It's All in the Cards

Chapter One: Madame Yolei's Table of Mysterious Fortune

"Okay, Kari, pick four guys!" Yolei demanded, slapping down four Jacks.

Kari blinked. "How is this fortune telling?" she asked.

"It's love fortune telling!" Yolei explained, impatient.

"Um, okay."

Yolei had just arrived back from summer camp, eager to share card games and tricks with the other Digidestined their age – and really anyone who was around. Luckily they were in Yolei's bedroom instead of at school or a park where she could attack anyone with her cards.

"Kari! Pick me!" Davis grinned.

"Hmm." Kari looked around at TK, Davis, Cody, and Ken, all standing around the makeshift, cardboard-box-turned-into "Madame Yolei's Table of Mysterious Fortune". Four guys, right there. "Okay, how about… TK… Cody… Ken… and…" She paused, rubbing her chin in mock concentration as Davis waited. "Davis." He cheered.

"Okay!" Yolei turned over the Jacks and mixed them up. "Now, say their names in random order."

"Uh, Cody."

Yolei slapped down the first card. The Jack of Diamonds. "Cody represents money to you!"

Kari looked at Cody and shrugged. He did the same, smiling a tiny bit.

"Okay, well… Davis…" Kari said.

Yolei put down the next card, the Jack of Clubs. "Davis represents work to you!"

Kari turned around to look at Davis, but couldn't find him. She finally looked down to see him crumpled on the floor. "WORK?" he cried mournfully.

"Cheer up, Davis," Cody said. "At least you're not money. I'd much rather work than just have money."

"Well, I wouldn't!" Davis sighed. "And I could marry Kari if I had money. Then I could buy her a big pink house and a diamond ring that would weigh her hand down."

"The camera around her neck already weighs her down," Cody pointed out. "I'm not sure if she could handle a huge diamond ring."

Ken sighed and shook his head. "I don't think Kari is the type to marry for money."

"No, definitely not, Ken," Kari said.

Yolei slapped down the next card, making Kari jump. The taller girl shrugged. "You said Ken. Anyway, Ken represents happiness, Spades, to you." Yolei frowned. "Like he's your friend, you know?"

Kari nodded. Everyone knew how much Yolei obsessed over Ken, except probably him. Genius? Not when it came to knowing such obvious things.

"So that leaves… The Jack of Hearts. TK," Yolei said. Kari felt her face redden a tiny bit.

Davis laughed. "If a club, whatever that is, represents work, then hearts have to represent something crazy too. Like plastic lawn flamingos, right?"

"Uh, no," Yolei said. "Hearts actually symbolize love. The red suits are easy."

Davis glared at TK. "Hey! Do you love Kari?"

Kari was now bright red. She was never facing TK again. Ever. And never turning around again, either. Yolei, the only person who was looking right at her, hadn't noticed her distress.

"Well, yeah," TK said. "She's my best friend. I've known her forever."

Somehow that was almost worse than him saying no. The only thing she was endlessly glad he didn't add was the 'she's like a sister to me' line.

"Okay! Fortune telling time!" Yolei grinned.

Kari blinked. "I thought we just did that?"

Yolei shook her head. "No way. That was just a warm up." She put the four Jacks face up on the Table of Mysterious Fortune. "So remember, Cody is diamonds, Davis is clubs, Ken is spades, and TK is hearts." Then she clapped her hands together. "Okay! Ask a question, any question."

"How are our Digimon doing?" Davis asked.

"Yeah, how's the Digital World?" TK asked.

Yolei looked annoyed. "No, no. You ask a question like, 'Which one is the cutest?'"

Cody looked at the others, frowning.

Davis sighed. "Yolei, that's so stupid!"

"If you don't want to pay attention you don't have to!"

"Why are we even here? This is such a girly game."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Kari asked. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I don't think it's stupid. Of course, she didn't say that aloud.

"Look, if none of you guys want to watch, then just leave," Yolei growled. "Do any of you want to stay?"

Nobody said anything.

"Fine! Go! Okay, Kari, here's one! Which is the cutest?" Yolei picked up the rest of the deck and started dealing into four piles just below the Jacks. The boys started leaving the area slowly. After dealing out a few cards, Yolei stopped. The card she had just dealt, the three of diamonds, had just landed on the Jack of diamonds. "Cody is! See, you deal them out like this, and when the suits match, that's who!"

Kari nodded politely. Davis laughed. "Cody, did you hear? You're the cutest!"

"Okay, how about… Who will Kari have kids with?" Yolei asked, starting to deal more cards out in the same way.

Davis heard the question and peered over, pretending not to be watching. The others stopped too, waiting for him. "Come on, Davis," Ken said.

"Kari will have kids with Ken!" Yolei announced. "Wait, wait. Do-over." She dealt out more. "Okay! Kari will have kids with TK!"

"Hey! No, do-over, do-over!" Davis commanded, rushing back over. "That's not fair. Do it again."

"Only one do-over is allowed," Yolei said, crossing her arms. "But if you are near the cards, they will work better for you."

Davis plopped down next to Madame Yolei's Table of Mysterious Fortune. "Okay! Come on, guys!"

TK sighed. "Well, better not have any more reason for Davis to obsess over Kari. That's just getting annoying." He went over, followed by Cody and a more reluctant Ken.

"How about, 'Who will Kari kiss next?'" Davis submitted.

Kari shook her head wearily. "Davis, why don't you just have your fortune told?"

"No!" Yolei protested, dealing out the cards. "Aha. Kari will kiss Cody next."

Cody turned bright red. Davis glared at him angrily and said, "These aren't good ones! Ask about, uh…" He turned red.

Yolei glared at him. "Davis! Not in front of Cody!"

Cody sighed. "I'm not that young…"

"Yeah, Kari and I knew about that stuff when we first went to the Digital World," TK said.

Yolei gasped. "TK! You were only eight!"

Kari shrugged. "We do have older brothers, you know…"

Yolei shook her head. "Okay, okay." She glared at all the others, except Ken, who hadn't contributed to that conversation and had instead looked embarrassed. "What about… Who will Kari marry?"

Kari shook her head, but Yolei was already dealing cards out. "Yolei," said the other girl, "I doubt I'm going to marry any of them."

Rivers of tears streamed down Davis's face, but Ken agreed with Kari: "Yes, there are only four choices. And there are about 6 billion people in this world."

"And only half of them are male," TK added.

"But only one is me!" Davis added.

"Well, half of the world's population certainly narrows it down," Cody said, ignoring Davis.

"That is, unless Kari likes both boys and girls," Ken said.

Now it was Kari who fell over. "I don't!"

Yolei gasped. "Not in front of Cody!"

Cody shook his head. "I go to the same school as you guys! I can't be that much younger than you!"

"That's because in Japan there's elementary and middle combined, and then high school," TK said informatively.

"Of course, that might not be true and it's just something the author is making up," Ken replied dryly. "After all, it's not like she knows anything about schools in Japan." Davis threw a rock at his head. "Hey! What was that for?" Ken demanded.

Davis shrugged. "Sorry, man. The author made me."

"Okay, this is getting too weird," Yolei said. "WHO WILL KARI MARRY?"

"I think you already asked that," Kari pointed out. "Remember?"

Yolei stopped. "Oh yeah." She frowned. "WELL NOW I'M LOST!"

"Uh, do-over?" TK supplied.

"You just want her to be confused because you were watching!" Davis accused. "And the true person Kari will marry is me, it said!"

TK rolled his eyes.

"YOU JUST COULDN'T HAVE THAT, COULD YOU, TP?" Davis said, crossing his arms and leaning back like a Brilliant Detective on TV.

"Uh, 'TP'?" Cody asked. "Like toilet paper?"

Davis grinned as if he had meant to call one of his best friends an abbreviation for toilet paper. "Yes!"

"Why can't you learn his name?" Kari asked, annoyed.

"Yeah, how hard is it?" Ken contributed.

"Well, maybe it's easy for a genius like you," Davis muttered.

Yolei slammed her hands down on the table, making everyone jump and stare at her. "I HAVE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOUR CONSTANT CHATTERING!"

Kari stared at her. "Maybe Yolei should be a teacher instead of me…"

"No, I think she'd scare the little kids too much," Cody said.

"You would know!" Yolei snapped. "You're only like two years old! What are you even doing in middle school!"

"We went over this before, Yolei," Ken sighed. "I almost got hit by a rock?"

"Oh. Right." Yolei calmed down and smiled at Ken. "Okay! So who will Kari marry?"

Kari fell over. "That was a fast recovery…"

Yolei dealt out the cards slowly and suspensefully. "Kari will marry…" Everyone crowded around her. Kari was leaned over on her elbows, forgetting temporarily she thought this was stupid. TK and Cody were on her left, kneeled around the Table of Mysterious Fortune and leaning towards Yolei. Davis was half-standing, half-sitting, with his hands lying against the table. Ken sat also, leaning against the Table trying to look nonchalant, but failing. When SUDDENLY!

Yolei slapped the card down. "Hmm, who's the Jack of Spades again? I mean… do-over!" Everyone fell over except her.

Kari sighed and watched as Yolei dealt out more cards. Again, they landed on the Jack of Spades.

"That's Ken!" Cody said.

"No it's not!" Davis and Yolei both yelled at the same time.

Ken cleared his throat. "I think it is, actually – "

"I said it's not!" the two replied, again in unison.

"Ken is the Jack of Spades!" Cody said, triumphantly. "Now that Kari and Ken are getting married, I guess you and I have to, Yolei."

She ignored him. "Do-over again!"

"You can only do the do-over once, I thought," TK mused.

"Shut up!" Davis shushed him. "If she does another do-over, maybe you'll get picked!"

"Then you'd make her do another do-over," TK reasoned. "You're only allowed one do-over, or else it's not fair!"

Davis jumped up. "Don't tell me about things not being fair! You're good at basketball and all the girls love you!"

Cody was enjoying this, now that he had decided he and Yolei were getting married. "Including Kari," he added evilly, which was very unlike him and so earned him the blank stares of everyone but Davis and TK.

Davis sank to his knees, hands to his head. "Nooo!"

"Do another do-over," Kari told Yolei. "No offense or anything, Ken…"

Ken shrugged. "None taken. I know you'd rather get TK."

Davis threw another rock at his head.

"Stop!" Ken glared at him. "You don't have to do what the author tells you to!"

"Uh… yeeeah… the… author…" Davis said guiltily, with shifty eyes.

"Okay, so we've decided, another do-over?" Yolei smiled.

"Doesn't it go against the laws of the Table of Mysterious Fortune?" Cody brought up.

"Uh… Look, Cody! An ice cream truck!" Yolei began dealing quickly.

Cody fell over. "Yolei! Stop treating me like I'm five!"

"Yeah, he looks more like a three-year-old to me," Davis decided.

Cody glared at him. "At least I don't act like a three-year-old!"

"Well… well…" Davis thought a moment. "You look like one!"

Cody sweatdropped.

Kari rolled her eyes at TK. He smiled back. Luckily, Davis didn't notice.

Yolei slapped down a card, making everyone look. She grinned proudly. "The ten of spades has appeared on the Jack of spades. THEREFORE, Kari will marry the Jack of spades," she said.

"Uh, Yolei…?" Kari said gently. "The Jack of spades is Ken, remember?"

Yolei's smile froze. She glanced down at the card, then back at Kari, then at Ken, then back down at the card. Finally, she picked up the cardboard box that was Yolei's Table of Mysterious Fortune and flung it across the room. "RRGH!"

The others backed away slowly. Yolei began running around her room, biting things and hitting the walls with a mallet. "YOLEI ANGRY!"

"Ken?" Cody asked.

"Yolei," Ken called out, "Please calm down."

Yolei smiled, dropped the mallet, and came back over. "Okay, I'm better now."

There was a silence.

Kari finally broke it by saying nervously, "I guess that's the end of that game, huh?"

Yolei nodded, her slightly frightening smile still plastered on her face.

There was another silence. Kari glanced at TK, who glanced at Cody. Cody looked at Yolei, then at Ken. Ken looked to Davis. He was about to look back at Kari again when she sent him a glare. TK elbowed him, urging him to say something.

"Uh, wanna go to the Digital World?" Davis asked.

Erm, well, that ended up being more odd than I thought. xDD

Chapter two will come next. More stuff will happen. :3