Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure is a fan fiction idea created by me. The Life Of Kari Kamiya is a fanfiction property that extends off that story and belongs to me also. Please support the official properties.
The Life of Kari Kamiya
First Day of School
Kari had to switch school districts once the summer break had concluded. Some of the schools were unusable, destroyed or damaged in the fighting. Of the handful that survived, most didn't have enough students to justify staying open. So school districts were redrawn and students were sent to different schools to at least provide some semblance of normalcy.
All of this was lost on Kari as she stood outside the gates of her new school, disappointed that she didn't recognize anybody here. She'd hoped that she would see at least one of her friends but found none of them. It was probably for the best since the last time she saw any of them, it was running out of a birthday party she'd been invited to upon learning her brother may still be alive. There would be no way for her to explain that to them - with how difficult the circumstance already was. And the odds of running into any of the other digidestined at this school were low since they all lived around Tokyo.
She glanced down at the digivice she'd clipped to her little back pack and steeled herself by recalling the final words her brother had said to her in the Digital World - that she could do anything she wanted and overcome anything after what she'd experienced. It was a tiny measure of comfort and she took her first steps into the new school.
As she forced herself forward into her first day, she wondered what the others were up to at that moment. Perhaps she would run into them - Sora, Matt, TK, Mimi, Joe, or Izzy. Perhaps she'd been too harsh to assume she wouldn't find any of them. After all, she'd heard that they'd be sharing a building with students at the junior high level, and learned it was true when she saw several students in green uniforms.
Her classroom was on the second floor where she was disappointed to learn that she was the last one there. Most of the students were chatting idly amongst themselves, divided by gender with the girls on one side and boys on the other. The boys read comics, traded cards, and played with action figures, while the girls talked about the music they liked listening to or the magazines they brought with them. In the center of the boy's side was a single boy with short, spiky brown hair making a ruckus about the goggles he was wearing.
For a moment, Kari thought it was her brother but knew better than to think that. His situation was complicated and there was no way he'd suddenly just appear in her school at her grade level. The boy snarled at another, "Why don't you say that to my face!?"
"I just did!" said another boy to his face, "They're stupid and you're stupid for liking them Davis!"
Davis. She remembered that name from the day her cat disappeared. This was the boy who found her, who's sister carried her home, and who tried to protect her when all the chaos followed. She shook her head to break herself out of her stupor when one of the girls pulled her away, explaining that the boys had been arguing since they walked in and it was better to ignore them because of how stupid they were being.
She joined their side and they each got to know each other as new friends. As hard as she tried, Kari still found her attention always being pulled to Davis and the other boys. They only stopped when the teacher stepped in and told them to settle down or they would have to deal with detention. By some stroke of luck, Kari found herself sitting in the front row with Davis at the desk next to her.
After a quick talk about his expectations for the new year, their new teacher began roll call and asked each student to introduce themselves as their name was called. One by one, each student's name was called and they said something about themselves. Upon calling his name, Davis jumped out his chair, "Present! My name is Davis Motomiya! I like soccer; playing it and watching it! When I grow up, I want to be the best soccer player out there!"
"Not with those goggles," the boy who'd antagonized him earlier joked. Davis turned on the boy immediately but refrained from doing anything under the teacher's watchful eye. The teacher sighed and asked them to stop bullying each other, just as Kari quietly added, "I think they're cool."
"Really?" The girl sitting next to her asked. Kari sheepishly nodded, "My brother had a pair like those. I like it."
"See! Kari gets it!" Davis pointed out to the others. Their teacher sighed and warned them again to settle down before he started handing out detentions and calling parents. This calmed the class down again and roll call proceeded normally. Another outburst didn't occur until Kari's name was called, "Present. My name is Kari Kamiya. I like playing with my cat Miko and being with my parents."
"And Davis," the boy who'd been harassing Davis joked playfully. Most of the class oohed until the teacher slammed a ruler on his podium. They fell silent and watched him point it at the boy, calmly telling him to go stand in the hall and that he would be serve the first detention of the year. Kari felt her face flush but pretended nothing was wrong, noticing that Davis had also turned a bright shade of red.
From there, the day went on normally until their lunch break when the teacher left class to go to the teacher's offices. Some of the students went to the cafeteria to get food while the others ate the box lunches their parents made. Everyone pushed their desks together to talk and she had been invited to join the girls but decline when she noticed Davis hadn't gone to push his chair with the other boys. Instead, she found herself pushing her desk against his and asked, "Do you mind if we have lunch together?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Davis said, producing a boxed lunch of rice and sliced hot dogs. Kari's had a mix of sandwiches and pickled plums that she liked and the two sat quietly, trying to ignore the many looks they were getting from their peers who thought it was weird that a boy and a girl would want to sit together.
The two would occasionally glance at the other as they ate quietly until eventually Kari couldn't stand the silence any more and said, "I don't know if you remember. But...thanks for helping me out."
"Oh...uh, no problem," Davis answered sheepishly, "How are you feeling? Any better?"
"Yeah...I'm fine," she nodded quietly, shifting her gaze to his goggles, "Your goggles really are cool."
"Oh yeah," Davis spoke with a bit more enthusiasm, adjusting the pair he wore on his head, "They are cool, aren't they? I got'em after what happened - I didn't stop bugging my parents until they let me have one. So what happened to you after that one kid kicked us all out?"
Kari opened her mouth to answer but paused as she realized she probably couldn't ever talk about her trip to the Digital World. She stumbled over her words as she scrambled to think of something to say, "Um...we...that...is...we...beat the bad guy and everything was okay. What about you?"
"I wanted to help out but everyone kept telling me to sit it out," Davis grumbled in frustration, "I hate it when everyone treats me like a little kid."
Kari couldn't help but smile and added, "We'll I'm glad you're okay."
"Same," he smiled back. Kari had no idea where this new year would be going or what it would bring. She was just glad that she had a familiar face to be there beside her, a friend who hadn't been worn down after everything that had happened. It made the prospect of facing what the world had in store for them bearable, even exciting. She felt her smile widen, oblivious to her classmates who were surprised by a boy and a girl getting along so well.
Author's Notes: Hey folks, I hope you liked this brief glimpse at some of the happy moments in Kari's life without her brother. If you liked it, why not leave a review, follow and favorite? I always love hearing your guy's feedback and responding as soon as I'm able. Finally, don't forget to check out Ace Spiritwell's deviant art account. Ace is the artist who did some fan art for the stories as well as the covers for both The Life of Kari Kamiya and The Tamer v1.2!