Intro: The phone call! Get set, to San Diego! This one will be short, as will be the parts about Tai, Sora, and TK. In fact, I'm not sure I don't think I'm going to create a separate chapter for them, just put them in part of a short chapter. Cause ya see, they weren't planned out, and I think the story's gotten kinda dull, plus it's rather long.
Across America
Chapter 7: Hot and Cold, no, Less Heat
"Hey Joe, I heard you were heading down south for a bit."
A young man wearing squarish glasses looked up from his desk. "Oh hey, Gary. Yeah."
His friend groaned. "Why man? You're already in one of the good medical schools! Why even bother looking at San Diego?"
Joe grinned. "I'm not planning on leaving necessarily, just taking a look. I heard they have a class taught by Dr. Thomas Wilder, and you know I want to learn from the best!"
"If you do, you'll get accepted for sure. Good luck, man."
"You too, Gary."
Joe left his classroom at the 'good medical school' of San Francisco. He was a tall, good-looking young man, although he wouldn't ditch his glasses, claiming that contacts had scratched his eye before. His longish hair was put in a low ponytail, and he walked with a long, quick stride. A call rang through the hallways. "Joe!"
Joe turned quickly and intercepted the small Chinese girl. "Hey Em!"
Emma "Lucky" Chan was Joe's "lucky" girlfriend. She wasn't actually all that short, just looked like it being next to Joe. She had glossy black hair and shiny dark eyes, with fair skin. She and Joe got along very well, not having many arguments, and Joe was quite surprised to find someone he could really confide in. Joe was honest enough to admit that even though being alone in America on the West Coast had been a little nerve-wracking at first, the past two years had been the happiest in his entire life. Of course, Joe had never really been very happy, even when he worked things out with his family. Meanwhile, Joe and Emma walked hand in hand down the busy streets of San Francisco. "So…" said Emma. "You're going to San Diego tomorrow right?"
Her boyfriend nodded gently. "Just for about a week. If I stay there, I'll…I"ll fly home every weekend!"
Emma giggled. "Joe, you're so silly sometimes! If you stay in San Diego, I"ll come with you!"
"Who's being silly?"
* * *
The next morning found Joe waving goodbye to Emma from the window of his plane. Even after all of these years, I still get motion sick, he thought with good humor. Well, some dramamine cured that. He couldn't help reflecting every time he saw the dark waters of the bay. San Francisco was a good place to live for him, especially since it was near the water. The foggy mornings overlooking the thick waters were always magic to the holder of Sincerity. I am happy here though, he thought. This is the perfect place for me. Although, I feel…wistful, I guess. I want to see how the others are doing. And Gomamon. I want to see if they're happy now. I wanted to see them grow up. He sighed. Well, no point in thinking depressing thoughts. They probably don't want to see each other still, or me. That's okay. Joe was proud to report that by the time he landed, he hadn't felt sick at all.
* * *
"Geez, it's so much warmer here than in San Francisco," Joe complained over the phone.
"Yeah, well, it's nice to be in cold San Francisco," Emma's voice responded.
"Haha, you know that it's not as warm, not cold. There's no such thing as cold."
"But think how inconvenient that would be to say! Oh, my cell phone's almost dead, gotta run Joe. Love you!"
"I love you too. Talk to you later!" Talking to Emma always made him feel so good. In fact, just being around her made him feel good. I guess that's what they mean by falling in love. Glancing at his watch, he yelped, "12 o'clock already!" The talk about the class started now! Joe sprinted out of the hotel room, down the stairs, through the lobby, out the door, and down the street. "'Scuse me, pardon me," he yelled, while rushing through crowds of people. The hotel wasn't so far from the campus, so it only took five minutes of hard running to get there. Now the people became students, Joe's age, younger, older, their faces blurred from his glasses. Rushing down the sidewalk, he turned a corner and ran smack into three girls, mainly the brown-haired girl in the middle.
"Ouch," she mumbled, dusting herself off.
"I'm sorry," apologized Joe, also getting up. "Here, I'll help you up." He reached over and took the girl's hand, and got a good look at her face. He dropped her hand as their eyes locked, black against brown. He knew right away who it was. She hadn't changed a whole lot in four years. Her hair, like Matt's, was more like her style back when they first went to the Digital World, but much longer, and she did look older. "Mimi-chan…" he whispered.
"Jou-senpai?" she exclaimed, shocked. "What…what are you doing here?"
"Er, Mimi, I…what are you doing here?"
Mimi chuckled a little. "I live here!"
"Hey Mimi, you know him?"
"Wow, he's cute!"
Joe blinked. "Um…so you go to San Diego?"
"Yup!" she said enthusiastically. "Do you? I never saw you before!" She actually sounded happy to see him.
"Oh no, but I might…" Joe gasped. "I gotta run! I'm way late! I'll talk to you later!" he called, even has he ran full speed off again.
Mimi giggled. Was this Joe? Yes, but he was different. Not like me, I haven't changed much at all. "Hey Mimi, you know him?" one of her friends asked.
"Sure!" she replied. "We've known each other for a while, but I haven't seen him in four years."
"If I had a friend that cute, I would've talked to him every chance I got!" her friends all knew that Mimi didn't keep in touch with any of her old friends or family, she remembered with a pang. Well, I can sort this out with Jou-senpai later.
* * *
Joe felt very foolish. The foolishness he had gotten over, he thought angrily. This is her fault, because she belongs in my past! How could he be so stupid as to for get to get some kind of contact information from Mimi? Not to mention walking in in the middle of Dr. Wilder's lecture…clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. Later in the day, he called Emma again. "Hey Em."
"Joe! How'd the intro go?"
"…..horrible. I was late, and I ran into one of my old friends."
"Really? Which one?"
"Mimi Tachikawa."
"Oooohhh, that pretty girl you showed me from your picture…"
"Yeah."
"So…are you going to stay for the class?"
"I…I don't know. What do you think?"
The voice on the other end sighed. "Joe, I don't know. Take a look for another few days, after all, one day doesn't tell you anything."
"Thanks, Em. You always help me solve these things!"
"Ha, you could've figured it out yourself!"
They laughed a little, reviewed some of Emma's day, then promised to call each other with another, "I love you!"
"Okay!" said Joe as he hung up. "I'll get a student directory or something…"
As it turned out, he didn't need to. They saw each other walking, and decided to stop at a café to talk and get a drink.
"I'll have a raspberry iced tea," Mimi told the server.
"I'll have a lemonade," said Joe. The two sat in silence for a minute after the waitress left. "So Mimi, what have you been up to for the past four years?"
The girl smiled. "Finishing high school, entering college here, living in the dorms, a part-time job, that sort of thing, you know? How about you?"
"Pretty much the same as you, except I don't live in the dorms."
"What about your love life, Jou-senpai? Did you find your special one?"
Joe grinned in spite of himself. "I did, and she's great. Her name's Emma. You should meet her, Mimi. She's awesome!"
Mimi smiled wistfully. "I'd love to meet her."
"One lemonade, one raspberry iced tea!" the waitress announced, putting down gently two full glasses of iced liquid.
Mimi sipped her tea. It felt good against the oppressive heat outside, ice cold like the mountains. She sighed slighly.
Joe took a gulp, then asked, "Have you kept in touch with Yamato?"
Her eyes downcast, she replied, "No."
"I'm sorry."
"What for? It's not like he's dead or anything."
"I know, I'm just-sorry." Joe felt guilty. "Maybe we should try-" he stopped. Did he really want to?
Mimi half-smiled. "Yes, we should. We were stupid, stupid for running away from our problems instead of facing them. We were stupid because we didn't help the ones who needed help. We're stupid because we still haven't tried to talk to them."
Joe looked thoughtfully at the girl he had once been in love with. Yes, she had changed. He sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Now?"
"Why put it off?"
Mimi jumped up and dashed over to the pay phone three yards away. "I still know Michael's number! I hope he still lives there…" She punched in some digits, then waited. Her eyes lit up as someone must've spoken into the phone. She paused slightly, hesitant. "Yamato? Is this Yamato?"
"Mimi? Mimi?"
Mimi's eyes filled with tears. "Oh Yamato, it really is you!"
"I can't believe it! Where are you?"
She swiped away the threatening tears. "San Diego, California," she said, her voice quavering slightly.
Joe smiled sadly. There was no turning back now. Isn't this what you really want, after all? He asked himself. Our unseparable group…we'll be made one again soon.
Mimi was still talking. "Yamato, Joe and I are here, and we're going to find some way to get back to New York, okay?" she paused again. "Who-who else is there?"
"Michael, of course, Hikari, Koushirou, Ken, and Iori."
"Only…only six? Out of 13…"
"Don't worry, Mimi. Koushirou and Ken have a plan that sounds like it could really work…depending on how good their hacking and programming skills are…"