I made the prequel to my Holiday shots. Sorry for it being short, but it would have ended up as a really short novel if I made more to it, which is why I ended it the way it did.
So far, it was a normal morning. The sun was shining, the azure sky cloudless. No threats to the Digital World as of yet. But things were missing.
Yolei, for instance, was missing.
"Where the heck is Yolei?" asked Davis irritably, his brows furrowed over his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. Kari shook her head at the boy, marveling at how alike he was to her older brother. "Yolei's pen pal from America arrived yesterday to board here," she answered. "Yolei sent out an email to all of us to let us know she'll be showing her around school."
"How do you know her pen pal's a girl?" Davis looked at Kari, raising one of his furrowed brows in question.
"She's all Yolei talked about, Davis," T.K said, rolling his eyes. "You need to pay attention a little more."
"We should get in class," Cody said. "The bell's going to ring soon."
The Digi-Destined walked to their class, taking their seats right when Yolei showed up, her face flushed with excitement. Behind her stood a girl with long, black hair streaked with purple, wearing a black shirt, jeans, and gym shoes. Her brown eyes flickered around the classroom, curious.
"Yolei," their teacher droned. "Is this our new exchange student?"
"Yes!" Yolei exclaimed, her eyes bright behind her glasses as she grabbed the girl's arm and tugged her in. "This is Tasha!"
Tasha looked around the classroom again, this time her eyes wide, before she looked to Yolei. Yolei gave a small nod and Tasha bowed politely. "Her Japanese isn't very good," Yolei explained to the teacher.
"That's fine." For some reason, this teacher really didn't care either way.
Yolei grinned and tugged Tasha toward the empty seat beside Yolei's desk. Why Tasha let her was probably because her Japanese wasn't so good so Yolei may not know exactly what she met. The language barrier had to come down sometime.
"Yolei," Kari whispered to the purple-haired girl. "You had your pen pal brought over here without teaching her things in Japanese first."
"We got it figured out," Yolei whispered back. "Tasha's friend is in the high school building and she understands Japanese. She'll be able to translate!"
The day seemed to fly by. In the high school, Tai stretched his arms, hearing his joints pop. "That quiz took forever!" he said.
"It'd help if you had studied like you were supposed to," chided Izzy, shaking his head at his friend. Matt stood between them, shaking his own head. "You study way too much, brainiac," he said.
"Matt's right," Tai said before he felt himself crash into someone. He fell back with a yelp and he felt Matt grab his arm to haul him back up. "Dude, you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Tai looked to see whom he ran into and paled.
It was the exchange student. She looked down at herself for injuries, even going as far as lifting her shirt halfway up her torso to check for bruising, before pushing herself to her feet. "I'm sorry," Tai hurried to say, hoping this wasn't the grudge-holding type of girl. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," she said, her Japanese halting and unsure. She raised her dark brown eyes to look at Tai, curiously. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Tai was surprised at how she was taking being toppled over. She nodded with a careless shrug. "Yeah. It happens."
"You're not hurt?"
"No blood, no foul. Had there been, I assure you, we'd be taking this outside." She beamed a smile before turning and skipping off, leaving the three boys to stare after her.
"That girl was weird," Matt assessed.
"In what regard?" asked Izzy.
"What girl do you know takes being mowed down that well?"
"I admit that her behavior was...er-"
"Weird," Tai said bluntly.
"Okay, weird," Izzy sighed. "But at least she didn't punch you, Tai."
"I was expecting her to do that, actually," said Tai, shrugging. "Anyway, let's go."
"Guys, this is Tasha!" Yolei thrust Tasha in the middle of the group. Kari smiled warmly. "Hi, Tasha, nice to meet you!" she exclaimed.
"Hi," Tasha smiled back, her Japanese accented. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm Davis!" Davis grinned, jabbing his thumb to his chest.
"I'm T.K," T.K said, with a smile. He gestured to Cody. "This is Cody."
"Hi." Cody waved. Tasha waved back, her smile in place. "Nice to meet all of you."
"Anyway, Tasha and I are going to tour Odaiba once Angi shows up!" Yolei said.
"Angi?" asked Davis, looking at his friend.
"Tasha's friend."
"Oh."
"Someone talking about me?" asked a mildly curious voice and a girl with mid-length hair walked toward the group. She wrapped her arms around Tasha in a hug. Tasha looked amused. "Ang, these are Yolei's friends."
"Practicing our Japanese, ne?" Angi laughed. "Nice to meet you all! So," she looked to Tasha, "having fun yet?"
"Yep," Tasha said, grinning mischievously.
"How about you, Angi, how are you settling?" asked Yolei.
"I got ran over by a big-haired brunette who started spazzing and reminded me of Sideshow Bob on amphetamines," answered Angi with a shrug.
"Big haired brunette?" Kari asked in concern.
"About ye-high, brown eyes, really anti-gravitational hairdo." Angi raised her hand a few inches above her own tiny height.
T.K laughed. "Probably Kari's brother, Tai!" he said.
"Eh? Like a necktie? Or a bow tie?" Both girls looked at T.K, their expression so similar, it was like they were a weird set of fraternal twins.
"No, no, his name is Tai," Cody said. "Although I can see how it makes no sense to you."
"Language barriers," Davis muttered.
"Oi, I know enough Japanese to know when someone is being snarky." Angi stuck out her tongue before reaching out and snapping Davis's goggles. Davis recoiled, blinking in shock. "The heck was that for?"
"Say hell like a normal teen, please."
"Why?"
"Because you're too innocent."
"Down, Angi," Tasha laughed, shaking her head. "Don't spread your influence everywhere."
Suddenly, a shrill beeping rang out through the group. "Ah, we gotta go," Davis said. Yolei looked at the girls apologetically. "We gotta go, you two. You guys can find your way back to my place, right?" she asked.
"Yeah," Tasha said.
"Great!" Yolei beamed as the group ran back to the school, Angi and Tasha staring after them. The minute they disappeared inside, Tasha looked at her older friend. "Why are they going back to the school?" she asked.
"Very suspicious," Angi answered, nodding.
"What say we do a little Sherlock Holmesing?"
"Mmm, Downey Jr…"
"Focus, woman!"
"All right, all right. Let's go."
It took about an hour, maybe more, to quell the threat the Digimon Emperor when the Digi-Destined ran to reach the gate before it closed. Three…two…one—
A chorus of groans rang in the air as the Destined ended up in a tangle of limbs on the computer room floor. "Ow," Davis groaned in pain. "Someone's twisting my arm…"
"I think your arm is on my pelvis," Tai muttered in pain. "Matt, I think you need to move your hip out of my stomach."
"That's not my hip," Matt replied, trying to disentangle himself.
"Then who's in my gut?"
"Probably my foot," Yolei said.
The door to the computer room slid open and then—
"Either this is some messed-up orgy or we just interrupted something," said a female voice.
All eyes went to the door and they were shocked to see Angi and Tasha standing there, expressions of complete shock on their face.
"I saw them come out of the computer. Did you?" Tasha asked.
"I did."
"What should we do?"
"Run like hell?"
"Indeed."
And they both turned tails and ran. With grace known only to the Digi-Destined, they pulled themselves free and bolted after the foreign girls. Davis let out a bellow like a wild bull and lunged for a tackled Angi to the ground.
"ASSAULT!" she screamed, striking her left fist into Davis's face. Davis flew back with a yell, covering his bleeding nose. Tasha went to her friend and hauled her to her feet before Yolei cried out. "Wait, wait!"
They both stopped, panting for breaths, looking hard at the Digi-Destined. "We can explain," Yolei said, raising her hands in a form of surrender. Or goodwill. Whichever.
"How can you explain?" asked Tasha. "We just saw you guys fall out of a computer screen! The hell is with that?!"
"…Okay, it might take more than a few minutes to explain."
"Yolei!"
"Look," Matt said stepping out from the group. "Maybe we should go somewhere and explain this in full."
"There's a place that has pie where we can go," said Kari.
"Did you say pie?" Angi asked, perking up. Tasha exhaled a breath.
"Are you kidding right now?"
"Couldn't hurt to hear them out."
Tasha looked at Kari with resignation. "You just had to say pie."
"So you're all Digi-Destined with these creatures called Digimon and you go to the Digital World and battle this dude known as the Digimon Emperor," Tasha said, her elbows on the table. Angi sat beside Tasha, eating a pumpkin pie with whipped cream had a thoughtful look on her face as she kept the spoon in her mouth.
"You're taking this rather well," said T.K.
Tasha looked at Angi, who gave a brisk nod and took the spoon out of her mouth and tapped the bottom of the spoon against the table. "It's not that we're taking this well. We're believers of the strange and unusual. There's a difference," she said.
Tai rolled his eyes. "And yet you completely bolted at the sight of our-"
"Possible orgy."
"No."
Angi smirked at the brunette before continuing on her pie. Tasha rolled her eyes. "Dork."
"Ah, you love me for it."
"Yeah, yeah." Tasha looked to the Digi-Destined. "So what's the deal? You guys go into the Digital World through the computer?"
"That's right," Kari said. "And there's more of us too, you know. Tai and Matt here were one of the first Digi-Destined."
"There're more of you? You guys are like a friggin' cult!" Angi laughed, plopping her head on Tasha's shoulder.
"Why is that funny?" asked Matt.
"She's laughing at our lives," sighed Tasha.
"No, honey, I'm laughing at our luck, it sucks so bad!"
"Scratch that, it's our luck."
"I mean it's not that bad. Besides, you'll get to meet the rest of us!" Yolei giggled.
"Do we have to?" moaned Tasha.
"Not social, are you?" asked Cody.
"Only when we don't witness anything as weird as-"
"A huge tangle of limbs in questionable positions," Angi cut in.
"Oh, would you give it a rest!"
"All right, all right, I'm done."
"Matt called it," Tai said, pointing at Angi. "You're weird."
Angi stood up with a smile and walked over to Tai before knuckling his forehead. "It's rude to point, asshole~" she sang before bouncing back to Tasha. At the others' blank stare, she continued in a less singsong-y voice. "Can we go now or would you like me to help you extract your feet from your mouths?"
Yolei stood up. "You're right. This was a lot for you two to absorb, so let's get home," she said.
"Thank you. I bought a copy of The Little Mermaid and I wanna watch it dubbed in Japanese," Angi said.
"Are you serious?" Tasha laughed.
"Woman, I am dead serious. I wanna hear Part of Your World in Japanese! Let's go!"
"Note to self: restrain from buying any more Disney movies."
"Eat me."
"This doesn't change anything, does it?" asked Yolei.
"Are you kidding? This is the best weird shit we've ever encountered!" Tasha exclaimed.
"That tears it, they're both nuts," commented Davis.
"Just remember I did punch you, junior," Angi chided with a grin. Yolei grabbed the older girl by the arm gently. "Let's go," she said.
Tasha and Angi waved at the rest of the Digi-Destined as Yolei lead them out of the café. Kari was the one who made the first comment.
"At least they didn't think we were crazy."
"Kari," Tai sighed, "you should know that this is a huge thing, telling a couple of outsiders everything. What makes you sure we can trust them?"
"There's no proof that they're untrustworthy," said Matt. "And if they already believe in weird stuff, than this is just like eating a sandwich to them."
"Hey, Yolei?" Tasha asked as the three girls walked to Yolei's apartment.
"Hm?" Yolei looked at the younger American girl.
"That older blonde, Matt. He's cute," Tasha commented.
"Tasha," Angi sighed as though dealing with a child (and that's saying something), "we did not come to Japan to find manfriends."
"Besides, Matt's dating Sora," Yolei added. "He's off the market."
"Shame," said Tasha, her hands behind her back. "We would've had fun together, playing video games or whatever couple-y things couples do."
"You're hilarious."
"I know. Now, let's have a Disney movie bonanza that can help us improve on our Japanese!"
"You and I both know that we'll only be singing the songs in Japanese, Tasha!" laughed Angi as the three girls entered Yolei's apartment for the night.
After the awkward encounter, the two girls became the closest confidantes of the Digi-Destined for the rest of their lives.