Chapter 7
"How do know my name?" Yolei asked the blond stranger.
"We've met before. It's all right if you don't remember me, and you have a name tag that shows your name."
"I'm sorry, we've met before?" She placed the notepad and the pen on the table, she hadn't the slightest idea of who this person might be.
"I'm Willis. I helped you and your friends' get to Colorado a few years ago."
"Willis what are you doing here ?" Yolei sat on the chair across from him, not knowing Ken was staring at them, a glint of hate was in his eyes as Willis spoke to Yolei.
"I came here to eat."
"Oh right" Yolei replied nervously, suddenly remembering that she was still working and why he had come to the restaurant. . "I'm sorry about that." Yolei grabbed for the notepad.
"That's okay." Willis grabbing the notepad away from her reach. "I'll do it." He began to write his order.
"Are you done yet." Yolei asked attempting to grab the notepad. He pulled it further away from her.
He gave the notepad to her. "Now go get me my food." He teased
Yolei smiled as she walked into the kitchen. She passed the order to Matt.
"Messy handwriting." He said looking at the bunch of scribbles that made up a word.
"It's not my writing." She told him.
"Does this say hamburger?" Matt asked.
"I don't know." Yolei laughed , looking closely at the writing. "Let's just say it does."
"Okay, works for me." Matt said. "Take these out, they're in my way." He pointed to four plates, each containing a salad prepared a different way. This order belonged to Lily and her friends. She grabbed two of the plates and walked back out of the kitchen.
Yolei placed the plates in front of Kali and Miki. "Thanks." Miki said quietly. Kali and Lily both shot looks in her direction. "Where is mine and Lily's ?" Justine asked.
"It's coming." Yolei replied. Lily smirked.
Yolei returned to the kitchen to get the other plates. " I hate her." Yolei muttered as she picked up the two plates.
Matt looked up. "Did you say something?"
Yolei shook her head as she carried the two plates out of the kitchen. She placed the plates in front of Justine and Lily.
"Thank you." Justine said rudely, showing she hadn't meant what she said.
Yolei remembered Ken told her to take the break, she walked over to him.
"What are you doing." He asked stapling a cheque and receipt together.
"Taking my break." Yolei leaned against the wall.
"Lily and her friends giving you a hard time?"
"Sort of." She looked back over at the table.
"Just ignore her." Ken told her. "Eventually they'll get bored and leave you alone."
Yolei nodded, although ignoring her was harder than Ken thought. Yolei's break was cut short by Matt who called her into the kitchen to get the order for Willis.
"It's over there." He pointed to the plate of food.
If Yolei had one wish, it would be to end that night right then and there, but it was impossible. She took the plate of food and took it to Willis.
"Do you have ketchup?" Willis asked when the plate was placed in front of him. Yolei left again and returned with the bottle of ketchup he had requested.
"How about mustard ?" He laughed at the annoyed look on her face when he asked for two more condiments after that, but Yolei got the last laugh when Willis accidentally spilled the relish on his white shirt.
Eventually Lily and her friends had finished their salads and left the restaurant. Yolei felt a hint of jealousy when Lily had attempted to flirt with Ken at the cash register, but Ken brushed her off and Lily left insulted and angry.
That was one less person to bug Yolei, but there was still Willis, who had refilled his drink almost five times and was loitering around. The clock's hands pointed out that it was nine o' clock, which was closing time.
"We're closing up Willis." Willis looked up as Yolei spoke. "You don't have to go home, but you have to get out here. "
"I could set up camp y'know and stay the night here." He smiled as she collected the dirty plate off his table.
"Come on, you have to go." Yolei said.
"I'm going, I'm going."
They both walked over to the register, Yolei smiled at the assortment of smiley faces he had scribbled on the cheque.
He passed her the correct amount of money. "Thanks."
Yolei noticed that Ken had already started to put up chairs, something she didn't like to do after accidentally dropping one on her toe. So she picked up the broom that was resting against the wall and started to sweep the floor.
"So who was he?" Ken asked, Yolei hadn't picked up the hint of jealousy in his voice.
"Who?" Yolei asked.
"The blond one, he knew you, didn't he?" That time Yolei had picked up the jealousy that was dripping of his words.
"Are you talking about Willis. He was the one who helped us to get Colorado, a few years ago. He must be in Japan for-" She stopped talking there. Why was Willis in Japan? "some reason."
"I don't remember this." He said as the chair he was putting up dropped with a loud 'thud ' as it dropped to the table.
"You were still the Digimon Emperor." Yolei said quietly. The only noise in the room was the broom brushing across the floor.
Ken had gone silent, apparently he had been trying hard to erase that from his memory. The next few minutes went by without any words, the silence was making Yolei nervous.
"Well," Ken said, looking around the restaurant. "I think we're done here for the night. Come on, I'll walk you home."
They both grabbed their own belongings, locked the doors and then left the restaurant.
"You don't like him, do you?" Ken asked her.
"No, of course not, I like you, Ken. Not Willis." Yolei said, trying to assure him there was nothing to be jealous about. She didn't like Willis, but Ken was stubborn and hard to convince.
Ken looked up at the many lights coming from Yolei's apartment building, then turned to her. "Yolei, can you promise me something?"
"Anything, what is it?"
"That you won't let Willis to close, that you won't let him come in between us."
Yolei thought for a minute, she felt like saying the same thing about Lily, but she didn't.
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before entering her apartment building.
"Promise."
Yolei walked into her Geography classroom a few minutes early, it was the last class of the day. She took the empty seat at the back of the room beside Kari. "Did you get what we needed for our project?" Kari asked. They had been assigned to do a project on another country, they were allowed partners so naturally they chose to work together. They had chosen Canada.
"Yeah, I went on the Internet last night and found some more information about the Confederation."
"Great, I printed off some maps in the library and -" Kari stopped to dig a few maps out of her backpack. "This one is the world map, with Canada highlighted. Another one with the four original provinces and this one has the railway track." The areas she mentioned had been colored with a bright pink highlighter.
They discussed their project further, until the geography teacher Mrs. Parker entered the room with an unfamiliar student behind her. Mrs. Parker took a seat at her own desk and sent the student to an empty desk.
"We have a new student, his name is Willis." The students looked around the room until they found the new and unfamiliar student. "Please get acquainted after class, as we have two presentations to get through today."
Kari looked over at Yolei. "What's he doing here, in Japan?" She whispered Yolei.
"I don't know but he came to the restaurant last night." Yolei whispered back.
A group of three people, two girls named Katie and Paige along with a boy named Jared went up to the front of the room to present their project on Mexico.
The girl named Katie started to read her notes. " The history of Mexico."
This was going to be a long class.
The dismissal bell rang and students rushed out of their classrooms.
"We should go see why Willis is in Japan." Kari said to Yolei when they exited the Geography classroom. "He is our friend, sort of. It would be rude not to at least say hi."
Yolei smiled at her friend. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you have a crush on him."
"Shut-up Yolei. I don't like him."
They walked further down the hall to Yolei's locker where she grabbed things out of it and stuffed them into her backpack. "When are we presenting our project?" Yolei asked Kari, but she never got an answer because Willis had walked over.
"Hi Yolei. Hey Kari, I haven't seen you in forever." Willis said.
"So what made you come to visit?" Kari asked. Yolei who had now closed her locker was listening too.
" My mom, she sent me to stay with my uncle and aunt for awhile, until September actually. My aunt chose this school because my cousin goes here, I had no idea you guys would be here too. Are Davis, TK and Cody here too?"
"Yeah, everyone except Cody, he starts here in September."
"Who's your cousin?" Yolei asked as she slung her heavy backpack over her shoulder.
"You might know her, her name's Lily."