Chapter 7- Beginning
Entering the house was like walking into a war zone, just before a battle. Kari's mother was sitting at the counter, mindlessly flipping through a magazine, while Grandma Kate was perched on the sofa in the living room, staring at the television set, even though it wasn't turned on. Missy lay sprawled out on the floor between the two rooms, alternating glances at the two women, as if she were keeping them in line.
The two weren't speaking, or even looking, at each other, yet the tension was almost strong enough to push Kari back out the front door. Terrified of what could possibly happen if she broke their silence, she closed the door gently before slipping off her tennis shoes as silently as she could.
However, as soon as she took a step onto the first stair, her foot landed on something white and fluffy.
"Geez, Kari, first you don't even say hello, and then you step on my tail?" said the white, fluffy object, leaping into Kari's arms.
"Gatomon?" Kari asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"
"She arrived just a few minutes before you did," Mrs. Kamiya said from the kitchen. "I reassured Kate that she was your friend and told her that you'd be home soon."
"Friend, or not, just make sure it's housebroken." Grandma Kate interrupted.
Gatomon made a face and rolled her eyes, but followed Kari up the staircases to her room. As soon as she opened the door for her friend, the catlike digimon jumped onto Kari's mattress.
"So where are T.K. and Patamon? Are they ready to kick some bad guy butt?" she asked excitedly.
Kari frowned. "Uhh…T.K.'s not here…"
"Well, where is he?" she asked, now that both of them were confused.
"T.K.'s in Japan. Where else would he be?"
The cutest expression came on her face as she tried to figure out what Kari was telling her. "But I thought Gennai sent you here to help the Americans. How come he sent you without T.K.?"
"Gatomon," Kari began, "Gennai didn't send me here…" She went on to explain that her parents were getting a divorce, but as soon as she said that, Gatomon asked what she meant, so she had to explain that too.
"So it's like what happened to Matt and T.K.'s parents? They just stopped loving each other?" Gatomon asked.
"Kind of," Kari tried to clarify, and Gatomon nodded. "So did Gennai send you here to convince me to help the Americans?"
"Yeah, but if you don't want to, I guess I could just hang out for a while before going back…" Gatomon answered.
"What's going on in the digital world? Why do they need our help?"
"It's not as bad as it sounds," she explained, "without Malomyotismon's control, things have almost been working. It's just that there's still a few unpleasant digimon who would like to try to take over. So, really, it's nothing abnormal, nothing the digi-destineds shouldn't be able to handle, but that seems to be the problem in these parts. These new American kids just aren't strong enough on their own, but who can blame them since there's only four of them."
Kari nodded, easily calculating that she and Gatomon would be a huge amount of help to the American team. The only thing holding her back was that it didn't change her situation. She would still be the new girl, she would still be all alone, and T.K. still wouldn't be here. She knew what she would do if he were here, she knew what he would do in her situation.
Before she could say anything, her mother shrieked her name up the stairs.
"Kari! There's someone here to see you!"
Kari sighed, she hoped it wasn't Drew. She thought that she had made it clear to him why she wouldn't go out with him.
Slowly, Kari walked down the stairs, Gatomon a step behind her. When Kari reached the landing, she was surprised to see her mother holding the door open for Hannah's sister, Lynn. She could tell that it was Lynn from her tight blue jeans and formfitting T-shirt. Lynn and Hannah's taste in clothing was the way that Kari had yet found to tell them apart.
Lynn met her eyes as Kari walked down the stairs towards her, and this would have to have been the first time that she wasn't glaring at the new girl.
Mrs. Kamiya smiled and decided that she would suffer her mother's company to leave the two girls alone in the kitchen.
Kari led Lynn over to a barstool, while Gatomon leapt onto the counter between them.
"This is Gatomon, Gatomon, this is Lynn," Gatomon smiled a greeting that only a few people might have been comfortable with.
"Kari," Lynn said hesitantly, "I'm sorry if I was rude to you, I really didn't mean anything by it…what I'm trying to say is…please help us. We're trying, but we need help. At first I didn't want to admit it, but I know it's the truth now. I can see how our failure to protect this area of the digital world has been starting to affect my friends."
Kari smiled, cutting her off, "You don't have to keep going if you don't want to, I've already decided to help you."
"Really?" Lynn and Gatomon both asked at the same time.
Kari nodded, much to Lynn and Gatomon's excitement.
"Okay, then, let's go!" she said, already pulling her shoes on.
Less than ten minutes later, Lynn, Kari, and Gatomon burst into the computer lab where Hannah and Tom were standing beside a younger boy. Lynn quickly introduced the boy as Mikey, and it might have just been her easiness with younger children, but there was something about him that she liked instinctively.
As soon as they all met Gatomon, Tom opened up the digital port crossed over to where four rookie level digimon were waiting patiently for their human partners.
It turns out that Lynn was partnered with a friendly Gazimon, a digimon that looked somewhat like a big, gray rabbit. Hannah was with a warm hug from a red and blue striped Elecmon. A small, finned Betamon jumped at Tom's feet excitedly until he picked him up into his arms. And as soon as they got there, Mikey ran into the arms of a small doglike Labramon.
A second later, Labramon trotted up to Gatomon and gave her a sniff. Surprisingly, Gatomon just laughed and pushed her away.
"She smells fun Mikey," Labramon said as she moved on to sniff Kari's hand.
Mikey looked up at Kari and gave her a heartwarming smile. That's when Kari realized why she had naturally liked Mikey, with his sandy, light brown hair gathered underneath a red baseball cap, he reminded her of T.K. when she first met him eight years ago.
The others had started to walk away, so Mikey grabbed Kari's hand, pulling her through the trees.
"Come on, Kari!" he said, enthusiastically, and Kari ran with him to catch up to the others.
Several hours later, the digi-destineds emerged from the computer after taking care of a few rowdy Tyrannomon. Gatomon had decided to stay with the other digimon, so it was just the five kids.
Mikey was almost asleep so Lynn picked him up and carried him piggyback style. They stealthily snuck out of the school, and Kari realized that the sun had already set.
Lynn led the way down the sidewalk, still carrying Mikey on her back. Behind her were Tom and Hannah, with his arm wrapped around her waist. Kari brought up the rear, studying the group, feeling an unknown obligation to help them in any way she could.
Tom leaned closer to Hannah and whispered something in her ear. She giggled and told the others that they 'had to work on a project,' so they were going over to Tom's house.
"Whatever," was Lynn's response, as the two were already heading down a side street. "Do you want to come with me to take Mikey home?" Lynn asked.
"Sure," Kari said as they continued down the sidewalk.
"So," Lynn said a little while later, "has Drew asked you out yet? He told me he was going to."
Kari blushed, "Yeah, this afternoon, but I'm not looking for a boyfriend."
"Is there a guy in Japan?"
"Yeah."
"Is he a didi-destined?"
"Yep, that's how we met."
"What's his crest?" asked Mikey, who both girls thought was asleep.
Kari was confused for a second, she didn't know that any of the other digi-destineds had a crest besides Ken. "He has the crest of hope. Do you guys have crests too?"
"Mine's Faith," said Mikey.
Lynn smiled, "Mine's Loyalty."
Kari smiled, it was perfect for her. "I have the crest of light."
"Hannah's is Compassion, and Tom's is Patience," Mikey informed her.
Kari nodded, understanding more about her friends with this new information.
Mikey yawned, stretching his jaw wider than Kari believed was possible. Then, he jumped off of Lynn and dashed up the walkway to a small, white row house, where a familiar man opened the door for him.
Mikey grabbed his hand, pulling him out to the sidewalk. "Come meet my new friend Kari, dad," he said excitedly.
Although it was hard to make out his face in the dim light, Kari recognized the man as her world history teacher, Mr. Thompson .
"Hello Kari, Lynn," he said politely, nodding at the two girls. "Thank you for taking care of Mikey. I'm glad that he has friends like you to take look after him. Now, for the record, you girls better get home and finish your homework."
Lynn and Kari laughed with him, waved goodbye and made their way home.
"Mikey's a good kid," Lynn said, after they were a good distance away. "I'm glad he found a friend like Labramon, it's been rough for him."
"What happened?" Kari asked, truly curious about her new younger friend. When he smiled at her, he reminded her of the younger T.K., always full of hope and innocence. Yet, there were other times when she had looked at him and he reminded her of her friend Cody. Cody was much too mature for his age, always reasonable and responsible.
"Mrs. Thompson died two years ago, Mikey was eight years old. It was just a few months before our first trip to the digital world."
"That's terrible," Kari responded. "He's lucky to have you, Hannah, and Tom."
They came to where they had to part ways, "I don't know what you guys have been through," Kari said, "but I hope that things will be different from now on."
Lynn smiled and they both went home for the night.