Chapter 17 - Chapter 17

We ate a splendid dinner, and Seto was obviously trying to make us feel welcome. It sort of succeeded. After we had all eaten, we retired to one of the reception rooms, were everyone took a seat, and began to settle down. Honda took a seat on one of the large sofas in the room, and I sat on the floor at his feet, which was no mean feat in my long and not too puffy out dress.


After a while we had all settled, and were talking amongst ourselves. I had just taken another sip out of my wine, when Mokuba and Tenshi walked in. Immediately we all stopped talking, and looked at them expectantly, and they came and sat down in our midst. Seto spoke, "Mokuba, what do you want?"

Before he had a chance to answer, Tenshi, who was wearing a long dark purple dress, that would have barely reached my hips, but was floor-length on her, interrupted, "We want to play a game."

"Then go and play a game!"

"With you."

We all looked at each other nervously, and Seto again spoke, looking quiet angry, "Ok then. We'll all play a game. What game?"

"Truth or Dare."

"Oh god" we all groaned. How childish. It was the game we had played when we were, like, well, her age.

But then she spoke or again, "Truth or Dare...or Kidd, Command or Torture."

Now this was sounding more interesting. Yami/Yugi spoke, "and there are rules?"

"No, you can make them do ANYTHING."

Everyone once again looked around nervously, I mean, who wouldn't be scared if some random 12 year old was telling them what to do.

"I'll start," Tenshi announced, whilst glaring at me evilly. I was afraid, very afraid. "I chose you," she pointed at me, and I began to shake ever so slightly, partly from the cold (as it was a little cold, and very dark outside). "And you have to," she looked as if she was thinking hard, "I command you to stand outside, with no clothes on. For five minutes. Actually, no, ten minutes."

Honda spoke, "C'mon, let her wear something."

"No!"

Everyone looked at this weird psychopathic child.

"Fine then. You have to take your dress off and stand outside."

"Mon Dieu!" I said as I asked Honda to undo my dress. There were doors into the grounds in the room we were in, so as I let my dress fall to the floor, I stepped out of it. I was yet again wearing stilettos. That were this time white and very strappy. I stood, in my underwear, that was a strapless cream, and very lacy bra, with matching shorts (that were pant, just short pants), as Seto unlocked the doors. He opened them for me, and as I walked out of them, he apologised.

"Its fine."

I took a step onto the gravel path and as I did so, the heavens opened, and rain began to fall heavily from the vastly ominous black clouds. But I was not going to give in that easily. I looked back into the room, and asked Honda to pass me my bag, which he did. As I took the small purse from him, I turned my back on my friends, and began to walk deeper into the dark and the gardens.

Walking whilst unzipping a bag proved to be quite difficult, especially in stilettos, and as I made my way along the dark path, I pulled a cigarette out of my bag and lit up. I knew my friends would kill me if they knew, but sometimes you just sort of needed to, well, go with the flow.

***

Meanwhile After Ana had been made to go and stand in the rain; there was outrage in the room. Kaede was fuming, "How could you let her go out?" she looked at Seto, who looked at Tenshi, "Um, maybe we had better get her back in."

"No." Tenshi was adamant. It'll spoil the game.

"But she might get pneumonia!" exclaimed Honda.

The conversation continued as such until they noticed that Ana was indeed not standing there anymore.

"She'll be back in a minute, she's probably gone to get in another way," Yuula was getting bored, and wished to hurry up, "Lets play again."

"Ok," said Tenshi in a sinister way, "Yuula, I command you as a torture to kiss Duke."

"WHAT?! NO WAY!"

"It's a command."

"NO WAY!"

"Ok then, Duke, I command you to kiss Yuula."

Duke looked up from where he had been sitting, red-faced. "Um, ok then." He slowly stood up, and walked over to where Yuula was sitting, before leaning down and lifting her face to his. Her face contained a look of pure horror, and as they got closer, she pulled away, "NO WAY AM I KISSING HIM. GET LOST!" and she stormed off. Sakura went after her, and soon the whole group stopped the game, that had been so proudly suggested.

***

I cam back in, after my cigarette, and the allotted ten minutes were up, and I was absolutely soaking wet, my hair hanging down, and covering the whole of my top half. I went back into the room, which was so warm after the absolute freezing-ness if outside, and sat down by Honda, who wrapped his arms around me, in an attempt to warm me up.

"What happened to the game?" I asked.

"Yuula."

"Oh, ok."

After that we once again fell back into a regime of chatter, and were yet again having a fun time, more than ever after Tenshi and Mokuba went to bed. I never actually put my dress back on, and I gradually stared to get warmer, and let Honda absorb al my wetness.

We stayed up until about two in the morning, when everyone had had enough to drink, and was pretty shattered, so we all made our way to our various bedrooms, and got changed for the night. I pulled on a long nightdress that was midnight blue, and soft and silky.

I climbed into the large bed, settling in between the heavy silk sheets, and wriggling as close to Honda's warm body as I could, still trying to rid a chill from my bones.

***

We had passed a great time At Seto's, and the whole holiday had been pretty good, and it was with regret that we all returned to school. Work started again for the finals at the end of the year, and all seemed to be going quite well. I once again had less time for my friends, as I began to concentrate more on my riding, although this time I kept a healthy balance.

One evening, when Marc and I were enjoying a quiet time at home together (most of the time either I was at Honda's, or Honda was at mine) when the phone rang, making us both jump. Marc answered, but I couldn't gather too much from the phone call, other than it was our father. Well, it must have been, Marc was speaking in French. It sounded like he was asking us to France, and my suspicions were confirmed when Marc said, "we'd love to come! You want to talk to Ana-Gaelle (my father always called me by my full name)? Yeah, sure I'll just pass you over." As he was saying this I had been furiously shaking my head, and gestulating wildly. When he passed me the phone I shot daggers at him, and politely spoke into it.

"Hello, father."

"Hello, Ana-Gaelle. I presume you knew what I asked?"

"Yes, and I too accept, on the condition that I may bring a friend."

"Why, of course. We have plenty enough rooms for them."

"Oh, don't worry, we can share."

"Oh, ok then. Well, are your studies going well?"

"Yes, father. Oh, and I am now one of the best riders in Japan. For my age."

"That's...nice."

"I might compete when I come over. Please could you enter me in some competitions?"

"I'll try dear," I heard a woman's voice calling in the background, and a child crying, "Oh, I must go, Ana-Gaelle, Angelicque and Luca need me. I'll see you this summer, the tickets will come soon. Say goodbye to Marc for me."

"'Bye."

I hung up, and looked blank and miserable. "This summer is going to be great."

***

On the Sunday night I went around to Honda's house. It was going to be a non-school uniform day at school the next day, so I took around clothes for that, but somehow forgot my nightclothes, and toothbrush. As I went up the stairs to his apartment, my bag broke, and all the stuff fell out of it, well, most of the stuff, causing me to go running down the stairs hunting for it all.

Honda, hearing the loud exhortations emitting from my mouth, opened his apartment door, and together we managed to retrieve everything, before remounting the stairs and going into his flat.

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