Author's Notes

I just got my final results back, and wasn't terribly pleased with them, though the rest of the world couldn't understand why. Don't they know what personal satisfaction is? But it was still an okay mark, even with my standards (which are pretty high). But I was a little miserable (well, until I talked to my friends and found they wound up with the same problem), and I figured dumping that onto Joe would help. Reminded me of that episode where he got his mark back, and of course Martin Seligman from Psychology.

Enjoy, even though it's not one of my best works. I just wasn't in the mood...but that's never stopped me before. *shrugs*

And a (late) happy new year to everyone. (I forgot it was the first when I updated).

The Blame Game

He felt a lot better, now that the blame had been shifted. Though it hadn't done much else. In-season 01.

Jyou K/Joe & Gomamon

Rating: K+

Genre/s: Friendship

He looked at the paper clutched in his hand. A 'C'. Nowhere near enough to gain him admission into Tokyo's most prestigious medical school.

He refolded the paper and stuffed it back into his envelope. The grade was disappointing. The fruits of his labour for a long year, and that was all it had yielded. Not to mention his father would be terribly displeased with the mark.

That was right, he wanted him to phone and tell him the score. But somehow, he didn't think his father had meant a barely passing grade. And knowing that he hadn't met his father's expectations made it worse.

Until Gomamon poked his head out and blinked. 'A 'C'?' he asked. 'Forget the Digimon attacking, that's a real tragedy!'

He was joking, of course, but that got him thinking about something else. Izzy talked a lot about psychology (though not nearly as much as he did computers), and he had once mentioned something called 'Learned Optimism'. According to that theory, it was more prudent to shift the blame of such as score onto something, or someone else. And Gomamon had brought up the perfect solution.

'That's it. I can just blame this grade on all the stress from the monster attacks.'

He conveniently forgot that he had taken the test two weeks before the Digital World saga. After all, it did make him feel better, and that was the point.

His digimon grinned cheekily at him.

And Joe couldn't help but think that the other had set him up.

That was okay. He needed the cheering up. Too bad Gomamon couldn't magically turn that 'C' into an 'A'.