A/N: And here, at last, is my first attempt at writing Kenkeru as a main (and only) couple in a fic. Eh, I might consider maybe throwing another in, and, in fact, I think I know of another couple that would fit in quite nicely, but I'll decide for sure later on. This was inspired by the book What Happened to Lani Garver, which is one of my favorite books, Lani Garver being my most favorite character in any book I've ever read (just as a note, Ken represents Lani in this fic). I don't know if all the digidestined will be making an appearance in this fic or not.

If you have never read What Happened to Lani Garver, I highly recommend you pick it up at a bookstore or check it out of a library and read it, because it's just awesome. (Especially if you like the way Ken is portrayed in this fic. Lani reminded me so much of Ken when I was reading that book that it scared me. You know, beautiful, girly, and a total genius. And that guy on the book cover...**drool**)

Note: This fic is AU. Takeru, Hikari, and the others in their age group are sixteen. Taichi, Sora, Mimi, etc. are seventeen. Takeru and Yamato are not brothers. Yamato doesn't appear until later on in the story, but it won't be too long until he does. Along with certain others. ^-~

Summary: Ken Ichijouji's arrival in Odaiba was unexpected, and creates a bit of a stir in the town. He baffles the other kids in his school and the people in the city. They don't know anything about him. Where did he come from? How old is he? And most of all: Is he a boy or a girl? Popular Takeru isn't up for tormenting Ken with his friends and classmates, and he soon finds himself befriending this strange-but-interesting outcast. Soon, Takeru finds that his world is turning upside down.

Disclaimer: I don't own What Happened to Lani Garver, in which most of the ideas in this fic come from. I don't own Digimon or the characters, either, though I wish I could own Lani for a day, if just to have a conversation with him.

I grumbled when my hand hit the alarm clock too hard and sent it flying off the nightstand. I poked my head out from under my blanket and narrowed my eyes at the clock on the floor. Luckily, it had landed face-up, and I could make out the numbers glowing red amongst the gray carpet on my floor.

Yes, it was time to get up.

I turned a lamp on and got dressed, then made my way around the house getting ready for the school day. I got to the school with plenty of time to spare and headed towards the gym, where I usually gathered with my friends to talk before school started and we had to split to go to our respective classes.

As usual, my friends were already gathered there, talking excitedly about the previous night's basketball game. I grinned when they all turned to greet me and congratulate me for playing such an awesome game. I took a bow and they all laughed, some whistling, and others telling me to cut it out.

I straightened and went to stand next to Hikari, who had been my best friend since middle school. She smiled warmly at me and rested her hand on my shoulder.

"You were so wonderful last night, Takeru. I wouldn't be surprised if the coach made you captain of the basketball team. You know, you're even better than most of the seniors on the team, and you're barely a sophomore!"

I laughed and shook my head, used to the compliments she always paid me.

"And you, of course, will be named Head Cheerleader pretty soon. Taking that gymnastics class over the summer really paid off, 'Kari. No one can flip as well as you can."

She giggled and blushed slightly, waving her hand at me. "Oh, stop it."

The bell rang, warning students that they had better get to class if they didn't want to be late, and we all disengaged to walk to our own classes.

It was turning out to be another normal day of school, and I couldn't help but feel a slight pang of boredom as I walked to my next class. I wondered if anything exciting would ever happen to me.

I had no idea that I would be meeting Ken Ichijouji for the first time that day, nor did I know that the meeting would eventually turn my entire world upside down.

~ ~ ~ ~

I sat down at the lunch table, taking a deep breath and grinning.

"Finally, time to eat!" I said happily. Lunchtime, besides my sports class, was my favorite time of the day.

Taichi Yagami grinned at me from across the table. "You just love to eat, don't you, Takeru?"

"Of course I do," I said, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

I began to tear open the plastic encasing my napkin, straw, and spork, eager to dig into my food, no matter how odd-smelling it was. My stomach was grumbling, and I couldn't care less if I had no idea what it was that was sitting on the lunch plate in front of me.

I had just taken my first large bite out of my sandwich when Hideki, a geek that sat a few seats in front of me in my math class, stopped on his way by our table and turned to point across the lunch room.

"What is that?"

I raised an eyebrow and considered just ignoring the boy, but then I looked up at Taichi and saw that the brunette was openly gawking at whatever Hideki was pointing at. Seeing this, I just had to look, and I turned my head to see what was drawing all of the attention.

Sitting alone at a table on the outer rim of the sea of lunch tables in the cafeteria was a kid with long, violet hair, holding a book and reading it, turning a page delicately. The kid wore a light gray shirt, a silver watch on the right wrist, and several beaded bracelets around and nearly covering the watch. I couldn't see what else he was wearing because of the table and the book being held up.

"Is that thing a boy or a girl?" Hideki asked, loud enough to be heard by all of the people at the "cool" table.

Hikari tore her gaze away from the kid first, snapping at us all not to stare because it was rude, but she kept glancing up at the kid anyways. She turned to glare at Hideki.

"And how is it any of your business, anyways? Scoot on away from here! Go, scoot!" She waved her hand. Hideki narrowed his eyes at her and stalked off.

"It's a boy," Miyako said, now that Hideki was gone. We all leaned into the table to throw our own comments in.

"I think it's a girl," Taichi argued.

"No, I agree with Miyako," I said slowly, although I was actually very unsure.

"Would you quit calling it an it?" Hikari asked a bit tersely.

"Well, what are we supposed to call it? We don't know its gender!" Taichi snapped back at his little sister.

"Come on, don't yell at her," I told Taichi, getting defensive the way I always do whenever he yells at her because of some need to be a good older brother by establishing who was under whom.

"Oh, don't you start, Gilligan."

I frowned, my hand reaching up to touch my white hat.

"Fuck you."

"Don't swear, Takeru, it makes you blush," Miyako murmured, still staring at the person we'd been discussing. "Oh, he's getting up!"

"She's getting up."

"Shh!"

We all turned to watch a bit too openly as he walked past us, holding the book at his side, to go throw his plate. I managed to get a look at him as he approached. He had violet eyes to match his hair, with long eyelashes that made me think, 'Girl.' But then I noticed that his clothes were baggy and loose. 'Boy.'

"He looks like he's wearing blush and eyeliner," Miyako whispered loudly. I checked - she was right. 'Girl.'

"No, I think that's his natural coloring," Hikari debated. I sighed to myself, knowing that I wouldn't be able to judge by that, anyways, since I knew next to zilch about makeup.

"But he's so tall," Taichi said under his breath.

"There are some tall girls, though," Mimi said from my other side. "I know of a few that are like giants - they're so unpopular, though."

I noticed something that I thought the others hadn't caught. "He has drumsticks in his back pocket," I said to them.

They all checked.

"Oh yeah! Drummers have to be guys, don't they?" Mimi asked.

"Why can't girls be drummers?" Hikari asked indignantly.

"Full lips," Taichi absently noted, cutting off any feminist ranting from his sister. "And her waist seems to be a little curved."

"How can you tell?  The shirt is too baggy," I said.

"No, no curves," Miyako told Tai, squinting at the figure of the kid.

I also thought about the hair. Oh, sure, some guys in my school had long hair, but this hair seemed to be silkily shiny and soft, and the bangs were slightly shorter and curled under the ears. Guys didn't make their hair look like that. 'Girl.'

"Um, what if it's, like, a butch girl or a gay guy?" Mimi asked tentatively, as if she didn't like that idea.

All our faces lit up. Why hadn't we thought of that? Hikari made a face and Taichi made a gagging noise.

"Please, don't even say things like that, Mimi," Taichi said pleadingly.

"Don't be so immature, Tai," Miyako admonished. She turned to smile at the kid we were scrutinizing. "He's turned to the side and given us a profile."

We all snapped back to attention, this time not even trying to be discreet.

"No boobs," Tai said. His face fell. "It's a guy. A gay guy."

"How do you know if he's gay?" I asked, sounding a little annoyed. I don't even know why I felt annoyed, but I guess I just didn't like him judging someone he didn't even know.

"Maybe it's a girl with a flat chest," Hikari said calmly. "You can't blame a girl for being tall and having a flat chest."

He started heading back across the cafeteria to his table, slapping his hands together and across each other as if to get dirt off of them, looking delicate or dainty. 'Girl?'

Then, he looked up, and his eyes bore right into mine. I held his gaze, feeling trapped, my eyes going wide at being caught staring. He continued to stare straight at me as he walked, and then he looked away as he went past us. My head turned to watch him walk away.

"Come on, Takeru, let's go and throw our plates in the trash," Hikari said to me. I stood up and began walking with her to throw our plates.

On the way back, she turned to me and grabbed my arm. "We've got to go find out about our mystery person."

My eyes widened at her. "What?" I tried to resist, but she insisted on dragging me over to the new kid's table. She carefully pulled a chair out and sat down on it, and I reluctantly followed her example, sitting in the chair next to hers, across from the kid.

He (she?) looked up at us and smiled, marking his place in his book and setting it down.

"Hello," Hikari said cheerfully.

"Hello," he greeted in return, and I frowned when I heard how soft the voice was. A gender didn't leap out at me upon hearing it, and I realized it was going to be harder than I thought to figure this person out.

"Are you new here?" Hikari asked, sounding interested in him.

"Yeah, I just moved here."

"Oh, and what's your name?"

"You can call me Ken."

We continued to stare, smiling politely. Ken? Short for...Kenny? Kendra?

"Ken...?" Hikari said, making it sound like a question.

"Oh, Ken Ichijouji."

That didn't help. Hikari made sure to ask Ken to spell the name for us, to make sure we got the right Ken in our minds. Just like I expected, it was K-E-N.

"What kind of a name is that?"

"It's actually American," Ken said. I knew she'd been expecting him to say 'a boy's name' or 'a girl's name'. I almost laughed out loud.

"Well, I'm Hikari Yagami, and this is Takeru Takaishi," she said, gesturing to me. I smiled and waved.

"Hey."

Ken smiled back at me. "Hey."

"I know you aren't American, because of your last name...so..." Hikari said.

"Oh, I'm Japanese, but my family has a lot of mixed blood. Kind of like a mutt, you know, from a dog pound?"

"Uh-huh," Hikari said, still smiling. "So, what are you reading?"

"Freud," Ken said.

"Oh." Hikari blinked, then turned to give me a questioning look. I shrugged one shoulder, even though I knew who Freud was. I guess she was expecting either a girl's magazine or a sports magazine or something.

"I don't know who Freud is," Hikari confessed, giggling to herself.

"Oh," Ken said, letting a small chuckle escape his lips. He tried to explain who Sigmund Freud was, but Hikari seemed interested in other things.

Then, it was kind of silent for a while, and I noticed that Hikari was totally looking Ken over and not bothering to hide it. Ken continued to smile at her, watching her take everything in, not seeming to care that she was being rude. I cleared my throat to try and stop her, and Ken turned to look at me. He smiled.

"Aren't you on the basketball team?" Ken asked me.

I nodded my head yes. "How'd you know?"

"I heard some girls talking about you in one of my classes this morning." He shrugged. "So, are you good at playing basketball?"

"Oh, he's the best at it!" Hikari cut in, smiling brightly. "He could beat anyone at basketball, right Takeru-kun? Gosh, I've never met a better player," she chattered on.

Ken laughed and smiled at me. "Well, I'll have to watch one of your games and see for myself, then."

"Are you a drummer?" I asked.

He nodded heartily. "But I'm no good at it. I just do it for fun, you know, a sort of little hobby. I'm not that serious about it."

I nodded, showing that I was listening, and then Hikari cleared her throat.

"I don't mean to be rude, and please don't take offense or anything...but are you a girl?"

I stared at her, my jaw dropping slightly. Ken laughed. "Oh, no, sorry, I'm not a girl."

"Oh," Hikari laughed nervously. We waited for him to say "I'm a guy", but he remained silent, still smiling at us as if we hadn't been rude to him at all during our talk. I began to think that maybe he was enjoying our confusion, because his smile just kept getting wider and wider.

"So you're a guy," Hikari said.

I suddenly felt like I had to get her away from Ken before she asked him "Are you gay?" or something equally as rude, and I stood up, grabbing her arm. "Well, we have to get back to our friends now," I said, excusing myself and smiling at Ken.

Ken smiled back as easily as ever. "Okay, it's been great talking to you. See you later, Takeru-kun, Hikari-chan."

"Bye, Ken," Hikari chirped, waving enthusiastically, and then her smile disappeared as she narrowed her eyes at me as we walked back to our table.

"What's the big idea? We were just starting to get somewhere!"

"No, you were just starting to get a little too rude, 'Kari," I muttered.

"I was not!" she cried indignantly.

As soon as we sat at the table, the questions flew at us. I let Hikari answer them, drifting off into my own thoughts. So his name was Ken Ichijouji, and he was a guy. Well, he didn't exactly confirm it for us, but I never thought of him as anything but a guy ever again. So he looked a little girly, so what? He seemed like he'd be interesting to talk to again.

I didn't know then that I'd be talking to him a lot more in the future.