*^* Chapter 4- No Talking *^*

A week and a half later, the big day had come. Davis could barely pay attention to the teacher as he waited for second period and Literature. The lack of attention span was actually nothing unusual, but today it was worse than most days, for one major reason: the final unfolding of Davis' tricky plan.

The Lit class was spending the period in the library. The significant part of this setup was that the librarian was handing out the Valentine's issues of the Oracle to the student body. Kari was in Davis' Lit class, and TK wasn't. Lit was therefore already the high point of Davis' school day, and usually spent making eyes at the back of her head while she did her schoolwork. Today it was going to be even better.

Today he was going to finally triumph in his battle for Kari's heart!

Grinning tremendously in a manner that made him look like Max from 'Sam and Max', Davis sat nonchalantly back in his seat and waited for the bell to ring.

*brrrrriiiinnnngggg!*

Leaping to his feet, grabbing his bag, and leaving a trail of overturned desks in his wake, Davis exited the room like a stampeding buffalo.

Bursting into the library, he spotted the librarian handing out the white-and-pink copies of the Oracle. Slowing to a more acceptable pace, he 'casually' strolled up to the end of the line, whistling innocently with his hands clasped behind him. Several people turned to give him 'What-planet-are-you-from?' looks, which he, in his blissfully clueless state, failed to notice.

As the line moved along, Davis was finally presented with his own copy of the Oracle. Snatching it from the librarian's startled hands, he charged across the library to the little table where Kari was sitting with her own copy and twin stacks of valentines, both a couple of inches tall.

"Hey, Kari," he said cheerfully, taking a seat across from her.

She glanced up, made a vague mumbling noise that could have been a greeting, a curse of baldness, or the first line of The Star-Spangled Banner, for all he could tell. Davis, of course, took it as an invitation to continue talking.

"How ya doing?"

Kari turned a page and answered with another vague mumble.

"Having a nice Valentine's Day?"

An unintelligible growly noise.

"Are all of those yours?" he said, pointing at the stacks of valentines and knocking one of them over.

"Hey!" Kari yelped, diving to catch the scattering red hearts and coming up with a handful or two as the rest littered the floor. Glaring at him, she knelt and began to pick them up.

"Um...sorry..." Davis said, beginning to get down from his chair to help. "Here, let me get those-"

"No!" Kari exclaimed in alarm. Davis froze, looking taken aback, and Kari sighed. "I...don't think that's a good idea," she amended, more gently. "Why don't you stay in your chair and...read the paper, instead?"

With a shrug, Davis obliged. Kari kept picking up the brightly colored cards. Her hand brushed one with the characters for 'Motomiya Daisuke' scrawled rather carelessly on it, and she sat up and handed it brusquely to Davis.

"Here, this one's yours."

"For *me*?!" Davis said, sounding and looking euphoric. Kari rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Davis. For you. Don't fall off your chair, okay?"

Not catching the less-than-thrilled tone of her voice, Davis was clutching the card as though it were a winning lottery ticket. With a snort at his 7th-heaven expression, Kari stacked the last Valentine neatly onto its pile and sat down again, picking up her newspaper with a pointed leave-me-alone flourish.

Davis hid his grin behind his own paper. Any minute now...

Skimming the pages, Kari made her way through to the Love Notes. After all, she was an independent girl. She didn't really care if there were any for her. And she certainly didn't care if they were from anyone in particular! Not her...

Oh, who was she kidding? With a smile, she turned to the Love Notes section.

Scanning the pages, she began to worry. Not hers...not hers...nope...nuh-uh...no. A few of the notes were particularly sappy; a badly-written poem made her giggle. Her eyes lit on a short paragraph in one corner... As she read it, her smile began to fade.


"A.K. I don't know how to say this, after so much time wondering if it's the right thing to say. But I've been thinking a lot about what I really want, and I realize now that this is like trading silver for gold. What I had was good, but you're even better. I love you, Angel Wings. Happy Valentine's Day. T.T."


"'Angel Wings'..." Kari whispered, her eyes filling with tears as she stared, disbelieving, at the words on the page. The newspaper rustled as her hands began to shake, and Davis looked up, surprised by the depth of the betrayal on her face...

Suddenly, Kari's eyes narrowed, and a loud crinkling of paper filled the room, as the pages were crushed in her suddenly clenched fists.

"I'll give him 'Angel Wings'!" she cried angrily, and stormed out of the library, leaving the torn newspaper to lie on the table. Davis leapt to his feet to stare after her, as did several astonished students around the library.

"No talking in the library," the librarian admonished her as she stomped past.

"Oh, stuff it," Kari snapped, eliciting a shocked gasp from the bespectacled woman. The door slammed behind her in Davis' face as he tried to follow her.

"Hey! Wait for-"

*Wham!*

"Me..." Davis moaned, falling backwards with a large red mark on his forehead where the door had hit him. Quickly recovering in true anime style, he scrambled to his feet and pushed the door open, following the trail of bewildered students to the door of the gym, the site of TK's second period class, Phys. Ed. He got there just in time to hear Kari's angry voice.

"Who is A.K.?!"

"Um...Airline Korea?" TK stammered, as Davis nudged past a crowd of curious PE students for a better view.

"Nice try," Kari snapped, glaring at him. TK looked utterly confused.

"What did I do?" he said, glancing around as if hoping the answer was printed in large type on one of the walls. No such luck. Kari stomped over to a watching girl and ripped her newspaper out of her hands, coming back and shoving it into his grasp.

"Explain this," she gritted. TK skimmed through the text, looking more and more flabbergasted, his blue eyes widening at the end when he read the familiar nickname and his own initials signed to the note. Looking up from the paper, he stared at Kari, who was staring back at him.

"Kari, I don't know who wrote this, but it wasn't me!" he insisted.

"I'm supposed to believe that?" Kari snorted. "Who else knew about Angel Wings? I thought that was your special name for me, TK! How many 'Angel Wings' do you have?"

"Just you!" TK retorted, beginning to look angry himself. "What, do you expect me to come out and confess that I've been playing you false?"

"Why? *Should* I expect you to?" Kari snapped.

"Kari, I thought you knew me better than that-"

"So did I!" she cut him off, hurt and anger in her eyes. "And yet, here's a note from you to some girl! I hope she's pretty, TK, because if she isn't worth losing a friend over, than you just lost at your own game! I can't believe you did this to me!"

"Why should you care?" TK exploded, losing it. "Why should you give a flying flip who I like?" Who did she think she was, barging in here and making him look like a jerk and an idiot in front of his friends? He completely lost sight of the fact that his choice of words was making it sound like he really *had* written the note. "Why is it any of your business?!"

Kari stared at him, her eyes huge with shock. "Because...I thought I meant more to you than that. You said you cared about me, remember...?"

TK's temper, hard to raise but dangerous when provoked, had slipped out of his control. Without thinking about what he was saying, he gave her a cold stare.

"I thought I was a lying cheat. What makes you think I meant anything I said?"

Kari's eyes filled with tears, her face crumpling. Then, suddenly, it contorted with the fiery anger of betrayal.

A split second later, a ringing slap resounded through the gym.

Davis winced, as did several other kids nearby, all glued to the spectacle. TK slowly reached up a hand to touch his reddening cheek, dazed. Kari looked from her still-raised hand to the staggered expression on her best friend's face, and for a fleeting second a horrified look passed across her face. Then, the tears in her eyes spilled over, and she fled the gym, her face in her hands. She barreled through the crowd, which parted like the Red Sea for the sobbing girl.

Davis, shocked at how violently his tricky plan had backfired, tried to run after her, but the commotion had finally been noticed by a teacher, and she was doing her best to herd the kids back to their activities. The moving press of students blocked his way, and by the time the doorway was clear again, Kari was gone...

*I just wanted her to like me,* he thought, stunned. *I didn't want to make her cry...* He couldn't even tell himself that TK deserved what he'd gotten; this time it was definitely his fault, and the wounded look on TK's face as Kari had run out the door kept flashing in front of his eyes...

"Hey, Davis!"

Startled out of his reverie, Davis blinked and realized that a friend of his, Yoshitada, was waving at him from out in the hallway. Eager to leave the "scene of the crime", he hurried over. 'Tada was easy to find; his spiky oxblood-red hair could have qualified him as a Coast Guard buoy.

"What is it, 'Tada? I'm kind of busy..."

"Well, if you're not now, you will be soon!" 'Tada said jovially, giving him a slap on the back.

"What?" Davis said, confused. 'Tada stared at him.

"Dude! You haven't figured it out? Now that that Takaishi guy blew it, you've got the best chance of anybody at being next in line! All you have to do is go say a few choice words, and she's yours!"

"Huh...?" Davis murmured, blinking. That had actually been his plan...but he hadn't expected his plan to work so *well*! Most of his plans never worked at all... Could he still pull it off?

"Go for it, dude! I'd do it myself, but..." he rolled his eyes, jerking his head toward a pretty blond girl gossiping with several friends nearby. "Aiko would blow up at me worse than Kari. And speaking of Aiko, I'd better go talk to her if I want to get the juice on what just went down. I missed the first part." With that, he strode off across the hallway, pausing to flash a thumbs-up and an encouraging grin at Davis.

Frowning, Davis thought quickly. 'Tada's words weren't what one would call sympathetic, but the advice could turn out sound... And if the way he'd drifted out of the gym was any indication, going off to comfort Kari was the last thing on TK's mind. Yes, maybe he could get his plan back on track anyway! Grinning, Davis began to head off in the direction Kari had gone...

The bell rang. Scowling, he doubled back toward his own third-period class. There wasn't time to find her, not unless he wanted to catch it for being tardy. *This isn't over yet,* Davis thought, planning furiously. *I've still got a chance, and if I don't take it, call me a chimpanzee! Phase two of my tricky plan is about to begin!*

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