Hello everyone! First, a warm welcome to all my previous readers! You guys are the best! And hopefully, you can bear another one of my stories! And second to all my new readers! You guys are important too!

I'm just going to let you guys get to the story and save my real Author's Note for the end. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I'm going to make this the only one for the story! I don't own Digimon (as if you guys didn't already know that).

Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter

Tai's POV

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Groggily, the boy with wild brown hair turned to hit the snooze button on his alarm for the third time that morning.

At least, until he noticed the time.

7:15.

"FUCK!" yelled out Tai Kamiya.

He was unbelievably late.

Jumping out of bed, he sprinted into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the field trip down to Chicago.

Fifteen minutes later he was in his car racing to school. As he pulled into the parking lot, he couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of annoyance at the sight of his high school.

His sophomore year of high school had ended about a week and a half ago, but here he was coming back during the summer. Granted, this appearance had nothing to do with school.

He was here today because a volunteer leadership organization he was a part of was taking a trip down to Chicago to help tutor and play with little kids who were in summer school.

Unfortunately, his high school was the meeting point from where the busses were taking off from.

Kids from all the nearby suburbs and towns were part of this leadership thing meaning there were almost a hundred high schoolers going, which resulted in the need for two busses.

As he pulled up, miraculously only two minutes after the given departure time he noticed that the buses were coach.

His mood lifted slightly, and he parked and checked his phone to see which bus his friends were sitting on.

Sora: Where are you? 7:30

Sora: Also, we are on bus 1. 7:32

Matt: You're going to be late. 7:35

Sora: Tai! Where are you? The bus is filling up! 7:37

Matt: Hurry up, or you won't be able to get a seat by us. 7:40

Sora: Tai! The buses are supposed to leave in 5 minutes! Where are you? 7:40

Matt: Yeah, our bus is filled. 7:42

Sora: Are you even coming? Why aren't you answering? 7:43

Matt: Did you even wake up yet? 7:44

Sora: Looks like you're not the only who's late, since half the kids for the other bus haven't shown up yet… We're going to be leaving at 5 to. 7:46

"Shit." The bus with his friends was full. And the ride down to Chicago was a good hour and a half long.

Once he got out of his car, his mood took another hit. It was raining. He hadn't really noticed it earlier, since he had been in such a rush.

It wasn't the only thing he hadn't paid attention to in his mad dash to get here on time. Despite, it being June the rain and slight wind made it chilly and he had only donned his usual blue zip-up sweatshirt, which while pretty warm was not enough for what he presumed was going to be a shitty day.

As he got on the other bus, his stomach growled loudly. Of course, he had skipped breakfast too. This day was just not getting any better.

Tired, cold, and hungry was not a great combination for Tai Kamiya. So it was only natural that he had a scowl on his face.

With most of his friends on the other bus, he really hoped that no one would sit next to him, giving him the whole row to stretch out on and sleep.

Staring gloomily out the window, Tai cursed under his breath when someone walked up to his row.

"Hello, is anyone sitting here?" Tai heard a cheery, voice say.

"Nah." He replied not even bothering to turn and look at who was about to sit next to him. Then he realized that it was a very feminine voice that had spoken to him.

He quickly turned to his new bus buddy, and the first thing to go through his mind was that she was beautiful. "Hi, my name is Tai." He said, flashing his charming smile.

"I'm Mimi, nice to meet you!" She replied smiling sweetly back.

"You don't look familiar, what school do you go to?" He asked her, fishing around for something to start a conversation with.

"Oh, well actually I just moved here," She replied. "So, right now I'm not really enrolled anywhere."

"Where'd you move from?"

"New York City."

"And you moved here because?" Tai asked incredulously.

"My dad's job, but it isn't so bad here." She said with a smile.

"You've come to like the most boring place ever!"

"I don't know, my dad is originally from the Milwaukee area. And the suburbs are actually really nice around here," She paused thoughtfully. "It's good to have some quiet for once. And then you still have downtown for some city life. And if you want the really big city scene, Chicago's only a small drive away!"

"I guess," He responded slightly lamely. "So, how'd you get caught up in all this?"

"All what?"

"The leaders group."

"Oh, I'm really big into volunteering and stuff, so I had my eye for some way to get involved. Then one day, I saw a flyer posted on the Starbuck's pin board and signed up."

"Starbucks? You like coffee?"

"Love it!" She replied excitedly. "Do you?"

"Heck no! That stuff is nasty!" He responded faking putting his finger into his mouth to throw up.

"Oh shut up! Coffee is amazing." She answered with a laugh.

"No way! I don't get how you can like it!"

"It's good!" She replied earnestly. "Have you even ever tried it?"

"Yeah and it was bleh," He responded. "You really like it?" He asked again to make sure she wasn't just messing with him.

"I really do!" She said with a laugh.

"Well in that case, I'm not sure I can be friends with you." He said teasingly.

"Friends?" She asked with a smile. "Who said anything about being friends with you?" She added teasingly.

"See, I thought you didn't have any friends because you're new around here. But it must be that personality of yours." He retorted jokingly.

"Wow jerk!" She said playfully hitting on the shoulder.

"Ow!" Tai let out, exaggerating. "That hurt! I'm not going to talk you anymore, you bully!"

"Oh thank god! Here, I thought I was going to be stuck having to listen to someone unbelievably boring like you for an hour and a half!" She said sticking her tongue out.

For the first time, in what seemed like forever someone other than Sora had gotten the best of him in an exchange. Tai was at a complete loss for words and it must have shown on his face.

"Oooh gotcha!" Mimi said with a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I'm just sleepy that's all." He replied making up a pretty lame excuse.

"You know, if you drank some coffee you wouldn't be so tired." She continued to tease.

"Never."

"So what do you normally do on these kinds of drives?" She asked.

"I'm usually sitting next to my friends and we just chat and hang out, I guess."

"Why aren't you sitting with them now?"

"I was late." He replied sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Same here, but that's because I got lost on my way here. Why were you late?"

"I was up late playing Fifa." He answered slightly embarrassed rubbing the back of his head.

"Fifa?" She asked confusedly.

"It's a soccer video game." He responded.

"Oh, you like soccer?"

"It's my favorite sport!" He said excitedly. "Do you play?"

"Nope."

"Well, you definitely should! It's the best thing in the world!"

"I can think of a lot better things than soccer."

"Like what?" He asked defensively.

"Like shopping, picnics, going to the beach, reading, gardening, painting, drawing, and bonfires." She fired off, tilting her head from side to side as she mentioned each activity.

Tai was slightly taken aback by how rapidly she had listed so many things so quickly.

"Soccer is so much better than all of those things! But I guess bonfires are pretty cool." He conceded.

"They're one of my favorite things about summer!" She said excitedly. "Back in New York, we'd always go to a summer house in the Hamptons and we'd have one every night. And we'd make s'mores and tell stories! It was so much fun!"

"We do that here too," Tai responded with a laugh. "And in the winter, we always make hot chocolate and do it around the fireplace."

"Damn, why didn't we think of that?" She said aloud.

"Because you're not as awesome as us."

She wasn't able to respond because suddenly the bus started to move.

"Looks like we're finally headed out." Tai observed.

"No shit, Sherlock." She replied sarcastically followed by a giggle at his expression.

Tai was caught completely off guard at the phrase. It was something that was a virtual trademark of his. Anytime, one of his friends said something stupid he would bring it out.

Years later, Tai would look back upon that as the first moment of many that he realized this girl was different than any other he had and would ever meet.

And for the first time, he did something to catch Mimi off guard. He tossed his head back and laughed.

It was evident by the look on her face that she was confused, but he just kept laughing.

"What's so funny?" She asked, turning red.

The only response she got was more laughing.

"Stop laughing at me!" She said flustered.

"I'm not laughing at you," Tai responded. "I was laughing at the fact that someone other than me says that too."

"Says what exactly?"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Wait, you say that too? I came up with that on my own!"

"Same here, we must think alike." He replied with a grin.

"I wonder what else we have in common." She said after a second.

"Well, only one way to find out right?"

And with that, they delved into all their interests, and for the rest of the ride they exchanged several laughs, flirty exchanges, and simply enjoyed each other's company.

By the time they reached Chicago, they had learned that they both loved running, swimming, Italian food, the same kinds of movies and books, and even the same subjects in school.

They also had a few key differences aside from their stance on coffee. Sports practically dominated Tai's life, but he quickly found that Mimi dabbled in other activities such as writing poetry, keeping up with the latest fashions, artistic pursuits, and playing the piano. He also found that the music they liked was quite different. While he was mostly into rap, Mimi preferred more mellow stuff.

He was quite impressed with the diversity of her interests, but also felt a tinge of jealousy. This girl sounded like she was good at everything and the way she was explaining it made it seem like she was doing it effortlessly.

He wasn't really able to dwell on the thought though, as the bus started clearing out in front of them, meaning they had arrived.

The volunteer work they had to do wasn't hard at all, mostly just tutoring and then playing on the playground with all the kids.

Luckily, he was assigned to the same group of kids as his new bus buddy. The only problem was that his friends weren't. Although, in a way it was probably good that Matt and Sora were getting some time alone together. Sometimes, it was hard to remember that they were a couple, especially with him third-wheeling all the time. And it meant he got to spend some more time with this new girl.

During the classroom portion, Tai couldn't help, but notice how easily Mimi was able to teach the kids. She was bouncing around the room with a smile, helping kids out with math problems, or teaching them how to make some small art crafts.

It was becoming painfully obvious that she was stealing the show as far as the little kids were concerned. When Tai offered to read the group a storybook, no one paid any attention to him at all.

To rub salt in the wound, it was Mimi who was able to hush the children up and gather them around for story time.

"Come on everyone, Tai has a wonderful story that he'd like to read to you all." She said turning and smiling at him.

"Err yeah." He responded, still slightly miffed that she had complete control over these little brats, while they didn't care at all about him.

After reading the story to them, it was finally time for Tai's time to shine. It was gym.

"Alright, so does anyone have suggestions about what we should play?" He asked the kids; secretly praying one of them would answer with soccer.

"Baseball!" Answered some little boy.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but we don't have any bats," Mimi answered. "Anyone else have an idea?"

A few seconds passed, and still no one had answered.

"How about soccer?" Tai suggested, not able to contain himself anymore.

"We don't have any goals though." Mimi shot him down quickly.

"We don't need goals!" He responded. "We can play keep-away."

"How do you play keep away?" One of the little girls asked raising her hand.

"Simple, there's two teams and whichever team has the ball has to make sure the other team doesn't get it. If you step out of bounds your team loses the ball."

"How should we pick teams?" Mimi asked.

"I'll be a captain, and you be the other one."

After the teams were picked, Tai let Mimi start with the ball because he was a gentleman.

As soon as the game started, Tai casually stole the ball from her and began to run circles around her, with her entire team in pursuit.

He was merely toying with them, baiting them into coming close and giving them false hope, before making a slick move and getting away.

All the kids on his team stared in awe. He was feeling really cool, until Mimi made the most devious plan to get the ball from him. Her team surrounded him in a circle and began to close in.

Tai couldn't help, but admire how clever Mimi was. But this was soccer, not something he was going to lose in. As she drew near he flicked the ball over her head to one of the kids on his team.

"No fair! You're just showing off now." Mimi said to him.

"It's called a pass." Tai said with a laugh.

The rest of gym class was spent with the little kids essentially running around trying to get the ball. All in all, it was a huge success for Tai and definitely scored him some points with Mimi.

"I didn't realize you were so good at soccer."

"I'm good at a lot of stuff." He replied, flashing a smile.

"Wow, cocky much?"

"It's not cocky if I can back it up."

"Yeah, whatever show-off."

Unfortunately, after gym class they had to say bye to the little kids. It was time to go to the art museum and then Michigan Avenue for dinner.

The art museum was anything, but Tai's scene. Fortunately, the same was true for Matt and Sora. So he was able to finally catch up with them.

The only problem was that Mimi was genuinely interested in the art, so he had to leave her behind. But it was for the best. At least, she had kept him company up to that point, and he'd see her again on the bus ride back home.

"So why were you late, Tai?" Sora asked as the three of them were sitting on a bench.

"Fifa."

"Typical."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Sora was about to respond, until Matt cut her off.

"Do you guys know that girl over there? The one in the beige?"

"Yeah, her name is Mimi." Tai answered.

"How do you know?" Sora asked curiously.

"She was sitting next to me on the bus."

"What's she like?" She asked, focused on his response.

"Come on Sora, we both know he was probably just sleeping on the bus." Matt said.

"Actually, I'll have you know that I was not sleeping."

"IPod then?" Matt tried.

"No, I was talking to her the whole time."

"And she put up with you?" Matt asked incredulously with a laugh.

"Fuck off."

"Matt, stop teasing him," Sora scolded. "What school does she go to?" She turned back to Tai.

"She doesn't go to one yet. She just moved here from New York City a few weeks ago."

"New York City? Why the hell would she move here?" Matt asked.

"Dad's job."

"That makes sense, what's she like Tai?" Sora pressed on.

"She's cool. I like her. She's got a good sense of humor and she seems interesting enough."

"How'd she join up with the group?" Matt asked.

"Saw a flyer for it somewhere."

"A flyer? That's weird, I would've thought she joined because of someone she knew in the group already." Sora remarked.

"Sor, she doesn't really have any friends here yet."

"No friends? Well, we need to change that." Sora decided on the spot.

"I'll introduce you guys to her soon, but not today. I don't want to scare her off."

"Basically Tai doesn't want her to meet me, because I'd easily steal her from him." Matt tried messing with Tai, but in reality it was Sora that the joke didn't sit too well with.

"You're not single." Sora snarled.

"Sorry, what was that babe? I wasn't really listening. Tai, did you see the ass on that blonde girl?" Matt was clearly trying to push Sora's buttons for some reasons.

"Asshole."

"You know, I'm just kidding." Matt said, before he started tickling her.

"Matt! Stop it!" Sora managed to get out in between laughs as she squirmed in his hold.

It was at this point, that Tai decided to leave his friends to their own devices. They were his two best friends, but it was always awkward for him to be in that position. He just felt like when they acted like a couple, he just didn't belong.

It wasn't that he didn't like them to be a couple he loved it. Especially, because he was the one who had set them up.

Luckily, he caught a break. It was time to head down to Michigan Ave. for food. Once out and at Michigan Avenue, he looked around for any sign of Matt and Sora, but couldn't find them. So he decided to just grab a quick bite at McDonald's when he saw Mimi walking alone.

He quickly caught up to her and decided to ask if she wanted to eat with him.

"Hey Mimi, where you headed? Want to grab a bite?"

"Oh hey… Tim was it?" She asked scrunching up her face as if trying to remember his name.

"You don't remember my name?" He asked, slightly insulted.

"I'm just kidding! Of course I remember your name, Thomas!" She said, laughing and sticking her tongue out at him.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." He responded sarcastically.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"McDonald's probably, unless you'd like to go somewhere else?"

"Oh well, I don't think you'd want to come with me." She said with a laugh.

"Why not?"

"I'm looking for a Starbucks, so I can get croissant and coffee. And I mean you hate coffee, so…"

"Do they have any kind of food there?"

"Their Chicken Santa Fe Panini is really good!"

"Alright, I'll come then. But it better be as good as you say it is."

Once they had arrived, he had to admit the Panini was really good. It was just the coffee part of this place he wasn't sure.

"So what kind do you normally get from here?" He asked.

"Hazelnut mocha, it's so good!"

"What's the difference between a mocha and a coffee?"

As she gave some unnecessarily long answer, Tai had to admit he wasn't even listening. He was too busy just looking at her.

There was no way around it she was beautiful. She had brown hair, big brown eyes, and just an incredibly attractive face.

The key was that she wasn't hot, but beautiful. Her sense of style didn't hurt either; it actually refined her beauty and made her look elegant.

Somewhere along his train of thought, he must've been smiling because suddenly she smiled back and-

"What?"

"Nothing?" He replied.

"You're weird." She said her smile growing wider, before she continued her long soliloquy about the differences between a mocha and coffee, differences that in Tai's head were completely disregardable.

After dinner, the entire group went to the Blue Man Group, which was a lot of fun. In all honesty though, Tai didn't remember too much of it.

The entire time he was freaking out about how he was going to ask Mimi for her number.

At the end of the show, he decided to draw his courage and just ask her straight up.

"So do you have any plans for this week?" He asked.

"Not really, just thought I'd take it by day, why?"

"Well, I know you're new, so I was going to say if you ever want to hang out, I'm usually around."

"Oh, that's really nice of you! I'd love to hang out some time."

"Awesome, can I get your number?"

"Sure." She said with a smile, pulling out a piece of paper from her purse and jotting it down quick, before getting on the bus.

The rest of the night was spent with some light conversation and as time passed, Mimi fell asleep.

This was one of the best days Tai had in a while, but the cherry on top was this:

When Mimi fell asleep, her head managed to find its way onto his left shoulder. And when he fell asleep, his head managed to find its way to rest against her head.

Hey! How'd you guys like it? Please review! Because the way I look at it, when I finish, this is going to be the best story I've written. Simply based on the way it will make you feel. SO YOU BETTER F*CKING REVIEW! That is all. Until next time!