"I
figured that you were the person to talk to. I've tried everything, but nothing
works." Davis admitted. He was morosely studying the floor seeking advice
from the person that he thought could help him the most. Not Izzy, or even Ken,
who were both prodigies in their own right. He was seeking answers from the one
person that he looked up to the most: Tai. Tai studied the newer digidestined
that had looked up to him so many times as a role model. Silently he was glad
that Davis was fixated on the floor of his room, and not on the older
digidestined's face.
"Well,
I suppose you may just being coming on to Kari too hard." Tai decided.
Love wasn't exactly his specialty, and he usually left things of that matter up
to Sora. Now that she was with Matt, it made doubly more sense for Davis to ask
her about the woes of his love life. Nonetheless, Davis had urgently called on
Tai for advice about the 'gentler sex'.
"To
hard? I've done everything but throw myself at her feet! I've practically even
done that! What more could she ask for?" Davis groaned. "It's not
like I've exactly made it a secret that I like her." Much to Tai's
surprise, Davis looked sincerely desperate about his current plight with Kari. It
was true that Davis seized every chance he could to remind Kari that he had a
crush on her, but Tai had never taken it too seriously. He had been convinced
that it was puppy love, nothing more. Now though, he saw it in a different
light. A young boy simply wanting to be accepted by the girl he admired.
Reminded him somewhat of himself.
"That's
just the problem, Davis. You wouldn't know this, but Kari's really into slow
relationships. She talks about them all the time when Yolie comes over. They
have all those girl talks about how their going to get married, and Kari always
disagrees with Yolie on one point. Yolie wants a whirlwind romance. You know,
knight in shinning armor, whisks her away and they get married the next
day."
"But
Kari wants to go out on dates and stuff?" Davis asked, beginning to catch
on.
"I
guess. She really wants to be friends with a guy before she goes out with them.
They have to prove that they're going to be nice to her and care for her as
much as she cares about everyone else." Tai added.
"I know.
That's why I like Kari so much. She cares so much about other people. I mean,
she's really pretty too, but she doesn't let it go to her head like some other
girls. That's why she's different. In a good way." He hastily amended the
last bit, and Tai smiled.
"Now
you've got it. You've just got to show Kari that you appreciate her, no matter
what. Support her in what she does and she'll begin to notice you. Trust
me." Tai was surprised at his own good advice. He had never claimed to be
'Dr. Love' but it turned out he wasn't that bad at giving advice. Davis smiled
at this revelation and got up.
"Thanks
Tai. I knew you'd know about stuff like this. I'm going to try and do all that
stuff, you know, just being nice to Kari so she notices me. You should know her
best, so I figured you'd be the one that could help me the most. Thanks!"
Davis was about to bolt out of the room, eager to implement his new strategy
when none other than Kari burst through the door.
"Tai,
I have a problem. Oh, hi Davis, I didn't know you were here." Kari swung
over to where her brother sat on the edge of his bed. "T.K. has a game
tonight that I promised I'd go to. It's to go into the semi-finals for
regionals. I forgot to tell Mom and she said I couldn't go unless someone else
came with me. You know how over-protective she and Dad are. Can you please come
with me? I promised and I called everyone else. Yolie has to do some mixing
with Izzy for Matt's band, and Cody has to practice kendo. I even considered
asking Ken, but decided not to because he lives so far away. Please?" she
pleaded. Promptly forgetting that Davis was still in the room, Tai shook his
head.
"You
see that?" He asked, gesturing to a small sky-scrapper of books and papers
piled on his desk. One gust of wind from a passing body could easily
overbalance it and cause it to topple unceremoniously to the ground.
"That's homework that I have to make up. I've got to cram because I've got
a really huge Algebra test coming up. If I don't start studying now I'm going
to fail it for sure. I wish I could help Kari, but I can't."
Davis
stood, staring at the two's conversation as it progressed. You know, all I was going to do today was practice a little bit of soccer.
This would be the perfect chance to be alone with Kari too! No! Wait, I have to
remember what Tai said. After all, she's going to cheer T.K., and she's not
going to want to spend time with me. Still, it would just be a nice thing to
do.... His decision made, Davis cleared his throat.
Oh no. I forgot Davis was there. Now he's
going to want to go with me, when all I really want to do is keep my promise to
T.K. Great. It's not that Davis is mean or anything, he's really a good friend,
it's just that I can't take this tonight. Kari couldn't help but let
skepticism skate across her expression.
"I was
just thinking Kari. Um…" Uncharacteristically, Davis hesitated, his
seemingly bottomless supply of courage going dry. "You know, we could both
go and cheer T.K.'s team on if you want." Though she didn't mean to, Kari
stared at Davis, unsure of how to process the information. Both cheer…? What
she failed to notice was Tai smirking knowingly behind her.
"You
really mean it Davis? You'll come and help me cheer for T.K.?" Kari tried
to make sure this wasn't a dream or a hallucination. Spurred on by his initial
success, Davis agreed enthusiastically.
"Yeah.
Even T.K.'s got to be better than whoever that other team is. Besides,
Digidestined need to help each other out, right?" He nodded as if there
was no other answer.
"Right.
Thanks Davis. I'll tell my parents and meet you at the door." Still not
sure if it was really Davis and not some alien that had taken the form of him,
Kari decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"I'll
be there in a second." Davis answered cheerily, as he rushed out of the
room.
"Have
fun you two!" Tai called devilishly after them. Maybe he should give Sora
a few pointers….
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Wow
T.K. I can't believe you actually won! You were great!" Kari congratulated
after the epic basketball game.
"Well,
I couldn't have done it without you and Davis. Truth be told, I didn't expect
you to be there Davis, much less routing for me. I really appreciate it."
T.K. made sure that he addressed the strange phenomenon that was probably more
noteworthy than the actual game.
"Yeah,
well," Davis blushed. "I figured that watching you might give me a
few pointers so I can beat you in gym class one day. You know, study my
opponents weakness."
"You
don't really mean that!" T.K. joked, halfway. This wasn't like Davis.
"Well,
yeah, and I guess I thought that I could just do this to be nice. You know,
help Kari out." What greeted this last statement were two blank stares
from either side of him. Was I really
that much of a jerk before? Boy, no wonder Kari kept blowing me off. Well, no
more! And I guess that T.K.'s not as bad as he seems either.
"Well thanks Davis."
Kari began to get uneasy again as they neared her families apartment. The old
Davis would try to pull of some stunt as she said goodnight, but she didn't
know about this new Davis. The much improved, more natural Davis. Now that he
wasn't trying to impress her he could be more himself or so she thought. She
had even noticed at the game that he had truly been routing for T.K.'s team,
not the half-hearted cheering she had expected. It was the best present he had
ever tried to give her.
"Well,
I'll see you tomorrow Kari." Davis said admirably restraining himself from
trying anything stupid in the way of a good night anything. He turned to leave.
"Yeah,
I'd better head on home too." T.K. added and turned to go off in a
different direction.
"Wait!"
Kari couldn't stop herself from calling out. T.K. was out of earshot already, but
Davis turned around.
"Yeah?"
he asked, hopeful.
"Davis,
I just wanted to say thank you for what you did tonight. It was really nice of
you, you don't know how much I appreciate it." She flashed him a smile and
then turned around.
"No
problem!" Davis yelled back. He couldn't believe it. Kari had actually
thanked him and halfway complimented him all at the same time! Tai was right;
the way to get to a girl's heart was by simply being kind. It wasn't all that
hard, and Davis found that he actually enjoyed it. Now he just had to work up
to his next goal, a good night kiss. With this way of doing things it might
take awhile, but it's only a matter of time….
