if she comes while the others are here?! She might not have horns, but she still has the ears and does nothing to cover them up!!!" Laithe exclaimed.

"Calm down, I told her to conceal her ears, not that she’ll listen to me, but you know what a night owl she is. She’ll come at night and you can make her cover her ears." Aaron said.

"Alright, but still." Laithe sighed. "Did she use a payphone number or did she finally decide to get a cell phone so people can contact her?" She asked.

"Payphone." Elsbeth answered.

"Great. Oh well, I’ll be in the workout room." Laithe said getting up.

"Remember not to hit the punching bag, I’m tired of buying new ones, and go easy on the machines." Aaron reminded her.

"Alright, alright." Laithe laughed as she walked out of the living room. Eventually she got to the workout room and changed into a black spandex halter-top that exposed her middle and had matching spandex shorts. It was designed to give her complete freedom, including any time she might want to sprout her wings. She brushed her hair around her horns and after much frustration and pain she was able to get it up into a tiny ponytail, despite the annoying horns.

Laithe then entered the actual workout room and started stretching. She did some very painful looking stretches, complete splits in both ways. Bringing one straight up so that the toes faced the ceiling and yet she was still standing straight, and doing the same with the other. She bent backwards until she made a bridge, and then brought herself up again. When she was done stretching she did some pushups, sit-ups, and leg-ups. She then worked her muscles on the machines, being careful not to overdo it too much, and then started lifting weights, those she couldn’t break unless she decided to try.

It was a little disappointing, their heaviest weight, which was about 500 lbs, was starting to feel too light for her to actually get a good workout. That is unless she lifted it so many times her arms had to get tired. So she went on to practice her fighting moves. Kicking the air, doing graceful flips and accomplishing nearly impossible moves nimbly. She did this for about an hour, and hardly broke a sweat. So she strapped several weights to her arms and legs and continued for a good while.

She was just starting to work up a pant when Aaron came in wearing his boxing shorts and gloves. Laithe continued what she was doing on the mat while he started stretching, and then went over to the punching bag to give himself a good workout.

"When do you think Isaac will be able to give me some more fighting lessons?" Laithe asked. She jumped on the map, twirled in the air, touched her feet to the ceiling, and pushed herself back to the ground, doing another flip so she landed perfectly on her feet.

"He’s *Huff* still in, *Pant* Egypt right now. It’ll be a *Huff* while." Aaron said.

"By the way, the 500 lb is getting too light, I can lift it several times with only one arm." Laithe said.

"That considered, *Huff* you’re definitely not *Pant* allowed to use the bag." He told her. "I’ll get you, *Pant* something heavier, next time." He said. "What did, Isaac, tell you, to work on?" He asked.

"My reflexes, he told me to play some video games on the hardest levels for a while and to go to the arcade a few times." Laithe answered, doing a high kick that made her swing her whole body around and practically had her doing the splits in the air. But she was very balanced and landed her foot gracefully back on the mat.

"Somehow, that doesn’t, surprise me, at all." He huffed.

Laithe giggled and started doing some cool-down exorcizes. "When does it get dark again?" She asked.

"About 8:30, but I wouldn’t go out until 10:00." He answered.

"Right." She said, taking a towel and dabbing her forehead with it. "I’m going out onto the obstacle coarse." She said.

The obstacle coarse looked huge, frighteningly dangerous, and all but impossible for even the best climber/acrobat. It was built very high into the air with telephone-poll-like structures along with ropes, nets, and eccentric versions of a child’s playground. It was under a barrier that kept humans from noticing it’s massive height and the fact that it didn’t have anything that’d let you put a rope to in order to keep you safe. However, to a demon it looked like a kiddy playground, no danger whatsoever, not even if they fell from the impossible height and didn’t bother to sprout wings and glide down. Laithe was very light-footed, being a demon, or rather half-demon, but that didn’t erase her abilities. She took to the obstacle coarse and treated it as if it were a playground. She swung around on the ropes, flew across the monkey-bars, and jumped from telephone-poll, to telephone-poll. To her it was fun, and the exorsize it gave her was satisfying.

Laithe went back inside and took a shower after it got dark. She’d finished all her homework so she went into her workroom to start fixing the mess. She had to get several cardboard boxes in order to organize all the stuff, and by the time she was finished it was about 9:45. Close enough.

"What do you mean I can’t go out tonight?!?!?!" Laithe shrieked.

"Listen Laithe, I know how much you want to fly tonight, but it wouldn’t be wise. We just moved here, and what if you were seen and someone reported you. Your friends might get suspicious that suddenly after you appear so does a gargoyle. I’m sorry, but let’s wait a month. That would be best." Elsbeth explained.

Laithe stuck out her bottom lip and gave Elsbeth a pleading look.

"Sorry, Laithe, that doesn’t work on me as well as it does Aaron. You can’t go out." Elsbeth said in a ‘and that’s final’ tone of voice.

Laithe sighed sadly and looked down at her feet. "Hey," Aaron came up, "Listen, how about we go to the computer store tomorrow, I’ll buy you whatever you want to play around with, provided it doesn’t exceed my budget." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "That way you’ll have something to do at night instead of flying." He told her.

Laithe smiled. "Okay, that works." She said. "But, can I at least take a walk? It’s such a nice night tonight!" She exclaimed.

"Alright, but be back in your room by 1:00, okay?" Elsbeth said.

"Alright." Laithe agreed. She went into the basement and fetched her hat. She took a knife, just in case, and her house keys. She had on a soft violet halter-top and black hip-huggers. On her arms were cut-off sleeves, or arm warmers, whatever, that reached from the middle of her upper arm down to just over her hands. They were stylish, and punky. She considered keeping them on for tomorrow.

She then slipped out of the house. Her guardians had gone on to their (separate) bedrooms, one to fall asleep reading a book and the other to fall asleep watching TV. Laithe didn’t bother opening the fence, it made to much noise, she just jumped over it. Which wasn’t hard to do despite the fact that the fence was about 7 feet tall. She then started walking down the road, remembering Anzu mentioning a beautiful public park a ways away.

A/N: Hope you liked it! I always love having dreams where I’m flying at night, there’s just something about nighttime that makes everything seem different, more soothing maybe. Anyways, I’ll hopefully have the next chapter up soon.