Highs and Lows

Chapter Three: They Have Chemistry

- Criquett

Thank you SO much to all those who reviewed!

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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

"So she's coming over tonight?" Davis asked quietly, hoping the teacher wouldn't suspect anything.

"Yeah she's going to help me with chemistry," Tai whispered back.

"But Tai, you don't-"

"Ssshhhh!" The teacher hissed from the front of the room. "Mr. Motomiya! Please, don't disturb your classmates during a test!"

Davis turned back to the open-response before him. He grazed the tip of his pen on the paper and began hastily copying down the first words that came to his head.

"5 minutes!" The teacher warned.

'And.. that's how… the pilgrims made… their first voyage… to the New World.' Davis scribbled as he neared the bottom of his page. He placed his pencil behind his ear and cracked his knuckles with a satisfied smile. "A+ here I come!" He boasted to Tai, who was already finished. He added a little skip to his walk as he handed in his test just before the bell rang.

"So you think you did well, huh?" Tai asked.

"Oh yeah, studied my ass off for this one!"

"Yeah, I got through most of it, but I totally made up crap about Adolf Hitler on the last open-response. I said he grew up with nine toes which was why he turned all crazy," Tai laughed.

Davis froze. "Adolf Hitler? Damn it!" He cursed loudly, startling the small freshman girl in front of them.

"What's the matter?" Tai asked.

"I wrote my essay on the wrong topic, I gotta go back and see if Mrs. Tsujo will let me re-do it," Davis said angrily as he turned and walked back down the hall.

Tai chortled to himself when he saw a familiar sheet of long, silky black hair. He quickened his pace and eventually caught up to Maya and Izzy. "Hey Maya."

The girl turned at the call of her name. "Oh, hi Tai…. Uh… what's up?" She wasn't used to conversing with him like this before. They never made any form of contact in the past; she always got the vibe that he was too good for her, but she didn't really care.

"Oh nothing much, how are you Izzy?" Tai nodded to the shorter boy on Maya's left.

Izzy just stared at Tai before finally answering "…Fine…" He too was skeptical of Tai's sudden cordiality towards them.

"Good, that's good to hear," Tai said, not helping relax the tension in Izzy's brows. "I was just wondering if you all had seen Sora…"

Maya was the first to speak. "She's in the library… why?"

"She let me borrow a pencil yesterday in detention and I just wanted to give it back to her." Tai lied.

"Well I have a class with her next block, so I could return it to her," Maya suggested. She knew he was lying; Sora always wrote in pen and never used a pencil unless she had to.

"Here comes Sora now," Izzy said, looking past the group to the familiar redhead he had grown up with.

"Hi guys!" Sora greeted.

"Hey Sor, we were just talking about you," Maya began. "Our new friend Tai here said he has a pencil to give back to you." She said staring hard into Tai's chocolate brown eyes. "Come on Izzy, we should go get our presentation set up before class starts." She smiled at a confused Sora, winking slyly.

Sora watched her friends leave as she rounded back on Tai. "What was that about?"

Tai shrugged innocently. "Still up for today?"

"Yeah, but listen I have a really huge sociology report that I need to work on and it's due tomorrow so-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll have you home by bed time," Tai joked. "Now get to class, slacker."

Sora was about to retort with a comment about his hair but it was too late, he was already on his way downstairs. She grinned to herself, 'No one gets the last laugh except me! I'll get him back this afternoon.'

Tai was itching to race home and get his house ready for Sora's arrival. As soon as Coach Kasai dismissed the team from practice, he sprinted out of the field, cleats and all, and jogged towards his apartment complex. He hopped the stairs two at a time all the way to the sixth floor. He frantically searched his duffel bag until he heard the familiar jingling of keys.

"Mom, I'm home!" He called into the apartment as he kicked off his soccer cleats.

"Hi sweetie, how was your day?" His mother asked routinely from the kitchen.

"Fine, but listen a friend is coming over today to help me study." Tai announced looking around the living room, mentally checking off areas that would need to be spruced up.

"That's fine but I'll be out late tonight with my book club." Mrs. Kamiya appeared out of the kitchen, drying her wet hands on the apron tied around her waist.

"Lay off the drinks this time mom," Tai joked.

"Do I have to?" She sighed, laughing at the surprised look on her son's face, "Kidding!"

Tai laughed a little, eyeing his mother suspiciously. "Where's Kari?"

"Sleepover," His mother answered shortly going back into the kitchen. "You're father called today, said he'd be back from his trip to Kyoto tomorrow evening."

"Excellent!" Tai cheered clapping his hands together. 'Dad's gone, mom's leaving for the night, sister's at a sleepover… well done!'

"There are a few snacks in the fridge for you and Davis-"

"Mom, it's not Davis!"

"Well who else would be coming over to help you 'study'?" His mom asked, forming quotation marks with her fingers.

"This girl from school, her name is Sora," Tai answered a little offended.

"Well, as long as you're not studying each other then it's fine by me."

"Mom!" Tai yelled. He heard his mother laughing as she went into her room. She appeared a few minutes later after freshening up and kissed her son on the cheek.

"Bye bye dear, mummy loves you!" She said, pinching Tai's cheek affectionately.

"Good bye!" Tai said annoyed. He checked the clock hanging on the wall overhead. 4:55, Sora wouldn't be arriving 'til 6, giving Tai enough of time to tidy up. Luckily his mom was a top-notch housewife so there was really very little for him to do.

"Well, if I can't clean the house up, then I might as well clean myself up," Tai said to himself, staring down at his the sweaty soccer uniform he was wearing. He grabbed a towel from his room and hopped in the shower.

Feeling refreshed in a clean blue soccer jersey and cargo-khaki shorts, Tai proceeded to tackle his hair. After many tries he gave up and let it poof out by itself. He dabbed a hint of cologne (the annoying amount) on himself and brushed his teeth.

Tai checked the clock: 5:40. He went into the kitchen, pulled out a couple of colas along with a bowl of chips and set them on the coffee table next to the freshly cut flowers in the living room. He dimmed the lights just a bit and stood back to look around the room. 'Oh man, if Mimi could see this now…'

He was snapped back to realty when he heard the doorbell ring. "She's early…" Tai said as he straightened up his look, letting his charm take over. He took a deep breath, turned the knob and… "Davis! What the hell are you doing here?"

His goggle-headed friend poked his head inside the apartment, "Nothing," he shrugged innocently, looking around. "Ah, dimmed lights, nice!" He said, nudging Tai in the arm.

"You have to go, she'll be here any minute!" Tai hissed.

"Re-lax! She won't get here for another 10 minutes, girls always run late! Plus man, I'm hungry" Davis said patting his stomach as he eyed the bowl of chips.

"You have a house Davis, with a refrigerator full of food! So how about you see your way to it!"

"Alright, alright! Sheesh! What's a guy gotta do to get some grub in this town? Anyway, I'll see you around. Good luck with the chemistry eh, eh?" Davis teased, elbowing Tai while throwing obvious winks.

Tai rolled his eyes and shut the door in his face. He sighed heavily when he heard the doorbell ring again. "Go home Davis!" Tai yelled as he swung the door open again, freezing in place when he did. "Sora!" His voice cracked.

A very pretty ginger-haired girl now occupied the space where Davis once stood. "Hello Tai," She said with a hint of a smile. Davis, on the other hand, was down on his hands and knees pounding the floor with a fist, tears streaming down his face from all his hysterical laughing.

"Nice move Tai!" He hacked.

Tai shot the crouched boy a severe look before apologizing to Sora. "Sorry… um, please, come in."

Sora smiled, trying as hard as she could not to laugh herself. She removed her shoes and placed them by the door. She looked around the apartment, "Nice place."

"Thanks," Tai said, shutting the a little harder than he normally would. "Make yourself at home." He stole a quick look while her back was turned. She wore a lavender, three-quarter length, turtleneck sweater with an argyle pattern, along with a pair of dark blue jeans.

"So, shall we get started?" Sora asked.

"Uh…sure! Where do you want to work?" Tai asked.

"This room looks nice, how about in here?" Sora asked from the living room. Tai followed her in and sat on in the armchair next to where she stood. "Ok, so what are you having trouble with?"

"Er… well we just started the lesson and I was absent on the first day so I'm kind of lost. Sorry, I uh, left my books in my locker… I forgot to bring them home because I had soccer practice." Tai said sheepishly.

"That's ok, I brought over some of my reviews from first semester." Sora said, laying out a number of worksheets on the table. "Alright, the main thing to remember about acids and bases is pH level. The scale goes from 1 to 14, so substances with a low pH reading from 1 through 6 are acids. The lower the number, the stronger the acid. Get it?"

Tai nodded, trying to absorb the nonsensical words spilling from Sora's mouth. "So… what's seven then? It's in the middle, so wouldn't that make it neutral?"

"Exactly!" Sora smiled. "Water is the most common neutral substance, so it reads as a 7. Its neither an acid or a base."

The hands of the clock seemed to rotate at an incredulous rate. Before long they were already pointing at 11:00.

"Ok, so binary acids are made of hydrogen and a halogen, right?" Tai asked, concentrating hard on the topic at hand.

"Right!" Sora exclaimed. "Wow Tai, I didn't think you had it in you, but looked how much you've learned! You know the three types-"

"Arrhenius, Bronsted-Lowry, and Lewis," Tai boasted.

"And how to perform titration problems!" Sora finished, beaming up at Tai.

"I didn't think I had it in me either, but I don't know… there's something about you that just makes it stick, you know?"

Sora smiled. She glanced down at her watch. "Oh my gosh! Is it that late already? I have to go Tai!" She reached over for her purse and proceeded to stand when she was jerked back down.

"Don't go," Tai pleaded. "I've gotten so much out this, and I'm afraid I'll forget it all after you leave! This was actually really fun"

"You will not!" Sora rolled her eyes. "I had fun too," She said, letting Tai pull her back down on the sofa.

"Yeah, so stay for a while." Tai said, trying to lean in closer.

The girl next to him shook her head. "I'm really sorry, but I have to finish my report for Mr. Satsuki."

Tai sighed, "Well, at least let me walk you home."

"Ok, if you must." Sora said airily.

Tai grabbed his track jacket and laced his tennis shoes. He snatched the house keys from the side table and escorted Sora outside. "So, what does the class president to for fun?" He asked in a conversational manner.

"Well, I enjoy being organized, studying strenuously, spending a good portion of my weekends in the library, and mingling with my fellow students." Sora replied sweetly, laughing at the bewildered look on Tai's face.

"Uh, that's…cool…?" He said hesitantly.

"I was kidding!" Sora joked. "Most of the free time I get is spent with my friends at the movies or in the park! My mom owns a flower shop so I'm sometimes in there helping her out."

Tai laughed a little nervously. "You had me going there. That's cool, I'm more over the same too, hanging out with friends, playing soccer, typical Tai trends."

Sora snorted. "Tai trends?"

"Pssh, yeah!" He looked down at her incredibly. "You mean you've never heard of Tai trends? Please, everyone at school follows them!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Define everyone."

"Cool people. I don't hang around losers, well, apart from you I guess."

Sora punched him lightly in the arm, pouting slightly. "Yeah, well this was weird for me too. High-strung, haughty, heinous jocks aren't my type either."

Tai smirked. "Think I'm a hottie?"

"Wrong definition dumb ass!" She rolled her eyes. "My apartment is just around this corner." She quickened her pace slightly, hoping he wouldn't catch the faint blush that rolled across her cheeks.

"But seriously, thank you so much for tonight. I don't think I've ever learned so much and actually been able to retain it ever in my life!" Tai said genuinely.

"No problem, I'm glad I could help. I hope you get a good grade on your test!"

"I will, and it'll be because of you! Thanks again Sora. I'll see you tomorrow then I hope." And with that said, Tai leaned in a placed a generous kiss on her soft cheek. He smiled at the shocked, flushed girl in front of him. He gave a small, curt wave and turned back towards his house, a broad grin across his face.

Finished! Big surprises and juicy drama coming ahead, so please review if you want to see what unfolds!

Regards,

Criquett

He stle a wuick glance