Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, I've been busy and I watched the new Harry Potter! It was amazing, highly recommended, and this is coming from the book lover, too! Oh, since it took awhile, I made it longer than I intended it to be.

By the way, this is an alternate universe. So please, disregard certain things you knew and learned from the anime series. Thank you!

Disclaimer: If you recognize something, I don't own it.


Chapter Two: Things have changed.

"Do you have everything, honey? Your backpack, your lunch?" A familiar woman called out to her daughter. It was as if she were her little baby, getting ready to go into kindergarten or something, when in fact it was her daughter's first day as a senior in high school. Not only was it her first day in high school, but her first day back attending school in Japan.

"I've got everything, Mama. The principal told me to meet him twenty minutes before the bell rang." The young woman of seventeen stuffed a piece of toast into her mouth, grabbed her school briefcase, slipped on her shoes at the door, and darted out.

'Something's never change,' she thought to herself. Sora Takenouchi seemed to always be late. No matter how early she would wake up, she'd somehow manage to leave home at the same time she always did. This was probably because whenever she did wake up early, she stayed in bed for about twenty minutes.

Sora ran down the street, making her way to the high school five blocks away from her mother's apartment. She passed by familiar places: the grocery, ice cream store, the park across the street, the old field, and her elementary school. The red head skidded to a stop, almost missing the new school she would soon attend. She made a quick turn, almost running into a couple of kids, "Sorry!" Sora called out an apology, interrupting a boy's pass of a soccer ball to another.

"Watch it!" Taichi Kamiya grunted in the fleeing girls' direction, managing to catch the ball that Davis, the other boy, and tried passing to him. The brown haired boy kicked the black and white patterned ball back over to Davis. Davis was shorter, had a deeper brown shade of hair which was a rather unruly mess to look at. He had goggles around his head, a pair that was strikingly similar to the ones that Tai used to wear as a child. Both the boys wore the school's uniform: A white collared dress shirt, gray slacks, and a navy blue blazer. On the breast of the blazer was a large patch of a crest, one that corresponded to each person's class. Tai's crest was Gold and Red, with a Phoenix depicted on the shield. Davis's was Green and Gold, a turtle taking place of the Phoenix.

Tai rolled his eyes and caught Davis' pass, crouching down to pick the soccer ball up and tuck it beneath his arm. "New kids. Probably some rich snob." Davis raised a brow and looked back over to the girl who was now asking other students for directions. "Well, she's a cute red headed brat, at least."

"Red head?" Tai knew of only one red headed female in all of Japan. Then again, she was no longer in Japan. He turned his head to catch a glimpse of this red hair, but by the time his head had whipped around, she was gone. "Davis, text the others." Davis kept his brow raised, but this time he looked back over at Tai. "Why? Something up?" Tai shook his head. "I think an old friend just came back. Tell 'em to meet us in the computer lab." Davis nodded his head and fished his cellphone from his pocket, sending a group text. "Wait, what happened to your phone?" Tai looked towards the school, grinning sheepishly. "Well you see. I was up all night trying to beat Unblock Me and I forgot to charge my phone.. so it's dead!" With a laugh, Tai walked towards the school's main entrance, Davis behind him.

In a matter of ten minutes, those who were texted gathered in the computer lab. Ten children, or young adults, sat in chairs that were set up in a circle. Well, except one girl who shared a chair with one of the boys. Kari was the first to speak. "So, big bro, why are we here?" Over the years, Kari's hair had grown, however she still seemed to cut it in the exact same way she had it years ago: a very short a-line. The only thing different was that her fringe had grown out and was pinned to the left side with two green bobby pins, crossed to form an x. The crest on her blazer was similar to Davis' and a few others in the room.

"There's a new red head in school.." Tai's voice trailed off and he was soon interrupted by a boy sitting next to his younger sister who wore the same crest as she did, evidently in the same year. "You hear that, Izzy? Guess you're not the only ginger!" TK laughed and punched the red headed boy playfully on the arm. Izzy rolled his eyes. The one of two of the only juniors in the room, his crest was blue and gold with a dragon on the crest. "She probably doesn't have a soul either!" A boy named Ken laughed along with TK who in return gave him a fist to pound. His hairstyle resembled Kari's, though its color was a dark midnight blue, almost jet black. His crest was gold and black with a tiger on it. Just then, a smaller boy with chocolate brown hair cleared his throat. "Guys, that was a little rude." He, too was a freshman. "I agree with Cody. You guys are always on youtube." Yolei was a girl with violet colored hair, the same class as Cody, Davis, TK, and Kari. She deviated a bit from the uniform, a green bandana tied about her head.

Izzy cleared his throat and looked back over to Tai. "Anyway, moving along. This new 'red-head' as you put it. What's so important about them?" Mimi gasped and beamed, sitting in a boy's lap. "Ohh, how many red heads do we know! Do you think it's her?" Mimi had certainly grown. She surely filled out in all the right places. And she had died her hair a strawberry blonde. Just another thing to love that was pink. She belonged to the Junior class with a crest similar to Izzy's on her blazer.

Kari gasped right after she mentioned it. The young girl of fourteen had been one of the few that still kept in Sora while in the US. She was wondering she hadn't signed onto AIM messenger in over a week. But now she wondered why Sora hadn't told her she was coming back.

Cody, Yolei, Ken, and Davis all looked extremely confused, looking for answers from the other six. "Who's her?" Davis was the one to ask the question that all lingered in their minds.

"Sora Takenouchi." For the first time since they had all arrived in the computer Lab, the oldest blond spoke. His hair was now at medium length, reaching just at his shoulders. It was layered so that the back stayed to his shoulders, the front shorter and at his jaw. His fringe was to the left side. He sat leaned back in his chair, the strawberry blonde in his lap. Matt's hand slipped away from Mimi's the moment he had uttered her name.

There she sat in front of the principal's desk in her office. He was going over the simple rules and regulations of the school. They were typical. Caught with a hickey, pay five dollars. Caught with your cellphone, get it confiscated and pay ten dollars. Skirts are not to be shorter than two inches above the knee. At this, she tugged her skirt down, not that it was shorter than that, but it made her feel as if he would be checking every skirt in the school. No hats were to be worn in school, skirts were to be above the ankle either white, navy blue, or black in color. There were other things, rules that didn't spike an interest or just weren't all that important. Soon, Sora was handed her schedule. She held the white piece of paper in her hand, looking over the classes. First Period was Calculus AB. Second Period would be Physics followed by Poetry class and then Photography. Her fifth period was free and her sixth and seventh periods were Music Class and PE respectively. As her eyes scanned the bottom of the schedule, the Principal, who she noted as Ms. Mutou, gave an odd smile. For a principal of such a large school, she was young, no older than thirty two with long blonde hair tied in a loose bun behind her head with large circular framed glasses on the bridge of her nose which her hazel eyes peeked through. Her red lips moved quickly as she spoke. "Better hurry, or you'll be late to class."

Before she could say anything, the bell sounded its alarm, signaling there would be five minutes to get to her first class. She grabbed her briefcase on the floor rested on the chair's foot, and scurried out the door. Halfway down the hallway from the office she had just exited out of, she realized she had no idea where her first class was.

For the second time that day, she skidded to a stop and spotted a violet haired girl and a dark blue haired boy walking in the opposite direction. She stopped their conversation, apologizing frantically. "So so so, sorry! But, do you know where Mr. Sever's Calculus AB class is located?" The two looked at each other and pointed upstairs. "Second floor, half way down the hall, room 214." Sora bowed a thank you and ran off to the staircase, screaming another apology as she sprinted. Yolei and Ken looked at each other, raising a brow. Ken was the one to break the silence. "Is that the girl?"

Sora was met outside the door by a teacher who she guessed was Mr. Sever. He was a slightly plump man, though tall, with bushy gray brows and a thick gray handlebar mustache. "Ah, Ms. Takenouchi. Good to see you, today!" He seemed like a very jolly man, call him Santa Clause, even. "I'll introduce you to the class in a moment. Stay outside till I call you in?" Sora nodded, not questioning the odd request. Back in California, the new kid was the new kid, nothing special. They sat in class and pretended like they were always apart of the class.

Mr. Sever walked into the class room, his hands tugging forward on his suspenders. "Alright, guys. Listen up." All the students seemed to be catching up with one another upon what they had done durng the summer. With a roll of Mr. Sever's green eyes, he bellowed out, "YO! Hey, dudes. Listen, We'll share we did over the summer in a bit with everyone, but right now, I got someone to introduce." Just then, the whole class became silent. "Thank you." Sever flashed a goofy smile and looked towards the door. "We have a new student joining us," he paused to look down at a piece of paper from his desk, squinting his old weary eyes to read it. "Says she's from America. Colorado. No wait.. Carolina?" He held the paper closer to his eyes as Sora stepped in, giggling at the old man's poor eye sight. "Oh, California!"

Two pairs of eyes looked up from whatever they were doing and were focused on the ginger headed girl in the front of the class. "This is Sora. I trust you all to give her your respect and welcome her kindly to Japan." Tai smirked and decided to correct the man. "Back to Japan." Sora blinked, her auburn eyes searching for voice that knew she had lived here before, hopeful as to who it might be. Seeing the gravity defying hair, her teeth showed as she gave her brightest smile.

"Well, seeing as you two know each other, Sora you can sit between Tai and that red headed boy over there, Izzy." Sever looked towards the rest of the class. "Listen guys, I really don't have anything planned for today," as he said this, Sora made her way to her seat to sit between her old friends, "And so you guys can just share your summers." With that said, the old man in his sixties sat down in his chair, trying to figure out the newest version and modification to the rubix cube, it was now a pyramid.

Tai and Izzy's heads quickly snapped to the girl sitting between them. "SORA!" Tai's face was beaming with Joy and Izzy couldn't help but give such a cheesy smile. "I knew it was you!" Tai gave his long time best friend a noogie. Sora looked completely lost. Izzy noted this and chuckled. "Well you see, Sora, Tai had almost been run over this morning by a red headed young woman and since we only knew of one, we all assumed that it was you." Tai nodded like a little five year old boy, releasing the girl's head. "Yup! And we were right!"

"Awwh, you guys!" Sora couldn't help but smile at the two boys, getting their heads locked in her arms and bringing them together in a group hug. Letting the two boys go, Sora smiled and looked over at the fellow red head. "Izzy! Why am I not surprised to see you in a senior level class?" The boy spoken to gave a humble smile. "Well, I'm actually taking Calculus AB and BC." Sora laughed and widened her eyes in shock. "Now that I wasn't expected." Izzy feigned an expression of hurt. "Wow. That pains me, Sora. But anyway, you're back in Japan! Why, if I may ask?"

Sora tucked her red behind her ear and looked both the boys, leaning back in her chair. "Mama and I missed Japan. Originally, I was going to come back just for College, but I begged her to come back for my last year of high school." It was her turn to fake sadness and hurt. "Am I not welcome back home?" Tai's eyes almost burst of its sockets. "No way, Sora! You're always welcome back! But well..." His voice trailed off and he had to gather the courage to tell her. "You see, it's been such a long time that we thought you wouldn't be coming back." Sora gave a sad smile to them both. "I'm sorry. But you guys wanna' know something? In all honesty, I didn't think I was coming back either." Izzy took the opportunity to look on the brighter side of things. "Well hey, look! Now we're all back together! Well, except Joe. We only get to see him during the holidays and weekends. That boy, always studying and striving to become a doctor."

Sora smiled, really glad to be back home, but right now, she wanted to know what Tai and Izzy's summers had been like. "So... What did you guys do over vacation?" Tai smiled and leaned back in his chair, acting like a very 'humble' young man. "Well, I actually got to lead Odaiba's soccer team to the winning game of Japan's league. And can you guess who won?" Sora clapped her hands, congratulating the brunette. "Oh, wow! No way, Tai! That's awesome! And you Izzy?" Izzy smiled and pulled out his laptop, setting it on his desk. "Well, Sora. This summer I had the opportunity to take part in a prodigious Computer Camp where I learned more about computers than I ever thought possible! Who knew there was more to learn!" Sora gave a chuckle and peered onto his laptop's screen. "Check this out!" Izzy pulled up a program. "I'm working on the next installment of the Call of Duty games!" Sora's eyes were glued intently onto the screen. She herself had been a huge fan of the Call of Duty Games back in the states.

Soon, the bell rang and everyone gathered their things. Sora took her schedule out from her blazer's pocket, then showed it to Izzy. "Hey, do you know where this room is? It's my homeroom." Izzy's eyes glanced at the paper, then pointed to Tai. "Oh, that's Tai's homeroom, too!" The boy then proceeded to pack up is laptop into his briefcase as Sora followed Tai out the door.

Tai swung an arm around Sora's shoulder. Over the years, Sora had grown, but it was nothing in comparison to Tai's height. She knew Mrs. Kamiya's cooking was horrible, but who knew that it possessed ungodly like growth hormone catalysts! "So, let me see your schedule, squirt." To Tai, Sora was his always shorter friend that he would protect until the day he died. Even after if it were possible. He grabbed the white folded paper from her small hands and looked through the classes. "Oh, I see."

Tai led Sora into their homeroom class, and they both took seats by the back of the class. Their homeroom teacher, Sora soon found out, was almost deaf, and the students were basically allowed to get away with almost everything as long as they were under the old woman's supervision. Tai then set her classes on the desk in front of them, pointing to the respected classes as he went along. "Okay, so I have next period with you. It's Physics. Ms. Mutou teaches it, yeah she looks young, but she's real smart. Then again, she's also real cool, so that class should be a breeze! After, you have lunch. Remember that, this school has a weird lunch schedule. Half the school has early lunch, the other late. You have early. Got it? K, good." Sora only nodded, she honestly had no clue about the lunch schedule, but she would figure it out. Somehow. "After Lunch, go to the east side of the campus into the room 153. Professor Mizuki can be a bitch, but she's got that weird sense of humor that I'm sure you'll come to love. She may seem like an easy teacher, but she's hard ass grader. Your last class of the day is Photography. I think Kari's taking that this year." Sora interrupted him, biting her lower lip. "But isn't she just a freshman?" Tai nodded, then explained. "Yeah, but Photography, like Poetry and Music are more of elective classes. So they're open to students of all grades. She probably has Poetry too, so she'll take you from 'Fessor 'Zuki's to the Photo lab."

Sora nodded, understanding up until that point, where she then remembered the rest of the paper. "And.. my other classes?" Tai smiled and traced a circle with his finger around her last three classes. "These are tomorrow's classes. We have Day A, and Day B, these are your B classes. They switch off, so one day will be A, the next B, the next A, and so on and so forth." Sora nodded slowly, wrapping her mind around the odd schedule. "After your free period, come back here for homeroom. But since you have free, you don't technically have to be here until homeroom. Whether or not you want to sleep in, that's up to you. But after homeroom, you have Music. This is located in the North part of the campus. It's not hard to miss, the Music classes have their own separate building. It's a pretty easy course, you can basically do whatever you want to do, musically of course. I took it freshman year. Just sign in, do some music stuff, and you basically have an A already." Tai finally pointed to her last class. "PE. We meet on the fields across the street. It's technically still apart of the campus. Oh, and this class is integrated with Juniors and Seniors." Just as Tai finished explaining Sora's classes, the bell rang.

The brunette and red head both gathered their briefcases and headed up the stairs to the third floor. Across the restrooms, they entered a class room that was set up more like a lab. Instead of desks, there were lab tables, between each was a sink. Flat screen monitored computers were put in the center of each lab table and in the front of the room was a brown desk, a laptop, and a huge white board behind it.

Before Sora could even take a look at the faces in the room, arms went about her shoulders in one of the tightest hugs she had ever received in her life. "Oh, Sora! It is true, it is!" Strawberry blonde hair obstructed her vision of the person, but Sora already knew by the voice and enthusiasm in it. Mimi finally let go of the girl only to grasp her hand and pull her to one of the lab tables. They sat down and were joined with Tai who followed, and Izzy who was typing away at his laptop in the desk in front of him. "Tai said he thought he had seen you this morning, and apparently he was right. That's a first." Mimi let out a giggle. She sat in a stool next to Sora's and faced her, arms on the table with her eyes twinkling with curiosity. "How was America? Is it as great as everyone says? And the fashion, what of it?" Sora couldn't help but laugh at her friend's subtle way of asking about the clothes. "America is... America. It's huge, there's no doubt. People there aren't as nice as you'd like to think. The economy right now is pretty bad. But the clothes there... Well, let's say everyone has their own taste, and not all of them are what you would call cute."

Just then, all heads turned when none other than Yamato Ishida walked into the room. Girls batted their eyes and waved in his direction, guys either rolled their eyes or pointed with smiles and grins. Sora took note of this and raised her left brow, "Well, isn't he Mr. Popular?" Izzy couldn't help but chuckle. "Well you see Sora. Out of everyone, you could say that Matt has changed the most. Since freshman year, he's been in a band called the Teen Wolves." Sora blinked, fully aware of what Izzy was saying, though her eyes never left Matt's form. "Oh.. I see." Izzy nodded, un-phased by the fact his friend seemingly wasn't paying attention. He knew better. "He's the lead singer, and the guitarist. It also helps that his dad is head of the TV station. Not to mention he's the whole student body president." Sora nodded again.

Matt made his way towards the group slowly, stopping every once and awhile to talk and chat with a few friends and make small conversation with girls who seemed to throw himself at him. It wasn't a smirk or a wink when he would talk to those kinds of girls, instead, he actually tried having a conversation. However this predicament was like all the others, the girls he had spoken to only batted their eyes and bit on their lower lips.

Mimi laughed as Matt turned away from the other students in the classroom, now heading straight for Sora and the group. "Oh, and you can't forget. He's dating the captain of the cheer squad?" Sora broke away from watching the blonde teenager, "The captain? Who's that?" As she looked over towards her old girlfriend, Mimi latched herself onto Matt's arm, leaning up to place a peck on his cheek. Sora's expression fell, though a smile was still on her lips. Izzy noticed this, and sighed. "Yeah... Things have changed, Sora."

And so it was: the classroom filled with noisy students. Mimi at Matt's side. Tai and Izzy looking back and forth between the old friends in the class room as they sat on either side of Sora. It was obvious that Matt hadn't noticed her, he was too busy saying hello to his girlfriend.

And Sora?
She sat on the stool behind a lab table, watching the public display of affection between her two long friends, just there.


AN: Again, I apologize that it took me longer than expected to put this up! I had planned on doing so two weeks ago. I'm so sorry!
But please remember, this is a Sora and Matt fanfiction. I will not abandon that, I'd just rather have more of a plot than Sora comes back and gets with Matt, you know?

Like always, Read & Review!

Edit: I love reviews, really I do, but I hate reviews like this one.

"Since Sora left to Kali coo! I hope I get some Koumi would be better if Kou and Mimi move to Kali while SOra and Yama stays in Japan instead lol! All is good just hope it ends in Sorato/Koumi if not I just lost hope and I might not finish this ficc after all..."

And

"Chapter 2 is creepy! Bring on the Sorato/Koumi and end it that wayz cuz I hate Taiora/mimato yo... Peace Kuz Koumi/Sorato gonez"

I'm sorry that my story isn't satisfying your needs. Sorato is not gone. Like I said, this is a Sora & Matt fanfic. It's a journey for them, so of course they're going to have some ups and downs along the way. If you're going to act the way you did, I'm glad you won't be reading any more. I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but a rude review draws a rude response.

I don't know how many times I can stress this, this is a Sorato fanfiction. -_-;