A/N: It took me a few days to get through this chapter, but I did it! Forgive me for taking so long...I was having slight writer's block and had to get Kari's story straight and the part where they're actually eating lunch down properly. This chapter will be moving along more slowly than the rest of the story, with hardly any plot at all. It's all basically them during their lunch break. Not that you should skip over it, if you want to know what Kari and Yolei did, and how odd they all are with their lunches...and you see traces of old friendship here and there. But enough from me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon...get that through your thick heads!

A Lunch Break

"Alright, it's time to eat lunch. I'm assuming all of you brought your lunches?"

No one answered Mr. Terada, but all of them brought lunches out from their backpacks or purses. "No one needs to go to the cafeteria to get anything?"

Suddenly Kari realized she needed a fork, and slowly stood up. As she did, she noticed that Yolei stood up also, and glanced at her.

"Mr. Terada, may I go get utensils from the cafeteria?" Yolei asked, rummaging around through her bag to double check that she had forgotten them.

Kari turned to the teacher. "And me too?"

Mr. Terada nodded. "Hurry back."

~ ~ ~ ~

Kari walked along the hallway, a little behind Yolei, dragging a hand down the wall as she walked. She searched her mind for any words to say to start up a conversation, but came up empty. She sighed to herself and stared at the ground as she walked.

After a few seconds she realized that Yolei had stopped walking and looked up at her.

"Is something wrong?"

Yolei turned to face her, looking confused. "Kari, why are you here? What could you have possibly done that was so bad?"

Kari smiled weakly and leant back against the wall. "I didn't do anything."

"What do you mean?"

Kari looked up at her. "Do you want to hear the whole story?"

Yolei moved towards the wall and rested back against it beside Kari. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Well, do you remember Alice?"

"Alice Tsukiyono?"

"Yeah, her. Well, you remember how she was always trying to steal my spot as head cheerleader in junior high?"

Yolei nodded.

"She still hasn't quite gotten over that. We were at tryouts this summer and the group of girls I was trying out with, Alice was one of them, overheard the cheerleading coach talking to a teacher about who she thought should be freshman head cheerleader, and she said she was thinking of giving me the spot. Alice got infuriated because she had gone to some kind of lessons over the summer and she said she deserved the spot more than I did, but we found out that I was getting it no matter what, as long as my grades stayed up and I stayed out of trouble."

Yolei's eyes gradually widened as she realized where Kari was going with the story.

"Of course, everyone knew that I was going to get the spot. I always get straight A's and I'm never in trouble, right? They were going to post the results Friday. Thursday morning, in P.E., someone broke into four lockers in the locker room and stole jewelry from them. It was a gold bracelet, two necklaces, and a ring. When we went into class we saw that the lockers were open and when the girls checked them, they reported the missing jewelry. The girls always put them in the lockers when they have morning practice and leave the jewelry there until second period, which is P.E. Someone must have taken them during first period, they figured, since there's no classes in the gym at that time. Well, they made everyone open their lockers and the coaches checked each one to make sure no one had anything. Well, guess what they found in my locker?"

"The jewelry?"

"Yeah. And guess who I was sharing that same locker with?"

"I don't know."

"Mayuka."

"Isn't she Alice's best friend?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then why isn't she here too?"

"She was absent that day."

Yolei gasped. "Wait, I get it. Mayuka told Alice your locker number and Alice snuck in and broke into the lockers, stole the jewelry, and put them in your locker during first period. Mayuka was absent on purpose so it would seem she had nothing to do with it, and she wouldn't get into trouble. But Kari, why didn't you tell anyone the truth?"

"Who would have believed me? Besides, everyone was sick of perfect little Kari, head cheerleader three years in a row. Besides, I had no proof."

Kari moved off of the wall and began walking towards the cafeteria again. "It's only one Saturday in detention, anyways."

"But your spot as head cheerleader!"

"I don't have to be the main one all the time. There is next year. And besides, they let me stay on the team, because I'm the best trained girl and it would be hard to replace me."

"Did Alice get the spot?"

Kari lowered her eyes. "Yes."

"That isn't fair. You have to tell someone, Kari."

"Like I said, no one would believe me, and I have no proof. It's really okay, Yolei."

Yolei watched her walk away and shook her head in disbelief. "What happened to the Kari that never gave up?"

Kari stopped walking to turn to look at her. "What happened to the Digidestined?" she countered.

Yolei remained silent, and Kari smiled sadly and turned to pull open the cafeteria door.

As they went towards the cardboard box with packages of forks, knives, napkins, and straws, Kari looked at the purple-haired girl.

"What about you? What did you do?"

Yolei blushed and scratched her head. "I sort of...punched a guy."

"What?" Kari's jaw dropped slightly in shock. "Why on earth would you do that?'

"See, he was asking me why I was such a tomboy, and he said that I'd better stop because I was starting to look like a boy, too, and said I was rather ugly, so I punched him. The teacher sent me straight to the office, and they told me to take Saturday detention."

Kari laughed nervously. "You have to learn to control your temper Yolei. Besides...if you knew he was wrong, why did you get angry and retaliate?"

Yolei turned to her, eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Ready?"

Yolei looked her over suspiciously but then smiled, nodding. "I'm ready."

The two girls walked back towards the library.

~ ~ ~ ~

Tai poked at his food, tilting his head to the side. What had his mother called it? Seaweed sandwich? He lowered his face and sniffed at it, then recoiled, making a disgusted face.

"Oh, gross!"

Sora turned to look at his food and raised an eyebrow. "One of your mother's recipes?"

"Yeah," Tai replied unenthusiastically, sighing and putting his chin in his hand. He suddenly remembered Izzy's liking of his mother's unusual cooking and turned in his seat to look at the table in the back of the room.

"Hey, Izzy, trade you lunches?"

Izzy looked up at him and smiled slightly. "What's the name of the food?"

"Seaweed sandwich."

"Will it give me bad stomach problems?"

"As long as you don't eat twelve of them, it shouldn't. You only got sick that time because you drank way too much beef jerky juice and whatever else she poisoned you with."

Izzy gave a nervous laugh and looked down at his food. "I don't know if you'd like my lunch too much."

Joe peeked over his shoulder. "Okay, what *is* that exactly?"

"It's a mustard, jelly beans, and eggs sandwich."

"You know what, Izzy? I don't want to trade with you anymore."

"I will!"

"Great, what're you having TK?"

"Broccoli and macaroni and cheese."

"Why'd you bring broccoli?"

"I didn't, my mom packed it for me."

"I'll have that, TK! I love broccoli."

"Sora, you are strange. Have I ever told you that? Wait, I probably have."

"Thanks for the comment, Matt, but it really wasn't wanted."

"Wait, so who's trading with who?"

Izzy handed his sandwich over to TK, who handed his lunch over to Sora, who set her lunch on Izzy's desk.

"Is this ramen?"

"Yeah. I'm eating healthy."

"Great, I haven't had ramen in a while."

Izzy slurped the noodles up.

Tai stared down at his lunch of the seaweed sandwich and sighed. "I still have this, though. Wait a second, Kari, what did Mom give you?"

Kari looked over at him and smiled. "I'm on a diet, remember, Tai? I'm eating salad now."

"Oh, right. Well, does anyone at all want to try my seaweed sandwich?"

Cody looked over at him. "I'll take it, Tai. I like seaweed."

Tai shrugged. "Okay. Wait a minute, does your lunch involve prunes in any way?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"No reason!" Tai handed his sandwich over and took the bag Cody handed over to him, setting it down in front of himself.

"Hey, McDonalds."

He thoughtfully bit into the burger.

Matt stared at them each in turn. "You're all nuts," he muttered, shoving a rice bun into his mouth.

Suddenly they heard a loud crunching coming from the back of the room. They all turned to look at Ken, who was pouring croutons onto a bread slice and then smashing them up with the palm of his hand. He began to add salt to the sandwich, and when he was satisfied with the amount of croutons, he put the other bread slice on top and carefully lifted it, a few croutons falling out of the end. He bit into the sandwich and it gave a loud crunch, noticed everyone was staring at him, and slowly began chewing.

They all turned back around slowly.

Yolei brought out a few tacos and began eating one, meat falling out of the end. Mimi had her own little platter of sushi and chopsticks to go along with it. Joe had a burrito, which was absolutely covered in dripping cheese. He lifted the burrito and took a bite, then set it down and licked his fingers. Every single time he took another bite, he would lick his fingers clean again.

Davis watched this in mild interest and barely stopped himself from asking Joe why he didn't just leave the cheese on until the very end and lick his fingers off then. He looked down at his own food-a piece of steak, mashed potatoes, and rice-and smiled. Nothing out of the ordinary for him, thank you very much.

He looked up at the rest of the ex-Digidestined and noted happily that some of them were sitting closer to each other than when they all first arrived, and some were even talking.

Ken seemed to be explaining to Cody about some card game, though most of it was Ken speaking through gritted teeth in an annoyed voice when Cody kept asking the same questions because he simply could not understand. It was an improvement, though, since Ken hadn't got up and just left or knocked the little boy out of his chair.

Kari and Yolei seemed to be discussing some cheerleader girl with disgusted faces, though Yolei looked angry and Kari looked as if she regretted something. He couldn't hear their voices, so he turned to look at all of the others.

None of them were talking to each other, though Izzy reached over once to snatch a piece of burrito that had broken off from Joe's plate, as if it was something he did everyday, and Joe reacted normally, taking note that Izzy had taken the piece but going back to eating instead of getting angry or even looking at him. Davis remembered faintly the way they used to do that all the time, one reaching over and eating a piece of the other's lunch, to taste it. He smiled to himself.

He looked over at the two tables in front on the right side, one with Tai, Sora, and Mimi, all eating their lunches quietly, and Matt sitting alone at the table behind them. He watched as Matt pulled something out of his pocket and his eyes widened in slight surprise when Matt flicked the object and a blade popped out and he began stabbing the remaining rice bun in boredom.

Tai glanced back at him and did a double take. He turned around in his chair, leaning his arms on Matt's table. "What are you doing?" he hissed. "What if the teacher comes in and sees you with that?!"

Matt stopped stabbing the rice bun and looked up at him, blue eyes flashing. "Then he'll be surprised."

"You'll get caught! Put it away!"


"Why? Do you care?"

Tai looked as if he wanted to say something to that, but something was keeping him from saying it.

After a few more seconds of Tai being speechless and Matt glaring, Matt leaned forward and pointed the knife directly in between Tai's eyes. "Turn around and shut up."

He flicked the knife shut again and put it into his pocket, and Tai, feeling as if there was nothing more to do about it, turned around and didn't say another word about any of it.

Davis wondered briefly if TK had seen his brother's knife, but when he turned his head to look at the blonde sitting against the bookshelf, he was surprised when he saw TK staring back at him. He wondered how long he'd been staring at him and raised an eyebrow in question. TK held his gaze for a few more seconds, but then broke it and turned towards the bookshelf, staring at the spines of the books on the shelf.

Davis suddenly cringed. Of course. TK was still worried about him after he had kept himself from answering TK about why he had gotten detention. How could he forget about that? 'I should have just lied to him,' Davis thought, but something inside of him told him he couldn't have lied to his friend anyways. His friend. Did TK still think of him as a friend?

'Of course he does. If he doesn't, then why would he be worried about me?'

The thought comforted the redhead a little, but he still cast a last glance at TK to make sure he wasn't staring at him again, then sighed in relief when he saw the boy had grabbed a book from the shelf and began skimming through it.

~ ~ ~ ~

Mr. Terada walked into the library again. "Lunch time is over. All of you please direct yourselves towards the trash can next to the entrance to the hallway, and if I see any papers littering the floor, I will make one of you clean it up, and I don't care if it wasn't you who left it there."

They all stood up and walked to the trash can, dumping their trash in and going back to their seats. Mr. Terada watched them, and when all of them were seated again, he turned and went back to his office again. He had left a particularly good soap opera on, and he didn't want to miss anything important.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Well, I'm pretty happy with the way that came out. It didn't exactly flow, but I'm still happy with it. And I even added in Izzy's classic mustard, jelly beans, and eggs in his lunch! That boy is so odd. 'S why I like him, though. Anyways, feel free to review or send me an e-mail.