McKenzie's POV~
"Are you sure that we can afford this, Ter?" I ask, glancing back at the packet of information for a summer camp.
"Yeah, Zie, I checked the job jar and savings account and we have plenty to send us both." Terry replies, sounding irritated.
"But if we both go, it'll be," I pause, grab the packet and flip to the cost page, "about fourteen hundred. We both can't go. I know we don't have that much in savings and the job jar."
"Sis, you didn't read the fine print. It says that there's a discount for kids like us. I'd've thought you, of all people, would read the fine print. You do enough reading on other people." Terry replies. Only then did I even notice that there was a fine print and, sure enough, there was the part about the discount.
"Okay but it says that we have to contact their office…" I say, my nose buried in the packet.
"Already did. Got the form. Filled it out. I just need you to double check it." Terry says and ducks into his room.
A moment later, he comes back out and hands me a form. I look it over but a line at the top catches my eye.
"TERRY!!! This says that to get the cut prices, it has to be in by the time the office closes today!" I yell in a panic.
"ACK!!! Read it on the way! The office closes at six!" Terry exclaims running for his shoes.
"Terry, it's five. We have plenty of time. What are you so worried about?" I ask, now puzzled.
"Simple. The office is across town." Terry says, fighting his shoe onto his foot.
"Ah!" I exclaim and run for my hiking boots. I always wore hiking boots ever since I'd broken my ankle for the second time… ever since I'd met Meiya.
I still hadn't found him. We'd made a major mistake. We never told the other our real name. Never told our last names. Kept a part of our lives secret.
I freeze, my boot halfway on. Two years, give or take a few months, I've looked for Meiya. I regret, now, not telling him the truth or not asking for the truth after we knew each other well enough.
I shake my head and finish putting on my boots. I stand and grab the form off the floor.
"Let's go!" I say and dash out the door.
Two weeks later…
"PACK TERRY!!!" I scream. I'm sure the rest of the complex heard me; it's just that Terry was being stubborn again.
"Why? We don't have to leave until noon." Terry answers lazily, staring at his Game Boy.
I sigh heavily and answer, "Because, Terry, you'll SLEEP until noon!"
"Fine." Terry grumbles, turns off his Pocket Monsters game and sets it down on the table. He disappears into his room.
I sigh heavily. Terry was always the procrastinator and only he would think that he could back in the four hours before we have before we'd leave to catch the bus to camp.
I sigh again. I can hear Terry packing. Actually, it was more likely that he was throwing clothing and other necessities into his bags.
I walk to the other side of the apartment and go into my room. There were only a few more things I needed to pack.
Terry always said I was a bit of a neat freak, but I only now realized how true that statement was.
I had made it clear that we were going to do some serious cleaning when we got back, I'd put a plastic cover on my mattress to keep the dust out of it, taken off the sheets and blankets, cleaned them and put them away. I was going to sleep in my sleeping bag tonight.
Why? Why am I such a freak when it comes to cleaning? I ask myself as turn on the light blue table lamp by my bed.
My hand brushes against the blue picture frame next to it. I pick it up and sit down on the bed, the plastic cover rustling, staring at the picture.
Bunny ears, Meiya, myself, the Autumn Festival; so many memories piled into one photograph. Why did I keep the lie going? Why didn't I tell him the truth before he left the park that day?
Why?
Matt's POV~
I stare out at the water over the edge of the bridge. Water the same color as Amemi's eyes; a brilliant, clear greeny-blue.
I lied to her… she lied to me… I hate lies… I think, staring down at the lake.
I had thought the lie was for the best. I didn't know her. She didn't know me. Why should we have trusted the other with our real names when we met?
I push away from the bridge's railing and walk home, lost in thought.
I suppose we got so used to living in that lie that we didn't bother to correct it.
When I look at the lie that turned into a friendship now, I find it horribly embarrassing as well. Two kids, strangers, lie to the other; then, a week later, their friends; another two months later, they're best friends, still keeping the charade going even though they trusted each other more than they did their siblings.
How naive we were! It was as if the gods were showing us what lying got us. We were such fools to think we would find each other at school.
I take out the photograph that Amemi had given me our last day together. 'The Laughing Pile of Kids' my dad had called it when I'd shown it to him. I feel a tear fall off my cheek and hit the picture.
I quickly wipe it away and rub my eyes as I enter my dad's and my apartment. I head straight for my room.
"Matt! You ready to go in the morning?" Dad asks from somewhere out in the living room.
"Yeah, Dad." I call back from the hall outside my bedroom door and go into my room.
I set the picture back by my harmonica on my dresser: the harmonica that Amemi gave me on her ninth birthday. It's funny. We shared her birthday but never our real names.
I grab the harmonica and sit on my bed, looking at the dirty engraving.
"Friends forever, huh? Some forever. Six months" I grumble sarcastically but then think. Maybe she still thinks that we're friends. Maybe she still wants to find me.
Maybes seldom are, Matt. I think harshly. Get a clue. She's gone and she probably won't be back.
Too true. I reason.
The phone rings and I grab the receiver quickly.
"Hello?" I ask.
"Hey Matt!" T.K. exclaims happily on the other end of the phone line.
"Hey T.K." I answer, not quite as enthusiastic as I usually was when my little brother would call.
"You thinkin' about her again?" T.K. asks, sounding concerned. Sometimes I wondered how he knew what was going on in my head.
I hesitate then answer, "Yeah. How'd you guess?"
"Your voice gave it away. I bet you're even staring at that harmonica she gave you." T.K. replies off-handedly.
My jaw drops but I quickly shut it again. That's what I had said when Amemi tried to lie that time when she was upset at the lake in our park.
"So anyway, you ready for tomorrow? I can't wait to get back there! It's the Digidestine One Year Reunion!" T.K. laughs at the title that Kari had called it when Mimi had proposed the idea.
"Yeah. I'm ready T.K. Listen, Was that all? 'Cause I'm kinda busy." I ask, more hurriedly than I had intended to sound.
"Busy doin' what? Thinking about Amemi?" T.K. retorts quickly.
"Yeah. That's it. I'd rather think about an old friend that I haven't seen in years than talk with my little bro." I reply, sounding sarcastic.
"I'll leave you to it then! See you tomorrow, Matt!" T.K. says, playing along with the joke.
"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." I reply and hang up the phone.
The flute I'd given Amemi had said that she was too good to forget. That was so true that I wonder sometimes if I knew that we'd be separated.
Why didn't I just forget her? Haven't I held my word long enough that I'd think of her whenever I looked at the picture?
No! She's still out there, I argue with myself, and no matter how long we're apart, we'll still be friends.
My resolution would keep failing though. The hope that I'd had then was quickly diminishing into nothing; I had to keep it though.
The end of this Summer Break. That's as long as I'll wait for her. I resolve avidly. I stare at the harmonica again.
I'm sorry Amemi, but you'd understand… I think and start playing my song. It used to be that my dad would come in here to check on me whenever I started playing on my own but since last summer, the summer I became a digidestine, he'd started giving me more space and stopped checking in on me.
I almost wished he would now.
Kari's POV~
"Tai! Time to get up!" Mom shouts at the lump on the bottom bunk that was my brother.
"Wha?" Tai asks sleepily, blinking.
"It's ten 'o' clock sleepy-head. Time to get up!" I say, leaning over the side of my bunk, surprising Tai.
"Ah! Kari!" Tai exclaims, jumping nearly a foot off his bed and hitting his head on the bottom of my bunk.
"Ow…" Tai pouts, rubbing his head gingerly.
"Come on Tai! We leave for camp in a few hours." I urge as I start to climb down the ladder.
"All right. I'm up." Tai grumbles, still nursing his head, gets out of bed.
I finish packing as Tai eats his late breakfast. When he was done, I help him finish packing tee shirts into his bag.
It was only ten-thirty when we finished packing so we watched the Sailormoon S movie. Granted, it's not all that great but it's a time-waster.
When the movie was over, we ate a quick lunch of sandwiches.
Tai heads to the door after grabbing his bag.
"C'mon Kari! We're gonna be late!" Tai calls from the front door to the apartment.
"Coming!" I shout back, getting my own bag hoisted to my shoulder. I hear a soft clink of metal hitting the wooden floor. I look behind me at my feet. What I saw astonished me.
The Crests of Courage and Light lay on the floor like someone had hastily taken them off and they'd fallen off a ledge.
"Kari! Get it moving!" Tai yells again.
"Hold on!" I reply, grabbing the two crests and pocketing them.
I run out into the hall and dash towards my brother.
"Here. Let me take that." Tai says, reaching for my bag.
"Tai, I'm not sick! I can carry it just fine." I refuse, shifting position to make the bag inaccessible from Tai.
"Let's go! I can't wait!" I say happily. Walking down the hall to the elevators, I was nearly bouncing.
"Whoa! Slow down there, sis!" Tai says, running to catch up with me because I had started skipping.
"I'm so glad I get to go to camp this year." I announce happily. Although the kids that came to fix lunch were really nice. Not to mention that the food was great!
On the bus, we'll meet up with the other digidestine and the One Year Digidestine Reunion would commence.
Disclaimer & Authoress's Note: : WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME I FORGOT THE DISCLAIMER!!!!!????? *clears her throat* Hehe… Sorry. I own Teriku Kane "Terry" [Tochi] and Makotokai Nona "MacKenzie" [Amemi] Hoshino, the pictures, MacKenzie's lamp, MacKenzie's picture frame, and MacKenzie's flute. Sailor Moon S Movie belongs to Takeuchi Naoko-sama. Matt (the cute one), T.K. (the cute one's bro), Tai (the cute one's pain in the butt), and Kari (the cute one's brother's soon to be crush) belong to the peeps in Japan who created it! I bow at their feet! See ya in Chapter One! Anyone for a camping trip???
~Tes-sama