Author's Note: So this is the second chapter. I couldn't believe that I actually finished it this quickly. But at least it's here for some people to read. So I hope you guys enjoy. You're going to get some Merri/Marcus bonding in this chapter and some awkward Merri so be prepared.
I yawned as I continued to read my book. I was trying my hardest to relax, but I couldn't stop thinking. I liked DATS, and I knew that pretty much everyone there liked me, but I couldn't stop my worries. I couldn't stop thinking that maybe this wasn't the best place for me. Again, I had to get used to this place. Once I got used to this place I would be fine. It was just the actual process that freaked me out.
I placed my bookmark in my book and set it aside. I didn't want to go back to school tomorrow. This must have been what every other teen felt like. I at least liked Marcus, he was... nice, but he seemed a bit hot-headed and extremely loud, a little too loud for me. I groaned and shoved my head into my hands. I really didn't want to go back to school. The whole entire atmosphere of school killed me. I was surrounded by people I didn't know and probably would never know because I was too much of a nervous wreck and other people didn't seem all that interested in me. Yes I had to work on my social skills, but this was not the way to do it.
Gaomon then came into my room, carrying a tray with a cup of tea on it. He smiled sweetly, almost looking like a cute puppy. I loved Gaomon but yet I couldn't stand to be near him. I felt as if he was my digimon and I knew that he cared about me as much as he cared for Thomas. Having him as my digimon felt right, but he wasn't my digimon. He was Thomas'. He could never be mine.
"I brought you some tea." He said taking the cup off of the tray and handing it to me.
I put on another fake smile. "Thank you Gaomon. That's very nice of you."
"You ok Merri?" How did he already find me out?
"Uh... yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well you are getting used to a new place, and you didn't really talk that much at DATS."
"Like you said," I took a sip of my tea, "I'm getting used to a new place."
"I remember the last time you visited. It was about two years ago, you were fourteen. You were so excited about seeing all your friends again. I remember you telling me how much you missed everyone at DATS. But today I watched you and you couldn't even look anyone in the eyes."
I sighed. "I don't know Gaomon." I let out a weak laugh, hoping that he would believe that I was okay. "I guess I've changed over the years, huh?"
Gaomon stared at me for a second, and I knew that he didn't believe my little act. "You know, Yoshi really does want to hang out with you. She was so excited to learn that you were coming back to visit. You should try and be a little more social, just so you don't hurt her feelings."
I nodded, mostly because I didn't actually feel like speaking.
Gaomon smiled. "Now enjoy your tea. I'm going to head back downstairs."
He then left the room, and I stared down at my tea. God, if he only knew that it wasn't that simple.
Marcus wasn't at school this morning. He was probably skipping. I shouldn't have cared as much as I did. I barely knew the kid, but he was pretty much the only person I talked to all day yesterday and now he was gone. It was weird having an empty spot in front of me, because now the teacher could actually see me.
I began tapping my pencil against my desk, to some rhythm of a song that I had stuck in my head. I was always constantly tapping or moving my hand or mouthing the words to a song. I had a problem, like a major problem that probably couldn't be fixed. It was almost like some nervous twitch that I had. I only did it when I was bored, or when I was trying to relax but didn't have my Ipod.
God this place was boring. I already knew that very well, but I never imagined that it would be this boring. It felt as if I was in this place for hours, but it had only been twenty minutes. I wanted to scream and break free of this place. I was sitting right next to a window. I could probably find a way to simply break the window and then jump out and be free. But that would never happen, mostly because I am a sane person. Or at least saner than most.
Of course today would be awful. It was Tuesday, wasn't it? I hated Tuesdays. Nothing ever happened on Tuedays. Every other day of the week had something to them, but Tuesday had nothing. Monday was a day that everyone hated. It was like some weekly holiday that everyone celebrated. Wednesday usually had the best primetime TV. Thursday was almost Friday, and Friday was of course Friday. Saturday was everyone's favorite day, and Sunday was for church.
It was all some crazy cycle every single week, to make people like me who actually noticed these sort of things, go insane just trying to figure it out. I always wanted to try and figure out something that could give the day meaning, but then I realized that it would have to be something that the whole world could agree with. And when has the world really ever agreed on anything?
Eventually I made it to the end of the day without somehow killing myself in the process. I was actually pretty proud of myself. My day was pretty much exactly like it was yesterday. It was the same exact schedule with the same exact people. Was this how everyday was going to be from now on? As fantastic as that sounded I couldn't really bring myself to be happy about it.
I really wanted to go home and just sleep. But of course I had to go to DATS. There was no time for rest, there were people to talk to! I'm pretty sure that was Thomas' philosophy. Also that you needed to be cool and suave all of the time because you had to be perfect. Being perfect was the only way to survive in this world. At least right now.
I walked outside to see Marcus standing out in the open, seeming to be waiting for me. He smiled right when he saw me, like we were some old friends or something. I found myself also smiling for some reason. Oh god did I... miss him? What? No that wasn't possible. I only knew him for like two days. I couldn't have missed him.
"Hey Merri." Marcus greeted me.
I gave him a slightly irritated look that I didn't really mean to give. "Where were you this morning?"
He scratched the back of his head. "Oh I was late so I decided to skip first period." He smirked. Why was he smirking? "Why? Did you miss me?"
I shook my head. "No."
He laughed. I couldn't help but notice how his eyes shined when he laughed. His laugh was unique; carefree and soft and it seemed to flow naturally out of his mouth. It was hard to fight and I let out a small giggle. "What do you find so funny?"
Marcus simply let out a crooked smile. "You're a really bad liar."
I became flustered. "I wasn't lying."
"Yeah you were."
I glared at him. "No I wasn't."
"Don't get mad at me just because I caught you."
I crossed my arms. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just mad that my lying hasn't gotten any better."
"Don't feel bad. I'm a pretty bad liar myself."
I really wanted to get off of this subject, mostly because it might have led to me actually having to admit that I missed him. "So are we heading to DATS?"
Marcus seemed to forget that we even needed to leave. "Huh? Oh yeah. Let's head that way."
It was nice outside at this time. The wind was barely blowing and the temperature was perfect. It was always really nice in Japan. It was too cold for me in Austria. Even in the summer time it was freezing for me. I was constantly wearing jackets and long-sleeves to keep me warm. There was nothing more in life that I hated than being cold. You were constantly shaking and shivering and it was just an awful feeling for me.
"So how was your day today?" Was Marcus trying to talk small-talk with me? I was never really that good with small-talk. The things that you would talk about with a person were usually boring and the whole thing just wreaked of awkwardness.
"As good as it could get." I answered in a way that I figured he would understand, but to where he wouldn't feel sorry for me.
"I'm really sorry that you have to go to school. I'm gonna be honest. It sucks." He sounded annoyed just by the thought of school. Did everyone seriously hate it this much? At least with me I was just getting used to it, but Marcus had been going his whole life and he still despised it.
"Well that really brings up my spirits." I felt as if sarcasm was appropriate for him. I was naturally an extremely sarcastic person. Only most people didn't respond that well to it. Either they just didn't think it was funny, or they thought that you were being serious. I would have to figure out if Yoshi would be okay with my newly accustomed sense of humor.
"As long as you're actually smart it won't be that hard. You even said that you didn't even listen and you still understood everything." It was true that I was smart, but I wasn't that smart. I was just ahead, mostly because of how easy it was to learn with my home school teacher.
"It's still pretty awful."
"Did you at least make any friends?"
"Why would I miss you if I did?"
"I guess that's true. Sorry." Did I seriously hurt his feelings?
"No it's fine." I did that thing where I would let out a small laugh just to tell people that I was okay. "I'm just an awkward person."
He frowned. "You don't seem that bad."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, you did yell at Thomas yesterday so you're okay with me."
"You really don't like my brother, do you?"
"He always acts as if he's better than me at everything. Even though I know that I'm much stronger than he is." He might have flipped that one guy yesterday, but he definitely wasn't as strong as my brother. I mean, maybe he was, but he definitely didn't have the tactics and actual skill that Thomas had. My brother had beaten Olympic champions in the past, just by the way he strategized.
"I admit, he can be an ass sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that you're not stronger than him."
He was shocked. "You saw me beat Kogi. How could you think that he's stronger than me?"
"Didn't you guys actually get in a fight, and it ended in a draw?"
He gritted his teeth together. "Yeah but that was just because I wasn't ready."
"And didn't he win the actual boxing match that was supposed to happen?"
"It wasn't some stupid boxing match, it was a serious fight!" What a baby.
"Don't get all pissy with me just because Thomas technically beat you!"
"Well don't yell at me about it!"
We stood there and stared each other down for a second. He was a stubborn little bastard, wasn't he? The look he was giving me was fierce, which made me even less intimidated by him. Was he taking this seriously? I'm guessing that any fight he got was good enough for him. I wondered if he would actually fight me if I provoked him enough.
I smirked. "Dude calm down. If you really care about beating my brother so much then why don't you just challenge him again?"
He seemed annoyed by my smirking. "I would except that the commander would get angry at me. See me and your brother are supposed to be comrades or something like that."
"Then why don't you stop complaining about him."
He clenched his fist. "Well it sounds like he complains about me. You even said that he called me a blockhead."
I glared at him. "I told him the same exact thing. That he should stop complaining. Supposedly he's smart and you're strong but the two of you can barely handle being stuck with someone you don't like." I wasn't really sure where this anger was coming from. Maybe it was the fact that I had, had a bad day, or that I hadn't gotten in a good argument for a while. All I knew was that this kid was fun to argue with.
He smirked. "In a way aren't you complaining about the two of us? I mean you are yelling at me about it."
I sighed. "You realize that yelling at someone for complaining is not actually complaining?"
"Of course I understand that."
"I don't think you do. I mean you could, if you actually went to school."
"You did miss me, didn't you?"
Was he trying to throw me off? "No I didn't..."
He smirked with cockiness written all over his face. "You totally did."
I felt my face getting red. "Don't think too highly of yourself!"
"I'm just speaking the truth."
"The truth is that you're really pissing me off."
He laughed. "You're definitely Thomas' sister."
"Well yeah that's usually how things worked when you've been birthed by the same people."
He chuckled. "You know, you're pretty okay with me."
"Glad to know that I have made it up to being okay." Man it was nice being sarcastic. I hadn't been this sarcastic in a while.
"Just be happy. Most people aren't okay with me."
"Yeah people are annoying. They make me want to become a delinquent."
"Did you just call me a delinquent?"
"Well you are the one who skipped school today and who also gets in fights with kids in his spare time." He gave me an angered look.
I sighed. "Sorry I didn't exactly mean what I said. Sometimes my sarcastic side gets out of hand, you know?"
He wouldn't look at me. "Yeah I get it."
Was he still mad at me or was he just being childish? I couldn't tell. "Seriously I didn't mean it."
"I just really don't like it when people call me a delinquent. It makes me sound like I'm just some awful person."
"Trust me I don't think you're an awful person. If I did I wouldn't try to be funny. I probably wouldn't even talk to you."
He smiled. Good. He was over it. "So now I know when you're mad at me."
"Hopefully I won't ever get mad at you. Or else I might have to beat you up."
"Do you think you could?"
"Maybe one day we'll see."
I pushed my face into my bag really wanting to just leave. I didn't know where I was going to go, I just wanted to go somewhere. I had always heard that California was a really nice place. It was supposedly it was always really hot down there and there were plenty of beaches to go to if you got too hot. That sounded really nice.
It was quiet at DATS today, which was strange. Marcus and I arrived to find that only Yoshi was here. I figured that since Thomas didn't have to worry about me that he would have already been here being responsible old him. I probably should have wondered where he was, but I was too tired to really try and think about it. He was probably off doing some other work, or doing research for his job. Whatever it was, he was probably working hard on it.
I felt the quiet and the darkness start to hit me. I was going to fall asleep. I was prepared for it. I wanted it. I didn't care if I began snoring, I was tired and restless. I just wanted some relaxation and rest. Besides Thomas wasn't here to yell at me, so it was perfectly ok for me to do this, because as long as there was no one to yell at you it was ok. I'm pretty sure young Thomas taught me that.
"Is she asleep?" I heard Yoshi whisper. Was this going to be like in those movies where the main character finds out secrets because people think that they're asleep when they really aren't? Awesome.
"I guess so. Why does it matter?" It was pretty obvious that Marcus couldn't care less. Why would he care? It's not like the question of if I was asleep or not was a very interesting subject.
"I was just wondering." Yoshi then paused for a bit and said, "Do you know if she's doing ok?"
"She seems perfectly fine. But she's got a mouth on her. One that I hadn't really seen yesterday."
I'm pretty sure Yoshi smirked. "Did she get a little snarky with you?"
"Snarky? She was about ready to chew my head off."
"Kinda wish she did."
"What is that supposed to mean!?" Jesus these two were fantastic to listen to.
I then heard the doors beginning to open and I quickly brought my head up avoid suspicion. Thomas was walking in with Gaomon, the two of them seeming so professional as they walked in. I shot Marcus a glance, only one, and he was glaring at my brother. I think I made him hate Thomas even more.
I placed my head back down onto my bag and sighed. "So Merri do you have any homework tonight?" I really hoped that this wouldn't be a usual question for him.
"Yeah." I answered simply. Again, I wanted to sleep. I didn't feel like talking. I was tired.
"Shouldn't you be working on it?"
What if I didn't want to? Did you ever think about that Thomas?
"Maybe she can do it later." I heard Yoshi say. "I mean we haven't gotten to go out for coffee yet." I sat up as she turned to me seeming so happy. "Do you want to go?"
"Uh yeah." I didn't really want to go, but I didn't want to hurt Yoshi's feelings. She was being so nice to me and I knew that she just wanted to hang out with me.
She turned to Thomas. "Thomas do you mind?"
He shook his head. "Of course not."
"Great well let's go Merri."
I stood up. "Okay."
There were so many people everywhere. Like I felt as if I was going to drown in people. Yoshi was beside me seeming as happy as can be. I was jealous of her. She could survive with people. She could handle them. She could easily be social. I wanted to do that. I wanted to be able to actually talk to new people without having a heart attack and then dying a little inside.
"Okay so I guess we can go get coffee first and then maybe go shopping?" I really didn't mind the coffee, but I always hated shopping with other people. When I shopped by myself I could quickly get what I wanted and then leave, but when you were with others you would have to wait for them to finish their shopping. I got bored very easily, and as I was bored I would have to act like I was still having fun.
"Okay." What else was I supposed to say?
"I know this great coffee place a little farther down the block. It's not far from here." Why was she so peppy? Why did she have to be so happy?
"Sounds nice." I said trying to sound pleasant and happy. Though I could use some coffee. Maybe it would wake me up enough to where I could get through this.
We eventually made it to this coffee shop that she promised. It was small but quaint. The inside looked like some normal cafe that you would find anywhere. I looked at the menu and literally the only thing that they sold were coffee products.
Yoshi ordered an iced coffee and I was forced even more out of my comfort zone to ask for a cappuccino. I always hated ordering things. I couldn't really explain but there was just something about having to tell someone that I wanted something that just bothered me. I felt as if they were judging me somehow. I swear if I ever told anybody this they would think that I was crazy.
I followed Yoshi out of the coffee shop where she began telling me about the store she was taking me to. It sounded really... girly. I wasn't the girliest person in the world. I mean, I had a beanie on my head what kind of girly girl would where something like that. But I had to give it a try. If I didn't buy something Yoshi might have thought that I didn't like her choices in stores or clothing.
When we made it to the store I found that my thoughts were correct. But Yoshi seemed to be happy as she was smiling. She was always smiling. She was always nice. But why? I wanted to know. I wanted know what made her so freaking happy. It didn't make sense to me. I couldn't be happy all the time. I had to fake my happiness all of the time. This was frustrating. This was aggravating. I was done.
The two of us looked through the clothes and Yoshi began holding things up in front of me and showing them to me. "What do you think of this?" She would ask me. I was constantly telling her that whatever she picked up was good and that if she liked it she would get it. She seemed to like all of my responses, thank god.
I picked out some light blue button up shirt and a pair of jeans. They weren't really my style, but they would do to keep Yoshi happy. She seemed to love my choices. I kept smiling. I kept looking happy. I kept fighting my nagging insides telling me to hurry up and find some way out of here. They were seeming to yell at me to just go. I was uncomfortable and my brain didn't like it.
I began pulling money out of my wallet to give to Yoshi, but she refused. "No you don't have to do that. This is my treat."
"But... that wouldn't be fair." Oh god I couldn't let her pay for me. My stuff wasn't really that expensive but I knew that this would haunt me for the rest of my life.
She paid and handed me my stuff. I wasn't really sure what to say except, "thanks."
"No problem. We should do this again sometime."
Did she really have fun with me? "Uh yeah we should."
I got home and fell into bed, finally getting my chance to go to sleep.
