*AN: This went in a different direction than I expected, but it's still okay. =D There are going to be interruptions of this book to fit in what's up with Hope and Aaron, for all you Together Again fans. Yay. The first one will be right after this chapter. And this chapter introduces the Takari romance, a little. Don't worry—it'll get full-blown soon enough. Guess what, it's gonna be Thanksgiving soon! I'm thankful for days off from school and time to write! Other than God, family, friends, etc., of course. And thanks for the correction about the Black Gears. Must have been a Season 01/Season 02 mix-up in my overworked brain. It's been a while since I've seen either *sniff, sniff*. So yeah, enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving!*
One Light, One Hope
Chapter Three: Bonding
It was (finally!) the last day of school in our seventh-grade year, and as the bell rang and kids swarmed out of their classrooms, I waited patiently for Kari as she pushed an envelope into our teacher's hand. Probably a thank you note or something, knowing Kari. "Thank you so much for all you've done for us this year," Kari told our teacher, smiling as she walked back towards me. "It's appreciated."
"Just doing my job, Kari," the teacher replied. "Now you have a good summer, and I'll see you around next year."
"Okay. Bye!" Kari waved and then we left the classroom. "I'm so glad it's finally summer," I told her, casually placing my arm around her shoulders.
Kari sighed. "I know. Now that we're officially out of school, what are we gonna do?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. What do you want to do?"
"Well, I really wanted to go watch that new Harry Potter movie. It looks good, and I read the book and the book is great."
**AN: Okay I had to interrupt this because there's an important note I have to make. It seems to me that a lot of Harry Potter fans are also Digimon fans (probably the other way around, though, hee hee). So I decided I was going to put some of my Harry Potter interest into this chapter. Gives me something to write about and makes things interesting. And of course I get to insert some HP stuff without having to write a ficcie about it! Although I probably will one of these days. So anyways… back to the fic.**
"Okay. Why don't we go tonight, to celebrate becoming eighth graders and the beginning of summer?"
Kari smiled. "That'd be great. How about if all of us go—Yolei, Ken, Davis, Cody, and whomever else wants to go."
"Sounds good to me. Why don't we go over to my place? My mom isn't going to be home for a while so we can just hang out until the movie starts."
"Okay." We walked in the direction of my apartment building. As we walked and chatted, we noticed the backs of two familiar heads. "Hey Yolei! Cody! Wait up!" Kari yelled, just as I had opened my mouth. That was weird. It was almost as if she read my mind.
The two of them turned around at Kari's beckon. "Hey, guys!" Yolei yelled back, and we walked briskly to catch up to them. "Hey, Kari and I were just thinking about going to see the new Harry Potter movie. You guys want to come?"
"Sure!" Yolei answered enthusiastically. "I'll probably have to ask my mom first, but I definitely want to."
"Cool." I turned to Cody. "What about you?"
"I don't think I can," Cody answered in his soft voice. "I promised Grandpa I'd practice Kendo with him today."
"Okay," Kari accepted, understandingly. "Maybe another day."
"Maybe." A small trace of a smile emerged on Cody's face.
After Yolei and Cody went their separate ways, Kari and I crashed on the couch before we did anything else. "School gets so tiring for me," I told her. "There's basketball practice, and homework, and boring lectures, and then having to deal with Davis." The last statement was more of a joke; Davis and I had long before become friends, after he grew up a little. He still gets my name wrong, but it's just a running joke between the two of us and it never fails to bring me a laugh.
"Hey! Davis isn't all that bad!" Kari exclaimed, before realizing it was a joke and swatting at me. "T.K.!"
"Proves my point exactly. School tires you out."
"Yeah, I guess." She lazily leaned her head on my shoulder and this weird feeling came over me. Kari and I were very comfortable around each other—we were best friends (and still are). But that day, something came over me, something new, something different… and I felt really weird with Kari's head leaning on my shoulder. I didn't mind it—quite the opposite, in fact—but it was still weird.
"Hey, Kar?" I asked. "Are we going to call everyone up now? We should, and then see what time we should go."
"Okay… you get the times, I'll call everyone."
"Okay." I went to the computer and turned it on, as Kari picked up the cordless phone. Right before she was about to turn it on and dial, it rang in her hand. She jumped a bit at the loud noise before answering. "Hello, Takaishi residence."
I smiled to myself as I listened to the ensuing conversation. "Oh, hey, Yolei! What's up?... Okay! Okay, that's great! I'll just tell everyone to meet there. What? Oh… I don't know. T.K!" She called over to me, putting one hand over the phone, and I turned around. "What?"
"Do you know what times the screenings are yet?"
"Yeah… there's a 5:45 and a 7:30."
"Okay. We should probably go at 5:45, don't you think?"
I nodded. "Sounds good."
"Okay." She started talking to Yolei again. "The movie starts at 5:45. So… 5:15, at the latest, you think?...Okay, cool… Yeah?" She blushed for a moment before saying, "No, we're just friends, that's all. Best friends… Yes, I'm sure. I have to go call other people… Davis, Ken, and maybe some other people… Don't freak out, Yolei, it's just a group outing, not a date or anything. I'll talk to Ken if you really want me to, you know, hint some things at him. Okay? I'll see you later, Yolei. Bye." She hung up and sighed.
"That was interesting. Why'd you blush?"
Kari blushed again, not saying anything. "Come on, Kar, I'm not going to laugh at you."
"Okay. It's stupid, really. Yolei told me that when girls answer guys' phones, that means they're going out and so she asked me if I was your girlfriend."
"Oh." I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly feeling that weird feeling again. Kari… my girlfriend? The thought had never occurred to me before, but now that it had… different things were running through my mind. (AN: Nothing dirty, okay? They're only in junior high!) What would it be like if Kari and I went out? She was really pretty… and really nice, and really sweet, and the way that she laughed… Snap out of it, Takaishi, I told myself. She's your best friend.
"T.K.? Are you alright?" Kari's voice took me out of my thoughts.
"What? Oh, yeah… I'm fine." The tension was still hanging in the air, and so I decided to make it go away by changing the subject. "So, Yolei has a thing for Ken, huh? Maybe I'll help her out, you know, talk to him or something."
"Yeah… I was just telling her that so that she'd stop talking and that I could carry on with calling everyone else." We both laughed at this, knowing the kind of mouth our friend has. "Speaking of which… I'm going to see if Ken can come." As she dialed Ken's number, I watched her closely. That remark about her being my girlfriend… I just couldn't get it out of my head. It was almost as if it was changing the way I looked at Kari.
-Later: Inoue convenience store-
"Okay, guys, I'm ready to go!" Yolei yelled, throwing her apron off and into the air, just as Ken rushed through the door. "Sorry I'm late—" he began, but was cut off by an unidentified flying object landing on his head and covering his face.
"Oops," Yolei squeaked, turning a bright shade of red. She ran over and took the apron off of Ken's head. "Sorry… I got excited about leaving work."
"It's okay," Ken replied, his face turning the slightest shade of pink. "Oh, and I hope you don't mind that I brought my cousins with me. They're staying here for the summer and I thought that this would be good for them." He gestured to the two teens, about our age, sitting on the bench in the corner. "This is Lily," he introduced, as the girl with long indigo hair stood and joined our group, "and that's her twin James." (AN: Couldn't help it, sorry!) "Lily, James, this is Davis, Yolei, Kari, and T.K."
"Hey," I said to both of them.
"Hi," Lily said shyly.
"What's up?" James addressed. Obviously he was the more extroverted of the two.
Kari glanced at her watch. "Well, we better go. The movie's gonna start soon." So we set off, walking in little groups: Davis, Lily, and Yolei were chatting loudly (actually, it was just Davis and Yolei, with poor Lily stuck in the middle), and Kari had struck up a conversation with James. This left me to walk with Ken, and so I began, "Hey, Ken, where are your cousins from?"
"They're from where I used to live." I nodded. "Ah." We walked in silence again, until I asked him, "Hey… what do you think of Yolei?"
Ken blushed a bit. "Um… she's nice," he managed to get out.
"That's it?"
"Well… okay, I like her a lot. She's the total opposite of me—brazen, outspoken, rash—but that's exactly what attracts me to her. She's also very loyal, and I need that in a girl. Wormmon's loyalty to me was the only reason why I'm here right now and not causing havoc in the Digital World." His eyes were downcast, sadly.
"Ken, you can't keep blaming yourself for that. You know that's not your fault."
"I know… but I mean, I still feel guilty for it," Ken admitted. "I can't help it."
"Well, let's get your mind off of it then. Your cousins are going to be staying for the whole summer, right?"
"Yeah." He eyed James, who was now laughing with Kari. I looked at them, too, somewhat longingly. Ken picked up on this, I think, because he asked me, "So what's with you and Kari?"
"What makes you think there's something going on between Kari and me?" I replied slowly, thinking out a good retort before I actually said anything.
"The way you're looking at her now… the way she was calling from your house earlier… I don't know, it seems there's something there for her."
"Of course there is—she's my best friend."
Ken nodded. "Whatever you say, T.K."
I was about to ask him what he implied with that, but we had reached the movie theater and a formidable line. "Ooh, we better hurry if we want to make it in on time." Luckily, we got the last tickets before the show sold out. We ran to the refreshments stand and bought popcorn, Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids, chocolate bars, sodas, nachos, the whole enchilada (no pun intended). With all the stuff we had, it was a struggle to find seats in the movie theater, much less ones that were all together. Finally, we found some in the second to last row and the row in front of that. Lily, Davis, and James sat in the front while Ken, Yolei, Kari, and I sat in the back. I couldn't wait for the movie to begin—I'd been anticipating it for a while. So I settled in and took a bite out of my popcorn as the movie started.
The movie was great. I hadn't read the books (although Kari had tried to force me on more than one occasion), so everything was a complete surprise. It was great how the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone (AN: I hear that the original title of the first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but that they changed it to Sorcerer's Stone to make it sound better to us Americans. So I figured that it would be called Philosopher's Stone in Japan, which is why I put that in here. Okay back to the story) played out. I totally didn't expect the ending. But Kari, who had read the books and knew what to expect, did, and still, she jumped at the loud parts and clung to my arm for the scary parts. "I don't like that face," she said, referring to Voldemort, as she buried her face into my arm. "He's scary looking."
"Kar, it's just a movie."
"I know. It's still a creepy face and I'd rather not look," she retorted. I didn't object at all. It felt kind of nice to have a pretty girl hanging on to me.
When the movie ended, I didn't realize that it was already 7:00. "Wow, the time just flew by," Lily said. "That's a great movie."
"Hey, did you know that you and James have the names of Harry's parents?" Kari asked.
"Yeah… it's kinda weird when you think about it, because Harry Potter didn't exist when we were born," James replied.
We all nodded as we began walking . "I think they did a really great job of casting Harry and Hermione," I stated, pronouncing the girl's name as "her-my-own."
"It's Hermione," Kari corrected me, pronouncing it "her-my-knee." (Which, by the way, is the correct way, for those of you who were wondering.)
"Are you sure? I thought it was 'her-my-own,'" I told her.
"Didn't you hear the way they said her name in the movie? It's 'her-my-knee," Kari insisted.
"Oh. Well I like the other way better," I firmly stated.
"Why?" Kari had a puzzled expression on her face.
"'Cause… well, if I were Harry, and I asked Hermione out, and she said yeah, then I'd be able to call her 'Mione for short, 'cause then I could call her my own. Get it?" (AN: H/Hr always! Sorry I'm a Harry and Hermione shipper. =D)
"Awww… T.K., that is so sweet," Kari said, slipping her arm around my waist. "Any girl would be lucky to have you as her boyfriend." She leaned her head on my shoulder as I put my arm around her. "Thanks," I whispered to her. Any girl would be lucky to have you as her boyfriend… Kari's words echoed in my mind. If that was so… why couldn't I imagine going out with anyone besides my best friend?
"Ahem." I heard Ken clear his throat behind me and I turned and looked at him. "Nothing, you say?" he asked. Kari looked up at me with a confused look on her face, but I told her it was nothing to worry about. Then I turned back to Ken. "No, nothing."
The summer went on, and soon it was the middle of July—very hot and muggy. I was bored sitting around and playing PlayStation; you can only play Final Fantasy IX so many times. Movies were overdone too. I needed to do something different.
Situating myself in front of my electric fan, I tried to think of what I could do. Before I came up with any interesting ideas, the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hey, T.K."
I smiled as I recognized the voice on the other end. "Hey, Kari. What's up?"
"You wanna go to the beach today?"
My spirits lifted. This was exactly what I needed! "Yeah, sure! Who's coming?"
"Oh, the usual. Plus my brother and Sora, and maybe Mimi, if she doesn't sleep the whole day. I think they're bringing Matt though. Not sure."
"Sweet." It'd be great to catch up with my brother. I didn't get much contact with him in those days.
"We're meeting at my place in about an hour and a half. Tai's driving. Sora might drive us too, if there's not enough room in Tai's car. That's probably what's going to happen. I'm about to call Ken and see if his cousins want to come with us."
"Okay. I'll see you in a few, okay? I have to go get ready."
"See you in a few, T.K. Later."
"Bye, Kari."
I got to Kari and Tai's place in no time, after I had packed all my essentials. Sora, Matt, Davis, Tai and Kari were already there. "Hey, T.K.!" Matt was the first to greet me.
"Hey, Matt!" We embraced in a brotherly hug and then Matt looked me over. "Geez, you're getting so tall! What the heck?"
"He's not on basketball for any special reason," Davis commented sarcastically.
"Thanks for your faith in me, Davis," I retorted, going along with the joke. "So, Matt, how are things going?"
"They're going great. I'm just starting to get a band together, and we might perform somewhere one of these days. When I find out I'll let you know."
"That's great. What about the ol' love life?"
Matt laughed. "What love life?"
I gasped in feigned shock. "Matt Ishida, the babe magnet, with no love life?"
My brother shrugged. "My Sora phase is done. Besides, she likes Tai better than me. Not that I mind, really—she's more like a sister to me."
"No situations or checking out girls or anything?" I repeated, still in disbelief.
"No. I'm hoping to change that once we get to the beach, though." Matt grinned, and I grinned back. The day was going to be awesome.
You know what to do! Give me another reason to be thankful on Thursday!