Chemistry:

Chapter 1: Choices:

A/N: Originally, I named each chapter after a chemical reaction… Then, I realized how stupid it sounded, and I went back to my normal naming style.

Kari Kamiya hesitated in front of her high school. It was the day of the school dance, and she almost wanted to simply turn around and walk home. She was almost certain that T.K, the boy she crushed on, wouldn't ask her out, and that Davis, who… well, she wasn't really sure what she felt about Davis anymore, would. Davis had changed. He'd used to be annoying, immature, and… well, he wouldn't leave her alone. He'd grown up a lot, though. He'd gone from being a nuisance to being a friend she could rely on. He was probably more reliable than T.K, although she chose to rely on T.K, because… well, she had a crush on him.

She sighed, pushed the door open, and saw T.K flirting with some random girl. She felt a surge of jealousy and hatred run through her… T.K never seemed to notice her anymore. He'd become too absorbed in his popularity to talk to Kari, who wasn't hated by the other kids at school, nor really liked. She wasn't really noticed at all.

Unlike T.K, she wasn't good looking. She wasn't clever. She wasn't funny. She wasn't something of a star at sports, or at anything, for that matter. You had to be special to be noticed, and she wasn't special.

But he was. And he ENJOYED it. He reveled in his newfound popularity, and spent less time with her as a result. He still spent some time with her, although rarely publicly, and so she was stuck with Davis. Davis, who wasn't annoying anymore, but still wasn't T.K… Who, Kari admitted to herself, she liked partly because he was something special. Because he was something fantastic and amazing and heroic… and that because she liked him, she tried DESPERATLY to overcome the fact that much of his bravado and showiness was hollow. It wasn't what T.K. was like away from others, nor was it what he had ever been away from others. He was insecure to an extent, and this power was his way of coping.

If T.K lived a lie, Davis lived the truth… And told it. A little too much, perhaps, but he told the truth. He was willing to tell you what he really thought if you asked him, even if that was 'That has to be the dumbest idea I have EVER heard.' He'd gone from the back of the class to being taking a few honors classes, and while he was still athletic, he spent less time working out, and more time doing his work. He dreamed of opening a business. It was so different from what he once was, that Kari had trouble remembering that she didn't have to avoid Davis.

Davis often noticed that she was avoiding him, but rather than following her, he just left her alone… She knew he still liked her, and he made that clear on odd occasions, perhaps just to show that, if she ever changed her mind, he was there, but he wasn't actively hitting on her anymore.

Deep in thought, Kari bumped into another girl in the hallway, who dropped her books in surprise.

"Sorry!" Kari said, promptly trying to help the girl pick up her books.

She noticed that a third person had stopped to help, and after all of the random textbooks and novels and random sheets of notebook paper were picked up, the girl thanked her, and she was turned to the third person, knowing exactly who it was.

"Hello, Davis." She said, smiling.

"Good morning, Kari." He said, smiling in response, and pausing for a moment before continuing, "You're probably going to say no, but I wanted to ask anyway… Do you want to go to the dance with me?"

She'd known it was coming. And she'd made her decision, "Sure."

T.K wasn't going to ask anyway and Davis… Well, Davis was nice, he was cute… She didn't feel half as strongly for him as she did for T.K, but she did having feelings for him.

"Uh… Cool." Davis said, taken off guard slightly, "Well then, I'll see you there."

And with that, he left Kari, who was still thinking over the day, and hoping that she was right about T.K NOT asking… It would be awkward if he asked… She'd say that she wished she could, and that next time he should ask again, but that this time she already had a date. But really, he might still take that wrong. Well, she'd ask him if he asked her. But she knew it was irrelevant.

He had no feelings for her, and she knew that. The thought was depressing, even though she had an almost equally good boyfriend anyway.

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T.K. Takashi frowned. He didn't have a date for the upcoming dance… He could ask another random cute girl, but really, he knew he was going to have to ask the girl he really cared about.

The one girl who he wasn't sure who the answer would be: Kari Kamiya. He'd been avoiding her, hoping the crush would pass and they could be just friends, because really, he didn't want to risk the friendship, his one chance to be him was when he was around her, something he valued deeply. He didn't want to be who everyone else wanted him to be all the time and he couldn't do it unless he could let it all go occasionally.

But the crush hadn't passed, and he was faced with a crux:

Risk the friendship because she would feel awkward or they would break up, and ask her, or risk the friendship because she would be angry because he was avoiding her, and think it was because he didn't think highly of her, like some of his friends… and like how he acted around some of his friends who hated her. He'd sworn to himself he'd stop that, but somehow, he just found himself agreeing with them.

He laughed as he imagined their faces when they found out he had a crush on her, and someone in the hallway looked at him like he was crazy. He ignored them, and continued on to his first class, sitting down right next to Kari.

"What's up with you today?" She asked, looking slightly suspicious of him, "You NEVER sit next to me in class."

"Kari, I have a question."

"What."

"Would you like to go to the dance with me today?"

"T.K…" She paused, "I'd love to, but I can't."

"Why?" He asked, "Doing something else?"

"No, going with someone else already… next time, T.K." She said it like a promise rather than like a maybe.

"Why don't you just cancel on him?" He asked, not asking who 'he' was. He figured he knew, it was probably Davis.

"It wouldn't be fair to Davis, you know that." She said, making it very clear that she knew he'd guessed who it was.

"Yeah, I guess not. Well, next time then."

"Next time" She agreed.