A/N:

Welcome to the first installment of Seniors, Freshmen, and a Learning Experience! I hope you enjoy reading it almost as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Atem "Yami" Ahknemkhanen sauntered casually down the hallway. Following on either side of him were his two best friends, Bakura Necrophades and Marik Tokoshie (1). It was a brand new school year and all three of them were seniors. One more year and they'd finally be done.

"Thank Ra school's back in! I thought I was gonna go crazy with all that stupid family shit I had to do this summer!" Bakura complained, but what else was new? He was tall and thin with barely noticeable upper arm muscles. The albino threw up his hands and pulled on his long shaggy white hair. He squeezed his eyes shut in aggravation. Just thinking about it ticked him off.

"You mean more crazy than normal, tomb robber?" Atem, more commonly known as Yami, asked and smirked. Several fangirls sighed and slumped against the lockers clutching their books to their chests and stared at him dreamily. His smirk only widened. Clearly he was enjoying the attention.

"Shut it, pharaoh!"

"Both of you shut it! And Yami, stop encouraging the fangirls!" Marik growled menacingly. Some students passing by them ran for their lives. Yami and Bakura just laughed at him. "I mean it!"

"Ah, Marik. Calm down. Sheesh. What's the point of having all these fangirls if you don't tease the living hell out of them?" Yami asked and, to prove his point, locked eyes with a blond freshman. He blushed crimson and ran into the nearest classroom.

"Whatever…" Marik said glumly, silently agreeing with him.

"Ooh! I think I know his problem! He's still thinking about that blond brat he met at the beach this summer! You know I'm right." Bakura teased.

"Am not!" Marik snapped back. If you looked close enough, there was a ghost of a blush on his deeply tanned face.

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Guys!" Yami yelled, silencing them as he turned to face them, "Both of you, shut up. So what if Marik is thinking things he shouldn't about some guy he met this summer. Atleast, from what I've heard, he actually has a spine. Unlike your little crush, Bakura." Bakura flushed slightly and Marik snickered at his friend's expression.

Just then, Yami felt someone collide with him. Yami remained upright, but the person who ran into him fell to the ground. His books scattered everywhere. Yami just stared down at the boy, who looked like he was in a rush.

"Oh my gosh! I am SO sorry!" the small boy apologized while scrambling to get his books. He sounded scared.

"It's alright. Really, it is." Yami tried to reassure him, bending down to pick up his last book. They both stood up and their eyes met as Yami handed the smaller boy his book. Yami found himself looking into the purest amethyst eyes he'd ever seen. They looked shocked, scared, and…was he crying?!

"I'm sorry." he mumbled, casting his eyes downward as he sidestepped Yami and continued running down the hallway.

Yami turned to look at his two companions with confusion written all over his face. "Usually they faint when I talk to them."

Bakura and Marik both blinked once before launching into a fit on uncontrollable hysterics. They held each other for support as their laughter echoed through the hallway. Yami looked unamused. Bakura managed to catch his breath first. "Maybe you've lost your touch pharaoh."

Yami turned away from them and caught a random junior's eye. He looked at him through half-lidded eyes and purred out a seductive "hey". Needless to say, he collapsed on the spot. Yami turned back to Bakura and Marik. "No, that's not it."

"Overkill much." Bakura observed. "Maybe he wasn't gay?" he suggested.

"Nah. He looked too wimpy to be straight. Besides, when has that ever mattered? Yami could seduce a telephone pole if he wanted to." Marik remarked.

"Or Old Man Hawkins." Bakura chuckled at the memory. Yami had gotten a detention from Professor Hawkins, the English teacher, in his sophomore year for being late to class everyday. He had gotten out of the detention by telling Hawkins complete lies about what exactly it was he was doing that had made him so late. It had been complete bullshit, but he had left Hawkins with quite a mental image. Yami had gotten off without so much as a demerit. "I think the pharaoh still gets funny looks from that guy."

While this conversation was going on, Yami was thinking about the kid from earlier. It was almost like a mirror image of himself had walked into him. Keyword almost. The kid barely came up to his chest and had large amethyst eyes. Yami's were a stunning crimson. They both had similar looking tri-colored spiky hair, aside from a blond bang or two. The boy's face was also slightly rounder, with an air of innocence. Other than that, they looked identical. It wasn't everyday you met a stranger that looked exactly like you, after all.

"Earth to Yami! Oi, pharaoh!" Bakura yelled in his year. "We're gonna be late for homeroom! Come on!"

"Ah, right. Thanks." Yami said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Space cadet…"

After homeroom, Yami and Marik headed off to History while Bakura went to Gym. Yami and Marik were thrilled when they found out they had the same teacher they'd had for their entire high school days. Yes, that was sarcasm. They hated his guts.

They walked slowly into the classroom to see Professor Hayato, an elderly man with gray hair and pale blue eyes. He wore a plain white shirt and black slacks. He turned around to face them as they entered and scowled. "Well look who's here," he said demurely, "The pharaoh and the tomb keeper. Get to the back of the room."

Those who had been in class with Marik and Yami in their first year of high school laughed, while everyone else just look confused. Their recurring inside joke of calling each other pharaoh, tombkeeper, and tombrobber started out in Hayato's classroom while they were doing the Egyptian unit in their textbooks.

Yami sat down in the seat farthest back and closest to the window. He watched with a bored expression as the class filed in, disappointed, for some reason, when the kid from earlier didn't show up.

They both met up with Bakura outside the gym before second period. He was red in the face and grinning like an idiot. "You guys will never guess who has Gym with me!"

"Anzu and her cheerleading pigs?" Marik asked hopefully. They hated Anzu's guts, and if Bakura had Gym with her he could get away with hitting her with sports equipment. Not that he didn't do that already.

"Nope."

"Darn…"

"Ryou!"

"That little freshman that looks like you?" Marik asked, "Your obsession? The wimpy one? That Ryou?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "No, the other one."

"That's great, Bakura. Now you can watch him strip twice a day." Yami commented.

"I know! It's awesome!"

"…Oook…Well then, what do you guys have next?"

They all pulled out schedules.

"Math. Ugh…" Marik read off.

"Same." Bakura said.

"Damn. Science." Yami pouted, causing several fangirls passing them by to shriek and faint. "I really ought to be more careful…" he muttered, looking around at all the unconscious fangirls.

"Ha! Later!" Marik and Bakura yelled before racing off.

"Oh well…" Yami sighed in defeat and headed for the stairwell, leaving the fangirls on the floor. He opened up the double doors and narrowed his eyes in anger at what he saw. The amethyst-eyed boy from earlier was being cornered by Ushio and his thugs.

"Well well well…Look at what we have here, boys. A freshman who won't pay for protection from bullies. I guess he hasn't learned his lesson yet. Let's fix that, shall we?" he smiled sadistically. The other two thugs laughed dumbly.

Yami cleared his throat, just loud enough for them to hear. The bullies spun around, the anger in their eyes at being interrupted quickly turning to fear. "Y-Yami!"

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked coldly, glaring daggers at Ushio.

Ushio cringed. "N-Nothing, Yami sir! We'll just uh, be g-going now!" They ran up the stairs as fast as their legs would carry them.

Yami turned to face the boy in the corner, anger quickly turning into concern. "Are you alright?" he asked, offering his hand to the smaller boy.

The boy had been watching the whole exchange in fear. The bullies had looked unshakable, and yet Yami had scared them off like they were nothing. Yes, he knew who Yami was. Everyone did. He was one of the most popular guys in school, and here he was. His eyes widened with realization. What was Yami going to do to him?

"Hey! Can you here me? Are you alright, kid?" Yami asked again, slightly panicked. He kneeled down in front of the smaller boy and took his face in his hands, searching his eyes.

"Y-yes, I-I'm fine! Thank you…" the boy said, shyly meeting Yami's steady gaze, his cheeks tinted pink.

Yami withdrew his hands and stood up. He offered the boy his hand and pulled him up as if he weighed nothing at all. "I'm glad. I'm Atem Ahknemkhanen, by the way, but you can call me Yami. Everyone does."

"Yuugi Mutou," the boy replied shyly.

Yuugi smiled at Yami and he couldn't help smiling back. 'Why would anyone want to hurt such an innocent kid?' he wondered. "So, what do you have next?" he asked instead.

"Science. Room 108."

"Hey! Me, too! Is it alright if I walk you there?" he asked, offering Yuugi his arm.

Yuugi blushed and linked his arm around Yami's. "S-Sure…"

"Welcome to Advanced Life Science, students! I'm your teacher Mr. Pegasus! It's simply fabulous to see you all here today! Let's get started by getting our textbooks and breaking into lab groups of three, okay? Chop chop!" Mr. Pegasus, a tall man with long silver hair wearing a bright red suit, announced cheerfully as he brought out a huge box full of books.

Yami walked over to Yuugi, who was sitting in a corner trying not to be noticed. He looked up and his expression brightened when he saw Yami. "Want to be lab partners with Jirou and me?" Jirou, who was standing behind Yami, waved. He was tall with sandy blond hair and steely gray eyes. His hair flopped over one of his eyes slightly, but not enough to obscure his vision.

"Jirou?"

"You need three people for a lab group, and he's alright. The least fan boy-ish of this lot, anyway." Yami explained.

"Oh, ok!"

They walked over to the lab table Jirou was sitting at and sat down on either side of him. The whole class opened up their textbooks and listened to Pegasus ramble and rave about the joys of binary fission while dancing around the room. Yuugi tried his best to pay attention, but he couldn't quite ignore the looks his new lab partner was giving him.

A/N:

Goodbye, chapter one. Hello, chapter two! Don't forget to leave a comment!