DISCLAIMER: Do we really have to go through this again? Go back and read the one in Chapter One. It states (in much, much, more detail) that I don't own anything but Kacie and her digi. Kat owns Kat(ina) and her digi.
Authoress's Notes: They were hearing something. Battle cries? Read on.
"What in the world--" Sora said.
"I don't know, but I say we check it out," Tai said, and tried to lead them off toward the sound.
"No!" Izzy cried. "It could be dangerous."
"Izzy," Katina said, gently reminding him. "We've already made so much noise...if it hasn't heard us, it is stone deaf, or much louder and further away than it sounds."
He nodded. "Still--"
"Aw, come on," Tai said. "There's practically nothing we can't handle. Let's at least check it out."
Izzy nodded hesitantly, and the group veered to the right, in the direction of the sound. Within minutes they had reached a cliff.
"Don't get too close to the edge, T.K.," Matt warned.
"You too, Kari," Tai said.
They all looked over the edge into the valley below.
Kacie clapped a hand over her mouth so as not to scream. ~It *figures*!~ She had never seen anything--so--
"There's hundreds of them!" Joe cried.
"Actually, more like twenty-five, but yes, there are a lot," Izzy said matter-of-factly.
"What are they?" T.K. asked.
Someone's digimon began to answer, but Kacie spat it out first. "Venimon. Those are Venimon. That's what caught me day before yesterday."
Sure enough, there were twenty-four of them plus their "drill sergeant", so to speak, and they were going through basic exercises.
"What an introduction to the Digital World," Sora cracked.
"Tell me about it," Kacie said. "So now what?"
"Now we fight!" Tai yelled.
"No, we should--" Izzy began, too late.
All twenty-five of the Venimon had heard Tai.
And suddenly, all twenty-five were on the warpath. "In the name of King Ferodramon, we will destroy!" They started to slither up the cliff, and Kacie was amazed to see just exactly how agile they were. ~Or maybe they're just covered in slime and they *stick* to the cliff wall!~
"At least they gave us a warning, come on, let's go!" Mimi cried.
Tai glared at her. "Are you nuts? I said let's fight, so let's fight!"
"Yeah!" most of the kids agreed.
"Yeah," Kacie said, softly but forcefully. "They only got the better of me once and it will *not* happen again."
Only Matt heard her, but he was impressed with the attitude the redheaded girl displayed. It wasn't courage, at least not in the degree Tai had it, but this was more of a--stubbornness? An unwillingness to leave herself unavenged? Something like that.
The Venimon approached, and as soon as one got too close, Tai yelled, "NOW!"
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon let out the fiery energy ball.
Kacie heard several other attacks, but didn't think long enough to attach them to any particular digimon. Jacamon leapt up into her arms. "I'll protect you!"
Kacie realized that when Tai referred to the kids fighting, it was more of them ordering their digimon around. If that was what it meant, then she knew what to do. "Jacamon, there!" She pointed and the digimon dropped to the ground and bounced really high, up to the evil digimon's eyes.
"Boom Bubble! PAH!"
Kacie watched the digimon take a deep breath and let the Venimon have it in his eyes. The way Jacamon looked while doing this was so cute she would have laughed had they not been in such danger.
"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon attacked the Venimon that Jacamon had been harassing, and it dissolved into information. "Nice distraction, Jacamon!" the digimon told her.
They had only taken down about four of the Venimon, so Tai held up his digivice. "Everyone digivolve!"
Kacie watched in awe as all the fuzzy little creatures became great warriors. Quite a confusing sight to watch nine digivolutions at once, especially when two were Warp Digivolves. Now where the rookie digimon had been stood WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, Garudamon, Angewomon, MagnaAngemon, Zudomon, MegaKabuterimon, Lillymon, and Wizardmon. They all began to fight, taking down the Venimon right and left.
Jacamon leapt up into Kacie's arms. "Me too, please? I want to be a rookie!"
Kacie noted that her digimon had been one stage behind all the rest, so she felt a little sorry for her. ~Jacamon must have felt like a little kid among teenagers, and now it's worse, being a little kid among adults.~
"I'd love to help you digivolve...but I haven't the slightest clue..."
Her digivice began to beep. She unclipped it from her bag's strap and Jacamon jumped down. Light began to go from the digivice towards Jacamon.
"Whoa! I guess here we go!" Kacie simply held the device toward her digimon. A warm feeling rushed over her as the light began to surround Jacamon.
"Jacamon...digivolve to...CABAIYOMON!"
Where the purple basketball had been there was now a creature reminiscent of Patamon, only purple, with horse ears, a mane much like Gomamon's only fuschia pink, and a tail that could not be described by comparing it to any other digimon, at least not any that Kacie had seen. It was kind of like the mane only in longer strands.
"Wow...I helped you do *that*?"
"Yes, of course, but there's no time to talk. I have Venimon to help destroy!"
Cabaiyomon had bounded off to help before Kacie could protest. Kacie joined the rest of the kids and followed suit, cheering for Cabaiyomon as much as any of the others were cheering for their champion, ultimate or mega digimon.
"Violet Wave!" Cabaiyomon cried, and two beams of energy erupted from her mouth and twisted around one another, blasting toward the Venimon.
"YEAH! GO, CABAIYOMON!"
"Violet Wave!"
All the other digimon seemed to be busy with their own Venimon, so Cabaiyomon kept mercilessly attacking the one she'd gotten a hold of.
"Violet Wave!"
"I give up!" The Venimon dissipated into nothingness, and Cabaiyomon dropped to the ground, exhausted.
Kacie ran for her just as MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon took out the last two Venimon standing. "Cabaiyomon! Cabaiyomon! Are you all right?" Kacie took the small creature into her arms and cradled her. She ran her fingers through her mane. "Cabaiyomon?"
"I'm all right. I just took down a Venimon, single-handedly..."
"Yes, yes you did. I'm very proud of you."
The compliment seemed to give Cabaiyomon new strength, because she leapt out of Kacie's arms and started to sing. "I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon! I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon!"
Kacie turned and saw that the rest of the digimon were de-digivolving.
"So that's how we got Motimon and Cajamon...I get it..."
Kari and T.K. hugged their digimon, and all of the digis got some form of praise. Havamon seemed content to see Katina smile at him in approval. He cuddled up to her side with a look of personal pride on his face. "We can really take those bad guys down, huh, Kat?"
Katina simply nodded.
Matt and Gabumon came over to Kacie. "Nice work. I can't believe a rookie took down one of those Venimon all by herself..."
"Well, I did, so you better believe it!" Cabaiyomon let her song trail off and looked up at Matt. "I told you I'd be a digimon."
He laughed. "So I see."
Kacie stood up from her kneeling position. "So now what do we do?"
Apparently someone else had voiced the question simultaneously, because Tai was yelling. "We keep walking, what else?"
"Wait everyone! I have an e-mail!"
Everyone was crowded around Izzy instantly.
He clicked for his mail, realized who it was from, and blushed. "Sorry, everyone, false alarm. It's not Gennai."
Everyone else sweatdropped. "Izzzzzzzzzzyyy..." Tai said.
"Hey! There's another message coming in! *This* one's from Gennai!"
Kacie suddenly perked up. "Didn't you say he's the one who knows what's going on?"
"More often than not, yes, Kacie-san," Izzy said as she plunked down next to him.
It surprised her to have the Japanese suffix attached to her name again. It had been a while since she'd heard it because Matt did not use it. ~Is it because he does not like me, or is it because what he feels for me is beyond respect?~
Izzy plugged in a mike procured from his backpack. "Okay, everyone, I'm opening the video clip."
Gennai's face popped up on the screen. "Hello, kids! By now you have found the tenth DigiDestined. There's nothing really special about her as compared to the rest of you. She's just a little late in showing up. She will be needed, however, very soon."
~Oooh. This sounds just ducky.~
"I can't tell you now, just exactly what will happen, but I can tell you this, the ancient prophecies say she'll know it's her time to shine when she gets her Crest. Oops--I have something I forgot to do that must be attended to right away! Bye-bye, and please recycle!"
The transmission cut off.
Kacie's arms went flailing once again. "Aaaah! Just when I was getting somewhere the stupid thing cuts off!" Then, as suddenly as she had started, she was done, and she hung her head in defeat. "Fine. Let's keep going. No point in hanging around."
Tai led the way, and everyone followed.
Matt cocked his head towards this new girl. She seemed so resigned to her fate. She never made a fuss over anything, once she was satisfied nothing could be done about it, but she always made *sure* that there were no other options. It wasn't stubbornness, but what was it?
"What are you thinking about?" she asked him.
"Oh, nothing...just trying to figure out what your Crest might be."
"Can it be pre-determined?"
"Well, each of our Crests is representative of our most notable quality. My Crest is the Crest of Friendship, Izzy's is Knowledge, Kat's is Pure Heart, T.K.'s is Hope...are you getting the idea?"
"Yeah, I think so...but I'm not sure what mine will be any more than you are...unless you have an idea...?"
"I'm not sure. I see a quality in you but it doesn't at all sound like a Crest. Of course, most of the Crests can be used the wrong way, have a negative effect. Tai's courage, for example, can be overdone and become just plain recklessness."
"So mine could go either way?"
"No. When you get it, it will be positive, but if it is used the wrong way it could make a lot of bad things come down."
Kacie nodded. "I understand."
At this point Cabaiyomon came bouncing back to her.
~Even if she digivolved she still likes to jump around.~ "What is it, Cabaiyo?"
Cabaiyomon was not displeased with having the 'mon' dropped from her name. "I was just wondering if I still fit in your bag."
"Oh." Kacie unzipped her duffel and Cabaiyomon jumped up and into it.
"Perfect fit. Thanks." The small creature nestled down into the bag and quickly fell asleep. Kacie zipped the bag up a bit more so that all that poked out was her head.
"Surrogate blanket," she joked to Matt.
He grinned at the small, sleeping digimon. "She must be exhausted. She took down that Venimon all alone, and earlier it took Kabuterimon and Wizardmon to do that. She needs the sleep. It's probably taking all her strength to stay in her rookie form."
~Oh, but...she doesn't need to do that...will it hurt her?~ "Is she doing that for me?"
"Digimon are very loyal."
"I wouldn't mind, if she were to de-digivolve."
"It's a point of pride, I think. Like she's not worthy of your respect if she did de-digivolve."
"But she's all worn out."
"Don't worry, she'll be okay so long as she sleeps a bit."
Kacie nodded. Obviously he knew more about it than she did. They went on in silence, and she found it strangely comforting to not be able to hear anything. No noise meant no battle cries. No battle cries meant no Venimon.
It was early when Tai said they should set up camp. They found another cave, although this one was more of a front room to a much larger cave.
Matt left for a few minutes to chill, alone, and Kacie heard strains from a harmonica waft into the cave. She smiled, and leaned against the wall, noting that he had left his backpack next to where she was sitting. That made her happy.
Slowly she became aware of a feeling of discomfort, and finally realized it was her head that hurt. She crossed the cave over to Joe. She had taken special care to remember his name, since Izzy had said what he had about medical stuff.
"Joe?"
Joe looked up. "Kacie?"
"Do you have an aspirin or something in there? I have a headache."
He nodded. "With all the stuff that's happened to you these past few days, I'm not surprised. Hang on just a second."
She watched him as he absentmindedly rummaged through his bag. She noticed he was not really looking for anything, and so she lifted her eyes to see what preoccupied him so. Her eyes followed his gaze straight to Mimi, who was brushing her hair and talking to Sora. She watched Joe's mannerisms, and then she dared to ask it. "You like her, don't you?"
"Huh? Who?! *Mimi*? No! Yes! I--I give up."
"You *do*, don't you?"
Joe lowered his gaze and actually started to look for the aspirin. "Yeah."
"So why don't you tell her? I can tell you from experience it's very irritating to a girl when a guy won't admit his feelings, or at least hint at them." ~Very recent experience.~
Joe blushed a little, and told her in a very quiet tone, "Well...you see...umm...well...there's Matt. I think he likes her, and I don't want to fight with him. I'd lose, and I don't like violence anyway--basically, Matt is not someone to mess with."
Kacie blinked back--were those tears? ~No. I *will* *not* cry over this. Now.~ "Well, it would be her choice, would it not? If Mimi were to choose you over him, he couldn't *make* her like him, right?"
Joe wouldn't look at her. "I...guess not...but Matt is so popular, no girl could possibly like me if she had the opportunity to have a guy like him..."
"You won't know until you ask. And unless she is very, *very*, *VERY*, shallow, love is not a matter of being with someone popular."
Joe sighed. "Anyway, here's your aspirin."
Kacie nodded and took it from him, assuming it was her cue to leave him alone. She went back and sat by her stuff. She swallowed the small pill with no water, or anything. The last time she'd had something to drink that was not out of a creek had been on the way back to Izzy's house from school. She'd had half a Dr. Pepper left from six days before, and even though it was hot like wasabi and flatter than pancakes, she'd been desperate.
She settled back down into "Connecticut Yankee" with her flashlight to pass the time. As she was reading, Cabaiyomon woke up, and Kacie started reading it aloud. Even though Cabaiyomon had no idea what most of it meant, and interrupted every five seconds to ask a question, she thought the scene where Merlin first got beaten by Hank Morgan was pretty funny.
"Can we read the whole thing from the beginning, Kacie?" she asked.
"Sure. I've read it before, so I don't mind." She opened it to the front of the book and skipped over the publisher's foreword and contents and such, and began to read to her digimon.
Kacie noticed the exact moment the harmonica stopped, and she looked up from her reading, until Cabaiyomon asked her to keep going. Kacie did, and then a few minutes later Matt entered the cave and sat down beside her.
"Hello."
"Hi," Kacie said. She had no clue what to do. ~What if Joe is right and Matt really does like Mimi? No, that can't be right. Joe *has* be mistaken. But what do I say?~
"Aren't you tired yet?" Matt asked before she had a chance to think of anything.
"I haven't had time to notice, I was reading to Cabaiyo here..."
"And you interrupted a really good part, too!" Cabaiyomon told him. "Go *on*, Kacie!"
"All right, Cabaiyo, we'll finish up the chapter and then I'm going to sleep. If you want to hear any more you'll have to wait until tomorrow or read for yourself."
Matt laid down, facing her, and went to sleep.
Kacie finished chapter six, and at the end she took off her jacket and used it for a blanket again. For a few minutes she watched Cabaiyomon, who decided she didn't want to wait--and spent a good ten minutes trying to get the paperback to lie flat under her short paws--only to discover she couldn't read it anyway.
"Hey! This isn't DigiCode!"
"No, it's English, of course," Kacie told her. "Otherwise, *I* couldn't read it."
"Oh. Good night, Kacie."
"Good night, Cabaiyo."
Kacie curled up tightly, trying to fit as much of herself as possible under her jacket, and Cabaiyomon crawled under the jacket and laid next to her stomach. Kacie absentmindedly ran her fingers through Cabaiyomon's mane until they both drifted off to dream.
The next morning, Kacie was not shocked by the small presence by her side when she awoke. She shook it awake, actually.
"Cabaiyo..."
"Five more minutes...no one *else* is up..."
Kacie looked around, and realized that for the most part, Cabaiyomon was right. The only other person up was Mimi, who'd taken the final watch. "Hey, Mimi! Good morning!" Kacie said, quietly, vividly remembering how those stupid caves echoed the slightest sound.
"Good morning," Mimi returned, grinning in the morning light. Apparently she'd been awake long enough to get rid of the early-morning grouchies. "It's about time someone woke up."
"Now what?"
"Usually when one person who's not on watch wakes up, that makes it time to wake up everyone."
"Okay." Kacie picked up her jacket and in an instant it was on. She turned toward Matt and shook his shoulder.
"Mmm--? Kacie?" His eyes fluttered open, and again Kacie noticed them, how strangely captivating they were. "Aw, man, what time is it?"
"Time to be awake," she told him.
"Whatever." He sat up and immediately turned to the other side to wake T.K..
Kacie went across and shook Katina awake. Mimi had awoken Tai, who was working on Kari, who apparently slept a lot harder than one would think a child that age would. Then Katina woke Izzy. When Kari finally got up Tai shook Sora. Mimi went toward Joe and got him up, and Kacie watched, noting something about Mimi's expression as she did so. ~Good gracious, she *does* like Joe!~
Kacie watched from her spot as the kids got up each of their own digimon, trying to not think about what Mimi's liking Joe meant for her chances with Matt. ~It's too nice a thought to think before noon, before one can fully comprehend it.~ She smiled elatedly.
Cabaiyomon noticed her grin. "What are you thinking about, Kacie?"
Kacie looked to her side, seeing Matt doting over T.K. for some reason or another. ~We're friends for life, right? She deserves to know...~ She decided to risk telling her digimon, even if Matt was close by. She didn't want him to hear, obviously. "Cabaiyo, do digimon fall in love? Do they have crushes on other digimon?"
Cabaiyomon looked up at her. "Yeah. There was this guy Cabaiyomon on File Island...how dreamy...he had such pretty green eyes..."
Kacie smiled, and wondered just exactly what Cabaiyo had left behind to be with her. ~I'll have to ask her, later...~ "I have a crush on one of the guys here, Cabaiyo, and I'm waiting for him to notice."
Cabaiyomon giggled conspiratorially. "Who?"
Kacie felt a bit light-headed herself, having figured it out about Mimi. "Guess," she said, all smiles.
"Matt."
"Hey! How'd you know?"
Cabaiyomon smiled a bit. "Did you honestly think I was asleep the *whole* time yesterday? I didn't hear everything, but I heard enough to know who you were talking with most of the time."
"You're just a little imp, aren't you?" Kacie asked.
"Pretty much."
Tai was about his usual ways, telling everyone to pack up so they could leave.
Kacie was, once again, done quickly, merely having to let Cabaiyomon crawl into her bag. The book didn't even have to go in, as Cabaiyomon insisted Kacie keep it in her jacket pocket until she was ready to read, since it would probably be very soon. Matt walked beside her again, however, and put Cabaiyomon's learning of things Arthurian on hold. The small digimon knew better than to interrupt, though.
"So here we go again," Matt said. "I keep pictures of this world in my mind, but they're all moving pictures, like on a video camera. I don't have any photograph memories of it."
Kacie laughed. "I know that feeling, and this is only my second time here. And my first time under Tai."
"Yeah, he can be a task-master. He's okay, though."
"I guess." Kacie's tone was begrudging, and not heartfelt in the slightest.
Cabaiyomon asked to be let down to talk with the rest of the digis, and Kacie let her go.
It was fairly quiet, the kids pretty much keeping to their own conversations and not being noisy, until noon. They stopped by a creek, and the digimon found fruit growing about that they could all eat.
Kacie got a round, blue fruit that looked like a huge orange on the outside, if it weren't for color, but when she peeled it found the inside to look and taste like watermelon, only dyed blue. "What is this?" she asked of her digimon. "It's so good!"
"That's bluefruit," the purple critter told her.
"Real creative name," she remarked sarcastically. "I never would have thought of that!"
Matt sat next to her, holding his own fruit. It was a cluster of yellow berries. "Bellberries," he explained, "Or so Gabumon tells me. All I know is, from past experience, that they taste real good and make your teeth look like you smoke." He grinned ruefully.
Kacie smiled. "Gross! Tell you what, you give me half, and then we can both eat half of mine and get that off our teeth. Mine tastes like watermelon."
Matt agreed, and Kacie found the berries to be like cotton candy in the fact that they melted in her mouth, very quickly. "Oh, weird!" she told him.
"Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool, though, huh?"
"Yeah! The more I stick around, the more I like this place." She ruffled Cabaiyomon's mane. "Although that may be due in part to its residents."
"I'm not a resident anymore," Cabaiyomon said. "I'll be going with you from now on."
"It's still a cool place."
"Well, on that I have to agree with you. It's my homeworld, after all."
Tai began to yell at everyone. "Hey, people! Lunch is *over*!!! Let's get going!"
Matt stood and then turned and helped Kacie to her feet. It was a small and unromantic gesture by most standards, but Kacie's heart leapt. ~He actually touched me! He put his hand over mine!~ She might have gone into shock had Cabaiyomon not leapt into her bag.
"Get a grip," the digimon said so low only Kacie could hear. "He was just being polite. No reason to faint."
"Oh, hush."
They walked--again. Kacie was almost ready to agree with Mimi on that note.
"So what do you do for fun at home?" Matt asked her. "You know, do you have a hobby or anything?"
"Well...I do have my scrapbooking, I guess that counts as a hobby."
"Scrapbooking?"
"Yeah. Basically the kindergarten art of cutting and pasting, only you get to use photos and little themed scraps of paper, and play around with them until it looks like a work of art."
"Huh?"
"I think I lost you. It's not exactly the most cool of pastimes, but it *does* pass the time and I have something to show off when I'm done. I'll show you when we stop again."
"You have it with you?" Cabaiyomon asked.
"What do you think you're laying against as we speak? I never leave home without it."
"Oh."
The day passed quietly until they set up camp, no Venimon encounters, no e-mail from Gennai, no nothing.
~Just me, falling for this guy deeper and deeper every second. Surely by now he's noticed that there's something more here, on my part, than just a friendship...unless Joe was right...*No*! I will not allow myself to think such negative stuff!~
They were out in the middle of a forest this time, as there was no cave handy. They did not bother with a campfire because it would have taken too long to find a clearing, and it wasn't cold anyway. Matt took the spot next to Kacie for the third night in a row, and she was beginning to think it was more than coincidence. ~Perhaps he really does--~
Matt turned to her. "Hey, are you going to show me that scrapbook or not?"
"Oh yeah! Cabaiyo, get out for a minute, please." Kacie pulled out a three-ring binder with the title "My Scrapbook" embossed on the cover. "This is it." She opened it to a page near the back and spread it across her lap. Matt sat down next to her, and she reveled in his very closeness.
The pages were papers in sheet protectors, and on the papers were collages of photos on pretty sheets of printed paper, with stickers, die-cut shapes, and little journaling scribbles in Kacie's handwriting to accentuate them. The photos were grouped by one theme, or date, to a set of pages. A set of pages were sometimes two pages opposite one another, sometimes just one, or sometimes three or more in a row.
"Hey, this is neat...definitely prettier than the way Mom keeps her pictures, in those little things from the film developers..."
"Those things drive me nuts. I like this better, and besides, they're more fun this way."
"And more fun to look at." He looked at the dates of several pages. "These are all pretty recent, within the past three months." He began to flip closer to the front of the book, and the dates went backwards. "How long have you been doing this?"
"Only a year or two, but I did all the old pictures that were scattered under my bed, rotting."
He smiled. "Those are your parents?" he asked of a picture labeled "Mom and Dad". The couple in the photo appeared to be high-class, him in a suit and her in the latest fashion.
"Yeah. This was their last anniversary."
He continued to flip pages backwards, not paying much attention to pictures of her few friends. Finally he came to a single page that had a five-by-seven picture of a redheaded girl a few years older than Kacie. It looked like a senior picture. The background paper was a solid sheet of aqua green, and there were a few stickers making a sort of border around three edges of the photo. Along the bottom, in letters obviously done with a stencil in a calligraphic font, the caption read: "Alaina Kensingten, in memorium. November 27, 1981 - June 9, 1998". That had only been that year.
Matt stared at the picture, and then looked up at Kacie. "Kensingten is your name, right?"
"Yeah."
"Was she...a cousin of yours or something?" he asked gingerly. He didn't want to hurt her.
"She was...my sister." Kacie willed herself not to cry, but the lip she was biting was certainly suffering for it. "I won't make you ask, I know it feels uncomfortable to ask. She went joyriding, with six other kids in this tiny car. She was always the perfect angel, she was the only one who wore her seat belt. When the stupid driver drove right off a bridge and into a lake, she was the only one who couldn't get out, and she drowned."
"Oh..."
"Don't say you're sorry. You didn't do a thing to her, and even if you'd been there and known there was nothing anyone could have done. She couldn't help the way she was raised."
"Raised?"
"If my parents hadn't raised her to be such a Mary Jane, she would have been like any other high school senior and gone without the belt for the thrill of it, and she could have got out. That's all I'm saying. And now since *she* can't go on to law school and become the perfect female lawyer and marry the perfect male lawyer and have two boys and two girls and be a world peace spokeslady like she'd planned, my parents think it's *my* cue to take over *her* destiny. Frankly, all that stuff is good and well if you're into that kind of thing, but I'm not."
"Is that why you don't talk to them? Why you like it here so much?"
"Every time I do talk to them we argue, so yes, I avoid them. It's a big house."
"I see." He wasn't sure how good this was for her, but who was he to pass judgment? He didn't get along any better with his dad. Some of what his father put him through classified abuse, although he said so to no one, not even T.K..
"My only parent now is Marta. I don't go places with my parents, and if I need their permission for anything, I tell Marta and she asks them for me. I stay in my rooms--don't look at me like that, I only have three and the bathroom doesn't count, so two--and I don't venture into the rest of the house unless I'm leaving it completely."
"What about your sister? I mean, did you get along with her?"
Kacie sighed wistfully. "She was perfect. I loved her in spite of that. As long as she was there to carry out their dreams and wishes to a tee, I was free to be me. Now, I'm...free to be her. We were really close all the time we were growing up. My jacket--" Kacie drew it tighter around her, as if she'd been suddenly chilled-- "Was hers. She got a new one, and she gave this one to me just the day before she was killed."
Suddenly Matt understood why she always wore it, even though it hadn't been cold in either the DigiWorld or Japan the entire time she'd been there. "I see..." He closed up the scrapbook and handed it back to her. He had some clue of how she felt, he remembered when he almost froze to death searching for T.K., and how it had felt for that one awful moment when he let himself think that something might have happened to him. He was sure that what Kacie felt must be ten times worse, because she *knew* something had happened to her sister, and it was over. He knew she must still be hurting, although she hid it very well. In all truth, she tried not to think of it.
She took the binder from his hands, not bothering to have their fingertips brush as she could have. As soon as she had stuffed it back in her bag she laid down with her jacket-blanket and went to sleep.
Matt watched her for a few moments. She was so still, so quiet. Her hair trailed about, one strand, having come out of her ponytail (or possibly never having gone in), laid across her cheek. She smiled in her sleep, she must have been having a good dream. Matt was a little surprised to find himself hoping so, but didn't really have time to register any thoughts about it before T.K. tapped him on the shoulder.
"Help me with this, oniichan," he asked.
"Sure, T.K.."
The younger boy glanced at Kacie's sleeping form. "Hey, Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"The new girl is pretty, huh?"
Matt was taken aback, and in fact blushed a little. "T.K.! Come on, show me what you need help with now..."
A/N: Ha! Even T.K. can see what his brother is thinking! The only one who can't (or won't) is Kacie, and it's half over! Three more chapters left! Review, please!
Authoress's Notes: They were hearing something. Battle cries? Read on.
"What in the world--" Sora said.
"I don't know, but I say we check it out," Tai said, and tried to lead them off toward the sound.
"No!" Izzy cried. "It could be dangerous."
"Izzy," Katina said, gently reminding him. "We've already made so much noise...if it hasn't heard us, it is stone deaf, or much louder and further away than it sounds."
He nodded. "Still--"
"Aw, come on," Tai said. "There's practically nothing we can't handle. Let's at least check it out."
Izzy nodded hesitantly, and the group veered to the right, in the direction of the sound. Within minutes they had reached a cliff.
"Don't get too close to the edge, T.K.," Matt warned.
"You too, Kari," Tai said.
They all looked over the edge into the valley below.
Kacie clapped a hand over her mouth so as not to scream. ~It *figures*!~ She had never seen anything--so--
"There's hundreds of them!" Joe cried.
"Actually, more like twenty-five, but yes, there are a lot," Izzy said matter-of-factly.
"What are they?" T.K. asked.
Someone's digimon began to answer, but Kacie spat it out first. "Venimon. Those are Venimon. That's what caught me day before yesterday."
Sure enough, there were twenty-four of them plus their "drill sergeant", so to speak, and they were going through basic exercises.
"What an introduction to the Digital World," Sora cracked.
"Tell me about it," Kacie said. "So now what?"
"Now we fight!" Tai yelled.
"No, we should--" Izzy began, too late.
All twenty-five of the Venimon had heard Tai.
And suddenly, all twenty-five were on the warpath. "In the name of King Ferodramon, we will destroy!" They started to slither up the cliff, and Kacie was amazed to see just exactly how agile they were. ~Or maybe they're just covered in slime and they *stick* to the cliff wall!~
"At least they gave us a warning, come on, let's go!" Mimi cried.
Tai glared at her. "Are you nuts? I said let's fight, so let's fight!"
"Yeah!" most of the kids agreed.
"Yeah," Kacie said, softly but forcefully. "They only got the better of me once and it will *not* happen again."
Only Matt heard her, but he was impressed with the attitude the redheaded girl displayed. It wasn't courage, at least not in the degree Tai had it, but this was more of a--stubbornness? An unwillingness to leave herself unavenged? Something like that.
The Venimon approached, and as soon as one got too close, Tai yelled, "NOW!"
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon let out the fiery energy ball.
Kacie heard several other attacks, but didn't think long enough to attach them to any particular digimon. Jacamon leapt up into her arms. "I'll protect you!"
Kacie realized that when Tai referred to the kids fighting, it was more of them ordering their digimon around. If that was what it meant, then she knew what to do. "Jacamon, there!" She pointed and the digimon dropped to the ground and bounced really high, up to the evil digimon's eyes.
"Boom Bubble! PAH!"
Kacie watched the digimon take a deep breath and let the Venimon have it in his eyes. The way Jacamon looked while doing this was so cute she would have laughed had they not been in such danger.
"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon attacked the Venimon that Jacamon had been harassing, and it dissolved into information. "Nice distraction, Jacamon!" the digimon told her.
They had only taken down about four of the Venimon, so Tai held up his digivice. "Everyone digivolve!"
Kacie watched in awe as all the fuzzy little creatures became great warriors. Quite a confusing sight to watch nine digivolutions at once, especially when two were Warp Digivolves. Now where the rookie digimon had been stood WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, Garudamon, Angewomon, MagnaAngemon, Zudomon, MegaKabuterimon, Lillymon, and Wizardmon. They all began to fight, taking down the Venimon right and left.
Jacamon leapt up into Kacie's arms. "Me too, please? I want to be a rookie!"
Kacie noted that her digimon had been one stage behind all the rest, so she felt a little sorry for her. ~Jacamon must have felt like a little kid among teenagers, and now it's worse, being a little kid among adults.~
"I'd love to help you digivolve...but I haven't the slightest clue..."
Her digivice began to beep. She unclipped it from her bag's strap and Jacamon jumped down. Light began to go from the digivice towards Jacamon.
"Whoa! I guess here we go!" Kacie simply held the device toward her digimon. A warm feeling rushed over her as the light began to surround Jacamon.
"Jacamon...digivolve to...CABAIYOMON!"
Where the purple basketball had been there was now a creature reminiscent of Patamon, only purple, with horse ears, a mane much like Gomamon's only fuschia pink, and a tail that could not be described by comparing it to any other digimon, at least not any that Kacie had seen. It was kind of like the mane only in longer strands.
"Wow...I helped you do *that*?"
"Yes, of course, but there's no time to talk. I have Venimon to help destroy!"
Cabaiyomon had bounded off to help before Kacie could protest. Kacie joined the rest of the kids and followed suit, cheering for Cabaiyomon as much as any of the others were cheering for their champion, ultimate or mega digimon.
"Violet Wave!" Cabaiyomon cried, and two beams of energy erupted from her mouth and twisted around one another, blasting toward the Venimon.
"YEAH! GO, CABAIYOMON!"
"Violet Wave!"
All the other digimon seemed to be busy with their own Venimon, so Cabaiyomon kept mercilessly attacking the one she'd gotten a hold of.
"Violet Wave!"
"I give up!" The Venimon dissipated into nothingness, and Cabaiyomon dropped to the ground, exhausted.
Kacie ran for her just as MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon took out the last two Venimon standing. "Cabaiyomon! Cabaiyomon! Are you all right?" Kacie took the small creature into her arms and cradled her. She ran her fingers through her mane. "Cabaiyomon?"
"I'm all right. I just took down a Venimon, single-handedly..."
"Yes, yes you did. I'm very proud of you."
The compliment seemed to give Cabaiyomon new strength, because she leapt out of Kacie's arms and started to sing. "I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon! I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon!"
Kacie turned and saw that the rest of the digimon were de-digivolving.
"So that's how we got Motimon and Cajamon...I get it..."
Kari and T.K. hugged their digimon, and all of the digis got some form of praise. Havamon seemed content to see Katina smile at him in approval. He cuddled up to her side with a look of personal pride on his face. "We can really take those bad guys down, huh, Kat?"
Katina simply nodded.
Matt and Gabumon came over to Kacie. "Nice work. I can't believe a rookie took down one of those Venimon all by herself..."
"Well, I did, so you better believe it!" Cabaiyomon let her song trail off and looked up at Matt. "I told you I'd be a digimon."
He laughed. "So I see."
Kacie stood up from her kneeling position. "So now what do we do?"
Apparently someone else had voiced the question simultaneously, because Tai was yelling. "We keep walking, what else?"
"Wait everyone! I have an e-mail!"
Everyone was crowded around Izzy instantly.
He clicked for his mail, realized who it was from, and blushed. "Sorry, everyone, false alarm. It's not Gennai."
Everyone else sweatdropped. "Izzzzzzzzzzyyy..." Tai said.
"Hey! There's another message coming in! *This* one's from Gennai!"
Kacie suddenly perked up. "Didn't you say he's the one who knows what's going on?"
"More often than not, yes, Kacie-san," Izzy said as she plunked down next to him.
It surprised her to have the Japanese suffix attached to her name again. It had been a while since she'd heard it because Matt did not use it. ~Is it because he does not like me, or is it because what he feels for me is beyond respect?~
Izzy plugged in a mike procured from his backpack. "Okay, everyone, I'm opening the video clip."
Gennai's face popped up on the screen. "Hello, kids! By now you have found the tenth DigiDestined. There's nothing really special about her as compared to the rest of you. She's just a little late in showing up. She will be needed, however, very soon."
~Oooh. This sounds just ducky.~
"I can't tell you now, just exactly what will happen, but I can tell you this, the ancient prophecies say she'll know it's her time to shine when she gets her Crest. Oops--I have something I forgot to do that must be attended to right away! Bye-bye, and please recycle!"
The transmission cut off.
Kacie's arms went flailing once again. "Aaaah! Just when I was getting somewhere the stupid thing cuts off!" Then, as suddenly as she had started, she was done, and she hung her head in defeat. "Fine. Let's keep going. No point in hanging around."
Tai led the way, and everyone followed.
Matt cocked his head towards this new girl. She seemed so resigned to her fate. She never made a fuss over anything, once she was satisfied nothing could be done about it, but she always made *sure* that there were no other options. It wasn't stubbornness, but what was it?
"What are you thinking about?" she asked him.
"Oh, nothing...just trying to figure out what your Crest might be."
"Can it be pre-determined?"
"Well, each of our Crests is representative of our most notable quality. My Crest is the Crest of Friendship, Izzy's is Knowledge, Kat's is Pure Heart, T.K.'s is Hope...are you getting the idea?"
"Yeah, I think so...but I'm not sure what mine will be any more than you are...unless you have an idea...?"
"I'm not sure. I see a quality in you but it doesn't at all sound like a Crest. Of course, most of the Crests can be used the wrong way, have a negative effect. Tai's courage, for example, can be overdone and become just plain recklessness."
"So mine could go either way?"
"No. When you get it, it will be positive, but if it is used the wrong way it could make a lot of bad things come down."
Kacie nodded. "I understand."
At this point Cabaiyomon came bouncing back to her.
~Even if she digivolved she still likes to jump around.~ "What is it, Cabaiyo?"
Cabaiyomon was not displeased with having the 'mon' dropped from her name. "I was just wondering if I still fit in your bag."
"Oh." Kacie unzipped her duffel and Cabaiyomon jumped up and into it.
"Perfect fit. Thanks." The small creature nestled down into the bag and quickly fell asleep. Kacie zipped the bag up a bit more so that all that poked out was her head.
"Surrogate blanket," she joked to Matt.
He grinned at the small, sleeping digimon. "She must be exhausted. She took down that Venimon all alone, and earlier it took Kabuterimon and Wizardmon to do that. She needs the sleep. It's probably taking all her strength to stay in her rookie form."
~Oh, but...she doesn't need to do that...will it hurt her?~ "Is she doing that for me?"
"Digimon are very loyal."
"I wouldn't mind, if she were to de-digivolve."
"It's a point of pride, I think. Like she's not worthy of your respect if she did de-digivolve."
"But she's all worn out."
"Don't worry, she'll be okay so long as she sleeps a bit."
Kacie nodded. Obviously he knew more about it than she did. They went on in silence, and she found it strangely comforting to not be able to hear anything. No noise meant no battle cries. No battle cries meant no Venimon.
It was early when Tai said they should set up camp. They found another cave, although this one was more of a front room to a much larger cave.
Matt left for a few minutes to chill, alone, and Kacie heard strains from a harmonica waft into the cave. She smiled, and leaned against the wall, noting that he had left his backpack next to where she was sitting. That made her happy.
Slowly she became aware of a feeling of discomfort, and finally realized it was her head that hurt. She crossed the cave over to Joe. She had taken special care to remember his name, since Izzy had said what he had about medical stuff.
"Joe?"
Joe looked up. "Kacie?"
"Do you have an aspirin or something in there? I have a headache."
He nodded. "With all the stuff that's happened to you these past few days, I'm not surprised. Hang on just a second."
She watched him as he absentmindedly rummaged through his bag. She noticed he was not really looking for anything, and so she lifted her eyes to see what preoccupied him so. Her eyes followed his gaze straight to Mimi, who was brushing her hair and talking to Sora. She watched Joe's mannerisms, and then she dared to ask it. "You like her, don't you?"
"Huh? Who?! *Mimi*? No! Yes! I--I give up."
"You *do*, don't you?"
Joe lowered his gaze and actually started to look for the aspirin. "Yeah."
"So why don't you tell her? I can tell you from experience it's very irritating to a girl when a guy won't admit his feelings, or at least hint at them." ~Very recent experience.~
Joe blushed a little, and told her in a very quiet tone, "Well...you see...umm...well...there's Matt. I think he likes her, and I don't want to fight with him. I'd lose, and I don't like violence anyway--basically, Matt is not someone to mess with."
Kacie blinked back--were those tears? ~No. I *will* *not* cry over this. Now.~ "Well, it would be her choice, would it not? If Mimi were to choose you over him, he couldn't *make* her like him, right?"
Joe wouldn't look at her. "I...guess not...but Matt is so popular, no girl could possibly like me if she had the opportunity to have a guy like him..."
"You won't know until you ask. And unless she is very, *very*, *VERY*, shallow, love is not a matter of being with someone popular."
Joe sighed. "Anyway, here's your aspirin."
Kacie nodded and took it from him, assuming it was her cue to leave him alone. She went back and sat by her stuff. She swallowed the small pill with no water, or anything. The last time she'd had something to drink that was not out of a creek had been on the way back to Izzy's house from school. She'd had half a Dr. Pepper left from six days before, and even though it was hot like wasabi and flatter than pancakes, she'd been desperate.
She settled back down into "Connecticut Yankee" with her flashlight to pass the time. As she was reading, Cabaiyomon woke up, and Kacie started reading it aloud. Even though Cabaiyomon had no idea what most of it meant, and interrupted every five seconds to ask a question, she thought the scene where Merlin first got beaten by Hank Morgan was pretty funny.
"Can we read the whole thing from the beginning, Kacie?" she asked.
"Sure. I've read it before, so I don't mind." She opened it to the front of the book and skipped over the publisher's foreword and contents and such, and began to read to her digimon.
Kacie noticed the exact moment the harmonica stopped, and she looked up from her reading, until Cabaiyomon asked her to keep going. Kacie did, and then a few minutes later Matt entered the cave and sat down beside her.
"Hello."
"Hi," Kacie said. She had no clue what to do. ~What if Joe is right and Matt really does like Mimi? No, that can't be right. Joe *has* be mistaken. But what do I say?~
"Aren't you tired yet?" Matt asked before she had a chance to think of anything.
"I haven't had time to notice, I was reading to Cabaiyo here..."
"And you interrupted a really good part, too!" Cabaiyomon told him. "Go *on*, Kacie!"
"All right, Cabaiyo, we'll finish up the chapter and then I'm going to sleep. If you want to hear any more you'll have to wait until tomorrow or read for yourself."
Matt laid down, facing her, and went to sleep.
Kacie finished chapter six, and at the end she took off her jacket and used it for a blanket again. For a few minutes she watched Cabaiyomon, who decided she didn't want to wait--and spent a good ten minutes trying to get the paperback to lie flat under her short paws--only to discover she couldn't read it anyway.
"Hey! This isn't DigiCode!"
"No, it's English, of course," Kacie told her. "Otherwise, *I* couldn't read it."
"Oh. Good night, Kacie."
"Good night, Cabaiyo."
Kacie curled up tightly, trying to fit as much of herself as possible under her jacket, and Cabaiyomon crawled under the jacket and laid next to her stomach. Kacie absentmindedly ran her fingers through Cabaiyomon's mane until they both drifted off to dream.
The next morning, Kacie was not shocked by the small presence by her side when she awoke. She shook it awake, actually.
"Cabaiyo..."
"Five more minutes...no one *else* is up..."
Kacie looked around, and realized that for the most part, Cabaiyomon was right. The only other person up was Mimi, who'd taken the final watch. "Hey, Mimi! Good morning!" Kacie said, quietly, vividly remembering how those stupid caves echoed the slightest sound.
"Good morning," Mimi returned, grinning in the morning light. Apparently she'd been awake long enough to get rid of the early-morning grouchies. "It's about time someone woke up."
"Now what?"
"Usually when one person who's not on watch wakes up, that makes it time to wake up everyone."
"Okay." Kacie picked up her jacket and in an instant it was on. She turned toward Matt and shook his shoulder.
"Mmm--? Kacie?" His eyes fluttered open, and again Kacie noticed them, how strangely captivating they were. "Aw, man, what time is it?"
"Time to be awake," she told him.
"Whatever." He sat up and immediately turned to the other side to wake T.K..
Kacie went across and shook Katina awake. Mimi had awoken Tai, who was working on Kari, who apparently slept a lot harder than one would think a child that age would. Then Katina woke Izzy. When Kari finally got up Tai shook Sora. Mimi went toward Joe and got him up, and Kacie watched, noting something about Mimi's expression as she did so. ~Good gracious, she *does* like Joe!~
Kacie watched from her spot as the kids got up each of their own digimon, trying to not think about what Mimi's liking Joe meant for her chances with Matt. ~It's too nice a thought to think before noon, before one can fully comprehend it.~ She smiled elatedly.
Cabaiyomon noticed her grin. "What are you thinking about, Kacie?"
Kacie looked to her side, seeing Matt doting over T.K. for some reason or another. ~We're friends for life, right? She deserves to know...~ She decided to risk telling her digimon, even if Matt was close by. She didn't want him to hear, obviously. "Cabaiyo, do digimon fall in love? Do they have crushes on other digimon?"
Cabaiyomon looked up at her. "Yeah. There was this guy Cabaiyomon on File Island...how dreamy...he had such pretty green eyes..."
Kacie smiled, and wondered just exactly what Cabaiyo had left behind to be with her. ~I'll have to ask her, later...~ "I have a crush on one of the guys here, Cabaiyo, and I'm waiting for him to notice."
Cabaiyomon giggled conspiratorially. "Who?"
Kacie felt a bit light-headed herself, having figured it out about Mimi. "Guess," she said, all smiles.
"Matt."
"Hey! How'd you know?"
Cabaiyomon smiled a bit. "Did you honestly think I was asleep the *whole* time yesterday? I didn't hear everything, but I heard enough to know who you were talking with most of the time."
"You're just a little imp, aren't you?" Kacie asked.
"Pretty much."
Tai was about his usual ways, telling everyone to pack up so they could leave.
Kacie was, once again, done quickly, merely having to let Cabaiyomon crawl into her bag. The book didn't even have to go in, as Cabaiyomon insisted Kacie keep it in her jacket pocket until she was ready to read, since it would probably be very soon. Matt walked beside her again, however, and put Cabaiyomon's learning of things Arthurian on hold. The small digimon knew better than to interrupt, though.
"So here we go again," Matt said. "I keep pictures of this world in my mind, but they're all moving pictures, like on a video camera. I don't have any photograph memories of it."
Kacie laughed. "I know that feeling, and this is only my second time here. And my first time under Tai."
"Yeah, he can be a task-master. He's okay, though."
"I guess." Kacie's tone was begrudging, and not heartfelt in the slightest.
Cabaiyomon asked to be let down to talk with the rest of the digis, and Kacie let her go.
It was fairly quiet, the kids pretty much keeping to their own conversations and not being noisy, until noon. They stopped by a creek, and the digimon found fruit growing about that they could all eat.
Kacie got a round, blue fruit that looked like a huge orange on the outside, if it weren't for color, but when she peeled it found the inside to look and taste like watermelon, only dyed blue. "What is this?" she asked of her digimon. "It's so good!"
"That's bluefruit," the purple critter told her.
"Real creative name," she remarked sarcastically. "I never would have thought of that!"
Matt sat next to her, holding his own fruit. It was a cluster of yellow berries. "Bellberries," he explained, "Or so Gabumon tells me. All I know is, from past experience, that they taste real good and make your teeth look like you smoke." He grinned ruefully.
Kacie smiled. "Gross! Tell you what, you give me half, and then we can both eat half of mine and get that off our teeth. Mine tastes like watermelon."
Matt agreed, and Kacie found the berries to be like cotton candy in the fact that they melted in her mouth, very quickly. "Oh, weird!" she told him.
"Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool, though, huh?"
"Yeah! The more I stick around, the more I like this place." She ruffled Cabaiyomon's mane. "Although that may be due in part to its residents."
"I'm not a resident anymore," Cabaiyomon said. "I'll be going with you from now on."
"It's still a cool place."
"Well, on that I have to agree with you. It's my homeworld, after all."
Tai began to yell at everyone. "Hey, people! Lunch is *over*!!! Let's get going!"
Matt stood and then turned and helped Kacie to her feet. It was a small and unromantic gesture by most standards, but Kacie's heart leapt. ~He actually touched me! He put his hand over mine!~ She might have gone into shock had Cabaiyomon not leapt into her bag.
"Get a grip," the digimon said so low only Kacie could hear. "He was just being polite. No reason to faint."
"Oh, hush."
They walked--again. Kacie was almost ready to agree with Mimi on that note.
"So what do you do for fun at home?" Matt asked her. "You know, do you have a hobby or anything?"
"Well...I do have my scrapbooking, I guess that counts as a hobby."
"Scrapbooking?"
"Yeah. Basically the kindergarten art of cutting and pasting, only you get to use photos and little themed scraps of paper, and play around with them until it looks like a work of art."
"Huh?"
"I think I lost you. It's not exactly the most cool of pastimes, but it *does* pass the time and I have something to show off when I'm done. I'll show you when we stop again."
"You have it with you?" Cabaiyomon asked.
"What do you think you're laying against as we speak? I never leave home without it."
"Oh."
The day passed quietly until they set up camp, no Venimon encounters, no e-mail from Gennai, no nothing.
~Just me, falling for this guy deeper and deeper every second. Surely by now he's noticed that there's something more here, on my part, than just a friendship...unless Joe was right...*No*! I will not allow myself to think such negative stuff!~
They were out in the middle of a forest this time, as there was no cave handy. They did not bother with a campfire because it would have taken too long to find a clearing, and it wasn't cold anyway. Matt took the spot next to Kacie for the third night in a row, and she was beginning to think it was more than coincidence. ~Perhaps he really does--~
Matt turned to her. "Hey, are you going to show me that scrapbook or not?"
"Oh yeah! Cabaiyo, get out for a minute, please." Kacie pulled out a three-ring binder with the title "My Scrapbook" embossed on the cover. "This is it." She opened it to a page near the back and spread it across her lap. Matt sat down next to her, and she reveled in his very closeness.
The pages were papers in sheet protectors, and on the papers were collages of photos on pretty sheets of printed paper, with stickers, die-cut shapes, and little journaling scribbles in Kacie's handwriting to accentuate them. The photos were grouped by one theme, or date, to a set of pages. A set of pages were sometimes two pages opposite one another, sometimes just one, or sometimes three or more in a row.
"Hey, this is neat...definitely prettier than the way Mom keeps her pictures, in those little things from the film developers..."
"Those things drive me nuts. I like this better, and besides, they're more fun this way."
"And more fun to look at." He looked at the dates of several pages. "These are all pretty recent, within the past three months." He began to flip closer to the front of the book, and the dates went backwards. "How long have you been doing this?"
"Only a year or two, but I did all the old pictures that were scattered under my bed, rotting."
He smiled. "Those are your parents?" he asked of a picture labeled "Mom and Dad". The couple in the photo appeared to be high-class, him in a suit and her in the latest fashion.
"Yeah. This was their last anniversary."
He continued to flip pages backwards, not paying much attention to pictures of her few friends. Finally he came to a single page that had a five-by-seven picture of a redheaded girl a few years older than Kacie. It looked like a senior picture. The background paper was a solid sheet of aqua green, and there were a few stickers making a sort of border around three edges of the photo. Along the bottom, in letters obviously done with a stencil in a calligraphic font, the caption read: "Alaina Kensingten, in memorium. November 27, 1981 - June 9, 1998". That had only been that year.
Matt stared at the picture, and then looked up at Kacie. "Kensingten is your name, right?"
"Yeah."
"Was she...a cousin of yours or something?" he asked gingerly. He didn't want to hurt her.
"She was...my sister." Kacie willed herself not to cry, but the lip she was biting was certainly suffering for it. "I won't make you ask, I know it feels uncomfortable to ask. She went joyriding, with six other kids in this tiny car. She was always the perfect angel, she was the only one who wore her seat belt. When the stupid driver drove right off a bridge and into a lake, she was the only one who couldn't get out, and she drowned."
"Oh..."
"Don't say you're sorry. You didn't do a thing to her, and even if you'd been there and known there was nothing anyone could have done. She couldn't help the way she was raised."
"Raised?"
"If my parents hadn't raised her to be such a Mary Jane, she would have been like any other high school senior and gone without the belt for the thrill of it, and she could have got out. That's all I'm saying. And now since *she* can't go on to law school and become the perfect female lawyer and marry the perfect male lawyer and have two boys and two girls and be a world peace spokeslady like she'd planned, my parents think it's *my* cue to take over *her* destiny. Frankly, all that stuff is good and well if you're into that kind of thing, but I'm not."
"Is that why you don't talk to them? Why you like it here so much?"
"Every time I do talk to them we argue, so yes, I avoid them. It's a big house."
"I see." He wasn't sure how good this was for her, but who was he to pass judgment? He didn't get along any better with his dad. Some of what his father put him through classified abuse, although he said so to no one, not even T.K..
"My only parent now is Marta. I don't go places with my parents, and if I need their permission for anything, I tell Marta and she asks them for me. I stay in my rooms--don't look at me like that, I only have three and the bathroom doesn't count, so two--and I don't venture into the rest of the house unless I'm leaving it completely."
"What about your sister? I mean, did you get along with her?"
Kacie sighed wistfully. "She was perfect. I loved her in spite of that. As long as she was there to carry out their dreams and wishes to a tee, I was free to be me. Now, I'm...free to be her. We were really close all the time we were growing up. My jacket--" Kacie drew it tighter around her, as if she'd been suddenly chilled-- "Was hers. She got a new one, and she gave this one to me just the day before she was killed."
Suddenly Matt understood why she always wore it, even though it hadn't been cold in either the DigiWorld or Japan the entire time she'd been there. "I see..." He closed up the scrapbook and handed it back to her. He had some clue of how she felt, he remembered when he almost froze to death searching for T.K., and how it had felt for that one awful moment when he let himself think that something might have happened to him. He was sure that what Kacie felt must be ten times worse, because she *knew* something had happened to her sister, and it was over. He knew she must still be hurting, although she hid it very well. In all truth, she tried not to think of it.
She took the binder from his hands, not bothering to have their fingertips brush as she could have. As soon as she had stuffed it back in her bag she laid down with her jacket-blanket and went to sleep.
Matt watched her for a few moments. She was so still, so quiet. Her hair trailed about, one strand, having come out of her ponytail (or possibly never having gone in), laid across her cheek. She smiled in her sleep, she must have been having a good dream. Matt was a little surprised to find himself hoping so, but didn't really have time to register any thoughts about it before T.K. tapped him on the shoulder.
"Help me with this, oniichan," he asked.
"Sure, T.K.."
The younger boy glanced at Kacie's sleeping form. "Hey, Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"The new girl is pretty, huh?"
Matt was taken aback, and in fact blushed a little. "T.K.! Come on, show me what you need help with now..."
A/N: Ha! Even T.K. can see what his brother is thinking! The only one who can't (or won't) is Kacie, and it's half over! Three more chapters left! Review, please!