"I promise I'll be back…I promise…"
Her eyes didn't matter right now. All they saw was the way his smile seemed to lightly stretch across the sky, the way he squinted bashfully because he had to leave, the way his hand scratched the back of his neck in harmless embarrassment. In this moment, her moment, their moment, the only thing that mattered was her ears and the lie her ears heard that hung heavily in the air.
"Don't worry, I love you, and I'll be back for you."
Another lie.
***
Tai clenched his fists nervously. It was all down to these last 30 seconds. If he could live through these 30 seconds, he could live through the rest of his life. He glanced across at Matt, who was leaning back, calm and collected as ever. It didn't even seem like Matt was feeling the strain, but Tai could see the accumulated stress of these last few months in his eyes. If anyone was about to break, it was Matt. Tai ran his hand slowly through his hair, and stopped near the peak of his skull and clenched his fist, pulling a bit of the brown hair. Tai glared across the room at the monster. The monster that had been chasing him and Matt for the last few months, the monster that had made their lives hell. The monster looked back at Tai with a malicious grin; it seemed to be savoring Tai's misery before it delivered the finishing blow. Tai grimaced. If only Agumon was still here, if only Agumon hadn't – a lump caught in Tai's throat. It was too hard and too soon to think about that.
Brrrrrrrring!
Tai felt the smooth wave of sound wash over him. Tai felt the smooth wave of sound dance lightly around his ears, sprinkling happiness and relief in an aura around him. That sound meant that Tai would be all right.
"Alright class, have a good summer, it's been a… experience teaching you all. Please pick up your summer workbooks as you exit the class." Tai leapt out of his desk and pushed his way through the throngs of his classmate, each one matching Tai's intensity to leave their hellish classroom.
"Tai wait up…" Matt called in vain across the mob of students. Tai couldn't hear anything anymore; all he could hear was the sweet echo of the final bell of the school year that echoed freedom…freedom…freedom. Matt sighed heavily. He could catch up with Tai outside of school.
***
"Hahaha! Finally done! I finally don't have to take any crap from that monster teacher!" Tai leapt up into the air, did a heel kick and began to skip around.
Sora stopped flipping through her summer workbook and glanced up at Tai. "I know you don't like school, but I've never seen you this happy to get out."
Matt gave Sora a half smile. "Trust me, this year he's totally justified in dancing around. We had the absolute worst teacher. Tai wanted to bring Agumon to class to torch her, but he had to stay at home."
Sora shrugged. "I've heard stories about her, but I always thought they were exaggerated."
Matt chuckled. "I thought the same thing too when I entered her class, but those stories were pretty much spot on."
"Well I wouldn't be celebrating that much, have you seen this work they gave us? This is probably more homework than we got all school year," Sora said. She looked back up at Tai. "Did you even get a workbook?"
Tai laughed and smiled. "Nope, but I'll get one eventually, I promise."
Sora shrugged, "To be honest I don't really care one way or another, but it'd suck for you to get screwed over at the start of your senior year because you didn't do the summer work."
Matt nodded solemnly. "That's why this summer I'm not going to procrastinate. I'm going to do a little bit each day. I promised myself that."
Sora laughed, "Yeah right Matt, you're the king of procrastination. You're going to be complaining and begging Joe to copy off of his stuff at the last minute."
"Speak of the devil," Matt murmured to himself as he glanced across the school's courtyard in which him, Tai, and Sora had been chatting. Joe, Izzy, and Mimi were walking across the blooming green grounds.
As Joe strolled up to Tai, Matt, and Sora he smiled. "Seems like even nature is celebrating," he said as he gestured at the blooming foliage.
"Who wouldn't be celebrating?" Mimi giggled. "It's summer break, and we finished junior year, we've got basically a straight shot to the end of our childhood."
"We'll still have college stuff to do during senior year, and that is no fun," Sora mumbled.
Matt gave Sora an odd look. "You're being quite the downer today. You feeling alright?"
Sora shrugged. "I've just got this weird feeling. I'm fine though, I promise."
As soon as Sora said that, Izzy's laptop began to vibrate. He gave a quick jump. "What the hell…" he mumbled as he opened it. As he read the screen he looked up at the five other digidestined. "Something is up in the Digital World. Get TK and Kari, you're gonna love this one, I promise," Izzy said.