AN: Thanks for the reviews everyone!! Much appreciated, as always ;) As for an explanation to Tai's behavior…honestly, I don't have one and none is really given in the story. The best I can tell you is that sometimes things change for the worst and of course, as always, we can blame it on the ever popular "hormones" excuse ;) I finally finished the story and I want to get the whole thing posted by tonight so my introductions might be choppy and the editing might be crappy, but at least it will all be posted :)

Quickly now

Chapter 8!

"…the due date for that is the 14 so please have your work ready by then…" Ms. Yoshido droned on. Sora's head slipped on the hand that propped it up as she drifted slowly into sleep. She struggled to keep her eyes opened as the Emerging Writers Club continued monotonously. She sat by herself in the back of the class, praying for the meeting to end but she was out of luck. Ms.Yoshido continued droning for a few more minutes before the door opened quietly and a blue haired boy peered in.

He waved at Ms.Yoshido and quickly took an empty seat towards the front of the classroom. Sora's head jerked up a bit. James? The Emerging Writer's Club had started the first week of school and in the four months since then, James hadn't been at a single meeting or expressed any interest in the club…so what was he doing here now?

He sat as quietly as she did throughout the meeting and seemed just as happy when it ended. Sora stayed after for a few minutes to apologize to Ms.Yoshido for not entering the last contest, explaining that she had been too busy to get any writing done. Ms. Yoshido understood, but Sora's apology had left her with only two minutes to get her stuff and make it up three flights of stairs. She gathered up her books quickly and trotted up the first two flights of stairs.

"Hey," James smiled, stopping her as she rounded the corner to her last flight of stairs. Sora dropped the books she was carrying with a squeak of surprise and hurried to pick them up again. James stifled his laughter and bent down to help her.

"You know, I was only in that club today because I was looking for you," he said as he stood up and handed her her literature book.

Sora blushed, gripping her books tightly again and speed walking up the stairs, still conscious that they would probably both be late for history, "Oh? Did you need something?"

 "I needed to ask you something," he admitted as he strained to meet her pace.

"Oh.." Sora said again, blushing even harder, "What was that?"

"Well, I'll ask you after class," he decided, realizing they were almost at their room.

They reached the room just in time to settle in for an hour and a half of Mr.Kaoto's monotonous history lecturing. Surprisingly, Mr.Kaoto had decided to play a movie today instead. Sora pulled out a notebook and started jotting down some notes on the video, suspecting an inevitable quiz. As the video turned to the conquer of Constantinople, Sora turned to James, who's eyes were locked on her. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked back to the movie.

She spent the rest of the class trying to check if James was still staring, and sure enough, every time she looked, he was. She neglected her notes, trying to imagine what he needed to ask her. Maybe he wanted help with history? No…Sora wasn't the one to ask for that. Maybe he was interested in writing? That was doubtful. A thousand scenarios played out before her but one terrible, foreboding one hung in the back of her mind.

There was a dance. Homecoming dance, to be precise. It was at least three weeks away but the students had already started talking about it (which, Sora found quite stupid…though she had been planning on asking Tai to that dance since the beginning of the year). Some part of her realized that the most sensible explanation was that James wanted to ask her to that dance and was going to after this class…but another part of her refused to believe it, knowing the kind of trouble it would cause.

Weather she believed it or not, that was what was going to happen. He approached her after class, just as promised. "What was it you needed?" She asked nervously, praying he needed find out what the math homework was.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"  he asked strangely, loosing some of his trademark James-cool.

She blushed fiercely and in the heat of the moment, all she could come up with was the truth. "No," she admitted and then wanted to slap herself.

"So do you want to go…I mean, like, would you go to the homecoming dance with me?" he asked.

Dammit! Sora cursed mentally, she had set herself up for that one. Exactly what she didn't want to happen had happened. She had dug herself in a hole she couldn't get out of. She didn't want to hurt James feelings but she had been secretly hoping to take Taichi to her homecoming dance and going with James, even if Taichi didn't know about it, would seem like she was…betraying him somehow.

She looked desperately for an excuse and finally spit out, "I'm really sorry James, but I promised my friend I would go with him…so he could see the school…Thanks for the offer though." She added a phony affectionate smile and hoped he would buy it. James was one of the only two people who talked to her in the entire school and she'd rather not have him angry at her.

Thankfully, any awkwardness was eliminated by Meichico who came speeding up to Sora, "Hey Sora! We're going to be late for trig!"

"Sorry James and thanks again!" Sora called back as Meichi pulled away. For the first time in a long time, Sora wanted to give her hyper active roommate a big hug.

By her return to her dorm, Sora was beginning to think James asking her to homecoming wasn't such a bad thing after all. She had gotten out of it easily enough and hopefully spared his feelings but best of all, now she had an excuse to ask Tai to the dance.

She had it all planned out. She would start with the story, explaining her predicament. Before he would have a chance to answer she would spring into the "…I know you hate things like this…and I can totally understand if you don't want to go…but…I mean, I would really appreciate it…"

It was flawless, there was no way Tai could resist, despite his loathing of social events. It was a loathing they had always shared, or at least, said they shared. True, Sora hated social events as much as the next tomboy but she well, far from hated Taichi and ever since she met him she'd turned into more of a romantic then she cared to admit.

She dazed off and pictured Tai and her at the dance. They would be laughing and talking until she reminded him that they needed James to think they were a "couple". She would suggest they dance and he would place his hands awkwardly around her waist. Her arms would lace around his neck and they would start to slowly rock back and forth. The music would stop, but they would continue. Somehow or another, his lips would meet hers. He wouldn't have to say anything…they would just know. She sighed like a love sick girl at the thought.

As much as she had come to treasure Matt's friendship since she started at TAGAT, she still didn't trust him completely. It wasn't that Matt was a bad person or that he given her any reason to doubt him…she simply didn't trust anyone, that is, except for Taichi…and she was just starting to trust him. She decided that if Matt asked about homecoming (she had mentioned it before and was pretty sure he would), she would tell him the same story she was telling Tai. That way, even if he wanted to tell Tai the truth, he couldn't.

 Matt called later that evening and sure enough, he asked about homecoming. Sora told him her (slightly modified) story but quickly changed the subject. Matt however, wouldn't let it drop.

"You know Sora," he said, "I could always go with you, after all, I'd like to meet some of the cute guys at your school."

Sora was quite surprised, the thought that Matt might offer to go hadn't even occurred to her. "Uh…no that's okay Matt.." she tried to convince him, "I wouldn't want you to have to go through that."

"No! No!" he insisted, "After all, what are friends for?"

"No, Matt really I-," she paused a second, realizing she was about to let it slip that she really wanted Tai to go with her. A secret that would not only risk Tai finding out, but also Matt getting hurt. "I wouldn't want to impose.." she finished weakly, knowing she was defeated. She knew how bad Matt wanted a boyfriend, he wasn't going to pass up the chance to miss a bunch of new candidates.

"Nonsense," he said, confirming her suspicion, "I'll go and that's that."

"Thanks," she said dryly, sufficiently pissed off. It was the second time that day that she had to lie to protect a friend's feeling and the second time to let her dream of a romantic night with Taichi slowly fade away.