Tai stared out of the window of the bus, releasing a sigh. And then a groan. The evergreen trees whipped by, the yellow bus in a losing race against the other cars. Time seemed unmovingly still, and the bus was not even half way to camp. The absentminded chitchat of the other kids soothed Tai just a little bit. He listened to the steady hum of words. A harmonica was playing, too. It was nice. But Tai was still inevitably bored out of his mind. There seemed to be nothing to do.
"Sora, I'm bored." Tai whined to the redhead next to him. Sora had fiery red hhair, a little Eskimo hat, and fair skin. One of Tai's best friends, by far. Sora shot Tai a dirty look as he kicked her legs. Kari, who was on the other side of Sora just giggled at Tai's antics, only stopping when Tai chose her as his next target for attacking. Kari gave out a little whine, as she suffered three torrent of attacks from her older brother. She muttered something under her breath, but Tai smoothly ignored it.
"I have a deck of Uno cards, you, Kari, and T.K could play that." Sora offered. Tai brightened, as Sora passed out the cards. "I'm dealer." She announced. T.K, who was next to Kari slumped down a bit in his seat, clearly disappointed. He was always the dealer. Well, when he and his older brother played anyways. Tai didn't know if that was true. Only Kari had met T.K's 'amazing' older brother, but Kari loved him, so Tai figured that he was a good guy. Kari was a good judge of character, as was T.K. Kids in general were.
T.K won the game. At that point, Kari had five cards, Tai with a whooping twelve. Sora had snickered for about five minutes, wearing a smirk. Tai swore she was pure evil. That redhead... Tai would get her back one of these days.
Tai lost the game, ending with just one card left. He felt like screaming, but caught Sora reshuffling the cards casually. "I want a rematch!" He declared, sending his little sister Kari and T.K the stink-eye. T.K and Kari burst into giggles, that seems to echo throughout the bus. Tai's ears burned. He huffed, and gave out a little whine, not unlike Kari's earlier. "You people are so rude." He huffed, crossing his arms.
Tai didn't win. Well, at least he didn't lose this time around. Kari had emerged victorious, her smile shining. She beamed down at T.K, and he beamed back. Tai could've sworn that he room got brighter just then.
He stopped beaming when he lost to Tai. But he was so cute, Tai couldn't help but hug him. A girl with reddish hair and a pink dress cooed at the sight. Tai's face was similar to that of an apple's. But redder. Sora simply wolf-whistled at the sight, as she and that girl up front exchanged glances. Mimi, if Tai remembered right.
Rematch a after rematch occurred, until a half hour later, they finally arrived at camp. Tai had helped T.K steal the card game. Kari had simply walked away, not bothering. Plus, she was a terrible liar.
Sora had caught them in the act, but T.K puppy-dog eyed her, stating that "I want to play with Yama!" Sora had sighed, and simply nodded. She bent over to whisper something in T.K's ear, and he nodded. They hooked pinkies as a pinky promise, and T.K ran rot meet his brother.
"I struck a deal with him." Sora told Tai as they headed towards their cabin. Tai perked up, the question in his eyes. Sora continued on, no longer focused on the map. "I would let T.K take the cards, if we played a game of Uno with eight people, including us and T.K's older brother.
Tai nodded, taking in the information. He snatched the map from Sora's hands, staring at it, clearly confused. "So... When will this event be taking place?" Tai asked absentmindedly. He turned the map around. Sora laughed heartily at Tai's inability to read maps.
"Today, after lunch in our 'Free Time' block." Sora told him casually. "Gimme the map." She ordered. Tai followed, until Sora's words registered in his brain.
Tai's jaw fell open. "B-but Sora!" He complained. "That's when we were gonna do the soccer tournament!" Sora shushed Tai, holding up a finger.
"Nope." She chirped. "I canceled our registration." Sora walked on ahead calmly, while Tai was fuming. One could practically see the steam coming off of his ears.
"Tai? Sora?" A voice broke Tai's stupor. The voice trailed off, cracking oh so slightly. It sounded a lot like Kari to Tai...
"KARI! They screamed in sync, sprinting back.