Back In The Day
Treasure Hunting & Getting Ready For First Day
Unknown friend of DF103's: Um, due to the fact that DF103 is going through some "hard times," she has asked me to type and post this chapter for her, and no, her computer isn't broken. It's personal stuff, you know, stuff I'm not allowed to say. What I can say, though, is that I didn't even know about the situation till she finally answered my phone call. So, enough of that. Few notes before you can actually read the fic. The tamers are 18 and are seniors in high school. Also, note that there will be MAJOR out-of-character-ness, during the tamers time in Pre-K, and that the Pre-K portion is in italics. And of course, DF103 does not own Digimon.
Kazu and Kenta stuck their heads out of the closet and looked at Rika, under the desk.
"Let's see what we've got here," Rika said, crawling out from under the desk, bumping her head in the process. "Ow."
Ryo walked over to her and patted her on the head.
"Be careful. You need your noggin," Ryo said, smiling.
"Oh, shut up," Rika said, unfolding the piece of paper.
The rest gathered around Rika, looking to see if it really was the map.
"What the heck is this?" Rika asked, rotating the piece of paper, looking for the right way to look at it. "It's just scribbles."
"Here, let me see," Takato said, snatching the paper. "Since I made it, I should at least be able to figure it out."
Few minutes past before the tamers got bored and decided they should leave.
"WAIT! I FIGURED IT OUT!" Takato yelled, as everyone came storming back into the room. "See, these are the trees and that's the shack, I think," Takato explained, pointing to each thing on the piece of paper, "It's near the hideout at the park."
"The hideout? Hmm, I find that interesting how the capsule is buried somewhere near the shack," Henry said.
"How's that interesting? Everything is always near the hideout," Kazu said, with his hands, placed on the back of his head.
"Exactly, everything is always near the shack. I just find it interesting that we've known about the shack since we were little kids," Henry explained.
"Hahah, I guess so, now that I think about it," Kenta said.
"Enough talk. Let's go dig up our childhood memories," Ryo said, walking out the door.
The rest of the gang followed as they made their way to the park, with shovels in their hands. They all got in the general vicinity of the capsule, and started digging, except Takato. Takato glanced at the map every once in a while, trying to find the exact place where the buried box is.
For hours, they have searched. For hours, they've been yelled at for digging on public grounds, and with many people passing by, it made their job harder, until…
"I hit something hard!" Jeri squealed, starting to use her hands to dig it up.
The rest of the tamers dropped their shovels and walked over to where Jeri had found the box. They pitched in and helped Jeri dig it up. When they finally managed to get the large box out, the moment of truth came when they opened it. The opened box revealed many drawings, paintings, old Valentine's day cards, small crafts, photographs, and book bags. In one of the bags, there was an old, worn teddy bear.
"Who's bag is that?" Kenta asked.
"Well, it's probably Jeri's because, 1) she would actually keep such a thing, and 2) she's really the only girl here," Kazu said, trying to put his logical senses to work.
"I'm a girl!" Rika yelled out.
"Yeah, sure. A manly girl," Kazu said, bursting out into laughter.
Rika started to clench fist, as she tried to fight the urge to hurt Kazu.
"Um, Kazu…" Kenta said, discreetly pointing to Rika's angry form.
"Uh," Kazu managed to get, slowly backing away from her.
"Just apologize, Kazu," Henry said, wondering how many times he's had to tell Kazu that over the years.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. It was a bad joke, a very bad joke," Kazu said, falling to his knees, "JUST DON'T HURT ME!"
"You better by sorry," Rika said, narrowing her eyes.
While all this went on, Jeri picked up the little bag and took out the bear.
"And, besides, Kazu, this isn't mine," Jeri said, looking at it.
"Of course it's not yours. It's mine," Rika muttered, under her breath.
"Well, who's is it, then?" Kenta asked.
"You're missing the obvious answer," Henry said, sweat-dropping.
Everyone, but Henry, turned to Rika, with a surprised look on their faces.
"What? Don't look at me like that," Rika said, backing away, "sure it's mine, so what?"
"I can never imagine Rika with this," Jeri said, holding up the teddy bear, and smiling.
"Yeah, yeah," Rika said, approaching the group.
The gang took the box into the shack and started to look through everything. Viewing all these made them relive Pre-K again, as memories came back to life.
- - -
"But, mommy. I don't want to go to pweschool," four year old Henry said, hugging the leg of his mother.
"Don't you want to make new friends?" Henry's mom said, picking him up.
Henry just shook his head and rested his head on his mom's shoulder. His mother sighed. Just then, Henry's older brother and sister came into the room, with their book bags on their backs.
"What's wrong with Henry?" Henry's sister asked, taking a sip of her orange juice.
"He doesn't want to go to preschool," his mother replied, sighing.
"You don't? Preschool is fun! The best part of it is, you get to have snack time and nap time," his brother said, patting him on the head. "Now that's a deal, you won't wanna miss."
Henry's face lightened up. His mom was smiling at his eldest son, as Henry jumped off and grabbed his book bag.
"Come on, mommy, we're gonna be late," Henry said, tugging on his mom's arm.
"Thanks for the encouragement," his mom whispered to her son, before being dragged out the door.
"No problem, mom!" he yelled.
Meanwhile, Rika's mom and her grandmother had the same dilemma, one much worse than the Wong residents.
"Rika, honey, you have to get ready for your first day of Pre-K," Rumiko said, knocking on the door, of Rika's room.
Rika's grandmother, Seiko, sat in a chair, giving up on trying to get her granddaughter out of her room, knowing that she was equally as stubborn as her own daughter.
"No, I don't want to 'specially in this dumb dress!" the little voice wailed.
"Watch your mouth, Rika," Rumiko said, from the other side of the door, then turned to her husband, who she divorced a few months earlier, "See she won't come out. I know she hasn't seen you in a while, but maybe you can get her out."
A loud grunt was heard from the room. Rika's dad, then told Rumiko to move to the side, to see what he could do to get her out of her room. He held something in his hand. Knocking on the door, Rika's dad made his attempt on getting her out.
"Rika? I have something for you," he said.
The door knob slowly turned, as Rika's parents moved out of the way. A curious eye peeped through the crack of the door. "Daddy?"
"Come on, Rika. Let's see that pretty face of yours," Rika's dad said, giving a reassuring smile.
The door widened, as it revealed four year old, Rika Nonaka, with her auburn hair in little pigtails and in a little dress.
"That's my girl," Rika's father said, walking up to her, "now here's what I wanted to give you."
Rika's dad handed her a brown teddy bear. Rika gasped and hugged the bear.
"Thank you, daddy!" Rika said, running up to him to hug him, with her dad kneeling to greet the hug.
Rumiko stood there and watched the happy moment between the two.
"Rika, I just wanted to let you know how much you mean to me. If, for whatever reason, I am gone, just remember that I will always be in your heart," Rika's dad started, guiding her hand to her chest, "I know I haven't been here all the time, like I should've been, but I'm always with you."
"I love you, daddy," little Rika said, giving him another hug.
"I love you, too," he replied, returning the hug.
"Okay, I hate to break it to you, but it's time for school," Rumiko said.
"Mommy, can daddy take me to school, too?" Rika asked, dragging her little back pack, and holding her teddy bear, in her tiny arm.
"Well, I don't know," Rumiko said, looking at her.
"Please." Rika had that sad puppy face look on her face.
"Okay, sure."
"Yay! Come on, daddy. Come on, mommy. We're gonna be late."
Simultaneously, Kenta, Kazu, and their parents were walking down the road, on the way to the preschool. Kenta and Kazu clutched onto their respected parents' hands so that they wouldn't get lost. They babbled while walking.
"I'm gonna make more friends than you, Kenta," Kazu said, sticking his tongue out at Kenta.
"Nuh-uh, I'm gonna make more than you," Kenta said.
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh."
"Look, isn't that little Ryo?" Kenta's mom said, pointing ahead of them to the father and son figure.
"Where?" Kenta asked, looking around. "I can't see him."
"Here, let me get their attention," Kazu dad said, "hey, Akiyama, wait up."
Mr. Akiyama turned around, smiled and waved. Ryo looked up at his dad and traced the contact he was making. Ryo turned around and saw Kazu and Kenta. His face lit up, as he waved. The two of them turned around and walked towards Kazu, Kenta, their parents.
"How've you been?" Kazu's father asked, "and where's that wife of yours?"
"Well, the two of us are doing fine. My wife is out of town," Mr. Akiyama said, holding on to Ryo's tiny hand.
"Hello Ryo!" Kazu said.
"Hello Kazu."
"Guess where we are going," Kenta asked.
"Where?"
"Preschool," Kazu said, proudly.
"Me too!" Ryo yelled out.
"Yay, we get to go to preschool together," Kenta said.
They all continued chatting, on their way to the school again, as they passed the nearby bakery.
In the bakery, Takato was ready for school and everything, but it was his mom, who kept him back.
"Takato, is that a stain on your new shirt!" his mom asked, grabbing a bottle of club soda to try and remove the stain.
"Mommy, I'm gonna be late," Takato said.
"It doesn't matter at this preschool place. You can be an hour late and still get to do your activities for the day," his mom explained.
"Actually, we have to be there in 10 minutes, or they'll close the gates," Takato's dad said, looking at his watch.
"Oh great," she said, finally getting the stain out of Takato's shirt, then standing up, "well, at least you look decent."
"De-cent?" Takato asked, wondering what that meant.
"I'll tell you later," his father whispered.
"Oh, Takato, you gotta have your hair nicely combed," his mother said, grabbing a comb.
Takato let out a sigh as his mother fixed his hair.
"Hahah! Some things obviously hasn't changed, now has it, Takato?" Kazu said, rolling on the ground, laughing.
"Yeah, whatever," Takato said.
Of course, knowing Jeri, she was already at the school, with her dad. She sat on the bench, outside of the school. Her legs dangled from the bench, as she kicked her small book bag that was on the ground.
"I guess we got here early enough, huh?" Jeri's dad said.
Jeri nodded, quietly sitting there.
Unknown friend of DF103's: Well, that's all she gave me. She left a few little side notes on the last page, too, so I guess I'll just type 'em out for you. First of all, she apologizes to everyone who reads LRIFR&R (especially to Amber and Ashley) for not updating. She is suffering a severe case of writer's block. She also apologizes for this short chapter. Hopefully, she'll be back soon with another chapter because all this typing is making my hands hurt. How do you fanfiction writers type all the time? Well, you've been a wonderful audience, and please review for DF103, not me, DF103.