Chapter 7: The Carnival

They pulled up to a school with a parking lot full of cars around it. "We have arrived." Jack declared. "Everyone get out." Jack told them as he got out, they followed and he led them around to the back of the school.

Behind the school there were tents, rides, games, it looked like someone had set up a small carnival. "I got high, you got mad, and we go to a carnival?" Izzy asked incredulously.

Jack didn't answer he just kept scanning the crowd as if he were searching for someone. Abruptly he stopped, "Steve," he yelled out, "Yo Steve Lewis! Over here man!"

A red haired 16 years old guy looked up from a table. He quickly finished his chilidog and walked over. "What do you need man?" he asked.

"This, my friends," Jack said clapping the teen on the shoulder, "is James Bernard. We all call him Steve though."

"Was there any real reason you decided to drag us up here, or were you just homesick?" Melissa asked snidely.

"Will you let me finish?" Jack growled with a glare. "You see, Steve here owes me a rather large favor." Jack explained, "And so he's going to show you guys around while I do what I came here to do." Jack left immediately leaving them with 'Steve.'

"So which one of you is he fucking?" Steve asked simply.

"Excuse me?" Melissa said shocked by the question and the casualty in asking it.

Steve looked away slightly embarrassed, "Okay I guess you're just normal friends." he said, "I really meant nothing with that, nothing at all."

"So why do you owe Jack a favor?" TK asked to change the subject.

Steve muttered something that sounded like, "I'mayingisister." They stared at him so he repeated himself, "I'm dating his sister."

Melissa raised an eyebrow, "How does that work into a favor?" she asked.

"You have no idea what an overprotective brother can do to a relationship." Both TK and Kari said simultaneously, they both knew first hand. Kari shot TK a glare for speaking at the same time she did.

Steve smiled; his eyes were on a ride that was stopping. "These are the rides, the food tents are over there, and those are the game tents." Steve hurriedly pointed out each place. "Now I have things to do. Don't come looking for me either, you don't want to walk in on those things." having said this he immediately hastened away, he was followed soon after by Melissa and Izzy who desired to check out the rides.

That left TK and Kari walking through the game tents. "You don't have to follow me around." Kari complained.

"I'm in front, so technically you're following me." TK pointed out, Kari rolled her eyes.

Unbeknownst to TK and Kari a clown was following them. Not Piedmon, this was a real clown. His name was Pete but in the business they called him 'Bobo.' He walked comically in front of the teens arguing in front of him, honked his nose, and rolled his eyes. The girl shrieked in terror and grabbed onto the guy next to her. Pete beat a hasty retreat; he hated when they screamed, all he wanted to do was make people laugh and forget their problems.

TK guided Kari away from the area and over to a pair of swings by a small playground. He sat her down on one of them and then sat beside her on the other, just like they had always done when they were kids.

Kari was still shaken up. Her teeth were chattering and she had a white knuckle grip on the swing's chain. Kari was terrified by clowns and had been since she was eight; it was her one big fear. Kari exhaled with her head down, "Gods, I'm such a wimp." She said to herself unaware of TK's proximity.

"No you're not." TK said putting an arm around her. "You watched a clown turn your brother and best friends into keychains. That's more than enough reason to be afraid."

Kari roughly pushed the boy away from her, "Don't act like we're still friends Takaishi." she spat. "I can barely stand being near you."

"You're lying." TK said, it was nearly a whisper but somehow she heard anyway. "I can see it in your eyes." he smiled, "Those beautiful crimson orbs of yours."

Kari rolled her eyes, those so called 'beautiful crimson orbs,' "You're seeing things." she told him.

Suddenly and silently TK stood up and turned to Kari. He put a pair of fingers under her chin, tilted her face up, and gave her a light kiss on the lips. "Am I?" he asked. Kari was too shocked to do anything but blush and stare as he walked away smartly giving her some space.

Jack pulled into the driveway of a small white house and opened the car door. Even if the neighbors had cared they would have thought nothing of it; Jack had been friends with Lyle the boy that lived here since they were six. No one was here now though, the Dillions went to Washington every summer.

Jack walked over to one of the basement windows. He got down on his hands and knees and looked around under a bush, a few minutes later he came up with a screwdriver. Jack inserted the screwdriver into the window from and pushed down. With a click the window popped open and Jack wormed his way in. No alarm went off; they had disconnected it years ago. The window was their way back into the house after late night parties, and when Lyle forgot his keys.

The basement was Lyle's room anyway so no one ever noticed. That also made what he was about to do much easier. He pulled out the old travel bag he had taken with him and looked around; he already knew where what he was searching for was. Lyle was a very organized person; everything had its place and that's where it was put.

Jack opened the closet door. What he was looking for was in there, right next to Lyle's porno magazines. It was called Ribodecil; it was the drug that smelled like skunk cabbage, the drug that that Izzy kid had been using, it was the herbal painkiller he and his friends had spent years making. It was a painkiller now on the cusp of FDA approval; if anything got out about it being sold as a drug the whole project, years of work, and Lyle would likely find themselves six feet under.

Jack quickly gathered up all the small tubes of the powder and put them in the bag. He slipped back out through the window, closed it, and hid the screw driver. Jack made his way to the back of Lyle's yard. Lyle was a lucky guy; he had a nice sized pond in his back yard. Jack had a swamp in his. Jack drew his arm back and flung the bag into the center of the pond. He turned and went back to his car before the spray had even finished coming down.

It was over, for now. By the time Lyle got back Jack and the others should be done with their own jobs. Then he and the gang would 'talk' to Lyle.

"What was that about?" Patamon asked as Jack got back in.

Jack looked behind himself, he had kind of forgotten about the digimon. "Friends don't let friends that owe them money sell drugs to friends of friends."

Skullmon looked at him curiously, "Huh?"

"You just witnessed a drug bust; don't mention it and forget it ever happened." Jack said in way of an explanation as he drove back to the carnival. He hoped Takaishi was still in one piece, and hoped twice as hard he wouldn't see Steve and his sister going at it.

Kari was wandering around the carnival. She was looking for Takaishi. She needed to talk to him; speak talk, not beat the hell out of talk. She hadn't seen him since the fool had kissed her.

Even though they had a truce Kari needed to lay down a few small guidelines. First and foremost was no unnecessary contact. Then would come no speaking to her and no bringing up their past.

Unbeknownst to her, Kari was being followed. Gatomon leapt from tree and tent to tree and tent making sure her partner was safe. Gatomon had been the only digimon to get out of the car. Skullmon and Patamon were both asleep, Tentomon was in the digiworld, and whatever Melissa's partner was it had mysteriously vanished a year ago.

TK was also following Kari. He didn't know how mad she was so he kept his distance. He also wasn't entirely sure why he had kissed her. He wanted to believe that it was to make a point, not that was just and excuse. In reality he just couldn't hold himself back anymore and let his emotions do the talking. Sometimes life just sucked.