Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or the characters involved in this story.

Author Note: Hey Everyone! Ice again out with a new fanfic! This one I am excited about even though I haven't completely planned it out. The first four chapters of this story are going to be relatively short just to introduce the inner workings and thoughts of the four main characters and there is a lot of background information that you will learn about in later chapters so just hold tight for some of that. Also, every chapter will hopefully be named after a card in the deck or a hand in poker so look out for those too!

IMPORTANT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU READ

This story is set in Season 2/high school era and is set in Japan. Be forewarned!!! I live in the United States so I do not know the school system in Japan. I'm basing this off my own high school and the way it worked so please bear with me on that. Also realize that I do not really know the cities of Japan so as far as where they live and what they do outside of school, I'll try to keep it pretty basic.

Also some warnings: One-sided Yamachi, one-side Jyomi, bashing of Sora (sorry, just don't like her) and other warnings later. For now, enjoy!

Everyone Has A Poker Face

Chapter 1: The Ace

Matt's POV

I watched my father drive away in his beat up piece of crap car and waved not really knowing why. I knew my father wouldn't wave back because that's just the guy he is but I tried my best to keep hope in my life…or at least that's what I was trying to convince myself of as I turned around to face my high school for the third year in a row. I took one last glance back to see my dad turning right onto the main street…I guess now I'm stuck here. Releasing a deep sigh, I readjusted my bag on my shoulder and took my first few steps forward into the place I could not stand.

It was a regular Monday morning at the high school. I strolled in through the front doors and immediately turned left to bypass the crowd that was always gathered in the front lobby. As I gently pushed through the crowd, I recognized a few faces but didn't expect or receive any welcoming responses. To my right, I could see the stairs leading to the second floor and beyond that was the cafeteria but I decided to head there later instead of now. Finally exiting the lobby, I kept walking straight, headed for my locker, and took a good look at the hallways. They looked…pretty much the same; still dull, still ugly, still needed a major paint job. The classrooms I passed were empty other than teachers writing on blackboards and setting up for their first classes of the day; I hadn't even looked at my class schedule yet to be honest. I had finally reached my locker and I quickly opened it and threw any unimportant stuff I had in my bag inside the metal enclosure. I closed and locked it before turning and walking back towards the cafeteria. As I passed people by, they were hugging and screaming with smiles on their faces; did I mention it was the first day of school?

I entered the cafeteria and found another giant mass of grinning joyous people. Rolling my eyes at their over-abundant happiness, I made my way to my usual table where I found my best friend already sitting and waiting for me.

Joe Kido looked up from his book as I sat in the chair next to him. He adjusted his glasses and smiled at me. He, of course, was dressed in the same school uniform as I was; green blazer, white collared shirt, beige slacks and closed-toe shoes. I tossed my bag on the table and leaned back in my chair trying my best to get comfortable.

"Hey Matt."

"Hey Joe, what's up?" I smiled back at him as he put down his book. Joe shrugged and I could tell that he had something up his sleeve.

"Oh you know the usual; reading ahead, listening in on people's extremely loud conversations, popping Aspirin because of said conversations and, well, freaking out." I rolled my eyes at my over reactive friend and leaned forward with my elbows on the table.

"Joe, we've been here two years now. I thought you would be over first day jitters and fears, I mean, it's just high school." Joe threw his hands up in the air full of misplaced frustration.

"But we're juniors now! This is the most important year…the one that college's look at in deep detail! What am I going to do? I'll never make it!" I laughed a little as Joe put his head down on the table, sighing heavily. He looked up at me again as I spoke.

"Joe, would you quit worrying? Other then that Koushiro kid that graduated like three years early, you're pretty much the smartest guy in the school. If you just do what you do every year, you're going to get good grades and you'll get into medical school." I smiled, as Joe's face still had fear written all over it as he sighed deeply and slouched his shoulders. "I mean, you barely even break a sweat doing work, not like me. You find it interesting but I can't stand it! Besides, it's only the first day so you know that means that all it's going to be are introductions and going over the syllabus and…Joe?"

I trailed off as Joe's attention strayed away from my pep talk. Following his gaze I should've known what, or shall I say whom, had caught his eye. Mimi Tachikawa. She was the perfect height and weight, not too tan, hot pink hair, was head cheerleader and dressed with all the latest trends, outside of school of course. Everybody knew her and everybody loved her but only jocks have the chance to date her and still Joe has had a crush on this girl ever since she talked to him one time when he was eight. At the current moment, she was standing and talking with her closest friend Sora. Sora was relatively the same height and weight as Mimi but had red hair and was famous for being one of the dumbest people in the school. She was kind of like Mimi's sidekick and could be pretty in her own way but mostly she was just flat out rude which annoyed the hell out of me; but I digress. Taking a glance back at Joe now, I could almost see the drool falling from his lips; I shook my head and chuckled a bit. Can we say obsessive? However, when it comes to being obsessive over someone, I have no room to talk. As I turned back to see if Mimi had noticed Joe's blanked out face staring at her, I saw him and my mind immediately melted like butter on a hot day. He was walking across the cafeteria, a huge smile on his face as he approached his buddies and gave them high fives.

Taichi Kamiya, the two most beautiful words ever spoken. If you want to talk about perfect, that was the only word to describe him. He had perfectly toned skin, an amazingly built body that even looked sexy in our bland uniforms, that kind of crazy brown hair you just wanted to run your fingers through, facial features to die for…oh, need I go on? And to top it all off, he was head of the soccer team so everybody loves him. I had always had weird thoughts about boys when I was younger but the moment I saw him, I knew I was gay and I have been head over heels ever since. As I began to daydream, I heard Joe chuckling next to me.

"Matt, you're drooling." I was shaken from my trance by Joe's joking voice and I rolled my eyes.

"Please, not as badly as you are."

"What?!" I laughed to myself as Joe freaked out and frantically wiped his mouth thinking that I was serious. Even though he was kind of a spaz, I always felt lucky to have Joe as my friend. He is the only person that knows about my crush on Tai and he still accepts me for who I am, and, after a while, you just can't help but learn to love him; but again, I digress.

So, of course, Joe and I were both totally madly in love with the two most popular kids at our school who would never even notice us if we were in giant bunny suits with huge fluffy white tails singing Christmas music in the middle of March. Yet, here we were still staring them down as though they might turn our way and smile or wave as if we were all old friends. Our dreams were crushed though as the school bell rang out and everyone began to scurry along to their appointed classrooms. I turned back to Joe and we both shook our heads at our behavior. I chuckled and spoke.

"Hey, it's a new year, you never know, right?" Joe just scoffed at that and started gathering up his things.

"I hate to say this Matt but I'm pretty sure that those dreams will never happen." While I mostly agreed with him, I had to question my best friend's logic for reasons only the two of us knew.

"I dunno Joe, I mean, miracles have happened to us before, have they not?" I smiled to my friend and he took a pensive moment for himself before confidently grinning back at me.

"That's true. That really was a miracle."

"And look where we are now." I patted Joe on the back as we both started to walk towards the hallways.

"So I've got literature class first, what class do you start with?" At Joe's question, I pulled out my assigned schedule to check and then stopped in my tracks, groaning in utter disappointment. Joe stopped with me and glanced over my shoulder. When he chuckled, I knew he had read what it was.

"I thought that you were done with history classes." I sighed and we started walking again.

"I thought that I was too but apparently not. Ugh, this is so stupid. I hate history." As Joe and I approached the stairwell, we stopped, as I knew he had to go upstairs to the second floor and I would remain on the bottom floor. Joe smiled at me and smacked me on the back lightly.

"Don't worry Matt; I can help you out again. Just try and pay attention this time around." I rolled my eyes at him and began to walk away.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll try. But hey, have a good first day and I'll see you during lunch, alright?" Joe nodded to me and waved good-bye before bounding up the stairs. I took one last moment to myself before looking back down at my schedule and groaning again. In the past two years, I had taken history and too much of it if you ask me but here I was again signed up for what I hoped to be my last history class.

"What is this class about anyway?" I mumbled to myself trying to find the description for the class. "The history of Asia…maybe this won't be so bad after all. I do live here somewhat." I shrugged to myself and found the room number before turning and trudging my unhappy butt down the hall.

I rolled my eyes at the various couples making out outside classroom doors. They really just need a room in the school for that sort of thing. From there my mind drifted to a dreamy make-out session of my own which included Tai and some definite tongue action. I tried to shake the image from my mind and told myself that it would never happen. Not only would Tai never notice me, even if he did, he's not gay so it would never work. No matter how much I thought about our perfect little life together, I knew it was only a dream…but then again…dreaming can't hurt right? I smiled deviously to myself and drifted back into my thoughts but before I knew it, the tardy bell was ringing. I cursed under my breath and realized that I had actually already passed by my classroom. Power-walking back down the hall, I finally reached my classroom just in time for everyone to stare up at me as I walked in cheeks red from embarrassment. Naturally, I chose a seat more towards the back of the room and sat down.

"Well, Mr. Ishida, finally decided to join us this morning?" I looked to my professor and flashed an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry Ms. Kim. It won't happen again, I hope." She gave me a look and I just kept up my smile. Fortunately, for me, I'd had this teacher before for a previous history class so she already knew all of my antics. She and I actually went way back considering I was failing the first class I had with her and my dad never came to the parent-teacher conferences so she had to tell me everything. I knew that she wouldn't give me a detention this time around but next time, my butt was hers. Eventually she rolled her eyes at me and began addressing the entire class about how reading our book was important to pass the class. I released a sigh and opened up my notebook ready to take notes…or maybe sleep.

I knew this was going to be a long day.

End

Please know, just like my other current Digimon story "Discovering College", this story will be continued based on reviews! I need feedback to get motivated even if you review with a simple "good job, keep it up" that makes my day completely. I try to review every story I read and I hope that you will do the same!

Go check out some of my other stories too.

Thank you for reading! Contact me if you have any questions etc.