A few more days went by, and soon Hanna and Willis had to leave. Yolei and I decided to see them off.
"Take care Hanna," I smiled at her.
"You too. Also, make sure Jordan takes care of Ken!" Hanna nodded.
Yolei poked Willis in the stomache. "Be good, and come back soon."
"When ever you come back, feel free to bring Hanna back," I agreed.
"Of course, I wouldn't want it any other way," Willis placed his hands on our shoulders. "We better get going. Take care. Please, keep in touch. And, next Christmas, you'll have to come to America!"
"We will!" Yolei and I yelled as they went to board the plane.
School started up again, but we had a few new twists.
Davis, T.K., and I walked towards our classroom. We heard Josh calling for us, as we turned to see him, we were pretty shocked. He was holding onto Al's hand.
"Josh!" I smiled.
Al turned bright red. "We confessed to each other a few days after the Christmas party."
"Congratulations! Just don't hit Al like you were going to hit Kari," T.K. snickered.
"I wasn't going to hit Kari. I might of pushed her, but she hit me before I could," Josh clarified.
"If you say so," Davis laughed.
We walked into the classroom.
"Hi," a young lady softly smiled at us.
"Um, hi," we smiled back.
"Oh, let me explain why I'm here. I'm Miss Mikomi. Mrs. Shing will be out for the rest of the school year and probably won't be coming back."
"Why not?" I wondered.
"Did she get fired?" Davis asked.
"She didn't get fired, she had her baby," Miss Mikomi explained.
"She was pregnant? No wonder she was so mean," T.K. laughed.
"Was Mrs. Shing that mean?"
"She gave us detention on the first day of school…For no reason!" Davis yelled.
"Oh! That means you must be one of the three I was told to watch out for. Uh, there was Takeru, Daisuke, and Hikari!" she remembered.
"Um, just call me Kari. And that's T.K. and Davis. We're not really troublemakers, I promise you that. Mrs. Shing just didn't like us because of my brother."
"So, Mrs. Shing was basically dubbing us the Tai of this school year. She probably does that every year," Davis decided.
"Don't mind them. They're still thinking it's winter break," Josh said.
"Davis acts this way all the time," T.K. pointed out.
"Idiot," Al giggled. "I'm Al. It's nice to have you as a teacher."
"Oh boy, this seems like a lively group. I'm actually new around here. Maybe you guys could help me. I just got this apartment and what I would really like is to buy some flowers. Do you know a good place to get some?" Miss Mikomi wondered.
"Sora's shop!" Davis and I said at the same time.
"There is a small shop at the corner of the next street over from the school. Our friend's mom runs it and they're really friendly people," T.K. nodded.
"Sounds perfect!" Miss Mikomi agreed. "Look, other people are coming in. Please take your seats, I have to explain myseld a little."
Everyone sat in their seats as the classroom filled with children.
"Hello everyone. My name is Miss Mikomi and I will be your teacher for the rest of the year. Mrs. Shing won't be coming back any time soon because during winter break she gave birth to her child. I was told that you guys didn't know about her being pregnant, so if she was ever mean, that might be why!"
We went through the day with the new teacher. She was really nice and funny. She made learning kind of fun. She didn't yell and she liked to joke around with us. It made school better with a younger teacher. She seemed to understand our problems more.
The school year went by quickly. Before we knew it, it was spring break. Davis and I ran to my house to get ready for a picnic we planned to have together, but our plans were crushed by a phone call.
"Hello?" I answered the phone.
All I could hear was sobbing on the other side.
"Hello?" I repeated myself.
"Kari, sh-she…"
It was Willis on the other line with terrible news.
"What happened? Why are you crying?" I wondered.
"Hanna's gone! I just found out! She was in the hospital last night and she told me to go home, so I did, but I wish I didn't. At 8:17 AM, she died. I wasn't there for her to hold her hand, I wasn't there. I feel so bad. I didn't know until I got home a few minutes ago," he explained.
"No!" I fell to the ground. "Willis, you poor thing. What can I do to help? What do you need me to do? I'll do anything!"
"In three days, we're holding a funeral for her. I would like it if everyone could come."
"We'll be there!"
"Kari, thank you for helping me. I'm going to go now. Her parents want to talk to me."
"Take care," I hung up the phone and turned to Davis. "It was Willis."
My eyes were filled with tears. Davis could tell what happened and took me in his arms.
"Hush, it will be ok. We'll see him. We'll be there for him. No matter what," Davis promised.
Within the days of finding out the death of Hanna, we got the money to go to America. It was sad to us because we only got to see her once. She was such a pretty girl and I wantred to know more about her, and I think somehow I will. Hanna was lucky, she was able to survive as much as she did because of will, she just couldn't fight the pain anymore. Her heart gave out and there was no way for her to survive. Willis was so sad about this. Out of all the things that killed her, it was heart failure.
Willis stood in front of everyone. He tried to force a smile on his face, but he couldn't.
"Hanna was very special to me. She had a hard life. It all started when she was in Australia. She was depressed and suicidal. Her heart was crying out for attention, buit she never found it. When she moved to Japan, she found two friends, Sean and Ken. They didn't know about her ways, so they didn't know how much they helped her. Shortly after moving to Japan, she had to move to America. All her sadness came back, and she tried to kill herself. That's when her body couldn't funciton right. She was groing weak, and know one knew, but she could have died any second. When I met her, she was so beautiful and full of life. I never thought that out of all the boys in this would, I would be the one to win her love. I only started to go out with her last summer. We became such good friends and didn't like to be apart. I didn't know that she had such a hard life. Hanna didn't tell me until winter break. It broke my heart, but I would never leave her side. She was the shine that brightened my day, and I'm sad without her. I wish I could have known her even better than I did. I was glad that I brought her with me to Japan for Christmas. Though, now my sadness is shared with all of my friends, not just myself. Even though she is gone, I will never lose her. Hanna will forever be in my heart. She will always have my love, no matter where she is. I will forever love her. I will miss her, but I won't let myself fall into depression. I promised her that. I won't break my promise," Willis finally let a small smile form on his face.
That day was filled with tears. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't stay longer. I really wanted to just stay and comfort Willis, but he told me I had to leave.
"You remind me so much of Hanna, please, Kari, just go. I don't think you can help me, I have to help myself. I'll stay strong Kari, but you have to stay strong yourself. I know this pulled a lot of tears out of you, but keep happy. I know I'm trying. Thank you for coming," Willis shooed me into the plane.
When we arrived back in Japan, Davis came to my house. We decided that we would watch a movie and then he would go home. Tai and my parents were gone tonight, so we would get to be by ourselves. As I put the movie in, I smiled at Davis. We sat down on the couch and he held me in his arms. I ended up falling asleep before the movie was over, but Davis didn't wake me. He stayed with me the whole time. Finally, I heard the door crash open as Tai came in.
"I know you know where he is!" I heard June's voice echo.
"No I don't! Don't you have someone else you can bother?" Tai barked back.
"There he is! He's with her!" June screamed.
Davis jumped up. "Oh no!"
"You two fell asleep during the movie? That's terrible," Tai laughed.
"It's been hard, you know?" I smiled.
"Come on Davis, we're going home," June pulled at her brother.
Tai lightly pushed her away. "You're a bad big sister."
"You have the nerve to say that to me!"
"Davis is tired. He's been having a rough time. You know, June, you could be a little more caring about his feelings. I thought, maybe, you would know how it feels to be in love. You know? You've been heart broken, am I right? June, Davis is hurting. One of his friends passed away. Maybe you should be sensitive towards his feelings. If you don't, well, lets just leave it at that."
"I'll tell Mom that you're spending the night. Ok, Davis?" June looked away.
"Mom will never let me sleepover here ever again! If you tell her that, she'll just come and make things worse," Davis frowned.
"So, you're at T.K.'s house, right?" June smiled at him.
"June, you're a pretty good person. Even if your heart broken without Matt, I'm sure you'll find the right person for you," I told her.
"Thank you, big sister," Davis laughed.
"Behave! If you don't, I'll let Tai punish you!" June walked out the door.
"Cool, I get to punish you!" Tai grew an evil grin.
I jumped off the couch. "What's Mom going to say about Davis spending the night?"
"Just, go back to sleep on the couch. She'll see the two of you and think it's cute. If she wakes you up, she'll tell one of you to go into the bedroom and the other to sleep on the couch. I'll pretend I came home early, so I never knew about the two of you on the couch. Ok?" Tai decided.
"Good plan," Davis agreed.
"Thank you, Tai," I sat back on the couch as he went to our room.
Davis smiled at me. "I guess the darkness that was consuming Tai's broken heart is finally at rest."
"I don't think he even knew what he was doing. I don't want him to know. It will tear him up inside. If he knows, he knows. I'm not going to tell him, I can't."
"Fine, we'll leave it a mystery unless he already knows."
I let Davis wrap me in his arms as we fell back asleep.
"School is almost over. Just a few more weeks and it will be summer vacation," Yolei smiled.
"So much has happened. I can't believe it has only been a year," I agreed.
Cody nodded. "I can remember everything like it was yesterday."
"Same with me, but we can't think of only the past. So much has happened, but here's a question. What hasn't happened?" Davis wondered.
"I never thought of it that way," T.K. was shocked.
We laid in a hill and let the breeze pull through our hair. The wind pulled off T.K.'s hat and it flew through the sky.
"T.K., your hat!" I sat up.
"Don't worry, I other ones at home."
"Next year, things will be different. Everyone other than me will be in high school," Cody pointed out to us.
"That won't make a difference. We'll always have days where we just sit on a hill and let the breeze pull through our hair. We'll always have fights and picnics. Nothing will ever change," I decided.
"Actually, a few things have changed.," Davis frowned.
"What do you mean?" Yolei questioned.
"Our friendships grew and so did our relationships. Even if things do change, we'll still have days like this. Even when we grow older, we'll still have these peaceful days."
"This is who we are. Isn't it? Everyone is just another face in the crowd, but we're different. Aren't we?" I asked.
"Yeah, we're the people that stand out just a little more. We're the ones who will take the blame, get slaughtered down, but still live another day. We're the ones who don't give up and live life to the fullest, no matter how hard it gets. We're the ones who stand together, no matter what!"
"Even when we're sad ore mad, we always have someone there for us. I like it like that. I know I wouldn't be here in Japan if it wasn't for you guys," T.K. nodded.
"I don't think we're different. I think we're just a little misunderstood," Cody laughed.
"Yeah! That's it! Misunderstood!" I giggled.
We sat on that hill for hours just talking. It was unclear to us why we were this way, but we wouldn't want it any other way. It wasn't that we were different or misunderstood, it was just the way we liked to be. If we stayed the way we are, we'll never grow any further apart. We stand together, strong, as one. When one person falls, we all fall. That's our code of friendship. It was a code that would never be broken. I was happy the way we were.
"I want a rice ball!" Davis yelled.
"I'll get some…If I can throw them at you!" Yolei grew an evil grin.
"I'm suddenly not so hungry."
Yes, this was the way things should always be. We should just be able to stay this way forever, but we won't be able. As we grow older, I'm scared that our group may grow farther away. I'll stay strong. As long as I have Davis as my boyfriend and Tai as my brother, I will always be strong. Though, we may move away, start our own families, and meet new people, I don't think we'll ever forget our friendships that we have. We'll forever be friends, no matter!
I wish that Hanna and Willis could be here to share our happiness, but I'm afraid that Hanna will never share this joy again. I'm sure that Willis will one say will be able to be the cheerful boy he once was. Though, it made him sad to lose his first love, I know it will make him stronger. He will forever love Hanna, just like I will forever love Davis. Things like that can never change.
"This is…Nice," I closed my eyes.
