Eliot. Blake. Marvell. Yeats.
Poetry.
The bane of Davis's existence.
"You'll be expected to write commentaries on works from one of more of the following poets," Davis's English teacher, Mr. Takanawa, was saying. "That will comprise the first half of the test. For the second half, you will have to write an essay outlining the following..."
Davis yawned loudly and glanced at the clock in the corner of the classroom for the umpteenth time that day. Only two fifty! He groaned inwardly. Did someone disable the clocks when he wasn't looking? He could have sword it was two fifty the last time he checked.
Turning away, Davis looked up at the chalkboard, where Mr. Takanawa was busy writing the names of several poems the class has studied throughout the year under the names of their respective poet. There were three options from each.
Yawning again, Davis started to lay his head down in the nook of his arm, when suddenly a balled up piece of paper bounced off his forehead. He looked over one row to his right and noticed Kari shaking her head at him, smiling ever so slightly.
Pay attention, she mouthed.
He grunted and turned back to the front of the class.
"For the remainder of the class you will be getting into groups of two and analyzing a key verse from a poem I shall assign to you," Mr. Takanawa droned on. "Please listen closely as I call out your names. Yolei Inoue, Ben Kita. You two are working on Blake's The Tyger. Niko, you and Takuya are doing Elliot's Hollow Men. Koji..."
And so on so forth. Davis sank into a stupor until Mr. Takanawa finally called: "Davis Motomiya and Kari Kamiya, you'll be doing Marvell's To His Coy Mistress."
At least I'm with Kari, Davis thought, but it was still poetry. Still English. He sighed in resignation.
"How many times have I told you not to fall asleep in class?" Kari said, swatting the back of his head as she pulled her desk up next to him.
Davis looked at her. She began to tug her hair out of its pristine bun, letting the mahogany tendrils sift through her fingers like molten chocolate. Davis watched her smooth her hair out, almost in a trance, until she glanced quizzically at him. Quickly, he formulated a response.
"For the last time, I wasn't sleeping. There was a bug in my eye and I was trying to suffocate him."
To his delight, Kari giggled, covering her mouth with one hand. "A bug? Wow, Davis. I've got to give you credit there. You certainly are original."
He leaned back in his chair smugly. "I aim to please."
"Well, you can please me by helping me analyze this poem. Here, read it." Kari, still with a little smile tugging at her lips, pulled the sheaf of papers closer and placed them in front of him. As he took them from her, the tips of their fingers briefly touched.
Davis felt very faint, almost electric sensation run through him for the briefest moment, almost like a static shock. He glanced at Kari, who was staring at their hands. When she looked up and caught him watching her, she turned slightly pink and looked down at her paper again.
Shaking his head, Davis lowered his eyes to the poem and began to read.
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day...
"That's so pretty," Kari sighed, looking at the curly script on the page. "I love Marvell. His poems are so romantic."
Davis blinked. "Kari, it's about a guy who's trying to get a girl to have sex with him."
"It's much deeper than that, Davis!" she said indignantly. "It's all about the message the poem gives us. You need to –" she stopped and did a double take. "Did you just say you actually knew what it was about?"
"Of course," Davis replied in annoyance. "Wow," Kari breathed. "You paid attention for once."
"I do that a lot," he said wistfully, "yet people are always surprised." She giggled again, then grabbed his goggles and pulled his head down towards the paper. "Focus, gogglehead. Look at the grander scheme of things, or you're going to fail the test."
"I'll fail it anyways."
"No, you won't. Here, look at these lines –" her fingers danced across the page.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
"This is an allusion to the Latin phrase carpe diem – sieze the day," Kari explained. "It means that the man in the poem is trying to convince the woman that their time is running out. Nothing lasts forever Davis, that's what Marvell's trying to say. If you had one moment to capture everything you ever dreamed, would you take it?"
To capture everything you ever dreamed...
"That's deep," Davis said. "Everything makes a lot more sense when you explain it to me."
"If you want, we can study it together," Kari offered. "Come by my place next week and we'll see if we can tackle some English review."
"Cool!" Davis exclaimed, hoping he didn't sound too eager. "Thanks, princess." She smiled.
"Don't mention it. Now, here, help me write the essay outline..."
x x x x
The bell rang sometime later and Davis was out the door. He bade goodbye to Kari, who still had questions about her chemistry homework and was on her way to Ms. Ataki's classroom. He then headed directly for the field behind the school where he had soccer practice.
He was digging through his gym bag as he walked, not paying attention to where he was going as students milled about on either side of him in the crowded hallway. As a result, he walked right into someone, knocking their books all over the floor.
"Sorry about that," Davis apologized, and the kid looked up. It was TK. "Nice going," he said, grinning slightly. "I think your goggles are a bit too tight. They're cutting off oxygen to your brain."
"Very funny, TE," Davis quipped, helping the other teen pick up his books. "What are you still doing here, anyways?" He knew TK had a last period spare on Fridays, since his schedule was different. Davis, Kari and Yolei had a spare when TK had English, and vice versa.
"I promised Cody I'd help him fix a problem in the computer room," TK said. "And afterward Kari and I are going for ice cream."
Davis felt a familiar swooping feeling of disappointment in the pit of his stomach, but he shrugged it off. "Do me a favour and pick me up some chocolate chip cookie dough," he said, clapping TK on the shoulder. The other boy smirked. "Get rocky road. That's a man's ice cream."
The two turned and headed down the hallway together. "I thought you said you had soccer practice?" TK asked, as they avoided a loud group of girls on their left. The entire pack giggled as they drew closer, batting their eyelashes at the two boys and casting appreciative glances at the two. Davis smirked slightly as he passed by. Most of the girls at school were wild about TK, and would have jumped at the chance to simply walk next to him in the halls. However, since he was dating Kari, he had to contend with a preposterous amount of jealousy. Kari, however, was so popular that nobody would try anything, and remained relatively unaffected.
Davis himself had also grown into a much stronger, level-headed person. While he could never be called patient (he still had a bit of a habit of rushing into things without thinking of the consequences), he was much more careful than he had been back in his adventuring days as a DigiDestined. Constant soccer practice and weight lifting had also left him strong and muscular. A ton of girls at school were also after him, but Davis was never anything more than amused at their antics.
"I'm on my way now," Davis said, in response to TK's earlier question. "And then I have a nice evening of lying around to look forward to."
"What a life we live," TK laughed, shaking his head. Davis grinned and, as they passed the cafeteria, headed towards the gym to change. "Catch you later."
"Yeah, see you."
x x x x
A gruelling hour and a half later, Davis was drenched in sweat and his limbs were screaming in protest as he made a spectacular slide tackle into Ben's heel, knocking him flat and preventing him from getting a clear shot at the goal net. Ben landed hard, taking the brunt of the fall on his palms to avoid a serious injury. Unfortunately, one of his hands came down on a very sensitive area.
"GOD DAMN IT!"
A sharp whistle blew as Ben rolled off Davis, who was curled up into a ball, cupping himself and swearing in agony. Ben stood, dusting himself and grinning sheepishly as their coach walked over to them. "What's the big idea, guys?" He asked, annoyed.
"Yeah... sorry," Ben muttered, glancing down at Davis and grinning like a loon. "I guess I hit him too hard."
"I hate you," Davis gasped.
Their coach was not impressed. "Stop goofing off, you two. You'll need to play at the top of your game if you want to make the playoffs, and that'll be hard to do if you can't even run properly."
"Sorry," Davis winced as he accepted Ben's outstretched hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. "Won't happen again."
"See that it doesn't. All right you guys, that's enough for one day. We pick it up Monday at 3:00 sharp. Don't be late."
Their teammates began to drift toward the corner of the field, where they had all left their gym bags. Davis and Ben headed after them.
"Not a bad tackle," Ben said, smirking. Davis socked him in the shoulder. "Watch where you land next time."
The two reached the cluster of knapsacks, where the rest of the team was getting their gear together tiredly. None of them seemed to have much energy left.
Davis knelt over his gym bag and began rifling through it. He found a water bottle inside and opened it, drinking half of it in one deep drought, before pouring the rest of it over his head. It felt amazing on his sweat soaked face.
As he shook his head from side to side, spraying droplets of water everywhere, he reached blindly inside his bag for a towel. However, his fingers closed around something else, something cold and metallic, which was vibrating slightly. His D-Terminal.
"Must be a new email," Davis muttered to himself as he flipped it open. Sure enough, several lines of typed font greeted him. It was from Kari.
Dear Davis,
Everyone's going to Izzy's for an emergency meeting. There's some sort of trouble in the Digital World. Make sure to bring DemiVeemon and your D3; we might have to go there straight away.
Kari
I wonder what's up? Davis thought as he stowed his D-Terminal back in his gym bag, frowning contemplatively as he rubbed the sweat and water off his face with a towel. There hadn't been any trouble in the DigiWorld for years – nothing since they defeated MaloMyotismon.
"Hey, Davis," Ben called from a short ways away. "We're all going to get something to eat. Want to come?"
"Sorry, I can't," Davis said quickly. "I've got family over tonight."
Ben shrugged. "Kay. See you."
The rest of his team headed off the field, talking and laughing. Davis stared after them before shouldering his gym bag and hurrying off toward home. If there was something wrong in the Digital World, he was going to find out what it was.
--
A/N: I realize that this chapter may seem boring at first, but rest assured it will have its significance later. And don't worry, action begins starting next chapter. Also, please leave reviews, they make me happy.