Metabee: I think you've found your true calling, Maia.
Melanie: *snorts* What? In being a crazy idiot?
Maia: *smashes Melanie with an anime mallet* I resent the 'idiot' part. Just to clear things up, the stuff in italics in this chapter are actually the people chatting online.
Rokusho: If you're all finished...
Maia: Right! Go read, people! ^__^
~ Day Six ~
"So what do you want me to do? It's not like I have total command over
my little sister. If she doesn't want to talk to your brother, I can't
make her."
"Look, Tai, I only asked because Mom called and told me that T.K. is
just wandering around their apartment looking all confused and bummed out."
"Well-"
"Hang on Tai, I've got a message." Matt swivelled his chair over to
the computer. "Maia says that she'd like to chat with us."
"Why didn't she send me a message?" complained Tai, logging in and
tapping the message out on the laptop.
"Because you are never on the computer, brother. I had to message
you guys because Kari's glaring at the phone and if I go near it, she glares
at me suspiciously. At least this way she can see I'm only talking to you
two. So, what should we do about the… situation?"
The two boys looked at each other and shrugged.
"Has Kari been sad at all?" Matt asked.
"Pissed off, actually. But I think she's just jealous."
"Jealous? Why?" asked Tai.
"I dunno. Looks like jealousy to me. I think it's something about
T.K."
Matt cut in. "Then there's only one solution to it, huh?"
Maia grinned. "Rendezvous. Let's see how much they like it. Know
any good places?"
~~~~~
"Come on, Kari. I need you to help me find a good place for the party.
Everyone else is busy!"
"Ask Maia."
"She's already gone! Come on Kari, you know I stink at this stuff.
You're the planner in the family." Tai groaned inwardly. This was going
to be harder than he had thought. Persuading his little sister was best
left to Maia, but she had told him that it would seem less suspicious coming
from him.
Kari sighed, but who could stand up to so much flattery? "Fine."
~~~~~
T.K. trailed along miserably behind Matt. It had just recently really
hit him how much he missed Kari. "So why am I here, Matt?"
"So we can go out to lunch and scout out good places for the anniversary
gathering tomorrow."
T.K. just sighed.
~~~~~
Maia quickly dialled Tai's cell phone. "You ready?"
"Where are you?"
"That nice little country-seeming place, you know, on the hill. Cody's
friend is the manager and I think we're okay for the rendezvous."
Cody gave her a thumbs-up from where he was talking with the manager
and nodded.
"Okay, confirm that, Tai. We're good to go. I'm going to call Matt."
"We'll see you then." Tai put away his cell phone and glanced at Kari,
who was looking slightly sullen.
"Maia thinks she's found a good place, and we'll meet up with her there."
Kari nodded, and looked out the window.
~~~~~
"They call this a corridor?" Maia asked Cody, closing her cell phone.
He shrugged. "If the connecting door is open, it basically is a corridor."
"Two rooms connected by a door that locks?"
"Don't forget that the other doors lock too."
Maia grinned slowly. "You know, this might just work. Which side does
that connecting door lock from?"
Cody raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly. "I get your gist."
~~~~~
"They here?" Maia looked out the right side door. She had expected Tai
to get there first, but it was Matt who grinned at her instead from the
door, with T.K. in tow.
"It's all the same in the end, isn't it?" asked Cody, fingering the
keys that the manager had lent him.
She looked at the boy. "Cody, sometimes the way you seem to read minds
really scares me."
He shrugged in answer. "This'll probably work better anyway."
Matt strolled over to them. "So what's the plan?"
"You'd better listen, because I'm only saying this once."
~~~~~
The manager was there to meet Tai and Kari at the door. "Cody wished
me to give you the tour."
"Cody?" Kari asked Tai.
He shrugged. "Maia did say that Cody knew some people."
Kari rolled her eyes. Leave it up to Tai to only remember some detail
at the last minute.
"This used to be a manor, dating back to the early 20th century…"
~~~~~
"Remind me to thank your friend Andy when he comes back, Cody. It was
really nice of him to agree to distract Kari while we worked stuff out."
"Actually, he likes to give tours," replied the younger boy.
Maia frowned at T.K., who had just entered. "Now, T.K., you just stay
put, okay? We're giving you the chance of a lifetime, so try not to blow
it. You've got to explain everything."
~~~~~
"…And this is the hall which Cody and Maia have asked you to consider
for tomorrow night." The man's wide sweep of the arm somehow managed to
take in the immense room in one go. "Please see me if there are any questions.
They are in the room on the left."
When Tai and Kari walked into the left-hand room, Maia was standing
in the middle of it, frowning at a sheet of paper. Her eyes flicked up
for a second, then lowered again. "Tai, I need to talk to you about these
prices."
"Right," agreed Tai absently. "Should we discuss with the manager too?"
Maia nodded. "Kari, Cody's in the next room if you want to talk to
him."
It was obvious that they didn't want to discuss money around her, as
they both worked at part-time jobs outside the school year, and she didn't
yet.
She stepped through the connecting door, and didn't even notice the
click as the door closed behind her. She was too busy staring at what was
in front of her. The girl bit her lip, glaring at her player ex-not-quite-boyfriend,
T.K. Turning, she scrabbled for the doorknob.
~~~~~
"What do you mean, 'the door locks from the OTHER side?!'" Maia threw
herself against the door, just barely slamming it shut again. "You two
work it out!" she yelled through the door.
"Sorry," Cody said sheepishly. "Andy said it locked from the left side.
Turns out he meant the left when you're facing the outer door."
Matt shrugged. "Hey, at least they're in the same room."
~~~~~
When Kari had pushed the door, it seemed almost as if something had… changed… somehow. She could seem to remember the door opening and she had ran, but yet… it seemed hazy, like a hope of what could have been. That was all it had been. Wasn't it?
~~~~~
"So in the end, it all came down to keeping one door closed…" Gennai
seemed lost in thought.
"Not only that, but all the other little factors that led to it as
well, Gennai. That has always been the way of things. The smallest thing
can make all the difference. The future is yet to be written…"
~~~~~
"Kari, just listen to me!"
The girl coldly walked around the room, avoiding T.K. as much as possible.
She had tested the doors. One was locked, and one wouldn't open. She assumed
that the others were leaning on it to keep it closed, or had wedged it
shut somehow.
"Kari-" Seeing that Kari was steadfastly ignoring him, he decided to
give up pleading. Time for a more direct approach.
"Kari, listen to me." He spun her around so that he was gazing straight
into her eyes. "Kari, this week… it's all been a massive misunderstanding.
The blonde girl you saw me with was my cousin who is visiting Japan."
She stared at him, momentarily unable to speak. From the look in her
eyes, she believed that he was lying through his teeth. She opened her
mouth, probably to announce that he was a liar as well as a player, but
was forestalled by T.K. placing a gentle finger against her lips.
"Believe me, Kari. I love you, only you, and that's true forever."
"I…don't… believe you…" Her eyes were wavering, hanging onto the last
shreds of doubt, almost completely destroyed by his quiet words
But even that last scrap of anger was swept away as his lips met hers
and everything else around them ceased to exist.
~~~~~
Maia: *rubs hands together* Soon the final chapter will be up... Review!
^__^