Hey everyone. C:

This is going to be a long author's note. xD; Be prepared! It's really important to the story, so please at least skim it!

The first thing is that somehow, I completely forgot to upload a chapter. I know, I'm terrible!!! Please, go back and read chapter 31. It shouldn't take you long. c: I wrote it forever ago and for some reason I forgot to upload it! Ugh. So please go read that and come back here to read the rest. ^^ You can respond to that chapter in a review for that chapter, or... if you already have? Then review erm... another one? Oh, I'm so confused! This throws everything off. I'm sorry. :C But please go read it!

...-waits-. xD

OH YOU'RE BACK COOL.

I want to sincerely apologize for my ignorance. D: When I started this story, I knew little to nothing about the Japanese school system, imagining that it would probably be the same kind of education system I knew about – the "western" one. Erk. I was wrong. xD;

In an attempt to make this fic more realistic and culturally competent, I will be making some changes to it. Mostly changes just about the scheduling and such, as I can't actually learn much more about Japanese school on the internet. Most of it has to come from personal experience, and obviously I have none. Anyway, I'll make some awkward list below of things that will be changing!

1. There will be three years, not four. One of the things I learned was that Japanese high schools have only three grades, not four like my high school had. I know, I'm ignorant, right?? xD; So, although I have mentioned "sophomores" before, they will become nonexistent. o-o; Starting in this chapter! I know, maaaajor story ugliness. Maybe once I've finished the fic I'll go back and rewrite those parts. Anyway, this also means that Tai, Sora, Matt, and Mimi (along with Joe, who isn't even supposed to be there anyway with a four-year system!) aren't supposed to be around anymore. Erm… for this, I'm just gonna pretend they're the same age as Izzy and will be graduating with him. ^^; Please nobody kill me.

2. The school year will be from April to March. Yeah… I don't know why I thought everyone had to have summer breaks in between school years. Oops… Anyway, this doesn't change it that much, and this part I see no way to rewrite. Of course, I could do this, but it changes a bunch of the timeline things that will be coming up soon. I guess I could just say many weeks and months passed by quickly. o-o; I dunno. Still, they were all talking about summer vacation, so yeah.

3. All the characters will be a year older. Yeah. Major problem, huh? I'm…terrible. ;~; But since it's three years, they're all starting as fifteen, not fourteen. Except for Cody. Oh lord. That's gonna give me a headache.

Other things will probably be changing too… I suck, huh? Again, I'm really really sorry about this and I hope you don't think I'm too much of an ignorant American! D:

…the good news is that there will be a cultural festival coming up soon! xD;

Now… onto happier things that don't make me cry from frustration/stupidity! 8D

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: JusTheUnderdog, Depthmon, Chaos Blademaster, Umeplumblossom, pranksta-4-lyf, and Oo-Violetmoon-oO. Thank you guys so much! I hope you all continue to read and like this story even though it's all crazy and weird now. xD;

So you guys have said that you like Yolei, Kari, Davis, and TK's chapters the most. That's the exact same for me! xD It really must reflect it as I write them. I think I have the most fun writing Yolei's chapters, because her character is really fun and can be crazy (same with Davis). And as Kari and TK are my favorite Digidestined OF ALL TIME (xD), they're fun to write too.

So Ken and Cody chapters aren't very fun to read, huh? I dunno… I always kind of get writers' block with them. I need to invent some more interesting plotlines with them, I think. Plus, Ken is so smart and my vocabulary is so tiny that it's hard to write from his point of view! I'm like hunched over my thesaurus… Well… not really… it's all online. o-o; Oh well!

Time to stop ranting. Seriously, this is gonna get longer than the freaking chapter! xD

I hope all your questions are answered by the following chapters. ^^

:: thirty-four : real friends : yolei ::

"Yolei, I saw you talk to her. Are you joining the dark side or something?" Saku asked me, pointing her soda cup at me accusingly.

"No!" I protested. This wasn't what I had to talk to them about! But apparently all they cared about in my life was how I had been talking to Kari. I admit, it had been a little weird. But I'd been in such a good mood on Friday that I couldn't help it. I must have known that soon I would have my romantic date at the store with Ken and realize that we were destined to be together. I was trying to tell them about our fate, but they just kept talking about Kari, Miku, and the cutesy little dumb one, whatever her name is! "But who cares, cause – "

"I think we might be the dark side," Aya told Saku reflectively. "I mean, can you really see them as evil? No way. They're all too preppy and bright and happy to be evil. I think we're the dark side."

"Why, cause we sit around bitching about people?" Saku asked. "That doesn't make us the dark side."

"The dark side's not necessarily evil," Aya pointed out. "For the good guys, sure the dark side might seem bad. But from the dark side, the good guys seem bad. Besides, the dark side always has better clothes and makeup and everything. Like us, compared to them."

"Fine," Saku said, rolling her eyes. "We're the dark side." She glared at me again, using her cup to point. A few droplets of soda fell from her straw onto my plum-colored sleeve. "Yolei, are you joining the good guys?" she demanded.

I shook my head again, annoyed at the fact that they didn't care about my real concern. "Saku, please. I'd rather kiss Davis than be friends with Miku." They all nodded, agreeing with me. Aya's older brother was one of the soccer guys who hung out with Davis, so she knew firsthand how annoying he was. And Saku knew him from middle school. I hadn't known him then, but I told them many stories now. They knew how much I hated him, even though he wasn't so bad anymore because of his devoted obedience to me. Speaking of that, I'd have to start thinking about what I should have him do for me…

We were sitting in the food court at the mall again. We came to the mall a lot, but Saku said it was just to be ironic. We were not mall people. Aya hated everything that had to do with conformity and mediocrity, and Saku just hated everything that had to do with Miku or other annoying bitches like her. I was kind of both.

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I like this new guy…" I said with a smile, dabbing my French fry in ketchup. Finally, I got to tell them! I'd tried last night when I was hanging out with them, but Saku had gotten a phone call from the guy she liked. He was hot, but kind of insane or something. His name was Raoul and he was a transfer student from France. He didn't speak Japanese very well, and he was always doing these weird gestures, like he was dancing or something. I looked down at my fry to see it was soaked in ketchup. It was barely anything but a mound of red goo anymore. Oh well. I ate it anyway.

"I wish we didn't like guys," Aya said mournfully, tapping her wine red nails on the plastic table. "Girls are much better than guys. Don't you wish we were lesbians?"

Saku nodded. "Definitely. If we were lesbians, we wouldn't have to interact with guys at all." She smiled as if that were a perfect life.

"We don't really have to now," Aya said. "Can we avoid them for the rest of our lives?"

Saku hesitated, realizing something. "What about Raoul?"

Aya shrugged. "I don't think he counts. He's French. French is the language of love, so he speaks that instead of the language of sex like all other guys."

"What about English?" I asked. "Cause Ken doesn't really seem like he's a regular sex-obsessed guy."

"Wait, yeah, tell us about him," Saku said. "Is he American?"

"No." I couldn't help but smile. Favorite topic time! "He's really cute," I said. "He's Japanese, but he went to boarding school in England until now. He's basically a genius, and it's kind of hard to talk to him because you have to pull all these big words out of your ass. But you can have such good conversations with him too… He's so smart. He's really nice too. And he's so amazingly hot."

Saku grinned. "Awesome!" she said. "So he just transferred to O.H.?"

"Why anyone would come from an English boarding school to our poor excuse for a high school is a mystery to me," Aya said cynically.

"Well, he didn't really transfer. He just came back home, and this is his high school." Oh no. Was I going to have to tell them… his age? That he was a freshman? Crap crap crap!

"I haven't seen him in any of my classes," Saku said. "He's a genius, you said, though, right? Is he in all the senior classes?"

You can do it, Yolei. Just avoid the subject of his age and whatnot! I nodded. "Yeah! I swear, he's smarter than like all the seniors and he's just a freshman!"

…are you serious?

My best friends stared at me, eyes opened wide. Aya glanced at Saku, who just seemed mad. Or possibly completely confused. They'd both heard my tirades on how much I hated freshmen.

"A… freshman?" Saku repeated. "Yolei. I know this whole getting-left-behind thing has been getting to you. But you can't like a freshman, no matter how cute and/or smart he is. You might be a technical freshman, but you're a junior at heart."

I sighed. "I know… It's like forbidden love or something."

Aya nodded enthusiastically. Not that she's ever really enthusiastic about anything. "You're forbidden to be together! Star-crossed lovers! Romeo and Juliet! This is so amazing, Yolei."

"Romeo and Juliet would be Yolei and Kari falling in love," Saku corrected. I snorted, and she just smirked at me. "What? Remember how much better it would be if we didn't have these terrible emotional binds to guys? If we didn't have to ever talk to them again?"

"If one of us was the Montagues and the other the Capulets, who would we be?" Aya asked. "Meaning if it was us and Miku's group."

"We'd be the Capulets," Saku said decisively. "They threw all the good parties."

"We don't throw parties," Aya argued. "We hate parties because we hate everyone else in our school besides us, remember? If we were ever to even go to a party, it would be to crash it."

"Well, there. The Montagues crashed that party, so we're the Montagues."

"Can we please get back to my problem here?" I asked, exasperated. "I like a freshman. As in underage! Minor! Illegal!"

"You're barely sixteen," Aya mentioned, but I just glared at her.

"Here's what you have to do. Spend this whole year getting close to him and become close friends. Then next year you can make your move," Saku advised.

"But he's too cute! What if a real freshman nabs him?" I wailed. "A real freshman who's actually pretty?"

"Don't start this whole 'I'm not pretty' thing again," Saku growled. "And no real freshman will nab him because you'll be his guardian. We'll help you."

Aya nodded. "We'll watch over him constantly! If some girl even looks in his direction, we'll take care of her."

I stared at them. "You'd help me be his stalker?" I asked, touched. "You guys would do that for me?"

"Of course," Saku said like it was nothing. "We're your friends, Yolei. Man, you really have been hanging out with Miku's clone too much. You forgot what real friends are."

"Thanks! You guys are the best friends ever," I said. I was so grateful to have friends like them, who would help me just because they were my friends.

"Plus I want to have some good deep conversations with him," Aya said. "I love deep conversations."

"Plus I want to see how hot he is," Saku mentioned. "I love hot guys!"

Ah, yes. Ulterior motives. Oh well – they were going to help me guard Ken from all the evil man-stealing freshmen until he was old enough for me to date!

I was almost glad I'd been held back.

…yeah, that was facetious.

-x-

Anyone catch me calling Yolei a "junior at heart"? Yeah, step one of my Japanifying their school. I don't think I said this above: in case you don't know, the three Japanese high school grades are freshman (first-year), junior (second-year), and senior (third-year). Yeah, I know. Just subtract the sophomore and we're good to go! xD

Next chapter features Cody but I have no idea what the title will be. Weird huh? Anyway… Please review! 8D