After an extremely long hibernation period, I have come back to life! After this chapter, it's back to hibernation for me. I wrote this chapter during my sembreak, but unfortunately, it's back to school for me. Funny, I'm posting this chapter on the first day of class when the chapter has something to do with the first day. LOL.

Pray that I'm not forced to go into hibernation (due to school) before I post the next chapter.

As usual, I'd love to thank the very fabulous PrincessJaded for beta reading this chapter.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or anything familiar in this story. (If I owned Digimon, there would have been more Michi moments and Takari would have been canon.)

The following day was the first day of school for the students of Odaiba High School. Much to the students' relief, there wouldn't be any lessons held that day. They would simply receive their new schedules, attend homeroom, elect class officers and be done with the day. This was also a chance for the new students to get to know their classmates. In the afternoon, students had to sign-up for a club, team, or committee of their choice.

It was also the first time Sora, Mimi, and Hikari wore their new uniforms. The girls' uniform consisted of a white collared blouse that was buttoned at the back, a navy blue necktie, a knee-length navy blue skirt, white socks, and black leather shoes. A patch of the school's insignia was sewn on the left collar of the blouse. The patches had colors corresponding to the different year levels. For freshmen, the patch was green, while the sophomores were yellow. The junior girls wore red patches, and the seniors blue.

In contrast, the boys' uniform consisted of a blue short sleeved button-down polo with a white version of the school insignia at the front pocket, long khaki pants, white socks, and black leather shoes. Inside that polo, it was mandatory to wear a white shirt. Juniors and seniors were required to wear round silver or gold pins respectively on their left collars. This was to indicate that they were upperclassmen to the freshmen and sophomores.

It happened to be a warm April day when Mimi, Sora, and Hikari set off to Odaiba High School with the rest of the boarders. Luckily, they had Koushiro, Jyou, and Miyako to help them get around school, or else they would have been lost. After getting all their documents and schedules in order, Mimi and Koushiro, Sora and Jyou, and Hikari and Miyako went to their classrooms.

Mimi and Koushiro headed for the West Wing of the campus, where the junior classrooms were located. They talked about every topic they could think of. Mimi learned that Koushiro was an adopted child, and that his parents died when he was still a baby. He had been good friends with Taichi and Jyou ever since his elementary days; the former was his classmate while the latter was his roommate in the boarding house ever since he started living there. In turn, Mimi narrated her life story to him.

"Let me get this straight. You're saying that Kari is the sister Tai was telling us about?" Koushiro asked once Mimi was done talking.

"Yes," Mimi replied. "In fact, it amazes Sora and me that even though they only see each other once or twice every month, they act as though they see each other every day and know each other so well. Kari is as close to Tai as much as she is to Sora and me…"

"Wow. I guess Kari and Tai are lucky to have each other," Koushiro whispered. "Not that I'm disregarding your existence!" he added, once he noticed Mimi's little frown.

"No, no… Not at all," Mimi assured him. "It's no problem. As long as I don't have to see Tai's face, I'll be fine."

"What was that whole tension between you two anyway?" Koushiro asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to," he added, remembering his manners."

"No, it's okay. I'll tell you. Besides, I'm probably going to need your help to win his forgiveness," Mimi replied. "If it's alright with you, of course!" Then she narrated to him how Taichi fell into the river back in Suzaku Village and how she had taken his clothes and made him go back to their house in a pink mini-dress.

"No wonder he's wicked angry," Koushiro mused. "He's not used to being made a fool out of. He's kind of the king of the campus if you stop and think about it. Co-captain of the soccer team, head of the prom committee, and he's got an on-off relationship with one of the most popular girls in school."

Just as Koushiro said the last few words, a tall girl with long blonde hair and steel gray eyes shoved Koushiro to the side and walked between them without saying, 'excuse me' or giving an apology. She sneered at them. Her gaze lingered on Mimi before she rolled her eyes, scoffed, and walked into their classroom.

"How rude. Doesn't she have any sense of decency to say 'excuse me'?" Mimi muttered. "Who does she think she is, the Queen of England?"

"Okay, Honey. Three things about her," Koushiro burst out with a girly flair. "One, that's so not her natural hair color. Two, her boobs are totally fake. And three, she's the biggest bitch in the universe. But damn! What a pretty bitch!"

Mimi just stared in shock as she attempted to absorb the facts Koushiro just spilled. At the same time, she also tried getting over him acting in a manner that would have reminded a person of Perez Hilton.

Koushiro sensed her astonishment and said, "Listen, Beauty Queen, you want me to help you out, you'll have to take me as I am."

"Based on Tai's stories, I never thought you had a girly side," Mimi said. "But it's not bad. Different… but it's all good." She genuinely smiled.

"Glad we have that clear. Let's try that again?" He sheepishly asked, reverting back to his boyish, geeky manner once he saw their male classmates approaching them. "That annoying skank is Catherine Moreau, Tai's on-off girlfriend. Currently, they've broken up, thanks be to God. Hopefully, this break-up is for good since she's not doing him any good. Unfortunately, she's also in our class."

"Why's Tai dating her if she's not doing him any good?" Mimi asked as they entered the classroom. Koushiro chose their seats at the second row of the classroom and he gave Mimi the window seat despite her protests.

"This is where I need you to help the whole school out, Mimi," the computer genius answered once they sat down.

"What?!" she asked him, looking completely thunder-struck. "What do you mean help the whole school?"

"Look at it this way. Technically, Catherine fancies herself as the campus 'Queen Bee' and nobody is contesting that. She's the prettiest girl in school and she's also one of the wealthiest. That's how she can throw really wicked parties. Add to those 'credentials', she happens to be the captain of the pep squad. There's this rumor that she dated and slept with both Chris Tiu and Ki-bum Kim at the same time two summers ago..." Koushiro groaned.

"And you look like the type who can challenge Catherine's authority!" a voice piped up from behind Mimi.

Mimi and Koushiro turned around and saw that the speaker was a girl with long blonde hair and amethyst colored eyes. She had an impious smirk on her face as she leaned toward them.

"Zoe dear! You gave me a heart attack!" Koushiro gasped in his girly manner, fanning himself with one hand and placed the other one on his heart.

"Shut up, Izzy!" the girl jokingly snapped. She looked at Mimi and said, "Sorry for my friend. He likes acting gay when he's around girls. Yet when he's with the guys, he acts all manly, but in a geeky way. Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Izumi Orimoto, but people call me Zoe. I seriously hope we'd be good friends!"

"Pleased to meet you, Zoe." Mimi grinned after she introduced herself.

"Anyway, back to the original conversation," Izumi reminded them of the topic. "Mimi here is exactly the perfect candidate to dethrone 'Her Royal Lowness'."

"And what makes you say that?" Mimi asked them flatly. "I'm new here, and my family isn't even filthy rich. I have no credentials to beat Catherine at her own game, whatever it is."

"Which makes you the perfect rival for her." Izumi grinned. "You're pretty. You seem like a smart girl, and you can probably pull off 'Queen Bee' if you wanted to."

"And you're the only person to actually try and crush Tai's ego. That's seriously plus points for the social chair," Koushiro added.

"Look guys, I'm new here and I don't want to get into any fights on my first day." Mimi sighed. "I just want to do well in school and be able to make Auntie Yuuko and Aunt Fumika proud of me."

"Trust us. Before lunch even strikes… you will want to help us all out," Izumi and Koushiro whispered before all three of them fixed their chairs since the teacher already came in their classroom.

At the North Wing, otherwise known as the "Senior Wing", Sora got more and more nervous with every step she took with Jyou. She wasn't even supposed to be feeling the "newbie jitters" like she was some freshman. She was supposed to be confidently walking along the halls of her high school back in Suzaku Village. Add to that, she should have been breezing along her school year and expecting to graduate at the top of her batch. However, all she felt at the moment was uncertainty. Uncertainty at how today would turn out, and even more insecure about her future. Auntie Yuuko's death could not be blamed for this at all. It wasn't Auntie Yuuko's fault that Sora was mentally panicking.

"Ugh," Sora groaned. "I can't take this."

"You okay?" Jyou worriedly asked. "Do you need to go to the infirmary or something?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks, Jyou," she assured him. "Just a little nervous."

"Woah, I never thought I'd live to see the day that I'd be the one assuring someone else," Jyou joked. "Usually, I'm the one hyperventilating over something."

The redhead giggled. "Well, there's a first time for everything. I guess this is my first time to be nervous over the first day of class."

"Don't sweat it, Sor. Just be yourself and I'm sure our classmates will like you as much as I do." The aspiring doctor smiled. "Wait, it's okay with you if I call you Sor? Please don't kill me…" he squeaked.

Sora laughed out loud and assured him that the nickname was alright and that she had absolutely no plans of killing him. She may have felt a little better, but deep down she was still praying to Auntie Yuuko to guide her and help her make it through. Jyou was really helpful in calming her nerves by updating her about Odaiba High School's curriculum. This way, Sora would know what her teachers would expect from her on her graduating year.

It was too soon for Sora's nerves when Jyou led her over to a group of people sitting at the corridor outside their classroom. He introduced them to her as Koji, Koichi, Junpei, Tomoki, and Juri. After Sora answered the usual questions of where she came from and what her life story was, the group pretty much welcomed her with open arms.

When Junpei was done narrating a very embarrassing story about Jyou, a boy with gray-brown hair and ebony eyes ran up to them.

"Hey guys! Looking good! How were your summers?" he asked. Everyone but Sora gave the newcomer responses of "Good," "Great," "Alright," and "Okay". He looked to Jyou's left and noticed Sora. "Guess we have a new classmate. You are?"

"Sora Takenouchi," she replied with her tone asking for his name.

"I'm Takuya Kanbara," he supplied, noticing her tone. "So, do you play tennis?" he asked.

"Yup. I play," Sora eagerly answered.

"Are you any good?" Takuya challenged her.

"Of course I am!" Sora snapped defensively. "I wouldn't be a member of my old school's tennis team if I wasn't. And I wouldn't have won last year's national if I sucked…"

"Oooh. You're confident. I like that," Takuya grinned. "By way, I'm the captain of the men's tennis team. I'm sure that my female counterpart would love to have you on the team."

"Oops. I didn't mean to sound too arrogant," Sora apologized. "I'm just not used to being questioned about my playing."

"Nah… it's cool," Takuya and Jyou assured her while the rest of the people present nodded.

"Besides, you look like someone we can hang out with and trust," Takuya continued. "I expect you to pass the try-outs later." He winked.

"Count on it." Sora grinned as she reached for the guitar that lay idly in another classmate's hands.

Sora began playing some random chords when a scrawny girl who had her maroon hair done in spikes walked past them, her sienna eyes threatening to kill them all if any of them dared to look at her or make any sound.

"Shut up if you don't want me to kill you all…" the girl snarled, not even noticing that they had a new classmate. "I have a hangover and you do not want to provoke me…"

Sora noticed that while everyone else looked at the girl with looks of disgust and irritation, Jyou had a different expression on his face. It held none of the ill feelings everyone else's faces had, but something different. When she looked closely, Sora spied a faint blush creeping on the boy's face.

"Looks like Jyou's got a crush on somebody!" she teased as she poked his side. "Who is she, anyway?"

"That's Jun Motomiya, the 'Number One Minion of Queen Bee Catherine,'" Takuya bitterly provided. "And the unfortunate love of Jyou's life," he whispered for only Sora to hear.

"She's a boarder at the boarding house," Jyou added not hearing a word Takuya said, "We'll meet her there later."

"By the way, who's 'Queen Bee Catherine'? And why do you all hate her so much?" Sora asked.

Takuya and Jyou took turns in explaining to Sora about Catherine's claim to popularity and why nobody can contest it. From what Sora understood, Catherine was a junior student whose penchant for scandal and dating high profile boys appealed to everybody, especially wannabees like Jun. She resolved then and there not to involve herself with Jun, Catherine, or any form of scandal.

Hikari and Miyako trekked over to the South Wing of the school. Miyako updated Hikari on Odaiba High School's rumor mill. By the time they reached their classroom, Hikari learned that her brother was dating a beautiful but incredibly nasty party girl who used to live in the boarding house until Aunt Fumika got fed up with her disobedience of the house rules due to partying.

As a member of the school paper, she had to know what was happening in campus. At least, that was Miyako's explanation when Hikari asked how she knew the latest campus gossip. The only problem with this reason was that the brunette did not even buy it for a second. Although she had only known her new friend for a couple of hours, she discovered that despite Miyako's good heart and noble intentions, she had an incurable love for gossip and meddling with other people's love lives.

They fought their way among the other freshmen who seemed to be making a fuss over something. Miyako and Hikari could barely see a thing, but they could hear other girls screaming things like "Oh, my gosh!" and "I love you! Please go out with me."

"You'd think there was a celebrity here," Hikari groaned as they fought through the crowds to get to their classroom.

Much to the girls' irritation, the closer they got to their classroom, the thicker the crowds became. Hikari wasn't the type to lash out at other people. Luckily her companion had no qualms about this. The purple haired girl pushed her glasses up her face, stretched and flexed her arms, and pulled her cheerful face into a menacing glare and screamed, "GET OUT OF OUR WAY BITCHES!" She also shoved some of the fan girls away so that she and Hikari can pass through.

"Yolei… you didn't need to do that," Hikari whispered, feeling some of the girls' glares on their backs.

"If I didn't do that, we would have turned into Kari- or Yolei-mush…" Miyako hissed, "Seriously, when those girls get wild over something, you'd have to fight your way through if you want to make it out of there alive."

After five more minutes of struggling, Miyako finally saw that the object of the crowd's insanity was in their classroom. She gently tugged Hikari who looked like she was about to pass out. At long last, Hikari and Miyako spied four boys somewhere near the windows looking terrified for their lives and embarrassed at all the attention they have been receiving. Hikari deduced that they were the cause of the ruckus because they were the only ones who looked extremely embarrassed while the other boys were either glaring at them or helping control the crowd.

Hikari took a good look at the boys the girls fussed over. The first one she saw looked like a mini-version of her older brother. He had sienna eyes that glinted with mischief and he also had goggles on his head, the only difference was that his maroon hair was a bit neater than Taichi's nest. He shouted at and begged the girls to go away and leave them in peace.

The next one was a shorter person with mousy brown hair that resembled a coconut and shy olive green eyes. He wielded what looked like a kendo stick to ward off the really drastic fans who wanted to kiss them.

Hikari noticed Miyako's eyes were directed at the classmate with midnight blue hair and indigo eyes that had this wise aura in them. He was no longer talking to the girls, but he looked like he was helping the last member of their little group escape through the window.

This last member looked pretty familiar to her. She just couldn't see too well because of the taller people blocking her view. All she made out of the boy who was attempting to climb out the window was a white fisherman's hat. The boy groaned and gave up on escaping through of the window. Apparently the window was locked from the outside and none of them had any other alternative exits. He turned around towards them and Hikari finally realized how he could be so familiar… Golden blond hair and sapphire blue eyes were uncommon in Japan, and nobody else wore a fisherman's hat like that one. She realized right then and there that Takeru Takaishi was the type of boy who had millions of fan girls and he had the power to break their hearts with a single word. He may seem so sweet and so kind, but he had probably broken so many hearts before. Girls wouldn't be throwing themselves at him if he wasn't a player.

Her coffee brown eyes made contact with his sapphire blue ones. She saw that the fear that was in his eyes was gone and a sense of safety had replaced it. He gave her a small smile which she hesitantly returned. She hurriedly looked away before he could call her attention, but it was too late.

"Kari! Yolei!" Takeru shouted. "Help us!"

"I should've guessed they were the reason for this fiasco," Miyako grumbled, tugging Hikari along toward the boys.

Once again, Hikari felt the fan girl's angry glares when she and Miyako reached Takeru and the other boys. Hikari silently helped Takeru get his polo shirt and his left shoe unstuck from the window while Miyako and the other boys forcefully shooed away the people who weren't in their class.

"Get out now!" Miyako shouted, pushing the girls to the doors.

"Yeah! There's nothing to see here!" the Taichi-lookalike added. "Out you go now…"

"Thanks Kari, I swear, you're an angel from heaven," Takeru whispered to her once she got his polo shirt unstuck from the window.

Hikari almost shyly smiled at his words, but then she remembered that he was the cause of that fiasco. He was probably just charming her because she was a new girl in school. He'd probably break her heart once she gives it to him. As a result, she successfully fought her blush and raised her eyebrows at him.

Miyako noticed this little exchange, but instead of commenting on it, she took Hikari by the arm and introduced their new classmate to them all.

"Classmates, I'd like you all to meet Hikari Yagami!" she announced. "But she'd rather be called 'Kari'. Before any of you even ask, the answer is yes. She's Tai's younger sister, so you rumor-mongering people can shut up now."

Hikari was overwhelmed by the flurry of classmates introducing themselves to her. Usually, the people flocked to Mimi or Sora, and she was cast aside. Being in the limelight was definitely a new experience for her. As much as she enjoyed meeting her new classmates, she was also relieved when they were done introducing themselves.

"How about I introduce you to the other idiots who caused today's hallway traffic?" Miyako suggested, leading her over to Takeru and the other three boys.

"These are the goofs I've been telling you about since yesterday. You know? The ones who I told you forever get me into all sorts of trouble?" She explained for Hikari's benefit. "Introduce yourselves, gentlemen!" she snapped at her friends.

The boy who resembled Taichi got up first and threw a cheeky smile Hikari's way. "My name is Daisuke Motomiya, but you can call me Davis, Beautiful. I'm one of the rookies of the soccer team. Your brother happens to be my role model as well."

At the word "beautiful" Takeru's hands tightly gripped his desk that Miyako saw his knuckles turn white. Hikari, discreetly however rolled her eyes at Daisuke and ignored his attempt at flirting. Daisuke realized that Hikari was not interested in him, so he decided not to continue his impulsive plan of asking her out even though she was very pretty.

"My name is Ken Ichijouji, and it's a pleasure to meet you," the boy with the blue hair greeted. "I'm another rookie of the soccer team, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

"He's also a freaky genius with an IQ of 150," Takeru added while his grip on the desk relaxed.

"I'm not a freaky genius!" Ken protested. "I just happen to study well."

"Don't be modest, Kenny," Daisuke added. "We all know you're a genius."

"No matter how many times I told you to never call me 'Kenny', you still persist in doing so," Ken snarled, playfully grabbing Daisuke's collar.

"Will you two drop it?! Yolei, stop them!" the shortest boy hissed. To Hikari, he said, "I'm Iori Hida but I go by Cody. While those guys play soccer and basketball, I practice kendo."

From Iori's statement, Hikari deduced that Takeru was the one who played basketball. She guessed that he was probably on the basketball team.

"Great. Not only is T.K. a campus heartthrob, he's also an athlete," she grumbled mentally. "Gives him more 'permission' to break girls' hearts, thus more reason to stay away from him as much as possible."

The girls' uniform was my uniform when I was in high school (St. Theresa's College,Quezon City) while the boys' uniform was based on the uniform of Ateneo de Manila High School.

As much as I wish I owned them, I also don't own Ki-bum Kim and Chris Tiu.

As for Izzy being gay, there's a VERY valid reason for that. I promise. Rest assured, this is NOT Izzy-bashing.

As always, please leave a review! ;)