Chapter 6- Revelation
The next morning, Kari was pulled out of a comfortable sleep by the sound of loud shouting. By the time she was out of bed, dressed, and ready for school, her mother and grandmother were still going at it in the kitchen.
"Is it so wrong for a mother to want to contact her only son, who happens to be living on his own on the other side of the world!" her mother shouted, waving Grandma Kate's cordless telephone in her right hand.
"Only when you want to use my phone line to call long distance to Tokyo for two hours!" Grandma Kate retorted. "I don't see you offering to pay any of my utility bills!"
"Well, where were you when Tai was three and Kari was a baby and I needed help looking after them?"
Missy was the only one who noticed as Kari slipped out the front door, deciding on walking the few blocks to the high school. She tried not to let her mother's problems disturb her or shake her focus.
Twenty minutes later, she was still trying to convince herself of that, when she stepped into her first hour, which was World History, for the first time. A wave of sound engulfed her as she stepped through the doorway. Kids were sitting on the tabletops, throwing notes and paper airplanes at each other, there was even a stereo set up on the back counter, blaring a new rock band.
Lynn was sitting on the counter, squeezed in between Drew and the stereo.
"Hey Lynn, what are we listening to?" Drew yelled over noise.
"It's a new band. They're called The Teenage Wolves, aren't they awesome!" she yelled back.
The Teenage Wolves, Kari thought, as the imaginary light bulb above her head clicked on. That was Matt's band. No wonder it sounded so familiar to her. She sat down in a vacant seat, singing along to Matt's voice in her head.
Suddenly, the door opened and it was like someone put a spell on the students. The stereo was unplugged and hidden beneath a desk. The notes and paper airplanes somehow made their way to the trashcan, and miraculously, every student sat down quietly at the desks.
All of this happened in a split second, because after that, their teacher entered. In Japan, Kari had never been much interested in world history, however, after her first lesson with Mr. Thompson, she was most definitely interested. He was a younger man, an average height, and very attractive. But more importantly, he was the kind of teacher that tried to relate the historical events to his students; one of those 'fun teachers' that everyone couldn't help but like.
At the end of the hour, Kari was almost sorry to hear the bell ring, but she quickly changed her mind when she realized that Photography was her second hour. Kari had always loved taking pictures, ever since her father had given her a digital camera for her twelfth birthday. That was the year that they had spent saving the digital world once again, and all through their adventures, Kari had been the unofficial photographer.
Now, all of her treasured photo albums were packed in a cardboard box, somewhere between California and Japan.
When she got to the photography room, the teacher, Mrs. Anderson, issued her one of the schools semi-working, beaten up digital cameras. Then she was given her first assignment. Mrs. Anderson wanted Kari to take 'interesting landscape photos,' as she put it.
Kari let her creative nature take over her then, trying to decide which angles of the park between her grandmother's house and the school she could use for her assignment. However, the bell interrupted her, and she left to meet Hannah at her locker before chemistry.
In her excitement over her new project, Kari told Hannah all about it. But, Hannah, being a logical person, asked why she didn't just take pictures of the bay, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or any of the tourist attractions in the city.
Hannah's answer gave her something to think about as their chemistry teacher lectured on a topic Kari had already learned about. True, Kari already had some great shots of the scenery from her family's sightseeing venture the other day.
The best place I could go, Kari thought, would be the digital world. In her daydreams, she saw all of the exotic flowers and bizarre plant species. She laughed to herself, if she could go there, Gatomon would want to pose for her.
On her blank page of notes, Kari attempted a sketch of her old friend, Gatomon. Surprisingly, the final result looked pretty accurate, if Kari did say so herself.
"What's that?" Hannah asked from beside Kari, also not paying attention to the boring lesson.
"Uh…" Kari stammered, "It's nothing." She didn't exactly want to have to explain digital monsters to Hannah, who most likely wouldn't believe her anyway.
Hannah gave her a strange look that weirdly unsettled her, though Kari shrugged it off despite her uneasiness.
However, Hannah was strangely quiet at lunch, and later that day, Kari finally found out why.
In sixth hour computers, Kari was deeply absorbed in the one letter T.K. had written her that hadn't consisted of just "Dear Kari, I miss you, I wish you were here."
It went: "Dear Kari, I'm sorry if what I said at the airport upset you in any way. It was an irrational thing to say, just please forget that it ever happened. Of course, I do love you, you're my best friend, how could I not love you? I just don't want anything to happen to our friendship, but then, what could be worse than five thousand miles of ocean between us? Ignore me, I'm just worried because you haven't replied to any of the e-mails I've sent you. I hope it's not because you have a new boyfriend. If that is the reason, then I guess I'm just going to have to come and kick his-"
"Kari!" a soft voice exclaimed, though she didn't recognize it.
She looked over her shoulder. Hannah and Tom were next to her, both engrossed in their own computer screens. She turned around to see behind her. The only other people in the room who knew her name were Lynn and Drew, and those two were also both not paying attention.
"Kari Kamiya!" said the voice again.
She was about to stand up to ensure that no one was sitting on the other side of her computer.
"Kari! Over here!" She was thoroughly confused. It almost sounded like it was coming from her computer…
She minimized the screen with T.K.'s letter and nearly jumped out of her chair. A four inch tall Gennai was standing on her menu bar. He waved to her, a big goofy grin beneath his bushy, white mustache.
"It's nice to see you again, Kari!" he said.
Kari looked over her shoulders again, this time to make sure that no one was giving her any suspicious looks. Then, she leaned a little closer to her monitor and whispered, "Hi Gennai, it's good to see you too, but what are you doing in my computer?"
"Well, this is a little difficult to explain through the internet, but we really need your help here in the digital world."
"What do you mean? What's going on there? And who's 'we'?" she demanded.
"Oh my God!" Hannah's voice interrupted.
"Hannah," Kari hesitated, once again lost for an explanation. "I can explain…" she lied.
"I knew it!" Hannah said rather loudly, causing the snoring instructor to shift in his sleep.
"Knew what?" Kari asked, as Gennai sat down on the menu bar, seemingly amused with the conversation between the two girls.
"The cartoon you were drawing in chemistry. It was a digimon, wasn't it?" Hannah asked, proud realization on her face.
"How do you know about digimon?" Kari asked, getting Tom interested in their conversation as well.
"Wait," Tom said, "how does Kari know about digimon?" He gave Hannah an accusing glance.
"Maybe I can explain," Gennai finally interrupted. "Hannah, Tom, Kari is one of the original digi-destineds. She and her partner Gatomon have been helping to save the digital world since she was eight years old."
Hannah and Tom were staring at Kari, their eyes as wide as softballs. "Now, Kari," Gennai continued, "Hannah and Tom are two members of the rather small team of American digi-destineds."
Students began to file out of the computer lab, and Kari hadn't even heard the bell ring. A few minutes later, even the sleeping teacher was gone, and still the three of them were standing in front of Kari's computer, staring at each other, as though meeting for the first time.
Lynn, however, had not left the lab with the other students, and slowly approached the three of them. "Kari," Gennai asked, "have you met Lynn? She leads the American digi-destineds."
Kari turned around to see Lynn standing behind her, glaring straight at her. Then, Kari did something she had never thought she would ever be capable of doing, and said, "I don't know what you want from me Gennai, but I can't help you. I can't help anyone."
Neither Hannah, Tom, Lynn, nor Gennai could say anything in response before Kari hightailed it out of the lab. She ran down a flight of stairs, not even bothering to stop at her locker before dashing through the front doors.
She was halfway down the building's front steps, when a voice called from behind her, "Kari! Wait up!"
She forced herself to ignore it, suspecting it to be Hannah or Tom, two people that she really didn't want to talk to at the moment. A second later, though, a hand gripped her arm and forced her to a stop.
She whirled around, arms raised to defend herself, when her eyes met Drew's smiling face. "What are you running for? Are you okay? Do you want me to walk you home?"
"No, I'm fine," Kari said coldly, already turning back towards her grandmother's house.
Drew wouldn't take no for an answer though. She walked on down the sidewalk, and he matched her pace silently.
However, after a while, he couldn't contain himself anymore, and said, "Kari, do you think, maybe, you would ever let me take you out on a date?"
Fighting the ridiculous urge to burst into laughter, Kari retorted with, "I thought you and Lynn were an item."
"No," he replied quickly. "We're just really good friends. We tried dating a few times though, but it just didn't work for us, so we decided to just be friends."
"I know that we don't really know each other very well, but can I ask you a kind of personal question?" she asked him.
"Sure…" he said hesitantly.
"Well, say that you were in love, like once-in-a-lifetime, real, honest to God, true love, and you'd never told her how you felt. So, when she had to leave for a long time and you might not ever see her again, you would tell her right?" She wasn't sure if she was making sense or not, but she needed to talk about it to someone.
He nodded slowly, unsure of where this conversation was heading.
"So," Kari continued, "you tell her how you feel, but she doesn't say anything. Let's say, she just walks away, and never says it back."
"What's your point?" he asked, extremely confused.
"Well, would you still love her the same way even if she didn't say anything?"
"Umm…I'm not really sure what we're talking about now. Is this about your boyfriend in Japan?"
"Yeah."
"Well," he asked, "do you love him?"
"With all my heart."
"Then I'm sure he knows, and if he doesn't, then he's an idiot, and you should break it off with him and go out with me."
She rolled her eyes. Drew was more like Davis than she had realized.
"I'm just kidding," he said. "I'm sorry for asking you out. I hope it works out. He's a lucky guy."
They had arrived at Kari's grandmother's house. "Thank you. And thank you for just listening, I needed that."
"Anytime," he said, giving her an innocent hug before she headed up the stairs to the front door.