The Dance
Wednesday - Youth Day

Hey everyone! ^_^ I told you I'd make up for that really small chapter with a real large one, and a great one! Okay...so it's not a spectacular chapter, unless you like the Izzy and June plotline. There's also the Tai/Sora/Matt triangle mixed into this chapter...because I just know how everyone loves that plot. ^_^

Takari coming soon!...perhaps I'll prove to you all that T.K. isn't a total horndog. Or perhaps he'll just drop dead after seeing Kari's slutty outfit :snicker:

7:46 P.M.
Wednesday 16 May
Odaiba High - Gymnasium

Tai

I was startled to hear the eruptions of screams coming from the young teenage girls decked out in their Youth Day best inside of the high school's gymnasium, and turned to see Matt and the Teenage Wolves retake their places on the makeshift stage near the basketball bleachers. The rest of the band seemed energetic and pleased to be playing for such a large crowd - heck, I was sure the Teenage Wolves were happy to play for any kind of crowd - but Matt only looked depressed and out of it, like his mind really wasn't on the music. For one brief, single moment, I felt concern for my close friend, and wondered what was on his mind. I knew that Matt wasn't one to not be excited when he's playing his music, so I believed something was definitely wrong with him.

It was then I saw him turn to look in my direction - particularly at my beautiful date, who was at the moment talking very quickly and incoherently and rummaging through her lavender purse.

My startled face turned into a frown. It figured that Matt was thinking about Sora. I snaked my arm around her waist protectively, making sure Matt saw us together, and I felt a tiny feeling of victory when he looked away from us and returned his attentions to the group of girls standing below him on the dance floor.

That's who he should be with, anyway. Do you know how many girls he has pining for him all over Odaiba? I knew at least ten girls in my history class who wanted to get into the pants of the Teenage Wolves' lead singer, and I had heard somewhere that even Michelle Sonado, the most popular senior girl in school, had a secret crush on our little blond friend. Why couldn't he just get over Sora and go out with one of the many willing girls all over town? Then he would be happy, Sora would be happy, and I sure as hell would be dancing in the streets. I know my motives sound a little selfish, but hell, we're not talking the fate of the world here - this is much more important.

"Come on, Sora," I said over the beginning riffs of a new song, wanting to get as far away from Matt's gaze as possible. "Let's go get some punch, or something." I used the arm I had around her waist to try to guide Sora over to the refreshments table, when Sora stopped short, her heels nearly making tire tracks on the dance floor, and let out a distressed yelp.

"No!" Sora said hysterically, though trying to keep her voice low enough so the teens around us wouldn't notice. "We can't go to the refreshments tables! Izzy will kill me if I go to the refreshments tables!"

My eyes bulged out of their sockets by Sora's strange reaction. "Um, sweetie," I said cautiously, "you're not making any sense."

Sora sighed - and seemed unfazed by the fact I had just called her "sweetie" - and placed a hand to her forehead in exhaustion. "No, I'm making perfect sense," she said with a whine. "It's just that you don't know the whole story. And I forgot the red rose."

My face gave a confused expression. "Mind filling me in?" I asked. With my arm still wrapped around Sora's waist - which I wasn't planning on detaching any time soon - I walked her over to the side of the gymnasium to sit on one of the metal fold-out chairs lining the walls of the large room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw our former friend Mimi Tachikawa getting hot and heavy - and not to mention nauseating - with senior Roger Ohtori in the corner. I decided to ignore the two, despite their very noisy activity, and concentrate solely on my date...and perhaps on avoiding Matt Ishida for the rest of the night.

Sora started her long and interesting story. "Okay, so you know that Izzy wanted me to hook him up with someone for the dance, right?"

I nodded. "Hasn't he been bragging about that all day yesterday?" I knew that, for a computer geek like Izzy, it was a big occasion when he actually got a date, and for the Youth Day Dance, no less. Izzy was also one to know that fact as well, and he did the most he could yesterday and this morning to voice that startling fact to everyone and anyone who would listen.

Sora continued. "And, well...June Motomiya also needed a date for the dance, so I..."

I stood up and gawked at my date in shock. "You hooked up Izzy with her???" I asked, amazed. I was even more amazed when Sora began to defend the psycho girl known as June.

"She isn't that bad, Tai!" Sora protested. "I know she was a little strange and eccentric when we were younger..."

"She was a freakin' stalker, Sora," I interrupted. "She nearly camped outside of Matt's door every night. Is that would you call 'strange'?"

Sora sighed and rolled her eyes. "She's changed from then, Tai. Give her another chance. She's on the tennis team with me; she's really nice and fun to hang around, once you get to know her."

I chuckled. "I bet Izzy isn't gonna want to know her," I said, feeling sorry for the younger boy already.

Sora's face changed to a solemn expression, and she slumped into her folding chair. "That's just the problem," she said morosely. "I don't think they're ever going to know each other. They probably won't even meet tonight."

I sat back down in the chair next to Sora and, never being one to pass up a chance to be closer to her, draped a supporting arm around her cream shoulders. "Why would you think that?" I asked.

"I was supposed to give June a red rose corsage," she said, "so that Izzy would recognize her when they met at the refreshments tables. But I forgot it at home." Sora looked up into my eyes, meeting them with her own nervously. "I even think I got the meeting times mixed up!" Throwing her hands up in the air, she let her elbows fall into her lap, her hands supporting her drooping and depressed head. "I am so bad at this whole, 'setting people up' thing. I don't even know why I tried to do it..."

"Hey...hey, don't be so depressed about it," I said, picking Sora's head up by her chin, allowing her to look me in the eye. She was so vulnerable and beautiful, both at that same moment, and I wanted to kiss her so badly...but the time wasn't right, I knew that; and I also knew that if I kissed her once, I would want to kiss her again, and again, and then soon we would be just as bad as Mimi and her boy toy in the corner. I suppressed the deep urge, and continued. "I'm sure that this whole thing will work itself out. I mean, if there's a single girl at this dance, I'm sure Izzy will be the one to sniff her out!" I said lightly.

Sora smiled warmly, her depression over her botched fix-up plan quickly fading. "You really think so, Tai?" she asked me hopefully.

"Of course!'' I answered back cheerfully. "I think that, if Izzy and June are meant to meet each other - if they're meant to be together tonight - then they'll meet. If this is meant to happen, then it will; simple as that."

Her smile brightened, and I felt something warm and tingly grow inside of me. I wasn't sure if it was the feeling of close friendship, of raging teenage hormones, or - and it sounds so strange for me to say this - even love, but I knew that I wanted to feel that way forever...with Sora. "I sure hope so," she said. Turning her body towards the stage, Sora's face scrunched up in criticism and concern. "Matt really doesn't sound like he's playing his best tonight, does it," she changed the subject. "I wonder why."

I sighed, dejected. And the dance still went on.

7:51 P.M.
Wednesday 16 May
Odaiba High - Gymnasium

Izzy

7:51.

Damn.

I checked my Digivice - very carefully, so that no one would ask me what it was - for about the sixth time, still seeing those digital numbers by the shining lights of the dance. Joe had left me to lurk in the shadows of the dance a while ago, and so there I stood, alone, in front of the refreshments tables as couple after couple took glasses of punch and glanced at me with pity.

I had been standing there for over forty five minutes.

I've drank six glasses of punch.

I think I've been stood up.

My date - the hot young tennis player that hopefully was to be the girl of my dreams - was supposed to be here with a red rose corsage and in my life at seven o'clock. It was now - and I check my Digivice again - 7:52, and there was no sign of a lone beauty with a red rose. It didn't look like she was ever coming.

Tucking my Digivice back on my belt, I sighed, and gave one last, hopeful look at the gymnasium entrance. It was just my luck that I would be at the Youth Day Dance alone - again - even though I had really tried to find someone this year. Was I cursed, or something? I don't think I'll ever find someone. And I don't mean just for the Youth Day Dance; I had been romantically alone since I had entered Odaiba High, and from the looks of tonight, I might be alone for much longer.

All around me, I'm seeing people falling in love. I know T.K. and Kari are in love, as I watch them giggle as they dance joyfully to a mixed version of a Sarah McLachlan song. Actually, I had even heard from the chess club that T.K. and Kari were planning on doing something a little less than innocent pretty soon. (The chess club might not be the most popular group in the school, but we sure are one of the most talkative.) Tai's falling in love with Sora, quite obviously - though Sora might not feel the same about him - and Matt is falling equally for her, if not more - though, once again, Sora might not feel the same about him, either. Even Joe was completely gone over Mimi, and it was sweet, even if Mimi didn't ever give two looks in Joe's direction.

All this love is sprouting up around me, and I'm just standing here...alone.

Maybe I should get a houseplant.

Sighing, defeated, I reached over to pour myself a seventh glass of pity punch. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye I saw a girl in a blue dress walk over to the far end of the refreshments table, looking around with some disappointment. No red rose, though.

Hey, who's the redhead?

7:55 P.M.
Wednesday 16 May
Odaiba High - Gymnasium

June

I looked up at the large analog clock above one of the basketball hoops of the gym as I rushed in past my brother and his girlfriend, making a beeline for the refreshments tables.

7:55.

Fuck. I was so late!

"Damn, damn, damn..." I cursed, fighting the urge to kick the table in aggravation. I couldn't believe it took nearly a half hour to get from Odaiba Terrace to the high school. We probably could have walked the distance, and gotten here earlier than we did. Who even knew that Youth Day traffic would be that congested and tight? And now, because I couldn't get to the dance any earlier, I might have lost out on the possible date of a lifetime.

It didn't matter if I had been here on time, anyway; if I was here on time, I wouldn't have known who my blind date was, and he would not have known me. The only way we were supposed to meet was my red rose corsage; the one that Sora was supposed to get to me at the dance. Unfortunately, as my eyes quickly scanned the dance floor, I couldn't see hide nor hair of the brunette, and so I was at the dance without a rose, and consequently, without a date.

I thought that this year might be different. I thought that maybe, I could possibly have a nice Youth Day where I had a decent date. The last time I went with someone to the Youth Day Dance was a year ago with Roger Ohtori, and, with the night ending not so happily in a hotel room, I can tell you it wasn't a pleasant experience. I just wanted a nice night, with a nice guy. From what Sora said about this guy, he does sound bit geeky - I would have preferred an athletic senior instead of an intelligent sophomore - but he was probably nice, and I could possible get along with him much better then Roger Ohtori. Hell, I bet a block of wood would hold a better conversation than Roger.

Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. maybe I was meant to only be with stupid guys like Roger who constantly have sex on the brain. Maybe this is my punishment for following Matt Ishida around for all those years...

I looked over to my right, and saw an unfamiliar boy walking towards me.

Hey, who's the redhead?

"Well," he said, with a warm smile, his hands self-consciously in his suit pockets, "you rushed in here like the end of the world's outside. Is there something wrong?"

I looked the young man up and down, sizing him up - or checking him out, if that's what you want to call it - and he wasn't all that bad. He seemed a little young - only a year or two younger than me, though - and he was about a forehead shorter them me. That never bothered me that much; short was never an issue for me, and I could definitely get over the age factor. The guy was plain-looking, really - he had dark red hair that reminded me of my own unruly locks, and his face was nothing extraordinary - but there was something in his eyes, his dark and mysterious eyes, that told me to forget my usual practice of overlooking the less-than-perfect guys and start paying attention to guys like...well, guys like this one.

I sighed, and smiled at the red-haired stranger. "I'm supposed to meet my date here," I said, a little sadly. "But it doesn't look like that's happening tonight."

The guy laughed, and walked up to me at the end of the table. "Same thing happened to me," he said. "What a coincidence, huh?"

"I'll say." I held out my hand to him. "The name's June."

The boy took my hand and shook it warmly. "You can call me Izzy," he replied with a smile.

Izzy, huh? I smirked. He seemed nice enough. Maybe I'll give this one a try.