Dedication: To everyone who reviewed, I love you! A million thanks! ^______________________^

Chapter 6

"PICK UP TAI!" Sora yelled through the phone and, obviously, got no response. Irritated, she clicked the phone off and threw it onto the bed. "Stupid Tai," she grumbled, pacing around the narrow space beside her desk.

Two nights ago, a typhoon had hit the Kyushu region of Honshu, devastating the hometowns of many of the students at TAGAT, including Sora's. Thankfully, Ms.Takenouchi had left Miyazaki about a month ago to visit a relative in the US but Sora's friends weren't quite as lucky. Most of the phone lines were down and she was unable to contact any of them.

She did all her homework in the commons, eyes glued to the TV, awaiting any word on Miyazaki. Her stomach turned every time they showed pictures of the damage, wondering how her friends were doing. Thankfully, there were only nine reported deaths throughout all of Kyushu, which gave her some relief.  Still, she wished desperately she could hear from at least one of her friends and make sure everyone was all right.

However, she knew defeat when she saw it. She had called Taichi at least 20 times in the last hour and gotten no answer. I guess now…I wait, she thought sadly and continued picking at the lunch she had taken up from the cafeteria.

It was about fifteen minutes later when the phone rang. Needless to say, Sora jumped to pick it up.

"Hello?!" She answered anxiously.

"Uh, hey Sora," came the response.

"TAICHI!" she exclaimed in relief, "I was SO worried! I saw the storm on TV but I hadn't heard from any of you and I didn't know if…but it's okay now. How are you? Are you alright? How's Kari? Matt? TK? Joe? Izzy?"

Taichi smiled at his friends frantic concern, "Just fine. Electricity's out and the phones are down but nothing too serious; no one hurt."

She sighed gratefully, "Good."

"Yeah, and schools are off for the rest of the week…so well," he paused and let out a laugh, looking around the commotion filled bus stop, "Well, I'm on my way up there."

"What?" Sora laughed in excitement.

"Yeah, that's how I was able to call you. I'm taking the bus up to Tokyo. We're boarding more people at Fukuoka and I'm using the pay phone there. We should be reaching Tokyo in another couple of hours…I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not!" she squeaked, Taichi was coming to see her. Mimi was back in Miyazaki and Taichi was coming to Tokyo to see her. "I just…I'll have to skip Trig…but that doesn't matter…Tai, this'll be so great… do you know how to get to the school?"

 "No," Tai admitted, "but I've got money for a cab. What's your room number?"

"Well, I'm in the honors dorms, 247. But I'll try to make it to the front in time to greet you." She said, smiling so wide it hurt.

"Okay! I'll see you then Sora!" Tai said, smiling just as wide. He hung up the payphone he was calling from and paused. Sora was right, this was going to be great. With that thought, he boarded back onto the bus and prepared himself for the three-hour drive.

Sora hung up the phone with a thought of her own; this has to be perfect. She had to look perfect. She had to be perfect. She had to, or she stood no chance against Mimi. She looked sadly at her image in the mirror. Large black t-shirt, a pair of guys khaki cargos, and shoulder length straggly orange hair…She imagined Mimi, short mini skirt, pink tank top, and perfectly groomed golden locks. She sighed, yes, this was going to take a while.

About a half an hour later she emerged from the shower, freshly cleaned and smelling like vanilla body wash. The dorms were completely silent but for the faint squeaking of each floorboard she stepped on. She cringed with each squeak, the silence a reminder that everyone else was in class, like she should be.

Of course she felt guilty…but Tai was much more important then science or math. This would be the first time she'd seen him in months and might be the last time she saw him for quite a while. How could quantitative functions compare to that?

She dried off with the towel she had wrapped around herself and began her search for "the perfect outfit". She rummaged through her cabinets, pulling out the girliest clothes she could find and laying them out on her bed…she was left with a very limited selection.

In the end, she decided on a knee length black skirt with purple trim and matching tight purple blouse. They were her church clothes, by far the nicest things she owned, and she knew Taichi would be suspicious. That's why she had planned right away to apologize for her appearance and claim she had a speech today, which she was required to dress up for.

She looked in the mirror...and as much as she smoothed and straightened it never looked right. In the end, she simply had to accept the fact that she wasn't as pretty as Mimi or Meichico or any of those other girls…and no amount of stretching or straitening would change that.

Discouraged, she sadly slipped on a pair of black, knee high boots and looked herself over again. Jewelry, she decided, jewelry might help. Though it was a common fact that Sora never wore jewelry, she still owned some, mostly from relatives who didn't know her at all but sent her the occasional birthday gift. She kept it all in a wooden jewelry box her grandmother had given her before she passed away. She opened the box and sifted through until she finally found something.

It was a small silver necklace with a purple flower charm. The flower itself was very pretty but written in tiny bubble letters directly in the center was "Flowa Powa!"(she silently cursed Aunt Besty's taste in jewelry). Still, it was the only purple necklace in the whole box and chances were, Taichi wouldn't be able to see the tiny phrase written on it.

She quickly brushed and blow-dried her hair. She "borrowed" a few of Meichi's thousands of hair products and applied "liberally". By the time she was finished, even she couldn't deny her hair looked nice. She couldn't resist running her hand through it every other second. A bit more cheerful, she began putting back Meichi's hair products when she knocked over a large pink bag.

A large pink makeup bag. She stared guiltily at the spilled contents. Was she really going to abandon all her beliefs? All the times she had made fun of those other girls for wearing makeup? Was she really going to surrender herself to peer pressure, just for one boy? Yes. Yes she was… but desperate times called for extremely desperate measures.

And it wasn't like it was a lot. She rubbed some sparkly blueberry lipgloss onto her finger and then applied it lightly to her lips, brushed on a small amount of blush, and considered herself "made-up".

She had one final check over in the mirror but still wasn't satisfied. All that, she thought, as she looked herself over, her flaws seeming to multiply, for this? Well, she sighed, I guess this is as good as is it's going to get…but at least it's better then usual. At that she smiled lightly and took a deep breath, Alright then, here we go.

Author's notes: Hehe, yes, I know this chapter was pretty short and pretty frivolous but I felt it was necessary to the story and chapter 7 is going to be rather lengthy, so I figured I separate the two. See! Don't get mad! :D!! Also, the title of this chapter "A Telephone Call" is stolen from Dorothy Parker…not one of my favorite writers, but that short story is EXACTLY the emotions that will be portrayed a little further on in the story (and a lot in this chapter as well)

To Budgie- Great minds think alike my friend!! ^_^! I had been planning on sending Tai to Tokyo (mwhaha! The power of the author) after the typhoon and you're review gave me the encouragement to finally write that chapter ;)

To Kahlia- Of course you can have James! ^_- But I'm not quite done with him yet ;)

To everyone else- *Blushes gratefully* Thank you immensely! Honestly, on crappy days, your reviews are the only things that keep me from going completely insane! :)

Chapter 7:

Tai arrives at TAGAT, Taiora fluff ensues…but is everything all sunshine and flowers?

I would certainly think not ;)

Stay tuned! ^_^