Chapter 12:

When one is met with an unreasonable circumstance, one has two choices: (A) Think it through and discover why and how it is illogical or (B) panic. Choice (A) tends to have better results, but choice (B) can be more fun to watch. Choose to your preference.

The Little Teenaged Geek (not that he would know anything)

Kari groggily came to and opened her eyes…at least, she thought her eyes were open; it was impossible to tell because it was so pitch dark.

Everything seemed so strange…if this was a refugee camp, then shouldn't there be a lot of noise, even in the dead of night? And what happened, anyway? Why did she black out, and, if it was the middle of the night, shouldn't she be hungry?

She felt strangely warm and realized that she had on about twice the necessary amount of clothes. The denim dress she was wearing was too long for her, so she tried for about five minutes to take it off. During those five minutes, her mind wandered to find reasonable explanations for everything that was going on. Maybe there was just a power failure in the camp, and that's why there are no lights here. And there's no light coming from the sky because it's still raining. Kari could even hear the rain falling outside the tent. And she was wearing too many clothes because---well, the only thing that came to Kari's mind was that the soldier's morale was so low that their evil sergeant had given them permission to pull a prank on her and stuff her into a huge denim dress that had somehow gotten in the orders along with the rest of what TTC was shipping.

"Hello?" Kari yelled. "Anybody?"

There was a grunt beside her. "What is it?" a boy's voice answered. It was apparent from his tone that he had also just woken up. The voice sounded familiar, but Kari couldn't place it.

"Uh…would you happen to know where the emergency flashlights are?"

"No, I don't. But---hey, how come I'm wearing a suit that's too big for me on top of a t-shirt and shorts?"

"My guess is the soldiers pulled a prank on us and put these clothes on us."

"Sounds right," he answered.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Tai. Why do you ask?"

"---well, it's a weird coincidence that I have a brother named Tai."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

There was a short pause while Tai took off the sport jacket and suit pants that the army had so rudely put on him. "Man, isn't there any light in here?"

"None that I can see."

There was a low noise coming from behind them, like a movie running is slow-motion. "What was that?" Kari asked.

After a moment, there was a loud shuffling noise. "Hello?"

"Gatomon, is that you?" Kari asked.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Good to hear your voice, Gatomon," Tai answered.

"Hang on, you know Gatomon?"

"Yeah, she's my sister's partner digimon."

"Gatomon is my digimon; there's no way that you're my brother! He's more than forty years old!"

"Last I checked I was over forty years old! And I don't think you can be my sister Kari; she was edging on forty, herself!"

"Hey, easy on the age-calling!"

"Oh, come on! You're not Kari, and she was edging on forty!"

Gatomon spat, "Knock it off, both of you!" She began murmuring to herself, "Now, how on Earth does this thing work? Where's the switch?"

"What've you got?"

"I have a flashlight, but I can't find the switch on it to turn it on."

"Maybe it's one of those flashlights you twist to turn on," Tai suggested.

"I'll try that."

Kari and Tai were blinded as the light glared in their eyes. When their eyes adjusted, they saw Gatomon. She was wearing a wet, pastel-pink poncho whose hood obscured most of her face, but they could tell that she was looking at them with her mouth wide open. They looked at each other, and they saw why Gatomon was so surprised…

Tina was in that state between asleep and awake that comes just before one wakes up in the morning. She was getting closer and closer to consciousness, and a few cognitive thoughts were entering her head. One of these thoughts was about how disgusted she was that her hair hadn't grown back yet. Her hair was long, silky, jet-black, and beautiful. When she had won her medal, she felt that it had been worth it to shave it off. But now, since it looked as though she was going to lose her medal to a debate in the Olympic Committee, it didn't seem to worth her while to have shaved her hair off. And her hair was so slow in growing back; she still had only stubble at this point.

Finally, she decided, Oh, I'd better get up, already! Her head felt a bit heavier than she had been used to, but that was probably because of the fact that she was so groggy from having just gotten up. She walked into the bathroom and switched on the light. She was blinded for the first few moments from the sudden light, but her eyes finally adjusted. She looked up at the mirror, and was in for a shock: overnight, her hair had grown back completely. Her mouth dropped open. She had no clue why her hair would grow back so quickly. She was completely confused. She was grateful for an actually good surprise, and began brushing her hair immediately.

She changed out of her pajamas and into her normal clothes, and sat down at the breakfast table. Hawkmon was in the kitchen, making breakfast.

"Tina, I hope you don't mind waiting. Somehow, I got up after you did, and I'm a bit slow this morning."

"It's okay, Hawkmon---say, shouldn't it be light out by now? It's summer, and it's 7:30, so shouldn't the sun be up?"

"Yes, that is strange. But I---" Hawkmon's sentence trailed off as she saw that Tina was looking at her with her mouth wide open. "What is it, Tina?"

"Hawkmon, your feather!"

"Which one?"

"The big one on top of your head!"

Hawkmon looked at her reflection in the spoon she was holding. Instead of the single feather standing up on the back of her head like a Native American, she had a long crest on her head, like a cockatoo. "Your hair is no stranger! Isn't it a few months early in growing back?"

Tina put her face in her hands. "All right, enough weird stuff for one day, already!"

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the doorbell rang. "Huh? Who would that be at this time of the morning?" Hawkmon asked.

"Oh, I'll get it," Tina murmured. Tina found out suddenly that she hadn't had enough weird stuff happen to her in one day (and it was only 7:30 in the morning!)…