The Game of Life
By theladyknight
Disclaimer: Digimon—not mine!
A/N: Here's chapter 6 finally. Sorry for the long delay…hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner next time. Thanks to everyone who reviews! Read, review, and enjoy!
Mushi-SanBan: Thanks!
Cute Lil Sora: Thanks; I'm glad you like the way everyone is portrayed.
Hannah: Thanks for the correction…I put it in here and in my other fics. Glad you like it…I'll talk to you later probably
Xymi Angel Ghost: :laughs: when I know what I want to write; it just comes…lol…thanks!
Sapphire Dragons: I've got no idea where I came up with half the games and stuff from…if I ever figure out, I'll let you know.
Animemistress419: Thanks!
Winter-Green-Elf: Aww..glad you like it!
Ale1240: Thanks for the great review!
Chiara: The children will be introduced soon enough
Blondie121147: Ya, I wish my school was fun and exciting. Actually my guidance counselor came into one of my classes today, assigned us each a job and we had to budget our income and expenses and such. Talk about coincidence…lol
Scorpion05: Mimi, Tai, and the game's results come up next chapter…
Kazama Fangirl: I'll see what I can do…the name implies things aren't as perfect as they seem…(I guess I do tend to make things too perfect…but something usually ends up happening that changes it…)
Inconnu: The teachers had some meeting thing; it happened again last Friday -talk about luck. My school's odd- tomorrow the high schoolers have no afternoon classes because we're going to go "serve the community" by doing yard work and stuff like that and on Friday in chemistry we're celebrating "Mole Day".
Crazyamzy: I can always count on your reviews to make me smile. I too have a horrible attention span, but I got this done because I didn't want to concentrate on an essay I was supposed to be writing instead.
Chapter 6: Lover's Spat
"This is a very important part of a relationship." Ms. Greene said, pointing at two diagrams on the overhead. "Can anyone tell me what I'm talking about?"
Yamato nudged me. "Do you have ANY idea what those pictures are?"
I shook my head as I looked at the screen. "I think it's supposed to be a group of people but I'm not too sure."
"How do you get people out of that?" Taichi questioned, hearing my comment. The class faced him. "If you tilt your head this way, the picture looks like a herd of angry cattle."
Koushiro shook his head. "But if you look at it from this angle…"
"Okay! I'm not the best artist!" Ms. Greene exclaimed. "To save myself from ridicule, I'm going to stop the guessing. Sora, you were right when you said people."
"I was?" That was a complete guess.
"Yeah," she answered, "but more specifically one diagram is a picture of one family while the other is a picture of a different one."
We all looked at her. "And this has to do with us because…" Mimi asked, raising her hand.
"I'll use an example and see if you understand." She answered pulling up a new sheet so she could write on it. Hikari, would you name off the people in your immediate family: your parents and siblings."
"Mom, Dad, Taichi, and me." She answered.
Ms. Greene wrote the names "Mom" and "Dad" on top and drew a line between them. Then she drew two lines down from the line and wrote Taichi's name under one and Hikari's under the other.
"What about you, Takeru."
"There's Mom, Dad…my parents are divorced." He said.
"It's okay, keep going." She replied as she began to write.
"Yamato and me."
In the blank space underneath she wrote "Mom" and "Dad" with a line between them, and then a diagonal line slicing through that. Then she drew two more lines from the first one and labeled Yamato and Takeru.
Next our teacher drew a line from Taichi's name that said "Mimi", a line from Hikari's that read "Takeru", a line from Takeru's that read "Hikari", and finally, as expected, a line from Yamato's with my name.
"Now do you get it?" she asked.
"Prodigious!" Gwen exclaimed.
Yamato and I looked at each other. "You can tell Koushiro's been rubbing off on her." The blond whispered. "Look at Mimi!"
I turned my head to see my friend and bit my lip to keep from laughing. She was fuming! Taichi muttered something to her, and she responded by slapping him. Hard. My brunette best friend glanced over at Yama and me and winked.
"In-laws!" Gwen replied, not hearing our commentary.
Ms. Greene beamed. "Yes, that's exactly it. Your relationship with your in-laws may or may not affect your relationship with your spouse, but it will affect you."
"I've heard horror stories about in-laws." Hikari admitted. "What are we going to have to do?"
"You're jumping ahead of me, Hikari." Ms. Greene answered. "It's true you may have heard a lot of people complaining about in-laws. But that has been the negative image the media has portrayed and a couple cases with real life people. I speak from experience after getting to know my sisters mother-in-law and father-in-law. At first my sister was scared out of her mind to meet them, but once she was finally introduced to them, they found they had a lot in common. My sister then introduced them to me, and we all got along just fine."
"So what are you getting at?" One of my classmates asked.
"Your only homework for this week—well, until the "special twist" I throw in sometime this week—is to meet the in-laws. Arrange a time that you can have lunch with one family and a night you can watch movies with the others." She paused and took some sheets of paper off her desk. "I would like each of your parents to sign this proving that it really did happen. That is your only assignment. We're going to take some notes until I decide the time is right to throw in this twist."
I looked at my husband. "So…"
"So," he answered, "what night is your family free?"
"Dad's on a business trip all week." I replied then faced our teacher. "Ms. Greene, what if one of my parents isn't home this week?"
"Just meet with the one that is, Sora." She answered. "And, since I have a feeling this question will come up, if your parents are divorced, you only have to meet with the one you live with."
"Tomorrow?" I asked the blond.
He shook his head. "Band practice." Yamato was silent for a minute. "Come to think of it, I've got band practice every night this week."
"Well, when are we going to do it then?"
"After school?"
"I have tennis."
He studied me. "Can you skip tennis one night?"
I shook my head. "No. Can't you skip rehearsal one night?"
"No. We've got to practice the new music."
"Well, I've got a match this week."
The blond let out a frazzled sigh. "Are you sure you…"
"Yama, I already told you no. Tennis is really important to me."
"And the band isn't important to me?"
I rolled my eyes as the bell rang. "That's beside the point. You can afford to skip one practice. It's not going to kill you."
He glared at me. "Easy for you to say." Came his response and he walked off without another word.
"What just happened?" I murmured out loud.
Taichi walked up behind me and put an arm around me. "Sora, that would be your first lover's spat."
"Excuse me?"
Taichi gave me a goofy grin. "You and your hubby had a little disagreement. And it's about time. Everything between the two of you was too perfect and boring."
"What do you mean?" I asked as we began walking toward our next class.
"Sora, Sora, Sora," he replied, shaking his head, "just because you and Yamato are best friends doesn't mean some sort of relationship like this is going to be perfect."
"I never thought it would be like that." I insisted.
Tai rolled his eyes. "Sor, I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but I could tell you did want it to be that way. You've liked Yamato for the longest time. The way I see it, considering it's obvious Yamato likes you too, you both thought everything would turn out peachy keen."
"Ta…"
"Listen—you can interrupt me when I'm done." Wow, that's not normal Tai. "Jumping from friendship to love isn't going to be easy. You two are going to have to make it work. You just can't sit around and expect it to happen."
My mouth dropped open. "Two comments: number one, I don't like Yamato." My conscience is going crazy. Liar, liar, liar! "And number two, how the hell did you get to be so smart about this subject?"
He grinned at me. "From my extensive years of studying women."
That set me off. "Do I even want to know?"
"You doubt me?" He asked, putting an arm around me.
I nodded. "Hey," I answered, remembering the last class, "what'd you say to Mimi that made her slap you?"
"Oh…" he answered rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Well, I kind of told her that if Koushiro and Gwen were getting to be a good husband and wife combo, she had me to fall back on. And she should be happy for it cause all the ladies love me."
I rolled my eyes. "Taichi, you have a lot to learn about women. Particularly Mimi."
"I know." He answered cheerfully. "I just love antagonizing her, though. It's so much fun!"
We walked into class chatting happily. It felt like someone was staring at me though, and I realized who: Yama.
As our eyes locked his narrowed. "I'll talk to you later, Tai. I've got to go talk with Yamato."
"Good luck." Taichi answered looking at the blonde's eyes. "He…er…doesn't look to happy."
I sighed and made my way to my seat next to the blond. "Yamato?"
He shuffled through his binder and clearly was ignoring me. "Yamato, please listen to me."
"Why should I listen to you?" he snapped.
"Look I came here to apologize…" If he wants stubborn, I can give him stubborn.
"So you're finally ready to admit you're wrong?"
"I'm not wrong!" I answered indignantly.
He shook his head. "You're saying I am though."
Men! "No! I came here to tell you I'm sorry for yelling before and that it was rude of me to say the band wasn't important. Of course I think it's important, Yama, but if we're going to get this thing done, we're going to have to compromise."
As he was about to respond, our teacher walked into the room. "Okay, class, notebooks out. It's time to take some more notes."
We all groaned. For the past few weeks, in an attempt to get us ready for this big advanced placement test at the end of the year, our teacher has forced us to sit and take notes. Even Yamato, whose favorite class is physics, cannot stand it.
Thankfully he and I sit in the back of class, and I should have no problem passing him a note. I took out a sheet of paper and as the teacher turned off the lights, I began writing. He'll just think I'm taking notes. I can always get the notes from Taichi…okay, scratch that idea. Tai never takes notes yet somehow does as well as I do in the class. Maybe Yama and I will be on speaking terms by the end of class and I can just copy his.
Yama…I don't want to be mad at you. But you've got to try and understand me if we're going to get anywhere. We've got to think of something that will work without biting each others heads off in the process. Taichi told me I was probably thinking this whole class and project would be a breeze with you as my "husband", and I guess I did. I never thought we'd have to work harder to get stuff like this done. Please write me back cause I want us to figure this out…Sor
As our teacher droned on, I folded the paper and handed it to Yamato. He looked at it quizzically but much to my relief opened it.
I sat in my desk anxiously hoping he would answer me. In an attempt to keep my mind off him, I began writing down the things listed on the overhead, aware I had missed a good quarter of the notes.
Yamato nudged me and handed me the note. I gave him a grateful smile, and he responded with a weak, almost forced one.
Sor, I know I've been a stubborn ass, but if I'm going to hear your side, then you've got to hear mine. I agree that we need to figure out what we're going to do. I guess I also thought everything would be easy with you as a partner. It really made me happy when I drew your name. Things were great up until that argument in class. You've just got to understand that the band takes up a lot of my time. Almost every night we have rehearsals and shit at night and that's after I go to work for a few hours. My schedule's so overwhelming that it's hard to find time to fit stuff in…Yamato…
I gulped as I read that, understanding what he had written but coming to a shocking realization. My hand shook as I wrote back to him. Yamato…please don't hate me for saying this…but you're starting to sound like your father…
I handed him the note, afraid of his reaction. The minute he read it, his face blanched. He reached for his pen and slowly wrote something down before handing it back to me.
I need to talk to you face to face. Can you fake being sick? I'll "take" you to the nurse's office.
I caught his eye and nodded. Holding a hand to my head and praising my luck that the air conditioning was on, I began to shiver and sway back and forth. I laid my head down on my desk,and I knew the teacher would come back to check on me at any minute. He has a policy about not laying your head on your desk; something about "if you have to rest your head on your desk to stay awake then you shouldn't be in school in the first place."
"Sora, are you feeling alright?"
I forced my head up off the desk and made my teeth chatter. "No…" I whispered.
"Do you want me to take her to the nurse?" Yamato asked, sincerely. Taichi turned around, and I nearly started laughing as he made funny faces at me.
Our teacher faced the blond. "Um, sure, Yamato. That would probably be a good thing. The bell's going to ring shortly. Just take your things with you."
I slowly put my things in my bag and zipped it up. Yamato picked it up for me, and we walked out of the room. As I passed Tai, he whispered, "Faker…wonder what you two are going to be doing…just remember I don't want to be called Uncle Tai yet."
"Screw you." I muttered out of the side of my mouth, feeling my face heat up as we walked out the door. Yamato shut it, and we headed toward the nurse's office. When we were sure we were out of sight, he took my hand and led me to the instrumental room. There was no one in there, and he set our bags down as he pulled out two chairs.
He was silent for a minute, and I stayed the same way, not wanting to pressure him. Yamato would talk to me when he was ready. "Sor, what you said back there…I think it's starting to be true. I think I'm finally beginning to understand why my mom and dad always got into fights when I was younger. Dad was never home. He was always busy with other stuff and kept pushing the family behind his other things."
"Yamato, you're not like that. But the way things are sounding…it seems like that could happen. I hope I'm not offending you."
"Of course you're not," He answered, putting a hand on top of mine. "You made me see the way I was acting. All my life I promised myself I wouldn't end up like Dad but now…"
"Yama, you're a different person than your father. You know there's a limit, but sometimes it takes the help of others to realize it."
He grinned. "Yeah, we males have a habit of not asking for help when we most need it, don't we?"
I smiled back, knowing he was true. "You could say that. What you need to do is set out your priorities, figure out what's really important and find a way to work it into your schedule."
He sighed. "I wish it was that easy. I feel like I'm committed to do so much, and I don't want to hurt anyone by breaking those commitments."
"The only person you're hurting is yourself. Yama, you're too much sometimes. You put others needs in front of your own. Think about yourself."
The blond smirked. "You're telling me to be selfish?"
I glared at him. "You know what I mean. Just sort out the things you want to do and find a time to fit them in. If you have to cancel, then you have to cancel. I just don't want to see you so overworked and depressed that we get into fights for stupid reasons."
He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a big bear hug. "Who made you an expert on these things?"
"Taichi." I answered as I hugged him back.
Yamato pulled away and looked me in the eye as the bell rang. "Repeat that again, cause I'm not sure I heard you right."
I giggled, picking up my book bag and opening the door. "You heard me right."
He rolled his eyes and muttered something inaudible. Giving me a charming grin, we walked out the door. "Thanks for that, Sora. I really needed it. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd manage." I answered as we walked towards lunch.
"Yeah," he answered sarcastically, "by doing what? Going to Taichi for advice?"
I laughed, knowing things would hopefully be better now that we had gotten that little problem out of the way. Guess all we have to do know is find a time when we can "meet the parents".
A/N: Please review and let me know what you think! Take a guess at what the next chapter has in store…