After recovering from the shock, TK made his way over to the right side of the room. He sat down in the empty desk and turned to face his old companion.

"Hi."

He flashed Kari what she called his awkward signature smile. It was an uneven nervous looking smile that made her laugh, out loud. Kari covered her mouth and looked around. Everyone was watching. "Sorry." She said, beet faced.

Also watching was Davis. I've never seen Kari laugh like that before. Who is this guy?

The two friends refrained from any further outbursts during the class. Both had more attention than they were used to, and spent the rest of the morning being good students and paying attention, but they were both noticeably fidgety. The introduction to the classes and the rules and expectations aren't normally an interesting subject, but with a long ago friend resurfacing, they could think of nothing else. Finally, class broke for lunch. Kari hoped to talk to TK, but a bunch of students, including Davis and bunch of girls, had already bunched up around him, welcoming and bombarding him with questions. He's probably going to be swamped today. I'll catch up with him later. Kari grabbed her books and stood. Making her way to the door, she turned and caught his eyes following her. She gave him an understanding look, which he gave a slight nod to, before turning back to his group conversation.

Outside the class, she paused in the hall and gave a little sigh. Can't be helped. Kari found her way to her locker. Pulling a slip of paper from her bag, she turned the dial in the correct sequence to open it. She recited in her mind: 5-31-3, 5-31-3. Try and remember that. She put in books for history, and math. She reached for another book, but stopped midway. Kari ruffled through her bag and dug out a small compact. She opened it and straightened her hair as best she could. What am I doing? She put the mirror away and grabbed the book. The locker was closed, and the dial was carefully returned to the 0 position. Kari walked away to her next class. Kari was very disappointed when class began and TK was nowhere in sight. He must not have this class. She thought back on Davis' earlier comment about luck. That's not luck either.

After fielding some common questions from the girls, and some slightly uncommon ones from Davis, TK managed to get away. He walked down unfamiliar halls, glancing into rooms with empty chairs, bulletin boards with the latest club meeting schedules, and out windows overlooking the school. But he didn't find who he was looking for. Instead someone found him.

"TK!"

He turned to the sound of the voice. He saw Cody waving at him from what looked like a computer lab. Yolei was next to him, but was quite focused on the screen. Well, lunch is almost over anyways. I'll have to find Kari later. "Hey Cody, Yolei, what's up?"

"Well, Yolei here is trying to set up her account. But, she's having trouble." Cody replied.

"I'M not having trouble." Yolei retorted. "This system is the problem. It's ancient, out-dated and buggy as a caterpillar. I don't see how ANYONE can work with this!"

"You'll have to forgive Yolei. She's really into computers and can't stand them not working."

"Oh, yeah. I seem to recall you asking her to fix yours this morning."

"She's never failed yet."

Cody's remark brought a smile to Yolei's face. She pushed away the keyboard and turned to TK. "I'll get to the bottom of this later. It's almost time for class, what do you have?"

"I've got science in B221."

"Oh, we have that too. Let's go!"

The trio headed towards their next class. When they got there, TK scanned the room for signs of Kari. Disappointed, he found room next to his new friends and sat through the class. While he was much better in science than some of the other subjects, it didn't really appeal to him. Nothing did today, except the unfulfilled prospect of catching up with Kari. The day ended relatively uneventful, and he parted with Yolei and Cody.

"I'm going to look for a friend of mines."

"And we're going back to the computer lab and fixing that account!" Yolei declared.

"We are?" Cody worriedly asked.

"Yup."

"Well, good bye TK, we'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye guys."

Yolei was working furiously on the computer. She was extremely focused, but like her earlier conversation with TK, she could have her eyes fixed on the screen, but still talk and listen. At the moment, she was overhearing Cody's call home.

"No, Yolei's not coming over. We've got to stay after school for a computer issue. But since you made the brownies, I'll come home and pick them up first." A pause a muffled voice spoke. "Alright, thanks. Bye." Cody turned to Yolei, "I'll be back soon."

"Thanks Cody." Yolei liked to be well fed when she was working and she appreciated Cody for his generosity. She turned her complete focus onto the screen and began typing away.

Rapidly applying some more keystrokes and finishing with the enter key, she exclaimed "That ought to do it!"

She re-logged into her account and an email popped up. Strange she thought. Let's see who sent it. A click or two later, she found the answer was Tai Kamiya. Tai Kamiya… Hey, there's a girl in the 7th grade with the same last name. This email's probably hers. Hmm. I may have overdone it with the security preferences.

By luck, TK spotted Kari walking down the hallway. He ran up to catch up with her. Kari saw the motion in the corner of her eye and turned. A relieved smile grew on her face.

"Together again."

"Just like old times." The pair resumed the journey to Kari's locker. The first thing they did was swap class information, so they would know how to find one another. Soon after, TK descended back into round 2 of questioning for his day, but he felt much more open answering his friend.

"So TK, how does your mom like the new apartment?" Kari asked.

"She hasn't seen it yet, she's been on the computer the whole time." With a grin on his face, he mentioned "Actually, this morning she was writing about, and I quote, the historical significance of toilet paper."

Kari let out a laugh.

Davis was walking towards Kari when he noticed the new kid hanging around. Oh no you don't. He ran up to the pair. And with a non-disguised mildly hostile tone said, "Hey Buddy."

Kari's mood quickly shifted. "His name's not Buddy. It's TK." She defended.

"Alright TJ or JV or whatever it is, how do you know Kari?" Davis jumped into it.

TK shifted his glance to Kari who he immediately recognized as her smiling exasperation.

"Huh, how do I know her?" TK let out a little laugh. "Oh I get it, you're jealous of me."

"I'm not jealous of anybody." Davis's hotheaded reply.

Just then, a girl in pink ran up to the group. "Hey."

"Oh hi Yolei." TK greeted. But he wasn't the focus of Yolei's greeting.

"You're Kari Kamiya aren't you." Yolei asked.

"Yeah that's right, why do you ask?" Kari questioned.

"Are you related to Tai? He sent this email." She held up a printed version of the email.

Kari quickly read it. "My brother needs us!" She exclaimed.