Sora wasn't usually one to be late, especially without a good excuse. Today was off for her, though. She hadn't slept well the night before and she pressed the snooze button on her alarm clock one too many times. She hustled down the hallway, but not too fast. She figured she was already late, so a few more minutes wouldn't do anything awful. As the girl passed mirrors in the hall, she couldn't help but notice how unkept she looked. Her hair was knotted and she wore sweatpants and a plain white tee-shirt. Honestly, she didn't have time to do anything before she ran out the door for school. She supposed she could have showered or eaten breakfast, but she hated missing work. Eventually though, there were no more mirrors to look into, and she proceeded on her way.
Although she had a backpack, Sora carried many of her books in her hands. She didn't waste time packing them up, she simply grabbed them and left her house. They were beginning to get heavy, but her classroom was in sight. She was only about twenty minutes late. The girl just hoped her teacher wouldn't be too annoyed with her.
Sora picked up her pace as she crossed the last intersection in the hallway. There were other late kids bustling about, and one of them ran right into Sora, knocking all of the books out of her hands.
"Ow! What was that?" The boy exclaimed, spinning around to see what he had knocked into. He saw the books on the ground and grumbled. "Who leaves books lying around?"
As the boy trudged on, Sora called after him, enraged. "Aren't you going to apologize?"
However, she received no response. The boy didn't even flinch. The girl was about to shout something else, but before she did, a giant wind roared through the hall and knocked the boy onto his back. His papers flew everywhere and tumbled across the hall, carried by the remnants of the gust.
The boy screamed, and Sora's eyes grew wide. "What in the world was that?"
Sora looked around for an open window but couldn't find one. The hall was completely closed off. Unless an air conditioner just exploded somewhere, there was no way a gust of wind could have formed in the hall, much less a gust that could knock someone off their feet.
The confused girl groaned and leaned down to pick her books back up. She decided that it was some sort of freak incident that she had no time to think about. Quickly, Sora put her things in her locker and dashed to class.
As usual, Yamato and Koushirou had saved a seat for her. They were all in the same first period together. The digidestined had all developed a nasty habit of clinging to each other; it helped them hold onto the memories of the adventures they shared not too long ago, and of their respective digimon.
As quietly as she could, Sora tiptoed into the classroom as to not disturb the lecture. The seat was already pulled out, so the girl made no noise when she sat. The girl smiled; she had gotten in perfectly unnoticed.
"Hey." Sora whispered to Yamato, trying to get him to turn around. Both of the boys were sitting in front of her. "Hey!" The girl whispered again, a little louder than before.
However, Yamato still didn't move.
"Yamato?" Sora whispered, still louder than before.
When he didn't answer again, Sora mumbled under her breath. "Why is everyone being so obnoxious this morning?"
Still, Yamato didn't move. Koushirou didn't move either, but Sora simply assumed he was sucked into the lecture as he always was.
Giving up, Sora turned her attention to the professor. He was droning on and on about some sort of equation. The girl had only missed twenty minutes of class and she was completely lost!
The girl decided to ask Koushirou what was going on and tapped him on the shoulder. "Koushirou, what's this equation for?"
The red head didn't answer. He turned around briefly and rubbed the spot on his shoulder where Sora had tapped him, only taking half a second to glance at the spot where Sora sat.
Next, he turned to Yamato. "Where do you think Sora is today?"
Yamato looked behind him as well. "I don't know. It's not my job to keep track of her."
Koushirou grumbled. "I didn't imply that, she just doesn't miss school very often."
"Maybe she's sick." Yamato responded bluntly before bringing his attention back to the class.
Sora furrowed her brow. "Guys!" she said in a normal tone now, "I'm right here!" The girl nearly threw her arms in the air but she still got no response. "Guys!"
Now she was simply getting annoyed. "Yamato, Koushirou, I know I look awful but that's no reason to pretend I don't exist!"
Still, there was no response. Forgetting where she was, Sora stood from her seat and yelled, "Guys!" and then got quieter, "I-m… I'm here…"
It was then that Sora's face went white. She stood in the middle of the class with her mouth wide open. Her scream should have gotten everyone's attention, but it attracted no one's. Quickly, Sora dashed out of the class and back into the hall to search for a mirror. She found one, but nearly fainted when she looked into it.
"I-I don't have a reflection?" She asked aloud, her voice shaky. The girl reached out her hand and touched the glass. She could see her skin, the form of her hand, but on the other side of the glass, nothing reached out. There was nothing to reach out from. Nothing was there.
Sora backed away from it and nearly tripped over her heels. "I-I'm going insane. Am I dead? Am I a ghost?"
The girl was about to turn back around to go to the classroom. She was determined to get someones attention, but just before she did, her figure appeared in the mirror. There was nothing there, then with a blink, there she was. Sora's eyes flew open in surprise. She gasped and reached out once again. Her mirror image followed everything she did. Sora let out a sigh. She was confused, but mostly relieved. Perhaps she was so exhausted she simply made the whole thing up.
The girl walked back to class, and forgetting no one else had noticed her before, she came in louder than she should have.
The professor looked up from his notes and scowled. "Well, I'm glad you could find the time to join us Ms. Takenouchi."
Normally, Sora would have been embarrassed, but she was just happy to have someone notice her. She muttered a quick apology before taking her seat once again.
Yamato turned around quickly to face her. "Where were you?"
Sora honestly had no idea how to respond, so she said the first thing that came to mind. "I, uh, I overslept."
Yamato chuckled and Sora raised an eyebrow at him, still a bit shaky from what had just happened. "Why are you all bundled up like it's winter? It's almost June."
"I'm cold!" Yamato exclaimed playfully, trying to pretend as if he had been insulted.
Sora giggled and the boy turned back around to take notes. The class would be over soon, and they would all have a chance to talk.
X
Taichi let out a sigh of relief when he heard the bell ring. He had tried to get a seat as close as he could to the window, but it didn't cool him down at all. Although he sat pretty far away from the door, he was the first one out of it, and the first one in line for the water fountain. Anxiously, he put his lips to it, worried that the water would disappear before he could drink it again. However, to his surprise, he felt the cool liquid enter his mouth and run down his throat. The boy stood, wiped his mouth, and smiled at the accomplishment of such a simple thing. In fact, his entire body felt cooler. The boy grinned.
"Taichi!" He heard from behind him. the boy turned around and met Yamato.
"Hey! What's up?"
"Mm, nothing. I nearly slept through all of first period though." Yamato yawned, covering his mouth as he spoke.
Taichi turned to the two people standing behind the blonde, particularly Sora. He laughed. "Did you not sleep well either? You look terrible."
"You're so funny. It's nice to see you too, Taichi." The girl grumbled, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Hey, I was just joking." Taichi chuckled as he reached out and rubbed his hand on the girls head, messing her hair up even more.
Sora effortlessly pushed him away. "Will you knock it off? You're so annoying."
"Oh am I?" Taichi raised an eyebrow and smirked, reaching his hand out once again. He only meant to playfully punch her shoulder, but as soon as he applied force, the girl was sent flying back towards the wall. Admittedly, she was only a few inches away from it, so it wasn't exactly flying, but she still hit the lockers with enough force to create an alarming sound.
"Taichi!" Both Koushirou and Yamato exclaimed at the same time. Their eyes followed the girl as she slammed into the wall, but it happened too fast for either of them to do anything.
The brunette froze.
"What's wrong with you?" Yamato asked, helping to lift Sora back up from against the wall. The girl rubbed her shoulder and gave Taichi a clearly aggravated look.
"Thanks for that." She said, adjusting her backpack straps on her shoulders.
"I-I really didn't... I don't know.. how that happened..." The boy stumbled over his words as he raised his hands to his face. He looked at them in wonder. He hadn't meant to push her that hard. He hadn't even thought about it.
Yamato, changing his look from shocked to concerned, looked from his friend's hands to his friend's face. "Are you alright Taichi?"
"Yeah..." the boy said quietly. "Just.. something strange is going on."
Koushirou, Sora, and Yamato all looked at each other. They weren't sure what Taichi meant, but they knew they all agreed with him. Yamato, realizing he suddenly didn't feel so cold anymore, took his sweater off and threw it over his shoulder. The white undershirt he wore covered him up enough. They didn't really say anything else; they all had too much going through their minds.
X
On the other side of the building, where the younger kids had classes, Hikari sat next to Takeru in math. The professor, as in Yamato's class, was going on and on about something much too difficult to be taught in school, at least in Takeru's opinion.
"Man, I don't get any of this."
"It's not too difficult," Hikari said, turning to him and smiling, "You just have to remember not to put the square sign inside the parentheses."
Takeru stared at the girl. "What?"
"It's not too difficult.." The girl repeated, her voice getting quieter with each word. Suddenly, her stomach dropped. Was it happening again?
"Why did she just say that?"
Now, since Hikari was looking at the boy, she could see that his lips weren't moving. He stared at her, not saying a single word.
"I wish she'd stop staring, she's making me nervous."
Instantly, the girl looked away, forcing herself to stare up front at the white board and forgetting to blink. Takeru either didn't take notice or decided to move on. He picked up his pencil once again and began to take notes. Hikari however, sighed. She wished this would stop happening. She knew she was less freaked out than she should have been, but she had been to the digital world, after all. Nothing really surprised her anymore. Although, admittedly, she wasn't used to having something weird happen to her.
"Ugh. I've got to pee so bad. I should go... but math.. but ugh! Okay, just go."
Hikari bit her lip as Takeru rose from his seat. She wanted to laugh, and she wanted to flip out. It was pretty difficult to hold in both emotions, but she managed.
Takeru walked down the hall until he got to the bathroom, which wasn't too far away. He opened the door and realized there was no one else in there, which was always nice. He quickly relieved himself and took a few moments to look in the mirror. He poked and prodded at his face for a bit, trying to get a red spot on his skin to go away. He let out a loud groan after he realized all he did was make the spot worse.
"Ugh." He said to himself. "I wish I was Yamato. He never worries about what he looks like."
The boy washed his hands and walked over to get some paper towels. He pulled them out and crinkled the brown pieces of paper into a tight ball. A strange chill went down his spine as he dried his hands with it and his body began to feel numb. Takeru fidgeted uncomfortably in his shoes, wondering where the sudden sensation had come from.
Against his better judgment, the boy decided to check himself in the mirror one last time, at least to see if the red spot had gone down. However, once Takeru caught sight of himself, his heart nearly stopped.
"What in the..." Was all he could say as he reached out and touched the glass. In the mirror was not a perfect resemblance of him, but a perfect resemblance of Yamato. Takeru felt like himself, but the mirror said otherwise. He was sure he was seeing things. First, he blinked, then he rubbed his eyes. However, when the reflection refused to change, he reached up to his head, expecting to feel his hat. What he felt instead was a thick head of hair filled with gel. The boy gasped and jumped back from the mirror, allowing him to get a full view of the reflection. In response, the boy looked down. Indeed, he had his brother's school uniform on instead of the yellow shirt and jeans he had put on that morning. He was quite a few inches taller, too.
"Oh my god.."
-surflilu