YO!!!! WHASSUP?!? The holidays are over!! Noooo!! Well, it's back to the horrible place we call school then… dammit!! Anyway, we're up to episode 11! WOW!!

Please read and review!!

By the way, I don't own Digimon or any of the characters. I only own the OCs, the plot and the story; and I won't hesitate to bash up anyone who tries to rip me off. Read and review!!

The Digidestined will always be friends, and nothing else will ever come in front of friendship, whether it is love, food, rivalry, competition, or secrets that have been hidden for a very long time.

Episode 11: Hiding love with friendship!!

Izzy stumbled through the front doors of the school. His good buddy, Tai Kamiya, spotted him immediately and quickly ran over to say hi.

The clueless poofy-haired soccer captain was carrying a stack of books for his first class, and he carefully held them as he spoke: "Hey, what's up, Izzy?"

Izzy just groaned.

Tai frowned. "Man, you look like you've been run over by a train."

"I feel like I just went through a meat grinder," Izzy mumbled.

"Really?"

"Yeah…" Izzy felt his eyelids droop. "We've got end-of-semester exams coming up and I did an all-nighter just studying for one of them."

Tai gasped out loud. "ARGH!! Crap!! I totally forgot about them!" He shook his head in dismay. "I'm gonna get such bad grades…" he looked over at Izzy, "But I didn't think you'd need to study, genius."

"Everyone needs to study, Tai." Izzy said. "The only genius around here is Joe. I'm only good at computers and technology stuff, remember?"

"…yeah." Tai replied.

They parted ways to get to their respective classes. Izzy walked slowly, still feeling like he'd been through a meat grinder.

End-of-semester exams… They went for the whole last week of term. And then afterwards, HOLIDAYS!! Izzy drifted into his science class.

The pretty girl sitting at the side brightened considerably. She called out, "Hey, Izzy, you're here!!"

Izzy smiled weakly. "Hi, Mimi."

"Wow, Izzy, you look like you pulled an all-nighter." Mimi frowned. "You all right?"

"Barely." Izzy said. "And now we've got a test."

"A test?!? A test!!" Mimi exclaimed. "We have a test?!? I didn't know that!!"

Tai grinned at his best friend Matt, who was casually walking next to him, ignoring the crowd of the girls in the background squealing at him.

"Glad to see ya back with us," Tai said.

"Yeah." Matt said. He lifted up his Crest of Friendship and showed it to Tai. He smiled. "I've got this, don't I?"

Tai nodded. He looked into the distance for a while and said thoughtfully, "But I gotta say, for a while there I almost thought that you had grown out of the Digidestined. And I was really worried for a moment."

"Well… I guess… maybe I got impatient. Remember that promise? Well… I can't help but feel that maybe every one of us are trying to cheat it. Maybe we just can't help it. We kept letting love butt into our friendships. And now that I think about it, it was probably my fault that Mimi got so emotional and uncontrollable. And it was my fault that I put you guys through so much." Matt smiled a small smile, "You're right, Tai. We weren't ever supposed to let any of this stuff happen. Friendship before Love, right? It's my fault Mimi got so emotional."

Tai just nodded solemnly.

Matt said, "Thanks for accepting me back. I still feel like I did something wrong and I'm afraid that the others might not be able to forgive me."

"Of course they'll forgive you!!" Tai interrupted. "Why wouldn't they?!?"

"…because of Joe's almost moving away, I managed to maybe regain a little of their trust. But… I still feel uncomfortable, because… remember when you and Sora were chasing after me? Sora- she told me that Mimi loves me. And at that very second, I felt this weirdest feeling. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it just throws a lot of things in a mess."

Tai blinked. He didn't understand anything Matt was saying.

Matt chuckled. "Still as clueless as ever, I see. Anyway, I'm sure that Mimi was hurt that I went out with Sayo. And I know that she was even more upset when I ignored you guys. But just like your promise, Tai, maybe she has to understand that even though we're friends, I couldn't feel the same way about her."

Tai nodded enthusiastically.

Matt gave a big sigh. "Besides, she's not the only one who feels something for another Digidestined that's beyond friendship."

"Eh?"

Matt looked at Tai with his all-seeing icy blue eyes. "Izzy." he said. "Koushiro loves her, doesn't he?"

"Wh…WHAT?!?" Tai exclaimed. Sure, he may have been the Digidestined leader but it didn't change the fact he was clueless and dense. He was Tai! He couldn't help himself if he didn't notice startling obvious facts!

"I wonder how long this friendship will last," Matt said, as he put the tag back in his pocket.

"Huh? Whaddaya mean?" Tai asked, alarmed.

"Izzy's just trying to keep your promise, Tai. But it's a lot harder than you think."

"…" Tai said nothing.

"You know what I mean." Matt looked at his watch when he realized lunch break was over. He started turning away, catching the confused look in Tai's eye.

Matt smiled a small knowing smile, "How much longer can you hide your love for Sora with your friendship?"

"YEEEAAAHHH!! WE'RE FINISHED!!" Mimi cheered.

She and Sora ran out of their last class, talking excitedly.

"The test finally finished!!" Sora sighed with relief. "Too bad we still have the exams and tests for the rest of the week!!"

"Yeah…" Mimi said, shoulders dropping with disappointment.

Sora just smiled at the pink-haired girl walking beside her. It was so nice to have her back, she thought, I'm so glad she's not all sad because of Matt anymore.

"Oh yeah!" Sora said, "It's the holidays next week!"

Mimi looked delighted. She clapped her hands together. "Oh!! That's right!! We've all gotta do something fun for the holidays!! Like, with everyone! All of us Digidestined!"

"That'd be awesome!" Sora grinned brightly.

Izzy could hardly tear his eyes away from the happy pink-haired girl chatting away happily with her best friend. He shook his head as he headed over to his locker to put away his books. He was so happy to see her smiling, so carefree again. Izzy opened his locker door and stared at the tag lying on the shelf inside the locker.

The Crest of Knowledge glinted a little the sunlight that beamed through the windows and Izzy felt a little depressed. He put his books away and closed the locker door, a little too hard.

He snuck another glance at Mimi, who was leaving the school building with Sora, and they were busy planning some exciting trip for everyone. He couldn't help it.

Before Izzy had had some tiny suspicion that this was happening, or was about to happen and now it did. It wasn't his fault.

Every single time he saw her.

Every single time when she was just standing there. When she was just smiling in her ditzy way, when she looked confused, or when she was exhausted from shopping in every single shop in every single level of the biggest mall in Odaiba…

Every single time he saw her…

He felt his heart ache a little more.

And then that last time when Mimi was faced with the horrible truth that Matt was dating some girl, when she was heartbroken and those tears kept falling from her eyes. When she gave him that small smile on her tear streaked face, he couldn't kid himself anymore.

Izzy scowled in annoyance.

Crap. Dammit. He was so in love with her.

Thankyou for reading episode 11 of FFFD!! Please read and review!!