Chapter 4: Charper 4
Tai lays wide awake in his bottom bunk, unable to get any sleep. Half of the other 40 something guys are up and about, chatting, laughing, thumping, playing cards and other "crazy" games, etc. Tai had participated earlier, but now he and the other half are trying to get some sleep. Some, like Tai, can't manage to get to sleep, and most of the dozen who are asleep are snoring incredibly loudly. None of this is new to Tai, he's stayed in bunk houses several times over the years. However, this is without a doubt the rowdiest bunch of guys Tai's ever been with. The college-aged counselors, however, are said to be even rowdier.
Tai puts his pillow over his head. (Maybe I should have stayed with Agumon after all.)He glances at Rico, who's in the bunk right next to him. Rico had fallen asleep hours earlier, and perhaps the only guy who's actually asleep that's not snoring. How can anybody possibly sleep through all this?
Tai has no idea when he fell asleep, if he did. The next thing he knows, he hears strange music, as if inside his dreams. The music gets louder, somebody is making rooster crows, and singing starts:
I hear the birds singing (rooster crows)
Now my alarm's ringing (rooster crows)
Get up, get up, hey (rooster crows)
It's a good morning
Wake up to a brand new day (rooster crows)
this morning
I'm stepping, stepping, stepping on my way (rooster crows)
"Hah?" Tai slowly opens his eyes, and thinks he sees two giant roosters parading around the cabin, one playing a banjo, the other singing, and both crowing. Tai's one of the guys who throws a pillow at them and pulls his cover over his head; "I must be dreaming." He's sure he hears somebody say; "I'm going to shot those roosters."
Twenty minutes later, some of Tai's teammates, one being Timothy, yanks the covers off and pour a bucket of ice water on him.
"He-e-e-ey!" Tai's shivers, his teeth chattering; "What's the big idea?"
"Up and adman Tai;" greets Timothy cheerfully; "We need to be at breakfast in a half hour. They brought some hot coffee and tea and donuts for us, but their going quick." As a soaked Tai tries to get up, however, he can't move his legs. He looks down and sees that he's been saran wrapped to the bed, "Oh come on you guys!"
For Tai, this means one thing; WAR!
When Tai finally frees himself, to his dismay, there's nothing left but a few donut crumbs.
"Jeez," Tai says to Wayne, who didn't get anything either "you'd think they'd be more considerate."
"Considerate; this group?" laughs Wayne.
Tai yawns and robs his eyes; "That's the truth, if last night didn't prove it."
"Yea," yawns Wayne; "but I hear that the college-age counselors are the worst, they have alcohol!"
"By the way Wayne, did you see a couple of big musical chickens in here this morning?"
"You saw them too? I thought I was hallucinating from lack of sleep."
"Nah;" Timothy joins them; "those were a couple of the counselors in rooster suits. They do stuff like that."
A few minutes later Tai's dressed and goes out on the porch. He sees a groggy Katherine laying on one of the benches. "Morning Katherine, did you sleep well?" The girl gives Tai a "you've got to be kidding" look. She might have been in another room, but her bed was up against the thin connecting wall she could hear and feel everything, especially the thumping, despite wearing ear pugs.
"I guess that was a stupid question;" Tai yawns; "Did you get any donuts?"
Katherine shakes her head; "Too many butts in the way."
Tai can't help but giggle at that statement; "I'll make sure you get one at breakfast."
Katherine smiles; "Thank you."
"Well, I guess we'd better go get Agu….;" Agumon suddenly jumps on Tai's back, startling him.
"Good morning Tai!
"AGUMON! What do you think you're doing?"
"Waiting for you;" exclaims the digimon cheerfully; "Good morning Kat. Did I see two giant chickens wondering around this morning? Are they our breakfast?"
"Agumon;" says Tai unzipping his bag; "Get in here before somebody sees you, if they haven't already."
"Sorry Tai, I'm just so happy to see you! I slept great!" Agumon gets into the bag.
"Wish I could say the same for us. I'm happy to see you too, but you need to be quite…..YIKES!" Tai barely manages to dodge another bucket of ice water, Katherine isn't so lucky.
"Guys, I'm awake;" replies Tai; "and it's a little early for that isn't it?"
"Says who?" replies his teammate. They apologize to Katherine and hand her a towel; "We're really sorry, you weren't our target."
"That's alright;" she replies; "it's just water."
"Ice water;" adds Tai.
"Buy the way Tai, what were you stuffing into your bag just now? An orange tabby cat or something? You were talking to it."
"Can we see it?"
"Ah no;" Tai tries to act calm; "Just a…."
"It's shy and we're taking it some place safe;" says Katherine.
"Oh ok;" says one of the boys. The other one raises his eyebrows.
Tai picks up his bag and he and Katherine jog away. Tai breathes a sign of relief; "That was a close one. Agumon, that was reckless."
"Can we save the scolding until after breakfast?" asks the digimon. Tai can't help but smile; "You never change."
Suddenly, somebody tries to snatch Tai's bag from him.
"Rico! What are you doing? Let go!"
"I know he's in there Tai! I saw you stuffing something orange into that bag, and don't tell me it's an orange cat!"
Katherine intervenes and tickles Rico, "Hey!" he laughs; "That's not fair." He looses his grip on the bag, then slaps the girl hard across the face. Tai's horrified and launches himself onto the boy.
"RICO, how dare you!"
"OPEN THAT BAG TAI! Or I'll tell Coach what you're hiding."
"Tell me what?" Rico and Tai stumble to their feet and face Coach Hino and their team's assistant coach.
"That your niece is helping Tai hide a monster!" Coach Hino grabs Rico by the ear; "I don't even want to hear it. You're in big trouble now Mister. Coach Sawano, take him to the main office. I'll be right behind you."
Nina them kneels down to her niece; "Are you alright sweetie. I'm so sorry you had to come here this weekend. And I'm sorry about him."
"It's fine Aunt Nina. It really is. I love it here."
After Nina hugs her niece and checks her over; she looks at Tai. "Tai, thank you for standing up for her. I'm not going to ask you what's going on or what's in the bag, but I trust that you'll take care of it, and Katherine as well. Promise."
"Yes ma'am;" answers Tai.
"And Katherine;" Nina looks at her niece in the eyes, no words need to exchanged.
"Yes ma'am."
"Alright. Now if you excuse me, I've got to do damage control."
Tai breathes a huge sigh of relief; "Man, that was too close. What a jerk."
"I'll fry him if you'd like Tai;" says Agumon.
"Please don't, has much as I'd like for you too."
At breakfast, Tai and Katherine are at the same table, along with Timothy and Wayne. Agumon's still inside the bag, underneath the table. Agumon has finishes all the food that was stuffed into the bag and is tugging on Tai's leg, waiting impatiently for more. The partners usually have the food sneaking routine down to a science, but today, keeping the curious and hungry dogs away is proving to be a challenge. Even though it's probably not the best idea, allowing Agumon to hide underneath the buffet table will cause less suspicion with the dogs, and cats, also hanging out around there. It's proving not as much fun for Agumon as it usually is, with curious animals inspecting him and fighting over food. For once, Agumon's getting a taste of his own medicine.
"You think he's ok over there?" Katherine whispers to Tai.
"He's fine;" whispers Tai, giggling.
"Hey, no whispering;" says Timothy; "I think Katherine's got a little crush on Tai."
Katherine nearly chocks on her milk and gives Timothy a stern look.
"He's just kidding;" Tai assures her; "Relax."
"At least she's talking to somebody other than her aunt;" says Timothy; "how can we earn that trust? We don't bit."
"Hey guys;" says Tai; "I need a great prank to get at the other guys, although I probably shouldn't include you Timothy since you took part this morning."
"Hey!" replies Timothy; "None of it was my idea. I'm not even the one who saran wrapped you. I only joined in because I was out of bed and you weren't. You're always one of the last ones to raise Tai."
"As if we could sleep;" says Wayne; "Did you even go to bed Timothy? Your bed was empty every time I looked?"
As the two get into a 'discussion'; Katherine looks to Tai; "Can I help?"
"Sure, Agumon will help too, unbeknown to those guys of course. In fact, maybe we shouldn't include them."
Soon it's time for the "games" to begin, short matches are held throughout the day to observe the players. Each match will be timed at 30 minutes, and each team may play up to 8 before the day's done. Potential college or semi-pro recruits, such as Tai, will be selected to play a couple extra matches with each other. Tai has given Katherine and Agumon an assignment, in which he'll join them during first morning break then lunch. Agumon's beyond excited, while Katherine's more reserved at first. Soon, however, she loosens up. If only Agumon would quit drinking the props. She even tells Tai that it probably wasn't a good idea to use coke if Agumon's only going to consume it all. Tai distracts his partner with food and they manage to finish.
After lunch break, the players and coaches are returning to the fields. Tai and his two co-conspirators are hiding behind one of the score boards above the bleachers. He's quite impressed with the cat-a-pult they made. When Tai whistles, they load the first few coke balloons and launch. Soon, people are getting hit and soaked left and right, mostly being caught off guard. Tai and Agumon are having a ball, even Katherine's having fun. They are smiling and giggle while watching the chaos below.
Agumon jumps into his partner's arms laughing; "This is the Tai I know. This is so much FUN!"
Tai agrees; "I can't believe it's been weeks since we've had this much fun. That's changing now."
"Agumon, Tai, someone's coming." Agumon quickly hides as Coach Hino and Assistant Camp Manager Coach Shingo appear. The kids stand at attention while the adults give them stern looks. They are both soaked with coke, and Tai can't hold in his giggles.
Coach Hino puts her hand on her hips; "Tai Kamiya, I'm not surprised. Katherine, I am at you."
Katherine can't speak, how did she let Tai talk her into this? Nina and Coach Shingo each pick up a balloon. "Next time;" says Shingo; "use orange soda, it's much harder to get out." The adults throw the balloons at the kids, direct hits. They look at each and start laughing, as do the adults.
"Alright you two;" informs Shingo; "you still need to clean up down there. Sorry, but it needs to be done."
Tai stops laughing, he should have known this was coming, but it was so well worth it.
"Aunt Nina;" asked Katherine; "Am I in trouble?"
"You will be. Now go."
When the two of them step onto the field, several balloons are thrown at them, the ones that somehow didn't break when they landed. Nina goes to her niece and giggles; "I said you'd be in trouble."
Agumon watches from his hiding place. He's enjoying the show, wishing he could be down there getting them too. Aside from some tummy gas from drinking all those sodas, he couldn't be happier. That was so much fun! The old Tai's back.
The dino digimon also thinks he got lucky, as he's perfectly dry. That is until Tai and Katherine return, take the last few balloons, and get him good.
During afternoon matches, Katherine goes swimming while Agumon watches the players. Tai's spectacular on the field, as usual. Rico's also on the field, which is surprising. They had thought that Rico would be banned from participating, yet his grandfather insisted that he participate. Aside from when he's turned loose on the field, however, he appears to be under strict guard the whole time and barely talks to anybody. He give Tai angry glares whenever he gets the chance.
During a break, Tai's approached by a scout and coach from the semi-pros, and more want to meet with him as well. He grabs a Gatorade and warns Agumon to hide himself better as he keeps spotting him. Hungry yet again, Agumon decides to go raid the cafeteria. He spots an open vending machine that's being worked on and helps himself. Afterward, he decides to check on Katherine. Sure enough, she's still at the lake, still swimming. Dropping the overloaded armful of snacks he was carrying, Agumon calls out to her, waving his arms.
"Agumon, what are you doing out here? Somebody's bound to see you."
"I don't see anybody. You having fun?"
"Yes. Agumon, can you swim?"
"Ah, yea. Why?"
Katherine grabs Agumon's legs and drags him into the water. "Hey;" he shivers; "This water's cold."
"Not really." She splashes him, he splashes back. She dunks him underneath, and soon they are laughing, playing, and splashing each other, even playing Marco Polo. At least twice, Agumon though he actually saw water rising unnaturally from the lake, surrounding Katherine, like it's floating and dancing in the air. When she noticed, she quickly reacted and the water receded, then she acted like nothing unnatural ever happened and keeps slashing the curious dino.
Before they know it, nearly two hours have passed, and Agumon's exhausted. He tries to get on Katherine's back as they exit the water.
"Agumon, you're heavy."
"Kat, I'm exhausted."
"You can make it."
Some dogs are raiding Agumon's snack pile, or what's left of it. He uses his Pepper Breath three times to scar them away. He stares at the now disarrayed trash and is dismayed.
"It's alright Agumon, we'll get more."
He embraces her tightly; "Oh thank you thank you thank you."
Katherine smiles and pries the eternally famished digimon off her. "Why are you always so hungry Agumon? Do all digimon eat as much as you?"
"Ah, no. I mean, all we partner digimon love to eat, but everybody says I'm in a league all by myself when it comes to my appetite, even for a digimon."
"Yikes! How much do you need to eat?"
Agumon shrugs his shoulders; "I don't know. I usually run out of food before I can find out. Tai was able to stuff me once, but my hunger's surpassed what it was then."
Katherine doesn't want to know how much it must costs to feed him. "How many partner digimon are there?"
Agumon counts on his fingers; "Aw, about 12, yea 12. 8 of us were part of the first group, the other 4 joined us later. There's more around the world. Not sure how many."
"How do people get digimon partners?"
Agumon has to think about that one; "Honestly I don't know. Izzy once thought it was because Tai and the others had seen digimon, but it turned out that wasn't it. Cody once said that if that was true, everybody in Japan would have a partner! Something special about Tai and the others, I really don't know."
Katherine starts wondering what kind of digimon she would like, remembering the pictures she had drawn last night since she couldn't sleep. She had started with a dinosaur like Agumon, but shaped it more into a Parasurolophus (another one of her favorites) in a cream-color with blue eyes and a slender, smoother build. She had continued doodling a horse, then turned it into a Pegasus, and finally ended up with a cream-colored seahorse with blue eyes, pestle pink dragon/angelic wings, and the crest of a Parasaurolophus, plus a pink heart on her right check.
Not that it'll ever happen to her, but still, it's fun to pretend.
Agumon smells something delicious. He follows the scent towards a thicket. Katherine snaps out of her daydream, "Agumon, NOT OVER THERE!" He finds a delicious looking pizza, just sitting there on the ground. The hungry digimon dashes for it and gabbles it up. While licking his fingers, Agumon's grabbed from behind and a muzzle is quickly placed over his mouth, then he's quickly tied up.
"Got you!" comes Rico's voice; "I figured you wouldn't be able to resist food you ravenous dinosaur. I knew it had to be you raiding the cafeteria and the vending machine. You might not want to leave a trail of wrappers and crumbs and food dropping from your oversize pile. Tornados leave smaller trails then you do, you moron."
"Moron?" yells Katherine; "You're sitting in poison ivy!"
Rico scrabbles up, still holding Agumon; "Ah jeez. I hope they have calamine lotion here."
"Let him go Rico!"
"I don't think so. Now I can show everybody that I'm no fool."
"Don't! And I don't think those will hold him."
"What do you mean?"
Agumon manages to burn the muzzle off with his fire, then burns off the ropes, just barely missing his captor's fingers.
Rico freaks out, drops the digimon, and backs away; "You're a DEMON!"
"No I'm not. I'm just a digimon."
Rico's shocked; "Wha…you….you talk?"
"Of course I talk." Agumon gets in front of Katherine, ready to protect her.
"You're a what?" replies Rico; "You're awfully small. I thought digimon were much bigger and a lot more destructive. "
"I can get much bigger."
"Rico, LOOK OUT!" screams Katherine.
"I'm not falling for any more of your tricks."
However, a vine grabs Rico from behind and starts dragging him away.
2222222222222222222222222222
Tai tries not to holler as the ice pack is placed on his foot. In the last match, the one in which only potential recruits play, a guy from the opposing team got turned around and was going the wrong way. In his attempt to turn back, several players collided, including Tai. Players and even coaches were joking about how this isn't American football or rugby. Tai not only twisted his right ankle and bruise the top of his foot, he was hit hard in the stomach by the ball earlier. A very common thing in soccer, but it may have bruised or cracked his lower ribs and left an internal bruise in the upper abdomen. Not the worst pain Tai's ever felt, but somewhat uncomfortable. None of the injuries are serious and he'll be fine in a week or so, but the trainer tells him to keep ice packs on the bruises and to stay off that ankle for a few days. He's definitely bummed that he won't get to play tomorrow, but the recruiters said they have seen what they wanted to see from him and more, and they'll be keeping in touch. This is such good news and a huge relief to Tai.
Rico was also involved in the tangle up and was supposed to report to the trainer with Tai, but he hasn't showed up. Tai really hopes his obnoxious teammate hasn't sneaked off to look for Agumon, or Katherine. Speaking of which, Tai also hasn't seen his partner in a while. He knows he's been to the cafeteria because somebody said the snack table and vending machine had been raided. He intends to go there once the trainer allows him to leave.
222222222222222222222222222222
"Pepper Breath."
Agumon severs the vine dragging Rico, sparks hitting him in the process.
"Hey, which it you stupid dino!"
"My name's Agumon!"
"Whatever."
Rico runs towards Katherine while Agumon aims for the giant, sharp-teethed plant's bloom, to no effect.
"I thought they got rid of that thing!" shouts Rico.
"That's a different one;" replies Katherine.
"How can you tell? Wait, why are you still here? Run!"
"Yes Kat;" agrees Agumon; "Run!"
Agumon tries another Pepper Breath, only annoying the plant. It now has a hold of him, rapping a vine around his mouth.
"TAI! Where are you! HELP TAI!"
22222222222222222222222222222
Tai's icing his ankle, when he hears his digivice go off. He gets off the table, limps over to his bag, and gets it out.
"Agumon's in trouble."
"Where do think you're going young man?" The trainer catches him; "Get back up there and put that ice back on."
"Sorry," says Tai limping, "Gotta go."
The trainer grabs Tai, hears the digivice, then sees it; "What's this?" He tries to snatch it.
"No, you can't have it." Between the two of them, the digivice falls to the floor. Tai quickly grabs it; "Gotta run." He takes off as fast as his twisted ankle will let him.
22222222222222222222222
"Tai can't help you silly;" Rico tries pulling on the vines holding the digimon, to no avail. Katherine tries helping by hitting it with a stick.
"What are doing you crazy girl? Give me that stick and get out of here now!"
"I won't!" replies Katherine.
Rico pushes the girl out of the way of thicker vines about to grab her, getting caught again himself; "RUN! NOW!"
Agumon manages to free his mouth; "Please Kat! RUN! Find Tai!"
Reluctantly, Katherine turns and starts to run, but the thick thicket slows her down, and a vine's right behind her.
"TAI! I need to digivolve! TAI!"
As Tai follows the signal, he hears the screams not too far away towards the lake. Turning that way, his digivice starts glowing.
As the carnivorous plant inches it's victims towards its giant mouth, Agumon starts to glow.
Tai looks at his glowing digivice; "Agumon's digivolving."
The glow around Agumon grows bigger and bigger, severing the vine.
"Agumon digivolve to…Greymon."
Greymon bites down hard on the vines holding the humans, freeing them, then turning his attention towards the plant. Rico's in stunned shock, unable to move. Katherine stares in awe.
"Is that…Greymon?"
"Nova Blast." Greymon hits the plant and it falls over.
"Agumon, is that you?"
"Yes Kat. It's me."
Katherine smiles her biggest smile, then Greymon hollers in pain. Something burning has hit him. The plant is getting back up and shooting steaming acid from its mouth. It aims for Rico, Greymon blocking it with his tail.
"Rico, grab Kat and go!"
Rico snaps out of his trance and runs for Katherine, grabbing her wrist and tries pulling her. She's doesn't want to move.
"Come on you silly girl. You want to get flatten?"
She looks at Greyman fighting the plant, and reluctantly allows Rico to pull her along. Greymon tries bucking his head against the plant, it puts up a good fight and raps even stronger and thicker vines around Greymon. Every time he manages to burn off one vine, two more seem to grab him. He rips a vine from the plant, and finally sees that two more spring out from the hole. He tries biting the plant's head, the plant bits back and shoots more acid.
Rico collides with Tai as they exit the thicket, both falling into the shallow edge of the lake. "Tai!" Katherine hugs him tightly. "Katherine, where's Greymon?" She points, and Tai can see the heads of Greymon and the plant battling it out. "Another plant?"
"Yes another plant;" replies his teammate.
"Rico, what are you doing here?"
"Trying not to get eaten!"
A big splash occurs. Greymon and the plant are in the water. In pain and running on fumes; Greymon musters every ounce of energy he can to stay in that form and uses his Nova Blast again. Getting some of blast in its mouth, the plant coughs, then shoots acid again, hitting Greymon and sending him falling backwards into the lake.
"GREYMON!" shouts Tai; "Hang in there! You can do it!"
Katherine then notices that the plant is still coughing, and smokes seems to be coming from it. She gets an idea. She runs into the water and swims furiously towards Greymon.
"Katherine!" Both Tai and Rico go in after her.
"Greymon!" she shouts when she close enough; "It's mouth! Aim for inside its mouth."
Greymon hears her and struggles to get up, the plant once again on the charge; "Just one more time." Using every last ounce of his energy, Greymon strikes; "Nova Blast." His aim is perfect. The plant swallows the Nova Blast, coughing out of control and steaming smoke coming from within. Greymon collapse face down into the water and shrinks back into Agumon. The plant smokes to death.
Katherine grabs the exhausted digimon and swims towards Tai. "Agumon, you ok?" Tai get hold of him, the only sound coming from him is a weak groan.
"Alright Tai;" says Rico; "Who is he and where did he come from?"
Tai snaps his head; he'd forgotten that Rico was there. He doesn't know what to say; "Later Rico. Agumon needs…owe!" A sharp pain comes from Tai's ankle. He puts down Agumon, sits, and grabs it tightly.
"Tai, what's wrong;" ask a concerned Katherine.
"It's nothing. Just a twisted ankle is all." The clever girl doesn't buy it. Tai's ankle is swelling up black and blue; "I'll get you something."
"That won't be necessary;" says Rico, reaching out his hand to Tai, who looks at him with confusion; "Do you want me to help you or not." Tai grabs his teammate's hand, gets up, and Rico allows Tai to lean on him. Rico also picks up Agumon, and Katherine helps support Tai.
Aside from Katherine suggesting they should head for the cabins, they travel in silence, until a deafening growl penetrates the silence.
"Is that Agumon's stomach;" ask Katherine.
"Yes." They look at Agumon as his stomach growls again, and they both laugh. Rico stays silent.
They finally arrive at the same cabin that Agumon was in last night. They enter and lay a still passed out Agumon on the bed. Tai sits on the bed and puts up his ankle. It looks terrible.
"I'll go get food and an ice pack;" offers Katherine.
"Don't bother;" says Rico; "I'll get it."
Tai's surprised; "Are you sure?"
Rico gives a stern look; "Fine then, if that's the way you want it."
"Wait Rico. Sorry, I'd appreciate it. And thanks for your help earlier too."
Rico says nothing and leaves. Tai looks down, he shouldn't be too surprised that Rico helped him, for all his rudeness, Rico did always help injured teammates. Usually, the guys didn't seem to appreciate it.
"I've never believed Rico was really a bad guy;" says Katherine; "He just seems angry all the time."
Tai's amazed at the girl's insight; "Yea you're right. I don't know why he is. Come to think of it, I've never asked;" he takes a deep breath; "but I still don't know if we can trust him."
Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "He was trying to catch Agumon, but he also tried to protect me and help Agumon as well."
Agumon wakes up, his head is spinning and he clearly looks dizzy.
"Tai. I feel so weak."
Katherine gets on the bed and hugs him; "Thank you Agumon, you were great."
"You're welcome Kat. I need FOOD. Fast."
Tai laughs and sits his digimon on his lap.
Katherine looks like she's lost in thought. Tai ask her what's wrong.
"That plant. It was bigger than the first one, and it came inside the camp grounds. I wonder if there's more of them."
Tai doesn't like the sound of that; "I hope not."
"Do you think it was a digimon?"
Tai shakes his head; "No, that thing was no digimon. As a matter of fact, we've never fought anything that wasn't a digimon, certainly never anything that eats people."
"I'm usually the one doing the eating;" says Agumon; "I don't want to be eaten."
Suddenly, the door swings open. It's Nina. The trio stare in silence. Nina looks sternly at Katherine, then at Agumon, then at Tai; "Mr. Kamiya, I believe you've got some explaining to do."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
balletangel19
balletangel19 Note: Lyrics from "Good Morning" by Mandisa
Comments and reviews appreciated.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone