"I need to change my look," Kari mentioned to her partner Gatomon.
"Why? You look fine," Gatomon replied.
"People need to update themselves every once and a while, and I am getting a little tired of this outfit," Kari had a few of the same outfit, she had loved it so much, so bought one for every day of the week. She had dresses and other things for special occasions, but she liked this now. Plus, she figured it would get her used to wearing the same thing every day, as the high school had uniforms they had to wear.
After a while though, more than half the school year, she suddenly had the urge to change.
"Maybe I can dye my hair? Pink would be cute," she commented, mostly to herself.
"You'd look like cotton candy," Gatomon answered laughing.
"Maybe I'd like to look like cotton candy," Kari stuck her tongue out at her friend, "Let's go shopping!"
Kari and Gatomon headed off to the mall. Finally, they decided on a black skirt with a purple shirt.
"It's a lot darker than I normally wear, but it is really cute," Kari commented walking home.
"You do look great in it," Gatomon mentioned.
Kari noticed a beauty store nearby, "Let's look at hair dye."
Kari had never dyed her hair before, but she had wanted to try it. Her mom had done it a few times so she had an idea of what to do.
"What about red?" Kari asked.
"Depends on the shade, you don't want to look like a balloon," Gatomon declared.
Finally Kari decided on a purple color, burgundy, "It will match my new outfit."
"I'm not sure anyone will recognize you," Gatomon confessed.
"Maybe I'll throw a little makeup on too. We could make it a game," Kari suggested, "see how long they go without recognizing me."
"I doubt you could fool TK," Gatomon voiced.
"We'll see," Kari said, taking this as a challenge.
When they got home, she dyed her hair. She was careful not to get the dye anywhere but her hair. She left it on for a couple hours. After she showered and dried her hair, she looked at herself. Her hair looked black. She rechecked the directions, "It says only leave it on one hour. I thought it said two…"
She styled it though and ended up liking it, "Again, it's not my normal, but at least it still matches my outfit."
The next morning Kari and Gatomon got up for school. Kari put on her black skirt. She also found some fishnet stockings she had for a costume. She then put on the purple shirt, which was flowy and had a green heart on the front. After that, she put on a necklace and make up. She had on dark eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, and a deep purple lipstick.
Kari came out of the bathroom, "What do you think?" Gatomon had to do a double take.
"Are you even still Kari?" Gatomon asked.
"Of course, silly. I really like this look. I'm glad I tried something different," Kari mentioned.
Tai had come home late, so he hadn't seen her hair before. When she went into the living room he was shocked, "Kari? You look like you dressed up for Halloween," he laughed.
"Do you really hate it?" she asked, trusting her brother's opinion.
"It actually looks really good, I just don't see the Kari I expected. But, it's never bad to have multiple sides and looks to you," he said honestly.
"Thanks big brother," she hugged him, and went off to school. Gatomon stayed away from Kari to not give away her identity. Kari was serious about seeing how long it took for them to notice.
She had been running a bit late, so she didn't end up running into her friends on the way. Once there, she stopped at her locker, which was far from most of her friends. She walked past her group of friends and overheard TK, "I wonder where Kari is today, I haven't seen her yet."
Kari smiled and laughed to herself. Some of her classes had no friends, so she didn't have to worry in those. The other ones didn't have call out attendance, and the teachers didn't end up calling on her, so she got through those. Some people gave her weird looks though thinking she was a new student.
"She must be sick today, but normally she lets me know if she's staying home," Kari overheard Yolei talking.
The end of the day came, and they still didn't realize who she was. The group was meeting up after school in the digital world.
Ken was already there when Kari arrived.
"Hey Kari!" He yelled as she walked towards him.
"Glad someone recognized me today," Kari replied and told him about no one recognizing her.
"Well, I understand wanting to change looks," he said, referring to his digimon emperor outfit. He then pointed out, "Yolei, Davis and Cody all change their looks when they come here, so they should understand if you want to change your looks out there," he said to give her some confidence.
The group finally arrived.
"Wait, is that Kari?" Davis asked walking closer.
"Whoa, I think it is," Yolei replied.
"It is Kari," Cody noticed.
"Kari, why didn't you say hi? We were starting to get worried about you," TK admitted.
"She wanted to see how long it took for you to recognize her. I don't think any of you noticed her," Gatomon confessed.
"Some people thought I was a new student," Kari laughed.
"You really do look good though," Yolei said sitting down next to her.
"She's pretty," Veemon whispered to Davis who blushed and nodded.
"I've known you for years now and you're my best friend, whatever you want to wear, you look amazing in," TK confessed to her.
Kari was glad she had such caring friends who would accept her no matter her choices, even if it is only and outfit and hair change.