Chapter 7: Where's Kari?

Author's Note: It's time to go! TK's leaving for France and all the Digidestined are seeing him off. They all meet at the airport but there's someone missing! Where's Kari? Why isn't she there to say goodbye to TK? That question will be answered in the next chapter. Disappointed, TK says goodbye to everyone present and makes his way to the airplane that will take him to France and the rest of his life…

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, okay? Just read the Disclaimers in the first four chapters. Since I wrote Chapter 5, I got lazy so I'm just gonna make this sweet and short from now on. Check the first four chapters!

Always Hope And Light
by: Miss Wings Of Love

Chapter 7: Where's Kari?

~*~*~

"Go TK! You're the man! Go beat 'em!" I heard Kari's voice behind me.

I ran down the court and passed to Davis who passed it to our teammate Miko. He dribbled and passed to Julian, who passed to Davis, who then passed it back to me. I went for the drive and scored! Victory for us!

I heard Kari lead the cheerleaders in a cheer of "2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate? It's TK! Who's the man of the game? TK! TK! Yeah! Oh, yeah! Go go go go go go! What does V stand for? VICTORY! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y? Because we're winners! GO TEAM! YEAH!!! Whoo hoo!"

I grabbed Kari and swung her around. I noticed Davis was trying to look under Kari's miniskirt so I began to put her on the ground again.

"Way to go, TK!" Davis congratulated me as I put Kari down on the ground. He didn't even look slightly jealous of how Kari and I were celebrating.

I answered, "Hey, Davis, you did pretty well yourself!"

Davis didn't answer me. Instead, he glanced over at the other cheerleaders, pretending to be interested in them and not in Kari. I shrugged it all off.

"Isn't this great, TK? One more win and we win the tournament!" Kari said.

"Yeah…" I told her.

~*~*~

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!"

The sound of an alarm took me away from a deep slumber. I guess life can't be as perfect as dreams are. I rolled out of bed and got dressed.

A knock on my door made me jump as I grabbed my hat.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"It's me!" the familiar sound of Matt's voice came from outside my door.

I told him, "Come in, bro!"

"You ready?" he asked me.

"Yeah…" I told him. I wasn't as sure as I sounded but Matt appeared to buy so it's cool.

He helped me get my stuff into his car. I only had one suitcase because mom sent the rest of my stuff to Grandpa and Grandma's. She sent her stuff too. She had a suitcase in Matt's car's trunk already went I went to put mine in.

We piled into the car and went on our way to the airport.

"TK, are you all right?" Matt asked me after a while of me being quiet, "What's up?"

I looked at him and said, "Sure! Why wouldn't I be?"

Matt gave me his I-know-there's-something-bothering-you Look.

"It's Kari, okay? She left the party early yesterday and I'm worried. That's what's up!" I said with an unexpected force in my voice.

I could tell that Matt knew that he hit a nerve by the way he was biting his lip.

"I'm sorry I asked," he said to me.

Matt put his focus back on the road ahead of him.

"Honey, are you okay with us leaving? I know we haven't had enough time to talk but…" mom's voice came from behind me.

With an edgy tone, I interrupted her sentence and said, "Yes, mom, I'm fine with it!"

It was my turn to bite my lip. Mom sensed that she hit a nerve too, so she stopped talking to me.

When we got to the airport, my mom said, "I'll go check our suitcases in. You go to Terminal 11. I think your friends are waiting there." She smiled and headed off.

Matt followed me to the terminal, where, in fact, practically everyone was waiting.

"Hey, TK, I know I speak for everyone when I say that we'll miss ya, man!" Davis' distinct voice broke through my thoughts.

I noticed Matt was talking quietly to Tai, who looked pretty upset. Before I could go and find out was wrong, Yolei grabbed my hand and gave me an envelope.

"Here's something to read on the plane, TK! It's from all of us," she explained.

I stuck the envelope into my backpack and then, I finally realized why Tai was freakin' out.

"Hey, have you guys seen Kari? I thought she'd be here!" I said.

No one knew why she didn't show up. Like me, everyone else thought she was coming.

"I'm so sorry, TK!" Matt said to me.

My best friend in the whole entire world, the one person I thought I could count on, is the only person missing. What am I supposed to think!? I felt numb.

"I called her cell phone, she won't answer!" Tai said, panicky, "She said she'd be a little late but this is ridiculous!"

Without theorizing, Izzy told him, "I e-mailed her. Don't worry! I'm sure nothing bad's happened to her, Tai!"

I could barely hear Tai's response but it sounded like, "For TK's sake, let's hope that it's just that."

Through all the chattering and good-byes, I was feeling bummed out. Kari wasn't there.

After an hour, my flight was boarding and Kari was still nowhere to be seen. I didn't wanna leave without saying goodbye to her but it seemed like it was coming to that.

"Hey, TK, take care of yourself! I'm always just a phone call or an e-mail away if you need me!" Matt told me.

I answered, "I know, bro!"

"Hey, take care of yourself!" Ken told me.

Tai grinned and said, "Say hi to Catherine for me!"

I saw Sora glare at him and I began to smile despite myself.

"Goodbye everyone!" I yelled out as I made my way to the gate with my mom.

I looked back one more time to see my best friends in the world…except for Kari. How could she not show up at a time like this? Now I know how Mimi felt when Palmon didn't show up to say goodbye when we left the Digiworld after we first saved it. The difference is that Palmon showed up, even though she was totally late and almost missed the chance to say goodbye. Kari's not even gonna be around…

"Come on, sweetie, let's go!" mom said to me.

I sighed and walked on, heading towards the gate.