Hello everyone! I wasn't gonna update so soon, but I started writing this chapter right after I finished the last one. I didn't struggle to write this one, which is a relief. As you can see, I will start to focus on Sorato a little more. There will be less Jyou and Mimi. I'm trying to figure out how to include him in since he has other priorities. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! Please review.
Chapter 7: Back To The Real World
A month had gone by since our last encounter. I have to say a lot has changed since then. We started hanging around much more, which makes me really happy. The only thing I wish I could change was the fact Mimi had gone back to United States. I really wanted her around, even if she's a little crazy sometimes. Yamato and Koushiro pretty much hung out with Taichi all the time, whereas Sora started feeling uncomfortable being around them. I guess it's something that comes from being a teenager, right?
School is about to start again, so I'm about to be a sixth-grader, along with Takeru. Taichi, Yamato and Sora are going to High School this year, while Jyou is in his second year. Mimi and Koushiro are finishing Elementary School, as they are in eighth-grade.
"So, Hikari… are you excited for school this year?"
"Well, it's not that different from last year." I shrugged, looking up at him. "What about you? I reckon you will have physics, chemistry and biology now."
"Ugh, don't remind me." He shivered and it made me laugh. "All those calculus and formulas scare the hell out of me."
"You haven't even started yet." I had to suppress the laugh for my own safety. "I'm sure they won't be this hard."
"Are you kidding me?" He said loudly, gripping into his hair as if I said something awful and forbidden. "Have you seen how quickly Jyou solves them?"
"But Jyou loves to study, we all know that." I turned my back on him and went back to what I was doing. "And stop doing that to your hair until you end up bald. You don't want that to happen, right?"
Taichi immediately let go of his hair and a mouthful of it was taken way. He sighed deeply as he stared at his hand.
"So, have you found out if Yamato and Sora are in the same class as you?"
"No, but I hope so. It will be so much easier to face this first semester with them in the same class as me."
"It's too bad Mimi isn't in Japan anymore. It would be so much fun having her around, wouldn't it?"
I turned around to find my brother brushing heavily. I couldn't help but laugh at his useless attempt to hide his face from me. It's funny because he thinks I have no clue of what happened between them. Please, I'm a girl! We have a sixth sense when it comes to these stuff. Besides, it's a fact Mimi can't exactly keep her mouth shut for long.
"I guess so." Taichi shrugged, trying to shake it off. "I don't know."
"You really think I don't know you like her?"
"What?" He jumped from his seat, completely taken by surprise. "How do you know that?"
"Please, everybody knows it. You are terrible at keeping things secret."
"Alright." He sighed; there was no point in lying to his own sister anymore anyway. "It's not like we can date, you know? She lives in New York."
"So what?" I asked. "Now that we know we can go the Digital World again, you can always arrange to meet there."
"She lives in the other side of the world, Hikari." He stated as if I was dumb enough not to know that. "We're twelve hours ahead, remember?"
"Right." Okay, I admit. I completely forgot about time-zones. They suck big time. "So, do you have any plans for our last weekend before school starts?"
"Yamato, Koushiro and I are going to play soccer tomorrow."
"That's cool. I wouldn't imagine you doing anything different with them." I hesitated, not sure to mention it or not. I decided to throw my two cents on it. "Aren't you gonna invite Sora?"
"No, just the guys this time. Do you think she'll be upset?"
"I don't know, she might. You know how much she loves playing soccer."
"I hope she doesn't feel like I'm shutting her out."
"Talk to her later. I'm sure she will understand."
Taichi looked at me and nodded silently. There was something in his eyes that told me he wasn't exactly comfortable with excluding her from something that she really enjoyed doing, but had no other choice. I wonder what happened to make him do that.
The weekend went by like a blinking of an eye. When it seemed I had finally fallen asleep, I hear the alarm clock beeping very low and getting louder gradually. I moaned and turned to the other side of my bed when my mother opened the door and softly called me and Taichi.
"What time is it?" I hear Taichi mumbling from the bed below. "It's Sunday, mom. School only starts tomorrow."
"It's 6:30 am and it's Monday, Taichi." She said from the doorway. "This means you have class. Koushiro will stop by at 7:30."
"God, I hate high school already." He sat down, rubbing his eyes. They went wide when he saw I was already heading out of the bedroom. "How can you wake up so fast?"
"I'm just as sleepy as you." I replied. "I hate Mondays."
"Tell me about it."
"But I'm excited for this semester."
"You're so weird, Hikari." He said with an eyebrow raised. "The only person I've known that likes it other than you is Jyou."
"Come on, Taichi." I patted him on the shoulder. "Don't you wanna know which class are you in?"
"No. I'd rather stay home and play videogame."
"Go figure." I rolled my eyes. "But you can't have that. So let's get going."
"Taichi, what are you doing? It's 6:45 am, you don't want to be late on your first day." Our mother shouted from the kitchen.
"Ugh, fine." He sighed and stood up, finally giving in.
Koushiro arrived at 7:30 on sharp. If there were anything he didn't have, it was lack of punctuality. I opened the door with a smile and noticed Yamato and Takeru were with him. I made a face at Takeru's brother ability to look cool at such an early time. I shook my head and turned in towards the hall and yelled to Taichi we were getting late. He shouted back saying he didn't know where he put his pencil case. Typical. I sighed and closed the door behind me.
"Good morning everyone."
"Good morning, Hikari." Takeru and Koushiro replied in unison.
"Where's Taichi?"
"He's late as always, obviously."
"It's gonna be a hell of a good year." Yamato said leaned against the hall wall.
"I thought Sora was coming with us. Where is she?"
"She said she had some things to take care of, so she went a little early."
"Don't you think she's acting weird lately?" Taichi jumped into the conversation as he closed the front door behind him.
The simple mention of her name made Yamato shift nervously in his place. I didn't dare to turn my head, but I glanced at him for a moment. I couldn't help but wonder if my suspicions were right. I sighed in relief and thanked God for not letting Taichi notice it. It would be awful if he picked up on Yamato's move so early, especially on our first day of school. Curiosity was eating me alive, so I had to know if something was really up. I decided to talk to Takeru during lunch time.
Sora was finishing rearranging her locker with books and tennis related stuff. It wasn't large enough for her racket to fit in, but tennis classes wouldn't return until next month so it didn't bother her. She had her MP3 player on shuffle, on a pop-rock playlist. Her music taste went from Britney Spears to Bon Jovi, as random as possible. She didn't really mind it, she thought it was cool to dance to "Oops I did it again" and still listen to power ballads like "Always". She frowned when a song by the Teenage Wolves started playing, once "When I was your man" by Bruno Mars ended. Sora colored when the image of Yamato appeared on her mind. And, as if her timing wasn't bad enough, Natsuko came to her.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
"Natsuko!" She faked excitement. "I didn't see you coming."
The red haired girl kept focusing on arranging her locker as an excuse not to look at her friend. In fact, she was trying to hide the blushing away before turning her head towards her. She knew Natsuko would definitely tease her about Yamato if she saw her red face. And she was not willing to talk about him.
"What's going on with you, Sora?" Natsuko inquired. "You are ignoring me."
"I'm not ignoring you, Natsuko." Sora replied still avoiding eye contact and feeling really bad about it. "I'm just doing my annual locker arranging."
"Annual locker arranging?" She asked with an eyebrow raised. "Is that your way of referring to Yamato now?"
"What?" Sora nearly jumped at the mention of his name. "I wasn't thinking about him."
"How else can you explain your blushed cheeks then? Don't think I hadn't noticed it."
Crap. She thought. Was there anything Natsuko didn't notice?
"We spent a whole month apart and you couldn't let it go?"
"I did let it go, until now. Why do you set yourself to suffer? Just tell him already!"
"Because I don't like him, alright?" She said louder than she usually did. "Next time you bring up Yamato's name again I swear I will…"
Sora stopped herself abruptly and blushed heavily. She quickly turned away to face her locker again.
"What's going on?" Taichi asked as he approached the girls with Koushiro and Yamato.
"Nothing." She replied as her grabbed her math book nervously. "Natsuko was just being a pain, but she's not gonna do that anymore."
"I'm pretty sure I heard you saying Yamato's name." The brunette insisted on knowing what was up.
"Well, you heard it wrong." She immediately cursed herself for snapping at her best friend, but it was the only way she found to make him forget about it. Her locker door thudded when she closed it with more strength than she meant to use. "If you excuse me, I have to go to class. The bell is about to ring."
"What's wrong with her?" Taichi turned to his friends with both arms behind his head. "She's getting weirder by each day."
"I guess that's because she's becoming a teenager." Koushiro shrugged. "You know, hormones and all."
"What do you think, Yamato?" He looked over to his best friend with an eyebrow raised.
Yamato stood frozen in his position. He began to tense up, but tried his best not to show he was nervous. Of course he had noticed she was acting a little off lately, but it got worse after they returned from the Digital World. He started to consider what Takeru had been saying all along, that she might actually like him. He scanned through his mind for a moment where he could have hinted something for her, but he found nothing. He shrugged and convinced himself it was just a fan crush, because of his band and all. Or maybe he just wasn't the object of her affection at all.
He woke up from his trance and found Taichi and Koushiro looking at him in confusion. When he opened his mouth to reply, he was thankful that the bell started ringing.
"I have to go. I'll see you in lunch."
I made my way to the cafeteria right after the bell went off, indicating the lunch break. Me and the boys agreed to meet by the furthest table on the place, but the weather was so nice that I decided to stay in the outside. We were going to have three months to stay indoors anyway.
"Hello, sis." Taichi approached me with his inseparable knights, Yamato and Koushiro. "I thought we were meeting inside."
"True, but isn't it a beautiful day?" I looked up to the sky and they followed my gesture. "I thought it would be cool to enjoy the ending of spring before it gets too cold."
"Where's Takeru? I thought he'd be with you."
"I'm guessing he's still in the line." I looked over at the cafeteria, trying to find him. "So, how was your first day so far? Are you two in the same class?"
"No, but I really wanted to." Taichi lamented. "Yamato and Sora are, though. I will seriously ask mom to talk to the principal so I can stay with them."
"What about you and Takeru?" Yamato asked me, in a clear attempt to change the subject.
"We're both on 6-A." I replied with a smile. "Most of them students are from last year, but it's nice to have someone I'm close to."
"You have it so easy, Hikari." My brother lay down on the grass, with his hands on the back of his head. "Wait until you get to high school."
"It's our first day and you're already complaining?" Koushiro asked with disbelief. "Imagine how you would be by the end of the year."
"You say that because you don't know what's like."
"Indeed, but you make it seem worse than it actually is."
"Exactly." Yamato nodded and leaned forward to grab his cup of orange juice. "He'll be destroyed when it finishes. And I'm being nice about it."
"That's so not true." Taichi protested. "I will prove that I can do great this year."
Both boys started laughing at my brother but someone caught my eye. I followed her through with my eyes as Sora stared at us and then shook her head nervously and walked in a different direction. Luckily, none of the boys noticed her. Or so I thought.
"Hey, Hikari." I saw a hand waving in front of me. "Are you alright?"
"What?" I snapped out of my thoughts. "I'm so sorry. I'm fine. Where's Taichi?"
"I don't know." Koushiro replied, looking around. "I guess he went back to the cafeteria to grab some dessert."
"But it's not Taichi's type to just sneak out without a sound."
"Yeah, it's more typical of my brother. Where's he by the way?"
"I think I know where they might be." I replied. "Well, I know who Taichi went after."
"Who?"
"I think he went after Sora. He noticed she was acting a little different lately, so he probably wanted to know why."
"Not that you mentioned it." The computer expert said with a finger under his chin. "She is sort of avoiding us. Did she tell something?"
I shook my head negatively. I wanted to tell him my suspicions, but what if I'm wrong? Besides, it's not my place to gossip about someone else's love life. So I just shook it off.
"No, but I'm sure she's just stressed about her first real tennis competition." I took a deep breath. "He might take a while to come back, so I think we should start eating."
Koushiro and Takeru sat in front of me and we began eating while chatting about our first day at school.
Sora was sitting under a cherry tree listening to her iPod and eating peacefully when Taichi came behind her and removed her earphones from her ears.
"Taichi! What the hell…?" She protested as she turned around and saw him. "I hate it when you do that!"
"What's going on with you?"
"What?" She asked surprised. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Well, you've been acting weird ever since we got back from the Digital World." He sat down beside her. "And you didn't even join me for lunch. You know fairly well this is our tradition since first grade."
"I'm sorry, Taichi." She looked away, visibly ashamed. "I just have a lot going on. I mean, with tennis practice and Wimbledon coming up."
"Are you sure that's just it? There's nothing more?"
"What do you mean?" Sora turned her head around and looked at him.
"Are you sure you don't have feelings for a boy?"
"WHAT?!" She screams, her face as red as an apple. "What makes you say that?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "You're a little off lately. You've been avoiding us like we were a plague or something."
"Okay, that's an awful assumption to make."
"So are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Having feelings for a boy?"
Sora lowered her head. There was no way she could lie to Taichi after her face pretty much gave it away. But she didn't have to be fully honest with him. At least not at that moment.
"Maybe."
"See, I knew it. Who's it?"
"I'm not telling."
"Oh come on, why not?"
"Because I don't think he likes me back." She avoided looking at him. "Besides it's a fact you can't keep a secret, and I don't want to risk you blurting it out accidentally."
"I'm your best friend, Sora."
"Still not telling you."
"Ugh." He complained. "Can we at least hang out together again? I miss you."
"I'll try." She smiled.
"That's better than nothing." Taichi stood up. "So are we good?"
"I think so."
"Alright. I'll have to head back before someone eats my lunch. Are you sure you don't want to join us?"
"No, I'm fine. I should head back to class soon. But thanks."
She watched her best friend walking away and felt relieved that she didn't have to tell him about her small crush on Yamato. Little did she know the blonde wasn't gonna let her off the hook.
Uh, oh... someone's in trouble? What do you think Yamato will do? Is Sora pushing her feelings aside and joining the group again? If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to share them in the review.