"No. Absolutely not."

"Sora, please…"

"No. Just because Taichi dragged you along and made you Vice President doesn't mean that I have to go along, too. I only want to finish high school normally like everyone else. Go find someone else. Koushiro, for example."

"Taichi wants it to be you."

"Taichi will leave me alone if he knows what's good for him."

"I want you there, too. He may be our leader, but you're the heart of the group, Sora. And I can admit that my good judgment does not always...remain...intact...when I'm around Taichi. His leadership skills are sometimes too good. You're the only one I trust to keep us in line."

"I am so glad you think so highly of me."

"You know you're itching for an excuse to be able to whack him upside the head on a regular basis."

"Believe me, Yamato. I don't need an excuse. ...I won't have a normal year either way, will I?"

"With Taichi in charge? Not a chance."

"Fine. I'll do it."

- Sora and Yamato, at the tennis courts, after Sora's club practice

Sora supposed it was inevitable. After all, the track record of the Digidestined in forests wasn't exactly stellar. There was no reason to expect that this would have been any different from those times. Like most of the things Taichi did, it all started out well enough. Even if Taichi had spent most of the planning week running away from responsibility. Except that one time he ran away after Agumon burned Yamato's homework. He claimed that he wanted to be surprised. He never did quite grasp the concept that as the president, nothing would be a surprise to him anymore. At least in the planning stages. The execution was a different story.

Camping, however, had been chosen by the teachers of the third year classes, so that's what they planned. Sora hadn't wanted to go camping. Then again, it wasn't like bad things hadn't happened to them with every other option. The beach? Check. Ancient structures? Check. Hot springs? Oh yeah, Devimon caused that to be triple checked and underlined for emphasis.

She had begged and pleaded for a ski trip. Nothing had ever happened to them in the snow. Taichi and Yamato both disagreed, but their opinion hardly mattered to her at that point. Especially as they explained exactly what kind of altercation had happened. If they counted each place the two boys had ever had an argument or fight, Sora would be wary of her own home.

In any case, she was in the end shot down, and camping it was. Sora only had to make the most of it. After all, there were only three Digidestined going, seeing as it was a Third Year Excursion. The odds of bad things happening had to go down with only three of them.

Of course, Sora didn't exactly take into account which two she was stuck with.

Or the fact that, in what must have been a momentary lapse of judgment (or a bout of insanity), she had given Taichi solo responsibility of one activity. At the time, it seemed like the perfect idea. There was no one better suited than Taichi to plan a test of courage. After putting her foot down and emphasizing 'no Digimon', Sora let Taichi have free reign of the event.

This proved to be a mistake.

"Well, at least it was Yamato."

Sora rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. "He's in the hospital, Taichi. A little sympathy would be nice." Even though, some part of Sora was not exactly surprised that it had come to this. With Taichi as one of her best friends, perhaps the more surprising fact was actually the lack of time she spent in a hospital.

"It's a hairline fracture. Not that big a deal." Sora shot him a glare, incredulous at his dismissive tone. When he saw this, his hands came up, palms facing toward her, as he leaned away from her. His next words came out in a rush as he almost stumbled over his words. "I mean, I feel bad, I really do. But he does have the parent least likely to freak out between the three of us."

Now this made zero sense to Sora to a point. While her own mother was not as bad as she had once been, Sora would expect some freaking out from Toshiko Takenouchi. But Sora knew the reasons behind why her injuries worried her mother. And while Yuuko Yagami could appear to be an airhead sometimes, she could go crazy mama bear when it came to injury or illness to her children. Proving that Taichi's overprotective nature toward his sister was, in fact, inherited. But both of them paled in comparison to the attitude one Natsuko Takaishi had toward injury to her sons. Giving Yamato, in truth, the parent most likely to freak out of the three of them. As Sora felt the need to point out. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "You know Yamato's mother."

There was a pause. In that pause, Sora noted several things. First, the hand that had been rubbing the back of his neck stilled. At the same time, his whole body tensed and his eyes went very wide. After that second's pause, Taichi's body slumped as his hands fell back to his sides. His gaze dropped down and to the side as finally a single syllable slipped from his mouth.

"Oh."

Sora's arms folded across her chest as her weight shifted onto one foot and her head tilted. "Oh?" she repeated. There were a lot of meanings to be gleaned from that one word. Judging by the way it was delivered, Sora could only think that it would end up being one she wasn't going to like. And when it came to Taichi, being direct was always the best option. "What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

And true to her prediction, the answer she got was not one she liked. Though it did explain Taichi's logic at the beginning of their conversation. "I wasn't planning on telling his mother," Taichi said, his gaze still on the floor.

Something snapped within her, and Sora exploded. "You can't not tell his mother," Sora hissed at him. Her hands clenched into fists at her side to stop herself from strangling her friend. "He. Broke. His. Arm!" Each word was spoken with punctuation and a single jab of her finger into the exact center of Taichi's chest.

"It's a hairline fracture!" Taichi shot back, throwing his hands into the air. "Besides, Yamato and I have an understanding about that."

But Sora had stopped listening by that point. In fact, Taichi's last few words were spoken to her retreating back as she walked over to the teacher. She went to make sure he knew Natsuko's number to contact her about Yamato. Yamato's father had already been called. As Taichi predicted, he was very accepting of the situation.

Within a few minutes, Yamato came out of the room. His left arm was wrapped in a black brace that went up to his elbow, covering almost his whole forearm. It was also tucked into a sling. Immediately, Taichi said, "I want you to know that it wasn't my idea."

"What are you talking about?" Yamato's eyebrows furrowed together. "This was all one hundred percent your idea," he added, indicating his injured arm with his free hand.

"Not that. That."

Yamato's eyes went wide and turned to Sora. "You called my mother?" This made Sora wonder, not for the first time, if there was some sort of telepathic ability between the two boys. She had not seen their equal in silent or underlying communication. It was almost freaky how much the two could communicate with each other without words. He waved between himself and Taichi with his uninjured arm. "We have an understanding about that." He looked at Taichi again. "Why didn't you stop her?" Taichi gave him a pointed, incredulous look. "Fair point," Yamato conceded, tilting his head in a sort of sideways acknowledgement nod.

"I don't understand the problem," Sora interjected. "She's your mother. She deserves to know."

"True but I told you we have an understanding about that."

"And what is that exactly?" Sora braced herself to hear what was sure to be one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard to come out of one of their mouths.

She was not disappointed.

"It is our own personal responsibility to inform our own mothers about any injury we obtain. Under no circumstance are we to subject anyone else to their wrath, unless literally physically incapable," Taichi ratted off, with all the solemnity as if it were a sacred pledge.

Sora rolled her eyes. If it wasn't for the shared life and death experiences, she wasn't sure she could ever put up with these two. "Well, none of this would have happened if you hadn't come up with that convoluted version of hide-and-seek."

"No way! That was totally awesome until Yamato fell up the stairs."

"Not my most graceful moment," Yamato agreed, nodding his head. He looked down at his arm in the sling and sighed.

"Well, it was no wonder. Someone was bound to get hurt with all that running around-"

"Actually, Sora," Yamato interrupted. "I'm going to have to agree with Taichi on this. That rush of power as they all scattered when they heard the sounds of bells was kind of addicting."

As Sora thought back on it, she couldn't deny that the two boys had a point. She had been having a lot of fun with the activity Taichi had put together, even to the point that she had begun to think that perhaps (perhaps!) trusting him with the activity hadn't been such a bad idea, after all. And that maybe (maybe!) she wouldn't stress half as much the next time that she ended up putting him in charge. All of which got pushed to the back of her mind in that instant when the tentative voice of some female third-year crackled on the walkie-talkie and said, "Umm...excuse me? I think Ishida-san broke his arm. What should we do?"

Suddenly, Taichi was laughing. Sora shot a confused glare at him. "What's so funny?"

With eyes still sparkling with mirth and an amused smirk on his lips, Taichi said, "You were totally having a good time. It's written all over your face. Just admit that my game was awesome."

Sora made a noise of frustration and lifted her fist to punch Taichi on the arm. Within seconds, Taichi's eyes widened as he realized her intent. Quick as lightning, he reached out and grabbed Yamato and pulled. Her momentum was already too late to stop, so she ended up punching Yamato's shoulder instead.

"Ow!"

Yep, that shoulder.

"Dude, what's your problem? Broken arm, remember?"

"Geez, Yamato, I'm sorry. It was instinct, I swear."

"Yamato, I'm so sorry. I wasn't aiming at you."

Glaring at Taichi and rubbing his shoulder with his uninjured arm, Yamato responded to Sora's apology with a terse, "Yeah, I know. Not your fault." Taichi, for his part, was rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish expression to accompany his apology.

Sora folded her arms across her chest. Quirking up one eyebrow and with a half smile on her lips, Sora teased, "I thought it was only a hairline fracture anyway."

Taichi and Yamato exchanged a startled glance before looking back at Sora at the same moment. A bubble of laughter escaped her lips as a puff of air. Moments later, the two boys' mouths curled upward into smiles. As one, the three friends burst into shared laughter. And Sora knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that despite the worry and stress her two best friends caused her, she wouldn't change (or exchange) them for anything in the worlds.

Needless to say, their teacher was forced to herd them from the hospital when a rather stern nurse disapproved of their loud laughter. Which, really, caused them to laugh all the more.