Autumn Leaves Chapter 4: Tuesdays With Rika, a digimon fanfic

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A/N: Welcome, to my favorite chapter yet! You guys are really gonna love this one. Notice there will be no 'A/N:' at the end of this chapter. I can't wait for you guys to read this one! Also, in honor of school starting again I'll be posting the next chapter up- tomorrow! Okay, no more! Remember, no author's note at the end of this one, the next chapter goes up tomorrow, and I'm gonna try and not have too many disclaimers! So enjoy! Love and be loved. Read… and review please.

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Tuesday's With Rika

You know those dreams… where you're running? And no matter how fast, or how hard, or how quick you run, you just can't seem to get away from who ever is chasing you? And when finally you feel like you can't run anymore, the person catches you. And then you find out the person whose chasing you is someone who you love, or someone you hold dear, who you can't help but help feel anger, that they betrayed you by making you run so hard, when it was only them? And you feel betrayed by them, and then in the dreams… if you're asleep long enough, that person does something to you. It's usually stab you, or do something to hurt you? I have those kinds of dreams… all the time. They don't scare me, but they seemed to be a warning of when someone is going to do something that makes them untrustworthy. And it always happens . . . always. It's always been-

"Ms. Nonaka! Ms. Nonaka!" I heard from a far off distance.

It was my pathetic excuse for a teacher. I peeled my eyes from the window and looked at her.

"Yes, Mrs. Wilks." I said.

"Ms. Nonaka, I'm sorry we are boring you with class, but would you please try to pay attention." She said.

No, I thought. "Yes, Mrs. Wilks." I replied.

"Good, now would you mind answering the problem." She asked me.

I took a deep breath, stole a glance at the clock, 10 seconds was all I had to stall. "Umm, I'd love to answer the problem on the board Mrs. Wilks," she smiled at this, "but sadly (Rrrrrrrrrrrring! Rrrrrrrrrrrring! Rrrrrrrrrrrring!) that's the final bell." I said, standing up to pack up my bag. I was packed, and out the door before she could ask to see me.

I walked home and had a good time doing it. Day dreaming at the end of class was a great way to end the day. I came to a stop at cross walk when the other cars were passing. Hmm… in a few years that will be me in a car at the red light. Well a few years was gonna have to wait for now, as I started to cross when the light changed.

When I finally got home, I barely got into the house five seconds before mom literally ran me over. As I walked through the door, I bent down to put down my book bag, and my mom came speeding from the kitchen and ran me over, falling over herself.

"Sorry dear, I have to run. I'm very late for a photo shoot." She said.

"Surprise, surprise." I said.

"I won't be home till very late tonight, so don't wait up for dinner. Your grandma went to that bakery across town to get some bread and then some other food for you two for dinner. She said something reminded her of the store." She told me.

I smiled at this, remembering how she had told me and goggles about the 'good bread' at Goggles family owned bakery. Goggles? Oh right, he was coming over again today. That reminded me, "Hey, when is grandma coming home?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm not sure honey, probably late four, early five ish." She said. "Okay, kiss, kiss. Love you, bye!" she said going out the door.

The door closed and I said "Yep." I went into the kitchen and looked at the clock. 3: 33… no 3:34. Goggles would be here soon I guess. It was probably gonna be a little bit after four though, I thought. I flopped into a chair at the kitchen table and put my book bag down. I pulled out a few books, and checked out what I had for homework. Hmm… a paper due on Friday, two pages of math problems for tomorrow, some crap in world cultures, and a thesis for the science experiment we'd be doing on Thursday. Well… I better get started.

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"Ah ha! I win again!" I yelled.

"Oh man, c'mon show some mercy Kazu, why not go a little easy on me for once?" Kenta asked me.

"No way chumly. How many wins in a row is that now?" I asked.

"Three hundred and ninety-two." He replied.

"And the records?" I mocked.

"(Deep breath) Three hundred and ninety-two to zero." He responded.

I laughed. But my laughter was cut short. Did I? No, that's impossible. Wait, there he is again. Where's he going? What's he doing in the park? I thought he was grounded. "He Kenta, what time is it?"

"Umm, five of four." He responded.

"That's definitely not time Takato was allowed out." I said, pointing to him.

Kenta turned around and saw what I was seeing. "Hey, what's he doing here?" he asked me.

"I don't know, but it can't be good." I responded. Hmm… Takato blowing off Henry, and me, lying point blank to our faces, and walking in pure day light in the middle of the park, when he's suppose to be 'grounded.' I didn't like it… I didn't like it one bit.

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I knocked on Rika's front door; I was only like ten minutes late. She opened the front door. "Come on in" she said.

"Hey there." I said " . . . Whoa! Dress code alert." I pointed out to her.

She looked herself down, looked back at me and gave me a look of pure… well… it was bad.

"I started my homework, and didn't get a chance to get changed. You sure did hustle over here, didn't you." She said, leading me into the kitchen. Various books were spewed on the table, but there was a clear area free of books where she had obviously been doing her homework. It was a pad of paper, with a pen, and what looked like a social studies book. As we sat down opposite each other she started back on whatever it was she was doing before I came in.

"Really, I just got a page of math to do, and a paper due in like 2 and a half weeks, but its gotta be pretty long." I told her.

"So ah, what math are you doing." I asked when she didn't respond.

"Trinomials." She said. (A/N: God I have no idea what math I was doing in 8th grade!)

"Really? So is my class. Pretty easy, right?" I said.

"Yeah, sure." She responded, unconvincingly. But I wasn't going to push it.

"Yeah, I did hustle over here. Since you mentioned it." I told her. "Because, today… it's all about me, and crazy girl. As you so affectionately named her."

"She's got a lot of problems in the head." She said, not bothering to look up.

"She came to talk to me today." What! I can't believe I just let that slip, I was planning on not telling her that.

"Really." she said. It sounded like she had . . . expected it?

"Yeah. She wanted to talk at the end of the day, but I told her I had to run." I said.

She looked up at me from doing her homework. "Really? You said that to her?" she asked.

"Umm… yeah. I think I said something about not having the time to stop and chat." I said.

She smiled and went back to her work. "Good for you." She said.

'Good for me?' I thought this over for a second; then decided that actions speak louder then words. I grabbed the pad she was writing on and pulled it away from her.

"Goggles… I've got homework to do." She said… more like warned.

"Good, so do I, but I'd rather talk now." He said.

"Talk about what?" She asked me. "I'm not in the mood."

"Why?" I asked. I knew there had to be the nice Rika, I had come to known over the past two days, even if she wasn't here just yet.

"Because I'm just not." She said.

"Well too bad, were talking, and not about me anymore. Let's talk about you, and you changing."

"I don't have to be trying to change every moment of everyday, ya know." She said, her voice raising, as if ready to argue.

"I realize that, but you don't have to go back to being a jerk in between." I said, lowering my own voice in hopes to lower the level of noise. "I want you to be a nice person, because I like that side of you. I've been seeing that side of you the past two days, and I really saw it yesterday when your mom came home." I said.

"I like that side a lot. And I like…" I trailed off.

She gave me a questioning look, as if imploring me to go on. "I like coming here to talk to you… because it seems to be what I need to do," I said, the words seeming to just come to me on the spot. "especially since I felt like less then nothing after Jeri told me she wanted to be just friends. Because… you've been that to me." I said. "You've been… just my friend. You've been listening to me and comforting me." I admitted.

"I don't think you quite realize how much it meant to me when you told me there were plenty of other girls out there for me. When you told me girls liked me, and that I was stupid… but I was going to be alright."

She didn't say anything, so I decided to go on. "Being here for me these past two days, being my friend, they have been two of the best days I've had in a long time." I said. "I had been dreading telling Jeri how I felt for a long time. Ever since last June the idea had been on my mind, to tell her. To tell her how I felt, that I cared a whole lot about her. But the right time never seemed to present itself, so I waited, and waited, and waited until I couldn't wait any longer." I said.

"Up until the last few moments before I told her, I had been so sure she would feel the same. Then I began to get doubts. My head started coming up with ideas, situations… possibilities if she didn't feel the same. But nothing could have prepared me for how I felt after she actually told me no. I lost full control. I was running blind in rain, being engulfed by it, . . . being swallowed in a sea of rain! And then… then you came along. You thought I was a stranger, and you still offered a helping hand. You were so nice, and I respected that about you, that you were being a nice person. And then I got to see that side of you again yesterday, and it was like I was meeting you for the first time, all over again. But when you stood between me and that door yesterday, and I saw the teeniest bit of fear of losing that reputation you had worked so hard to get of being the tough girl. It was then that I knew you were being the nicest you could be. Because the old Rika wouldn't have shown fear… she wouldn't have shown anything. Because the old Rika thought she didn't need emotions." I finished. And without even realizing it, somewhere in my speech I had achieved total eye contact.

We sat in silence for a few moments… just looking into each other's eyes. I felt… weird. I felt… good. I felt…

"Thanks goggles." She said.

I thought a second and said, "For what dear?"

She smiled and laughed. But… it was the best smile I had ever seen her give. It wasn't a simple smirk, or reverse from her frown and then right back to the frown she had been giving me these past days. No this one was different. It was a smile that cut right through the air in the room, so that I couldn't help but smile back. Once she realized she was giving me this smile though, she hid it right away. Like a dog that buries a bone that it prizes so much, because it doesn't want anyone else to have its prize or to even see it.

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A/N: I don't mean to compare Rika to a dog here people… I just thought it was a really good analogy.

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"So… um… do you want something to drink? Or eat?" she asked, getting up from the table, breaking the eye contact, and walking towards the fridge.

" . . . I thought you'd never ask." I said.

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A/N: Wow, I loved that scene. Anyway, that's the end of Monday, I'm gonna write him leaving, but I need them to have SOMETHING to talk about on Tuesday. Btw, Tuesday's with Rika is suppose to be a spin off of the book title "Tuesday's with Morrie." Only mine's better.
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"So I'll definitely see you tomorrow then?" she asked me.

"Yep. Same time." I replied.

"Okay, until then." She said.

"Adios, amigos." I said.

"Bye Goggles." She replied.

Well… that was fun. After a little food and a few jokes, it was 5 o'clock and about time to head home. I still had homework to do I thought, and I picked up the pace a little. Not a run… but certainly not a walk.
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A/N: Fast forward a bit to the end of school the next day… ugh 3 authors notes in less then like 20 lines… that's not good.

"So, Takato. Done being grounded yet?" Someone asked behind me.

"What? Nope, why do you ask Kazu?" I asked him

"No reason… just wondering when your going to be able to come back and play cards." He said.

"Hmm… I'm not sure. My mom said it's open ended, so she can pull the plug when ever she wants." I lied.

"Oh, okay." He said. "You let us know when your free, okay." He said.

"I will." I lied, again.

The final bell rang and everyone got ready to leave again. I packed my bag, and got ready to head out, when someone came to my side again.

"Takato before you-"

"Before I walk out on you talking to yourself, again?" I said, looking her in the eye before walking away again.

"Takato!" she yelled to me. "Don't do this!"

I kept walking away, but some of the people I passed shot me some strange looks.

"Hold up buddy." A familiar blue hared boy said stepping in my way before I could get out into the hall.

"Hold up what, Henry?" I said. "Please, stand aside, I'm in a rush if you didn't notice?" I said.

"A rush for what? If I was you, I'd be less then eager to get home, where I'm grounded, then stay and dawdle here and talk to my friends." He said.

"It's easy to judge, what you do not know." I said as I walked around him.

I could tell I had left them in shock, and confused, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to stick around and listen to Jeri talk about this or that, and I wasn't about ready to take sh/t from Henry. I had a bad feeling they were gonna know I wasn't grounded now. They'd probably come around the bakery and ask to talk to me, and my mom would tell them I'm out. They'll ask why I wasn't grounded and she'll tell them I never was. So I guess tomorrow was gonna be hell. But hey . . . that's tomorrow. Today I didn't have any homework, and I had a friend to talk to, who I knew wasn't going to question everything I did.

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"So you got the camera?" I asked.

"Yep, Kazu." Kenta replied.

"Good. Were gonna need it." I said.

"Why? What are we filming?" he asked.

"Takato." I said.

"What? How? Why?" he asked again.

"Were gonna follow him where ever he goes and record where he's going. That way we'll know, and so will everyone else." I replied.

"Aw man, this doesn't feel right." He said.

"Shut up, look, there he is!" I said in excitement.

He was running, he must be late for whereever he wasn't suppose to be. "C'mon, if you zoom in, we can follow at a pretty good distance." I said.

So, we followed him, for about 10 minutes we followed him while he ran on the pavement and we ran on the sides and hid behind trees and in the woods on either side. Until finally he got to the other side of the park, where he crossed the street and knock on the front door of someone's house. Sadly, whoever's house it was let him in before we could see who it was.

"This house looks familiar." I said. "Lets go home and get the name of the person who lives at that address's house."

"Why? We know who lives here?" Kenta said.

"What? We do?"

"Yeah, you don't remember?"

"No! Who is it?" I eagerly asked.

"That's Rika Nonaka's house, remember?"

"Hey… that's right!" I exclaimed. "So Takato's been blowing us off for… Rika Nonaka… wait, what? That can't be right."

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"Come on in, Goggles." I said.

"Thanks, sorry I'm really late today." He apologized.

"Nah, your fine. But now that you mention it, why are you behind?" I asked.

"Ugh, Henry and Jeri held me up today." He said.

"Jeri try to talk to you again?" I asked.

"Yep. And Henry's trying to figure out…" his voice trailed off.

Ouch! Busted again! "Trying to figure out what, goggles? Where you've been going?" I asked.

"Yeah…" he said in his infamous defeated voice.

"Well… I do have to let you slide once more, so there you go, you're last time." I said.

"Shoo… thanks." He said.

"Yeah, yeah. Just go into the kitchen. Oh, my mom's home by the way." I said.

"Awesome!" he said.

He led the way to the kitchen, but the trip wasn't so smooth for me. After he had turned the corner into the kitchen, my mother came down the hall.

"Rika dear… I have to tell you. To save you from many future broken relationships." She said, I had stopped dead in my tracks, and so did Goggles… only my mom couldn't see him.

"The only thing men want is sex!" she said.

HOLY CRAP! I couldn't say anything. I was too shocked that she had even said this to me! But what she didn't know, was that Goggles was just around the corner! He had heard what I had heard…

"Rika dear? Are you okay?"

"I… umm… I" I couldn't form a sentence. My vocal cords had failed me. What was Goggles gonna think of this? Was he gonna…

"I ugh… beg to differ." Said a certain idiot hidden out of site.

My mother looked at the wall. "Rika? Who was that?" she said. Walking just past me, to where she could see past the corner to the other side of the wall.

"Hello, Mrs. Nonaka." He said.

"Oh… oh my. Hello dear… umm and you are-"

"Mom! This is ah…-"

"Bruce Wayne, nice to meet you miss." He said.

My mother laughed at this. "Bruce Wayne? Well Bruce, it is nice to finally meet The Batman!" she gave a fake enthusiastic smile.

"Well, my friends call me Batman, but technically, according to this whole like 'legal name' business, my alias is 'Takato Matsuki.' But I don't know what that's all about." He joked.

"Oh! That's right, I've heard of a Takato Matsuki. Where do I know you from? And what are you doing in my house?" she asked.

I was afraid she was gonna ask him to leave, so I had to intervene. "Umm, mom… Takato is my friend."

"Actually, I'm just here for the brownies." He said, picking up one of my grandma's brownies she had just finished making, and holding up like a prize. (A/N: think of the Bud Light commercials.)

Again my mother laughed. "This one's funny Rika."

"Thank you." He said.

"Mom… umm… Takato's been coming over since Saturday, and we've been talking for like, an hour. That's all." I confessed.

"You mean he was here on Sunday, when neither I, nor your grandma, were home?" she said.

I was afraid she was going to say that, I had no way around it. "Yeah." I said.

She gave me a stern look, and here came the beat down. Where she was going to kick Takato out of the house and spend the rest of the day yelling at me about this or that.

"Well… I'm afraid what your thinking is completely wrong." Takato said to my mother.

"Excuse me, young man?" she said.

"Yeah. Well it's like what you just said, yourself." He said. "If the only thing I want is sex, why would I be here now? I mean if you're thinking we 'did it' on Sunday, why would I be here two days later? Why would I have bothered to come back, yesterday?" he asked her.

She didn't reply. "Which is exactly why… I beg to differ." He said, taking a bite out of the brownie.

"Mr.-"

"Matsuki." He said.

"Mr. Matsuki, would you-" (here it comes) "like to stay for dinner?"

"What?" I asked.

"I would love to Mrs. Nonaka!" he said. "But, if you don't mind. I need to call my mom and tell her I won't be home for dinner at home." He said.

"Not a problem." She said.

"What?" I said in a defeated voice of my own.

Takato walked over to the phone, and that left my mother and me alone. "Rika…"

"Yes, mom."

She looked at Takato on the phone, "I like this one…" she said, smiling. "Don't let him get away."

I didn't say anything, but she smiled and walked into the kitchen herself. Leaving me standing in the hall, dumbstruck by the incredible outcome that had resulted from what seemed like a doomed catastrophe from the moment it began. Takato had just basically sweet talked his way into my mother's favor and kept me out of any trouble at all. WOW!

While on the phone, Takato seemed to have a little trouble communicating that he was at a girl's house to his mother, or the fact that he'd been going there every day since Saturday, and that was why he had been late home everyday. Apparently she didn't believe it until she talked to my mom on the phone, then she believed it. Quite the sigh of relief to know Takato had talked his way into my mother's favor… quite the sigh of relief. So I guess we were gonna have some more time to talk today?

Dinner couldn't have possibly gone better. I was just glad I was allowed to eat anything at all. I was so sure of how my mom was gonna react, so sure she wasn't going to giving me anything to eat for dinner, so sure she was going to be fighting with me until I finally gave up and lied that I wouldn't talk to Takato ever again. So sure… that I was still in shock that he was still able to crack jokes with me and with my mom, that we could laugh at all the way through dinner. Dinner seemed to never end… I mean we had stopped eating, but we were still talking at the table after dinner. It was a great evening, we lost track of time. Finally, my mom looked at the clock and said, "Oh my! It's 8:30! You have to be getting home soon! Come along dear, I'll get my keys and give you a ride back home."

"No! Don't bother yourself, it's only a walk through the park." He said.

"No, it's much too dark. You need a ride home."

"No, with rising gas prices, save yourself the time and money!" he said.

"Oh, are you sure?" she asked him.

"Of course! If I run fast enough, I can be home in a half hour, sweat off the fat I got from this dinner, and be home by nine!" he exclaimed.

"Well… if your sure." She said.

"I'm positive." He assured her.

"Alright, Rika, if you will, show him the way out." She said to me.

"Sure." I said.

I motioned him to follow me to the door. I opened the door for him to go out, but before he did, he said, "Thanks for dinner, it was awesome. Your mom's great."

"No, you were awesome. You have no idea how much trouble you kept me out of." I said.

"That's another sign of the nice Rika, you care that you would have been in, and more importantly, that your out of trouble." He said.

"Okay, whatever, just get out of here." I said.

"Bye" he said, walking down the steps and down the concrete path.

"Bye." I said back.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Tune your radio into channel 197.8 (A/N: made up) the Seagull. At nine o'clock, they're having a Shins block. 15 minutes straight!" He exclaimed.

"I will. Safe journey home." I said.

"Yep." He said, walking away.

So I walked back into the house, where my mom and I talked while cleaning up the dishes. She turned onto the radio while we were doing them, and once again I heard the wordless noise… which scared me. But she told me the song and once again… I could hear.

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Do-do-do-do-dodo! That sure was a fun time at Rika's house, I thought on my walk home. Hmm… I better pick up the pace if I want to get home in time for that block. splash splash splash splash Awww man… it's starting to rain! I better really hurry up now. I started to run full speed, until I tripped over my own feet. Ouch! I must have scraped my knee. splash splash splash splash splash splash . Ugh, the rain is really starting to come down hard. I started to get up. splash splash splash CRACK! splash splash splash . What was that? Was that… a branch cracking? No… I'm hearing things. splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash crack splash splash splash splash splash splash crack splash splash splash . Okay… I definitely just heard a branch crack. But from which direction? God, there's so much freaking rain, I can't see two feet in front of me. Where am I? "Who… whose there?" I asked to the rain? crack crack crack "Who… WHOSE THERE?" I demanded to the rain. "Show yourself!" I yelled into nothing. crack crack crack "WHO ARE YOU!" I yelled again. I know someone's there… someone's trying to get me. crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack "WHERE ARE YOU?" I heard nothing but felt someone behind me, just before I was blinded by the nothingness…