Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon and all that jazz, but I did create Ezra, along with several digivolutions to appear in the story.
Ezra sighed and looked up at the clock again. About two minutes had passed since the last time she looked at it, but it seemed like an eternity. Why did she have to have math as her last class, when she was already tired of school by the time she got to her last class? Having math last just seemed to make it go by even slower than even such a horrible subject as math should. Sure, she didn't know what she wanted to do when she grew up, but she already knew for sure she wouldn't need to know the quadratic formula. Still, as much as she hated it, Ezra was a math whiz. Actually, she was pretty good in all her subjects, which was why her father had put her in all advanced classes this year. She didn't exactly mind, it kept her from getting too bored, but she hated the jealous looks she often got from her classmates. Sighing, she turned her head away from the clock to stare out the window, and was surprised to see tiny snowflakes drifting down to the schoolyard. It was mid January, but snow in her town was rare. It was usually too warm. Too bad she wouldn't have time to enjoy it. As soon as she finished school, her father was sending her to spend Christmas with her relatives in Tokyo. She let out a long sigh at the thought. It had been two years since she had last visited, and six years since they had moved to the states. Her Japanese was very rusty, as she usually only heard it when she was being scolded for something. Her aunt and uncle- her father's brother were nice enough, in fact, they were some of the nicest people you could meet, but the last time she talked to her cousin, who was a year older than her, she had spent the remainder of the day hiding in a linen closet in tears. And as luck would have it, he was the only one in the household who spoke any English.
"Ezra, could you tell us the answer to problem twenty four?" Her teacher interrupted her thoughts, apparently hoping to catch her daydreaming. She glanced at the problem on the board and promptly answered.
"Forty two, Mr. Matthews." She answered promptly, much to her teacher's disappointment. He sighed, and turned back to the board and prattled on for a few more moments before the final bell of the day finally rang, and Ezra rose from her seat slowly. Though she was usually first out the door to flee from what she considered to be a modern day torture chamber, today she was one of the last. As she saw it, it was just from one undesirable situation to the next. Now she got to go finish packing, then go to the airport, go through the crowded security checkpoints, and spend twelve or so hours on a flight to people she could barely remember, and hardly understand.
Much to her surprise, Ezra managed to fall asleep on the plane, somewhere between the cold imitation chicken, and the cheesy Disney movie, and didn't wake up until her ears began popping from the change in air pressure due to the landing approach. She picked her head up, and stretched out the kinks in her neck that formed from sleeping slouched against the window and yawned. The flight attendant over the loudspeaker was saying something in Japanese, and Ezra concentrated hard to pick up what she was saying. She was still working out a few words in her head when the woman repeated what she had just said in English.
"Please make sure all seat belts are fastened and your tray tables are in the locked and upright position."
Ezra let out another long sigh, as she rested her head on her hand, and stared out the window, which she realized, was something she did fairly often.
"Just makes the time pass faster I suppose." She thought to herself. It worked, because it seemed to Ezra that in only a few minutes, the plane was on the ground and she had her pocket dictionary out, trying to read the signs that didn't have English translations written below them. Which, it seemed, was most of the important looking ones. Although she took a little longer than most of her fellow passengers, she made it to the correct baggage claim, and waited for her bag, which was already circulating on the track, waiting for her. She retrieved it, and walked towards the car rental facility, where it had been arranged, that she would meet her aunt. Ezra pulled off her watch to set the time as she sat down on an empty bench. It wasn't long before the somewhat familiar face of her aunt appeared in the sea of people going about their business. A smile spread across her face as she spotted Ezra, and even Ezra, who felt pretty determined to stay sullen, couldn't help but grin as she was wrapped in a tight hug.
"Oh Ezra, you've grown so much! How have you been? How was your flight?" Ezra was relieved that her aunt seemed to know she might have trouble understanding, and spoke slow and clear.
"I'm fine Aunt Risa, and the flight was fine, I slept most of the way"
"That's good, oh let me get your bag for you dear, you must be tired of lugging it all around the airport." Her aunt reached out a hand to take the suitcase, and Ezra let her take it as she shouldered her backpack once more and followed Risa out towards the parking lot. They walked through what seemed to be an endless sea of cars before they finally reached their car. Risa opened the small trunk and hefted Ezra's suitcase inside while Ezra climbed into the front seat and set her bag down at her feet. Risa got in and started the car, and no sooner had they left the parking lot was Ezra attacked with waves of questions about how she was doing, and what her friends were like. Ezra stuck to short, easy answers, preferring yes and no whenever possible, but it felt good to know that she was actually wanted around for the holidays. By her aunt anyways.
The questions continued until they pulled into a parking garage next to an apartment complex Ezra didn't recognize.
"Did you move?" She asked as Risa parked the car, which was probably the longest string of words that had left her mouth since they got in the car.
"Oh, your father didn't tell you? We moved to Odaiba last spring, so Ken could be closer to his friends"
"Ken has friends?", she thought to herself. But instead of thinking aloud, she responded with a polite "oh"
The older woman was all smiles as she led the way to the main apartment building, up a flight of stairs, (Ezra was thankful she had offered to carry the suitcase again) and down a short hallway before they reached a doorway on the right, towards the end of the hallway. Risa fiddled with a set of keys for a moment, before she opened the door and stepped inside, holding the door open for Ezra to pass through. She stepped inside and slipped her shoes off, as she knew was the Japanese custom, before she stepped into the main room and looked around.
"The guest bedroom is at the end of the hall dear, why don't you unpack and rest until dinner time"
"Oh, okay." Ezra trailed off for a moment, looking at the pictures on the walls. A recent family photo caught her eye. Her cousin's smile… it was different somehow, more real perhaps?
"Where's Ken and uncle Taka"
"Hmm… Well, your uncle is at work still, and Ken will probably be home by dinner." It seemed to Ezra that her aunt's smile grew brighter as she said this, as she turned to busy herself with pulling something down from a cupboard. Ezra shrugged and pulled her suitcase down the hall to the guest room.
The spare bedroom was nice, albeit a bit small, even by Japanese standards, but it wasn't like she needed a lot of space anyways. At least she had a room this time. Last time she had slept on the couch, which had made it even harder to hide from Ken. But the way her aunt acted, who knew? Maybe he had changed since she last saw him.
She flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, and without meaning to, she dozed off.