Ken stirred as his alarm rang. He rolled out of bed and turned it off without thinking about it. His head throbbed dully, testament to the fact that the previous night's terrors had been worse than usual. He staggered to the bathroom to shower.
The hot water felt good, and helped him awaken, though truthfully he would not be completely alert before he had eaten something. He stood in the shower for a while, the water falling gently on and around him, marveling at how much more peaceful things seemed from there.
He turned the shower off and grabbed a towel. Minonmon sat on the toilet lid, waiting for him. The small digimon had sensed Ken's leaving the bed and followed him. He always did, somehow, no matter how hard Ken tried not to wake him.
He wrapped his towel around him and scooped Minonmon into his arms. The two headed back to Ken's bedroom, where Ken set Minonmon on the computer desk and began to dress for school.
"You know, you can sleep while I shower. I'm not going to leave you behind or anything." Ken said to his partner.
"I know." Minonmon said simply.
"Then why do you follow me to the shower every morning? I would think you would like the extra sleep."
"I like the sound the shower makes." Minonmon replied. Then he sniffed the air. "Mmmm." He noted. "Pancakes. I love your mom's pancakes."
"They are good." Ken agreed.
Both digimon and human enjoyed the pancakes. Ken then returned to his room and gathered his books. He carefully placed them and Minonmon in his backpack, and five minutes later was out the door and on his way to school.
As he stared at the day's mystery meat, Ken wondered if it wouldn't have been a better idea to simply stay home that day. He had been late for school, which, while not normally that big of an issue in school, had been noted and commented on by his homeroom teacher and every other student in the class, since Ken Ichijouji was never late.
Not that he had been able to hear the comments until after homeroom, given Tanaka-san's method of dealing with tardiness. He had been standing in the hall to the left of the closed door, nose to the wall. This, of course, had attracted the stares of any and all passersby, who knew instantly who he was and why he was standing there, and seemed to find it amusing.
Then he had dozed off during second period, science. Satou-san had simply rapped on his desk hard enough to get his attention and moved on, but every student in the room had sat and stared at him for the remainder of the class period.
It wasn't until after the period had ended that Satou-san had singled Ken out, asking him to stay behind for a moment.
"May I help you, Satou-san?" Ken had asked after the other students had left.
"Yes, Ken-san." He replied. "Is everything all right?"
Ken sighed inwardly. Of course it wasn't. Nothing was ever all right. How could it be, after all the things he had done? Ken shuddered, though he didn't know it. Nor did he notice the concern in his teacher's eyes.
But he had to answer Satou-san, and a no would only complicate things. "I'm fine, thanks. Why?"
Satou-san frowned. "I spoke briefly with Miss Tanaka before the period began, and she said you were late for homeroom today. She also said you look exhausted, and I agree. You did fall asleep in my class, after all. Are you sure you're okay?"
Ken forced himself to smile. "Just having an off day, I guess. Nothing to worry about. I appreciate your concern, though."
Satou-san leaned forward, studying Ken intently, enough to cause the boy discomfort. Ken stared down at a spot on the floor, wondering how his teacher would react if he actually did tell him what was bothering him. Send him to the guidance counselor in no time at all.
Minutes silently crawled by, and Ken shifted uncomfortably. Finally, he spoke. "Um, may I go now? I'm going to be late for my next class if I don't hurry."
"Certainly." Satou-san said, though Ken knew he would have liked to have said otherwise. "If you're sure everything is okay."
Ken forced himself to meet Satou-san's gaze. "It is." He said, more firmly than he believed. "Thanks." He turned and headed for the door.
Then there had been a surprise quiz in his history class. Ken knew he had failed it. He hadn't been able to concentrate on the quiz at all, his mind repeatedly returning to the dream from the night before. As a result, he hadn't even completed the quiz before they were taken up. Fortunately, Nakamura-san wouldn't know until she graded them at home this evening.
Ken pulled Minonmon out of his backpack and placed the small digimon in his lap. Minonmon sat still and silent, passing as a stuffed animal, but Ken found some comfort in having his partner so close. It almost erased his irritation at the sub from fourth period. Keep up with the class, indeed. Ken generally tried to avoid judging those around him these days, but sometimes he couldn't help it. This was one of those times.
Idiot. A word Ken hadn't used since his days as the Digimon Emperor slipped into his thoughts.
Ken sat in his math class, the page they would be going over today marked, the book actually open to the page he had been perusing last math period. He waited patiently while the substitute introduced herself as Miss Suzuki and explained that she would be calling roll so she could know who everybody was.
Unlike most substitute teachers, Suzuki-san had simply called his name, acknowledged him as present, and gone on. Apparently, she didn't realize that he was Ken Ichijouji: boy genius. Ken didn't mind. It was easier when people didn't recognize him. Usually.
Then Suzuki-san passed out pieces of paper. Ken groaned inwardly when he realized they were name tags with their names already on them. They were also decorated with bright yellow smiley faces.
"These are so I can know who you are, just in case I forget, since there are so many students today. Please put them on now, and wear them for the rest of the class period." Suzuki-san smiled with an exaggerated cheerfulness.
Ken, like everybody else, reluctantly peeled his name tag off the paper and stuck it to his shirt.
"Now that we're ready, everybody turn in your books to page 157, and we'll get started." She said, again with exaggerated cheerfulness.
Ken had to admit that she did know her math, even if her falsely bubbly personality was beginning to grate his (and every other student's) nerves. He listened for a bit, but quickly grew bored, as he always did, and turned his attention to the page to which his book was open.
He was soon immersed in a problem, a rather complex one with several variables that required quite a bit of both work and thinking. He was soon busy writing, his attention focused entirely on this problem.
Thus, he didn't hear Suzuki-san the first or even the second time she called his name. Scott, the foreign exchange student from the States (who happened to sit behind him in this class), poked him in the back to get his attention.
"Hmm?" Ken asked, trying to keep his place to prevent having to start over. She waited for him to finally put his pencil down before continuing the lesson.
Unsure of what had just happened, Ken went back to his problem. He had worked for five more minutes on it before Scott hissed at him.
"Dude, you're being talked to." He nodded toward Suzuki-san. Ken again set his pencil down and looked her way.
"You need to pay attention Ken." Suzuki-san said, and several students giggled. She, of course, mistakenly assumed they were laughing at Ken, rather than her statement, and responded accordingly with the warning that "We don't behave unkindly towards others here for any reason." All the students knew exactly how much attention he needed to pay to what she was going over.
He sighed inwardly, and sat still for a few minutes, but found himself going over the problem he had been working on in his head, and realizing he needed paper for the next step. He picked up his pencil and went back to his writing.
A shadow fell across the desk. He looked up to see a rather irate Suzuki-san. "Paper, please, and pencil." She said shortly, holding out her hand.
Ken gave it to her, and she laid it on the teacher's desk without even looking at it. "You can speak with your regular teacher about getting back tomorrow. In the mean time, would you mind completing the problem for us?"
It took Ken a minute to realize that she was referring to the problem on the board. He looked at it, worked it out in his head, and gave her the answer.
"Work it out, please, so we can be sure it's right." Ken frowned, he was sure it was correct. "Is there a problem?" Suzuki-san asked.
Ken shook his head and went to the front of the room, his face flushed. He was in trouble with the sub. He never got in trouble, and now he was, and worse, with the sub, which meant she would tell their regular teacher he had caused trouble, which meant he would be in even more trouble when he got back, especially since the regular teacher had never given any student the benefit of the doubt when it came to subs.
He closed his eyes and brought the work for the problem back to mind. Then he began working the problem in his small, neat, organized writing. When he was finished, he set the chalk down and went back to his seat.
Suzuki-san cleared her throat. "Haven't you forgotten something?" She asked, her patience with Ken wearing thin for some reason he couldn't really discern.
He looked at the problem, eyes wide, wondering what he could have forgotten. He hadn't. It was right. He turned back to Suzuki-san, confusion etched across his features.
She sighed. "Obviously you weren't listening. What do you always do with these kinds of problems?"
He frowned, thinking hard, but coming up with nothing.
"Check. Your. Work." She said, aggravated. "Go up to the board, and check your work."
Ken sighed, and didn't point out that due to the properties of this particular type of problem you could use the original problem and your work to check it without actually writing anything down. He walked back to the board and proceeded to check the problem the long way.
Once again he set the chalk down and returned to his seat. The other kids were staring at him now, apparently this had only served as a reminder to them that he didn't really need to be in this class.
"Right." Said Suzuki-san, flustered at how easily he had completed the problem. "I will be writing a note to your regular teacher about your behavior in this class, Ken." She said before continuing the lesson.
Ken slumped down in his chair and spent the rest of the period trying to look as if he were paying attention.
He would have to start the problem over if he wanted to finish it today.
The day was steadily going downhill, and Ken wondered if it could get much worse. Hopefully not, but it was not only possible, but highly likely. Days that started out bad seemed to have difficulty getting any better.
Scott plopped his tray down across from Ken and sat down. "I'm in disgrace." He explained. "Mind if I sit with you?" Ken shrugged, since Scott was already sitting there. "You seem bummed out." Scott observed. "Math class?"
Ken shrugged again, he didn't really want to talk about it, especially not to Scott. Maybe he could change the subject. "So why are you in disgrace?" He asked the other boy.
"Well, apparently," Scott began with exaggerated annoyance, "you people don't play football. You play soccer."
Ken rolled his eyes. "We play football. You people from the States call it soccer."
"Well that would have been nice to know yesterday when some of the other guys asked if I played football." Scott grumbled.
Ken's eyes widened. "You tackled someone?"
"Yeah." Scott grimaced. "So they all think I'm an ignorant jerk again."
"Which is why you're sitting with me again." Ken reasoned.
Scott grinned sheepishly. "Well…" He couldn't think of any thing to finish his defense, so they fell into an awkward silence.
Until Scott saw Minonmon. "You brought a doll to school?" Scott asked incredulously. "You are so going to get made fun of if anybody sees it." He warned. Ken simply shrugged. He didn't really care. "Aren't you a bit old for dolls anyway?" Scott asked skeptically.
Ken shrugged again. "Whatever." Why couldn't people just leave him alone today?
"Look, it's cool. Whatever. It doesn't really matter." Scott said edgily. Silence once again claimed the table, and the two picked at their meals in discomfort.
"Well, what have we here?" The silence was broken by an older kid, one of the group that was the bane of most of the younger population's existence. He reached from behind Ken and snatched Minonmon from him. "A stuffed animal? How cute."
Ken stood up angrily. "Give him back." He snapped.
"Aren't you a bit big for stuffed animals?" The older kid, Ken could never remember his name, jeered. "After all, you're in junior high school. You're supposed to be a big kid now."
Ken glared at the taller kid. "I said, give him back." His voice was flat, but a note of warning slipped through.
"Him?" The older kid's friend had joined him. "Awww, does he have a name, too?"
"Don't you know, he sleeps with him at night." The first kid replied.
"To keep away the nightmares." Added the second.
Ken was furious by now. "I won't say it again. Give him back."
The first kid stepped forward. He was bigger than Ken. A lot bigger. Ken was tall for his age, but rather thin. This kid was both tall and built for his age. "Is that a threat?" He asked menacingly.
Ken wasn't impressed. "A warning." He spat.
The kid tossed Minonmon to his buddy and took another step toward Ken, grabbing him by the collar.
Ken moved and had him on the floor, arms pinned, before the kid knew what had happened. He looked at the second kid, who was standing there in astonishment. "Are you going to give him back, or what?" He asked coldly.
"Ichijouji!" Ken winced as he recognized Tanaka-san's "you're in trouble now" voice call him down as she crossed the cafeteria. "Step away from Itou now." Ken did as she had said and the three students waited for her to reach them.
She glared first at Ken, then at Itou, then at the other kid. "What is the meaning of this?" She demanded. "Why are we fighting on school property?"
Itou tried to look innocent. "I didn't do nothing." He insisted. Staring at the floor. "Ichijouji was just looking for a fight."
The other kid piped up. "He has been all day, my sister said."
Tanaka-san turned to Ken, waiting for his explanation. He stared at the floor. "They took something of mine." He muttered.
"And just what did they take from you?" She asked.
"That." He nodded towards Minonmon, not actually wanting to lie and say he was a toy.
"And so you decided to fight Itou for it?" Tanaka-san asked.
"I did ask him to give him back." Ken explained.
"And when he didn't, you decided to take matters into your own hands rather than go to a teacher for help. Is that right?"
Ken nodded, still staring at the ground.
"Give it back to him." Tanaka-san said. "And don't try to tell me that it's yours because I know for a fact that neither of you carry around stuffed animals."
"Here." Minonmon was shoved roughly into his hands. Ken hoped that the experience hadn't been too frightening for Minonmon. He also hoped the small digimon had not been hurt in any way.
"You two have detention for stealing." Tanka-san told the other two.
"But-" Any argument was silenced with one of Tanaka-san's famous glares.
"You, Ken, will come with me." Tanaka-san continued. Ken knew what that meant.
Students at Tamachi Junior High did not get in trouble for fighting. The philosophy was that if a student felt the need to resort to physical violence in order to express himself, something was bothering them. Therefore, any student found resorting to physical violence would meet with the school guidance counselor for a session.
The philosophy actually prevented a lot of fights. Nobody wanted to spend a session with the guidance counselor. Especially since a parent or guardian was always informed of both the session and the reason for it.
"Hello, Ken," Said the guidance counselor as he took a seat, "I am Mrs. Nakamura. Mrs. Tanaka said that you were fighting in the cafeteria. Would you like to tell me why?"
Ken shook his head. "No, thank you." He replied politely. He knew where this would lead, and he didn't want to go there.
"No?" She asked, raising her eyebrow. "Why not?"
Ken repressed the urge to sigh. "I know what I've done, I know why I've done it, I know I shouldn't have done it, and I won't do it again." He replied. "I appreciate your time, but it isn't really necessary. Sorry to have bothered you."
She raised an eyebrow again, and persisted with her questioning. Ken did sigh this time.
"Look, thanks for your concern, but I just lost my temper back there. It won't happen again." He grumbled.
Nakamura-san pursed her lips. "Look, Ken, people who 'just lost their temper' come in here, and you can tell who they are. Then there are people who come in and have things bothering them, things they need to talk to someone about, and you can tell who they are too. You are one of the latter. However, I can already tell you aren't going to talk to me. You don't have to. The important thing is that you talk to someone."
She turned to her desk and began rummaging around in it. "We recently started a program that allows troubled students who don't feel comfortable talking to a teacher or other adult to talk to someone closer to their age group." She found what she was looking for, and held a white business card out to Ken. "I want you to call and arrange to talk to someone, even if it is just for one session. It will help you, but it will also help us see how it works, and how it can improve. Tomorrow, I want to know that you called, and after you meet with someone, I want to know if they helped or didn't help, why they did or didn't help, how they could have helped more."
Ken stared doubtfully at the card in her hand.
Nakamura-san smiled. "It's either that, or I'm supposed to meet with you until we've discussed your actions, why they were wrong, and how they can be altered to appropriately deal with a similar situation should one arise in the future."
Ken sighed again and took the card. Then he stood up to leave. "Thank you for your time, Nakamura-san." He said, though he didn't really feel thankful.
"You're welcome." She replied, amused. "And you're already excused from this period class. Take some time to relax and prepare for next period."
Ken left, Minonmon still in his arms, and headed for the boy's bathroom.
It was empty, thankfully, so Ken could check on Minonmon. He hadn't been hurt, Ken was relieved to find, he had simply found the experience a rather frightening one.
"I didn't know what was going on." Minonmon said. "He snatched me out of your arms so fast, and I didn't know where I was or who he was or anything. And then you were so mad, and I was worried that you would get in trouble, or get hurt. Those guys were huge. And then you were in trouble and had to go to the ginance clonser-"
"Guidance counselor." Ken corrected with a smile.
"Guidance counselor." Minonmon repeated. "But she was nice, and then she gave you some paper and said you didn't have to go to class."
Ken almost smiled at Minonmon's oversimplification of all that had happened.
"Are you okay?" Minonmon asked.
Ken sighed. "Yeah. I'm fine." He looked at his watch. "Come on, I have another class in about five minutes.
Ken sat at the desk in his room, the lights off, the shades drawn to block out the light from outside. He listened to the hushed conversation his parents were having in their room.
"He just seemed so upset today." He heard his mom comment softly to his dad. "He has been this way for a while now, but it was worse today. And when I tried to ask him, he just said he was fine, thanks, don't worry about it."
"He's been more withdrawn lately too." Dad replied. "Just like he was before. I wish we could help him, but-"
"But he won't let us. He doesn't feel comfortable talking to us. At least not on a personal level."
"I just hope he talks to someone."
Ken stared at the card Nakamura-san had given him. The number was 305-4461. He went into living room, picked up the phone, and dialed the number on the card.
Maybe he did need to talk to someone.