JUST BE YOURSELF

CHAPTER 3

Tai would be the first one to admit that he was moping. He knew he was scaring two of his best friends, but at the time he had too much on his mind to care.

Tai tried to tell himself he didn't want Sora back, but it was a pathetic lie. Not really, he told himself. I don't want Sora back, I want my Sora back.

He had to admit that she had changed quite a bit since hanging out with Matt. Since when was Sora interested in tennis? She was a soccer player!

No one had heard a single complaint about Sora having to wear the skirt that went along with their high school uniform. The old Sora would've been fighting it all the way. And the way she'd dressed up on a weekend, when it wasn't required... it just made Tai sick to his stomach. He felt stupid. He felt a little bit possessive. But he also felt that, whatever this was, it wasn't right. Even if he wasn't necessarily right either.

What had happened to her?

...

"I'll see you tomorrow," Sora said after Matt had kissed her goodbye. It had been a friendly kiss, not exactly what she'd expected from her first date with her first boyfriend. But then, his dad had been watching... Now she was the one to watch as Matt smiled at her, got in the car, and they drove away.

As expected, Biyomon was waiting for her in her bedroom. "So how was it?" she asked expectantly as soon as Sora plopped down on her bed.

"It was awesome. Matt's such a sweet guy!" And this was true. Dinner had been nice. They'd gotten along well. But then, they'd always gotten along well. And it had been forefront in her mind all evening that this had been a date, but... She wasn't sure it felt like a date. Then again, what did a date feel like? Her head was starting to spin with all the confusion.

"But something's not right," Biyomon concluded. Sora rolled over so that she was facing the wall, suddenly moody. "Sora, what's wrong? You know you can talk to me."

"I know," she mumbled. "It's just... sometimes I feel so bad. Matt is awesome, but..."

"Tai?"

"Yeah. It just isn't right. I mean... I knew Tai was in love with me and I still agreed to go out with his best friend. I mean, I basically broke the number one rule of being a good friend! And Tai's been so nice about it. I mean," she continued, "I was in love with Tai once. How would I have felt if he'd decided to go out with Mimi when I was so obviously in love with him?"

Biyomon shuddered. "Tai and Mimi? That's one scary couple..."

Sora giggled. She could always count on Biyo to cheer her up. Even if she had answered none of Sora's questions and done nothing to clear up the mounting confusion.

...

Izzy was still in the kitchen, this time dialing the Kamiya residence. The call with TK had not been all he was hoping for. But if there was one person he could count on to stick up for Tai, it was Kari.

"Hello?" answered Tai's mom.

"Hi. Mrs. Kamiya? This is Izzy."

"Izzy?" She seemed confused. "Wasn't Tai going over your house today?"

"Yes. He's here," answered Izzy, glancing almost nervously behind him where Joe was still keeping their friend occupied in the other room. And by 'occupied', he totally meant distracted. "Actually, I wanted to talk to Kari."

"Oh... Okay. Kari! Telephone!"

A minute later Kari was on the other end. "Hello?"

"Hey." His response hung in the air, a little awkward, even to his own ears. Luckily, Kari didn't seem to notice. That or she'd just grown used to Izzy's poor social skills.

"Oh. Hi, Izzy. What's up?"

"Um, it's about Tai," he began.

"Is he okay?"

Silently, Izzy cheered. This was going in the right direction already. "Actually, that's what I wanted to ask you. How do you think he's been doing?"

"Well, about as good as he can be doing after just getting his heartbroken by one of his best friends." Straight to the point. That was something he'd always liked about Tai's sister. It wasn't like with Mimi where you could talk for an hour just trying to get one answer out of her. In fact, Kari's voice sounded a little bitter, even. Inwardly, the boy cringed. He hated the feeling that they were all being torn apart by one bad decision. But he had to stay focused. They were doing this for Tai, he reminded himself.

"Could you do us a favor?" Izzy asked. "Just keep an eye on him for us."

"Already on it," Kari answered cheerfully. She was holding up pretty well herself. She and Sora had been really close. It had to be hard having one of her best friends break her brother's heart.

Izzy smiled. "Thanks."

"I'll see you around, I guess. Bye."

"Bye." Izzy hung up. It was a good thing the Digidestined had always been so close. It helped when he didn't have to explain just why they were watching out for someone. Izzy was determined. He was not going to let one relationship break up the team.

Tai, grumbling, books in hand, walked out of Izzy's room and left the apartment before Izzy could call out to him. Joe emerged a second later, almost as huffy as Tai.

"What happened?" Izzy inquired.

"I told him how to do the problem and he insisted on doing it his way. Well, if he isn't going to do it right he isn't going to get it right!"

Izzy couldn't help but smile. Figures...

It appeared, however, that he and Joe were not the same page as much as Izzy had thought because a second later he said, "Look, Izzy. I'm not so sure about this anymore."

"Why not?" He tried to stay patient. It wasn't uncommon for Joe to have second thoughts about... well, just about every decision he had to make.

"I know that we're trying to keep everyone together. I mean, Tai's been really distant and we don't want to start some sort of all-out war between TK and Kari, but... by breaking up Matt and Sora, and getting together Sora and Tai... aren't we basically just bringing ourselves back to this exact spot? Only with Matt in Tai's place? I mean... didn't Tai say himself that it was Sora's choice? " he finished.

Izzy had to think for a minute. What Joe said was true. They couldn't make everyone happy. However, they didn't have time to discuss it because Tai came back in at that moment. "Has anybody seen my shoes?"

Joe and Izzy may have been in the middle of a tense, almost argument, but they couldn't help their laughter. Typical Tai...

...

Tai's mood had actually shifted for the better. He'd begun laughing too, simply because it's good to laugh every once in a while and he hadn't done it in a while. Unfortunately, everything was about to get a lot more complicated when he got home...

His mother was waiting for him at the counter. "Did you have a good time at Izzy's?"

"Yeah. What's for dinner?" he asked, hoping it wasn't something she could massacre too badly.

"Spaghetti. By the way, Tai... does Izzy have a girlfriend?"

Tai, on the way to his room, stopped, puzzled. "No. Why?"

"Well," his mother lowered her voice conspiratorially. "He called here to talk to Kari today."

This of course was news to Tai. His mother left it at that. She was smiling in a devious match-making way. Tai was not.

No way... She couldn't seriously be suggesting that Izzy was in love with his sister!

Now, Tai knew his mother was well-known for jumping to conclusions, but his brain wasn't processing that too well right now. In fact, he felt a sudden surge of anger.

No way in hell was Izzy going to go out with his little sister.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon!

Revised 7/16/13 (XD I'm remembering how much fun I had writing this in the first place...)