Part 7: The Science Project of Jou!
"I hate writing big reports," Jou muttered in annoyance. "I'll never finish all of this research in time!"
Jou, now 17, was sitting in his school's library. He was the only person there, with the exception of the librarian behind the desk. He still went to a private school, one that holds all grades, Junior High and High School students. Because of this, Jou didn't have to worry about High School entrance exams like the others, but he made up for that with all of the difficult school work that was expected of him from his instructors.
"I had a feeling I'd find you here," a girl giggled playfully. "Don't wear yourself out, Kido."
The boy looked up to see who had addressed him. "Oh, hi Malissa."
Sixteen year old Malissa Smith was a good friend of Jou's, actually a love interest to him, but he was just too shy to ask her out. The American girl moved from Florida to Odaiba about a year ago with her family because of her mother's job. Her mother was a doctor and her father was a lawyer, and the two became pretty good friends. She had long, dark brown hair and pretty clear brown eyes that Jou simply loved. She wore a blue skirt with a matching navy blue shirt with a red tie, your typical school uniform. She was very nice and she also enjoyed playing sports. Her favourite being Volleyball.
Out of the other Chosen Children currently living in Japan, Jou was now the most fluent in English, Ken coming in second. Miyako, Iori, and Koushirou would come next, but they just knew enough to get by and Koushirou was better at reading and translating it than actually speaking it, same as Iori. Out of all of them, though, Mimi was the most fluent in English seeing as how she lives in America which required her to learn it.
*Note: In my fics, Ken is fluent in English, (I know he isn't. Actually, we don't know if he is or not, I'm just saying he is), as well as Spanish (as we already know from his adventure in Mexico, he knows it), so don't flame me. Oh and Iori did know how to write out a sign in English, so I decided to make it so that he learned some English over the past two years. There you go, a logical explanation.*
"Are you still working on that report of yours?"
He nodded.
"Why did that Science teacher of mine pick such a difficult topic," Jou groaned. "Why in the world does she have to be so illogical!"
"To challenge you," the girl smiled at him. "You are one of the smartest students in your class. She's just trying to intimidate you and show you up. As smart as you are, you could teach the class yourself!" She laughed a bit. "I bet it's really bugging crabby old Professor Tomiya."
"Thanks," the boy said, his spirits lifting a bit.
"It's getting late, Jou, why not give it a rest? School let out almost two hours ago."
Jou stared up at the girl, really wanting to take her up on her offer, but he knew he had to finish his research first.
"Gomen, but I really have to finish this."
"Okay, but at least have dinner with me later on," she offered. "I could whip something up. Some fine American Cuisine and I won't take no for an answer, Jou Kido!" She gave him a playful smile. "My mom and dad are going out tonight and my 10-year-old brother, James, is going to stay over at a friend's house from school since my parents are going out and my 14-year-old sister, Jerri, is going to the movies and to a sleepover with her friends, so I'll have the place all to myself. I would hate to sit around there alone; besides, you can finish your paper there."
"Okay, okay," Jou finally agreed. "I'll join you for dinner."
The boy then frowned, remembering something.
"Oh, wait...I can't."
"Cram school, right?"
He nodded.
"How on earth do you do it," the girl asked in amazement. "How do you go to regular school and then go to a cram school!"
"I've always gone, ever since I was in my final years of Elementary School, so it's no big deal to me now."
"In America, we don't have cram schools, but we do have summer schools and that's normally for students who are making up courses they failed during the year, or those who want to get ahead of their class," she told him. "C'mon, just miss one day, Jou."
"But... "
"Please?"
Jou looked up at her, he just couldn't say no and smiled.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to miss one day of lectures and practice college entrance exams."
"That's the spirit! Rest a bit."
"Okay, but I have to look up one more thing," he said while taking out a piece of paper with a call number written on it.
"What's that?"
"I have to find this Biology book before I can leave," he told her. "I'm sure in there, I can actually find out who discovered how the blood flows and circulates throughout the body."
"Okay," she nodded.
'Of all the lousy topics, The History of Blood Flow! That's nowhere near normal for a report topic!'
"Doesn't this place freak you out a little?" She shook slightly, as if cold. "This library looks like something you would see in an old monster movie based on the 1800s! You know, one of those spooky old Dracula type movies."
"I never really thought about it much," the boy laughed, "but thinking about it now, it does seem quite old."
Malissa grabbed the paper in Jou's hand, reading off the call number. "Are you sure about this book? That's in the most isolated and secluded part of the library."
"I can handle looking up a book," he assured her. "I'll be fine."
The girl smiled at Jou. She really did admire his mature attitude.
"Hey Jou, how long have we been friends now?"
"About a year."
"A wonderful year if you ask me. I can't believe that my family and I have lived here for an entire year! I'm so glad that my parents put my sister and me in this school. We would've never met you!"
Jou blushed a bit.
"I just knew I wouldn't make any friends here, but you were nice enough to try," she said, thinking back to that time. "We also were right here in this library when we first met."
"I was studying for my Advanced Chemistry exam when I saw you," Jou said, remembering the time quite well. "You seemed to be a bit down, so I decided to introduce myself. It would've been rude not to."
That was part of the reason Jou introduced himself to the girl. He had seen her around the campus and was instantly attracted to her. He told Koushirou of his problem and he encouraged him to associate with her the next time he saw her...
Flashback
The phone rang in the Izumi home. The phone didn't ring long though, and was answered immediately.
"Hello, Koushirou here," the voice responded.
"Hey Koushirou, what's up."
"Wow, the scientific genius finally has some free time to call!" the computer genius joked.
"Very funny."
"So, what's the problem," Koushirou asked while fiddling with his computer. "Do you need help with your computer homework again?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," Jou trailed off while fiddling with the telephone cord. "I just need some, advice," he said, skepticism in his voice.
"Advice?" Koushirou asked in surprise. "From me?"
"Yeah," Jou said, still nervous as ever. "I need advice about girls."
"Shouldn't you be asking Taichi-san or Yamato-san about something like that?" Koushirou asked, puzzled as to why his older friend would ask him for such advice. "They have more experience with girls than I do, way more in fact. Even Takeru-kun and Daisuke-kun have more experience than I do and they are both younger than me. I have never even been out with a girl."
"I would rather not talk to them about this," Jou stated seriously. "They would probably exaggerate or tease me or something; besides, you are more mature than they are."
"I guess I'll take that as a compliment," Koushirou smirked.
"Besides, other than Gomamon and Iori-kun, you are my best friend out of all of us Chosens and I feel really close to you guys," Jou explained. "Sure I have my regular friends and acquaintances from school, but I still feel as if I can tell you all anything."
"You are right about that."
He too felt that he could share more with his Chosen friends than with others.
"So, what kind of advice could I offer you? I am no expert on this particular subject, but I will try to help out as much as I possibly can."
"Well," Jou began, "there is this new girl at my school and..."
He continued to describe her to him and Koushirou whistled to himself. He felt that this girl was very pretty.
"She sounds like a very nice person," Koushirou complimented.
"I always see her in the library by herself," Jou continued. "I don't know how I should approach her or anything."
"Maybe my computer could bring up some information on what you should do."
"Koushirou, I'm serious!"
"Just kidding around," Koushirou laughed with a sweat drop as he put
the browser window back down on his computer. He wasn't joking,
he was going to literally go through a search engine for advice.
"So, what do you suggest I do?"
The redhead thought for a moment - wishing he could just look it up on the net - and snapped his fingers. Jou heard the snap.
"Did you come up with something?"
"I think I have," Koushirou responded assuredly.
"What's the advice," Jou asked eagerly. "I want to know what you think!"
"My advice to you is to just try and talk to her," Koushirou said as if he were an expert on the subject. "Don't ask her out or anything, get to know her a bit. Try being her friend if she is as new as you say she is. I'm sure she could use a good friend right now instead of a boyfriend and let nature run its course. Eventually, your relationship will blossom. After the two of you become really good friends, then try asking her out and see if it was meant to be."
Jou's jaw dropped from the advice he had just received. He was not only surprised that the advice was good, but he was even more so surprised that the advice had come from Koushirou.
"Where in the world did you get that from!!"
"I was watching Romantic Teen Soap Operas with Miyako-kun again," Koushirou responded bashfully.
"Again?!?" Jou asked. The boy then started to laugh hysterically at the thought. "You?!? Soap Operas!?!"
"Let's not tell anyone about that now," Koushirou said with a sweat drop.
"Why on earth would you watch Soap Operas," Jou asked, still laughing at the thought of his younger friend watching soap operas.
"Miyako-kun wanted to watch them when she was over here so I said sure."
Jou was still surprised and almost wish he hadn't have asked since Koushirou started to ramble on and on about how he had fallen victim to Soap Operas.
"On the show she had me watching, Takeshi-san just tried what I suggested to you a while ago and now he and that exchange student from Australia, Meagan-san, are hitting it off right now, but his friend Ami-san likes him, but to make that worse, the best friend of Takeshi-san, Ryo-san, likes Meagan-san, but he is dating Ami-san! The two are dating, but Ami-san just doesn't like him, but Ami-san isn't really dating Ryo-san, but his twin brother Ryu-san."
Koushirou took in a deep breath and continued on.
"They look exactly alike, Ryo-san and Ryu-san, but the bad thing about Meagan-san is that Takeshi-san doesn't like Meagan-san too much anymore and has eyes for a girl named Kiki-kun who is the younger sister of Meagan-san!"
Jou was just about to speak up, but Koushirou didn't give him the chance to.
"But that isn't all!" Koushirou continued, excitement in his voice. "The mother of Kiki-kun and Meagan-san is getting sick and they don't know why. It's because she's a psychic and can read fortunes. She is getting sick because she senses something bad is going to happen to Meagan-san. I can't wait to see what happens next!"
"Um, yeah," Jou said, his eyes closed like slits, along with a sweat drop.
"The show Marmalade Boy is good too," Koushirou said, getting started again. "Man, Miki-san and her boy problems! Her best guy friend, Ginta, has a terrible crush on her, can't admit it though, but she has mixed feelings about him, especially with the history those two have. She has a thing for her new brother, Yuu too. Oh, I bet you're wondering about how she can like her brother."
Jou was about to say, "No, not really," but Koushirou beat him to it once again.
"Well, in the first episode, the parents of Miki-san said that they didn't love each other anymore and said that they each found somebody else, another married couple and they were going to swap partners and this couple had a son her age; this boy was Yuu. Yuu also ended up transferring to the same school as Miki and is living with her. As a matter of fact, all the parents are there. Miki doesn't agree to the swapping arrangement and thinks they're all nuts. Yuu just didn't care what his parents did."
"Koushirou?"
"Right now, nobody else knows that Miki and Yuu are steps and live in the same house, except for the best friend of Miki. Oh, and speaking of her best friend, she has some problems too. Her name is Meiko and she doesn't date or anything like that and she is quite popular as well as pretty and that's considered strange. But Yuu finds out that she is in a relationship with her teacher, Namura-san! Oh, they're all High Schoolers by the way. Yuu caught them making out in the library, but he was the only one who saw them. He was working on an assignment and was looking for a book and heard the two and he saw them kissing. Well, actually, Yuu was hiding out from Ginta. He really dislikes Yuu so far and considers him a rival since Ginta has such strong feelings for Miki. Meiko and Namura-san thought the library was empty. To make it even funnier, to make sure no one would see him, he snuck in through the window."
"Kooooshirou."
"After they were finished, he came out, oh Namura-san had left already, and told Meiko that he wasn't going to say anything. I feel sorry for Ginta right now though."
"Koushirou!"
"When it was his turn to stay back for classroom duty along with Miki, Ginta took a chance and kissed her. Boy was that a mistake! She smacked him and ran off.. Now their friendship hasn't been the same since. Oh, and don't get me started about Arimi, the ex girlfriend of Yuu who just shows up unexpectedly."
Jou sweat dropped - still surprised that Koushirou ignored him when trying to get his attention - pretending he didn't hear what Koushirou had just said or the bits he could get since he was rambling the entire time, putting most of his words together.
"That sounds interesting, Koushirou," he lied, "but I---"
"Ooh, it ought to be coming on soon," the boy exclaimed, interrupting Jou. "I can't wait to see what is going to happen! Oh why didn't I watch this show when it originally aired all those years ago!"
Jou blinked dumbfoundedly. 'He sounds as if he actually enjoys
watching Soap Operas!'
He then shook off his thoughts and spoke to Koushirou again, hopefully to get off of the subject of Soap Operas.
"Maybe I should try what you suggested," he said. "She does look as if she could use a friend."
"Bingo," Koushirou cheered. "What a perfecto idea!"
"What," Jou asked, a what in the world expression on his face.
The boy started to sweat nervously and started to defend himself.
"I mean prodigious," he quickly corrected himself. "That's a prodigious idea! I didn't say anything else!" He started to laugh nervously. "I am sure that will help you out some." He then muttered, 'Now if I could only follow my own advice.'
"Hey, do you think you will ever try that advice yourself?"
"I already am," he muttered.
"What did you say?"
Koushirou, once again, went back to defending himself, denying everything.
"Nothing," the boy said, perspiring even more from embarassment. "I didn't say anything!"
"Sure you didn't," Jou said in a sarcastic manner. "I am certain I heard you say 'I already am,' which means you do have an interest in something other than your computer."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Koushirou denied.
Jou ignored this and continued to interrogate his young friend.
"Who is it?" Jou asked. "Tell me! I won't tell anyone."
"I don't know if I should," Koushirou said shyly.
Jou then smirked evilly and got an idea to get Koushirou to talk.
"If you don't tell me, Koushirou, I will tell Taichi that you watch Sappy Teen Soap Operas and actually enjoy them!"
"NO, NO, ANYTHING BUT THAT," the boy pleaded. "DON'T TELL TAICHI-SAN THAT!! HE'LL NEVER LET ME HEAR THE END OF IT!!"
"What makes you think that I won't," Jou laughed.
Koushirou whimpered.
"Calm down, Koushirou," his laughter subsiding. "You know what, you don't even have to tell me who the person is."
"I don't?"
"I already figured it out!"
"You have?"
"I sure have and it's pretty obvious," Jou pointed out. "You just said 'Bingo' and 'Perfecto' a while ago and neither one of those is your usual catch phrase."
Koushirou laughed nervously and fearfully.
"Don't worry," Jou said, noticing the fear in Koushirou's laugh. "Your secret is safe with me."
Koushirou sighed out in relief.
"I'll keep the Soap Opera one secret too," he said, laughing a bit. "I'll try to keep my mouth shut about that!"
"You truly promise not to tell about the Soap Operas?" Koushirou asked, making sure that Jou was indeed true and sincere about his promise. "Miyako-kun already promised not to tell if I watched with her."
"Yeah, I promise," Jou said again. "Besides, I don't think Taichi would even believe me if I told him."
"Thanks a lot, Jou-san," Koushirou said in a grateful tone. "You are a very good friend and you sound truly sincere with your promise."
"No problem, but a note of advice, don't make yourself so obvious about your crush if you don't want anyone to know about it. Just by this conversation I figured out who it was."
"Good idea," Koushirou said with a nervous blush.
"I hope I can get the nerve to introduce myself to Malissa," Jou said suddenly.
"I am sure that you will do fine, Jou-san."
A knock was then heard on Koushirou's bedroom door so he told Jou to hold. He then shouted, "Who is it." It was Mrs. Izumi.
"It's just me, dear," the woman said. "Your friend, Miyako, is here."
"She is," Koushirou asked in an ecstatic tone. "Prodigious!" Koushirou then turned his attention back to the phone and started to speak. "Jou-san, I..."
"Say no more," Jou interrupted. "I know your crush is in your home for your daily Soap Opera filled afternoon. I will talk to you later."
"Thank you," Koushirou said. "Let me know how it goes. See you later."
They both hanged up.
"C'mon Jou," the boy said, trying to get the nerve to approach the quiet girl he had been admiring for the past few weeks. "This is the biggest obstacle that I will probably ever have to face! I have got to talk to this girl and tomorrow I shall! Nothing shall hold me back!"
/Flashback
"I am glad that I knew some Japanese before moving here," Malissa said. "My siblings and I started learning a good while before we actually moved here. When mom announced that we were moving, we were all surprised and even more shocked to find out where we were moving to!"
"I understood your Japanese quite well," Jou complimented. "Also, because of you, I am starting to understand English a lot better. I am so confident about my English speaking skills and abilities, I feel that I could go to America and visit my friend in New York, actually site see on my own, and find my way around with no trouble at all."
"You have a friend in America?"
"I never mentioned her to you?"
"I don't think so," Malissa said while shaking her head.
"Her name is Tachikawa Mimi. She moved there a few years ago with her family because of her father's work. The last time I saw Mimi-kun, it was about a year ago, a little while before I met you, actually."
"Cool, I would like to meet your friend some day."
"She's a very nice person and she has this way of cheering you up when you're down," the boy said. "I still keep in touch with her, just not as often as we used to because of school."
"You know, I sometimes wonder why mom and dad put me in this
school."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm not all that smart," the girl stated sullenly.
"But you take advanced classes," Jou reminded her.
"I know, but still, I only do average in them, not excellent. I don't even know what I want to do with my life. Dad wants me to become a lawyer like him and mom wants me to become a doctor like her. Both careers take a lot of work to achieve and I really don't want to become a doctor or a lawyer. At first, I was interested in computers."
"I have a couple of good friends who are good with computers who goes to Odaiba Junior High," Jou offered.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I have lost my interest in that. At one point I was thinking about accounting or something else dealing with mathematics, but I lost my interest in that also, although I really enjoyed it, but I don't think I would do too well with it."
"What makes you say that? If you enjoy mathematics or accounting that's what you should go for! As far as I know, you have always excelled and did well in accounting and subjects related to it. You did mention taking that before you moved to Odaiba."
"I don't know," the girl frowned. "I just know that I will mess up."
"Quit being so pessimistic. What you need to do is gain some self-confidence in yourself," Jou scolded. "When I was younger, I always thought like that, but I realized that you have to challenge yourself and you never know what you can't do until you actually try it. As you know, I want to become a doctor. When I was younger, I never felt that I could ever accomplish it or get grades good enough in school or anything like that, but I worked hard and gained some confidence in myself and realized that I can do whatever it is I set my mind to. If you don't believe in yourself, then no one else will either!"
The girl stood there, taking in Jou's wise words.
"You don't want people to think that of you, do you?" the boy asked. 'I am actually starting to sound like Gomamon. I sure do miss him.'
"Maybe you are right. Being negative isn't going to help my problem any. To be honest, I like to write more than anything else, but I can't make a living off of writing."
"Sure you can," Jou assured her. "You can do whatever you set your mind to."
Before Malissa could respond, an older woman spoke up who was behind the checkout counter. It was the librarian.
"Kido-kun, I am about to close up," the woman told him. "If you want to check out anything, you better do it now."
Jou stood up and bowed politely.
"Hai, Toshokan-san, but I have to go find one more book."
*Note: Okay, ready for a bad pun? Toshokan is "Library" in Japanese. I couldn't think of anything else. And "Hai," in this case, means, "yes."*
"Go right ahead," the woman smiled gently. "You are such a good kid."
"Thank you," Jou said as he bowed politely.
"Don't take too long," Malissa told him.
"I won't," he promised, giving her a thumbs up and a wink.
Jou left to look for the book, leaving Malissa and Ms. Toshokan behind.
"Let's see," Jou muttered while reading the call number of the book, "it should be right over here."
Jou saw that the book he wanted was on the very top shelf. He sighed in annoyance and climbed up the ladder to get to the big book. When he go to the top, he retrieved it. He noticed it was dusty and blew it off.
"Malissa wasn't kidding, this library is ancient!"
He opened it up to take a look to make sure it had the information he was looking for. When he opened it up to the first page, he noticed something strange.
"File Island?" the boy asked in surprise. "Why would a map of File Island be in a Biology book and how would this author know about the Digital World?"
All of a sudden he felt himself falling and the book shined out a
bright
light. He screamed and fell off the ladder, dropping the book,
landing
right on it...
********
"How did you and Kido-kun become such good friends, dear?" Ms. Toshokan
asked while organizing some of the library books that other students
had
returned earlier that day.
"I was sitting right here in the library when he came up and introduced himself to me," Malissa said with a dreamy smile. "I had just moved here and I didn't have any friends yet. Jou saw me and just came right over and we started talking and have been good friends ever since."
"I see you have that look," the wise old lady said.
"Look?" the girl asked. "I have a look?"
"Yes you do," the woman nodded. "You have that look in your eye, true admiration for Kido-kun."
"What do you mean?" the girl asked, blushing furiously. "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Oh, I think you know what I mean," the woman said with a gentle smile.
Before Malissa could respond, both of them heard Jou's scream and noticed the bright white light coming from the part of library where he was.
"Jou!"
She took off and ran in that direction, Ms. Toshokan ran right behind her. By the time they got there, they saw a bright light and Jou trying to grab hold of something to keep from being sucked into the bright, whirling light behind him. Malissa and Ms. Toshokan shielded their eyes from the bright light.
"Jou, what's going on," Malissa called to him.
"I DON'T KNOW!!"
After the light disappeared, Jou was no where to be found. The only thing left was the book he was planning on checking out and it was now closed. Ms. Toshokan picked up the book and obliviously tried to open it, but it wouldn't let her. They both stood there, looks of confusion on their faces wondering what had happened to Jou...