Tai was walking through the halls when he saw Cody leaving his class. He ran over to him and slowed down an inch behind him.
"Cody! What has been going on with you guys!" Tai had been ignored by his friends for nearly a week now.
"Oh, hey Tai. Sorry, but I have to get to Kendo class. Excuse me." Cody bowed and walked away. Tai wanted to give chase, but he didn't want to put too much pressure on little Cody.
A new day had started, and he was on the prowl for his so-called "friends". He scanned the faces of every person he passed by. That's when he passed by Sora. She could immediately tell that he saw her, and she gunned it for the door leading outside. Tai did a 180 and started to run after her. Unfortunately, Tai had been running against the crowd, and he had quickly lost sight of his prey.
"Why are they avoiding me?! Why do they all refuse to talk to me?" Tai yelled at nobody in particular. The halls started clearing as kids found their classrooms, and Tai saw TK was inconspicuously tip toeing through the halls.
Tai ran up and grabbed TK's wrist. "Ow! Tai that hurts!" TK tried to pull away, but Tai had a death grip on him.
"TK...Do you remember when you wanted me to be your brother instead of Matt? Yeah, I'm taking that deal now."
"That deal mostly came from me being scared and young. Also, I made up with Matt a couple hours after that...Can you let go now?" TK was still struggling to get away.
"I'll let go if you answer my question, brother to brother. Why have you and the others been avoiding me?" Tai started to loosen his grip, but not too much.
"Maybe it's because we are afraid of having our wrist broken by our leader? In my case, former leader." TK finally managed to pull away. His wrist had become red, but he was just happy that he could use it again.
"Alright, I can see that my good cop routine isn't working. But I'll be back TK, you better believe that." Tai gave the "I'll be watching" motion and walked off.
"He is relentless. Better tell the others." TK ran off to the computer room. Little did he know, Tai was still spying on him.
"Izzy!" TK ran into the computer lab. His wrist was looking a lot better.
"Hello TK, you seem to be in quite the rush." Izzy and Yolei were in their natural habitat.
"I ran into Tai again. He is only getting more suspicious, so you guys better watch your back."
"I see. Well, maybe I should put a tracking device on Tai after all."
TK ran off to tell other kids, not noticing Tai was behind him.
"Should we send the kids an email on our devices, Izzy?" Yolei asked the little genius.
"Not a bad idea-"
"And why would you do that?" Tai had burst into the room.
Yolei opened up a portal on the computer and jumped through without hesitation. Izzy jumped in too, but Tai grabbed onto Izzy's legs and pulled him out.
"He-Hello Tai." Izzy never liked it when Tai was angry with him.
"Izzy, I consider you to be my best friend. So, friend to friend, what has been going on with you guys?!" Tai asked with the same anger as before.
"Look Tai, the others have trusted me with invaluable information, and I wouldn't want to disappoint them."
"Ehh, fine! I won't force you to do anything for my sake. But I'm going after Yolei!"
"Alright, good luck in your endeavors." Izzy brushed himself off and watched as Tai jumped through the computer.
"Yolei! Where are you?" Tai was pushing plants out of his way.
"Please don't find me! Please don't find me! Please don't find me!" Yolei was shouting out.
"You really need to panic quieter." Tai had snuck up right behind her.
"Aaah!" Yolei started to run away, but she quickly tripped on a root.
"Okay, you just need to be better at panicking in general." Tai helped her back onto her feet and stared deep into her eyes. "Now tell me Yolei. What. Is. Going.-"
"Can't tell you, sorry." Yolei said without any fear.
"Yolei. I'm going to give you a five minute head start."
"And I'll happily take those five minutes." She stood straight up, cleaned the dirt off herself, and ran in a random direction. Tai decided to not give chase, as she would probably refuse to answer his question anyways.
Tai lept back through the computer.
"How did it go, Tai?" Izzy asked, pretending that Tai wasn't livid.
"I'm calling Mimi. I'll be back." Tai pulled out his phone and walked into the hall.
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
"Mimi speaking!" Mimi answered with ecstasy.
"It's Tai, you have a minute?" Tai made sure to sound calm.
"Oh! Hi Tai! How's your da-"
"Listen. The rest of the group stopped talking to me, and I want to know why."
"That's horrible! I can't believe that they would be so rude! But...I don't know why they wouldn't be talking to you...Sorry!"
"It's fine Mimi. Let's talk again soon, alright?"
"Alright, bye Tai!"
"See ya." Tai made a noise that resembled the "call ended" noise. He was hoping that Mimi would be fooled by his phone impression...and she was.
"Jeez! Tai is getting really suspicious! He really needs to chill... He also needs to realize that I'm smart enough to know that HE DIDN'T HANG UP!"
"Crest of Sincerity my a-" Tai was cut off by the phone hanging up.
"Izzy! I'm going to go find Matt! If Yolei doesn't come back in 10 minutes, then go look for her." Tai yelled behind his shoulder and walked away from the Computer Lab's entrance.
Tai ran over to the auditorium and found Matt packing up his band equipment. He ran to the back entrance and waited next to the door.
"See ya guys next Thursday!" Matt didn't notice Tai to the right of him.
"Hey Matt. I have a question." Tai glared at Matt.
"Aah! Jeez man, don't scare me like that"
"Matt, you know what I'm going to ask."
"Alright...I haven't gone to bed with Sora yet." Matt said right before getting decked by Tai. "Okay, okay, I get it." Matt held his chest as he stood back up.
"Then answer the question!" Tai was losing his patience.
"Alright-Holy crap! TK is proposing to Kari!"
"That's not gonna work."
"And Davis is proposing too!"
"Where are they!" Tai spun around and Matt ran back in and locked the doors. "Matt! I'll be back!" Tai stormed off.
Tai was looking around and he saw Sora peeking at him through a window. They locked eyes for a few seconds, and then Sora ran away from the window.
"Not this time Sora! I'm gonna chase you to Cambodia if I have to!" Tai yelled at the window. He ran over to the exit closest to the tennis courts. Sure enough, Sora pushed the door open and nearly ran straight into Tai. She dodged at the last second and kept running.
"Sora! I can run longer and faster than you! Just stop so we can talk!" Tai was closing in on Sora.
"Biyomon, get out of the tree and help me!" Sora looked up at the tree and a pink bird popped out.
"Biyomon digivolve to...Birdramon!" She shouted triumphantly. Sora grabbed onto Birdramon's leg and she flew away.
"This must be the world's greatest secret!" Tai said furiously.
"Tai, do you need something?" Joe had heard the commotion.
"Joe! Ol' reliable Joe!" Tai grabbed Joe by his shirt's collar.
"You're scaring me." Joe didn't know why Tai seemed so desperate.
"Please Joe, tell me: Why have you guys been ignoring me for this whole week?"
"Listen Tai. The rest of the group believes that I am trustworthy enough to not spill the secret that they told me to anything under the sun. I plan on staying reliable. I'm sure you understand."
Tai thought about it and realized that this was the same excuse as Izzy. "You and Izzy. I just can't stay angry at you two. Fine Joe, you're off the hook. But know that this is far from over." Tai walked away.
Tai waited until soccer practice. He knew Ken and Davis would be there.
"Hello Tai." Tai spun around to find the former Digimon Emperor behind him. "What's going on?"
"Ken, I know that you can't lie, and I know that you owe me." Tai prepared himself for the worst, "Why have you guys been ignoring me?"
Ken put his hand on Tai's shoulder and said, "I can't lie to you Tai.", and he walked away. Tai was beyond furious, but he basically went over his anger threshold and entered a zen state. He had finally calmed down until he heard a familiar voice.
"Ken, you didn't tell him anything did you?" Davis was trying to whisper, but even his quietest voice was still louder than Cody. Ken saw Tai coming and he simply gave Davis a look of pity, and walked away.
"Davis!" Tai sprinted over to Davis.
"Oh no-Hey Tai!" Davis was obviously afraid of his heroic senior.
"Davis, as my ally and close friend, I need you to be honest."
"Tai, I'm going to be honest with you, alright? I don't know why everybody is ignoring you. Everybody but me and you are in on it. I guess they thought I would tell you the second you asked."
"Thank you Davis." Tai let out a disappointed sigh and he got ready for soccer.
He was walking home and he stared up at his apartment. He saw almost all of the 01 and 02 Digidestined walking into his home.
"What are they...That's it! I'm going in!" Tai shouted to himself and he started to run when he was interrupted by a voice in front him.
"Hold on Tai! You can't come over here yet!" Sora held up her hands in front of her.
"Like heck I can't! It's my apartment! I live there!" Tai shot back at Sora
"Please Tai, just give us...I don't know...twenty minutes? Please?"
"No, I'm going in there Sora, and you can't stop me." Tai walked past Sora and she grabbed his shoulder. "What are you-" She threw him in front of herself and got a serious look in her eyes.
"Piyomon, digivolve to Garudamon!" Sora held her digivice up and she flared pink.
"Are you insane! Are you seriously gonna hold me off with an ultimate?"
"You can't go in there, and I mean that."
"I'll do whatever she says to Tai. I'd be careful if I were you!" Garudamon squawked at Tai.
"Yeah well, I have my own surprise. I swung by the computer lab and got myself a gift!"
"Hi Garudamon!" Agumon waddled over to Tai's side.
"Hello Agum-Wait what?"
"Agumon, digivolve to Metalgreymon!" Tai held his device up above and glowed a bright orange.
The two ultimates stared at each other for several tense seconds, and then they launched into combat.
"This is ridiculous Sora! Call off your parakeet!" Tai ran over to his adversary.
"If you have a problem with it, then stop me!" Sora stood her ground.
"I'm not against hitting a woman! Especially one that acts so much like a man!" Tai put his fists up, and Sora followed. He didn't actually want to attack her, but he also needed to stop Garudamon and Metalgreymon from destroying everything around them. He tackled Sora and they started spinning around in the grass, procuring cuts all over themselves. Metalgreymon and Garudamon screamed attack names at each other while Tai and Sora continued their tussle. Sora threw Tai off of her and started pulling his hair.
"What are you guys hiding! Why are you so determined to keep it a secret?" Tai pushed Sora away. Garudamon screamed out another attack, and launched a red blazing bird at Metalgreymon. He smashed it out of his way, accidentally launching it at the two kids. Sora pulled Tai behind herself and readied a big punch.
"Sora! Watch out!" He spun Sora behind himself. The blast landed a few inches away from and flames were thrown out in every direction.
"Tai, are you okay?" She looked up at the wincing Tai. His hair and clothing had burn marks, but Tai didn't care.
"Call off Garudamon, this is silly." Tai said with a hoarse voice and furious eyes.
"I-Yeah, alright. Garudamon, stand down!" Sora yelled up at the great hawk. Garudamon changed from being a massive hawk to a small pink bird within seconds. Greymon followed suit.
"I'm going in." Tai told Sora and she simply nodded. He ran up the stairs and closed in on his apartment.
"Hold on Tai!" Kari and Gatomon popped out of the apartment, "Just give us a sec-"
"No. You guys have been ignoring me for a week. My friends, who I have spent a large portion of my life with, refused to talk to me for a week! I have waited far too long!"
"Fine! Gatomon, digivolve-"
Tai grabbed Gatomon and tossed her to the floor below.
"Huh...Well, I guess I can't argue with that." Kari was genuinely surprised.
Tai gently moved her away from the door and grabbed the handle. He opened it and saw something horrifying. A cake, party favors, presents, and a big banner that said "Happy birthday!" with crest symbols all over it.
Everybody turned to stare at Tai. Kari and Sora quickly came up behind him."Sorry guys." Kari and Sora said in unison. They walked in and positioned themselves next to everybody else.
"Well, this is kinda awkward now, but…" Joe held for a second, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" All of Tai's friends yelled out.
"You impatient dope." Matt commented afterwards.
Tai was stunned. He was furious, thankful, and confused. "Why? Why did you guys hide my own party from me?" Tai's head was racing.
"Tai, we respect you as our leader and friend, but sometimes, you forget that not everything is serious." Izzy answered first.
"Everytime we try to throw you a surprise party, you always hover over us. You give us advice, and you plan out every last thing. It's not really a surprise if you know everything that will happen a week before." Sora said.
"So, we made a pact. We tried to avoid you for as long as possible, and if you talked to us, we would try to end the conversation before you could get any answers." Matt added.
"I see...Well, I feel like there were other ways of going about it, but I understand. I guess I can be a little much. Especially around birthday time." Tai had calmed down.
"Well, birthday boy, time to celebrate." Ken said without excitement.
"Is Tai here yet?" Davis walked out of Tai's room wearing some of Tai's clothing and saw the 01 leader staring at him furiously. "Uhhhh...Happy birthday?"
Laughs rang out and the party went on for hours. Tai was happy that his friends were finally talking with him again.
THE END.