All Grown Up

Chapter 9

22 Years Ago

Kari Kamiya hated Takeru Takaishi. Maybe that was a strong opinion, but it was how she felt that moment at the very end of the school day when she discovered from Yolei that T.K. would be going to the fall Sadie Hawkins dance with someone else. Someone who wasn't her. It wasn't like she had a claim on him, being his best friend and all, but the thought of him going with someone else felt like a knife through her heart. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration but it definitely hurt a lot.

"Kari, are you okay?" Yolei asked her.

She slammed her locker shut and leaned against it. Forcing a smile, she replied, "Of course. I'm fine. I'm just surprised. I didn't know Chiyo even liked T.K. She never said anything to me." Chiyo, T.K.'s date, was another girl on Kari's cheerleading squad. Kari had been friends with her since the second grade, but suddenly she felt betrayed although she couldn't exactly say why.

Yolei continued giving her the famous skeptical, one-eyebrow raised look while Kari fought to make sure her face wasn't giving anything away. She hadn't told anyone, not even Gatomon, about her feelings for T.K. It was one thing to think about him in a different-than-friends-way in her head, but a completely different thing to talk about it with Yolei and her other friends. Kari would never risk the embarrassment of T.K. finding out, especially if he didn't feel that way about her…

"I just can't believe T.K. would have said yes," Yolei went on. Kair wasn't sure if she was trying to make her feel better or not… "I don't think he likes her like that. And she's a total nightmare, you know that, Kari, you're on the same team with her-"

"Kari!" Yolei was cut off by Davis's yell as he came barreling toward them from the other end of the hallway, knocking over people in his rush to get to her. "It's the end of the day and you haven't asked me to the dance yet!"

"You're right, Davis," Kari replied, maybe a little more coldly than she intended. "That's forty-nine times you've reminded me today, and still zero times I've asked you to go with me."

Davis paused for a moment, surprised at Kari's outburst, which was so extremely unusual for her. Then he exchanged a knowing look with Yolei. "She heard about Chiyo, then?"

Yolei nodded and Kari turned away. Tears were starting to form behind her eyes but she pushed the thoughts away to regain some composure. "Why does everyone think I care about who T.K. goes to the dance with?" She asked sarcastically, but even she could hear the pain behind her own question.

Instantly, Yolei's hand was rubbing her back, but Kari pushed her away. "Really, I'm fine, Yolei. It's just a stupid dance." Seriously. Whoever came up with the Sadie Hawkins theme where the girls had to ask the guys? What a lame idea. Why couldn't she just go with all of her friends like she always did? Why did there have to be all this pressure about asking someone out?

The thee of them made it through the after-school crowd and headed down the sidewalk, discussing the dumb dance that none of them really wanted to go to anyway.

"We could always just have a sleepover and raid the junk food aisle at my parent's store!" Yolei suggested as an alternate idea.

"Forget that," Davis added, "let's just all go hang out in the Digi-World and kick some evil Digimon butt!"

"If you guys are going, then I'm in!" said a deeper voice from behind them. The three of them whirled around in unison to find T.K. following them. Kari immediately felt her cheeks blushing, wondering how long he had been listening to their conversation and what he could have possibly inferred from it.

There was an extremely awkward moment where nobody answered him or said anything, with Davis and Yolei just looking back and forth between Kari and T.K. Kari was refusing to meet his eyes, but soon realized it was pointless since he was looking everywhere but at her as well. It was then that she noticed his shoulders were hunched and his white bucket hat was sitting lower than usual on his head, covering his bright red cheeks.
"Sorry for eavesdropping," T.K. broke the silence, "but I was trying to catch up to you guys and see if you wanted to come have dinner at my place tonight. My mom's making lasagna."

"I love lasagna!" shouted Davis, always excited when eating was involved.

"Yeah, let's go," said Yolei, grabbing Kari's arm and leading the group back in the other direction, toward T.K.'s apartment building. Kari wasn't so sure that she wanted to spend time with T.K. right now but she figured it would be okay as long as Yolei and Davis were there too. Maybe Cody could even join them when he was done with his after school kendo lessons.

It wasn't until they were waiting for the elevator up to T.K.'s floor when Yolei suddenly realized that she "promised her parents she would be home right after school to help out in the store."

"I'm so sorry I won't be able to come to dinner after all," she said, though Kari didn't think she looked so sorry at all. "Davis, will you walk with me? I'm worried about walking all that way on my own…"

"What?" Davis asked. "I want to stay for lasagna."

"DAVIS!" Yolei demanded, "walk with me, now!" She gave a not-so-subtle look in T.K. and Kari's direction, triggering both of their blush reflexes again.

"Ohhh, right," Davis replied when he finally caught on that Yolei was trying to arrange it so Kari and T.K. would be alone. "I should probably walk you to the store…in case there's bandits! Or robbers!"

Kari rolled her eyes as she said goodbye to them.

"Watch out for bandits!" T.K. called as the left the building, not bothering to hide his sarcasm at their lame and completely obvious excuses.

Alone together and stuck in a completely awkward silence while waiting for the elevator, Kari risked glancing up at T.K.'s face. He was looking at her too and when their eyes met they both immediately looked away. Then Kari couldn't help but laugh.

"Bandits and robbers," she said giggling. "Those two are the least subtle people in the world."

"I know," T.K. said, laughing with her. The elevator doors opened in front of them and they both stepped into the car. "But, you know, I'm kinda glad they don't want to stay. I was hoping to catch you by yourself so we could hang out on our own tonight."

"Oh," Kari said, very confused by this conversation and everything that had happened earlier that day. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather be with Chiyo?" she asked quietly.

He was silent for a moment so Kari risked glancing up at him again. She was almost surprised to see the shock and hurt in his eyes as they met hers. Before either could say anything else on the subject, the elevator doors opened before them.

Kari quickly led the way down the hallway to his front door, doubting the decisions that had led her here in this awkward situation. Once inside, the awkwardness only extrapolated in the obviously empty and eerily quiet apartment.

"Mom?" T.K. called as he slipped off his shoes by the doormat. There was no answer. On the kitchen counter they found a note from T.K.'s mother explaining that she would be working late and lasagna night would have to be postponed.

"It's a good thing Davis didn't stay after all," T.K. joked and they shared an uncomfortable smile.

Kari followed T.K. into the living room where they took a seat on either end of the sofa, just slightly farther apart than they would normally sit.

"So…ummm…" T.K. stammered, his face flushing again. "I guess you heard that Chiyo asked me to the dance."

"I heard….Yolei..." This was the only answer T.K. needed. Everyone knew that Yolei was the gossip queen at their middle school. "I think you two will have a nice time."

"Oh…well…" he stammered. "I wanted to tell you that I didn't really want to go with her when she asked."

"You didn't?" Kari felt her heart rate begin to skyrocket. Where was he going with this conversation? Could this finally be what Kari had been hoping for for the last few months? Since she realized her feelings for T.K. ran much deeper than friendship.

"I just thought that we would all go together, like we usually do," T.K. continued. "But you and I hadn't talked about it so I wondered if maybe you were going to ask someone else…like Davis or someone…"

Kari couldn't hold back the laugh that escaped her. "T.K., you know I would never ask out Davis. That would be a disaster." She looked up at his eyes again, a place she had been continuing to avoid, and was this time pleased to see the relief there.

"I didn't know…I mean, I wasn't sure what you were planning for the dance. And I told Chiyo I wanted to talk to you first before I gave her an answer, but then she started crying and I didn't know what to do so I just said yes…"

Oh, sweet T.K., Kari thought to herself- always trying to do the right thing and make everyone happy. She could have thrown her arms around him then, and was strongly resisting the urge to do so. He didn't like Chiyo like that! There was still a chance that maybe, just maybe even the littlest chance, he liked her the same way she liked him.

"Do you want to go somewhere with me?" he asked suddenly, blushing even more.

"Where?" Kari asked. "Right now?"

"Yeah," he stood up from the couch, reaching deep in his pocket for his digi-vice. I kinda had something planned for us to do tonight."

"Sure, T.K.," Kari replied, happy to go anywhere or do anything with T.K. now that she knew he hadn't been harboring a secret crush on Chiyo.

In front of T.K.'s mom's desktop computer, they opened a portal and transported themselves into the Digital World where they quickly and very conveniently ran into Patamon and Gatomon, who were seemingly waiting for them.

Kari was surprised to see them, though T.K. was not. "Did you guys know we were coming?" she aked.

"Yep!" said Gatomon. "We are ready for you!"

"What is going on?" Kari asked, but T.K. was avoiding her eyes again. "What is it that you have planned for us?"

"You'll see!" cried Patamon. "Follow us!"

It was getting pretty dark out in the digital world as the digital sun set behind the trees, but as soon as Kari stumbled on a tree root, T.K. grabbed her hand to help stabilize her. And to Kari's great surprise and pleasure, he didn't let go of it.

"We're here!" Gatomon shouted, as the trees broke away to reveal a small meadow shining brightly by the sparkling light of paper lanterns. In the very center was a small table set with plates, silverware, covered dishes, and two tall candlesticks. There were only two chairs.

"T.K., what is this?" she asked. To Kari, it looked like an intimate dinner for two, but she needed confirmation before she let herself believe he would have arranged anything this romantic for her.

He was stammering and blushing again, but still holding her hand tightly so Kari let herself get her hopes up, just a little bit, and flashed him a smile. "I didn't want my first date to be with Chiyo. I want it to be with you. Kari, will you have dinner with me tonight? As a date?"

In response, Kari leaned closer to him, stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. As she leaned back to pull away, he caught the sides of her face in his hands and brought their lips together for her first real kiss.